Cloverfield

I watched this today, it’s actually pretty good. If you can get through the motion sickness inducing camera work that is. The first 20 minutes were quite hard to get by though.

The story is pretty simple: survival.  The special effects and CG work were very good and convincing. The characters were okay, simple everyday people you’d expect to find in reality.

In the end, all was for naught.

I enjoyed the movie, it wasn’t as bad as some people say it to be. The Blair Witch Project was an obvious movie to be compared against due to the same style of camera work. However, unlike TBWP, Cloverfield has a clear storyline to it and so is worth watching at the very least.

My new toy

I spent a fortune on a new car entertainment unit (a radio) last Saturday. The experience is truly worth the money spent. Compared to the car’s stock speakers, I can now discern instruments better in songs. The clarity is incredible!

Plus, it is iPod ready, so I can connect Seraphina to the unit and be thoroughly entertained during my time spent in the car now.

Next phase, a new amplifier and a small sub-woofer. Perfect!

BBQ was fun!

I attended a friend’s BBQ on Saturday last and it was a blast.

My friend and I contributed chicken skewers that I marinated with soy sauce, brown sugar, lime juice and grated ginger. We also contributed dessert – a concoction of cincau, tinned longans, tinned sea coconut in honey syrup, a splash of vodka and a handful of ice. The chicken was pretty good!

There was a lot of food: sausages, lamb, chicken skewers, bacon, corn on cob, fish, fried bee hoon, potatoes, chicken wings, mushrooms and marshmellows.

Friends kept coming and I can safely assume everyone had a good time. We had a little surprise for a birthday boy and birthday girl where we presented them with cupcakes from Cuppacakes. They were thoroughly surprised. Good!

Had 2 rounds of Fudge – a drinking game, where in the second round the game just went crazy – for the guys anyway. I had too much and wanted really to throw up all that gas from the beer. I was in a rather snappish mood later. I just felt so uncomfortable and I was already feeling high already. So, I apologize for my foul behaviour to anyone whom I snapped at last night.

I got home and watched a little TV while snacking on crisps. Fell asleep.

All in all, it was a good Saturday.

Ulu Yam Road Trip

Despite having only 3 hours of sleep, I woke up in time for a road trip to Ulu Yam. We had breakfast before heading out to our destination via Kepong.

The trip was so-so. We could not find the scenic stops on the way. The only highlight was a stop at the second dam in Ulu Yam. I forgot what it was called (Selangor dam?). The towns of Ulu Yam – (Bharu and Lama) are small little towns with many old buildings and homes. Development is reasonably slow here. Stray dogs cross the roads at will, unafraid of moving cars.

We went up the windy road to Fraser’s Hill. I like the air. It’s so cool and fresh. The sight of lush greens was very welcome. Unfortunately, when we got there the gates that controls the flow of traffic to Fraser’s (only a single lane road connecting the gate to Fraser’s Hill) were not open until 30 minutes later. As we did not have too much time on our hands, we decided to go back to the town of Ulu Yam Lama for lunch.

We stopped for loh mee, a very popular dish of noodles in thick egg and vinegar broth in Ulu Yam and made our way back to KL.

I managed to snap some photos during the trip.

I’m still up

I have been up for almost 21 hours now. I slept very early this morning after getting home from The Asian Heritage Row in KL last night. My colleagues and I had a farewell for another of our colleague who’s leaving the country to try her luck elsewhere.

I shall sleep soon.

p/s: I will update you on the Ulu Yam trip and my chicken marinade for a BBQ very soon.

I’m good

Today was a relatively good day. No problems at work, no problems of the heart brewing.

Had a great dinner with friends. After our delicious meal of pork, we discussed the intricacies of relationships over wine. Many aspects of it were defined and we heard our own opinions on this common topic. It turns out that we will have problems before entering a relationship and we will also have problems after entering a relationship. And problems after all that.

Of course there was brooding during the breaks of silence in our conversation, but I think at the end, we all had good fun. Plus, I discovered that people eat escargot for dessert. I however, like my Oreo Ice Cream, thank you very much!

I am looking forward to the long weekend: Thursday at a certain club along Asian Heritage Row to celebrate a dear colleague’s resignation from the Bank with a bang! A drive to Ulu Yam on Friday to rekindle myself with my photography and a BBQ at Saturday.

Mondays makes you moody

If you have ever seen a piece of slate as dark as soot, that would describe my mood today. I must have woken up on the wrong side of the bed, trice.

I am just moody and grumpy. The whole day through.

2 glasses of wine after work with good company that came bundled with laughter managed to lift my spirits a little. Got some advice later that really put things into perspective.

I feel so much better now. I’m so thankful that I have a great support group to help me through the though times. Remember, I will be there for you too.

I am done being nice to people who don’t seem to show the slightest hint that they care. I’m done; your loss. It’s time to toss the rose tinted glasses away.

Good bye.

On a happier note, I baked some jumbo cookies and I shall be distributing the little pieces of heaven to you guys tomorrow for breakfast. Hope you like them.

Fried Egg Pita

After rummaging through the refrigerator, I fixed this for lunch today. I was getting kinda hungry past midday and I didn’t really fancy the idea of eating instant noodles.

I found:
Eggs.
A bunch of “siew pak choy”.
Pita bread (frozen since eons ago).
Mayonnaise.
Wasabi paste.

Fry the eggs. Blanch the vegetables in hot water then immediately immerse them in cold water. Mix a tablespoon of mayo and some wasabi. Keep adding wasabi depending on your taste. Add a pinch of salt to the sauce for flavour.

Arrange the vegetable on the pita bread, top with a fried egg and then drizzle the mayo-wasabi sauce on the egg. Fold the pita over to cover the egg and veggies. Enjoy!

It was pretty good, if I do say so myself

I’m loving this WordPress theme!

I just realised that the photos with a width of 5oo pixels look simply perfect in this blog layout.

Sushi dinner?

Sushi Galore, originally uploaded by lotusutol on Flickr

I’ve been playing with the idea to make sushi at home for dinner next week. Nothing extravagant, just simple maki rolls. I’d probably try to make my own tamago so we shall have eggs, avocados, crabsticks, salmon and probably teriyaki chicken.

I did try making nigri sushi once some time ago unfortunately they didn’t come out right. I just couldn’t shape the rice balls consistently. All I ended up with were sad looking sushi on the plate. Yup, I think for this round, I’m going to stick to making maki rolls!

Yum yum, I love Japanese food!