2008 Annual Dinner

I had missed out last year company annual dinner event. Feeling unenthusiastic about it during that time and so I gave myself an excuse for not going. But this year, for the very first time I had willingly submited myself to the hassle of presenting myself to the event. I call it a hassle because I would have to look for a dress, shoes, accessories, or any mumbo-jumbo stuff to suite the annual dinner theme (i.e. need to spend more... duh!). The worst part is if they force you to do silly on-stage performances or play silly games. Those are the part which turns me down the most for joining the event. However, after giving much feedback and opinions to our company social committee who organizes all sorts of company events, there is a big improvements this year. We were not forced to participate in on-stage performances nor were we forced to play the games if we do not want to. The best part about the annual dinner is free food of course! Haha... this year we had International Buffet dinner.

This year annual dinner theme was The Masquerade. Held on the 12th December 2008 at One World Hotel. I think there are quite a few company in KL who was having the same theme too. Actually this is the 2nd time in our company's history of hosting annual dinner having The Masquerade theme. I don't know why it is so popular and so many people voted for it. After all, it's not that easy to get a nice mask for the occasion in our country. I was so busy with work, having no time for lunch hour so at the very last minute, just about 1 week before the event date I searched frantically for my ideal mask. Tried looking for it through Ebay but it was too risky to purchase one online due to the fact that I got only 1 week time to order and wait for delivery. There are just a very few shops in KL selling mask and none of them that I like. I hate it when even though I got so little time left and I am being so stingy about a mask.

Thank goodness I have a friend who recommended me ordering a custom made mask from a girl who posted some of those beautiful mask she made by herself on her blog. Her name is Evon and she's a model with an artistic mind who has a knick of designing and making mask. I like her mask design and instantly fall in love with it. Trying out my luck, I emailed her to enquire about whether she can make me one and the price tag for it. The cost is really pricy. But out of emmergency and I really like her handy work, I decided to buy her service. She provided very fast, eficient and professional service by giving colour suggestions to the little discriptive design I requested. I confirmed my order on Sarturday and I receive the completed mask (photo) she emailed to me for approval on the following Tuesday morning. The next day the mask was hand delivered to me.

My mask (front and side view). I wanted it simple yet elegant and it is actually attached to a wand as I requested. Whether it worth the price I paid or not, I really love it!

Throughout the whole annual dinner event of the night, the highlight is the mask of course. But we had some good time watching some of the performances, chearing those who participated in games, galloping foods taken from the buffet tables, goofing around taking pictures of each other, some drink and get drunk and be merry.

Just arrived. We were a little late but the event has not started yet. Picture with our mask on. Guess where am I in the picture?

Picture without our mask on. Now we know who is who :P (Left to right: Kelly, me, SY, MYeen, YF, Jenny, MYee, ST, & Cora)

It was already almost 8pm. We were waiting for our dinner to start. That explain ST (second from left) sour face and my weak smile.

Another group photo with our mask on. We managed to hide our hungry face with our mask. hehehe....

OMG! I look so fat in this picture. There's another one which I look even fatter (not going to post it here). Well, we meant to took a picture for just the three of us but suddently V came by shouting "I also want to take a pic" and slot into position *uninvited* as none of us actually knows her that well. Oh and the "thorn" in the middle? Well, never mind the thorn though we don't really mind having a thorn in an all girl's picture. (Left to right: Me, LL, Alan, KH, & V)

My favorite photo of the day! Me & KH. Darn! I look fat in this picture too. I had another picture of this taken half length but I thought I should post this with full length view so to remind me not to neglect my eczema spot when it itches and scratch non-stop. Eczema scar is hard to hide when it was left untreated for too long. I probably need a year for the scar is fully disappeared.

Just me. Hmmm... apparently I do not have enough makeup on. This is the result of only putting on makeup for less than 5 times a year. LOL....

Pigging out at Saisaki

*** This post is long over due.....

On the 18th of May (Sunday), we treated mom to a nice Japanese Buffet dinner at Saisaki situated at Jalan Pinang, Wisma UOA II, K.L. for Mother's Day. It was the first time experience for the rest of them but for me it's my second time. We actually planed to go to Shin~Nichi Japanese Buffet restaurant at Komplex Antarabangsa located just right behind Saisaki but Lydia and David who went there early informed me that the place had been closed down. Without wanting to travel far for a different venue, so we decided to go to Saisaki instead. Although the price is somewhat more expensive - RM20 difference from Shin~Nichi, but we had a wonderful time pigging out at Saisaki. If you're living in K.L, I'm sure you've heard of this place besides the more expensive option of Jogoya Japanese Buffet Restaurant at Star Hill Gallery also situated at the heart of K.L.

I was feeling really famish before the dinner. Without further ado, here are all the food pictures taken on what I ate during my pigging out session.

1st round... All the fried food. I took one piece for each type there. Except 3-4 types I didn't took. Taste good.

2nd round.... A little bit of sushi and lots of sashimi. Simply delicious! I was a little full after galloping my 1st helping. That's why I can only take this much during my 2nd helping. But wait... there's more....

3rd round.....Some vegies, Sea Cucumber, mushrooms, lamb shank, and some beef.... yummy.... It still amazes me how my stomoch can fit in so much food at one go.

4th round..... Last but not least, Ice-creams!!! There were around 5 types of ice-creams. I only pick four flavor which is chocolate, corn, mint and green tea ice-creams. Definitely cannot miss the green tea flavor when you have Jappanese buffet ya.

5th round.... Okay, this is the last helping. Really... my stomoche is about to burst after galloping this one. I stuff it with chocolate and green tea flavor ice-creams which I like the most among other flavors.

All in all, we spent around 3 hours in the restaurant. LOL!!! That's why we can eat so much. But still, until now I am still amazed on how I can manage to eat up eventhing I on my plates. My weight must have gone up at least 2kg after that. hahaha... Now... Father's Day is comming up. Duh!

Company training - Food & more food!

As promised on my previous post, here is the write up on what actually happen during the training. The training is being held at my office. Other colleagues who are from India, Guangzhou - China, and Bulgaria got the chance to come to Malaysia to attend the training. I partly wished that the training were being held in some other country instead, so that I got the chance to go to other countries as well. From 26th Mar. - 3rd Apr. I attended the training, I had a really fun time learning new things. It was fun because we had a very professional trainer who also tried his very best to help us solve our daily work problem such as providing solutions to help improve our work productivity. I also love the part where I get to know colleagues from other countries. Before I forgets their names, they are Wendy from China (Guangzhou), Malhar from India, Ivan and Lana from Bulgaria. Our trainer, Douglas (likes to be known as Doug) is from a different company based in Australia. All of them are very nice and friendly. Oh! Not to be missed are all the great food we get to enjoy throughout the training.

Every morning, training starts at 9.30am and ends at 5 or 5.30pm in the evening. Endless flow of coffee and tea were being served and we had light refreshments on local delicacies for tea breaks. And here's our "eating schedule" is like:
Around 10.30am - Tea break
12.30pm - lunch
Around 3.30pm - Tea break
6pm - Dinner

We been to many different restaurants to have our lunch and dinner but mainly located in Mid Valley Megamall and The Gardens. Since I know the Admin personnel who organized our eateries well, I had a little influence in suggesting which restaurant we should go too (*evil grin*).

26th Mar. (Wednesday): Lunch at San Francisco Steak House (Mid Valley); Dinner at Gurney Drive (The Gardens) which serve local Penang food but with a price three times higher.

27th Mar. (Thursday): Lunch at Aunty Nat (Boulevard Mid Valley) which serve Nyonya cuisine; Dinner at Tony Roma's (The Gardens)

28th Mar. (Friday): Lunch at Secret Recipe (Mid Valley); Dinner at Stadium Negara Steamboat Restaurant at Jln Kia Peng (near KLCC). After the dinner we bring all of them for sight seeing at KLCC. The night scene are breath taking.

Stadium Negara Steamboat Restaurant: One of the side dishes... Sweet and sour crab. Yummy!

This steamboat restaurant has been on the business for a very long time. They still have the very old style of steamboat being used (as seen on the picture above). You can also have the option of using the modern style ones.

31st Mar. (Monday): Lunch at Picolo Mondo (Mid Valley) which serve nice Itallian food; Dinner at Paddington House of Pancakes.

This restaurant offeres 138 types of pancakes from all over the world. If you don't like pancakes, then this is definately a place you must try! This might be the only place that you begin to learn to love pancakes! I do! Their pancakes are very uniquely served with many combinations of food that comprises of meats and veggies. But of course, they do have the desert type or breakfast type pancakes which you must try too! They all just looks too yummy to be eaten. Take a look at the pictures below.

Such a big potion. Can you finish it? (Sorry, I can't remember the name of this dish.)

One of the banana type pancake dish (Sorry, I can't remember the exact name either.)

One of the strawberry type pancake dish from the desert selection I guess....

This pancake dish has some meat and veggies wraped in it. It taste a little like Lasagna.

Last but not least, this pancake dish is what I had eaten that day. There's 2 slices of fluffy pancakes, 2 slices of ham, 2 cheese sausages, 1 hash brownies and some veggies. The cheese sausages is really nice. When I bite into it, I can feel the cheese ooze out from the saussage meat. It blends nicely in my mouth. I give a rating of max 10 for this dish. Overall, the food taste heavenly. (Sorry, I can't remember the name of this dish either. I just know how to eat! hehe...)

1st Apr. (Tuesday): Lunch at Little Vietnam (Mid Valley); Dinner at Madam Kuan (Mid Valley)

2nd Apr. (Wednesday): Lunch at All Star Sport Cafe (Mid Valley) which was my own selection (*evil grin*); Dinner at Flying Chillies (The Gardens) which serve delicious Thai food.

Curry Chicken rice from All Star Sport Cafe.

And of course I must order my favourite dish from All Star Sport Cafe - Chicken/Beef burger with cheese. The burger meat is freshly made by the chef and it was nicely done. Really yummy. The best burger that I've tasted so far. Oh! And I love the fries.

3rd Apr. (Thursday): Lunch at Sushu Zanmai (The Gardens) which was also my own selection (*more evil grin*); Dinner at Italliannies (The Gardens) which is obiously only serve Itallian food.

At Italliannies we had some salad....

Some Mussels and Spaghetti dishes. There is also an Angle hair dish, a pasta dish and two Pizza dishes (not in the pic).

For dessert, we had Cappuccino Pie which doesn't look like a pie at all. It's more like ice-cream cake and it taste really good.

Bread pudding taste nice but it was a tad too sweet for my liking.

And the king of all desserts, we had Tiramisu to end the day of our trainning.

*** Sorry, some of the pictures are not that clear. And I forgot to take all the pictures of the food we had since day one. Was too hungry and when the food arrived, we all just gallop down everything. Also, I was too shy to be taking all the photos of the food since there are many foreigners colleagues around. Hehehe..... To sum it all, the training was great and the food was superb! I would definately recommend all those restaurant mentioned above to everyone who are looking for good food to eat at Mid Vally and The Gardens, KL, Malaysia.

The past two weeks.......

Not sure if anyone noticed, I had not been updating my blog that often for the past 2 weeks. So, what had I been up to lately? Well, I was so busy with attending training at the office. I was among the selected few who had the opportunity to attend a special advanced training fully paid by the company I am working in. The training started on 26th March until 3rd April. I got to meet a few colleagues from China, India and Bulgaria. And the trainer is from Australia but he is actually a UK citizen who is kind of migrated over to work in Australia. I wanted to include our group photo here but I do not have it with me now. Will post up later.

The training was fun and very beneficial. I also enjoyed the food we had for morning tea break, lunch, afternoon tea break and dinner. All food and drinks are fully paid by company! So, for the whole training days, I ate at least 5 times a day (including my own breakfast). I don't even dare to check how much is my weight now. LOL! In the next couple of days, I will be posting up the list of places we had our meals during the training and also some pictures that will make you feel tantalizing!

My Campbell Go Red Gift Pack

Slightly over two weeks ago I participated writing a blog post about the Campbell Go Red campaign in the help on fighting heart disease in women. A gift pack were being sent to me as a token of their appreciation. I received the gift pack last Thursday, which I didn’t expect for it to arrive so soon since it was being sent from the US. The gift pack contains a tote bag, a T-shirt, a brochure about the Go Red For Women Program that could be kept as a reminder, a Dynamite 2008 card (not sure what it’s for), and a company business card. What a good way to blog for a good cause and get a memorable gift in return! Thanks to Campbell for organizing it and also thanks to BDMM community for providing us this opportunity.

Love your heart

I have always loved having Campbell soup as my breakfast, lunch, dinner or even as a snack meal. Their soup is healthy and delicious. I have also tried creating my own recipe with Campbell soup. Instead of the traditional Macaroni & Cheese, I have even tried using the Campbell Mushroom Soup as my macaroni source base, after it is done just sprinkle some shredded Mozzarella Cheese on top of it and it’s ready to be eaten. It’s really simple and doesn’t take up a lot of time to prepare the dish. You should try it! Oh, not to forget their Prego Italian Sauce which comes in many flavors to suits everyone’s taste buds for their choice of pasta sauce. My favorite pasta is spaghetti of course. Who doesn’t like spaghetti? Even kids love them. It’s a cooking heaven for mommies because spaghetti meals are easy to make. With Prego Italian Sauce (any flavor you like), cooking is made a lot easier. Those who do not really know how to cook can rely on this magic sauce and make everyone enjoy their meal, like me.

Having said much about Campbell and its products, they have launched a Campbell’s Go Red campaign for fighting woman heart disease in America. It is sad to say that too few people know that heart disease is the #1 killer of American women and men. But we should not be ignorant of the fact that heart disease is largely preventable. How can heart disease be preventable? That’s the goal of this Campbell’s Go Red campaign to equip women with knowledge and tool to protect their health and reduce their risks of contacting heart disease. In fact, we should all know about it and share it with everyone we know and help protect our loved ones, family and friends from contacting this deadly disease.

Toni Braxton, a very famous singer has joined in the movement of this Campbell’s Go Red campaign. I knew her through one of her famous song titled “Un-break my Heart”. She was also one of the heart disease survivors who has shared her story and tips on heart disease prevention and how you could help up in this campaign. She will be wearing a Lisa Perry’s designed red dress for the American Heart Month in February and we get to pick the dress by voting one out for the three designed dresses. Campbell will donate $1 to American Heart Association for each vote cast.



Here’s what we all can do to help spread the word about this important campaign and fight heart disease:

• Vote for your favorite Lisa Perry dress
• Buy one of the Art of the Heart designer t-shirt
• Look for healthier alternative food and drinks such as those of Campbell’s products.
• Learn more about heart disease and how to reduce your risk
• Encourage others to get involved

Many people in the world have issues with their heart in some way. Its important to know more about heart health and to bad habits like smoking. There is a lot of doctors you can find to get the best best medical advice is to know more about having and keeping your heart healthy.

Upcomming Friday Event

Last weekend has been a short one for me. Seems like I didn't get much rest at all and now it's Monday again. A long way to go until the next weekend comes again. I have been spending my whole weekend sulking about the up comming company event which is scheduled to be happening this comming Friday, 24th August.

Some would think I am lucky to be choosen as the first batch to go for the Team Building Programme which are being held in Eagle Ranch, Port Dickson. Program starts from 9am until 5.30pm. Yay! Don't have to work this Friday. No yay! for me. Looking at the program list, I am actually not excited about it at all. Having those wet and strenuous activities is definately not my cup of tea. Provided with my current state of health, I don't know whether my body can take it or not. Anyhow, there's no way for me to pull out from the programme because once you have been choosen, it's a compulsory attendance unless you have got a valid reason not to go. I was silently praying that my job urgency will rescue me from this predicament. Hahaha.....

Well, I will update here later on what's really happening at the Team Building Programme after I have attended it. Please, please pray for me that I will be rescue by my job urgency and not have to go through the grueling programme.... ~*SOB*~*SOB*

Japanese Buffet Lunch

On Sunday 3rd June, I had a Japanese buffet lunch at Shin-NiChi with my favourite friends. There were 9 of us there, 3 of them are new friends to me ( 1 is Michelle's friend, 2 are Wai Ling's friend ). It is to have a combine birthday celebration for Michelle, Amy and me. Both Michelle and Amy's birthday falls this month but mine was one and a half months ago that gathering was cancelled. Only Pui See and Lyn Yen did not turn up on that day.

Both me and Wai ling arrived first at the same time. So, we started out our plunder first. Head on to the fresh oysters and sea foods. The oyster is really fresh and they are very generous with the refilling. Apart from the fresh seafood, there are of course the famous sushi, tempura, teppan and some chinese cruisine like Monk Jump Over the Wall and Ginseng Chicken (both are famous chinese soups). Of the two type of chinese soup there, I only tried the Monk Jump Over the Wall. Was really tasty. If I can recall, I had 3 round of food and 1 soup on that day. Wow, really filling. I actually feel full after finishing the 1st plate, but very tempted to try on other type of food there.

I had a wonderful time there eating and chatting. I am sure everyone enjoy it too. Our conversation that day touch on our childhood time to ghost stories. Don't really know where the ghost stories stared off, all I know is I am really into ghost stories and found myself feeding into every bits and details of it, not feeding more of the food..hahaha....

In the end, two hours after that, slightly after 2pm I left and the rest are still there chatting and eatting until 3pm as I heard. Overall, the food there is nice and fresh. The price is RM45++ for the buffet. I think it's really value for money because they have alot of fresh seafood and wide sellection of food. Must try the green tea ice-cream for desert if you are there. Here is the website link at Shin-NiChi Japanese Buffet Restaurant. It is located at Kompleks Antarabangsa, just between Hotel Equatorial and Hotel Crown Plaza at Jalan Sultan Ismail, KL. If you do not drive there, you can take the KL Monorail and stop at the station in front of Wisma Genting/Hotel Crown Plaza ( station Raja Chulan if I am not mistaken ), walk on your right is Kompleks Antarabangsa after Hotel Crown Plaza. Very convinient and easy to find the place.