Farewell Dinner cum Karaoke Session

For the past one week, I had been looking forward to our "date". We had arranged for a farewell dinner for a colleague and at the same time celebrating another colleague's celebration.

We had Korean food (exactly what I wanted to have based on my last post!) at Daore, Ara Damansara, NZX.

The dinner was filled with laughters, camwhoring and of course, good food! We made lots of noises. My voice sounded funny due to too much of laughters and yeah, the spicy food. I don't really have a good voice. It turns bad whenever I laugh too much or talk too much =S Ming took so many photos but I am lazy to download them from Facebook and upload them here again =p Anyway, did pick a few to be uploaded here. Will upload more when I am out of my lazy mood. LOL.

After dinner, we continued with a Karaoke session at Neway, 1 U. It was amazing we managed to book a room at 8.30PM on a Friday Night! The best part was we only booked the room about 8.05PM!

Yummy Korean snacks a.k.a appetizers. Kimchi! I like it and it's also Michelle's favourite!
Barbecue pork. Delicious. There were 2 flavours. The other flavour tasted slightly sweeter than this. Delicious, nonetheless ;) Potato Noodle and Rice Cakes in spicy soup! This IS really spicy. Love the texture of the Rice Cakes. The chef was really generous with the pork. We found more pork then Rice Cakes in this pot of soup! Yikes, suppose you notice the difference in the quality of photos. Some were taken by my camera phone and some by Ming's digital camera. The winner is clear enough. So, no need for an announcement =p
LOL. Caught Ming busy helping herself with the appetizers ;p Ganbei - A toss to all of us! This is one of the rare pictures which had all of us in it. Thanks to the waiter for helping us to capture this memorable moment despite busying with other patrons!

Breaking the news

Today is THE day! We have been waiting impatiently to be handed THE envelope. Though we are mentally prepared that there may be very little or no increment or bonus at all, it's hard not to fantasize given the current situation.

When it was my turn to enter the room where my boss handed me THE envelope, my mind was blank. I didn't have a specific figure in my mind nor did I imagine what would be the content of the letter.

I was given the privillege to open the envelope in front of my boss. I don't know what's with me but I did not feel anything after reading through it. Maybe I was slow in response =p Only after being asked if I am happy with it that I started to think.

Honestly, it's good enough considering the poor economic situation globally.

Sing along Song - Khalil Fong

I was in the weekend mood yesterday although I have datelines to meet. Not exactly sure what happened but my mind refused to focus. Thanks to Ming for offering to have me played "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" and to listen to songs using her IPOD. It did help me to get back on track...well a little =p

We were browsing through the albums in the IPOD and we found Khalil Fong's. Thrilled, we agreed to listen to his songs. It was a co-incidence that both of us like slower-pace songs. They sooth my mind.

When we came to this song, Sing along Song, I was totally hooked. It's an English version of 為妳寫的歌. I had only heard of the Mandarin version but I think the English version is better. I can't tell why....


Lyrics
I wrote this song it's not too long
cos' I've been thinking 'bout you
I wrote this song maybe I'm wrong
To be caught up about you

Well I dont know what you think 'bout me
Maybe you think nothing at all
But maybe you could just lie to me
And we could be in love you see

Oh it's a singalong song that's not too long
It's when I think about you that I hear songs
And you can singalong maybe if you want to
Cos' baby I wrote this I wrote this for you

I wrote this song it's not too long
Cos' I'm the one who loves you
I wrote this song this can't be wrong
I don't wanna smile without you

Well I just want to make you happy
but maybe you want nothing at all
and how I wish that you're meant to be
forever and a day with me

Oh it's a singalong song that's not too long
It's when I think about you that I hear songs
And you can singalong maybe if you want to
Cos' baby I wrote this I wrote this for you

In everyway you mean more to me
than you'll ever know
girl I'll do my best to show these words are true
and if you'd like to make a song
and be a perfect harmony with me
I'd find the greatest words sing
so we could write our own romance

Oh it's a singalong song that's not too long
It's when I think about you that I hear
songs

And you can singalong maybe if you want to
Cos' baby I wrote this I wrote this for you

Oh it's a singalong song that's not too long
It's when I think about you that I hear songs
And you can singalong maybe if you want to
Cos' baby I wrote this I wrote this for you

Cos' baby I wrote this I wrote this for you

Canton-I, Mid Valley

I actually wanted to go for Korean food but my mom wanted to try Canton-I when we were at Mid Valley last weekend. Canton-I, it is!

There are a lot of Hong Kong style cafe mushrooming in Malaysia - Kim Gary, Wong Kok, Prince Cafe, Dragon-I, just to name a few. Food wise, they all serve very similar food in the same style. Price wise, I find that they are usually over-priced. 3 shrimp dumplings for MYR10??!! That sounds crazy.

So, here we are, crazy enough to continue dining in Canton-I ;)

Canton-I's specialty : Shrimp Dumpling Noodle

My mom can't resist the barbecue pork (siew yok) and char siew

Pork porridge. Consists of intestines, stomach, sausage and meatball. Found some scallops as well. I like the smooth texture of the porridge but honestly, overall I am not exactly very pleased with this dish. It costs MYR9.80 and that's the cheapest main course on the menu! Well, the picture on the menu looked more promising than the actual one that was served. So, that explains....... =p

The porridge comes with some snacks.

Fried Vermicelli with shredded duck meat. As you can clearly see, the presentation wasn't exactly attractive. It's slightly burnt.

Returning A Stranger's Call..

Upon reading Zewt's post, it reminded me of my last trip to Charlotte,US. It wasn't exactly a pleasant trip, I must say.

To begin with, my colleague and I had to transit at Singapore Changi Airport. The transit period was 6 hours in the wee hours of 12am through 6am, mind you! We decided to go to the city and my colleague wanted to catch up with a friend. After placing our hand carry luggages at the lockers, we happily went off to Robinson's Walk.

We returned to the airport 3 hours before the next flight took off. Instead of collecting our luggages from the locker, we had to go through a security screen first. We were asked a couple of questions and when we told them we had left our hand carry luggages upstairs in the locker, the officer showed a sudden concern and started contacting his colleagues. My colleague and I could not figure out what did we do wrong. We were told that we were not supposed to leave our luggages behind (in the locker). But why did they provide lockers then? Strange.

Right from Changi Airport through Narita Airport (Japan) and when returning from Charlotte, airport officers performed thorough luggage and body check on us. We were being watched closely in these 2 airports. I suddenly felt like a dangerous person or some sort of criminal. We were somewhat suspected of being involved in some conspiracy that could bring harm to the great US (at least that's what I felt) =_=" The truth is, we only kept our luggages at the airport lockers (which were guarded by an officer) so that we could go out to the city with ease.

Ooo..yeah, I have strayed from the intended story. Sorry, back to the main focus:

I only found out that my US colleague did not book any rooms for us upon arrival at Marriot Southpark hotel at about 7pm US time! Shocked and tired from the jet lag, we tried to contact our colleague. I was searching for a network point and a man was using the Internet via the PC provided by the hotel at the lobby. I was told that I could share the network connection.

The man made way for me to place my laptop next to him and he also offered me a seat by pulling a chair and placed it next to me. While I was seated and hastily looking through my mails to check if I had any details of the room reservation, the man initiated a conversation.

After knowing I was a Chinese from Malaysia, he started to speak Cantonese. My, his pronunciation was accurate and he spoke very fluently. I was impressed. He then revealed that he worked in Hong Kong although he's from Charlotte. Apparently, he looked after offices in Asia for his company. So, he travelled extensively. He had great sense of humour. Phew, it made me felt a lot better. I needed humour right then!

Before he made a move to leave, we exchanged goodbyes. I continued to look through my mails. Shortly after that, he returned with a note in his hand and he extended the note to me. It contained his full name and contact number. His name was Trey. Trey said I could give him a call if I needed any help since it's my first trip to Charlotte and I didn't know much people there. How kind of him.

It did strike me to call him on my last day of the trip, just to wish him "Happy Thanks Giving" (yeah, it happened to be Thanks Giving there) and to thank him for his kindness. Well, I didn't call him in the end. I am not used to the idea of calling up a "stranger"...

You'll Shine Again

My sister was exchanging songs with a friend a few nights ago. It was a long time since I heard You'll Shine Again by Justin Lo. I find it rather inspiring. Perhaps it's his voice or it's just the song - simply touching. The song is actually one of the OSTs of a Hong Kong movie [天生一對主題曲].