I had a quiet but busy Christmas yesterday. Actually I started early as I was shopping the whole of Wednesday, Christmas Eve. Which was odd considering I am not Christian!
(If you like warehouse sales, head on over to the PISA/Metrojaya Warehouse Sale. Lots of household stuff, lots of clothes, lots of cosmetics on sale. The prices are comparable to the warehouse sales in KL and PJ. It’s on until this Monday.)
I spent Christmas day by getting out of the apartment and having an Italian lunch with my aunts and sis at Ecco Cafe on Chulia Street. It wasn’t my first choice at all but Edelweiss Cafe was closed. And my aunts didn’t want any old Chinese food. They wanted something different. So we ended up having pizza and pasta and in usual style, my aunt chatted with the chef/owner of Ecco’s.
We later went on a butter-buying spree at the newly opened supermarket, Pacific at Komtar. It’s like a reincarnation of Super Komtar. Suddenly Komtar had come alive.
Unfortunately, Pacific reminds me of the departmental stores of yore. Yes, it was all shiny and new but the clothes department was not enticing at all.
Miffed, we headed down to the supermarket section only to be overwhelmed by 2 things – the crazy crowd of people packing every aisle like they’ve never seen a supermarket before (Malaysians love a new supermarket!) and a terrible stink from the fresh fish section. Yucks!
Call me a snob but I much prefer Jusco at Queensbay Mall or even my neighbourhood Tesco. (I couldn’t even find fresh button mushrooms at Pacific!)
But grab butter we did. In fact, between my Aunt Jo and I, we bought about 20 blocks of Anchor butter for baking cookies for Chinese New Year. She’s intent on baking them but my butter is for hoarding…. for breakfast!
I hope you had a good one yesterday… and if you’re still in that holiday mood, well, wishing you more of that too!
Belated Merry Christmas then!
The 2 New Men In My Life
I think I go crazy once in a while. And Nic tolerates that coz I am often more sane than insane.
But this time, he caused it.
He has been watching The Legend of Bruce Lee on 8TV on most weekday nights (if you don’t know, it’s from 8.30pm to 9.30pm) and he started getting ME interested in Bruce. The series is in Mandarin and it just kills me watching Caucasians speak Mandarin (dubbed of course).
It’s still on so if you are a big Bruce Lee fan, you should sneak a peek at this series. It chronicles the life and times of the Jeet Kun Do legend.
Yes, Bruce is smug and overbearing at times but he did win in the fighting bouts most people challenged him in. I suppose you can be smug and overbearing and haughty if you have the expertise and skills. Anyway, according to Nic, the walking wikipedia on Bruce and all Bruce trivia, Bruce jogs 10km each day without fail. Everyone wants to be Bruce Lee but no one can do the stuff he does, including the self-punishing regimen he puts himself through.
And through Bruce, I get to know about Yip Mun – the man whom Bruce learnt his Wing Chun style of martial art from. Yip Mun is Bruce’s mentor.
After rushing to GSC in Queensbay just two days ago to catch Ip Man (it’s pronounced Yip Mun okay? Not I-P Man as the GSC ticket seller said. Not I-P Man like Rocket Man or Yes Man, okay? Sheesh), I am now totally in love with Donnie Yen (who plays Yip Man) and Hiroyuki Ikeuchi, that very suave Japanese guy who plays the baddie General Miuru. (Nic says he looks like David Blaine without hair).
Watching kungfu films does this to me. If I watch Jet Li again, I know I’d sit through the whole damn thing and end up swooning over him even though he’s now getting rather old for his craft. A Jet Li movie fest – his kungfu movies only of course – will make you want to run out and sign up for martial art classes. Men with pigtails never looked so hunkilicious.
But it’s topped by this new movie, Ip Man.
Ip Man is about the grandmaster who really doesn’t want to be a grandmaster. Living in Foshan, he’s wealthy enough not to work or do anything physical except eat, drink tea and practice Wing Chun. Which isn’t really a bad way to live actually. Foshan is a town where new kung fu centres sprout almost every other day and one day, one barbarian (that’s what all Northerners are called) comes to challenge the kung fu masters, only to be defeated by Ip Man, the gentleman kung fu maestro in a truly humorous way.
Still Ip Man is not swayed even as the townspeople urge him to set up his own kung fu centre (I am not sure if Ip Man is being humble or just wants to get out of doing work).
Of course, the war arrives and the Japanese invade China, Foshan included. He is now reduced to pawning his possessions to put rice on the table for his wife and son.
He ends up fighting the Japanese and of course, ends up a hero. It’s that sort of Chinese patriotic movie. This thing Chinese have for the Japanese is still all enduring – this hate runs deep. In every movie made to showcase Chinese heros, a snub is always made at the Japs. I think it’s also deeply strange that a nation of gentle people could be so violent and brutal at one time in history. I wonder how the Japanese feel each time they see themselves portrayed like this? It’s like they turned into monsters and then turned back into docile creatures.
You have to watch this movie because the best scenes are the fighting scenes. I’m probably going to watch it again as I want to swoon over Donnie and Hiroyuki while Nic just wants to enjoy the fighting, executed a lot better than the other Sammo Hung movie, Wushu (now this Wushu movie is too corny and crappy for words – so much so I am NOT going to waste words blogging about it).
Wing Chun is a special martial art as it was a woman’s martial art, and story has it that it came from a woman called Yim Wing Chun who learnt it from a Buddhist nun. It is close body contact fighting, something that Bruce is famous for. Thank God it’s a delicate, poetic name like Wing Chun (Forever Spring in Cantonese).
No one would want to learn it if it’s called Fei Mui (Fat Lady) or something trite! See, names are important. And I still take offence that it’s not spelled Yip Mun!
And now, for the yummy trailer!
Cakes Etc, My Secret for Freshly Baked Cakes
I first got to know about Ai Tee from Kim.
Kim’s one of the ladies in our business women networking group and she’s a big foodie (just like me!). Kim had ordered a durian cheesecake from Ai Tee for our WomenBizSense 2nd anniversary and from that moment onwards, I was hooked.
Then I got the idea of belanja-ing my staff this cake, especially since JM was finishing up her internship with us a few months ago. See JM’s blog for a review of the cake.
And just a few days ago, I got an updated listing from Ai Tee.
I couldn’t help but order some muffins – banana and white chocolate chip. RM20 for 12 muffins is a good deal, don’t you think? Especially if one craves muffins and not in the mood to bake any!
In fact, the muffin powered me up for my StarWalk on Sunday. That 1 muffin plus 1 cup of Nesvita gave me enough energy to complete the 10 km walk.
Some of the stuff which Ai Tee makes include: Cempedak Butter Cake, Sugee Cake, Durian Cheesecake, Cempedak Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting, New York Style Bagels, Traditional Buttermilk Scones, Peach Pie, Dobos Torte and lots more. Prices range from RM15 to RM45.
Anyway, get the complete list of the delicious cakes, bagels, muffins and etc that Ai Tee makes by emailing her: aiteeken [at] yahoo.com or call her at 016 454 8984. Say you came from Krista! 😉
You do have to pick up the orders yourself but she lives centrally so it’s not really a problem. Prices are reasonable plus it’s all homemade and scrumptious.
Meet Mr Cooking Engineer
It’s great when friends appear in the newspapers (positive news of course!).
This one is an interview which The Star did with Eddie, who is a friend of mine and Nic’s. He is a cooking engineer which means he is an engineer but he also cooks. He’s also based in the USA.
He was featured in Monday’s Malaysians Abroad section of The Star and I almost guffawed when I saw the photo.
That is so Eddie! He tries to look ferocious but really, he’s a sweet guy. (And single, so ahem, if any ladies are interested in moving to the US and having a man cook for you, Eddie’s the guy!)
Actually Eddie’s on my blogroll and I met him yonks ago at this Mardi Gras party he and his siblings had at his home in Kuching.
But go read the spiffy interview and then go visit Eddie’s Cooking Engineer blog.
A Little Christmasey Do at Penang's 32
Another successful year for WomenBizSense! Another year to celebrate.
That was how I felt on last Friday as we had our super early Christmas luncheon at 32 The Mansion. As a co-organiser/co-founder/head of emailing/all round Jill, I am thankful that 12 ladies showed up too. We have 45 ladies in our group but not everyone attends all the time.
When I started this with Jo in 2006 (wow, that sounds like a long time ago!), we were afraid we wouldn’t find enough women entrepreneurs in Penang to join our little networking group. And that was our nightmare. What if no one joined? Would we still forge ahead? Where do we meet other business women?
In the end, our fears came to nought. In fact, we keep meeting women entrepreneurs all the time! We keep our eyes peeled and our ears sharp, ready to introduce ourselves to the next lady about our networking group.
The feedback has been positive because women love sharing! Our group has shared business contacts and friendships which makes me a little sentimental about the power of true giving.
And we have not become a silly coffee clutch of ladies either. We’ve been actively doing good for each other and raising money for the community. (Last year, we raised some money, not a lot, not millions but enough to know it came from the heart for the Persatuan Lupus Malaysia Penang chapter. This year we’re hoping to sponsor a 17-year-old girl enrolled at the Handicapped Children’s Centre at Grove Road.)
From a meeting each quarter to a meeting every month now, I must say Jo and I have done an amazing job of keeping WomenBizSense alive.
I’m proud of how distinct we are from other business networking groups – we only admit women, we’re all business owners, we don’t allow MLMers or insurance agents and there’s nothing wrong with mixing friendship and business, there’s nothing wrong with caring for a family and running a successful business and there’s simply no better gratification than having a bunch of friends who understand you completely.
And now, please enjoy the photos!
I Succumbed… and Went to the PC Fair
I don’t like admitting this but I actually willed myself not to visit this year’s PC Fair (which ended yesterday at PISA). But I did. I succumbed and plunged into the crowd of IT-mad people, pushing and jostling each other to get their nerdy fingers on the latest technological gizmo.
I didn’t want to go yesterday (a Sunday) because Penangites will wait till the last minute to shop for bargains. The belief is, you get more for your money on the last day of the 3-day fair as the sellers will mark down most stuff (bigger and bulkier stuff like printers) as they won’t want to cart such stuff back to their shops and warehouses. Which means you will see MORE people lugging boxes of printers and IT gadgets out of the fair on the last day.
Anyway, I knew if I went, I’d just go and salivate over the iPod Touch (again, for the millionth time) and the folks at Apple Switch centre (in Gurney Plaza and Queensbay Mall) have seen Nic at their stores so often, it’s embarrassing!
But yes, I did mosey over to the Apple Switch booth and yes, I did fiddle about with the iPod Nano and yes, I did linger around a bit too much there! I would love to get the iPod Touch but I know I will get tired of it in a month’s time.
I’m not a biggie music downloader nor am I a biggie Youtube fan. I cannot bloody justify to myself why I would spend that obscene amount of money on a thing that’s more of an envy gadget. (Envy gadget means you will envy me when I whip it out….cue dracula music and some evil sounding laughing).
As it is, I use my Sony Ericsson phone for almost everything these days, from listening to audio books, to my Buddhist chanting to keeping photos of my niece and nephew. So really, practical me says, what the heck do I need the iPod Touch for?
I’d rather go splurge on food and books.
Nic and I promised each other we wouldn’t buy anything at the PC Fair. In the end I bought this.
A silicone keyboard (RM 18)! I can roll this keyboard up if I want to.
It’s a full-size keyboard which I can attach to my Asus Eee PC. The Eee PC keypads are a little too tiny, even for my womanly fingers. So I need this silicone keyboard to type properly.
Nic also wanted his wireless headphones (RM30) but he soon forgot about them! Ha. Plus there were good bargains on Celcom Broadband and even WiMax had a booth. WiMax will be rolling out next year but they wanted our names and other data. Fat hopes.
We saw lots of pirated iPod nanos – one booth was selling lookalikes for RM65! Even the packaging looked similar. Of course, they weren’t called nanos, they were called MP4 players. Clever. I guess if one’s destitute but had a wish for an iPod, even a lookalike would do. Buying a rip-off is a bit like lying to yourself. You know it’s a fake but you say, never mind lah, I saved a bundle.
But buying the real thing – now that’s pure pleasure.
I’d go for the real Apple iPod any day, if only I could justify why I wanted that thing. Such a snob right?
* I know I had been missing a while now from this blog. Went home last week to Banting to spend some time at home with my Mom and Dad. It’s good to just go home and chill a bit though Banting is becoming more and more unfamiliar to me. My first love is still dirty, loud and noisy Penang.
Nasi Lemak Subaidah from Taman Pekaka
I feel a bit foolish because I just discovered this nasi lemak….like last night!
My cousin, Lai Yee, told me about the nasi lemak a few weeks ago when she was working the graveyard shift. It seems her boss had ‘tar-pau’ this piping hot nasi lemak for her and her colleagues late that night as they were clocking in at 2am. (Yes, people who work in factories start work at odd hours of the day. My friend, Karen, wakes up at 3.30am and gets to work by 4am. She services Australia/New Zealand so she’s there to answer calls when Aussies start calling in!)
I had listened in disbelief at her description of the nasi lemak. It was drop-dead delicious. With chunks of special Subaidah fried chicken.
The only Subaidah fried chicken I’ve ever eaten is pretty damn good. And that’s from the Subaidah Nasi Kandar outlet inside the USM campus.
Other than that, Subaidah Nasi Kandar never ranked high in my list of nasi kandar outlets. I prefer Kayu Nasi Kandar although prices are quite steep. But never mind lah, I eat nasi kandar once in a blue moon. Everyone I know shudders at the prices at Kayu Nasi Kandar but yeah, we all have our vices. Mine happens to be the beef curry from Kayu’s.
Now let me get back to this nasi lemak from Subaidah’s. This Subaidah is at Taman Pekaka which is just opposite Tesco Extra, Jalan Sungai Dua. The stall, located just outside the restaurant, opens at 10.30pm. Any earlier and you don’t get even a whiff of the rice. (Taman Pekaka and Taman Permai are 2 good areas around USM where you can get pretty decent food at almost all hours of the day!)
But they open on the dot. And a line of people already snake their way around the stall. The fried chicken is fried on the spot so you get almost a quarter chicken, piping hot from the kuali. We bought a packet of this nasi lemak last night, just to try it out.
The banana leaf intensifies the fragrance of the steamed rice. Sprinkle over some salty, fried peanuts with skin on. Throw in some sliced cucumber. Ladle over a good heaping of sambal ikan bilis (which is one of the best I’ve tasted). It’s not too spicy but has the right hint of chilis to complement the warm, moist fried chicken. Oh, plus there’s even a whole fried egg. All this for RM6.90.
Like the duck curry sold at Kassim Mustafa’s downtown, this nasi lemak will enter my holy list of food I must partake in, once in a blue moon.
It’s that kind of comfort food for a cold rainy night! Worth queuing up for!
12 Money Saving Tips… Add On Yours?
I emailed this over to a writer friend as she was preparing for a magazine article. Little did I know I missed her deadline! And as always, she only asked for one money-saving tip but I gave her 12. I know, I am a bit over-lah!
So instead of throwing it all away, I am sharing them here with you. Feel free to add on with your own tips.
Lots of people (OK, let me qualify that…lots of Malaysians) seem to have this impending fear of the global recession. Call me dumb or overly naive or too optimistic, but I think that we can all overcome this fear. I call it fear because that’s what it is. Everyone scaring everyone even BEFORE that recession hits, if it hits lah.
A Story of Malaysia Tak Boleh
This is from an email forward which I sent out to all my friends today. I decided to put it here on my blog because it riles me a lot that we still hear of these incidents happening in Malaysia.
“Dear all
Am forwarding an article which appeared on malaysiakini to you. I think medical care is a basic human right, no matter if you are a Penan in the Sarawak jungle or not.
I’ve always wondered why there hasn’t been a major highway link-up over in Borneo like what we have here in Semenanjung (our PLUS highway).
But highways aside, development is not something you get if you vote for the ‘right’ party or allow the ‘right’ timber company to come into your land.
If we’re talking about Merdeka, let’s talk about Merdeka of these people. Aren’t they the real bumiputera, the sons of the land? Why are they often neglected if they don’t throw a fuss?
Even if they do throw a fuss (mild by our city standards) they still don’t get the right help or
attention.
I get very pissed at this for many reasons.
If you have been to Sarawak, you will note that these people are kind and easygoing. Perhaps these traits are the cause of their downfall. They’ve been too kind and easygoing, so trusting that outside people exploit them! (In the case of timber companies, it is also their own people who exploit them!)
And talk to any Sarawakian and the vocal ones (my husband included) will tell you that the oil money is theirs YET it is used for development projects here in the Semenanjung. None or very little for their own home state.
No wonder the Sarawakians call the Semenanjung people ‘leper’, a derogative term for cockroach!
Anyway, do read this letter and if possible, tell others this story.
The story of a Penan woman who died of post natal bleeding in today’s day and age!” (You need to be a Malaysiakini subscriber to read the full story).
Or you can read a response to the story. This one fills you in on what happened to the poor Penan woman.
As it was first published in The Nutgraph before it got into Malaysiakini, I will re-route you to read the Nutgraph (original) version as you won’t get the full Malaysiakini story if you aren’t a subscriber.
Read and contemplate….I did and it made me so angry I had to blog about it!
SPCA Garage Sale This 29 November
I got this email from a friend who helps out at the Penang SPCA.
The SPCA will be having a garage sale this 29 November (Saturday) from 10am to 2pm at its Jalan Jelutong premises. Get the map from here: http://www.spca-penang.net/Document/locationinfo.htm
I heard that there’ll be lots of kitchenware, books, 2009 calendars, notebooks, household stuff and more for sale, from as low as 50 sen per item.
It’s also a good time to stop by and sponsor or adopt a cat or dog from them. 😉
My Margaret was neutered with help from these good people from the SPCA.
If you bring a stray to neuter, the SPCA partially subsidizes the vet fees (we went to GS Gill’s on Gottlieb Road for Margaret’s quick and easy surgery). As we didn’t have an animal carrier, the SPCA also loaned us a carrier to bring our cat from home to the vet’s.
I believe if you have a cat or dog, it’s best to spay or neuter them. For their own good and yours too.
Find out more from http://www.spca-penang.net