Wednesday, November 28, 2012

3rd Anniversary Dinner @ Watami Japanese Casual Restaurant, Pavilion KL

Hey people! It's a SUPER busy November and I've returned from my trip to Russia almost two weeks now and I'll need some time to rearrange everything before I can share my experience with you guys here. Trust me, it was an unforgettable trip! 
For now, let's have another food review, this time, Watami Japanese Casual Restaurant, which Deardo and I spent our third anniversary dinner at last month. :)
We were wandering around Pavilion thinking of what to eat. All I wanted was something that was not Western food because it's just a bit too mainstream to think of Western food whenever it comes to special occasions. So we decided to give Watami a try, even though I always have a feeling that they serve very commercialised Japanese food.
The design of the restaurant is of course quite modern and the service by mostly foreigners can still be improved.
We ordered a few items to share and here you go:
Chawanmushi, RM6.90
Salmon Maki, RM12.90
Watami Salad (Half), RM12.90
Shio Ramen, RM22.90
KaisenYaki Udon, RM21.90
The Chawanmushi was more flavourful compared to the ones I've tried but for RM6.90, the portion for the Chawanmushi is waaaaay too little. I also love how they make their salad into two sizes. You can choose to have the normal portion or you can have half the portion. So we took the Watami Salad in half. The salad is quite interesting with not only mixture of vegetables, but also some Terriyaki chicken, tuna mayo and few pieces of prawns. I personally think the dish is a must try! The Kaisenyaki Udon was yummy too in its own way cos it seriously doesn't taste similar to others that we have tried before this. I didn't enjoy the Shio Ramen too much though...
Celebrating three years together! Yay!!! 
Overall, the food at Watami is above average and honestly better than what I've expected. Price wise well... We paid RM89.65 for our meal, including tea and service charges... Some of the items in the menu are over-priced but in general still acceptable. I don't mind going back for another time. :)

By the way, I'm loving this piece of Zara-inspired dress I got from Mimosa Closet. I love shopping with the girl who manages the online shop because she always let you try the clothes before buying them! :)

Watami Japanese Casual Restaurant
Lot No. C4.04.00, Level 4,
Pavilion KL Shopping Mall,
No. 168, Jalan Bukit Bintang,
55100 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-2141 6671

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Before I Invade Russia...

Since I may not be able to blog for at least two weeks time, I've decided to post another random entry today.
Let's start with Little Yue Yue!
Seriously, she looks like Deardo Wong!!!
She is a very happy baby that's for sure! :)
Though these photos were taken at least a month ago, she is now 11-month-old! Can you believe it? One more month and she is one-year-old! Time seriously passed way too fast! 
It's like now that I'm at home in Taiping, I was trying on a dress which I bought for CNY this year but couldn't fit that time and I can actually fit in this time around but come to think of it, it has been almost a year! Should I be still wearing it? Outdated already lor???

About two months back the family was in town to send Vivian off for her studies and here's a nice photo of us all!
Quite a nice family portrait! I like! :)
In September, our company as usual had a Raya Open House where we get to have free food and put on our Malay costumes. Of course that's the best time for photo opportunities!
 
 
 
So colourful, so fun, so GANGNAM!!!
My colleagues and I have just came back from our staff trip to JB and Singapore. We definitely had loads of fun traveling together! Seriously, whenever you have us together, whether at a dining table or on the bus, we would be the ones who made the most noises! :p
A group photo of all of us from the same department at Tanjung Piai!
Remember the dancing scene in Step Up 2?
They say this is the Singing in the Rain pose.
Where is my lovely King Julien???
Bow to me... NOW!!!
I love Universal Studio! It makes me so wanna go to New York, which is flooded now but I hope one day I can visit the city of music, Broadway, entertainment and shopping! Anywayz, I will be going back to Universal Studio later this month! Ha, talk about a busy November!

This August marks the second year of my service at the company I'm working with. As it comes into the third year, this is the one job that I've work for the longest time! Like I always say, workload, complications, pressure are some of the down points of my job, but man I'm also so proud of my job because of the students!
Ee Lyn (left) and Aaron (right) are some outstanding students I hope they will be outstanding too in their careers!
The students in the photo are both award-winning students that the school has produced, who have recently finished their studies. I'm very proud of them and I hope for only the best to come for them!:)

November is a super duper busy month for me! Not only are there events coming up for me to handle, as well as the planned Singapore trip with Deardo's family, I've also got a last minute call to make a trip to Russia next week. Phew~!
Can't wait to see St. Basil with my real eyes!
Work trip is a work trip, nothing to be jealous about, seriously! I'm expecting myself to be under a lot of pressure in Russia, I was already having insomnia because the trip! Not only that, there are so much to prepare before I leave for Moscow! Winter clothes (oh yea, it will be freaking cold there), medicines, moisturizer, etc. Arrrggghhh... I'm already feeling the pressure just by typing these!!! I am however, very pleased to have such opportunity! I mean, would you even think of going for holiday in Russia?
So please pray for me for a safe trip and a successful work trip! :) 

P/S: Every time I think of my coming Russian trip, I will automatically hum the music from Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. It was damn epic man!

Saturday, November 3, 2012

Our Kitchen Experience

So, here's the long overdue kitchen experience entry. We've been using our brand new kitchen for at least four months now and I still feel like there is a need to share my experience because 1) just in case you are also giving your kitchen a makeover or going to have your kitchen renovated, I might be able to give you some advice and 2) It's actually the most exciting part of the house to get a makeover!
So just a recap, here's how our kitchen USED TO LOOK LIKE...
Damn cheap-looking, isn't it?
I can't say it was awful but I hate the colour a lot and the material used are simply of very low quality. Deardo and I, both food lovers, just couldn't handle it to have such a failed-looking kitchen in our lovely house.
Since Deardo agreed with my choice of white colour for our kitchen cabinets, it was easy for us when we went out to do our survey... Ah, if two places still considered  as survey!
Yeah... We only went to Ikea and Aino and decided on the former for one very obvious reason -- cheaper price. Including delivery fee, dismantling fee and installation fee, the entire kitchen cost us slightly over 10k. But the best part was they were having a special promotion for the kitchens where you get a gift card worth 10% of your total kitchen price (excluding the services fees), which we happily used to partially buy our gorgeous sofa! Check that sofa out here!
Looking excited to use the gift card to buy our sofa set!
We started our kitchen journey by seeing a consultant at Ikea, who drafted a design for us using their amazing and absolutely user-friendly software. Deardo was especially impressed as we got to log into our account to do any changes that we needed to and it was pretty simple to use! It can even give you a rough total of your bill based on what you've chosen to be used in your kitchen! Now this one I must admit it is way better than Aino, which had to take more than a week to call us back to see the design and the estimated price! We didn't even bother going back to them to see the design! Talk about efficiency!
My man discussing with the guy at Ikea on our kitchen design.
We then took about two weeks to finalised our design and materials and paid for everything necessary. But because apparently they only sell the cabinets and sinks, we need to get their contractor to come and install them for us. So the cabinets and sink were delivered much earlier before the busy contractor can come to fix them for us.
Our cabinets still in pieces were seen lying on our floor for at least one week...
Well that's not all, the contractor who put the cabinets up can only put cabinets! They don't do the table top! So we had to then call up the contractor to first come to measure our cabinets then go back and cut the table top which take them another week to come back to put it on! 
I call this the handicapped kitchen...
Obviously at this stage we were both quite frustrated. I mean that means not only were we getting our kitchen fully done very much later, but it also means we were kinda handicapped without being able to use the water from the sink! And talk about the mess that we had to clean over and over again every time these people left! I think it was even worst because we were already moved in so there was no way we were leaving the house messy! 
 
Those guys messing our kitchen up like playing with toys!
So yea after  the table top was finally done, the contractor for the cabinets came back to fix our sink... Not the end of the story yet!
Adding another mess for me to clean... LOL!
We had to call up another guy to put the hose for the hood for us, which obviously made another big mess to our house because of the drilling of the hole on the wall... Phew~~~!
When everything was finally done, not only did we seriously admire our kitchen happily, there was also a sense of relief after more than a month time just to get everything done! It was a really exhausting journey which took us longer than expected to get the kitchen done. I mean I'm not sure how other people do their kitchen but the fuss of calling contractors separately to arrange for them to come do their work was really tiring. I'm sure some professional kitchen cabinets makers can do everything without much of their costumers' effort! 
Still love our kitchen a lot! :D
Well I guess that was just Ikea's principal-- You are supposed to DIY! So cheap stuff comes with a price I guess. Having to say that, I have so far no complain about the beautiful kitchen honestly. So if you ask me, I would still say go ahead with Ikea, providing you have not move into your house yet and you can afford to have a messy house for about one month time and of course that means you must have a lot of annual leaves left cos you need to take quite a few days off from work just to fix your kitchen!
I know a lot of people, including ourselves were doubtful of Ikea's products but the truth is we have been buying a lot of stuff from Ikea! I mean we tried looking elsewhere but not only their prices are often (not all the time) cheaper, their design are also million times better than those at the random furniture shops! Well, quality wise, perhaps still early to say but so far okay lar! But hey our kitchen is under 25 years warranty so we aren't too worry! :p
So, what do you think about our kitchen?

Thursday, November 1, 2012

(Still)Outdated Movie Reviews

夺命金 Life Without Principle 
在香港大红、名导杜琪峰的作品、各大颁奖礼也入围多项提名,再加上自己的偶像胡杏儿也在这部电影插了一脚,很自然的我就很想要看看这部电影到底有没有传说中的厉害。
故事围绕着金钱和人性的topic,有一点黑暗,但也非常的真实。说着大家为了钱的挣扎,把钱看得多么的重要,其实说到底,电影里的故事情节很可能都会发生在你我的身上,就看你怎么选择了。虽然情节有一点慢,但是故事的真实感却令我非常的欣赏。
刘青云和何韵诗都凭这部电影入围金马奖,但是我觉得离他们最棒的演出还有一段距离。由于故事围绕的人物太多了,大家的戏份都不多,所以说真的,要发挥并不容易啦!个人特别喜欢苏杏璇的演出,真正的证明姜还是老的辣!
跟我一样喜爱比较真实的故事的人绝对要看,但只是喜欢很商业化的电影的,这可能不是你那杯茶啰!

Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted
So the animals arrived in Europe, from Monaco to Paris, then to London, before returning home to New York. During the entire journey, they met some new characters such as the animals from the circus and an Animal Control Officer, who all sort of make the movie a little more entertaining. Love the storyline although I will still say my favourite is still the first of the sequel. In fact, I think this is better than the second one! And the song! Circus Afro stuck in my head for some days~!
I still love King Julien the best! He is so freaking hilarious! Especially when he fell in love with that huge, stinky and gross bear! Ha! Love him! I also love Frances McDormand's interpretation of Captain Chantal DuBois, so funny and lovable although she is supposed to be the evil one in the movie. And I surely love her accent! LOL!
Still as loveable as always, as entertaining as always so if you are a fan of Madagascar ever since it first came out, there is no reason you should miss this.

I WANNA WATCH TED!!!!!!