Food review:Lookout Point Western Food

Lookout Point, situated in Ampang, is a place also known as little Genting. 

Situated 300m above sea level, it has a fantastic view of the city and one can enjoy a beautiful sunset with the backdrop of Twin Towers.

There are a few restaurants here but we headed to Western Food because of the voucher we bought. 

I would not say the food is great but it's not too bad either. I guess the view and the yummy-licious carrot milk compensate the rest.

I had Lamb with sausage. The lamb was well marinated but too much fat to my liking. Half of it is wasted because it's too fat.

He had Cordon Bleu which is more expensive and more delicious. Cheese was practically oozing out.

It was a hazy day thus, the view earlier was not too good but it got better after the sunset.

 The place was crowded when we left. So it's better to go early and secure a place for good view. The road going down is poorly lit so be extra careful.

I hate archery

I don't like archery. Period. 

Imagine how ashamed I felt when an aunty next to me (and yes, it's her first time too!), have better on-target hits than mine. My arrows are all over the place.
And by end of the 20 minutes, my arms are sore and I am sweating like mad. It doesn help when my partner has a few bulleyes and I have none. Hmmmppphhh!! ><
The trainer said I didn't pull the string tight enough. The more I tried, the less energy I have. And the more I aim, the more off target I have.

So that's it. I don't like archery. Period.

As usual

As I sat here, time approximately 7.25am, I'm surrounded by peacefulness. One look across the floor, I can only see one or two early birds like me. Not many people bustling around, no phone ringing, no keyboard typing sound.
The cleaner lady is vacuuming while humming a song. She's always so cheerful despite the hard work that she's doing.
In a few minutes, after my cup of morning coffee, I will be starting my 'hard work' too. Not physically demanding, yet, mentally exhausting.
Sigh, I know I should not be complaining as there are many out there in a worse position than me. But yet, I need to vent it out sometimes. The only way to help me stay focused is to think about the things I like to do. Traveling and photography, food and blogging, reading a good book while listening to Lee Hom. Those are a few of my favorite things.
Day in , day out, work is beginning to be so 'as usual'. I need something to put me at the edge, something to excite me again. I've been involving myself with the company's newsletter team and also putting an initiative in a small improvement project. Will this be enough?
I don't know but I know what I don't want to do.
I need courage and I need the support. How do I even start?

Designer phone

If you are filthy rich, and I repeat again, FILTHY rich, how much would you spend on a luxury phone?

Guess the price of the phone above.
It's RM15k above. Yes, you read it right.>RM15,000.
That's the price for the phone above. Don't believe it?
Walk into a Tag Heuer shop and you'll be amused! Even a blardy bluetooth headset costs near to RM1,000.

Bruno Mars - The Lazy Song

Haha...love this....totally what I need on a Sunday morning

battle of the bubble...tea

What's with all the bubble tea shops everywhere nowadays? They're growing like mushroom after the rain.
With Chatime and Gong Cha from Taiwan, you can see people lining up to get their share of the drink. While Chatime has a lot more choices compared to Gong Cha, I still prefer the latter.

From the way they make the drink-with the milk on top, to the taste - you can actually taste the smooth milk combined with the refreshing strong taste of the tea. Chatime is a bit too normal. I discover Gong Cha in Mid Valley Gardens by accident as it's not really located at those prime areas. One should try their signature - green tea as well as winter melon.

So, go get your cup of bubblelicious tea now.

Food review:Celcius, Fahrenheit 88

Celcius is a restaurant + bar. Located in the middle of the golden triangle, it's a crowded bar at night. But during the day, it was quite a quiet restaurant.
Food served are not that bad but they are not excellent also. We bought the MyDeal voucher, so it ain't that expensive. But if I were to spent on the normal price for the food, I'll think twice. Here's what we had (if I remembered correctly):
CAESAR SALAD

Crispy royal romaine tossed in Caesar dressing topped with garlic crouton, crispy beef bacon, boiled egg and shaved parmagiano
WILD MUSHROOM SOUP

Creamy wild array of porcini, girolles and portobello with shaved parmagiano and pesto oil
HONEY MUSTARD CHICKEN

Chargrilled chicken breast with honey mustard, roasted vegetable skewers with balsamic vinaigrette and mashed potato
TRADITIONAL FISH & CHIP

Crispy battered fish fillet served with steak fries, chick pea cur-sal and tartar sauce
CHOCOLATE LAVA

 Hot chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream
MANGO CRÈME BRÛLÉE

Mango flavoured custard with caramelised sugar

where to next year?

at least AA now has an option to save friends' details in a list. especially useful for us. Agree, girls? we dont need to blarrdddyyy key in everything again if the booking didn't go through or time out.

Good and Bad

Quote of the day:

I would rather do the right thing and be cursed than do the popular but wrong thing and be applauded ~ Tun Hussein Onn, third Prime Minister of Malaysia.

There's good news and there's bad news. Good news is I won't be traveling in June due to project testing delayed, bad news  is I wont be able to see Melbourne in Autumn (well at least the end of autumn)...
I've been there in summer, will be there in Winter and spring, so the only season I missed out is autumn...:(
I love autumn, though I've not actually experienced it. Falling leaves which sets the perfect scenery for some photography shots and the cool weather (not too cold). Sigh...

 Photo: Craig Abraham

And I am going to be away this year on someone's birthday in August. *sob*
Well, on the bright side, I'm expecting my new toy this Saturday. Any guesses what it'll be?
*hint:I have the talent but don't have the right tool*

Immortals

No prize for guessing who's the producers for this movie...

Post Towerthon

Results are out. I scored a 37.08 mins. Not bad eh? But not great either. At least I don't have muscle pain the next day.
This is my 2nd Towerthon and 3rd time scaling up KL Tower. The second time was the most memorable. It was unexpected as it was a challenge in one of the treasure hunt I joined. We were quite shocked when we're asked to climb the 2058 steps of the tower to get our clues.
Anyway, one thing I realized about Malaysia - we are so poor in crowd control. We waited soooooo looooooonggggg to come down after the race, even longer than actually going up the stairs. That aside, we were being pushed into the lifts. No queues, no authority to control the crowd, no civilization. Imagine hot, sweating bodies, pushing at each other, waiting for the supposedly 4 lifts (which 1 malfunctioned) for easily half an hour.
It was bad. We should have just taken the staircase (which was only open up after they realized that the crowd is out of control).
Sigh, so another Towerthon for me next year? After the bad experience, maybe not.

eat, poo, eat, poo

Me:The slimming specialist said that a healthy person should shit as many times as he/she eats a day. For example, if I eat three meals, I should be shitting three times a day. If this is not the case, it means my body needs detoxification.

Mum:Then that healthy person must be very busy everyday. Eat, then shit, eat again, shit again.

Me:-_-".

But true also...Makes sense.

Maroon 5 - Misery

Weaving

Did you know that elephants often have this rhythmical behaviour of moving/swaying their head and body from side to side? We noticed that during the trip tp KK. It was fun watching them do that. This is apparently a comon behaviour called weaving.
From this source, weaving is often displayed by elephants in captivity. The elephants in the wild are preocupied with daily survival that they do not have time to develop this behaviour.
Why do elephants weave? If its movement is being restricted, an elephant may weave until it reached its goal, eg. getting physical contact with another elephant. Elephant in zoos/circus lack everyday challenges in the jungle, therefore, they might develop this behaviour also.

Talking about elephants, fans of Robert Pattinson will be thrilled that his movie will be out soon. The name of the movie - Water for Elephants...(-_-"). Well, at least no more heavy makeup for him.

You've grown

Look how big you've grown....
Kitty then...

Full grown adult now...but yet still playful as ever... 

And newest addition to the family- your second batch of brothers and sisters... 

Waiting is a long process

I hate waiting and I hate going to the hospital. I bet every patient here will ask the same question, 'Why me?'. When I was admitted last time for the cyst on my wrist, it was a minor surgery. And yet, I hate the feeling of waking up after the anesthetic. Made me dizzy and nausea.
I can't imagine how my brother in law feels like now. He just had another operation as he has fluid in his lungs. That's the cause of his irregular heartbeat and breathing difficulties yesterday night. He's still in the ICU as of now. I am sure he has the same question - of all people, why him? No one can provide the answer.

I've already accepted the fact that life is unfair. But like the famous saying goes, when life gives you lemon, make lemonade out of it. I'm sure he will recover and live another ha;f decade more, at least.
We can't imagine the pain that he's gone through. The best we can do is just to be positive. I hope he will too. A positive mentality really helps.

Nothing is more important than health

I hugged my sister yesterday. I cannot recall the last time I did. Or if I ever did.
My brother in law (BIL) was admitted to the hospital last Tuesday. He was having some breathing problem two days before that led him to do a check-up. The specialist admitted him on the day of check-up itself. They found that his right artery was blocked.
Doing a 'balloon' process is not possible. The only option is a bypass. So, the operation was on Monday and it went successfully. They took his leg's vein for the bypass. This is a common procedure. To know more about it, refer to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronary_artery_bypass_surgery.
And so, after the operation, his condition was good. He soon can sit up and eat solid food. We were very positive and happy to see hom recovering so fast.
But yesterday, he was transferred to normal ward from ICU. We went to visit him and was surprised to see his pale face. His heartby is very irregular and he is having difficulty breathing. They have to give him another bag of blood and air mask. He's not having appetite to eat and drink.
It is heart wrenching watching him. And my sis cried as she's too worried. I know how it feels. Watching the person you love suffering and you cannot do anything much to help.
The other day, my sister mentioned that she has take up the responsibilities that were handled by my bro in law previously. Tasks like paying the bills, maintenance fees or fixing the leaking pipe in their house. I know she misses him.
The last I heard this morning, he vomited few times. Is this normal after the procedure? He was sweating cold sweat from time to time. I just can hope and pray he will be ok.
To the rest of us, do take care of what you eat. And most importantly, find time to exercise. It might not 100% guarantee that you will be healthy but it is at least a prevention. Nothing is more important than health. We might think that money is more important now, but if you are sick, lying on the hospital bed, no amount of money make you feel better. And also, buy medical insurance.

Milky Straw

Saw this in Melbourne and could not resist the temptation to buy it.

It comes in a variety of flavour. Strong flavour but too sweet for my liking. Still, it's something unique.

Bleeding

I gave my mum a scare the other day. It was on the plane ride back from KK. Extremely exhausted, I fell asleep as soon as the plane took off. Not long after, I felt dryness in my nose. I rubbed it a bit and felt liquid dripping out. I thought I caught flu. When I look at my hand, it was covered with blood!
Blood keeps dripping out and lucky me, I have tissue just conveniently located in my handbag. I called out to my mum, who was also sleeping at that time and she was shocked. I used up few pieces of tissue. And thankfully the bleeding stop. I didn't know that I should not tilt my head backwards. I should have just apply pressure on nose.

Did a little googling (from Wikipedia) and here's something about nose bleed.

Epistaxis (from Greek ἐπιστάζω (epistazo) to bleed from the nose: ἐπί (epi) - "above", "over" + στάζω (stazo) - "to drip" [from the nostrils]) or a nosebleed is the relatively common occurrence of hemorrhage from the nose, usually noticed when the blood drains out through the nostrils. There are two types: anterior (the most common), and posterior (less common, more likely to require medical attention).

The causes of nosebleeds can generally be divided into two categories, local and systemic factors, although it should be remembered that a significant number of nosebleeds occur with no obvious cause.



Local factors
-Blunt trauma (usually a sharp blow to the face such as a punch, sometimes accompanying a nasal fracture)
-Foreign bodies (such as fingers during nose-picking)
-Inflammatory reaction (e.g. acute respiratory tract infections, chronic sinusitis, allergic rhinitis or environmental irritants)
- Anatomical deformities (e.g. septal spurs or Hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia)
- Insufflated drugs (particularly cocaine)
- Intranasal tumors (e.g. Nasopharyngeal carcinoma or nasopharyngeal angiofibroma)
- Low relative humidity of inhaled air (particularly during cold winter seasons)
- Nasal cannula O2 (tending to dry the olfactory mucosa)
- Nasal sprays (particularly prolonged or improper use of nasal steroids)
- Otic barotrauma (such as from descent in aircraft or ascent in scuba diving)
- Surgery (e.g. septoplasty and Functional Endoscopic Sinus Surgery)
- Leech infestation


Systemic factors
- Allergies
- Infectious diseases (e.g. common cold)
- Hypertension
- Drugs — Aspirin, Fexofenadine/Allegra/Telfast, warfarin, ibuprofen, clopidogrel,prasugrel, isotretinoin, desmopressin, ginseng and others
- Alcohol (due to vasodilation)
- Anaemia
- Connective tissue disease
- Blood dyscrasias
- Envenomation by mambas, taipans, kraits, and death adders
- Heart failure (due to an increase in venous pressure)
- Hematological malignancy
 -Idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura
- Pregnancy (rare)
- Vascular disorders
- Vitamin C or Vitamin K deficiency
- von Willebrand's disease

I think mine was due to the low humidity of inhaled air. Hope it won't happen to me again or I will just have to wear a black shirt the next time I board a plane.

bundle of joy

I find myself rushing back home after work nowadays. Rushing home to a bundle of joy....Just before I left for Australia few weeks back, mummy cat gave birth AGAIN. Not that I'm complaining as I have fieve little kitties to play with. Watching them grow day by day is a joy.
For the past week, I've been diligently cleaning them alternate days. They have flea. And cat fleas are not easy to get rid of. Every other day, I have to spray them with anti-flea spray which is mild enough for kittens. Their eyes are infected as well causing them to be red and swollen. I have to clean them with mild antiseptic.
Now, they're beginning to grow into a healthy bunch. They can eat rice. Watching them playfully running here and there, I really feel a sense of accomplishment and happiness.
Soon, I'll have to put them up for adoption. It's not going to be easier this time. I felt so attached to the last batch, it's hard letting them go. But I'm glad they found good owners.
Pics to come soon.
So, anyone wants to adopt a kitten?