The year 2008.

January - Forgot what happened. Nothing happened la besides work work work, swim swim swim. Quit my gym membership.

February - CNY - balik bandar untuk raya. KL is my hometown. I remembered KL being void of human. Quit Aikido.

March - Forgot what actually happened, but my kwai low bf came back from London just to see me. Happy!

April - He left for the ultimate Oxford's interview. Can't stop him this time for not planning to return. Redang with my best buddy, Chris Thoo. Thanks Chris! Was a tan too dark....darn.

May - Was introduced to my Poppy clubbing kaki, Jessica and gang.

June - Unsuspectingly, I acquired a housemate. Introducing: Miss Fipink Yap :)

July - Every night talking with my housemate. If not, clubbing! Yah, whole day whole month. What a bond!

August - Still non-stop talking (with FP) and gossiping and talking and gossiping etc. with my girl friends. Developed the best-est friendship ever!

September - October - from Callie's to Fee Peng's b'day...non-stop birthday (and other minor celebration i.e. Leynard's six pack) months! Met Lenny, an unsuspecting motivator of mine.

November - All swimming classes stopped for school holidays. Stylo and Pall Mall's party of the year. Alan was there.

December - HK trip. Lovely Christmas. and I love you too, Alan.

To everybody,

This year 2008 was a extraodinarily memorable one. This year has taught me about my weaknesses and helped me developed a new-self. "If I can't change someone, I change myself, but still being ME"

This year is relatively a year of bad health - from shitless moments to fainting spells in the lab. But all is well now and I am glad the Lord has helped me through this all. Nonetheless, 2008 has brought me new friendships and bonds which I could have never thought of making in the first place. I wanna attribute this post to my besties from Toxicology lab - Yati and Dahlia, as well as Arshia, Callie, FP, Gary, cell group ppl and Jessica who led me through this year with their sincerest of hearts.

I miss this year 2008. Many big misses (in opportunity) for me but also gains that compensate for what I've lost. Therefore, I've lost nothing. I have learnt more instead. And 2009 is just another day (it's tomorrow anyway)

Love,

Ivy

31 December 2008.

Foods and Starbucks in HK

Below is the Starbucks  in Miramar Shopping centre at Nathan road. This Starbucks has a great ambience inside out, and when I was there, it was full house, inside out! Biasalah...ppl showing off their Airbooks and what not. What I liked about this cafe was that it was located adjacent to Knudford Terrace - a place where fine dining, caviar, red-wine and fresh seafoods are served with myriad choices of Italian, Aussie, Cuban, and Spanish foods. I can only pose with my fav beverage of the season - the ToffeeNut Latte:

I left Starbucks at Miramar and went hang-kai around the many many malls at the surrounding areas and spotted this Starbucks in Habourcity. What attracted me to this very Starbucks branch was both their Xmas and interior decor. I ordered a tall Americano (their spicy Christmas blend) and a mince-char-siew pie. Have to comment about their char siew pie:- 1. It's char siew, which is 1000X better than chicken 2. The crust was perfectly made. In fact, Ienjoyed the crust more than the char siew (but at the end of the day it's the combination) 3. You don't get it in Malaysia. Ever. Case close.

The interior was great. Look at the wall decor, I've never seen something like that before and I was awed! I am sure you won't understand why I was impressed. Again, have to comment: The huge cups decorated at the backdrop reminds me of Callie and her progressive Starbuck's let's-steal-a-L-size-Starbucks cup thoughts. I wish I could get her those. 2. See the man right at the middle? He's cute. 3. nothing to comment di. I kept reminding myself it's just another Starbucks... 

The KFC in HK was different too. Unlike ppl in Malaysia who use their bare hands to hold the drumstick, ppl in HK were provided with PE plastic hand gloves for hygiene purposes. See the guy (pic below) who looked like a lab-assisstant experimenting on his food??? Gloves provided! Why haven't our Malaysian franchise ever thought of that!? Maybe because the pure feeling of holding a piece of oily chicken with your bare hands and licking your fingers clean ("finger lickin good" marrrr) after eating makes food more satisfying. The feeling is different. How can you lick your finger with PE plastic over it? Feels like a condom over a *&^*# ....blowjob.....unnatural....okay....enuff!

Plus they have great cappuccino in a glass cup designed for coffee! Wow! And they have honey chicken also in addition to the usual fried chicken. But problem is they don't have the Hot-n-Spicy, which I absolutely adore back here.

Ate dim sum. Actually, only the char siew pau is good. Their loh-mai-kai sucked big time. 

Saying hi from HK

It's cool like Genting at night. Say 15C. I stay right in the middle of their so-called 'Orchard Road of HK' - Nathan Road. While I remembered being chased out from a cafe in Orchard Road at 10pm sharp, this place never sleeps!!! It's a city that really never sleeps (just like New York?) Maybe it's the Xmas/shopping period. I noticed Giordano Concept store here closes at 12am (everyday?).

Basically, I pakai taruh my Cantonese only. The only thing i make sure was never to say "ta-pau" as in 'take-away' and 'sah-mah' as in 'semua' in our adulterated malaysian cantonese. But when I first arrived at the airport and at Nathan Road, people started talking Japanese to me. "Konnichiwa". Oh well, used to it....

As far as I can remember, I've tasted their nai-cha, tau-fu fah and pau and Yong-Chow fried rice, Wanton mee, Mix beef ofal noodles and fish ball noodle and their version of chow-kuay teow. Taste: So-so or same with Malaysia only. One Penang island or one Ipoh beats the whole HK's hawker food industry.

Shopping was great, but one very very very big set back was that every clothes in the boutique and supermarket, even Adidas and Nike sells WINTER CLOTHINGS ONLY!!! Errrr.....I can't blame them; I can't blame myself also. Malaysia has only one big season called rain-hot-rain-hot. They have four defined seasons here, so though it's a bad time for a Malaysian to shop for clothes, the weather is one of the loveliest I've experienced so far..(think London on winter!)

Actually, I am in Starbucks. (where else?!?!?).

Crashers!

Astrological Signs Most Likely to Crash
"A September 2008 study of over 115,000 car insurance claims by Accident Exchange, a British accident management company, analyzed car accident rates by astrological sign. And sorry, Gemini, but your sign tops the list as the most likely to be involved in an accident. The next two most likely signs to crash are Taurus and Aries. Interesting data since that means drivers most likely to get in accidents are those born between March and June. Scorpions and Sagittarians were ranked the least likely to get in an accident.

So the next time you get in a car with a friend, make sure you know her sign before accepting a ride. And if you’re a Gemini, Taurus, or Aries, take extra caution behind the wheel."

I got this excerpt from an article when I hyperlinked around Yahoo! As a pure Gemini (not that I care about my horoscope :P), I have to agree! 50% agree. I had minor crashes around, one recently when I was parking, I terlanggar a divider. My front tyre got punctured at its sides and had to replace the whole thing. Ouch on my pocket! I still have to say my last comparatively huge crash was October 2006. Touchwood, but no crashes ever since.

The article is also quite hypothetical: I spend an average 1.5 hours on the roads daily; more practice means better skills. I still have to say that I have been a better and safer driver lately. If I was not the driver, I will put on my rear seatbelts. I have been practising putting on my rear seatbelts since September 2008. I love this ruling imposed. To my opinion, it's due time that we Malaysians put on our rear seatbelts. I always noticed especially Malay families (not biased but a visual fact) cramping their whole family into a van and if there's still not enough space, they will 'top-up'. I mean, everyone will seat on top of each other. Well, not a problem..., until if, a crash does happen: the WHOLE family is at stake. Please leave on or two out from your vacation! Or take the bus (which is also not safe). Double jeapardy! (learnt that from Pink). A rear seatbelt ruling ensures that we abide by the number-of-passenger-per vehicle rule. A ruling that also indirectly proposes birth control which screams: "Stop reproducing; else get a new car"

Malaysia has a ruling that I perceived of as pelik. Cannot hang my clothes outside the apartment/condo. Wahlau ehhh... me and my housemates undergarments will be lying around INSIDE the house to be dried with our fan. Thanks Kenny, for the surprising reveal. I didn't know.

In case whoever say I plagiarise:

Reference: http://www.divinecaroline.com/article/22303/61394-traits-reveal-driver