Chocolate Buffet at Swissotel Merchant Court

Haha are you still watching this space? Well here's the post of the chocolate buffet! The pictures are not as nice as how Pony would have taken it, but oh well, we've gotta make do with what I have!

My first dish of the night. I have no idea what the name is, but it was rather good. It was creamy and chocolatey. Not bad, for a first impression.

This is the chocolate fountain they had there. In front of the fountain are a bowl of honeydew and I think pineapple. If you think they are weird, I would agree with you. No strawberries! What a pity. Instead, they had honeydew, water apple (?!?!?!), and pineapple. Are you going "hmmm....". Haha I was too. I thought they might have strawberries and kiwis!

One of the things I was looking forward to during the buffet- hot chocolate made for you on the spot by the chef! Contrary to what you all might think about there only being 3 flavours of chocolates, you'd be pleasantly surprised. On top of dark chocolate, there exists another type of chocolate: strong bitter dark chocolate. Yep, this is for those who don't like their chocolate too sweet. I opted for this, coz I wanted to see how bitter bitter chocolate can get. Well, it wasn't sweet, if you're wondering, but not really chocolatey either, but I enjoyed it. I reckon dark chocolate would have been just nice in terms of chocolatey-ness and sweetness. I don't think I'd try the white chocolate though, never been a fan of it. I didn't try milk chocolate either, I figured it might taste like Milo. =p

Wondering what the little glass is? Well I'm wondering too, they didn't put the names of the chocolate dishes!!! That's rather sad, coz such classy and cute foods should be given recognition. Well it's chocolate cream I think. Thick chocolate, and not airy airy cream. I hate airy cream. Bleagh.

And the plate of food? That's the chocolate fondue. Can't see the chocolate? Well I took white chocolate. Well.... It was nice, but I'm not a fan of white chocolate. Wrong choice. And do you see any strawberries?!?!?!?

The hotel closed off the whole section just for us, Deli Aprecio Club. Guess we brought them quite a bit of business!

At the end of the night, we took photos. The table at the top are the people whom we shared a table with , while at the bottom are Merrilyn and Jeanette and my roommate An Li (the girl in the centre, sitting down), neighbour Sheila (beside An Li), and An Li's boyfriend, Jiemin.

All in all, I think the buffet was not bad, just that selection was too little. Well I did eat more than the pictures I took, don't be mistaken (my camera ran out of battery that night. Sheeeeesh), but like Jiemin said, they didn't include some liqeur-filled chocolates, for example, and it was almost the same selection after awhile. There wasn't enough to hold us for 3 hours. I think I shouldn't have taken a break to take photos, actually, coz after taking photos, I didn't really feel the urge to eat the chocolates anymore, which was quite sad. The quality was good. Oh yes, and one point of contention I had was that there were no strawberries! That's standard chocolate fondue fruit!!

Oh well, at least now I know what chocolate buffet's like. I'm still not sick of chocolate though.... Muahahahhaa

BLEAH

I had meant to blog about the chocolate buffet I went to on Sunday. But suddenly I feel so irritated with the Asian Psych report that I'm supposed to be doing and handing in on Monday. Argh. Now I know what Merrilyn meant by she doesn't know what to do with the data. Looking at it, I have no idea too. And I don't know how to start the bleeding report. Wish me luck.

Maybe I should blog about the chocolate buffet.

Watch this spot.








Yes. I know some of you will tell me you were watching this spot. Good for you. Carry on.






Forget it. I'm going to do it tomorrow.

SHE Concert!!

I had a GREAT time at the SHE concert on Saturday! Though I paid only half the ticket price, I think it was well worth every cent of it. Thanks alot, Si Wei, for asking me along!!

I got the 6th row from the stage, allowing me a FANTASTIC view of the stage and SHE! Haha, and for what it's worth, I saw SHE's parents at the front row too, though I can't recognise who was who's parents. =S

I am so sad that I decided not to bring my camera along. Argh. I thought since they didn't allow small things like water bottles into the stadium, they might take exception to cameras. Argh. What an idiot I am. I'm still feeling sore about it. A once in a lifetime opportunity and I didn't bring the freakin' camera!! =((((

Anyway, luckily Si Wei had her phone with her, which is 2 megapixels. Better than my phone, at least =) So here are the pictures!

These are just some of the things the fans did. See the lighted up SHE signs? I think they were made from the tiny lights that can be found behind ur handphones. Trust me, they are BRIGHT. AND, you wanna know what's exaggerated? The fans actually approached SHE's parents to take photos and signatures? Oh man....

Ella's solo performance. She played the military drum, and I think it was quite good leh... She later played the piano and sang. =)

Selina's solo performance! Whoa she was H O T!! This was just one of the dances. There was one in white, her first dance, this was her second. The third dance was the HOTTEST man... Haha, but it happened quite by accident, really. She was supposed to change into this short black skirt, but it wasn't attached properly, and then it dropped while she was dancing. She just let it fall and continued dancing, almost as if it was done on purpose. She was really professional about it, which I think was really great. =)

Hebe's solo performance, which wasn't until the end. She played the drums and she was good!! I can just imagine the efforts those girls put in for this concert!

Special guests Fei Lun Hai (haha Si Wei: Ai dao~ Ai dao~) and Stephanie Sun!! Haha Fei Lun Hai's good looking! And it was an experience to see Stephanie Sun in person! Haha...

Encore performance: Superstar!!

This was the point in the concert where they all went offstage to meet the fans!!! Ahhh!!! They went round the stadium, but didn't come to my side!!!! Haha, but the fans were so excited, they just kept grabbing them. In the end, Hebe's headpiece fell off...

Haha, the fans had such a wonderful time at the concert, they refused to believe that the concert had ended when it did at 1145pm. They continued to sit at their places even when the lights came on, and continued "Encore! Encore!"-ing... That's how successful the concert was.

And here's Si Wei and me at the end of the concert. See the people behind who don't look like they want to move yet?

A New Day Has Come

I.


Want.


To.


Sleep.


Zzzz.


Can I just skip BioPsych?

It's a sad sad life

Yah it is, when you forget to bring your charger home and everyone else in the house needs their handphone. And now my battery indicator shows itself to be less than half full, and I have 2 days of weekend to go before I can charge my phone. Great. My brain really amazes me with its forgetfulness you know.

Yes, so here's an announcement:

Please don't sms me! Email me if there's anything, or you can call me at home if you know my house number. I promise to check my mail more often!!

Ok, I'm out.

Foodie Food!!

Some people might know that I'm quite particular about how my food should taste, so imagine the horror when I realised that my sense of taste has been destroyed temporarily by the current flu bug. My nose has been blocked so much that my ears get blocked. Ahh... But I hate that my sense of taste has gone. Well, not all gone, but enough gone to take away the pleasure of eating nice food. I can taste, but it's at the most muted level of taste. I can feel the bite of chili, the smoothness of well-prepared chicken, and the crispiness of the fried fish, but I can't taste!! I can vaguely guess the basic taste, like whether it's salty or sour, but when I ask myself which part of the food I like, I draw a blank. The worst was yesterday when I was eating chicken rice. Oh man... that was horrid. Absolutely zero taste, except for the bite of chili. Crap.

Well and over the weekend I signed up for the trip to Big Fish Seafood Grill. What wonderful timing it is. At least at that time taste levels were up higher than yesterday's, which meant I could roughly taste, and feel the butteriness of the food. But the real taste of the fish eluded me, which was rather sad, though I think Big Fish can be given a try. The presentation of the food and the taste of the brownies and mashed potatoes have convinced me that their fish should not be too far off the mark, so hopefully I'll be able to make a trip down again when I recover. For those interested in Big Fish, it's at 85 Upper East Coast Road. If you need the contact number, ask me or drop a tag, I'll find it and give you. Haha I'm too lazy to check it now. My wallet's within reach, but I don't feel like reaching out. =p

And then that same night, I went to try the Sarawak Chili Noodles, as recommended by some foodie blogger who was recommended to me by LeRoy, one of the Deli Aprecio Club members. The description sounded good and so tempting- the description of how hot the chili was made me reaaaal tempted to go try it out. But again, I overestimated the recovery of my tastebuds, and was disappointed that I couldn't actually give a proper judgement of the noodles. BUT one thing's for sure, the chili's not very hot. I barely felt the bite. And... the texture of the noodles was rather disappointing, nothing different from other stalls. As for the taste, based on my parents' verdicts, wasn't great either. It made us wonder if we had gone to the wrong stall, but... couldn't be, right? There was a queue! And people around us were eating it happily. Hmmm... Maybe it just didn't suit us. I lost interest in the noodles after awhile, sad to say. Well but if you're looking for value for money noodles, then this stall is the one for you. They give prawns, pork ribs (bah kut), fish cakes and alot of noodles. Rather worth the $3, if you ask me. If you're interested to give the chili mee a try, it's at Golden Mile Food Centre, #01-59 (I think). Or you can visit this website: http://ieatishootipost.blogspot.com/2006/10/chilli-mee-3-gen-sarawak-receipe-golden.html to find out more. Who knows, you might like it! One man's meat is another man's poison, after all. =) If you do try it, tell me!

Ok I've procrastinated long enough... Still haven't finished the first set of Prof Chang's notes. Argh. I wanna sleeppppppppppppppppppppppppp......

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

December Trip to Sarawak

Haha I was unable to think of some witty title, but I suppose the title above explains everything, doesn't it? =) Anyway, I know I've been saying I want to post up my trip to Sarawak, I haven't been able to, 'coz of IHG and my computer being unable to log onto the Internet and Yi Lun needing to use her laptop more urgently than I do.

Well, what can I say? The trip to Sarawak was actually more fun than I expected it to be. I expected life without the Internet and computers to be rather boring. I was rather wrong, as a matter of fact. Life without modern technology can be interesting too. We just had to rely on the age old entertainment- each other.

Yep, it was a good time for the cousins to catch up with each other. It was rather unfortunate that not all the cousins could get together, otherwise the atmosphere would have been more re4 nao4. Together with Alvin, Alan, Penny, Laura, Linda, George and Acalia (that's my niece, but she insists on hanging out with us) we spent the time in Song....

Roaming around. On the left is a picture from a hill in Song. We were on our way to the "town" area, known more commonly as pasar (market place). On the right is an oil barge owned by my uncles. It's a Shell station, and supplies oil to boats. Let me introduce my cousins here: (clockwise from left) Alvin, Alan, Me, George, Acalia, Laura.

Playing Heart Attack and Uno. Yes yes, I know most of you have probably not played these games for a long time, but we played this at the request of George and Acalia. And... frankly, it was quite fun. Heart Attack was so noisy that we had to migrate upstairs to play. Even then, the adults claimed that they could still hear us. -_-"

Eating exotic Sarawak food. This dish is called ban sou. I have no idea what it means, but basically it's Sarawak ferns and wild boar meat put into the hollow tubes of the bamboo and then cooked by fire like a barbecue, as can be seen in the picture on the left. The picture on the right shows what the dish looks like. The dish probably doesn't look appetizing like this, but trust me, it's really good. I love the gravy!! Put it with chili padi and black sauce and it's perfect.

We had dinners of this scale every night for... 3 or 4 nights. It's really a wonder I didn't get fat. Probably coz of all the walking around in Song. And all the dishes were good. Now I know what they meant by Ah Ming's taste. It's the taste I've been looking for in noodles!!

All the cousins slept together for 2 nights, and this was how our sleeping quarters looked:

Of course, we slept in different houses every night, so the surroundings may not look the same, but the arrangements were roughly like that. Haha, Alvin had to become the discipline master where George and Acalia were concerned =p

Entertainment was also provided by George and Acalia:

These 2 photos were taken outside my auntie's house. The supposed jail's a compartment to put the rubbish bin in, but George the smart-ass decided to treat it as his jail. He was the one who came up with this idea and told me to take a photo of him. He readily gave the pitiful face after I told him to act the part. Acalia saw the fun in it and decided to join in too. What good actors those 2 are. Haha, they readily gave the expressions of pity and gloat in the picture on the right. Si Huan, I think you'll like George. He's very cute! And he likes cars. Think the two of you will have alot to talk about. I wouldn't mind having him as my god-brother. However, that's impossible, coz he refused my mother point-blank when she asked him, saying that if he became my mother's god-son, his mother wouldn't have any real children to call her own, coz his 2 sisters are others' god daughters already.

Then came the climax, the reason why we all went back to Malaysia in the first place: my grandmother's birthday!! My grandmother has 8 children, 22 grandchildren and 2 great-grandchildren. However, this time, about half the grandchildren were unable to attend her birthday coz of other engagements. BUT just think of the number of people who were still there. There was hardly any place to stand to take photos! Just imagine if everyone had been present! OMG. Here's a picture of everyone:

This was taken during the photo-taking session. There were so many other groups! Daughters, sons, children with their spouses, with their children, the children all together, and everyone together. It's a wonder my grandmother (second row sitting down, centre) wasn't tired. Haha.

Then came time to blow the birthday cake. Mind you, it was 5kg!! And the sides of the cake were lined with cream shou4 tao2. Do you know how many of them there were?! Let me show you a picture:

Yep, see how big the cake was? It's quite hard to see the shou4 tao2 from here, my apologies. I forgot to take photo of the cake. Silly me. Anyway, Acalia was in charge of leading the birthday song, and I think she did a rather good job. =)

Then a few hours later, was the dinner. It was held in my cousin's compounds, and held about... 30 tables? I can't remember the exact number, but there were tables inside the house and outside it. Here's a picture of the people inside:

Notice the red-colour lantern like things hanging from the ceiling near the lights? That's a big catcher. Quite ingenous, really, it's raffia string bundled together, and then torn into strips, then soaked in oil until it becomes rancid. The raffia strings then become sticky, and thus trap any bugs rude enough to intrude in our dinner.

And at the end of the night, we all took photos again!!

I saw many things in Song which I wouldn't normally see in Singapore, and I was glad that I went down to Song. I just wish my mind was a computer that could upload all that I had seen into this computer to let you all see, but it's impossible, so here are a few more photos of Song:

These are pieces of a wild boar killed early in the morning. We went to the marketplace too late in the morning. If we had gone earlier, we'd have seen the whole body of the dead wild boar carried on sticks into the market. Now, it's been chopped up. But you can still see one of the legs with the fur, can't you?

The animals are hunted by the Ibans, the indigenous people of Song. The Ibans seem to start working at very young ages. At the dinner, some of them looked as young as 5 years old! And they were paid wages of about RM2/hour? Hope I got that figure right...

We went back to Sibu a few days after the dinner, and we visited the market there. It was quite interesting to see their markets, and what caught my interest especially was the way they sold chickens:

I guess it might sound a bit sick to be fascinated by the way chickens are being packaged for slaughter, but it's been a really long time since I've seen live chickens in the market! I remember that was quite commonplace when I was young, about 4 years old? Now all we see in markets are dead frozen chicken. I thought it was cute, the way the chickens were wrapped up like that. I just didn't want to think of the fate that lay in store for them after they were bought. Eeergh.

I went to Miri too! I visited the first oil-rig in Malaysia. It's called The Grand Old Lady.

Beside it is the Science Museum. Cool eh? Doesn't Miri look nice? Below's another picture of the scenery of Miri.

I had a good time in Sarawak. Good food, good company, good scenery... What's not to like? But probably I wouldn't consider staying there long term. Not only would I become too fat, I suppose I like the Internet too much to stay there too long. Hee... Oh, but did I mention? In case you are thinking there are no programmes to watch on TV in Sarawak, you are very very wrong. There are 400 channels for you to choose from, including channels from Middle East! I was rather fascinated when we came across TV channels from Iraq, Egypt and Pakistan. We even managed to receive Al-Jazeera as well. Haha, talk about entertainment.

Yep, I wish I could show you all the photos I took, but it takes too long to upload them. I uploaded them on Multiply though, so you can see them there if you like... =)

Another IHG Gone...

And so the Inter-Hall Games came and went today for the Hall 6 Female Volleyball team. We had reached the Finals, finally able to catch a glimpse of the gold medal, but, alas, it was not meant to be ours. We lost 3-0, a rather bad defeat I feel, considering the scores of the individual sets were nothing to be proud of.

I, for one, played like crap. Oh, the first set started off good. I managed to receive all the balls, and hardly made any mistakes. But at the end of the second set and the beginning of the third set, my smart brain decided to switch off. There was one ball where I just WATCHED the damn ball land in front of me. It wasn't even a fast ball, and I wasn't fast enough to bend down. It wasn't even an ambiguous ball. It was MY ball. Argh. One point down.

If I were to talk about the mistakes I made, it would just bore you all to death. I just wish I was smart enough, alert enough, mentally and physically strong enough to play. Maybe we might have been able to save the points I lost.

Ah well. IHG is over already, and I guess we'll just have to practise harder for next year's. I do hope I'll be able to play for Hall 6 again, coz the teammates are one of the best teammates I've ever had the pleasure of playing with. Though I hardly talked much to any of them, what I liked about the team was that they accepted that everyone was different, but still treated them the same. There was no hierarchy. Reserves weren't looked down upon, and all players were treated equally. Sure, there would be concentration on the main team or perhaps the important players, but I felt that the others were never made to feel as if they didn't belong there. Mistakes weren't scolded at, but taught, and told patiently. We could have had the best players, but the most politics, if there was elitism. But there was none, and that's what I think makes the most comfortable team to play with, and that's the main reason why I like to play for Hall 6, and why I feel so bad that I caused them to lose the valuable points that we needed.

Ah well, let's just hope I can stay back in Hall 6 again, eh? Hopefully next time I'll really be able to make a difference, and also improve. =)