Second Half

So it's been a while.

2 more days and we'll be welcoming June! My new condo will be ready very soon, I have a new job to embark on in July and I'll be taking my mom to an oversea mother and daugther trip for the very first time! This means two items will be checked out of my bucket list. I'm excited.

At the moment, everything seems to be on cruising mode and I can't possibly ask for anything more...    

slowly steady win the race

Happy birthday to me

This morning I woke up to receiving tons of fb greetings, smses and a few long distance phonecalls from my friends and family. I'm so lucky. Love you guys. 

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OPUS, Bangsar

After few weeks of doldrums for turning another year older soon, Bin said we were going for a little celebration and I could pick the place. Anywhere I want, apparently. :) 

 

Opus Salad with feta cheese on left and Seafood Soup on right 

Seafood Platter

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Everyone made it to OPUS just right on time amidst thunder and lightning from the madness downpour last night. These darlings, includes HongYeen who drove all the way from Ipoh just for the dinner ; Jacqueline who had to leave hubby at home to babysit Belle; Mel and Tim but most of all, the 9 months preggar who pulled everyone together for this.

 

Had a splendid time with the girls.

 

I was missing C and @monnlee … and there, her sms came at such perfect timing 

Indeed, apart from starters we also ordered many main courses.

Grilled Sirloin, Lamb Cutlet, Roasted Cod, Salmon Steak, Angel Hair Pasta with Foie Gras were among some of them. Food was yummilicious! Esp. roasted cod and lamb cutlet were really really good.

Pancake, Tiramisu and Crème brûlée were NOT GREAT.

7 main courses, 4 starters, 3 desserts and a bottle of wine, the bill came up to around RM800. Price is slightly above average but the portion is huge! So it is fair to share a main course after all.

After dinner, we headed to Vintry at Damansara Heights for more wine, chitchat and stayed till to 2am and called it a night.

Food: 4/5  Ambience: 4/5  Company: 5/5

Address and contact details:
67, Jalan Bangkung
Bukit Bandaraya
59100 KL
Tel: 03 20924288
Monday to Sunday 12-3 and 6-12

Kind soul in the city

Thursday night, I was at WIP in Bangsar Shopping Centre to catch up with some ex-colleagues from Microsoft. After few hours my eyes were drooping like an old dwarf… don’t get me wrong it was actually a very happening place! Tons of working professionals and foreign expats there as if to justify the long weekend has only just begun. We also bumped into more ex-colleagues at Bar21 later… just that my poor body couldn’t take it especially after a strenuous 75 mins of pilate workout earlier. :(

 

So I called it a night after one pint of Guinness Stout and proceed to the ticket machine. Good Lord, I realised the machine only accepts 10 dollar notes and below and my purse was all 50 dollar notes no less!  The management office is already closed as it was already approaching 1am.

Then this big, dark and tall Indian man in a white security uniform walked towards me… I was a little skeptical but anyhow I explained to him about the situation. He asked me how much is my parking and then he said, “Okay no problem, follow me.” We went back to the machine, he took out his wallet and then… you wouldn’t believe it. He actually paid for my parking fee!

I was astonished. I mean, in a cynical city like KL, we are always wary of bad people but never in my mind would expect something like this to happen...

He refused to let me pay him back the money after I thanked him… he just smiled, greeted me and then walked away. I couldn't locate him after that even though I tried going back there to look for him in the past few days...

Pietro (yes, the DJ celeb!) and Yvonne

We definitely need more of this kind of people to make this cynical world a little warmer for us cold hearts to live in, don’t we? I mean, when was the last time you made someone’s day? A stranger in particular?

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Christmas in Bangkok

 Last year’s Christmas was rather privileged for me coz I get to play in Bangkok for the whole week.

It was my virgin visit to Bangkok despite it being a neighboring country.

 I really like this city also known as The Land of Smile. It's so vibrant & colorful, great food, friendly people and things are so cheap here!

the walkway outside Siam Paragon at night

On Christmas Eve, firstly we went for predinner drinks at this famous rooftop bar Sirocco. Took us a while to find the place after reaching Saphan Taksin BTS. The Lebua State Tower is about 10 minutes walk and once we reached the place, we were greeted by the friendliest smiles at the elevator. Up at 64th floor(rooftop), the view completely took my breathe away…

just look at the scenery!

The bar was so nice, the weather was breezy and it wasn’t even crowded considering it was Christmas Eve night! It was Perfect.

I was so reluctant to leave Sirocco but knowing that better things were in store for us ahead, we adjourned to The Oriental Hotel for dinner.

Mandarin Oriental is slightly less than 10 minutes walk from Sirocco. We were ushered through a few walkways like a maze inside Mandarin Oriental, and the hotel boat took us across the Chao Phraya River where the restaurant was located.

The restaurant name is called Sala Rim Naam belongs to the Oriental Group. (google it yourself since I’m no food blogger here) It’s supposed to be one of the best thai restaurant in Bangkok, well it must be since you gotta book a table at least 2 months ahead and they only accept Amex card for reservation... it tells something right.

I could definitely attest to the whole experience was really extraordinary! Food was totally awesome from starter to dessert. Did the fish cake drop from heaven? OMG it's so good.

After dinner the waiter has politely asked us to stay for a moment and we were pleasantly surprised. Flashes of lights from the fireworks so was so near us I wanna catch ‘em with my bare hands. That magical moment that lasted for two minutes and with an ugly truth, tops the year.

And on top of everything, wish I could show you that grinning face after opening my Christmas pressie and saw a 16GB iPod Nano inside. That was how my memorable Christmas 2009 went by.

Christmas at Vintry Damansara Heights

This was probably the only Christmas party I attended last year

thanks to a dear friend Fanny who organized this outing

we had lots of wines, gifts exchange & brownie game

just the kind of Christmas Do I like

reindeer, masquerade and Dae

merry sweet santarinas

Let’s toast to a great 2010!

 

the bunch of great friends I hardly get to see on normal days

coz everyone’s busy with lives and chasing dreams

which makes gathering like this even more special

we went round the table sharing lots of laughter and a few tears

giving hugs and seeing glances of love exchanged & vows renewed

it was so warm and touching!

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This year…

I get to eat fresh minced pies and Christmas Pudding

from Fortnum & Mason

Have a bunch of wonderful friends to santarina about ;)

And a holiday in Bangkok starting now!

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

Rewind: Welcoming 2009

 Two of our closest friends Cat and Cynthia flew back from US and Australia to attend Bin’s wedding last year  and we got to celebrate New Years Eve together.

Rewind: Michelle’s Hen Night (Part2)

So after dinner and some light games at El Cerdo Restaurant we adjourned to Quattro, a newly opened club in the heart of KL.

Spot the bride! hen

Singapore weekend

Hello peeps, I am back in one piece after surviving the 10km run at the SCSM2009! It was a fantastic weekend with lots of yummy good food, shopping and enjoying the merriment that Christmas brings.

 

As for the run, it was a real eye-opener experience as never have I attended a properly organized marathon of such a scale! First off, it’s an international marathon and secondly it attracted more than 50,000 people to participate! It was really really grand… however I did quite poorly, finished 10km in 1 hour 18 minutes which is so embarrassing as compared to the result during Klang Pacer. Why? Well I only had barely three hours of sleep on Saturday night (not to mention boozes) let's just say I’m just so glad we didn't chicken out from the race. There were so many times I felt the strong urge to give up once passing the 5km mark!

 

I’m happy that I made it but the lack of discipline is a lesson learnt. Anyway, I had a great time in Singapore ( thanks to Jacky Phang for showing me around) checking out the latest and most trendy malls and also chill out places.

 

And oh, I also went back to Clark Quay after 12 years of MIA! It surely has changed a lot, not that I could remember how it used to look like… just feels really nice to be back there again. :)

Rewind: Michelle’s Hen Night (Part1)

If you need ideas on planning for a bachelorette night, then read on.

As the maid of honor for Bin’s wedding last year December, part of the “duty” was to organize a hen night party for her prior to the wedding.  It took some time to do research on the games and got all the girls together but the turn out was worth every effort.

Facebook Event comes really handy. It saves you time from the tedious calls down to confirm their attendance or to inform people for any changes made to the event. It really saved me from a lot of headaches.

I even created a simple banner! :)

It’s always good to have a theme so that everyone’s attire can be in synch, it would also look nicer in the photos.

Bin’s Birthday

I went back to Ipoh during end of October for my bestfriend’s birthday. She's a 4 months preggar who has just recently surpassed her rather challenging first trimester, so the girls in hometown and I decided to bring her out for a nice dinner on her big day.

Nothing too fanciful and yet cozy enough for a fun girly night out together. We had dinner at this recommended restaurant called Citrus Cafe followed by karaoke sesh. ( both places were my first visit)

We were just drinking "ribenas" while Michelle was only allowed sky juice. :)

And oh check out the sumptous meal we had!

Happy birthday, Bin! xoxo