Ka-ching Craze

Katy Perry - If You Can Afford Me

I just <3 Katy Perry. Love her quirky and sexy/sultry style. Come on, you've gotta admit. "I Kissed A Girl" is sexy... In a way ;)

ANYWAY...

Burberry Nova $595

I have this CRAZE over Burberry designs lately!
And when I say CRAZE. I mean serious CRAZE.
CRAZE = the ultimate desire to buy anything that has the Burberry design!

Burberry Black Check $1195 (OMFG)

I even bought a pleated skirt with Burberry design.
Not an authentic one lah (durrhh...)
That's how crazy I am.
I seldom buy skirts, what more pleated... and checkered!
Now I have a problem with matching... Hmm...

Sheer Scarf $275

I almost bought a scarf that looks EXACTLY like the above for 20 bucks! *whispers* Sungai Wang!
But I passed, cause I have no friggin idea how to match that with a proper top.

Burberry Nova Tote $595

This would be purr-fect for a college bag!!
Simple yet trendy in a way.

Burberry Small Leather Drawstring Hobo $1295 (Are you effing serious?!)

And if you don't like checkers...
Burberry has simple chiq designs as well.
The ultimate designer ain't it??
Arghh! I'm totally bananas over it!
They even have umbrellas with the famous Burberry checkered design!!

I'm totally hypnotized by this!!!

*pictures stolen from Burberry's website* :D

Note : All the prices are in American friggin Dollar

My head's chanting "Rich Girl" by Gwen Stefani!
Na na na na na na na....
Everything with Burberry tag on it cost half a year's worth of allowance.
Some even an entire year!
Kinda sucks when its always MONEY MONEY MONEY no?
Ah. If only money grows on trees! I'll be so delighted xD
Maybe this is the reason why I'm not born into royalty or a trust fund baby.
I'll be surrounded by BURBERRY!

All hail window shopping. For eyes only xD
I'm so heading to Petaling Street.
Who cares if they're imitations. It's the hypnotic design I'm crazy over!

Okaay... I'm starting to sound like one of those typical Shopaholics.
Eek... It's the MEGA SALES DISEASE!
I'm running low due to it. What a way to end off 2008!

Signing off~

The Holiday Cluck Part 2

The Holiday Roasted Chicken was a success! Teehee :)

So, continuing where I left off....

The vegetable stuffings.
There's broccoli, bombay onions, red, yellow and green capsicums, carrots, button mushrooms and water chestnuts (gives a next crunchy texture)
The capsicums are a must have! It's the most suitable vegetable to bake, it softens and crisps at the edges and are oh-so-sweet :D
Its better to stir fry the stuffing first. Roasting time can be easily shortened by half. The stuffings will be softer and the meat juicier.

After that just stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff! This is kinda the fun part ;) Since the hole was too big, mummydearest sewed it up. This is important to prevent the stuffing from flowing out when you're roasting the chicken.

Preheat the oven to 175 - 200 degrees Celsius, depending on the size of the chicken. The temperature should not be over 250 degrees, if not the outer part especially the skin would be burnt before the insides are cooked. Happened before :x

Before you place your chicken on the baking tray, grease the base with LOTS and LOTS of butter. Very important. I didn't spread enough, so one side of the chicken was stuck onto the base. Not a pretty sight when you flip over the chicken later on during baking (will explain later), ruins the whole glazed chicken look. Rub more butter around the chicken for crispy skin. Sprinkle a generous amount of Lea & Perrins' sauce. Salt and pepper to taste.

Already 30 minutes into roasting and the chicken still remained a nude colour. I was starting to get a tad bit worried that it wouldn't work out. But not to worry. It takes about one and a half hour to fully roast the chicken. I'm using a pretty old oven, so I guess it'll be faster for those new high-tech ovens.

When the roast chicken starts to look like a "roast" chicken, take it out, glaze the chicken with honey. I used the genuine jungle honey I bought from Cameron Highlands about 2 years back. Honey and Lea & Perrins sauce go very well together. Don't have to worry about too much honey, because it's all natural sweetness. Only start rubbing the honey when the chicken is almost done, if you rub it on too early, the skin of the chicken will look burnt.

After one and a half hour.... VIOLA!

The Holiday Roasted Chicken! Cluck cluck :D
I know it looks nothing close to those Roasted Turkey on TV. I'm working on the perfect "roasted" look. Still learning.

Thankfully is tasted GREAT. Loved the Lea & Perrins sauce! It went so well with honey. Oh yeah, forgot to mention... When rubbing honey around it, remember to turn the chicken over. Michael Smith said it's important to do that. Why? Simple : Gravity. When you turn the chicken over, it keeps the moisture in the chicken. Then it will not be dry but JUICY.

So glad it turned out well. It was my first time roasting the chicken using the oven. So yeah... The satisfactory feeling :) Made several mistake. Will definitely try making it again. Trial and error towards roasting the perfect golden brown roasted chicken :p

Laima came over with her signature Lobak. Her Lobak is absolutely to DIE FOR! Crispy on the edges and so soft & juicy on the inside. She has a secret recipe to it, all her relatives were asking for it. And only I know about it. Nyeheheheh! The legacy shall go on :D

I'm so stuffed. I love Christmas dinner :D
Next I shall try meatloaf and roasted beef.
Teehee... I love cooking :)

Gotta run now... Tomorrow's gonna be a looong day.
Davy's flying off to Aussieland for a couple of weeks. Leaving us to start our boring college life.
Boohoo!

Within the Golden Hour

Daryl Hall & John Oates - It Came Upon A Midnight Clear

And ye, beneath life's crushing load,
Whose forms are bending low,
Who toil along the climbing way
With painful steps and slow,
Look now! for glad and golden hours
come swiftly on the wing.
O rest beside the weary road,
And hear the angels sing!

Merry Christmas to all :)

Wishing everyone a great year ahead, and may all your wishes come true.

Haven't had time to update. Been pretty busy and was very sick a few days back.
Things have been great so far. Although time has passed so quickly till I don't even have the time to blink.
I bet almost everyone has enrolled in college by now. I'm gonna miss ya'll!
It's gonna be a brand new start... All the best everyone.

Ah. Don't you just like the smell of Christmas morning?
As usual, my first Christmas wish for snow to come falling to Malaysia didn't happen. AGAIN.
Yes, I wish for Malaysia's weather doom every year :D
Christmas is never really perfect with such hot weather. But well, we make the best of it.
This year haven't been about presents for me though... Although there was a number of feasting ;D
I had to babysit my brothers and prepare french toast all morning as my parents enjoyed the morning service.
Dang, I missed the caroling. Wanted to head over to church, but I just couldn't get up :p
Ooops, looks like I'm on Santa's naughty list this year.

Anyway, I've been preparing for tonight's Christmas dinner.
Main course on the menu : The Holiday Roasted Chicken.
No turkey, mummydearest doesn't fancy its full breast meat :/
No rosemary, forgot to grab some yesterday. oops.

So how to make The Holiday Roasted Chicken using Stephanie's amateur way? :D

First, scout for the sexiest looking whole chicken from the wet market.
I would recommend you NOT to buy chicken from the supermarket like Giant or Tesco.
Cold Storage is fine, I think.
This is about 1.5kg, can feed a family of 4-5.

Ask the poultryman to make a hole big enough for stuffings. This one is a little too big. Might need to sew it up later on to prevent the stuffings from flooding out :/

After cleaning the insides of the chicken, brine it with coarse salt.
Michael Smith recommends natural course sea salt.
He soaked the turkey in about 2 pounds of salt, but since I'm using a small chicken, I'm only gonna rub about 3 teaspoon of salt around it and the inside.
Make sure to rinse all the salt off, the amount of salt use doesn't really matter.

Then, rub butter around it, rub some beneath the skin too and refrigerate.

That's what I've done so far... I'll update later on to tell if it's a success :)

On another note...

I just love the latest season of The Apprentice!
It's always interesting to watch Donald Trump's toupee floating around the board room.

Too bad my favorite contender was fired last week. Boxing champ Tito Ortiz!

Piers Morgan totally defeated ze bitch Omorosa, like finally!!
I just love englishmen. They have such razor tongue!
No one beats Piers....

You can continue to rot your non-celebrity bohhhring life away, Omorosa...

As I was googling for their picture, I found out who won The Apprentice season 7.
I HATE SPPOILERS >:(


Shall update on ze Chicken later :D
Toodles for now

Dejavu

shit. my fever doesn't seem to go down.
it's the fourth day already, and if this goes on till the fifth, I might need to get a blood test according to my doc.
eek! totally reminds me IV drips lying ahead and sleepless nights in the hospital.

March 2007

oh gawd. I hope its not dengue. Even if it isn't, the last time I was sent to the hospital on suspected terms only, just because my blood count was really low.
Later they released to and said it was not "confirm" dengue, just suspected.

So, now I'm very very very extremely paranoid!
I don't wanna spend my Christmas in a hospital :/

CroakSniffCroak

JMinus - Ana Rose

Go to MySpace and check out the band called JMinus. They're AWESOME! Or click on the link on my sidebar :)

*sniffs*
I hate being sick.
Especially when there's so much to do.
Been in bed the whole of Tuesday, which was like HELL.
Now my throat hurts like HELL.
Due to waiting at the bus stop for about half an hour (felt longer) with no U45 or 43 bus (wtv) in sight, plus Malaysia's lousy air quality, my nose is now running like HELL.
Public transportation to and from OneUtama is like HELL.
The bus ride was like HELL.
Smarty-ol-me stood at the middle entrance of the bus and when the door opened my arm kena kepit.
That sucked like HELL.
I know... You can go LMFAO all the way to Timbuktu...
Thank God only WenXian witnessed it. Well, and the malay guy chuckling behind me!
Bloody embarassing!
I now have 5 types of meds to take after every meal, which is like HELL.
So yeah... Things doesn't seem to be going my way lately. And seems like HELL.

Okay... I better stop ranting. *think constructive*
Lunch with WenXian, Bryan and Nutty was pretty entertaining xD
WenXian and Bryan could not stop debating about which part of Aussie that's cooler : Melbourne or Adelaide.
I now know some facts about Aus thanks to them.
Like the capitol city of Aus is actually Canbera (i think) and not Sydney or Melbourne (which most people think)
70% of people in Adelaide are actually old folks.
I can go on, but I've got enough of Aussie.

Speaking of which... Steve Hooker's name came out in our conversations.
And don't you agree that he looks like Hercules??
Like those gung-ho Greecian atheletes from long long looooong ago.
Okay... Moving on :D

Christmas is next week! Whoopee!
I totally feel like a child once again.
The Christmas tree is up and gleaming!
Plans for the pre-christmas dinner and christmas eve barbeque is already laid out perfectly.
Now there's a huge checklist which is totally undone.
Chirstmas presents. EEK! I haven't bought any, and it seems like I'm running out of time.
It ain't easy shopping for Christmas presents when I'm broke.
Since I worked last year, I didn't have a budget, so I practically splurge my whole month's salary on presents.
Whereas I'm almost penniless right now.
Anyone know a way to get fast cash in less than a week?
Something squeaky clean please ;)

I now vow to snap pictures wherever I go.
One thing I've realised, I can't blog without pictures!
I'll get the "writers blog" and everything will turn out bleak and boring. Heh :/
Okay, I'm out.
Guess it'll be sometime till the next post... if something INSPIRING other than outings and luncheons and yadayada... comes up.

Hmm... Santa oh Santa, have I been naughty or nice? ;)

Of Starlight and Chandeliers

Paramore - Rewind

Prom has come and gone.
Pretty damn quick if you ask me...
It was great. But the before and after the celebration was much better.
The preparation for prom was an "adventure" thanks to Jen xD
I shall elaborate no further on that ;)
Thank you so veryextremelybanyakbanyak, HanHwa for the ride there.
Seriously, no matter how young you are, you'll get special treatment depending on the standards of your car.
We "kinda" got lost on the way to Bukit Bintang.
Well, we were on track, just that we really didn't know where to turn.
Thanks to the absence of a map *coughs* we had to blast 20bucks on a cab to lead the way.
Mind you, I bet that was a bloody good fare for the driver.
Took us less than 15 minutes to reach the "awesome" Grand Millenium that was indeed grand.
We were a little late. Actually, just in time :D
The prom took off pretty well. Went on smoothly without glitches.
Though I'm pretty disappointed with the lack of slow dance.
Only had one, and then it was pretty much like hitting a club, only volumed down.
So... yadayada... I'm not gonna blog much about it till I get my hands on some pictures.
The "after party" was pretty fun. Met some nice people, and bumped into some weirdos on the way.
Bukit Bintang creeps me out. If not for the happening bistros, clubs and countless 5 stars hotel, I think it'll end up like ChowKit.
I was pretty burned out by the end of the night... Technically, it was early dawn.
Only managed to sleep at "4 in the morning" thanks to SOMEONE who made me pretty worried (you know who you are...)
My advise : tone down on the alcohol if you can't take it, no matter how much you think you WON'T GET DRUNK
I had some explaining to do to "ze parents in the car" if you know what I mean... *coughs*
Heh. Don't worry. It's all good.

So, right now I'm pretty much sleep deprived.
Thought I could get some good night sleep till mummydearest dug me out of bed at 6-ish in the morning.
WTH. I only had less than 3 hours of sleep. But I've already promised her days before, so yeah.
Went over to Taylor's to help with some Business competition.
I was practically like a walking zombie around a bunch of English coporates.
But not bad la... Managed to cuci mata at some angmohs.
It's not easy sitting at a table with a bunch of SUPERB English speaking coporates.
They were all like "The food's lovely don't you think?"
It's like someone's gonna burst out "Do you want some tea, with a drop of lemon in it?" in a THICK British accent.
Yeah, not to mention... It was pretty BORING.
Thank God they didn't start talking about the stock market, I might just keel over and DIE.
Well, it was not a TOTAL torture. Some of em were pretty interesting to talk to.
But I was too sleepy to really give a damn, honestly.
Until now, even after a 3 hours "nap", I still feel like a trainwreck!
Plus, I DID NOT DRINK. Go figure.

After all the "hardwork" some good came out of it.

An early "Christmas" present from Cambridge.

So yeah... I guess it's worth it :)

I'm so gonna miss last night.
Definitely a night I'll never forget.
Did crazy things I never thought I would.
Some of which I totally regret. Some took me really off guard.
I'm gonna miss everyone. Pretty sure I wouldn't see guys that often anymore since most of you are heading to Taylor's.
I think I've pretty much left the night with no regrets, except for one, which was nothing much to begin with, though I wish I would have done things differently.
Oh well, it's the starting line of a whole new beginning.
Sorry, Nick & peeps, that I can't make it to Pangkor tomorrow.
Though I would love to, but can't. Enjoy the trip ;)

Simply bittersweet.
I NEED PROM PICTURES :)

would have definitely done it differently, if only i knew

xoxo

Stinkin Port Hole

BitTorrent has been giving me a whole lot of bullshit lately...
Just reformatted my computer, thanks to the line up of Trojans!
And now my downloading speed slowed down from 53kb/s to 5kb/s (maximum)
Bloody pissifying I tell ya.
I've been searching the net for the past hour and a half.
Been to countless IT geek forum...
And still can't seem to settle this stupidstupidstupid problem.
Some forum said it's about the forwarding port, or the ip address, or the firewall.
Bah... There was all these NAT port, Wa-AL port yadayada the list goes on...
Ugh. Frustrating much.
I hate it when it comes to solving computer problems.
It's just so darn complicated.
I usually go berserk when my connection's screwed up, or for this matter, my stupid downloading program!
*sniff* and I have tonnes of episodes waiting for me to feast my eyes on!

HELP! SOS!!!
I need an IT geek!

This Nor That

Jamestown Story - Change

Days are rolling pass extremely fast.
So many things are pounding right at the door of my cerebral till I'm going bananas.
I went to several education fair for the past week, and boy, it was effing daunting.
I'm sure most of us who were not chosen for NS decided to join the second intake.
I was one of em who instantly decided on that.
Well, it's rather a sensible plan isn't it?
After 11 years of studying, one month just isn't enough.
Heck, it's less than a month!
Plus, I need a bloody vacation.
Not to mention some time to work for money.
I'm so broke :s
So, recently I talked to a college counselor at an education fair...
She immediately asked me for a clear reason, when I was looking into the second intake.
Seriously, I couldn't come up with a sensible reason.
Saying that you need 4 months of break even after 11 years of studies, obviously isn't a reason good enough.
I mean, come one... You've gotta admit.
The working issue : Really... I don't really have to.
Vacation? There's plenty of time for vacations during semester break.
I could only find myself whining "I don't wanna start studying on January 5th!!!"
I found out that the second intake is actually the express class.
Cause it's final exam is the same as the first intake.
The courses fees are the same as well...
You're paying for a semester extra, in other words.
So yeah... that's BASICALLY it.
Can't believe I'm actually considering the first intake. BLAH.

And there's all these questions...
"Which course are you gonna take?"
"What do you wanna do?"
"Which college are you going to?"
"Have you signed up for a scholarship?"
"What? You haven't written entry essays??"

To hell with all these questions.
Give me an effing break, for crying out loud.
I'm currently at the point where I DO NOT KNOW what I'm gonna do for the next 35 years.
I just wanna enjoy the free time I have now...
And it sucks to wake up and immediately question myself "What am I to do?"
I know a couple of people who've already decided on which course to do.
And some even signed up already.
I salute you! Seriously...
Totally envying those who have the God given talent in Art or Cooking or even Dancing for that matter.
These people instantly know where to go.
Whereas I?
Feel like an actuarist one day, a cook another, an engineer the past week, a doctor the next, a reporter this minute, a hotel manager the next hour... and the list goes on.
The best option? Be an actor.
Then play whatever character with whatever career in the world.
However... Fact check No. 1 : In Malaysia, the film industry is a total bogus. No matter what century we're in.
Fact check No. 2 : Notice that most of the local sitcom is mainly Malay sitcoms. Except some rare ones like Kopitiam, but I think that's Singapore's production.
Shut up, Hollywood ain't exactly as easy as you think it is...
So yeah... Kinda strikes it out.

Well, enough of these daunting bullshit.
Prom's about 5 days away and I haven't seen my dress! Eeek!
I'm absolutely clueless how it's gonna look like.
Totally placing my trust on the tailor to make it "purrr-fect"!
I'll only get to see it on Monday or Tuesday.
Even then, it's not completely done.
Might need some alteration and sequins.
*Le Gasp* I have a real baaaaad feeling about this...
Heh. The things that we girls do for prom...
Though it's JUST prom.
Many claim it's a once-in-a-lifetime yada yada...
Blah... Seems like a wedding in a making xD

Oh, I hope hope hope the dress will turn out well.
Make the money's worth.
I need a shopping spreeeeeee!
KL here I comeeeee! :D

Broken Wings

Weezer - Troublemaker

just when i thought i finally have the wings to fly, daddydearest comes swooping by.
sigh. think again....

It's true.
I'm more compelled to update when I'm not suppose to :s
I've nothing much to update on...
Been going out for countless movies and downloading movies at home.
I think I'm prolly gonna be overdosed in the next couple of days.
Watched.... Twilight, No Reservations, Seeker : The Dark Is Rising (stupid ass movie), Tropic Thunder (pure meaningless), Made of Honor (finally.. so shweet), Mission Impossible 3 (the one I swore I would never watch, now I've watched all three =.=), Harold & Kumar : Escape From Guantanamo Bay (sick shit. to no surprise that most of the guys enjoyed it. u sick bastards...), Quarantine (awesome, unfortunately jean doesn't think so), Transamerica (too much to comment on this one)
That's it. Gonna watch Body of Lies later, hopefully it wouldn't turn out like another Departed.
That movie was a total let down. Enjoyed the Hong Kong Infernal Affairs so much better.

I need to get a hobby.
Something that doesn't involve movies and the television.
I thought of taking up baking :D
Still waiting for mummydearest to clear up her busy schedule so we can go grocery shopping.
I'm gonna stock up the house with SUGAR.
Lots and lots of shweet yummy SUGAR and CHOCOLATE.
Cookies... Brownies... Blueberry cupcakes... Ah. Haven.
Heh. Not a very healthy hobby after all.
Speaking of which...
Christmas is coming!
I know it's only the beginning of December, shut up!
It's my favorite festive season.
Which means, yummy Christmas dinner.
Whoot whoot. Gotta plan the menu pronto.
I was thinking Roasted Rosemary Chicken.
Yum? Heh. Can't wait :)

That's just a tiny scribble on "The List".
Below "Clean Room" task.
There's so much to clear.
I can actually have a warehouse sale for books.
Most of my books seem untouched, and I feel AWFUL for purchasing them in the first place.
Which I would totally see the outcome on a horrid piece of paper three months later.
*Le gasp* Touch wood touch wood.

My travelling plans has gone down the gutters.
Financial draught they call it.
And, with my cousin's wedding slammed in early January, I might miss my New Year Eve party.
Have to travel all the way back to Penang just to attend the ceremony.
And back again in February for Chinese New Year.
It might be three months ahead, but it affects all my plans for December.
Not to mention mummydearest's sudden busy schedule with Cambridge.
Free lancing she calls it.
Doesn't seem so, since she's out to meet business clients most of the time.
They ought to give her a permanent job.
So, working from home isn't as relaxing as it sounds.
Although it comes with a free laptop ;)
Which I'm totally hogging right now.
Explains the lack of pictures and the thousand mile essay :D

My queue to stop before I start to sound like I'm ranting again.
I better scurry off now.
Leaving to one-u in an hour.
Oh shit. I just remembered, Christmas presents!
*scribbles on list* So much to do... so little time... and soo effing lazy :s

Toodles :)