Tit Bits from My Life

JH asked me to write that the Lorong Seratus Tahun Curry Mee in SS2 is very very good!

He also asked me if I had written a blog about something else but I hadn't and now I can't remember what I'm supposed to write about.

I had a very antsy feeling yesterday evening - I feel like I don't wanna go home and veg and make small talk. I feel like going to a mall somewhere - of course it'd be great if I could pak tor with my husband but…..well, let's just say his employers aren't paying him to go dating…..sigh…..
I also have to clean up the house in time for somebody to come stay in it - I hope it'll be alright….I've never let my house or anything else out for that matter and am feeling just that teensy bit possessive….actually I'm just afraid the tenant will be careless (I shan't say irresponsible) and my whole house will be at risk.

Also, tomorrow night, my new car will be arriving! YEAY! Stay tuned for pictures - maybe on Wed or Thursday or after Beijing if I don't have the time. At the same time, I can test out pics from the new camera of the car on the unsuspecting public (yeah, that means you!). At first I was excited about getting a new ride but with the time lag my dealer is making me endure, it's gone rather stale….I just want to be able to collect my RM625 petrol rebate….come on man! It's your job, just do it ok!

And it doesn't help my mood that I'm getting fatter by the minute. Not anyone else's fault but my own - or maybe I can blame it on my Mother In Law for cooking great dinners and my Father In Law for hiring a maid.

Yesterday JH said I should be a very happy woman. I'm 4 days away from hopping on a jet plane to a honeymoon in Beijing for a week, I don't do any housework, I don't cook unless I want to experiment and potentially call out for Domino's (heheheheh) and my "husband loves me so much that he plans a massage for me in the middle of the afternoon on Sunday" (verbatim from his mouth). However, sometimes when I'm in a funk, he has also offered to spend me off to a day spa - so he can escape my diarrheic harangues! So I don't know- was I being bitchy on Sunday???

It's true though but I try not to revel in it too much - lest the heavens get jealous (to quote Kino/or his wife Juana in 'The Pearl' by John Steinbeck!)

On another note, I CAN'T BELIEVE I remembered Kino's name! This is a novella I read in Secondary School in English Literature class and haven't thought of in years!!!! I.CANNOT.BELIEVE.IT!!!!!!!!! I confess that I got Juana's name from the internet but KINO was all on my own!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When we come back from Beijing, I have a few things to sort out - the housing loan, the car loan, the condo, the kid…..

Online Photo Printing

Aiya, I have been trying for the past half hour to upload some photos to an online print facility - eoe.com.my tapi cannot one! So upsetting! And I purposely came home early to do this some more! Bleakh!!!!

Better go down and eat some dinner now - Mother In Law (henceforth known as MIL) cooked Butter Chicken for dinner.....

China's Camera

We're off to Beijing, China for a week for our honeymoon!!!! YEAY!!!!!!!!!! China is one of those places that I am ambivalent about though certain parts of it are a must visit - I term those my 'At Least Once In A Lifetime' locales. Like India, like Egypt, like Alaska, like Machu Picchu…….

We bought a camera for the trip….yeah weird isn't it? The last time I bought a camera was for my trip to Scotland oooooh, about 5 years ago? And now it's konked out but I loved it - loved the ease of use, the picture quality (only 3.2 Mega Pixel - ooooooooohhhh!!!!). It was a Fujifilm. So this time around when shopping for cameras, I kept to Canon and Fujifilm. I know hardcore amateur photographers always go for Canon since it does do its job quite well - even a couple of my cam-whoring friends have them! Another friend though has the Fujifilm F100fd. For the models that I was looking at, both were priced the same - RM1399.00 but Fujifilm having 12 MP while Canon has 10MP. Not that it matters so much - actually more MPs could end up crucifying the photos if you don't know how to work it, people!!!! But everything else was about the same - the zoom, the wide angle lens, the free gifts….the pic quality I would say is a personal distinction.

The Canon pic quality from my amateur perspective, is brighter, more vivid and some say, more enhanced therefore looking rather artificial. The Fujifilm one looks more subdued, less over exposed with more natural colours. However, from an objective standpoint, when the wedding photos were loaded into sis' laptop from Canons and a Fujifilm, the pic quality I liked (forget composition and subject matter!) was from a Fujifilm - so 1 up for Fujifilm.

Sis also suggested that I check out http://dpreview.com/ for expert reviews and comparisons of cameras. I love that site! It's so informative and it's neutral and objective. So of course I checked out the competition between the Canon 870IS and the Fujifilm F100fd. And guess what, it was a very very slim whisker by which the Fujifilm won out!!! Woo HOOOOO!!!!! But dpreview did concede that most people would buy the Canon with its longer reputation and bigger customer base and therefore, bigger fan base/people who've used it before and don't want to learn how to use a new camera. So, 2 up for Fujifilm. Now the only thing holding me back was the price of these babies!

Since I had not bought a camera in so long, I asked a couple of people what I should realistically be spending - I'm more a point and shoot person while Ju Han is a 'DON'T GIVE UP THE DAY JOB TO TAKE PICTURES' person so we'd most probably be using the Auto mode for 90% of our pics….Though reading dpreview did teach me a thing or two about ISO settings and low light picture taking. So what SHOULD I spend on a camera that gives me and hubby what we need for the best value. My sources came back and suggested to cap spending at RM1000.00. Ok.
I put together a list of what I wanted and matched it against several more reviews and against pricing. I wanted fast start up (from the time you turn on the camera to it being usable), small shutter lag (from the time you 'Click' to picture taken), wide angle (to take nice pics of the Great Wall of China), good battery life and nice picture quality on the LCD screen and printouts. And oh yeah, something easy for both of us to use! Other cheaper cameras didn't have what I wanted so in the end it was back to the Canon and the Fujifilm.

SO WHAT WAS THE CLINCHER???????

A 'little' known fact: Fujifilm the company has been running an exchange campaign which brings the price of the Fujifilm F100fd down from RM1399 to RM999!!! I think the campaign has been on since end of 2008 but there were still certain camera shops (like FotoKem in 1Utama) that still had stock. The paranoid me would be wondering why there was still stock if the camera really was so good but I just couldn't ignore the great 'Highly Recommended' review it got on dpreview.com. I just thanked my lucky stars.

Upon calling Fujifilm, they told me Foto Shangri-la branches were mostly sold out but FotoKem still had them.

So last Saturday, hubby and I paid RM999 plus RM80 for 2 years extended warranty from FotoKem and walked off with our black Fujifilm F100fd, a 4GB memory card, a kisgnbn gi rechargeable battery, a soft case and a screen protector. We had a choice of the protector or the mini tripod but looking at the spindly spider leg tripod, we chose the screen protector.
It's about the same weight as the Canon that we were looking at - a tad weight-ful (heheheh) but can fit into the pants pocket (shirt pocket also can but a bit heavy lah). We didn't get any additional battery or memory card cos Ju Han says he doesn't want to spend 1 hour of everyday taking photographs……we're not really that sort of people and I prefer scenery shots anyway so less time fiddling with the camera.

It's not the sleekest or prettiest of cameras and at 12MP, when you zoom in really close -you see the painting like quality of the photo. It's got a cool edit (trim) and save function too which is something I didn't know about but really like. It's easy to use and we're happy. Now I want to see how it performs in China!!!!!!

Which brings me to - CHINA! I can't speak the language but we're going on our own. Since it's our honeymoon we just wanted to take our time to slowly explore or amble and wake up at a reasonable hour. Ju Han speaks some Mandarin so we will wing it and we're forking out for a 5 star hotel too!!!! Good reviews on that too - gotta be careful in China cos their local 5 star is an international 3 star…..But anyways, we saw pics on the web and read user reviews so it should be ok.

We gotta change some moolah and I wish we could use HK dollars cos we still have some of that left over from before……and then next week we're off!!!!!!! SO EXCITING!!!!!!

Wedding Photos!!!

Weeee!!! The photos are ready!

Feel free to go into:

www.lucaschua.com
Select "Client Login"
Input username: juer09
With the password 0808

Hope you like them!!!!!!!!

Good Places for Food...in KL!!!

HiHIHI!!! Just wanted to recommend a couple of good places for eating in KL! I know! Can't believe I said that!!!!

Anyway, here goes:

1. Old Hong Kong Kitchen in Jalan Utara (or somewhere thereabouts). It's near the Pasar Rakyat - NOT PLaza Rakyat which is Puduraya. So it's at a corner lot bungalow just around the Bus Station that's there. If you drive a full circle around the bus station you should be able to find it - Oh Yeah, it's opposite the Beryl's chocolate kingdom......

(Aside: That whole road is actually full of chocolatiers!!! Can't believe it man!)

So this place serves the most awesome DIM SUM!!! I am not really a big fan of it but I thought the little itty bitty things were all so deliciously and (it tasted like) lovingly prepared! The skin of the Prawn Dumpling (ha kau) was soft and thin and the prawns inside were big and fresh and juicy and sweet. Another fave of mine, the beancurd skin with prawns inside - mmmm, the skin was crunchy and melt-in-your-mouth and the prawns again.....Even the Siew Mai which I usually hate on account of it being too MEATY - was great! I would have had a second piece if I had room in my stomach!

We also ordered the Fried Rice with Dried Scallop (19.90 for a sharing portion) and that was good too - couldn't really find a lot of scallop but overall, very ok to eat! The dim sums were RM4.80, RM5.80 on average.....So very yummylicious food for affordable prices!

2. BBQ Chicken LG floor at 1Utama, New Wing. We had walked by it many a time, always feeling kinda sorry for it cos it would inevitably be empty but I told myself we have to try it SOMETIME! And we did! And it was great to JH and ok to me. It was very healthy chicken - steamed or broiled or grilled or something but leaving a wee bit of redness on the inside (which I can't stand) and lots of juicy tenderness (which I love!). So all in all, we promised ourselves we'd come back! The mushroom soup was good too!

Last night we walked by it again and WOO HOO!!!!! It's packed! I am so happy for them cos I was afraid that they were going to have to close down.......

So there you go. Go I tell you! GO!

Puteri Gunung Ledang the Musical

Last Sat, we went for the afternoon show of Puteri Gunung Ledang starring Datin Tiara Jacquelina and Stephen Rahman-Hughes. As of now, I can't very much summon up the excitement to tell you about it. Yes, it was filled with sets, pyrotechnics, magical elements but it just didn't burrow its way into our hearts. We bought loved Stephen's singing though and to find out that he didn't or doesn't have professional training is shocking. His voice and timbre was awesome, the kind of singing I expect when I pay a lot of money to watch a theatre performance. Mbok's, Puteri Gusti (aka Puteri Gunung Ledang's) nanny, also sang well though she didn't have many opportunities to showcase her voice.

I didn't like the colours of the show. There were too many browns and somehow it just made the whole look dull and bland. The chemistry between the two leads was also dull, if in existence at all. I thought much better acting would have done PGL justice but all I saw were rote gestures and there was a general feeling of 'going through the motions' by the female lead. The singing was uninspiring as well, yes she can sing but she didn't really SING. I didn't see any sign of 'discovery of love at first sight - the wonder, the excitement, the naivete' and I also didn't see any heartbreak - no 'anguish, torture, loss or abandonment, 'why-me''.

The rest of the cast - especially the chorus - were of course, enthusiastic, they always are. And I loved the mannerisms and the voice of AC Mizal who played the Javanese Adipati (King). He brought a breath of fresh air to the show, a touch of comic relief at the beginning but then also feelings of shock and fear, often accompanied by an intake of breath, when he used his terrible voice.

The other King - the Sultan of Melaka was very lackadaisical, I almost imagine he had been pulled in to play the Sultan at the last minute and epitomised Malaysian acting - 'I am saying the words, therefore I am'. The only part where he seemed to come more to life was when he danced and sang the equivalent to My Fair Lady's 'I'm Getting Married In The Morning'. Even then it was very 'selamba', nonchalant but at least there was something to actually watch.

The chereography was so-so, we both much preferred P.Ramlee: The Musical but the magical elements of the show, and by that I mean the appearance of the Nenek Kebayans in the forest, were very cool to me. Ju Han didn't like them, he thought them tacky. But we did both agree that Hang Tuah's posse being revived with magic red laser light pointers was indeed …..Tacky. Ju Han didn't like the pyrotechnics, they didn't add value to the show for me. I did like a few of the sets though - the 6 Egyptian 'stairs/mountains', the Sultan of Melaka's palace, and the Gunung Ledang forest.

Some loose ends I remember are the two giggly girls from the Puteri's court - I would have expected the had a bigger role to play when they were introduced, In fact, I also expected the Adipati's advisor to be better and bigger while Mbok also had what seemed to be a small role to me.

All in all, I wouldn't have paid RM203 per seat for the show. Maybe RM100. Not because the direction or the set or the production details were bad. Purely because the two leads just didn't deliver. Everyone gave a standing ovation to the Datin for a job I didn't think she did well.

tephen, while having room for improvement in the acting department, sang beautifully but it was disappointing that with PGL being a love story, I just didn't Feel.The.Love.

Malaysian Ringgit buys what these days?

Sigh, more and more cars everyday on the road. I would gladly take public transportation if it was reliable, clean and safe. Not that it isn't clean now but I just wanted to throw that in.

I guess when the petrol price goes up, people start to save on petrol expenditure. But doesn't the economy going down contribute the same effect???? Actually I don't see much difference in the spending habits of Malaysians. It's as the NST recently reported, a lot of people are still spending money as they used to - am I the only one who is cautious, wary??? It doesn't help that getting married drains the coffers! ACK!

And an indirect result of the economy spiralling downwards is the price of gold rocketing. Madness! We bought some gold just 2 weeks ago at RM117 per gram and now it's what - nearing RM140 per gram??? It's good that we have earned some of it but now I need to buy something elsee…..W.H.I.N.E…..

I can remember a time when gold was RM33-36 per gram and people started complaining when it rose to RM50 per gram…..now, don't even bother! I should get me some good ole ingots!

I want a City to call my own

I've heard many many times that I need to change my ... ummm.....10?....year old car - my Proton Iswara Aeroback which is still working perfectly fine - Ole Faithful! Mostly I hear this from my mum but nonetheless, it's got me thinking.

I think I can afford a Proton Saga (new) but if I had my way (in the real world) I would love to get the new Honda City. I think it looks so cool - a cheap big (looking) car! :)

Gaza vs Malaysia

I think the people of Gaza are very lucky to be able to garner so much attention from our citizens. I only wish some of our own unfortunates, in-need-of-assistance, could-do-with-some help, physically-disabled-and-used-within-scams, people-who-try-and-try-and-yet-just-can't-catch-a-break people could get even half the attention deserved. There are people like those in Gaza in Malaysia as well - perhaps we ought to spare them some thought as well!

Botox in the Year of the Ox

I recently saw a FAMOUS Feng Shui master on tv touting her wares. Her face could hardly move - do I detect Botox??? HHehehehehehe.....I am so bad....but ....I think I am RIGHT!