Well, I like to read and I basically read anything. I don’t have a preferred author or a preferred kind of books. I like to pick them randomly. Whatever suits my liking and interests.

Although, in these past few years, books that caught my eye are mainly written by Asian writers and memoirs, biography. I guess I like to be fascinated by stories that are REAL but I’m still open.

I think I have quite a good mix of books on my bookshelf but I have never ever read a chick lit. I don’t really know why. Somehow I feel that they are less interesting, as in their stories might be very predictable and cliché.

During my time in Ipoh, My Dear and I kind of visited every major bookstore in Ipoh. There’s really nothing much to do in Ipoh so ransacking bookstores is very entertaining. I think it’s because both of us like books. =)

So we went into a second-hand bookstore in Ipoh Parade, Novel Hut, and started to ransack it. My Dear was looking for a particular book and I was looking randomly while helping him look for his. I saw this book lying on the shelf and thought: why not give it a try? It’s only Rm14.

Memoirs Are Made Of This by Swan Adamson

The book is in fairly good condition although the cover is a bit tainted but, who cares, it’s cheap. It doesn’t matter if I don’t like it, it’s cheap. For a kind of book and I’ve never read before, when better to give it a try? It’s so cheap!

It took me a few days to finish the book, I can’t remember exactly how many days. It was light hearted, a good book for light reading when you don’t want to be too emotionally attached to the characters or use up too much brain power.

However I find that the story and illustration not as rich as novels like The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards.

Of course, they are totally different kinds of books, maybe catering for different purposes and a totally different kind of audience.

I find that the first allows you to see into the heroin’s world through her eyes, you can stand and observe her life from the outside. The latter absorbs you into their world, letting you feel as the characters feel, breath as they do. The first one lets you unwind and read relaxingly while the latter tugs on your heart and make your emotions flow with the plot.

Different as they are, they are both good for different reading purposes. Now I have one more choice of books to add to my little library. 

p/s: I’m gonna have a real big library one day. Ideally like the one in Beauty and the Beast.

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One more day and Chinese New Year 2010 will be officially over. Sad as it is, the fun and the joy goes with it too. Up next in line is a whole year of work. 

Ok, it might not be that bad but that’s the way it is in my mind right now.

I had lots of fun this CNY! So much fun that I totally forgot to take pictures! The only pictures I got is taken by my dad during our big family reunion lunch on ‘nian chu er’ (mandarin), the second day of Chinese New Year.

I had a marvellous dinner at home on CNY eve cooked up by my talented mum which I helped out. I said to myself before the dinner that I am going to snap a picture of each and every food on the table but totally forgot.

The culprit was most certainly the pungent aroma of the delicious food and, of course, the thrill of having my uncle and my cousin with us for dinner this year.

Our big TEH family gathering always happens on the second day of CNY.This year we had our lunch in Sun Li How Fook, Ipoh. We had two big tables of 10 this year. Too bad we have so many family members who are overseas and couldn’t make it back or else it would be even merrier!

From right, my uncle, cousin, cousin, brother waiting for our food.

Yay, let’s ‘lou sang’!

‘lou ah, lou ah…’

The other table oso ‘lou ah, lou ah…’

Everyone looks so happy when lou-ing sang. Haha…

Happy and satisfied…

Well, as usual, the food in restaurants aren’t at their best during CNY probably because of the crowd but I think we’re all happy and enjoyed every moment of it. It’s not the food that matters, it’s the joy of being together and sharing the food we have.

Now, let me introduce my cute cute nephew –

Baby Issac!

He’s only 10 months old but he’s already a lil’ man. Very steady… He’ll just sit there and watch while everyone’s chit chatting as if he’s analysing every movement, every thing that’s going on.

When I last saw him he was just a new born sleeping quietly in the living room while we chatted softly with the mum and dad. Now, he’s so big and heavy! It’s a wonder to see how much babies grow.

The most adorable thing about him is that he lets me carry him whenever I want. I went to him when I saw his mum, my cousin, carrying him into the restaurant and he immediately wants me to carry him! Love him to the max! I’m missing him already…

After the reunion lunch, all of my relatives came to my house as usual to hang out and chit chat. This year we even skyped with two of my cousins who are overseas and couldn’t make it back. One’s in UK, doing his PHD, and another one’s in Japan, pregnant and couldn’t get on the plane. But we’ll see them next year. I’m so looking forward to it.

Besides meeting up with my relatives I also meet up with lots of friends which I forgot to take pictures of our gathering.  Anyhow, I still had a lot of fun catching up and meeting them. My only regrets, besides the photos, is the fact that I didn’t have time to meet them all.

Anyway, Happy Chinese New Year!

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I had initially planned to write about this last week, on Valentine’s Day, but failed miserably. But who could blame me??! It’s Chinese New Year!

Anyway, here we go. Well, for starters, we all know that this year’s Valentine’s Day has PERFECT timing. It fell on the FIRST day of CNY! Great!

You can’t really go out and celebrate all day with your loved one that day because you are expected to spend time with your family on the first day of CNY. Things gets even worst for inter-state relationships. I’m so lucky I”m not in one.

With all the inconveniences in mind (not forgetting the crowd and jam in our hometown), we decided to have our very own Valentine’s Day celebration which was 4 days earlier.

My sweet Dear had everything planned! So, on the 10 of February 2010, we celebrated our Valentine’s Day.

I got up early that morning, dressed up and dolled up, and my Dear came and pick me up around 11.30am. He was waiting for me at the basement by his and when I walked up he took out a bouquet of beautiful red roses. *meltz*

I got in the car and Dear drove to KL. Guess where brought me to?

Shangri-La Hotel! A 5-star hotel!

He had booked a table for us in one of the restaurants in this hotel.

Lafite Restaurant.

According to the information that I have gathered through the world wide web, it is a award-winning, fine dining, French/Western/European cuisine restaurant with a lot of good reviews.

This place is certainly beautiful with class. I didn’t snap a picture of the environment of the restaurant in fear of being stared by the angmohs in suits who were most probably socializing with business partners and talking millions and billions and are far too important to bother about a kampung girl like me.

Anyway, we had the Showcase Lunch which is apparently a famous feature of the restaurant.  

“Diners can also opt for Restaurant Lafite’s Showcase Luncheon which has all the correct ingredients for a memorable culinary experience.

This includes unlimited gourmet starters and appetizers, a main course prepared a la minute by chef Campbell using fine quality ingredients from countries as far as France and Norway, and a dessert sampler of five different sweets served exclusively to complete the luncheon.”

Taken from www.sun2surf.com

Appetizers and fruits were showcased around a cylinder, tank thingy which I quickly took a picture of and hence the sengat-ness.

By the looks of it, it is only one round but you’ll be spoilt with choices. Note that this is only the appetizers.

While waiting for our main course we stuffed ourselves with a variety of appetizers. Boy they were yummy!

Complimentary bread lofts of 2 kinds with dips.

A mini cup of chowder. These were served to us by the waitress.

Below are the food which we took from the show case.

Citrus Bubble Tea. (or something like that)

Now this is a very special and fun drink. It’s only a mouthful and the brownish coloured thing is actually a bubble which will pop in your mouth releasing the liquid inside it. I didn’t really take notice of the taste because it was simply too fun!

From top right, clockwise, is Unagi (marinated, I think), mac and cheese, prawn salad and salmon/tuna?

I sucks when it comes to names, persons or dishes alike.

The left one is turkey meat and the mini popiah thingy is, I think, scallop wrap something something.

Clockwise from above we have grilled mushroom, avocado and the popiah, again.

I think we tasted a few more thing and had more than I have snapped. The dishes were artfully decorated and petite but they were still very filling. And we had already laid off the bread items.

By the time our main courses were served we were already half full but they were too delicious to be left unfinished. For the Showcase Lunch there are 6 choices of main courses for you to choose from.

My Dear chose Lamb Shank.

I was contemplating between the duck and the beef. After much thoughtful consideration I finally made up my mind.

Ladies and gentlemen, Wagyu Beef.

Yums Yums… I so badly want another bite of it now.

Both dishes were Great! Delicious! Tasty! Yummy! I so wish I could have to duck too…

Anyway, not forgetting that this a post about my Valentine’s Day Celebration with my Dear and not about the DELICIOUS food, here’s a picture of US.

Too bad there were shadows on our faces and my camera is most uncooperative that day. It keeps shutting off by itself! OK, it’s actually my fault for I forgot to charge the battery and it was dying down.

I still love this pic nonetheless!

Then came desserts.

Pretty, aren’t they?!

It is to be devoured from bottom up. First is the pineapple sherbet something, forgot the name, don’t remember the name, strawberry with sugar icing and chocolate mousse. And they tasted fabulous!

We passed coffee and tea because our stomachs were stretched to their limits.

Then I went to girls’ heaven – a washroom with mirrors EVERYWHERE!

Really, you could see every angle of yourself!

I really believe that you can tell the standard of a place by visiting their washroom. This one was super clean and neat and designed with class. Of course the lighting must be perfect or else it would turned a lovely washroom like this into scary creepy place.

After such a filling lunch we had to walk it off so we headed to Pavilion and caught a kiddy movie after a stroll. ‘The Spy Next Door’ was really funny. Not so much about the plot but of it’s clichés-ness. A typical children spy movie.

Our celebration ended that night with the clicking sounds of wine glasses in Republic, Sunway Pyramid.

Not forgetting about my Valentine present from my Dear.

This is to match the birthday present which I gave him last month.

My Happy Dear!

Now we have couple perfume!

Thanks Dear for such a wonderful day that I’ll never forget. You gave me a big big present with the celebration and all…

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