Malaysian Petroleum Club (MPC) - Chinese Restaurant

For latest updates on the MPC, visit my new blog: Winter Blossoms

As promised, another MPC update! ^^

This time around, Dad took us to have lunch at the MPC's Chinese restaurant - Seligi. (Yes, I know it doesn't sound Chinese at all, but whatever.) So, the thing is, I couldn't go inside there before this year... because I wasn't of age yet. Yup, they have an age restriction for all except the coffeehouse (which was the place that I blogged about before). This year I'm 18, thus I can legitimately go and dine in Seligi. *wide grin*So, in typical Chinese fashion, we were seated at a round table (Chinese always have to have round tables, huh?) and then my parents were given the menu to order dishes. I took a peek and it was really quite simple; several ways of cooking chicken, fish, vegetables, tofu and a few others I can't remember. Thoughtful as ever, they even had 2 set meals for vegetarians. Oh, and of course, the usual desserts.

With some helpful comments and suggestions from the maître d', we (okay, my dad) ordered Cod Steamed in Soy Sauce, Claypot Tofu with Seafood, Prawns Cooked with Oatmeal and Stir-fried Baby Bak Choi. We also added a dessert of the Red Bean Pastry that you always get at Chinese weddings. (They didn't have lotus paste! *disappointed*)
Anyway, the first dish to arrive was the prawns. I gotta tell ya, those were absolutely some of the biggest prawns I've ever seen in my entire life! I mean, it came all covered with oatmeal, so at first I thought, "Wow, those prawns are pretty big, even with the shells still on them," and then when I took a closer look, I just couldn't believe it! The prawns were already de-shelled and ready to eat, and they were HUGE! They were all curled up and almost as big as my fist! My goodness...

Next came the baby bak choi and claypot tofu. I'll admit, the first thought that went through my head when I saw the vegetables was "Ohmigosh! Those baby bak choi really are so small, they look so cute and yummy!" LoL~ The claypot tofu looked pretty normal in comparison.

The "star of the show" finally arrived not long after - the Cod Steamed in Soy Sauce. It looked really, really delicious, with the 2 big pieces of beautifully cut snow-white cod lying in a pool of amber soy sauce and some garnishings on top.The first dish I tried was the oatmeal prawns. Despite their size, the skillful chef managed to get the prawns' texture just right, not too tough and not too soft. The sweetness and aroma of the oatmeal complimented the slight saltiness of the prawns perfectly. Next was the baby bak choi, which was stir-fried with just the right amount of oil, retaining its crunchiness and fresh green colour. The tofu was also not bad, with generous amounts of seafood accompanying the tofu and mushrooms.

Undoubtedly, the best dish was the cod fish. A first bite gives the impression that the fish meat is melting in your mouth, and gone before you even realise it. The second bite lets you savour the experience, and such is the skill of the chef in steaming it that all the flavours of the fish are still very much intact. The meat is very smooth and the skin (normally quite different from the meat and instantly recognisable from its texture) is barely distinguished when put into the mouth. Of course, without the soy sauce, it would not be perfect. But try pouring a generous helping of sauce onto your steamed rice, and then eating it together with the cod fish - now that is what I call a divine mouthful.After that wonderful lunch, we sat for a while drinking tea and watching the scenery outside the 43rd floor window. I was sitting facing the windows, so the building directly in front of me caught my attention. It was [apparently] quite "transparent", with floor-to-ceiling glass windows, *gasp* walls and doors! Seriously. I could even see a worker walking from room to room inside. It was rather... fascinating, to say the least. Or maybe a little freaky. I mean, it looked more like apartment lots than offices, but who would like a transparent house, even if it is 40+ storeys high? People in working in the Petronas Twin Towers (for example) would be able to see everything. O_oOh well, that's about it. Next time, I wanna go to Kiku Japanese restaurant, which is just down the hallway next to Seligi. XD

Me messing around with the teapot before leaving. Where am I looking?!

Orientation @ TCPJ

Yup, my college life @ Taylor's College Petaling Jaya (TCPJ) has officially started!

So basically this week is Orientation Week, since it's all about getting us "newbies" familiarised with the school's system and campus and other miscellaneous stuff. Today was pretty boring - some talks on the library's usage and some note-taking tips.

Monday, 28th July 2008 -
Needless to say, it didn't seem to start out very smoothly when I walked into The Annexe (fancy name for "Hall-in-the-Basement") and went over report my attendance, only to discover that my name wasn't on the list for Foundation in Communication. In my head I was like "Wtf? I registered 4 freakin' months ago and paid my fees last week! Why the hell is my name NOT on the list?!" Then I showed them my receipt and they were like "Oh... In that case, write your name on the list then."

Great. Just great. -_-"

Thankfully, after that not-so-minor glitch, everything went on without incident for the rest of the day. After listening to a couple of hours of briefing/talks/speeches, we were separated into our respective "schools" (mine is School of Communication, SOC for short) and relocated to a smaller lecture hall, where we listened to some more briefings. After that, a senior brought us around for a tour of the campus. Then we were released for lunch and ID photo-taking session.

Luckily, me and Jennifer (her real name is quite similar to mine *grins*) went to The Annexe early to queue up for the photo session. Waited nearly 30 minutes before our turn, and then we went to have lunch with Charmaine (not sure if I spelled her name correctly, sorry~) before going back to the small lecture hall.

Now began our "ice breaking" session of the day. Each of us were given slips of paper with song lyrics on them. We were supposed to find people who had lyrics from the same song and form a group. I got a line from Madonna's "Don't Cry For Me Argentina". LoL!

We got together with the other group who got Madonna's song "American Pie" and sat in double rows. The first game we played was Charades. The theme was "Titles of Famous Movies" and all the other groups managed to guess both their movie titles except our group. (I bet all of us will forever remember "Toy Story" now! Haha!) However, we were not discouraged by this. In the second game, a group member was chosen to be "creatively mummified". All of us agreed that Michelle was the most suitable member to be mummified. XD And so she went from this...

...to this!

Thanks for being such a good sport! ^^
(Credits to Michelle herself for the photos - I stole the links from her blog *guilty*)

And in the end, our group even managed to get 1st runner-up in the "Mummy Competition"! Yay~!! Our prize was a packet of Van Houten chocolates. Yummy~ =)

Group pics! And yes, that's the one and only guy in our group. XD

I Passed !!

Oh yeah. I just got my L upgraded to a P!

I mean, I managed to pass the driving exam today - slope, parking, road and all. And on the week before I'm due to start college. Damn. Me and my procrastinating.

So anyway, I'm feeling really happy and relieved right now. I don't have to go for any more driving lessons and I don't have to pay more $$ to resit the exam. Phew~

Oh oh, I actually have a list of the people I wanna thank for the "accomplishment" today. They are (in no particular order):

1. My parents! <3>
2. My brothers (sort of... not much help here, but what the hell...)
3. Mr Chuah - the driving instructor
4. My friends, for all their advice and encouragement
5. Random people who gave way to an L driver on the road - especially the lady in a white Gen-2 who gave way to me today! ^^
6. The JPJ people at SDC (they were actually pretty nice... I guess)
7. Errr... Can't think of any more. lolz

So that's about it for today. Well, I was actually messing around with some Final Fantasy Versus XIII photos yesterday. The guys are total eye-candy, which means it was super fun playing around with the online photo editors (Picnik and Photoshop Express) and making them look even better! XD Here are a few samples of my photo-editing "genius". Muahahaha!!

Hitler Decapitated!

Yup, you saw right. Hitler got his head ripped off!

Well, the wax version, anyway. Gotcha there, didn't I? *grins*

It was on MSN News and also in The Star newspaper today, and I thought it was a really interesting piece of news. The report goes that a wax figure of Adolf Hitler had its head ripped off soon after the opening of a new branch of Madame Tussauds [Wax Museum] in Berlin on Saturday by a 41-year-old Berliner who is an unemployed former police officer. The reason for his actions was because he "...wanted to protest against Hitler's figure being on show".

The vandalism was not universally condemned. Local Social Democrat councillor Frank Zimmerman said: "It's more artistic to decapitate Hitler than it was to display him."

Many will agree with that oh-so-true statement. Hitler still isn't too popular now, except where Nazi costumes are concerned, and even then, people still condemn Nazi uniforms as being "evil".

Personally, I have no objections whatsoever to having Hitler displayed in a wax museum - unless the wax figurines can come to life complete with their notorious personalities intact. Feel free to run screaming at that time. =)

Click here for the article on MSN News.

Goodbye, Starbucks?

It finally happened. The world, or rather more to the point, the US of A is going to be deprived of 600 Starbucks outlets soon. Oh my god. The tragedy... NOT!

Aww, c'mon. I mean, is it that great a loss to the world as a whole? I don't think so. We were all getting along perfectly fine with our good old kopitiams and the guai lous with their quaint little cafes, until Starbucks came along and was all "Let's rule the world with our waaay overpriced designer coffee and get those suckers hooked on caffeine at the same time! Mwahahaha!".

Although I am not at all opposed to having a Starbucks outlet in the nearby shopping mall, I do think that having 5 Starbucks outlets in one building is just plain insanity. Just visit Berjaya Timesquare in KL and you'll know what I mean. There's 1 on the ground floor next to the main entrance, 2 in Borders (1 on each floor), and 2 more scattered around the inside of the building. Who wouldn't go all "Wtf?!" at that, for cryin' out loud?! Oh, and I almost forgot to mention that there's also a Starbucks directly opposite Timesquare, just across the road. If that isn't wtf-ness then I don't know what is.

Okay, okay, I know that the media reports only cover the closing of outlets in USA, but who's to say that it won't happen here too? Personally, I think that they'll reduce the number of outlets here too, seeing as only the minority of people can afford to purchase designer coffee on a regular basis. (I'm just speculating here; I have no idea how much profit they actually gain.)

So I say - "Bin the (Star)'bucks!!" Yup, for all you people out there, if you're addicted to Starbucks' coffee, I suggest that you learn to bin the Starbucks and take a sip of the local coffee at the nearest Old Town White Coffee, otherwise you'd really be binning your buck$.

And in a quote from MSN News....

A medium cappuccino at Starbucks costs 3.69 dollars in Washington, or the equivalent of 29.50 dollars per gallon. Gasoline seems a bargain at 4.08 per gallon.

That's why I love reading MSN News. They totally have a dry, sarcastic sense of humour.

However, if coffee is in your system like blood flows through your veins, then I only hope they have these kinds of IVs in the hospital soon...