Friday, May 30, 2008

Sharon Stone's Opps


There are times when I envy all those popular people in the news. The attention they get and sometimes the adulations. But this is one time when I am glad that I am just a nobody.

A couple of days ago, Sharon Stone, the popular actor made a remark that apparently angered millions of Chinese people in China when she let it slip in a TV interview (YouTube) that China's recent earthquake may have been "bad karma" for the country's actions against Tibet. I picked up the article in yesterday's daily.



I believe that thought would have not been very far from most people's minds when the disaster struck in China. I supposed that many of us would have said the same thing over breakfasts, lunches and dinners. But then, we are nobodies.

The same thoughts would have probably crossed some people's mind when Cyclone Nargis literally destroyed Yangon. This would have been brought about by the Junta's bad karma?

Yeah, there would be others who cannot stomach this utterly cruel and unfeeling way of thinking, that retribution should be placed on the innocents, especially the children but when catastrophes like earthquakes, tsunamis, cyclones happens, it sweeps across an area without stopping to segregate the innocents from rest of the lot.

The Daily Dish today reported that Stone's Dior campaign has been axed in China. Apparently Stone has already issued out a statement to apologize for her remarks but quote "But the damage has been done--China's official Xinhua News Agency said Thursday that Stone was the "public enemy of all mankind," while myriad blogs have labeled the actress with epithets like "heart of Stone". This was picked up from Forbes.com this morning and the photo on the right is from AP Photo/Noah Berger.

When I read this, I remembered this Malay saying "Siapa yang makan cili, dia yang rasa pedas" (literally translated to mean 'He would eats chillies, will feel the hotness/spiciness'). My 2 sen worth is, being Chinese, most of us do believe in karma, retribution, payback (boh ying - Cantonese). Do I hear the sound of a hammer hitting the nail on the head with Stone's remark? mmmm....

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Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Restaurant Hao Wei Dao @ Ngau Chay Sui

I went out to this place called NiuZeXui (in Mandarin) aka Ngau Chay Sui (in Cantonese) aka NZX (in English & Malay..hahaha) at Ara Damansara for dinner last nite. This is a relatively new place (at least to me lah but I think it may have been around for a while) and the first time I heard of it was from my electrician, Eddie. When he first mentioned Ngau Chay Sui, I only knew of a Ngau Chay something in Singapore.

Within the same week, as I was catching up with my favorite blogs, I saw this place being mentioned again in "You Get What You Give"'s post. That was when I made up my mind to go and check out the place and the food of course :). The place was interesting and the food was quite nice. But their portions were kind of small.. for my big appetite. Do read all about it at WMW's post here.

Anyway, back then I have already decided to return to NZX soon but to try out this place called Restaurant Hao Wei Dao. I was quite attracted by the deco of the place and I did get a peek at their menu before I left. They seemed to have everything I like, from breakfast serves of toasted bread and buns, to a wide selection of noodles, rice and tong sui (desserts).


We got there about almost 8pm last night. There were only 3 tables of customers, including us. It was not surprising as the place is right plunked in the middle of the condominiums and really without some directions to get into the Pusat Dagangan, one may just easily miss the location.

Managed to get a copy of the map here.


Back to my meal last night. There were lots of options and it was really a hard decision to pick the one I liked to try most. In the end, we decided on the Seafood Mee Suah,the Qi Zi Soup La Mee, a Calamari as a starter, a Red Bean Black Jelly to share and 2 chinese tea.

I must say that the noodles itself was standard but the soups... my oh my... the soups were lovely. The seafood soup taste very "seen".. how to say that in English...very fresh and seafoody haha. The Qi Zi (wolfberries) soup was so authentic that we simply had to order 1 serve of large rice to finish the soup.. super yummy.

Sorry about the lousy photo quality...blame the photographer (me) and not the equipment :)

Qi Zi Soup La Mee

The Calamari was crispy outside and nice and soft inside. Definitely a must have for me on my future visits.




The Red Bean Black Jelly was a tad disappointing for me as it was rather bland. Maybe I have had a bit too many of the lovely sweeties from babe and sue in the morning that my "sweetness" taste-nob on my tongue has been leveled up a couple of notches.

Overall, I would say it has been a rather nice meal for RM51.40 (inclusive of 5% Service Charge and 5% Govt Tax).

And oh, I need to mention this. Got my friend to go in to take some photos of the shop's mural (too chicken to do it myself.. not that good of a blogger yet you see... and also too full to get off my arse to do the job) and he started talking to one of the owners of the place, Alex Tan.

The wall that Alex is so proud of ;)

Alex was apparently used to having his customers take photos of his restaurant but it was because he thought it was his mural that attracted these customers. My friend told Alex that we were going to put it on our blogs and that really got Alex's attention :). He started talking to my friend, asking him a lot of questions, whilst I was fidgeting outside wondering "how long does one need to take one bl**dy picture of a wall".

Finally, my friend came out, with Alex tagging behind (coz an old gentleman, which I assumed was Alex's relative suggested that they should sit down comfortably to chat).

That's Alex in the singlet

Alex sat down at our table and chatted some more about how this blogging thing works and Alex seems pleased. And to think that his previous customers were taking photos of his shop for the beauty of his mural (haha..it was just a photo collage), but now Alex understood that these customers were probably blogging and advertising for him. Bet that made his night.

Alex, we are coming back to try out the rest of the items on your menu. See you soon!!

Address :
Restaurant Hao Wei Dao
Block E, E-G-03
Jalan PJU 1A/41B
Pusat Dagangan NZX Ara Jaya
47301 PJ
Tel : 03-7885 0508

Apparently they have another branch at Taman Desa. The address to that outlet is 14-G, Jalan 5/109F, Plaza Danau 2, 58100 Kuala Lumpur. Tel : 03-7981 8591

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Monday, May 26, 2008

Here In My Home - Malaysian Artistes For Unity

Peeps, have a look of this vid if you have the time. This is an effort by our local artistes for unity, entitled "Here In My Home". I first got wind of this effort from my friend Tobiyama. Not long after that, I received some emails from Pete Teo and also an invitation from him on facebook to join the "Malaysian Artiste for Unity Group"

Apparently this initiative was started by Pete Teo. He got together a group of local artiste to collaborate in this effort to make an anti-racism national unity song and video. The contingent is made of tonnes of people and it included filmmakers, dancers, singers, producers, musicians, actors, entrepreneurs, designers, footballers, activists, celebrities, students and apparently a florist too :).

The most wonderful part of it all, these people are taking zero (0) pay for their efforts. Sure or not, you'd ask. Hey...not everything is about money you know :)

Anyway, have a look at the video for yourself here.



or you can click here also.

If you would like to know more about the people involved in the video, both in it and behind it, do pop over at their website Hello and read all about them.



My deepest respect for all those involved in this, especially Pete :)

Mail to all ..from Malaysian Artistes for Unity...

"sorry for the late notice. we did not know this until now. the 'making of here in my home' will screen on astro's hitz tv tonight (friday 23rd) (channel 705) at 8pm. for those who can't be there, the program will be repeated on 25th may (coming sunday 8pm) and 29th may ( coming thursday 5.30pm). there is only so much you can say in a 4 minute pop song and video - so 'the making of' will give you much more depth about the mafu project and the thinking behind it. catch it if you can, and tell all your friends to watch it!!"

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Food can definitely kill the Monday blues :)

The days flies by at such speed that the weekend was over in a blink of an eye and Monday is here again :(. Sigh.. as I was driving to work this morning, I was like slowly working out of my sleepiness when an sms arrived. It read "...good morning 2u. i baked a cheesecake 4u. I'm on my way to the office now. when I reach, I'll sms u". The message was from my gal pal Sue. She has a blog but cannot be called a blogger yet as there is nothing in her blog presently. She tells me..."one day lah... when I feel the inspiration, I will post my recipes there".

Wah, who wouldn't perk up after such a message like that :). Going at the max of 110kph on the highway, I better make sure I arrived before the cake :). I managed to reach the office a good 10 minutes before Sue arrived with the cake. Actually, it was more than just cheesecake, I got some chiffon cake too. The aroma from them cakes were heavenly. Must make Sue send me her recipe for the cheesecake soon.




As I was sitting down at my desk admiring the cakes, my MSN window popped up and babe popped up. After the normal good morning and stuff, she said "later I pass you some cupcakes"...wah liow.. cupcakes. I must have died and ended up in cake heaven lah. So excited about the cuppies as babe is such a great baker. About half an over, a colleague came down bearing the cuppies offerings from babe. They looked so inviting.

The top ones are carrot cuppies and the bottom two are citrus yoghurt cuppies. Babe promised to post the recipe up so I will wait for them impatiently :)

I have already selected the 2 that I am eating during tea break later :)


Thanks sue and babe for those yummy cakes... I love cakes, and muffins, and cuppies and I could go on and on.

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Thursday, May 22, 2008

American Idol 7th Season ...... and the winner is ...David ....



Ha Ha.. I am not really a fan of American Idols but I just cannot help doing this post. Madam Zorra predicted that David Cook will face lots of unfavorable stars on the day of the competition, which happens to be the 1st day of the month of Gemini and David Archuleta is most likely to breeze through the competition. This morning, a radio DJ also predicted David A to run away with the top spot as she thought David C's choice of songs were not that great.

The judges comments were...

"In the final round, Cook came out with "The World I Know" by Collective Soul. Cowell pronounced that it was "completely and utterly the wrong song choice for the night." Archuleta performed John Lennon's "Imagine". "You came out here tonight to win, and what we have witnessed is a knock out," said the American Idol's prickly judge Cowell.

Randy Jackson proclaimed, "The best singer of season 7 is right there" after Archuleta sang John Lennon's "Imagine," that song that earlier in the competition brought him some of his best feedback."


for more, click here.

Over the radio at 10:18am..... the radio announced the winner of the American Idol Season 7 is...
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David Cook

mmmm.... true or not wor????

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Wednesday, May 21, 2008

When God Paints...

Received a mail from a friend this morning with lots of beautiful images in it. I love great pictures and photographs, especially if the subject matter is mother nature herself. That is one of the reasons why I keep popping into Arch Lancer's blog. I love those photographs he takes of the waterfalls. Each time I look at these photographs, it reminds me of how lovely our mother earth is and it only take Man to destroy all these beauty with his couldn't care less attitude.

Anyway, I would like to share this series of images entitled "When God Paints".

This was when God dropped his paint box. The 1st photo is a real place outside Bakersfield, California.

















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Thursday, May 15, 2008

Gruesome Photos of the recent Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar

Latest updated from Associated Press (8 hrs ago) read...

Heavy rains head toward cyclone-devastated Myanmar

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — Heavy rains and another potentially powerful storm headed toward Myanmar's cyclone-devastated delta on Wednesday. The U.N. warned that inadequate relief efforts could lead to a second wave of deaths among the estimated 2 million survivors. The International Red Cross said in a new estimate that the death toll already may be between 68,833 and 127,990......

At times, words do little to jolt our senses. We read words and we forget words. However, with pictures, they sometimes stay in our minds for a long long time. The only reason why I wanted to share this photos, albeit gruesome is just to remind us that life is fragile. We will surely and certainly die one day, only the when, where and how is unknown. These words have been spoken so many times by my Guru, Tsem Tulku Rinpoche, but not often enough as many of us still continue to channel our efforts on many things which are unimportant and trival to us in our daily lives thinking that we'll live forever and loose sight of the larger things.

These pictures were sent to me this morning and some of them are indeed are rather offensive. However, please view them (if you are up to it) with compassion and understanding on the fragility of life, if nothing else. If you do not want to view them, there is enough time to close this page before the first picture even appears.
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UNICEF - GIVE THANKS FOR WHAT WE HAVE

Today started off just like any other day for me. As it is a work day, the traffic is pretty much the same (horrendous), so, that is something definitely to complain about (bitch is actually the more appropriate word here) during lunch time. The weather last night was sizzling hot. Yet another item in the complaints department. There are boundless things that irritates , from an unintentional remark from a colleague, a friend who forgot to reply an sms, the incessant calls from the insurance agents.. sigh.

Then I opened my mails and out of the pile of good stuff, the work stuff and the junk, I found 2 very thought provoking mails from 2 different friends. The first one was a video from YouTube and the image that I saw was a little child having his meal from what I think is a rubbish pile.

UNICEF - GIVE THANKS FOR WHAT WE HAVE


(if you are unable to view the video embedded, then try clicking here)


This is an old video but I believe that we humans have very short memories. We need constant reminders lest we forget our priorities. I watched the video and remembered the Four Immeasurables (this is part of a buddhist prayer and aspiration) ...

The Four Immeasurables
    May all sentient beings have happiness and the causes of happiness.
    May all sentient beings be free from suffering and the causes of suffering.
    May all sentient beings never be separated from the happiness which is without suffering.
    May all sentient beings abide in equanimity, free from both attachment and hatred, holding some close and others distant.
The second mail was filled with pictures of death. I will not post the pictures with this entry as they are rather gross. But they too serve as a reminder that death comes in many ways and death is a definite. Only the time and the manner it comes is unknown. Those photos will be rather graphic and looking at them might be totally offensive... so, you've been warned. Come back later at your own risk.

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Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Prince Caspian arrives tomorrow at our cinemas

I wonder if I get to see it tomorrow? and pick up the 2nd Narnian glass with the popcorn and coke :)

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Evil Icing Queen....

When you do something that you really like doing, everything else seems to blur into the background. The weekend past just went like that. Of course, Saturday evening was a great time at the restaurant celebrating mothers' day with my mum. But nothing beats the time I had on Sunday night.

After a long time of not baking, suddenly, I had the inspiration to bake again..actually that is not true. I wanted to play with my butter cream decoration again and I thought that it would be a waste if I just piped the cream onto the tracing paper or plate and then just throw it all away. So, no choice, took out the flour and all the other ingredients to make some chocoloate, coffee cupcakes. No nuts, no cream cheese....just plain cake.

The last time. I think I only had about 12 cupcakes to "play" with, this time I made sure that I made enough to really have a great time with the butter cream icing. The result was 32 of these lovelies... all sitting there on the "sacrificial table" waiting for me.... the evil Icing Queen...buahaha.



I made a fresh batch of butter cream as the cupcakes were baking in the oven, so by the time I was done, the 1st batch of the cupcakes were cool enough to be "attacked".

I started with some of the designs that I did previously. Then as I have bought myself a few more pipping tips, could barely wait to see the outcome of them.


These are the results from the new pipes...



By the time I finished the first batch, there were a few spoilt ones... and no free cupcakes for guessing where those went. Down the bottomless pit of a stomach of mine.

I was done doing all of the cupcakes by 11:30pm and even with the spoilt ones done away with, I still ended with almost 28 of them...now..for the final part of the evil plan of mine...how to get rid of them...hehehe...

Send a batch of these to my favorite Superheroes......


and sent some of these to JW....


forced some on my ex-colleagues during our gathering last night...


phew...only a few more left to go... *grins

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