I’m an INFJ…!
MOVED – JEANGAN.COM
HELLO EVERYONE!
As you may already have known, I have moved to my own domain and host at JEANGAN.COM !
This also means that I am not longer with My Fat Pocket, don’t worry it wasn’t due to any bad blood or anything. It is just that the contract term has expired and I do not wish to renew it. 
So yes, I will be blogging over at my new platform from now onwards and will not be updating here anymore.
GUESS I’LL SEE YOU GUYS AT JEANGAN.COM ?? 
8 reasons why you should visit a hawker centre at least once a week
Hawker centres are places close to the hearts of several heartlanders where you can find scrumptious local food delights which many restaurants and cafes are unable to provide. True enough, there may be food courts or even cafes which offer the same food choices as hawker centres but it is not always the food that matters. The ambience of the location count as well.
Laksa, Fried Kway Teow, Fried Hokkien Mee, Lor Mee, Chicken Rice and so forth are some of the food choices which top Singaporeans’ favourite list. If you would have realized, queues for local delights occur mostly at hawker centres and not food courts. What is the reason behind this? Consider the freshness of the food which are easily detectable such as seafood. Although not absolute, hawker centres are usually situated very close to wet markets where food hawkers get their food supplies from. In comparison to restaurants and cafes, food are usually frozen or kept for a few days. Of course, this is not to say that food hawkers do not resort to similar cost-effective methods, but there is a higher chance that food from hawker centres are fresher.
Compared to most restaurants that do not offer fusion of different cuisines, hawker centres sell a myriad of cuisines, including Malay food, to Thai, Indian, Western, Italian, Korean, Japanese and even Vietnamese food! You get to try out different types of cuisines at one go, that is if your stomach’s space permits. On the same footing, hawker centres are also definitely the best choice if your group of buddies cannot decide on what cuisine to have.
At a promotional price
Undisputedly, one of the main reasons why hawkers centre are ‘for the win’ is due to the obvious price differences. A plate of Fried Kway Teow, on the average, costs $3 while food courts sell them for $5. With a $2 saving, you can even get a decent cold drink from the drink stall at hawker centres and still able to save around 50 cents. Of course, the price differences attribute to the rental differences and environment. Unless you are budget-less, visiting hawker centres should be done at least once a week or even more frequent.
Hawker centres are favourite choices of many heartlanders who grew up in that area since young and who may be loyal and avid customers of their favourite stalls. Some of these stalls stay put in the same area for several years, passing down the ownership and management throughout the generations. Furthermore, the reason for such favoritism may be because certain creative hawker vendors include a different recipe or ingredient which cannot be found in other similar food in other locations.
If you are just looking to settle your dinner after work or may just want to satisfy your hunger with small bites, you need not travel down all the way to shopping malls or specific restaurants to do just that. Convenience is key to many customers and since hawker centres are easily accessible, this is the reason why you should cut your car some slack (saves petrol too!) and visit a nearby hawker centre. With that, why the need to travel down all the way to restaurants just for Hi-Tea sessions when you can now simply just head to the nearest hawker centres in your home clothes and slippers and not receive disapproving stares, and yet get to enjoy your favourite Dim Sum?
As a coffee-addict to another, if you need some good ol’ coffee to keep your awake and satisfy your coffee-addiction, hawker centres is The One. They sell the best coffee and proven to be more effective in keeping one awake than coffee chains and cafes. And of course, it is much cheaper as well. ‘Cheap and good’ – why not? Never reject good offer, they would say.
If you are claustrophobic or simply hate to wait, hawker centres would definitely beat restaurants and cafes hands down due to the lesser crowd. Although there may be some queues at certain popular food stalls, with the variety of food choices, the situation is better than restaurants and cafes.
The last reason is pretty simple, because dining at restaurants and cafés is just too mainstream. Why follow the trend just for the sake of following and at the expense of your pocket? Are our local delights and hawker centres not Instagram-worthy enough? It is high time we show more support towards our local food because this hawker culture may soon vanish before you even know it.
10 annoying questions I get as a Blogger
Inspired by my fellow blogger friends, I decided to pen down 10 annoying questions I get as a Blogger.
1. This product FOC (Free-of-Charge) one ah? People sponsored you ah?
Sigh, even some of the stuffs owned by power bloggers such as Xiaxue, Qiuqiu and Tammy Tay are paid by themselves, what more me.
If I were a power blogger too, then I guess perhaps most of the stuffs I own/blog might be sponsored, but unfortunately, I am not 😦
So yes, contrary to he beliefs of some people, there are products/services which I paid.
2. Wah, you are a Legal Counsel and a blogger? Where you get the time?
I must admit that my recent workload is scaling up and I am OT-ing more often now. My 6-month old job is indeed much more demanding in terms of stress and workload compared to my previous job which was of the same designation and job scope.
My current job sees me as a Legal Counsel for a public listed company which has several subsidiaries, both local and overseas and my capable CEO, of whom I report to directly (tell me about the stress!) have been aggressively acquiring companies. This simply means that all these companies are under my care for legal work, so…the question is, where do I get the time and energy to blog/attend events?
I used to be able to attend events after work where I was still able to rush down in time. But because of the change of situation, I dare not commit to attending events after work now. It would not be impressive at all to commit and then cancel thereafter, or turn up extremely late. 😦
I hereby sincerely apologise to those I have disappointed 😦
As for blogging, if I hadn’t the time, I wouldn’t be blogging right now. Kidding.
You will just have to find the time or make time for it. This comes in important because if you have the passion to blog (and not just earn buckaroos), you will always have the time for it. It depends on how you manage and juggle your priorities.
Just take a look at Dr. Leslie Tay who is a family doctor and practices at Karri Family Clinic in Tampines. He is happily married with two young children. If he/others can do it, why can you or me? 😉
Just think, when you were a student or still is, why do you always have the time for fun and not study? The same logic applies.
3. You where will broke one? You are a lawyer + blogger leh
Okay lor, thank you for seeing so highly of me.
A millionaire can still be broke if he/she doesn’t manage his/her finance well ma, if you know what I mean.
Sad truth be told, I do not actually manage my finance. I do not even have a separate bank for savings. I just lump everything into 1 bank account and spend within my means, or at least try to. Because I am not a power blogger, my earnings from my blog/social media platforms are puny. Sometimes, I don’t even earn at all 😦
4. Are you really a lawyer? I have never seen such a ‘cool’/’hip’ lawyer
Because of the content published on my social media platforms which are linked to me being a blogger, I get doubts whenever they read or are told that I am a Legal Counsel.
I am a Legal Counsel, yes, I am not a full-fledged lawyer. I do not represent clients in Court and I do not work in a law firm, although a Legal Counsel may be termed as “In-House Lawyer” in some countries and are used interchangeably. My client is the company I work for and not individuals or individual companies.
I think it isn’t fair to stereotype a professional as nerdy/geeky.
I like and strive towards having both brains and brawls, although some of you may dispute.
I know of a fellow freelance model friend whom I got to know in my previous freelance modelling fashion show, she is a Doctor but she does freelance modelling (or paid I wouldn’t know?) and acts as a Calefare.
Okay, whether she is moonlighting or not is another question but yeah, this is just to prove that not all professionals are ‘uncool’ okay.
What if I tell you I have a huge ‘ang kong’ (tattoo) on my back? :O
Psst, the Singlish ‘language’ (is it really?) is a constant reminder that I can type and speak in the normal Singaporean language too you know = not a nerd who types and speaks in perfect Queen’s English.
5. Can you help me get free stuffs?
Because of my full-time profession, it would be quite easy to discredit me on this account if I were to shameless ask for free stuffs.
I wouldn’t say that I earn big bucks but relatively speaking, if a person who earns relatively lesser than a professional asks for free stuffs, the society would start pointing fingers to shame the professional because he/she is relatively richer in terms of income.
Moreover, we bloggers get sponsored stuffs from companies because there is a price to pay (pun unintended).
I know some power bloggers or even celebrities receive tonnes of freebies every other day and they are not obliged to blog/shout out for these companies. But sadly, I am not even half-way of being a power blogger yet, so poor bloggers like us still have to adhere to obligations to return these companies a favour by advertising for them. In which most of the collaborations for sponsorship will clearly spell out these obligations.
The reason why companies engage bloggers is for advertising and marketing purposes, and not for fun. They too have to take into account their profit and loss you know.
6. Can you attend events on (insert a working day/hour on weekdays)?
Okay fine. I don’t receive such direct questions but if I were to receive emails inviting me to attend events that fall on a working day/hour, I would be quite pissed and sad because I cannot attend the event!
By sending out these invitations, it is the same as asking me if I can attend them during work.
What do you think?
I am not a full-time blogger and not ready to be one yet. The last time I checked my bank account, the puny earnings from blogging cannot even match up to my income earned as a Legal Counsel (Again, I must emphaise that I am not saying that I earn big bucks but speaking relatively. Always need to disclaim first because people are easily pissed off nowadays). Read this if you are having qualms of whether or not to switch to a full-time blogger.
I have also done up a post which attracted many views on the absurd invitations from PR/Media companies here, and question 6 on this post falls consistently as 1 of them.
Such companies should first do their homework before engaging, unless they are hoping to throw a big net by mass emailing and hoping to receive as many positive replies as possible.
7. Do you know Xiaxue (or any other bloggers(power or not))?
I wished I knew too because if you have noticed, Xiaxue, who is Asia-Pacific’s top blogger (as claimed in her Instagram profile) is definitely one of the people you should mingle with, if you even have the opportunity, that is!
Sadly I don’t la, so here I am stuck being a nobody-blogger 😦
8. So what type of blogger are you? Beauty, lifestyle, food, travel, fashion…
You know honestly, I have no idea even when I termed myself as a Beauty, fashion and lifestyle blogger…
Ridiculous it may sound, but I don’t just want to be known as a ‘beauty blogger’ because I wouldn’t want to come across as a ‘bimbo’ filling her blog with only beauty-related content. Neither do I wish to be termed as ‘food blogger’ because firstly, I am not looking forward to the excess weight gain and neither am I a foodie.
I prefer and like to be known as the ‘chapalang’ blogger (mixture of everything). Sometimes I have the urge to blog about something personal or political, but have always held my reservations.
If I were to blog something too personal (e.g. my relationship, my work etc), then watchful eyes would turn into gossip-mongers. But I guess that is part of the ‘fame’ package right? Haters gonna hate, you know.
And as for controversial and political topics, I scared our ‘gahmen’ catch me lah, plus being a law graduate and a Legal Counsel, life would be even more difficult for me if I were to do just that. Later tio double charge how?
One more thing is that, if you compare all those power bloggers, they are actually a mixture of everything too. This mean that their blog posts are relatable and attractive to even wider target audience. A blog tip from yours truly. 🙂
9. Are you going to blog about this?/You can blog about this
My blog, my topics.
My blog does not consume my whole life. I still have other aspects to attend to you know.
I really have no idea if such query/statement is made genuinely or stained with sarcasm.
10. Your xxx content/information is wrong. Why don’t you know/do research before misleading people?
NOT.
I’m sorry lah ‘cher.
There are days when my perfectionism is left deactivated sleeping at home and I did not get my facts right.
There are also days when my laziness consume the whole of me and I did not conduct a thorough due diligence to check my information before publishing them on a public platform.
I’m sorry lah, really. 😥
But I am not an encyclopedia/dictionary and even Wikipedia is not 100% accurate and 😦
However, I strive to perfect my blog posts to prevent such embarrassing boo-boos.
Please accept my sincere apology, okay?
[Travelogue] Penang Day 3 – Famous food and places (Street Art/Mural Painting)!
Hello guys!
Yes I am back to share with you how my day 3 of my recent Penang trip went!
Below are the recounts of day 1 and 2:
As the bf and I had intended to drop by the street art areas in Penang at George Town, we decided to go for it on day 3, although it was a tad difficult for my sister and bro-in-law who has to look after my niece, as well as for my aged parents. There was abit of compromisation here due to the different interests of all 3 couples.
However, the weather wasn’t very much on our side, so please do check the weather forecast before heading down. In fact, checking of the weather forecast should be placed as one of your main priorities whenever you are planning to travel. You wouldn’t want to head down to beach places during the heavy monsoon period, would you?
I guess it was difficult to predict accurately (hence, the word ‘forecast’) for all weathers but for obvious ones such as the rainy seasons during the end of the year should be avoided.
Due to the uncooperative weather, we had to head indoors instead. This simply means that we are wasting precious time and transport costs which were accrued by the hour.
On the third day, we changed chauffeur to a more aged guy (I cannot recall his name) who well, in our opinion, wasn’t as resourceful as Tommy.
Since we could not visit the street art area yet, we decided to settle for lunch.
The chauffeur brought us to Song River Cafe which is located along the bay of Song River.
Address: No. 65, Persiaran Gurney, 10250, George Town, Pulau Pinang, 10250, Malaysia
There were what we ordered.
Piping hot Bak Kut Teh
Tofu
Fried egg with oysters
Stir-fried chai sim
It was drizzling when we reached and the weather was really uncooperative as it started to pour heavily soon after.
As we were seated nearest to the end of the coffeeshop (I wouldn’t term it as a ‘cafe’ despite its name), rain was splattering in. We were quite concerned because the precious little princess cannot afford to be drenched. Hence, we requested for the staff to wind down the shelter.
However, our request was immediately turned down as we were told that the shelter did not belong to them but to another stall owner. Do note that there are a few different stall owners in that coffeeshop alone.
We were quite pissed at their rigid mentality. You mean you rather let your customers get splattered by the heavy down pour than to just wind down the shelter for us? I thought it was ridiculous. Moreover, the rain was splattering into our food as well. The whole unmaintained coffeeshop with filmsy roof seemed like it was about to collapse anytime.
Obviously, I did not enjoy the ambience there.
Unsurprisingly what was more disappointing was the food.
What we expected to soothe ourselves in the cold rainy weather, turned out to be the worst dish of all. Yes, you are right. The Bak Kut Teh would top anyone’s craving in such a weather but unfortunately, it lacked the flavour. It tasted a little diluted and simply just missed out the ‘oomph’.
I was once told that Malaysia’s BKT tasted sweet while Singapore’s version is more of the peppery kind, so please take note of the difference in taste when eating BKT in our neighbour country.
Also, I wished they hadn’t added in the Beancurd Skin aka ‘Tao Ki’ because I felt it didn’t really match the usual BKT style. But then again, perhaps this might be the Msia’s version?
The rest of the food was mediocre and even the fried egg with oysters did not reach its supposed fragrant level.
On the whole, we didn’t enjoy lunching there at all, so I really wouldn’t recommend you guys to drop by at all.
Our moods (I guess esp the bf’s and mine) were made even worse when the rain kept pouring and pouring, postponing our plans to visit the street art. 😦
We had no choice but to be ‘dumped’ at shopping malls for a about 2hours + 😦
Thank god the weather was a little kinder to us after that and we managed to proceed to the street art areas as planned!
A short introduction on Penang’s famous street art mural paintings at Georgetown :
As part of the George Town Festival in 2012, Ernest Zacharevic is a young Lithuania-born artist who has been beautifying this part of George Town which has since attracted many, boosting Penang’s tourism industry.
Ernest Zacharevic has painted more than a dozen murals on the walls of George Town and some of the more popular ones are “Boy on a Bike”, the lively “Little Children on a Bicycle” to the whimsical“Little Boy with Pet Dinosaur”.
It was a pity that we did not and could not stop by every mural due to time-constraint but tried to make most out of the given time.
Our first stop was at Armenian Street, Georgetown, Penang where the all-time famous street art “Little Children on a Bicycle” mural was at.
The below are simple snippets of other arts I came across and thought were camera-worthy and blog-worthy. Hee.
I’m very sure the local authorities in Penang wouldn’t mind if our very own local talent, Sticker Lady (who happens to be my Senior back in Sec sch!) stamped her famous witty stickers all over George Town. On the same note, I think Singapore should “open up” a little more on such timeless street art pieces, perhaps focusing on hipster places such as the vicinity at Haji Lane? Who knows, this may even follow-suit and attract many appreciative tourists too!
Let’s continue with the awesomeness shall we?
“Skippy, The Giant Cat” & ” The Giant Rat” @ Armenian Street, (These murals are side by side, just round the corner)
“The Giant Rat” was a playful add-on to the “Giant Cat” mural and was painted by an unidentified artist.
It was a real pity as we could not spend more time visiting and capturing all these awesome street murals as the chauffeur had other passengers to attend to. We left shortly after to our hotel to rest a little before heading out for dinner on our own.
After refreshing ourselves with a power nap, we manage to get hold of a hotel in-house chef to seek recommendations for a place to eat.
He recommended Stone Bay Restaurant which was a distance from our hotel. As mentioned in my previous post, where I had mentioned that we were lucky enough to have a panel of cab drivers stationed at the taxi stand opposite our hotel daily. So, getting a cab to us was easy feat but you will need to haggle for the cab fare if it seems unreasonable.
Address: 12, Jalan Perusahaan Jelutong 2, Jelutong, Pulau Pinang
This was one of the best dishes we have tried so far. They were really really delicious and were not very expensive as we thought it would be. We paid around RM200+ 🙂
After that, the bf and I headed for our private nightlife date at Upper Penang Road for a booze-cum-soccer-chillax-session but we were taken aback.
Let me show you what I mean.
Yup this was pretty much it.
You could see how it wasn’t as ‘happening’ as we thought it would be. What was more humourous was that I was actually kinda apprehensive that the place would be rowdy and filled with loads of drunkards (fear for our safety esp when we are overseas!) and such, but there was nothing near that, which is good.
But I guess because our favourite soccer club – Liverpool won the match that night, it kinda made us feel better! 🙂
We scurried back our hotel via cab before 12am because we were kindly informed that there would be midnight surcharge of a whopping 50% more!
So that was all for day 3 in Penang…stay tuned for my last blog post on my 4th day which is also the last day of this Penang trip! 🙂
[Travelogue] Penang Day 2 – Famous food and places!
It is very heart-warming to know that many of my readers actually enjoyed my first blog post on Penang day 1! Thank you so much, you don’t know how these positive feedback from you guys really mean to us! It gives us bloggers even more motivation to blog 🙂
Here is how my day 2 in Penang went.
First stop was to the Pinang Peranakan Mansion. This was where the local film the “Little Nonya” was filmed at.
Extracted from their official website, “At the Pinang Peranakan Mansion, the typical home of a rich Baba of a century ago is recreated to offer a glimpse of their opulent lifestyle and of their many customs and traditions. With over 1,000 pieces of antiques and collectibles of the era on display, this Baba-Nyonya museum is also housed in one of Penang’s heritage mansion of eclectic design and architecture. “
Address : 29, Lebuh Gereja, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia
Don’t wish to bore you with the tonnes of pictures I took, so here are some of them :
Level 2 :
An antique camera.
A little gift shop.
A little cafe selling some of the famous Penang Peranakan food!
Us trying to imitate the way the “olden people” pose for pictures. LOL.
Overall, I think it is quite an awesome experience. They even attached an English-speaking ‘guider’ to explain to the visitors of the history of the lives of the Peranakan.
And then we continued our journey to hunt for good food again and managed to snap some pictures of the cute little girl 🙂
Tommy drove us to experience the new bridge which is linked to the mainland. This is the Sultan Abdul Halim Muadzam Shah Bridge and it is the second bridge to link the island to the mainland after the first Penang Bridge.
Along the way, there were several cows which I didn’t manage to snap pictures of 😦
But here are some villages along the side of the road.
We had lunch at a chinese restaurant called Ah Yen Seafood Restaurant
Address : 701, Batu Kawan, 14110, Simpang Ampat, Penang. 019-4133379 / 04-5872616
Review on the food : It wasn’t that fantastic and we were a little disappointed in their food 😦 Mum was of the opinion that the chicken had this ‘frozen’ taste. The rest of the food were mediocre and if I were to pick the best dish, that would be the fried tofu.
The bf showed me a tourist pamphlet and I told myself that I had to pay a visit to this cafe.
Address : 53, Jalan Muntri Georgetown, Penang, Malaysia
I have not visited any cat cafes before, not even those in Singapore so I was really thrilled when I discovered that Penang has one! 😀
The cafe has 2 levels.
The first level allows you to place your food and drinks orders and they sell loads of kitty-related stuffs too!
This is level 2 where you can visit the kitties and have a relaxing cuppa~
I was actually looking forward to having some rainbow cakes but they don’t sell them, so we settled with red velvet. 🙂
I thought the red velvet was filled with too much cream and felt kinda cheated because the ones we have in Singapore do not have layers of cream in between 😦
We ordered a cuppa of cappuccino with came with a cute kitty coffee art!
Caught in the act!! Look at them fat arms! :O
And I’m sure most of you guys are wondering where are the kitties?!
Here they are!
To be honest, I liked kitties before I liked dogs. But kitties are less approachable and look less friendly, unless dogs who are most of the time, friendlier and livelier!
There was a enclosed glass panel which some cats were placed in. There were signs to informed customers not to knock against the glass. I’m not sure why these cats were segregated from the rest though. Could it be they are feeling unwell? 😦
Since The Camera Museum was beside the cafe, we popped by for a visit!
Address : 49 Lebuh Muntri, George Town, Penang.
They sell cakes and coffee too!
I love these cafes, their concepts and their ambience. Perfect for a relaxing day to unwind and take the stress off your mind temporarily.
Tommy then took us to a very cool and exciting place which is none other than…
Address : 31a Jalan Gurdwara (opposite of the Grand Continental Hotel) , George Town, Malaysia
Honestly, I had the exact same reaction as you when I first saw the front of the place. I was clueless as to what this place was and what interesting stuffs it can offer, but was later awed by its arty farty style.
After that, we went shopping at 1st Avenue, a huge shopping centre (Msia’s shopping centres are mega HUGE!!) located at Jalan Magazine, Georgetown, 10300 Georgetown, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia where we had our dinner at Old Town White Coffee there and Tommy came to pick us up a 9.30pm. No pictures because my camera battery died and there wasn’t anything special and camera-worthy of 😦
We reached the hotel quite early and sort of had an early rest (we watched dramas on the telly).
I guess the second day was the most fruitful day of all, conquering many interesting places all in one day! 🙂
[Travelogue] Penang Day 2 – Famous food and places!
It is very heart-warming to know that many of my readers actually enjoyed my first blog post on Penang day 1! Thank you so much, you don’t know how these positive feedback from you guys really mean to us! It gives us bloggers even more motivation to blog 🙂
Here is how my day 2 in Penang went.
First stop was to the Pinang Peranakan Mansion. This was where the local film the “Little Nonya” was filmed at.
Extracted from their official website, “At the Pinang Peranakan Mansion, the typical home of a rich Baba of a century ago is recreated to offer a glimpse of their opulent lifestyle and of their many customs and traditions. With over 1,000 pieces of antiques and collectibles of the era on display, this Baba-Nyonya museum is also housed in one of Penang’s heritage mansion of eclectic design and architecture. “
Address : 29, Lebuh Gereja, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia
Don’t wish to bore you with the tonnes of pictures I took, so here are some of them :
Level 2 :
An antique camera.
A little gift shop.
A little cafe selling some of the famous Penang Peranakan food!
Us trying to imitate the way the “olden people” pose for pictures. LOL.
Overall, I think it is quite an awesome experience. They even attached an English-speaking ‘guider’ to explain to the visitors of the history of the lives of the Peranakan.
And then we continued our journey to hunt for good food again and managed to snap some pictures of the cute little girl 🙂
Tommy drove us to experience the new bridge which is linked to the mainland. This is the Sultan Abdul Halim Muadzam Shah Bridge and it is the second bridge to link the island to the mainland after the first Penang Bridge.
Along the way, there were several cows which I didn’t manage to snap pictures of 😦
But here are some villages along the side of the road.
We had lunch at a chinese restaurant called Ah Yen Seafood Restaurant
Address : 701, Batu Kawan, 14110, Simpang Ampat, Penang. 019-4133379 / 04-5872616
Review on the food : It wasn’t that fantastic and we were a little disappointed in their food 😦 Mum was of the opinion that the chicken had this ‘frozen’ taste. The rest of the food were mediocre and if I were to pick the best dish, that would be the fried tofu.
The bf showed me a tourist pamphlet and I told myself that I had to pay a visit to this cafe.
Address : 53, Jalan Muntri Georgetown, Penang, Malaysia
I have not visited any cat cafes before, not even those in Singapore so I was really thrilled when I discovered that Penang has one! 😀
The cafe has 2 levels.
The first level allows you to place your food and drinks orders and they sell loads of kitty-related stuffs too!
This is level 2 where you can visit the kitties and have a relaxing cuppa~
I was actually looking forward to having some rainbow cakes but they don’t sell them, so we settled with red velvet. 🙂
I thought the red velvet was filled with too much cream and felt kinda cheated because the ones we have in Singapore do not have layers of cream in between 😦
We ordered a cuppa of cappuccino with came with a cute kitty coffee art!
Caught in the act!! Look at them fat arms! :O
And I’m sure most of you guys are wondering where are the kitties?!
Here they are!
To be honest, I liked kitties before I liked dogs. But kitties are less approachable and look less friendly, unless dogs who are most of the time, friendlier and livelier!
There was a enclosed glass panel which some cats were placed in. There were signs to informed customers not to knock against the glass. I’m not sure why these cats were segregated from the rest though. Could it be they are feeling unwell? 😦
Since The Camera Museum was beside the cafe, we popped by for a visit!
Address : 49 Lebuh Muntri, George Town, Penang.
They sell cakes and coffee too!
I love these cafes, their concepts and their ambience. Perfect for a relaxing day to unwind and take the stress off your mind temporarily.
Tommy then took us to a very cool and exciting place which is none other than…
Address : 31a Jalan Gurdwara (opposite of the Grand Continental Hotel) , George Town, Malaysia
Honestly, I had the exact same reaction as you when I first saw the front of the place. I was clueless as to what this place was and what interesting stuffs it can offer, but was later awed by its arty farty style.
After that, we went shopping at 1st Avenue, a huge shopping centre (Msia’s shopping centres are mega HUGE!!) located at Jalan Magazine, Georgetown, 10300 Georgetown, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia where we had our dinner at Old Town White Coffee there and Tommy came to pick us up a 9.30pm. No pictures because my camera battery died and there wasn’t anything special and camera-worthy of 😦
We reached the hotel quite early and sort of had an early rest (we watched dramas on the telly).
I guess the second day was the most fruitful day of all, conquering many interesting places all in one day! 🙂
[Media Event] Love & Co. – Proposal Rings and Wedding Bands!
Recently, the bf and I were cordially invited by Love&Co. to an exclusive bloggers-only media event and were showcased to their LVCaqueen collection.
We were greeted by warm and friendly staff of Love&Co. 🙂
We were asked to fill up a ‘Couple Personality Test’ which tests each partner’s knowledge on their other half.
Apart from that, this event provided us a valuable insight as to the price and information on proposal rings and wedding bands, which would be forthcoming in the near future.
I guess this should answer most of your queries. 😉
Truth be told, I was telling the bf and the sales assistant that I actually prefer a simple looking proposal ring, with no diamonds on the side. Also, because my fingers are quite slim, a hugeass carat is really not required.
I am really not difficult to please, materialistically.
To be honest, I don’t even think spending an exorbitant sum of money on such stuffs is anywhere near logical and practical. Even spending 5k on a chanel is seems ridiculous to me.
I would prefer to invest such sum on something more investable. I don’t know about you but I guess may some people are just too rich and have no idea where to spend the rest of their moolahs on, and that is taken into consideration that they have donated a huge sum off to those in need.
Anyhoo, we had our caricature done….in a M18 humour!
HAHAHA SO FUNNY RIGHT?
We enjoyed ourselves so much that night 🙂
And last but not least…
ALL HAIL THE KING AND QUEEN…!!! MUAHAHA~
[Travelogue] Penang Day 1 – Famous food and places!
Hello everyone! 🙂
As promised on my Facebook page, I will be penning down all the experiences and encounters (Famous food and places!) I had during my recent Penang trip with the family and this blog entry marks the first day of the 4D3N short getaway.
A handful of you guys asked about the mode of transport to Penang and yes, I took a plane there. Firstly, I think it’s mainly because of my little niece (who is turning 1 year in less than a month’s time! YAY!!) who will not be comfortable in taking a coach to Penang and secondly, I guess the journey time is kinda long…so we settled to take a flight there. Oh and if you have no idea, I dislike taking coach because I am prone to motion-sickness and I find it very uncomfortable to sleep while sitting. There was even once where I took a flight to Melbourne for a Food & Nutrition trip during my secondary school days for 7hrs straight without sleeping! I know right, but due to age catching up, I just try to nap when I can, despite the dozing off at awkward positions and moments. Thank god I hardly drool =x
After comparing the flight rates and available schedules, we settled for Tiger Air. If I recall correctly, Jetstar does not provide any available flight for the return flight from Penang to Singapore on 5th Oct.
Thank god we arrived at the airport early because we were told to head for the gate much earlier than expected because the plane was located somewhere remote at the Budget Terminal and we had to take a shuttle bus over. I wonder what happened to those who arrive like 45mins before the check-in time or even later.
The journey time from Singapore to Penang was only around 1 to 1.5hrs.
Personally, Jetstar is my favourite budget airline, although I’ve not tried others like Scoot. I’ve never liked Tiger Air because it is so much smaller in space, but thankfully the journey time was significantly short.
Before the trip, I pre-booked a personal transport for my family via my colleague who is from Penang. She recommended this guy to my other colleagues as well so transport was a breeze for us.
We paid RM1600 for 3 days for 8 hours per day for a 10-seater Toyota Alphard. We paid another additional RM80 for him to fetch us to the airport from our hotel on the last day.
I pre-booked the transport because I was told that getting a cab in Penang is not convenient (although it seemed otherwise during my trip, especially since there were a string of regular cab drivers stationed opposite my hotel at the cab stand everyday). Apart from that, we were afraid that the cab drivers might charge exorbitantly high since most of them unsurprisingly, do not follow the ‘metre’ method of charging.
Anyway, I guess you might be wondering, why Penang?
I must confess that I was not really looking forward to this destination because I thought there is nothing much to do, other than to eat and view the street art. But I guess it’s kinda different when you are there in person and the pictures will paint a thousand words.
And yes, the air tix was about $233 (peak hour) which could have brought us to Bangkok for some awesome shopping time and delicious Thai food but I guess visiting Penang offers a different feeling on the whole. And when you are desperately looking for a getaway, I guess anywhere decent is pretty okay right? Plus, don’t we all say it’s the company that is important? And it was my first holiday with my cute niece! 😀
As our hotel only allowed check-in at 3pm as with most international hotels (some at 2pm!), our driver, Tommy brought us to visit the famous Snake Temple which I wasn’t very keen..(eeeks!) and to fill our tummies with some delicious local Penang food!
Address: Jalan Sultan Azlan Shah, 11900 Bayan Lepas, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia
*There are live snakes in the Temple as well as in the Snake Farm, so if you’re a really keen fan of snakessss…please do drop by! It would be a place you wouldn’t want to hiss..I mean miss!
I didn’t wanna go near them so, nope no pictures of sssnaakkeesssss!!!
Local Penang Food
Address: Pasar Air Itam, Jalan Pasar, 11500 Air Itam, Pulau Pinang
Business Hours: Opens daily from 11am – 8pm
The Penang Asam Laksa tasted okay but I think the Penang Asam Laksa we had on our last day was better than this. Read my upcoming blog posts to find out where! 😉
The Char Kway Teow was the best among all the dishes. It has the ‘Singaporean’ taste to it. Tommy told us that Penang locals opt out for the egg because the strong egg-y taste conceals the natural flavour of the Char Kway Teow. But as Singaporeans, we opted for egg nevertheless 😉
Tommy’s I-forgot-what. The sauce was sweet.
And then someone got tired…
Kek Lok Si temple
Address: 11500 Pulau Pinang, Malaysia
And on the way down, we spotted some monkeys!
Throughout the journey, someone was having real fun in the car…
And this little girl tired out herself again…
After filling our tummies, we proceeded to Ibox Museum of Glass Penang where glasses are made into beautiful decor mirrors, jewelry, door handles, paintings, signage and more!
And then we got kinda hungry, so Tommy took us to The Straits Quay…
And at this point of time, I got a little upset because my camera battery went flat and I was soooo tired. Totally looking forward to check-in to our hotel, recharge my batteries (camera and myself lol)…
Pardon me for the poor reso pics as they were taken with my sucky iPhone 5 camera 😦
We had some yummy food for coffee break over at Dome.
And…WE FINALLY CHECKED-IN our hotel!!!
We stayed at Sunway Hotel Georgetown, Penang, a 4-star hotel 🙂
The spacious hotel lobby :
Here is how the Deluxe Room looks like :
The view outside our hotel :
Overall review on the hotel : It was freaking awesome!!! (Y) Upon request, rooms were made up neatly without fail and the room service staff even repacked and organised my toiletries neatly beside the basin. Complimentary water bottles were replenished as well and everything was so neat and tidy after the room was made up.
Reception staff was friendly too but I didn’t like the welcome drink which tasted like odd plum drink. 😦
Initially, we were informed that our rooms will be located at different levels because they didn’t have 3 rooms on the same level with the king-sized beds. I was told that it was because I did not indicate this in the remarks column. Hence, please take note that it is better to include that as your request when booking the rooms.
However, we were later told that they have 3 available rooms and will make the necessary shifting to join the beds as one. Really great customer service there 🙂
Rested for awhile and recharged my batteries before heading down to Times Square which had most of its shops closed as we were there at around 8+? Seems like some shops close quite early.
Interesting pic and camera-worthy.
We made a mistake by dining at James Foo at Times Square…
James Foo
Address: 21-A, Jalan Fettes, Tanjung Tokong, 11200 Pulau Pinang, Malaysia
It was ONE OF THE WORST TERBBILE HORRIBLE western food I ever had in my life!!! >=[
I forced myself to finish about half of my yucky fish fillet…because I’m not the kind who likes to waste food…
My fish was soooo freaking bad that I didn’t have appetite to try out the other dishes my family had 😥
I was actually wallowing in self-pity while shoving some fish down my throat. So surprised that there were quite a number of customers dining there. I wonder if they were regulars or first-timers. Gawd.
Please DON’T ever dine there…even if there is nothing else left to eat, there is always convenience stores or nearby food stalls which can taste 100000x better!
Expectedly, feeling unsatisfied, we headed the the nearby food stalls from our hotel. We are very lucky because these stalls are just a stone’s throw away!
Address : New Lane (Lorong Baru), off Macalister Road
We didnt have the chance to dine at this BKT shop though but the shop looks nice, although each time we passed by, there weren’t many customers…has anyone eaten there before? Was it good? 🙂
The sister and the bf 🙂
On our way back to the hotel to feast on the packed food! 😀
The popiah was acceptable 🙂
The kang kong x squid tasted quite alright too.
The fried egg x oyster was great too! 😀
This Penang trip was not only for famiy bonding purposes but also to celebrate the 2 Oct babies in the family – My dad and my Bro-in-Law!
We got this Passion-fruit Cheesecake at a bakery shop at Times Square for RM45.
Whose that cutie? 😉
This is no doubt one of my all-time favourite family photo 🙂 ❤
This pretty much marks the end of Day 1 for us..till then, stay tuned for the next blog post for day 2! 😀
Thank you for reading and hope you enjoyed it! 😀
[Food Review] Victor’s Kitchen at Sunshine Plaza (Dim sum)
Aloha!
Sorry for the lack of posts recently, work has been crazy and that has sort of affected my mood to blog…
Not forgetting the minor breakouts I am encountering at this moment!
I seldom have pimples and when I do, it’s either I’m very stressed or am using some facial product that is not suitable for my skin…
BB cream isn’t my thing but recently, I switched to that just for the fun of it and it actually seems quite okay. The only concerns I have when using BB cream/liquid foundation is how ‘thick’ the layer will look on my face and how clogged my pores would be 😦
I’m not too sure if this is the course of my breakouts but I am not ruling out the possibility of the increasing work stress as well 😦
Nevertheless, today I will be reviewing on this dim sum place which the bf saw Dr Leslie Tay (ieatishootipost)‘s post on his Facebook page.
The place is located at Sunshine plaza (Middle Road) and is called Victor’s Kitchen.
I actually googled it (I love googling almost everything and anything!!) and saw some poor reviews on the customer service on Hungrygowhere.
Read below to see if this is really true.
What we ordered :
Nemo’s porridge – $4.50
I thought the name of this porridge was kinda sad…? LOL. And yes I note the “‘s” which means it can actually belong to Nemo and not that we are eating Nemo….okay nevermind. #grammarpolice
Anyway, we chose Wala Wala porridge initially and chose Phoenix porridge after we were informed (rudely) that the former is out of stock. Then we were informed (rude again) that the latter is out of stock as well and settled on this Nemo’s porridge.
Deep fried shrimp dumpling – $5
OMG, I didnt know this was so over-priced until now that I’m blogging about it. I didn’t check the prices cause the bf was the one who ordered (and paid, teehee!).
It was delicious no doubt but looking at the prices, on second thought, I don’t think it’s worth getting it.
Char siew chee cheong fun – $4.50
The chee cheong fun tasted not bad but could be tastier though.
Their signature golden egg yolk lava bun, aka liu sha bao – $4.50
The mandatory picture of liu sha bao
Friends and reviewers said that their liu sha bao is awesome but I thought it was so-so. This could be because I didn’t have them immediately after they were served to us as I was struggling to finish the other dishes!
Scallop, sausage carrot cake with xo sauce – $4.50
I read the review on this dish on one of the food blogs before heading down to actually have a taste of it myself.
To be honest, this was actually my first experience trying out the traditional steamed carrot cake. Be it steamed or pan-fried, they are both actually reddish instead of carrot…
Anyway, although it was interesting I actually prefer the usual pan-fried version.
Victor’s King prawn dumpling – $5.00
I thought the skin was quite thick which isn’t really my preference. I don’t like it when one bite of it forces the prawn and skin to be separated from each other kind, you know?
Anyway, I’m not a fan of ha gao so….yeah.
Tasty queen size siew mai – $4.50
Now, don’t let its name fool you. I didn’t thought of it as ‘queen size’ until I read its name now.
It’s not that gigantic and somewhat similar to the usual normal size.
Taste is quite yummy though.
Iced coffee ($3) and Yuan Yang ($2.50)
Iced coffee tasted okay, cannot comment on the yuan yang because I didn’t try it.
But OMG, both seems quite pricey especially my iced coffee!! 😦
Bird’s eye view of our super late lunch or early dinner, however you want to call it.
Now onto the customer service which I really place loads of importance and significance upon when judging and reviewing food and eateries.
I must say that, sadly, I have to agree with the reviewer’s view on the poor customer service.
When we first arrived at the small, unmaintained small shop, we were not served.
We were instead ignored when the bf told the staff ‘Table for 2’ and I was quite annoyed about that.
When the bf was placing his orders with the lady cashier (younger one), he remarked that she was quite rude as well, giving that nonchalant attitude. And when she had to come by our table to inform us twice for out of stock items, she was giving the same rude attitude as well.
However, I actually witnessed that the old lady was quite friendly towards the end and to other customers.
Could it be because they despise younger customers?
Whatever it is, my take is that they should improve their customer service quality as well as upgrade their shop, taking care of hygiene issues too.
91 Bencoolen Street
Sunshine Plaza, #01-49
Singapore 189652
T: 98382851
Mon-Sun: 10:30am – 8:00pm
Open on public holidays.
Overall rating :
*A more accurate rating would be 3.5 but I dont have a pic for that 🙂
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