Chocolate Cake and Chicken Wellington
Saturday, July 11, 2009
This post is *counts* 2 months late...hahahaha...Made these to celebrate 3 years of QJ and I being together.
Khurshid, if you're hungry, now's a good time to close the browser and go eat something first... XPLabels: Food, PicturePost
Author: Volvoxx » Comments: | Leave your comments
The stupidity of our public transportation system
One of the things I hate most about our nation....is the level of inefficiency of our public transportation system...Imagine...to get from my place to Melaka Sentral it takes almost an hour (if I stupidly ride from the other side of the road where the bus will take me throught one huge round around MITC and back to Bukit Beruang area)....and most of the busses are old and feels as if they're about to fall apart any given time. And they cost RM1.90 for the (barely) air-conditioned busses to get from MMU to Sentral...and if you're unlucky...you'll be stuck for a few hours cuz the damned bus broke down in the middle of the road (happened to me once just the other day...thank goodness William was there to save me :P )After that...it's 2 1/2 hours ride to KL.And then there's the 1/2 hour traffic jam to get from Sg. Besi tol to Pudu.And the 10-15 mins walk to Pasar Seni LRT.And 25 minutes train ride to my sister's place in Taman BahagiaAnd then on one unfortunate day, the 1 hour wait for RapidKL bus from Taman Bahagia to my sister's to come...and the guy at the front of the queue had been waiting 1/2 and hour before I got there.That's about 5 hours just to get from my house to my sister's...about the same time it takes for me to get from SP-KLThis is prolly one of those 'worst case scenario' days but still...for it to happen....geh. If I had driven, it'd only take me more or less than 2 hours for the same trip, but of course, I'd probably be taking shorter routes...Still...the stupidness doesn't just stop on the road. Puduraya is one hell of a hell-hole. Smack in the middle of town...the place often suffers traffic congestion. And one would think that since it's in the middle of town, and Pudu being the 'terminal' for people from all around Malaysia...or rather...a 'transit point'...to have accessibility to our railway services...but noooo....the nearest one is BEHIND Puduraya, at Plaza Rakyat...a godforsaken building which has been an abandoned project since god knows when. Awesome planning ain't it? That you rather have the line joining some stupid abandoned building rather than just on top/beside Pudu. I know it's not too far from Pudu but that's not the point. Since our beloved railway system is almost always unreliable...during one of these times where you have delays or breakdowns and it causes you to have to run for your life to 'chase your bus', that 'little' distance matters.OK fine...if you insist on saying "But it's still connectable to a rail-line...rite?" ....for one, I dun use the 'STAR' line...more often than not I'll be using the 'Putra' line so I'll have to run 10 mins from Pasar Seni to Pudu anyway. So lets look at some other smartass planning....Monorail Station at KL Sentral. The station's name is KL Sentral...but to get there, I have to cross the road, then go along a pavement...get up the escalator...THEN only I'm at the KL Sentral building. I mean...it's prolly only another 100-200m worth of rail to connect the damn monorail to the building itself so why is it not done? Cuz it feels freakin damn stupid that KL Sentral that's supposed to be the central point..connection...watever...is not actually connecting all the possible lines when all that needs to be done is another 200m worth of rail....seriously.Another example...I curse the planners everytime my train stops at Abdullah Hukum station....cuz it freaking overlooks Mid Valley and EVERY FREAKIN TIME my train stops at this station....no one ever boards from, or gets off this station! Okay maybe there are people who use this station early in the morning but I'd say if you just bloody connect this to Mid Valley...SO MANY MORE PPL could use this public service rite? So everytime I wanna go Mid Valley...I have to first get off at KL Sentral...then wait for ages for KTM train to come and THEN only get to Mid Valley. And KTM train is one awful line that at any chance they get...refuse to follow their schedule. Imagine last week during Nats when QJ and I left Mid Valley an hour before our bus, confident that it's plenty of time to relax and slowly get to our busses....the damn service got delayed for half an hour...and as a result we had to run everytime we got off the damn train, and ran all the way from Pasar Seni to Pudu and arriving 5-10 minutes before our bus is scheduled to depart...ONLY to see that our damned bus TOO was late. GEE! So yea...if Putra line was directly connected to Mid Valley...we wouldnt have had to rely on the 'oh so reliable' KTM...
A few days in Singapore is enought to make me curse our transportation system kao kao...Their rail line is so clearly marked and so very awsomely conveniently I'm just....lost for words... <3! style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">Ah...forgive the....incoherentness of this post...as well as any spelling errors or trouble understanding what I'm trying to convey...cuz it's 5am....and my head's slightly blur (but I can't bloody sleep) and I've been wanting to blog about this for ages....so I just wanted to get it out. Perhaps one day I'll construct it better =.=On another note, I am and always will be proud of Melaka Sentral's bus station....it's so organized and air-conditioned (tho it's not so cold anymore these days) and stocked with McD and A&W etc etc...but shame that the floor bloody cracks left right and centre (it's actually quite scary...)Labels: Rants
Author: Volvoxx » Comments: | Leave your comments
Sunset@Klebang
Friday, July 10, 2009
Last Wednesday, my Moral group of very nice juniors went Klebang to film our presentation drama. Only 2 actress were involved but the whole bunch of us went just for the heck of it...crazy us :PAnyways, we were supposed to meet up at 6, but delays here and there, we set off to Klebang only around 6.20pm. We were supposed to film a sunset scene so it was one hell of a race against time to get there before the sun sets. Dah la the road there damn gila tak pasal and traffic was blek as it was after office hour...never mind all that...we got there in the nick of time and manage to get our videos shot.After wrapping up the 'official' work...I took my camera back and played around with my first (I think) 'sunset at the beach' shot. Could have had better shots if it was earlier but....will have to make do with what's left XPLabels: PicturePost
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Homemade 'Katsudon'
I didn't have MOST of the ingredients of a proper katsudon...but I cincai cincai agak agak made what resembled a Katsudon...with breaded chicken patty, and sauce made out of....chicken stock, dark soya sauce, maltose, sugar with egg, capsicum and onions. Results: tasty but a bit too....watery... :P ...not as bad as I thought it would be...and the chicken actually tasted really good, despite the little marinate it had.Piccies piccies...Labels: Food, PicturePost
Author: Volvoxx » Comments: | Leave your comments
Nationals - the aftermath
Thursday, July 09, 2009
Overall, I enjoyed myself there...but some assholes...I tell you....isk. Really makes me think if that's the reason girls dun like playing at such competitive level. As expected, I was the only girl playing that day. There was another girl who qualified I think...but didn't take part. Hmmm...I played 6 rounds in day 1, 1 round I got off bye (meaning there's no opponent cuz odd number bla so basically...I get to lepak while others are playing)...and practically crashed thru all of them...HAHA! ALMOST!! (but no I'm not dead last...wakakaka)... Blame me lazy not wanting to play a more efficient decks and insufficient practice at timed drafts. I felt the first 3 games of constructed, I've played the best I could but yeah....lack of practice...but yeah.Enough gibberish that most readers here wouldn't understand.What ticks me off is how this ass reacts to a mistake I made (my bad, but judges came and sorted it all out and I was given a warning...so fine!) and made a huge deal out of it, accusing me of qualifying for Nationals illegally...saying that QJ somehow cheated me in etc...to the point he went to confront QJ about this whole thing. Reason why he's so worked up? Because I'm the 75th person to qualify (last on the particular category to qualify) and his friend is #76 and he didn't qualify. Well...I'm sorry but don't push other's failures to blame ppl's success! Too bad la! The playgroup in Melaka is small so its no surprise that I can do better than the newer players here! Also...WHY BLAME ME ALONE? What bout those who've easily qualified higher on the list and chose not to play? That one lagi waste of space rite??? If I had qualified illegally, I don't think I'll dare show my face to play in Nats, you dumbass...what more with so little practice I had. Also...I'm not used playing in such a competitive level where some players (like you) are all dead shitty serious, no chats, and 'bitchy pissy faced' like someone stepped on your tail this morning...your attitude during gameplay with me...was like I owed you money and refuse to give it back. Gee...IT'S A GAME...we're supposed to be enjoying ourselves, eventho money is at stake.You accuse me of cheating my way in because of my bad plays. Let me ask you this: IF I was a GUY...and IF I had played JUST as badly...or even worse...WOULD YOU HAVE QUESTIONED MY ELIGIBILITY OF QUALIFICATION??? No rite? You'll just brush me off as another lousy player yay too bad for you tehee lucky me.....it wouldn't even tick you off that I was number 75 to qualify and that your friend can't qualify...nevermind that it's only your friend's fault to not have qualified. GENDER DISCRIMINATION arse. And you 'pros' wonder why your girlfriends (I doubt you have one tho) all duwan play Magic...or refuse to play at this competitive level...If I see lansi ppl like dat all the time I oso duwan play la.Thank God there's only 1 of you. At least I'm LUCKY to have ONLY met one of your kind.Out of 6 games I played, 5 of them were really nice ppl. Especially my first few opponants, Peter and Ian. I really enjoyed playing with you guys :D (Peter asked me how I did thruout the day...which was really nice of him)...QJ of course, fared much better than I did...hehe...9th out of 84 players in Malaysian Nationals 2009, you really made me proud. Its not Top 8, but its still an improvement from last year...and of course having people actually recognizing your work at MagicMalaysia.net, makes me even prouder and happier (eventho you dun really see it as much as I do :P)Congratulations to Joe Soh on grabbing the top spot...you played really really well.What did I get out of Nats? A very nice T-Shirt and bunch of random cards (most which I threw to Jia Yung cuz his friend wanted it :P ) Shud I try to qualify next year... /shrug...We'll see :P Labels: Goodtimes, QJ, Rants
Author: Volvoxx » Comments: | Leave your comments
Magic and Me
Friday, July 03, 2009
3 years ago when I first started going out with QJ...my policy/stand of Magic is...."Sayang you play your game, and I'll do my...watever"...I don't mind him playing...but don't put much hope in me playing it much. I'll help him sort out the cards (berbukit bukit of them)...I'll go watch him play...but I won't play. It took him awhile to convince me to play a little...then I started drafting a little...usually as replacement player or the 8th player to complete the 'pod'....Then I started having interest in the cards, spells and mechanics...the planeswalkers...the story.Then I started drafting better (only slightly :P ) ...And this weekend I'm playing in the Magic: The Gathering Malaysia National Championship with QJ and a few of his friends...
...and prolly be the only girl there playing
/facepalm...now I'm nervous >.<
WISH HIM LUCK!!! (and wish me luck not to end up last! XD )
Author: Volvoxx » Comments: | Leave your comments
Lemon herb chicken sandwich with grilled veges
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
Bought quite a bit of fresh veges from Jusco the other day...and since we were running low on rice, we decided to go on some sandwich meals.
Whipped up this dish based on the lemon basil chicken my sister made for me during ITP last year...modified here and there based on what I'd think would be delish...and turned out it was :P ..would have been better if I had baguette or maybe even croissant...
Here's the rough recipe of it. No picture cuz we were too hungry.
Lemon and Herb Chicken Sandwich with Grilled Vegetables
Bread
The meaties
1 chicken keel, sliced
1/2 lemon juice and rind
herbs (I used dried basil and thyme)
salt and black pepper
1 small yellow onion, chopped finely
3 cloves garlic, crushed and pre-grilled with the veges (optional)
The veges, sliced thinly
1/2 green capsicum
1 tomato
1/2 brinjal
butter
herbs (used dried italian herbs)
black pepper
1. Marinade chicken with all the 'meaties' ingredient except garlic and onion.
2. Grill/bake the veges for about 20 mins. You may like to grill the crushed garlic too before using them for the meaty part.
3. Fry pre-grilled garlic and chopped onions with oil/butter until soft. Add in chicken and fry until onion gets brown-ish and sticks to the pan. Add a bit of water to caramelize the onion. Remove from pan
4. Toast/grill bread (with garlic butter if you like). Assemble sandwich.
p/s: I managed to get QJ to eat brinjals! Yey!!
Labels: Food, Recipe
Author: Volvoxx » Comments: | Leave your comments
