Griffiths

I stumbled upon this new cafe in PJ State.  While there are many other different types of cafes mushrooming all over town and unfortunately some ended up closing down , I took a liking to this one, for some reasons.

Firstly, I thought the name is quite unique.  Doesn't sound local.  True enough..it isn't.  An Australian brand apparently, more info - HERE

Food menu is not extensive though..limited to pastas, pizzas, mainly western.  Oh ya..they have all day breakfast!

Since it was quite late in the evening, I dare not order any coffee although my addict sense tells me very strongly that their coffee will be good =')

Had Chicken Herb Finger sandwich to go with Hot Chocolate instead although I was originally looking for Roti Bakar or a simple toast, but there wasn't any such food in the menu, hence, I opted for a cheapest sandwich option :D

Total bill was around RM13 including 5% tax.  Slightly expensive for a snack but the Hot Chocolate was probably one of the best I've ever had.  Not too sweet but yet chocolatey.

Ingredients used for the sandwich seemed good and fresh i.e I could really taste the herbs. At least I don't feel being ripped-off.  You know how it's like when food ingredients doesn't match the price we paid for.... 

Somehow, my foodie sense tells me that I should come back and try their food and I won't be disappointed..  Environment and ambience is excellent for a quiet meal to catch up with friends.

Oh yes..they have ice cream!  Real promising looking ice cream...

I shall be back.

I hope they will survive tough competition from other more popular places though.  

I'ts located in PJ State (New Town) same row as Pappa Rich.

Nam Peng - Old Fashion Cafe in Macau

Believe it or not..I still have stuff that I would like to share from both Sri Lanka and HK / Macau trip :D

Travel back in time to my recent trip to Macau.

I read about Nam Peng on the Air Asia mag April's issue, told myself I want to visit this place.

Since it was featured in the mag, I'd half expected it to be touristy and commercialised.

Surprisingly, it wasn't...in fact locating it was quite a challenge.

Check it out...

Truly authentic..*loves*

It reminded me of scenes in HK movies...especially that PTU movie whereit shows the police on their midnight rounds stopping by this type of cafe for their breaks.

Or when police detectives meet up with their informers :D

Anyway..back to the food...think I do not need to stress much...cheap and awesome.

Creamy butter toast for only  HKD5..

And..mind you..it's really creamy...and it's real butter!  Three big huge slaps of butter....gosh.

Toasts from our Msian cafe?? Not even 5%of this amount.

And check out this..my all time favourite...luncheon meat with egg sandwich.

Oh..I miss it so much.

I didn't have time to enjoy it slowly though..you see the lady..pointing at me in the pic below?

She was asking me HURRY UP, finish the food..they are closing soon! So..we had to gobble down our food very quickly :D

Sigh...I'd give anything to have afternoon tea..like the above.

iRun KL

iRun KL is the Iphone app for the recently concluded SCKLM.

First page is a countdown page by days right down to seconds to the Racd Day.  Other pages include Race and Race Pack Collection information which I think is quite redundant cos those are available on Facebook and the official websites.

The News page should be quite relevant but it wasn't regularly updated.  Not sure if it can be done but the App should carry latest update and announcements e.g. the sudden change in venue for the 10km category for example.  Or may be more information of trasnportation which is the main FAQ for all races.

The ME page is quite cool. Simple but cool.  It has the two most important information of a participant.
- The registration confirmation information - for race pack collection use
- The final result after the race

Well done SCKLM for doing up this app!  

As you can see, 'my' results were 2 hours 11 minutes and ranked 63 =P

I didn't run of course.  Well done to my substitute !

To Do List @ 4sq

Never really bothered to use the To Do List in Foursquare until today when I saw Fat Spoon Cafe appearing in the Nearby list while I was about to check into Jojo Little Kitchen in Damansara Uptown.  I've seen some friends checking into Fat Spoon recently in Facebook, so was curious.  Indeed, there were good reviews and comments in on Fat Spoon on Foursquare.

Damn...I gotta try this place. But I can be so forgetful..very likely I will forget all about it .  So..ta daa..this is when the Foursquare To Do List comes in useful.  It is meant for us to log down interesting places we must visit in the future. In fact, this is exactly, what I've wished for especially when it comes to food!

Ah....now, I won't forget.  And, next time when I run out of places to eat, all I have to do is whip out this page =')

By the way, I think Fat Spoon is quite awesome la.  Yes..even before I try it..I'm recommending it.

Check out the Facebook page if you don't believe me : http://www.facebook.com/fatspooncafe  I'm refraining from clicking Like until I visit and confirm that I really Like them :D

Omg..I wanna go I wanna go I wanna go I wanna go....

Anyone? Anyone?

off you go

Bib and Timing chip given away. They shall serve another runner but under my name.

*emo*

I'm so mad ..

Finally I hv something else to talk about! I couldn't find my parking ticket to exit the mall ! Totally idiotic, I know..,

And this isn't the time -.-

Had to pay $50 penalty :(

Searched high and low in my wallet and car but couldn't find the damn ticket!


I did find something in between the car seats though...

The long lost steering lock key that I was searching for months ago! I swear I looked in between the seats a million times, it wasn't there then! So I had to pay some locksmith to break the expensive yale lock!

Boy I AM SO MAD!

Single Friends

Recently a friend made a spontaneous remark that got me thinking for a while. "I noticed that you like to hang out with Females.  Single Females particularly" she MSN-ed.

My flow of thoughts went in the line of something like this :

1. Do I? Why is that so?
2. Well, Married Females wouldn't have time to hang out with me right?
3. And...most Married Females that I know wouldn't do things that I do right?
4. Oh..I think she meant "How come I don't hang out with Single Men instead"
5. "Single men gives me a higher chance of finding a partner or husband instead of Single Females"
6. Ya,.I think that was what she was trying to get at!

Come to think of it...yeah..it's quite true.  Most people that I spend time with are Singles and Female.  Even my father noticed!  Lol.

And in Facebook, the only other social platform that I'm on, I noticed an obvious trend.

I have about 194 friends in Facebook.  Out of these only about a third have some form of interactions with me - defined as those that I know they pay attention to me uploads (at the very least).
Note : Family members / Relatives were excluded from this analysis.

And, you know what, out of these who are supposedly 'interested' enough to pay attention to me - only 2 are Single Men but 12 are Married Men!  The rest are Females.

Well, only 2 in 5 of my Facebook friends are Men to begin with and majority are Married

:D

I blame the heels

Tired of talking about this same topic over and over again, if you noticed, the whole month of June, ever since I returned from HK, every other day I whined about this topic.

It's been bothering me for almost a month! So..like it or not, it IS the topic of the month.
Duh...

As of last Sunday, I was saying that I was well on my way to full recovery bla bla...

Not.

I'm in pain again.
Although it doesn't seem as bad as before but may be it's better to go back to idle-mode at least for a few days eh?  That's a valid decision as of now till I change my mind again ....hehe.

Was so looking forward to go back to my normal routines at the gym : /  
Come Tuesday evening, I felt very sore after a long day at the desk.  May be I sat too long or was it the heels.  Shouldn't have gone back to heels so soon?

Did some stretching and strengthening exercises before RPM hoping that the the soreness will go away.    Soreness became pain half way through the class.  I had to slow down, barely survived the class, puzzled about what could have caused the sudden change :(    I tried to continue with another class, hoping that the muscles will loosen up with some foot works.  Ya, stubborn I was.

Pain kicked in almost immediately.  Didn't want to leave so soon, I endured for 3 tracks - there's a break after the 3rd track.  And I like Track #3 in this release :D

It felt like forever!  Favourite track or not, I wanted it to end soon and fast.  Never before..I was so looking forward to leave a class early.  History was made.

I'm still sore now. Fortunately, I'm not in not too much pain.  Hopefully it will go away soon.  No more heels!
Looks like 21km in SCKLM is a definite no-no by now.

Damn...

What's my Iphone for?

Thought this (from graphjam) was quite funny.  Is this true for u?

see more Funny Graphs


I've actually talked about this with FY before..here's my version : P

Gina thinks it's quite sad that I don't make and receive much calls or messages.  Why so?  I think it's quite normal..my phone's not meant for business use.  Personally, I just don't need to make so many calls.  I'm not a verbal person anyway.

What say you?

P/S : Opps...left out some..photo taking / loading, foursquare, foodspotting....welll..those don't take up alot..may be another about 2-3%.

One foot on the ground

A friend who is 6 months pregnant taught me this : the general rule of thumb whenever she exercised is to keep one foot on the ground. Thats how she makes sure (somewhat) her baby 'stays safe' while she stays active..

So she supported my urge to go back to the gym before my achy back is 100% healed. "jus rem to keep one foot on the ground" she said :D

I've been to 3 classes since :)

The 1st class was none other than my 1st love - bodycombat. They were doing the latest release #48. I hv to admit it was quite painful both physically and mentally. Being a hardcore, it was very frustrating not being able to do some of the most basic moves ... every move had to be reduced to at least 50% speed or strength.

As with all new releases , it gets tougher.. hyper from the beginning, I think 50% are kicks and legs.. Oh boy ..


The doctor's warning "no pounding" kept ringing in my mind, hence, I couldn't pounce, no shuffling, no jumping.. basically One Foot to the Ground that is! I felt some pain anyway ... So better stay grounded and soft.

The good news is, not only that I didn't feel worse the next day, I felt better! Haha.

That gave me the confidence to go for the tougher RPM on saturday. Again, it was tougher than usual so I had to take it easy. All went well I felt better the next day :)

Was at another combat class today. Still not 100% but i felt Stronger and enjoyed the class more.

I'm happy :)

Now... Shall run the SCKLM next Sunday?

Happy Feet Two

I can watch this a million times I won't get tired of it :D
Love it to bits..



Can't wait!

Damn You... Cockroach

It's been more than a week, and the back felt much better and much much less pain so I decided to give it a go at the gym today.. but that stupid cockroach...!

What has a cockroach gotta do with going back to gym?

See below chat session ..that explains all :



wsl says:
 i v sian
 i was looking forward to go back to the gym today..
 since i feel much better



maggie says:
 u've been completely off gym since the injury?



maggie says:
 i think u can go la. just be selective of the type of work out u do
 be light on the injured area

wsl says:
 but hor..jus now i saw a cockroach under my desk..and i freaked out...

maggie says:

 what does cockroach has to do with your gym plan leh?

 

wsl says:

 whn i freaked out..i felt a pain :s

maggie says:

 hahahahahahahaha. i see.

 

Sigh~

Anyway..stupid cockroach.  

  

Where is the RM1.8mil FB Button?

Go to Google.

Search Tourism Malaysia and you get the following results:

And ta daa..this is the Tourism Malaysia Official Website

But but...where is the Facebook button?  RM1.8million..was spent to create six FB pages on Malaysian tourism...but where's the button.

Oh wait I found it...you have to click the little  Corporate Site link at the bottom right corner.

The FB and Twitter button is at the bottom of the Corporate Website.

Ahem...


I shall not say more ..

Train Ride to Bandarawela in Sri Lanka

Our last itenary during our visit to Sri Lanka was going on an upcountry train ride.  What is so special about this train ride, we have trains back home..we asked Jenny ignorantly :P  The journey is along the upcountry with spectacular view of the tea plantations and hillside scenery...Jenny answered patiently.

A check with some websites like this one (http://www.sarisara.com/railway_to_Badulla/nanuoya.php) also highlighted the tunnels and bridges along the way.

We boarded at Nanu-oya station, the station closest to Nuwaraya Eliya where we stayed during our visit to the Hortons Plain the day before.  The Nanu-oya station is 1600m above sea level, hence, it was very cold.

Our guide made prior arrangement with the station master to ensure that we get to sit in the observation coach i.e. first class where most tourist are at.

(Will insert a pic of the coach that we were in )

(I'll have to go through the pics again to see if I can find a pic of the other 2nd or 3rd class coaches where the locals normally travel in)

Above is a peanut seller on board..looks yummy..but he didn't come to the observation coach though.


Lucky for us..the mist cleared as we descend...hence we got to snap some good pictures along the way.

Here are two captures of the train entering one of the many tunnels.  The local kids love it whenever the train entered a tunnel ..they will stick their heads out the window and scream their lungs out.  Fun meh?? Kids...

And here are two of my favourite shots (out of the many)...the train gliding elegantly along the hill slope.

We reached Bandarawela after about 7 stops and don't know how many tunnels and bridges.

Weather is not as cold but still nice as it is about 1200m above sea level.

It's quite a nice little town away from the humid and busy Colombo.

Not too cold and not hot at all , just nice.

We spent a night at the Bandarawela Hotel  the oldest hotel in town.

A bit eerie in the beginning.  

I felt like I was entering a horror movie setting :D

Imagine this bath tub with a dead body filled with blood ?


Lol...

Just kidding..it was a nice hotel..very very cosy.  Breakfast was good too....but we didn't have enough time to enjoy the food fully as we had to leave early on a 6 hours road trip to Colombo.

Hate it, but..I need it

Boy..how I hate doing these..but it's the only way to recovery.

The following are just 2 of the 5 exercises that I need to do everyday..at least once a day.

Bridge (pelvic lifts) : Hold for 10 seconds each time - 10 sets!

Plank exercise - to rotate left plank, hover, right plank - hold 30 seconds each time, 3 cycles!

side plank - hold 30 seconds each rotations

Hover - in between right and left side plank to hold 30 seconds each time 

Source of pictures : http://www.onlineworkouts.info

Very tough..but effective in strengthening the core and back muscles.  Well, in a way it's a good way to stay lean..keep the flabs away hopefully.

Still Grounded

It's getting better, I can feel the difference, there is less pain, but I'm still grounded :(
The doc was right, the condition may not seem that serious but the symptoms are there, hence it's not wise taking the risk just for the sake of fun.  

He can't rule out the possibility of a prolapsed disc or other more serious complication unless I spend an additional $800-1000 on a MRI scan to confirm it.  I can insist on a scan but it's not worth it since I'm not in a lot of pain plus I don't really need to get back into sports that urgently.

Yes, I'm bored..I miss working out..etc.  There are a few sets of strengthening exercises that I need to do daily, he said I can do those at the gym. duh.  So not fun -.-  But as the doc rightly pointed out ..being bedridden, spending thousands on hospital bills will be even more not fun :s

So...I'm still grounded.  No high impact activities..hopefully only for another week.  I can run in water..though. duh.  Or may be I should pick up tai chi again?

As for SCKLM..sigh..."take it easy" the doc says.  I didn't bother to ask what that means.  Will think about that when the time comes.


Oh..I'm so bored.

 

Pain in the ass, literally

In case you are wondering..I still have that pain..in the ass.  Yes..literally. Well, ok..lower back near to buttock to be specific. I still can't bend :(

I've consulted three different 'practitioners'.  Ya..I'm that kiasu..or may be impatient.

First, I consulted the tit tar fellow..was told it's probably just wind in the nerves..nothing to worry about..so I happily continued with gym.

Then..it got worse..so..I went to the normal TCM centre that I always go to..but my regular doctor wasn't around.  The other doc made things sound so complicated..even concluded that what I've been doing at the gym is not good for me :s Gave me a good "tuina" (a form of massage treatment to relieve muscle spasms).  Also did acupuncture and cupping.  I felt exhausted after the treatment.  But not any better.

I called my other doc (the sports injury specialist)...he asked me to go in for a check.  Conclusion..yes, I do have muscle spasms all over the back but he suspects there may be a prolapsed disc too. Since I'm not in extreme pain, he chose not to rush into Xray / MRI or any serious medication.   For now, it's working towards relieving the muscles spasms and hopefully the pain subsides and end of story.  My back is colorfully taped with kinesiology tape now ..they are pink in color!

Some useful knowledge about prolapsed disc, click HERE

I do feel slightly better now..but I'm not sure if it's just the effect of the muscle relaxant.  And I think the drugs are making me sleepy too!

Yawnzzz....

Live like the fish?

"Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive." ~Howard Thurman (from http://twitter.com/#!/quotegarden)

So..what makes you come alive?   My dear fren ML says..her kids and her money makes her come alive *roll eyes* Luckily got her kids in between her rolls of money...if not she will sound so money minded.

Me?  The only time I feel alive is when I'm actively "playing" :D  When I meet up my friends.  When I play with my niece and nephews.  When I am at the gym.  When I play play play play..

Ya..I know..we are of two different worlds.  No idea why we are still friends.  She spends every bit of her free time thinking about how to maximising her income flow while I spend every bit of my free time spending money.

But ..what the heck...I'm happy. For now.

That brings me to this other article that I came across recently that says..something like this:

Consider the fish. A fish swims in a chaotic sea that it cannot possibly control — much as we all do. The fish, unlike us, is under no illusion that it controls the sea, or other fish in the sea. The fish doesn’t even try to control where it ends up — it just swims, either going with the flow or dealing with the flow as it comes. It eats, and hides, and mates, but does not try to control a thing.

We are no better than that fish, yet our thinking creates the need for an illusion.

Let go of that thinking. Learn to be the fish. (from http://zenhabits.net)

Can we be like the fish? Is it practical to live like the fish?

Somehow or rather...I think..I've been living like the fish...in the recent years st least. Often..I stopped myself from thinking about the future...what if this? what if that? how about this? how about that?

Why not just go with the flow.  Everyday is a new day.  Every step is a baby step.  As long as we keep moving..the path will lead us somewhere.

More importantly..we keep living...

Am I making any sense?

Foodie Trail : HK Macau

well, in HK, almost anything and everything is nice ..pick up a stone from the floor it may taste nice too :P

Presenting..HK Macau Foodie trail...

The mighty breakfast that I couldn't finish and daren't order again

Yummy snacks from Cheung Chau..

White Radish Cake 

"Put zhai gou"  i.e. Red Bean Sticky Pudding

Prawn Wan Ton Noodle at Mongkok

And Fried Fish Skin from the same place

The Ultimate Mago Sago Dessert from Hui Lau San

Chee Cheong Fun HK Style

Cheung Fun

Goodies from Macau..

Fish skin ..steamed..looks weird but its yummy..

Century Egg..portion was abit too much for us..

Simple cucumber dish...but surprisingly yummy

Pork Chop Burger..nothing to shout about in my opinion

Donno what it's called..but it's very good!

A closer look at how it's made..

Tea time ! at Nam Peng Cafe

Smooth and delicious steamed egg pudding ..marks the end of Macau

Lastly..goodies from Lantau Island

Vegetarian Dim Sum meal at Po Lin Monastery, Lantau Island

Egg biscuits from Tai-o Village

Smooth Tau Foo Fa at Tai-O Village

Oh..and this was our breakie on the last day before leaving...nice too!

Well..of cos we also had the normal roast meat rice dishes..pic didn't turn out that great..though : )

Cheers.