absolut ginger

Most of my colleagues are taking long leave till the year end starting from tomorrow. I think I would probably be the only person in office who finished up her leave before mid October! LOL! I even took unpaid leave for the recent trip to Hat Yai. Talk about bad planning…

Anyway, for this long leave, let’s all of us keep in mind of the things to do before going or while we are on long breaks.

1. Have you paid your bills – credit cards, utilities, insurance?
2. If you leave town, ensure all doors and windows are secured and locked. I know if the burglar wanna visit your house, there is no stopping him.. we can just pray hard that it won’t happen or if it unfortunately happens, just hope that he dies a slow and painful death falling from the balcony of the house that he breaks in.
3. Ensure all power sockets are switched off except emergency lights that switch on automatically at night. And don’t go and switch off house alarm pulak. LOL!
4. Go easy on the wine, roast turkey and pie.. we don’t want to over indulge and suffer later. Moderation is the key word here.
5. Switch off and unwind. We all need the quiet year end to reflect what happened throughout the year, count our blessings and appreciate the people around us.
6. Try to put bad things furthest away from our minds (I know this is hard for me, I bear a great deal of grudges but I will try).
7. Shop moderately. We need to brave ourselves for next year’s economy impact. So, don’t expect big, big present from me.
8. Remember to pray a lot for the nation. It’s going to the dogs even if we do.. but I guess there is no harm trying.

If you are a last minute shopper and want to get something for yourselves or your cute girlfriends, you may go to i candy @ 1st Floor, Asian Avenue, Sunway Pyramid for its year end sale! Even new arrivals are on sale! Sale ends 4th January 2009.

Last but not least, here’s wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2009.

May the spirit of Christmas brings you peace, the gladness of Christmas gives you hope, the warmth of Christmas grants you love.

10 Comments | In: Tips & Reviews | tags: i candy. | #
Posted by Gina

Being a girl is fun. You could dress up, wear make up, put on jewelery like Christmas tree, then paint the town red with your fabulousity!

I wish I could play dress up like every other girl. I wish to participate in this contest of dressing up, take a picture of myself and blog about it to win a very nice top from i. candy @ 1st Floor, Asian Avenue, Sunway Pyramid.

i.candy has many selection of tops, skirts and dresses as well as bags to go along with those nice little pretty shoes you may have owned; which would make the characters in Sex & the City green with envy.

So girls, what are you waiting for?

Get your cute little asses to i.candy this weekend and win yourself a nice top/dress.

Click here for more details of contest rules and regulations.

PS. For girls who don’t own a blog and wish to participate, you may send me your picture with you posing with a nice top or dress of your choice from i.candy, with short description and I would help you to post your entry here!

PSS: Please leave your comments here with your e-mail addresses and I would get in touch with you.

12 Comments | In: Tips & Reviews | tags: fashionista, i.candy, sunway pyramid. | #
Posted by Gina

Yesterday’s public holiday in Selangor was no holiday to me. It was a running errands day!

In the morning, I went out with my sister to PUSPAKOM and JPJ to change the ownership of my dad’s “newly” bought old car. It was a 27 years old Datsun 120Y. I heard if you ask a runner to do this for you, they would charge around RM500.

Since we have the day off and JPJ Kuala Lumpur is open, we might as well capitalize it and do it on our own.

We arrived at PUSPAKOM around 9.15 am and the officers finished inspecting the car by 10.20 am. It was that simple. First, you need to tell the guard what is your purpose of visiting and you would be handed a form with a queue number. Drive yourself to lane 1 – express checking. Fill up your form and hand over your car grant to the lady in charge and pay RM30. Drive yourself to the 5th lane for inspection. It took about 30 minutes to inspect your car.

After that, we went to JPJ. For change of ownership, you would need a photocopy of both the seller and buyer copy of IC. Of course you would also need signature of both buyer and seller. You need to complete some forms (can be downloaded here) – given out by friendly officers located in the Customer Service at ground floor. Attach the IC of both buyer and seller on the given columns in the form (TM AB). If the seller of the car is not present, you would need to have it witness by the Commissioner for Oath. You may go to the opposite warungs of JPJ and get your forms attested. For change of ownership, you may want to buy new car insurance as once the ownership is transferred, the previous insurance would be automatically cancelled. For attestation, it’s RM5 only. You may purchase insurance at the many insurance counters at the warungs. We bought third party insurance at RM154.

After all that, go up first floor of JPJ Wangsa Maju and get a number. The officer who gave out number would check your documents first before you submit to ensure smooth procedure. My sis and I waited less than 15 minutes and managed to change the ownership to my sis! And it only costs RM100. You may pay cash at the counter.

So all in all, we spent only RM289 for the transfer as opposed to paying RM500 (insurance not included!) to the runner!

I am pretty impressed with the improved service at JPJ Wangsa Maju. In fact, I think when I lost my driving license twice during break ins last year, I managed to get my new driving license in less than 20 minutes.

After the JPJ and Puspakom errands, we went back home for lunch. Then, I went to the panel dentist to get my toothache checked but unfortunately it was closed due to public holiday. And Kepong is not even Selangor!

With the aching tooth, I went to do some shopping at Jaya Jusco Kepong. Girls can really shop even with a throbbing pain on the left cheek!

I made an appointment with another dentist and arrived at her doorstep sharp at 5 pm. Dr Mary was a gentle dentist. She explained to me what’s wrong with the tooth and extracted the huge wisdom tooth. It’s amazing to see a petite lady like her could extract such huge tooth in such high speed that I didn’t even feel it. She advised no hot drinks and put ice cubes on the gaping hole if there is still pain and prescribed some pain killers and antibiotics. I didn’t even need pain killers. I thank god I didn’t bleed much and was happy tucking away in my mom’s nicely cooked home made lunch this afternoon (Some more I eat sambal belacan!).

It was a fruitful day. I slept after watching Kiss Kiss Bang Bang starring Robert Downey Jr and Val Kilmer. It was such a hilarious movie that my aunt thought I was mad for laughing out so loud.

11 Comments | In: Tips & Reviews | | #
Posted by Gina

When I got home today after work, I saw these in my kitchen.

Traditional “hour glass” miku

Tortoise miku

Freshly steamed!

Traditional miku

My fourth aunt from Taiping came to visit and here are the goodies she made for us. She is quite a baker; baking mostly very traditional paos and cakes.

I am not much of a “miku” fan (also known as man taos in Cantonese) but these are actually quite good.

In order to make these, it’s quite simple.

Ingredients

Wheat flour – 1 kg
Eggs 1 or 2 (up to you)
Yeast 5-6g
One cup of sugar
250 ml water

Mahjong paper cut into small rectangles to act as paper cups.

Mix all the ingredients together and knead the dough for about 20 minutes. Set aside for another 20 minutes (for the yeast to “fatt”).

Shape the dough into all kinds of shapes you want – up to you. As you can see, we have the tortoise (special request from Sasha), Queen Amidala’s buns (on the hair) and traditional hour glass shaped bun. Place them on the cut mahjong papers. I would advise that you don’t try to make the miku too big as it would expand quite a bit when it’s being steamed.

Set the wok with boiling water and steam for 15 minutes.

Voila… you can have a nice, freshly steamed miku without preservatives to go with bak kua (dried meat – simply the best!), yam pork, dip in curry or just simply eat it on its own.

And 1 kgs flour can actually make 25-30 mikus to feed the entire army! And cost savings too! Only RM1.60 for a packet of flour, one to two eggs, a cup of sugar and water! You may store them in the fridge for 4-5 days and steam whenever you wish to eat.

Sasha had four mikus.. and even little QQ ate two all by himself. Now.. please excuse me while I make a cup of milo and help myself with one.

9 Comments | In: Kindred Spirits, Makan-makan, Tips & Reviews | | #
Posted by Gina

I have wanted to get a book, the Kite Runner earlier before it was being adapted into a movie. I kept lurking in the book stores and somehow didn’t manage to buy the book till the movie hit our shores.

I have read some books made into movies – before or after. Forrest Gump, Bridget Jones’ Diary, Bridget Jones’s Diary – the Edge of Reasons, the Firm, Just Cause, just to name a few. I find both books and movies were equally fascinating even with slight variations.

I managed to catch the Kite Runner in the cinema last week. It was a choice between the movie Kite Runner or the Forbidden Kingdom. Even though I like epic movies riddled with male testerones , giant battle fields, lots of blood and killing; the idea of having Jet Li and Jackie Chan conversing in English in the same movie is just too much to bear. So, it was an easy choice, I chose to watch the Kite Runner.

I was glad that I watched the Kite Runner. It was conceived in the charming and rustic old Afghanistan backdrop. The colours were rich and intoxicating. You could actually smell the lamb kebabs selling along the alleys and see the pretty, colorful kites flying in the sky. Never in your mind would you think Afghanistan was once a prosperous and happy country.

This movie changed my perception of Afghanistan and Islam in general. I am sure the moment we think of Afghanistan, an image of Osama bin Laden would be plastered in our minds. We chose to brush it off and label it as a lost cause country. We chose to turn a blind eye on the plight of the people of Afghanistan. Even though I abhor wars; I feel tackling the terrorists is a prevalent ongoing agenda for the world in general. I don’t know who to believe anymore. I don’t like to read about wars because it makes me sad.

Catching this movie opened my eyes on the things I chose to remain oblivious all these years. It was heart wrenching filled with human emotions which you don’t think exists. It showed the destitution in wars and confirmed sometimes, war is necessary. It showed that there true friends do exists; friends who would die for you to protect your honour.

It also showed a strong relationship between a father and son. The struggle of a father’s expectation of a son and a son eagerly trying his best to please his father, disappointed when he finds even though his father’s blood ran in him, that was all he inherited from his dad and nothing more.

The conversations moved me to tears; such beautifully crafted lines upon lines. It made us realize that, there are things we couldn’t change, but when opportunity knocks at your door, it is the only way to make good again.

I finally bought the book on Sunday and finished reading it by Tuesday night. I had to endure three nights of sleeplessness and going to work with swollen eyes. The movie is worth to watch, the book - I would read it a thousand times over.

15 Comments | In: Journey of the Soul, Tips & Reviews | | #
Posted by Gina