Pretty Please...

"Dear God,


I know that I've been busy lately to say hi, but I am sure that you've been up to your antics lately - fullfilling wishes and dreams of people silly enough to ask you for something, and yet putting your own twist into it.


On that topic, I have a bone to pick with you. 


Remember that Sexy Guy that I asked from you in Year 2008? 


Am sure when I asked that from you, you went "mmmm, sexy eh...ok...nah...take it...let's see how you handle it!" 


Firstly, I would like to thank you, he was indeed sexy but ended up....I think there's more than sexy that I need and want. I have to admit, I would have tweaked my request more if I had known that you were seriously listening to me.


So..Say...how about you grant me the same wish for Year 2011 but with some other additional attributes that I have been thinking hard about. So, how does this sound.... "Sexy, Reliable, Not too Old, Not too Young, Sensitive, Respectful, Astonishingly loving and caring in and out of Bed, Faithful....Sexy (wait...I said that twice...lol)"


I realised that I may not be the only person asking you for that. So if you're too busy granting the same request to the other 1Million people with your weird funny twist in them, I would much rather that you bless me for my Sexy Job (yes, it was in the same request as the Sexy Guy..you must really have been in the listening mood..I am not sure whether to be grateful or not..haha) first, then later in the year grant me that wish without your twists and turns...yes...I admit they have been fantastically interesting, soul lifting and all at the same time, heart wrenching...but please consider that although I am young at heart, but physically and emotionally just not as up to it as I have been before. 


So pretty please do consider my request."


Note: Just for laughs, but if god really does exist and is listening, have this to say... Laugh all you want.. but one day I will get what I asked for. =P 

For those Ladies out there who think that they need to lose some...

Wow, it's been a good long 10 months since my last posting. Even I didn't realise it. It still amazes me how fast time flies by. Have been really busy with my own endeavors, but more on that on my later postings!

Anyways, a quick one on what I wanted to share which hopefully will inspire some of you who have been wanting to do it, or is trying to do it. The much aspired issue of "Losing Weight".


Firstly, am going to share some graphical pictures here to which I am not proud of, and would normally BURN TO A CRISP! (I am ONLY doing this for those ladies out there, for those who have been there or are still there and for those who had asked me to....) These are pictures of me during what I would call my "poofy-est" times, Year 2008 where munching on too much chocolate bars and Baskin Robbins coupled with work stress had finally done me in from a 48kg to a 55kg.

Note: Viewer discretion necessary. 

For those of you who think that it isn't a lot, it is for me, especially when I had to change my entire wardrobe of clothes in order to accomodate for the extra inches around the belly. No more work pants for me, only skirts as they were easier if alterations were necessary. And yes, Year 2008 was the year that I even had friends asking if I was pregnant. *sheesh*  AND, NO, I WASN'T PREGNANT, "just fat"! =P

One thing to note is that every woman's body is different. Or should I say that different parts get fat before other parts do. So know your body well before you do any change to it. For me, it is obvious that the spare tyre becomes a full tyre, before the arse and bust kicks in, and then the face balloons. And yes, I took as little full body pictures as possible in Year 2008, and pictures that I took mostly had me either in baby doll clothes covering the full tyre, or a bag in the way. 

And how much of a difference, from then till now. I've found a picture of me wearing the same darn top, and so here it is......

See a marked difference? Those who know me and seen me recently will know how much I have slimmed down. Note that those pictures have not been edited or skewed.

I had that weight of about 55kgs for Year 2008 and in that year, had kept on telling myself that I wanted to lose weight. It wasn't only just the looks that waivered my confidence, but I started getting health problems - knee problems identified by the specialist as being early arthiritis. So much so, that it really hurt when I walked too much or even walked down a flight of staircase. And then I was prescribed, glucosamine ~ the exact same pills that my own parents takes! Old before my time, god no!

I had to lose weight. I figured that if I wasn't fit, healthy and sexy in my 30s, there would be a very high probability that I wouldn't ever be after that. 

My reasonable target was to go down to a healthy 47kgs, and almost impossible, ideal target was 45kgs which was during my college years. By June 2009, I had already achieved my 47kgs and maintained it for the rest of the year. Right now, it's harder for me to put on weight than to lose weight, and in fact have to eat more to maintain it. (And yes, am privilaged now to have nasi lemak as my dinner!) Am currently at my ideal weight of 45kgs without even trying, and yes, I can wear back my college years skirts. 

In fact, now I need to gain weight as 45kgs is seemingly too thin. But I am stronger than before, able to do at least some pull ups on the exercise bar attached to the door frame. Have in fact, slacked off in the last two months without any exercise but have still maintained my weight. That would have been impossible in the past.

How the hell did I do it? Even I surprised myself that I could, and did. 

Am not advocating any "quick-lose-weight-diet" plan or scheme but just the good old fashion, change and watch what you eat and some good old exercise. 

I always hear ladies saying how they are skipping dinner as part of their diet plan. This isn't a healthy and long term way of losing weight. Skipping meals causes puts your body in starvation mode, and causes your blood sugar level to crash, hence, the tiredness and grumpiness. And when we eat the next meal, we will tend to overcompensate for it. Definitely NOT healthy!

What worked for me was that I started out with some light but interesting exercise in the first month (only once a week). But what really made a difference wasn't the light but interesting exercise, but the food that I ate. Like what a guy friend adviced, it's 70% food and 30% exercise (or was it 90% food and 10% exercise??). He introduced me to eating rolled oats in the morning with fruits to make it more pleasant to the tastebuds. And yes, I cut down on eating carbs, ie rice. Oats in the morning, sandwich (wholemeal not white!) in the afternoon, and just normal meals with double veg portions and normal meat portions but without rice. Of course it takes time to get used to not eating carbs with being a Malaysian and a nasi lemak fan. But it actually worked. And yes, totally no sugared drinks. And also plenty of fruits. After about 3 to 4 months of that, I actually lost about roughly 4 to 5kgs. 

Then the hard work came! I sweated it out at the gym for about one and a half months. Started out at 10 minutes at the treadmill, 30 situps, another 10 minutes at the cycling machine, more sit ups, then 10-15 leg raises, then another 10 minutes at the step machine, and lastly, some weights training for the arms and shoulders (a must!). It was a dreaded first week when I started. Gym previously was boring to me, hated the running in the same place sort of thing. But I brought a book along, and when I couldn't read, oogled at the men showing off (haha..no not really..well maybe sometimes), and looked in the mirror to check myself out. Do what you can to keep yourself entertained. After the first two weeks, it started getting easier and I found myself wanting to go to the gym. Something to do with sweating being sexy. =P At the end of June, 47kgs. 

For those ladies interested, at the end of the month at gym, I was doing about 25 minutes at the treadmill, 25 minutes cycling, 25 minutes step machine, and I think a total of 60 to 80 situps in the whole period. Keep increasing your time at a reasonable pace and amount! Try to do a little bit more at every session where possible!

Moral of the Story:-

1) Do not give into that evil voice in your head saying, "oh, just a small bite of that fried chicken or nasi lemak" (at least not for the first 3 months to 6 months). Learn how to say "NO!" 

2) Cut down on Carbs and Sugar but do it slowly and in stages. (And yes, less oily things too)

3) Exercise for overall weight loss! If you hate the gym, go join pole dancing or some other exercise (sorry, not yoga, it's not vigorous enough in the beginning for that and p/s: be ready for a smaller bust size after your entire healthy regime)

4) Exercise more for specific weight loss! For eg, if you have a full belly like me, you'll have to do more situps or leg raises

It is POSSIBLE to achieve your targeted weight loss without paying loads of money but make sure it's a healthy targeted weight loss and that you're not instead underweight for your height and frame. And oh, it helps to read up on nutrition as well.

Also, do note that after achieving your targeted weight, you will need to start eating back more carbs and sugar to maintain the weight *yippie*nasi lemak back again!*, but still do watch what you are eating. It doesn't mean going back to old eating habits. Remember that everything needs to be done in moderation. 

I hope my personal story is an encouragement for those of you who are in it to persist through and for those who should start, to start! Good luck and cheers to healthy eating and exercise!

Just 24 more hours to go!

Mmmmmm....damn, this is one heck of a long day. 

Am guessing that tomorrow will be the longest day of my life until I get myself to the airport. Am hyper now even though I only had 5 hours of sleep last night. Yes, excitement and chaos reigns in my heart right now. Am guessing that I will be much more jittery as tomorrow advances.

It's wonderful how the start of a new chapter in life begins in 24 hours with a smile and a hello. =) 

p/s: Thank you, Mother Nature for keeping your end of the bargain. Airports running like usual, and the snow has reduced! Cheers! 

A Day of All Sorts!

Oh, what a day!

Recently, I have been frequenting Kepong a fair few times with my oven being de-commissioned and all. I have to say, these table top ovens are rarely accurate - with at least a 50 degree celsius difference, one time it went up to a 100 degree celsius difference, hence the need to get it repaired. Imagine my poor burnt breads. Ah, yes, my "aunty-ness" levels have just tripled over the number of weeks - with all these baking and cooking.

By the way, Kepong is one hell of a confusing place to be in. Fabulous road side stalls there but roads are hay wired, cars moving in all directions, lorries suddenly appearing. Ok - I may be exaggerating a wee bit. In any case, it's still a confusing place to drive in. But the place that beats Kepong is Selayang and Batu Caves. My girlfriend and I decided to give the Selayang Pasar Borong (Pasar Boring = Wholesale Market, for the Malay illiterrate) a visit and ended up somehow at the KL Pasar Borong. Don't ask me how, but after the number of U-turns and wrong roads, a lost sense of direction and a huge splitting headache at the end, we managed to get there. I pride myself on being quite road savy, but after this day, there are definitely some places where a GPRS would be useful especially since Malaysian road signs are either non-existent, inadequately worded or inappropriately located. It also doesn't help that most roads in that area are dotted with many potholes.

The KL Pasar Borong was interesting with all fresh fruits, vegetables and probably meat or seafood produce - everything sold in cartons and bulk. We arrived rather late, not being much of a morning person, so the meat or seafood section was already closed by then.

Also, note to self:- For any future visits to any pasar borong, it is a necessity to dress like an "aunty", maybe go dressed in track suit, huge baggy t-shirt and those big round geeky black glasses from my primary school years with my hair tied up in a bun. I have never ever had in my whole life altogether, so many men staring and whistling at me and my gf at the same time. All heads turned and worked stopped. It wasn't just the foreign men, but also the local men. We were there after all just to look at the food produce and not to be looked at. And we were not dressed in anything sexy : my usual t-shirt, shorts and slippers.

I really felt like I was on sale together with the vegetables.  It was quite uncomfortable and as we left, we made sure that we double locked the car. Better safe than sorry.

It was a day to remember, but not a day to be repeated.

Countdown : 7 days!!!!

Finally, the final week is here! Just a little bit more of patience is necessary and a lot more of praying. 

"He's arriving soon!" Through all that snow and distance between us, that is if Mother Nature will answer our prayers, let down her defenses for just a little while and let the plane through all that horrendous weather. Yes, no doubt we deserve it with all the havoc that we caused you. But I promise to double up my efforts on recycling and maybe become a total maniac on it. Even carry my lunch box around in case I need to "tapau" food instead of getting those little plastic boxes. Thank you, thank you, I will be ever so "grateful". *big smile*

Just thought that I would share my happiness with the world. Don't hate me for it. =) 

Homemade Thin Crusted Pizza!

Love the smell of fresh oven pizza?

Well, make your own right at home. It is really simple, ie dummy proof - of course provided you have these few equipment in hand, (1) Your Hands (A food processor with a dough hook will shorten the time, but your hands would do just fine); (2) An oven (even a round convection roasting oven works); (3) A pizza pan (10 inch), and lastly (4) A strong craving for your own fresh pizza at a marginally lower price.

Am going to share the recipe here, just in case any of you have a sudden pizza craving but don't want to reach out the phone for Pizza Hut or Dominos.

Dough Ingredients:-
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon instant dry yeast
3/4 cup lukewarm water

Instructions:- (a) If kneading by hand
1) Add the flour, salt, instant dry yeast in a bowl and pour the water in slowly to mix the ingredients with a spoon until the dough is ready to be formed into a ball. If the mixture is too wet and sticky, salvage it by adding some flour (in my case half a tablespoon to one tablespoon).
2) Remove from bowl to a clean table surface. Put some flour (1/2 tablespoon to 1 tablespoon) on it and dust your hands with flour to avoid the dough from sticking to the table and you, of course. Knead for about two to five minutes.For the newbies, kneading consist of rolling the dough into a ball, holding the dough with one hand and with the other hand pushing outwards to stretch the dough, and then pulling it back, then half turning the dough and repeating the same thing.
3)  Shape it back into a round ball and roll out by hand into a circle to fit your pizza pan. (I cheated here by using a rolling pin to flatten it to a 3mm thick layer. There should be some leftover dough. The recipe was meant for a 12" pizza)
4) Place dough on a slightly oiled pizza pan and viola, its ready for you to put your desired mixture on it - mine for the day was my 1 cup of uncooked pizza sauce, a slice of ham, mortadella, slices of salami, white mushroom sliced, and sliced onions. (One of my sins is gluttony, it definitely had too much of a good thing in it but it tasted so damn good! Reduce the filling in order to have the crust at the bottom to be well crusty. Or remove from pan in 2/3 of the required baking time and place on a wire rack to continue baking).
5) Preheat the oven to as close to 500F for roughly 10-15 minutes (some ovens don't even reach 500F, mine only up to 450F). Bake pizza for 10-12 minutes, and put a generous mozzarella cheese only at the 11th minute of baking or if you prefer, after it has been taken out of the oven.

As for the homemade uncooked pizza sauce, prepare it before you make the dough to avoid any waiting time. Ingredients are as follows:- 7 oz. of crushed tomatoes (you can blend them but do not over blend, you still want them to be a bit chunky), 1 oz. of tomato paste, 1 tbsps parmesan cheese, 1/4 tsp Oregano,  1/2 tbsp minced fresh garlic, 1/4 tbsp black pepper, 3/4 tsps sugar and 1/2 teaspoons of basil. Whisk all together and allow flavors to blend for one hour before using.

And there you have it, delicious thin crusted pizza! Bon Appettite! :)

Seafood Cravings at PJ Seafood Restaurant, Tropicana

PJ Seafood Restaurant is located at Kampung Cempaka just off the road in front of the Tropicana Golf Club before the tunnel. It took us some time to reach there as the roads had changed, there was a traffic jam as usual and plenty of U-turns had to be made to even reach the place.


Since time immemorial, PJ Seafood Restaurant had always been famous for its "Lai Yao Hai" (butter crab) and "Ham Tan Hai" (egg salted crab, and yes, my Ping Yin is still crappy as usual. =P ). My memories of this seafood restaurant extended as far back as six years ago. I've always had a great time eating here on numerous occasions years back when they still had a fishing pond that actually allows its customers to catch their own meal of the day. My usual favorites then was the steamed cod fish and the sweet sour crabs with fried mantao. The dishes were always fresh, crabs a good size, prices reasonable and service good. 

It was however, a big big letdown during our recent trip there. Our list of complaints were really long:- Firstly, the lady was pushy in recommending her more expensive dishes; the steamed rice served was probably leftovers; the order for "ku loh yok" came in as a sizable medium which we thought was way too much as we had ordered 5 dishes for a company of six girls; the steamed tilapia fish was way too small; and the famous butter crab had shrunk in size. Taunted as a medium, it seemed more like a small. Is it me?!!! Or has food in Malaysia decreased in size except for the price tag. And the worst was that the sweet and sour crab wasn't at all fresh. We could distinctively smell the staleness under all the sauce. Exercising our consumer rights, we had it changed at the price of a pretty sour face that gave no apologies. 


Being a typical Malaysian crazy about food, I usually would have my face stuck in my food especially seafood. But our experience left me with little appetite. The only two saving grace was that the thai coconut water was just nicely matured with some thicker amounts of meat to chew (pointed out by my friend which wasn't even made by them) and that the fish was quite fresh. 


Luckily the damage was not a huge amount - RM25 per person. But our unanimous verdict from the girls for the day was an unfortunate resounding "Never Again"!!! Visit at your own peril.