Month: May 2010

Post-swimming grub at Room 18, Tropicana City Mall

As soon as I landed in KL from Langkawi, my Crackberry went berserk with messages about swimming at Suan’s condo. I don’t know what possessed me but I wanted to join. Yeah, the closest thing to swimming that I did in Langkawi was soaking in the bathtub so I had to come home for a fake beach vacation by a pool. I guess it’s also the hot weather and, I really missed my friends.

The swim was fun as hell and produced lot of funny pictures that shall be posted here soon but lets get on with the dinner that happened after. We went to Room 18 at Tropicana City Mall for two reasons:

1. Easy parking.
2. Pork

# – Room 18.

Apparently, the last time ST was there, the waiter kept giving giving him the wrong order. So we speculated that the guy might had just watched Ip Man 2 and hence was filled with rage towards Caucasians, hehehe. This time around, the same waiter served us! We asked him if he had watched Ip Man 2 and he answered in the positive. Next thing we knew, he kept calling ST “Mr. Twister“, haha.

# – [L-R] Kerol, Yuki, Horng, God, Haze, KY and ST. Missing #porkgang members were Ringo, Suanie, FA & Ruby.

# – Some kind of rojak as appetizer.

# – Green onion pie. I like these! Very fluffy and aromatic.

# – Egg tarts. Apparently nice and fluffy, I didn’t taste any :(

# – Yuki’s fried rice. A bit bland. I tried it and had to agree with her.

# – KY’s Duck & Roast Pork Noodles.

# – Horng’s Noodles with fried dumplings.

# – Siu Loong Pao. They were quite tasty, the soup in the dumpling was rich with herbal taste the meat was tender. I do wish they had served them on a bed of cabbage instead of paper though. This is because when the dumplings started drying up, they stuck to the paper and it got even harder to pick them up without bursting the delicate skin.

# – Kerol’s steamed rice with pork ribs. I’d probably order this the next time I’m there. According to Kerol, it was very good! I tried a tiny bit and had to stop myself from stealing it from her.

# – Haze’s bak kut teh with rice. Apparently it’s good but I’ll stick to eating BKT at uncomfortable, dirty-ish places hehe.

# – The chilli oil deserves an independent mention. It’s one of the best I’ve ever eaten…I could probably just eat this with rice alone.

# – Last but not least, my plate of roast pork rice. Okay, truthfully the roast pork cannot be compared to Pudu’s. But it’s good enough as the meat was juicy with crispy skin (just not fatty enough hehe) and was very satisfying. In fact the entire plate of rice and pork only cost RM10.80 while a strip of roast pork at Pudu cost RM13. So I was very happy :D

# – See, I’m a happy camper :D

So basically, I’d totally recommend going to Room 18. It is owned by Tai Thong and for being Malaysian, it gets a plus point from me. The atmosphere is nice and comfortable. The food is pretty good and the service is decent as long as they don’t mess up your orders. Our bill for 15 items including drinks came to just RM143.75.

Room Eighteen
G-35, Tropicana City Mall
Tel: 03-7728 8128

Chilling out at Westin Langkawi.

I took my very first flight on FireFly last weekend to go to Langkawi. Was actually quite scared eventhough I’ve read that propeller planes are much safer than commercial jetliners but there’s still a flimsy attribute to it that gave me the chills.

# – With RedMummy in the plane.

Yes, I’m a nervous passenger. I’m one of those people that would pore through the safety instruction manual and count the number of seats between mine and the emergency exit. I’m not afraid of flying per se, but particularly during taking off and landing. Whenever the plane is getting off or onto the runway, you’d find my hands tucked under my thighs, ready to curl up in a ball in the event of a crash -_-

Anyway, my fears were unfounded. I reached Langkawi in one piece. The flight was pleasant and the seat was surprisingly comfortable.

# – Arrived in Langkawi with all limbs intact.

Westin is only about 30 minutes away from Langkawi International Airport. As soon as we reached the resort, we were whisked off to lunch at one of its restaurants called Seasonal Tastes. The view from the restaurant was beautiful. I wasn’t in the mood for anything heavy so I ordered a soup and a salad. Food were okay, great quality but I think were tweaked too much for a tourist’s taste buds.

# – Seafood bisque. Think the chef got a bit too generous with the salt.

# – Traditional Umai salad with supersized prawns. Was expecting raw prawns but they were blanched :(

After lunch, we checked into the rooms.

# – The welcoming bed.

# – The big TV.

# – The bathroom.

# – The wardrobe mirror :D

We only had a day in Langkawi, so instead of squeezing in some rushed sight-seeing, I decided to just stay within the resort and relax. I hung out at the balcony watching tourists walked by, watched a lot of tv, took a lot of cat naps and watched more tv.

# – Watched a lot of tv.

And before I knew it, it was already dinner time. Our host, Bayer, threw us a BBQ party.

# – Put on a baggy dress in anticipation of a massive BBQ dinner :D

# – Is it me or do all pictures of hotel’s poolside BBQ look exactly the same?

# – Burp!

After dinner, I got back to my room all sweaty and smelling of charred meat. What’s better to do than soaking in a nice, hot bath? :D

# – Drawing a bath.

# – Crackberry, TV remote control and drinking water when it gets a little too hot.

# – P/S I Love You was on and sure enough I was bawling like a crazy person.

After a good cry and a good soak, I felt ready for bed. But not before downing some sleeping aid.

# – Look what I found? Chamomile tea!

# – A hot cuppa to further relax my mind.

And then I was knocked out. Okay not really…

I had to still sneak in a photo :P

# – Goodnight!

House Renovation Update #3 – Things are taking shape!

Hi guys, do you have any idea what these are? :D

Any idea?

Well they are our windows! Today we went to the house to let the contractor know which directions do we want to open the windows out so that they can install them accordingly.

I love, love, love my windows. I love, love, love my windows. They’re exactly how I had envisioned them to be but better :D

Windows

# – This picture is taken from our backyard. You can see that the window frames have already been installed. Next will be the installation of the panels.

# – Here’s me with one of the first panels installed. My face is pixelated because mornings do not agree with me :P

Backyard

Speaking of backyard, a roof has also been erected there so that I can do my laundry regardless of the weather. I love it so much because it’s supported by these strong & beautiful wooden pillars and beams. Initially we wanted to use polycarbonate roof for the backyard but eventually decided on roof tiles/wood for a more natural look.

# – This is the backyard roof. Do you notice the black cables extending out from under the roof? That’s our telephone line and it’s so ugly!! Anyone have any experience with getting TM to fix it coz it looks so third-world urghhh.

Lets move on to the other progress of the house…

Master Bedroom

# – Remember the masterbedroom? After all the hacking it looked like this.

# – The master bedroom looks like this now. The french door on the left have been covered up so that we can maximise the space in the room. (fantasising on how the room would look like with the king-sized Serta Hilton bed we’ve booked last month)

Master Bathroom

# – The master bathroom: post-hacking, pre-extension.

# – We extended the master bathroom because it was too tiny even for me. Now we have a decent sized shower area at the back of the bathroom and I love this new layout because the toilet bowl and basin area won’t be soaking wet after a shower :)

Wardrobe/Activity Room & Guest Room

# – The sad state right after the hacking out of the old doors and windows.

# – The door frames and window frames are in now. The shared bathroom is also waterproofed, ready for some kickass tiling and sanitaryware installation :D

Pantry

# – This little room in the middle is supposed to be a storeroom. But we’re converting it into a pantry as it’s just next door to the kitchen.

# – The hole on the wall is for a ventilation fan to keep the room dry and cool. I’ve always wanted a walk-in pantry like Nigella Lawson’s and by the looks of it, I think I’m getting there :)

You know this year, we have stopped almost all kinds of splurges like holidays, new clothes, food and gadgets because renovating is not cheap -_- But as we see the house slowly taking shape, it all becomes so clear. It’s really worth it to have our lifestyle suspended for this because by next year, we’ll be living in our dream home, enjoying our dream life :)