I was in a car with my family members when the quake happened. All of us were waiting in car for my bro who dropped by a dental clinic for a quick inspection on his braces. Busy buried my nose in Hunger Games ebook, I knew the car shook but didn’t bother to voice it out. I was on chapter 21 where Katniss was about to attend the feast and therefore other 4 senses automatically ‘shunned down’ except for my eyes.

It was my mum who voiced out on the shook. She cried, “who shakes the car so violently?“

I was still reading, but it slower pace. My mind began to feel dizzy – the shook was indeed hard, but the drive of continue reading was so strong that I replied, “must be Dad, shaking his legs.“

My dad was reading newspaper at the front passenger side, he stopped reading too, inspecting the shook (I supposed) before looking at us via the back mirror and said, “Not me. I didn’t shake. Must be ah girl.“

My dad meant me. I sat upright, the shook was less violent now. My dad turned to face us, locking gaze with me and I can tell both of us were figuring out what was happening.

Then the shook stopped.

My dad and I continued reading, my sister busied on her phone while mum continued her Soduku game. Bro came and we left for very late lunch. We debated on going to Gurney but nobody seconded the idea so we thought of eating nearby.

We were in Pulau Tikus area that time. As we passed by Adventist Hospital, mum wondered why there were bunch of people at the hospital  compound. Didn’t know why I answered, “Oh, because Adventist Hospital’s bakery is well-known, so maybe a lot of people go there to buy bread.”

My sister giggled at my answer.

Then we passed by Midlands and again there were plenty of people outside the building. It was my sister who voiced out this time – and curiously I lifted up my head again and true indeed, many people were on talking on phones and pointing upwards.

I seriously didn’t know what came to me that I blurted out, “Maybe someone tried to suicide there,” and then I saw my dad looking up!

All of us laughed when I said, “whoa Dad, you really look up!” He gave a chuckle.

We went to Belissa Row for super duper late lunch. It was near 5pm that time when we got out of the car and headed towards Taipei 102.

We were seated cosily at Taipei 102 and busy flipping through menu when I received a sms asking me if I felt the quake earlier.

Mother of technology! I almost jumped out of my chair when I realised that it was the earth who shook the car just now! I immediately told the rest on the earthquake and my bro immediately took up his phone and traced the location of the quake. My sister and I began to log into Facebook and both our new-feeds were flooded with information on earthquake.

Apparently it was massive (8.9 Ritcher scale!) and the point was somewhere similar to the quake in 2004 which generated unforgettable tsunami incident. All of us began talking about it, pondered if tsunami alert was issued out to all. We kept checking on Facebook for more information.

Then I called up Satkuru. I asked him why he didn’t inform me on the quake. He told me he did call me many, many times but couldn’t go through. Maybe the network was busy due to the sudden surge of phone calls made in the country. Surely people called family members, loved ones and friends to see if they’re alright, if they felt the quake etc etc.

Everything was back to normal – assuming it was. We didn’t bother to go Gurney (tho we wanted to initially) after that because we read about the possible tsunami wave that will reach Penang at 9pm.

Thankfully the wave didn’t come. The 2nd quake did.

It happened barely 15 minutes after we reached home. I was about to sit on the floor and start my laptop when I felt dizzy suddenly. I felt like the earth was on move again, so I quickly sat down and thought if the earth really moved. Few seconds later I cried to my siblings, asking them if they realised the shook. They said nope, and I immediately looked up at the ceiling fan in the dining area.

The ceiling fan was swaying left and right at a small angle. I ran to the dining area to double confirm my vision. True indeed, the ceiling fan and the hanging lights were swinging. I shouted to my siblings that it’s the 2nd quake and all of them went to notify my parents while I was searching for Miilo frantically.

Looks like that mischievous dog had ran out of the house to the garden at the same time as I ran to the dining area.

The shook lasted few minutes – I think. And it wasn’t as violent as the first. Maybe because we were in mainland which is slightly farther from the epicentre compared to Pulau Tikus. I found out from Facebook later that the milder quake was measured at 8.2 on Ritcher scale. Kinda strong to me, but impact was lesser. Must be because of the location – I told myself.

At 8.30 pm last night, news went around regarding the tsunami warning was lifted off for our country. You wouldn’t know how happy we were hearing this news.

]]> http://phingelicious.com/2012/04/411/feed/ 0 http://phingelicious.com/2012/04/birthday-celebration-at-david-browns-restaurant-and-tea-terraces/ http://phingelicious.com/2012/04/birthday-celebration-at-david-browns-restaurant-and-tea-terraces/#comments Tue, 10 Apr 2012 15:57:38 +0000 angeline http://phingelicious.com/?p=3898 To think about it, Satkuru’s birthday celebrations since 4 years ago have been rather extraordinary. *perasan mode*

The first year we celebrated together in 2009, I got him his favourite MU jersey with his name ‘tattooed’ at the back all the way from UK (thanks to my good friend Karen for her help). In 2010, we celebrated in Ferringhi Garden Restaurant where we dined in candlelight (uber romantic celebration). The best celebration would be in 2011 where bunch of us celebrated his birthday in CHINA. As for this year I chose to bring him uphill.

2 weeks prior to his birthday, I sent him an invite via Pingg.

As you can see, there weren’t much information written on the card. That’s because I decided to surprise him on the venue.

Today, I made him to drive to the venue by listening to instruction from GPS. However, because the GPS kept recalculating for ‘shorter’ route, I decided to shut the GPS off and made him to drive to Air Itam.

The smarty pants him was ‘guessing’ the venue like mad though I knew he already knew where we were heading. When we reached the bottom of Penang Hill, I told him to search for car park and since we were unwillingly to park our car by the roadside, he parked at the designated parking area.

Which we supposed to pay the parking attendant RM3, but surprisingly he said we don’t have to.

Happily we walked through the trail to the ticket booth and we were quite marveled to find this attractive looking trail. Too many ooh’s and ahh~ uttered here and there.

Seriously, we felt like we were in another country, visiting another country’s tourist attraction. LOL!

At the ticket booth, we were asked to present our IC which we were wondering why. Then only it dawned to us that Malaysian only pays RM8 for return train ticket while the foreigners would have to pay RM30 for the same ticket. It’s the same concept as the tourist attractions in Indonesia where the local there pays dirt cheap for entrance fees.

This is the first time taking the new train uphill for both of us. The train is new and sturdy and most important, it’s air-conditioned. Not forgetting it’s fast too!

After getting out from the train, I kept telling Satkuru to look for Strawberry Hills. But the thing is, David Brown’s Restaurant has expanded with a terrace overlooking the Penang Island and one can easily spot them right after coming out from the train station.

Grinning sheepishly I could only nod in acknowledgement when Satkuru asked me if this restaurant is the one.

We went up to the restaurant and my goodness, I was blown away with the building design and the garden landscape and the whole British concept.

We went to the counter and showed a waiter the Groupon deal I’ve bought, where he then asked us to sit anywhere we like. Since we reached there around 7.14~7.15pm, we opted to sit at the garden than the foyer to enjoy the cool breeze.

However, another waiter came to us and told us that he had reserved our seats which is at the foyer. Ah well, anywhere will do.

We placed our order. Satkuru went for garden salad for entree and lamb shoulder for main dish .

As for me, I took French onion soup and David Brown’s famous chicken and mushroom pie.

Both sets came with a bread with butter, bread and pudding dessert and a choice of tea or coffee – which we both chose tea.

As we enjoyed the view and busy taking photos of the surrounding, the food came one by one. We didn’t feel that the wait is long, however I overheard complain from the next table on why our food came earlier than theirs and theirs took forever. Lol. Maybe they didn’t know that we’ve ordered when they’re busy taking photos with their kids. Haha!

After the satisfying dinner, we lingered around the Strawberry Hill. We chatted, took lots photos and enjoyed the beautiful night view of Penang Island before heading down.

Ohya, the journey downhill is very much faster than the uphill. We didn’t even realise that we’ve already reached the bottom until the train driver got off the train. Haha!

And that sums up the Mr Boyfriend’s birthday celebration. I actually feel bad for not getting Satkuru a cake this year but then, he already had cheesecake last weekend and mille crepe on Monday and probably another cake with his family today (now). Better not to overdose him. Haha!

Happy Birthday Bee. Do close your eyes, make a wish and hope for all good things to come to you. <3 <3 <3

After lunch at Woodlands, we went from one shop to another asking for the bridal makeup package. The first shop was full, so we left after were shown the makeup package by the Indonesian worker. We then went to the second shop. However the owner told us that their makeup artist no longer works there. As for the third shop, the owner wasn’t in and all the workers were busy threading customers’ faces, so nobody was free to entertain us. The forth shop’s worker served us with super bored face. She didn’t sound energetic or passionate when explaining to us. Feeling dispirited, we left.

Then the mum brought us to a gold shop to show us how a Thali necklace would look like. I was told that a Thali necklace is made of a centre amulet and few pieces of ‘connectors’ joint to a chain. It said that the Thali has space (I supposed the connectors) for the relatives to add ‘charms/pendants’ to it as sign of welcoming the bride to the family during the wedding day.

Satkuru added that there are actually two types of Thali chain. One is the yellow string, another one is the gold chain. The thickness and length of the chain symbolizes status of the groom’s family. So the thicker and the longer the chain, the richer the family is.

I prefer thinner. Haha!

Most fascinating thing is when his mum told us on the Thali-making procedure. It’s not that one can just walk into the gold shop and buy one off the shelves. On a good date and time, the groom’s mother must go to the gold shop with 2 very happily married and prosperous women whereby the mum will pass to the goldsmith a small block of gold to be melted and made into the centre amulet which will be engraved with family logo/initials or something like that.

After that, we left for next destination, a saree shop. When we walked in, I knew that clothes aren’t that cheap as we patronized this shop last year in hunt for Punjabi suits.

Satkuru told me, Indian saree shop is normally long and is separated to few sections. As one walks deeper into the shop, the more expensive the sarees are. By the time he finished talking, we were at the end of the shop. I was like, whoa, how much these sarees would cost then?

The parents asked the worker to bring out the bridal sarees. He took out few and obviously those aren’t nice.

Suddenly the dad asked, Angeline, what colour do you like?

I told him, PURPLE!

He murmured, purple ah? Hmm with concerned face.

I was wondering why and Satkuru quickly added, “Because most purple saree aren’t nice.”

I gave a considerably loud, “Ooo” before quickly added in, “I like green too, dark green” gleefully.

Immediately the mum told – cannot wear green during wedding. I was like WHY!

Her replied was according to the Indian custom, if bride wears green, many problems will ensue.

Then I looked around – there’s this mannequin wearing a nice navy blue saree with beige blouse; so I told out “uncle, this colour nice also right?”

He looked and then replied, “Angeline, you really like dark colour is it?” before he laughed.

I sheepishly said, “yes, teehee.”

Then he continued, “but then you’re fair. You should wear light pastel colour.”

“Oh ok, then I think the one beside the blue saree should be good on me” I pointed at the beige saree.

This time he agreed. He asked the worker if I could try the beige saree from the mannequin. He quickly went to the mannequin and removed the saree.

The mum helped in tying the beige saree. After all the tucking and the folding, I looked at the mirror – Hmm, not that appealing.

Then the worker brought out more and more sarees. One by one we rejected them. Those that passed the parents’ criteria, we put them aside, for comparison later. There’s one very beautiful saree with lots beads and sequins and Satkuru said NO to it. Reason, he said I’m already that short, afraid that I’ll become shorter because of the extra weight coming from the beads and sequins.

–“

So the worker had to recommend more. Haha!

I actually like few good looking sarees – but according to Satkuru, everyone especially the relatives will come in their best saree and would expect the bride to be in grander saree. Hence, we have to find those luxurious, grand looking saree.

I nodded.

Finally after nearly an hour of searching, we narrowed down to 2 sarees. As I stood still in front of mirror, the mum draped both saree cloths over my shoulder. From these two, I chose the one that compliments my skin the most.

]]> http://phingelicious.com/2012/03/wedding-sari-quest/feed/ 0 http://phingelicious.com/2012/03/10-photos/ http://phingelicious.com/2012/03/10-photos/#comments Mon, 05 Mar 2012 14:27:48 +0000 angeline http://phingelicious.com/?p=3808 I feel like updating my blog today – supposed to write a foodie post but not so fit to do so. Suspect myself to be a victim of food poisoning as my tummy is in discomfort the whole day today! Argh. Hate it when I’m not feeling well. Grrr

Since I have no energy to write, I’m thinking why not post up photos! I went through my photo album earlier and found few great photos waiting to be published here. You may not find them great, but to me they are. So, keep your opinion to yourself. Wahaha!

Photo 1: Brown shoes.

Brought myself a new pair of shoes. Tomorrow will be a big day for me, so a lil shopping spree helps wonderfully.

Photo 2: Husky, the food picker!

My first dog, Husky! Loves rolling himself on the grass, this dog is such a food-picker! He only eats certain brands of dog food, and those brands aren’t cheap. Lol!

Photo 3: Hong Kong’s siew mai!

I’ve never visited Hong Kong – I heard great things about Hong Kong, almost holidaying there last year, transited many times before there but never step a foot out of the airport. When I had the chance to transit again in Hong Kong last year during my business trip, I decided to try their famous dimsum at the airport itself. And it didn’t disappoint me. It was HEAVENLY~~~

Photo 4: Spot the famous landmarks of Malaysia!

I took this photo on Air Asia’s plane from Penang to Kuala Lumpur. The sky was clear and the plane was descending, so my eyes caught the sight of our country’s famous landmarks and quickly took photo of it. Can you spot the twin tower and the KL tower in the photo?

Photo 5: Origami!

I made these goldfishes for CNY deco last year, and they’re still ‘swimming’ on my cubicle’s wall. Adorable aren’t they?

Photo 6: Fresh seafood served at E&O Sarkies’ Corner

Department quarterly dinner was held here somewhere in 2011 and I walloped plenty of their fresh seafood there. Went home with great satisfaction.

Photo 7: Lil Couz, Nephews and Nieces

These are my cousins, nephews and nieces, taken during CNY last year. We loveeeee them all and they love us too. I know, because they always ‘stick’ to us during family’s gathering.

Photo 8: Fujifilm!

Good friend’s instax. Great fan of instant film as you can see the photos instantly! Hope to own an Instax one day – especially the one with Hello Kitty, keke!

Photo 9: Simply Thai!

Had tomyam gong in a rather lavish Thai restaurant, Simply Thai in Shanghai. Boss’s treat!

Photo 10: There’s a rainbow behind every dark cloud.

One thing I love about driving to island for work is the rainbow! I spotted rainbow more than 5 times on the way to work last year itself and that’s quite frequent! Now that I’m taking bus to work, I rarely seen any rainbow anymore. Hope to spot one soon.

]]> http://phingelicious.com/2012/03/10-photos/feed/ 0 http://phingelicious.com/2012/02/wedding-woes-wedding-rings-scouting/ http://phingelicious.com/2012/02/wedding-woes-wedding-rings-scouting/#comments Sat, 25 Feb 2012 17:45:27 +0000 angeline http://phingelicious.com/?p=3730 Few months back I wrote about my dilemma in finding the correct venue to host 700 guests. Now that I’ve secured the venue, I have another headache – finding the right wedding bands (rings).

Last year I proposed to Satkuru on getting gold rings as our wedding bands and he agreed. But as the price of gold increases and the designs of gold ring is not to my liking, I decided to put that idea aside.

After coming back from Japan, I happened to have a long conversation with my girls in Whatsapp. What a place to have girls talk right? I know! We somehow touched on the wedding bands topic. You see, I was thinking to just get our wedding bands a month before our registration of marriage (which we haven’t decide on the date yet) and my girls encouraged (in fact, pushed) me to do survey on few jewellery shops first. According to them, they took months to decide on their perfect wedding bands, and had to wait for few months before getting their rings as the jewellery shop has to order it. They even told me which jewellery shops to go to – let’s just said that they have surveyed all and concluded for me.

Feeling contented with the information, I told Satkuru that it’s time to walk into the jewellery shop to scout for our wedding bands. When he asked for the reason, I told him what my girls told me. He gave in and we started scouting last week.

We started with Gurney. We went to Love & Co. as the girls told me that the rings there are beautiful. Indeed their rings are beautiful, and the price too! And the service is great too. Both Satkuru and I are very satisfied and happy with the service and explanation given by our consultant, Cowie. We tried plenty of the rings there – be it the Lycalegria, Lycpromise, Lycdesirio – we’ve tried all. She even suggested Lycperfection ring to go with my Solitaire. Great idea but I love Lyceterno collection the most. Very elegant and classic. As we were only there to survey, I asked her to write down the code of the rings that we like so that she can just give us the rings we want if we decide to get it. We even asked her on the price on the pair we like most. The price: RM5,900. Like I said, beautiful rings and price.

Next, we walked into Diamond & Platinum. We have a look at the wedding rings there, tried a few but couldn’t get our head off the rings at Love & Co. Price wise, Diamond & Platinum is cheaper plus we could get member discount. The assistant manager, Michael is very knowledgeable. He gave us lots tips, especially on the quality of the rings there. But no, we didn’t ask for the price nor take down any code.

Due to the time constraint, we could only cover two shops that day. Today we went to 4 shops in Queensbay Mall.

First, we headed to 88 Jewellery because two of my girlfriends bought their rings there and they said there is cheaper and has plenty of designs. True enough, the shop has lots designs but only few interests us. While trying, we took a glimpse at the price, my gawd, the price starts from RM5k per ring. And I’m thinking how come the girls told me it’s cheaper there? We tried few more and decided on which designs caught our eyes most and asked for the price. She then mentioned that the rings have 70% discount, and therefore after discount those rings costs RM3,200. Cheap indeed.

Next, we walked to Lorenzo which my girls said the rings are beautiful but mad expensive. Still, only few design caught our eyes and we chose the one we like most to know the average price of wedding bands. Like the previous shop, the total amount of RM11k went down to RM3,400 after some quick pressing on the calculator. He never mentioned on how much discount he’s giving us but from the numbers, I’m assuming 70%. Hey, no expensive also what if the rings cost RM3,400. Almost same price as 88 Jewellery!

I pulled him to GoldHeart. This shop made me went gaga with the designs as they’re so beautiful. We tried so many rings on and I can say this shop rivals Love & Co in term of designs and price. The consultant, Kent took out few designs that might interest us and he’s very good in suggesting. Most of his suggestions look wonderful on our fingers. On my fingers the most, because the guys’ rings not much design. But I feel GoldHeart has better looking rings for man.

From white gold rings to platinum, he even showed us the Nina Ricci rings. The moment I put one on my finger, I felt in love immediately. I looked over to Satkuru’s finger, it looks so handsome on his finger too. If not for the price, I think we would have get it already. Then he showed us the Pure Blue collection which interests us as there’s a sapphire stone in the ring. We asked him why sapphire and he told us that the Japanese believes that it will bring good blessing to the marriage of the wearers.

What an coincidence right? We just came back from Japan and he’s telling us about the Japanese beliefs on sapphire in wedding rings. Lol!

After trying on so many, we narrowed down to 3 pairs – which then reduced to 2 pairs. We asked for the price – it’s slightly cheaper than Love & Co but more expensive than 88 Jewellery and Lorenzo. My heart already fell for the Nina Ricci but I know we’re not likely going to get it.

Satkuru brought me to the last shop of the day, Diamond and Platinum (again). We looked for Darren, the consultant who served Satkuru when he bought my engagement ring. He showed us the wedding bands but again, there aren’t much choice to choose from. We managed to get one, but according to him if we want to order/custom make a ring, we have to pay extra RM1,000 per ring. So he has to check stock to see if they have the ring size of the design we chose. Else we’ll to pay more or choose different rings.

Satkuru likes Diamond and Platinum. To him, the brand is there, the quality is there, the service is good (they give free cleaning, my rings have been cleansed twice this month! lol) and the price is cheaper. Theirs is cheapest we came across, at RM2,700 per pair!

Oh well, most likely we’re going to get our wedding rings at D&P unless he managed to earn extra money somewhere and get me that Nina Ricci. I’m not giving in that quickly and I want to find that ‘perfect’ wedding bands for us. Got to drag him to few jewellery shops again.

Plus like my girls said, the best time to try ALL the beautiful rings is when you’re looking for wedding bands. So try all you want and ENJOY THE MOMENT.

I did enjoy the trying, but am feeling heartache for not having the money to get the one I like. Huhu.

Can’t believe that it’s new year already! My gooodness! I’ve barely made proper and enough preparation for this CNY. In fact I decorated the whole house on Saturday and went marketing for reunion dinner on Saturday night! What a last minute person I am! Haha!

Speaking about reunion dinner, this year I cooked lesser dishes due to the fact that we’ve booked a pot of poon choy from Dragon-i. It’s not like I’m lazy or what – I’ve actually googled all 8 dishes’ recipes and totally looking forward to cook them! But then we’ve bought the voucher and the voucher valid up to 22nd January, by 2pm! Oh well, will be saving those recipes for next year reunion dinner then!

Yesterday we went up to granny’s place to pay respect to our ancestors. Right after the prayer we had to rush to Queensbays to get the poon choy. By the time we reached home, it was already 3pm and immediately we started the last minute house cleaning. Hung all the last minute decos, bathed Miilo and blew dry him, and mopped the floor, then off to the kitchen to work on the prawns and cutting the vegetables.

Seriously can go mad! I went into the kitchen late, and all ingredients were needed to be washed, cleaned, deveined – therefore with only 1.5 hours to dinner, I felt the pressure in delivering our dinner on time! @_@ Luckily Satkuru came earlier and helped me with cutting, stirring, frying. Phew!

By 8pm, the poon choy was taken out of the fridge and heated. Because it was in frozen state, it took some time for the broth to melt. I took the opportunity to bath and wash my hair. For the past years, I’ve always showered after dinner because we will eat immediately after cooking. So glad that this year I can have dinner in clean and fresh state.

So these are our reunion dinner! All these accompanied by a bottle of raspberry flavoured Zinfandel, yums!

This pot feeds 10 pax, believe me! We couldn’t finish this and had to eat this the next day. Super lavish and satisfying!

Nestum prawn! Totally loveeee the smell coming out from the pan when I deep fried the prawns. So fragrant!

Abalone and sea cucumber with broccoli and mushroom. Everyone’s favourite dish. The secret lies in the sauce. Wahaha!

Happyyyyyy Chinese New Year! May the year of dragon brings lots of wealth, prosperity and great health to all!

Huaaaaaaaaaaaaaat ah!

Yesterday, my dear Satkuru brought me to this coffee shop located at Bishop Street. He went there for food review on Sunday and wanted me to try their coffee as the owner is the best barista in Malaysia.

Since we have 2 hours to kill before meeting up with event planner from Cititel, I agreed and off we went to this quaint coffee shop, Lighthouse Cafe.

Upon entering, my nose caught strong whiff of coffee. Mm~

The place is small but cosy. Dim yellow lights are shined on the wall to create warm ambience. Tables and chairs are smartly placed at both sides, giving walkaway in the middle. If I’m not mistaken, there’s a staircase leading up, but I’m not too sure on that. We walked in and headed straight for the counter. That’s when we heard someone called our names.

We turned and to our pleasant surprise it was EMILY!

We laughed, and I walked to her and had a little chat before was asked to place order. I looked at the green board on the wall behind the counter to see if there are any “Must try/Recommendation/Best” icons beside the drink names.

Can’t recall if I see any but I ended up asking the gentleman behind the counter on what are recommended at Lighthouse. He named me 3 – Butterscoth Caramello, White Strawberry Mocha and Coffee Hazelnut Mocha – if my memory doesn’t fail me on the last recommendation.

I chose Butterscotch Caramello while Satkuru took White Strawberry Mocha. There are cakes displayed at the counter too, but we didn’t take any because the cakes didn’t really thrill me much. Hmm.

We sat at a small round table in front of the counter. Few minutes later Satkuru went to get our drinks and we took a sip. My Butterscotch Caramello is heavenly. Just that after few sips, I was telling Satkuru that I should have ordered it hot rather than cold. He agreed.

The White Strawberry Mocha is nice too, but I prefer mine. I took 2 sips and passed back to him whereas he took 2 sips of mine and concluded mine is rather bitter compared to his. And I was telling him that his drink is rather sweet! Haha!

This place is so cosy that when Satkuru kept pestering me to finish up my drink fast or bring my coffee to the car, I didn’t want to leave! Haha. I just like sitting there, talking to him, taking photo around or just enjoying my coffee, glazing into his face. Ah life~

Of course that didn’t happened. So much for enjoying my coffee in the afternoon. T__________T

This place is highly recommendation for coffee lovers. Even if you’re not a coffee lover, you should drop by and try their coffee. Theirs are good. I like!

The reason why I started my post with I’m not a coffee lover is because, I went to two different places and ordered coffee. Well, the second cup came unexpected but still, two cups in one day! Way too much coffee intake for a non-coffee addict. @_@

After meeting up with the lady from Cititel, our tummies growled and we decided to grab something to eat. Satkuru suggested Behind.50, but I told him to go somewhere else because we’ve been there. Out of the blue he took out his phone and looked for China House on the Waze. The house was located and direction to there appeared. 5 minutes later, we found the place.

Located at Beach Street, China House is easily identified from rows of heritage buildings no thanks to the 3 bold signboards bearing the words, Shopping, Art + Theater, and Food + Drinks.

While crossing the road, Satkuru constantly asked me if the place is opened as it looks dim from outside. I told him yes, and dragged him in. Haha.

Unknowingly we walked into a gem. A rather expensive one, lol!

Upon pushing the door, very strong coffee aroma greeted me. Way stronger than Lighthouse Cafe; so strong that I could even ‘smell’ it in my mind. Immediately I thought to myself, wow the coffee here is so good! I must try!

We walked straight to the back of the building. To be frank, we were quite surprised to know that this building is that long! A bar adorned with coffee grinder and machines and alcohols is on the left side of the area while tables for two are on the right. The gap of 3 feet between the bar and the tables allows guests to walk in and out of the cafe and for the host and attendants to serve food and drinks.

Beyond the bar, one can find two long tables at both sides of the walkaway. Many types of cakes, pies and breads are placed on the left table while books and magazines sat on the right table.

Further down, a big antique brown cupboard which stores the belonging of the host and attendants acts as a divider for the vast space. Behind the cupboard, two more tables can be seen there.

We didn’t stop there, we continued walking and we found ourselves at the supposed open-air middle courtyard (the Hokkien people would call this place Am Ceh) which is already covered up with plastic transparent roof sheets.

A long table for 14 pax is smartly positioned in the middle of the courtyard area, decorated with potted plants and framed photographs. A blackboard is nailed to the wall and I can’t help to notice the troll drawing that someone left there. I pointed out to Satkuru and he laughed. Lol.

At the supposedly kitchen area, one could find 2 more tables and roughly 4-5 bookshelves placed against the wall. As much as we wanted to sit at the courtyard and the back area, the tables were all occupied. T________T

We didn’t walk furthermore as we thought that’s the end of the building. But from what I gather, there is a back courtyard which link to another two buildings! Argh! We should have walk out of the building to the courtyard. Huhu.

We walked back to the front of the building and decided to sit at one of the tables placed parallel to the bar. I didn’t realise/notice the mahjong paper which is clipped to the table, but I was very excited when I saw a glass filled with canyons on the table. Then it made me think THIS is the place where my friends posted up photos of them drawing on table with crayons! Haha!

Obviously I grabbed the crayons and drew on the mahjong paper. Wahaha.

Menus are given to us and there isn’t any sign of “Must try/Chef Recommendation” icon on the menu. Satkuru immediately checked Foursquare for tips. Among so many tips, we spotted Vingie which stated overpriced. This tip trembled us a little, but since we had already seated down we thought why not just try the best in the menu.

And we did. We ordered a cup of coffee, a glass of chocolate, 2 slices of cakes and their famous homemade ice cream as they’re highly recommended on Foursquare. He didn’t really see any of the mains mentioned in the tips therefore didn’t go for main course.

My coffee came with a cup of gula melaka. Happily I took a sip. It was bitter like mad! So I quickly add in two spoons of gula melaka and stirred. Took a sip and it was still bitter! I pushed the coffee aside and went for Satkuru’s iced chocolate with chocolate ice-cream. It was heavenly as the chocolate ice-cream is so rich! Yums!

I so wanted to swap my bitter choco with Sat’s choco, but I knew he wouldn’t let me. Grr. In the end I just accepted my bitter coffee, added few more spoons of gula melaka and that’s it. I didn’t want to put much of sugar because I’m afraid I’ll get diabetic out of it, lol!

I can’t help but to think that the person who recommended coffee in Foursquare is either a bitter-lover or plain lazy in mentioning the full name of the coffee. Hello, there are few COFFEES on the menu and your suggestion on ‘coffee’ is killing me. Grr.

I had terrible headache after drinking the bitter coffee. By the end of the meal, I told Satkuru that I have to say NO to coffee and cakes for at least a week. My appetite for these (coffee and cakes) are totally ruined. T__________T

As for the cakes, mine is delicious at first but as I dug on, the bitter coffee spoiled the whole appetite and making my eating experience very torturous. Thus, I ate because I didn’t want to waste food, not because I truly enjoy it. That’s totally not the propose of me entering this place! T__________T

I think Satkuru enjoyed his meal as he didn’t have bitter coffee to go with the cake. Blek!

Immediately after finishing my cake and coffee, I asked for the bill. It took them quite some time to give us our bill because we were told they didn’t have a proper cash machine yet and everything is done manually.

Guess how much our bill amounted to?

- One piece of RM50 note and a piece of RM1 -

Oh well, someone gotta pays for the ambience.

After Satkuru proposed in mid-July, we didn’t really start planning yet because we thought we should get a date first before asking around. Well, hungry ghost month started in August, so it’s a big NO getting wedding date in that month and my good friend, PeiKei advised that it’s better to sought date after the hungry ghost month. So we waited.

In September, Satkuru came to me with 3 dates. No, he only gave me one date. I accepted the date tho I was thinking why not letting me know all 3 dates, just in case we couldn’t secure venue on the chosen date. But since we have more than a year to go, I’d figure out we should be able to get one and started telling my close friends to save the date!

At the same time, we began to write out guestlists before inquiring on the venue. The reason why we listed down because I’ve read in MalaysianBrides forum that there are brides who had to change the venue because the number of tables increased and the venue couldn’t hold that much.

To all the brides to be: read a lot. Especially these forums.

Our initially list, or rather MY initial list came to near 800 guests. Satkuru freaked out stating why there’s so much people in my list. As we’ll be holding joint dinner, he said there’s no venue in the island that could hold more than 100 tables. So, I told my parents that we had to cut down the lists and the lists went down to 85 tables for both side family and friends.

In October, we began venue-hunting, asking around for venue to hold 85 tables. The first choice would be the moral uplifting society; but the place is booked on the date we wanted. We weren’t surprise when were told that as Penangites love to hold weddings here.

So, we went to Long Say Building at Burmah Road as the building looks grand too. To our dismay, the hall is small and we estimate the hall can place 30 tables at its maximum.

I sent email to Sunway Carnival Convention Centre as I read that it can put up to 100 tables. Satkuru emailed them too, and one Saturday, we decided to drop by to see the table arrangements as there was a wedding that day.We were pleased with the hall; tho the deco that comes with the package looks basic, but because the place looks grand, it looks grand overall and is up to our expectation.

We love this place BUT, it’s expensive. If this price being offered in island, then it’s okay but this convention centre is in Butterworth. We truly weren’t expecting the price to be that high. Gosh!

Next, we went to SP Setia Clubhouse as I saw good comments in some forums that I read. The clubhouse is located uphill, and we were quite impressed with the clubhouse and it overlooks the east-southern side of Penang and could even see the second Penang bridge.

Before coming, we knew that this place can hold up to 70-75 tables, but we came anyway to see how big is the hall and see if could squeeze in more.

The hall is indeed big, but then could only hold up to 50 tables if not mistaken. Can’t really remember now cz we went to see in early October. The rest 20 tables will be placed outside, at the foyer. But imagine the potongstimness of having to sit ourside the hall?

So we bid this place goodbye and went to scout more.

We were figuring – if we do our wedding at community hall and decorate it to what we want, then it would be more memorable to us. So we asked around for hall. Among the halls that I’ve called to inquire about is Han Chiang High School. After being transfered around to few teachers, I asked in my broken mandarin if the hall is available on the date I wanted.

He replied that someone already paid deposit for the hall. “But we have a stadium. Do you want to book the stadium?“, he asked in Mandarin.

Shocked from knowing there’s a stadium in a school and just before I could reply him, he said, “Oh, got people placed booking d. Sorry.”

I felt like I was being played. Feeling a little furious, I said thank you and ended the call. Grr.

Later that day, I found out that there’s a convention centre that belongs to the Sunshine group. Curious on where is it located, I called up the number. A lady answered and told that the hall is actually situation on the 4th level of the Sunshine Square building. I was even more joyous when she told me the hall can fit up to 120 tables!

Surprised and excited at the same time, I asked for appointment to see the hall that evening. She told me there’s someone actually booked the hall already, but yet to pay the deposit. I told her, if I like the hall and paid the deposit that instant, that means the hall belongs to me right? She couldn’t answer and said best if she could ask the person that has booked the hall. Alamak!

Still, I went in to see the hall that evening with Satkuru. It was soooo spacious, but old – as Satkuru said. As the hall only used and seen daylight when there’s event, the place is quite dusty and smells weird (hapak smell). The chandeliers are dusty and the old white cloth that hang in the ceiling still there, making me wonder if they would ever change the cloth. Overall, I’m okay with this hall, just that it needs a little makeover (that’s where the hall decorator comes in). Satkuru on the other hand, dislikes the hall because it looks old and smells weird, lol! He was pleased to know that the person who booked the hall paid the deposit few hours earlier – a good reason to decline the place.

Then I was thinking, if we get a hall, yes – we can decorate the hall to our preferances and can a good caterer for our food. But then, we’ll need to find we need to spend time and energy looking around again. Why not just do at hotel that provides venue, deco and food? Satkuru doesn’t want to get wedding planner; he feels if were to find wedding planner, might as well do at hotel.

Few calls were made to hotels – Cititel, Paradise Sandy Hotel – all booked. Evergreen Laurel Hotel, G Hotel, Gurney Hotel – can fit up to 60 tables maximum. Royal Hotel can fit 23 tables only! Same goes with Hard Rock Hotel for only able to cater up to 26 tables.

As for E&O Hotel, though I would loveeee to host my wedding dinner there, but it can only put 40 tables in the ballroom and if insists on 60 tables, then they’ll place the extra 20 tables at the deck. Both of us don’t like this type of arrangement and the price is exorbitant, so gotta say bye to this lovely hotel.

I came to know Red Rock Hotel through Daphne. She attended her cousin’s wedding at this hotel before and recommended this hotel for they serve good food as well as able to accommodate lots people too. So I called them up and arranged time to look the hotel. The hotel’s lobby is small, but that’s okay as there’s another entrance leading directly to the ballroom. When we entered the ballroom, we were at awed. The ballroom looks grand and there’s a large, beautiful chandelier in the middle. We felt in love with the ballroom.

BUT, again there’s a but here. This ballroom can fit 55-60 tables comfortably. Our hearts sank.

“Then what’s the maximum tables that can be put in, in this ballroom?” Satkuru asked.

“70 tables, BUT (again) there’ll be no walkaway in the middle. Plus it’ll be very cramp” he explained.

I told him my friend told me can fit more than 80 tables. He explained that, that’s achieveable with 60 tables in the ballroom and 20 more at the side foyer. The doors at the side will be dismantled on the wedding night.

I was thinking, if only the wall separating these two can be knocked down. At least, guests sitting at the side wouldn’t have to stretch their neck to see what’s happening on the stage. I jokefully told this to the marketing lady the second time we went there to see the table arrangement hours before a wedding dinner starts.

Few hotels we didn’t call in because of our unpleasure dining experience with them before. Satkuru believes that if we were to look for a hotel, at least the food should be okay and not making the guests running to the toilet after the meal.

Halfway looking around, mum called me up telling me that her godsis recommended Ming Garden at Penang Times Square, saying that the food is great, the place is classy and most importantly can put up to 120 tables! Immediately I googled up this restaurant and called them to ask if the date I wanted is still available. Sadly, the lady told me it’s already taken up and suggested me to do luncheon wedding instead. –”

When I told mum that the place is not available, mum asked me to try Hei Yeong Seng Chinese restaurant at Penang Plaza. I called that restaurant too, but again the place taken up.

I was thinking – is the date we chose REALLY THAT HOT? –”

Not giving up, I googled around again. This time I called up Tanjung Bungah Hotel, as I was drawn to the “Wedding by the beach” package. When inquire about number of tables, the hotel event guy told me “normally 20 tables.” I was like it’s a beach and there shouldn’t be any restriction what, but I didn’t voice that out. I just asked how about 80 tables and he told me it can be done since they did for 70 tables before.

Again 70, not 80!

However, he did mention that the price for that package had increased, so additional few hundreds per table on top of the package mentioned there. The new price will put a strain on our budget but the pro is the wedding is by the sea, super romantic!

Told parents about this, their worry is – what if it rains? Even Satkuru agreed with my parents. Oh well. There goes my dream. T_____T

Seeing that it’s really hard to secure a venue, Satkuru told me to cut down the guestlists again. He’s right, we have no choice but to do so since it’s hard to get venue in Penang though we still have a year ahead! Some restaurants and hotels suggested to do on Friday night, but Friday night will be super jam and we don’t want to start the dinner late. Though there’s a thought of doing separate dinner on Saturday and luncheon on the actual day, then luncheon which normally starts at 12 noon, might start late at around 2pm because of the tea ceremony. And I don’t like the idea of rushing on my big day because want to make it to luncheon.

Guess what, I’ve called up Berjaya Hotel and was told that the date is still available, but could only fit in 70 tables. Grr. Gonna see the ballroom tomorrow, yippee!

However, it was on Saturday the 15th and I was still in Laos on 15th.

After couple of email exchanges and with a phone call from Emily to Vin, the founder of Qyzzy.com, the session changed to Sunday 16th! Immediately we sent back our RSVP.

On Sunday, off we went to Penang Times Square for a little tea-time session! We reached Times Square 15 minutes late due to the heavy rain around my area.

There was Red Bull Monkey Run event going on and I was so tempted to walk over and watch participants completing the obstacles. But since we were already late so we rushed to Z Classroom as fast as we can.

Z Classroom’s tagline caught my eyes: Z Classroom, where you learn.. how to drink. Couldn’t help to think if we would be serving beers later. The thought was of course dismissed as we were invited for a tea-time session, not drinking session, lol!

Vin was introducing Z Classroom to the bloggers when we reached. He was mentioning on able to charge phones on the shelves if our phone’ battery were running low. We quickly ‘blended in’ and attentively listening to him.

Then he suddenly did a quick ice-breaking, quickly introducing everyone to everyone! I lost part of my voice by the end of my trip and realise I couldn’t really speak aloud when was asked to introduce my website to them. In fact, I was struggling. Ah, so memalukan.

T___________T

He then introduced the owner, Kelvin to us. Kelvin greeted us, said thanks and then passed over to Vin back.

Vin ended the speak by asking if any girls would want to wear this super skimpy dress. He then shot the Q to me and I squeeked nooo, it’s so short! ><

After that, we were allowed to linger around to take photos of the place. I was super proud of my Sony Nex-C3 as they were able to take superb photos at low light without me adjusting any mode or needing to use any flash. Wahaha!

I took few photos around and then was notified that we can go upstairs for more photoshooting. I was like, what? There’s more upstairs? Cool! - and we went up the stairs to this room filled with strong ciggers smell, something that I dislike greatly.

However one cannot break the connection between beers and cigerattes. These two are interconnected, so it’s normal to find such smell there.

One thing that really infruites me is the equation on the wall! E-mc square! I couldn’t help but to say out aloud, isn’t E=MC square? and nobody replied me, not even my beloved fiance. –”

So, I went around taking photos.

The second floors is separated into 2 by a partition. The inner side is turned into a spacious VIP room, good for entertaining more than 10 people in it. It has a big TV on wall, long sofas and a karaoke system.

The outer side accommodates 4 tables and chairs for patroners. There’s another big TV on the wall too.

Then my eyes spotted something interesting. A speaker trumpet! I was posing with it, and someone said it’s from USS! I asked, how you know? He replied, see! The price tag is still there!

Alamak! Haha!

There are also two microphones at the side, so I posed with one also. Passed one to Emily and both of us posed for a picture.

- Satkuru took the photo for us. Still haven’t gotten picture from Satkuru. Aih! -

Then we went down. I realised most of them gathered around the bar around, busy taking photos of something. Curiously I went nearer to see what are they taking photo of. It was the beers!

Vin explained these are the types of beers available there. Then we asked, How about Laobeer? and then we laughed. Couldn’t help but to make some jokes on the beers as we just came back from drinking session in Vientiane. All thanks to LaoLao and Laobeers! Lol!

Did I mention that this cafe has sphere shaped beer dispenser rather than the typical tower beer? Cool right?

Criz came halfway, to pass us the CSL phones that we ‘won’ for writing on CSL post. Super cute ah!

Soon we were served cappuccino, mocha and white coffee. I took white coffee; Emily took mocha and Satkuru took cappuccino. The fragrant of these coffees were too overwhelming, we quickly take photo of the coffees and took few sips.

Ahh~ Heavenly.

Then the cakes came. We were treated to 3 types of cakes. Rum, blueberry and tiramisu. I love their rum and blueberry, but wasn’t really fancy on tiramisu. Maybe because I’ve tasted better other place.

Their rum is heavenly. They’re generous with the amount of chocolate on the cake; and the rum, the rum tastes just nice – not too overpowering, not too lacking. Thumbs up.

Blueberry cheesecake is charming. I think my mum would love this cake. She totally hates cheesecake as she cannot stand the cheesiness in it and this cheesecake doesn’t have that cheesy texture in it. Maybe I can bring her there one day.

Tiramisu. Like I said earlier, I don’t really fancy tiramisu. Upon first bite, all three of us looked at each other and agreed that it lacked of something. Something we couldn’t explain. However as I dug on more, it became nicer and nicer. Weird, right? Haha!

As we’re eating our cakes, we were talking and socialising with other bloggers as well. Z Classroom’s owner, Kelvin also came by and talked to us. We asked him few questions regarding this cafe and found out that it opened in mid August. Also, he mentioned that Z Classroom is his 2nd outlet! His first cafe is the Z1 Cafe. We were marveled as he owns two cafe at such a young age! Kudos to him!

Vin came over and didn’t know how, we started playing Jenga!

Boy, it was such a nerve-wreaking time. My hand shook uncontrollably, so much that I couldn’t place the block nicely! Haha!

We played two rounds. First round was toppled down by Emily. Second time, Vin’s unsuccessful pull caused the tower to fall. It was a big relief to Emily and I when the tower fell before our turns.

Then it was time to go. We took group photo and bid goodbye. We also took photo with Kelvin. ^^

Thanks to Qyzzy.com for inviting us. We had plenty fun mingling around.

Obviously we didn’t, lol!

So we bear the discomfort and prayed that the traffic would be clearer when we got out of the congested area. Luckily it did got clearer.

Still by the time we reached Straits Quay, it was already 8pm. Satkuru was already there, so I called him to meet us at the centre atrium. Then we directly headed to Blue Reef for al fresco style dinner.

We quickly ordered our food and while ordering, my bro and I struggled on checking onto Blue Reef on Foursquare due to bad 3G connection there.

For your information, you’ll get free soft drink upon checking in Blue Reef on Foursquare and show the crew the ‘special’. So, do remember to check in! However this special only valid on weekdays!

In the end, only my sister, Satkuru and I managed to check-in and hence claimed 3 free drinks there! Wahaha.

Since we were so hungry, we decided to blow candle and cut cake first. After all the cake was melting and couldn’t ‘wait’ any longer.

This year I decided to book a special cake for dad. So, I went for mille crepes!

We quickly lighted up the candles and immediately sang birthday song. Dad made wishes that and then blew the lights off the candles. Then he cut the crepes.

Too bad the crepes was too soft that it couldn’t stand beautifully after cutting them in slices. It would be beautiful, if only it came out directly from fridge.

My, my.. the crepes taste so delicious even tho it was soft. I couldn’t imagine how tasty it would be if eat it right after receiving the cake!

Soon our food came in one by one. We have grilled garoupa with mash potatoes and broccoli and carrot stripes for my sister;

.. grilled salmon with mash potatoes, broccoli and carrot stripes for mum;

.. and different fishes of fish and chips – the Threadfin fish and chip for dad;

… the Halibut fish and chip for bro;

… the Spanish Mackerel fish and chip for bro’s gf;

… and the Garoupa Fish and Chip for me!

Satkuru ordered deep fried prawn and calamari since he tried fish and chip before in our previous visit the earlier weekend.

The food didn’t exactly wow my family but I’m glad that they left the restaurant with full and happy tummies.

Maybe it was the mille crepes that made the tummies happy! Haha!