Christmas 2010

This year Christmas was pretty great. I joined along with Charles and his 2 ladies (well, his ex-course mates) for Christmas eve celebration or indeed countdown for Christmas. Although the initial plan was to be celebrating at a lounge, count down there as well, but turn out that we countdown in the car instead.

We went to Delicious for dinner, and that was pretty good experience compare to the few past experience I have at Mid Valley. I think the outlet in Jalan Tun Razak is keeping it's quality of service. Perhaps due to the location, just next to Duo Residency.

After driving all the way to Quattro, Avenue K, we found that it wasn't what we initial plan it to be. It wasn't really nice for us and it's damn expensive. Cover charge that night is RM68 for guys. OMG. So we decided to change our location, ended up at The Library, Mid Valley.

Shifting of location causing us to count down in our car at the end. However, we did have our great time at The Library after that. It was a great Christmas, despite two single ladies and two bachelors kept on checking out people around without making any move at all. LOL.

So, Christmas is over. But the spirit didn't die off just like that. Today, my ballroom dance mates just organise a potluck in the studio. After the class, we have a great feast. We have taken a lots of photos and I have posted most of it on Facebook.

To view on the photos taken on Christmas eve, please click here, and

To view on the photos taken for Christmas Potluck a.k.a. Boxing Day, please click here.

US Trip (Part 2)

Let's continue with my Chicago trip. Well, after the Indianapolis trip, which I was required to visit the factory of one of my material supplier with my manager, we have set ourselves to commit to our market research session for the weekday remains.

We woke up on the early Thursday morning (which is not so early) and had our first brunch at UNO Chicago Grill at Ohio Street and Wabash Avenue. It's famous for its Chicago deep dish pizza. So we were so into it and I ordered a salad and a soup to come along with it. Guess what, we ordered a small pizza which turns out look like a regular pizza in Malaysia in term of the dimension, but then its just thicker. How much thicker? The answer is about 1 inch thick. That's crazy. However, the best of all is the soup and the salad. I miss it already.

Later, we had our dinner at Smith & Wollensky, somewhere near to the bridge around Walker Street. That is where we had the largest piece of meat for dinner for the entire trip so far. The service there was great and when we asked him about the size of the meat, he scares us with the information. It's 26 oz piece of meat with bone, which is about 2.2 times larger piece of meat you can get from Tony Roma's in Malaysia. Anyway, in places like Chicago which is cold, restaurant have such service to check your coat for you with some tipping expected from you.

On the next day, we had our breakfast at Corner Bakery Café, somewhere near Elm Street (near to our hotel, which is The Ambassador East Hotel). The cookies there are superb and the pesto is one of the best that I had it again on the day before I left Chicago.

Since we had walked the whole journey back from Walmart at West North Avenue, which approximately 7 miles (11.2km) back to our hotel before heading to the town for lunch, we have to eat at bakery café called Oak Tree Restaurant & Bakery at North Michigan Avenue, somewhere near to the Sear's Tower. The service there is excellent because my manager spilled his smoothies accidentally and the waiter replace a new one for us for free without whining about us messing the place. The salad there was good and the bread there are excellent.

We took our dinner on the way back to hotel at Morton's The Steakhouse, North State Street. Well, nothing much special to talk about steak because I believe you will already expect the same thing - big portion, we have to share the steak, etc.

On Saturday, it's the Halloween Eve. We woke up late so we when straight for our lunch at Frontera Grill, which is a Mexican style restaurant at North Clark Street. I'm not describing it much because it's not really much to talk about as it's almost the same expect that we ate tacos, a bowl of soup and salad.

Our dinner that night was at a Japanese-Western fusion style restaurant at North Halsted Street. Ironically, the street happens to be a Boystown in Chicago. So kinda open your mind that night since it's Halloween Party. You can really see them dressing all sort of character, e.g. Tarzan, Robin, etc. at the temperate merely 4°C. Anyway, the chocolate martini there is really good.

On the Halloween Day itself, breakfast as usual at Corner Bakery Café and we skipped our lunch for both days. Dinner for that night was with our agents at Chicago Chop House, East Ontario Street near North Clark Street. That dinner cost us an arm and a leg.

On Monday, same routine except for our dinner and David Burke's Primehouse and we had a tremendous good service from the waiter, whose his name is Brian. Wonderful experience there. Everything almost the same except I love the steak here the most. That was the last experience in Chicago before we were landed in San Francisco for transit to Hong Kong.

I will soon blog about the event after this and upload photo when I have the time to do so. So mean while, please bear with me with pure dry description. Once upload, you can view it. ^^

US Trip (Part 1)

Well, as everyone should know already that I'm going to the States for business trip. The whole journey was not that great to be told. Lots of hassle we been through before we even lay my feet on the "Land of Opportunity".

The journey begin with my flight being delay for about 7 hours. The flight shall be departing at Narita, Tokyo before heading to Chicago, Illinois. Due to the delay, we are unable to catch up with our connecting flight. We shall be sitting both All Nippon Airways (ANA) planes to Chicago. However, due to the delay, we have to board the United Airlines (UA) which turns out to be disaster for me.

Despite the hyper mode I was having during the 1 hour transit in Narita, the other half journey was not that interesting. At Narita airport, after the long 7 hours of flight in MAS (which is much better than in the UA), we finally landed on the land I always dream of. The only regret I have is that I have only 1 hour to walk around the airport and I can't really lay my foot out of the airport. LOL.

The other 13 hours flight in UA, as I mentioned is a nightmare. The air attendance are not smiling and not that friendly as you see in the movie. Other than that, the sitting is like cramp up. Imagine you have to cramp up in the plane for 13 hours with limited space. I almost can't breath. To make it worst, due to the weather condition, the plane landed hard and lots of breaking when we arrived to Chicago O'Hare airport.

That's not the worst I had so far. To make it even worst for me is that the Transportation Security & Administration (TSA) officer make my life difficult. Coming into the States is hard enough as I had the trouble to get their visa, and now they want me to register my departure when I'm exiting their country. Maybe that's only applies to first timer to the States as my manager didn't have that trouble to get in.

Well, that's the first day experience. Despite all the bad thing, I do enjoy the good things which is the food. We have a nice steak in Chicago on that night. I seriously think that even their so-called normal restaurant are comparable with the standard we can get in Tony Roma's, TGIF, etc. in Malaysia.

Since we are seriously exhausted with that jet lag, we ended up sleeping early. We have to catch another flight to Indianapolis to meet with our material supplier. Travelling to Indianapolis was good. The flight is on time and the weather is brilliant. We have a great tour around the factory and had a great lunch at some local restaurant.

Talk about local food and stuff, their local beers are excellent to try. I had a Goose Island in Chicago which taste better than Heineken beer. In Indianapolis, I have tasted the Upland (Wheat Ale) beer and the Bud Light. It seems that each beer has it's own identity. Upland taste not too bad. Bud Light is good if you want something light. It almost taste like water as in the taste is not strong at all. Maybe that's why their called it Bud Light.

Of course other than all those stuff that you can't get it in Malaysia that I have tried here in the States, I also do go for stuff that you can get it in Malaysia here too. Guess what. It's Starbucks. You can literally find it almost everywhere you go. They look the same as in Malaysia. The only different is the price. You can get a hot chocolate, grande size for $3.50, which equivalent to RM10.94 (inclusive of tax).

One thing about the States is that they usually don't charge service tax or perhaps don't charge at all. Their culture is tipping or they call it gratuity. It's a norm for them the receive tips from you when you pay our bill. Usually if their service is average, tipping of 15% will be the the norm and it's advisable to tip them generously if the service is excellent (approximate 20% of your bill). If their service is bad, tip them less but not less that one buck.

I will be posting those pictures I took during this trip when I get back to Malaysia as I don't have a broadband service here. More updates about the trip will be posted once I have the chance to do so. So see you guys.. ^^

Mum's Birthday

Yesterday my family and I went to Mid Valley to celebrate my mum's birthday in advance. I snapped some nice picture of her having her dinner with us together as a family. Although I come up with most of the sum for the dinner, but seeing my mum putting a big smile on her face already worth it back.

I'm didn't get her anything this year. Just manage to treat her a nice dinner together with our family that's all. However she got herself a nice bag and my sister got her something cheap as well. Well, it's not about the price of the gift but the value of remember and cherish each other. I just hope my mum enjoy her day. I love you, mum!!

Preparing for USA and Hong Kong

After working in this new company for 2 months plus, it seems like I have the chance to go to United States of America and Hong Kong this coming October for business trip. I thought I should be thrill, and of course I am thrilled and excited. However somehow, it's still working trip, not a vacation.

Maybe lately I'm adapting to the new environment and things happened around me wasn't that significant enough to motivate me to write except for this business trip. Bryan (my ex-intern in the company) has just left the company last week, replace by a new guy called Cheston. Well, He is really smart and I feel he is right for the job. I mean in this field at least since he is taking Marketing as his course.

I think when I have much more things to share about it, I'll write up here again. I'm lazy to write anything here today.