Females are getting fiercer

You must be wondering why I've chosen the above topic. Although I'm a female myself, I do think that a number of them, falls into the above category. Why do I say that? I've encountered several incidents to prove my point.

Incident 1:-
Paul was driving me to Penang and it was a massive jam at the Penang bridge. Many cars were queing up at the Touch & Go lane. Suddenly, a car drove past us and cut the queue. It was a lady driver. She was driving a few other girl friends in the car. Paul was pretty angry with the driver and sounded the horn.
Guess what happened next? When she wound down the window to scan the card, she raised her hand and showed us the middle finger. Both of us were stoned by her actions... Paul got offended by that and got even angrier... I told him to calm down.. just leave them alone.. What can we do? Walked down the car and beat them up? haha.. What's the point..

Incident 2:-
Paul and I were at OneU to catch a movie. We went to the new wing shopping mall to park our car. When we were queing at the gate to take our parking ticket, this car infront of us were taking a very long time. It's a lady driver again. There's a problem with the Touch & Go scanning but she still insisted on using it. She can choose to take the parking ticket instead. Paul was very impatient and sounded the horn. She's causing a bad jam. Many cars were behind. At last, she had no choice but to take the parking ticket and.. the same thing happened again.. Wound down the window, showed the middle finger,
and took the parking ticket.. .. I know Paul was wrong this time by sounding the horn.. but she
doesn't need to show her middle finger rite?

The above incidents really made me wonder.. Why are they so brave? I'm sure I'm not the only one who've encountered the above incidents.. Arent the girls afraid that they will be beaten up? Why are they so so so soooo....rude to the extent of showing the middle finger?

*Ponder ponder*@!!!

Merry Christmas

I would like to wish everyone a Joyous Christmas!

Thank you....

When I received this virtual card from Ivan, it reminded me of something.. Something which I find it pretty familiar.. I like the effect of my name.. and the two stones... like I've seen it somewhere..

After telling him that the card looks pretty familiar, he told me where he got the picture. It's actually from my Wales online photo album.

I drew my name on the sand together with the stones beside it. He found it nice and used it to create this card.

How creative and I like it.

Thanks Ivan! :D

I would also like to thank Chi for the lovely flowers..

and Neil for the cute lil doggie..

Thanks to all my buddies who sms & call me too!!!

Partying at Poppy

It's been quite a while since I last went to club to drink and go crazy.... It's the end of Year 2006 and I'm getting older.. So.. why not go all out and have fun? Agree?

I haven't tried this Flaming Cocktail drink before and thought why not give it a try.. It's pretty scary when putting the straw into the glass at the bottom to sip the drinks up..

The taste : Sweet & nice.. and not bad. :D

See the flame at the outer layer of the bottle? Cool rite?

More pictures can be viewed at my photo album 2.

My Bday Dinner

Many people would have guessed that I had a romantic candle light dinner for my birthday. They are not totally wrong... Just minus out the candle light will do coz I had my dinner under fluorescent light. ;)

I had the most delicious meal ever... (with my hands slighly near my chest, hehe) - Lamb Chop!

This nicely decorated meal is prepared by non other than Chef Paul Konchivsy..

Upon arrival, I went straight into the kitchen to check out his cooking progress.. Look at all the things that he had prepared.. all very organized.. not bad not bad.. Cooked like a pro too!

Thanks for the dinner. Really appreciate the effort! *Muacks*

Happy Birthday To MYSELF!!!

It's exactly 00:00, 18th of December and I would like to wish myself, Happy Birthday!! I'm older by a year.. and yes.. I'm getting older now..

A Birthday cake for myself..

And of course, a toast for myself too! Cheers!!!

Birthday song specially written for me

My friend, Mr Neil or known as "Ah Niu" has written a birthday song for me and I lurveee it alot. Thank you so much!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Wmo5nfDCHQ

My First Birthday present for this year

Guess who's the first to give me my birthday present? My dearest Paul of course. :D and it's a handphone. *thank u thank u thank u!!!*

He bought me a Nokia N80. If you see my previous post, I wished for a N73. I'm happy to get a N80 though.. much newer and better than N73. It has wi-fi functionality. :D

Work comes first

My birthday is around the corner and I'm quite excited about it. Planning to take the day off to go on a short holiday. Ever since 3 years ago, my wish is to go on a holiday during my birthday. So, I hope for the same too this year.

My hopes were shattered when my client said that my leave is not approved! Arggsss... Really sad about it. Am I really that important? Will the business get affected if i'm not around just for one day? Sighz..

It should be double "Sigh". I've applied to clear my leaves end of the year so that I'll have the whole week off at the end of December. Planning to go somewhere or at least spend some time at home and have a GOOD rest. This is not approved as well. My project is going live end of Dec and that's the critical period. I will have to go on standby too during the new year's holiday.
Oh well, what can I say... Work always have to come first.. else.. who is going to support me? :D

A1 GP @ Sepang

I won tickets to watch A1 GP at Sepang and it's quite an experience for me. What's A1? F1? I have no idea.. I just know that Alex Yoong is representing Malaysia and I'm there to support my home country of course.

Paullie and I : Here we come... SEPANG!!!

I won the paddock passes too and is allowed to enter the pit area to check out the cars. Malaysia boleh? I hope, BOLEH! Alex Yoong was not there.. :( but my friend, Paullie, waited there until he turns up to take a pic with him.. Lucky her..

It was a hot hot day but it rained very heavily before the race began. That makes the race much more interesting. We were hoping that there will be some "accidents" during the race.. quite bad of us rite.. hhaha We thought that Alex can remain at his 4th position but he finished 7th. Good job to him though.. coz can really see that he'd tried his best.

Anyway, the next round will be held in Indonesia and I wish Malaysia's team all the best!!!

Halloween in Hong Kong

It’s quite surprising to know that HK celebrates Halloween. Everywhere you go, you’ll see Halloween’s decoration. I don’t quite understand why Halloween is a big thing here in HK. I think people just wanted to use this occasion to make more money. There’re just so many Halloween goodies for kids. Even adults will be tempted to get it because it’s soooo cute.

Look at the big pumpkin I saw in the supermarket. Whoaaa….

Halloween Goodies for kids

At Tsim Tsa Tsui

OMG, who’s this wicked witch? buahahahaa

Hong Kong

Hong Kong

Welcome to HK. The last time I stepped foot to this country was in November, 2003. It’s exactly 3 years and to me, this place is still the same except for more buildings and shopping complexes.

Everywhere you see here are all high rise buildings and apartments. This is the view from the 19th floor - my aunt’s place in Tseung Kwan Oo

Streets in Kowloon. The shopping streets : The famous Mongkok place.

HK during the day. The view of Hong Kong island from The Peak (It’s pretty hazy in Hong Kong as well)

HK at night. The night view of Hong Kong island from Tsim Tsa Tsui

Hong Kong here I come....

I'm off to Hong Kong this evening. Will update my blog when I'm back!!!

Lantern festival gathering

Every year, I'll normally get together with my college friends during the mid-autumn festival. It has been an annual event for 4 years. We'll get together at the Bukit Jalil park. That's the place where we'll eat, chat and light up lanterns.

I remember having pictures taken every year at the same place and spot. Can you identify which pictures were taken in year 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006?

Picture A

Picture B

Picture C

Picture D

Some history about Mid-Autumn Festival …

The Mid-Autumn Festival is a traditional festivity for both the Han and minority nationalities. The custom of worshipping the moon (called xi yue in Chinese) can be traced back as far as the ancient Xia and Shang Dynasties (2000 B.C.-1066 B.C.). In the Zhou Dynasty(1066 B.C.-221 B.C.), people hold ceremonies to greet winter and worship the moon whenever the Mid-Autumn Festival sets in. It becomes very prevalent in the Tang Dynasty(618-907 A.D.) that people enjoy and worship the full moon. In the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279 A.D.), however, people send round moon cakes to their relatives as gifts in expression of their best wishes of family reunion. When it becomes dark, they look up at the full silver moon or go sightseeing on lakes to celebrate the festival. Since the Ming (1368-1644 A.D. ) and Qing Dynasties (1644-1911A.D.), the custom of Mid-Autumn Festival celebration becomes unprecedented popular. Together with the celebration there appear some special customs in different parts of the country, such as burning incense, planting Mid-Autumn trees, lighting lanterns on towers and fire dragon dances. However, the custom of playing under the moon is not so popular as it used to be nowadays, but it is not less popular to enjoy the bright silver moon. Whenever the festival sets in, people will look up at the full silver moon, drinking wine to celebrate their happy life or thinking of their relatives and friends far from home, and extending all of their best wishes to them.

My birthday wishlist :-

I know it's a bit too early to think of what I want for my birthday.. but that's the only excuse I can give to get this phone. hehe.. I would like to get a Nokia N73 for my birthday! *Hint Hint*

Oh well.. I think it's time to get a new phone to replace my 1.5 years old O2 mini PDA phone anyway. My phone is a bit outdated already compared to all the new phones now.
I'm attracted to all the features they have in N73. It's a 3G phone with pretty cool features. It can take pics of up to 3.2 megapixels..

Do you think I can save up in time to get this phone as my bday gift? ;)

My website is up!!!!! FINALLY!!!

Guys, check out http://www.starzfashion.com

My website is up finally! It's not an easy task. Spending all my free time after work to take pictures, edit pictures, advertise and so forth... Lots of hard work involved. Anyway, I kinda enjoy the end result. :) It's worth it. Doing something that I enjoy...

I've got a few customers already from all over Malaysia. :) Hope more to come. Guys, need your support as well. Please pass it on to friends or family members. When you think of accessories, think of me first yah!

Cheers!

Feng Shui or what?

I was at my friend's place for dinner the other day and I found a mini black vase with a ribbon on it at the window grills of my friend's room. It's pretty uncommon to see something being put there. I don't think it's for decoration purposes.

Out of curiousity, I went near the window and I drew the blinds to have a better look. *Whoah* Something caught my attention from the opposite.
Can you see what's at the opposite side? Let me show you a zoom up pic below.


Can you see it now? It's actually a book (some chinese prayers book) being tied to the neighbour's window grills. Hmm.. now I know why there's a mini vase in my friend's room.

I think I know why the neighbour is doing that. The neighbour's window is directly facing my friend's main entrance of the room. According to some people, it's probably not good feng shui or bring bad luck. So I guess the neighbour puts the book there to fix "the problem".

Oh well..Do you believe in all these? As for myself, maybe 50% 50%. I won't go to the extreme of course. No harm trying some simple practices though but I won't do something like the above. :)

Finally..... www.starzfashion.com

Initially, I would like to have my domain name as starzfashion.com. Then... I've changed my mind to katescollection.com. Half an hour before submitting my domain registration today, I've decided to choose my first choice. I still prefer the first one.. I don't like using my name as the domain name. Sound's pretty funny.. haha :) 'Michelle, hope this new name sounds good too! :)'

No turning back now.. I've registered www.starzfashion.com as my domain name and they'll activate it within 24 hours! With the help of my friend, the logo is on the way.... :)

I've also registered a hosting provider today and it'll also be activated within 24 hours. Now.. the most critical stage.. there's a lot of work to be done! Work hard!!!!!

Domain name???

I would like to register for a domain and I'm struggling to find a nice, simple and catchy name for it. Should I put a generic name for it or should I use my name as the domain name?

Tell me what you think about 'www.katescollection.com'. Does this name sound ok?

I'm sure you guys must be wondering why out of a sudden, I would like to register for one. I'm intending to set up an e-commerce site to sell some accessories. Shocked rite? I didn't plan this at all... The idea just pops up and it does sounds interesting. I haven’t tried this before and thought why not. I’m not sure whether this is going to work but I hope it will. Need lots of support from you guys out there to make this work. ;)

What do you want in life?

Do you really know what you want in life? I'm always asking myself the same question over and over again and still.. i can't really answer that.

The reason for that is because in every different stage of my life, I want different things. I think that's pretty normal and it happens to everyone. Priorities changed when you start to grow older!

When I was at school, what I want in life is to have fun and at the same time to get good results so that I can gain entry to a good university. Looking back now, I really enjoyed my school days.
During my college years, my priorities changed. What I want then was to get excellent results so that I can secure a good job later on. After my high school, I took 2 years to complete my degree in a college environment. I finished my degree at the age of 19 compared to many of my other friends who graduated between the age of 21-23. At that time, my priorities were to quickly get a job after my studies and to start earning money. Looking back now, I did regret on graduating so early. I should enjoy my college years. I should take a long break before I go look for a job. I didn't really do that. I started working not long after I finished my degree course.

Now.. I'm in a different stage of life. After working for almost 4 years, my priorities changed again. There's been a lot of thinking on what I want in life at this point of time. Should I put money as my first priority or should I put 'having a life' as my first priority.

If I ask this question, I'm sure many people will definitely say, $$. They'll ask me to make money while I'm still young and it'll be difficult to do so when I have a family later on. I agree on this point.. but I want to enjoy life as well. I don't want to be away from my loved ones and friends. I'm going to be in my mid-twenties and I don't want to miss this phase while I'm still young and I don't want to regret looking back at it when I'm 30. I've already missed out a lot during my college life. I don't want to make the same mistake again.

I chose to stay put here in KL and to focus on my career development instead of thinking too much about $$. I'll get to do what I want to do (hopefully all goes well) and I get to be with my family and friends.

I hope that I've made the right choice!

Haze is back....

You'll never know when will there be haze.. It comes and goes.. In the morning, you'll see clear blue sky.. and when the evening approaches, it's all hazy.

This picture was taken from the office in PJ at about 3pm today.

My first Samba lesson!!

Do you guys still remember about the Salsa fever I had back in June? I was supposed to join the Salsa class with my colleagues in July but due to my work (I'm based at the client's somewhere in PJ), I had to cancel it. I was a bit disappointed with it but that didn't dampen my spirit at all. I tried to search for other places which offers dancing classes. It doesn't have to be Salsa. I don't mind learning Latin-American dance as well.

I tried my luck 'googling' and came across this dancing class which is offered in YMCA. I mailed the person in charge and he asked me to call the instructor directly. I called the instructor and was surprised to find out that she has a dance studio somewhere near where I'm staying. That's just superb! I've decided to join the class at her studio instead of YMCA as it's more convenient.

3rd August 2006

My first lesson - I arrived at 8pm sharp at the studio with Paul. The studio is not too bad. It was much better than what I've expected it to be. There were two couples ( I think they are in their sixties) practising some dance. Then the instructor came over to introduce herself

Instructor : "Hello! I'm Joey..
Me : "Hi. I'm Kate and this is Paul"
Instructor : "Wow... you are young! I didn't expect you are that young. What makes you wanna learn dancing?"
Me : "Err.... for fun?"

I was stunned when she asked me that question. Oh well, I don't think I'm young. I can feel that I'm getting older.. My age is increasing really quickly ;)
Anyway, there were 6 of us in the class. Two couples who are in their sixties and another two girls who are about the same age as I am . The first dance she taught us was SAMBA! She explained that SAMBA was not meant for beginners but she would like us to learn it rather than learning Cha-Cha.

Samba's a fast dance and I think I'll like it. :) The 1 hour dance lesson was not too bad. I didn't find it difficult at all but I need more practices with my partner to be able to dance well. I'm looking forward to the coming ones!

Durian durian

It's pretty amazing to find out that a durian stall at SS2 also has a webpage of their own. I wonder what will they put up in their website.

Let's take a guess. I think they'll have an introduction page to different types of durians they are offering, the location of their stall and their contact number and email address. That's all I can think of actually. What else can they put up in their website?

Do you think they'll have delivery service as well? Like the ones Mcds have it..? I think this is very unlikely..

Anyway.. let's check out their website to find out more Durian SS2

-Introduction page to different types of durians
Bingo! I had this one correct

-About us page which contains the location map
My guess is correct for this as well

-Enquiry page
Yeah! Another correct guess

-OMG, they have a flash 'Welcome' clip as well

-Durian show (Some photo gallery of durians and their plantation)
This is not fully utilized though. Can't find much contents in this link

Oh well.. I've expected the webpage to be like this anyway. What can you expect from a small stall just by the road side? It's really good enough to have this webpage as it meets their purpose. Advertising their stall! Not bad!

However, it's nice if they can offer more information as below.

-What about an education page.. teaching us how to identify different types of durians..
- Delivery service
- The price of their durian would be lovely too

Company Outing-Makan trip to Melaka

Saturday, 15th July 2006

I woke up super early on a Saturday morning to go to Melaka for food. Woohoo.. here we come.. 17 adults and 7 children.. That's a big group!

Our meeting point was at Mcdonalds and guess what? I had my breakfast from Mcdonalds.. I regretted ordering the meal.. I was so full after that.. How can I eat later on? :)

Our first stop in Melaka was the Chicken Rice Ball. I just had 3 rice balls and a small piece of chicken. I was just too full. The food wasn't that great. I still prefer my 'Char Siew' rice :) After that, we went to eat Cendol.. my favourite.. :) I enjoy the brown sugar and the green jelly alot! Yummy Yummy..

The weather in Melaka was super hot and I wanted to get a hat for myself. Look what I've done to the others as well? The straw hat gang! Aren't we cool? haha.. The farmers from some Kampung! Wahahahhaha!!! :)

We had Nyonya food for lunch at Bibik Neo. I have tried that restaurant before but not too sure why the food was quite disappointing that day. Anyway, after lunch, we went to Mahkota Parade for about an hour to burn some calories before heading to eat Pork Satay. Some of my colleagues enjoyed it but not me. I find the taste a bit funny. I still prefer the original satay.. Nyum nyum...

After that, we headed down to Jonker Street. We spent about an hour there before going to Seremban for Crabs. Now you know why I'm on a diet regime this whole week ;)

I've uploaded some pics of the trip in my photo album.

Happy 25th Anniversary, Mum & Dad!

My parents organized an anniversary party at home last Saturday and about 400 people turned up.

Mum ordered 1000 sticks of "lok lok" and just within 1.5 hours, the food was gone. As for satay, she ordered 900 sticks and within 2 hours, that finished too.. Gosh..

The buffet dinner is about to begin.....

The anniversary cake & also my dad's birthday cake

Cake cutting session!!

My friends who came over to drink, eat and have fun!!!

The four leng luiss :)

What's this?

I wonder how people design building these days. What’s the use of having such a beautiful architecture but the building plan sucks? A building with more than 50 floors and there’s only 4 levels of parking spaces. I’m referring to this blue building which looks like a sword. Last year, 3 of the 4 levels were only reserved for permanent staffs and 1 level is opened up for visitors.. what happen to this level now? Half of it is reserved for them.. Oh gosh.. then where do you expect the visitors to park? There’re some parking spaces outside the building but it’s limited. So if you arrive late, say bout 10am, so sorry.. you’ve gotta find a parking space some other place.

We were discussing this over lunch about having functions in this building. Just imagine all visitors are all nicely dressed but they can’t park in the building. They have to park about 5-10 minutes walk away. So imagine them, walking under the hot sun, sweating.. Really funny! If I’m one of them, I’ll be cursing like mad.. what is this place.. :P

Anyway,when I reached the office at 8:50 last Monday morning, the car park outside was full. I don’t know where to park. There’re parking spaces at the next building but that means I’ll have to walk far and you know me.. LAZY! I saw an empty space at the road side and I parked my car there. I plan to park my car at the proper car park during lunch time. More spaces by then… So when I went down to get my car during lunch time, know what I saw on my windscreen? A white piece of paper… it’s obviously a “SAMAN by DBKL”.. Congratulations! This is the first time I’m getting one :)

I stood at the side of my car for a while.. thinking on whether I should just leave my car there since I’ve already got fined. I felt a little bit uncomfortable with the idea and drove my car to the proper parking space. Now.. another problem.. paying the fine.. I have to pay within the first 14 days.. coz it’ll be much cheaper.. There goes my RM30 to the DBKL fund.

I still find people parking at the roadside everyday. I think the DBKL fellas are so happy to come to this area everyday and I’m sure they can hit their “SALES” target every month. Hehe.. I also find some cars with those white papers on their windscreen early in the morning too. What I suspect is that, once they got fine, they will continue to park at the road side and recycle the white paper and put it on their wind screen every morning to trick the officers.. Hmm.. you sure this works? I have no idea.. but I don’t think the officers are so easily fooled by these “smart” people eh? :D

Fountain?

I Hate Monday!!! Don’t feel like going to work… Why is the weekend so short? Why can’t it be longer? Sighzzzz…..

The water pressure at home this morning was pretty low. It’s the sign of no water… When I was driving to work this morning, I saw this huge fountain That answers why there’s low water pressure at home… *Grin*

My client's Annual Dinner

Friday, 30th June

My second day in the island….

Woke up late this morning but luckily can manage to reach office around 9:15... I’m not late.. bumped into a few staffs of the company in the same lift.. I tried my luck again to see whether the connection is up.. to my disappointment, it’s still not working.. oh well.. GIVE UP!

Luckily today is Friday.. so.. I’m not that bothered with the connection.. Just received the invitation card to the Annual Dinner of my client tonight. Look at the card… The theme for tonight is “Black and White”.

I’m supposed to wear something which is black and white. Quick check.. I’ve got a black dress and I can have a white shawl to go with it… There you go.. Black and white..

The annual dinner was pretty good.. Everyone receives a goodie bag and also a lucky draw prize.. Check out what's inside the goodie bag.. 2 shampoos worth nearly Rm100, a torch light, and a high quality notepad. I received a kettle for the lucky draw.

They invited Nita from last year's Malaysian Idol finalist to perform. She belted out a few songs. There was Henkel Idol as well.. and guess what? I participated in it. Every table is supposed to send a representative to participate in the contest. No one wants to sing.. so they asked me to go for it. Out of the 10 contestants, I was the only female.. hehhe.. and guess what? I got 3rd prize.. :) The song that I sang was "Top of the world". It was a simple and nice song. It's easy to sing. I won Rm100. Not too bad yeah!

You You Restaurant

I went to this restaurant yesterday, called "You You Chinese Dining" at 'The Weld'. What a name they have there. It's my first visit to the restaurant. From the outside, you will notice that the decorations in this restaurant is pretty cool. There's this nice and warm feel.

Anyway, we ordered a set dinner which includes 2 sets of soup, 2 sets of main meals, 2 bowls of rice and a dessert of the day.

The food we ordered:-

Do you think I'll come to this place for food again?