Five Days in KL.

So, it's not even 24 hours leaving home and I'm looking forward to Friday already. Training has been very productive here so far and I am looking forward to all the other inputs I can get from the team in HQ.

Maybe its the tiredness that's complaining non-stop here. I did wake up really early to catch the flight. Heh.

I shall sign off now while waiting for the boys to take me out for dinner.

Come back and read me okay because I have so many things waiting to be posted. Hah.

Koay's Chicken Spaghetti.

I remembered that I was in the office, drafting an email to a client when he called out of a sudden. It's quite unusual cos you see, when we are at work, we don't usually call each other that often cos well, we are working right. Ain't nobody got time to talk. Kidding. 

Anyways, he called and he asked if my Saturday noon that week was going to be free, if I already have plans and stuff. Well, no because my Saturdays are usually spent at home while he's away at training. So, that Saturday no exception also.

Then he said that there will be no training that Saturday and they have like a pot-bless gathering at night and he needs to bring a dish. Initially he wants to bring his mom's all-time-yummiest-charbeehoon but someone else taking already so no choice but to decide on another dish.

Since he wanted to cook the dish by himself, he opted for spaghetti. Hah. Really the first option for noobs right. Heh. 

We went Tesco in the afternoon and came back home with all the ingredients, according to his own recipe. Apparently, I'm not allowed to give ideas or comment. My role is just as an assistant chef. 

"I ask you do what, you just do only, cannot say no."

The man is on fire I tell you. 

But I just do whatever he asked me to do lah (in the beginning only tho). At the end, he asked me to wash all the dishes and I have already washed so many, so I decided that he shall do the rest since he didn't do anything other than putting the ingredient into the pan and cooking them. Haha. Rebellious assistant chef is rebellious. 

So, let's see how he did with his first attempt on cooking spaghetti.

Ingredients needed according to Masterchef Koay:

Ready-made Tesco's tomato paste

Sausages

Diced tomatoes/carrots

Chopped onions/garlic

Spaghetti

Minced chicken meat

Once carrots are quite soft already, gently add the minced chicken meat in. You can use beef or pork or rabbit or horse or goat or any meat you would like to serve your guest :)) 

Then, add the Tesco ready-made tomato puree and the raw tomatoes and let it cook okay. Just remember to stire once in a while. We added fried sausages as well because suka hati Masterchef Koay jugak.

In the meantime, this is cooking on the next stove. We forgot to put salt into the water, and forgot to coat the spaghetti with olive oil after. 

 At the end of the whole cooking drama, (yes I gave my opinions in the end because it seems like I'm a bit more experienced than him here heh) he decided to mix the spaghetti and sauce together and he did it like a lasagna layer form. 

I would say that IT WAS REALLY YUMMY! For a first timer in attempting to cook spaghetti, it's 100% pass okay. To be honest, I expected it to be just okay-okay but turns out, it was really delicious. Must be his random thrown ins of herbs here and there. 

I think this cooking session kinda sparked that cooking interest in him because now whenever we can have the chance to use the kitchen, he would jump at it. I think next one we want to try carbonara or something. 

Looks like I've got myself my very own Masterchef :)

I was told that his spaghetti was the first dish to finish that night. Hmm. Must be because he only cook a small portion lah. HAHA.

:)

2D1N Hatyai, Thailand.

Oh my I have so many things that I want to talk about. I'm actually still trying to decide whether to put everything on a post or just break it up for the next few days. 

The remaining of August is so crazy. I have 3 major presentations (1 in KL and the other 2 at a global company in Penang), a week-long training in KL. Not to mention so many emails and conference calls in between. 

To be honest, I love being busy with work but this month is just definition of madness.

Anyways, we shall focus on the one thing now.

Few weeks back, I went to Hatyai over the weekends with the lover's colleagues and buddies. It was like a needed getaway since the madness at work was about to begin. Then again, everytime I go somewhere, it will always be labeled as 'needed'. Hah.

with Koay's colleagues and friends (11 of us in total)
on the 1-2 August 2015.

This part of Thailand is like our second home this year. We have been there so many times and if not mistaken, we have more plans to returning for short getaways. Although our value of money is decreasing, things are still cheaper there. No need to mention massages because it obviously is. 

Although it was not our first time there, it was our first time driving through the Malaysian Border. We parked our cars at the Duty-Free place before Thai Border.

We even know a couple who owns a song khiew and can take us around for quite a reasonable price. The man is from Penang but his mother was a Thai so he ended up staying in Hat Yai and married a Thai lady. We call him Ah Chai. He speaks Hokkien, actually both of them can speak in our comfort language. We got to know them many years ago when we first went to Hatyai together. We lost their contact number and what do we know, the next thing we know we met them at the exact same place as years ago. Heh.

And we have his number now so when we need song khiew, we just need to call him. If not, then just take another song khiew, its everywhere. Its usually known as tuk-tuk but no, really its correct term is song khiew. Hah. You're very welcome :)

This time, I didn't really take a lot of photos. Lazy lah seriously. Why can't I just have like a photographer follow me whenever I travel? That would be nice. 

All the moments captured and I have nice photos to post here but yeah. One day lah when I have like gazillions of money. Heh.

Anyways, our itinerary very simple. Shop, eat, massage, eat again, show again and massage again. 

 

Considering that I bought so many things and ate so many times, RM500 is quite okay I guess or so I keep telling myself. Hah.

The hotel we stayed at is called Red Planet Hat Yai (used to be Tune Hotel), so someone genius bought over and re-named it Red Planet to save cost in re-painting the entire hotel. 

Standard Twin Room

If you ask me whether I will stay in this hotel again the next time I go Hat Yai, the answer is definitely yes. I prefer this over Lee Garden. Although Lee Garden is situated right in the middle of everything and they provide daily breakfast for all rooms, their room is very dark and is not as new as Red Planet Hat Yai.

Red Planet Hat Yai do not have daily breakfast and is not in the middle of the happenings BUT it's really clean and their room is so huge you can add at least another two roll-out beds AND they are not very far from Lee Garden, about 5 minutes of walking. So yes, Red Planet is now our favorite hotel at Hat Yai :)

I really enjoyed this trip. What made all trips different is the people you go with. I can go to the same place over and over again and still enjoy my time there because of the people you travel with. These people are a bunch of jokers okay. I laughed so much I probably burn all the extra fats in the belly. Kid you not. It gave me an opportunity to know his colleagues in a very fun way.

I really believe that it's through travel that friendships are quickly formed and on my own experience, it's always faster to know them through a travel-together-experience. So, if any of you would like to know me better, TRAVEL WITH ME :)

We reached Penang at about evening time and as much as we love Thai Food, we went straight to tapau nasi kandar for late dinner. SO THE VERY YUMS. Okay, now I'm thinking that's probably what I want to have tonight looking at the photo. Ahhh.

TOTAL MONEY SPENT for one (1) person

For 2 days and 1 night at Hatyai, Thailand

1-night stay at Red Planet Hat Yai (standard room) = RM50

Food + Shopping = RM250

1 full body massage + 1 foot massage = RM60

Transport (car/van/song khiew) = RM140

[Note: RM1 = 9 THB (as of 1 August 2015)]

RM500

Saturday Feels.

Sitting on my couch at 11:30am watching Pacific Rim with wet hair and empty stomach.

Such is my Saturday.

The boy called at 8:05am and thus, my plan to wake up at anytime later than 9 fails! The brain was awake since then and I just kinda forced my entire body to sleep on until I feel satisfied.

Needless to say, that also failed because now my body feels sore. It feels like I shouldn't have forced myself to stay on the bed till the sun rises.

I guess there is no changing into sleep patterns now that I wake up automatically at 8 every single morning! Heh.

In a while, I will be going to Tesco with the boy and he's going to try cooking for his floorball gathering tonight. Oh boy. I hope no one gets diarrhea after tonight. Hah. Okaylah, actually he's a very good cook. He's just that 'I-like-to-experiment-kind-of-cook' so sometimes his food will taste super good, sometimes it's just ermm disgusting! Haha. Love you lah okay.

On another news, I finished my 5gb of data already. Yeah, I know how you gonna react to that. How can anyone finish 5gb of data? I don't know lah. I've been watching Youtube on my phone because too lazy to use laptop. Oh and since I downloaded Periscope to follow other bloggers, it's been crazy usage wei. Its cray cray.

On another another news, it seems like I don't have enough annual leave to do the things that I really want to do this second half of the year. Boohoo. One thing I know is prayer works! Hah.

Okay now I'm feeling so hungry I think a whole pig will not be an issue. Where art thou, Mut?

I shall get going now. Thanks for reading this :)

Koay's Love Language #9.

#9
*While walking him to his car with an umbrella under the heavy rain*
Him: Do you know what happens to mosquitoes when it rains?
Me: Nope. Hami?
Him: They get to shower lah. Noob.
Me: WHATTTT! LITERALLY LAUGHED SO LONG!
Him: Is it that funny ah? Laugh till like that.
Me: I don't know if it really is but I really didn't expect such an answer. Walauuu.

Hari Raya At The Beach.

It's almost two weeks already since Malaysia celebrates Hari Raya this year and now only I wanna upload the photos. Photos that I didn't take. Heh.

It was that day that I decided to not use my phone to take any photos. I usually do that on occasions for blogging purposes but I thought since my cousin is gonna be taking the photos, I might as well just take from her. Hah. 

The owner of the picnic place that our family goes to since we were young decided to not rent that area out anymore. They don't own the beach but their house is located right at the beach so I guess you can say that they have full control on who uses that beach (sort of) and their toilets and stuff. Did I also mention that they were really rude? Their mother (a very old lady) moved to KL so these young people decided to just be rude and shut us off. 

Manners maketh man, yes?

So, we searched nearby for places that we could use and found one at the other end of where we used to be. It was other people's property too but the family of the place went somewhere else for Raya, so we called them and used the place.

Got shower place, tables and canopies for us to use so not bad lah.

Go inside water, come up, eat, go inside water again and repeat hundred times correct already.

It was a very needed break. Actually any kind of getaway/holiday is very much needed lah. Who doesn't need holiday wor?

Gotta love the sun, all-day err-day.

Globally Stressed Out.

I do not ever want to leave this space empty for days. It's my comfort place okay.

The thing is work has been crazy lately. 

I'm starting to handle global accounts so I have a lot of conference calls with the U.S. team and stuff.

I'm still so new in this global thing because it's so huge and serious and crazy. It's giving me so much stress that pimples are popping out like popcorns and I get nightmares about them. Heh.

I'm thankful for the opportunities given though. 

It's just everytime I get home, I'll be so worn out to even wanna update anything. I don't even want to look at the laptop's screen to be honest. AFTER OFFICE MEANS SEE PEOPLE FACE NOT COMPUTER. Bleh.

Not to mention that Koay and I have a wedding to plan! No, not ours. Hah.

This wedding plan is kinda like both our first major project together and as stressful as it will be, we are actually enjoying the working-together-thing. 

Oh wells.

Here's to 3 more months before the wedding.

and SEVEN MORE DAYS TO QUICK GETAWAY TO THAILAND!

:)