So it's been bout what a week since my last post.. ok this sounds sad but i miss posting. Feel like i got withdrawal symptoms or something :p (yes i know i sound very very sad). Anyways been pretty occupied the past few days.. first i came down with this stoopid stoopid allergy, then there was work and site visits and going out and yeah well pretty much the usual la.

One of the projects i had to do was at this place called CoChine / Bar Savanah @ Asian Heritage Row (have i told you that i like AHR? Like really really like that place? hehe). I love having the freedom to roam all around a place to snap photos *haha*. This is one of the shots i took of that place. i like low lighting there creates a nice ambience and all but it's a horror to take pics in that condition!! *argh* anyone got any good suggestions on camera settings for conditions like that? Pls help.

My feet are blistered, my whole body aches, i feel stiff and am still mildly amused at why i have (willingly) subjected myself to this kind of physical abuse...

It's the morning after my very first Capoeira class and i am thoroughly humbled by how out-of-shape i am. They make it look so simple but that's all an illusion i tell ya. This big conspiracy to trick us less-buff beings into thinking that it's a fun and easy thing to do :p hehehe... but seriously, it was fun and 'happy happy joy joy', i wasn't the only newbie in the class!! That made it a lil better. At least i wasn't the only one trying to look graceful and swift but really ending up looking quite queer and twisted. I actually contemplated posting a pic of my poor gnarly feet up here but the dizzy spining in my head has relatively subsided after a good night's sleep so.. i'll spare you the gruesome pic :p *cheers*

So when we returned in the evening Chef Lee was just as happy and friendly as he was a couple-a hours eariler.. kept telling all about his place, his food, his staff, his cheese (yes, cheese. At one point he took out huge bags of cheese from the freezer to give us a lil show and tell about it :) *cute*) , his wife and his pride and joy - his kitchen. After our de-li-cious meal, he offered to give us a tour of the kitchen too! so.. ok la.. haha.. this pic was taken in his spotless kitchen, really quite impressive and organised for a kitchen that curns out as much food as it does.

I have to say, it really was a dining experience with a difference. It goes without saying that the service was impeccable. They really go all out, and i mean this literally (Chef Lee had one his staff run out to buy a tin of Milo cause one customer asked if they had it.. poor guy was so 'pai-seh' after that hehe) , to make sure you leave happy.

Once we had been fed, sent on the tour, given a smattering of advice on everything from coffee machines to cameras and were stocked with a few name cards, we were sent of by Chef Lee, his wife and an entourage of 2 staff members amid warm farewells and perky "See you agains"...

We're going back.. we're soooo going back :)


Oh yeah btw.. this is my 111th blog post.. cool huh? *grin*

I'm getting ahead of myself.. skipped the whole meal and went straight to dessert!! So waaaay before the ice cream, we some lovely main course. How does Linguine Carbonara, Linguine Arrabiata, Chicken in Red Wine and Mushroom Sauce, Lamb Stew and Puff Pastry sound?

Just think about that for a bit... ;)

Will personally recommend the Linguine Carbonara, Lamb Stew and Puff Pastry. You won't regret it. And it's pretty fairly priced too. Nice...

For some strange reason, we kept meeting really friendly people today.

First we went for lunch at this place called Soo Kee or something near atria. My cam ran out of batteries so didn't get to snap anything but i do highly recommend the beef noodles *yum!!* and this thing they call the PJ Brinjal. Crispy brinjal pieces with a lil lemon, black sauce and chillies for flavouring - mMmMMm.. best part is it's not oily. Have to say it comes in a close 2nd place after the brinjals at Hock Loy@Goh Tong Jaya.

Anyways back to my story.. there was this old chinese guy running the shop who came to take our orders and he started talking to us like we were long lost friends or something.. *amusing* haha but that was still pretty ok. Then, he started trying to match-make my sis with his son! WeEeeeEee..that was so cute, the poor girl was scared stiff by this crazy, loud, chinese guy trying to arrange a marriage for her and his son who, by the way, is at least a good 7 years older than her.. *hahahaha* that was pretty funny actually...

On the way to the car after lunch, we noticed a place called Cafe Melise. At this point i have to say that, I am throughly convinced that each member of my family posses some in-built 6th sense when it comes to finding new places to eat. It's unbelievable..

So anyways we spot this place and decide, "Hey, we've just eaten but oh heck let's just go in and check this place out anyways" so.. we did! The moment we walked in the door, the owner/Chef Lee greeted us with a big, warm, jovial welcome. We were, to state matters plainly, ushered in, greeted (once again) with unacustomed gusto, given a thorough tour of the place, offered samples of all their food and sent of with an unexplainably heady happy feeling, name card in hand, thoughts of returning soon already in mind.

And return we did.

We had plans for dinner at this other grill place but you can't help but want to return to a place when they've been so nice to you. i like nice people - i really do. We need more nice people in this world :) Hmms the main reason i wanted to go back was because they had Coppelia Cuban Ice Cream!! Ok so unless you're Yi Khai you probably won't share my enthusiasm. Do try to understand, Cafe Melise's 1 of only 3 places in KL that sells Coppelia Cuban ice cream... *yum* After my last ice cream indulgence at Haagen Daaz (pls refer to my July archives) i haven't really really eaten ice cream so.. you know.. this was a good excuse to start the whole ice cream thing again :)

Wanna know why else i'm so happy bout it? Well, after our first scoops, the guy gave me and my sis another double scoops of ice cream on the house!! Yay! What a nice nice man, God bless him for his amazing PR skills. This is a pic of the Cafe Cubita ice cream...

Due to popular request from Dan, my food pics are back!

Another weekend of pigging out. Somehow got talked into eating a whole pizza at Alexis :p Pizza Pollo.. not bad..wood fire oven pizzas do have a certain charm - thin crispy crust with a slathering of choice toppings, baked to a golden perfection the way they have been for centuries. Not entirely the best pizza i've ever had but it was pretty decent by my standards ;) *lol* i like saying that haha... "my standards".

My friend had the Vietnamese Beef Noodles which, apparently, are pretty good so if you do try it, let me know ;)

"I am the black gold of the sun..."

OooOoohhh... a nice chilled glass of black gold. Love the way the glass is all frosted over..nice...

Went to Alexis Ampang (finally) on sat to see a friend perform..accapella performances Wicked Pitches and Versus. A nice lil chill place some where in Great Eastern Mall with candles and cake and drinks and....pizza? The long long long long list of cakes and pies left me positively gleeful but was a lil disappointed when i found out that they didn't have all the ones i wanted to try - especially the TIRAMISU!! *sigh* The prices (as expected) are kinda high but ah well.. for a night out with good music and the ambience - it's hard to find another place like it ;)

Still a bit bummed bout my tiramisu (pls excuse my childish whining :p) but, there's always next time...

Wanna know what it's like to look at the world behind bars? come to cyberjaya.. i'll show you :p

Baby's got a boyfriend!! My puppy's got a nice, educated, strapping young lad going for walks with her and all...*sigh* she's all grown up and ready to date. hehe....

One of the instructors was wearing this top that some people custom made for her as a gift.. i thought it was pretty cute.. aside from the grammatical error and all of course but cute anyways :)

A duet piece.

Ad Deum, literally transalated to mean "Unto Him" is a non-profit Dance Company based in Texas, USA. They're down in KL to conduct several workshops, master classes and a 3-night performance from the 16 - 18 of Sept 04. The production entitled "Scribbles in the Sand" has travelled everywhere from Greece to USA to Malaysia and for the extremely "afffordable" price of RM15/RM30 you can catch them in action. For more details, click on the link above :)

The woman in red, Cheryl Cutlip, is also the founder and organiser of ProjectDance which is an annual dance festival that takes place in a different major city each year. The last one was held at Times Square NYC and the upcoming one will be at Sydney. There's an audition on for ProjectDance Sydney on Fri morning so if you're a profesional dancer or something of that sort, you might want to check it out.

Remember that Ad Deum dance thing i was telling you bout? Well last night was the last night of the workshops so some of the instructors shared some dance pieces with us....all i can say is wow.

The feminine side to this sport..

Near the end of it, the instructors came into the roda. *woah* limbs were flying, people were flying... so acrobatic... kinda like a cross between kung-fu and break dancing.

If you've got it, flaunt it.

It seemed to me that capoeira is as much a performance as it is a sport...strong yet there's something so intriguingly graceful about it.

When the instructors and senior capoeiraists (is that how you spell it?) come into the roda, the whole energy of it goes up a few notches..you could tell they loved what they were doing.

The beat's infectious, you sit there and you listen..you watch.. you wish you were in there as well.

Viva Brasilia... Qba was packed with people on Sat night for the Festa Noite Brasileira which was part of Bantus Capoeira Malaysia's 1st Annual Capoeira Festival . By the time we got there, they'd already started with the Maculelé. The percussions were frantic and the men in war paint n grass skirts were amusing *heh* but the dance wih the knives at the end of that set was kinda cool.. i thought they weren't using real knies till i saw sparks and all flying when they came into contact... pretty fast too. Owing to the fact that i am (relatively) short, i only managed to glimpse flashes of that performance :( . BUT i got front row seats at the roda later that evening which was great... this is a pic i took of em playing in the roda.

Things have been so busy lately, barely have time to post all i wanna post. Been a week of ups and downs, not much sleep again but that's nothing new.. lemme see i have so many things i've been meaning tp post...tried out more food places this week, a bit disappointing though. Went for the 1st Annual Capoiera Festival (did i get that right?) which was excellent :) ..had submissions blah blah blah, am now attending night class dance workshops for this week, went to snap pics @ CoChine/Bar Savanah, Dewan Filharmonik Petronas, this vinyl factory (which was pretty cool actually) hmms... yes yes a lot to update. Will get to it when i have the time and when i stop procrastinating.


But for now, back to the box...

Had a long day - sleepy.tired. hungry. Went for the Ad Deum/CDFM night class anyways. Had Dance Improvisation today. Though i didn't feel like going, i'm glad i did. Really.

I've been to classes like these before and though i have to say most of the things that were taught i've learned before, i still had a good time. I like things like these.. times where you can just be free to explore and express using your body, your imagination. You connect with something inside - with others outside. You feel like you belong. You feel complete. And for that moment in time, nothing else matters.

I've always felt that dance is the truest form of communication and expression. It helps us comprehend what words could never explain in the most simple and poetic way. Through it, we find meaning, we understand.

You can learn more about a person in 5 minutes of connecting this way than you could in 5 hours of talking. Someone thought me the mirror technique and flocknig technique a long time ago and ever since then, i've been addicted to it. If the two people open up completely during the exercise, it's beautiful. so so beautiful.

For those who've never experienced what it's like to loose yourself so totally and tune so completely to something or someone - you really should try it. It's spiritual. Puts things into perspective and somehow calmed me in the most comforting way.



Times like that, you believe that anything's possible.




Things I've Learned Today:

It was just like Sem 1.. everyone was sitting there bumming round.. i was so zombie-fied from lack of sleep, Gi was wearing a fluoroscent (i swear it was glowing!!) yellow outfit, everyone's being crappy (ok mostly me la..*heh*) and talking nonsense. I was, as usual, bugging Scottie bout his smoking so i decided to give him a lil reminder of how bad cigs are for your health :) *hahaha* i think i they printed stuff like that on cigarettes rather than on the side of the boxes it would have a more marked effect? what do you think? heh or it may backfire - novelty cigs..now that's an idea... hmmmm

What Care Bear are you??

Ah... this is so cute!! i was going through Su-Lien's site and found a link for this Care-Bear quiz thingy *ahaha* Brings back such memories... anyways ima Cheer Bear, kinda true huh? haha bout the perky-hyperactive part la *ish* Anyways, to those of you who do know what Care Bears are, do take moment to revel in the memories of a time past - when cartoons were still meant for kids and the world could be a better place if you gave everyone a hug and/or had a rainbow on your tummy. Don't worry, no one will know if you've been to the Care Bear site.

Take a moment to..

hug someone
say something nice
smile
laugh
see
listen
touch
feel
smell
taste
experience

Live a Little - Life's the same whether you see it through rose-coloured glasses or not. You take your pick. I've chosen mine :)

*Cheers*

So this weekend, dad continues his food hunting expedition. Fueled by the fact that it's suppsoed to be 'Gourmet Month' this Sept (at least according to him...but then again, every month is gourmet month *heh*), he's dug out another clipping for this Italian place in Damansara Perdana.

Gusto Bar & Bistro is this place on the corner of 'the Tropics'. Went there by default cos this other Japenese place was closed. Anyways, sis saw the sign for GELATO, PIZZA and PASTA in the window and basically freaked so we stopped there. We'd been craving cheesy stuff since supper last night at this other cheesy (literally, yes) place that was basically a rip off of Kim Gary's but not quite as good. So anyways, we stopped there and went inside. Simple, elegant interiors, the usual white table top with dark wood counters.

Have to say that the food there is really quite good. Had this pancake/cheese (again i regret to inform you that the funky italian name of this dish eludes me) starter that was pretty good and of course escargot *yum* which was done just right. The chef's special pasta with angel hair is recommended :) If you have a craving for pizza, do try the Romano which is light yet proportionately topped with grilled chicken, mushrooms and some other stuff.

Now for my favourite part of the meal - desserts! The american brownie wasn't bad though i have had better. Then again, i'm not an avid chocolate eater so i can't really say. What i did enjoy was the Cappucino Gelato... seriously. Try it. It's light yet packs a decent punch. A delightful surprise. All gelato is made fresh on site and the difference is noticed the moment you take your first bite.

Nuff said, we had one of those rare meals where things were just right. Not over done not under done - just right. ;)

You know what i just realised?? My photo blog is more like a food blog haha. I was just going through all my past posts and i relaised that a large amount of space on my blog is dedicated to food or at the very least food related events/places/items... hmm i should start writing food critic articles here..keep a food directory of the best places to eat hehe..then can start food directory service... hmm not a bad idea *light bulb lights up in Grace's head*

So it's Friday night once again... the weekend beckons with it's glow of night lights. Another lazy evening with a chilled drink and good conversation. Taken from the top floor @ Breakers.

It's 1:36 am in the morning and all of a sudden, i feel very alone.

Someone mentioned something that just hit a chord in me.

I keep thinking about all the people i love, the people i care about, the people i've felt and feel close to...

then i think about how circumstances and life seem to draw us apart sometimes. Most of the time we're (rather, i am) busy being busy. Time passes, things change, people grow up. I can't help but feel a longing sometimes.. there are some people i miss terribly. Some moments i wish we could relive over and over again. But, life goes on. Another day passes, another sun sets; another missed friend, another regret.

Please excuse the melodrama.

Low moods come and go. You just gotta ride em out once in a while.

To my friends and fam out there, you know i love you. If you don't, then, well, now you do - seriously.

Of course if you're gonna dine at a turkish place you've got to wash dinner down with some Nane Cay (fresh mint tea) and Turkish Coffee (which i loved.. but which i also regret since it kept me up most of the night :p). Had a brilliant time soaking up a foreign culture and trying someplace new... Alfiyet Olsun!

The whole place glows with these lovely lanterns. The lantern chandeliers were pretty too... i loved the restroom walls that were lined with jeweled flowers and mosaic mirrors all very exotic and enchanting..

The food was pretty interesting..i personally recommend the pide (Pee-Day) bread with the Mix Dips.. they all have funky turkish names that sound real exotic and all but alas i was too busy snapping and eating to write em down.. Lovely service, and ambience.. and apparently the chefs are all turkish people too so i feels really authentic.. Had so much fun with the basket of pide and the dips! This is a pic of the Mixed Grill (again, it has a way more exotic sounding name that i can't remember) which was yummy too. Oh yeah, and they have this dish called 'Beef Stew on Yummy' which, as corny as this sounds, is really yummy!! (hahaha...oh that was so lame ;) i crack myself up sometimes) ...

Last night dad took us to try out this Turkish restaurant called Saray... really cool place.. the whole theme carried on through the deco (down to the last detail), food, dining customs and music... interesting place :) and they were so nice too.. they let me run around snapping pictures. i was supposed to document it for an assignment see.. my usual excuse la *heh* Anyways, i was so taken by this coloured lantern (they had a lot of coloured glass lanterns...) in the restroom ...love the pretty colours and shadows. I think they were wondering why i spent so much time in the loo... hehe