Silver Lining

Last week, a couple of friends and I went on one of our Jalan-jalan Cari Makan excursion and ended up in Bumbu Bali, Puchong. The restaurant is double storey with Balinese deco and the food served is in gigantic portions. I'll let the pictures do the talking. Some of us went home traumatized by the word 'ayam' because of the insanely half chicken portion. Someone came home 'mabuk ayam'. Hahah.

That's my Nasi Campur Bumbu Bali, one of the house favourite. I was the only one who gobbled up and practically licked the plate clean...

Grilled Beef Pasta.

Ayam Betutu.

Memanggang.

Banana Split.

Es Batu Campur. A yummy concoction of iced coconut based smoothie with lil pieces of cut fruits; jackfruit, watermelon among others. Probably a Balinese version of our local ABC. A dessert I had enough space in my tummy for and slurped ALL on my OWN. I was the champ of the night yo! Hahah.

I have crazy friends. Crazy friends who stalk on cute male juniors. Crazy like you wouldn't believe.

Blah... gila!

It was yesterday morning in the showers when I just had a mental thought of writing children's books. Not that my writing is worth a mention but it's just that when writing books for that particular age range, the possibilities can go from one major extreme to another; absolutely endless! Look how J.K R0wling made a mounting fortune by not only targetting children as her readers but adults yang tua bangka as well. Of course, not that I'm anywhere near that.

Then I also wondered why parents don't read storybooks to their kids anymore. Is it a thing of the past? I remember in school, library was a 'subject' I looked forward to. We'd all be gathered sitting cross-legged in the middle of the library impatiently waiting for the librarian to read us a story. As soon as she finished reading, she'd wave the book in the air and a row of hands would shoot up followed by synchronized repeated "Me, me, me!!!". Why? To borrow the book of course!

I'm not sure if any of you girls out there have heard or read any of the The American Girls Collection (Samantha, Felicity, Kirsten, Molly etc.) by Valer1e Tripp. When I became a fan, there were only a few girls in the collection and one of the girls in my school who's a year my senior was actually niece to the writer. I still remember her name, Elizab3th Keller-Tr1pp. So when the first batch of books came, a bunch of us went crazy as to who'd get to borrow the brand new books. Those were good times. We even went on library excursions where I fell more and more in love with books.




Oke you've obviously noticed that I got sidetracked. What I'm saying is that because our education system does not promote 'Library' as a class and students tend to take reading for granted, parents should really instill the love of reading in children at young age. Our education system especially in primary and secondary schools do not promote teacher-student communication whereby open discussions and opinions of students matter. This alternatively reflects in tertiary levels where our students are considered passive. Our students are not spoonfed in school levels, they are just not given the opportunity and freedom of voice by most teachers. And because it has always been a one-way communication thing, I believe that's where the spoonfeeding term came about. No offense to teachers out there but this is reality. It's the system I grew up with.

So... lack of reading, no intellectual stimulating discussions which in turn impedes the growth of creative individuals; where does that leave us?

While I'm at it, does anyone know where I can get the whole collection of 'The Little House on The Prairie'?

The second day of our stay in HK was spent touring famous tourist spots. Our bus ride took us to the busy streets of Hong Kong and to our first stop, a jewellery shop! Can you believe it? I was shocked myself. Known as Jewellery Collection (JC), locals call it Jackie Chan's jewellery shop as rumours has it that the actor has a share. Did not buy anything, the place was jam packed with people and I wasn't in Hong Kong to buy and adorn myself with gold and whatnots.

Repulse Bay was our next destination and the view from where we halted was absolutely gorgeous. It has a beautiful view of the sea and Kowloon in general with an almost spotless sandy beach. We stopped and had lunch here at Pizza Hut (horribly expensive!) and well of course opted for Vegetarian Pizza, otherwise we'd prolly starve to death from the scarcity of halal food.

That night we had dinner at a café arranged by the agents so hurrahhh! Proper Malay food finally! Kalau dah Melayu tu nak pekena nasik gak! I thought the owner was Malaysian of Indian-Muslim descendant since he spoke fairly fluent Malay but I was surprised to know he was of Sri Lankan origin and learned Malay on his own. Siap bagi complimentary sirap bandung! Heheh.



The first time we went to the 'Avenue of Stars', we had wandered on our own. This time we took the bus with a couple of others and hung around there again before our next stop.





I was surprised to know that Hong Kong has its own version of Madame Tussauds, jangan ingat London je ada! Situated at The Peak, one of the most famous tourist attractions in HK boasting picturesque views of towering skyscrapers and peaceful green hillsides. Tapi malam, sah-sahla tak nampak kan. Sebenarnya I dah malas nak elaborate lebih-lebih ni... hihih. So I'll let the pictures do the talking.





Honestly, there are more crazy ass pictures of us from where that came from, ada yang explicit sikit untuk tanyangan umum. Hihi. Our last stop is known as the Ladies Market, beats me why it's called as such. It's the equivalent of what you would find in Petaling Street here. Nothing much to shout out about, we only bought a couple of souvenirs and took a cab back to our hotel, knackered. On the whole I would say HK is pretty much a shopping haven but only if you have the time and money to do so. We certainly lacked both. Heheh.

Will update on Disneyland trip soon (don't ask me WHEN is soon, heheh).