29 years

That's how long my parents have been married. It was their wedding anniversary two Sundays ago and I decided to cook them a special meal.

One of my favourite chef is Ina Garten also known as Barefoot Contessa. Researched up some of her recipes and looked through my new cookbook "Reader's Digest - Everyday Light Meals". (which mum got at a steal from Groupon)

The 1st appetizer was a Four Cheese Stuffed Mushroom. I learnt this from a different chef during my Pasta & Pizza classes a few years back. Never fails to please a hungry stomach.

2nd appetizer was Crostini with Thyme-Roasted Plum Tomatoes.

 This was what it looked like before it went into the oven for 1.5 hours. 

Voila!

For the main course : Fillet of Beef Bourguinon with Roasted Asparagus. While in the midst of making sure the beef cooked well, I overdid the asparagus. They became so crispy that they literally had a crunchy sound when biting into it. lol.

Dinner was washed down with a bottle of Chianti wine from Italy. 

For dessert, I made a fresh lemon-lime sorbet. Sadly I forgot to take a pic of this. Always a next time for that.

Overall I was pleased with how dinner turned out except that everything was a tad too salty and there wasn't enough gravy for the steak.

But encouragement from parents and J surely motivates me to cook these kinda meals more often.

Chris Botti

Chris Botti.. ahhh I'm officially now a fan!

Nearly 4 months ago I purchased Chris Botti World Tour 2011 tickets for J's birthday present. I didn't know of Chris Botti and have not heard of his pieces before. But I knew that J really wanted to go see him live at the MPO so thought I'd surprise him with it.

And he was pleasantly surprised.

Unlike J, I still was no where near excited to see him.. until the day, 6th Dec arrived. The excitement built up slowly during the day with C posting different renditions and clips of him on FB.

When we reached MPO, we got word that his entire band was here to perform along with him. This was a real treat as we only expected it to be him and our MPO. But to have the whole band.. wow!

Billy Kilson, probably one of the best drummers I've ever seen played.

Image taken from here

I was at the edge of my seats for a few of his numbers and he even brought along 2 guest artist, one of which was Lisa Fischer. She toured with Rolling Stones for 17 years and has been with Chris Botti for the past 1 year. She's one amazing talent!

 Image taken from here

He also brought along Caroline Campbell. This stunning lady has such a wonderful presence when she performs.

Image taken from here

Since S&C had quite a few of Chris Botti's dvd and cds, we decided not to buy any. But paid quite a good sum for a poster of him and then lined up to meet with him face to face and get it autographed. 

Twas a very good night out and I hear that he may be coming to Asia next June again.

Casual Fridays

Got this from a colleague (yes it's ironic I know) but is there is some truth to it? Judge for yourself. Enjoy!

The HR department is well known for their many notes to employees. Here is one below
Casual Fridays:

First week

Effective this week, the company is adopting Fridays as Casual Day. Employees are free to dress in the casual attire of their choice.

3 weeks later

Spandex and leather micro-miniskirts are not appropriate attire for Casual Day. Neither are string ties, rodeo belt buckles or slippers.

6 weeks later

Casual Day refers to dress only, not attitude. When planning Friday's wardrobe, remember image is a key to our success.

8 weeks later

A seminar on how to dress for Casual Day will be held at 4 p.m. Friday in the cafeteria. A fashion show will follow. Attendance is mandatory.

9 weeks later

As an outgrowth of Friday's seminar, a 14-member Casual Day Task Force has been appointed to prepare guidelines for proper casual-day dress.

14 weeks later

The Casual Day Task Force has now completed a 30-page manual entitled "Relaxing Dress Without Relaxing Company Standards." A copy has been distributed to every employee. Please review the chapter "You Are What You Wear" and consult the "home casual" versus "business casual" checklist before leaving for work each Friday. If you have doubts about the appropriateness of an item of clothing, contact your CDTF representative before 7 a.m. on Friday.

18 weeks later

Our Employee Assistant Plan (EAP) has now been expanded to provide support for psychological counseling for employees who may be having difficulty adjusting to Casual Day.

20 weeks later

Due to budget cuts in the HR Department we are no longer able to effectively support or manage Casual Day. Casual Day will be discontinued, effective immediately.

20 days to Christmas

Christmas is probably one of the best seasons for most people.

It definitely is for me. I love every inch of Christmas!

Christmas tree : Checked!
Tags : Checked!
Fruit Cakes : Checked!
Dessert Wine : Checked!
Cards : This weekend and post them out on Monday
Gifts : 2 more and I'm done
Wrapping : Halfway through
Cookies :  Baking start on 21 Dec

Makan sessions are slowly filling up as well.

Christmas Eve Luncheon : Checked!
Christmas Eve Dinner : Checked!
Christmas Brunch : still free!
Christmas Lunch : still free!
Christmas Tea : still free!
Christmas Dinner : Checked!

I'm off the entire week after Christmas but will probably be away in Ipoh to visit mum's side of the family and head up to Fraser's Hill for a couple of nights with J's family.

Ahhh Christmas....

Hand-over

Countdown is now 15 days.

I was asked to start my hand-over and train the person who's going to take over about 60% of my roles at the end of Nov 2011. I've only taught her about 10% so far and have not handed anything over to her yet. Every 2 days I would ask if she has time to learn or when a new request for reports come in, I would ask if she'd like to do it alongside with me so that she could learn hands on. But each time she would either not reply my emails, ask me to do it first and she'll do the next round or keep silent. There aren't many other 'next rounds' coming up. Only 15 days left and there's lot to learn, some of which are quite complicated.

So yesterday I told her to come to me when she is ready to learn. I've done my part.

It kinda annoys me that she's not wanting to learn and there's not much time left. And knowing people here, the rumor would probably be that I just left without doing a proper hand-over.

Capital FM

I've listened to 88.9 for sometime because they play some pretty good music. Moriti used to call it the 'black' channel which I totally agree with him.

Yesterday, they launched it anew, Malaysia's first women's radio channel to go on air. Capital FM - Women The New Capital. Quite a good line up of handpicked celebrity presenters which includes Asha Gill (absolutely love her), Joanne Kam, Xandria Ooi (met her when she was trying out to be a UVJ for Channel 16 on Astro about 6 years back), Patricia K, Sheela Haran, April Kuan, Joey G and our very own Liang.

I've listened to a bit of 2 segments so far - The Jam Break and Talk of the Town. I shall reserve my comments on 'The Jam Break' for now, but enjoyed listening to Joanne Kam and Joey G this morning. They're quite hilarious. Yikes now I've gotto decide each morning if I'm going to listen to them or Noelle Lim from BFM's Breakfast Grille.

And I must say, they've outdone themselves with their selections of songs. They're even better now!

Looking forward to hearing the other segments. 

Betrayal

Hurts the most when it's by someone you love the most.

Polka Polka

Polka dot dresses seem to be coming back into fashion. I wonder if I could ever pull this off.

This one's kinda pretty.. Slightly more fashionable, though I think I probably have to change the top portion a bit.

Travelling

Now that's something that I really enjoy. I feel really blessed to get a partner that loves to travel equally as much as me. But the best part about travelling with him is that the expectations are not high. He's a simple person, much simpler than I am and I always feel at ease when travelling together.

No need to stay at posh hotels - as long as it's clean, we're good.

It's easy to find a partner that enjoys travelling, I mean nearly everyone does. But it's not easy to find a partner that enjoys and appreciates the same things in life that you do. God really is the awesome matchmaker.

We've been travelling together even before we got together, with different groups. And every trip has been memorable! I look forward to a lifetime of more trips with him.

37

Found out some upsetting news last week. Some things in life are truly unfair.

Reminder that I'm here not to please men but to please God and that my providence comes from God and not men.

Singapore Oct 2011

Lion King was just spectacular! I was so impressed with the setup of the props. Definitely worth the trip there. Sad though that J was not able to join in and share this with me, but there'll be other times.

While at MBS, checked out the screening period for Wicked. It's starting in Dec 2011 and only playing for 1.5 months. Doubt I'd be able to make that one as it's too soon.

We stayed with E & E. They were just such lovely host. Appreciate the time they took off from their usual schedules to spend with us. They even took us out for an awesome meal at Sambucca in Pan Pacific Hotel.

This was my main course & dessert. Mum had Wagyu beef - that was the bomb! Just melted in the mouth.

 Butternut squash raviolli with lamb

Strawberry & Passionfruit Pavlova

Roar!

How many of your grew up watching Walt Disney cartoons? I sure did. And Lion King was definitely one of my all time favorites.

So many cousins and friends who have gone to London & US say that Lion King is one of the must-catch musicals. Oh btw.. I'm a HUGE fan of musicals. At that point of hearing all this, my only hope to possible ever watch Lion King is to travel to those countries cos it didn't seem like it would ever come to Malaysia.

Then last year, the crew came over to Singapore and I told myself that I must catch it. Because if I don't, I may never get another chance. Months and months passed by but I didn't have enough cash to go over to watch it. Not to mention that the SGD was just getting stronger. Then the news came from a reliable source that Lion King signed a one year contract and the last show would be on the 30th Oct 2011 because Wicked will start playing in Dec 2011.

Desperate to catch it before it ends, I started hunting for the best dates and flight prices. Managed to get a great deal with AirAsia for a return flight (which cost cheaper than taking the bus), booked my Lion King tickets online and arranged accommodation.

I was still pretty low on cash but received a wonderful early birthday present from J who paid for my Lion King tickets.

So tonight, mum, LY and I will be heading down south for the weekend.. Lion King tomorrow afternoon and a little time to sightsee, catch up with a couple of friends and a cousin.

Weee... best birthday present ever! Gotto brush up on my songs now.

73

In 73 days time, I will be moving out from this 'pot'. Many have had their reservations of me moving into a smaller pot however I feel that it is the right move and have the peace. Prayerfully I've heard right.

Mum's Birthday 2011

We did a big-do for mum's birthday on the 17th of Sept. It's our first time organizing such a big party for her. She was away in US and came back just a day before her birthday. I decided that I wanted to make her birthday cake and starting planning a couple of months before, but it was so stressful! I've made cakes for so many of my cell members and close friends and thought that if it's for my mum, it has to be extra special.

But the problem was, previously when I made those cakes, my mum was always around to supervise and guide me. This time I was on my own as I wanted to surprise her.

So a week before, I still had no solid plan on what cake I would make her. Then decided I'd just go ahead with one of my initial plan of making her a sponge cake filled with strawberries and cream. But.. I've never made a sponge cake before!

Mum was due to return on Friday morning, so I planned to make the sponge cake on Wednesday after work, then fill and ice the cake on Thursday and then hide the cake away in my cousins house for her to be surprised by it on Saturday at the party.

So on Wednesday evening, I started on the sponge cake. I remember mum telling me not to stir the mixture too much because you need the air for the cake. So when I put in the oil, I didn't stir it in enough and it sank to the bottom of the tin. I tried very gently to stir the mixture while still in the tin but unfortunately when the cake came out from the oven, the bottom of it was not so good. That wasn't the only issue, the cake was not high enough! The plan was to make 3 layers of cake but I only could cut 2 layers of this cake and had to throw away one of it.

So I took half day off on Thursday to make another sponge cake because the cake needed to be cooled before I could assemble them.

Then came the slicing on the cake.. I couldn't for the life of me find both the slicers that my mum owned. I looked in all the cupboards and drawers so finally resolved to slicing the cake with a huge knife. Needless to say, the layers didn't come out even but hopefully no one noticed it when they were eating the cake.

Finally when I was done with the cake, I found the slicer! Doesn't that just always happen? It was right at the back of on of the drawers that I must have opened easily 5 times to look for earlier.

I bought loads of strawberries for the filling and topping.

1st layer 

2nd layer 

All 3 layers assembled together.

Also bought mandarin oranges, grapes, peaches, kiwis for the topping.

Voila! 

Mum was so surprised when I showed her the cake on Friday morning. Was not able to keep it in my cousins house because it turned out to be too big. She kept asking me 'Are you sure you made it?' and J had to confirm that it was me who made it. She was so proud of me.

Thankfully the 12" square cake was more than enough to feed all 70 guests. Some of which were just standing around the table where I was cutting the cake to be served to the guests and helping themselves over and over.

I was truly proud of myself. Mum taught me well. All those years of helping her in the kitchen cutting butter, breaking eggs, separating eggs, whisking cream, folding in flour did not come to waste. 

Macaroons anyone?

I finally went for my Macaroon class on the 24th Sept. The voucher expired a couple of months back but the person teaching the class was nice enough to extend the due date for me as we both had a miscommunication on my earlier set date for the class which caused me to miss the class. The new date fell on J's birthday but I decided to still go for it, didn't want to take the risk in case he doesn't organize another class. 

The class was small, only 3 students plus 1 teacher. So we paired up and I was paired with the teacher as the other 2 students were a mother-daughter duo.

I decided to make a strawberry flavored macaroons and the other duo a coffee flavored macaroons. We also made 2 different fillings - chocolate mint and salted butter caramel. 

The process of making the macaroon is simple enough however the trick is to finding the right heat for your oven. My macaroon batch were the first to go in the oven and they turned out well however the 2nd batch of the coffee macaroons cracked as the oven was too hot. I now need to find the right heat for my oven at home to bake my macaroons so that they will come out perfect and not cracked up.

I was not very keen on the fillings that I learnt though, felt that there was too much going on.

Strawberry macaroons + Mint Chocolate fillings = too many flavors blended together

Plus the fillings turned out too watery and I had to put the macaroons in the fridge. This kinda changed the texture and flavor of it a little.

I'm going to try making my mum's recipe for the ganache filling and google up some other cool recipes for fillings.

Will distribute out that batch if it turns out well. 

Stay big or move small?

So I''ve been hunting for my 'pot' for sometime now and there's a possible one around the corner. It's not as big or attractive and doesn't have a lot of flowers compared to the one I currently have. Many have their reservations as well, but I'm pretty comfortable at the sight of this pot.

Although small, it has already bloomed to a certain level and there's still much room for more growth. And who knows, with the right amount of sun, water, TLC and prayer.. it could flourish into a beautiful garden. 

Am going to continue seeking for clarity if this is the right 'pot'.

Image taken from here

Bathing a 3-month old

Babies.. They are such a precious gift from God..

Went to vist my newest niece last week..

She's 3 months old now and it had a been a good 1.5 months since I last saw her. Oh my how she had grown and look at the amount of hair on her head!

She's such a chubby lil marshmallow that I couldn't get enough of her.

Snap snap snap!!

Showered her with kisses.. lots of em! Check out those cheeks!

Then it came time for her bath.. and my cousin's like "Go and bathe her la". My reply "But I've not bathe a baby this young before". Mind you she's only like 3 months. Still a fragile little being. Then my cousin's like "It's so easy la, put her in the tub.. wet her with water.. put the soap... voila!"

So I took her to the bathroom and my cousin showed me where all her bathing stuff were and I figured 'ok lar.. since he's going to be standing there with me, I can do this'. Then... he walks out of the bathroom leaving me with baby Judea and her oldest brother who was such a darling to help.

So scrub-a-dub-dub, few kicks in the tub (I really think this one is going to be a good swimmer) and a few minutes later she's done. All fresh and smelling like Johnsons & Johnsons. Wiped her down and changed her.

Now thought to myself, that wasn't too bad. I mean I've bathe many of my nephew and nieces before, tons of them but none this young. And I enjoyed every moment of it. Am so looking forward to her next bath!

I love my cousins for having such confidence in m.

Naledi Thophego

I've sent many people off at the airport, many of whom I know are going back to their home for good or migrating to a different country. But 1st September 2011 marked the hardest and most emotional send off ever!

I sent her off.

Her name's Naledi Thophego. A Botswana scholarship student who was in Malaysia for 4.5 years, then she graduated and it was time for her to head back to her homeland.

I remember times when we used to talk about her possibly settling down in Malaysia, and trying to convince ourselves that God's call for her was to be in our land. The perfect situation was for her to marry a Malaysian man. And after time, we realised that that was not happening and God affirmed over and over again especially months before she left that her calling was to go back to Africa and beyond to serve.

The entire 2011, I hardly spent as much time with her as I did in previous years, also because I knew she was leaving. I should have spent more time with her but work got the better of me and left me with hardly any time. When realization drew nearer that she's actually going to leave, it was a hard truth to swallow.

I cried so much weeks leading to her farewell and at times would just not want to think about it because it hurt too much.

The day she left, i teared a bit at the airport and stayed at the back watching as she said her goodbyes and hugged everyone. But when it was my turn, sigh what a waterfall.

The ride back was the toughest. I usually have her in my car when we send people off and we would drive back together. But this time, she was not in the car.

Thank God the peeps in my car didn't ask much and carried on with their conversations even though they knew I was just crying like a baby, couldn't help it, couldn't stop it.

But I'm thankful for the assurance that it was not our last goodbyes, and that I'll see her again. At least I know the next I'd see is for my 'big' day.

These past 3 years have been a time of building an awesome bond with a sister-in-Christ. She's someone that I knew I could count on no matter what even if it's just to cheer me up, listen to my dramas and whining or to just cover me in prayer. I can't help tearing even now as I'm typing this as it really brings back all the memories together with her. There have been so many students that have come and gone and that I've also developed a relationship with, but this was extra special.

Planning

I love planning and organizing events. It's one of my passion.

Coming up, I have three birthday parties to plan, back-to-back, or which two are a very big deal. All three parties are going to be held at my house and the earliest one is coming up next Saturday.

I'm still scouting for the perfect caterers because I want to have different cuisine for all three parties. Caterers are now just so expensive, but I don't blame them, with the inflation of food prices I guess it's just a circle we have to go through. For a nice good buffet line, it'll cost easily between RM13-20 per pax.

Then there's the task of coming up with the guest list and calling everyone up to invite them, to get them to rsvp, then to send them a reminder a week before the event. Once the guest list is prepared about 90%, I need to figure out how much food to cater. If I have 70 people coming, it's not advisable to order for 70 because that would just be too much food. But the right number has to be catered because you don't want to have less food as well because that just would just be unacceptable. So usually I break my list down to adults and children and then order about 20% less of the confirmed adults coming.

It's best to book the caterers about a month or two before the event, especially when the date is near a festive season. It's safer to book and then cancel if you found a better caterer or alternative then to end up with no caterer at all.

Sometimes if there are side dishes that are being prepared, then the amount would reduce because not everyone would take a portion of each dish, and we'll just end up having too much leftovers.

With a large group of people coming, there's a need for tables and chairs to be setup in the porch. I'm also looking into putting a canopy up in case it rains, plus it'll add a warm touch to the house.

Paraffin Wax Treatment

I bought this promo from Groupon sometime back and went for it last Monday as it's expiring soon. It's been sometime since my last manipedi session and my cuticles felt like it was overdue for a treatment.

This promo included a paraffin treatment for both hands and legs but somehow I only got it for the leg, hmm feel slightly cheated now.

After they've cleaned my cuticles, scrubbed and moisturized your feet, they then put some on hot paraffin wax.I liked the hot sensation on my feet.

They covered my feet with clingwrap and then with these booties and left it for about a good 30 minutes. It's supposed to whitened and moisturize my feet and has some vitamin benefits too.

The whole mani pedi session took about 2 hours cos there was only one manicurist to tend to me. So after sitting in the chair for about 2 hours, I was kinda glad that I didn't have the wax treatment for my hands too, cos that would have easily taken up another half hour.

The clutz that I am, went and ate banana leaf rice with curry using my fingers and now I have my left hand in pink shades and my right in gold shades.

Assurance

God's assurance is something that is so precious to me.. Even in this season of uncertainties, with many decisions needing to be made, He never fails to assure me that He sees the bigger picture and only has the best in store for me.. He's written out all my future plans in His calendar and everything's laid out well, now only to wait for the right timing and 'pot'..

Such comfort..

Facials

I signed up for a facial package last Monday and I know by the end of next month I am going to be so broke when the credit card bill is due.

Been having nasty breakouts for the past few years and every time I go for a facial, which is only once is every 2 or 3 months, I get the same comments or rather advise from most the beauticians - that I need to come every 2 weeks for about 2 to 3 months to clear my face, then subsequently once it is clear I can go probably once a month. My colleagues and friends were also giving me the same advice. Such consistent info and I've seen the results with my colleagues, so figured I'd give it a try.

Bought this promo last month and it was a steal!

I decided to then sign up for a back treatment and being the first time, I got 50% of the rate. Pretty satisfied after both my treatments at the spa, I signed up for another promo that they set up especially for their Groupon customers.

So for the next 3 months, I'll be going every 2 weeks and hopefully my face will clear up. Of course I still got to watch my food intake.

Didn't sign up for the back treatment package cos that was just way more expensive than the facials and so will treat my back on my own for now, with mum's help.

Kuching - Aug 2011

A trip with my colleagues that has been in the planning for more than a year finally came to pass. N wanted to go somewhere for her birthday so in less than 3 weeks we made arrangements for our holiday. Why Kuching? Hmm cos I was on a budget and it was the cheapest ticket at that time. Going overseas would have cost way too much for me, although my colleagues wouldn't have minded that but they were sweet enough to stick to my budget.

Sadly, what started out to be a trip with 3 adults + 2 kids turned out to be only 2 adults as one of them fell terribly ill and decided to stay back and rest in KL.

The journey started with a really early flight from KLIA. Thank God the flight was delayed by 1 hour and we were informed earlier, had an extra hour to snooze.

Found me a Cafe Barbera in KLIA! My airport waits won't be so boring after this.. Nothing to start of your morning like an affogato..

We stayed at Damai Beach Resort which is about a 45 minute drive away from Kuching City. On the spur of the moment, we decided to be adventurous and rent a car. It served us well for the 3 days there and turned out to be an excellent idea because we save a lot on cab fees. It's much cheaper renting a car there than to take a cab which would be a minimum of RM70 per way from the hotel to town.

Our supersized room in DBR. Could have easily fit 4 people in the rooms. The beds were humoungous! Pillows were not too great though, gave me a neckache. 

We were looking for good seafood for our first night there.. and the lady at the front desk told us of this restaurant in Kg. Buntal to go to. It's about a 15 minute drive from our resort. This restaurant is a must-try when in Kuching. They were kind enough to cook smaller portions of variety for us, which most restaurants may not do. *Oh this reminds me to write in a compliment for that lovely lady*

Eagerly waiting for our food.. Thank God it's a picture and not a video or you would have heard our tummy's rumbling..

Kangkung Belacan.. Somehow tasted way better there.

Butter prawns

Sweet and sour fish

Chilli crabs.. These were the bomb-diggidee..

We experienced thunderest rain both nights we were there.. On the first night, it was so bad that I wanted to crawl into bed with N but I knew she would have killed me if I did so lol. Saw this fallen tree on one of the mornings on our way out.. 

Semenggoh Wildlife Centre.. What an experience! We hardly got lost getting there except from reading one of the signs wrong and ended up taking a longer route. It was great that we got slightly lost because we saw some amazing buildings in one of the tiny trunk roads. Sorry no pics cos we too focused on finding our way.

Feeding time is at 3pm but we reached around 130pm. Initially we thought of driving out and coming back at 3pm just in time for the feeding but around 150pm, the ranger said that there was one Orang Utan.. In about 20 minutes, there were 4 of them.. They came early for their supplements..

This picture reminds me of J

Meet Delima and her youngest of 2 years old. She has 3 kids so far, and we met 2 of them in total. She made our experience there totally worthwile. After having their snacks, she decided to take a walk to where we were, slowly making her way from the feeding area, to the bench where we were sitting and finally to the carpark area.. The rangers were very cautious and kept asking us to move back but you can see from the picture below, she came pretty close up to us.. Eventually the rangers led her further up and into the jungle.. The rehabilitation centre houses 26 Orang Utans and we had the privilege of meeting 10 of them..

Mount Santubong.. This was the sight that we saw everyday as we drove back and forth from the hotel.. There's a hike that you can choose to do up the mountain, either a 2 or 6 hour hike but we decided not to because the weather was really bad.. Probably on our next trip.. there are some really beautiful waterfalls up there.. 

The first evening we were there, the sunset was exceptionally beautiful! It was breathtaking but unfortunately, N and I were in the waters with no camera in our hands.. The second evening we tried to capture the sunset but it was not as pretty as the day before.. I love sunsets though, so I thought this was just beautiful as well.

Jojo came to visit us at our resort.. She looks so gorgeous in this picture..

The resort had it's own Cat Feeding Area.. Numerous cats running around in the resort.. Well it is 'Kuching' afterall.. lol

 I did up some research on places to visit and eat at while we're there.. But missed out on this one. Kuching Festival Fair 2011 - Jojo told us about it and took us there on our last night. This was definitely a treat!

With literally hundreds of stalls like this lined up row after row, we were lost and didn't know which we should try first..

Fried Durian! This was apparently a must-try but we didn't get to try it. 

Because the line was just too long. We didn't feel like lining up for over an hour for it..

 We opted instead for the local favourites.. Sarawak Laksa.

Kolo Mee

Got me some durian pancakes. They were costly! RM10 for 4 pancakes but the pancakes were too thick and not too tasty. At least the durian made up for it.

This is like my only picture of N and me... She's a great travelling buddy.. We had rough plans of what we wanted to do, but it changed everyday.

We also went to the Cultural Village in Damai. It's my 2nd time there. The first time was during the Rainforest Music Festival in 2006. The village is very different when not during a music fest but I think it's overpriced. RM65 per entry. We managed to catch the cultural show of 45 minutes - showcasing performances by the different tribes in Sarawak. Then we walked through the village a bit to see the different homes by the tribes live in. We didn't get to explore the whole village because we were rushing for time as we needed to check out and catch our flight. 

I love Kuching and I definitely want to return. There were so many places I wanted to visit but due to constraint of time and the fact that we were staying too far from town and most of those places are nearer to town, we didn't to see as much as we wanted to.

Next trip will definitely include a 1 night stay at Bako Forest Reserve.

This weekend getaway was surely a fun, adventurous and memorable one.