The Penang Weekend

Shots of the wonderful Sire Museum Restaurant. AK and I had flown to Penang for my cousin's wedding. Besides the usual Hawker Pilgrimage that we make - Char Koay Teow at Kimberley Street, Indian mee at Bangkok Lane, charcoal-toasted bread and amazing local coffee at Campbell Street, we also took the opportunity (since my brothers were around as well - that rare occasion when it's akk five of us and AK) to celebrate a belated Mother's Day (and future Father's Day too) at The Sire. I've been wanting to take my family there since 2009, when I first visited the place, courtesy of a lunch invite from an old friend. You can read all about the rich history of this absolutely breathtaking place here and here. I just love the wall garden, the high white ceilings with their exposed beams, the courtyard pool, the Peranakan furnishings and the abundance of natural light, thanks to high windows and a skylight.

Then we celebrated a cousin's wedding at another wondrously beautiful venue. Casuarina trees, whitewashed colonial architechture (think shutter windows, hardwood floors, 70's style mosaic flooring). I'm so happy that Penang can boast of such gorgeous yet unpretentious places. The wedding dinner itself was one of the most fun I've been to in a loong time - everyone was dancing despite the tropical heat (it was an outdoor tent) till midnight and beyond!

Below, some attempts at capturing the beauty of our surroundings that evening.

Notice how much nicer these photos look than my usual junk? That's because my brother took them :) Credit to him, he tried his best to teach me the technicalities of aperture sizes and what not, but 99% of the time my sorry attempts cannot even better the Auto function. Sad, I know.

We did have a wonderful time, and I can't wait for our next trip back.

Pause for thought

The housewarming visit last weekend has affected me way more than I could have imagined. We ate his roast lamb and bread-and-haloumi salad, laid on his plush sofa and oohed and aahed at his Bose sound system that costs as much as my car (second hand), a built-in oven and all the works. To top that, he announced after dinner that he was about to buy a fancy European car. Granted, a second hand one, but still....

Which inevitably leads to unintended comparison. AK and I lead rather simple lives. We rent a little house for RM650/month, and I hire a maid once a fortnight to do the heavy housework and ironing. I make do with our little kitchen, and our furniture are the cheapest we could find. We drive the same cars we had when we first joined the company. We both refrained from the iPhone 4 temptation. My friend lives by himself in a new detached house, gets his cleaner in twice a week and the service costs of his car could probably pay for mine ten times over. Our money is locked up in stocks and property. We do take some pretty nice vacations though, by far our most indulgent expenses. Don't get me wrong - I choose to live like this. And for the most part, I am happy. What am I saying? I am happy. I have someone to spend the rest of my life with, the world's naughtiest, funniest orange cat and a loving and supportive family.

But when it comes to the way we spend money, he more I think about it the more I feel like the little ant toiling away, resisting the temptation to rest and enjoy the summer sun, while the grasshopper enjoys the comforts the sun's bounty allows him to - for now.

Things are, of course, seldom that simple. "Winter" could spell even more trouble for investments than simple cash - and what if we're wiped out in the next big recession and had to start anew? What if it made no difference at all - and we lived it all for nought? What if the ant's hoardings just rotted away, and he had to start anew just like the grasshopper? At least the grasshopper enjoyed himself while he could.

Latest Obsession

I have been wanting a boyfriend blazer for ages. To wear when we go to Europe, on a plane, on business trips for that effortlessly cool look. I passed on an almost-perfect one I found at Zara, and have regretted it ever since. Now I'm furiously trawling ebay for something similar.

This Burberry piece is everything I want in my bb - contrasting white lining with navy pinstripes, and it's in the inky navy blue I envisage. Pity about the price though - I could buy an iPhone with that money :(

In fact, come to think of it, the Zara number I saw is probably a slighly more upscale knockoff of this one. All the more reason I should have bought it! Sigh.

The ad doesn't show if off to its fullest potential, IMHO.

Now, Liv Tyler here is a different story altogether. This is exactly how I envision pulling off the blazer, with a casual tee underneath and fitted jeans/leggings:



Now off to trawl eBay!

Visiting the Niah Caves, and a Devil's Food Cake

Nothing like a good dose of blogging, scanning through captured photos, a slice of proud-product of the weekend just past in hand, crumbs on lips and keyboard all sticky, to beat away the troubles of a Dilbert-worthy Monday.


We rose bright and early on Saturday to make our way to the Niah National Park. It was a relatively painlessle ten-kilometer jungle walk, on a plank walkway so we didn't soil our shoes too much. Age-old trees provided shade that I was grateful for, given the awful spell of hot weather we have been having lately.






Caving was, well, not nearly as fun as the jungle walk. Credit to the park authorities, the raised walkways were well laid out and made it easy for us to navigate. Bats and swiftlets hung about above our heads as we tried to avoid as the guano , an impossible task. It was actually pitch-dark in some areas and we needed our torches to walk through.

 

Truth be told, what I felt really made our little trip extra special was our stop overs on the way to the park itself, the teeny town of Bekenu, where we had a freshwater prawn fried noodles breakfast.

 

And thanks to a minor vehicle malfunction, I got the chance to wander around the Niah Bazaar and the nearby river, on the banks of which stood this adorably garish hot pink Chinese temple.



And the Bekenu market. Clams the size of fists, with their white flesh peeking out only to slip back when we curiously touched them. Mussels by the bagful for 2 ringgit! And a rather sorry assortment of baby sharks, their skins leathery to the touch, their little fins, which could not have been more than 2 or 3 inches long, cut off. When will we learn to stop this unsustainable demand? :(



On the bright side, we were lucky that it's the season for fishing for freshwater prawns. Small-time fishermen brought in their prawn traps with their catches inside still writhing and leaping out of the river. A kilo cost us 28 ringgit! And as you can tell, these were healthy, good-sized specimens.

We also bought some garish pink dragonfruit (which turned out to be supersweet) and a giant soursop (we were advised that it’s a powerful antioxidant) that would have cost us a lot more in Miri. I wish I bought those mussels though - I could never find them in Miri and they were so darned cheap.


Sunday was an altogether different day. Aside from resting my aching bones (obviously the quest to get fitter has not been going as well as I'd hoped). We went over to a friend’s place for his housewarming. I’ll admit I’m pretty jealous of his super plush sofa and built in oven, and of course, of him having a place to REALLY call his own. I made Devil’s Food Cake, following a David Lebovitz recipe. I followed his recipe to the T, except for the frosting part where I made the mistake of using my 72% cocoa solids bar which turned out way too strong (never thought I’d say that), and had to whisk in almost a cup of butter and spoonful after spoonful of icing sugar to temper the bitterness.



So all in all, a weekend well spent. Next – on to a recipe that will hopefully do my prawns some justice!

My future home's gonna look like this...

...............Uma Sapna in Seminyak, Bali, where we spent a glorious three days relaxing in the super comfortable bed watching DVDs and snacking, swimming in our private pool and taking in the uber chic boutiques along Jalan Laksamana.



The Spa display

Zen landscaping

Our little slice of heaven on earth

And inside the villa, modern tropical with more than a touch of luxe