ok. a very very overdue food post on my various haunts during the past one month (?) or so... so it's gonna be picture heavy yeah?

went to johor bahru with karin to meet *y on wednesday coz we couldn't get table at the dim sum buffet place nor at top table. and beloved fell sick. =( so in the end decided to venture inside coz i was craving for the jap food and to be out of singapore. so in backwards order:

we had dinner at this alley in johor jaya that was alfresco and that felt more like malaysia instead of all the restaurants i always go. the food is here good. one of the better ones definitely. and i've always loved the fact of eating under the sky. =D the first time i came here with *y it started to rain lo. sianz. thank god the weather held up this time round. =D oooh. and on tuesdays there's pasar malams here!

with music from our era blaring in the background and the sounds of cooking with wafts of satay in the breeze. i felt at home. it was comfortable and familiar. and like what karin said. i looked as if i was home. hmmmz. i'm not sure if that's good or bad. ... ...

anyways. we ordered quite a spread considering our heavy breakfast and light tea within a short span of like 6 hours. (wah! 3 meals in 6 hours!)

the street scene with the usual otah at the table.

had bbq stingray (RM$9!). claypot rice (RM$4.5). satays with very very nice sauce (not sure how much but the 2nd time we ordered for 15 sticks was RM$7.50 if i'm not wrong).

took 3 items from a guy walking around with a basket of dim sum. har kaos. siew mais and something that lloked good. =D and of course finishing it up with ABC. it's similar to our ice kachang la. but for such a big bowl it's RM$1.80 only! and i love the peanut bits in it. =D

and these were what we had for tea break. =) at white town old coffee at i can't remember where. was it near plentong or near johor jaya i can't remember. or was it permas jaya? either one la. =D we had iced white coffee. 2 honey lemon iced and a basket of popiahs to share. the iced coffee was not too bad. except the still slight bitter aftertaste which i can't stand. but other than that it was ok. nutty and fragrant. the honey lemon was a tad more like honey water. but after karin poked the lemon and till the end. it became very sour. *shudderz* and the popiah was crispy and hot. total spending was RM$18.90.

and i'm not sure if it was the weather or coz we were all feeling nua-ey. the place was alfresco but it was windy and it made us all wanna sleep. and i was so slack lo. =D

breakfast was jap food at nijyumaru at permas jaya which was sushi tei standards or slightly higher. but the price is a bit steep. for all we had we spent RM$216.65.

had iced cold grape smoothie. summer peach tea and a mango tango. all which were nice and cooling on a hot sunny day on wed. =D

had the salmon rolls. an assortment of sashimi for 3. buta kimchi teppanyaki and a gyu teriyaki to share. i like the kimchi. sour yet spicy. i think i can survive in korea on kimchi! =D

also had the fried california maki. shark's fin chawanmushi. uni chawanmushi and a soft shell crab maki. i liked the idea of frying the california maki coz the final texture was crispy on the outside. soft yet crunchy on the inside and with the generous heaping of roe it was fantastic. tad sinful. and i liked the chawanmushi too but it wasn't the best i've ever had coz it wasn't smooth enough. but ok la. thou shalt not complain. =D

met beloved with *y on another day and tried the soup at paradise inn at west coast plaza. the duck with salted vege was ok. but my mummy's cooking's better. =D

before that we ventured to tcc by the bay at keppel marina. the view was pretty. minus the cranes in the background. but it was too attas for us ba. even the menu was attas. unlike the usual tcc. and it was quite ex too. =X not a very fantastic experience. would not go back ba. =X


met mummy and beloved for dim sum buffet at zhou zhuang at anchopoint too. buffet was good and worth the money. especially when it was raining outside and there we were having hot piping food. =D i won't elaborate dish by dish but overall a good experience and i like the ambience. =D





met *y and tried yotei at forum galleria. i wouldn't recommend going there. expensive and not worth it. standards as compared to other jap restaurants was not there either.



had shabuya with beloved and karin at vivocity before she flew off to aussie to meet tom. the quality was good. food was good. although we came out stinky somewhat coz of the steamboat's steam. =P



tried island creamery at serene center after reading so much on it. i tell you. the ice cream is really good and worth the money. but to ask me to go back again is equivalent to asking me to go and waste money on bad food. coz of the bad service. i stood there in front of the 2 staff and they took a bloody 10 mins to serve me even though there was no queue and it was bloody obvious that i wanted to order. =X enough said.

a happier post would be that before the absymal visit to island creamery i had some very good food at relish at cluny court. atmosphere was a tad attas. but i quite liked the high ceilings and bright cheery feel it has. =D

had mushroom soup and the appetizer. white bait with rockets if i'm not wrong which was good. and friend had a chicken redang burger. and i tried their famous wild rocket burger. it looked small and normal. but once you bite into it and all the beef juicies started invading your tastebuds it was heaven. and no doubt a filling meal. no worries about the rocket leaves though. they may seem like a bunch but it was not bitter at all and complemented the burger nicely. =D

had modesto's with karin at vivocity too. the pictures are not very clear coz i took with my phone cam which was 2.0 megapixel. i liked the soft but buttery garlic bread and the ceasar salad. iced peach tea was normal. but the pizzas were the highlight of teh day. the different mushrooms on one and spicy parma ham on the other. crispy and a bit burnt. probably coz they used wooden oven? profiterioles were a bit too chocolatey for me though. =)

tried another jap buffet restaurant in johor bahru with *y again. can't recall the name of the restaurant but it was so-so only. but but but...

the chawanmuchi is the best that i've ever tried. and so i had 3 different flavours of it! =D

had haagen daz at vivocity with *y after lunch and watching harry potter. and we had my fav flower blossom basket! =D

this was our lunch at the newly jpot at vivocity. it took over wood retaurant and bar. food was good. quality was *speechless*. and i enjoyed the porridge based steamboat more. =D

and breakfast before wastching harry potter was carl's jr's portebello mushroom burger combo which was waaay out of this world. like tom and karin. *y liked the unpeeled fries. =D


and last but not least. i tried the western food at austwine at farmart with *w. iced water came in a glass bottle. =D i liked the atmosphere. and of course the company i had that day. =D

we had root beer (no alcohol coz *w was riding) and mushroom soups with side dishes of sotong balls. onion rings and potato wedges. =D mains were chicken chop and fish and chips. cheap and reasonable food. juz that it's a bit inaccessible. but ok ba. =D wished there were more chances to meet up with *w for more food. =)
yepz. think i'll stop here. looooong post. and looking at all the pics are making me hungry le. =D going for dinner now. later off to work and tmr morning after work to collect my passport. so yeah. tatA! =D

i actually have a lot of other images to upload and share. and on a day that the upload speed is fast. i'm tired out.

been really burnt out i guess by all the looking after store and planning of meetings and presentations and trying to absorb all the new stuff they were teaching today and squeezing out all my brain juices. like what i told karin. i feel like i'm back in school. in the ig. not a bad thing. but then... ...

probably some will say i'm overworked that's why the lethargic. but no. it's not as simple. i don't think i can handle having to take care of store. of myself. of my family. of my friends. and my other half. time is not enough.

i'm in the wrong when i hung up the phone yest. but every time i'm the one who asks how's your day. anything interesting you wanna share. you tell me how tired you are. how sick you feel of working with some people. so is there nothing good at all you can share too? i'm tired of having to wait for you to punch out in the wee hours of the morning. tired of trying to make myself slow down so you can catch up. yes. it's not your fault. but i can only blame myself for wanting to be fast. time won't wait for me. i've still got thousand and one things to do and achieve.

there's expectations set for me by others. like giving me another 2 years max to work towards my next goal. i want to move on. not that you're a burden. but sometimes i do wonder izzit fair to for you to keep playing catch with me?

i juz want somebody who can understand what my job scope is like. rather than keep asking why do i always seem to have so much to do nowadays. and someone whom i can rely on knowing that the person will be there. not juz mentally but physically as well.

i didn't choose to have so much things to do. but this is work. and it makes me happy to be able to learn so much new things and be exposed to all. as much things as i have to complete and answer to my boss. i'm happy working under this amount of pressure coz i know i perform better under such situations.

but why can't you juz leave me alone? sometimes what i wish for is to be with you every minute. but i know that the things i do will bore you to death coz they're not what you will do. or want to do.

surprisingly i've 3 straight off days at the end of next month. probably i'll take a short trip out of singapore and get a break.

let's see how things go.

PS. *w. thanks for listening to me. although there's actually much more i wanted to say. but again. thanks. =)

reflections:

am finally tired out with all the meetings and results that i have to achieve when there's no one there left to guide me. equipments are breaking down. sales are going up. products are running out. people seems not to have eaten mac before. or izzit juz my store? usual thursday sales was as soft as 9k. this thurs we had a whooping 12k sales. and a 300 bucks special d. my boss is so gonna kill me. fri sales was back to the 16k range. now on a sat. breakfast was 4k. up to 11pm when jacq called me. sales was already 17k. and that's net sales. imagine the kinda of customers that was flocking over.

been at home on off days trying to complete cafe schedules. reading through results. doing mdp. analyzing the labour %. sales trend. GCPCH. all i see now are all freaking numbers. i wanna stay in the top 10. i will not lose to jp. definitely utterly cannot. how can cck4 lose to them! =X

i finally feel like i'm working like a 1st asst. overworked and underpaid. and my darling boss can take 1 week leave to go malaysia and left a 450k a month store to a 3 month old 1st asst to run. isn't she afraid i'll screw up the results? =X

why do i feel like i'm back at jscc at times? i really miss those times i was cl3. yes. boss was fierce and demands a hell of a lot. but she guides me through them all. i had to go back to seek her help for my std and ppa. how sad is that? =X

i feel so paiseh although she doesn't seem to mind. she's my mentor and idol lo. totally. and i understand why the current pmo is so stressed. coz under va is not like being under ck. we're a heavyweight pmo. our results counts. and honestly. i enjoy being under va. his style is much like boss and vs. =D i like. demanding but they asks questions that allow you think and look for the answers yourselves instead of being thrown stuff without giving any instructions besides 'read le then you can do le.' what kinda instructions are those? not SMART at all. and to think they go for classes to learn how to write proper goals and all. what a waste of money!

anyways. met line and shukai yest for dinner. ended up talking till late. but was really nice to juz sit by the fitness corner and chat. makes me think of those days when i hung out with *w till late at night chatting. kinda miss him ba. =(

kk. think i better go le. yest's lack of sleep is kicking in. need to wake up at like 7.30am for work later. thank god i completed most of my stuff le. happy! =D

good night world! =*

a beautiful sunset captured off seletar reservior at mandai road. =D

been pretty busy with work. doing cafe schedule. holding dk and cl meetings. doing powerpoint for nabit meeting. going through wsq for food hygiene. doing PR for the fms. preparing for open door on sundays. preparing for upcoming promotions. projecting sales and labour hours for august and cracking my head over all the numbers i see. hahaha. do feel stressed out at times coz there are things i've never done before and don't know how to go about doing them. if only boss was around. she'll teach me and then let me figure out the rest myself. but this boss juz leaves everything to me and expect me to know. hmmmz. a tad like maha. but i guess i'll survive la. =D

been wanting to go swimming for some time le but a bit no time and also lazy la. sianz. =P beloved's going kl soon for the man u match with her family. karin's still in aussie with tom. so i guess it's juz me for now. till they come back and off to find good food we shall! =D gonna miss beloved and missing karin! =D

in the process of filtering away things that are not important to me... i've got better things to remember/do.