0 A Trip to Royal Selangor

My aunt paid me a visit recently - I enjoy having guests but....after all the shopping complexes, where else could I take my aunt to in KL? ;)

I searched the net..and had my doubts but why not?....and so we headed to the Royal Selangor Visitor Center.

At the entrance, we were greeted with the largest pewter made tankard in the world. It was an amazing start to the tour...and the ever friendly Royal Selangor guide made the journey even more memorable with his excellent knowledge and helpfulness. I have to say, from the receptionist to the guides and every employee we met, I found all of them to be extremely courteous.

The journey began with a visit to the Pewter museum and the gallery. We saw many pewter made pieces such as tin money, a replica of KLCC, a life sized crocodile, etc.

This is a picture of the Royal Selangor craftsman's handprints - all having worked there for more than 5 years.

Tour guide on the right. My aunt observing how handles are made. It seems that a Royal Selangor employee can makes hundreds per day. ....phew!
My aunt trying to knock a design onto a pewter mug, without much success - a very steady hand is required.
We were also served drinks in cool pewter mugs before proceeding to the next point, which was the factory - look how neat it is!
Finally, we reached the Royal Selangor 'School of Hard Knocks' where we signed up to experience pewter making oursleves. You have to register in advance, which we did, and it costs RM50 per head. The experience was worth it for me.

Check out tools we had to use to knock our pewter into shape and to engrave our initials:

We were also provided with a cool looking apron to wear. At the end of the session, we graduated with a certificate:

And here's the finished product, which we got to bring home:

Things that didn't go quite right:

1) Knocking somebody else's initials onto your flat pewter plate ...muahahaha..my aunt did this! ;) She wasn't listening to the instructor.

2) Not having a steady hand, resulting in your initials being hammered in a crooked line.

3) Knocking the plate too hard to mould it into a bowl, resulting in more dents than necessary to the already unsightly work of art ;p

4) Washing the now almost complete bowl too hard with a rough sponge ...mmm..nice scratch marks...obviously didn't wash it nicely in circular motion as the marks were all over..*slap face*

My conclusion : It was a wonderful experience and I wouldn't hesitate recommending the tour to everyone else.

0 Melted Candy

And this was what I wanted to give each of the girls in my office, whom I hold dear in my heart:

Unfortunately, the candy melted before I even left Penang. Bah!..So I got them some made in Penang 'Pneah' instead.

0 My very own radio station

Sick and tired of radio channels not playing my favourite songs ...yeap...that's me. Always changing channels, hoping to find a song I'd like to hear.

My partner has nagged me countless times about my itchy fingers, which never leaves the radio in peace. Hey, I don't see why I have to put up with daily traffic updates for many areas which does not concern me - one station providing this service is fine but any more than that really gets on my nerves. They even announce it almost at the same time..gahh!

Then, there's more blah blah with the radio ads and DJs. I don't mind news from Fly FM. It's funky and different. What I do mind are DJs who go in unprepared and long radio ads.

And so this site is a god-send - it's also free ;) http://www.jango.com/

I get uninterrupted play of my favourite songs without any blah blah...whoopee!

0 Penang Bridge

This is the view of the Penang Bridge, as we were leaving for KL early Sunday morning, the 4th day of Chinese New Year.

The bridge wasn't what I used to remember. My last trip down was probably 10 years ago but I recall being able to view the vast expense of the sea and land. It was amazing..

The view is now blocked, with higher walls and road dividers built....pity...and there's some construction going on.

But this view that we took was simply breathtaking..

0 Candy blown into shape!

Penang - That's where I spent my Chinese New Year this year, all 9 days of it.

And it was this time that I chanced upon a Chinese artist in Gurney Plaza..not just any artist, but a candy blowing artist. He blows sticky gooey candy into any shape you want.

How? He rolls it into a circle, starts blowing into it, shaping one part into a tube. And then begins the tranformation with his deft hands, blowing again into the tube when necessary to keep the candy puffed up.

I thought that this would be the perfect gift for each of my colleagues and so, I set my mind into getting a few before I headed back to KL. In the meantime, I bought one for myself - an Ox carrying a Pig. Ox, being me and Pig, my partner.

But guess what happened? Thanks to a heat wave, it all melted in just 2 days...sigh...I didn't even get a chance to lick it.

Watch the video here:

0 Ignorance is bliss...

The thing is....I never knew I had poor vision until I got a pair of glasses.

Now, it's like..gosh.. I could read toilet signs from this distance? God...I always thought our TV channels were blur because someone couldn't fix the antenna right...and oh, I can recognise friends in shopping complexes!

I'm seeing amazing things ever since and it's becoming harder and harder to go without glasses, not when I now know that things just look darn good through them.

0 Buying a gift for someone special?

I love gifts. I love the challenge of figuring out how to fit in whatever I have received, into my home somehow. And it's really great to see what's under the wrapper - it gives me a perception of how the giver views me ;)

My birthday is just two weeks after Christmas. So yeah, it's been a couple of exciting weeks. Time to take a breather to talk about my bf - who's just so sweet.

"Wow, he must have gotten you something really nice and romantic" ...ahh..so you think. But year in and year out, it's just amusing to see him panic as the Birthday date draws near. Sometimes he just fails miserably and it's going to be something belated or nothing at all.

Note that I'm not fussy about not getting anything at all - he just insisted that it was a must-thing for him to do. Who am I to stop this gallant notion?

This year, I decided to give him a break...or so I thought....

I gave him a subtle hint....mm..ok, maybe not so subtle but still he fell for it and thought he was the genius.

I had the plan in motion a couple of months before - whenever we pass a shop with this cute doll, I would point out to him how I'd love to have it but would always delay buying it, saying that I didn't have the time yet. I did this until December ;) Wuhahaha..it worked! ..Well..not exactly...

I didn't expect it to come in for Christmas...kakaka ;p and so, when my Birthday arrived - it was the same old story...he panicked, picked me up late from work, full of apologies and those pity puppy eyes. Now, who could resist not forgiving someone who does that?

Well....at least I got what I wanted..mm...now, to convince him that I need another one, but with a different design ;)

0 Dizzying encounter with Cloverfield

For the first time in our lives, my partner and I walked out of a movie before it ended.

It wasn't because the show was lousy..we just couldn't hold our stomachs. .weak..weak..weak!

A monster story seen through a handheld camera, held by an unsteady hand (what with all the commotion)...there was this quesy feeling in my stomach after 45 minutes and my partner looked like he was going to barf anytime. It sure felt like motion sickness.

Anyway, I liked the plot..I'm just mad that the moviemakers had to do it this way...they could have made 2 versions..one for people who don't barf easily and one for those who do.

Now I'll never know the ending..sigh... goodbye Cloverfield..I will never watch it again.

2 Wow..Midvalley wins it hands down

They did it! I really think they deserved the win and here's why:

Isn't it enchanting?

I'm captivated by the dancing fairies too, who coincidentally were the same people who performed at 'The Pavilion'. I wonder who they are...

3 Dinner at our place

It was dinner at our place for friends we rarely met, on 23rd Dec :) Around 20 people who were close to our hearts turned up (err....didn't really start out this way).

I had only intended to invite a family of 3..I'm still trying to figure out how we got 20.. wait..did I say 3? No...no...in fact, I never planned to open my house for Christmas - it just happened! One said her family's looking forward to it..blah blah...and so it carried on from one friend to another.

Then Jen came along looking sad and depressed. "Hey, what's wrong?", my big mouth enquired. Before I knew it, her sob story made me offer my home to her, to host a dinner for some of her close friends.

I roasted 2 chickens (turkey's out of my budget), stir fried mixed vege, cooked spicy dried chilli cuttlefish and deep fried some kiddie food (chicken wings and chicken balls). My partner's specialty is fried noodles and rice, so that's what he did. Jen baked a cake and prepared sweet and sour fish.

Tadaaa..here it is, our work of art:

In between, we carolled and exchanged gifts ;) It was a fantastic evening. I would have it again.

Close ups for my online diary:

2 An inspiration from a poem

I am just so amazed by PJEFC’s efforts – The Christmas play was mesmerizing to say the least. It started with an ensemble of ‘stargazers’ who read a poem about the birth of all creations. The light shone on each stargazer as he/she spoke in poetic motion.

In between were beautiful Christmas carols sung by magical voices – the choir was harmonious and they were so in tune with one another. I was drugged by their serenity. The play ended with a scene on the birth of Christ.

Our friend, Cynthia was part of the play as a ‘stargazer’. Hence, we thought we’d come lend our support. She was very modest about their efforts – but that effort touched a lot of hearts.

It seems that the 'stargazer' scene was inspired from John Masefield's poem 'Lollingdon Downs V':

I could not sleep for thinking of the sky,

The unending sky, with all its million suns

Which turn their planets everlastingly

In nothing, where the fire-haired comet runs.

If I could sail that nothing, I should cross

Silence and emptiness with dark stars passing,

Then, in the darkness, see a point of gloss

Burn to a glow, and glare, and keep amassing,

And rage into a sun with wandering planets

And drop behind, and then, as I proceed,

See his last light upon his last moon's granites

Die to a dark that would be night indeed.

Night where my soul might sail a million years

In nothing, not even Death, not even tears.