Dear diary,

The doorbell rang 2 times, before I dragged my lazy feet towards the door.

It’s a surprise parcel!

Oh, I just remembered! Must be the slogan contest i submitted to A Shopaholic’s Den.

And so I won a pair of handmade earrings by Patty Belle.

A good start for my day.

Dear diary,

My life has been pretty occupied lately!
When there’s no work, I’ll be catching up with my sleep or be out of home. Time flies, I can’t believe it’s May already!

Today, I shall share my magical 21st in Frangipani , which I think could be one of the best French restaurants that I’ve been to. I’m not exaggerating! In Frangi, even food that I don’t like (eg. asparagus) can turn out to be very good! It’s just magical!

The restaurant has got very good ambience! They have an indoor pool which contributes to its serenity. And the clean simple interior contribute to its classy & elegant atmosphere!

Deep down in my heart, I’m feeling very grateful that great people exist and they made my life a much better one! I owe this to a secret person who requested his identity to be hidden! TQVM!

I thought I would be confused by the French jargons and end up not knowing what to order. But as I flipped through the menu, I realized each menu item is followed with a paragraph of informal yet detailed explanation. Very thoughtful! It makes reading the menu an experience itself.

the typical fine-dining set-up.

Since it’s dinner-time, I decided to go for the 3 course meal. To my surprise, they served several complimentary courses in between the 3 courses, which makes this meal 6 courses altogether!

Initially, price was my biggest concern. I’m very resistent towards over-priced & non-worthy spend! I was worried that we’re paying a lot but the quality of food is not up-to-standard. But turns out, the food is so good, it makes you feel that the money you’re paying is all worthwhile.

We started-off with some Baguette (bread) with butter.

The butter, nothing like the typical ones from the supermarket! It tastes very very good – especially for someone like me who likes butter a lot. btw, the baguette did not run-out because they kept serving more!

Complimentary:

Then they served this complimentary starter course.

Warm tea smoked salmon with confit potatoes, crème fraîche and salmon roe.

“After having this (esp the salmon roe), salmon roe you get from the regular Sushi chains would taste like shit!”, said the Secret Guy.

I took some pictures with the food too!

Pigeon Breast (can’t trace the full name that appears in the menu)

Tender! Didn’t know that Pigeon tastes like this.

Complimentary:

Asparagus soup with salmon roll.

The soup is …omfg freaking good! I don’t take asaparagus ever … but this’s so gonna change my perception of asparagus. The soup is very rich! If the average soup is liquer on the rock; then this could be the shots/shooters. i don’t mean to sound like a drinker! but can’t think of any other way to describe the goodness of the soup! The soup goes well with the salmon roll.

Third Course:

Grilled Wagyu beef cheek with braised red cabbage, mole sauce and pumpkin dauphines

Very nicely done! Every dish is so fine that you can feel the carefulness of the chef while preparing it.

Pan roasted duck confit with mustard cream and mashed potato on a crisp potato couronne

I saw quite a number of people ordering this course too. But I thought the beef cheek tastes better than this. This is a very well-done duck, the texture is a bit stiff – maybe that’s the way a duck confit shouldbe. btw, the little ’shit-like’ thing around the duck confit tastes a bit like wasabi!

Complimentary:

Chilly Strawberry Ice

After the 6 courses, this one last thing perfected the meal – a surprise birthday dessert!

While this was brought-out, the waiter sang birthday song to me. I was very surprised and touched by the thoughtful arrangement!

Thanks loads for the magical experience!

Dear diary,

It was a Sunday, I decided that it should be a shopping day. Hence, went to Pavilion with my aunt Debbie!

Had lunch in Kampachi. Typical Grilled Salmon, boring!

Am not very adventurous to try out their Sashimi. Deb ordered Chirasi though, I tried some of it, it’s good!

Since the handles of my bag were broken and I don’t have $ to buy a new bag, aunt deb was kind enough to let me pick a bag as my 21st pressie.

Went into various stores like Marc Jacobs, Tangs, Guess, Parkson, MNG, Bimbo and Lola etc etc. Can’t see anything that I really like! Why aren’t there good stuff around! Or perhaps I’m too picky!

As we started to get a little impatient, we spotted this store called La Pagayo. It’s nothing fancy like Juicy Couture; nothing extravagant like Chanel, but still, we decided to take a round.

Then this black bag caught my eye ; medium size; waterproof surface; with some dangling stuff.

In fact, it’s not the kind of bag that would draw forth the “WOW” reaction at first glance. It’s more to the simple & practical design, something for everyday use (but still classy in a way).

That was when I decided this should be the one.

the 699 bag.

Thank you very much aunt debbie ! *HUGS*

The night before, a dear friend treated me my birthday dinner @ Tony Roma’s. The beef ribs taste quite good!

I’m very grateful that there’re great people around me that made my 21st birthday a very memorable one…Words can’t describe how thankful I am!

Dear diary,

On 20th April, Nuffies bought me my birthday dinner in Sans Francisco Steakhouse, KLCC!

Robb, Yee Hou, Vernice, Nic, Penton, Tim & Me
Thanks Robb for the picture!

Throughout the day, they kept talking about bringing me to this duck place for dinner! And talked about playing CS after dinner! They talked about it so much that I thought it was0 real!

A bunch of joksters! haha, glad we ended up in Sans Frans instead!

Thank you very much! “The steak is freaking good!”

Dear diary,

It’s 22nd April!
-A reason to celebrate – my blog’s anniversary, Earth Day and last but not least, My Birthday.

I started this blog 2 years ago, my first post was about my 19th birthday. Then after a while I turned 20. Time flies and now I am officially 21! I didn’t really plan much for it. All I did was named my blog after my birthdate and added a countdown widget to my sidebar.

On 22nd April, I reached the office 10am-ish. Was supposed to go on birthday leave (in Nuffnang – if your birthday falls on a weekday, you get a day off.) But, i simply have too much work that I’ve to skip my birthday leave, so boss tim said I can come in to the office a bit later.

As usual, I walked to my table and guess what ????????

This is what I saw!

I remember my reaction was: screaming – laughing – screaming. I felt very amazed and surprised because I didn’t expect today to be like this at all. I thought it’s just a normal workday that the whole world would forget about my birthday!

Then tim and robb started to snap pictures of me being in the state of excessive exhilaration.

Was very happy too see bouquet of flowers, chocolates, birthday notes and …. a pink bra (the size a bit too small though.lol.) ! btw, the pink bra is from Yee Hou and Nicholas!! TQ very much! I wonder how does it feels like for 2 guys to go buy a pink bra?

That whole day I smell flowers – feels very very good! it doesn’t seem like a workday at all.

One is from Huai Bin and the other is from “Secret Admirer”.

Thank you very much huai bin!! The Godiva truffles taste like heaven!

Thank you very much to secret admirer too!

The flowers are beautiful!

And after reading my birthday coverage from here, here and here, I bet you guys are waiting for me to reveal who’s this secretive guy right! (could be a girl, who knows)

Yee Hou assumed that I bought the flowers myself, the others in the office assumed that it’s my mom! T_T

Hmmph, i love to imagine that the secret admirer is a guy!

Still can’t figure who’s the secret admirer though – but here are 5 facts I perceived about him:

1. He is a guy – just tell me he is!
2. He knows me pretty well – because the roses are pink, there’re 21 of them. i.e. he knows I like pink; he knows i’m turning 21.
3. He has a job. If not how to afford flowers like that.
4. He reads my blog – since he knows where i work!
5. He loves daisies!

Looks like the above-mentioned are very general facts huh! Will find out who’s he and update you along the way!

For the rest of my day….

12:30 pm
Met up with clients for lunch at Jarrod & Rawlins, together with tim and nic.

The steak is freakkkiing good!!

2pm
Back to work – swamped.

4pm
Still swamped – but got birthday wishes here and there (sms/msn) that cheered me up!

8pm onwards
Supposed to go for birthday dinner with friends @ Jarrod & Rawlins Cap Square – but since I just went in the afternoon – hence, change plans to Garden Lifestyle Cafe @One U.

My babes gave me presents…which makes me think they ‘researched’ me well enough by reading through my blog posts.

Chin Li, EE and Jia Hui gave me pink tech stuff! A pink iPhone casing and pink webcam. They remembered I mentioned I want a pink webcam!

iPhone is now pink!! It’s a damm happy thing!

Me & EE

Jia Hui & Me

They gave me L’Occitane hand cream and fragant touch! And it’s Cherry Blossom! Which I once blogged about it here. TQ very much, I’m very touched!

After a while, they started to do their own stuff!

And to my surprise……..

Love ya all!!!A cake made of durian pancakes!!
So touched that you all read about it from here!

This is quite a nice picture of zjo zjo and myself!

Yuki & Me

Janice & Me

WanYing & Me
Why are all the pics in my camera showing the side profile!!

All in all, I wanna thank everybody for not forgetting my birthday – for wishing me through SMS/MSN/Facebook/Commenting on my blog/Commenting on others’ blog/Phone calls.

You guys have made full use of technology … bravo!

Your wishes made this my best birthday ever! *in tears of joy*

Dear diary,

I’ve always wanted an iPhone! Especially after spending these few months mingling in the internet industry, I wanted it even more. Don’t think that I like pink and so I’m a total noob to tech! I’m fancied by tech a lot if you know me.

There’re a few times that I have the urge to just close my eyes and get it! But I always hold back because it’s not cheap at all (freaking 2k+) and I fear that I would regret! I heard a lot of cool comments about iPhone, but also heard a lot of rants about it.

My desire to acquire an iPhone climbs way high partly because I can’t find another phone that I really like. And also because I’m hunting for something that’s more ‘grownup’ but not with complete absence of the cool fun element! Blackberry could be greeatt but why does it has to have so many buttons on it! I want something simple yet sophisticated! *sweat* so hard to find the right words for it. It’s self-explanatory! Just go play with one and you’ll know what i’m trying to convey here.

On one fine Saturday, I went to the PC Fair @ KLCC, to explore the Maxis iPhone Bundling Plans.

At first, I really think it’s a sucky plan as the call charges are higher than usual. But guess I managed to convince myself that it’s not too bad afterall – regardless of all the iPhone shortages (x forward SMS, x send MMS etc – heard that these features will be available on June though), and the killer bundling charges….I, decided that the iPhone should be mine!

I took 2 days to believe that it’s mine!

There’re 2 colours to choose from – black/ white. Initially, I was tempted to go for the white one, but it’s not entirely white, it’s 2-tone, only the rear is white – the front is black, after staring at it for 15 seconds, I feel that it’s kinda weird, looks like a Tapir! Hence, I opted for the black one.

Just in case you don’t know how a Tapir looks like. See, rear white front black.

Free Belkin Leather Casing. Why is it not pink:(

The day I went home with iPhone, I spent one whole night, loading it with apps. Whacked all the free ones.

Mini Piano

This is a virtual wardrobe!

And also happy now that I can surf the net through my mobile.

Facebook Application

Updating my Twitter on the go

Browser

It’s one of the greatest things that ever happened to me! Life’s good with iPhone!

Except for the fact that Yee Hou always play Zombie Attack using my phone and likes to talk to himself – “ah, i beat my own highscore”. lol

Quite good a 21st pressie TQ mom & dad.

Dear diary,

On one of the Saturday nights, I was invited to the Revolving Restaurant @ KL Tower for dinner.

Saturday nights are my favourite!

7:30pm

Was overwhelmed because I love city night scenes a lot! If I could afford, I want to stay in a city penthouse.

Filled with excitement, I put on this ‘marilyn monroe‘ inspired dress. Don’t have many dresses to pick from though!

It was a fantastic night – the restaurant has got great ambience! Probably because of the view and the whole revolving mechanism. At first, I fear I would feel dizzy, since I’m the kind of person that would most likely get car-sick. But coming to experience it, the belt moves very very slowly – to a level that you could barely feel the motion!

Before dinner starts, I manged to catch a glimpse of sunset.

We got a table by the glass panes. They lighted the candle for us.

Food wise, it’s buffet style – hence, have to walk around to get our own food.

I like their appetizers the most!

The restaurant is surrounded by the magnificent city night view!

I think their appetizers are even better than their main course!

Took a bit of everything.

Trying very hard to capture the scenery – very challenging as it’s revolving and it’s night – that made photo-snapping relatively harder.

Finally got one that looks ok. Love to take pictures with ‘layers’ (foreground, background)

Candid!
Was browsing through some pics in my digital cam.

The desserts offered are great too!

Thanks loads for the beautiful experience! Truly appreciate!

Dear diary,

14th March marks the official closure of my uni chapter. Now I could go around and tell the world: “I graduated!”

As early as 7am, I got up and get ready for my convo. I remember I was excited but dazed by the uncertainty of how this whole thing gonna be like.

Soon after reaching the venue, I reunited with my uni mates, heard of how they’ve been here and there, this and that. Instantly filled with reminiscence of my uni-days.

Ah, wish I could rewind time and get back to one of those days where freedom rules! All of a sudden, “The Graduation Song” starts playing in my mind. It sounded like this:

After all the fash of putting on our robes, the ceremony kicked off with a series of monotonous speeches.

Then a series of other scholars (from various courses) receiving their cert.

Finally, it’s my turn to get up there. Was quite nervous and careful not to trip and fall. Was a bit too conscious about my cap, kept worrying that it would fall-off. Was practicing my smile for the camera too. So restless!

I happened to be the first person of my course to receive the cert. After the ceremony, my parents told me that they weren’t paying full attention and nearly missed the whole ‘me-on-stage’ scene!

Oh and I was quite happy to receive the book-prize award. Although there’s no individual acknowledgment during the ceremony, but good thing is I’ve got a cheque. The amount is not enormous but good enough to pay off my phone bills. Btw, I have not bank-in the cheque yet, hope it doesn’t expire anytime soon.

After the ceremony, we gathered to snap pictures (typical!). Could be better if there’s green green grass as backdrop.

I quite like this angle.

We managed to do the ‘throwing-cap’ photo!

One of my favourite photo!
Pics courtesy of Zjo.

My parents were there for me – bouquet of flowers were from them. (Touched!)

10 years from now, I might want to read this entry and smile at the good-vibes of it.

Dear diary,

My vday started with me heading to Ribena Event in Sunway Pyramid.

It’s one of the recent work projects I’m affiliated to, it’s about Bottle Berry building a huge purple heart for Bottle Lemon.

I totally missed that part…sadness.

Anyways, if you’re wondering what the huge purple heart looks like:

During the event, I met the troop of influential voices - redmummy, nicolekiss, Cindy, Audrey, Tim etc.

Redmumy couple, me, Audrey & Tim

And also meeting up my clients Marilyn & Yvonne which I’ve been working with through emails only all this while. We finally met!

Shortly after the Purple Heart Launch, we were invited to a Renee Zellweger’s movie screening – New In Town.

Have not much comments about it. ‘An average movie’. That’s it.

I’ve been watching a lot of free movies since I joined Nuffnang, which is a good fun thing of being in the blog-o-sphere! and that’s the compensation of stress:

Indication of stress

The last 6 hours of my vday – I attended a dinner date.

A gentleman made a thoughful arrangement to reserve a place in a Roman Themed Garden Banquet, invited me, and I’ve no other better plans than this, so yea, it makes a perfect date.

At least I get to dress up a little, get out of the house, get out of the house, did I just said that twice?!

My look of the day

Anyways, it’s a six course dinner in the Courtyard of Palm Garden Hotel Putrajaya, with all servers dressed like some Roman servants and a live band singing love songs on the roof of 1st floor….

Overview

Aww… heart-shape food.
First Course: Love at First Sight: Sauteed Scallop in Puff Pastry with Fresh Oyster on Ice accompanied with East Meet West dressing & sauces (French & Thai)
I copied this from the menu. Damm long!

The food is nothing to yell-about, except for some really fabulous dessert:

Third Course: Sweet Surrender: Refreshing orange Sorbet with mini Mandarin Orange

that we *thick-facely* demanded for another one foc.

and out of kiasu-ness, we also demanded for fresh oyster foc. This is my first time eating them. I guess I’ve no idea how to appreciate the goodness of it. Pinky once talk about it in her blog, describing that it tastes like women’s nether region, i guess it’s pretty true.

This dinner package also comes along with a rose, printed-photos, lucky-draw etc.
Very thoughtful and nicely planned!

And we had a bottle of Shiraz Rose, all by ourselves.

Then the world started to spin….round and round…that brings me a step away from puking. Fortunately, i didn’t, if not there goes the expensive dinner.

Sincerely, thanks for giving me all the memories for my vday. Happy (super-belated) Vday all.

Dear diary,

It’s first day of CNY (大年初一).

Tradition sake, I went over to my aunt’s house @ USJ, where my grandparents stay-in.

There’s no internet connection, despite my few attempts to ‘borrow’ the neighbours’ line. But, all of them are smart enough to set a password for it.

Fine. I pack my laptop, grab my handbag, ajak my parents and off we go to Starbucks at Taipan.

Now, this impulsive action of mine tells me something – My life is incomplete without the internet. I can’t live a proper day without it. Does that means an iPhone is something I should opt for? (referring to the poll at my sidebar, so far 64% voted iPhone. you guys know me well!)

To my surprise, we saw my other aunt in Starbucks, doing her perfect date thingy.
We decided to give them some privacy and off we went to Coffee Bean instead.

We sat there for hours, drank coffee, do our thing.

That’s my daddy surfing the net with his iPhone.

CNY never feels better than this.