Cross stitch : Carp update 2

I'm feeling dead tired today. Didn't get much sleep last night and it's not because of Eric's snoring. His snores have now downgraded it's decibel level so we can actually sleep in the same bed without me trying to kick him ever so often to stop the irritating snores. Last night, I think it's insomnia. I tossed and I turned and I counted sheeps...nothing worked. I then had evil thoughts of people I really dislike...see what the mind could do if it can't rest at night? I wanted to have a nap so badly this afternoon but decided not to...I wanna be super dead tired so I can drop dead on the bed tonight and have a nice dream in slumberland.

To keep myself awake this afternoon, I continued stitching. My eyelids were drooping and my mind was tired but I kept on going. I should've stopped, I really should've...coz I made so many mistake it was a torture to undo it and then redoing the stitches...pure torture =( I also couldn't read the stitching chart properly with my blur eyes...not to mention, my crazy brain kept replaying scenes of me falling asleep while stitching and the needle conveniently poked into my eye. Only God knows how I managed to stitch anything properly at all today.

Past couple of days, I was working on the bottom part of the picture. Got myself a small lily bud, a shark look-alike big red carp and just the tail of the black carp. That black carp is a pain to stitch as it's hiding among the stalks. That's why only got the tail. Again Mum complaint saying my fish is freaky with only half a body...I've also yet to stitch the eyes for the red carps...=P

The unfinished red shark/carp looks like a ghost fish in the pic.

Hmm...Mum's right, all my fishes does look a little freaky. Lily bud seems to be leaning to the right, hopefully I didn't stitch it wrongly 0_o

Wish I could stitch much faster than this, but the truth is, TVB is pretty distracting =P Mum and I are watching To Grow With Love staring Myolie Wu and Andy Hui. It's a story about how a fat girl gets ridiculed and how she's looking for true love. Too bad this drama/comedy is only airing for 30 minutes each day...love this drama.

There's also another drama Last One Standing which just started a few days back after the conclusion of Moonlight Resonance. This drama is about how a guy (Kevin Cheng Ka-Wing) went to jail for 10 years for a crime (my speculation) committed by his cousin (Roger Kwok Chun On), so now he's out and wants to clear his name, at the same time, probably take revenge as well. That guy who went to jail, he has a super irritating sister and I feel like slapping her everytime she's in the scene. Her acting sux to the max and she keeps calling her brother "kor kor". I know "kor kor" means brother but then don't overdo it lar. Let me give an example:

Brother wants to report to police...irritating sister says...

"Kor kor, don't do it. Kor kor, I beg you. Kor kor,kor kor please don't do it.Kor korrrr..."

Try saying the above sentence out loud. Get what I mean by damn kau irritating? How many times must she use the "kor kor"? Talk about overkill. I was even tempted to write to TVB to complaint about it...really cannot stand it.

Okay, I think enough of drama bashing tonight. I just hope her character gets killed off soon. I don't care how, just get rid of her. Okay...enough already...nite nite *yawn*

A Funny Day

Tonight is the debut of the Singapore Night F1 race. Mum is a big Kimi Raikkonen fan so she's all geared up to watch the race on tv. Unfortunately, her idol didn't do too well and got into an accident so close to the finish...well, a very exciting race and disappointing night for Ferrari as Massa got screwed during pit stop. That incident in pretty hilarious. Especially when they showed how the Ferrari pit stop crews were carrying the detached fuel hose back to their pit.

Then another idol of Mum's, Lee Chong Wei (he is Malaysia's badminton player if anyone's wondering) made her night even more exciting. Lee Chong Wei was dining in Rossio, the restaurant Eric is working in. There's some juicy gossips for this one but I'll leave it out of my blog ;P I wanted to take Mum to Rossio so she can meet Lee Chong Wei but then Kimi is more important =P So we stayed home and watched how Alonso got on the podium for the first time this season.

Earlier in the day, we were watching a music program on tv where the beautiful host was interviewing a boy band called B-O-Y(Blood of Youth) from Thailand. The guys are really cute. So after the short interview, they sang a song of theirs called "You're Pretty" which sounds quite romantic. They even explain what the lyrics meant as it's in Thai. Mum was really taken with them and even asked me to download a few of their songs for her!

Anyways, when they finished singing, one of the guy was dedicating a short message to their fans...then Mum turned to me and said

Mum : Why is he thanking the orphans? They doing charity meh?
Me : Where got orphan? He's thanking the fans lar -_-
Mum : Aiyah...I thought he thanking the orphans...they so "leng chai" until mummy cannot listen properly.
Me : 0_o

Then I laughed till I almost fell to the floor. Every time I think about that conversation, I start laughing again.

Listen to You're Pretty by BOY below. It took me sometime to find it as the title in Thai is Tur Nah Ruk.

This is Blood of Youth (B-O-Y) from Thailand

A couple of nights back we went to a Japanese restaurant near our home for dinner. Well, I wouldn't say it's the best place to go to for Japanese food. The green tea tasted like chlorine so we ended up ordering sodas. How crappy is it to have soda while eating sushi? Besides the tea, the food ain't too good as well and not to mention it's freaking expensive.

Eric ordered fried rice. It tasted like normal Chinese fried rice but topped with ebiko...yummy This dish is pretty acceptable just because I like ebiko.

Mum ordered beef udon which came with a thinner noodle. Definitely not udon to me. It's so-so only and Eric dislike it.

The plates come in some funky design and the sushi is nothing to shout about. Later we found out that all 3 plates are priced differently...so confusing since 2 plates are of the same colour.

Eric finished the fried rice...I guess he was really hungry. So many ebiko left in the bowl!

This is the menu. If you wanna taste Hell(literally) food, look no further! This so called Japanese restaurant in Macau even serves "Barbecured" instead of barbequed dishes. It's definitely on our list of "restaurant to avoid" in Macau.

Cross stitch : Carp update

I've been stitching like crazy the past few days. Needed the distraction to keep myself calm in this crazy period of time. As a result, I managed to finish the humongous leaf, the lotus flower and got started on the red fish. Mum was so happy to finally get a glimpse of a red carp =) I like how the flower turned out, the colours go well together and it's really pretty though it took me hours to finish it 0_o

Have yet to finish the stalk. Hopefully more fishes soon.

Little red carp with no eyes yet...Mum says it looks freaky without eyes, so now she's bugging me to stitch the eyes.

Beautiful lotus flower with many shades of pink and red.

I've been looking through some website and saw this 2009 calendar by Margaret Sherry. There is also a "Cattitudes" Calendar which I'm really interested in as well. Unfortunately, I don't think I can buy the 2009 calendar anywhere in Macau or KL and the Cattitudes calendar is now kinda have the endangered status. I guess the only way to get the 2009 calendar is to purchase through the website or ebay.

Aren't they cute?

I'm now a little obsessed with cross stitching. Eric and Mum has been asking me to sell my completed projects but then who wanna buy cross stitch that's been finished? Half the fun is the stitching it in the first place and the half of the fun is seeing it framed on the wall. I've always been quite attached to my cross stitch projects and only ever gave a big one away to Jayne & Glenn for their wedding. BTW, it's no fun stitching the same pattern twice. It gets really boring. Unless someone is willing to pay me really good money to stitch for them, I'll just stick to making projects for family and friends =)

Bad Day

It's a day full of bad news. Nothing seems to be going right. I'm so tired of the run-around. Just want to get it over with. The clock is ticking and I'm clinging on a tiny string of hope. Why must they make it so difficult?

Fedex Commercial - Love At First Sight

This is a really cute advertisement from FedEx that's currently playing on tv. Advertising people are really creative don't you think? Even dogs know it...nothing is more important than your gal, even your master =P

" Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind; and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind "
- Shakespeare -

Hagupit Departs

The storm is over and the streets are strewn with rubbish and fallen trees. I was at home while the storm went about it's business outside so I missed the exciting part where one gets blown away while trying to walk. Even in our apartment, the chaos created by the storm can't be ignored. Strong winds rattle windows and doors, clothes flapping(lots of underwear...no idea why people do laundry when there's a typhoon) and last but not least, flower pots and small objects tossed around.

I've managed to record the storm from our window. It's not much as our apartment is shielded by many tall buildings. Stupid me didn't realize that I should record it as "landscape" instead of "portrait" coz now I can't rotate the picture. Anyone who's going to view the short clip would've to turn their head 90 degrees. Yeah I know, I can be so dumb sometimes. (note: I've tried uploading the video and it's not working..oh well)

Eric was stranded at the hotel last night and couldn't come home as it was signal no.8 and many taxis were not operating. Those taxis who risked going out in the storm will charge a premium bout 400-500% the normal fare. I waited and waited and finally Eric grabbed a taxi and reached home bout 2.30am. I'm glad he didn't get blown away by strong winds when he crossed the road from MGM to Wynn...I'm sure those extra kg helped =P

The sky is clear now...looks like a beautiful day is here =)

Typhoon Hagupit & Monkey Play

My sea monkeys seemed to be surviving and no casualty yet *cross fingers*. The growth food I fed them are still abundant in the small tank making the water a little murky, but that is expected according to the Sea Monkey official website. The water will be clear again after they finish eating it.

Sea monkeys swimming around in boredom.

Some big and some small. But they all look creepy 0_o

See those legs? Ain't sexy to me...

This one is showing off it's long tail...maybe a long tail is attractive to female sea monkeys ;P

Awwww...my teenage sea monkeys are starting courtship. Wait...they have short tails, guess my long tail theory is crap.

Tickle...tickle...aren't they cute in a creepy sorta way?

Enough bout sea monkeys for today. Everyone in Macau is busy as a bee getting ready for Typhoon Hagupit. Tropical cyclone signal 3 is hoisted in Hong Kong and only signal 1 in Macau. Signal No.1 is just asking the people to be on standby while signal 3 means winds with mean speeds of 41 to 62 kilometres per hour are expected. Signal 8 is expected around dusk today by the Hong Kong Observatory. It seems that Hong Kong will be hit worst by the typhoon compared to Macau.

This typhoon is expected to bring strong winds and rain starting this afternoon according to the weather forecast. Found this cool website that tells us the country that named the typhoon (I guess it's an honour naming it?), how to pronounce the name properly (such as Mitag pronounced as ME-tok?) and last but not least, the meaning of the name. Malaysia contributed the typhoon name "nangka" -_- Of all things, they chose "nangka".

Back to Hagupit, it's pronounced as HA-GOO-PEET(no rocket science here, but I'm sure nangka is way easier). Hagupit means lash or flog.

It'll be my first typhoon experience so I'm a little excited. Mum was at the market this morning as she joins all the other aunties grabbing foodstuffs as everyone expected to stay indoors when the typhoon hits. The air is really still outside and temperature is at 31 degrees at the moment, it could be the calm before the storm.

Update

3.30pm

Standby signal No.1 in Macau has been replaced by signal No.3 and it has started to rain slightly here with slow winds.

Cross stitching again

Can't help it. I've been itching to stitch for quite some time now. I couldn't start earlier as I can't find something that I like to stitch. I'm picky =P Since I have loads of time now since I'm not working, I've decided to stitch carps below for Mum. She actually wanted horses but we couldn't find one that meets her requirement. First of all, it must have 8 horses. The horses must not look like they are smiling(this is my t & c). Secondly, the horses must be galloping beautifully and finally, it must be big. Big as in at least 4 ft wide. I'm afraid I'll never be able to find such a pattern to stitch.

Anyways, the carps we have chosen is pretty decent in size. When it's done, it'll be 13.6" X 27.1". It's not very big but mine you, it's not a small project either!

Koi Carp II by DMC

This is what I've managed to stitch the last couple of days.

So many shades of green on one small leaf!

I'm so sick of green now. All I've been stitching are shades of green. Can't wait till I get started on the fishes. Mum has been bugging me to work on the red koi coz she wants to see if it's going to be red enough -_-

I've now become a TVB junkie. Those Hong Kong dramas are really addictive. You know how in Malaysia we can only watch chinese drama from Mon - Fri(on free tv, not Astro ok)? Well, over here it's everyday. It's really a good way to keep people of the streets! Tonight we watched the most awaited finale of "kah hou yuet yuen" which I think is called Heart of Greed II or Moonlight Resonance. I'm confused myself. Anyways, this drama has a really fascinating storyline. Never in my wildest dream I would've imagine a drama about mooncake. It's a drama that guys should watch too. I like the underlying message of the drama, though it took like 40 episodes to get the message out. A man should appreciate his wife. If not, bad bad things are going to happen...lol. Well...it's a good message to keep in mind don't you think so?

Source: http://drama.tvb.com/moonlightresonance/

I can't wait to stitch some more. Will post pics of my progress. Oh yeah, the sea monkeys are doing pretty ok I think. They've gotten really big and ugly now. Sadly, they haven't started mating yet ;P

McRib anyone?

Mum and I were contemplating what to have for dinner when we came across McDonald's and the McRib caught our eye. Apparently McRib has just been launched here in Macau, same as Hong Kong. Can you believe the McRib has it's own Wiki website? Me neither. See it here. The world is a little cuckoo as even a burger gets a farewell...yeah...they had a farewell tour for the McRib and now it's just been rebirth in Macau 0_o

McRib value meal comes with a McRib, a cup of potato wedges and Coke. Grilled chicken is a side order.

McRib is a PORK burger!

Ermm...the real burger never matches it's pic.

McRib's buddy, the Wonderful Wedges ;P

The tagline on the wedges cup says "None of us is as good as all of us". Does it make any sense? If anyone knows what that means, please, please enlighten me.

It's been a long time since I had a pork burger in any fast food joint. Could never find it in a Malaysia McDonald's or even Burger King. The McRib is definitely tastier than the grilled chicken burger that we ordered for dinner as well. The pork was tender and juicy dipped in BBQ sauce. Mum really enjoyed her half of the McRib and complaint bout her half of the grilled chicken. The wedges is a tad tasteless but the portion was good. They should add more seasoning to the wedges, maybe even put some cheese on it like what KFC does.

I'm not sure how long is the McRib going to be on the menu as they already had their farewell years ago and it doesn't help that the McRib is being labelled as "Beloved burger". Sounds too lovey dovey and it gives me the impression that the burger is dead. Beloved is used alot in obituaries isn't it?

Despite it all, the McRib is really yummy!

OMFG

I'm lost for words. This pic is for the 2009 Cristiano Ronaldo Calendar which is to die for...just die for. Can you imagine 12 pics full of this much hotness in your bedroom? My oh my...I'm still salivating. God can't be fair can he?...how can he give one man this much hotness to drive us women(and some men) crazy? I WANT the calendar!!!

Feeding the Sea Monkeys

My sea monkeys have really grown up! They look a little creepy now as I can see they have tails, small whiskers and lots and lots of erm...mini small legs? Maybe that's what helps them to swim so fast. Not sure how do they resemble a monkey -_-

This small packet of Growth Food should be enough for a year's feeding.

Sea Monkeys only needs a small scoop of food each week.I guess they don't eat very much...

They are now big enough to be seen without the magnifying circle.

This sea monkey heading for some yummy food...

They look much bigger through the magnifying circle.

This is how a sea monkey looks like from the top...it has a black streak down it's back.

This is a side view where it's many legs are visible...and I think the black dot is the eye 0_o

More sea monkeys at playing at the bottom of the small tank.

The one on the left is the biggest sea monkey in the tank for now. It is pretty big huh?

They seemed to grow at an alarming rate even before I started feeding them. Hopefully the growth food doesn't make them into giants or even more creepy looking. I think there are baby sea monkeys still hatching as I can see some really small ones swimming around. I read that they mate as well...can't imagine how it looks like. Hope my sea monkeys are not camera shy as they'll be starring in their own mini-homemade porn soon ;P

Meet Baby Avi

Meet our new baby, Avi =) Ain't he the cutest baby ever? He's going to break lots of girl's hearts when he grows up!

Okay, sadly he's not ours...baby Avi lives in Hong Kong with his mommy Cherry and daddy 'Chef' Ryan. He just turned 1 month old a couple of days ago and he's already spotting a fashionable mohawk =P

Mommy Cherry to the rescue as Avi is getting a little annoyed with me =(

We got the two chefs to take care of baby Avi as we stroll along Victoria Harbour. Me and Cherry thinks they look like big giants(both Eric and Ryan are at least 6ft tall) taking a little baby for a walk. Baby Avi was sweating as the weather was still pretty hot and humid in Hong Kong today. Thank goodness air conditioning in the buildings were going full blast.

We had a wonderful dim sum lunch, followed by tea time at Pacific Coffee and dinner in Mongkok. We even managed to meet up with Eric's sister Suet Mun who's currently with Cathay Airlines. Suddenly it seems like more and more people are relocating to this part of the world.

It's a tiring but fun day trip to Hong Kong. Hope to see baby Avi soon =)

A Day of Walking

Yesterday was a fun day filled with lots of walking in a hot and humid weather. Brought How Khang for a day tour of Macau which started at the famed Venetian. That place still awed me with it's wonderful atmosphere and grandeur. We came across a Glass Blowing demonstration which seems pretty interesting for a little while. After 15 minutes of not seeing much glass blowing, we got bored and left to look for lunch. Lunch at the Festivita Foodcourt is pretty good.

The most exciting part of this visit to Venetian is my 1st celebrity encounter. How Khang and I saw Cecilia Cheung Pak Chi with Patrick Tze as they were leaving the hotel. We didn't manage to take any pics, much less an autograph as they walked past us so fast! Okay, it also took us a moment to register that it's really them. I never expected to see any celebrities walking around Macau like ordinary people, thought they'll at least have bodyguards clearing the way for them like those in Malaysia. Cecilia is really pretty in person, and not much could be said about Patrick but Lucas is really cute.

Glass being heated up in a furnace.

Adding colours to make the glass prettier.

Finally some glass blowing.

Yoke Liang happened to be in Macau yesterday as well so we met up and continue our exploration of Macau together. Despite the scorching heat, both of them kept stopping in the hot sun and snapping away on their cameras.

Macau celebrated Mid Autumn Festival also known as Mooncake Festival yesterday. Streets and shops were decorated with colourful lanterns everywhere we went.

Lanterns lighting up Senado Square.

A huge lantern in the middle of Senado Square.

Beautiful traditional lanterns decorated the streets.

This lantern even helps you to locate a toilet.

Cute bunny lanterns on a building.

They even look like they are dancing on clouds.

Now, an update on the sea monkeys. I can see them swimming around in the small aquarium. They grow pretty fast actually as just a day before, they look like dust! Instruction says to feed them only on the 5th day.

Baby sea monkeys in their watery home.

This is a view through the magnifying circle on the aquarium. You can see a lone sea monkey baby in the middle.

The hot and humid Macau weather is a force to be reckon with. I'm glad we survived it!