Deepavali 的早晨

已经几个周末都没在槟城，家里的野草长得好高了。难得这个Deepavali的long weekend我和Vic 都在，早早起身为房子‘美容’。请人来割草，Vic也把长得高过屋顶的竹子给斩得光溜溜的。看着干净整洁的草地和花园，心情也特别漂亮。忙碌的早晨将要告个段落，Vic上楼睡个午觉，我则把累积一个星期的衣服给洗了。在屋后晒衣服，左边的天空晴朗炎热，右边的天空却乌云密布，好特别吧！

好多友人问我婚姻生活如何呢？我的答案通常都是一句：Still the same, nothing different. 我想，像这样一个平凡的周末，两人一起打扫屋子，简简单单，心却是充实的，这就是我的婚姻生活吧！

Sweet Cake Birthday

2009 May 04, my first birthday after marriage, and it’s a birthday with lots of sweet cake treat from my friends and beloved darling :)

***

A day before my birthday, Vic treated me an early celebration to The Ship for a steak dinner. It’s my first time there, and I enjoyed the food very much, it indeed has the best steak in town.

I ordered the steak set which come with mushroom soup, prawn salad and dessert. I also got a free gift ~~ a cup coaster set.

The prawn salad was good, I like the fresh prawn which cooked just right and served well with thousand Island sauce and veges. The mushroom soup is ok, tasted normal like can soup.

Here comes the steak, I liked it to be mediumly cooked, It was very juicy and tender, just love it!! Vic ordered the rib eye steak which comes with garden salad, and he was very happy with his medium-rare steak too :)

Finally the dessert, kind of disappointing, it’s just a small cheese tart with cream.

After dinner, I thought we were heading home, but Vic gave me little surprise by driving me to Secret Recipe for my favourite cake :) I was so happy with my Caramel Cheese Cake. And yes, this is my first birthday cake this year :)

***

On my birthday, SF, LP, FS, LE and YY treated me birthday dinner in Canton-i in QB. It wasn’t our first venue; we planned to go Macedoine Dining (also in QB) at first, but didn’t realize that it closed down already. I always wanted to try out this restaurant but didn’t get a chance :(

Canton-i is one of my favourite in QB, but it’s a bit more expensive for me, so we won’t go there too often :P I like the congee and bbq pork (烧腊) there. We ordered some dim-sum and dessert to share out, other then our own main course. Too bad no one brings camera so I don’t have picture to share here. And since it’s birthday celebration for me, for sure there will be cake!! This time, my friends bought me a piece of Yogurt Cheese Cake from Secret Recipe. (Again, yes, I requeste for it, coz I just love their cheese cake :P ) This time it’s "special" because the cake has already melted with some weird shape. Nevertheless, it still tasted superb J Thanks my friends for celebrating with me :)

***

A day after my birthday, CP and SS treated Vic, me, CH and his wife for a dinner in Bella Italia at Bellisa Row, as appreciation for going to their ROM. This is also my first time there. According to CP and SS, Bella Italia is the best Italian restaurant in town. We’ve ordered 3 pizzas and a spegatti to share among ourselves. The pizza was good, tasted different compared to Pizza Hut or Domino. The crust was thin and crunchy, yummy!! And since it was my birthday a day ago, CP also ordered their famous Tiramisu for us, each couple shared one. It was indeed a very tasty Tiramisu with soft texture that melted instantly in my mouth, nice!!

***

2 days after my birthday, my teammates celebrated my birthday with me in Tsuruya Restaurant in I-avenue. This is one of my favourite Japanese restaurants, and we always go there for special occasion (farewell, birthday etc). After lunch, they had a surprise cake cutting celebration with me in cafe. This is my 4th cake this year. Thanks my friend :)

***

This is how I celebrated my birthday this year, with lots of friendships, love, food and cakes.

MPPP and kopi duit

家前昨天无故出现了一只狗，死去的狗。昨天早上出门时，看到了它，躺在住家旁边，好像睡着似的。初时不以为意。回家时，它还在那儿，一样的姿势。我这才惊觉它已死去了。

CP 今早去清理，可是垃圾袋不够大，放不下狗尸。我们都不知接下来该怎么处理。我不敢接近那狗尸。CP说它好像是死去后被人绑着拖到我们家前丢弃的。不知是谁这么没公德心。后来CP得知可以打电话叫MPPP 来帮忙处理。我打电话过去，接线生说会派人来处理。

不久后，大约4个人来到。跟我交涉的是一个身材微胖的马来人。他说这不是MPPP的责任，应该叫兽医局，而且他们是回教徒，不能触摸到狗。我心里就很奇怪，我电话里说得清清楚楚，有人把狗尸扔在我家门前，希望MPPP能帮忙清理。如果这不是你的责任，电话里说清楚就可以了嘛，为何还派那么多人来跟我说应该叫兽医局呢？

那人见我犹豫，就说他可以叫他的手下帮忙清理，叫我给他们一点kopi duit 就可以了，因为他的手下也是回教徒，暗示我说他们可是’好心’, ‘特别’帮我的。我心里觉得不对劲，就再打电话给MPPP查问。接电话的是一个叫 Anna 的女声，她知道了后很惊讶，说这是不应该的，会帮我投诉。接着那跟我交涉的马来人质问我是不是打电话投诉他们跟我要kopi duit，然后就凶神恶煞地说要清理我自己清理，他们才不会帮忙， 过后就走了。

当时只有我一人在家， 害怕他们会报复，不敢出门， 就叫pizza hut 当午餐。当pizza hut delivery 到时，我出屋外留意到那狗尸还在原地，而且忽然从旁边出现两个工人模样的人，像是刚才那人的同伴。我不理他们赶快进屋，再次打给MPPP 的Anna， 她说负责人report 他们已经清理完毕了， 她会再派人查看，同时已经把事情报告上去，说这件事对他们的reputation 有不好的影响，还谢谢我把事情举报出来。过不久真的有人再来把那狗尸清理掉了。

其实这是是件小事。但我到现在还是有点不安，不知那人会不会来报复我投诉他们。也许一开始给他们一点kopi duit 就可以省去后来的麻烦。可我就是有点固执吧。不是因为舍不得那一点点的咖啡钱，而是看不惯我国的kopi duit 文化。 说穿了，这跟贿赂贪污有什么不同呢？许多人就是已经习惯了，连这点小事都要给kopi duit， 考驾照要给，无缘无故在路上被警察截停后要给，从小市民到政府高官，if you need to get a thing done by government, please prepare some kopi duit first. 就是这样造就了我国的贪污文化。下有小贪，大有大贪， 君不见我国多项贪污工程，钱出了，成果却不成比例，错漏百出。

Ops, 我好像有一点借题发挥了。 说回来，我宁喜欢像美国那样的小费制度，讲明了要给10% 的服务费，那我可是非常乐意的感谢他们帮我清理。在此要感谢MPPP的 Anna (not sure if spelling is correct) who is very helpful. 希望他们能秉公处理， 也希望林冠英领导的州政府能够真正的作出一些改变与改革。

香港之旅2007

Found this when cleaning up my hard disk –> My 2007 Hong Kong trip itinerary.

香港之旅2007

07/06/2007 – 15/06/2007
第一天：启程
第二天：九龙，尖沙嘴，星光大道
第三天：大屿山，浅水湾，赤柱
第四天：黄大仙，跟朋友吃晚餐，喝茶
第五天：海洋公园
第六天：澳门
第七天：太平山顶，中环，金紫荆广场
第八天：逛街，买衣
第九天：回家