boon's log 0810.07:Happy Chinese New Year 2010

YeeSang at The Syuen, Ipoh

Well, it's already the 8th day of the 2010 Chinese New Year and I hope it is not too late to wish everyone a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year of the Tiger... Roar! We hope that you've been having a roaring time celebrating the festivities with your families and friends. It's always a good time to reunite and reflect on the previous year(s) and make resolutions for the coming year - i.e. resolutions that only lasts for probably the next 24-hours... ;)

Anyways, many happy returns for the rest of the year. Eat, drink and be merry!

Huat-ah!

boon out...

boon's log 0110.07: Happy New Year 2010

A very happy and prosperous 2010 to all. I hope that you had a blast celebrating the new years with your friends and families. IL, Ab and I were at our Aunt's for the count down, with the rest of our rellies. It was fun - especially for the younger cousins - who, basically had a whale of a time! ;)

We spent the rest of the holiday weekend at my parents'. Ab had a wonderful time swimming with grandpa at the newly renovated (and impressive) RPGC. They really did a good job with the reno. They even allowed us to bring "Ooo-gway" into the pool with us - that was nice.

It was also Popo's 49th-day Prayers at the temple. Most of the rellies were back for the prayers. Thanks to Ab, she managed to lighten-up the entire atmosphere during the prayer sessions with her "charm" ;) We really Thank God for her. Everyone enjoyed her a lot... and i bet she also enjoyed herself too ;)

It was also a nice and refreshing, albeit short, reunion for the most of us before we meet again in a few week's time during CNY'10 - which I'm definitely sure will never be the same again.

Here are some pics...


Buddha tiles...


Curly joss sticks...


"Cymbals"(?)


The "hymnal"?


The "priests"... or what Ab calls them - Master Sifu


"Altar ceremonial lights"

boon out...

boon's log 2509.07: Happy Father's Day!

We were back in Ipoh for Father's Day. Dinner was at Tai Thong, while Father's Day lunch was at Indulgence, Ipoh. This is the second time we were there for Father's Day and I have to admit that I am impressed with them yet again - in fact, I think they've improved from the last time we were there. Dad ordered the Father's Day Special while the rest of us just went for Ala Carte. Ab ordered the do-it-yourself topping pizza - where most of it went into Mom and Dad's tummy.
The grandparents once again never failed to surprise their grand daughter with gifts - from pop-pops to cooking-toys bubble-blowing-gun. Gosh, it's like her birthday, rather than Father's day! ;)

Anyways, we demanded that the toys remained in Ipoh, lest it will clog up her room with more toys (!!!).

Oh and it finally rained - perhaps a "present" for all the Fathers who WASHED and WAXED their cars (!!!). Yeah, I had to re-wash the car after arriving back in Penang to remove all the corpse I collected along the way home. But the rained did not help much in cooling down the weather, though. I still feel the heat... And what better way to cool down at the end of a long day (and weekend) with nice chilled-glass of beer... AAAaahhh......

Well, Happy Father's Day to all and to the rest hope you had an enjoyable and restful weekend. Pumped up to face the week ahead?! If you have not noticed, it is the mid of the year next week...


Indulgence, Ipoh


Father's Day Special


Father's Day Special appetizer


Father's Day Special entrée


Lambshank... yummy....


Daily Special Brew


Waiting to serve


Indulgence Exterior


Chocolate Mud Pie


Sunday Special


Winding down...


boon out...

boon's log 2009.04: Perak Poli(tic)wood

That's what I think the state of politics in Perak is in. It is so Hollywood, in this case Perak Poli(tic)wood. How absurd can things get, such that a Chief Minister goes back to his own office for 7 hours and then re-escorted back out of the office? There is also no doubt about how visible "double standards" are being practiced. And no doubt, the respective authorities will come out and justify their "double standards" practices. To me, it does not matter. no need to waste time explaining!

The Rakyat knows.

No matter how much they justify or explain their actions, how much stories (or lies) they try to tell us and jam it down our throats, no matter how much media control and banning of the ugly truth (though the PM declares media freedom)- it does not matter anymore. I am confident that the Rakyat today is wise enough and is capable to discern the truth from all the lies, hypocrisy, falsity, deception, dishonesty and deceit. We are no longer the gullible bunch we were 50-over years ago, who will just take whatever the authorities drops on us. And it is really sad that the authorities still act and think that we are (a gullible bunch)!

It is so evident from the recent Perak Embarassment and the May 7th incident - the ugly side of things, and how visible-to-the-public that the authorities is trying to cover up and sweeping things under the carpet.

I mean, C'mon! Don't take us as fools. At least give us some credit. In this time and age, what kind of lousy (if not, stupid) tactic is "banning the airing and publishing of the truth"? Ever heard of the Internet? Ever heard of Cellphones with Cameras? Ever heard of Email? The method of banning the media from displaying the truth is so stoneage!

Fed-up... really fed-up.

Having said all that, bottomline is - enough is enough. Does not matter which party they are in - just STOP wasting time and money and arresting innocent uncles and aunties who just wanted to have a cup of coffee at their local coffee shop and act like mature and responsible people's representatives. Every minute spent/wasted in this nonsensical dogfight, is actually wasting the rakyat's tax money. We did not pay them to do all these hollywood-stuffs in front of us.

by the way, here is the image that everyone should have seen it at least once. this is the same image that the authorities tried to cover up and prevent from further distribution. Oops...




boon out...

boon's log 1809.02: Randoms - Foodie update, Bohboh in Ipoh, Gifts from Beijing

We were back in Ipoh 2 weekends back. As usual, the ever-spoiling grandparents treated Ab to dimsum, while IL and I just tagged along (haha!). Oh, IL once held the title "DimSum Queen" in the family - the name given by Ed, our relative from Singapore. But I guess the title has been passed down to Ab, our little DimSum Princess...

The grandparents decided against FohSan because of no air-conditioning and tighter spaces. So we ended up eating at Yoke Fook Moon, along the east side of Jalan Leong Sin Nam, Greentown, Ipoh.


Yoke Fook Moon Hong Kong Dim Sum, Greentown, Ipoh

The food quality used to be better compared to our recent visit 2 Saturdays ago. It is not entirely bad, just used to be comparitively better. Yoke Fook Moon - the restaurant itself has been around for quite a long time - as far as I can remember, at least ~20 years, known by different names - I remembered it used to be called Biscuit Seafood Restaurant (but serving dim sum in the morning).


DimSum at Yoke Fook Moon

YFM will be facing her biggest challenge yet - just a few doors west of YFM, down Leong Sin Nam Street. The sparkling new FohSan DimSum will be opening her doors soon to the DimSum aficionados and connoisseurs from Ipoh and all over Malaysia. Yeah, people actually drive all the way from Penang and KL just to get a taste of FohSan's dimsum.


New FohSan, Ipoh

Of course, with the relocation from the pre-war building along Jalan Mustapha Al-Bakri, to the new location, somethings will never be the same again - e.g. the atmosphere. But I am sure that nostalgic feeling will soon fade away and drowned by the hustling and bustling of the dimsum carts and the waitresses' shouting and not forgeting the mother-load of people standing by your table, waiting for you to finish your food quickly... Typically, FohSan... Let's hope that the move will not impact the quality of food.



Ab's Panda Variety Show - gifts from Beijing

Apart from the eating, Ab was also spoiled with gifts from grandpa and grandma's recent trip to Beijing. More panda toys! But as with most kids, there can only be ONE toy that she loves the most, and that is her BohBoh. CL bought it from Adventist Hospital long time ago and both Ab and BohBoh stuck to each other like glue the moment they met! It's funny, we tried buying "replacement BohBohs" -i.e. same looking ones - but she can tell the difference even when she was 1+ yrs old and expressed that she only wants the original (!!!) and not the "replacements". So we got to make sure that we guard BohBoh with our lives and not risk losing it... or else.


Boh-boh

Last weekend, we were invited to the Parkroyal's Seafood Buffet at the Tamarind Brasserie. It was actually our second visit to Parkroyal in less than 7 days, actually - we were there on Sunday to celebrate our cell member, Jo's birthday.


Parkroyal Seafood Buffet

The food at the Tamarind was just mediocre. Nothing to shout about, really. Apart from the fact that they serve you a whole fish cooked to your liking (Oh you get to choose your own fish from the counter, as well), and slightly bigger sized prawns and lobsters, the rest of the food was just so-so. The spread was rather disappointing while the frequency of replenishing the spread was almost unbearable. Not forgeting some of the waiters were also somewhat ill-mannered. Oh and it is open air with no air-conditioned room/lounge option, unline the competition down the road.

I was told that the price per/pax is ~110 ringgits. Honestly, I would not pay that amount for that quality. I would rather pay a little bit more and head on over to Rasa Sayang's Spice Garden International Buffet on Sundays, and if you are a Citibank credit card holder, you'll even get a 20% discount (They have the air-con option :)).


FengShui at ParkRoyal?

No doubt the refurbished Parkroyal looks good, but I guess they needed a good reno pretty badly also. A whole lot of wood-bamboo-zen-feel in the interior, which is very typical these days, expecially if you are a beach resort. Anyways, nicely done.


Parkroyal Penang Lobby / Coffee Lounge

All in all, it was okay. Will most probably not go back there again, or recommend it to anyone. Seriously for that price, I have many other (better) options to chose from.

boon out...