Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Bring Mariuca Home!


Fancy bringing Mariuca home with YOU? Well, here's your chance to do so when you WIN this exclusive handpainted Mariuca mug!

This mug is my way of thanking Mariuca's readers, friends and supporters so I'm making it really easy for one lucky person to bring Mariuca home! All you have to do is leave a comment on this post to be in the running to WIN this adorable Mariuca mug! The contest is open to ALL Mariucans from MBL and BlogCat! If you're not a Mariucan yet, just click here to join My MBL Community or My BlogCat Neighborhood before leaving a comment on this post. Now, check out the rules below:

Rules

1. Leave a comment on this post. Tell me how much you want to bring Mariuca home!
2. One winner will be selected randomly, via random. org.
3. Contest starts on July 31, 2007 - August 10, 2007.
4. Winner will be announced here on August 13, 2007.
5. International entries are allowed.



Now, for some information on the mug. This Mariuca mug was specially ordered by me from the very creative Emila. It was handpainted using Pébéo Porcelaine 150 paint, then laid to dry for 24 hours before baking in the domestic oven at 150 degree celcius for 35 minutes. Remarkably resistant to dishwashing and normal detergents, the paint does not wear off after washing.

Have fun and GOOD LUCK! :)





Sunday, July 29, 2007

Let Love Speak

What hurts the most is when one you consider a friend chooses to do a complete turnaround and slaps you with an unpleasant surprise you never did imagine. One that leaves you in disbelief, bewildered, wondering in vain exactly what went wrong; eventually leading you to question the trust you foolishly believed was once yours.

A recent episode in my blogging journey has left me doubting the things that once were held dear. The joy and the love that flowed into what had been written are now sadly misplaced. The passion that once had no boundaries is now a little stifled. Fearing that my thoughts are nothing but waste; leaving me with fears if what had been was not what it seemed.

In the midst of my chaos, the united voice of love spoke in overwhelming force. Shedding the light I needed to persist, it led me back to the path I once followed. Giving me hope that the sun will reappear, it made me see now, what before had been hazy.

To all who showed me love during this moving episode, I thank you truly. Your kindness and your thoughts will never be forgotten. I refuse to prolong this melancholy by speaking more than what's written here. So I’m leaving you with this poem by one beautiful soul yet to be heard. Thank you, Joe.


Sunday, July 22, 2007

What's For Dinner Tonight Love?

A daily question B and I pose to each other.

B & I are always on the lookout for new eating places. When we first moved here, we were pretty excited to check out all the new restaurants mushrooming in our area. But now, after a year of living here, we're running out of places to eat. You’re probably wondering why we're constantly searching for places to eat when there's a well-equipped kitchen and a reasonably good cook in the house, but let’s save that thought for another day shall we?

In our quest to find the best restaurants to dine in, we sometimes win and we sometimes lose. The last time I tried to be adventurous by picking a recently opened restaurant that really looked inviting from the outside, we ended up spending RM50 on a miserable dinner of extremely salty fried rice, watermelon juice that had more water than watermelon and teeny-weeny mushrooms disguised as some sort of appetizer! Never again will we patronize that restaurant!

Anyway, in view of all my dining experiences – the good and the bad – I’d like to answer Mike’s meme on 5 great places to eat, which are local to me. Thanks for this meme Mike!




Fatty Crab, Taman Megah – A favourite amongst the locals and foreigners alike, this restaurant definitely gets 2 thumbs up from me! It's famous for its delicious chilli crabs served with toasted bread. When dining here, we usually have the crabs, yummy garlic prawns and Chinese fried rice, which to me is the best one in town. Top it off with a glass of cold Chinese tea and you’ll have a meal set for a King!



D’Tandoor, Damansara – This restaurant serves authentic Northern Indian curries and Tandoori cuisine. Once you’re seated, your waiter will arrive with a plate of papadam served with tasty green chilli dip. My favourite dish here is the seafood biryani, which is absolutely divine. D’Tandoor also serves some of the best Indian desserts like Gulab Jamun (picture above), which is ultra sweet so even one is sufficient to satisfy my sweet tooth.
Gulab jamun - A popular Northern Indian and Pakistani dessert, made of a dough consisting mainly of milk solids, in a sugar syrup flavored with cardamom seeds and rosewater or saffron.



Steven’s Corner, Uptown Damansara is the first place that comes to mind whenever I get a sudden urge to devour black pepper steak! Seeing that this is more of a stall rather than a restaurant, Steven’s serves reasonably priced Western food. The best part about their steak is the thick black pepper sauce that comes with it - spicy and very tasty!




FAM Char Kway Teow, Kelana Jaya – I was first introduced to this place by a friend years ago and now, it's one of our favourite choices for Sunday brunch. This stall is managed by two lovely aunties, who dish out the best tasting kway teow ever! I usually have my kway teow (small extra spicy) with a nice tall glass of Nescafe Ice.
Char kway teow is a popular noodle dish in Malaysia and Singapore. It is made from flat rice noodles, fried over very high heat with light and dark soy sauce, chili, prawns, cockles, egg, bean sprouts and Chinese chives.




Paddington House Of Pancakes, The Curve - This is the best pancake house I've come across, with more than 100 types of pancakes from all over the world served including pannekoeks, galettes, American stacks, poffertjes, blitzes, blinis and so on. The best part about this restaurant is that it serves both savoury and sweet pancakes. Savoury pancakes might sound a tad weird and I was initially skeptical to try out their savoury Full Monty but now it's actually my favourite choice on the menu! The brown gravy that goes with this is absolutely divine!

Okay, that was fun! According to the rules of this meme, I'm to list others who have done this list and tag some other friends for this meme, before listing my own name (see below). Here are my picks for this yummy meme: Adrian, Emila, Janice, Jean, Bobby & Barrett.


Nicole (Sydney, Australia)
velverse (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

LB (San Giovanni in Marignano, Italy)
Selba (Jakarta, Indonesia)
Olivia (London, England)
ML (Utah, USA)
Lotus (Toronto, Canada)
tanabata (Saitama, Japan)
Andi (Dallas[ish], Texas, United States)
Todd (Louisville, Kentucky, United States)
miss kendra (los angeles,california, u.s.a)
Jiggs Casey (Berkeley, CA, USA)
Tits McGee (New England, USA)
Joe (NE Tennessee, USA)
10K Monkeys (Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA)
Big Stupid Tommy (Athens, Tennessee, USA)
Newscoma (Weakley County, Tennessee, USA)
Russ McBee (Knoxville, Tennessee, USA)
Atomictumor Mrs Eaves (Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA)
Oh Really? LissaKay (Oak Ridge, TN, USA)
Mark Steel (Knoxville, TN, USA)
Fracas (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada)
Sugar Queen’s Dream( Palm Coast, Florida,USA)
Christy’s Coffee Break (Ontario, Canada)
Ordinary Folk (Nowheresville, NY)

Mariuca (Malaysia)

This is a miracle (Singapore)

Emila’s Illustrated Blog (Malaysia)

Revellian (Mississippi Gulf Coast)

A Great Pleasure (Malaysia)

Adrian (Malaysia)

Anything Goes! (Malaysia)

Mumblings (Malaysia)



Thursday, July 19, 2007

My Technorati Train Ride



______________________copy below all the way down_______________


IF YOU WANT A HIGHER TECHNORATI RATING - TELL ME! GET ON BOARD!


It’s easy and worth it. If you want to move up in Technorati there are 2 ways to get there: gaining massive amounts of links to you from other blogs, or getting the most favourites. One thing you can do is get lots of favourites who favourite you in return! Before you start you may want to grab this supercool autofave program from Eng Tech. All the people who have favourited you, this automatically favourites them in return. No more excuses for not returning the favour!

Automatic Technorati Fave program the coolest program ever! Finds fans that have favorited you and automatically favorites them!

grab the program here [2.4MB].

_______________________________________________


(Reword the following paragraph a little. The Bobby link should be changed to link to who you got this from {me}. Move the 4 new faves (one is you) to old faves below Gary Lee. Add 3-4 new people to new faves. Each name linked to their blog, and Fave the site is the link on their technorati fave widget on their site. AND, name THE WHOLE POST DIFFERENT FROM MINE!)

The time has come for me to get up on the Technorati Fave Train. I was added to the Technorati Fave Train yesterday by Bobby. The Train was started at Gary Lee.

Bobby has been doing his best to help me improve my blogs. He has been absolutely wonderful and extremely patient, especially with one not as tech-savvy as me. So, thank you for all your help and yes, I'd love to take this train ride with you! I will visit and fave all the blogs on this list if I have yet to do so, that's a promise!

So, do you want to ride the train?

***Start Copying Here***

Here are the rules:

1. Write a short introduction
paragraph about what how you found the list and include a link to the blog that referred you to the list.
2. COPY the Rules and ENTIRE List below and post it to your blog. To avoid duplicate content and increase the amount of keywords your site can accessible for, go ahead and change the titles of the blog. Just don’t change the links of the blog.
3. Take “My New Faves” and move them into the “The Original Faves” list.
4. Add at least 3 Blogs that you’ve just added to your Technorati Favorites to the “My New Faves” section. Remember to also add the “Fave Me” link next to your new blogs (i.e. http://technorati.com/faves?add=http://www.yourdomain.com)
5. Add Everyone on this list to your Technorati Favorites List by clicking on “Fave the Site.” (Please FAVE EVERYONE on the List prior to posting the list or a Kitten will Die Alone in a Dark Alley Tonight). Those who want good karma will fave you back. If not, you will for sure get the benefits of faves from the bloggers who continue this list after you.


My New Faves

Nafa - Fave the Site
Mike -
Fave the Site
Nihal -
Fave the Site
Jesse -
Fave the Site
SMan - Fave the Site
Zubli - Fave the Site

The Original Faves



* - Train Engineer
** - Last Wagon

***End Copying Here***

MAKE SURE TO FAVE EVERYONE. WE WILL VISIT THE ONE WHO DOESN'T :)


Wednesday, July 18, 2007

10 Things That I HATE!

Janice tagged me on 10 Things That I Hate, which was followed by Cats Tail today. Thank you ladies and here are some things that I'd like to share with you on what does NOT take my fancy!

  1. Food I hate. I would have to say lamb simply because I don’t eat it.
  2. Fruit I hate. Papaya is my least favourite fruit.
  3. Veggies I hate. Brussel sprouts.
  4. Celebrities/People that I hate. I’m beginning to hate MACKENZIE MAUZY who plays the role of Phoebe Forrester in Bold & Beautiful. Why does she have to stammer so much and what’s with the slouching?! Thanks to her, the character of Phoebe has dwindled into a boring, soppy, silly girl claiming to be in love with an older man!
  5. Event/Situation/Incident that I hate. Being made to wait even though I’m on time.
  6. TV shows/movies that I hate. Malay dramas with bad scripts and terrible acting.
  7. Music I hate. I would have to say heavy metal.
  8. Household chores that I hate. Ironing, sweeping, mopping … the list goes on and on!
  9. Things that you hate around the world. Violence.
  10. Things that you hate about yourself. Being too nice to people who in return take advantage of it!
And now, I would love to hear from these 5 bloggers on what gets them all riled up!




Tuesday, July 17, 2007

A Little Love Link

I've been tagged by Jean on love link and I will start by saying that getting to knowing Jean has been such A Great Pleasure. From the first day we met, we've been in touch almost every day. A friendly blogger who's also An Excellent Cook, Jean has no qualms about sharing some of her delicious recipes with us readers. For my daily dose of fun & cheer, I turn to Jean and her wonderful blog. Thanks for the love link Jean!

1. Write a short paragraph at the beginning of your post and link back to the blog that put you on the list in the paragraph. This isn’t a suggestion. You need to break up the duplicate content. Someone took the time to add you so the least you can do is give them an extra link back.

2. Copy the list of originals below COMPLETELY and add it to your blog. If you would like a different keyword for your blog then change it when you do your post and it should pass to most blogs with that keyword.

3. Take the adds from the blog that added you and place them in the “Originals” list.

4. Add at least 1 new blog that you KNOW is using the DO FOLLOW plugin to the list in the “My Adds” section. (Add no more than 5!) Let the people you’ve added know, so that they can keep the list going!


My Adds:

Confessing Girl

Dani

Jesse

Nessa

Uncle Sam


Originals:

Mariuca This is a Miracle Revellian d bImBo Secret of Mind A Great Pleasure Little world of thoughts Renisphere mott's island Kev's Walkabout iBubbs woof Down Memory Lanes Woof & Arf Lovely Mummy Bubba Stuff Mommibee Moments in My Life Rambling Moo All about Zara & Zaria Hip n cool momma Random Thoughts of a Blur Mommy Mylittleanelqianyi Bits & Pieces De’moments chinneeq Giddy Tiger Huei Rabbit Rinnah Simple America Niceheart Ethel Sanna The Queer Chef Shoshana Leahgina Haze GheeNeng aka Sirena Angelo Ju aka The Border aka Juana of Femjo Tina Keep the Faith jsonvlog Suncoast Scribe Blogging Kenneth My 2 Centavos Worth Manila Mom 3 Dogs, 3 Pigs and A Family Cafe Romanza Earn Global Credit Ability Macuha Flee the Cube Smart Wealthy Rich MomReviews.net Fellow Eskimo Pajama Mommy Amanita.net WebStyle Meredith’s Weight Loss Blog Pink Blog Tricia’s Musings Ugh!!’s Greymatter Honeypot Midlife Musings Utterly Geek Whatever I Feel Like My Dandelion Patch Surviving NJ GeekySpeaky Simple Kind Of Life 3DayMom BuyMeBlog The Hockey Dad The Process of a Miracle Mark G2Bgreen.com PoliticalRogue SoccerOverload Project SoccerBet


Monday, July 09, 2007

5 More Awesome Bloggers!


Last weekend, I wrote my post on receiving the Rockin' Girl Blogger award from Adrian and Nick, in my other blog. Several of my good blog buddies were also celebrating a dazzling weekend of awards I must add! When I woke up this morning, receiving another award was the furthest thing from my mind and yet, when I visited Nessa's Mumblings, I discovered that she had awarded me with my 3rd Rocking' Girl Blogger award! Sweet!! Thank you Nessa, your mumblings are the best! And now, I have another opportunity to award 5 more great bloggers for their superb effort that's highly deserving of this recognition.

Before that, I'd also like to make a brief but meaningful mention to the beautiful Adria, for awarding Woman: God's Masterpiece the Rocking' Girl Blogger award. Adria is one of WMG's most faithful readers so it was a joy to receive this one from her, thanks Adria and I'll be sure to get Bobby to put this one up at WGM!

This time around, I'm going to give out the Awesome Guy Blogger award and I'm going to select those who have yet to be awarded! Congratulations guys and keep on rockin'!





Brian of Philospeak
Rory of Rory's Blog


Thursday, July 05, 2007

Let's Do The Schmooze!

I was having second thoughts about writing this so soon after my last post on receiving the Blue Ribbon from the Blog Fairy. However, I’d really like to get to one particular blogger before someone else gets to him, so I decided to go ahead and announce my Power of Schmooze award from Mike!

This is my second much-appreciated award from dear Mike, the talented creator of Gummy, everybody's favourite green alien! Nowadays, you can also find Mike & Tish, busy working on a new wonderful project called BlogsWeLuv. When I first joined MBL several months back, it was Mike who stood out from the rest, offering his adorable smile and hand in friendship to me and this, I cherish until today! Undoubtedly one of the coolest bloggers here (did I mention that he’s also hot and single?) Mike amazes me with his talent and passion for drawing and comic writing - by far, one of the most outstanding yet.

Before I hand out the awards, schmoozing is the natural ability “to converse casually, especially in order to gain an advantage or make a social connection.” Good schmoozers effortlessly weave their way in and out of the blogosphere, leaving friendly trails and smiles, happily making new friends along the way. They don’t limit their visits to only the rich and successful, but spend some time to say hello to new blogs as well. They are the ones who engage others in meaningful conversations, refusing to let it end at a mere hello - all the while fostering a sense of closeness and friendship. And that's why, after much contemplation, I've chosen these 5 great friends of mine to receive their own Power of Schmooze Award!

Adrian for being the wonderful friend that he is! This guy has shown me much warmth and love, always putting me at ease whenever I see his Homer avatar on my page. Lovable and very approachable, Adrian has definitely charmed me with his funny, witty, smart and ultra friendly ways. In fact, he has everything you appreciate in a trusted friend and a First Time Dad.

Janice, author of This Is A Miracle, for making my days more cheerful with her visits. Janice leaves me funny comments on my blog and lovely little messages just to check in with me and say hello. That makes me value her friendship even more.

Zubli for consistently reminding me of his charismatic existence with unique one-word greetings or half-page messages almost daily. Zubli, the Sweet Talker that easily charms his way into the hearts of the most beautiful of ladies in MBL, you can’t help wondering what his secret is!

Revellian, for his devotion and appreciation for women. Thanks for lending a helping hand, during the good and the bad. A wonderful friend and listener that does his best to keep me smiling, he has taught me, in more ways than one, the true meaning of trust and friendship.

Last but definitely not least, is one of my favourite bloggers, Mr. Sandman, author of Illusionaire. This is the blogger that I admire from afar. The fact that he shies away from publicity, always keeping a low-profile despite being a talented and friendly writer, keeps me intrigued. Even now, after getting to know him better, I can’t seem to get enough!

Congratulations to all 5 bloggers and thanks for making my blogging journey simply wonderful! Now it’s your turn to award 5 other bloggers with the Power of Schmooze Award!


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