little miss may

&addAnd so I have a couple of tags to dig up and submit, before anyone starts thinking I’ve abandoned them altogether! I still have the yumyum luplups part II to go, but I’ll save that for later. Looking for the best places to eat isn’t easy, not with the variety we have here. Very soon on that one, ok? Today, let’s focus on some easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy ones.

TAG #1
This is one from ~TheAngel~ on 10 April — Am I Older?

[X] I know how to make a pot of coffee.
[X] I keep track of dates using a calendar.
[X] I own more than one credit card.
[X] I know how to change the oil in a car.
[X] I know how to do my own laundry.
[O] I vote every election.
[X] I can cook for myself.
[O] I think politics are exciting.
[X] I balance my checkbook.
[O] My parents have better things to say than my friends.
Total: 7

[X] I show up for school/college/work every day early.
[X] I always carry a pen in my pocket/purse.
[O] I’ve never gotten a detention.
[X] I have never gotten completely trashed.
[O] I have forgotten my own birthday at least once.
[X] I like to take walks by myself.
[X] I’ve watched talk shows.
[X] I know what ‘credibility’ means without looking it up.
[X] I drink coffee at least once a week.
Total: 7

[X] I know how to do the dishes.
[X] I can count to 10 in another language.
[O] When I say I’m going to do something I do it.
[X] My parents trust me.
[X] I can mow the lawn.
[X] I can make adults laugh without being stupid.
[O] I remember to water the plants.
[X] I study when I have to.
[X] I pay attention at school/college.
[X] I remember to feed my pets.
Total: 8

[X] I can spell ‘experience’ without looking it up.
[O] I work out on a regular basis.
[X] I clean up my own mess.
[O] The people at Starbucks know me by name.
[O] My favorite kind of food is takeout.
[X] I have gained weight since middle/high school.
[X] The first thing I do when I wake up is get caffeine.
[X] I can go to the store without getting something I don’t need.
[O] I understand political jokes the first time they are said.
[X] I can type quickly.
Total: 6

[X] I have realised that the weather forecast changes every hour.
[O] My only friends are from my place of employment.
[O] I have been to a Tupperware party.
[X] I have realised that no one will take you seriously unless you are over the age of 25 and have a job.
[O] I have more bills than I can pay.
[O] All my friends are older than I am.
[X] I can say no to staying out all night.
[X] I use the internet every day.
[O] My wardrobe hasn’t changed in a while.
[X] I can read a book and actually finish it.
Total: 5

“Add all the totals, and it’ll be the indication on how old the person is.”

My total is : 33
Actual age is : Holy-camoley, it’s actually pretty close!!! Was that spooky or was that spooky?! Well, at least I didn’t end up being older than what I should be. Pity not younger. But I am, ‘cos I’m young at heart! Denial! *Young Young*

COMMERCIAL BREAK…

Since L B had posted about his sparkling clean toilet, I want to show off mine too! Unfortunately my bathroom isn’t as spacious or as green as his — no bamboo or cactus living in there yet — and I don’t have a bidet. Just some flushable wet wipes if you need them. Or head straight to the shower. What I do have is a nice tub to have a bubble bath in! Definitely can fit two. And three. Maybe four. And I absolutely love the old-fashioned taps!

TAG #2
Thought I could escape all that feng tau Technorati gig, but I couldn’t! Giddy Tigers roped me in with a lasso into her Technorati-Boosting Party and here I am, fave-ing my faves:

***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 title 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 5 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?sub=addfavbtn&add=http://www.yourfavesdomain.com)

5) Add Everyone on this list to your Technorati Favorites List by clicking on “Fave the Site.” Those who want good kharma 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 Faves:

rinnah - Fave the site
Kikare - Fave the site
Selba - Fave the site
velverse - Fave the site
ehon - Fave the site

The Original Faves:

PabloPabla’s Whatever - Fave the site
Little Miss May - Fave the site
Jutz1Blog - Fave the site
Sketches of Life - Fave the site
My Baby Bay - Fave the site

Hochiak! - Fave the site
Giddy Tigers - Fave the site
Oh! For the love of me - Fave the site
Live Life, organics and your health - Fave the site
Pink Elle - Fave the site

Paris Beaverbanks - Fave the Site
Tigerfish - Fave the Site
Wennnn - Fave the Site
SiwwyPig - Fave the Site
angel - Fave the Site

LB - Fave the Site
Cool Insider - Fave the Site
Simple America - Fave the Site
Chen - Fave the Site
Captain Picard - Fave the Site

East Coast Life - Fave the Site
Culture Shiok! - Fave the Site
Pond Perspective - Fave the Site
Carlo Ocab - Fave the Site
Fruity Oaty - Fave the Site

Michael McKinlay - Fave the Site
Nice4Rice Free Backlinks - Fave the Site
Work at Home, Make Money Online - Fave the Site

Web 2.0, Tech Reviews - Fave the Site
Wireless LAN Security - Fave the Site
Bobs [ReformatThis] - Fave the Site
Everyday Weekender - Fave the Site

Armen’s Blog - Fave the Site
Gary Lee - Fave the Site
Dosh Dosh - Fave the Site
Nate Whitehill - Fave the Site
Ms. Danielle - Fave the Site

Jeff Kee - Fave the Site
Scribble on the Wall - Fave the Site
Jimi Morrisons Head - Fave the Site
Jon Lee - Fave the Site
Samanathon - Fave the Site

Eat Drink & Be Merry - Fave the Site
The Man of Silver - Fave the Site
Hannes Johnson - Fave the Site
My Dandelion Patch - Fave the Site
Nathan Drach - Fave the Site

SiteLogic - Fave the Site
Julies Journal - Fave the Site
Stephen Fung - Fave the Site
Ed Lau - Fave the Site
QMusings - Fave the Site

***END COPYING HERE***

56 comments

Since we’re on the Chi Bandwagon™ here, here and here, I thought of doing one myself. But not about the Negative Chi, no sir and madam! Enough of that already, yea? I’ve had some of those the last couple of weeks, but what we really need to do is count the Positive Chi that happened, or will be happening, or we’ll make happen! Yes? Kan? Hor? Ngam mou?

You know it’s Positive Chi when:

• Even though you had to work on a holiday, you still managed to blog-hop.
• You cook a totally yummy Thai green curry dish.
• They have those oh-so-cool boots in the colour and size you want.
• You made someone happy in some way, even if you didn’t know it.
• An email confirms that your new broadband2+ modem has been dispatched.
• You catch a great episode of House on TV.
• You didn’t mind missing Heroes because Uncle Joe is there for you.
• It’s raining, but you have a nice new and trendy trench coat on.
• People ask for your address, ‘cos it means something will be in the mail for you.
• Your mom gives you a call.
• You wined and dined in Hunter Valley not too long ago.
• A Great Idea™ pops into your mind to post about Positive Chi.
• You see funny twits on Twitter from your friends.
• In this country, you’re a size S or XS instead of a size M or L.
• You bump into an old friend whom you haven’t seen for 12 years on the train.
• The market in Chinatown is stocked full of goodies from home.
• Your heart is aching but you know you’ll be ok in time.
• You find a $2 coin in the office elevator.
• You thought nobody cared, then someone pops in a sweet comment to say hi.
• The bus driver smiles at you when you say “good morning”.

So what Positive Chi have you had lately?

YATTAAAA!!

74 comments

Hola!

Sorry I’ve gone “missing” in the last few days, until angel had to send me a text message to see if I was still alive. I’m well, thank you for your SMS, my dear.

It’s been a long, long week — troubleshooting, fire-fighting, getting a grip on new problems, having a bit of a meltdown, and my personal demons paid me a visit when I least expected it (I was sulking so badly). My mood hadn’t been good mid-week onwards, and I just had to take a break from blogging and reading blogs until I was in a better disposition. Didn’t want to leave sulky or off-colour comments, so forgive me if I haven’t been coming around these past few days and skipped a couple of your posts. Start fresh again, yea?

So what has Little Miss May© been up to?

It was our Sydney office’s Second Birthday on Friday. Management decided to give us a treat and carted the lot of us (dubbed the “All Star Tambourine Band Tour” by one of our colleagues) to Hunter Valley. It’s a 2-hour drive northwards from Sydney and one of the best regions where Australia’s finest wine is made.

We left office early on Friday afternoon just before lunch, and hopped on the coach in high spirits. After all, we had an approved and paid-for excuse for not working for the rest of the day!

Our first stop was at Pepper Tree Wines vineyard, where we had our first wine-sampling session of home-grown whites and reds, and a sweet dessert wine. The ambience around the vineyard was really nice — sunny skies, oh-so-green grass, and a sweet ranch-like place to relax in. The wines were really great, though I didn’t fancy them enough to get a bottle myself.

The second one we went to was Tamburlaine, a small, privately owned vineyard which offered organic wines. The ambience here wasn’t as pretty as the first, but their wines were far more pleasing to my taste buds this time around. I treated myself to a white Verdelho, with the Reisling and Framboise dessert wines. I especially liked the Framboise which reminded me a lot of Ribena, very berry and yummy as a topping on vanilla ice-cream.

We then went to Peterson House, where we clinked our glasses of bubbly sparkling wine (a.k.a. champagne but since we weren’t in Champagne, we couldn’t call it that!). Also had a fun time at the chocolate shop, where I indulged in a canister of rum fudge, some honeycomb and chocolate-coated coffee beans. Heaven!!

It was 5 p.m. when we made our way to Harrigan’s Irish Pub, where we put up for the night. Eh? Sleep at the pub? Ha-ha! Actually, they offer very decent accommodation and I suppose a blessing for some that we didn’t have to travel far for a beer.

For dinner, we went to Oishii (part of Tempus Two Winery) which served a mixture of Thai and Japanese cuisine. Nothing great to shout about, though. The wines made a prettier picture than our food, as did the building structure.

There was more merry-making back at the pub after dinner, but I had a bad headache from all the wining and dining (and heat from the sun), so I retired to bed early. I heard that the party went on till 3 a.m. with some funky moves grooved on the dance floor, too…

Left for Sydney late Saturday morning, and it’s back to grocery-shopping, vacuuming, cleaning up and doing the laundry. Although Hunter Valley was a fun visit, it’s good to be home. That hot shower in my own bathroom was so, so good, washing away all that travel weariness and stress…

Wine, anyone?

63 comments

It’s been a couple of weeks since L B tagged me with his Five Yum Yum Sup Sups, with a list of Albie Yum Yum Favourite Places™ for munch. Since then, I’ve been on a mission to find my own Yum Yum Sup Sup favourites in Sydney, which was a bit of a hard deal since I hadn’t spent much time to go food-hunting.

Ah, but luck struck! I found two places which I know I’ll frequent in the future, not because I have no where else to go (like a convenient but so-so place for lunch), but because they really do serve yummy-licious food which you just can’t resist.

May I present, Part I of Little Miss May©’s Yum Yum Lup Lups.

The rules:
1. Add a direct link to your post below the name of the person who tagged you.
Include the state and country you’re in.

Nicole (Sydney, Australia)
velverse (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)
LB (San Giovanni in Marignano, Italy)
may (Sydney, Australia)

2. List out your top 5 favorite places to eat at your location.
3. Tag 5 other people (preferably from other countries/states)
[..and let them know they’ve been tagged]

#1: Marigold Restaurant, Haymarket, Sydney
I finally got the chance to go yumcha on Friday with my colleagues at Marigold, the restaurant which I’ve been itching to go ever since I came back to Sydney. This is the only one other yumcha places which serves great dimsum, authentic Hong Kong style. The harkaus and siewmais are absolutely to die for! As are their charsiew buns, egg tarts, sweet sesame balls and steamed pork ribs. Though their version of lormaikai is actually our KL version of horyipfann instead (sorry to disappoint, LB). If you’re ever looking for a good dimsum spread in the city, this is it.

#2: Chinese Noodle Restaurant, Haymarket, Sydney
Although the sign outside the eatery says Chinese Noodle Restaurant, my colleagues seemed to have dubbed it Northern Noodle House, as that’s what the chinese characters say. All their noodles are fresh and handmade, which makes this place quite unique. I was there for lunch this afternoon, and couldn’t resist ordering their fried noodles with seafood, as well as a dozen of their fried pork and chives dumplings. They’re generous helpings so I ate only half, and packed the rest home for dinner! Waste not, want not. It was almost as if I was back there eating again. All that’s missing was a nice hot cup of Chinese tea to go with it…

So, what’s for part II? Don’t know yet. I’ll go for another hunt these couple of weeks and let you know what I find!

64 comments

After a week of arrangements, getting my keys, doing another round of inspection to make sure everything is ok, making trip after trip to the supermarket to get the essentials, and screwing (pardon the pun) all those pieces of wood together in hope that they’ll resemble something useful in the end, I finally can say…

Welcome to my virtual house-warming! Come in, come in! Have a seat, make yourself comfortable on the floor. Sorry, no sofa just yet. Water? Coffee? Potato chips?…

There’s still a lot of things to be done, like getting a fridge and microwave oven, a proper phone connected, a nice sofa bed for the lounge, maybe my uncle’s TV (or maybe not), vacuum the place inside and out again, have a shower curtain up in the bathroom…

But all of that will come in due time. I’m just too pooped after the first round that I need a few days to recuperate. It was especially tiring on the furniture assembly, and running from the city to home and back again during lunch hour when the Hot Water Man™ came to fix the faulty gas water heater. Reminded me of those cold shower incidences in San Giovanni when the boiler was gone, too… Brrrrr!

So what have I got to show after all that running around? Well, nothing much, really! It’s only my bedroom that has the most stuff — my nice white queen bed, the HEMNES bedside table, a proper table to do stuff on instead of the quilt box, and a cheap yet good chair to sit on so I won’t have to roll around on the carpet. Actually, rolling around sounds nice, but not if you find hairs on the carpet that aren’t yours, and you don’t know who’s been there before. Gross? I think so.

I spend most of my at-home-time in the bedroom, about 2/3 probably. Can’t help it if this is the only place I get a reception for my Internet access, though very poor and the connection keeps dropping. Will look into subscribing to proper broadband next month and stop complaining about it.

Second place of interested would be the kitchen. Contrary to most of the built-ins which are off-white, this has brown cupboards, similar to the bathroom. This is where I spend the other 1/3 of my time, making grub and washing up. My first meal in the apartment was yummy smoked ham on raisin bread, with a good cup of latte from New Orleans Cafe just down the road.

I don’t cook as often as I should, probably because I don’t have a fridge to store leftovers or perishable goods. The most I’d do would be freeze-dried food (like my macaroni and cheese dinner) which I just need to add water to, cook on the stove, and finish eating it in one sitting. If I can’t finish it, tough — into the bin it goes. Will have to wait till I get the all-essential fridge before I dare venture further into more cooking and even baking.

Well, that’s the end of the tour and virtual house-warming for now. Maybe there’ll be something new this weekend, maybe not. And if it’s a boring fridge, you really don’t want a picture of that, do you?

p.s. Don’t be alarmed if you can’t access my blog this Saturday 14 April, from 7 a.m. till 7 a.m. Sunday 15 April (24-hour inaccessibility). Some maintenance work to my service provider’s data centre. Make sure you come back Sunday, ok!
postponed, hooray! can blog Saturday!

87 comments