Kryptonite

* This is going to be a short post. An in-between Beijing & Tianjin holiday post.

Who or what is your Krytonite?

Just the other day, Rockstar ask me this question and I cheekily told him. "You". Then I turned around and ask him back but before he could answer, I smugly told him " I think is arrogance".. He laugh and said it was most probably true. See, I know him so well :p

Actually he said that he was going to blog about it but i beat him to it *yay*

I just wikipedia "krytonite" and this is what it says besides the usual superman stuff..

"The word kryptonite is also used in modern speech as a synonym for Achilles' heel, the one weakness of an otherwise invulnerable hero."

Thinking back about my answer, I think I was right. He is my Kryptonite. The all tough, independent, feminist Esther is not as tough anymore. I have a weakness. My weakness is him.

Why?

Sometimes I realise after being so long together, my dreams and aspirations have changed. I feel that I am no longer as ambitious as I when I was younger. I had found the One which I want to spend my whole life with and now nothing else matters anymore. I am happy where I am.

You might think.. "That's not good".

Well, but he is also my Energy Source or Energizer or whatever you want to call it. Whenever I am down or need to destress or release pressure, just a hug from him or time spend with him re-energize me. He inspires me and gives me hope to go through each day.

And I need him.

So who is your Kryptonite? Who is your Energy Source?

What so interesting about Tianjin?.

If you think that Tianjin is just some random place you stopever (if you take Air Aisa la..) before you take a 2-3 hours drive to Beijing, I'm here to prove you wrong. Why? Cos I've stay in Tianjin for 3 days and it's quite an interesting place.

Architecture

Check out he images below.

Look like London right?

And they got their own Effiel Tower.

I just love the balcony and the flowers below it. It's so beautiful, romantic and dreamy.

I got no idea what building this is. It just looks cool :) Like some transformer thingie..

Some massive shopping center.

Really unique shape and design.

Their almost-completed World Financial Center.

And their beautiful riverside clock tower.

Places of interest

Check out their night life. Really massive shopping area. Can beat Bukit Bintang... And its pack with locals (not foreigners..) till pass closing time on weekdays. Lets not talk about weekend k.. I meant, come on, don't Tianjin people have school or work or something??

Sorry la I don't have nice shots. My camera just don't seem to work as well at night.

Their Food/ Snack Street

Drum Tower Streat aka Guluo

Ancient Cultural Street

I know, I know.. the few place I mention were all shopping streets.. But well, I'm a girl ;p and shopping + cheap stuff = satisfied girl

We actually did not research about this place but requested a list of places to visit from the hotel reception and they gave us 3 names. So here are the 3 places we visited..

Food Food Food

A holiday is no fun without food :)

We found this awesome pau shop near our hotel. And it only cost 60cents for 1.. oh wait, was it 30cents.. Nevermind, is super cheap.. And the first time we ordered 12 pau for 4 person before we realize that people there orders 12 paus per person. It's like their full meal. But the bad thing about this shop is that the people are super rude and unfriendly. We got scolded eveytime we when there. Like we had to order, pay at the counter, walk into the kitchen, find the chef, hand the receipt to him, go out, collect our plates, sauce, chillies, chopstick, seat at the table and the pau will be served to you. And if you want to take away, you got to find the chef, take your own plastic bag, open it, and he will count and drop in the paus for you. How on earth are we suppose to know that??? And we keep getting scolded by them :(

Some kind of biscuit called "Mahua" that is their speciality.

They have super long "yau char kwai".

And super long sausages.

Colourful ice-kacang wannabe. No competition with Malaysia's ice-kacang. Malaysia Boleh!!!

My most expensive coffee ever. We decided to stop for a drink and little did we know that the coffee shop we entered was a high class, expensive place. A pot of coffee cost RM120++. And it only filled up 4 small expresso cups :(

But their fruit display made it worth it. Not the fruits tho..

Seafood anyone? Check out the huge frogs.. and snails.. and some other funny looking stuff..

And saving the best for the last.. their BEEF noodles.. Yummy!!

 Other interesting stuff

Tianjin have really interesting concept of selling. They dedicate a whole shop to selling just 1 item.

Like the picture below. One whole shop just for feather dusters... Crazy huh?? But you can get any feather dusters you want.. small, big, gigantic, long, short, black, brown...etc...

And a shop just for brushes....

Oh.. Don't forget to check out Tianjin's "Sugar Man". His work are pretty. And you'll be amazed by his skill.

He is drawing a dragon. Check out the pretty and realistic dragonfly perch above him.

Me buttefly....

Me pweety butterfly ... So sweet and yummy!!!

I  killed it :(

And their huge, over-crowded with smelly, sweaty people Train Station.

On their Express Train to Beijing.. 3299km/h.. Woohoo!!!

View from the window.

Oh yeah, after all the good stuff about them.. here are the bad stuff...

1. They are extremely rude and loud and rough and did I mention rude people. But I guess its their culture.

2. The air is terrible. Smoke and dust all around. Their cars have layers and layers off dust. Nobody bothers washing them.

3. Lots of construction going on.

4. Guys go around half naked. It may be because of the hot weather but come on.. I don't wanna see your flabs, tyres, 1-pack, hairy..erm....it's just eewwww!!!

5. And the worst.. SPITTING!!!  It happen all the time, everywhere, anytime by anyone.

So yep, this is Tianjin.. I hope I have not scared you off *winks*

p.s. sorry for any grammatical errors. Too sleepy to check through..zzzzzz

I am officially an Alien..

I'm back! I'm back! Pheww.. It's been such a loonnngggg trip. I think it's the longest holiday I have taken. I some photos to share.. Please be patient while I sort through them.. Not much la.. took only about 1.2K photos *sheepish grin*.. Its 2 long weeks of holiday k... And I been to Tianjin & Beijing and almost Chengde back and forth k.. Like twice to Tianjin and twice to Beijing..

Am I confusing you? Here's my schedule.

Day 1 - 2    : Tianjin

Day 3         : Tianjin / Beijing

Day 4 - 6    : Beijing

Day 7         : Beijing / Tianjin

Day 8         : Tianjin / Beijing

Day 9 - 10  : Beijing

Day 11       : Chengde Beijing *story will be told in later post

Day 12       : Beijing

Day 13       : Beijing / Tianjin

Looking at my schedule, I am confused my myself :(

What happend was we booked our flight via AirAsia almost a year ago and couple of months back, we booked a tour package to Beijing from Day 3 - 7. So the before and after tour, we were on our own. And since it was a tour group from Malaysia who took AirAsia too, the arrival and departure point was Tianjin. That's why we had to travel back and forth.

Anyway, after 2 long weeks of relaxation *yeah right* in China's hot and sweaty summer, I am back to hot-Malaysia-but-not-as-hot-as-Beijing weather. Thank God for Malaysia! In Beijing, the temperature varies from 28°C --> 49°C.

Taken of the bus clock with temperature shown.

Did not manage to capture the  49°C but it did went up to 49°C..

It's back to tons and tons of work for me to catch up. And many late nights and long hours. I would not encourage a 2 week holiday for anyone unless you are a rich tai tai with a rich husband and you do not need to work. I think the max would be a week.

But I am embarrased to say, I MISS WORKING!!! :( I keep thinking about home and Psalms Oasis. Darn, I was hoping for an out of mind, out of sight thingie but I guess when you are too attached to something, well, you can't stop thinking about it.

I'm such a workaholic freak!!

Oh yeah, before I head for bed, I will officially annouce... "I am an ALIEN" muahahaha!!!

On the back of China's Arrival & Departure Card for immigration clearance.

*hmmm... Venus? Saturn? Which is the prettiest planet?....

*in alienic voice*    Humans. I. bid. you. good. night.

Off to the Great Wall..

Hey peeps,

Last few days have been really really crazy. Trying to rush up to finish all my work, settling stuff, handing over stuff... and etc... because I will be away for 2 WHOLE WEEKS!!!

Yep, beginning off this year, Rockstar & I made a resolution to make 5 trips this year. So far we have been to Taiwan, Phuket and now Beijing... So we are on our way to fulfilling our resolution :)

So I'm heading off now in climb the Great Wall and to walk through the Forbidden City ;p

Will be leaving in 2hours+ to the airport.

I'm too tired to blog anymore. Good night..

See you in 2 weeks time...

WooHoo!!!

We need more knights..

I think it has always been a young girl's dream that a handsome knight in shining amour will come riding on a horse and sweep her off her feet and they will live happily ever after. And this dream stays all the way with them till the day they die. For some, its a fairy tale ending. For others, it remains a dream.

But I'm here not to contemplate about fairy tales and dreams. I prefer to think about something more interesting *grin* ....the knight!

OK, most of the time, fairy tales are just childhood fantasies. But I do get my glimpses of knights in my everyday life.

Just the other day, I was at the shopping mall and was waiting for the lif to arrive. While waiting, a few guys came and stood to wait too. The minute the lif arrived and the doors opened, they barged right in without allowing people inside the lif to exit first. And not only that, they didn't bother holding the door open for others to enter but just stood there chatting among themselves. I felt like giving them a slap each *slap*slap*slap*. They were so ill-mannered. When we arrived at the next floor, not surprising, they barge right out without even giving me a chance to walk out. And then a knight came. A guy on the outside of the lif door held the door opened for me to walk out first before entering it himself. What a gentleman... *awww*

I'm not saying I am not capable of opening or closing my own doors. We girls are able and will open our own doors or buying our own drinks. But what we want is for a guy to treat us like a women.

Have you ever heard of the word "chivalry"?

Taken from wikipedia "Chivalry are often used to describe courteous behavior, especially that of men towards women". And from dictionary.com " The qualities idealized by knighthood, such as bravery, courtesy, honor, and gallantry toward women."

OK that sounds abit deep but in laymen terms, its basically means how you treat women.

What happen to all our guys/ men/ boys nowadays? Haven't you heard of opening doors for ladies? Or letting them walk thru it first? Or holding the lift door for them? Or even allowing a lady to walk first before you?

OK, i can hear the thoughts going through your minds now. Nope, you are not being a loser or a wuss by acting like that. And nope, you are not losing your balls just because you open the door for a woman.

How difficult it is to open the door for a lady to walk thru? Or to hold the door of the lift and allow them to walk out first? Or even if you are not going out, just hold the door for them. It just takes a couple of seconds of your time and most of the time, you will be rewarded with a sweet smile and a thank you from them. *melts*

The thing is that nowadays, alot women believes that chivalry has long disappear and most males are just rough and ill-mannered creatures. Well, as much as I hate to say this, I know its still there. I know that you guys are capable and able to act in a chivalrous manner towards women.

But before you go all out to do your bit on chivalry, just a word of advice.

Don't act chivalrous in a show off manner. Most probably the woman will just think that you are a smooth-talker and won't take you seriously. And the guys will just laugh their heads off watching you.

If you want to be chivalrous, do it like its pat of you, like a habit. Don't do it to show off, and expect others to notice that you are acting chivalrous.

Some guys I know are brought up to be chivalrous. Like my brother for instance.. With 6 women in the family, he cannot but to be a gentlemen. He holds the door for us, he gives up his seat for us. For some guys, its not a norm. But its not too late to start practicing... You can start by holding the doors for your mums, or girlfriends..

It's simple... And it's worth it. Believe me :p

Entrepreneur's Day & Pink Balloons

Yesterday, there was no BB meeting. Meeting was cancel beause the secondary school was having their Entrepreneur's Day.Yay!!! Haha.. that means no waking up earlier for a bunch of spoilt brats..

...Yeah right!! .

The Pearl Club of Sekolah Sri Sempurna needed help. Pearl Club in short is basically teachings girls how to be girls.

Cool right? Why didn't I have clubs like this when I was younger. :( Anyway, i heard that it is some kind of a loser club thingie because people make fun of them all the time because they join a girls club *roll eyes* such childish immaturity...

Anyway, they needed something to sell and asked me for some helped. So I allowed them to sell my products, Psalms Oasis, as well as LovePieces, an online thing that my sisters and I started but have since gone on a hiatus.

On Friday, as I paid a visit to a customer outlet, I noticed a party shop next door and I thought, why not? I popped in the shop and requested for some heart-shaped helium balloons. What better ways that heart-shaped balloons to spice up an event and to represent femininity. It was quite reasonably priced @ RM4 per balloon. (Raw cost - RM0.70, Helium-nized it - RM2.20, extra liquid for long lasting life- RM1.50). The nice sale guy gave me a discount la.. It's cheap la compare to some crazy florist who sells them for RM25 for 1 balloon. And I paid extra for the long-lasting-life liquid thingie as helium balloons can only last for 8 hours and I needed them only the following morning.

I requested for 2 pink hearts and 2 white hearts. Paid for my pwetty balloons and happily walk away and placed them in my car.

As I drove down the road, thinking about how pweety my balloons are going to looked... suddenly I was scared out of my skin by a BIIGG "BANG". OH NO!!!! 1 of my pweety pink balloon went pop :( 

With my sad face in placed, I headed back to the party store to pour out my sorrow to the nice store guy. After hearing my story, he gave me free balloons... Woohoo!!! Nah, he gave me only 1 free balloon after I paid for another 2 balloons. And to be on the safe side, I bought another 4 spare balloons. Learn lesson already ma..

My balloons happily bobbing in my car.

See the piece of pink rubber hanging below the pink balloon on the far right? Yep, thats the poor balloon that went POP!

Luckily, the balloons stayed with me till the next day.

Here are some pictures of the Pearl Club booth. They were also selling cotton candies, cup cakes and mushroom soup. There was also a game store called "Teddy Tales" where you get to throw toys into the holes cutout from cardboard. Most of them rather pay RM2 to throw at the cute girl manning the booth rather then at the holes.

Some other random booth and people.

I was there for 4 hours, hanging around before heading back home for a nap. *yawn* See how much sacrifice I make for my girls :p

I love my girls.. *even thought they are much taller then me and bullies me*

Fun event! Very noisy and young...

 p.s. if you are wondering what I meant by 'my girls', cos obviously I am not married.. My girls are actually girls who are under me in the Boys' Brigade.

Our 4th Year Anniversary

Clem , also known as the rockstar, and hence shall be called Rockstar in this blog *wink* and I celebrated our 4th anniversary of being a couple. Sounds weird to you? I told my mum about the anniversary and her exact reply to me was "Aiyah, you young people ar, why got celebrate anniversary one? Last time, after we get married only we got anniversary. Now, before getting married also got anniversary."

Haha.. that's my mum.. She didn't know that not only we celebrate our yearly anniversary, we celebrate our monthly anniversary too.. *shhh* Not in a big way la. Dinner, just the two of us kinda thing..

Anyway, that's what we did. We celebrated our 4th year anniversary of being in a relationship. Sounds like a very long time huh? Me too.. Sometimes I think back and it seems that it was just yesterday.. It's not like some couple who have been together for a gazillion years, but to us its something. When we first got together, we decided to just take a test run. Well, it seems like our test run became the real thing..

So what did we do to celebrate? Both of us were busy so we just decided to treat ourselves with a movie and dinner in KL. Why KL? Cos we are both PJ people, sort off, and we seldom go to KL unless necessary because of the super terrible horrible traffic.

So on that day, we got into the car, drove to KL, got stuck in traffic again and looked for a cheap RM5 parking. But it started raining. We decided to park in Starhill as we were planning to have dinner there and then headed to Pavillion to catch a movie.

After movie, walked around for a bit before heading to our dinner appointment at...... "JOGOYA". I was pretty excited as its been more than 3 years since I last went and I was super hungry. It was Rockstar first time there and he was amazed at the selection of food.

Round #1

Some hot pot thinige that we can choose and cooked food on our own with soup selection of normal, spicy and tom yam..

Round #2.

See the coconut on the far left. Tip : Take the sharp pointed coconut. Not the flat conconut (middle top of pic). Cos it taste so much nicer and different.

Shark fin with something steam dumpling

Erm.. Can't remember the name of this fish. Got to ask Rockstar.. I know we tried dory, cod, something, something and this fish...

U.S sirloin beef.

Cooked teppanyaki style. Must try. Its sliced so thin that you won't even think its beef until you taste it. Yum..

( Don't forget to try the normal beef also. Forgot to take a pic but it was fantastic. I really liked it)

 

Final round.. desserts!!! They had so many choices of ice-creams (limited choices with Baskin Robbins. much more with New Zealand ice-cream), cookies *yummy*, egg tarts *their speciality*, cakes, puddings, mochi, etc...etc...

So here are all the food that we had. Not all tho, as we were too excited and forget to take some pics. In Jogoya, go for the freshly cooked food as the place is quite cold (bring a jacket if you must) and the food gets cold very fast. So once it reaches your table, eat it fast. Teppanyaki is fantastic.. esp the beef. Oyster is definitely one-of-a-kind, according to Rockstar. All in all, it was a value for money meal considering that we paid only RM65 per pax for dinner.

After 2 and a half hour of indulging ourselves, we decided to head back to the car. As usual, we have to pay for our parking first. To our horror, Starhill does not have a maximum cap for parking fees. We paid RM17.50 for a freaking parking lot. And not only that, RM20 was inserted but only 0.50 cents change was returned. The machine makan our RM2. So I went looking for the security and finally they came to save our RM2. No way I am going to leave my RM2 behind and pay RM19.50 for parking. Its crazy. And they say Pavillion's parking is expensive *roll eyes* Rule No.1 in KL. Park in a parking lot that have a maximum fee cap. If not, you will end up paying through your nose.

So that's our boring little celebration :)

Oh wait, I must not forget the presents. I'm definitely not going to talk about my gifts to him because it super lousy compared to what he gave me.

*drum rolls please*

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My brand new Nokia 5530 XpressMusic.

And its pink in colour :p

Its super cool loh.. I really like it. Besides the fact that its pink, it has some cool functions that my old phone does not have *what to do, I from kampung mah*. I like. I like. :)

This is the 2nd handphone I got from him in our 4 years relationship. Don't you just love him. And he sacrifice buying himself a new handphone and bought for me instead. He so sweet.. Oh wait, I shouldn't call him sweet. It's bad for his macho man image. :p

I love you Rockstar. Happy Anniversary!!

XXXXXX