Seizan Japanese Restaurant

I'd tried Japanese food in Sydney before, and I've never tasted such good Japanese since then. So I decided I just had to have Jap food when we're in Perth. Seems like Aussies like their food really fresh! And it's true, because the sashimi and sushi served in Seizan Japanese Restaurant was as authentic as you can get.

I found this restaurant through Google, and when we arrived at our hotel, we found out that it was just next door to our hotel - and as hotel guests we got 20% discount off the bill - brilliant! :)

The restaurant has typical Japanese seatings - where you sit at floor level but your legs dangle into the space under the table, if you get what I mean. Take a look at the pictures in the website and you'll see.

I had sashimi & sushi teishoku (a sushi + raw fish set), dad had tori teriyaki (chicken) and mum had sakana teriyaki (fish). All cost us a mere AUD$30 after discount. Fabulous value for money I say :)

I wouldn't dare to say this is the best Jap restaurant in Perth. Seems like there's plenty of sushi and tempura bars around Perth city. I mean, even on the same row itself there were a few. Of course, some are merely bars. This is a restaurant. But, I guess Aussies love Jap food (or maybe there's many Japanese around), so my recommendation : try Japanese food in Australia, it'll far surpass the best one you've tasted in KL. Promise.

Joe's Fish Shack

You've never tasted seafood until you've tasted them in Fremantle ...

Not like I'm so well-travelled that I can say so, but no where else in Asia do you get seafood as delicious, natural, fresh and incredibly marvellous as found in Fremantle, Perth.

My parents, my sister and I went to Joe's Fish Shack in Fremantle for dinner as soon as we had checked in to the hotel in Perth. My dad was skeptical and wondered why we had to travel 30 mins by train from Perth city to go have seafood. We promised him it'd be worth it - and thankfully, it was! He said he'd never tasted such fresh oysters for ages - the last time he had it was like more than a decade ago in the next door restaurant, Cicerello's. (Both Joe's and Cicerello's are the popular seafood restaurants in Fremantle).

My sis and I shared the "Joe's Seafood Platter for two" which had a crayfish, 8 tiger prawns, 6 oysters and pieces of smoked salmon. Lip-smacking I tell you! It's so fresh it can't get any fresher. By "fresh" I mean that it practically looks raw - but then, raw prawns aren't red and white, are they? So they're definitely cooked, but served in such a way that you taste seafood in its ultimate element.

My parents had a "Chargrilled Tasmanian Salmon" which was very obviously cooked and it tasted really good as well. Appears that this place can't do any wrong ;)

If you check out the website, it has the full menu (and it's pricing, if you wanna know).

I won't go on raving about it, but this is a place I'm recommending to ALL who are going to Perth. You just HAVE to try Joe's Fish Shack!

Joe's Seafood Platter for Two - soooo ultra good seafood that it's worth every dollar paid ... a price that you'll pay only if you're very rich, or have parents who are paying for dinner 

Raise your voice

What attracted me to the movie was Hilary Duff. I'm not sure why but I really like this girl. I like her songs, I find her acting in Lizzie McGuire thoroughly cheesy material, but she still attracts me to watch her. She's very "candy cane" material - if there's such a term. But I think there's actually so much more to her than her career.

For one, she's not thin. She's got like pretty big arms (almost flabby). And I like her, because I've got them too - haha! :)

A second plus to the movie was that it involved music - instruments and singing, especially choral singing. It's pretty amazing to hear harmonised vocals through your brandless airline headphones.

"Raise Your Voice" is your typical Hilary Duff movie - she's this young girl sneaking away from her dad to attend this prestigious music camp in L.A. There she meets this cute supportive boy who encourages her to dream big. And you know the ending of the story. What else but happy?

Only a must-watch if you like the girl. She's very photogenic I think and very natural. Definitely better than Lindsay Lohan or the other young sweet girls coming out on their own. I liked this :)

Shall we dance?

Now this is a movie with a happy ending. In fact, it's a movie with a possibility of many happy endings, but it ended with the best happy ending. You gotta watch it to know what I'm talking about. And yes, I'm suggesting you watch this movie (although it's got J-Lo's big butt in it, but Richard Gere and Susan Sarandon are the ones to watch here).

Like the title says, it's a dance movie - ballroom dancing, in fact. And of course, if there's ballroom dancing and Richard Gere, it's bound to be a romantic movie. And it is. But not soppy-woppy sugar-sweet kind of romantic. A different kind. You'll understand if you watch it.

It's glamorous, has pretty strong characters, and has a moral behind it! But just in case I spoil things for those who haven't watched - let's just say that the story shows love in its true light. Like the story between the Cohen parents in The O.C. season 2 episode 14 (just watched this episode this morning and was so happy with the ending) - I'm a total sucker for happy endings :)

Saw it on the flight back from Perth. J Lo's got a thing with romance, I liked her Wedding Planner as well. Suggest you watch this when you feel like cuddling up with someone, or watch it when you're missing someone and bawl buckets later :)

The day after yesterday

... is today!

And tomorrow is a holiday until Wednesday! For me, at least.

Then it's back to slogging at work until March, when the studying schedule of assignments start all over again *grumble grumble* Oh, but I have one more complaint before I shut off - I just remembered that I promised myself earlier this year to complete my valuer's log book *sigh* and I shall have to persevere with resolve (my 2 key words for the year).

Most astrological reports say it's a great year for monkeys. I guess I'll take it with a pinch of salt. But, with such encouragement, I might as well just resolve and persevere - there could be a chance those reports are right, right?

You know how on days when your mind is less cluttered with irrelevant matters (such as huge exams), your mind starts thinking a whole lot more on other supposedly more relevant matters? I guess you don't know :P

It shall be a great long weekend. Hope Perth's weather is beautiful. I'll enjoy Paul Burrell's book on Princess Diana - "A Royal Duty" - to read it finished in time before Prince Charles marriage to the other woman. Haha, I'm a petty gossipy housewife in the making who thrives on societal rumours - God forbid! :P

Be good and play safe - have a profitable weekend at the gambling circles and happy early Chap Goh Meh ;)

Doesn't seem quite like it

I rushed to prepare for dinner. Then made it in time to a friend's place for post-dinner gambling. Came home past midnight and refused to sleep until I'd indulged in my bedtime reading, although my eyes were already painfully squinting from being active the past 19 hours. Didn't help that the exams totally drained me of most brainjuices - I nearly threw a panic attack in the first 10 minutes when I realised I couldn't answer a single question in the first paper. But, what finally pulled me through was what my tutor posted to us on Blackboard earlier that week : "DON'T abandon the paper prematurely. You can always do more than you first think you can." You don't know how encouraging it is to have such words ringing in your head in times of dire desperation.

After-exams period doesn't quite seem like what I imagined. Rush here, rush there. Today, rush to pack for my trip to Perth to attend my youngest sister's convocation. And maybe squeeze in some time playing Lemony Snicket on PS2. And if my broadband doesn't act up, maybe even get to watch the latest episodes of The O.C. and The Apprentice before flying. Why is there always so many things to do on the days you're "free"??

Quite lucky

I was just fiddling around my blog and stumbled upon this post in November about wants. To recap - a laptop, a handphone, a car CD/MP3 player. I've got 2 of them already, lucky me - a Sony Ericsson T630 and a brand new quite-canggih computer (not a laptop, but it has a 17" LCD screen!). The 3rd one, I can forgo until I go on my next whining frenzy :)

And now, it's very much time for me to scoot away and memorise everything - 12 more hours before I'm stuck in that huge big silent exam room with only myself and the invigilator. Wish me luck!

Hail!

It rained hail just now, right after I'd logged off. It's been quite some time since I've heard such thunderous thunder, for lack of a better adjective :P First time seeing hail. Was quite fascinated to watch the little hailstones (are they called that?) jumping around on my lawn as they fell rather rapidly. They were about the size of my big toe, which was good, because if it was the size of my fist, I'd be really worried for my car.

Storms are quite fascinating, if they don't cause lights to blow or modems to go bust. Thankfully, the latter didn't happen, but the lights did go out. Now there's this stinking smell of burnt wood (similar to that of charcoal) around the dining room because the lights there got hit by lightning - don't ask me how.

But, as I was saying, that storm was quite beautiful to watch. First came loud thunder - I'm told this happens when clouds collide. Then came heavy rain coupled with strong winds, which caused the rain to blow first this way, then that way - that was my favourite part, seeing the rain wash the world left, right, inside and outside. Then hail started pattering on the window panes.

As the rain ceased, the winds calmed and the trees stopped swaying. The rain arrived with pomp, did its job, and left - leaving a refreshing cold breeze cooling its way into the humid houses of PJ - my favourite kind of after-rain effect.

My favourite roti tisu

At Kayu in SS2!

These pics were taken some time ago with my uncle's hp - we brought his family there to see the tallest roti tisu :)

I think the staff there pulled the roti tisu a little taller than usual when they saw my uncle taking photos of them - haha. The longest I've ever gotten was 2 plates, but the one they sent to my uncle spanned 3 whole plates!

And yes, now I really have to go back to studying - it's started storming outside, finally.

The masters at work in Kayu 

It spans the length of 3 plates! 

The super-tall roti tisu from Kayu in SS2 

After today ...

... my holidays finally begin.

You remember how, as a student, you feel so relieved after the exams? There isn't that same feeling anymore when you start working, 'cause work seems neverending. After weeks (or days, for me) of slogging at the books, trying to understand texts, finally resorting to plain memorising when comprehension seems to delude you, the incoherent muttering under your breath of "factors causing" and "reasons why" and "advantages & limitations of" a zillion different issues, the A4 paper scribbled with last-minute formulaes and lists ...

Tomorrow night, I can go back to my nightly reading of fiction before switching off the lights - how I miss my storybooks so! Tomorrow evening, I can heave a big sigh of relief that I won't need to go thru this again until August. Tomorrow night, I can finally really participate in the CNY celebrations (i.e. the countless hours of gambling). Tomorrow evening, I can watch tv like nobody's business and finally finish watching The Apprentice 2, Desperate Housewives, and Arrested Development 1 & 2. Ah, to be able to delight in the little trivialities of life :)

There seems so much to do tomorrow! :)

But for now, tomorrow morning's the focus. 3 hours in the morning, and 3 hours in the afternoon. I'd better put in the hours now.

But, after today ... ;)

Story of the day

***
I think that when you fall in love with someone, or rather, when I fall in love with someone – because what I've recently learned is that there is no universal love thing that people feel, but instead everyone feels their own, painfully personalized version – when I fall in love with someone, I create a mental image of the person and myself in my head. I imagine what we will be like together now, together tomorrow, together in 10 years. I'm not talking about schoolgirl fantasies of two kids, one dog, and a goldfish. That sort of fantasy seems scary and concrete, and I imagine a lot of men would absolutely freak out on hearing their girlfriend's 10-year forecast. But nobody ever looks back on their 10-year relationship and says, "Dammit, we don't have the goldfish, I'm walking," so this is a pretty ridiculous thing to get worked up about. But I'm getting off topic.

My fantasies deal with the day-to-day stuff. I fantasize about how we'll go grocery shopping together. I fantasize about how we'll sit next to each other and read silently for hours. I fantasize about how we'll support each other's artistic endeavors. Imaginary me and imaginary girl live a sort of sci-fi life together where we intuitively know when we need to be together, when we need to be apart, and when we need to have sex the third, fourth, and fifth time that day – a nice routine that nobody ever gets tired of because both parties are – get ready – in love with each other.

I think for some people, love is an easy thing. I'm not sure how it works, but for some people, it's like that. They wake up, they do their thing, they're together some and apart some, and at the end of the day, they happily sink into bed and snuggle for a while, and then they go to sleep. For me, love is a war.

The little me in my head, he's like Dr. Jekyll. And the real me, he's like Mr. Hyde. They're the same me, but they want to go in different directions. One wants to have the peaceful fantasy partnership. The other wants to tear everything apart at the first appearance of a fracture. "Oh," says the real me. "You don't want to go to the grocery store with me? THIS ISN'T LOVE! THIS IS A SHAM!"

Love works for me in some circumstances. I can be desperately head-over-heels in love with someone who lives on the other side of the country, no problem. I can be in love with someone who I see regularly at the coffee shop as long as I never speak to them. As long as fantasy-Ben is left in control, everything's great. I'm a pro at being in love. Relationships are my weak point. The ambition. The resentment. The compromises. Oh, the compromises! If there was one thing that I could change about myself, it'd be compromising about the anti-compromising stance.

I loved my wife. I still love her. I'm not talking platonic friendly love. I love the girl. I think she's amazing. But because of the differences between our real-life relationship and the artificial, ideal relationship I imagined when we first got together, we just couldn't function as a couple. So, because we loved each other, we decided to put some distance between ourselves. There aren't too many men who'll tell you that he divorced a woman because he loved her. But I did.

***

The story doesn't really end the way I wanted it to - I'm a dreamer, I prefer happy endings - but I think the middle paragraphs very nicely sum up what most guys feel about being in love and in relationships. Not that I'm a guy, and I'm no expert at generalising and such, but if you dig deep in I think even most girls agree. Being in love, having a crush on someone, being in a steady relationship - not everyone takes it the same way.

Beautiful story isn't it? Love Will Tear Us Apart by Ben Brown
Found this story from a link a friend gave me. It's a very nice website filled with short stories written by real people - {fray}

Movies? Bah!

There's absolutely nothing showing on the screens! There hasn't been anything good since Phantom of the Opera - which was a brilliant movie because I could sing along to everything :)

There's Constantine, which I'm not watching till after Chap Goh Meh - call me superstitious, I dun really care. Only pull factor of this movie is the utterly gorgeous Keanu. Although the guys may prefer Rachel Weisz.

Bridget Jones - not a cinema movie, more like a DVD, largely because no one will watch it with me.

National Treasure - I heard it sucks, does it? I don't do these kind of movies anyway, I forget what I see after a couple of weeks and never remember if I've watched it before or not.

But how come the next change of movies always seem to be more exciting? GSC's March movies include "A Very Long Engagement", "Lemony Snicket" - total must watch, "Million Dollar Baby", "Hitch", "Being Julia", "Miss Congeniality 2" and "White Noise".

I always say that I wanna watch these movies, how come no one takes up the hint? *Hint hint* :)

About to die of boredom or stress, can't define one from the other. Exams' in less than 36 hours' time. Argh.

Sweet Message Sound

When your handphone beeps to signal an incoming message, and when that message is something sweet from someone who doesn't do messages often, that's when the smile on your face and that fuzzy feeling in your heart is real.

The beauty of sms allows you to define what you will of those few written words in that little handheld device. He could be whispering it in your ear, she could be cheekily pulling your leg. Non-confrontational, totally harmless, words flying thru the air to another person in goodness knows where.

Technology is rather beautiful, isn't it?

Valentine's Day 2005

V's Day and what it means - a topic constantly and thoroughly dissected in the newspapers today, and every year in fact. Doesn't it make you wonder what goes through the minds of those people who buy roses costing RM500? And even that's at a discounted price ... gee, what an expensive definition of being romantic! But now, there's this woman who bought her hubby's favourite junk food and "hamper"-ed it beautifully - now that's being romantic! :)

Last year, a BBQ was organised to celebrate my bf's birthday and those without romantic notions in their head came to make merry. This year, the first half of the day was spent quietly in Ipoh, a couple of hours on the PLUS highway, a couple of hours dinner-ing with my family and a few minutes just the two of us sharing a cake in Coffee Bean. V's Day means something else to me :)

And Ipoh reminded me again of what it means to celebrate CNY with family - more good than bad. And with "family" comes every single string and dangle and what-nots. Ah well ...

Back from Ipoh, and I've to be a student once again - exams on Friday. After that, yippee doo dah - for a couple of weeks :P

But, I've resolved and reflected - (gotta constantly remind and re-quote myself) - therefore I shall persevere.

What it means to me

As a continuation of the previous post ...

1. Lots of food! Especially since my sisters are around and they like to bake and cook ;)

2. A great reason to just sit around and do absolutely nothing

3. The only time of the year everyone sits in circles to give money away to each other

4. Plenty of noisy tv shows

5. Even noisier little kids

6. And finally, the ang paus! Yah yah, big girl already, and all that nonsense - but it's still money! :)

What does CNY mean to you?

Generally speaking from the viewpoint of youngsters, if I may generalise, and if I may think of myself and my group of acquaintances as "youngsters" ... it doesn't really mean much. *Oooh, such a sweeping statement*

Think about it. For the young 20-something person working away from home, he returns to his home in another state, spends a whole week among family, eating, drinking, pretending to enjoy the many trials of "catching-up" with relatives. With the wonderful CNY weather of hot humid totally sore-throat inducing sun, we traipse from house to house, collecting ang pau rather bashfully ...

Ooh, ang pau, another bone to pick. It was fun when we were younger, wasn't it? Now, you've reached that age where you feel uncomfortable literally taking money from an old retired aunt or a smiling hunched grandpa. That's if you're not married yet. If you are, CNY becomes a financial crisis situation. True true, the red packet's to symbolise good wishes and what-nots, it shouldn't matter how much it contains, but kids nowadays .... *tsk tsk* ... and the social stigma! Don't get me started ...

For those who are used to living in huge bustling traffic-jammed KL, returning to a quiet, supposedly stressed-free hometown may pose a tricky problem. What to do ah at home? Is there so much to say to your family and relatives? Or maybe it's just me, who's gonna be cooped up at home with my nucleus family, since most of our relatives are all in different states. TV torrents seems like a good idea - but that defeats the whole purpose of the new year, doesn't it? The solitary viewing of American TV through a 17" LCD screen - hah! Shouldn't it be a time when you renew ties and catch up with each other? Somehow, what CNY means seems to be eluding me - or maybe it's study stress ...

The 1st day of the 2nd month

That should mean something.

It means that it's KL day - a day when an exodus of KL-ites causes massive jams in major parts of Selangor e.g. PJ State.

It means that it's a day that KL-ites get to relax because they don't have a Sultan who takes care of them and gives them Thaipusam or Nuzul Quran as holidays.

It also means that, the first month of the year has passed.

What I've learnt :

• That downloading torrents is a fantastic way to fully utilize my RM66 of broadband (and my modem now has a dedicated fan to cool it 24-hours a day)
• That tv is once again in my life (through torrents)
• That torrents are eating into study time (the amount of time trawling the net for cool downloads and then spending time watching what I've downloaded, gosh can time fly)
• That it's very easy to spend all your bonus money in a single week (it is so much easier to spend than to earn, isn't it?)
• That it's liberating to have a great new hairstyle (I digitally-permed my hair, go figure)
• That winning is a great feeling (I won MLTR concert tickets and I just won gala premiere tickets to Seoul Raiders at GSC Berjaya Times Square)
• That it takes work to maintain friendships (the amount of times that my friends and I have tried juggling between each other's schedules to just meet up for dinner, it's amazing how packed the schedules of a single person can be - I mean, hey, we don't even yet have husbands to cook for or kids to fetch from school!)
• That I definitely cannot juggle between studying for exams, working and writing my valuer's log book AT THE SAME TIME, argh! :P
• And, that I just may be starting a new interest in my life ;)

Now, that last statement ... well, it's a secret - still. Sort of. More like, a plan. Future plan. I may be on to something that I think I'd really really like to do. Definitely not a job. More like an interest. I'll blab more when there's more to tell ;)

And now, I have to get back to my lovely old finance text book. Maybe if I started saying I love finance, I may actually learn to understand what the text book is saying. Just maybe ...