Potluck session – Lunch in office

This was the last potluck session in the office we had and it was last August :P Time flies, seriously fast!

So as usual, few will share and bring a dish, and this round was pretty okay… just nice for everyone… not much leftovers compared to the earlier session we had… everything was just nice..

We had fried rice with sambal ikan bilis which was yummyyyyy… really yummy… hard boiled eggs and papadem…

Spaghetti bolognaise, mushroom soup and salad…

Some kuih.. the green one is called lopeh… i forgot the name of the other one, cheese tarts and the putu.. something like that…

Mango pudding, tuna and egg mayo sandwiches, fresh fruits and tau fu fah..

All nicely spread… so nice of me leh… I’m giving you people ideas for potluck leh.. :P previously I’ve posted a few on potlucks.. during Deeparaya and also during last Christmas when we went to Jen’s. I’ve got few potluck sessions with ideas I have not posted… more to come :D  And my manager ordered sweet looking cupcakes too!

And because it’s so pretty, I took a lot of photos of it….

  And more and more…

Just imagine if it’s Su’s cupcakes from Delectable.. Love her work.. her cupcakes and cakes.. I might take photos until my camera run out of battery lo… :P

Well, looking forward for another session… not sure when though…. :P

Meet up with a counterpart from DHL SHA

A counterpart of mine happen to come to Malaysia for holidays last end of November and Penang was one of his stops.  So I went to meet up with him and another travel partner of his. Peter is from Shanghai and his travel partner is Catherine from Chengdu(not from DHL). Brought them for dinner and shopping in Gurney Plaza. Very nice people, he even brought me a souvenir from Shanghai EXPO 2010.

My previous meet with DHL counterpart was with Cindy from Guangzhou. We planned a meet up during my last trip to Hong Kong 2008. She also gave me a souvenir for Guangzhou 2010 Asian Games. I have nothing happening from Malaysia to give them lo! :(

Anyways, both nice counterparts and Catherine invited me to visit them soon… but I’ve gotta plan for Guangzhou first… haha.. else Cindy will scold me loo.. :P

Oh ya.. just came back from Hong Kong trip last week …yes, Hong Kong again… enjoyed the cold weather and I’m missing it already!!! I felt that I did not shop enough this round.. and i freaking sprained my ankles… bumped into few celebrities… Bosco, Woo Fong, TVB celebrities mainly and Alan Tam in the airport… din manage to take photos with all of them though… photos soon.. i hope… procrastinating again :P

DHL Express PEN GTW New Year Family Day – BBQ Outing by the beach

It’s an annual thing for the PEN GTW team to organize a BBQ on new years day… i think.. haha.. i missed last year’s because I had a house warming party to attend.  This year, the organizer folks were kind enough to invite again to join them. Thanks guys!

The day was sunny, with cool breeze luckily.. i thought i was just going to stop by for a while but i ended up staying the whole day till late! Agreed to met Lorna at 1pm, and good thing it’s only 5 minutes drive form my place :D to Pantai Jerejak, nearby the jetty.. never knew there’s a place for picnic… the beach is not clean though… and besides us, there were many different big groups having their BBQ functions too!

Lotsa food!!! Chicken, sausages, squids, tiger prawns, all so yummy!

Ada fried bee hoon (fried vermicelli) and fried rice too! And they ordered laksa and rojak towards the end of the day from the nearby stalls… the laksa.. erm.. tak sedap lo!

Chef of the day and head chef monitoring :P

The Gateway and Ops clan, also invited, the CSE clan :P  No function is complete without….booze!

Day and night at the beach…. this is a good way to bond with each other.. it’s in fact during working hours we sometimes argue lot on the phone and emails, between both clans…. but end of the day, we can all sit together and eat, chit chat and have fun together. Well, it’s just a job after all!

Raya Goodies from a colleague

I was needed to be at work on the 3rd day of Raya due to some support needed by the customer while some still enjoying the holidays sleeping nicely at home… pity pity… anyways, a colleague who is celebrating Hari Raya came to settle some of her reports and was kind and thoughtful enough to bring me some Raya goodies… some cookies and “nasi himpit” with kuah kacang (peanut sauce). Yummy yummy… Thanks Suraya!

Reminds me of the times when I was home for the past years since I was young… I have Malay neighbours 2 at the back, 1 next door, and another 2 at the other end of the lorong (lane / road). So i basically grew up having majority of Malay neighbours (which explains my fluency in Bahasa Melayu / Malay language) and played with all of them (the kids of course) alongside with another Indian family’s kids living at the same lane.

So during the festive seasons, we would send over some cookies and goodies over to our neighbours.. so muhibah right :D hahahaha… either way, in return, we will place few big spoonful of sugar and a packet of red packet containing some amount of money as appreciation. If it’s double festive season, then we’ll exchange cookies and goodies. So since the majority are the Malays, we will receive a lot of cookies during Hari Raya :D sometimes even a tray of yummy authentic home made Malay/Raya cuisine like rendang, ketupat, lemang and sorts… shiok!

Even at school, after back from festive holidays (minimum 1 week holiday usually during festive season), we will bring the cookies and goodies to share with friends… :D

I love festive season!! coming up… Deepavali & Christmas!! Can’t wait for Chinese New year though… best time of the year!

 

Assorted cookies and chocolate cake slice!

Nasi himpit and the peanut sauce… home made sauce… nice!

BBQ by the beach on a Sunday afternoon~

Had a BBQ outing with few of my colleagues last Sunday…. it was initially like a few of us (when i say a few, i’m saying like at least 5 to 6 ppl la…) but ended up with less than few, only 3 of us, the initial planner for the picnic :D so we called up another colleague to join us since there’s lotsa food… well, it was pretty cloudy that day at Bayan Lepas area but we proceeded to the beach (Tanjung Bungah) as planned, it was sunny there!

Laid the mats and start the fire :D

The ladies getting busy, since I prepared all the stuffs, they have to start the fire.. muahahahaha…

Well it eventually started to drizzle, and rained a little bit it did not stop us… one of the colleague turned back cos when he was on it’s way it rained.. thinking that we also might have gone back.. another colleague we invited also sms-ed and asked us to “go home laaa” but we’re totally positive it’s gonna stop! so i went to grab my umbrellas… lucky all the huge ones are available… and we still continue to bbq ignoring the rain :D it it did finally stopped!!!

Prawn and squid skewers and cheese cocktail skewers i prepared form home in the morning….

Yummy yummy.. everything turned out great :D

Chicken and corn too, were delicious :D.. and one container of fried bee hoon..

This doggie is simply one of the cutest and cheekiest! Her name is Kylie… another 2 friends of hers name Jessie (looks like a poodle), also darn cute and a boxer, don’t know her name… running and playing on the beach with their owners.. they belonged to an Caucasian family….. the last time i was there i met the lady with the same boxer too… she’s the mother of the boxer’s owner… they stay next to each other…

Photo sessions…. by the beach towards the evening… with sea breeze…hmm.. nice!

Snap snap snap….

Playing under the hot sun… no wonder everyone was pretty much baked to perfection!

 

Chilling out… we got a good spot under the tree.. which help us to at leave cover from the rain a lil and of course the sun!

Cloudy day which eventually turned to a sunny Sunday afternoon! Well, the moment we packed everything in the car and drove off, it started to rain again…. haha.. so weather have been treating us good that day… took the rain away for the afternoon and let us enjoy for a while at least :D

Happy 2 Years Anniversary…..

To my job in DHL Express!!! 

A Day Out to Pulau Jerejak with Colleagues

Finally, we managed to organize an self sponsored (MYR75 for activities and BBQ buffet dinner) outing/so called team building and execute it... we actually planned this way back in December... 28th March was the chosen date and despite the recession and depression, we still go on with the plan... even though the responses were only half of the team, nothing can stop us to go all out and have a fun weekend away from work :D And this is my first time in nearly 2 years, besides the weekend BBQ exactly a year ago (ok la.. not exactly la.. one day later, 29th March 08), I get to experience a more adventerous outing with my colleagues.. and torturous, yes... especially during the never ending jungle tracking.... but filled with lotsa fun and laughter.... so, like my other typical posts, sure got whole load of photos ler... what to do.. i was made the official photographer of the day... cos only myself who have brought my faithful camera along :D haha.. here goes...

Meet up point, Jerejak Jetty, penang side at 2:20pm, it initially looked like it's gonna rain but the sun was at our side and decided to shine for another few hours. The weather have been pretty nice to us.... it only rained after we finished all the outdoor activities and when getting ready for dinner...

Group photos... Suthagar was supposed to join us but due to some unforseen issue, unable to join and so Wani brought along her cousin sister

We took the speed boat instead of the the normal mini ferry... so we save up around 10 minutes travel time but have to bear with the sea water splashing to our faces :P

Enjoying the ride

The beach.... it's not suitable for swim though... they said that it's full with jelly fishes.. you don't mess with the jelly fishes!!

Getting ready for the first activitiy.... and need to warm up too... the jungle tracking is not exactly an easy one for a person who seldom exercises :P testing a lot on your stamina...

The journey begins!! That's Mr Ali at the middle bottom part of the photo... Tongkat Ali... the person who led us throughout the jungle tracking journey also taught us on how to recognise a tongkat ali plant... the leaves of the plant, you can take and try to crush and wrinkle it with your fingers, it will not tear... unless u tear it on purpose and with force ler :D and tongkat ali root is hard to extract from the earth as the main root will go metres under and then only it start to spread across...

First quarter of the journey, at 500 metres... that's where the quarantine centre site used to be, if I remember correctly.. haha... all the way down was steep... so we need to hold on the branches and available ropes...

Half of the journey.... reaching the Penal Colony - Jerejak Rehabilitation Centre... looked scary though... it used to occupied by riot detainees..

Arrived to the other side of the beach... you can see ships/vessels are built at this side too... to track back to the side of the island where we came from, we have to again brace the jungle!!
Along the way while tracking, you will see tombstones which I believe is the Russian Cemetary site.. after a long long way... never ending tracking.... we finally reach the suspension bridge!!!

Us, all excited walking across the bridge... some even try to shake and swing the bridge to scare each other... tsk tsk tsk.. hahaha....

When you reached the other side of the bridge, that's when you reach to the flying fox area.... jeng jeng jeng... some even start to freak out wanting to find other way to escape.. haha... but we managed to all talked each other out and all go with it.... and with no regrets, everyone enjoyed it a lot... it's just a short distance one and not as challenging though...

Us again, posing for a couple of shots before bracing the challenge!! haha... looking more like copper/tin miners ready for work :D

Flying fox ends the extreme activities for the day.. we were supposed to go for a "explorace game" but we were too drained out to run around and decided to go for another extreme game.. the rock climbing....

While waiting for the trained coordinators to arrive, we sat down while the 2 boys proceeded to warm up and climb without supervision.... boys... they will never listen and follow instruction :P muahahahaha

Climb climb climb and it's not as easy as it seems...

Relax session by the pool while most of them practically just jumped in without proper swimming attire.. haha.. totally ignored the sign and the person who is in charge, seated just by the pool.... hahaha... and he did not make noise so we all just make dunno ler... haha... I, on the other hand, decided to just sit and relax, enjoy the breeze and take lotsa photos while having great laugh looking at the little kid in everyone... :D

They were having so much fun in the pool... haha...

While i snapped away the vain-pic-you-don't-want-to-see-but-i-don't care photo :P The lighting was pretty good, made me look fairer mah... :P

A lot of green... good for the eyes...

The rain started while the girls took their baths to freshen themselves and the boys, played ping pong and screaming so loud you can hear words by words from the ladies washroom...

Off for dinner... selection was not huge but pretty not bad.. or perhaps we were all really hungry.... there were fried rice, fried bee hoon, pasta, chicken curry, potatoes, lasagne and vege with cream and sprinkled with cheeseeee... yum!

There was also salad bar, bbq corner, soup of the day and asam laksa too.. and the asam laksa is good, and the soup was thick and spicy too....

Desserts, ranging from cakes, fruits, "leng chee kang", puddings etc...

Also free flow of readily bbq-ed seafood, chicken, lamb, satay and lots more.... they also have a char koay teow counter... i didn't manage to try though...

Feasting time...... and photo sessions... all tired and hungry.. :D

So happen it's the earth hour day, and in support to the cause, they switched off the lights, fans and unnecessary electrical appliances between 8:30pm to 9:30pm..... so we're pretty much in the dark with minimal candle light to aid us to move around... good thing it rained too... so it was not that hot..

Photo sessions again.... :D

My colleagues took part in some dance challenge too and we won!! haha... got a hamper somemore... :D so we brought it back to the office and share among everyone in the office..

Musical chairs.... the boys lost :P hahaha.. besides us from DHL, there were also a function for Uniplan. So they joined the fun along....

Sha won for the ladies musical chair...... hahaha.. if one of the guys win, we would have sapu all clean and go home :D hahaha

Ready to go home.... Punitha attempting to drive the kancil converted buggy..

Reached back to Penang's side around 12:00 midnight... all tired and still drizzling, we all bid bye bye, and went home for a good night sleep!

We have indeed had lots of fun and a great experience! Looking forward for the next session... but looking at the recession... hmmm... i guess we won't let it stop us ler...