St. Joseph's Cathedral, Kuching, Sarawak

it was my first time in Kuching. i went there for the CHOICE National Conference and instead of we having our own mass at the venue, they planned for us to attend mass at St. Joseph's Cathedral in Kuching. i wasn't expecting much as no one mentioned how big or how this church would look like and yea, i didn't try to find out as well. so when we reached, got down the bus, then only i saw the church. it had a unique shape for the roof and thought it was cool.

wait till u get in!!!! i tell u... ur jaw will drop and u'll just stand there for a second or two to actually get it all in. i never been to churches in the Vatican or Rome or etc.... but this church was something for me to get me to actually say Wow out loud! wonder if anyone heard me! lol

the roof is super high, lights everywhere and the alter is right in the middle (someone said it was something like St.Anne's church but what's different is that the alter is lowered and the seats are higher, like an auditorium.. and i think that's the difference.
mass was celebrated by Fr. Simon who is also Kuching's CHOICE priest, and Fr.Dominic from Penang and i believe there's someone else as well, don't really know. mass was 1hr and i noticed how they kept it on time as well, hope masses in pg would do the same and not waste time. lol. anyhow, i'm glad to have seen this church, it was really something and it was different. nicely done!

Maureen turns a year older

another old post. :P

this time it's a bitter sweet meet-up with the girls. one's leaving to KL and one's turning a year older. we've been through thick and thin together and had gotten through it. and times like this just makes us wanna be this way forever, all happy, together, eating, drinking, dancing and having a great time. but as lives and time goes on, we will eventually as well.

every outing always starts with food, how not too man!!! it's a must!!! so this time we opted for something nicer (than the usual hawker stalls that's hot and stuffy and sitting on stools) which is Ingolf, yes, German sausages and meat! *wink* ooohh and of course German beer yo!!!

don't wanna tempt u with food pics, this time it'll be this - Mr. Paulaner!

after stuffing ourselves with meat (hehehe) and of course drinks, we settled abit before deciding where to go next. everyone agreed to cozy, live band, nice place with drinks.... and not sure who thought of it, Bagan came to the picture, so there was where we went!

we had a lovely assorment of cocktails and entertainment. later on Gino and friend joined us! what a lovely surprise! it's always a cheer when he joins us. more happening! lol. the cake was cut, faces oiled by the cream (hahahah) and drinks that were drunk... and oh... LOADS of cam-whoring i tell u!! my camera nearly went out of battery, just by ONE night! lol

the girl that's leaving, the girl that's a year older

hi Gino!

the night always ends with a group pic. and i believe this would be the last group pic we'll have. unless every one of us makes an effort to go to KL or the one from KL to come back to Penang for an outing again. but as of now, it'll all be stored in our good books and hope for the best for everyone! *miss you girls!* *huggies*

a Dugong picnic

a very very long over due post... i was going through my pics and wondered if i blogged them or not... and found out i didn't! lol! so here it is...

as the beginning of this year, we've tried our best to meet up at least once a year to catch up. one of our outings was this picnic! it's been a while since i/we had a picnic. i know, we're in Penang, the beach is practically 30 mins away or so and we don't make use of it... so here we are, having a picnic at the Lone Pine hotel (it's under renovation)

what we had? pancake spring rolls.. YUMMY!!! the Reutens macaroni, home made pork satay, piggies-in-a-blanket and my cuppies! oh and of course drinks and beer :)

the cousins

at that time my cousin from Aus was down and asked him to join us, he's the tall one (obviously) and such a funny guy. i believe he got along with everyone. we ate, we laughed, we bbq-ed the satay, we drank and eventually got wet in the water.

comparing heights!

the sun began to set and we got cleaned up abit and packed. we headed to Sunset Bistro for dinner. some were just thirsty, some were hungry. Mr.Capes later joined us for a bite too! so nice of him.

*for the record: that beer was mine, not the minor's

the perfect line up!

i think we hung out at Sunset Bistro for a few hours and then we headed back home to get cleaned. we were all sticky from the salt and sand but no doubt it was a good outing. hope to have another one, but i guess not too soon as 2 couples are getting married. maybe next year gang? :) miss ya'll!!

Thai Kitchen Restaurant @ The Heritage House, Penang

Thai Kitchen is restaurant located inside The Heritage House club. it seems they took over a previous restaurant and now it's a Thai restaurant. a friend of mine knows the boss and she brought some of us there to give it a try. when i went there, they were only opened 3 weeks ago. so they're still new, service was quite good. the place is very simple, few tables here and there, no fancy deco but cosy. nice place for group of friends or family.

kang kung sambal belacan - quite nice, veg was crunchy and not over cooked. it didn't have the over salty taste or oily (eventhough u see the pic - it's abit oily). i was practically just eating this with white rice, and nearly finished my rice even before the other dishes arrived.

the MUST-HAVE tomyam seafood soup! lovely!! hard to compare to the other GOOD tomyam places, but this is sure not a dissapointment! we even had a second smaller bowl... hahahha we nearly finished the soup, we were filled with water! it was kinda spicy but what's a tomyam that's not spicy right? eventhough i was "suffering" i was still enjoying it, just drinking the soup from the bowl! yum!
the menu showed they had otak otak and heck, y not try. and it came a lil differently from the normal otak otak u usually get. this one came in foiled and when opened, a big chunk of otak with garnishing and i think abit of coconut milk. when we dug in, at the bottom there were chinese sayur putih! quite a mix but somehow it all blended together. the otak otak itself tasted differently, it wasn't too spicy, but can say the taste is there. more "milkier" though...
then we had this fish, now i forgot how it's cooked. i don't think it's tomyam but somewhat. tumeric? not sure, but anyway, it was quite ok, it's steamed so it had that mild taste yet still addictive, can't really find that word to describe it. i guess it's because it's just different.

this was quite awesome! minced meat in soya sauce and spices. it's abit spicy but that's how it's supposed to be! lovely on it's own or with rice... yum yum...

for the time being i believe there's a 30% discount on the whole bill... but then again i went there a month ago or so when i wrote this. lol. parkings free at The Heritage House. at that time their desserts were not ready yet, so hopefully by now they'd have Thai desserts! will have to go back there again.

for those who like lemongrass juice/drink, my friends who likes it says this place has one of the best lemongrass drinks she's ever tasted - i don't like lemongrass! hahahha

10 days for St. Anne

St. Anne's feast has come and gone for another year. and somehow i felt like doing something. it's been a while since i got involved in anything big, church-like, like this. and since it's ACTUALLY my parish, why not? i was skeptical in volunteering, knowing that most of the ppl i know are gone or it's been TOO long since i saw them and that now, it'll be younger unknown people to me. but i tried and i did not regret! :D

i've been assigned to the ice-cream and drink stall and i've met these 2 lovely ladies and of course other volunteers as well, they're such a great bunch! it's my first time selling ice-cream (scooping and all that) and it was fun! should i put that in my resume? Skill : scooping ice-cream, Beginner. hhahahahaha

at some times, i do help out with the serving of free food (rice and dishes) and that too was fun! especially scooping (hot) rice onto plates. i think i've reached my facial steam quota for the month! lol oh, and another entry to my resume? Skill : serving rice (nasi kandar style), Beginner :P

fret not, i've gotten my CHOICEe girls to join in too! and i'm sure they too had a great experience! there were many more people who came to help, but i didn't have much time to take pics - very the busy leh, so many ppl! but it's all good! and i hope the church had a good amount of donation! Thank You all!

so eventhough after every night, i came home with painful feet, but the feeling i had was something i never felt before, it's somewhat like feeling of peace yet i still can't put a finger on it, on what i was feeling. i do hope this feeling will continue, it's quite nice actually. maybe St. Anne's listening? i don't know. i'll just leave it up to her and HIM - let thy will be done!

my first Peranakan Wedding

it was such great news to hear that one of my good ol friend was to get hitched, now we all can say, FINALLY! and i can say...

CONGRATULATIONS to BenLiAnn!

Wishing you both all the best, many years of love and joy and juniors!

May God's Blessing be with you both!

team "ben" arrived in KL the day before the wedding and the kancheong-ness started by helping the groom to get last minute things done. by the time the day ended, we were all beat, but there's nothing better than ending it with a good meal with great friends and well... a football match. lol

and so THE day came and we were all briefed with our duties and ETA to the church. we managed to get our jobs done and started to get excited as the clock was ticking... the groom was nervous (and i heard the best man too!!). managed to get some pics taken before the wedding ceremony started :)

with lovely Rosie

jeng jeng jeng... team "liann" arrived! right on time and she was dashing! here's a pic with her lovely bridesmaid in green. their theme was a nice combination of olive green and cream (or issit called off-white?) surprisingly the bride didn't look nervous at all, infact she was all smiley and happy and laughing!! which was good! :D

the church ceremony was lovely, very meaningful, very matrimonial (is there such a word) and if i was seated closer, i would have teared.... :) and what a surprise Ben had in store for me (he kept it from me all these months), it was that my cousin, Luke, was invited as well! connection with RCIA! coolness!! it's been a while since i met him and it was good to catch up for a lil while. after the wedding ceremony, there was a lil tea reception at the field next to the church. LOVELY food, met mutual friends and found out that the world IS very small... :)

cousin Luke

the Penang dinner was after about 2 weeks from the KL one, and we were getting more excited!! the dinner was a Peranakan theme and because of the uniqueness, i (particularly) was excited heheheh. we were all helping the couple again the day before the dinner, kaypoh-ed their wedding shoot for a bit and we even had a meeting regarding our duties! very organised i'd say! every single detail was spelled out.

... and then the day arrived, everyone got dolled up, arrived early for our duties and the guests started to arrive. again, meeting lots of mutual friends, lots of picture takings, hugs, laughter and excitement :)

one of the official photographers/friend of the groom/mutual friend - Dan

one half of the power couple of team "ben" - Christine

Mr. & Mrs Capel :)

fellow Dugongs!

dinner started with style, food presentation by the E&O staff and slide shows. food was great! can u believe it, it was Nyonya food! lovely just lovely! something you don't really get at normal wedding dinners! then the speeches started, very heartfelt and comical at the same time! such lovely family... and a surprise for the guests! a walk-in by all the "nyonyas" in kebaya!

dinner ended with lots of merry making and yamseng-ing. the couple had another surprise for their guests again! their door-gift! guess what it is (pic above). so aunthentic la i tell you!! really peranakan!! what a night to remember!

when the dinner finally ended, close friends of the couple headed to the after party, to give thanks to the people who helped and supported them and also to give a special tribute to the matchmaker who introduced them :) so sweet!!!

with my cousin Simon who came all the way from Aussie land!

Girly, moi, Rosie, LiAnn, MeiShyen

KarJin, Simon, LiAnn, MeiShyen, Ben, moi
*obviously there were much more pics but these are the more decent ones.. hehehe

KUDOS! to the BenLiAnn for planning both KL and PG events. very thorough, detailed and most importantly unique and beautiful! love the creativity and the thought of being environmental friendly made it different. Thank You for the lovely experience and having me to join you in celebratating this wonderful moment in your lives! *lots of hugs*

ps- maybe i should hire you as my wedding planner.. IF i get married one day lah... hahahha