Fine dining at 39th Restaurant, PNB Darby Park

A-ha... I got another dining experiences to be laid out here. I stayed at PNB Darby Park for attending training for almost a week. And the lunches were provided at The 39th Restaurant, which is located at 39th floor.

It seems like the hotel has a speciality in serving super delicious Malay food. And the dishes were arranged to suit my big appetite for lunches throughout the week. Here we go!

Of course all of these main courses have to be started with the appetizer. And my all-time favourite is always the fresh mussels. With an additional of italian, thousand island and other dressings, I promise the thousand island dripped mussels taste the best.

                                                


And to wrap the meals up, it has to be finished with a bowl of assorted ice-creams. Wouldn`t it be heaven enough~

New 'toys' for home-deco

One of my habit after coming back from work is watching tv.  But when watching alone, this eyes never stare the tv alone, but also around the tv.

And it was empty, with nothing except for pink wall.

Thus, I rummaged my album to find some fabs pics, grabbed lavender flowers and fragrance sticks from Lovely Lace. And here it is!

I was told by a friend of mine about Kufi art for deco-ing my wall . When I googled for it, I was hooked to the artwork there and then. And of course, I ordered some pieces of them  for my home. Oh anyway, it is very interesting to know how to read this kind of artwork.

                                                                3 Qul in transparent glass

Now, I have something else to see other than at the telly, kan?

BAKTI 2012- Get socialized with kids

31st March 2012

Being in multinational oil and gas company which is majorly run by local profesionals, it is one of values that is inculcated in our mindset, that is energy received, energy return. To reflect the value in the local community where its regional subsidiary operates, my company has selected a primary school nearby our base  as our "Sekolah Angkat" for a program called BAKTI. 

In other word, this is part of our corporate social responsiblities to local community in enriching and assisting the kids  to improve their self esteem and be certain of who they want to be when they grow up. That`s where we called ourselves as "akak and abang BAKTI".

The session is established on the agreement between schools and Young Executive Club (YPC) in our orgnization, on monthly basis. So, unlike most of the weekends, I made myself available this time to join other colleagues mingling with the kids range 10-12 years old in the activities that have been planned earlier.

Ah man, mingling with these kids was like when I was with my own little brothers and sisters, it just that I have to refrained myself at my best for not to overly boss them around , and not to scream when my order was not being obeyed (like I always do when I was at home). Kui kui kui. I guess this is part of angry management for me too.

So one of the favourite activities in BAKTI for kick-off session is "Drawing you ambition".So my co-facilitator with I brought our group of kids to one place and let them take their time to draw and colour their ambition.

Later on, they were requested to speak out loud about their drawing. Some of them appeared shy initially and after we encouraged them, their confidence improved and spoke loud and clear about their artwork. And that is the intention of having this program, to unleash their confident level especially when it comes to speaking in front of the public.

 

While we  facilitating the session with the kids, the parents were starting  to fulfil the hall for the next event with parents. One of the kids, Ahmad Danial said" Mak kita tak datang, mak kita sakit".  When was asked back, he told that his mother couldnt walk due to diabetis, and his father has passed away. The answer attracted my attention to ask him more and more.

Kids hide no secret, he told me that he always come to school late because he needs to buy food for his sick mother. His sister and brother were away from home and no grown up siblings were there to take care of the mother. I dont expect to hear this in this kinda program, but Danial just spilled about his life nonchalantly while drawing and I found myself  broken-hearted listening to his story.. But definitely I won't let it show.There was something crossed my mind, and somehow I am grateful for what I have been gifted.

 

Back to Danial and his drawing. He drew helicopter and later on when we asked him to present the drawing in front of other friends, he told us that his ambition is to be a pilot. After being with kids for a few similar sessions, that is typical for me. But when he added, " Saya nak jadi pilot and bawak Mak saya pegi Mekah naik helicopter saya.." I was touched.

Deep down, I wish Allah bless his life and family and may his noble dream come true. Aminn.

2012 Kick-Off Vacay in Manila

2-4th  March 2012

Ok, it has been more than 1 month, and only now I am posting the entry about my holiday trip to Manila city. A brief description about Manila, the country has zero time difference with Malaysia. Philipines is a tropical country, thus the day is extraordinarily hotter and brighter than Malaysia. 

It was mid-day when we arrived at the Tivoli Residence. After we got ourselves refreshed, we decided to spend the day by strolling around Mall of Asia, the country's largest shopping mall. Oh well, to get there, we were forced to hail the taxis on the road in the sunny and hot day. Even though the taxis and minivan were seen back and forth, it wasn`t easy for us to stop even one! We finally gave up hailing and requested the security guards of Tivoli Residence to get it for us.

On the other hand, jeepney is a commonly used transportation by the locals, unfortunately we missed the chance to hop on it, due to the time constraint. Pretty bad~

The status of third largest shopping mall in Asia made us optimistic that finding the halal food was easy peasy, but then we were wrong! When all of us were almost starving, the hunting for food all around the mall was a complete nightmare!  Of all many many food restaurants available, we only found one kebab stall for our first meal for the day. Ok,for my eating capasity, and kebab for the meal of the day, I swore I would be hungry again after a few walks from the stall. Huhu.

I have made some researches earlier about Manila,  and the famous attraction besides the mall is Marina Bay.Ok actually there is nothing interesting about Marina Bay per se, but the attraction is best viewed at the bay, which is sunset scenery.

we missed the best scenery at this moment

And after having outdoor stroll, we came back in the mall to do the shopping at Kultura.

Another shopping for groceries before hunting for our dinner meals.

We finally spotted the one and only halal indonesian restaurant in the mall, and there we ate like nobody's business. And just a note, we travelled all the way from our drop-point to the mall everyday in Manila for the sake of having the heavy meal. hoho!

 On the next day, we were brought to a full-day tour by the local guide such as Rizal Park, Intramuros, National Museum, and many more.

Luneta Park

Interesting part about this park is that they imortalized the history of how Jose Rizal was killed by formation of this (can I call it ) monuments.The formation portrays that Jose Rizal was shot by an array of local soldiers, and the local soldiers' life were at stake, as there were another lines of Spanish soldiers who were ready to shoot them if they refused to shoot Jose Rizal. Very meaningful depiction indeed.(Monument tragedi but we pose riang ria plak)

Intramuros

After having the tour, we were also brougth to the souvenir shops.Again, I purchased a few more items even though I planned not to do so after damaging my pocket the other night at Kultura. Well, women~ simply  cannot walk away from shop without bringing anything in hand, especially when it is on a holiday trip.Dont you think so?:p

I was done shopping and suddenly found myself PANCIT :P

SanAgustin church

The next attractions has switched us to an environmentalist , that is Manila Ocean Park where we could see variations of aqualife in one spot.

formation of shark baby-interesting exhibit

It is more or less like our Aquaria, if it is not exactly the same.

And as the day is almost dark, we boarded to the river cruise for sunset cruise. All passengers were entitled for a set of meal, but seeing that the pork was served, we didn`t dare to take the chance of eating anything cooked onboard even though the servants insisted us to take the meals. Thus, to save the uneasiness felt by the staff, we tried to appear jovial throughout the cruise by ordering some drinks and have some laugh over silly talks(and gossiping about matsalih nearby) during the cruise while waiting for the sunset. Hihi.

And after we disembarked, they still insisted us to have the meal by giving us the packed meal. Well,I guess it was  a great day for our local guide, wasnt' it? All five packed delicious dinners were given to him. hehe


It was time that we called it a day, this is the best picture that we snapped before we hopped on to the van. Yippii!~