Can you find..

..the cat in the photo below?

There it is!

Life goes on

I am very busy these days as my project shows signs of nearing kick-off but now and then I can't help but think about the people in Japan and Libya who are seriously affected by what is happening now in their countries.

A green apple?

When I first saw it from afar in a local supermarket, I thought it was a green apple. Then my mother told me that it is a fresh date (jujube / Ziziphus zizyphus / 蜜枣) and that she used to eat them during her growing up years in Taiwan. So I bought a pack of about 6 (500g) at about RM15 to try as I have never tasted a fresh date before. It is crunchy and tastes slightly sweet. Will definitely buy them again.

A walk in town

Once in a while, I would venture into the city center to have a bowl of my favourite beef noodles. This time, when I was there, I noticed something different. Lorong Kasturi, a lane along Kuala Lumpur’s Central Market has been turned into a covered walkway with retail kiosks along it.

Kasturi Walk - the covered walkway with giant Wau Bulan (kites) forming the structure of the walkway. 

As it was still early, the retail kiosks were not opened for business yet.

Kasturi Walk from afar.

After taking photos of the huge kite structure, I proceeded to have my bowl of beef noodles at Shin Kee Beef Noodles Specialist (新九如牛肉粉). The type of noodles I like to eat at this place is "loh see fun" (老鼠粉 - Malaysia and Singapore) or known as "silver needle noodle" (银针粉) in Hong Kong and Taiwan. At RM6 for a small bowl, the price is considered reasonable. After a satisfying meal, I took a walk around Central Market and then it was back home.

My favourite beef noodles eatery - a man is seen in this pic taking photos of the place. It is that popular until many people like to take pictures of it.

Lara's sidekick

From today onwards, I have to report for sidekick duty for at least 1 hour daily until the mission is completed. I play Totec in "Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light" and I have to assist Lara in her adventure. So far, Lara has taught me how to handle my spear, jump and walk on her rope and carry my shield above my head so that she can stand on it to jump to higher places. I am not skillful yet so I get scolded by Lara quite often. When there are many enemies around, I get too excited and forget how to fight so I simply plant and detonate bombs until I blow up Lara. Ah, the joy of cooperative game play between a skillful and an unskillful player. And who says playing games together strengthens the relationship?

The Guild

My spouse got me hooked on this web series entitled "The Guild". If you are a gamer or know someone who is a gamer, then you may be interested to watch this show. It is a comedy about a group of online gamers and each episode takes only about 5 to 8 minutes. We have been watching season 1 to 3 on youtube and season 4 on www.watchtheguild.com during the weekend.

The story behind this web series is very inspiring. It is created and written by Felicia Day, an avid online gamer and struggling actress in Hollywood. The first few episodes were self-funded and then the money ran out so the next few episodes were financed by donations via PayPal. More information available here. What's important is that some people are inspired by what she has achieved to start doing something about their dreams without waiting for external funding.

I wanted to know more about how she is living with her success now so I found and read two articles: "Farpoint 2010: A Conversation with Felicia Day" and "How Felicia Day Recruited Millions for Her Guild". Very interesting.

Sunday dim sum

My spouse woke me up at 7.30am today to go to eat dim sum so I got up but was quite bad-tempered as I am not a morning person. Got to the dim sum place (6.6km drive) at about 8am and the place was quite full but we managed to get a table.

I took photos of all the dishes we ordered so that I could remember what we had eaten but somehow left out a bowl of congee. We did not order any fried items as I wanted to refrain from eating oily food. The bill came up to RM54.60 inclusive of 6% government tax and 5% service charge. The dim sum dishes were categorized as small (RM 3.6), medium (RM4) and big (RM4.5) and we had 1 pot of tea (RM 1.5 per person), 2 small, 3 medium and 6 big dim sums but we did not ask which is which, we just sort of guess.

Overall, the savoury dim sums are a bit too salty and the pork taste is a bit too strong for me but my spouse said his bowl of century egg, salty duck egg, and lean pork meat congee is nice. No second visit for me.We ate the following:

L: Steamed prawn dumplings (4.5) R: Steamed pork ribs (4.5)

L:Chives pork dumplings (4.5) R: Steamed pork dumplings (siew mai - 4.5)

L:Lotus glutinous rice (4.5) R:Scallop prawn dumplings (4.5)

L:Red bean pao/buns (3.6) R: BBQ pork (char siew) pao/buns (3.6)

L: Fish paste balls (4) R:Glutinous chicken rice (lo mai kai - 4)

Restaurant 錦選