I posted the "pedal ayam" part of my yesterday's post on Facebook. A friend told me that "pedal ayam" also refers to a padlock! Now that's a discovery...
Thursday, July 27, 2017
Lights over ocean
This week's theme is ocean, and one of the places where I can see the ocean (or more accurately the sea) is at work. However these few days the sky has been rather cloudy, and I couldn't capture a pretty view. So this is today's photo.
Did you notice in the photo that there are some lights above the ocean? Those are actually the reflections of the ceiling lights on the glass windows of the office. (There are balconies, but they are locked, presumably so that no one can commit suicide by jumping down from there.)
Anyway, they look like lights over the ocean... how often do you see an ocean lighted up?
Did you notice in the photo that there are some lights above the ocean? Those are actually the reflections of the ceiling lights on the glass windows of the office. (There are balconies, but they are locked, presumably so that no one can commit suicide by jumping down from there.)
Anyway, they look like lights over the ocean... how often do you see an ocean lighted up?
Wednesday, July 26, 2017
Loteri gerai makan
Blogger asks me, why not blog in Malay? It's been asking me that for some time now.
I don't write in Malay much, and when I do, I find it hard to strike a balance between formal written Malay and informal Malay speech. But I thought of writing about this and it fits better in Malay (it readily popped into my mind in Malay), so here goes.
Semalam beli sebungkus nasi tomato ayam untuk sarapan pagi. Terjumpa pulak sekeping pedal ayam kat dalam. Gembira sebab dapat makan pedal ayam. Tapi sedih pula terfikirkan nasib pedal ayam kalau terjatuh ke tangan orang yang tak makan pedal ayam... Kesian pedal ayam yang kurang difahami ni.
Hari ni pulak pergi beli bakso. (bakso yang pernah dikatakan dulu) Biasanya ada bebola daging saja, tapi hari ni ada dua ketul daging kecik. Terkena jackpot agaknya dua hari ni... hahaha
I don't write in Malay much, and when I do, I find it hard to strike a balance between formal written Malay and informal Malay speech. But I thought of writing about this and it fits better in Malay (it readily popped into my mind in Malay), so here goes.
Semalam beli sebungkus nasi tomato ayam untuk sarapan pagi. Terjumpa pulak sekeping pedal ayam kat dalam. Gembira sebab dapat makan pedal ayam. Tapi sedih pula terfikirkan nasib pedal ayam kalau terjatuh ke tangan orang yang tak makan pedal ayam... Kesian pedal ayam yang kurang difahami ni.
Hari ni pulak pergi beli bakso. (bakso yang pernah dikatakan dulu) Biasanya ada bebola daging saja, tapi hari ni ada dua ketul daging kecik. Terkena jackpot agaknya dua hari ni... hahaha
Monday, July 24, 2017
Pak Hussin Tomyam
Last night we went to try Pak Hussin Tomyam. It is one of the Malay restaurants along Jalan Tengah, which we had always talked about trying, but never made it there. (blame my father's love for Penang hawker food...)
Anyway, he wasn't eating with us, which was probably why we finally managed the trip to the restaurant. :P
Actually we planned to order telur bungkus and sayur paprik, but neither was on the menu. There was no telur on the menu at all, which was strange, but when we asked the waitress, she said they had telur bungkus, it just wasn't on the menu. Maybe because it was too common, everyone should know they have it?
As for sayur paprik, they had nasi ayam paprik (if not mistaken... in any case it was nasi something paprik), so we just asked for veggies only, and it was fine.
For chicken, we ordered two kinds, ayam gajus and ayam mango. We ordered small portions of both, instead of a medium portion of one of them... which would have come up to the same price anyway. Then the last dish was sotong goreng tepung.
The ayam gajus and sayur paprik arrived first, with the rice. They also gave us a bit of ulam.
Then the other three dishes arrived. All were small portions except the telur bungkus, which was a medium portion.
Close-ups of the dishes:
I didn't take a close-up of the egg because, what's there to see?
In general, we were pretty satisfied with all the dishes except for the sotong goreng tepung (and my mother said the telur bungkus was below average, but WW and I thought it was fine). The sotong was tiny, about one-sixth or one-eighth of the size of that puffed up blob of flour. Plus the flour was soggy on the inside, even though the exterior was crispy. (However you've got to remember that it was a small portion... the flour just makes it look bigger, even bigger than the egg dish!)
The total price was RM42 (we took two plates of rice and two air bandung for the three of us).
Anyway, he wasn't eating with us, which was probably why we finally managed the trip to the restaurant. :P
Actually we planned to order telur bungkus and sayur paprik, but neither was on the menu. There was no telur on the menu at all, which was strange, but when we asked the waitress, she said they had telur bungkus, it just wasn't on the menu. Maybe because it was too common, everyone should know they have it?
As for sayur paprik, they had nasi ayam paprik (if not mistaken... in any case it was nasi something paprik), so we just asked for veggies only, and it was fine.
For chicken, we ordered two kinds, ayam gajus and ayam mango. We ordered small portions of both, instead of a medium portion of one of them... which would have come up to the same price anyway. Then the last dish was sotong goreng tepung.
The ayam gajus and sayur paprik arrived first, with the rice. They also gave us a bit of ulam.
Then the other three dishes arrived. All were small portions except the telur bungkus, which was a medium portion.
Close-ups of the dishes:
 |
| ayam gajus |
 |
| ayam mango |
 |
| sayur paprik |
 |
| sotong goreng tepung |
In general, we were pretty satisfied with all the dishes except for the sotong goreng tepung (and my mother said the telur bungkus was below average, but WW and I thought it was fine). The sotong was tiny, about one-sixth or one-eighth of the size of that puffed up blob of flour. Plus the flour was soggy on the inside, even though the exterior was crispy. (However you've got to remember that it was a small portion... the flour just makes it look bigger, even bigger than the egg dish!)
The total price was RM42 (we took two plates of rice and two air bandung for the three of us).
Saturday, July 22, 2017
A regiment of... bottles?
I seem to be often late posting my Photo Friday posts recently. For this one, I had actually already taken my photo and was ready to post it on Thursday, but I forgot about it until I had turned off my computer.
Pretty little bottles, all in a row...
Well, not so pretty, especially the dented one, but this week's theme is orderly, and they are standing to attention in orderly fashion!
Edit: A friend remarked that the bottle labels were not in the same direction! I was puzzled because I had turned them all to show the "Sunshine" label... After studying the photo for a while, I finally noticed that the labels don't show the same language. Oops... not so orderly after all!
Pretty little bottles, all in a row...
Well, not so pretty, especially the dented one, but this week's theme is orderly, and they are standing to attention in orderly fashion!
Edit: A friend remarked that the bottle labels were not in the same direction! I was puzzled because I had turned them all to show the "Sunshine" label... After studying the photo for a while, I finally noticed that the labels don't show the same language. Oops... not so orderly after all!
Saturday, July 15, 2017
Introducing helicopter teammates
I've been thinking about this for some time, but never took the time to write it down properly. A short post was not going to do it justice! So now that it's done, sit back and relax; you're in for a long ride.
During my first year in INSA, I took up volleyball as one in a package of three sports. I was very bad at it (and still am, the reason of which will become apparent in the next few sentences). Unfortunately I did not have the chance to improve, because every time we played, my teammates would assign someone to "take care" of me, knowing that every time I touched the ball, our team would lose the point (yes, it was that bad). So in the end, I hardly played, and therefore made no improvement at all in that one-third of a year.
In the recent years, the term "helicopter parent" has become popular to describe the kind of parent who hovers around their child to protect them, not letting the child learn to be independent. I feel that this kind of teammate, who hovers to "help" you, is similar, and deserves the moniker of "helicopter teammate".
So why am I talking about this now? you may ask. Well, I have not played volleyball since I left France (and even for a few years before that), but helicopter teammates can appear in any kind of non-solo sport (or non-sports, for that matter).
As practically everyone knows, I have been playing badminton almost exclusively since coming to work in Penang. Recently I was surprised to find myself losing more and more often when playing with the same group of people, even when partnered with a player stronger than the opponents. Since I was definitely weaker than my partner, the blame would apparently lie on me. But I did not understand why I was playing so badly. I did notice, however, that I tended to lose when partnered with specific people and not others, even when the partners were of about the same skill level.
So I tried to figure out why we were losing so many points. After some time, the conclusion I came to was, I lost more points when playing with a helicopter partner.
Now the thing is, I tend to let my partner take the shot if they try to, so that we could avoid unnecessary clashes. Some partners would even take a shot that I was supposed to take, as long as they feel they can take it. (I'm not sure whether they just want to play as much as they can, or prove that they can do it, or simply do not trust me to take the shot.) And usually I would move out of their way. As a result, I was playing less. That was the first thing. If I was playing less, it meant I was practising less, and that would not help me play any better.
The second thing is that when a helicopter partner runs over to your side of the court to take a shot that you were meant to be responsible for, they leave their side of the court open. And when that happens, of course that area of the court is open to attack, and sometimes they won't be able to get back in time to cover that. (and of course I'm not able to get there in time either...there's no way I can be a helicopter partner :P )
This is how helicopter partners can actually "help" to lose a game. However, why did they become helicopters in the first place? In my case, it was probably partly my fault... You see, I have been taught that when playing badminton doubles, a shot in between the two players should be taken by the one who has the forehand. Since most of the population is right-handed, that means the shot in the middle should be taken by the player on the left. So if I am standing on the right, I would leave the middle shot to my partner. However, if the shot is just slightly to my left, even if I am able to take it, if I see my partner reaching out for it, I will tell them to take it, so that we won't end up clashing or both of us leaving it to the other. I do the same when the shot is on my right, between the two of us, but my partner moves to the left (against the convention) to take it. Besides avoiding clashes, sometimes it is because they would already block me from taking the shot (I would hit them instead of the shuttlecock!).
I suspect this is why my partners become even more aggressive helicopters than they initially were. While they were trying to be my "safety net", only preparing to take the shot in case I missed it, I told them to go ahead, and they probably thought that I couldn't take it. So in the end they "helped" me take every shot, assuming that I couldn't take any of them.
But the thing is, why did they have to be a "safety net" in the first place? When playing for fun, is it so important to not lose a point? Even if I don't manage to get that shot the first time, if I'm supposed to be the one taking it, why not let me try until I can get it? If my partner does not make any move to take the shot, I will know that I am expected to take it, and that I will have to move more quickly the next time.
So I've taken to be more aggressive in grabbing shots. Instead of saying "yours" all the time when my partner tries to take the shot, sometimes I will say "mine" when the shot is clearly for me. In the recent sessions, I have even taken to telling partners who tend to be helicopters, "If it's my shot, leave it to me so that I can try taking it." Sometimes after they snatch my shot, I will tell them, "Next time, let me try taking that." (Only sometimes... it may not be enough, but it's a start.)
And it's showing results. A guy who very seldom joins us has told me just last week that I had "improved a lot" (since the last session he came to, I guess). I do not believe that I had improved, though... I had just managed to get my partner to leave my side of the court to me, and focus on their side of the court instead of leaving it vulnerable.
So to those who tend to be helicopters, do try to trust your partner/teammate. If you want to do all the work yourself, you might as well play a solo game.
Besides, as I mentioned earlier, there are also some players who do not become helicopters, even though they have the ability to do so. And to those, I am grateful.
During my first year in INSA, I took up volleyball as one in a package of three sports. I was very bad at it (and still am, the reason of which will become apparent in the next few sentences). Unfortunately I did not have the chance to improve, because every time we played, my teammates would assign someone to "take care" of me, knowing that every time I touched the ball, our team would lose the point (yes, it was that bad). So in the end, I hardly played, and therefore made no improvement at all in that one-third of a year.
In the recent years, the term "helicopter parent" has become popular to describe the kind of parent who hovers around their child to protect them, not letting the child learn to be independent. I feel that this kind of teammate, who hovers to "help" you, is similar, and deserves the moniker of "helicopter teammate".
So why am I talking about this now? you may ask. Well, I have not played volleyball since I left France (and even for a few years before that), but helicopter teammates can appear in any kind of non-solo sport (or non-sports, for that matter).
As practically everyone knows, I have been playing badminton almost exclusively since coming to work in Penang. Recently I was surprised to find myself losing more and more often when playing with the same group of people, even when partnered with a player stronger than the opponents. Since I was definitely weaker than my partner, the blame would apparently lie on me. But I did not understand why I was playing so badly. I did notice, however, that I tended to lose when partnered with specific people and not others, even when the partners were of about the same skill level.
So I tried to figure out why we were losing so many points. After some time, the conclusion I came to was, I lost more points when playing with a helicopter partner.
Now the thing is, I tend to let my partner take the shot if they try to, so that we could avoid unnecessary clashes. Some partners would even take a shot that I was supposed to take, as long as they feel they can take it. (I'm not sure whether they just want to play as much as they can, or prove that they can do it, or simply do not trust me to take the shot.) And usually I would move out of their way. As a result, I was playing less. That was the first thing. If I was playing less, it meant I was practising less, and that would not help me play any better.
The second thing is that when a helicopter partner runs over to your side of the court to take a shot that you were meant to be responsible for, they leave their side of the court open. And when that happens, of course that area of the court is open to attack, and sometimes they won't be able to get back in time to cover that. (and of course I'm not able to get there in time either...there's no way I can be a helicopter partner :P )
This is how helicopter partners can actually "help" to lose a game. However, why did they become helicopters in the first place? In my case, it was probably partly my fault... You see, I have been taught that when playing badminton doubles, a shot in between the two players should be taken by the one who has the forehand. Since most of the population is right-handed, that means the shot in the middle should be taken by the player on the left. So if I am standing on the right, I would leave the middle shot to my partner. However, if the shot is just slightly to my left, even if I am able to take it, if I see my partner reaching out for it, I will tell them to take it, so that we won't end up clashing or both of us leaving it to the other. I do the same when the shot is on my right, between the two of us, but my partner moves to the left (against the convention) to take it. Besides avoiding clashes, sometimes it is because they would already block me from taking the shot (I would hit them instead of the shuttlecock!).
I suspect this is why my partners become even more aggressive helicopters than they initially were. While they were trying to be my "safety net", only preparing to take the shot in case I missed it, I told them to go ahead, and they probably thought that I couldn't take it. So in the end they "helped" me take every shot, assuming that I couldn't take any of them.
But the thing is, why did they have to be a "safety net" in the first place? When playing for fun, is it so important to not lose a point? Even if I don't manage to get that shot the first time, if I'm supposed to be the one taking it, why not let me try until I can get it? If my partner does not make any move to take the shot, I will know that I am expected to take it, and that I will have to move more quickly the next time.
So I've taken to be more aggressive in grabbing shots. Instead of saying "yours" all the time when my partner tries to take the shot, sometimes I will say "mine" when the shot is clearly for me. In the recent sessions, I have even taken to telling partners who tend to be helicopters, "If it's my shot, leave it to me so that I can try taking it." Sometimes after they snatch my shot, I will tell them, "Next time, let me try taking that." (Only sometimes... it may not be enough, but it's a start.)
And it's showing results. A guy who very seldom joins us has told me just last week that I had "improved a lot" (since the last session he came to, I guess). I do not believe that I had improved, though... I had just managed to get my partner to leave my side of the court to me, and focus on their side of the court instead of leaving it vulnerable.
So to those who tend to be helicopters, do try to trust your partner/teammate. If you want to do all the work yourself, you might as well play a solo game.
Besides, as I mentioned earlier, there are also some players who do not become helicopters, even though they have the ability to do so. And to those, I am grateful.
Thursday, July 13, 2017
Animal print
I'm not kidding you. See?
We recently bought two new cotton pillows (which is to say, with cotton stuffing). They were sold by a roadside vendor and there were lots of different cartoon patterns. I always find it a pity when the pillow itself has a nice pattern though... we still need to put a pillowcase over it before using it. When will someone make a comfortable transparent cloth pillowcase for these kinds of pillows?
(This week's theme is animal. I couldn't find an opportunity to snap a photo of an actual animal (I saw a few, but never managed/thought of taking out my camera in time), so I ended up with some cute animals instead.)
We recently bought two new cotton pillows (which is to say, with cotton stuffing). They were sold by a roadside vendor and there were lots of different cartoon patterns. I always find it a pity when the pillow itself has a nice pattern though... we still need to put a pillowcase over it before using it. When will someone make a comfortable transparent cloth pillowcase for these kinds of pillows?
(This week's theme is animal. I couldn't find an opportunity to snap a photo of an actual animal (I saw a few, but never managed/thought of taking out my camera in time), so I ended up with some cute animals instead.)
Wednesday, July 12, 2017
More Western food
Remember my post about Ingolf Kneipe? We recently went there to try their pork knuckle.
Pieces of the meat were carved out for us, so it didn't look as spectacular as a whole pork knuckle would have. It was served with mashed potatoes and sauerkraut (which was less sour than the one we had the first time, so we could eat more of it). This dish was for two people, and included two drinks (iced lemon tea, if not mistaken). The price was RM60+... I can't remember exactly, and I don't seem to have the receipt any more.
This is the bone, left after we had finished polishing off the meat. (we weren't quite done with the side dishes yet)
We also ordered a mixed platter. There was sausage, bacon, grilled chicken, grilled pork, and grilled lamb. Not so special, but probably better than the previous platter that we ordered where there were too many types of sausages. This one cost RM30+, for one person but the portion was on the large side.
And then, on another day, we visited OZ. It is Australian-themed, hence the name OZ (and the logo has a kangaroo in it too). We had their set lunch for RM15.50, which consisted of a main dish and a drink.
We tried their house roast chicken and an Irish roast chicken which came with Guinness gravy. They turned out to be the same roast chicken (we think), just with different gravy.
Verdict? So-so. The roast chicken (both of them) were good but didn't really wow us, and the pork schnitzel was too heavily breaded and also didn't have much of a wow factor. (although WW was pretty wow-ed by the size of it, which is why he brought us there after trying it a first time. Personally I think the size is big because of the breading!)
Pieces of the meat were carved out for us, so it didn't look as spectacular as a whole pork knuckle would have. It was served with mashed potatoes and sauerkraut (which was less sour than the one we had the first time, so we could eat more of it). This dish was for two people, and included two drinks (iced lemon tea, if not mistaken). The price was RM60+... I can't remember exactly, and I don't seem to have the receipt any more.
This is the bone, left after we had finished polishing off the meat. (we weren't quite done with the side dishes yet)
We also ordered a mixed platter. There was sausage, bacon, grilled chicken, grilled pork, and grilled lamb. Not so special, but probably better than the previous platter that we ordered where there were too many types of sausages. This one cost RM30+, for one person but the portion was on the large side.
And then, on another day, we visited OZ. It is Australian-themed, hence the name OZ (and the logo has a kangaroo in it too). We had their set lunch for RM15.50, which consisted of a main dish and a drink.
We tried their house roast chicken and an Irish roast chicken which came with Guinness gravy. They turned out to be the same roast chicken (we think), just with different gravy.
 |
| house roast chicken |
 |
| house roast chicken, from a better angle, because otherwise the sides are hidden by the huge chunk of chicken |
 |
| Irish roast chicken |
 |
| pork schnitzel |
Verdict? So-so. The roast chicken (both of them) were good but didn't really wow us, and the pork schnitzel was too heavily breaded and also didn't have much of a wow factor. (although WW was pretty wow-ed by the size of it, which is why he brought us there after trying it a first time. Personally I think the size is big because of the breading!)
Friday, July 07, 2017
Writing skyscrapers
I thought I had more pens that could stand vertically without falling down. I was wrong. But these few manage to spread out into a little landscape, nonetheless. (and one can't write so much as scrape)
I actually took another photo without the flash, after I saw the shadows in the first photo. But even though it would be better not to have the shadows, the photo taken without flash was awfully bland.
What do you think?
In case you're wondering, this week's theme is vertical.
I actually took another photo without the flash, after I saw the shadows in the first photo. But even though it would be better not to have the shadows, the photo taken without flash was awfully bland.
What do you think?
In case you're wondering, this week's theme is vertical.
Sunday, July 02, 2017
Jaws on stairs
This week's theme is summer. Or should I say last week, since I'm posting it a little late? Anyway, since we don't have the four seasons here in Malaysia, I was happy to come across this staple of summer movies (a staple that's a little outdated, maybe?) in Straits Quay.
Jaws, anyone? Personally, I'm not a fan...
Jaws, anyone? Personally, I'm not a fan...
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