Fiercenya Victoria Beckham

This should have been the September Cover, Elle.
Tsk, tsk.
The red nails have totally inspired me to turn my back on my black nails.

Mary Kate and Ashley's coffee table book Influence

Although some of the stuff they wear are questionable, I still think that they have natural talent for fashion like no other young stars.
Any fashionista worth her salt knows that this book is a must-have piece of display at home.

Raison d'être

Inspired French chic by Garance Dore

Visiting my kampung's icon

Two Sundays ago, Erika and I went to Batu Caves.
(Erika is from Toronto and is staying with me for the next one year. She's hot and single)
The last time I was there, climbing up the stairs was not too big of a deal. You know you are old when you have to tell yourself just one more, step, one more.

September is the coolest month because...

...it's my birth month.
I always feel special because all self-respecting fashion magazines in the world,
particularly my favourite Vogue and Elle come out in
bumper issue to celebrate my birthday.
I started buying Vogue as young as 13, dreaming that one day I would be
the editor-in-chief of a magazine.
The closest I got was being the sub-editor and later, editor of my schools' yearbooks.
Oh well.

Speaking of the September issue, I wonder if Vogue's "The September Issue",
the behind-the-scene movie of the making of the fashion bible will be shown here.
It would be so cool to watch Anna Wintour, the real Devil Wears Prada
on the big screen.

BTW, love the Elle Sept's issue as well but do they really have to use
Jennifer Aniston on the cover?
Would have not bought the magazine, had it not for the other
great content.
It's obvious that I belong to Team Angelina.

SATC 2 Carrie's Look - Yay or Nay?

Hmm.
The first look is ok.
Second is passable.
Third is horrible.
I know we are still in recession but
it's Carrie for Manolo Blahnik's sake!
Thou shall never look bad.
Ever.

(pics from huffingtonpost.com)

Kakak is getting a day off

Soon our kakaks will have a day's leave in a week and the right to keep their passports on them.
Wow. I can hear all the tai-tai and aunties screaming yau mou kow chor ah!? (Transl: WTF!)
Not sure if maids from other countries are given this right.
The Filipino maids have been enjoying that for years
and that's why cheapos and slave drivers
prefer to hire Indonesian maids.
Still, don't think the slave drivers will abide to the new ruling.
The sights of the poor maids watching after the spoiled rotten brats
while the useless parents enjoying their meals at some fancy restaurants
on Sundays will remain.
Trust that.

I'm 33, not 3

The cow did it.

Since today is my hari kebesaran, I thought I should not think about the poor cow's head. To die for some rendang that was sold probably at Section 23, Shah Alam was already sad enough, but adding more salt to the rendang, the head was paraded and kicked around to insult another religion.

But our super intelligent minister said:

"They, the organisers, who are sitting left and right of me, didn’t even know that somebody was going to bring the head of the cow during that demonstration.” he said.

In that case, shouldn't they asked the people who brought the head to go play far-far away?


Then the very clever minister said:

He added that the residents only wanted their voices to be heard but it was unfortunate that “the publicity they received was negative because it was linked with racial and religious sentiments.”

Who were the ones threatening blood spill?
Who were the ones shouting ALLAH HUAKBAR?
Who were the ones screaming about the Malays tercabar?

The cow did it.

So I turned 33, right?

This must be the calmest birthday I've had.
Ok, not true. I had a blast last Friday at Finnegan's Hartamas.
Thanks for the memories!
xoxo

Ultra vires means to insult, kan? kan?

I was trained by my very smart mother to use a dictionary whenever I didn't understand a word. If I were to ask her, her standard answer would be "Do I look like a dictionary to you?". To check if I had indeed looked up the word, she would ask me the meaning of the particular word. I would get a hurting real bad, if I couldn't tell her the answer.

Needless to say, the dictionary (Cambridge English Learner) was my loyal companion. I developed a very disgusting habit of bringing reading material into the toilet to pass time when doing my 'business' (Thanks so much, Dad!) and that dictionary was my favourite. Learning new vocabulary fascinated me. I would also try to learn obscure words which I could use in my essays.

Now, although I don't carry a dictionary around anymore, whenever there are things or words that I don't understand, I will google it. It is so indispensable that without it, I can't imagine doing the work I do.

Imagine my horror when a reporterd reported on something he assumed or agak-agak. How difficult can it be to just type in the phrase, say I don't know ultra vires....and voila!

According to google, there are 292,000 hits on the phrase ultra-vires.

The first to appear said:

9 May 2009 ... Ultra vires is a Latin phrase that literally means "beyond the powers". Its inverse is called intra vires, meaning "within the powers". ...en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra_vires

That's why a little knowledge can be very dangerous.

Bodoh sombong lagi dangerous.

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 12 — Utusan Malaysia reporter Mohd Nizam Mohd Yatim told the High Court today that he thought the phrase “ultra vires” contained in a press release issued by Karpal Singh meant the DAP man was insulting the Perak Sultan.
Mohd Nizam, the prosecution’s first witness in Karpal’s sedition trial, was subjected to a rigorous cross-examination by defence counsel Jagdeep Singh Deo, and appeared rattled by the lawyer’s questions.
At one point the Utusan Malaysia reporter did not appear to even know what Karpal Singh was being charged with.
The reporter was also unable to show a clear understanding of the barrage of questions by Jagdeep on the four-page press statement distributed by Karpal during a press conference on Feb 6 this year.
Based on a report written by him and published by the newspaper, Mohd Nizam had been put on the witness stand by the prosecution to show that Karpal had committed sedition.
By questioning him over his understanding of what transpired during Karpal's press conference, the defence was attempting to prove he was an unreliable witness.
The DAP chairman and Bukit Gelugor MP was charged with sedition on March 17 for saying Datuk Seri Nizar Jamaluddin's removal as Perak mentri besar by Sultan Azlan Shah could be questioned in a court of law.
The veteran lawyer-politician was charged in the Sessions Court in KL before judge Mohamad Sekeri Mamat under Section 4(1)(b) of the Sedition Act 1948.
Karpal is further accused of several other seditious statements related to the entire Perak constitutional crisis which began two months ago.
He is accused of committing the crime during a press conference at his law firm here on Feb 6.
During cross-examination, Jagdeep had asked the 38-year-old reporter: “Do you agree that his (Karpal) view on the constitution is sought after?”
Mohd Nizam: “I am not sure.”
Jagdeep: “Do you agree that he (Karpal) is known as a smart laywer?”
Mohd Nizam: “I am not sure.”
Jagdeep: “If you still do not know after eight years working then you should start doing your work properly.”
Jagdeep then proceeded to ask him if he understood the press release since it was in English.
Mohd Nizam: “I only understand it in general and not thoroughly.”
Jagdeep then asked the reporter if he agreed that what was said in the press conference was only an opinion of the constitutional crisis in Perak.
“I only report and do not give opinion,” Mohd Nizam replied.
The answer appeared to irritate Jagdeep who accused Mohd Nizam of being insincere.
Jagdeep then told Mohd Nizam to read part of the press release to the court.
Mohd Nizam: “Although the orders have been confirmed by the Sultan. If the decision is ultra vires then the decision can be adjudicated by the court.”
Jagdeep then asked Nizam to explain what ultra vires means to the court.
Nizam looking confused and replied: “To insult.”
Jagdeep then told Mohd Nizam that his misunderstanding of the word had caused chaos in the country because the word actually means “beyond the powers”.
Mohd Nizam was then asked what questions were thrown at Karpal during the press conference.
Nizam explained that reporters wanted to clarify if Karpal meant that he was going to bring the Sultan to court.
“So do you agree that Karpal did not say that he will sue?” Jagdeep asked.
“Agree,” Nizam replied.
After the cross-examination, the defence team requested Judicial Commissioner Azman Abdullah for the witness’s cross-examination to be adjourned until it could question another witness on the transcript of the press conference.
Azman then asked the prosecution to call its next witness.
But the prosecution could not bring its next witness, an RTM reporter, because he had failed to show up and could not be contacted.
The trial was then adjourned to tomorrow afternoon.

Siti to The Rescue

Director Yasmin suffers a stroke, stable after brain surgery
By RIZAL JOHAN, The Star

PETALING JAYA: Award-winning director Yasmin Ahmad, famed for her advertisements and films capturing the essence of racial harmony in Malaysia, collapsed while attending a meeting at Sri Pentas here.

The 51-year-old creative director at Leo Burnett Kuala Lumpur was rushed to the Damansara Specialist Centre yesterday, and underwent brain surgery following a stroke due to bleeding in the brain.

Paediatric surgeon Datuk Dr Zakaria Zahari, Yasmin’s brother-in-law, said she was in a stable but critical condition.

Yasmin had earlier met with TV3 officials, as well as pop diva Datuk Siti Nurhaliza, at Media Prima’s Sri Pentas premises to pitch a potential commercial.

Siti told The Star that during the meeting, Yasmin complained of feeling unwell, cupped her face and rested her head on the table.

Sensing something amiss when Yasmin remained motionless for a few minutes, those present rushed to her side.

“We laid her on the floor. She was having difficulty breathing. A panel doctor from Sri Pentas came to assist.

“While she gave Yasmin mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, I helped with the chest compressions until the ambulance arrived,” said Siti, a former ambassador for the Malaysian Red Crescent Society. (Good PR for Siti and MRCS :P)

A host of media representatives and personalities had congregated at the hospital where Yasmin was admitted.

Yasmin had previously suffered a stroke about five years ago. Her parents are on the way from Langkawi to be with her.

Easy-Peasy Pork Stew

Yesterday night, my dinner was waiting for me at home. The moment I stepped into the house I could smell the wonderful pork stew and my stomach started to growl - this was after I screamed and ran around in the garden from the sight of 2 tiny black squirrels jumping from the roof; Polar bear looking at me from the window with a wide grin and mouthing "poor Vivian".

Anyway, back to my dinner story. This wonderful dinner was courtesy of my wonderful new toy, the slow cooker. Before I left for work, I dumped some pork, celery, carrot, mushroom, bay leaf, dry onion soup mix and a can of undiluted Campbell mushroom soup and 50 ml of water. It was cooked on the low setting for close to 10 hours.

It was so good that this time around, we had no left-over for lunch.

Quick Dinner

I've just invested in a slow cooker recently because I was craving for my friend's hearty beef stew for a long, long time now. She used a slow cooker to make it and I'm sure you can actually do it on the stove top but I think the reason why the stew was so good was the fact it was slow cooked. So, I bought a 5 litre slow cooker from Cornell (Parkson;RM119) - it was the only one with a dark coloured ceramic pot. Mum has one which is white and it stains easily.

With the new toy, I did some research for recipes and even bought a recipe book for slow cooker (Borders; RM28) which has 200 recipes covering from appettizers to desserts. Bet you didn't know that you can bake a cake using a slow cooker! Ask any Chinese - slow cooker is for soup and sweet soupy dessert tong sui. And bak kut teh.

Did a bit of history of the slow cooker as well. Apparently, slow cooker was conceived to help women who were starting to work in the post-depression era to prepare a quick yet hearty dinner for their families. They needed a device that would slowly cook the food for 8-10 hours and ready to be served when they got home. This is great as I have been trying to cook our own dinner so that the polar bear (my husband) will not roam to McDonald's drive throughs.

I successfully replicated a beef stew using this simple recipe:

about 500g beef, cubed (I bought mine from Cold Storage and it had the word STEW on the label)
2 stalks of celery, choppped
2 carrots, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
2-3 potatoes, chopped
half pack of dry onion soup mix (look for it in the soup section, if you can find Campbell's soup, it should be there)
1 cup of beef broth (I made this using a Knorr beef cube)
salt, pepper, 2 tablespoon of flour, Worchester sauce, 2-3 bay leaves
fresh rosemary
parsley for garnishing

I seasoned the cut-up beef with salt, pepper and flour before browning them on all sides on a pan. Browning means the meat should just changed its colour. This process will help seal the flavour of the meat.

Once that was done, I put all the items into the pot and put on high for 4 hours (for working days, you can cook them on low for 8-10 hours). You can serve the stew with rice, but I served it with mashed potatoes.

This recipe is for 3-4 servings. We had leftovers, and polar bear had it the next day for lunch.

Really yummy and so easy to prepare.

Let's do this for real

I actually started this blog in 2007 but never gotten around to actually do something with it. There was this fear in me, that I had to have something profound or intelligent to share, to blog. So for the fear of being judged, being boring, I shelved the idea.

I must be damn bored and shameless now :)

The thing is, I figure, it's my blog and I can write whatever I want and if it's boring, well, ta-ta!