The Fist Story...

Jun Lee in blue, Jun Yen in white...

Few weeks back Jun Lee has began to suck at her fist, and I recall one night when they were sleeping with us, wifey woken up in the middle of the night by the sucking noises. Jun Yen caught up with the fist sucking a week or so back, but somehow was never as interested as Jun Lee.

The good side is that the sucking seems to act as some sort of pacifier, and nowadays Jun Lee is far less likely to start bawling for milk the instant she's hungry (as she was doing before). When she's hungry, she begins by sucking at her fist and letting out small cries, which at least gives us a warning that she's hungry and will break out into full scream soon!

Triple Antigen Shots...

Jun Lee & Jun Yen visited the pediatrician yesterday for their triple-antigen shots. I was actually a bit worried as this vaccination is known to cause fever.

Thankfully it went okay, the twins cried a bit when injected, but settled down quickly. In fact they went back to sleep in a flash!

The dreaded fever was also kept at bay, thanks to some liquid paracetamol. This was a thick concoction that was orange in color, smelled quite strongly of orange flavouring, and which I basically shot into their mouths with a syringe.

It was funny with Jun Yen as she reacted to it with a frown at first, then was quite happy licking her lips when she realised it was sweet, and certainly something she's never tasted before. Jun Lee didn't like it, and spit out half of it.

The Christmas gluttony...

Christmas was spent rather quietly at home with 4 other friends who came by and did a potluck. We overdid it a bit with the food, and ended up with more than we could handle. Imagine, 2 large Domino's pizzas, 2 roast chickens, 2 large bowls of salad, 1 VERY large container of fried lohshifun, and you can tell we went overboard.

Despite that we made quite a respectable job of it and polished off almost everything but 20% of the lohshifun. Not that it wasn't good, mind you, but its just too much food to handle.

Also had a bottle of 99 Fox River contributed by CK, the opening of which splattered SC's beautiful white Nautica tee! As I didn't have one of those low-effort corkscrews, we did it in the old highly exaggerated fashion; with one guy holding on to the corkscrew and the other holding the bottle... definitely not recommended. Repeat "I will buy a proper wine-opener" a hundred times... Hope the stain on his shirt washes off...

Shanghai Wind...

View of Pudong from the Bund...

Okay, not so much wind, but certainly a ridiculous bit of rain! My flight left KUL at 1000 after being delayed by 30 mins, and was striding my way towards immigration at PVG by 1530. Got into a taxi at a little past 1600.

As luck would have it I got the blurrest taxi driver in all of Shanghai! (or so it seemed after stopping twice to consult his map...) and at one point even asking me if I knew where the Radisson Xing Guo was!!! And when we got to Xing Guo road, he insisted that there is no such hotel. A minute later he sheepishly remarked that there is such a hotel after all, as we drove past the entrance!

The hotel is nice, located in the midst of a park. Of course I didn't know about this till much later as I arrived at past 1700, and darkness had fallen. To cut a long story short it was raining when I arrived, and didn't let up until Monday night, and even then still continued sporadically.

Had dinner on Monday night at a restaurant on the Bund called Finestre. Food was good, wine was good, and the view magnificent. When we got there it was still drizzling. The top "pearl" of the Oriental Pearl tower was shrouded in fog until halfway through dinner, when it lifted to reveal an icon of New China in all its glory. Nice...

Took the really awful noise-riddled picture above from the Finestre balcony, with a Nokia 6300 which is a pretty bad camera even by phone standards! Considering the device and the conditions, I'm surprised it came out at all!

On the whole the conference was very informative, and gave us different perspectives of the business. We all got a lot of networking done too, which was great. Wished we had more time though as some discussions were truncated due to time constraints. Oh yes, the Ronnefeldt tea they served for breaks was a nice touch... hehe...

Christmas is here...

Yet another year goes by, and yadda yadda yadda... the usual moans about how time flies. And whaddaya know... It's Christmas again!

What I cannot understand (and for that matter cannot stand...) is every Christmas the radio stations' insistence on playing Wham's Last Christmas!!! For starters, it has very little, if anything to do with the spirit of Christmas, save for the word "Christmas" peppering the lyrics.

Secondly, it's a very sad song, and certainly if you pay enough attention to the words you will see it too. It's possibly one of the saddest pop songs I know, notwithstanding Tony Rich Project's Nobody Knows. Now THAT is downright miserable.

But hey, we're in the midst of the holiday season, so no more mention of gloom. Look forward to turkey, cranberry sauce, pudding, and all the yummy Christmassy grub. Ho ho ho!!!

As a footnote, I think it's very strange how so many people think about Christmas when they are not even Christians... I for one am not, yet I am actually having a dinner at my place on this occasion?! Must be the atmosphere created by the sheer force of commercialisation. I read somewhere that many people don't even know the meaning of Christmas. Not that I'm surprised, Christmas today is more about snow, Santa, presents and turkey! A pity, for what should be really associated with Christmas is Jesus Christ, Three Wise Men, Bethlehem. And still no, I'm not Christian, though I was brought up with a lot of education along those lines... Another story for another day...

Le Francais, One Bangsar...

Got back from Shanghai late yesterday night, in time for our anniversary! Took Friday off as I wanted a bit of rest after the trip. But somehow, felt like I might as well have gone to work as the day just flew by, and visions of a long restful day went poof...

Spent a good part of the day thinking where to go for our anniversary dinner. Wife as usual heaped this burden on me... After much deliberation settled on Mexican food at Sandias in Plaza Damansara. And whaddaya know, when we got there it looked like it was closed. For good! Chap-lap already! If anyone knows otherwise lemme know...

Okay, no problem, just hop to Mango Tree in nearby Bangsar... I've been there quite a few years back and remembered the food as being quite good. Also remembered the location, or so I thought... When we arrived the sign said Cafe Citron?! What the...!!! Yes, it definitely was the Mango Tree place. Why, the bloody tree was still there! So I'd assume chap-lap also... Until someone tells me otherwise...

In a state of near panic now (and near-rumbling tummy) I suggested to wifey to go get something at the nearby One Bangsar restaurant strip.

To cut a long story short, we ended up at Le Francais. Place looked a tad dim (aren't all fine dining places...) and attractive. We particularly liked the velvet drapes separating the tables which afforded diners some privacy (aesthetically if not sonically...).

We ordered duck salad and cream of garlic soup (yes, you read right, garlic) to start with, mains of swordfish and chicken, and no dessert. I suggested dessert at Delicious at Bangsar Village as I was craving bread & butter pudding. In case I haven't mentioned it, I love that stuff!

Things got off to a good start with the bread basket. Bread was warm, crisp outside and moist and soft inside. Butter was smooth and fragrant. In case you think I am being particularly obsessive, I'll say that the number of times I've been served bad bread is more than I care to recall. It was so good (and I was so hungry) that we finished the basket. (4 rolls only la...)

The duck salad was quite good, with a decent amount of iceberg, butterhead, romaines and rocket. The duck slices were very good, not too chewy yet flavorful and a tad gamey. Soup was quite a surprise, and did not really reek of garlic as expected. It was creamy and smooth with the occasional small bits of garlic. All in not too bad although a bit on the salty side.

The chicken my wife ordered was quite outstanding. Wasn't overcooked to the point of toughness (very easy to fall prey to with chicken breasts) and tasty with a hint of the marinade. The sundried tomato sauce was really nice and went well with the pan-fried chicken.

The swordfish was another story due to the chef's over-enthusiastic use of salt! I cannot remember what exactly it was called, though I can tell you that it was basically a rather large piece of swordfish that was poached in a broth with vegetables. Sadly the broth masked most of the flavour, and it certainly did look like the chef had served me the court-bouillon with the fish! Not good!

I did complain about the fish, and was actually told that was how it was supposed to be. Sorry mates, but you guys don't really seem to know a lot about cooking as i am certain no school of cooking would demand covering everything with the taste of salt! It was a good thing the rest of the food was alright, otherwise I would have made a bigger fuss.

Stick with the less exotic dishes and you should be alright.

The service was rather good, with little of the pretentiousness or haughtiness that seems to plague French restaurants. It was very attentive but unobstrutive. Paid something like a little less than 200 for the whole night, so other than the swordfish, not too bad.