Shawnie's Farewell At Ingolf Kneipe

Yesterday, we headed down to Ingolf Kneipe German restaurant to have a farewell for our dear friend Shawn. He'll be leaving for New Zealand on 7 Jan, so you can still catch him until then.

Zai2 got an advance birthday gift for Shawn. A TENGA EGG XD

Ingolf Kneipe is very well known in Penang for it's great German beer and food with affordable prices. This place is always packed. If you don't have a reservation, you could end up waiting up to an hour for a table. Well, if you had to, you could chill at the bar with beer first.

Luckily for us, we DID have a reservation. We were in a German restaurant, so naturally, lots of meat and sausages!~

Zai2 and I felt really hungry, so we ordered the Caesar salad, which came lightly dressed with duck breast, crispy bacon bits and croutons. I hate a Caesar salad that's sodden with too much creamy dressing, so this was perfect. It also came with a small bread basket consisting of some sliced sourdough bread, sliced baguettes and butter.

We both also shared the Butcher's platter. It was a huge plate for various kinds of sausages and meat so we couldn't finish it. There was a big piece of roasted pork belly, which I'm usually not a fan off. But this was done superbly with the fat under the skin rendered down and absorbed into the meat. This resulted in a really crispy and caramelized skin with soft, buttery, tender pork. The various types of sausages on the platter were a delight as well. Very tasty and oozing with juiciness XD

The platter came accompanied by a thick onion gravy and German mustard. I absolutely LOVED the mustard, soooooooo good.

The pot pie was loaded with soft, fluffy mashed potato fused with oodles of melted cheese. Could use more meat sauce underneath though but no one was complaining.

Dennis had the special of the day which consisted of a duo of pork and chicken. I didn't get to taste it, but doesn't it look so inviting?

The beef roll that Shawn had was really good, according to him and zai2. And Zai2 doesn't even like beef!

Albin, a frequent patron here apparently, had the mixed grill. I wanted the bacon so bad =P

Our feast...can you believe the 6 of us managed to scoff this down our bellies?

Ingolf is definitely one of my fave places to eat. I've never had a bad or mediocre meal there. Everything is usually abundantly-portioned and very pleasant to the taste-buds.

We will DEFINITELY be missing our fave body-jammer in the group. Quite a few of my good friends have made a move elsewhere recently, either to green pastures or just a new change in their lives.

Tis' The Season To Be...Sick

Last weekend was pretty fun. I just joined the new company for a little more than two weeks, and was already invited to join the annual team building for the department. It was a 2D/1N event at Hydro Hotel from Friday to Saturday, and it turned out great. Really sped up the process of breaking the ice and getting to know my new colleagues, most of which I didn't even know existed. The age spectrum of people in my department are on the higher side, but I found them to be very amusing, amicable and loads of fun. Enjoyed every minute of it and they made me feel very comfortable around them. Through the event, I saw how closely knit they were, and they made sure I felt right at home.

Oh, and during lunch on the last day, I got my hands on a nice, big, fat snake!~

Yes, get your head out of the gutter people. Moving on~

Sunday night, I came down with diarrhea...a few times. Tummy felt queasy and uncomfortable, and I know some shit has gone wrong (pun intended). True enough, I woke up at 3am with a fever. Took 2 Panadol Actifast and struggled to fall back to sleep. Pretty difficult since my body couldn't decide whether it was hot or freezing and waged a battle within, switching to and fro and messing up my body's thermostat.

Needless to say, Monday was an off day for me. I woke up with the most uncomfortable feeling in my gut, like an alien baby was festering inside and decided to use my large intestine as a chew toy and my small intestines as it's belt. I struggled to pull myself out of bed. It's amazing how multiple sessions of peeing through your ass and sleepless night due to a sudden brief attack of fever can sap all your energy and make you feel like crap. Thankfully, my fever was gone when I woke up. But I was weak, tired and my body felt like it had gone through a pinball machine. I struggled to get to the clinic for my meds and MC, only to find out probably like half of the people in the neighborhood also decided to pay the doctor a visit that morning.

So, I had to wait...and wait...and wait. I swear, at some points, I don't know if I wanted to faint, puke or kill the other people who were waiting so that I could go first. Nah I'm kidding, I wouldn't even the energy to kill 'em anyways. Subsequently turn finally came, more than an hour later. The diagnose was severe indigestion or food poisoning, as suspected. Must've been the damn Prosperity burger I bought for dinner on Sunday. The sauce was a little too strong and the color didn't look right too. Took my meds and got home as fast as I could. For the entire Monday, I could only manage to eat a piece of bread and an apple, nothing else. Every time I put a morsel into my mouth, my stomach couldn't decide whether it wanted to devour it or expel it. Felt horribly nauseous and dizzy all the time, and my appetite was nowhere to be found. So, I basically just slept through the day. See, that's why I HATE GETTING SICK. I feel so helpless and useless!~

Thankfully by early Tuesday morning, my tummy felt a lot better, the nausea was gone and my appetite wandered back. But, I still had to take the day off coz my body felt like it only had the strength of a starving kitten. As I munched on some bread and had an apple, mum came over to announce that sis just came down with chicken pox.

Yay, what a lovely week to inch towards Xmas!~

(sarcasm intended)

Bad Sleeping Habits

Seriously, I have to get rid of it. I'm sick and tired of it, coz it's literally making me sick and tired. I'm talking about bad habit of SLEEPING LATE. It's OK during the weekends occasionally, but it's a huge damn no-no when the habit begins to intrude into work days. I'm getting really plain fed-up of being heavy-headed and physically tired most of the time on week days. Life just seems a lot harder and considerably bleaker when you're constantly deprived of good quality sleep. It's really difficult to stay positive, upbeat, motivated and energetic when you're groggy and mentally and physically out of tune. Life just feels like a drag, anchored and dull. In the long run, lack of sleep is also harmful for health. Your liver goes haywire, it ages you faster, wrecks havoc on your complexion, your hormones go on a roller-coaster and your bodily functions become irregular.

I know I have no one else to blame but myself. I used to say that I'm a nocturnal creature, being more alive at night. That's still true. I still find myself being more active at night. There's something about staying up late that just appeals to me. Perhaps it's the rebel side of me relishing the late nights, but it's getting out of hand. So I'm putting my head down (on my pillow, that is) so to speak. I used to regulate my sleeping hours religiously, except for weekends. Since I workout quite often, I need good quality sleep daily to recover, so I used to set a rule of no less that 7-8 hours of sleep each day. And I'm going back to that. Time for discipline to step in. No more only 4-6 hours of sleep.

Aside from the perpetual tiredness and health factors, it really messes up my schedule. I find myself napping at intervals during the day, or waking up during weekends in the afternoon, which is essentially half of the day gone. And the sleep debt that accumulate is really horrible. Sometimes, it feels like no matter how much sleep you catch up on during the weekends, it's still not enough. Horribly erratic sleeping patterns can really fuck you up.

Likin' Big...

This is the original song Like A G6 by Far East Movement

And this is the freakin' awesome parody, Likin' Big Dicks.

Holy shit, I think the parody song is waaay better than the original. And it really helps that the MTV is so boner-ifically HAWT! Seriously, they should play it at gay clubs. I would definitely shake (my ass) to that song!~

My Biggest Fear

I had an short but interesting discussion with some of my gal pals when I was in KL last weekend. The subject was on gays getting married and I don't mean the gay kind. One of my biggest fears is that I will end up old and alone, rotting away with no one to take care of me. I really understand why parents keep pushing for their children to get married, and a huge part of it is for this reason alone. Parents hope that their son or daughter will settle down, start their own family and be taken care of in old age. No parent wants their child to be left old and alone. Even if their intention is not to start family, there is still the hope that they would at least get married for companionship, just to have someone to grow old with and look after each other. I know the lot of you might respond that you can take care of yourself. You can certainly say that when you're young. But when old age arrives, illnesses tend to follow. Who will take care of you then if you're all alone? That thought really scares the bejesus out of me.

Even gay people would like children some day, if possible. I know I'd love to have kids some day. I guess at this age, my paternal instinct is just catching up. I love the idea of having a little Pooh running around. Someone with lots of laughs, smiles and hugs (and I'm not talking about the little devil). Someone I can impart my wisdom and values to. Someone I can watch grow up and be proud.

But then, I have no idea if I'm able to do it, and I DON'T mean the sex part. Would me getting married mean that I'm abandoning part of my identity? Would I just be selfish for getting married just to have kids? Would that even be fair to her at all? Would I be able to love her and endure the marriage? Or would I snap one day and just go back to being who I am? How devastating would it be if the marriage landed in shambles because I couldn't stand being in a straight marriage? How would she feel if she knows about me? Do I even tell her? Can I endure not ever telling her? What if I get married and realize it was all a mistake? Do I even want to risk that? What IF I don't risk it and then regret it for the rest of my life?

Some many questions about the future run through my head sometimes, and I don't really know where to go. I REALLY don't want to end up old, alone, sick and neglected. And I don't know if I can handle a marriage, but I'd love to start my own family. One of my gal pals actually suggested that I marry a lesbian. We could at least take care of each other and shut our families up, until they start asking for babies that is.

Sigh, am I just thinking too much?

What would you do?

New Month, New Job

I finally left the company on the last day of Nov, after a little more than 4 years there, and I leave with mixed feelings. Relief that I can finally move on, joy and anticipation that I will break out of this stagnant cycle and try something new, and of course sadness, that I will be leaving a place where I have forged good friendships with my colleagues and others who have made an impact in my life. I'm missing my colleagues and the working environment already ><.

It was a move that I really needed to make. I need more money and I was sick of traveling across the bridge every morning. After 4 days in the new place, I'm REALLY missing two things that my ex-company offered; FLEXIBILITY and the INTERNET. Moving from a US MNC (multi-national company) to a German one really makes a difference. In my ex-company, we were free to go out of office WHENEVER we wanted, provided it didn't interfere with our job or cause problems. Lunch hour, although dictated by HR, was ultimately decided by us. Not much work meant longer lunch hours. I could go to the bank in the afternoon if I needed to. Heck, I used go to the nearby Jusco in the afternoon if I needed to get something. Bottom line, we were free to move about in and out of office as we pleased, as long as we didn't cause any problems.

But, lack of flexibility wasn't the biggest thorn in my shoe. The staff there, except managers or higher level personnel, were NOT ALLOWED to use the internet. Holy cow poop batman! Might as well take away air as well. We are only able to communicate via email. Seriously, I can't survive without internet, and this is what I missed most in my ex-company, where we could use the net for anything, except accessing external email and of course, venturing into 'questionable' websites. The new company has very strict policies of enforcing security within its network, but you can easily block sites that are deemed inappropriate. At least, let me be able to Google something ><.

However, the new company isn't without some merits. The cafeteria food is better and a lot cheaper too. The working environment is much quieter and more serene. I miss being in a cubicle coz we have open table concept here. The biggest perk of course, is the traveling distance. Depending on traffic, I can usually reach work within 10-15 minutes.

I'm gonna give them 6 months to a year to see if it will work for me. Ultimately, I want to move out from engineering and take up something more related to management, like marketing, HR, PR etc, as long as they are willing to provide some basic training. I like dealing with people and don't want to be tied to manufacturing forever. I have been told, even by my ex-manager and feedback from previous team, that I possess good communication, negotiation and influencing skills, which I intend to fully use whenever I can. I'll see where this goes, and won't hesitate to hop to something better, even within next year. I'm at a point in my life where I want to find something that works for me. Don't talk to me about loyalty or shit like that. I want to do something that I'm happy doing, and gives me what I want. Enough with the compromising.

Just The Way You Are

Ever since I watched the Glee version of this song, I fell in love with it more.

Simply love the message of the song. Everyone is beautiful in their own way, inside and out. Collectively, we are each unique yet gorgeous as one.

I know I've been slacking off a little on my blog lately, especially in the last 2 month. Life has just been a handful lately. Will try to blog more ya =)