Friday, I Crave: Loeffler Randall

I am hyperventilating by just staring at these amazing pair of Loeffler Randall...The detailing is just so...pretty...*sighs*

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ramona snap pump in blue snake embossed leather
Photo: Loeffler Randall

Chainmaille me...

I don't know about you but when I see links of metal rings, the first thing that comes to my mind  is pinching, snagging and getting stuck on clothes...maybe that's just 'cause I'm such a klutz *eeps...* But that was before I started wearing theKANG Chainmaille bracelet and I have fallen in love...they are actually comfortable! It flows with my wrist and is lightweight...most of all, it doesn't even snag! *bye bye loose threads*  I wear it almost everyday!<3

Not new in the scene, Chainmaille made its appearance in the 1700s when it was used as an armour during the wars. It was apparently an effective defence against slashing blows by an edged weapon and penetration by thrusting and piercing weapons. Now, I'm not asking you to wear them and start having sword fights but I just love the fact that an ancient protective war gear can evolve to a fashion item! How cool is that?

Handy, practical and gorgeous (could also possibly protect you from errr...paper cuts?). Go ahead, get yourself chainamailled today ♥

With the Chainmaille extraordinaire (and friend), theKANG and my sista!

Merpati Adventures: Sekinchan

Merpati (Malay) = Pigeon (English)

In honour of the the pigeon post messengers during the war, we use the pigeon name as a symbol to bring stories from different parts of the country and the globe to share with everyone. Enjoy! 

With a free day on our hands, Leels, Molls and I decided to make a day trip to Sekinchan for some eats and sightseeing of the vast paddy fields we heard so much of...

View Larger Map

As you can see from the map, Sekinchan is on the north-western coast of the Klang Valley. It took us about 2 1/2hrs to get there by car as it should have been only about 1 1/2hrs to 2hrs ride. Reason being that we got slightly lost due to Molly's fantastic self-GPRS navigation,  we now know that she is a better driver than a navigator ...

Anyways, after the long ride, we were absolutely famished, and we headed straight to the apparent local joint for breakfast/brunch @ Restoran Guan Hwat which is recognisable by its blue walls and hawk-like behaviour of customers waiting in line.

Thankfully, we didn't have to wait for long and we got our table almost immediately. The first thing that came to my mind was, "No way, I'm going to eat rice at 10am in the morning!" But after surveying the other tables, it was quite apparent that we were going to have rice for brunch...So we proceeded to order the restaurant specialties...

 

(Left to right from top) 

Fried Lala in chillies and tauchu (fermented bean paste)

Shark Meat fried in black soy sauce

 Mudskipper fish fried with tauchu (fermented bean paste) 

Shark Meat, Fishball and Preserved Vegetable Soup

Bitter Gourd fried with eggs and dried shrimps

Grand total for the meal (incl. of drinks) = RM55!

Overall, I felt that the meal was a bit too heavily laden with tauchu and was a bit on the dry side but it was nice to have the soup to neutralise the whole taste.  The mudskipper had too many bones for my liking but other than that it was a good meal that felt very home-cooked with love by Grandma. 

The challenge we had there was more of the locals (2 tables in fact) who took a fancy of watching us, 3 girls, trying to finish 5 dishes. For a good 30 minutes, they took the liberty to discuss and gave a "live" commentary on our progress of finishing our food. Honestly, it was pretty amusing as they thought we did not understand Hokkien, but we did! Finally, I think we impressed them by polishing our plates right up to the gravy. *take that, hah! don't look down on a girl's appetite!*

After that very eventful meal, we decided to head for some coffee to wake our full and lazy selves. We found an old school coffee shop which seem to have what we were craving for - local coffee and cham (coffee + tea)

 

As you can see from the look on our faces that this was our first coffee for the day and we are, lovingly, coffee addicts...oh happy, happy, joy, joy!

Satisfied and mildly buzzed from the coffee, we made our way to the paddy field to do a little exploration and trying not too act too much like a tourist who has never seen a paddy field. That was kinda hard, considering that only tourists would go and see the fields instead of going to work there! Having said that, the views at the fields were pretty awesome and somewhat invigorating.

Tucked away in the corners of the paddy fields, we found an orchard which bore fruit of the season - mangoes and papayas.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to take many pictures while we were there as my fellow roadtrippers forbade me to! Well, I guess they had a fair reason as when we walked into the orchard, all the (male) workers stopped working and started to talk to us by asking our names, where our boyfriends were and if they could have our phone numbers! Talk about being bold! Being at the fruit orchard was way creepier than being in a dodgy Chow Kit road night club! If you can spot the topless male in the pic above, he was the boldest and offered us free fruit for our numbers...errm...no thanks! We quickly paid for our mangoes (which were super tasty, I might add) and went on our merry way out of the orchard!

With all that, we had such a hilarious ride back home recounting our adventures for the day and our run-ins with the Sekinchan folks. Having said that, we know that they meant no harm and it was all in good faith, in other words, they were (super) friendly!

Merpati Adventures, Over & Out (for now)

In the (Coco) Cocoon waiting to metamorphosise...

Love, love, love the bags (as always) but not too keen on Chanel's new web viral campaign for the Coco Cocoon line with blogger Daul Kim (personally, I prefer her in black hair anyways). However, I think this will definitely appeal to the younger, fashion savvy, iPhone totting fashionista. What do you think?

On a rainy day like this...

I dream of the sun...

Photo:  net-a-porter

I love the print on this suit...makes me feel all tropical... makes me crave for a beach with a book in one hand and a piña colada on the other...

"Sweet as, bro" taken to a new level

Last week, I got a link with a message that said, "You HAVE to watch this video..." and it was a video of Dane Moeke, a contestant on New Zealand's popular karaoke competition, Homai Te Pakipaki (loosely translated as clap your hands/put your hands together/applause)

After watching the video, the thing that amazed me the most was not only his singing skills but the mere sight of his outfit on NZ national TV! A plain white tee, a hoodie and a pair of white jandals (aka Japanese slippers, flip flops, sandals, etc)!

Maori Television doesn't allow embedding of the video due to copyright, click on the link to watch the video and be amazed of the laid back-ness of his overall look (albeit Dane needs some training but I do think he can sing): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiUZbvVvSCM

I guess the beauty (and amazement?) of it all is that this is yet another demonstration of the Kiwis being super laid back ala their country motto, "sweet as, bro" where anything and everything goes (also read my previous blog on the NZ PM). He really looks like he just had dinner with his family at the takeaway shop and went straight for the show! 

As the saying goes, "There's no place like New Zealand" - literally, I don't think there is any other country/TV show that would allow jandals on the set!

Don't get me wrong, I have absolutely nothing against jandals. I think I have 5 pairs? (hey, I'm a tropical girl!) I guess there's a time and place for every pair of shoes, you know? My favourite and most trusty pair of jandals has been with me for the past 3 years....they last a long time :)

Photo: Havaianas 


Well, I hope Dane Moeke wins the competition 'cos this is his 3rd time trying and he looks like a sweetie pie. My vote goes to him! Hopefully, with that cash prize he can go buy a pair of shoes.