Christmas Eve

@ Garden Lifestyle Store and Cafe, The Curve, with my beloved family. Simple yet lovely dinner with lots of warmth, joy and laughter.

MERRY CHRISTMAS to all readers of this blog! God bless you!

Daorae Korean Restaurant

Had been craving for some fine Korean cuisine over the past few days and hence the visit to 다오래 한국 식당 (Daorae Korean Restaurant). This is the best Korean cuisine I had so far in Malaysia since the last time in Korea. I got my 'carnivorous' friend to come with me for the BBQ and we were too ambitious as usual, we ordered more than what out stomach could contain. We order sut-bulgogi and pork special for the BBQ, bibimbap and kimchi jjigae.

The complementary side dishes in a typical Korean dining.

Sut-bulgogi

This is how Koreans eat the barbequed meat wrapped in lettuce and dressed with sweet sauce. Add in some rice and kimchi. Taught to me by my Korean tour guide.

Then, stuff the whole lettuce into your mouth till the cavity pops!

Alright. Isn't that a little too much for meal for two? :D Lesson learnt: Never be too ambitious if you think two sets of meat are not enough. Gone was my diet for a week.

Who Am I?

Who am I?
That the Lord of all the earth,
Would care to know my name,
Would care to feel my hurt.
Who am I?
That the bright and morning star,
Would choose to light the way,
For my ever wandering heart.

Who am I?
That the eyes that see my sin
Would look on me with love
And watch me rise again.
Who am I?
That the voice that calmed the sea,
Would call out through the rain,
And calm the storm in me.

Not because of who I am,
But because of what You've done.
Not because of what I've done,
But because of who You are.

I am a flower quickly fading,
Here today and gone tomorrow,
A wave tossed in the ocean,
A vapor in the wind.
Still you hear me when I'm calling,
Lord, you catch me when I'm falling,
And you've told me who I am.
I am yours.

Narnia

Saturday was quite a bore. Not quite, but indeed. I productively cooped myself in the room with lots and lots of sleep since Friday morning, like I'd been sleep deprived for weeks. The intention to study failed miserably as usual. Rawr!!! Oh by the way, I learned something new. 'RAWR' means 'I LOVE YOU' in the dinosaur's language. But why?! I thought a lion roars? Like you know in Narnia, Aslan roars majestically. Haha. Okay, forget it.

I ended the last 5 minutes of Saturday watching The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Rushed to get the tickets with Yw 20 minutes before the 11.55pm show and we were just in time for it! Initial part of the movie was a pretty draggy until it got slightly more interesting towards the end. Was anyhow a wonderful night to fill the weekend with some fantasy and having a great friend to watch together. Oh, I like Reepicheep! :D

Between

In between is a very difficult process. Neither this nor that. Stepping out from a feeling and falling into another is not often easy. The interval is in fact the hardest period, I guess. The flavor of letting go something we've loved to get to the other side will no doubt catch our hearts in bitterness. It's sad, but sometimes moving on with the rest of this life starts with goodbye. It's about closing one of the sweet chapters to experience another new chapter which we have no idea where it's heading. When we're actually standing at this crossroad, there's a choice we gotta make. Take a reverse to where we came from or head forward to where there's no definite answer. Perhaps it's about taking chances.

I took a chance to explore the new road and waving goodbye to the old. I'm lucky, the new path soars my heart every time I catch a glimpse of it now.

Please, build this path for as long as I'm allowed to walk. I don't want another crossroad.

Christmas Feast

The annual Christmas activity would be a feast with my little brothers and this Christmas hadn't been an exclusion though the celebration came 2 weeks earlier. We'd rebelled and passed over church service that night. XD It was a pleasure to have Wei Wei with us for this simple yet heart-warming dinner. :D On the other hand, missing Mei Cher who's right there freezing in Korea but having received her postcard was a delight! Pauling was supposed to join us too but our timings clashed, so we can only see her during CNY. We anyhow had lotsa great fun!

May this Christmas be so special that you never ever feel lonely again and be surrounded by loved ones throughout! :D

Pre-Christmas Spirit

Public holiday which is stuck somewhere between the week like a Tuesday is rather tedious. There was nothing much to do in fact, considering I'm done with all school work. So I spent my day filling up forty-two greeting cards to be sent out the day after, meeting up Soo darling for dinner and spending the whole night just catching up and doing outrageous gestures. It was rather an intended night out and we'd planned to doll ourselves up and go wild that evening. That's true. We do crazy stuff at times.

We googled and found a cafe in town that is really old school and it's like one of those bars you see in the suburb of America, it's called the Rock & Roll Blues Cafe owned by Mark Ruffin. I called him the friendly-boss after the warmth he showered all through dinner. He'd specially played us some blues with his acoustic guitar and sang in that moody raspy tone I absolutely loved. I was fascinated by the dimmed lighting of an antique chandelier that dangled colorful baubles in an elementary fashion, simple yet obsolete. The Christmas tree was illuminated with strings of electric lights, a tree-topper of Santa's red hat and decorated with lovely ornaments. The gorgeous settings brought us to a feast for Christmas, though we were three weeks ahead of time. All the customers who walked in the cafe that evening were Caucasians and we were the only two Asians there. Felt kinda strange at first, but was really entertained by Mark's jokes and stories and of course, having Soo around to share everything we'd missed out during the holidays.

 Second part of the night.

December is gonna be remarkable and this is just the start. :D Have a great month too!