April 2007 Archives

I haven't written any political related entries for a while as I wanted to give Malaysian politics a break.

It's just too tiring and depressing to read about the negatives.

Unfortunately, I just have to say something about the recent Ijok by-election - after reading a coverage report from a Chan Sue Ann who was there as a student and an “election tourist.” under the Youth for Change banner.

http://thecicak.com/?p=226

Absolutely disgusting - yet expected.

This is the sort of politics I don't want to read about when I'm having my lunch. It absolutely shits me to tears.

I just want to add something to what Sue Ann has mentioned in her entry regarding the following.

"The University and University Colleges Act 1971 forbids students and lecturers to have political affiliations."

"A few of us stood up against them. The Malay girls I had lunch with didn’t. They couldn’t. They had too much to lose. If you are in a government university or if you’re on a government scholarship, you’re helpless. They can take it all away from you and there is nothing you can do about it."

That's right. You can't bite the hand that feeds you.

Not too long ago, I was chatting to one of my friends who had some pretty strong and valid points about the way some things shouldn't be done in Malaysia. I told him to drop his comments in my blog - or anywhere appropriate online for the matter.

His response? "I can't". You see, he was doing his post graduate studies part time at one of the local universities and he has everything to lose.

Then again - I told him you can be anonymous on the internet, and you'd still be able to post your views.

But he was not willing to risk it all.

There are 2 sections to the Stokehouse, in which is simply named the Downstairs and Upstairs.

The Upstairs offers a posh fine dining experience while the Downstairs offers a casual and more relaxed dining experience - all facing the St. Kilda beach side.

Located at 30 Jacka Boulevard in St. Kilda, this restaurant is brought to you by the people behind The Prince.

I was here recently at the Downstairs section for a farewell lunch. All of us decided to go for the lunch menu, which offered a mix of entrees and a main for under $30.

There were about 12 of us on our table and about 20 on the other. We had made this booking way ahead in advance, but unfortunately the wait for our food was just ridiculous IMHO.

We waited almost an hour before the first of our entrees arrived. What is the point of ordering entrees if they're not going to be the sort of food you eat while you're waiting for your mains? Having already known that there is a big group coming, shouldn't there have been some sort of planning and anticipation of some sort?

As soon as the entrees arrived, we just gobbled it down like the hungry mad fold we all were at this point.

I couldn't even remember what these cheese balls were called, but I thoroughly enjoyed them nontheless even after our wait.

This is our last week at SY's Southbank apartment, so it was only fitting that we had a small potluck to say goodbye to the place.

The theme of the potluck was Thai food, something that all of us hardly cook in our normal everyday cooking.

We all took it up as a challenge - and proceeded to cook as best as we could, or rather in my case, SY did most of the work.

Our dishes were seafood and chicken tom yum, pandan chicken, tapioca sago with gula melaka and cocunut cream + mango with sticky rice for dessert.

SY started preparing the food - marinating the chicken the night before and started on the tom yum and desserts right after lunch. We had targeted the meeting time at 6:30 pm on the Saturday but everyone pretty much only showed up at around 7:30 pm.

Ben had started on his deep fried stuffed chicken wings after lunch as well - but the de-boning and stuffing took up the entire afternoon. Adeline also made pad thai.

Andrew and Suyi brought pineapple fried rice and an egg plant vegetables red curry. Matt brought his chicken green curry.

We got up early today so we would be able to make the most of the day. The weather looked to be very sunny - with a top of around 38 degrees Celsius. Hot!

Our target today was to visit 3 temples - Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom and Ta Prohm.

Lee Hai picked us up from the hotel at 8:30 am, and we headed straight for Angkor Wat. We picked up a day pass for the temples on the way. We approached Angkor Wat from the south, and at the first sight of it I finally realised how big the lands around it was, because of the large moat surrounding it.

We started off from the east gate of the temple, which is where the temple is facing. I took this next picture from the walkway - walking across the moat.