Botanical and EcoleP

BOTANICAL @ BANGSAR VILLAGE II

The ladies had long planned to have a wannabe tai tai (cantonese for jobless women with filthy rich husbands and goes around various parts of the house to goyang kaki) high tea session and we choose Botanical (Previously known as teafortwo) at Bangsar Village II for the graduating occasion... Graduating because that's what we'll be in a few months, fresh unemployed grads. 

Another reason we choose Botanical was because of its seemingly affordable high tea set price at RM60++ which includes a tea and coffee of your choice. The eight of us opted for two high tea sets because most of us had already had our lunch and we were to proceed to Publika for Ariel's 22nd Birthday dinner. Unfortunately didn't take any pictures because the place was really too dimly lit. 

My Milky Rich Hot Chocolate that came with marshmallows. The consistency of this drink is really uncanny as we ordered a total of 3 glasses of hot chocolate. Mine came with marshmallows, Michelle's came with chocolate shavings and Andrea's came with both! For me, hot chocolate has to either be ice cold or if you label that its going to be hot, it had better be piping hot but it was not :/ Serious let down there.

Our high tea set that came with caramelized onion puff pastry, mushroom bruschetta, eggs on danish, egg and cheese sandwiches, scones with clotted cream and jam, macaroons, jam filled doughnuts and a heavily scented rosemary cookie. 

Andrea and I <3 Lighting at Botanical was extremely perfect for taking pictures. After close to 3 hours of sitting down, the chairs felt a bit uncomfortable. 

Chocolate Strawberry Fudge cake. Didnt't really fancy the dark chocolate taste for this. And also because... 

 I had my favourite Apple Crumble Tart-! Mmmmmm so much sweet and sour goodness stuffed into a shortcrust. Apple crumble and any sort of cheesecake is my absolute favourite, except strawberry or orange cheesecake urgh the world would be a better place without them.

Ellen, Andrea and I still had space after that entire set and ordered this mushroom pine pie and sesame salad and fries. A decision we regretted immediately after a few bites because we were so full after them.

Mandatory group shot with the ladies minus Bob who's in the UK. It has been an absolute pleasure getting to know all these girls and having spend time with them throughout the entire duration of my University life. A few I've bonded in the first year, and some others that I've only bonded with in my third year. But nevertheless, I have never felt so comfortable being around a group of girls that accepts me for me, despite quirks and all. I love you guys-! Annual ji mui session is a must alright :')

ECOLE P @ DAMANSARA UPTOWN

Spent Christmas Eve with the rest of the Choo's at one of the newest hangout spots in Damansara Uptown, Ecole P-! Ecole stands for "school" in French and P is for primary. So... Primary school-!

My family and I (especially my parents) absolutely love the interior design of the place. Ecole P truly lives up to its name and whoever steps in will immediately be transported back to their childhood/primary school days... Provided you went to a government school and belong in the baby boomers generation or generation Y. 

Ecole P's twist on a Christmas Tree. It really stands out from the already cosy yet dimly lit environment there.

Various primary school badges used as a part of the cosy cafe's decor with a photo/polaroid booth located not far from the entrance for guests to be a part of the cafe's decor or it can be taken home as a memorabilia. 

Mr Choo ordered the Lemongrass assam tea to share with Mrs Choo. Was extremely refreshing, especially since it was already raining that evening. 

Citrus salad as appetizer to share. Mr and Mrs both really loved the salad and said this was the star of the night.

Sweet potato chips to munch on because Small Choo wanted fries. So Steven (owner) recommended that we ordered this instead. 

I had the mushroom soup without cream accompanied with garlic bread. Cutest thing that the soups are served in those take-away tin cans that we used to use when we were younger. The last time I remembered using this was when my mum packed lunch for me back in primary school because I had to stay back for sadistic after school tuition every single day. Urgh the most dreadful time of my life was spent in that Chinese School. 

Small Choo's spaghetti bolognaise. As usual, she left all the meat (chicken) for us aside because she's a picky eater like that. Mrs Choo and I found the chicken to be a bit salty whereas Mr Choo thought it was rather sour. Hmm what contrast in food taste.

Mrs Choo's chicken chop accompanied with awesome mash and appleslaw. I especially love how the crumbs of the fried chicken are breaded with crushed gold fish biscuits. It gives the chicken that needed extra CRUNCH.

Mr Choo's fried rice and fried chicken. This came the last and it was superbly hard for him to finish although it tasted just as good as... well, everything else on the table-!

Merajuking because Small Choo's did not want to take a photo with me. Grumbles.

Sia Xinyi, Ilrene Tee & Steven

Last but not least, the most important reason why I love this place because it belongs to two dearest friends of mine, Ilrene and Steven, who were previously my supervisor during my 3 month internship at Temptations and the latter being my trainer throughout the competition. I know the time and energy they have invested on this quaint little place and trust me, from my eyes, opening your own business is no easy task. But I'm sure it will be rewarding as hell when everything comes into place.

Thank you to the 3 of you for such a memorable year. I never knew that I would make such good friends within such a short period of time and yet make the biggest impact on my future career as well. I wish all of you the very best for Ecole P, pfft not like you need it because I know you guys will do great :')

Carbs Served With Motivation

Blogging has definitely not been one of my top priorities these past 2 weeks. The only thing that I have the intention to do whenever I have enough time is... Sleep. Don't get me wrong, I'm not being overworked or anything but not working in the F&B industry for almost a year is definitely taking its toll.

Everyone has been superbly nice and I have the best manager and supervisors ever-! That may also be because two out of four of them are graduates from Taylor's. Also, despite only working with other trainees for 2 weeks, it feels I've known them for a few months. Saying a few years would have been quite a bit of an exaggeration.  

I've found three others who speaks 9gag as well. And that, for me, is a huge plus because 80% of my life can be related to 9gag. The sister and I practically converse with it all the time when we're at home and the parents will just stay clueless all the time lol.

First 2 weeks revolved around learning basic things such as cashiering, completing event checklists and function reviews, setting and over viewing a coffee break or two. Nothing too fancy or extreme to handle... Yet.

And well, it comes to no surprise that my social life has deteriorated rapidly. I've become one of those people that I hate... Waking up in the morning - Going to work - Occasional gym time - Come home - Sleep. Then the whole cycle repeats for the rest of the week till I have my day off, which is used wisely to catch up on some much needed sleep. 

Need to find a way to increase my motivation to go to the gym stat-! I thought getting new kicks would've solved the New Year's lazyness but it doesn't seem to be working, and I'm getting fluffier by the second. Cibbs much :/

Three Months Too Soon

 Tis the week where I'll finally be starting my internship at Taylor's Ruemz hotel-! Not before having to go through 4 days of intense physically, mentally and emotionally driven tasks during our orientation of course. I'll elaborate more on that later. 

The "Ruemz" gang finally went to My Burger Lab on Thursday after our first day of orientation. What better way to celebrate the beginning of our 3rd internship am I right? We couldn't help but felt extremely lucky that day because

1. There was no jam. Smooth sailing all the way to SS2.

2. Found parking immediately upon reaching.

3. Absolutely no queue and we didn't have to wait long for our burger-!

And guess who I saw again, Reuben Kang and JinnyBoy-! Was so tempted to approach them to ask for a picture but Reuben Kang might think that I'm a deranged stalker, so I just sat down like the good girl I am and kept quiet.

I tried the Hangover combo. An a la carte Hangover costs RM16. Soda and fries costs RM8. But if you order the burger combo, it'll only cost you RM5 for the soda and fries.

Oregano fries. It tasted really good in the beginning as I don't think many other food establishments serve their fries like this (that I know of at least), but the taste of the herb got a bit to overwhelming for my liking the more I ate it.

My Hangover. Doesn't the lettuce look amazing? Picked this one over everything else because of the name of course *hints hints biggest hangover in my life* and because of the the hash brown. The reason why this joint it so popular is not only because of its juicy and scrumptious patties, but also because of its infamous black bun.

You've most probably heard that it is because they use charcoal to make the bun and that the colour is not a result of food dye. But no worries, there's no charcoal flavour in the bun and it tastes just like any other white bun. Also, it is surprisingly fluffy and also a bit sweet. 

The combination of beef patty, cheese, mushrooms, cherry tomato and hash brown is just plain orgasmic. Beats all the other burger joints out there that I've tried so far. And to all you FatBoy fans out there, yes, MyBurgerLab is even better. The next burger pit stop on my list is Burger Junkyard, Burger Kaukau and Burger Bakar (or are they the same thing?).

And we're now making a transition towards something more serious... My future. Jokes. I'll be interning in the F&B department, better known as Temptations for 3 whole months till my second last semester of Degree. What used to be the first cafeteria in Taylor's Uni has now glamorously transitioned into Temptations, with the American Degree Program classroom's right beside it. And speaking of more good food, Temptations is no exception as well. Everyone had their meals there for the past 4 days of orientation and despite it being run by 80% students (service and kitchen), the food is surprisingly good. 

Steak with mash and assorted veggies on the side. Personally, I have never been a steak person, unless it is super well done. Thought I'm being a bit more adventurous now and will also force down medium cooked steak if I have to. 

Cream of mushroom soup. Has, and always will be my favourite. A tad bit over seasoned with stock powder though.

I. Cannot. Live. Without. Desserts. I now find myself scavenging for any edible items that are sweet after lunch or dinner. No thanks to Branx of course. I didn't use to be a sweet tooth, till I met him -.-" But no worries, I'll still do a bit of damage control by cutting down on lunch on dinner meals.

Of course, I won't be eating like that throughout my entire internship. That was just a treat for junior trainees during our stay at Ruemz. Our usual meals will usually consist of rice/noodles, with meat and veggies. Nothing too fancy but it keeps us going.

Everyone was required to stay in the hotel during our 2nd day of orientation as product knowledge and experiencing the quality of service and products from a guests perspective. Time to put all my knowledge from the past 4 days to good use.

Ruemz hotel is a young, original and unpretentious boutique hotel that consist of 84 rooms with 3 different categories.

1. Cubixx  11sq/ft        RM100-170
2. Matrix   18-21sq/ft  RM235-265
3. Spazio   28sq/ft       RM380

All of the rates above includes breakfast, complimentary wifi in every part of the hotel as well as basic bedroom and bathroom amenities. It is a strictly non-smoking hotel and being a training hotel, it is the first of its kind in Malaysia.

Upon entering the room, a lovely 42inch Panasonic plasma greets you with your name displayed on it. Not sweet enough? There are 10 local and international channels for you to choose from, excluding 13 other non viewing options such as alarm clock, music player, radio, games etc.

Bath and face towels are provided, with the exception of face towels. The bathroom amenities provided are of the extreme basics and apparently, the inadequate design of the bathroom sink represents the "young, modern and upbeat" side of the hotel. Beware of the occasional splashing that comes with it though. It seems to be part of the design defect.

If you're looking for the type of bathroom where you can do your business #2 an immediately hop into the shower, lady luck is unfortunately, not on your side. The shower and toilet is separated by this partition. Reason is still unclear but it was the only thing I didn't like about the room. It sorta forces you to look at yourself naked (which im still uncomfortable with ahaha) and like, who needs that?!

 Okay sucky review. But hey, I tried. Picture above is the uniform that we are given. The 6 badges on the right represents Smile, Go Green, Be Original, Positivity, Passion and Save The Trees lol.

That's the Yellow Overflow team with our trainer Roy Cheng in the middle. I've met him before in a TCHT photo shoot back in 1st year Diploma but he probably doesn't remember me :'( Anyways, the other 3 teams had bad ass names like Black Cobra, Red Chili and Green Lightning... And of all the names associated with yellow, we just had to choose Yellow Overflow lol. 

And what started off as a really horrendous first 2 days for the Yellow's, soon turned out to be the best 4 days that we could have ever hope for. We were basically the underdogs, always scoring the lowest points or losing every assignment and challenge that Roy threw at us. We sucked hard at captain ball because of our lack of communication and ended up falling into last place.

But with our sheer determination and incredible optimism, we emerged victorious in the end, with much shock to our other competitors. I'd need a million words to describe my last 4 days. The passion and values that Roy has instilled in us is enough to retain any employee that may be stubborn to the core and it has really changed my mindset about the service industry. Despite being in my 2nd year Degree, I constantly find myself judging about my choice and career in the service industry.

 Growing up and taking a step closer to graduating and entering the work field tends to do that to a person. I always end up the same way, hopelessly trying to find a way to reassure myself that I've chosen the right path. And hopefully, after these past few days, it will be the last time I ever do.

Kiss Of The Spider Woman @KLPac

Ahhh look at that clear sky. Who would have thought it was raining monkey's ass an hour before that. The drive there was extremely terrifying because it was impossible to see the road. The only thing visible up ahead was the tail lights of other cars, and even that was blurry. 

Anyways, went to KLPac with the gang last Friday (a day before Thirst) to catch a "Kiss Of The Spider Woman" musical because we were required to write a review of the musical for our reflective learning. I think trips like these in conjunction with class assignments are more eventful then plain old boring questions like

1. How do you think this subject has helped you in deciding your future career pathway?
2. What were the difficulties that you have faced throughout this semester and how did you overcome them?
3. What are the 3 Taylor's Graduate Capabilities that you have gained through this subject?

If I have to crap another entire paper about the graduate capabilities that I've gained, my hands are going to bleed for typing lines and lines of lies.

One of the cafe's in KLPac

The place is relatively hard to find. That, and the GPS and google maps were screwing with us. We arrived at our "first destination" in the middle of a kampung in the city. I know what you're thinking. A kampung in the city? You'd be surprised. We managed to find the place after almost 2hours though, including the jam and countless detours.

It's always this time of the semester that I don't even bother with makeup. I'm always so gung ho about dressing up and making sure that I look presentable in Uni but alas, like every other semester, I'll just go "Fuck it, that's how I'm leaving the house".

We reached fairly early, despite the jam and detours. An hour and a half to be exact, so we decided to stroll around the grounds. The place is so beautiful, the lake is full of Koi fishes, like big ass Koi's and the view of the lake and everything at night is quite breathtaking, which makes it a potential place to do dating ;)

View of the building from the outside at night. My camera is so frustrating, it doesn't do justice to the actual scene.

Went back into the building an hour before the show started because we were getting eaten alive by mosquitoes outside. Settled down in another cheaper cafe for a snack before the show started. The shelves are decorated with cd players, tv's and brochures and magazine's about the local performing arts scene. I think that us Malaysians always underestimate the Arts. It's just as important as any other industry but yet it is one of the least unappreciated ones.

This is what happens when a Justin Bieber portrait is discovered. Ellen will never give up the opportunity to mock him. Poor Bieber nostrils.

Come come, Qing will always have some love to spare for you. But the rest is reserved for One Direction hehe.

Brownie with vanilla ice-cream. The best by far is the one in TGI Fridays... With a whooping 1470 calories.

Beef pie. Shared both with Ariel.

There were 18 of us in total attending the musical that night because most of us were going to Thirst. The rest of the class went the next day.

Sigh. Being a local production, the door opened to the public at a Malaysian time of course, LATE! Having been to quite a fair number of musicals and plays before this, I didn't have much expectations for this, partly with it being a local production. But boy did it exceeded my expectations. The acting was not as theatrical as the internationally staged musicals and maybe that's what I liked about it. You could really see the actors portraying the character that they are playing and not expect them to randomly burst into a song.

 "Two men are forced to share a cell in a South American jail. One, Molina, is a romantic fantasist condemned for his sexuality. The other, Valentin, a young Marxist rebel punished for his ideals. Through the glamorous world of the movies, an unlikely relationship is formed that offers both men the hope of survival."

In my opinion, the character that made the best impression was Molina ( first male on the first row ). His acting was the best and the most believable. Others, I think, were trying a bit too hard, but still good nonetheless. A very unexpected ending to a more unexpected liking towards the musical. I can definitely see myself returning to KLPac again some time soon.