Lunch at Annalakshmi

Since research life have been treating us so well, we decided that we should go somewhere for a good makan. Mei Shiang has been telling us about Annalakshmi for a long time, that it serves great Indian food and you pay as you like! So when I heard "pay as you like...", I was like cool so can I pay 1 cent for a buffet meal. Naaa..... I'm not dat kiam siap and you pay at least RM1 for any meal regardless of how much you take.

Annalakshmi actually means "The Goddess of Meals", and there really is a magnificent statue of the goddess inside. Surrounding the interior are interesting Indian crafts and paintings which adds even more to the aesthetics. If you were to look at the whole restaurant inside, it does exude a higher class feeling. It operates based on the concept, "Eat as you want, pay as you wish."

Ok, what could be more important than the food right despite the already pleasing interior decorations. The food here is great. I recommend every single person who has come across this post to try the food!! According to one of the volunteers, they serve Southern Indian food, Northern Indian food, blah blah....blah. Believe me, I only came here for the food and I wasn't bothered about their background. But really, after searching on the Internet, there really is a difference. But I won't bore you with a mini lecture on what's the difference between Northern and Southern Indian cuisine.

Annalakshmi offers fine, Indian vegetarian cuisine. They have Chappati, Poori, Tosai, Vada, Sambhar, rice, dahl, curry coconut oil. Oh yaa, the vada should go with some orange powder. I've no idea what izit call and some sauce. The sambhar, which is some donut thingy. Even the rice they have two different variety, The also have a variety of vege, which is kinda obvious. Again, I dunno wat izit called. They also have fried eggplant if I'm not mistaken. They have yogurt which you can take it as it is or add onto another dish. And the yogurt is good. For beverages, there have quite a variety but I only tried the mango lassi. The desert for the day was red bean soup with sago. But they said, they also serve purple rice as desert. I forgot wats the name. The owner also said the buffet sometimes varies from day to day.

At the end of the day, we left with a very filled stomach thanks to all the delectable choices. We payed RM10 each. Most of it goes to charity after paying all the overhead. And all the workers are volunteers. Even some of them are medical students. Ok I din confirm dis but Mei Siang said so. Oh yes...I haven't mentioned where izit yet.. It's in MidValley, very close to Chillis. SO PEOPLE GO THERE!!!

Make sure its between 11.30-3.00 and 6.30-11.00pm

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Boh Cameronian Awards

Though I must suppress my inner tendencies to brag, I can't help but announce that I have attended one of Malaysia's premier arts awards, the Boh Cameronian Awards for the first time!!! An award ceremony very similar to the Tony Awards held annually for distinguished achievement in US theatre. Over here in Malaysia, the awards are specially for achievements in music, theatre and dance. There are also special awards for Most Promising Artist award and the Boh Cameronian Lifetime achievement award, etc. This could very well be my last time also.

This year's Boh Cameronian Awards is held in Mandarin Oriental and the theme is "Carnival". Everyone should dress for the occasion but it's not mandatory, after all it is just a ceremony to commemorate the finest achievements in the arts. Some came dressed really for a carnival. But I think if there was an award that says "Best Dress Group for the Night", it would be The Wicked Pitches.

Since this is my first time, it was kind of weird because there were so many people and so many famous people around but I know just a handful out of all of them. Even from those that I know, there are only familiar faces like those from "Broken Bridges" and "Puteri Gunung Ledang".

The red carpet event was suppose to begin at 8.00pm, but then again being Malaysians, tardiness is a major problem. And again, walking on the red carpet is another first with all the cameras staring at us, with their background illuminating lights. Oh it doesn't have the excessive glamour like in Hollywood, where stars stop to pose one at a time for all the paparazzis and cameraman to feast upon. Here it was more like cramped up, bumper to bumper kind of movement with all the major TV networks surrounding us. Astro, and all the local TV channels were there. But then again, it feels nice to be given the "red carpet treatment", even just for a day..

The major winners for the night were Puteri Gunung Ledang, Broken Bridges, Dream n Butterfly and Drum Slices. Puteri Gunung Ledang came up tops among all of them. I think they won 8 awards.

It's sad that our group, "The Wicked Pitches" didn't bag any award for the night. I was so optimistic for the Best Solo Performance Award. But we didn't win anyway. We lost the award to Broken Bridges. I think it's because of bad video and audio quality. If it wasn't for that, I'm sure we could have won at least 1 award!!!

But to sum it all up, it was a great experience walking among the top and talented people in the arts. Oh yaa Tiara Jacquelina and Joanne Bessey was there too..

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Hamster Horror!!!

Today was the first time I have met someone who actually had many years of experience handling hamsters. Since there wasn't much to do after church, I went to have McD with some friends. Anselm and Aurea related their horrific experience on how their mother hamster started to cannibalize on their babies!! They screamed and they were so disgusted by the whole incident.

I for one know nothing about rearing hamsters, didn't know immediately that there was such a thing and it was quite shocking. Of course I've heard of cannibalism in the animal kingdom but not amongst mammals. Their description of the entire incident was quite graphic, blood in the cage head torn off, limbs disengaged from their puny bodies. I'm sure the baby hamsters didn't even know what ate them. What kind of survival instinct would you expect from baby hamsters moments after coming out from their mother's womb???

Anselm and Aurea knew that this was possible but it had never happen before, until today when they sort of let their guard off. They told me that usually before it happens, they will immediately separate the mother from the babies or separate the babies from the father.

They had a theory. If the babies come in contact with the father, the babies will lose their original scent and the mother can sense this. When this happens, the mother will get rid of the smell by eating her own babies alive!! So when it happened, they really can't do anything for the poor tiny hamster except maybe keep the hamsters a distance away from Mama Hamster Hannibal.

After McD, we went to their house a to see some hamsters. They introduced me to their hamstervillage. I call it Hamsterville. They had three cages with quite a lot of hamsters. I think if I were a hamster I would have enjoyed it. There was a chimney which would seriously make them fit but nearly impossible to scale. Anselm told me that there was once one hamster manage to climb all the way to the top and got stuck there, I was like WOW!! Of course there is the wheel. Overall it was really cosy except a little overcrowded. Then, they introduced each of their family members. Then they showed me the mother. She looks so cute, and even the untrained eye can tell the difference between the male and female hamster. The male hamster kind of have more rough fur and was more aggressive. Of course their private parts can tell the difference instantly. The mum has better looking fur and they were more flowing.

Then something happened. It wasn't so obvious at first cos hamster babies are so small, smaller than half your thumb. But their maroon pinkish bodies sort of gave it away. It was then I witness the disturbing sight of Mama Hamster Hannibal nibbling away one of her baby. Even when there were 4 of us surrounding the hamster cage, we couldn't spot the baby, camouflaged by the hay and nuts in the cage. Everyone went "eeeeewww....." blearghhh..." No!!!...." It nibbled and bit the head off first. Then tiny speckles of hamster blood spewed out. The rest is a lost cause. Later on we even heard a soft snap.

I went to look up on this. And it turned out that it is important to separated the babies from the mother at least a day. The most important thing is, you must not touch the baby because the mother can detect the change in scent otherwise it becomes food for the mother. The mother is usually hungry after the whole pregnancy thing. So it is important to give the mother some food.

Hamsterland recommends this:
You should keep the mother and father separated for at least one month.
Hamster mothers eat their babies mainly when the babies are ill or injured and the mother know they won't be able to survive. They don't do this because of hate, just because of caution.

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A song in my head.....

Jordan Knight and Deborah Gibson: Say Goodbye

Jordan

Yeah
I've been so lost lately
I don't really understand baby
Where did I go wrong
I wanna talk to you
Please call
Deborah
Where do I begin with you
after all that we've been through
I don't think that it would be right if we
got together so suddenly
Jordan
I wish that I could take back all of the things that I said
and replace them with simply I love you instead

Deborah
You didn't wanna say goodbye
But you never really seem like you wanna try
Jordan
But I really wanted you to stay
and then I let you just slip away
Deborah
If you didn't listen to your heart inside
then it really doesn't matter what was on your mind
and if you need me then tell me why
Jordan
Girl, I never meant to say goodbye
Mmm Oh yeah.....


For full lyrics, click here

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Besides Research??

Since starting BMedSc in IMU, time has been never more flexible. Besides doing lab work, feeding rats, killing rats and collecting shit from crows (not yet, going to...not me though!!), there really isn't anything much to do for research except maybe seat in front of the computer trying to pass the time. Well, that's for some of us.

But one of the best things about doing research in IMU, is not often the research itself but food. You see, from the day we started this course, there is definitely something special we would all eat every week thanks to our chocoholic babe, Debbie, who also brings cookies. Mei Siang who makes cakes for all of us, some of which are really worthy of kicking Secret Recipe's butt. Some of us also bring some great tidbits to munch the time away, which also includes me.

Of course, we don't have a feast everyday. We're not chefs in training, for that matter...But even without the constant supply of food daily from our batch, I admit that I am already putting on a bit of weight, which I hate. Here I am trying to buff myself up with muscles, and my white flag is already half-raised, perpetually leading me to surrender to all the gastronomic delight.

I can't believe that even as I write this I'm not even whining or complaining. I guess the white flag would be fully raised anytime soon. Sigh.....

What was already on the menu:

• Chocolates from Debbie's store
• Ferrero Rocher, Debbie
  
• Swiss Chocolates, also debbie, me, yewin
  
• Shortbread,
  
• Pineapple tarts, yewin
  
• Pringles, me
  
• Cookies courtesy of Debbie
• batik cake, Mei Siang
  
• Marble cheese cake, Mei Siang
  
• Chocolate cheese cake, Mei Siang
  
• Coconut pudding, Mei Siang

Not that I'm particular who made the food. Juz as long as the food keeps coming in, its fine.. HAHA

White flag at full mast!!!

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