The 44 Places to go in 2009 @ Penang

Received this link from my ex-colleague in a fwd mail.. hehe.. That's what a normal employee does at work --> Fwd-ing mails :p

This was pretty kewl! Coz Penang was in the list of "The 44 places to go in 2009". The place which I miss so much for almost a year.. If you haven't been to Penang, Malaysia yet, faster hop on the plane and head over to the food heaven ^-^

Remember to vote for it if you've been there before and Luv-it! Hmm.. I fwd-ed this link to a few of my colleagues which haven't been there b4 and after doing so, something struck my mind.. OMG! How or why would a person who do not love food consider heading to the food heaven? Especially someone who counts every calorie they consume.. haha.. Did I fwd-ed it to the wrong person? Hmm.. Neh.. Penang is not just a Food Heaven, there are plenty of things to do over there!

The beaches is one of the main attactions of tourist all year long too! Besides, there are many Historical sites such as the P Ramlee's House (for those who do not know whois P Ramlee.. he is a famous actor aka singer during the black and white Tv era); KekLokSi Temple is an attraction spot in Penang too (Tips: Before heading up to the temple, try out the Laksa[noodle] and get yourself a fresh coconut drink to cool you down under the hot weather! Still a bundle of places to visit which I don't think I'll be able to introduce it all here. The shopping malls ain't as fancy as those in KualaLumpur(the capital of M'sia) but they are worth a visit too ^-^

Check out the wonderful pictures from Asia Direct's website. You will never regret hopping on a trip over there! :)

~ Overlook Family Restaurant ~

Of the many local restaurants that I've been to.. I would say that this is a hidden gem :)

They do offer amazing set meals which is different everyday for dinner with affordable price!

I had the combination meal of their Greek dishes - Soulvaki, Cabbage Rolls and Mousaka which comes with your choice of Soup/Salad, Spaghetti/Rice Pilaf/Potato(Whipped/French Fries/Baked) that cost below $10!!

Besides the cheap price, the food taste perfect and the service was a 5star too! I was so tempted to the combination meal which I ordered because I've never tried this type of Greek food before. I'm not sure if they are real authentic Greek food but it really taste good! Worth to go for try if you are somewhere at Swan Island or N Interstate Ave - Overlook Family Restaurant!

I'll let the pictures do the rest of the writing...

~ The Old Spaghetti Factory ~

The Old Spaghetti Factory is celebrating their 40th Anniversary this year and the best part is...

Selected items for the dinner menu are on a 40% off on Monday and Tuesday for the month of January!

I've been to the Hillsboro branch a few months ago for dinner and the food and environment there are really good :)

** A Suitable place for a date ** wink~ ^-*

Check out the promotion menu.

~ Mount Hood Snow Shoeing ^-^ ~

Head off for a free Snow Shoeing event at Mt. Hood (OR) this morning which was organized by WinterTrails.

The Snow Shoes are provided without any charges by participating dealers and REI offered the Coffee, Hot Water and some snacks to keep everyone warm. There were warm soup last year but did not see any sponsors this year though.. sob* sob* :(

We picked the MSR Solid Plastic Snowshoe since we've not try it on before.. This type of snowshoe if much lighter than the classic types made by metal and will be a great choice for beginners I think..

It was a great day for snow shoeing/skii as the weather was perfectly clear today :) It was kinda hard for us to locate White River Sno-Park as it is not searchable thru either mapquest, google maps and our Nuvi GPS. So if you are planning to get there for the first time, please be prepared that your GPS will not be able to locate the White River Sno-Park. Search for Government Camp and just follow Highway 35 North, it's about 4 miles after the Government camp. I've tried to locate it in mapquest in the picture below where the star icon is located.

Below are the links that you can refer to regarding White River Sno-Park..

WhiteRiver SnowShow
MountHood Info
Mt. hood National Forest

A SnowPark Permit is required for all vehicles and it is available at a number of places. (Vehicles without the permit will be fine $30)

We got the Snow Park Permit from "Joe's Donut Shop" on the way to White River Sno-Park.

This is a good place to stop by for breakfast on the way to Mt. Hood, as they have delicious donuts for sale there!

We bought 2 of the Specials dozen which comes with 13 donuts( 7Cakes+ 2Bars + 2Filled + 2Rings).. Sounds weird uh? haha.. we were all surprised too when we found out that there were 13 instead of a dozen(12). Anyway we were given a total of 28 donuts ^-^ ShHhhh... Maybe they realize that 26 isn't enough for 11 of us :) Thanks to Joe's for the 2 complimentary donuts! Cheerss! :)

Attached are some pictures of the amazing views of White River Sno-Park & the Mount Hood (Please forgive me if the pictures ain't good as i'm not a good photographer ^-^).. Enjoy!

~ HaPpY 2@@9 ~

GoodBye to 2008 and a new blank sheet to start up 2009..

Is it too late to welcome 2009 or is it too early? Since it is the 8th of January.. but .. it's still 2008 for the Chinese lunar calendar with a few more weeks to go before I get a year older ^-^ Anyway, Happy 2009 to Everyone!

Finally, I'm starting one of my 2009 resolution.. Something which I always wanted to do.. Srating up a new blog about Food, Travel and those exciting stuffs that I see/do in my Life. With the limited time that I always have (Excuse? Too lazy? haha :p), I've decided to add this task to me 2009 New Year ToDo List to make myself do it :) It wasn’t easy at all to start learning to use a new tool for a “dumb dumb” like me ^-^ eventhough it is a user friendly tool but being a demanding newbie like me who wanted to add in all those fancy fancy stuffs things got complicated. Haha.. >.<

First, I tried to add in the HappyOMeter and the ad from NuffNang. By following through the steps provided by NuffNang to add in the ad was easy but there was an error when I copied the script and paste it to my template.. “If u r the admin of the page, please check the link if it is correct..” bla bla.. so I thought that the link I provided was wrong. “Dumb dumb” me redo the whole thing again and got the same error, then I thought the name of the blog I provided was wrong since i use "@" for the blog name. After a few redo-ing n trying all kinda stupid things I decided to leave it as it is and try adding in the HappyOMeter Script to check if it works.. Pheww…. it came out well and the ad came out well too when the template was saved and viewed in the actual mode instead of the preview mode. >.<>

Luckily I was smart enough to click on the Help button at the top right corder and lead me in the forum to seek help. After slightly 1minute, someone with the name ‘TheBlogDoctor’ replied me with a link that have the steps to follow through.. TAddddddAaaaa……….. I managed to remove the picture away together with the header but there was no link for me to add back the header and I switched my template to get it all back.. GeeEeezZzz.. What a long process to get my 1st New Year task done! By the way, I did not upload any pictures to the header yet since I was not able to find one which I think is suitable at this moment. Lesson learned from a demanding newbie : Get things done step by step, nothing can be done perfectly in a time ^-^

FlashBacks of 2008
2008 was quite a tuff and adventurous year for me..
· Moving far away from home and a dramatic change in my lifestyle from a person who seldom/never cook a 3 course meal to someone who needs to..
· Searching for job in a different country with no knowledge of how or even what their normal resume would look like and when I finally found a job, I was not able to accept the new environment due to a culture shock.. :( I had never ever imagine that the working environment there is sooo much different from where I was.. Then another job which I thought was such a good opportunity to excel in what I studied, but the company was some sorta “Con” (mayb not that bad, just that I wasn’t able to accept the way they are going to outsource us). Finally I ended up somewhere not too far and not too near from where I currently stay. The people here are real real good without giving me any “heartattack” (due to the culture shock I had b4 haha.. ). Thanks a lot for all the patience, understanding and of course not leaving me out on all the activities. (Thanks to my Big boss for the Christmas card and the ColdStone gift card ^-^)
· I was so excited for the first few month living in a different country trying out new stuffs.. until I started to get bored of the limited variety of foods and stuffs here and start missing the Hawker foods, Pasar malam, Ramadan bazaar, Mamak stalls, Seafood, Sushi buffets, Bakeries, Shopping malls.. etc.. Sometimes I even smell those home delicacies while I’m working in the office haha… (*Day Dreaming*)..
· A year which I saw and learned the most out of experience
· A year which I bought the most NIKE brand stuffs (haha… ^-^)
· A year which I traveled the most ^-^
1. Seattle
2. San Diego
3. Vancouver
4. San Francisco
5. NewYork
6. Washington D.C
7. Toronto
8. Montreal etc.

So Loonngg 2008...