Merry Xmas!

I'm flying off in 2hours time.

Merry Xmas and Happy New Year everybody!

I'm away for 11days. See you!

Last day of work

It's last day of work for year 2007. My boss let us off at 1pm. Hurray!

Nobody seemed to be in the mood of working today. Everybody couldn't wait to head home for family reunion or holiday, including my boss! We were chatting for 40mins during our tea break this morning.

At first, my boss allowed us to leave the office at 1pm. However, he changed his mind eventually and emerged from his room at 12.30am, and announced "Come on, lets go home!!" We were surprised yet excited and exclaimed "Are you sure?"

By the way, guess what I got for Xmas?

Last Tuesday, one of the company's partner gave me 2 bottles of wine - one red and one white.

Last Wednesday, another partner gave me one bottle of red wine and one bottle of white wine.

Yesterday, my manager gave me one bottle of white wine!
And today, another partner gave me 2 bottles of wine! Again!

I now have 7 bottles of wine!

I know those wine are actually given to my boss from clients. They have got too many, until they decided to share them with us. Somehow, I just don't understand, why can't the clients buy other stuffs other than wine?

This morning, one of the partners received a dozen bottles of wine in a big classy briefcase! I guess it must be from a big client!

Oh, last night, hubby was lucky enough to get a gift from a raffle at company.

Alcohol again!!!

Anybody would like to have some wine? Drink till you drop....

Hubby is going to finish work at 3pm. We'll have a great dinner and pop our first bottle of wine later.

Free Dinner

Not again! Free???

Well, it's not free actually. We gotta pay, in the form of ang pau! One of Nelson's friends gonna holds her wedding back in M'sia in few weeks time. Obviously, we couldn't make it. Unless the groom and bride sponsor us to fly all the way back to attend the dinner which definitely is unlikely. So, they organised a dinner at a good local chinese restaurant for friends here in Dublin.

After the dinner, we went to Temple Bar . Temple Bar is not a bar, it's Dublin's cultural quarter and has a lively nightlife that is popular with tourists. After dark, the area is a major centre for nightlife, with many nightclubs, restaurants and bars.

We went to one of the famous bars -

Porterhouse. As usual, Friday and Saturday is always packed. Browsing through the menu, we have had a good laugh at one of the names of the drinks - Orgasm. It's mixed from Bailey and cream if I'm not mistaken.

I did not have orgasm that night. Haha =D

I had pear cider instead. Pear cider is an alcoholic beverage made of fermented pear juice.

I love to drink apple or pear cider as compared to Guinness because they taste sweet. It's just like drinking juice and it does not distinctively taste alcoholic. Ciders actually have the same alcohol content as Guinness ler...

Hubby was having the house-brewed Oyster Stout.

Interesting! It's an alcoholic beverage brewed with fresh oyster! It taste quite good. Personally, I think it taste better and smoother than Guinness.

Overall, we had a great night. Thanks to Kok Wai and Wai Chan.

I went to pubs twice this week. I hope I won't be addicted to beer. Haha, I don't want to have a bloated tummy.

Drinking

We went to a pub for a few pints just now. I have had some good chats with colleagues. It's amazing to see their pub culture here. The pub was so crowded on Friday. All of them were in their coat and working suit. Obviously, they headed to the pub straight after work; just like us..hehe.

The place was jam-packed to the extent that even the aisles were piled up with standing people. They seem to be enjoying themselves and happily holding a pint of Guinness or whatever beer chit-chatting with friends, despite the fact that they were to stand all night.

The currency of Northern Ireland is sterling pounds. However, only today I got to know that UK doesn't accept Northern Ireland sterling pounds according to my friend. On the other hand, Northen Ireland accepts UK sterling.

It's so ironic and funny because Northern Ireland is part of UK and both sterlings has got the same values.

Free lunch

I know! I know! I had so many free cakes and a free brunch recently.

It's one of my colleaugues' - Edward - last day tomorrow. We went to a pub nearby our office for lunch. Our Manager paid for it!

The pub was crowded. We had to sit on two different table. It's a farewell lunch however I did not even get a chance to talk to Ed -_-"

It's fine, we'll have a pint or two at a pub after his last working day tomorrow. I think I'll have the chance to bid him farewell then :)

Cake session

My company would treat us cakes during tea time whenever there is staff leaving the company, or to celebrate someone's birthday or welcoming new staff!

I just had cake in the office today during our usual tea break session. It's one of the colleagues' birthday.

After some chat, we realised that we gonna have lots of cake these 2 weeks. On the coming Friday, one of the staffs is leaving. Next Monday, it'll be one of the partner's birthday. The following Friday, another staff is leaving.

Good! Cos I always starve around 10.30am eventhough I'd usually have my breakfast early morning.

No electricity

There was no electricity power supply for about an hour and a half. I didn't cook. Hubby and I went to try chinese take-away food nearby our apartment. I ordered "Kung Po Special" with rice.

While waiting for the food at the restaurant, we had a little chat with the owner of the restaurant. She is from Hong Kong. She disclosed that chinese food here are actually watered down to suit ang moh's taste.

She is so right.

My "Kung Po" doesn't taste like Kung Po at all -_-"

Brunch

It's a typical Sunday. Hubby and I went to city centre to do our weekly marketing.

We went to this restaurant called Odessa to have our brunch. They serve brunch every weekend from 11.30am - 4.30pm.

I love the ambience of the restaurant. It's just so comfy and cosy.

My hubby had a rib-eye steak and fresh orange juice for brunch while I ordered a Brunch-Special-of-the-day and a glass of orange juice too. After the meals, we had a mouth-watering dessert - Chocolate Mousse with hazelnut crust. The desert is so delicious =D

I dont have photos to show. The pictures uploaded here are actually copied from Odessa's webpage. What to do, my hubby's camera broke down recently. Also, I dont even have a single photo for my company X-mas party last Friday =(

Hubby had a Irish coffee and I had cappuccino after dessert. It seems like we really know how to enjoy life here aye. Haha, we feel like as if we are eating like European. You know, they must have starter, main course and dessert, at least.

The total bill came up to €50.65.

Hehe. Guess you must be wondering why we splurged ourselves for such a sumptuous brunch?

We actually paid only €5 for the meal! I had a gift voucher worth €50 blessed by my boss. So, I only had to pay the balance of €0.65 and the change was tips for the staff. It's customary to tip here at restaurants, not that we are too rich. Hehe...

We spent a good 2 hours at the restaurant for the brunch! I thought we need not to take dinner that night. We were so So FULL!!!

Oh, I've been tagged! By Zoe. I'll blog later, ok?

I have no problem to blog about that topic. Well, I don't know many friends who blog. I cant tag for like 7 ppl. I have an idea, could I tag the one who tag me? Hahaha =D

Nasi Lemak ^_^

I know it's just unbelievable! I'm addicted to cooking!

Who say I can't have Asian or M'sian food when I'm here. I love browsing through food blogs and trying those home-cooked food recipes.

Recently, I made Nasi Lemak! Hahaha =D

I cooked extra portions. My hubby happily packed a portion for lunch the next day =D

Bringing lunch box to work is no strange thing here. In fact, some Irish pack their lunch too. I like to pack for my lunch because I could have whatever I wanna eat.

Unlike in M'sia, we always have lunch at coffee shops or restaurants. It costs about RM4-5 only.

I'd only go out for lunch with colleagues on every Friday. For the lunch, well, I'd usually order...

Chicken sandwich = bread

Pepperoni and cheese panini = bread

Ham and cheese baguette = bread -_-"

Every each of them costs around €4-€5. If you wanna have hot foods like pasta or lagsane, they cost around €8-€10 each. Everyday eat like that, can die hor!

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This is the cake I made for my hubby on his birthday.

I didn't include this pic in my earlier blog, because the cake is so ugly. I'm sucks in decorating. I ran out of time, I had to make this before he came back from work. So I just sprinkled some choc rices on top and wrote the words. Haha ^^

I also ran out of batter, so I shortened the word from BIRTHDAY to B'DAY...wahaha

I didn't plan to post it here at first because it's really so ugly. Well, then I was thinking this is a blog to keep the memories for myself, I'm sure it'll be good laugh when I read it in future, isn't it?