Hey stranger!

Don’t chide me – I’m more than aware I’ve been gone for almost a year.

Not giving up and will at least pen a few stories before the year ends. But hey, at least you’re following me on Instagram (@imthejessicat) I hope; I didn’t go completely MIA just yet!

OOTD for the night:

Dress by Sarah Joe | Heels by Pedro | Bag by Chanel

Currently working on two blog articles and this is just one of them. The other one is taking a wee bit longer as I’m making a video for that staycation experience too.

I need way more discipline and speed to get back into my old blogging habits. 2019 Resolution maybe?

Dear readers, how I’ve missed you.

How I’ve missed writing and sharing my experiences with all of you! ❤️

There’s so much to update since my absence and so many stories & thoughts to share, but here’s one for today in the spirit of Christmas. This festive season, I had the pleasure of tasting the Christmas & New Year’s Eve Menu of Signature and took in the beautiful sights of Stratosphere – all thanks to the good folks of The Roof.

Christmas has always been one of my top few favourites in my list of annual celebrations.

I feel blessed for being able to be grow up celebrating the love, warmth & the festive spirit of Christmas.

My first Christmas dinner of the year was an intimate party thrown by GUINNESS® Malaysia!

That evening at Dirty Nelly's Pub @ KL Life Centre was a warm and cosy one. 

I was glad to gather amongst my good friends & associates (some of which whom I've not seen for a while!) for a delightful buffet spread of a Christmas dinner and of course…

unlimited pouring of a perfect, frothy pint of GUINNESS® draught.

Apart from chugging it, my favorite thing to do with my pint of GUINNESS® – the frothy moutstache! 

During dinner, we were each given a little Christmas gift from GUINNESS® Malaysia!

It was a miniature snow globe with the GUINNESS® mascot, the iconic toucan inside. 

There are three different variants altogether. Might wanna keep all three as a novelty collection, no? 

Limited edition snowglobes!

You can get yours by purchasing your GUINNESS® at participating outlets/pubs

Drinking more GUINNESS® & giving myself more moustaches!

Guess who was the special guest of the night?

It's local singer-songwriter-music producer, Vince Chong! 

Vince Chong serenading us LIVE with certain selections from his new album

Several covers of traditional, classic Christmas songs like 'Silent Night', 'I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus', 'Winter Wonderland', 'When A Child is Born', 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas amongst others, were performed for us.

He also included his original track, 'With You This Christmas' as well. It was co-written by himself (and legendary local jazz artist Michael Veerapen's son, Daniel Veerapen!) 

Congratulations on the release of your debut Christmas album CD, 'With You This Christmas'!

The songs were lovely. Those interested can get it via CzipLee Bangsar and CanaanLand Bookstore for RM28. It's also available on iTunes & Amazon! 

Thank you, GUINNESS® for having me. I had a great time with good company! 

***

Year in and year out, a typical, traditional Christmas celebration was something that my family & I never fail to organize with other friends, relatives & loved ones.

We used to have Christmas carolling, stuffed turkeys, home-cooked traditional Christmas fare, Christmas tree decoration, massive gift exchange, hanging Christmas stockings up for Santa, exchanging Christmas greeting cards, candy canes, wearing Santa hats and reindeer horns during our family Christmas dinners and more.

This year, we decided to do it differently 

For our Christmas eve dinner, we celebrated the countdown and gathered together for a…

Chinese Seafood dinner LOL

I know, how odd! LOLOLOLOL 

But we still did have some strain of tradition left in us! Certain things will always remain.

We blasted Christmas songs at home the whole day and had a small gift exchange – sorry for my dreadful present-wrapping skills! It's what's inside that counts, right? HAHA 

The lovely Christmas cake that mom decorated 

Our Christmas tree at home!

Here's a close up

And some of the presents under our tree!

The next afternoon, we took a trip downtown to TAO Japanese Cuisine restaurant in located in Penang Times Square for our Christmas lunch. 

Japanese cuisine to celebrate Christmas? Ummmmm… what?

I know, this is so unbecoming of us!  I really hope we don't go out on a tangent like this next year.

Surprisingly, that was all the photos I took. There were at least ten times more the amount of food on our table, but I decided to put my iPhone down to actually concentrate on my family lunch 

Ever since the advent of smartphones and Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr and others, I don't want our family mealtimes to end up like this –

HAHA. Guilty?

Some of us at the table! I don't know where the rest went LOL

With mom & godmom 

Best grandmother in the world! 

My series of Christmas celebrations ended with a couple of beer pints & cocktails; Killkenny, Guinness & White Russian 

BestieJoyce, Konzy, Mike and I headed to Zenzi Bar @ Upper Penang Road with a few others.

BFF and I 

With the boys Konzy & Mike

Drinkies! 

And that wraps up my unconventional Christmas this year. 

To be honest, I do miss the good ol' traditional Christmas celebrations my family and I used to hold annually without fail. Hmm… maybe I'll take over the plannings next year.

Move over. It's my turn! 

After all, I'm pretty big on Christmas.

Plus, it gives me an excuse to make a perfect roast with plenty of stuffing, bake some amazing pies, puddings & desserts as well as wrap pretty presents that my family won't ever say no to 

Here's to hoping your Christmas was well-spent with warmth around the people closest to you!

Lest you forget the real meaning of Christmas, it is the spirit of unparalleled love, great joy and togetherness.

Mary's boy child, Jesus Christ, was born on Christmas day.

So Christmas, is basically our celebrating God's love to us all – the birth of Christ.

MERRY CHRISTMAS, DEAR READERS! 

May your days be merry & bright! And may all your Christmases be white 

(As you know, Malaysia doesn't snow… so.. fake snow will do for now)

Hollaaaaa! Hope your weekend is going swell, dear readers

Mine has been hectic but fun thus far! I just returned from a full day at the 'Avengers With Harley' event.

Many thanks to Harley Davidson for inviting me as their guest!

I had a swell time checkin' out and even riding your buncha sexy superbikes. It an was out-of-this-world experience! The private screening of Marvel's The Avenger's with good company & all the bikers was amazing too

More of that in another blogpost!

Random photo : sunny skies ahead!

   Oooh and here's a Health & Money tip for today! 

Steadfast in my daily routine is lots of gymtime and fresh fruits & vegetables everyday.

My gym essentials

To complement your healthy lifestyle, blend your own fresh fruit juice at home!

Theboyf and I bought a whole lot of fruits & veggies yesterday at the market and it only costed us 6 bucks altogether.  

Imagine buying fruit juice from a juice bar – 10 bucks for a blend of only 3 fruits, sugared, watered down and filled with ice.

Nope, not wise at all. 

This morning, we had a power combination of 5 types of fruits & 2 veggies

Let's see. Green apples, red apples, oranges, pears, a pineapple, celery sticks & carrots.

100% fresh, pure, concentrated fruit juice including the pulp for only RM6 FOR TWO HUGE GLASSES! 

Apart from the labour of cutting & juicing the fruits by ourselves (and rinsing the equipment thereafter) it is a fun thing to do together, I must say! 

Upon taking our 1st sip of our homemade fruit juice, we nodded in approval and high-fived each other for a job well done. 

Did some juicing with buddy Pamela at home too!

We used a combo of red apples, oranges, carrots & pears 😀

By the way, some of you have been asking me why I haven't been updating much this month.

Now that you've mentioned, it kinda struck me.  

Probably 'cos I'm often out and about even more lately that I hardly have the time to sit at my computer anymore.

Apologies! 🙁 You can still catch up with me via my twitter page 

Promise I'll be updating a whole lot more, aight? 🙂 

Oh, and to make up for lost time, here's a back to back of some photos & happenings I've missed out on sharing with you peeps.

Saved a kitten from being crushed in the middle of the road

Speaking of felines, here are a few latest piccies of my furkid, Chivas.

He's such an adorable ball of fluff, 10 months old now 🙂

Just got him neutered!

Was extended an invitation to Werner's @ Changkat Bukit Bintang to attend a launch party jointly organized by Corset Me, Rarablack and Lovely Legs.

They held a sexy corset party – CANDYGIRL – and it was fun trying out their corsets, leggings and other outfits!

The ladies from Corset Me did a live demonstration of the proper & correct way to wear a corset

I've personally never worn an *actual* corset before!

I only own those corset-look-a-like tube tops from Guess, Forever 21 and MNG. 

This live demonstration was informational & pretty fun to watch

They then offered to let me try their corsets. I got to choose whichever corset that suits my style the most!

The kind lady-boss of Corset Me – Jaycee – helped me wear it properly. Thanks again!

Before I knew it, I was ushered to the studio area to do a photoshoot with their corset on.

My style was evident tonight – an edgy, rockerchick look with a feminine touch 

I picked a black Ed Hardy inspired corset

Felt so jittery throughout the photoshoot!

I've always felt more comfortable being the photographer than being photographed. But I hope I pulled it off!

Mui Victoria and I during the event

Michelle and I just before we left the event!

Two photos : one from my camera & one from hers 🙂

It was a fun and enlightening night. I had a great time!

Attended Carlsberg Where's The Party event

Thanks for the photos, Ed 🙂

Just some photos from ze clan's Christmas potluck party. I made roast! 😀 😀

Again, thanks for the photos Ed!

Brought theboyf back to Penang for the 1st time

Had my Industrial Piercing re-pierced because I didn't like the initial positioning

Went for a double date with my pals!

Some relaxation + shisha with good Iranian food at Shisha Lounge!

Had an amazing & fun-loving valentines!

Exchanged gifts! (More gift-exchange that I forgot to take photos of cos he opened mine real fast)

Had a milkshake phase

Speaking of which, it's been a while since we last had our dose of Milkshake Factory, ey? 😛

Played with food

Ate too much good food

…….. that it's time for a moneydiet

Went to Semenyih for the 1st time to accompany buddy Pam's trip Nottingham University

Photo taken while waiting for her 🙂

Played and experimented with pretty contact lenses!

Clockwise : olive green, ash, brown, violet

Had a random burst of OCD and I started to reorganize my contact lenses

Bought new grey diamond ones! Love how they have sucha strong affinity to the eyeballs

  Just so you know, all the contact lenses I'm wearing are plano ones.

Zero power, as I am neither short-sighted nor long-sighted.

But unfortunately, I have very high astigmatism.

Got my eyes checked!

Fell in love with this tiny car with a Union Jack roof!

Also fell in love with this random cloud I saw by the display window in the mall!

Camwhored in the car while waiting in the bubble jet carwash machine!

Attended one of the series of Guinness's St. Patrick's Day celebrations at Jarrod & Rawlins!

Brought along buddy Pam to join in the greeeeeeen Irish fun 

Massive retail therapy when I got real moody sometime last month

Pampered my nails – DIY at home! 😀

Random shot via iTouch at KLCC carpark

Random shot via iTouch at The Curve's carpark

Also a random shot, this time in Sunway instead!

Had a scrumptious dinner feast with the Aussiemates at Souled Out

Camwhoring with theboyf with full hopes of getting a nice photo but………

Such is life 

Attended the Laura Mercier Spring 2012 Collection & Swatch launch

Had my make up done by the professional make-up artists there!

Met the amazing Jodi Riley, the official, international make-up artist of Laura Mercier

She's so bubbly and full of personality!

Lastly, went back to school with buddy Pam to visit our high school teachers &

eat the famous Char Koay Teow at our canteen!

Surely you must miss your high school food after growing up with it for 11 years of your early life 😛

We certainly did.

That being said, have a good night (or a party night!)

and enjoy your Sunday ahead lovelies! 

Okay I promise this is the last post that has any connection whatsover with Christmas! 😛

I'm no festive laggard but haven't really been getting round to writing the Christmas posts instead of all the other posts first

So as a token of apology, here are 2 very adorable snowmen fer you! 😀 😀

So thefockers and I headed to this really nice place called Folie-Folie along Jalan Raja Musa Aziz in Ipoh for some Christmas dinner.

We frequent this place quite often as Uncle Mike knew some of the bosses and staff there 🙂

Say hello to my favorite uncle of all time!

Anyhoozers, the place was pretty packed with people, old and young alike.

All the waiters and waitresses dressed the part too – in the spirit of Christmas!

Silly me thought that these 2 waiters were the same person.

I was thinking "WHOA, he changed hats so fast?" But it's actually 2 different people!
 

Mom seemed pretty amused with the complimentary snowmen we had too! 🙂
 

Leafed through the pages of the menu and we finally settled on which Main Course to pick.

In the Christmas dinner set, there were choices of Roasted Duck Breast, Grilled Salmon, Chicken Roulade and Braised Lamb Shank

Om nom noms!
 

I obviously chose the fish. Salmon FTW forever and always!

My selection of meat is very, very predictable. It's always in this order : Fish, Chicken, Turkey, Lamb, Beef and last in line, Pork.

Or wait. Last of the last would be…. frog. Never my option! Yuck
 

So the Grilled Salmon was pretty damn awesome, just like everything else served too. Oh and the Pumpkin Cappuccino soup was really new to me! Some of thefockers didn't like it so I ended up finishing it for them 😛

The Roasted Duck, compared to the Chicken Roulade wasn't as flavourful as I had expected it to be.

This was really good. It was light and creamy, soft and frothy bursting with coffee aroma!

The perfect Tiramisu in a cup
 

The couzzies gobbled them down pretty fast! And so did it.

Anyway, couzzie group photo!

 

Yup. We're Blackberry addicts.

Sorry no Steve Jobs worshippers allowed at this table 😛
 

Without our BBs!

Looking a tad more normal here and not too Y-Generation as the previous pic
 

You've prolly seen them well over a hundred times if you've been following this blog for a long time,

but… *drumroll* the mad awesome fockers in the house!

Adjourned back home to partay at the patio 😀

Put on your Christmas hats yo!

Candid shot!
 

Our setting for the table. Pretty swell, ain't it?

It's been a longtime tradition for us to celebrate Christmas at home!

Hmmmm.. there's something missing though.

Now that all thefockers are here. Where's grandpa this year? It feels different without him this Christmas.
 

Oh! There he is. Came back perched by the ceiling to join us, perhaps? :D

I'd like to think so.
 

Do you believe that the deceased comes back in the form of insects i.e butterflies & grasshoppers?

According to the Chinese belief, it is apparently so.

So… HELLLLOOOO KUNGKUNG!! 😀 😀 😀

Ho ho ho! Merry Christmas everybody!

To those who are also celebrating, I hope you had a fantastic Christmas dinner with your family last night 🙂

I sure did!

Anyway, apart from the tradition of celebrating with TheFockers every year, imma share with you my first Christmas party of 2010!

All thanks to Guinness! 😀 😀

So yeah.. a few weeks back, I was invited for Guinness' first series of Merry Guinness christmas dinners. This was held at Malone's Irish Restaurant & Bar in Sooka Sentral, adjacent to KL Sentral, Malaysia.

I arrived on location and saw the elaborately decorated dining tables and Christmas set-up all ready for the evening

Pretty, ain't it? 🙂

Candy canes and candy red Christmas stockings!

Snowmen, Gingerbreadmen, Beermen… oops I meant mini beer bottles!

and ermm.. ballmen? 😛

But what made a better evening was the company of the warm friends and familiar faces 🙂 🙂

There was so much merriment in the haus and so much Guinness to go around… it's free-flow babeh!

Jingle bells! 😀

Walking further in, I spotted the traditional Christmas tree.

No Christmas party is complete without the evergreen coniferous tree! It's a pity we only have the artificial ones here in Malaysia 🙁

Unlike in the movies where daddy puts on his galoshes and goes to the woods

to chop down this tree and brings it back home for Christmas! 😀

After lots of mingling around over glasses and glasses of frothy ice-cold Guinness draught, the Christmas dinner was about to be officiated!

Welcoming all of us to the event 🙂

Are you ready to see what was served, guys? 😀

It was in such a dramatic manner! The black curtains fell right after he gave his short speech and revealed this sumptuous feast!

Now, that's what I call a table of gastronomic heaven!

Splendid! 😀

Especially over a pint of Guinness *clinks glass

So yup, those are the food 🙂
 In fact, that's only half of what was actually served that night!

And this is me looking all gluttony

there were macarons, stollen cakes, foie gras, beef stroganoff and so much more I don't even remember!

Try asking my stomach, she'll prolly recall better 😛

There was also an action station for turkey slicing and cranberry sauce!

Oooh the yums. Talking about it makes me miss the turkey already.

Please sir, may I have some more? 😛 Oliver Twist lolol.

While we were devouring our hearty meals, there was a live band that played for us all! 🙂

They were singing lots of Christmas songs – ranging from the traditional ones to the more modern ones

i personally loved Guinness' version of the !2 Days of Christmas

'cos it had something to do with fried chicken wings haha

And that's not all!

We were enticed to a magic show, which involved fire-eating, finger chopping, tangled knots and more

The Magician was showing Andrew how it was supposed to be done

Soon they had a Q&A session where 5 limited edition Guinness miniature bottles were given out as prizes.

It even dated all the way back to 1974! 😀 😀

Tied so neatly with a black ribbon, I wished they were mine!

So I decided to join the Q&A. Hmm…the questions I could remember were –

How many pints of Guinness are served everyday?

What is the actual color of Guinness?

What is the name of Guinness' christmas event?

Well, my question was simple. So I managed to answer it correctly!

I absolutely love the antique bottles for my stash. It fits perfectly in my collection of alco 🙂

Yuenny won herself a set of these babies too!

Adorable much?

I think she answered the color of Guinness question. The correct answer is Ruby Red! 🙂 (Yes it's not black, contrary to popular belief)

Here's a shot of my swag, courtesy of Guinness!

There's also another Guinness glass inside the paper bag,

'Who dreams of a white Christmas?' Tshirt, a Santa Hat and more!

I'll be wearing the Santa Hat for my family Christmas dinner tomorrow

Do you see that place mat which reads 'Have a Merry Guinness' above?

If you open it, it's actually a board game!! I'm SO going to bring it back home to play with thefockers tonight.

Bloggers playing the Guinness board game!

It's very much like snakes & ladders, only more exciting, Guinness draughts instead of snakes

and players require a good liver 😛 😛

We're getting shot on film!

Guinness even made a bloggers video edition of Merry Guinness wishes and the party!

My Guinness moments 😀 😀

With frosty the snowman too!!!!

Of good food, catching up with good friends, good fun and festive air 🙂

I had fun celebrating my Christmas the Guinness way. Heads up! Merry Guinness promos are held in various outlets around the Klang Valley and other parts of Malaysia as well.

This coming Monday, I will be dining at Finnegan's Pub in Changkat BB for an Irish Christmas Dinner by Guinness. Can't wait! Will be bringing along one lucky person with meeeee 🙂

Do grab a pint of Guinness and enjoy the rest of your party!

Merry Christmas again and enjoy the rest of your holiday fellas

with love ,

Jess