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)

Okay I know I owe you guys loads and loads of my cooking escapades!

If you are following me on Twitter, you would know that I've been cooking up heaps of stuff for lunches and dinner – often experimental and adventurous.

Cheesy Penne Pasta Potato Bake with Roast Chicken! 😀

Oh and, just so you know, I never follow recipes. So I have no idea how the "recipe" just popped up in my head!

Hmmm… perhaps all these years of eating or numerous food review sessions has subconsciously taught me a thing or two and honed my long-time repressed culinary instincts.

Anyway, that's what I made for dinner for my family in Sydney!

Feast up! Also, I will also show you a brief step-by-step on how to recreate the dishes.

Everything I cook is pretty damn easy, to me. If I can make them,  I don't see why you can't as well!

Ingredients used – potatoes, carrots, onions, garlic, capsicums.

Chop 'em up, dice 'em well, slice 'em well!

Before you cut up your veggies, you might want to pre-heat your oven first to prepare for roasting.

Set it to about 180 degrees Celcius.

Marinade a whole raw chicken with salt, black pepper and barbeque/mushroom sauce.

Stuff the chopped vegetables into various parts of the poor thing.

Yes. That's my hand inside its asshole.

Sprinkle more condiments and your favorite herbs. I used basil and rosemary.

Remember to line your roasting tray with aluminium foil or butter it!

Take it out of the oven after about 45 minutes or how well-cooked your chicken is INSIDE.

Lay it to cool and carve it to shreds.

Boil potatoes and mash them with salt, pepper, milk and butter

Boil the pasta of your choice. I chose curls and penne.

Stir fry onions, garlic, spring onions, mushrooms, veggies and that shredded roast chicken

with your fave pasta sauce

Put everything together in a casserole dish layer by layer.

Mix the pasta evenly with the sauce mixed with everything you've fried earlier, and layer with mashed potatoes and grated cheese. Then pop it in the oven again to bake for about 30 minutes on 150 degrees celcius.

You want your cheese to melt into the potatoes and the layers below it.

Yadda yadda yadda preparation time in total would be about 2 hours +

Okay, everyone is hungry… let's eat!

Salad for appetizers!

Mix cherry tomatoes, sliced mushrooms, avocados and lettuce with mayonnaise or mustard.

Have a good balanced diet!

Eat them together with the main meal. Are you hungry yet? 😀 😀

Ta-da! Portion for one.

We ended up getting 2nd, 3rd and 4th helpings!

I'm glad they loved it. Ahem. They better do 😛 😛

For it is cooked with love, by me

Whee I love to see a happy family enjoying my home-cooked dinner!

There was plenty to go around!

Not bad,. All gone! I've made another extra casserole dish… waiting for tomorrow though

Here's to hoping it will suffice for lunch tomorrow! 😀

Oh and, this also marks Episode One of my lil cookbook of homemade nomsters by me.

If you haven't tried making this, you probably should. Serves 5 and above 🙂 All the best!

Good Friday and Easter Sunday has always just been a memorable occasion for me.

Well, we get public hollies and commemorate the resurrection of Christ. What's not to love?

But the whole idea of Easter Bunnies & chocolate eggs never really got to me

Until I landed in Australia, for my first ever REAL Easter.

Back on University rez, we even had an Easter Egg Hunt game! Anyway, for the week-long Easter Break, I decided to fly to Sydney to sight-see and pay a my extended family a visit 🙂

And I'm thankful I came; for they gave me the best Easter ever!

Chilling with couzzies Sam and Nick before dinner

Thanks for picking me up at the city, Krizzy! 🙂

I was taken away when I first entered their house.

It's beautiful! Have I ever mentioned that I love the architecture and layout of houses in Australia? I've been into some 7 houses now, and it's really different from the ones back in Malaysia.

Anyway, spotted a pretty candle holder hanging on the wall!

People here actually celebrate Easter.

Most of my friends here were busy with their own family Easter dinners today as well.

I simply adore Lindt's Easter Bunny chocolates! 😀

On to the foodsies! Prepare for noms ahead.

Not for the hungry 😛 I was amazed how we managed to stuff ALL the dishes into our tummies

But first, some appetizers & tid-bits before dinner!

Nachos, chick peas, feta cheese, pistachios, cookies and more

"Did I hear food? Can I come in too, pretty please?"

Dinnertime begins!

We were all helping out with the preparation and plating the food on the dining table

Caesar Salad!

Spinach & Ricotta Cannelloni!

More cheese! Popped it into the oven again LOLOL

Potato Au Gratin bake!

Roast Lamb!

Roast Pork!

My uncles took to carving of the roast meat

Yay! And then its time to drizzle the gravy all over

Easy now, slicing & cutting up the pieces of the pork chunk by chunk

Devour the scrumptious delights before they are all gone too soon!

Coincidentally, the 3 of us were wearing black tonight

On the dinner table with couzzies Adie & Krizzy

Here's my platter

Looks rather messy but who gives a !@#$%? Let's eat!

Eating medinner! Want some?

It was a fabulous home-cooked meal… without a doubt!

After dinner, we gathered at another table to chill and catch up 🙂

T'was so nice to rekindle with all my aunts and uncles again after quite some time.

We downed a few shots and neat drinks over our chitchats too

That's the way our family roll, no pansiefansie mixers – nadah!

Oh, how I love gathering together and reminiscing lotsa old-times!

Yes. I'm talking to you

After a few hours, it was time for  yummy cake!

Aunt Yi Ling baked us an Apple Tea Crumble for dessert

It was so good, this time with extra nut & cinnamon toppings!

Fancy a slice?

with ice-cream to jazz things up? Yes, please 🙂

Pastry dessert & vanilla ice-cream… delish!

It finished rather quickly as you can probably tell!

Now, how's this for pretty dessert?

Uncle Danny played around with the food and voila! haha

Needless to say, I had a fantastic time with the family.

Here's a piccie of my cousins and I… for the road!

Happy Easter 2011 folks!

Much love

Aaahhh!! So yesterday I came across some flyers about the MATTA Fair and was stoked looking at all the affordable prices!

I even put it up on Facebook and Twitter and gosh, you guys responded very well 😀

Looks like lotsa people in the hauz are yearning for a holiday just the way I do too.

Here are some pictures from my last holiday which I miss so much!

Looking all touristy in the middle of a busy street!

LOL with a map summore

And here am I in some ancient Rome lookalike place! 😀

So yes, I wanna go on a holiday again really baddddd! MATTA Fair officially begins today and I can't wait to get my hands on those good deals before anyone else takes it all up! Because I'm kiasu like that P 😛

And guess what? I found some awesome promos on Mayflower Tour's flyers and Imma share them all with you! Their Free & Easy tours covers ALL 7 continents like OMG 😀

Okay so.. where do we go first?

Since I'll be heading over to Melbourne next year, here's the deets on Ozzie which I've found.

So cheap!! 704 bucks for a 4 day tour zomg 😀

So what's next?

This one really sparked my attention though

Holidaying in Paris for about a thousand grand ONLY 😀

*thumbs up*

Hmm oh! Like some of my friends, if you're planning to travel the European countries for some sight-seeing, or to ride a strange creature, say… a llama, or experience snow…

or if you wanna hook up with a hot European dude like my Norweigian friend above, then European countries is the way to go! 😛

Here, Imma share some with yall

Super worth your bottom dollar right?

Don't say I didn't tell yall 😀

Oooh and and, since I'll be also heading to the UK to visit the bestie Joyce somewhere in the 3rd quarter of next year, here are some of the packages which I found really worth the money!

Yup, this is the one I've been talking about on Facebook. London for roughly 800 bucks! Where else can you get that on your own!? 😀

And do I hear Hawaiiiiii babeh!!? 😀

Fabulous for honeymoons. The prices are really rock-bottom. Melikes.

There are just so much more countries available for tour by Mayflower, but I can't possibly show you EVERYTHING lest my blogpost be lagging up your computer! So, you know where to go.. the MATTA Fair is gonna be held at The Mall, KL (opposite PWTC) from today till Sunday at 10am – 9pm.

Don't miss out, okay? 😀 You wouldn't wanna see your potential vacations flying out your window!

Good thing we've got Mayflower Tour the holiday and travel specialist to kautim all our holidays for us

Oh and before I forget, lemme share with you a few more.. closer to home ones!

I'm honestly sick and fed up of the same TWO people telling me "Ohh don't go! Dangerous riots!" over and over again each time I mention that I wanna go to Thailand. I declined different groups of friends THREE TIMES to tour Bangkok and Phuket because of this -__-

And everyone went without me, enjoyed themselves and came back with great memories 🙁 🙁

But thanks to Mayflower, I can take their words, stick it up where the sun doesn't shine and go ANYWAY 😀 😀

No worries! Thailand's political situation is very stable (and peaceful) now. So hey ho, let's go!

I wanna go also!!!!! 🙁 🙁

Very tempting lor! I think imma go tomorrow and buy the Bangkok one already.

Amongst all the holiday destination deemed islands in Malaysia, (I think we have 7 if I ain't wrong) Pangkor Island is the nearest to me!

Yup yup, it's located in Perak so it's only a 2 hour drive from our capital, KL City

Most likely, Best Western Marina Island Resort is gonna be my crib for

3 days and 2 nights sometime next month 🙂 🙂

Can't wait to check out that place and share it all with yall!

You can head to Mayflower's booth during the MATTA Fair and check out their promos of only RM78 per person (twin sharing) inclusive of breakfast yo

It looks so gorgeous from the pictures already, I wonder how it's really like inside! 😀

Well, I shall find out soon

Gosh. All this holiday talk is making me itching to purchase some already for this year-end and also next year! 🙂 Why, I've some travel packages in mind already *grins* I hope you have yours too.

Where? Mayflower's booth at The Mall, KL (opposite PWTC)

When? 2nd September  – 5th September 2010

Time? 10am – 9pm

Looks like my T-Rex is all up and ready to go on a holiday already!!

Down boy 😀 😀 We'll get our bags packing soon, I promise! 😀