C'est LA viE

I was really happy to find out such event in Malaysia, it is exciting isnt it?

Putra Jaya had been doing great job on trying to organize various family event, and tonight is the night I bond with my brother and his family.

As mentioned before, he got married last year and now has a little cute daughter named Loey.

Currently my mum was away with her trip at China, while dad had no interest to join us, plus is a Tuesday night, so I decided to join them for the lights.

I was trying my best to leave work, but too bad met the traffic jam and got stucked for almost half an hour, finally got home and ready to go~

Unfortunately, it started raining, and we struggled to find a good place to eat.

Ended up we had dinner at "Padi", a local Malay-western fushion cuisine, I was surprised they served real 100% fresh fruit juice without sugar added, thank you for your generous!

This was what I had tonight: Vietnamese chicken chop rice, the chicken fillet was marinaded with lemon grass and other herbs and grilled, I love lemon grass!

It also contains keropok, salad and a sunny side up egg~

Food was also surprisingly good!

My younger brother, Kai had Thai Style fish finger rice, and my elder brother actually also topped up extra fish finger for snack. 

Their fish finger (or fish cakes) are tasty too.

Not sure what is this, lol....

Ok, after the meal, the rain finally stopped, and left an amazing chilly breeze in the air.

Too bad all the tickets were sold out, but no worries, because we got to see the festival along the bridge for free!!

Loey was so happy when seeing all the colorful lights on the fancy boat decorated in lights, you know, kids love colorful and bright stuff.

She kept saying: 美美~ means so beautiful!!

I should have brought my camera, forgot to take the photo from my younger brother.

Actually we would come to this event was because of him, he is taking a photography paper at the moment, and his project need him to use professional camera to capture good lighting photos.

But nowadays instagram can do magic....tada!

Now the actual boats revealed~ 

this is a very nice event, i would try to buy ticket next year and go again =)

Sigh, here we come, the leaving trend had approached R&D finally....after Karen's departure in April, we have another farewell for Ching Yee in May.

To me, Ching Yee had always been a reliable senior, she wouldn't spoon feed me for sure, but she definitely will give me all the advices or support if I need. 

Somehow, she indeed is very "stingy" to share information that she might have known, which made me have to put more effort on the learning path, but perhaps I wouldnt remember if I never do it so.

So, it is actually sad for Ching Yee to leave the team because she also like a mum who always will take care all the little thing in R&D, from kitchen needs to trial finished good pallets...

I sum up all the farewell sessions with her in this post, I dint have much time with her honestly because I did get very busy after Karen gone.

Well, with the most experienced superior in the team missing, I had to be more independent and took up more jobs.. =S 

Alright, too much office politics, back to the farewell lunch. I had this with Ching yee few days ago, Kelvin and Kelly who had left Macfood earlier this year also joined us.

We have this big platter at Manhattan fish market, actually we had ordered too much for the lunch, we couldnt finish them, such a waste!

Myself just ordered this seafood chowder (i wondered if this is seafood chowder), served with toast. 

To be honest, I think Manhanttan fish market had pricy menu, their food was not really great. I probably wouldnt wanna go there anymore.

Well, but is ok at least Ching Yee enjoyed it.

We also have the formal farewell session tonight at Serai.

Glad that Serai serve great food which is halal. To be honest, it is damn hard to find a proper, fine dining place with Halal certified. 

I like their signature drink, of cause I wouldnt miss out if the bill was paid off by company =P

Finally also got to taste their signature banana fritter, and I really do not get this. It is just a ordinary pisang goreng and is not really awesome until everyone boast about it!

I had greater pisang goreng out there, is it just because of the vanilla ice cream? Come on, you can get them anywhere...

Next time, just focus on their cakes in the cabinet is good enough.

Oh well, no for the banana fritter next time, but yeah to group photo.

Hope you like the present ching yee, I will miss the time we spent together =)

Ok, volume 3 covered mainly is these recent 2 months, but I guess more will be coming up with my newly joined colleague because she is a foodie too =D

First, start off with the 2 massive pizzas at Papa John, this was also my first visit at this American pizza shop.

Derrick and I were too ambitious to order 2 huge pizzas and he thought we would able to finish them ==

I was so guilty, because we did finish them.....slowly and unwillingly =S 

To me, their pizza were not very impressive, I probably wouldnt eat them if there is no promotion. 

Next, is the Hungry brunch we used to visit. I had what Karen ordered last time, perhaps is the one that I think is more worthy.

The toast is just ordinary white toast, the salad just normal coleslaw, the egg just normal sunny side up egg that similar in McD's, none of them were special except the big portion with the reasonable price.

I got my personal delivery during work! Lol, thanks to Derrick, he always not dare to against my order (I am such a bad senior =P)

Just asked him to bring me a cup of Angry bird version sundae, actually it was just topping up M&M but price increased up to nearly RM6! Crazy~

Then, today we had to go to the store again for roadshow. Hence we had fancy lunch at Pickle & Fig~

I should check out for other lunch options at TTDI area so that we have special reason for other cafe hunting =D

But i really like tea from Gryphon Tea company, just found out it is a Singaporean company =O 

We were ambitious today too, just because Ken told us there is a famous bakery shop nearby - Dotty's 

The salted egg trend is still bursting, so we definitely dont want miss the chance have the salted egg cronut!

Honestly, I am not salted egg fan, I dont even wanna eat the salted egg in the moon cake. 

To me,it is too oily and greasy....this cronut is not crispy enough and most importantly, it is cold! 

Regardless how popular it is, this is very unprofessional to serve cold food to customer. 

I would prefer to have another croissant from Dotty's next time, at least it is very crispy and not too oily.

Arg, i still miss the spinach and ham croissant sold at Otago uni =S

Yeah! It's Flyday~~

Today was fantastic, because I had great meal since the morning.

I bought nice pudding from Komugi last night, as my breakfast this morning, hehe

The pudding was actually not too bad, very smooth and soft. Felt like eating a tofu....

I love the match one which was not too sweet. I guess their mango pudding maybe is more popular as I dint manage to grab that as they were all sold out.

Actually I wouldnt bought it if there was no 20% off, just too bad they dint have sale for their famous half baked cheese cake, guess I would get better one in Japan. 

Today lunch was vietnamese! Went to this Vietnamese cuisine at Pyramid mall for the second time, it was Pek Shan's idea.

She said the pho was very nice, well I definitely recognized those I had in NZ or Aussie was nicer.

Just like the Bún Thịt Nướng (Vietnamese Grilled Pork & Rice Noodles), it never ever beat the one I had in Wellington nor Dunedin, but I was grateful I could at least get the similar food in Malaysia.

Then, tonight....is a good night for sure, because it was KTV night!

Our first R&D ktv session, we also asked Kong, Ginseng and his girl fren, Wei Pei, and also Karen (who left Macfood but always one of the R&D team) to join us~

I was really impressed and shocked by the craziness among Derrick, Kong and Pek Shan.

They sang so much until they were forced to drop the mic lol~

See how exhausted Derrick was.....

I dint get to sing much mainly because there were many good singer tonight.

Why I said so? Well because most of them can sing well in English which I never could. 

I am actually more comfortable to sing mandarin songs, and frankly speaking, I never enjoy group singing, I prefer solo and hearing my voice. 

However, it is definitely a good night to see these freak enjoyed themselves so much in the songs and dances..(yeah, they dance....)

Last, is photo session: 

Happy weekend everyone~

hor。。。花了我差不多2個月的時間，不連續，偶然周末的時候慢慢龜速的看，總算看完了這部2012年的勵志劇- 《遲開的向日葵》

若必須說出一個當初追看的原因，真的是因爲劇情的綱要，絕對不是因爲生田斗真，當然我不能全然抹殺他的影響力，但我真的不是他的粉絲啦

主要的劇情描述 就職冰河世代的男女七人對未來的夢想與不安的地方題材青春群像劇  這點就已經吸引我了

我覺得日劇最大的魅力就是它所傳達的正能量訊息，對於我這種悲觀主義者，渾身散發副能量的人絕對是一個強化劑

這也就是爲何我很愛日劇，即使在韓劇男神女神當道的這個年代，日劇還是我的首選

與其花時間去追看那些婆媽且不切實際的愛情戯，不如去欣賞日劇帶來的不同文化概念，傳達的正面訊息，甚至引發的反思的題材。

《遲開的向日葵》正是這麽一部日劇，雖然劇情節奏稍微慢，甚至可能會悶得想放棄，但是就如此劇想表達的“不要放棄”一樣的信念，看完后真的會滿滿正能量！

這部劇有7個主人公，他們都是偶然在四万十市這個地方相遇，從對這個鳥不生蛋的地方的不安和不屑，到正視面對自己的懦弱和恐懼，再勇敢和努力的找回或找尋夢想的初衷。

主人公一小平丈太郎，生田斗真飾

本是在東京做派遣員，但是最終公司不納取他做正式員工，女友又離他而去，想說回老家好了，可是父母眼裏只有在市政府工作而且家庭美滿的弟弟身上。

那時候的他只想逃，於是偶然狀況下看到了四万十市招聘下鄉支援隊的海報，於是一股衝勁便隻身前往這個完全陌生但是有熟悉的地方（他小時候應該有到過這個地方）

故事一開始他就非常有鬥志的為市里的老百姓服務，而且那股熱情其實也讓整個四万十市更加有活力

當然這個地方的老百姓們也很喜歡他，願意送出食物和自己种的蔬果給他，更加讓他對這地方更加溫暖，尤其自己的家人對自己那麽冷漠，相對這裡的婆婆爺爺們都這麽疼愛他

不過，就像他其他四万十市的夥伴們說的，不是每個人都可以輕易得到這些食物或蔬果的哦，真的是因爲小平他這個人如此正面，如此熱情，如此有耐力

對，我其實對他30多嵗，強悍的孤身跳進這個窮鄉僻壤的舉止感到佩服，或許他根本就是一股衝勁，可以理解為沒有計劃，毫無顧忌後果的衝動，但是很多時候突破困境就真的要一股傻勁不是嗎？

他真的不如主人公二（二階堂佳保裏，真木陽子飾）本來就懷抱夢想，一直也沒有想堅持，想積極努力去做的事，但是二階堂的一句話：“不是找到的，是它一開始就存在”，讓他注意他眼前的事。。。

所以對於沒有夢想的朋友們，別失落，很多時候是因爲我們沒去正視過自己想做的事，而且這些事很有可能是在我們眼前觸手可及卻一直沒想過的夢想。

就像小平最後決定要將自己眼前的荒地開墾成稻田，這個夢想看似天方夜譚，但其實不是沒有可能，就像劇裏的不能走路放棄種田的欣田爺爺最後在主人公四（松元弘樹，柄本佑飾）的鼓舞下也能走路了

或許也有人覺得種稻田這麽俗氣的事也能當夢想嗎？要知道夢想是自己的，沒有人有權利去批評你的夢想，哪怕是小小微不足道的目標都足以成大夢~

遲開的向日葵是小平發現的，四万十市的向日葵雖然是比較遲開，但是終究會綻放的~就像小平所疑問的究竟自己的人生之花何時會綻放，但是他相信一定會盛開的。

其實最後他願意抛開那3年合同的限制，毅然的留在四万十很令人欣慰的，至少他知道自己最終想要的是什麽。其實撇開稻田，我覺得小平還有另一個夢想：就是增加四万十的人口~

主人公二 - 二階堂佳保裏，真木陽子飾

其實二階堂的夢想是到最後一集才交待的，一開始就知道她熱衷於癌症免疫的研究，但是不知道原來是因爲她敬愛的婆婆死于這個到目前醫學上也束手無策的癌症

所以當她被研究室的教授調回自己的家鄉時是非常不甘心的，而且一心一直想再次回到東京繼續研究的工作

但是現實就是如此，或許就是要你受盡一番磨練才讓你朝夢想前進，當她熟悉了四万十的醫療工作，甚至決定留下為這個鎮上的每一個生命服務時，教授卻像玩弄她一樣要求她回到東京返回研究室

於是她手足無措，不知怎麽抉擇。她很想研究，但是她明白如果以後她再次抗衡教授的決定也會被再次調去另外一個不知是哪裏的地方，加上鎮上居民對她的依賴也讓她裹足不前

小平說了：這不是你能實現夢想的地方，沒錯，眼前的風景真的很漂亮，但是你深切知道你在這美景呆再久也無法做你想做的事，那你所謂為老百姓服務的偉大都只是藉口

最終，我們帥帥的女主角毅然離職，即使面對教授在各方研究相關機構的打壓，也勇敢堅定的朝夢想前進。

夢想果然不是一朝一夕的，堅定的意志，戰勝失敗的勇氣真的很重要。

經過這部劇也讓我對真木陽子改觀，一開始不是很喜歡她，但是我還蠻喜歡她在這部劇裏的帥氣和性格。

主人公三 - 藤井順一， 桐古健太飾

順一一開始就是非常積極的下鄉支援隊隊長，一直努力的想要增加四万十的人口，尤其在振興商店街的繁榮上真的是拼命三郎

直到父親的五金店經營不濟，必須拉下閘門，他才領悟自己是如此渺小，尤其在別人眼中竟成了啃老族，只靠家人爲生

社會的看法好似不重要，但是男人的尊嚴有何能說放就放，於是乎他成了此劇第一個大爆走的人，30多嵗竟然來鬧失蹤

慶幸他身邊有對他不離不棄的朋友，他也漸漸揮別陰霾正視自己的問題。

其實我覺得順一很幸運，因爲他後來就直接承接小平的夢想去种稻田，然後想開大米店，或許也可以說小平也很幸運的找到了一個生意夥伴吧？還是一個大咧咧的，笑口常開的傻子~哈哈

主人公四 - 松元弘樹，柄本佑飾

弘樹可以說是我最不喜歡的男角色了，因爲他真的太懦弱了

因爲少年得志，所以老大傷悲，他無法承受現今的自己步入當年風光，於是他離家出走，還莫名其妙的搬進同事（主人公五，森下彩花，香椎由宇飾）的家裏

渾渾噩噩的做物理治療師的助理，前景茫茫，但也不想面對

我們的一生應該都有像弘樹的時候，對前路非常力不從心，但是又不想承認自己已不再風光，人生已跌入谷底

其實人生的道路不是一帆風順的，它是有上有下，經過低谷就會迎來高峰，但是這種轉折都是一個機會，或許會有重要的貴人或時機的引導我們去爭取這個機會

或許是沒人引導，但是我們經歷了一些事情后開始有所頓悟，弘樹的貴人應該是小平和欣田爺爺，時機是爺爺終于站起來，事情或許就是他爸爸的癌症必須動手術了

我最深刻的是弘樹和佳保裏坦誠自己想和她復合是天真的以爲只要和她再回一起就會重拾當年的風光~

還好他最後醒了，還決定要重新上學去考取物理治療師的認證，值得鼓舞和嘉獎，他最後和爸爸的冰釋前嫌也挺感人的

主人公五 - 森下彩花，香椎由宇飾

彩花其實一直都有忘不掉的過世男友，但是真的是到第8集左右才揭曉

劇情起初，她就是一個我行我素的冰上美人，小平就被他電的頭暈目眩

或許她本來也想像和弘樹一樣對小平有那種可有可無的男女關係，但是後來或許被小平的真摯打動了，重新面對自己對舊愛的放不下和悲傷

我想最後她是有成功放下的（因爲劇情沒仔細描繪）。。。。

當然她在這部劇對佳保裏的冷嘲熱諷，到最後的鼓勵扶持都深深地影響著佳保裏，不過幸好最後她沒和小平在一起

主人公六 - 今井春菜， 木村文乃飾

春菜是這部劇裏最討厭的女角色了，她和弘樹半斤八兩，一直不願面對自己愛上有婦之伕的自己，而且即使被父母操控也唯命是從

而且我最驚訝是她一開始是超喜歡小平的，直到後來那個自以爲自己很有文學教養的教授一直發訊息才知道原來這個看似單純的小妹竟然是個小辣椒

當然會以爲她可以認清事實狠狠的甩開那個王八蛋，但是陷入愛情裏的女生真的相當盲目，還好最後順一教訓了這個不要臉的教授一頓

最後春菜總算像嚴肅的爸媽坦言自己的心情，耐心的等待自己下一個春天

主人公七 - 島田莎世裏， 國仲涼子飾

這個算是在這部劇裏最可以捨棄的角色，唯一有的牽連或許只是她是佳保裏的姐姐，順一的女神吧？

之所以是家庭主婦是因爲自己年少時不敢去東京，以爲好的將來就是嫁個好人家相夫教子

當那個什麽都比自己差的妹妹說要去東京是震驚非凡，因爲那對於自己來説是不可能的去向，所以當她妹妹從東京回來從醫，她的自卑和厭煩都一一顯現出來

後來她和妹妹坦誠自己的不安時，我想她應該也得到力量，所以才膽敢和丈夫道出自己一直以來的不滿

自己滿心付出的佳肴，丈夫第二天就抛諸腦后，她當然會無力，我想她應該有後悔自己年少時沒有鼓起勇氣往東京拼搏，但是也深深明白自己只能做好眼前的事-繼續真心的疼愛撫養自己的女兒

這或許也是編劇想傳達的另外一個訊息：有夢就追，但是過去的夢如果不能實現，就把握當下，生活也是要前進的~

最後想說，四万十真的很漂亮，尤其第一集那一排錦鯉旗真的超感動的！

結束來一張放閃照：男女主角真的有在一起，就在那遲開的向日葵的祝福下