One week planned picnic @ The Nahara Kalumpang, KKB/Tg Malim

About a week and a half ago, the usual Singleton Yuppies of SAMURA (SYOS) had a casual hangout at Subang Jaya. The topics discussed at these regular hangouts starts from anything, such as politics, love, career and up to business deals (lol). So we had a discussion on where to hangout next. so we proposed somewhere outdoorsy, a PICNIC.

Then the weekend came, Datin Syaima proposed that we go for a picnic at a place called The Nahara Kalumpang. The place wasnt so far from where most of the SYOS members lived, it was nearby Tanjung Malim, though it is in KKB, but you have to go through Tg Malim toll to get there... (inception lol)

As a normal ritual for yuppies, if you are organizing an event, you create a whatsapp group for it, and so we did. More and more joined the group and we distributed the tasks. Tasks consists of whoever was in charge of the drinks, mash potatoes, pasta, LAMB! (HELL YEAH), CHICKENNN, Ice cream and many more.... And the usual lot who is not in charge of anything, shall do the cooking during the picnic.

A week later, D-Day came. I was in charge of pasta. As for how yuppies learn to cook, I saw an interesting recipe, Shrimp Fajita Fettuccine on Tasty. So I decided to cook that, but i modified it and used Linguine instead, since it was much more easier to manage and used pre-mix fajita spices (lol pemalas!). The results..... drumroll please (you've prolly saw the picture on my FB or IG already lol) 

Honestly, it looks more red in real life. I forgot to buy chilly flakes and put chilly padi instead to give it a kick hehe

At the last minute Izyan couldnt make the mash potatoes, so I had to save the day to make the mash potato. I took a big shortcut and used a food processor instead lol. Here's the result (The recipe is secret hehe)

Tadaaa!

After cooking, I packed everything and dozed off for the big day tomorrow. So we started our journey by rendezvousing at Hisyam's house at 9, picked syaima at her house and arrived the place just before 11. The others arrived abit earlier to book the BBQ spot. The BBQ spot had a bloody power socket! so I brought my hotplate to heat up the pasta and mash potatoes. We also used the hot plate to cook the lambs since the BBQ pit was full :D After having our picnic, we went for a dip in the river. we ate all of the leftovers after the swim. hungry as hell! haha So here is the list of the food we brought, Pasta, Mash Potatoes, Lamb, Chicken, Salad, Coleslaw, Watermelon, oranges, soft drinks, and ICE CREAM!

BBQ Team

Heating up the pasta for the kids lol

Syaima cooking the lamb

Chicken!

That million dollar face, you know there's lamb when he does that haha

 




 

Youngest of the Yuppies

Caught in the act ( the same chopsticks was used for the cooking, YUM!)

90's Boy Band hair

I hope this will be the first of many hangouts to come, long live Singleton Yuppies of SAMURA!

Before going back

To top it all, lets have another look at the million dollar face (coz its definitely worth it!)

P/S: Please dont sue me hisyam hahaha Thank you everyone for making it happen

Thanks to Izyan for her amazing Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge Camera and her GoPro Hero 4

25th and Beyond!

Hooray! i'm 25 now lol

Anyway, it has been a week since my 25th birthday. Things didnt out so well in the first week. It didnt went well even on the birthday itself. I'm not sure it was quarter life crisis or what, i was broken as i have never been broken before. Probably because of the collective stress, anxiety and an uncertain future. I was so down, i was in not in the right mind to be at work the following day. So i took a day off. I watched a video on "the sanity of madness", seems that it is normal to have a mental breakdown and take a break in order to carry on. So that is what i did.

I continued working the next day, with high hopes on any good news, but, hmmmm, i was partially broken i guess, what i expected never came to be. But the bright side, i'm safe until december at this economic uncertainty. I just carried on for the week.

Then the weekend came, I was planning to go to Muar. So i decided to have a round of golf with one the teachers of my ex-school. Arrived at Tanjong Emas Golf Club around 745am. I tee'd off as soon as i got out of the car. Had really bad shots for the first few holes, probably because i decided to change my swing style the previous day. But it got really good for the last few holes, I stick back to my old style and manage to get 2 pars. After the first round, i got bored, coz my mates from KL havent arrived Muar yet, so I decided to play another round and it was way way way better than my previous round. 

Later on that day, I decided to hang out at the famous 434 coffee shop. At first, I wanted to try the famous "Kopi Luwak", but then I was unsure of the syariah compliant status of the coffee, so i decided to try "Blue Mountain Coffee" i had no idea what it was, but the price was the same as Kopi Luwak, so i expected that it is just as good. For a small shot tea cup, it was RM21.20, and it was good..... The taste is so thick and rich, it just sticks to the back of your throat. 

Later on, as my mates arrived, we really had an epic meal together. Two whole chicken and two large murtabak singapore for 4 persons. So at night, we carried out our program at our school, english improvement training for the Form 5 students. It is my 5th year doing this, since it started in 2012. The kids are very engaged in participating the activity that we had, they really had lifted my spirit to go on with whatever I am doing. Overnight at the dorm, it felt weird coz there were form 1 students haha. 

The following day, I had breakfast with my ex-class teacher, catching up with stories and life. Later on for lunch, my goal was to find one of the best asam pedas in the country, so we went to Parit Jawa Muar. Lunch was cheap, meal for 3 was only RM31! 

On the way back, we stopped by a durian stall to get a bite. Gosh good durians are expensive lol. After durian, we continued back with our journey. Sent my mates back to uniten where they parked their cars and I continued back home. It rained really heavily on the way back from uniten, i managed to get home safely.

First post of '16

Hmmmm, last post was way back in october 2015, gosh, i miss going out to cameron. so what have i done since then hmmmmm lets recall. I remembered before the cameron trip, I got an email from the office that told me that i have to go to Vietnam to spend 3-5 weeks offshore, for pipeline freespan correction (just ignore it if it doesnt make any sense for you) and after cameron, i got an email that sai i had to go to thailand instead for tie-in spool installation (ignore this one too). The day that i got the email, I really didnt felt so good since i woke up that day. It was not because i had to go offshore, something came up later on that day. So I got my coverall and boots and stuff to go to offshore, I also hung out with the senior engineers at the cafe near the office after work, they had really delicious goreng pisang.

But later on that day, during the night, i discovered i was hit with food poisoning. I puked and puked and puked, till i could go no further and my body was shivering. The house was a total mess (I need to improve on this) and do you ever get really weird dreams when you are sick? yes, i had that too. I woke up in the middle of the night, every hour or so until I was dry. I went to the office the next day and head to the clinic ( my office building is really awesome, besides the gym and the really good cafe, there was also a clinic). Since i was dry and dehydrated overnight, the doctor gave me some salt solution and I slept like a baby in the clinic.

I got my MC, took the rest of the day headed home and slept some more. Later on the evening, I had to go offshore shopping (I really should start writing down checklist!) So i just bought whatever i could remember (luckily everything was enough) and I also bought a set of outstation shirts! (it were those plain Uniqlo t-shirts, which were dead cheap and super comfortable).

Woke up early next morning, head to the airport and head to kelantan (it was my first time in kelantan). I was suppose to get my boat ride on the same day, but there were logistic issues, so I had a chance to stay in kelantan overnight and head to the town and tried the awesome food. Kelantan has a very nice morning peaceful feel to it (oh i stayed in Kota Bahru, next to the old Castle muzium thingy, the hotel was Royal Guest House if i'm not mistaken) . I shared a room with a native Kelantanese too,  ( we had close names, so we got the same room lol). He took me around, showed me the places in Kota Bahru, yeah, it was nice.

Later on the second day in kelantan, I rode a bus to Kuala Terengganu and took a 9-10 hour boat to the middle of the sea. And tada! i arrived my house for the next 28 days. It was fun! I'll probably write about that in a different post.

After 30 days not home, I took a week off and went back to my parent's place. After a week, returned to the office all refreshed, and back to work. As I reached december, I joined a new dept, few months has passed, a few site visits and a few nights on board a docked ship hmmm and now I am here.

And now, I totally forgot what I initially wanted to write hahaha But i do feel better. Anyway, I got a golf tournament in a week! super excited about that. I havet been in a golf tournament in 2008! i've been practicing alot, and planning to hit the range for the rest of the week every day. I hope i could make it at least top 10 (theres 12 joining)

Oh, besides that I going for the Port Dickson swimathon on the 20th Of March 2016! I have no idea why I chose the 5km instead of the 2.5km. Oh well, I just wanna finish. Swim training has been going on, though I dont have the energy to do 5kilos after work, Been doing roughly 2 kilos once or twice in a week, the rest just a little over a kilo.

Thats all for now i guess. Gosh i feel super relaxed after writing this post haha. Should write post more often in 2016 and beyond.....


*i have no mood for proof reading, please ignore whatever typos or mistakes and correct them ursleves with ur mind lol*