Steamed Chicken

This is a dish I remember my grandmother preparing for every CNY reunion dinner when I was little. I never knew what the recipe was, but I loved the tender, juicy outcome.  It was great news for me when mum decided to make this dish, presumably based on some super cool culinary wisdom grandma passed on to her when she was still around.

And it was completely yummy. I have decided I will request for this amazing recipe from mum and pass it to the girlfriend. How nice kalau next time isteri can cook this for me.

"The secret lies in the rock sugar..."

extracted from: Super Cool Culinary Wisdom of Juan's Grandma

I don't know if the gf reads this blog, but if she does, the above is a picture of the completed masterpiece for her reference. She can cook and I'm sure she'll be more than happy to make me my favourite dish. That is, when she's not busy convincing me to cook for me because she wants to sleep in :P

Seasonal Fruits!

Decided to procrastinate on some of my commitments, so here I am. Decided to post some photos of my favourite seasonal fruits as though you have never ever seen them before. It's not uncommon for me to skip dinner just to have these.

Yes, my family and I absolutely love durians. Don't be surprised when you see the four of us buying that many. We open them ourselves and finish most of them in one shot. The leftovers (maybe 5% of what you see above) will be kept in the fridge and later eaten just like durian ice-cream.

Unfortunately the season is almost over and I'll have to wait another year before I get to meet my thorny edible friends again.

I'm Back!

After 3 months away from the blogosphere, I have returned. I have, miraculously, pretty much survived my first proper audit peak. It was a worthwhile struggle indeed. Will need to survive several more, depending on how many I can stand.

And boy, do I have stories to tell. Unfortunately my photos are all stuck in my phone (which I use as my cutting-edge, top class image-capturing device). So I have some spring cleaning to do before I can start writing here. Time to get the ball rolling again.

To whoever is still loyally following this space, here's a shoutout to you all. Thanks guys and hope you're all doing well. The Cyberspace Asylum is back in operation!

Doraemon Exhibition

Some time ago when I was in KL on an engagement we went to this Doraemon exhibition thing. Apparently the blue kitty has been around for 100 years, so an exhibition is organised to celebrate the cat's century-long existence. I was actually pleasantly surprised that we found time to visit this event. Although I'm not a Doraemon fan, it was a much needed break away from my Lenovo Thinkpad.

Celebrating 100 years of Doraemon!

Taking visitors back in time.

I didn't know the blue kitty was once a yellow kitty.

And here are the 100 Doraemons with their 100 gadgets...

This is the one I can relate to best.

Epic mode of transport.

I can relate to this one too.

The legendary door that takes you anywhere.

My colleagues and I. Work hard play hard.

So my 2+2 weeks spent working in KL wasn't as stressful and dry as expected.

CNY Horse Year Heritage Street Festival

Finally found some time to update my bloggy! So here are some photos I took at the Beach Street area during the 3rd (or 4th) day of CNY. Yeah CNY is over but it wasn't that far back, so I guess the photos are still relevant.

Come to think about it, photos were made to be timeless. Of course they are still relevant.

I like how they hang paper umbrellas above the street.

Saw some folks helping to set up.

  

I'm attaching an extra large photo of the stage because I love it. 

Say hi to the snake lady :P

I'm not posting the photo of me acting cute here. So here's (just) my zodiac.

More good deco.

Those hanging lanterns actually have revolving horse patterns inside. Don't ask me how that works.

Nicely decorated trishaw.

In case you're wondering why the streets look so empty, the photos were taken a day before the actual festival. During the event proper there are usually so many people it gets difficult to take pictures properly. So I figured I'd go one night ahead to enjoy the decorations in peace.

Happy Belated CNY

You know that when I'm forced to wish you Happy Chinese New Year 5 (or 6?) days late, I have been pretty darned busy. Sorry about that. I actually have some photos to share but the stuff is all sitting in my phone. My phone's socialising with its charger and I'm not going anywhere near that little radioactive bomb for the next 2 hours. Looks like I'll have to post those photos next time.

Anyway I hope you got yourself enough Ang Pows to make visiting the ATM unnecessary for the next few months. For me, this year is the first year I actually distributed Ang Pows during CNY.

... No I'm not married yet. I just gave my parents Ang Pows because I'm working and that's my statutory duty. And no, I'm not going to give you an Ang Pow. I can show you the Standard Chartered Bank Ang Pows I used (they're pretty classy), but no, no Ang Pow with Kaching$$$ inside for you.

If I started distributing Ang Pows like that, the God of Prosperity would be out of a job.

Anyway CNY is about more than Ang Pows. It's about family reunions and ketchup-ing with your close/distant relatives and friends. It's also about having lots of good meals and growing sideways.

I definitely did grow sideways. Need work out. LOL

Pulau Payar

I'm not going to bore you guys about details of the audit peak. Not when some of you probably can't relate to audit and all of you are in CNY mood. I'm going to write about something more fun, like snorkeling!

I recently visited Pulau Payar to see the sea life there. I've never been snorkeling before and swallowed half the sea before I got the hang of it, but it was worth the trouble. Unfortunately I don't own a camera that can survive underwater, so I can't share what I saw on the seabed. It was really cool. There were fishes of all colours of the rainbow, sea urchins, coral reefs, sea anemones and even reef sharks. No reef sharks don't bite, and they're actually quite shy.

I swam for 5 hours and got myself 5 hours' worth of sunburn. I can't remember when was the last time I swam this much. Probably have never done so. It was 2 weeks' worth of exercise packed into a day.

This is Pulau Payar.

And this is where you hop off into the water.

You can see fishes even without jumping into the ocean.

The sea was actually greenish. phytoplankton I suppose.

We were not allowed to swim beyond the buoys. It was pretty safe. Sea wasn't very deep.

Nahhh. Fish.

I took this photo (and the one above) when somebody threw breadcrumbs into the sea.

If you know nuts about snorkeling and intend to try, I recommend this place. It feels relatively safe since the water is only a few meters deep. In addition there are always so many people around I guess it's unlikely you'll ever drown. Just don't swim away to some obscure corner alone. Also, you'll be given a life vest that will keep you afloat always, which is great for inexperienced swimmers like me.

Ohhh, and remember your sunblock. I'm making a mental note on that so I don't get barbecued in the future.

Happy New Year!

I said I would save this greeting for the new year post, so here it is. HAPPY NEW YEAR my dear readers! Hope you enjoyed yourself last night at some countdown or new year party with family and friends. I know this is the time to talk about new years' resolutions, but I'm not a resolutions type of person. They're a bit too rigid for me and I prefer to make my stuff up as I go. In short, I wing it.

But there are two things I promise myself I will do this year.

1) It will be a tough year ahead but I promise myself I will freaking learn my way to success. What doesn't kill me makes me stronger. What makes me stronger makes me invincible. To be invincible, I must first learn to be stronger by not letting things kill me. Makes sense, right? Wait... ah yes it does make sense. Sorry, blanked out a moment there.

2) I am now officially earning, but I will make sure money does not change me. I can change money, but I will not allow money to change me. No ifs, no buts, non-negotiable. I have seen enough cases where people have changed for the worse since working. I refuse to be one of those people.

Now that I've gotten that out of the way, I also wish that 2014 will be a year I can have fun in. Let it not all be about hardcore work. Life's too short.

May 2014 also be a fruitful and fun year for you!

Drawing to a Close

Merry Christmas everyone. I'll save the Happy New Year for the next post. I hope you are happy with what you have achieved in 2013. I certainly am. No doubts about that.

For me 2013 is special in the sense that I graduated in this year, returned to Penang and landed myself a first job. Quite a drastic change in lifestyle from the college/university life that I have been accustomed to. Besides that I've started pushing towards my next big milestone. My CPA qualification. Hopefully to be attained smoothly in 3 years' time.

Looking back, I would really love to see the clear blue skies of Perth again. I enjoyed studying there. i guess you could tell from my previous posts. I plan to go back someday on a holiday. Just to re-explore the city and relive some of my best memories. Will definitely be some time before I go back there though. Now's the time to save up. Not spend.

I foresee 2014 will be an interesting year for me. Through my trusty gypsy crystal ball I see myself progressing through my first year as part of the workforce, learning to achieve the ultimate balance between career, family, friends, personal interests, and keeping the galaxy safe from alien invaders.

No, my day job does not include fighting aliens. Although sometimes I wish it does.

X'mas in KL Malls

I've been travelling up and down between Penang and KL recently. For training and for actual work. Surprisingly during my 3 trips down south I somehow found the time to explore the capital with my colleagues. I took some photos of the different Christmas decorations I encountered in the various malls in and around KL. Thought it was a good idea to post them here.

First we have the Bangsar Mall, which my colleagues tell me is a haunt for the rich. So I guess I was probably the poorest joker there. Lol.

Management went to great heights to decorate the place. I went to great heights to take that photo. Literally. There were shops below the chairs and shoppers were walking below the dining table. The table was about a storey high.

Another angle.

Look at those apples!

We were pretty much dwarfed by the deco.

1 Utama's deco was not as impressive as the previous mall, but boleh tahan. I observed the progress each day as workers built the deco. To get to where I was working I had to walk through the mall every day.

Prezzies!

Hot air balloon themed.

Another mall with nice X'mas deco is Midvalley Megamall. I stayed at Cititel Midvalley when attending training at PwC HQ, so I had ample chances to hang around this mall. In fact I had most of my dinners here.

Castle! With X'mas trees and snowflakes.

I don't know what that white hanging stuff is supposed to be. My guess is snowflakes or something similar.

Another angle.

 This huge tree was also found in Midvalley Megamall.

Finally, The Gardens, which was right beside Megamall. The deco there was relatively simple. I spent less time there because I was not into branded goods.

Simple but nice. The X'mas tree had red paper roses on it.

 They had these hanging rose vines-reindeer antler things. Quite nice.

Okay, I'm done. Hopefully the next time I write won't be a month later, as in this post which only came a month after the previous one.

What I've Been Up To

This photo aptly sums up my experiences in the past 2 weeks.

PwC, my 1st job, and ASR for Assurance. The fancy name for audit.

My bro pointed out ASR could also mean 'Lee Ewe Juan - All Stupid Rookie'. Hopefully that is not true.

A large part of the previous 2 weeks was spent learning jargon,trying not to look confused and fumbling my way through the company's systems and procedures. Not the first time I've been through that though. It's called the New Joiner Syndrome. And it's common. Fortunately many colleagues and seniors were ready to help me out so I did not cause any disasters.

I also had the chance to visit KL for the first time after a family trip 12 years ago. Went there for the 1st Experience Orientation thingie, which proved to be quite fun, despite the schedule being very hectic. The best part was probably meeting new friends from all over Malaysia and hanging out with my colleagues/batchmates. It's easy to be friends when you know in a few weeks time, you will all share the same worn out looks and have similar dark circles around your eyes.

I will be going to KL soon again for my first engagement. This time for 2 weeks. Let's hope I'm up to the challenge!

Ewe Juan Levels Up!

Beginning tomorrow our hero Ewe Juan levels up and is given a new rank... 'working adult'. Wish me luck on my first day at work. Strictly speaking it's my 4th first day, considering I've done 3 internships. But then again it is still a first day, and it is only polite to wish someone good luck on his first day.

Like this: Good luck Ewe Juan! Enjoy your first day!

I may be a 'working adult', but if you're hoping that's going to change my writing style here to be more mature, you are sorely mistaken. I may grow old and lose hair, but my writing style possesses everlasting youth (and has no hair to lose, in case you did not notice).

And so let the Brand New Adventure Begin!

Competence & Confidence

Should we focus on being confident enough to achieve success, or being competent enough to achieve success?

According to an interesting article I read lately, to achieve greatness, we should focus on developing competence to drive confidence, not just blindly building confidence (most self-help books and motivation programs today are guilty of this).

I attach here a link to a Financial Times article for those who are interested to read the full thing. It's a good read and some food for thought. I rarely talk about anything serious on my blog because I believe in being serious only when studying/working/avoiding getting into deep trouble. Other than that being serious be screwed. There's a reason this blog is called an asylum.

But asylum or not, once in awhile I guess I'm doing everyone a service by sharing something good.

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/c7d527a6-2ce2-11e3-a0ac-00144feab7de.html?siteedition=intl#axzz2iVYnt7wD

The article also takes a swipe at KPMG for using 'core competencies' to assess its potential employees. This approach focuses too much on vague ideas like 'delivering quality'. Not really something measurable or explicitly related to competency, the article argues. This being the case, people nowadays are trying to appear confident, but do not care so much about being competent, because apparently, confidence is enough for you to ace that job interview. Perhaps true to some extent. I'm sure this 'core competencies' thing extends beyond KPMG to many other companies. I've seen a fair share of 'core competencies' or similar things myself.

You do not have to agree with the article 100%. I certainly don't. But let it serve as a reminder that it's important to get a firm grasp of the technical aspects of our lines of work. Spend time mastering your trade, not blowing your trumpet and ESPECIALLY, not backstabbing to get to the top. There is no honour in success built on a trail of casualties.

Kamikaze Exam

Tomorrow I shall be taking my first ever CPA exam. Exams have the tendency to make me feel dumb. And at present I am feeling really, really dumb. I hope what people say about luck favouring the fools is true!

Hopefully it wasn't a bad idea taking two subjects. I have decided to never ever repeat another kamikaze act like this. And besides, once I start working, I will probably only have a 0.45% chance to pass both subjects if I take another two at once.

I will blog more after I'm done with my exams (and before I start work). Right now I have to prove I'm not dumb enough to fail my papers. Add oil. Add salt. Add sugar. Add hypertension.

More Exams

My CPA exams are around the corner and I am starting to really FEEL the load and pressure of studying professional papers. To those who successfully got through their CPA exams and earned the title, I FREAKING SALUTE YOU. Especially if you're the type that works full time and still manages to pass with decent grades.

What do you guys take daily to be this brilliant? Brands Essence of Chicken?

By the way I don't take that stuff. I do not dispute the benefits of taking essence of chicken, but in my opinion that Brands thing tastes like worn-out rubber slippers. Don't fancy taking that daily.

And by the way, no I have never tasted rubber slippers. I just imagined it would taste something like Brands. I tried Brands once. A long time ago. As you might have guessed, I did not like it.

And by the way again, I got myself employed. Yup miracles do happen. I'm being very calm about it. Not too thrilled.

BWAHAHAHA I GOT EMPLOYEDDDD I GOT A FREAKING JOB I WONT DIE OF HUNGER I DID NOT STUDY IN VAIN I CAN EARN $$$ I WONT CONTRIBUTE TO THE UNEMPLOYMENT RATE MY LIFE HAS MEANINGGGGGGGGG OHMYGOSH OHMYGOSH OHMYGOSHHHHHHHHHH

Yes. Steady as ever. Cool as ice. Time to study.

Graduation!

This post is badly overdue. Why? Cuz once I came back from Perth, there were some favourable results from the job search process. I am still unemployed, but I aim to be employed pretty soon. There was a hold up because I had an interview scheduled and stuff. So yeah, this post is late. So be it.

Not all the following photos will not be accompanied by the usual descriptions because there really is not much to say. Our smiles speak for themselves. It's great to have family and friends celebrate such a memorable event with me. The journey would never have been possible without them.

Thank you Papa and Mummy!

My comrade.

  

Zhong Yang. Eyes shut.

Me. Eyes shut.

Looks like I have my eyes shut again. Cameraman needs better timing.

 

Friend, you were supposed to exit the stage BEHIND the curtain. Heh heh.

Balloons!!!

Eh, damn I'm short...

Thank you Flat 28 for the souvenirs! Wish I could frame the thing.

Glad to say that I finally got my award certificate. But more importantly, I also got myself friends, experiences and memories that money can't buy. That certificate may be crucial for my first job, but friendships last a lifetime. 16 years to achieve this, and I can proudly say the journey was not in vain!