SA bits 20 - Happy Rice Dumpling Festival..... from about 8600kms away...

I did't even know it was this festival until a friend wished me online and I was reminded yesterday when I went to get some groceries. The chinese grocery store had boxes of home made dumplings and each dumpling was sold at RM6.50.. tasted ok.

Happy Rice Dumpling Festival to everyone at home.

SA bits 19 - What colour, what colour, what colour?

Why would KIA have such a colour in their line of productions? Damn ugly man. Too bad, we're stuck with this car at the moment. Due to different travel plans among us for weeks to come, we have to rent a car for the sake of running around. Peeps, if you're planning to get a second runabout car, don't buy a Picanto (don't take it personally Picanto owners, but I think a Perodua Viva/MYVI is WAY better).

Now,can someone help me buy 6D please?

Emo bits 1

I rarely get pissed, but lately I find myself getting easily worked up over simple things or words. I hope this is partly related to my lack of bak kut teh consumption, and not a sign of depression.
Long weekdays and weekends ahead with work load getting heavier due to project timeline. But I can honestly tell you that I am much luckier than many of the guys in the same boat as I am. At least I don't need to clock in 13-14 hours, every other day. I don't really remember having to look forward to a weekend as much as I did since a few weeks ago... and it's only 2 months into the job!...sigh...

SA bits 18 - Visiting

Went visiting to Uncle Roy's place today. He is currently renting this cottage on the first floor of a house nearby our place. Very big compound as you can see.




The landlords dog, called Oscar; a very friendly Pitbull Terrier.

Oscar also has a nickname,Jumpalingam. Now go figure it out.
The landlord called Mr. David, has green fingers. This man doesn't buy any of his vegetables. He grows them himself in the front and backyard. He is seen here working on his vegetable plot. Lettuce, carrots, tomatoes, chillies etc.

He was quite surprised to hear that I was from Malaysia and Uncle Roy continued to explain how he got to know about our country from a job offered to him about 2 years ago. If he had accepted, he would've assumed the position of a Senior Manager in a hypermarket corporation (Giant if I don't recall wrongly). He would've earned quite a big amount of salary per annum according him, but he just couldn't because of personal reasons. Weird in my opinion, are we that short of management personel in the country with such caliber? I don't think so, at least not in the past 2 companies I came from.

SA bits 17 - Hi, my name is Bongani and I'll be serving you today!

In return, please don't be a stingy mofo. I remember how I got into a small argument with a waiter once, because he demanded 20% instead of 10%. I hate this culture, should've just fixed a 10% or 15% service charge.

SA bits 16 - FIFA Confederations Cup 2009 Finals

I'd have to say, they're doing their best to keep it very organized. From over exposing the nation with commercials...

..to comfortable ticketing and collection points...

..they even automated the collection of tickets to speed up the process and waiting time.

Strangely enough, the application for Confederations Cup 2009 is not as strict as World Cup 2010. I suppose they had different target spectators and making it too difficult for Confederations Cup would deter locals from attending the matches. I guess World Cup is a different market, with more expectations from foreigners rather than locals. Confederations Cup would be the Ujian Percubaan for SA in preparations for World Cup.
Anyway, we are so going!

SA bits 15 - Aston Martin

I overheard my colleague saying the other day; No desire, no drive.

I use to live opposite this showroom. 2 years ago, I would see these cars every morning and night. Today, I had a peep outside the showroom again after returning from a fruitless effort of transport searching. VERY nice... The Aston Martin DBS.


This Jaguar was parked next to the DBS, and I noticed the slight similarity.


Yerrow power!

And more yerrow power! The newer Shelby GT-500, like the one seen in the movie 'Gone in 60 seconds'. Just that this is yerrow coror!


A yerrow Ferrari...

then a red Ferrari...

and THEN a red Ferrari driving away. MAN, it was LOUD, and FAST! I should've taken a video.


While walking away, I looked up the sky thinking how rich does one need to be in order to own a car like that, and what does he do to earn money... when I suddenly noticed a cleverly & neatly camouflaged RF antenna next to the showroom signs.

Anyone would've thought that it was part of the sign's design.

Sigh..a direct translation from a cantonese phrase; occupational disease.

SA bits 14 - Keep out and stay out...

Electric fences are a very common sight in residential/business premises within Joburg. I noticed that the further outskirt you are, the less paranoid people tend to be about getting robbed/burglared within their homes/offices. However, because we are staying in Joburg this will look all too familiar and you sometimes feel like you're living in a real expensive jail...

If you look closer, there are actually parallel steel wires running along the fence and they are hooked up to give any trespassers a zap!

These pics are taken from the parking of my office.
Almost every building complexes here would have such protective systems installed as a deterrent to crimes.




What ever happened to a mean pair of canine loyalty with one named "Brutus" and the other, "Bruiser".

SA bits 13 (Non halal post) - Char Siew Pau & Hakka stew

It's not even close to what we have in KL. Luckily we didn't buy the mini pork dumplings, it would have been such a disappointment. ANYWAY, beggars can't be choosers.

Combination of roast pork,red bean and white lotus pau.

Bedal je la labu.... pun boleh...

Washed down with teh tarik. Good thing about having colleagues who've just returned from KL are lots of KL goodies. Thanks Akash and family, sharing is caring :P hahahah

I also found 2 very important ingredients used to make the hakka stew and immediately bought them for my next cookout.


I think it's called red bean curd, I could be wrong. Heck I don't even know what I'm putting in my mouth!!!

And black fungus. I was told that they have really good properties of preventing a blocked artery from consuming too much fatty pork. I don't suggest it as a remedy for any kinds of blocked artery problems i.e high blood pressure or high cholesterol, so please don't substitute with whatever your doctor has prescribed hahaah
Of course, there is that all important 5 aroma spice powder, but I threw the pack away and stored it in our spice box.
Left the pork to marinate overnight, and deep fried it the next day. Came out rather... overfried.. :P

Close up..

Did everything as per my recollection, and it came like this

Had it for lunch and tastes ok in my opinion, definitely not as good as the ones I had at home made by my parents/aunties.. whack only la... I should go easy on that red bean curd thinggy next time... my housemate is complaining that the smell is too pungent, hahahahah....

SA bits 12 - Car shopping

We've been surviving without our "own" transport since we arrived. Our rides for the past few weeks were "on loan basis" vehicles from fellow colleagues who were travelling out of the country. In other words, we were "safekeeping" their cars during that period. Now that everyone is back, that luxury left us. Thanks Akash and Pritam, we appreciate it very much.

So we were scouting around, and look what I saw..

Do you think red is my colour?

Yes I know, I still have a lot to learn about taking pictures but just fyi that's a red Ferrari in the background. Maybe another 20 years of contracting before I can even afford the wheels only.
Snap back to reality boy! Or how about...

Nope, still day dreaming...something more like...

or...

Believe it or not, we still cannot afford the one in the pic above.

This is what we should be looking for...or something that would cost almost the same, RM As-Cheap-As-Possible or RM Cheap-Nice-Working

We have a few candidates to screen through, will share it with everyone once we have a deal. I'm gonna find out how to qualify for Pimp My Ride SA.