Gals night out- Mussel Inn

Finally, this is the first time that the 4 of us of the ever-close-and-intimate Tzes-Lambs-kembar relationships managed to do a girl's hang out since arrival in Glasgow, which was June 2007. Although it was rainy and windy here, as usual, but our night out can't be any better: we've got the freshest mussels; MOST (see i'm describing in terms of "quantities"?) fresh-baguettes; and the best company by both my tzes (Kah Yee and Pei Ling) and my kembar (Voon)!!

We went to Mussel Inn on Hope Street. (thanks to Hansel and Amir's discovery, which now semi-directly brought us here: "semi-direct" is because Hansel brought Voon here for normal-friend (I'm so lying here... pls forgive me) lunch. Then, Voon decided almost instantly to bring her gal pals here coz it's soooooooo good!)

Mussel Inn, Glasgow: We sat upstairs. It was really lucky of us that we still managed to get a table despite our walk-in on a friday night! *lucky!*

This is US before our official revealing of how-much-asian-gals-can-eat in front of the mat saleh. Our appetite actually attracted the attention of the whole celtic orchestral band who were dining just behind us. They're currently on a tour and happened to be performing in the Royal Concert Hall, which is the one near Buchanan Gallery. What a small world huh? And we thought the Roman-fat fat uncle was trying to con us into believing that the figure playing the clarinet in the brochure was him. Well, guess what, It IS really him!

1/2 Kilo pot of mussels: we had 3!! Each cooked in different flavours: Moroccan; blue cheese; Shallots. *bliss*

Here comes the shocking part which set the whole floor (good thing it's a small area) staring at us!

See this basket of baguettes? We had FOUR of them! Yupp!!

Me and Tze (kah yee) went to their washroom, only to realize that even the toilet is blue!! -tze's favourite colour- We picked up the restaurant's pics postcard and brochure on our way back. The restaurant were praising the goodness of shellfish (mussels, scallops, prawns bla bla bla), and dedicated one whole paragraph to mussels being able to stimulate the male's fertility! What da.... No wonder Tze pei ling said the Roman fat fat uncle (clarinet guy) was checking out the waitress' butt larh!!! And he was looking at Ah voon summore... erm.....

Love ya gals lots!! *hugz* Glad we did this! Muacks muakcss!!

p/s: chua ah ming protesting for forgetting her. We better do something about that!

NO MORE LABS!!

Finally... after the gruelling 14+1 (last day for me to prepare NMR tubes out of my "novel" anti-TB drug) days, I'm now FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE from lab coats which now stinks like longkang, blue gloves, scuba-diving-lookalike goggles, steel spatula, weighing boats, weighing that counts up to 0.0001 decimal place (tell me about it), water bath at 75C, cooking my silky hands above steam for holding my reaction flask for the entire day above the water bath, waiting for crystallization to happen, collecting the crystals, drying them, desperately scrapping products out with the intention to obtain maximum yield (oh yield yield yield yield!!) to the extent of damaging all the filter papers ETC ETC ETC ETC!!! Ghee i might as well submit my blog post as the draft of my experimental methods?! kaka.

Anyhow, I'm just super glad! Not only the lab sessions were intensely grueling, but my anhydride compound which we were suppose to perform esterification with....STINKSSS!! Oh my gosh... you cannot imagine the stench! Both suannS (khoo and eng) in my group have got their's smelling like intense strong acid; Hansel has got his smelling like cat-shit/ cat-corpse; while Geok Ying has got hers smelling like INTENSE puke! It was so bad that she began to stink like intense puke by just shoving her arms into the fume cupboard to label her materials! yewwwww!! While me and Voon yuen's are just a compilation of all the smells... wanna smell?

So bla bla bla and all the yew yew yew.... finally.... we've got our "supposedly" novel anti-TB compound! Original, yet to be found in literature, super potent, ZERO toxicity compound anti-TB drug molecule!! Mine happens to be a pivalic ester, and it actually crystallized!! great, now i'm going to sound like i'm speaking Greek to those who ain't my group members.... sorry sorry.. OK tuning back to english!

*a picture speaks a thousand words.. what more.. I have lots of it!*


Shall keep this in my "treasure box" and will present to WHO when the world has gone to absolute-resistance towards current TB drugs.
Phuay Fhern: the Nobel prize winner~~~~~~~~~ *proud*

My creation: Pivalic ester that mimics the claimed-characteristics of thiolactomycin, TLM, a potent anti-TB drug.

In lay man terms: that means i'm trying to produce adidas sneakers at pasar malam price! Erm.. suddenly my work doesn't sound that great anymore...........*depressed*

Happy 4th anniversary, dear dear. Oban in our hearts...

I remember very clearly that dear first proposed to me on 20th January 2004, outside the Marie Curie lab of HELP college, just 3hours before our Physics paper.... (good thing we didn't fail.. or else i would have punched him ! =P)

It was since that moment that dear has been showering and pampering me with unconditional love. So much of pili pala in between... and now... we're celebrating our 4th anniversary in one of the most picturesque places in Scotland: Oban!! Lucky lucky lucky us! When Dad and mom were our age, they only celebrated their anniversary by jogging in Taman Titiwangsa after work, and adjourned to Pudu roadside Fook Keen chao (Hokkien fried noodle) !

Oban is really a nice place. From the postcard that dear mailed to me shortly after his arrival, I thought the place is only "as nice" during summer. But witnessing its scenery with my own eyes had convinced me that Oban is nice ALL YEAR ROUND... even during the gloomy winter!

This is the Oban town.
It looks exactly like the scene in the postcard. There were swans "dating" each other just along the shores. We took picture here because this is where we boarded on the Caledonian McBryanae ferry that brings us from Oban to Craignure of the Isle of Mull. (oh i actually remember!! *proud*)


Scenes from ferry

The ferry leaving Oban harbour. It was a 40mins ride.

However, I really didn't expect myself to feel so sick at the end of the 40mins ride in the near-hotel-interior furnished ferry. I remember seeing a restaurant cafe, bar & lounge, game room, souvenir shop, indoor and outdoor viewing deck in the fully-carpeted ferry! Initially the word "ferry" was more suggestive of pangkor or penang's ferry that were made out of rotting wood planks =P... but it turned out that this ferry looks like a cruise!

We've finally reached Craignure in the Isle of Mull after the dreadful 40mins ferry ride. I was literally "floating" for the first 10mins as I attempted to walk on still ground....No way I'm going to pose with a sweet sweet smile for the ferry. hmph!!

I recovered after that. Craignure is another place to die for..... It's serene, quaint (believe me, the hotels are still using charcoals and wood to operate the stove that heats the building and water!!), and resembles everything that a small town has to offer: great scenery and friendly villagers.

Dear dear brought me to the Torosay castle. Although it's now privately owned by some Lord... but the garden is still opened to public.

I will never forget this place. It gave me the feeling as if I'm in some old victorian British garden!

Looks like the scene in Pans Labyrinth dy.... er.....

This is how Torosay Castle looks like during winter. I can imagine how breathtaking it is during the summer!!

We were extremely near to the ambassadors of Scotland too: the Sheeps and the yak!

Everything went so well until when we made our way back to the Craignure harbour at 1.15pm.... only to realize that the ticket counter auntie has conned us into believing that the 1pm Ferry is bound to be late by 30mins behind schedule: when in fact, it left the Island at 1pm sharp! Great! Now we're stranded as the next and LAST ferry of the day is at 5pm! *numb* We killed time by reading books on Scottish whisky, Scottish favourite meat recipes, Scottish etc etc etc in the Scottish tourist info kiosk. Dear dear became hungry and so we char-siewed on Pringles: ultimate comfort food!

When we arrived back in Oban, it was dinner time!! To strike a balance between celebrating 4th anniversary in Scotland and being 2 frugal Asian students, we'd decided to make our own 3 course dinner! All at the cost of around 12pounds for 2 person! However, if we had decided on eating out in a fancy restaurant.... a 3-course dinner will easily cost each of us 17.80pounds!

Simple setting, but definitely not simple dinner (knowing our appetites...)

Entree : Bruschetta Salvatore (dear's favourite aubergine topped with bruschetta) x4 pieces each!
Main course : (to suit waimeng...)Rump steak with roasted potatoes smothered with brown
shallot sauce. (then, to suit me) garlic and herbs stir-fried prawns. And we happily ate what was meant for 4person's portion!
Dessert : Haagen Daaz Bailey's ice cream!!!! *bliss* *bliss* *bliss*



With self-control in place, the lifespan of the our 500mL tub was delayed up to 12hours: we finished 3 quaters of the tub after our dinner, and the remaining quarter after breakfast of the following morning. *proud of self-control!*

The following day, is the actual day of our anniversary: 20th Jan! But, since i'm going back to Glasgow on the evening bus, we've brought our celebration forward instead. On the actual day, we woke up later since no shops are opened early on Sundays, and walked out to enjoy the scene at the Oban Harbour. Dear dear was disappointed initially due to the cloudy weather. But to me, the world always seems brighter with him by my side.

For lunch, we went to one of the only 2 restaurants in the whole of Oban that overlooks the Atlantic ocean and the harbour, Piazza. Of course, the magnificient view comes with a price too. So.... being frugal Asian students again, we shared a salmon pizza called swah swah swah (forgot the Italian name). And we ordered tap water too: nice nice nice! *cultural experience at minimum cost*

This is the typical scene of the Oban Harbour. Behind us: Caledonian McBryanae ferry docked beside Piazza restaurant, the place where we had our 4th Anniversary lunch of swah swah swah (some salmon pizza in Italian name)

Come to think of it, the pizza could have cost so much cheaper, had they named it in english... right? The same goes to one of another pizza's name "romantica",which was simply tomatoes, ham and mushroom. Just call larhhh ham and mushroom pizza! okok sorry dear, I shouldn't be condemning the restaurant too much. Yeah.. it's nice...

Oban, Argyll, Scotland: where we celebrated our 4th Anniversary (18-20th Jan 2008)

Dear, I had a great time with you. Thanks. I'm sure we will remember every moment shared in this beautiful place. Happy 4th Anniversary. I love you!

p/s: this is by far my longest post! I belief this post has successfully cleared my blog off the "accumulated"-moulds/fungi/bacteria/dust/spider webs.... =)

Paris In winter 2007

Here's a sweet video of our Paris trip during December 2007, compiled by dear dear. He did it using his free time in Oban and only showed it to me during our 4th anniversary celebration.

Instead of visiting my online album at http://www.picasaweb.google.com/phuayfhern/ParisInWinter,
now it's more convenient to browse through this video. Hehe. Thanks dear! Watching the video really made me feel like it was just yesterday that we visited Paris. I'll sure remember every part of it 4eva! hugs

Thanks Daddie Mommie

Nothing can cheer a final-year-pharmacy-student-dealing-with-aspirin-synthesis-9to5-daily up better than a parcel from her dearestttttt, sweetestttt and most loving parents from Malaysia. Thanks daddie mommie. *hugz* Thanks Pei Yuen too for receiving the parcel on my behalf, or else i would have been forced to go through the trouble with Parcel Force to retrieve my "boxful of happiness"!

Good things are meant to be shared. Here are the treasures in Daddie and Mommie's box:

Dried goods: mushrooms "Tong Koo", Black fungus "Mok Yee" (obediently stacked below the "tong Koo"; Dried scallops "kong yee chee", Chinese herbs "kei zhee"

Kuantan-bought dried shrimps "har mai"

What can be more Malaysian than this if it's not the familiar, comforting and the enriching cocoa aroma of MILO which mom used to make for us every morning before school. Missing you already Mommie. Of course as we grew up and became more picky (yim chim), we started making our own KAOOOO-version of the drink: 5tablespoonful (considering the serving suggestion being about 5 teaspoons) of MILO powder in a normal 200mL mug. *bliss*

Not to forget the Watson's dried guava which I crazily binge on in front of HBO and Wah Lai Toi programmes. Then, mom will start to shout: "See larh eat so much of those... chemicals arh!!" Of course, during those days, I would innocently nod and finish the entire packet within 1 hour.

Dad took the trouble of hunting for my favourite brand of grilled marinated meat slices "long yoke". Thanks to my parent's influence, all of us only take the hardest textured sliced-meat version; while some other enjoys the softer, melting texture of the minced-version.

This shall be one of the dishes in the 4-seasons platter during CNY later. That's 6th and 7th February. Maybe that explains why daddie sent so many of these goodies?

Oh.... this is a very good substitute to the Chinese waxed meat too. Tried that during my previous attempt in making our own "chicken glutinous rice" (loh mai kai) for the Winter Auspice dinner with my housemates and flatemates. . Yumm yummMM!


These happened to be Daddie's favourite dishes for porridge on a typical Saturday afternoon, or Sunday dinner. Just open these canned goodies and other dishes offered to him will only be "additional bonuses" to him. Dad is one very encouraging person whenever we intend to attempt any new recipes or cooking methods. Daddie criticizes, but will never condemn home-cooked food. In fact, my "never reject" attitude in eating came from Daddie! mmmm... now that explains...

Unfortunately, dad will have to start to cut down on fatty and salty food owing to his health conditions. It's ok daddie. I'll be supporting you all the way. You can do it!!

A1 Instant chicken curry sauce: they never go wrong!! These are exactly what we need here in UK since obtaining fresh ingredients is rather troublesome..... Just mix one of these packets into a pot of chicken and potatoes and LOTS of thinly-sliced onions followed by a gentle simmer for 30mins, and you'll be swept back to Malaysia.... and even closer to mom's cooking!


Mom used to love A1 for giving her the convenience she needs after a gruelling 2hours traffic jam during the typical KL rush hour. Again, perhaps we won't be using these much anymore for Daddie's own good. There used to be a time where Brother said "no" to curry chicken, claiming that it's fattening! And me being the sister happily took over his portion... Less man more share marhh..... better still! *wink*

thanks daddie mommie, again. I see my facial cleanser and moisturizers too. I'm missing all of you already. Love ya lots! Hugzzzzzz!!