I have my lunches from Mon - Fri at One Utama. And sometimes even for dinners when I do stayback after my gym sessions at Celebrity Fitness, which fortunately is also at One Utama. Again, no, I DO NOT work for One Utama, but let's just say I work one block away from it.

So, I've been here for 9 months now and trust me when I say I've successfully sampled all the restaurants, little eateries, cafes, stalls and whatnot in One U, I'm not kidding! Yes, even Horrible Arena as well. Blergh.

So today, out of 114 food outlets, (figure includes non-dine in concept such as Sun Moulin bakery, Gelato Fruity, Fruitsfool, etc - anything that's food related goes into the 114 figure alright) I am going to highlight my top 10 favorite places to eat in One Utama. At the end of this post, it would be nice to let me know whether our lists are somewhat similar?

MY TOP 10 FAVORITE RESTAURANTS @ 1 UTAMA  IN RANDOM ORDER

1. Delicious Cafe by Ms. Read

Food is great, ambience is just about right and service is always great there. Love their blue place mats (or rather paper) and has successfully managed to 'transfer' 5 copies into my possession... as of now. See image above.

Worth trying:
- Death by Iced Chocolate yum!
- Aglio Olio Spaghettini
- Homemade Pesto Spaghettini
- Duck Confit Spaghettini
- French Onion Soup
- Antipasto Platter
- Braised Lambshank & Pie
- Chocolate Brownie

Location: Highstreet, Ground Floor (near FCUK)
Official website: Click here for the full menu

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2. Paddington House of Pancakes

Food can take quite long to prepare, but no worries, tons of magazines are provided to pass time. Service is good here, very helpful and not to mention very PATIENT staff. I usually take extremely long to decide my choice of pancake.

Worth trying:
EVERY PANCAKE... seriously. My favorites are the Dollar Pancakes and the American Stacks.

Location: Rainforest, Ground Floor (next to Good Evening Bangkok)
Official website: Click here for extreme pancake porn 

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3. Oriental Cravings

photo courtesy of littlemissmay.com

This place is actually quite hidden. But if you know where DOME is in the New Wing, then it should be easy. Oriental Cravings is just next to New Wing's DOME. How fast you get your food really depends on the crowd count at the moment. More people = The longer you have to wait. But overall, a really good place for a great meal with your loved ones.

Worth trying:
- Rice Wine Chicken Mee Sua
- Bak Kut Teh
- Claypot Lo Shue Fan
- Preserved Mustard Cabbage with Pork Belly (Mui Choy Kau Yok)
- Pork Knuckles in Black Vinegar
- Teochew fish head treasure broth
- Braised duck with ginger

Location: Rainforest, Ground Floor (next to New Wing's DOME)
Official website: Not available

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4. myNEWScafe

This place has been visited by us (colleagues and I) countless of times. When we simply cannot decide where to have lunch, myNEWScafe is our saviour. Service can be a little slow depending on crowd size. But overall, food is good.

Worth trying:
- Spring Onion Beef Ginger Koay Teow (my personal fav)
- Mum's Otak Otak (portion is big, should not be mistaken as the usual otakotak)
- Singapore Fried Mee Hoon
- Ipoh Koay Teow soup
- Cantonese Yee Mee
- Iced Chocolate (can rival Death by Iced Choc by Delicious)

Location: Promenade, First Floor (same floor as Watson's)
Official website: Click here for more info

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5. Peranakan Place

This is the second place we usually think of besides myNEWScafe. And good news, they are situated right opposite one another. So, if we see there's a huge crowd at myNEWScafe, we'd just hop over to Peranakan. Service can be a tad slow, depending on what you order. Sometimes they take forever to get you your bill, BUT food is great. My personal fav - Pandan Leaf Chicken.

Worth trying:
- Mee Goreng Mamak
- Portuguese Fried Mee (Sue and Deva's personal fav, I have yet to try it!)
- Durian Ice Kacang
- Durian Cendol
- Fried House Noodle
- Gerang Asam Fillet (served with rice)
- Pandan Leaf Chicken
- Honey Fried Sotong
- Belacan Paku
- Beef Rendang
- Many other dishes more

Pandan leaf wrapped chicken

Location: Promenade, First Floor (same floor as Watson's)
Official website: Not available

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Stay tuned for my remaining 5 more favorite restaurants in One Utama. Trust me, narrowing it down to 10 was harder than I thought, as I initially had 17! Cheerios for now and Bon appetit!

Shopaholic is a neologism or slang term for a person who is a compulsive shopper. The term suggests that the person is addicted to shopping in the way that an alcoholic is addicted to alcoholic beverages.

- excerpt taken from wikipedia-

Are you a Compulsive Shopper?

1. When I am feeling depressed, I usually go shopping. True

2. I spend a lot of money that I do not have on things that I do not need. False

3. I get a rush when I make a purchase, but I "crash" soon afterwards. True

4. I have closets full of clothes that I have never worn, and countless gadgets that I have never used. Partially true. I said 'partially'.

5. I often feel reckless and out of control when I shop. False. So totally know what I want *heeeee*

6. I lie to my friends and family about how much money I spend. False. I like to brag about the things I bought and at what price, haha.

7. Even though I feel very distraught about my debt, I still shop. True. Known fact.

8. I feel emotionally upset and disturbed by my own shopping habits. Not really. False.

9. After a big shopping trip, I sometimes feel disoriented and depressed. WHAT KINDA STATEMENT IS THIS?!?! Big shopping trip = Major happiness = 1 million rainbows = High

10. My shopping has caused problems in my personal relationships in one way or another. Ermmmm. No comment.

Did you answer "True" for four or more of the above statements? If so, it is possible that you have a real problem with compulsive shopping.

One... two...partially true (doesn't count), three...

Ok, just three. Not certified yet. 

For tips on how to treat such 'disease' please click here. The short quiz above was taken from here as well.

Some interesting excerpts taken from:
http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/SavingandDebt/P58684.asp

What do women want? In order of preference, most female compulsive shoppers buy clothes, shoes, jewelry, makeup and compact discs.

Men? Clothing, shoes, electronics (TVs, stereos, computers, etc.), hardware and CDs.

Sounds normal enough, right? So how does compulsive shopping differ from your last trip to the mall?

"Well, they don't buy one CD, they buy 10 CDs at a time," says Black. "They might buy five skirts, all the same, perhaps in different shades or slightly different styles, where a normal buyer would identify a need for something new or attend a sale and buy one item."

Benson notes that shopaholics overspend on services as well as goods.

"I had one patient who had her hair blown dry maybe two or three times a week. Between the color, the cut and the blow-dry, she was spending at least $200 if not $250 a week on her hair, and that didn't include all the hair products," she says. <--- this sounds like my 2 friends, hehe

Some shopaholics have more eccentric tastes, though they are by far the minority. Black had one patient who was addicted to Beanie Babies, another who compulsively bought garden figurines; Benson treated a man who only bought compulsively for his camper.

Famous shopaholics in history include Marie Antoinette, Mary Todd Lincoln, William Randolph Hearst, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Imelda Marcos and Princess Diana. Their addictions ranged from clothing (Jackie O, Diana) to art and antiques (Hearst) to shoes (the heralded Marcos collection) to gloves (Mrs. Lincoln owned 84 pairs of them).

I sat down in front of my bursting wardrobe and counted last night.
Took the very colorful pile out and plopped them on the floor.
Sorted them according to colors - undetermined colors are placed onto the color pile closest to them.

Purple - 16
Black - 13
Pink - 11
White - 7
Green - 5
Blue - 5
Brown - 4
Yellow - 3
Orange - 3
Red - 1
Multi-colored aka Rainbow panties - 10

I have a total of 78 panties.

And is currently obsessed with panties in shades of Bubblegum Pink and Sunflower Yellow

Mrs Lincoln, although you collect gloves, I am catching up to youuu.

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Had dinner with Weng & Anna at Vietnam Kitchen, 1 Utama last night.
Ordered one of their set dinners and the dishes were actually really really good.
Also, had a side dish of the spring rolls as well... yummmmy!
RM25 per person.

We're checking out this handbag supplier next weekend in KL.
And if all goes well...

"I bear zero resemblance of the moon, and yet I was named 'Luna Pink' by my owner"

"My body's in a gorgeous shade of pink and to my owner's delight, I came with a pair of cute WHITE headset."

"Chillin' out with my new-found pal, Lolly Funk in the office."

When I'm not checkin' the scenes out with Lolly Funk, I am mostly busy playing with my owner.

She's nuts. She sucks my power dry by playing with me all day.
Even while sleeping.

No longer needs mr tay, she says.
Not quite sure who or what a mr tay is, as of now.

Nonetheless, I love my owner because she LURRRRRRVES me

Was waiting for Sue to pick me up till A Lot Like Love started showing on Astro. I've watched it long time ago but after a couple of minutes into watching it, I was drawn to it, all over again.

And *teet teet* SMS from Sue:

So, after this show I come ok ah?  Emily tertidur hahaha...

Emily (adorable Amanda Peet) was indeed tertidur alright. Next to the toilet bowl after a New Year's celebration nightout with hunky Oliver (Ashton Kutcher) . Loved the part where Emily got out of the club toilet and was almost close to tears as she was alone during the New Year's countdown and at the strike of midnight, everyone kissed (including her stupid ex-bf with the new girl) and Oliver, being the hero that he was, found her, leapt out and FRENCH-KISSED HER!

I immediately texted Sue, "Oliver kissed her! Woohooo!"

Am a sucker for romantic shits like this

Throughout the whole movie, Sue and I were just texting each other, practically on every notable scene!

Scene: Oliver forgot to buy the wine that Bridget (his gf at that time) requested him to and ultimately Bridget asked for a break-up because she couldn't take it anymore. Oli's work was more important than her. (cough*maxis*cough)

Me: Forgot the wine! Just like how *he forgot to bring my top up from the car! Grrr.
Sue: U know wat! I wuz thinking tht u might think of tht which u shouldn't! haha... ok, cd shop is a potential place to meet a guy, hehe

*he = mr tay

Scene: Emily entering her apartment

Me: Ok, I love where she stays now! So much plants around! One U's cd shops have no leng chais coz I know! Ok, we should stop here and 'concentrate' on d show :P

Scene: Oliver sitting at the airport

Sue: I dun get 2 sit with such a guy when i go 4 biz trips!!! :P
Me: I was thinking abt you during the airport scene  ee yer so many years went by. Eh this song, you like one by JET.

Jet's Look What You've Done came on and mannnn I was just hugging my pillow and was just absorbing the moment away. Moments later, Sue replied enthusiastically agreeing that ya, this is one of her favorite songs. And then Anna Nalick's Breathe came on as well - another favorite of mine.

Then Sue suggested getting the soundtrack. I thought that was a good idea because the movie seriously has a great collection of songs. Most memorable one (and is still playing in my head right now) - Emily singing "If You Leave Me Now", the car scene with Oliver where she was trying her best to distract Oliver from talking about Bridget. How cute (Plus I love the CD cover - any reason just to buy it eh :P)

Cho cute!
Consider this CD bought!

Funny how this movie gets into me much more than the first time watching it *shrug*

The part where Emily sang THE SONG. Absolutely absolutely love this scene ;)

The scene where Oli sang I'll Be There For You infront of Emily's apartment
so darn adorable ~

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Ok enough on the movie, Sue came to pick me up and off we went to the flea market at The Curve (again, hehe).

Sue bought: 

- 3 pairs of earrings for RM10
- 1 white blouse from Ikano
- 2 diamante bra straps in green and red
- 1 box of strawberries

I bought:

- 3 pairs of earrings for RM10
- 1 skirt from Ikano
- 1 diamante bra strap in green
- 2 boxes of strawberries
- 1 necklace for my mom and 1 for myself

That's all.

All that walking around made us thirsty and a little hungry so we plopped down at TGIF for...

Double Chocolate Fudgy Brownie Sundae

eek!

10.00am - Off to KLCC with mr tay
10.30 - mr tay went into KLCC Convention Center for the PC Fair. He was working (see what i mean by mr tay being married to maxis?)
10.45 - I HAVE ARRIVED

first purchase for the day

Bought 2 tops in the similar design - 1 yellow and 1 black and 1 black bolero cardi

bought A LOT of stuff from Chec Kers

 #1 #2

#3 #4 (from butterfly garden)

#5 #6
#6 to be worn on 4 earholes

#7

#8

the salesgirl threw this in for FREE!
and it's purple!

it even came with a cute lil purple box. i like!

Came out of Chec Kers and got these at one of those little push-cart stalls:

1.30pm - Met up with Chin Ai for lunch at California Pizza Kitchen.

Ordered another favorite salad of mine (after Sicilian Chicken Salad @ Italiannies) BBQ Chicken Salad and Portabello Ravioli with Sauteed Mushrooms. Both of us love mushrooms so the ravioli was an easy choice.

It was Chin Ai's first time trying the BBQ Chicken Salad and omg, you should hear her raved about it! Initially we wanted to order the full-size salad but the waiter warned us that the full-size can feed 3-4 ppl. So we changed it to half-size and halfway thru eating, Chin Ai was saying how we should have ordered the FULL-SIZE because it was so damn good. Hehe! Try it if you haven't!

3.00 - We left the restaurant for somemore shopping.
3.15 - Chin Ai bought a pair of shoes at Vincci.
3.35 - At Topshop

Corset belts are great accessories to loose fitting dresses or even tight ones and they also go very well with your tops. So at Topshop, they have a very good range of corset belts.

Chin Ai was wearing this Topshop corset belt with her blue summer dress.

So, she wanted to get another similar looking one and she got a beige one at 70% off.

While I, got these each at RM93 at 70% off

blue corset belt

funky low waist cling

These 2 corset belts that I'm looking to get from Topshop One Utama

This, another Topshop belt which looks similar to the one I got from Isetan earlier in the morning.

4.30 - We walked over to the PC Fair. Chin Ai got herself 2 card readers at RM10 each. And then we paid Mr Tay a visit in one of the many Maxis Broadband booths

5.45 - The girls left KL and on their way back to Damansara.

Can you not tell already how refreshing it was for me to be shopping OUT of One Utama for once?

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I have successfully avoided getting a new bag. I swear KLCC has the nicest bags as compared to One Utama. So you could only imagine the torture I had to thru in resisting every evil temptation to get a new bag

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But I splurged a little on a new purse.

Balenciaga in brown
Had initially wanted black, but black looks too common I think

 

After work, left to gym with Sue.
Did cardio - run and some other machines which I can never remember their names.
Sweat Yoga was next.

I nearly died-ed.

After a good shower later, Sue and I had dinner at Italiannies.

Ordered for sharing - Chicken Lasagna + Sicilian Chicken Salad

Photo taken from cheeserland
This is one of my all-time favorite salads

We bitched talked a lot, laughed as much, just amusing ourselves away on the topic on Men
Needless to say, that wonderful topic lasted us till late and when I got home, I continued reading the bimbo chic-lit The Other Side of the Story by Marian Keyes (she's good stuff) and crashed.

Actually Kenneth and I.

*on the phone*

Kenneth: Hello David! Congrats!
David: (replied)
Kenneth: Yeah, I heard about the good news! Congrats man!
David: (replied)
Kenneth: I heard that you got married!
David: (must have replied in shock)

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Kenneth: I heard that you got married to MAXIS!

*pause*

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Both Kenneth and I guffawed into a mad laughing frenzy, bwahhahahahahahha!

This prank was stemmed from my reply to Kenneth when he asked me, "How is David?" to which I casually replied, "He's married to Maxis."

*kenneth = ibm HR manager = mr tay's ex-colleague

It has been confirmed.

We are abandoning KL for Penang on the eve of Merdeka!

There will be mr tay & i, gary & aiwen, yap & regina, ricco & soh eng oops, they are expecting their first born child and yip.

The itinerary is pretty simple:

Thurs:
Get off work early. Must.force.mrtay.to.comply! Then, it's night drive time! I love night drives! (because i get to sleep in the car, bumpity bumpity bump bump)

Fri:
Wake up late. Like really late. Then makan time! First stop to Kimberley Road for Char Kuey Teow (CKT)! Then, Cendol, Rojak, Oh-Chien, Apam Balik, Curry Mee, Asam Laksa, Prawn Mee, Lok Lok, Bak Kut Teh (BKT), Durian!

Sat:
SHOPPING! And then duh, MAKAN AGAIN! At night, checking out the clubs there. 

Sun:
STILL MAKAN. Then leave for KL.

I think I will put on 20kg just like that.
15kg - from eating Penang food
05kg - from just looking at Penang food

Oh well

This last minute impulsive plan was a result from our many many food conversations on MSN. Both Gary and I have this hobby of torturing ourselves with famous food and holiday destination talks during working hours. Particularly, CKT and BKT.

I insisted on Kimberley Road's CKT while he persisted on McAllister Road's.

So which one now?! You must understand that we hold the utmost respect for a great plate of CKT

I am vouching for the one in Kimberley Road because they put wonderful mantis prawns in it!

pic taken from chanlilian.net

Obscene!

I was born to sensationalize every single damn emotion in me - happy, sad, anger (this one very pro, trust me), and practically all sorts of emotion types that are to be found in a human girl.

My speciality: Anger and Whining

Just like yesterday, something happened and I just blew my top. To the 4 gfs that I've 'shared' (actually, it was more like, "You. Listen to me. Now. Desperate. Crisis. LISTEN!) this with, I thank you for listening and sharing your views with me.

Out of 4 of them: 3 were on HIS side, while 1 was being neutral.

Thank goodness for the 1. At that point in time, I needed at least 1 to be on my side but at the same time, 1, who would not condemn him to the point of no return. She kept asking whether I was sure of what I claimed it to be. To which, I've replied "YES!!!" incessantly. And then proceeded to show examples yada yada yada but that's not the whole point of me rambling here. You need not know what had happened because at precisely 2.30pm yesterday, it all proved to be a total downright embarrassment for me.

These were the whole of yesterday's morning emotions:

     

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At 2.30pm yesterday, it became like this:

Oh well. Lesson learnt. Never doubt the boy! :P

Anyways, all thanks to this episode, I now have a new nickname to add to my current total of 182943. Jo-anne calls me The Conclusion Jumper

I told her that makes 90% of the female population, a Conclusion Jumper.
She smugly told me, she belongs to the 10%.
Minority! I exclaimed.
It's ok! Happy to be in the minority group! she replied.

Back home, The Boy gave me yet another nickname which brings us to a total of 182944.

boy so you blew up la in the morning?
girl uh-huh.
boy so you're feeling very stupid now la?
girl uh-huh.
boy i can only imagine! you know, you're just like her.
girl who?
boy SUSAN MAYER.

Note: boy was with me when we watched the episode where they featured Susan to be a drama-seeking queen.

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1 yr 10 mths today.
And thank gawd, we're still as playful as these little fellas below.

  

eliyvoou!

Weng came over to 1 Utama for lunch and we ate at Carl's Jr. My virgin visit there and without much hesistation I ordered, the Portobello Mushroom Burger. For those who know me well would know that, I is a mushroom-lover *glee*

And the burger was so damn gooooood! It was actually quite huge and you know what? There's a DOUBLE Portobello Mushroom Burger and I honestly do not want to know how gigantic that would be, heh! Burger King can forever disappear / bankrupt / vaporized for all I care, hah!

Even McD's too *dodge stones from McD's fans*

Weng: Wow, the tagline's cool - It's Gonna Get Messy
Me: Ya, look at my fingers!
Weng: Ya, mine too.

Few mins went by:

Weng came back to his seat and, "For a tagline like It's Gonna Get Messy, it's strange that they don't even have a sink for customers to wash their hands."

Hahahaha! Yeah man.

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After lunch, it was Office Groceries Replenishment time! So off I zoomed over to Jusco supermarket and did a 5-min dash to grab the groceries that I needed.

• Cereal: Post's Blueberry Morning (my absolute fav) + Kellogg's Cornflakes
  I like to mix both packets into one huge empty biscuit tin and pour in generous amounts of Quaker oat flakes and give the tin a good shake! Breakfast is good for you, in case you hadn't known it already 
• Milo: Small refill pack. A cup of hot Milo a day, keeps the blues away
• Green tea: The OSK Japanese brand is ze best. Period.
• Soya Milk: I'm still dabbling with all the brands to see which I love most. Currently I'm with Soyrich.

RM50 gone just like that.

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Mr Tay won't allow me to keep a pet dog. Not even a puppy.
Not even a harmless and cute-as-can-be rabbit
I insisted that I was going to keep my puppy safe and happy by the balcony, with its little cage there.
Mr Tay said no, with an owner like me, the puppy will most likely skydive from the balcony within 3 days.

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I love Carl's Jr and I think I will attempt to try every burger there at least once a week. Not just burgers as they even have choices for the health conscious. Sandwiches where you can opt for low-carb ingredients, salads, and even cakes! I was eyeing the Chocolate Fudge Cake, but saving that for some other time when I've starved like 10 days, then ok lah.

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Today, marked a momentous period in my life

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I FINISHED PAYING MY CAR LOAN!!!

So finally done.

Fi-ni-to.

Will have extra cash starting next month! New bag!!! Ok, maybe not that. Promised Mr Tay over the weekend, that I will look after my finances properly from now on and will not splurge impulsively and unnecessarily. It's gonna be tough but very viable.
See I told you, Mr Tay is good for me