High Tea at Mount Nelson 07-12-2008

Jasmine, Tony, Jenson and Me.
Mount Nelson facts:
Morning Tea: R95
Afternoon Tea: R150
Address: Mount Nelson Hotel
76 Orange Street
Cape Town
Tel: 021-483 1000
Fax: 021-483 1001
Email: reservations@mountnelson.co.za
"The Mount Nelson Hotel is the most iconic luxury hotel in Cape Town situated within a sprawling lush garden estate in the heart of the city’s vibrant cultural centre and close to the bustling V&A Waterfront and some of Cape Town’s best beaches.The hotel is an urban sanctuary with a romantic heritage, a unique sense of style, and a commitment to unparalleled service excellence.Whether travelling for business or leisure in Cape Town, a family holiday, a honeymoon or a solo adventure, the Mount Nelson Hotel is an elegant oasis in a world where privacy is the new luxury and pleasure is all about peace and serenity."

Fine Dining "The Delectable Innercity Restaurant"

Tony (a friend) who is studying hospitality, is currently doing his experentials at the Mount Nelson. He's only been in Cape Town for half a year but already knows more about the where to go and where to eat in Cape Town than the rest of us who's been living here for over 4 years.

Tony, Wing and I went to Sinn's for supper last night, located at Wembley Square just off DeWaal Drive.

Here's a little something I took off their brochure:

"Thomas Sinn takes the elegance of fine dining and makes it more approachable by offering affordable delights in a modern, yet relaxed environment encapsulated in the ambience of an upmarket inner city hot spot".

The owner's wife owns the famous Sinnfull Emporium (Most people know it as the Ice Cream place by Camps Bay).

They were running a special where we had a two course meal for R99. Either a Starter and a Main or a Main and Dessert. I have to say, normally, i'd prefer McD's or KFC for just a fraction of the price and you know you are guaranteed to be satisfied after the meal, but I have to admit, the food at Sinn's was quite something.

The image right on top is Tony's dessert - the Strawberry something something. Those small yellow balls are scoops of Granadilla sorbet. This was complimented by the reduced balsalmic vinegar and pepper (apparently the vinegar and pepper compliment or bring out the flavour of the strawberries). Wing had the Duck Parfait (I looked up the spelling for this, haha) with caramelised apples as a starter. This was duck liver moosed up or something. Haha very interesting taste. For the main course, we all had the sirlion 200g topped with hollandays (fluffed up egg and butter) sauce with mash and asparagus on the side. And finally to top it off, my dessert - the creme brulee.

Anyways for those of you who enjoy the elegant upmarket type of dining (I call it the big plate little portion type of food), here are their details:

Opening hours: 09:00-23:00

Wi-Fi: Free

Tel: 021-4650967
Website: http://www.sinns.co.za/

Address: Wembley Square, Mc Kenzie Road, Gardens, 8001, Cape Town.

A quick this and that.

Things that have changed and things i've accomplished (or didn't accomplish) since my last entry:

My fishes are slowly decreasing in numbers - Nitrate levels were too high and the fishes fins were starting to stiffen. Anyways to spare you the details, I have lost a couple of baby mollies and 2 adult ones from over feeding and miscommunication with the bf. ><

Did a 50 % water change for my fish tank and the rest are fine now.

On a lighter note, I've always had an interest in Origami - even when I was young.
Last week I learnt how to make an origami lotus (not very challenging - I think). What I'm still trying to make is the Kawasaki Rose - I've spent many hours of many months on it, and I'm still unsuccessful in finishing off the last few steps. I've even tried folding on printed guidelines, but the rose is quite an impossible task for me.

Lotus
http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2007/1/27/82083.html

Kawasaki Rose

http://dev.origami.com/images_pdf/rose_new.pdf

I watched the new 007 movie last night (not as great as what I was expecting). It was after the Microsoft OEM presentation at Canal Walk last night. The movie was a 'bonus' for attending the function.

Started scamping idea's for the Markham's T-shirt competition - didn't get far though. The deadline is the end of this month - so i'll see what happens I guess.

Anyways work's-a-calling.

Apple Daily 08-11-2008

Apple daily Newspaper 8-11-08
The murder case happened last night, Kuen’s (Ken Cheung) South African friend, Ho (Jimmy Shum), reported to the press about the whole incident:
Ken planned on moving back to Hong Kong, so he was in the process of privately selling his furniture. Last night, Ken organized with a private buyer to meet at McDonalds to direct him to his house to look at his furniture. However, his roommate tried calling him on his cellphone because he hasn’t gone home after a long time, but no one answered so he asked Jimmy to go seek for him.
Jimmy stated that he lives very close to the McDonalds Ken was meeting the buyer, so he drove over to search for him. However he could not find him so he drove around and found Ken’s car parked nearby on the side of the road already surrounded by a troop of policemen. As Jimmy rushed to the scene, all he saw was Ken’s dead body, the police at the scene could not explain the reason for his death either. According to Jimmy, the private buyer was introduced to Ken by another friend, unsure about his nationality, but assuming he is Chinese.
According to “African Newspaper” the incident happened at around 9pm, because of the bad crime rate in South Africa, people are seldom on the streets at night. At the crime scene, neighbours said that they heard loud arguments which was followed by the sound of a gun shot, they came out and saw Ken’s dead body in his car, doors wide open and ignition still switched on - No one saw the murderer.
Owing to the fact that Ken’s wallet and cell phone was not stolen, the police is needs to go under further investigation about the murder.
Ken’s dear friends are all shocked by this murder incident and cannot understand who would do such a thing to him. Ken’s godfather, Mr Chan expressed that the 23-year-old Ken immigrated to South Africa with his family when he was very young, he uses “diligent”, “warm-hearted” and “ambitious” to describe him. Besides his parents, Ken was also very close with his two older sisters.
As an immigrant from Hong Kong, Mr Chan also expressed that South Africa’s crime scene is intolerable. Ken’s parents and sisters decided to return to Hong Kong to seek for better career opportunities after staying in SA for some time, they tried to persuade Ken to go with them, but he knows that it’s difficult to develop a career in Biology/Chemistry so he decided to study further on in order to secure his future in this field. Ken was a Masters student at the University of Pretoria, after completing his course, he planned on joining his family in Hong Kong. He even booked his ticket to go back on the 20th Dec 08.
His godmother, Mrs Chan sorrowfully expressed herself after hearing the shocking news from Ken’s friend, “He is a good kid, very out-going, unlikely to argue with others. It’s so hard to accept that he’s gone.” She also said that Ken wanted to develop in successful career in Biochemistry.
Jimmy pointed out that Ken is popular and knows many friends, nationalities from Asians, Caucasians and Africans; most of them he met through school and university. Besides from having close friends, Ken has also been in a stable relationship with an Asian girl for around 1 year; he enjoys being involved with clubs organized by the university, playing soccer with friends. He is a scholarship student hence there he has no financial problems. Ken is very humble, very seldom have arguments with anyone, every one who once knew him are all deeply hurt by this tragedy.
Jimmy also confessed that there has been many cases where murder was involved in connection to robberies, but most of the incidents occur in areas of Johannesburg, not Pretoria.
This case has been passed onto the Chinese consulate in South Africa for further investigation.

Mother to 8 Balloon Mollies

I started an aquarium about 3 months ago and on Saturday my one fish gave birth to 12 little ones. I sat for hours watching my tank trying to save them but alas my lionhead goldfish got hold of 4 of them - so now i'm left with 8. It was quite a sight, the balloon mollies are livebearers which means that they bear live young rather than depositing eggs.

My boyfriend and I bought another tank to grow the young in. But for now, i've just separated the more colourful fishes from the more dull looking fish as the colourful ones are not 'man' enough for him.

Speaking of colourful fishes. I also bought 3 Indian Glass Fishes (Painted Glass Fish). The bright colours were what attracted me to those fishes, and after purchasing them, I decided that the colours looked a bit unnatural so I decided to do a little bit of my own research. The bright colours are ink sachets that get injected into the fishes which leave scars. Furthermore, these fishes will only live for another 1 - 2 months. The 10 % that do survive will lose their colour within 4 to 6 months. I don't think its illegal for these types of modifications, and the levels of modifications we think is OK is a personal choice, BUT is sad what kinds of things are done in the pet trade just to make an extra buck.

I read somewhere that you shouldn't buy any animal/fish from a petshop because you feel sorry for them because this will just encourage the store owner to refill their stock.

Anyways thats it for now - will put up images of the new tank when I start adding fish to it.

Life's too short to waste it

A friend was killed last night in PTA. No one really knows what happened. It happened just like that. He had just finished his honours and was about to study his masters next year - with both parents and his sister in HK, this is truely a sad day for many.

Ken may you rest in peace.

Photoshop Talent

My new found hobby. PHOTOSHOP!

There's a website I recently found and just got so addicted to it. Photoshop Talent.

It gives you tutorials on how to make special effects on Photoshop as well as contests that you can enter.

Whats nice about this is that people who don't have prior knowledge of photoshop can learn.

I've uploaded an image of one of my better works on the right.

Hope you enjoy.

- Chi -

Pilot

I can't remember how many times I've started a blog but never actually went through with it. I remember typing out the title Pilot a countless number of times but never finished the body. The name Pilot as many people already know comes from a TV Pilot which is normally the test episode of an intended TV show. A means to test the waters so to speak, I too am experimenting to see whether this blog will reach the outside of this draft folder.

I think my biggest problem with starting a blog is – where do you start? Your past, your present? Your hopes, what you’re thinking of at this very moment?

I think I’ll start from the beginning and work my way towards the present.

I was born in a town called Xi’An in China but my parents decided it was time to leave. I of course had no memories of this as I was only 1, nevertheless, the next few years of my life was spent in Mauritius (it is also the place where my lil’ sister was born – a year after me). But of course as the title suggests, we are not here to talk about her =p. My parents decided after those few years and it was time to move to South Africa in a town named Bloemfontein. Oh the joys of my Childhood. I picked up the Afrikaans language there (which I must add is better than my Mandarin).

After Matric, I left to Cape Town – Studied at the University of Cape Town and for my final year at Vega.

I am currently working at Rectron - my first year and first job I might add. Lots of office politics and drama – but I’ll leave that to another blog.