Saturday, October 31, 2009

People Are So Talented

Charise Pempengco & Celine Dion duet
A 16-year-old girl's dream of singing with her idol Celine Dion came true because she believed. Charice has an amazing and powerful voice. Together, they sang 'Because You Loved Me' to her proud mother in the audience.



Winner Of Chip Contest by a Malaysian



Had a wonderful outing with Yoong. And nope, I didn't do any real shopping.

The city has an exotic sight of faires and vampires.. Now if only I'm a little kid, that would be great to have my face painted white and pretend for just one day that I'm a zombie -__-

Friday, October 30, 2009

Enjoy With The English Ghost

Dress up, make up, gather some friends, have a drink, and remember to partay... Cuz this is the only day throughout the year that you get to dress up sluttily or scarily or prettily or atrociously or angelicly or devily or stunningly or uglily..

cute happy halloween 2009 Pictures, Images and Photos

Happy English Ghost Festival my dear friends... All of us could do with a break... So enjoy...

As for me?? Am going to the city and look at some art craft fair and enjoy the fireworks at night. Nah, not really into partying or drinking or dressing up :P

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Ancient But Yet Addictive



Oh yeah, totally addictive... He was like holding and playing it for about almost an hour per day. Like its even more attractive than PS or XBOX or Wii. And it just cost him $2 (Sing Dollar).

Why are the snacks sold here so so tasteless and make me wanna gag!!! Argh!! Am not going to buy that potato chips again. Really, I rather eat Brinjals (those who know me will know that I hate brinjals).

SADC to Meet Mugabe and Tsvangirai


The Southern African Development Community (SADC) is scheduled to hold discussions with Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai Thursday.






Zimbabwe's Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai during a press conference in Harare, 16 Oct 2009

SADC is on a fact finding mission to ascertain the causes of the deepening political rift in the unity government.



Prime Minister Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change "disengaged" from the unity government after accusing Mugabe's ZANU-PF of persecuting its members.



Foreign ministers from Zambia, Angola and Mozambique representing the SADC Troika will present a report to the regional body after the discussions.



Gordon Moyo, a minister of state in Prime Minister Tsvangirai's office said that there is need to address MDC's concerns in the government.



"This is a fact finding mission. They are not here to carry out negotiations. They are here to find out how the Global Political Agreement (GPA) is being implemented so far and also to attend to the crisis that has arisen within the inclusive government," Moyo said.



He said both ZANU-PF and the MDC will have to lay their cards on the table.



"So we expect the political parties into the inclusive government are going to table their issues," he said.



Moyo said the MDC has concerns that need to be addressed.

Roy Bennett, allegedly being persecuted by Mugabe's ZANU-PF.





"From the prime minister's office perspective, there are a number of critical issues such as the outstanding matters of the GPA, the SADC (Southern African Development Community communiqué of 27th January 2009 as well as the issues of compliance where we believe there is non-compliance by some elements within government," Moyo said.



He described the current cabinet as deficient.



"Our disengagement means that the inclusive government is incomplete. The cabinet that they are holding is not a full cabinet. In fact it is a cabinet caucus because cabinet in Zimbabwe is made up of three political entities and the absence of one of the political entities renders the cabinet incomplete," he said.



Moyo said the MDC is only interested in the implementation of the GPA.



"We are not asking for renegotiations we are not asking for an opening of negotiations at all. What we are saying is let's implement what we agreed and that has not been done," Moyo said.



He said the ZANU-PF is unwilling to implement the agreement.



"In fact just a cursory check of the items of the GPA you would realize that out of the 34 key items of the GPA only four had been fully implemented, 13 partially implemented (and) 17 not done at all," he said.


* VoA

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

I Just Love Eating Out

I had noticed a trend of me and Yoong. Whenever we are out and about, or trying to find some place to ease our rumbling tummy, we do tend to choose Chinese... And we do know that the Chinese restaurant here doesn't really offer great and cheap food but still, our craving for our root dishes are deeply embellished into our taste buds.

So thus, we chose this wee restaurant which is situated along Dublin Road, on the 2nd story of the row of shops.


The service here was quite attentive with the manager introducing us to which is nice and what's their signature dishes. He even tried to please us by saying they'll try to cook when I said that I wanted Hokkien Mee. -__-


Just came back from Causeway city and was dead tired to even cook dinner for ourselves.


The ambience of the restaurant certainly is great. Love how they decor the restaurant which tons of lightings and chandeliers and other bright ornaments. Very classy indeed.


Our dinner, which at 1st glance was tasty looking and really making me salivate right now.


Ma Po Tau Fu was indeed the tastiest of the whole lot. The super smooth and chewy texture of the pork was the whole attraction. I really still could vividly remember the texture as it was the best I'd ever eaten in Belfast. Couldn't comment much on the tofu but it definitely pass the silky smooth test. All in all, I'd give it a 9/10. Even Yoong was enjoying it a lot.


The Beijing pork chop is another highlight of that dinner. I love the sweet and sour taste as well as the texture of the pork was not tough and unseperable. You know, how tough certain pork chops are and you probably need a cow's energy to chew them. Give it a 7.5/10

I didn't take any close-range photo of the noodles as that was the worst dish and nothing worth mentioning. I'm not even grading it because it was yucky like that. Yoong and I could cook much delicious noodles.
I will definitely come back to taste more of their dishes as the 1st two were pretty promising. Maybe we went on a Tuesday and the chef was in a good mood? -__-

Zimbabwe Blocks UN Torture Expert


Zimbabwe's government has withdrawn an invitation to the UN's investigator on torture, Manfred Nowak, hours before he was due to land in the country.




It comes amid claims that supporters of President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF party have launched a campaign of violence.



MDC members say they have been beaten in recent days, despite the two parties being partners in a coalition.



Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, MDC leader, withdrew co-operation with the unity government earlier this month.



He was angry at the jailing of a senior MDC member on terrorism charges that he says are trumped up.



Urgency 'highlighted'



The United Nations says Mr Nowak - the special rapporteur on torture - was informed of the cancellation only when he was in South Africa on his way to Zimbabwe.



He had been due to meet officials and rights activists and inspect prisons and police stations to compile a report for the Security Council.



The UN said Harare had called off the visit because of an unanticipated meeting with the southern African regional group, Sadc.



A Sadc team is due in Harare later to try to resolve the political crisis.



The UN said in a statement that Mr Nowak welcomed "all efforts to resolve the political crisis", but that the Sadc meeting was not a valid reason to cancel his visit.



"Recent allegations that MDC supporters and human rights defenders have been arrested, harassed and intimidated during the past few days, highlight the urgency of objective fact-finding by an independent UN expert," the UN said.



On Tuesday, Mr Tsvangirai's MDC party said there had been an increase in violent attacks on its members.



Party spokesman Nelson Chamisa said a senior official had been stopped and beaten by Zanu-PF supporters on Tuesday morning. Days earlier, an MDC residence was raided by police.



Zanu-PF has described the comments as "cheap propaganda".



Story from BBC NEWS:

HairStyles Mode

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About this hair style

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Fashion model Karen Elson has medium to long, extremely curly hair in a loose, teased out, volumized hair style with a fringe, or bangs. Her hair color is brown.

wavy hair styles 11

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Short summer hairstyles can be a change from long hair, you can check out any of your favorite celebrity for the chic, fashionable and absolutely adorable short summer hairstyles they have sported at any point of time.

hair tips hairstyles

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Fall 2008 hairstyles. Hairstyles and looks for Fall 2008 hairstyles. Here are the fall 2009 hairstyles and hair trends that graced the runway. The bob is once again the hottest look for the season. While some other popular looks are boho waves, the mushroom bob, blunt bob, chignon, sleek ponytails, braids, natural looks, face framing layers and much more. Here are the hottest styles to been seen in for fall 2009

chose which hairstyle

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Hairstyles for Fall 2008 is a real time problem now which many women are in a confused state to chose which hairstyle for this fall.To ease all your work, most of the celebrities already started wearing latest newly designed hair styles for fall 2008 from popular hair salons and hair stylists.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Medium Short Hair

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Discover Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Short Hair Styles

prom hairstyles fit

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The prom season has arrived and for all those ladies out there that want to stop their men dead in his tracks, the best formal hair styles are often the easiest. Over thinking the hair styles for prom is often the cause of stress on prom day. Sometimes less is more and prom hairstyles fit into that category.

Celebrity Hairstyles

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Hair trends in celebrity hairstyles. The latest and hottest current celebrity hairstyles. All of these celebrity hairstyles feature some of the hottest hair trends that are popular for this season and for summer.

Katie Holmes Bob is one of the hottest celebrity hairstyles around. Who would have thought that she would look so good with a bob and bangs.

Weird Hair Styles

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Here’s a number of photo’s I’m happy I am not in. Check out these crazy hair styles, that will make you appreciate your mediocre haircut.

Sexiest punk hair

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In this post you can find some of the sexiests punk hair styles..

Zimbabwe's MDC Fears for More Security Led Attacks



HARARE, Zimbabwe — The party of Zimbabwe's prime minister said one of its security officials was beaten by the president's militants Tuesday, and said the attack was part of new violence unleashed because it has stepped back from the governing coalition.




Movement for Democratic Change spokesman Nelson Chamisa said at a news conference that the official was stopped on her way to party headquarters early Tuesday and beaten by four armed men who said they wanted to arrest her. He said the men were militants from President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF party. The men fled when a crowd gathered.



The party also has received reports from rural areas of attacks on its supporters, Chamisa said. He also cited a weekend police raid of a house used by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's supporters as part of a campaign of violence and intimidation.



"We expect this to increase and escalate on a national level," Chamisa said at a news conference. "We take this very seriously. We are possibly on the brink of another storm of persecution and intimidation."



Ephraim Masawi, a spokesman for Mugabe's party, denied the allegations, saying they were "cheap propaganda" intended to mask the failure of Tsvangirai's party to explain his decision to withdraw temporarily from the coalition on Oct. 16.



Tsvangirai accused Mugabe's ZANU-PF party of human rights violations and attempting to derail the coalition of longtime rivals that has been troubled since the day it was formed in February.



Tsvangirai has said he will not attend Cabinet meetings until his concerns are resolved. Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change has continued to participate in parliament, where it holds a slim majority.



Tsvangirai and Mugabe met Monday for the first time since the withdrawal. Chamisa said the four-hour meeting did not unblock their impasse.



The unity government was formed at the urging of Zimbabwe's neighbors after a series of violence-plagued elections left the country at a political standstill and in economic ruin. Mugabe has been in power since 1980 and has long been accused of using violence to entrench his position.



Foreign ministers from three of the southern African nations that pushed for the coalition — Mozambique, Zambia and Angola — were due in Harare Thursday for talks with Tsvangirai and Mugabe to try to revive the agreement.


* AP

Sambal Tumis, The Lazy Way

This is like super easy, and all you need are three ingredient, pre-packaged Brahim's Sambal Tumis sauce, Chicken fillet and some chopped onions.

Heat some oil in pan, stir fry onions till golden brown, add in chicken, stir fry for 1 minute, add paste and add water. Cook for about 10-13 minutes. Then serve.

See, I didn't need to write so much about the steps and ingredients. But I can tell you, it certainly does taste freaking delish and hopefully I will cook this again cuz the packet sauce cost about £1.40 which was like so expensive.
On another note, I need more cash!!! Tons of things to buy but so little moolah :(

Monday, October 26, 2009

Bangor

Went for an outing at Bangor which is like 40 minutes drive from Belfast by car with my friend, Judith.

Photobucket
The wee red dot with the speech bubble would be the location of Bangor in the Northern Ireland map.
We specially went there to shop at the Sunday flee market because we heard there were many good bargains. I know, we Malaysians are always sceptical about using 2nd hand stuff by perceiving how dirty the stuff are, but really, you'll never know once you get your hands on them.


Lovely jewellery but mine broke after wearing it like 3 times. The moral of the story?? Never buy accessories in flee market, they aren't as study as they seem.


My friend. ^__^


I think B angor is famous for its port and embankment for loads of yatch, fishing boats and small cruise to anchor. Aaahh, the world of the rich....


Lovely lovely seabay view...


Yeah, forgot to bring out my sunnies and cap... Isshh!!


Don't ask me where this is, cuz I can't find a word for it. A shore maybe!!??




That's me and my friend, trying to figure out how cold is the water and where does all those kelp (sort of like seaweed thingy lying on the shore) come from.



Last but not least, a wee photo of the both of us. We really do look alike, don't we?? People thought we are bro and sis -__-

Sunday, October 25, 2009

The Grand Cake

Having a birthday celebration for Jecg (the girl in the middle as shown in the picture below) and its been a long time since I last met all these people... Let's see... around 3 to 4 months?

Having dinner at Tony Roma's which was quite packed during the weekend but they obviously booked a place, so our sitting was quite cosy and comfortable to fit the all of us.


I was having Beef Burger with swiss mushroom and pickle. Really, Tony Roma's never seem to fail serving great and delicious food as well as the huge portion that I only managed to finish half only and sadly had to throw away the rest :(
Lovely lovely fries I should say (and the only fries that gets my praises is from Burger King and no other places). Love the beef patte which was really chewy (not the sort of tough chewy but more of un-tiring chewy) and I just love how the cheese melted on the mushroom which makes them sweet and tangy.

Pork ribs that my friend was having. A whole slack of their signature ribs with original sauce. That's champs (mashed potato and chives by the way) and some sad looking brocolli.


My vegetarian friend opted for this plate of humongous looking Asian style salad with the occassional sprinkle of deep fried wonton skin. Tasted this and like it a lot where the hint of sweetness (from the drizzle of sweet chilli sauce, I think) really complement the crunchiness of the cabbage (and other stuff in there).


This is call potato skin with a dallop of melted cheese on top. Didn't get to try this, but according to my friend, it wasn't that crispy like the other shop's.


Here you are, the totally big and huge fruit cake. I don't know why blogger couldn't upload my picture in the correct position, therefore, please tilt your head to see it (sorry about that!).

This cake was really good with a spongey interior and the wonderful array of fruits on top. I was quite full at that time to fully enjoy the taste of the cake (yeah, I left half of the cake to throw too!!!)

The amount of people turned up. Yeah, the birthday gal was really pretty, right??



One last picture of the huge ass cake and the lovely lady. The present to her from me?? A big box of Thorntons Chocolate.

Hopes for Zimbabwe Crisis Resolution Dimmed as Region Seen Diluting Intervention


Efforts by Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and his Movement for Democratic Change to engage regional heads of state to resolve the political crisis in Harare have been set back with word that a meeting of the SADC troika on security and defense next week will bring together member state ministers, not heads of state or government.




Observers said sending ministers instead of heads of state in effect downgraded the troika session and reduced its chances of resolving the crisis in Harare.



Mr. Tsvangirai spent much of the past week intensively lobbying SADC leaders with stops in Mozambique, South Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola.



Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara meanwhile called a crisis meeting Monday in hopes of bringing Mr. Tsvangirai face to face with President Robert Mugabe before the troika meets.



Sources in Mr. Mugabe's ZANU-PF party said it will insist on the lifting of Western sanctions, pointing to progress resolving outstanding issues, in particular the announcement that five MDC ambassadors will shortly be dispatched abroad after months of delay.



SADC Executive Secretary Tomaz Salomao told reporter Blessing Zulu of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that the ministerial-level delegates to the troika meeting on Thursday will assess the situation and decide whether a meeting of heads of state is warranted.



Information Minister Ronnie Shikapwasha of Zambia, which holds the vice chairmanship of the troika, confirmed a Zambian minister will attend.



But Tsvangirai MDC Secretary General Tendai Biti, Zimbabwean minister of finance, said Salomao gave an assurance that the heads of state will make the trek to Harare.



* VoA

Activists Slam Unscrupulous NGO's Exploiting Zimbabwean Refugees in South Africa


Several activists and MDC officials in South Africa have slammed an NGO that allegedly manipulated the plight of Zimbabwean refugees there to raise funds for a repatriation programme. MDC SA Chairman Austin Moyo told Newsreel on Friday that hundreds of Zimbabwean refugees at the Central Methodist Church in Johannesburg were duped into going back home, on the back of a promise of R7000, computers, printers and scanners, to start internet café's back home.




Recently two buses packed with the refugees made the long journey back to Zimbabwe. On arrival back home none of the promises were delivered, instead the refugees were given R200 to use as bus fare to travel to their respective villages. Within a few days most of the refugees were back in South Africa at the Central Methodist Church, which has become home for thousands over the years. Some reports said the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration may have helped fund the repatriation programme.



UNHCR and IOM officials are yet to comment on the matter but sources say the equipment for the refugees was bought some time back, but for some reason has not made its way to the intended beneficiaries.



Newsreel sought comment from Elliot Moyo, whose organization raised the funds for the repatriation. He told us he was in a meeting and could only speak to us after our Friday broadcast. Moyo however promised us a response by Monday. MDC SA spokesman Sibanengi Dube told us it was a very common problem to have NGO's raising money, using the plight of Zimbabwean refugees in South Africa, and later diverting the money for their own use. He said they were investigating the latest case to see where the money and computers went to.



The Zimbabwean crisis has seen the mushrooming of hundreds of NGO's in and outside the country. Although some are genuinely involved in helping the situation, several unscrupulous individuals have also created room for themselves to divert money from donors meant to help people in need.

* SW Radio Africa

MDC's Biti Reiterates State Killed Jongwe



HARARE – The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) secretary general, Tendai Biti, has publicly repeated the allegation that that his party’s late spokesperson, Learnmore Jongwe, was killed by President Robert Mugabe’s government in 2002.




Biti said Jongwe was assassinated while in remand in the Harare Remand Prison. He said this while addressing journalists, civic society members, friends of the late politician and politicians at an event held in the Quill Club on Friday night to launch a trust fund named after him.



The Jongwe Foundation was launched to uphold the beliefs and legacy of Jongwe.



“The state has tried to propagate the theory that Jongwe committed suicide but it is impossible to smuggle anything into prison,” Biti said. “It’s not possible, so if anything is smuggled in there, they would have allowed you to smuggle it.



“So even assuming for one crazy moment that he swallowed the malaria drugs, the fact of the matter is that they would have allowed him. But since we are not making that assumption the only safe assumption is that the state killed Learnmore Jongwe and that assumption is correct until disapproved.



“So we wait for the professors of Zanu-PF to dispose that contention and they are many of them who are trying to revive cadavers.”



Biti said the last days of Jongwe had been tragic and traumatizing.



“The last days of Jongwe were tragic. Jongwe’s death was a shock. It was a tragedy and when I got incarcerated I met some people that had stayed with him in that Block C Cell at Harare Remand Prison. Those of you who have stayed as residents and guests of the remand prison will know the cell. Its an open cell. He never went into the private cells upstairs.”



Biti said once the MDC gets an opportunity to govern on its own, Jongwe, will be among the first people to be interred at its heroes monument.



“One day as a movement when we have the opportunity of properly remembering or building a monument for our dearly departed ones I think Learnmore Jongwe’s name together with those of Talent Mabika, Tichaona Chiminya and Isaac Matongo will be very high on the list,” said Biti.



The results of an independent autopsy carried out on Jongwe by a South African pathologist hired by his family confirmed that the young MDC legislator had died of excessive chloroquine poisoning. This was the same finding as that of the official government pathologist.



Releasing the results of the second autopsy in December 2002 a Jongwe family spokesman said the family was demanding a full inquiry into how the excessive amounts of chloroquine had entered Jongwe’s body.



“The Jongwe family has since received results of the autopsy conducted on the body of Learnmore Jongwe by a South African pathologist,” the family spokesman said. “The results are essentially similar to the findings by the government-hired pathologist in that they state Jongwe died from chloroquine poisoning.



“The family and all the people of Zimbabwe want to know from this regime the circumstances that led to the introduction of excessive amounts of chloroquine into the body of Learnmore Jongwe.”



Jongwe suddenly died in his prison cell on October 2, 2002, while awaiting trial for the alleged murder of his wife, Rutendo. There was a public outcry following the young politician’s death as his family and MDC supporters accused government of being responsible for the tragedy.



Ernest Mudzengi, a friend of Jongwe and National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) national director, told the gathering at the Quill Club on Friday that the Jongwe Trust would look after Jongwe’s daughter Tawananyasha, 8, who is a Grade 2 pupil at Victoria Junior Primary School in Masvingo.



The trust will also look at raising funds to look after Jongwe’s mother and to pay for the education of under-privileged children.



* Zimbabwe Times