23rd at Cloyce’s

*Cloyce was first coined by Cammy a few months ago cos it was just so much easier then typing ‘clem and joyce’ on our group messages all the time

After the first Xmas dinner party we threw on the 17th, we did another one two days before Christmas where i accidentally over-invited up to 17 people. Was a bit panicky at first till we borrowed additional stools from my dad so not everyone would have to SIT ON THE FLOOR.

I decided to plunge into cooking my first turkey and brined it for a day (2 days would have been better) in apple & cranberry juice and spices. I blogged about the prep *here*.

Throwing all the spices in to mix was super fun! It’s like playing masak-masak… but IRL. Cos it IS real life Joyce -_-

Nigella said to brine the turkey in a pail but the only pail i had was the one we use to mop the floor with. No. I wasn’t so bad as to feed people food done that way, and mentally slapped myself after my subconscious considered it for a supermininanosecond. So i stuffed it as best i could into my biggest soup pot.

Never saw my fridge so packed before.

All the recipes i used that day are from Nigella’s Christmas book Tina gave me for Xmas. It’s superb and i totally recommend it to anyone! EVERYTHING turns out the way you hope it to!

On the day of the dinner party i did my LAST Christmas gift run in the morning at Mid Valley. What a mistake. I mean, it was great that there were so many shops to buy presents from, but when i left at 2:30pm i almost cried. It was so jammed i kept on counting the minutes to when i could put my turkey in the oven, not to mention all the other dishes that had be queued up for at least an hour each after that.

I reached home at 4pm. That gave me 4 hours to cook dinner for 19 people. I meant to start at 2pm latest so it would be relaxing!

Threw all my shopping down and ran straight to the kitchen to start. Clem got home 10 minutes after me and i was shrieking that he help me set up the new food processor i’d bought that day. His face went slightly black and i was so annoyed as to WHY setting up a food processor is so difficult, when he moodily admitted that he had bought me one for Christmas too. Oops.

Anyway, we managed to pull together a whole turkey, turkey sauce, pumpkin & goat’s cheese lasagna, goose fat potatoes, ham, beef, salad, and array of sauces for the food.

In the middle of all the flurry, the Guinness PR called me and said they were at my office trying to personally pass me this cardboard wreath i tweeted about wanting a week earlier, but whoops they didn’t know i was on leave. In the end the poor girl (Kavitha?) drove through Friday evening traffic to deliver this to our door!

Oli and JP arrived first, then these haiwans arrived after.

At this part in my blogpost, i would have liked to put pictures of the food i served. But i was SO BUSY I FORGOT TO TAKE ANY PICTURES!!! Was too involved with getting everything hot and on the table for everyone to eat.

I didn’t even get to take a picture of the first turkey i’ve cooked in my life. All i got was this:

The carcass of the turkey. I guess that’s a good sign right.

Other good signs. I was so scared there wouldn’t be enough food to feed these monsters that there were extra trays of potatoes and lasagna hidden in the kitchen.

Damn i forgot to take pictures of any dessert -_- I told everyone that they could bring drinks and dessert cos i tak larat to cook dessert as well as dinner. 2 people said they were bringing dessert… more showed up with desserts, each enough for 10 people. I think we had a total amount enough for 60 people! No one complained and some happily doggy-bagged their favourite ones home.

JP & Oli brought a magnificent chic ice cream cake. Tania baked Nutella bread and butter pudding. Hoe Yin came with a massive BOX of Just Heavenly cakes.

Hoe Yin was telling me how he brought chocolate durian cakes and i laughed. After 5 minutes i realized he was serious and said, “You brought DURIAN into a white man’s house?!” and laughed even harder. Didn’t mention it to Clem at all and thought i’d wait and see what happened.

A little while later, Clem walked around the dining area with his face scrunched up, thinking there was a gas leak in the house. Someone pointed at the durian cake on the table and said: “Durian.”

It was immediately banished to the balcony table.

I have to say tho, that Just Heavenly choc durian cake is addictive… it’s not like the durian is processed in the making, but you can literally taste the flesh and feel the duriany texture while eating it!

Love Ming’s Christmas suit! After that it was too hot so he took it off.

Kubz got his beard shaved like that for a costume party the day before. He liked it so much he let it be.

Kevin, Ming, Jess

Durian-hater

Dhanya

Clouds tried on Kubz’ wig and i thought she looked so cute, like an Asian Annie. Till she downed a shot in my face and the image went away. Asian Annie don’t drink like that… 



I caught a picture of Dhanya eating and not realizing i was watching her. This is one of her MANY expressions that flicker on her face the nanosecond before food goes into her mouth.

Didi and Dhanya don’t drink alcohol at all. And Chelle… occasionally does? I didn’t even see her drink that night! This is their food buddy handclap watchamacallit. They were just sitting at the dining table screaming about food half the night.

LEFTBLOCK LOVE

Hoe Yin, me, Chelle

Chelle, Dhanya, Didi, Kubhaer

Danny’s like a sneaky photobomber

Clem, Wilson and Clouds.

In essence, i guess i’d have to say Clouds is Wilson’s godmother cos she was the first one who asked Clem what his name was. Aps helped draw his face on, so she’s 2nd godmother.

I had to keep chasing Tania out of the kitchen cos she wanted to do the dishes. She said she likes doing the dishes when she’s tipsy but i didn’t want anyone to wash at my party! 4-hour cleaning lady for RM55 hello.

Kevin, Ming snarls, Sarah

Clem thought i was crazy to give everyone a Christmas present. But i had presents for half the people coming and it wouldn’t have been nice to give to just some friends and how could we do that quietly?! So i just got socks for the rest of the men i didn’t know what to give. Socks are easy. And we all need them. Heh.

We gave Clouds & Kevin a puzzle they could spend time playing with together. They sure spent a lot of time trying to read the instructions and getting the game back into the box (ok given they were slightly drunk). So i’m sure they’ll spend a lot of time on it!

FAI

KUBZ

Rahul and his present

Proper perasmian of present picture

This must be the drunkest saddest lion our apartment has ever seen.

I was laughing like crazy when i saw this picture a few days after. Especially when i noticed someone taking a nap on the right.

Sotongs Christmas Dinner PartaY

So my journey into trying to become a domestic goddess intensified this Christmas. I just felt like i wanted to have as many Christmas dinners as i could physically cook… to make it a super festive season for us. After spending last year’s Christmas in France, it was slightly sad to spend it here (because it’s obviously not as Christmasy as France). But then i thought why wait for someone to invite us for something, why not just DO IT MYSELF. I’m an adult. I can make plans for us and change our Christmases in KL!

The first dinner party we threw was for the Sotongs, and i pushed away any worries about dishes not working out and bought the ingredients to start early on Sat the 17th. I went to IKEA at 9:20am to get more cutlery and glasses (by damn i’m almost 30 years old and refuse to serve guests with plastic and paper utensils!). IKEA was gloriously empty and i got a trolley full of everything i needed in an hour. Then i went to the supermarket to get everything else and started cooking at noon.

Starting early made it more enjoyable… i didn’t rush or stress at all!

I cooked a festive ham for the first time! Simmered it for a few hours in cranberry & apple juice with spices and onions.

I never knew what ‘scoring’ the meat was before this. I do now!

Cauliflower cheese in the oven

The Christmas ham turned out moist and perfect! I didn’t even cut it beforehand to check it cos i was busy with the other dishes. Nigella is awesome!

Did two blocks of beef done medium rare

A mountain of goose fat potatoes and salad

Our Christmas tree thru my kaleidoscope

SO MANY PRESENTS WOOHOO!!!

Cammy & Kenny – the Loh Lohs



Clem is still hatin on my reindeer (but i think it’s growing on him)

Tina wrapped her presents BEST out of us lot! I insisted on taking a picture with mine before tearing it open.

Matt, Elicia, Tina



Someone gave Cammy this cup… which she drunkardly left in my house! So many people left their presents and belongings in our place across the past two weeks -_- I have a new house rule now: You leave it, it’s MINE. haha

It took 6 tries to get Clem take this normal shot of us -_-

Cammy and Kenny got Matt a toy fishing set cos he loves fishing so much (which is how we coined our random group name, cos we used to go fish for sotongs!)

Serena

Check out the open mouth of concentration…

The drinking got so out of hand, even an Angry Bird was in on it

Then started la… Matt helped himself to my collection of hats and handbags to pose with

Poor Alfred the reindeer is badly traumatized by all the intoxicated manhandling he’s experienced

Tina in this funny lion head set i picked up at IKEA. Thought i might give it to someone for Xmas but we played with it so much ourselves it felt wrong to after.

I look like a baby lion in it. A baby lion that would get eaten up by a giant crow.

Playing around with these party glasses i got from Bangkok

Myra & Fahmi’s Wedding /// JW party

Last Saturday was the first time i attended a night Malay wedding – Myra & Fahmi’s! I already knew that it’d be a short ceremony and there would be no alcohol 

There were 100 tables at the Felda hall (somewhere off Jalan Semarak) that night, meaning there were 1000 people! Ahmygad. I can’t imagine having to layan 1000 people..! Friends were seated wayyyy at the back (we were table 91) and i don’t blame the couple for placing us there, we were not the quietest in that hall

We were so far away i could barely see what was going on, but my magnificent Pen managed to capture the stage! Quite chuffed. Clem kept on asking me questions, like why their hands were being washed, why were we given eggs, and what it all meant. I’m such a fail Malaysian at times. I pushed his curious questions off to Fuad, since he’s Malay and should know his shiznit. Fufu was not as adept at it as i thought he would be -_-

After the prayers and upacara, the food was revealed!

The quantity of food is vastly different compared to Chinese weddings..! I think what we had on the table would be enough for 1x Chinese course The good thing is we didn’t overeat (plus we were going partying after that so not a great idea to do so).

me, Clouds, Maybritt
Meesh, Wai Kit, Sarah

I asked the guys to take a picture and noone really budged…

“Schmeh” – Kevin

Fuad (Sarah’s man), Ming (not exactly a man…), Clem (my man), Kevin (Clouds’ man)

Paparazzo shot of Didi saying BYE to 1000 guests at the door.
There was such a long queue going out to say bye to bride and groom that i tak larat to take a picture cos people were moving us along in the line 

I wore a Gallo AW10 top and Azorias gold skirt.

When Clem and i got into the taxi (we always take taxis if we’re both gonna drink) to go to the JW party; i slipped off the Gallo top, kept it in my handbag, pulled up the gold skirt, and retied the strings over my shoulders into a bow to change it into.. a short dress. I was quite proud of how i managed to pull a fashion stunt from being conservative at a Malay wedding, to sexay at the JW party when… i noticed the lining in the dress/skirt only comes up to a certain area and had to avoid bright lights behind me after that -_- NOT AS SMART as you thought, Joyce!

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Cammy, Tuna, Helo, Jacie, Serena, Elicia

Clem, Kenny, Cammy

CC and Elicia

‘Twas Elicia’s birthday last week! HAPPY BIRTHDAY WEE WEE 

Helo & Lucas

me, Jamie GOH!, Cammy

Alvin

I told Vicky she reminded me of Ruby Rose

Tina, me, Cammy

I liked that the JW party wasn’t too crowded, and you didn’t have to wait long before a waiter with some drinks breezed past you. Just the music… chased us home after awhile. I can layan dubstep for 5 minutes, but any longer and you could see everyone sorta stone (except for Lucas and Clem who are oblivious and can entertain themselves with the sound of ANYTHING).

+ + Pictures taken with the new Olympus PEN Lite E-PL3 + +

Hangerween @ Luna Bar

I really didn’t know what to wear to Hangerween…
and decided an hour before leaving what to throw together.
1, Luna Bar is damn hot so i was against wearing my treasured care bear costume.
2, i knew it’d be a bit packed… and Steph said ‘WHAT IF SOMEONE BURNS YOUR CARE BEAR’
and i was like ‘feck no!’
So i went as a pseudo skeleton.
A fashionable one.
Faux bone + skull necklace was stumbled upon in Star Enterprise for RM12 while running errands.
Perfecto.

The Ming and i
Thanks to FashionTalkRap for taking this pic!

Hangerween was to launch Hanger’s AW issue

Clem and i went with Lucas and Helo to the party
They said they were waiting for us outside,
and when i arrived, i glanced at these two vampires thinking they were part of the Hanger event cos they were SO dressed up.
And only when Lucas came RIGHT UP TO MY FACE did i realise it was him!

They went all out with the make up, painted black nails,
and Lucas even changed his phone cover to a vampire one. -_-
“It’s all in the detail,” he showed it off to me.
A for Awesome effort!!!

Sa, Nadia, Clem

So hard to imagine that under that scary skull mask is the cutest prettiest face!
Clem didn’t want to be next to me cos people could guess it was him
so he wandered around by himself getting people to guess who he was.

Sa and Lucas

SalahWrong!

I did my make up in TEN minutes!
I impress myself so sometimes.

Sarch made me take a picture of her witchy sleeve.
Love the lippie.

Lulu + Idan as Grace Coddington and Lulu Guinness!

Idan made this himself. So talented la the fellow.

Cris – there’s a better pic of his outfit *here*

I saw this McDonalds clown standing by himself at the bar when we arrived
and when i walked back and forth, he was still alone.
So sad. Clown all alone!
So i made friends with him and intro-ed him to Clem, Lucas and Helo.
Clown: “You hang out with French people?”
(i don’t even think of what kind of ppl i hang out with anymore!)
Me: “I guess so…”

Turned out he was French too and started jabbering away with them.
Dunno.
Maybe i attract French people or something!

Dmitri + Zher

Love Zher’s jacket from Amsterdam. I want to curi.

Rudy as Steve Jobs.
I was quite tipsy by the time we saw each other.
Rudy was trying to have a proper conversation with me and in my head was, “Oh my god! Steve Jobs is talking to meeee!”
0_-

Kang

VPYP as Kermit!

Joe was quite drunk too… and broke a bottle just as i sat next to him.
And everyone prollie thought it was me.
Goddammit. It wasn’t ok! *points finger at Joe*

Me and Aida!
Aida will be selling her one-of-a-kind books at our Leftblock Junk Sale!

Didi def watches enough ANTM + Clem

The crazy fish that was never featured in Finding Nemo

How many hours again?

Ming + Li Mei

Cloyce

SafetyPinSamantha!!!
I can see a zit on my cheek. But i can’t be bothered to photoshop it.
Je suis au naturale.

Can’t help loving Homer

After that we left Luna and continued at Lust @ Changkat
They were playing a lot of R&B and hip hop, Clem’s favourite

Andrea & Sa

Kim Chew 

Melium’s Style Rocks @ Euphoria /// Vertigo

The last time i was in Sunway was… at Style Rocks last year.
I almost never venture into that area..!

Testing out the external flash on the new Pen 3.
Turned out overexposed but the Ramlan sistas make it all good

Farah Khan

Andrea

Watchu looking at Sa?

Dom and Jo

Ara rocked the stage

Mama G gave Ara a run for her money

Melissa spinning after the fash show

Shareen wearing a gorgeousss dress

Carmen, Didi, Nini, Elaine

Yasmin and i

I went for dinner with Justin before the event, must do it more often!!!
We haven’t had dinner in MONTHS

After la-la-ing outside and drinking beer, wine and whiskey
i looked for Sa and Nadia and they were GONE.
Cos Clem isn’t here, i’m super gatal to go out…
so i went to join them at Vertigo @ Gardens.
Semangat or what!

When i went in, there were only about 50 people after-partying
and i bumped into SO many friends…
i was like, “What is this! Has everyone been going out like this in the middle of the week while i’m always at home?!”

Ara was dancing on the console

Sa + Ion

Rengee!

Ion, Rengee, Adam, me

Adam, Kevin, Ion

Kevin. Classic la this one… i have so many pictures of you going nuts…
Can make scrapbok.

Great night.
Suffered the next day.
So worth it.

Moet Party // SalahWrong @ Daikanyama // random

Purely instagramed post because…
it’s just so easy nowadays!
Thanks to the PR at Moet who invited me for their bubbly bash at Zouk last Sat:

Clem and i

Adam and i.
I only noticed MUCH later how Clem skillfully photoeyebombed our pic!

Sharon from LV

Kenny‘s gonna have perfect teeth soon

After timing ourselves really carefully,
Clem and i left the Moet party for Daikanyama @ Changkat
where SalahWrong was playing alongside Deer Society for 1 night

Wrong and Salah

I wore a tropical silk jumpsuit from Leftblock.
So far we’ve only made 1 piece… that i’m wearing.
If you’re interested to have one for yourself
(we only have fabric for 4x pieces) email me!

We had so much fun!
It’s been awhile since we played
and we went with a 90s theme and threw in songs like
Gangsta’s Paradise, Ace of Base, Brimful of Asha,
Blondie, Run DMC, etc.
Lots of songs we didn’t get to play
(the set is never long enough!)

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Random pix taken recently:

I bought a new lipcolour from Shu.
First lipstick i bought since… college.
Cos i always get them free

Bored in traffic. Took pic of my thirtyfour rings (on right)

Roasted garlic meatballs in garlic pasta this week.
Twas certainly very garlicky!

Taken on a night walk around the apartment block.

Thanks to Dude And The Duchess for sending me a package,
the shortbread cookies were scoffed by my team in 3 hours.

I bought a shrieking chicken from a wandering old man,
and hid it in the store room till it was ‘the right time’ to press it behind Clem.
Finally did it last weekend while he was doing the dishes, he almost broke a plate.
I should have taken a video of his reaction.

Besides shrieking chicken, initially spotted a glowing bunny which i got for RM20.
Have dubbed her the Magic Glowing Bunny Esmerelda which all the animals are currently worshipping.

I never intended to expand my tiny zoo…
but it seems to be happening quite rapidly, according to a panicked Clem.
He asked for my zoo to be kept in a drawer.
I refused, saying they can’t possibly breathe in there.

HIDE MY ZOO?!
Why?!

I will SHOW IT OFF more like it!