about shopping, market and paintings

ok guys, this is a personal rantings post (and it is going to be long, i warn you) so if you are not into this kind of thing, skip this! i’m going to talk about my outing yesterday – a review – talking about 2 new shopping malls, food, little penang street market and susan loone’s paintings! (heh. maybe fans of susan will want to scroll down and read now).

last sunday i had decided to go to the little penang street market (a market held every last sunday of the month) when i learned that susan loone will be exhibiting and selling her paintings there.  yes, that’s right, susan loone,, the malaysiakini reporter. she’s a multi-talented lady, you know. she writes so well (reporting) and she paints so beautifully. oh and she also writes poems. wait… later i’ll show you her stunning artwork.

ok so the first place i dropped in was… to take lunch, i decided to drop in at the ICT mall food court. it’s just right in front of the bus-stop where i get down at komtar! yeah, penang has a new ICT mall, which is said to be like a mini low yat plaza in KL… you know where all computer and tech stuffs are on sale. it was opened, i think, beginning of nov. or somewhere oct. before last sunday, i went there before twice. once to the 1st floor where there are sale of handphones only. handphones and handphones accessories. the other floors not yet opened. the 2nd time i went was during the anti-isa event at komtar walk, with shiela. the food court is not bad. plenty of food to choose from. that time i try the indonesian mee call ‘basko’.  i sort of heart of it before but since i haven’t try it, decided to try it. basically it is a ‘beef noodle’. lots of beef balls. the picture below here is the ‘basko’ mee.

last sunday, i try one of the dish from the ‘little wok’ stall. wow! they have so many different kind of dishes (near 50 i think) to choose from. i pick one that is unfamiliar to me… that’s why i can’t remember the name but i remember the number (on the menu), which is no. 3.  all the mee and rice came in tiny wok. (forgot to take pictures of the cute wok).  as i finished my mee and was about to drink my coffee, i spy 2 of my friends on the other table, so i went over to them and chat with them. they too had the mee/bee hoon from ‘little wok’ stall.

we were seated near the ‘buffet at RM5 per serving’ stall, which is a chinese rice stall with dishes. seemed that the patrons can take any dishes they want, how much they want, as long as it is one serving on the plate – all for RM5. there was a long queue! my friend, F, keep saying it is so cheap and how on earth can the seller made money. we saw many people with plates that had dishes as high as a mountain! then i saw a couple taking mountain high dishes on their plate too and they were seated 2 tables away from us… facing me.  since we were being kaypo, watching people taking food, seeing how much they take, i also watched them when they were at the table – like this couple. and you know what i saw?? the lady who took the mountain high dishes, took out a tiffin carrier and put in the big fish she had on the plate into the tiffin carrier!! gosh! some people are so greedy. i guess since they said to themselves as they were allowed to take as much food as possible all for only RM5, they intentionlly take more… to taupau back some! no shame. my friend keep on saying it is very worth it, only RM5 and can have as m any dishes as you like but i said to me it is not worth it since i usually take only 2 dishes (at the most 3) if i do take rice and it’ll be less than RM5. anyway, i hardly eat rice when i’m out.

actually we wanted to catch the funeral procession of lim chong eu but F was saying it won’t be so fast, so let us wait. we were kind of fascinated with the people who queue up for the RM5 food buffet! then i saw another friend, M, who also wanted to buy the food and called out to her. we spoke a while and i just mentioned to her that we were waiting to see ling chong eu’s funeral procession and she suddenly said the procession went pass already. aiyo! and there we were siting there waiting and waiting. silly. so then we decided to go over to the new shopping mall, 1st avenue, which is just next door.

1st avenue was opened only 5 days ago. what? another shopping mall? and next to 2 big shopping malls too – komtar and prangin mall. personally i feel, we don’t need another shopping mall. we have so many already. walking around 1st avenue, we realised that there’s nothing much new. i mean all shopping malls are more or less same. stores here and there, food court, restaurants here and there. it’s not 100% occupied yet though. you know, 1st avenue is just on the left of traders hotel and i understand they will build a linking bridge between traders hotel and 1st avenue. then i also spy linking bridges in between prangin mall and komtar too! wow! people can shop 24 hours (oops. i don’t mean that as they are not open 24 hrs. exaggeration lah) at all the 3 major shopping malls, not leaving the malls at all by using the inter-linking bridges.

after 1st avenue, i then decided to go to the little penang street market. i sms dalbinder singh, who had earlier said he wanted to go too and will go at the same time i go. so i sms him that i’ll be on my way and can meet him there.

this time i see the market has so many stalls and lots of stuffs. the last time i went… think it was many months ago, there were only a few stalls.  i met so many people i know at the market! the patrons and some of the sellers. 3 of our church friends were there. J, from the lighthouse, selling buns and bread. P, selling antiques items like old coins and JL selling her hand-made brooch made of beads. well this market is actually and ‘arts and handicraft’ market so most o the items sold are hand-made and the buns, cakes, cookies, etc, of course home-made.

this photo shows the lovely hand-made beads (hair-pins, brooches) done by a friend from church.

susan loone’s stall was right towards the end. wow! first time i saw her paintings ‘live’. her painting were done on canvass.  she had coloured and black and white paintings.  the big painting (as seen below) went for RM100, which is reasonable, i see, and which i don’t mind buying if i have a nice house to hang it (but poor me only staying in a cramped low-cost flat).  i wanted to buy the small framed one but it is only made for wall-hanging, whereas i want it to stand on desk. i bought the postcards paintings from her instead, which is only at RM2 each.

following 2 pictures shows the paintings exhibit by susan at the market.

and the following is one of the black and white paintings on postcard which i bought from her. (the first picture here is also a painting of one of the postcards i bought – these 2 pictures i took from the net).

i love her black and white paintings.

oh and if you want to see lots more of her paintings, please visit this site for a slide show of her paintings.

i saw this cute chocolate banana. after i took photo of it, the seller asked if i want to buy. i didn’t intend to but my heart is soft, so when asked, i bought lah! bought 3 pcs – just nice, 2 pcs bring back to share with my 2 friends in church.

i also bought an indoor plant for my office to put at my cubicle. it’s good to have some green in the office. beside, i need it, to absorb the dry air-con air. i saw one of our vietnamese friend who attend our church at the market and was surprised that she and her sister (who works at tenaganita) were selling some stuffs from vietnam. i bought the kopi-o from them. must try vietnam coffee and see how it taste.  oh and of course something that i never ever fail to buy – ear-rings! 2 ear-rings plus a beaded ring for RM10.

oh yeah i have all the pictures up in my facebook album as usual, so please drop in there to have a look.