The Makan-Makan Fiesta @ Holiday Villa

Was back in Subang tonight for the Makan-Makan Fiesta @ Holiday Villa. At RM46++ per head, we get a buffet-styled dinner, at all five eateries in the Club.

The rule, simple. You can enter each restaurant only once, and if the tables are full, they reserved the right to turn you away to another restaurant, or you can queue outside, or stand and eat.

The unfortunate part, each restaurant's left to their own preparations and organising.

The Inn of Four Seasons was our first stop. They served good food, mixture of Chinese cooking and DimSum. Staffs were helpful, food plentiful and restocked often.

The Cibo featured pasta, beef, lamb. No cheese! Again, staffs were helpful, but the dishes didn't come up to mark.

Seki Tei Japanese restaurant fared the worst tonight. By the time we got into the restaurant, the buffet table's empty. The sashimi counter's manned by one miserable chap who's trying to serve cold cuts, temakis and fending off offensive guests for not getting food to eat. The teppanyaki's nothing to shout about. But hey! Anybody there? The buffet table's empty!

We had to grab food while waiting in line for a table. Imaging eating tempura while on your feet. That's my sister, cousin and mum.

Palm Terrace Coffee House cum Coriander Garden had the best selection. Perhaps due to their experienced team of buffet servers. The Captain got us tables quickly enough and the food is constantly restocked. They even had time to serve us water, utensils, and coffee individually, whereas the rest of the restaurants expect you to collect them from the buffet table. Unfortunately, the oysters not fresh enough.

Father's had his quota of meat for the week... :)

All in all, it's RM46++ moderately spent. It's not often you get access to various cuisine for that price, but it's definitely not cuisine of any standards I know.

It's Mine!

Yes! I've got it! The Canon Ixus 850 is now mine! (Sounds like an excerpt of what Voldemort would say..)

I bought my Canon Ixus 850 from the PC Fair in KL Convention Centre today.

The package:

Main unit, with 16Mb SD Card - RM1,270.00
Ixus leather case
30" Umbrella
Screen Protector
Metal Neck Strap (1')
1Gb SD Card (Upgraded to 2Gb with additional RM30.00)

All in all, I'd say I got ao good bargain. The list price is still RM1,499.00, and still not dropping. Can't say if it'll remain so after August.

Time to go charge up the battery and explore the camera.

Bhut Jolokia

This was featured in The Star, 1st August 2007, Page 38, World Section.

The Chilli Pepper is known as Bhut Jolokia, translated as the "ghost chilli" in the Indian tongue.

I quote the daily: "Anyone who has tried it, they say, could end up an apparition."

It has more than 1,000,000 Scoville units (the scientific measurement of a chilli's spiciness), and is officially in the Guiness World Records.

Across northeast India, various names are used, including "poison chilli", "king of chillis", "Naga chilli".

I've found a Scoville rating, on the types of chilli level that we've been taking. From the looks of it, if you're a person who starts gulping glasses of water when you take Tabasco, the Bhut Jolokia will definitely make a ghost of you. Hah!

Missing...

I know, I've been missing for awhile. That's the problem when I don't go back to Subang. Internet access is not readily available like I want it.

Celebrated Lindy's birthday last Sunday. It's her 26th. We went to a place called Raffles - nice menu, nice ambience, pathetic food.

The Lamb Chop's dry and hard. Seafood Platter is a plate of fried flour, small portion of seafood (and it's not fresh!). The Spaghetti Bolognaise is nothing to shout about. The merlot's weak. A disaster, but the best Melaka could offer in ambience I think. Sigh, I miss KL.

But she enjoyed the evening. It's something different. Besides, the Titus watch more than made up for it. She wanted it badly...

I've sent in another application. This time to a niche market player. Hopefully, it's good news. They were foreign managed, foreign owned, and earns foreign income. Best part, it's in Glenmarie... beauty.

Time to go home...

Interesting facts - Forwarded mails

Who wants to try these out and reply?

1. Chewing on gum while cutting onions can help a person stop producing tears.
2. Until babies are 6 months old, they can breathe and swallow at the same time.
3. Offered a new pen to write with, 97% of all people will write their own name.
4. Males mosquitoes are vegetarian. Only females bite.
5. The average person's field of vision encompasses a 200 degree wide angle.
6. To find out if a watermelon is ripe, knock it, and if it sounds hollow then it is ripe.
7. Babies' eyes do not produce tears until the baby is approximately six to eight weeks old.
8. It snowed in the Sahara Desert in February 1979.
9. Plants watered with warm water grow larger and more quickly than plants watered with cold water.
10. Wearing headphones for just an hour will increase the bacteria in your ear by 700 times.
11. Grapes explode when you put them in the microwave.
12. The stars and colours you see when you rub your eyes are called phosphenes.
13. Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing.
14. Everyone's tongue print is different, like fingerprints.
15. Contrary to popular believe, a swallowed chewing gum doesn't stay in the gut. It will pass through the system and excreted.
16. At 40 centigrade, a person losses about 14.4 calories per hour by breathing.
17. There is a hotel in Sweden build entirely out of ice; it is rebuilt every year.
18. Cats, camels and giraffes are the only animals in the world that walk right foot, right foot, left foot, left foot, rather than right foot, left foot.
19. Onions help reduce cholesterol if eaten after a fatty meal.
20. The sound you hear when you crack your knuckles is actually the sound of nitrogen gas bubbles bursting.

Learn anything new? Read it with a pinch of salt. Do let me know if you were to test any of the theories above.

Frozen Throne marathon

I was hammering away on the DOTA Allstars Map, 6.3 AI+, on Sunday. One thing for certain, when it says AI+, it meant fight one-on-one-or-get-ur-arse-whupped! Cheng and I attempted to fight 4 Insane heroes. The outcome: We're insane.

Till now, I've yet to really find a Hero that I'm fully comfortable with. Each with their strengths, and much weaknesses too... guess it reflects the perfectionist in me... hehe..

But seriously, I think I demand a lot. From people that I interact with, from people that I employ, from people I cared about. Maybe that's why I get upset easily. Can't expect people to be of the same make and mould as I, can I? Am I speaking with an ego here?

No. I can't say I have one entirely too large for me. But yes, I do demand a lot. The good thing is, I've excluded the demands from a certain gene-pool. Spare them the expectations, and myself the heartache. Sacrificing for a Nation's growth... I'd do it too, for the land itself.

Inspiring Website, TED: Ideas Worth Spreading

I found an interesting website, much thanks to the idiot box link.
The site's called TED: Ideas Worth Spreading

Check it out. I saw an interesting video on Hydrogen powered vehicle, and the use of Hydrogen as a source of heat to cut.

Besides, you'll find other videos on various topics, ranging on technology, design, business, science, global issues, culture...

Wet wet Saturday..

Ahh.. another beautiful Saturday. Enough of warm weather, the torrential rain certainly did a really good job of cooling the air.

True, road's wet. Traffic's lousy. Parking's in the rain. But hey, it's nothing compared to a peaceful afternoon at Starbucks, in 1U, eh?

Lindy's gone shopping.. again. Oh well, better her than me at that. The raspberry frappe tea is good. Refreshing, not too sweet, a right tinge of berry to make it slightly sourish.. yummy.

So what's on the news today?
I heard that they caught the suspected robbers/rapists in the Johor case. Good news that.

Oh yeah, Chayo's new family member is home. I'll leave the introduction to him. But anyhow, here's a pic of the cute fella.

Not named yet. Any suggestions? Drop a note to Lvin's blog.

I'm looking at a young lass reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Seems she's about 1/10 thru. Wonder what's the outcome like? Can't wait to get hold of my copy later. Sigh, if only Jo will hurry up over with the receipt.

Odd, my hours online is certainly high enough for an average Joe, and yet I can't seem to catch anyone online. Must be a Saturday thing. Wonder where's everyone...

Another news on The Star Online. The couple who killed little Shearwey had been officially charged with murder. Bout time. What drives a person to kill an innocent child anyway? What did she do wrong to deserve such punishment? Couldn't there be other solutions to whatever it is they were dealing with?

Ah, forget the news. Too much sad stories...

Build up to Harry Potter's future

This is it!

After a long long wait, we'll finally get to know the end of Harry Potter (not his end. I was refering to the series).

Who's going to die?

Harry?

Ronald?

Lupin?

Hagrid?

Hermione?

The questions had been well debated. I've enjoyed the read on Beyond Hogwarts. Amazing theories... really.

Let's find out.

First hand encounter of Ambulance in action

I witnessed this yesterday evening. A case of our Ambulance in action, as well as well-meaning passersby, who stopped to crowd round the accident victim, depriving him of much-needed air supply.

Strangely, the accident was pretty minor in nature. The traffic backlog, was major. Much thanks to the helpful observers. Hope y'all strike the 3D like you hope!

25th Anniversary Coin

Commemorative coins, minted for the 25th Anniversary Independance of Malaysia. Face plate shows 1st Premier, Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra declaring the Independance of Malaysia.

Wonder if we'll see a 50th Anniversary Commemorative Coin?

Mum's Surgery

Mum's minor surgery, to remove a lump from the underside of her thigh. Pictured above the before and after.

Doctor assured that the lump's not malignant, and nothing to be concerned about. Guess I can breathe a little easier, since I've got one too on my heel.

Green Earth!

Phew, the weather tonight really signifies an urgent need for us to start healing Mother Earth. The air's so stuffy, there's hardly any movements of air, let alone breeze of any kind. Needless to say, everyone's now nicely tucked in bed, in a air conditioned room. Which means every household is now releasing pockets of heated air into the atmosphere.

Mother Earth needs help. She needs to be cooled, as much as we do. Her icecaps are disappearing one by one, her sweats are pooling faster and faster each day, she's feeling all hot, stuffy and sweaty now. Like us, she longs for the day when she could bathe in cool icy water, and washes away all the dirt, grime, soot, trash and creepy crawly humans... guess what happens to us then?

Are we going to let her hit the Reset button? Are we going to let civilisation end, or like many of the futuristic movies, we mechanize Mother Earth to sustain more life, at the cost of hers?

Is our future made up of bright sunshine, lush green rolling hills, dews on leaves, birds chirping?

Or is it a dusty landscape, of cracked columns of dried mud, land so heated that it seems to sway in the distance, and piles, and piles, and piles of sun-scorched bones?

I don't want to live that long to witness that day. I want this to last. I'm doing my bit to help her. Smart waste disposal, less energy consumed, smile more, hate less...

What about you?

Happy Birthday, Sam

Hey friend.

5 whole years have passed us by, leaving us only sporadic glimpses into each other's lives. I've not celebrated your birthday with you these past years, knowing that we'll not meet in many ways.

Nonetheless, I still remember.

Happy Birthday to you.
May this day bring you more charms, joys, and wishes come true.
May you move forward fast and far, bringing you closer to your dreams.

Best wishes, from a friend.

Hospitals are so depressing..

I was visitting a friend at a hospital today. That place really depressed me. I was there for a short hour, and I've seen enough of patients shuffling around the ward, nurses scrambling around, rascal kiddies treating the wards like a playground... You get the picture.

This place is really depressing.

I'd say of the 12 storeys built up, you'll find one dedicated to births, and the rest in deaths.

Plus, a whole parking lot of Mercedes, BMWs (I saw a 6 Series there!), SUVs, Camrys...

And a 15 minutes ops plus observation will hit your pockets by almost RM1k! And it's not even overnight. And all they serve is a plain styrofoam cup of bland Milo.

This place is so depressing.

Gosh, next time wanna die, die elsewhere la.

Entering a hospital, it's like entering the living room of the Grim Reaper (or the Income Tax office, ready to squeeze every last cent out of the people there). All will to live goes out the window.

Local Fruit

This is a local fruit, known by different names. It’s mostly available only during the Durian season.
In the local dialect, it’s called Buah Binjai, or Buah Kemang. In the Hokkien dialect, it’s pronounced as “GuLamPa” (in reference to a bull’s bodypart).
The smaller fruit on the left is the sour variant, while the longer fruit is sweet.

One key identifier of this fruit is it’s pungent fragrant, much stronger than Durians, or Quini (variant of mango). Most of the time, people steer far away from it, as the scent could be quite overpowering. Needless to say, a delicacy that appeals to a niche group.

Baby Seafood Restaurant, Klang

Steamed fish on charcoal heated steel plate, Thai-Style

Bowl of Spicy Tom Yam soup, to be added to the fish dish continuously

Pandan leaf-wrapped chicken, Lemon Grass spice

Mantis prawn, fried in oats

Beef stock Pork Ribs (Marmite)

This restaurant is located along a main road, leading towards West Port, Klang. It can be reached by taking the PLUS Highway, exit at Bukit Raja, and enter the next toll booth towards West Port. Restaurant is located on left side of road, couple of doors away from a 7-11 Convenience Store.

Best landmark is the Batu Belah National School.

The chefs are Chinese of Thai origin, hence the unique chinese cooking style that orients towards Thai.

Dish on every table, the Fish on Charcoal Heated Steel Plate.
Mind you, they place a pot of burning coals on your table, with the partially cooked fish on a steel plate above. You keep adding the soup/stock, the fish keeps cooking, while you savour the spicy soup.

Invitation to participate in the Starbucks Azuki Contest

Thank you to Terence for the invite.

Happy Father's Day!

Daddy, Happy Father's Day to you.

We know celebrating means good food, good drinks.

Cheers!

The dishes that we had:

1. Pot of steamed seafood.
2. Stock from steamed seafood mixed with vegetables
3. Soft white tofu with eggs (simple, but really yummy)
4. Roasted milk lamb ribs
5. Braised Pork
6. Salt-baked Talapia

Office Security

Meet my new Office Security Guard.

Currently unnamed, since I've yet to figure out how to determine the gender. Anyway, poor fella's definitely lonely, as the partner floated this morning, and was flushed to the nearest sewage tank.