it's a manic monday...

OK... not really that manic... just a monday... after the weekend you just feel a bit trying to get back into gear for the week... sufficide to say, it's like your car warming up with gear one... hahaha...

i want to show u these zannias (or at least that is what i thought they are called) blooming in my garden... they are great looking these few days due to enough rain and sun... and a bit of the good old fertilizer sure helps...

i really like this color... so bright and cheery... makes all your worries fly by...

my mom was saying how the flowers seem to be a different color this time round, probably due to the cross-polination that happened when we planted them the first time round.. the main few colors on display are pink (above), red and yellow...

enjoy... hope this brightens your day up...

technorati tags:mondays, flowers

pc fair - the bargains...

i got there a bit early, around 7.00 pm... people were starting to trickle into the exhibition hall to see what was on offer... at the time, peripherals such as SD cards and flash keys are all heavily discounted...

1gb flash key is around rm49... 2gb is around rm69.. i remember getting a 1gb flash key in KL for around rm72 in september, 2006 and that was around 6 months and a bit ago... prices sure fell quickly...

anyway, i was interested to get a 2gb SD card...

this was on sale for rm69... which was really cheap for SD card... from toshiba some more...

but when i asked the sales whether there is any warranty on this... NADA... oh well.. it was cheap.. if anything goes wrong, then i have 2 days from the printed date to exchange it...

the sales was quick to point out that the product was made in japan... so basically it is not proned to being faulty... yeah right... we'll see...

i inserted the card into my camera and it appears to be functional... so i'll take some photos with it and see how it turns out... but 2gb is huge... under 3MP setting, i could take around 3,000 odd pictures... man... i could be a stalker... ahhaha

on the way out, around 7.45 p.m., there was a long queue... cars were trying to get into the exhibition all...

the prices are OK... and truth be told... the offers were OK... most of the stuff on offer are past their warranty... so caveat emptor...

technorati tags:pcfair, sdcard, technogadgetry

pc fair sibu: april 20-22, 2007....

the pikom pc fair sibu leg was again held on april 20-22 at the rpa exhibition hall... i think this is a bi-annual event with another one probably around september...

anyway, if you are looking for the latest, then you would probably be disappointed...

while pc means computer, they do display lots of peripherals such as mp3 players, ink-sets etc...

they even have a credit card sign-up area...

my experience from last year taught me one thing... don't rush to buy things on day 1...

i bought a printer last year which on the last day was a whol rm10 cheaper that what i paid for...

incidentally, i had a run in with a salesgirl at the canon camera booth... i was interested to know what format the ixus 75 records its movie in... as in mpeg or avi or mov??? the salesgirl seemed a bit peeved that i asked the question and that she was not able to provide me an answer...

i mean, that was a legit question.... i am a bit kinda expecting that seeing as they are sales persons, they need to know their product well instead of blindly pushing it to people... sales rep in singapore/hong kong are much knowleageable about the products they are selling..

one product which i am kinda interested is the wireless headset... it would be so nice to not have to deal with so much wiring...

i'll go have a look during the final day to see if the product comes down in price... hahaha

incidentally, they have a booth for you to sign up to the TM/HP deal... 1MBPS plus modem plus free computer for RM99 per month for a total of 24 months via credit card...

more to come... stay tuned on day 3 bargains...

technorati tags:pcfair, exhibition

mosquito trap...

i don't know if it is a plague or epidemic, but sibu town seems to have lots of mosquitoes... a sitting for watching tv could cause you to become an all-you-can-eat-buffet for the pesky mosquitoes...

there is this contraption that sort of help with solving the problem...

it is called MOZZTECH as you can see... a funny little lamp-like thingy that supposedly will catch the mosquitoes...

so how does it do its job???

by emanating UV light that attracts the mosquitoes... the broucher says that it also emits a human-like odour (which i can't detect) that attracts the mosquitoes to it, in addition to the light... there is a rotating fan that sucks in the mosquitoes and traps it inside a cage like compartment underneath the product...

as you can see, the mosquitoes are trapped inside and will eventually dried out...

while this is a good thing, the rate of which the mosquitoes bread is exponentially fast... making the contraption play catch-up... i probably have to get a few more...

technorati tags:mosquitoes-trap

foochow stir-fried noodles... an imminent price hike...

by now, everyone knows that the 30 sens per kg hike on the yellow hokkien noodles used to prepare the foochow stir-fried noodles will effectively cause the average plate of this particular noodles to be hiked by... YES... you've guessed it... 30 sens...

on average, such a plate of noodles is around rm2.50... so come May 1, 2007 this plate of noodles will cost from RM2.80 on average... of course some other places will have it for less or more but the average price will go up...

which is really interesting, because 1kg of noodles can probably make around 3 plates, by my estimates but i could be wrong... so if that is the case, then per plate rise should be around 10 sens... the association that controls the hawkers etc, sure is powerful... advocating such a price hike when most people are getting by average salaries and no increment...

seeing as i am in a preachy mood, PLEASE CUT DOWN YOUR CONSUMPTION OF SUGAR... it is not good for you... moderate cuts in white sugar could lead to longevity... also sugar is an aging agent... so those ladies out there who want to look young... less sugar is one step towards your goal...

technorati tags:price-hike, noodles, sugar, keepingfit

bak-kut teh dinner...

i was all set to go to this shop which was originally at jalan tuanku osman for bak-kut teh... but because they moved to this new place at kampung dato, i tried to find it... unfortunately i was no able to find it... and i had a craving for bak-kut teh... and it rained so it was ideal to have soupy things for dinner... so i headed to jalan central for david bak-kut teh...

i'm not one for intestinal organs... so i only had the meat-only version...

it came with this yu-jah-kueh as accompaniment... this is nice dunked into the soup as it absorb the flavors of the soup... recently i found it to be nice in porridge...

the dipping sauce is a combination of soya-sauce, chilli paste, belacan... OK... though i would have preferred it with a bit of chopped garlic...

and of course, you can't eat this without white rice... ahhahaha

again, i would have much preferred it to be calrose rice... but you don't get that here that much, so this would have to make do... the only problem was this rice was cold... it would have been nice if it had been hot... but i guess the logic was the soup was boiling hot so u just spread that over your rice...

technorati tags:dinner

sugar bun's satay chicken burger...

i wanted to try out this burger just introduced by sugar bun... satay chicken burger... the chicken is a pattie coated with crumbs and friend... then some cucumber slices and then satay sauce...

the burger was OK... the texture feels like those typical meat pattie... i would hve preferred it to be a piece of chicken breast meat... but i understand the economics of having patties...

the burger cost rm3.80, but for an additional rm1.00, you can get the set with a 3-layer milk tea... that was made popular in kuching and now making its round in sarawak... this is probably a well concocted milk tea because not a lot of coffee shops in town make good of it..

basically, the ingredients for this are: evaporated milk, tea and gula apong...

overall, passable...

technorati tags:burger, sugarbun, fastfood

nostalgia - tien pien ngu...

a trip down memory land for the many of sibu-ans out there... this is one of the local foochow delight... tien pien ngu... loosely translated as wok-side-porridge-like-substance... ok... i'm bad at translating.... hahaha

all kidding aside... this was a nice treat... i don't eat this too often because to get there, it is a chore in itself... not a lot of parking around... and the timing has to be correct... i was there at around 6.30 p.m. today and went a few rounds in the butterfly park before finding ample parking at Blacksmith Road...

so what is this brew??? the pancake looking thingy is actually ground-up rice that is mixed into a pan-cake batter and then poured onto the side of the wok containing soup that is boiling... letting it solidify before scrapping it into the soup... adding in the black fungus and fishballs...

it is now rm2.00 per dish... but well worth it... at any hour, you can practically see people eating there...

so here's another look... and if you're back here in sibu - it will be there waiting for ya...

technorati tags:food, soup

happy easter...

wow... it is easter already... so firstly, HAPPY EASTER to all...

a hot day

today was a hot day in sibu, much to the chagrin of its residents.. thank goodness that we got air conditioning, although the constant use of it is not doing the environment or my health any good... but the weather is unbearable most of the time... even at the lowest temperature setting of 16 degrees celcius, the room still feels warm...

formula 1 - malaysian leg

today was also when the formula 1 was held here in malaysia... it was won by fernando alonso followed by his team-mate, the rookie lewis hamilton who after two races, was up on the podium... the race was real exciting to watch in a sense... the opening round was really that edge-of-your-seat stuff as the three way fight between fernando/lewis/kimi unfolded... much drama... i was actually shocked to see how the dehydration effects the drivers... kimi looked ghostly after but after some fluids in him, he regained some colour.. i mean the guy is finnish so he is whitish by nature... but that was just scary... hahaha

this week's tv in review

one of the more memorable thing to watch was actually south park's treatment of the da vinci's code and tied with with the easter bunny... it was hilarious on how they were able to piece together the two... though i am also at lost how a bunny is associated with easter... and an egg... what does chocolate eggs have to do with easter...

on csi, we got to see some closure to greg's saga... the way this case the kid who greg accidentally ran over kid brother got himself into trouble... he was investigating but had to pull out due to conflict... when all was done, he was no longer holding grudges to the family... in some way this episode was not bad... but somehow i feel csi has lost much of its sparks... i was kinda looking forward to watching grey's anatomy...

and on scrubs... i was saddened by laverne's death... i dunno it it's final because on one of the internet sites, the description for the next week's episode aluded to the final saga concerning laverne... hopefully there will be good news...

a new week and more challenges...

after easter, i guess it is back to normal.... too bad we do not get monday off... but again we are quite lucky being the state that acknowledges good friday and made it a public holiday... hopefully next week won't be a hectic week...

ja-mata...

technorati tags:review

japanese meal creativity...

japanese people are increadibly creative when it comes to their meals... japanese mothers take pride in making the bento sets.... they strive to be as creative as possible for their love ones... the same goes for the wives/girlfriends... so here are some of the rather creative bento sets...

ARE YOU JEALOUS????

いただけます

technorati tags:japanese, bento