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Showing posts from December, 2010

Happy New Year 2011 !!

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As we countdown the last remaining hours of year 2010, let us spend some time to reflect on the happenings of the past year.  Did we achieve what we set out to accomplish? Were there more failures than successes? How did the year turn out? Time doesn't just fly, time flies with supersonic speeds. To me time is like a supersonic fast jet, and we are her passengers, all sitting inside zooming off towards the Never Neverland. So how are you going to spend the new year? With family, friends and loved ones? That is usually the case for everyone. The usual celebration spots to watch fireworks would be at KLCC as well as Bukit Bintang area. Some will spend it doing BBQ at their homes with friends. As for me, I will be spending it with my loved one. If I were back at my hometown Penang, I would be counting down with my family. On a side note, was at Leisure Mall Cheras this afternoon, and realize it's 31st today and saw there were so many people queuing up to buy Baskin Robbins

Government Declared Public Holiday On 31st December 2010

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It was all over the news, radio, facebook, twitter, foursquare, and all social networking sites. Malaysia won the AFF (Asian Football Federation) Suzuki Cup 2010 Finals ! The euphoria began 2 nights ago on the 26th December when Malaysia played host to Indonesia in the Finals Leg 1 held at Bukit Jalil Stadium Kuala Lumpur. Thousands of fans were there, and with the home ground support, Malaysia won with a convincing scoreline of 3-0. Fast forward 2 days, and last night at the 2nd leg of AFF Suzuki Cup Finals, with every Malaysian cheering their national team, Malaysia took the cup for the first time ever. Even though Indonesian won the 2nd leg with a score of 2-1, but it was not enough to overcome the final combined score of 4-2 in favor of Malaysia. News photo of the Malaysia national team winning the title -Source affsuzukicup.com- To read up more on this I've attached the match reports for both legs of the final below. 1st Leg - Malaysia 3 Indonesia 0 2nd Leg - Malaysi

Perbadanan Tabung Pendidikan Tinggi Nasional (PTPTN) Repayment

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Most students taking up degree courses in Malaysia would most likely take up this government loan. Yours truly is no different from "most students". With this loan, I didn't have to burden my parents to pay for my university educational fees. Back in 1999, when I first entered pre-university in Multimedia University (MMU), PTPTN offered me this loan. The terms were RM66000 for the whole duration of my course, with repayment of rm396 for 25 years after course completion at an interest rate of 4% per annum. In 1999, 4% interest charged was a very good deal as bank's fixed deposits were giving 9 - 10% interests rates. Current 2010 bank's fixed deposit rates are at 3-4%, and PTPTN came up with a new interest rate of 1%, which is good in my opinion. My tale of despair which prompted me post about this today is also partially due to my lack of urgency to re-pay back this loan. PTPTN started charging me interests since year 2004, my graduation year. It was roughly an i

Marriage Forms Approval Process At Jabatan Pendaftaran Negara

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The Monday after Christmas, 27th Dec to be exact, I was still on leave. The reason being I planned to settle the first phase towards getting that marriage certificate. Phase 1: Getting the documents ready and submitting it. The plan was to get the ROM (registration of marriage) done at Thean Hou Temple in KL. To do that quite a lot of documents had to be prepared and photocopied eg; my IC, parents' IC,  my birth certificate, her IC, her parents' IC, her birth certificate. Anyway, before I can submit all these paperwork to Thean Hou Temple, I had to get the most basic requirement fulfilled first. Statutory declaration, that's the term the government use. In layman's term, it's the procedure to confirm both of us are single and never married before in the eyes of the law. That's where the role of Jabatan Pendaftaran Negara (National Registration Department) come in. I didn't want to waste time getting the the checks done in KL, so I decided to get it over an

Won 2 Tickets To The Premier Screening Of Season Of The Witch

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I'm feeling rather happy at the moment. The reason? I'm a winner! 2 free tickets to watch the premier screening of Season Of The Witch at The Curve next Wednesday. A quick background on how and why I won these tickets? Well, Nuffnang Malaysia held a blog contest at its website . The prize?  2 free tickets to this cool movie. 60 lucky bloggers were chosen from a pool of 250+ blogs submission. I did a writeup for the contest on Christmas morning immediately after I saw this contest. Free movies, who wouldn't want it right? Link to my blog post for this contest - The Season Of The Witch Is Here! Well, I was pleasantly surprised when my iPhone vibrated at 5.10pm today indicating I had received a new email. It was from Nuffnang Malaysia, informing me to confirm my attendance for this movie next week. The rest was history, and here I am blogging about it. The email I received today.

1st Avenue Mall Penang

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There's a new mall in town! I haven't been back to Penang for the past two months, and they spring this surprise on me. It's a nice surprise though, yet another hangout place to use up our precious money and time away. It's all good!. Outside view photo taken off the net. From the news, I've got to know 1st Avenue just opened last month on 25th November 2010. The mall is bounded by Magazine Road, Carnarvon Street, Tek Soon Street and Cross Street. On Christmas day, my family and I decided drop by this spanking new mall. The carpark of 1st avenue is similar to it's neighbor mall Prangin Mall, as in it's located 5, 6, and 7th floor of the complex. To reach it, I had to go through spiral driveways up. Everything smells and feels new, from the car park freshly painted walls and floors, to the lifts and escalators.The lift is unique in a sense that the lift doors are made out of transparent glass. If you have phobia of heights, I strongly discourage looking

Weld Quay Tree Shade Seafood Restaurant

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I just realized that I have two blog posts on food back to back, and this is not even a food blog. Just felt like sharing what filled my stomach during christmas this year. Bare with me. Yesterday I joined my girlfriend's family for christmas eve seafood dinner. Naturally, today for my christmas dinner I had it with my family. Coincidentally, it's at a seafood restaurant as well. This round, our choice of location was not some far away state, but rather in our very own Penang Island. Billboard promoting the restaurant Weld Quay Tree Shade Seafood Restaurant. The main reason there's a "Tree Shade" in the restaurant name is because directly at the front doorstep of the restaurant there's a huge tree. It must be good fengshui that's why the owner never took it down even though it was actually blocking the entrance walkway. (Tree Shade) We had to order our dishes at the front counter as there is nobody to ask for your orders at the table. It's r

Ng Han Kee Fresh Water Seafood Restaurant

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It was Christmas eve. My location? Sungai Bakap . I was with my girlfriend's family, and we decided to go for a nice seafood dinner. The location of this place wasn't very near, in fact it was quite far over at Bagan Semak, located somewhere along the borders of Penang, and Kedah. Well, after roughly 30 mins drive from Sungai Bakap , across winding kampung roads, we finally reached out destination around 8.30pm. The name of this quaint kampung restaurant is Ng Han Kee Fresh Water Seafood Restaurant . When they mention Fresh Water seafood, they're not pulling your leg, as the seafood is really fresh, as in still alive in small man made ponds. Their prawns are fresh and alive in these ponds as well. Live fishes swimming around. We took a medium size fish, and around 1kilogramme of prawns . That's quite a lot considering there weren't many of us. The queue to wait for our food to be ready took quite long though, maybe this was due to 3 or 4 tables were previousl

The Season Of The Witch Is Here

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Come this year 2011, a new movie blockbuster is going to hit our cinema shores! Upon seeing the official movie poster, I was ecstatic because it starred one of my favourite actor, Nicolas Cage! "Season Of The Witch", that's the title of this upcoming blockbuster. Now what's the first thing that hits your mind upon seeing this title? Well for me, the keywords that hit me first would be "Season" and "Witches". It is actually kind of cool immediately after the season of giving (Christmas), we're getting a season of witches! Official Movie Poster for Season Of The Witch The second keyword that hit me is "Witch". A random image search on Mr Google for scary witches brings up a bank of 300000+ images of witches that will scare the socks of any of us. Have a look below at the search results if you do not believe me. Random Google Search On Witches Now what exactly makes this women scary? I mean on top of the grotesque looks, thes

Merry Christmas 2010 !

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Today's post shall be a shoutout to everybody out there, everywhere. Christmas marks the day Christ was born, but is also celebrated worldwide because it's a holiday where people can spend time with their families and their loved ones. To me, it is similar to the new year, where I take time to reflect back on the past one year events. So what have you achieved over the past year? Was it a good year, a profitable one, one where we came out being better persons? Christmas also means we're already on the threshold to a new year, year 2011 is only days away. Merry Christmas 2010 ! image source: ft.com Have a merry merry christmas guys and gals! Till then..

Char Kuey Teow At Tiam Fatt Restaurant - Taman Melawati

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Where's your favourite haunt for lunch time food? Well, for me and my lunch colleagues, we have this few lunch spots we patronize daily on a regular basis. Today, I'm going to do a short write up on this particular lunch spot in Taman Melawati. Tiam Fatt Restaurant is located in Taman Melawati which is around roughly 15mins drive away from my company. It's a rather cozy little place, with air conditioning and your regular tables and seats. The food here ranges from curry chicken rice, to Hokkien mee, Wat Tan Hor, Ngau Yok Hor and ala carte vegetable, meat and seafood dishes. Just outside the restaurant, they sell chao zhou yee mee and the pan mee. The other 2 stalls outside the restaurant sells the best yam cake and char kuay teow in town. Anyway, the dish I ordered yesterday lunch break was this Char Kuey Teow. The owner was from Penang, so the dish he serves up is as close to the real thing in Penang, except for afew differences here and there. For example the

Death Of A Car Battery

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Something interesting happened today at around 5pm. Well, let me begin from the top. Around 5pm (plus minus 10 mins), one of my colleague CK invited me for tea break. We were on our merry way when we met up with this colleague named Siew Wei. Well, Siew Wei's car happens to be the topic of discussion today, or to be more specific, her car's battery is the star of the day.  Anyway, she mentioned that her car couldn't start, and some of the guys would be helping her to jumpstart the car. She did kind of hinted us to help out as well, and off she went rushing to her car. CK looked at me, both of us were contemplating. "Should we go down and help her? Or just go direct to the cafeteria to have our tea?" It was a rather funny moment. We could actually see her car from our office window from the 3rd storey. In the end, being the good souls that we were, both of us ended up beside her car offering our kind help. [Sponsored Ads] If you are looking for leather jackets f

Gold Investment - Maybank Gold Savings Account

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What do you think about investing your hard earned cash in gold? For many, gold is not a good investment. When we talk about investment, we think about property, shares, bonds, etc. People always see gold as jewellery rather than an investment vehicle. To me, I would like to think otherwise. In my opinion gold investment may be one of the easiest and stable investment vehicle. A few reasons I can think of that places gold as one of the safest inflation hedge. 1. No matter how severe the crisis is going to be, Gold will retain its purchasing power. 2. Gold is found to be the safest cash ready reserve. It will give you that cash cushion at all times. 3. Most importantly, you can never run into a default case while investing in Gold. As compared to real estate, gold is comparatively easier to buy and involves smaller capital investment. Numerous investment gurus recommend adding a portfolio in gold investment. Which brings us back to the topic of today, our local Maybank and its gold

Listerine Antiseptic Mouth Wash

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The other day, last Sunday to be exact, got myself a small bottle of Listerine antiseptic mouth wash from Watson Setapak . There are many reasons why people go for Listerine, ranging from getting rid of bad breath, getting their gums healthier, prevent tooth decay, killing bacterias, to better personal hygiene. Check this link below out, "Listerine not just a mouthwash" Some folks actually recommend using it as a mosquito deterrent. For me, I got it because I wanted to prevent tooth decay, or at least postponing the effects.  Tartar Control Listerine bought from Watsons Wangsa Maju So how exactly do we use this liquid called Listerine? If you haven't tried it out yet, it's pretty strong, you can actually feel the bite of the liquid on your tongue and in your mouth. The best and suggested way as recommended by the doctors as well as google would be to put some water first in your mouth and then put equal amount of Listerine and then gargle for few minutes a

Another Fatal Express Bus Accident

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Fresh from the previous horrors of past bus accidents that occur on our highways, yesterday occured what is claimed to be the worst road accident in Malaysian history. "27 passengers killed, 10 injured in bus crash on Cameron Highlands-Simpang Pulai Road" These were the headlines that screamed at me from the newspapers today. Sourced from The Star Newspaper Needless to say, I was shocked. A double decker express bus going up and down Cameron highlands? In my opinion, that's not a very wise or safe thing to do. AFX 2266, the bus belonged to Syarikat SK Murni Tours & Travel. It was booked by San Express Holiday for the tour package. All the deceased were of Thai nationality, except for 3 Malaysians (the driver, assistant driver, and the tour guide). Early indication of the crash showed that the bus hit the divider before going into the opposite lane and overturned into a ditch. The impact of the crash must have been very high judging from the number of lives l

A Short Visit To Thean Hou Temple

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Blue Monday. Very aptly named as I'm currently having the flu. Sneezing and coughing the whole day. But I already planned to have a visit to Thean Hou Temple today, so by hook or by crook I'll get there. I don't like not getting my plans done. It was drizzling with short burst of rain after work, I knew there would be a hell of a jam going to Midvalley area, but my determination to stick to my plan was strong. And so it began, picked up my gf from Jelatek LRT, and from then forth was stuck in the traffic jam for 1 and a half hour all the way to my destination. Finally! That's the thought that burst through my mind when we reached the temple. Oh, I didn't tell the reason I'm coming here yet, did I? Well, the aim is to check out the temple that my wife to be and I will be registering our marriage (ROM for short). It was dark already that time so just check out the temple's photo I managed to pull off the net. Thean Hou Temple 65 Persiaran Endah, Off

Watsons VIP Membership Card

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Today I so happen to drop by my friendly neighborhood shop Watsons Setapak. Don't get me wrong, it's not by any means my favourite hang out spot, but today I'm having a very bad sore throat and I figured a packet of Strepsils would definately help sooth my pain. Since I was at Watsons, I took the chance to stock up on my toiletries as well, namely Colgate toothpaste, Nivea for men facial wash, and a Listerine mouth wash. There I was going up to the cashier to pay up when the cashier pointed out this Watsons VIP card promotion to me. Membership was at rm12, and it's membership for life, at least that's what the pamphlet states. The thing that got me interested was they have this cute little cutout coupons (roughly 30pcs) of various discounts for items bought at Watsons. I saw they have an RM3 discount coupon for my Nivea facial wash, so technically if I were to get this card, I am paying only RM9 for it. After browsing through the other coupons, I realize there a

Sore Throat Day

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This morning, I woke up feeling sick, with a runny nose and a lump in my throat. The moment I try to swallow, I realize, I have a sore throat. Damn, I really do not like this, as normally this condition indicates an onset of flu and fever. So I went "googling", in search of the cause of my sore throat, and how to cure it fast. Found this picture below which kind of looks like my throat now I guess. Diagram Of Throat Infection Did you know the medical term for sore throats is pharyngitis? I didn't know that till I googled about it. Now you know why Google should be everyone's best friend. A few causes of sore throat that I found from various websites and will share in my dear blog would be as below:   1. Common viruses (that should be common knowledge ain't it), the viruses that causes the flu can cause sore throat. 2. Breathing through the mouth can also produce throat dryness and soreness. (Maybe I was dreaming of food and opening my mouth the whole ti

Tron Legacy In Cinemas Today

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What do you think of the movie? I haven't gone to the cinemas to watch it yet, however I feel it should be a good watch from the hype i read on the news. The original Tron movie was a hit in 1982, and made with a budget of USD17 Million, grossing well over USD33 Million. This latest offering of Tron Legacy was made with a budget of USD200 Million and was released worldwide yesterday 17 December 2010. My guess is it will be a feast for the eyes with all the dazzling visual effects and graphics. My plan was to watch it today, but work got in the way. Should I plan for a movie day tomorrow? Maybe I will. Watch out for my post after I've watched the movie. In the meantime let me share some cool images of Tron Legacy. [Sponsored Ads] Welcome buddy to our online winter coats for women . We have a variety of trench coats for women , cheap thomas sabo , juniors blazers and shearling coats . You feel this is too much comfortable.