DiGi welcomes me!

Dear friends,

I may appear as Celcom, but in actual fact, I am a Digi.






















I have switched to Digi, finally! I have been holding a grudge against Celcom for its super expensive pre-paid call rate until this number portability takes place. I thought it will never happen, and lucky me, it did. =)

Digi pre-paid call rate is only 36sen/min to anyone on any network, anytime and anywhere. On top of that, with the Super Friends and Family prepaid package, calls to 11 Digi numbers and 4 numbers on other networks are only at 15sen/min.

The most important factor that hasten my decision to switch to Digi is the RM30 service charge waiver to extend the airtime validity to 1 year (only for the 1st year) and the maximum rebate of RM50 for your forfeited balance in your previous operator when you switch over to Digi. Getting to enjoy up to 1 year validity period for my airtime is definitely a plus for me as my prepaid usage is very very low. Usually, my airtime balance would be accumulating up to hundreds of ringgit due to low usage and the need to reload for activation. Damn Celcom, I have been paying like RM365 a year for many years just to be able to make calls when needed. I hope to target RM50 usage a year with Digi for this year.

Motel Howen in Alor Setar

Motel Howen is located in Alor Setar, about 2-3 minutes drive after exiting the Alor Setar south exit of the North-South expressway. It is a new double storey semi-detached house, converted into motel. All rooms are air-conditioned and have tv sets with astro channels. All the bathrooms are fitted with hot shower, and soap bars are provided. The whole house can also be let for wedding functions or for the whole family to stay. There is a fridge in the kitchen, sofa and a large tv set in the living room. The rooms are all well-kept and clean.

The room rate is as follows:
1) Room without bathroom attached: - between RM28 to RM30 per night, depending on number of person stayed in.
2) Room with bathroom attached: - between RM35 to RM38 per night, depending on number of person stayed in.

The whole house can be let at around RM300 per night. Price is negotiable based on the number of days booked.

There are shoplots, restaurant, kopitiam, market and a Billion supermarket located less than 400m within the vicinity.

I don't have photos of the rooms and the inside of the house at the moment, but I will post it up here once I manage to capture them on my camera.

Motel Howen is located at:
599, Taman Pelangi,
Fasa 2/3,
05050 Alor Setar,
Kedah.

To get to Lebuhraya Sultanah Bahiyah, you need to go straight (12 o'clock) when you reach the first junction after exiting the toll plaza at the south exit. Keep going straight and you will reach at another junction with traffic lights. There is a big mosque located at the junction on your left. After this second junction, watch out for a row of shophouses on your left. Turn left into the road before the shophouses, and follow the road map shown above to get to Motel Howen.

You may contact Mr. Lye at 019-4299636 for enquiries or booking. You may also email me at ling_lye@yahoo.com.

Anyone wants to sell lcd monitor to me?

This laptop monitor (the laptop model is HP Compaq nc6230) that I'm looking at now is causing so much pain to my eyes after using it for less than 2 hours. My eyes are dry, and blurry now. This laptop is causing me to loose my near to perfect vision. I hate this computer!!!!!!!!!!! Now, nothing can buy me back my good vision...sigh. I have survived through my nine years of intensive computer use as that was my job for a living without wearing spectacles, and now, my vision has deteriorated so badly since the day I subscribed to Streamyx early this year. Surfing net using this laptop over the months has caused great damage to my eyes unknowingly. When I started seeing blurry objects, then everything is too late. :(

I need to buy an lcd monitor, 17 or 19 inches, which is of better or equal quality to that of the one I'm currently using in the office, the HP1955. Anyone wants to sell me his?

Sorry boss, if you're reading this, I can't work from home anymore now...keke. And it would be great if you could loan me any of the unused monitor lying around in the office, so that I won't have to buy one...haha

Also, sorry to my friends, that I'm no longer able to spend long time on the internet now, that's the reason I nvr go online on YM or Skype after work because I tried to limit my computer usage to less than 2 hrs at home.

My 'new' phone

I got a 'new' phone as my birthday gift from bf. It's a Sony Ericson K800i! I know this model isnt that new anymore, but then it has a 3.2 Megapixel Cybershot camera on it, which I have been longing. Believe it or not, my old phone doesn't have a camera, so sometimes, I would bring along my bulky camera with me in my handbag if I plan to take pictures of the good food that I will be having.

Does it look good? To be honest, this phone is not new. Bf bought this from a friend who had been using it for less than 2 years. It is second-hand, but the condition is still superb! It costs RM350.
I saw the current market price for this new phone is around RM700. Is this 'tai'?

The only setback it has is the soft speaker phone sound. I found out from friends using K800i that the speaker phone sound is really soft. But nvr mind, as long as the audio is clear when not turning on speaker phone, then it is fine. I like that the camera shutter sound can be selectable from 4 different tones, and a few of the tones are very soft, which is great coz then I can snap candid photo of others...hehe.

My favourite 'sa poh' chicken rice in Greenlane

Whenever I thought of eating 'sa poh' chicken rice, I will go to 'Mandarin Cafe' in Greenlane. Although I believe it may not be the best 'sa poh' chicken rice in Penang, but the taste is good enough to lure me there a number of times.

Cafe Mandarin in Greenlane

Although I have been there many times, I don't remember the exact price...strange. I only remembered that it was cheaper than any that I can find so far in Penang island. If I'm not wrong, the price for one without egg should be between RM3.50 to RM3.70. Do enlighten me if you know anywhere else which is selling cheaper and tasted good as well. :)

Dinner at Coffee Garden, EQ

I had dinner at Coffee Garden, Equatorial Hotel for my birthday celebration. Coffee Garden is definitely not my choice of restaurants to dine on my birthday, but then I still have RM250 voucher to spend in Equatorial Hotel before it expires next month. I had Kampachi about 3 weeks ago, so this time I decided to try Coffee Garden's ala carte dishes. I had tried international buffet at Coffee Garden before, the food is not good and choices are limited.

On that day, I ordered grilled lamb chop (olive and rosemary baked lamp chop) and bf ordered grilled sirloin steak. Again, as usual (I am really disappointed with my 'tham chiak'ness), I forgot to take picture of the food when it was served. I only realized about it after taken one piece of the lamp chop and bf that time had already finished his steak (his steak is served earlier than mine). So, this is the only photo I managed to take:

My grilled lamp chop. It cost a f***ing RM46 and yet there were only 3 small pieces of lamb meat served together with the side dishes. Bf's steak cost RM40. I remembered Victoria Station or Chilis served a bigger portion of the meat at a price less than that. Anyway, the lamb meat is quite juicy and tender. I loved it. However, I tasted salt on it when chewing on the meat. Seems like salt is sprinkled on it. Maybe they overspilled some salt onto the meat when sprinkling them on the fries.

Can anyone tell me what plant is this?

Bf sowed some lady's finger seeds and cili padi seeds in the pot months ago, and now we are seeing a plant growing up from the pot. Mum said it is cili padi, while I thought it is lady's finger. Bf has no clue. So, can anyone tell me if this is cili padi or lady's finger? I told myself that this can't be a wild plant. Can it be???

Bf loves gardening, and he is only interested in planting trees that produce edible parts like vegetables or fruits. Our small apartment doesn't provide us the space to do gardening, so he had to cramp all the plants in the few pots that we have. I don't like gardening, but I love to watch the plant grows. Look at how tall the plant is now compared to weeks ago!

Bf also planted kailan in another pot. We bought the seeds and some fertilizer at Giant. He wanted so much to experiment planting them, and they did grow!

Kailan

Isn't it good if we can plant our own veges for consumption? Think of it, pesticide free vegetables, like organic vegetables. Organic vegetables are so much expensive. Hmm...but I will definitely starve to death if I have to wait till our kailan or lady's finger can be eaten. ...haha

Sea Palace restaurant

Bf treated me to dinner at this place a few days back, called Sea Palace restaurant in Bangunan Lip Sin, Pekaka. By now, I felt very much "intoxicated" after the buffet at kampachi, followed by the series of eat-outs at restaurants for the whole of last week. My cholesterol level will surely shoots up.

Photos of the food were only taken after halfway eating, so you only see half of the food. The other half were already in our stomach. Most of the time, I forgot to take photos of the food as I was too occupied with eating when food was served...haha.

prawn curry

Pork ribs

toufu

spinach soup with 'bei tan' (egg)

quilingkao

The prawn curry tasted similar to the indonesian styled prawn curry that I had in Double Good restaurant near to Bukit Jambul. The pork ribs tasted good as well. It is crunchy outside and tender inside. The toufu is served together with some siew pak choy and shreds of crab meat in the thick sauce. The toufu is soft. I think it is also made of eggs as it tasted like japanese toufu. A little too salty in my opinion. The spinach soup with 'bei tan' is also nice, it has some small anchovies in it. I had quilingkao as dessert.

That day itself I had food throughout the day during the training, that I still felt a bit full when we headed for dinner. Halfway through the dinner, I felt very full and stopped eating for a while and took the time to take photos of the food and posing together with sis in front of camera.

Overall, food is good. However, it is a bit pricey, as the bill came out to around RM82 for the 4 dishes, 3 bowls of rice, tea, two bowls of quilingkao and 2 glasses of fruit juice. We might be able to get the same food at any "chu cha" stalls outside at a cheaper price.

Food at Crystal Point

I attended a 4 days training at Dream Catcher last week, and we were well-fed (breakfast, lunch and tea provided) during the training. Lunch was provided at the different restaurants located at Crystal Point; Eighteen, ElMondo Pizza and Mumbai. Among these 3 restaurants, food from El Mondo Pizza is the best.

Spaghetti mushroom - Eighteen

I had spaghetti mushroom (with tomato sauce) in Eighteen. Taste wise is average, there is no meat in the spaghetti, only mushroom and tomatoes. It is a bit too sour for my liking. I had a peep into their menu and found that this cost RM14 a plate. My sis had spaghetti cabonara with hams, I tried the leftover that she can't finish, taste is ok, but too creamy. I felt a little 'jelak' even after having a few mouths of it. The spaghetti cabonara cost RM18 a plate. I ordered a fish meal served with potato on another of my lunch session at Eighteen. I forgot to take picture of it, the food presentation is nice, but it doesn't taste good. The set lunch at Eighteen comes with creamy soup and buns with butter served as starters, a small slice of cake as dessert and coffee or tea.

Pizza - Eighteen

A friend sitting next to me ordered pizza. I heard that pizzas from El Mondo Pizza tasted better than Eighteen. If I'm not mistaken, this pizza cost around RM16.

Too bad that I forgot to take photos of the food taken in El Mondo Pizza. I found food there is better than in Eighteen. Set lunch at El Mondo Pizza comes with creamy soup as starter, drinks (ice-lemon tea), and a small slice of tiramitsu. Anyway, I found a blog which commented about El Mondo Pizza, with some photos of the food.
http://edzilpacaldo.blogspot.com/2008/03/el-mondo-pizza-original-woodfire-pizza.html

Kebab set - Mumbai

fried onion - mumbai

I ordered the kebab set at Mumbai restaurant. It has garlic nan, pieces of lamb, chicken, fish and prawns on the skewers. The set comes with a spicy clear soup, fried onion, crackers and drinks. The food tasted average.

In my opinion, food in these restaurants are pricey as the quality and taste does not match the price that you have to pay. El-Mondo Pizza may be the better one among these 3 restaurants, but still pricey in my opinion.

Kampachi buffet lunch

I got RM400 of Equatorial Hotel voucher as a reward for successful publication of my technical paper in the Technospark (my company's technical magazine). It is so great that I can indulge in food again, especially buffet, and I picked Kampachi restaurant because Japanese food is my favourite.

I didn't know that the place can be so packed during the weekends. Luckily I came early, if not I wouldn't have got a place to sit in without making reservations.

Food is good, definitely better than the japanese buffet dinner at Traders Hotel, but the varieties are not too many nor too few.

Here are some photos of the food for you to drool! :)

Sashimi, octopus, and mackerel sushis.

I started off with sashimi, my top favourite! I can only recognized salmon and squid (the white one with seaweed rolled in it). I'm not sure of the type of fish meat for the rest (dark red or purple coloured), but they all tasted fresh and good, especially taken with wasabi in soy sauce.



sashimis again...i just loved them.



Grilled salmon, grilled mackerel, and toufu.



Tempuras, mussels, and some japanese fried rice.



Miso soup, chickens, mackerel, steamed slices of fish and etc...



A bowl of udon mixed with soba, with mushrooms and some vege.



Desserts

There were ice-creams too, but it tasted like the normal cheap ice-cream, not so nice. I can't find eels and cod fish, which are my favourites. Probably they are too expensive to be served in a buffet.

The buffet lunch costs RM62 per person, and with 5% govt tax and 10% service charge, the total price is RM71.30 per person. The price has increased now. I remembered it was around RM5x last time. You can get to redeem the RM5 carpark here as well.

With the slow down in the economy, I believe many have already tightened their pockets, however, it was unbelievable that the place is fulled. I'm wondering if most of the people having their lunch there were also like me spending on the expense of the company. I have already met 2 people there from my company, one of them is my friend, who was also spending her lunch in Kampachi using the voucher she obtained from the company.

Most of the japanese food are very much rich in protein, that I think I didn't eat that much, but I felt so full that I almost want to vomit when i left the place. I hope that one day I won't die from eating too much food.....kakaka

Why Women should Lift Weights

Whenever I was at the gym doing strength training, I noticed the area was usually only filled by men. Most women spend most of their time in the gym on cardio machines. Well, I know most women shunned from lifting weights because they believe that they will bulk up like a beast! This is a common misconception that I heard till today from most of my female friends. Please understand, compared to men, women have 10 to 30 times less of testosterone, the key hormone responsible for muscle growth. Therefore, women don't gain size easily from strength training. You would need great great effort and tons of steroids, anabolic supplements and other crap injecting to your body in order to move even one step towards the look of that professional ugly bodybuilding women you see in magazines and on TV.

It is also unbelievable that I still hear till this day from many of male friends the reason for them not doing weight training is because they afraid if they don’t keep up with the training once started, their muscles will turn into sagging flesh or fat! Hmm….how could muscle transform into fat??? Muscle and fat are two different tissues in our body, and they cannot transform from one into another!!!.

One of the main reasons I lift weights and enduring the pain is to shape my upper body and burn fat. Exercises like jogging or running on treadmills or hiking doesn't help to shape your body and give you the tone and definition that you want. Below are photos of female celebrities that really get me into working out with weights.

Cameron Diaz

Sarah Jessica Parker, the star in "Sex and the City"

Evangeline Lily in "The Lost"

Linda Hamilton in "Terminator 2"



Michelle Yeoh

Our local celebrity, Hannah Tan

Whatever your reasons for avoiding the weights, if you are a woman, here are some of the reasons why you need to lift weights:

1. You Will Lose Body Fat.
   As your lean muscle increases so does your resting metabolism, and you burn more calories all day long, even at rest!

2. You Will Be Physically Stronger.
   For majority of women today living a modern lifestyle increase of strength is very useful. This will make you far less dependent upon others for assistance in daily living. Just think about lifting your kids, groceries, laundry and all other everyday activity you will perform with far less effort with strength level increase. When your maximum strength is increased, daily tasks and routine exercise will be far less likely to cause injury.

3. You Decrease Your Risk Of Osteoporosis
Research has found that weight training can increase spinal bone mineral density by 13 percent in six months. This, coupled with an adequate amount of dietary calcium, can be a women's best defense against osteoporosis.

4. You Will Reduce Your Risk Of Injury and Arthritis.
   Strength training not only builds stronger muscles, but also builds stronger connective tissues and strengthens joints. This helps to reduce the risk of injury and arthritis.

This is the dumbell that I used when I first started. It is only 2kg each. It is still useful for toning up but not able to give me the muscle definition that I want.

This is the barbell that I lift at home. This is much heavier than the dumbell above as you can add on weights to it. And this is definitely more effective in building muscles. To stimulate muscle growth, you need to really exert the maximum force till your body not able to take it anymore.

So, start lifting weights, girls and stop worrying that you will bulk up like a beast because women do not have the genetic capability to develop large, bulky muscles like men do.

Beetroot

This morning I had beetroot juice for my breakfast. I was introduced to beetroot by my sister's father-in-law. I tried the beetroot soup that he cooked, it tasted good and was quite similar in taste to the white carrot soup that my mum used to cook. I was amazed by the red colour of the soup which came from the beetroot. My sis's father-in-law told me that it can be eaten raw by extracting its juice using blender.

So, when i went shopping for groceries yesterday, i saw beetroot and bought one to try.

This piece of beetroot cost RM2.66 or RM4.90 per 1kg. Bought it from Sunshine Sq. This is how it looks after I sliced off its skin.

It looks like the red dragon fruit, except that it is harder in texture. It should be rich in caretenoid due to its red colour, therefore I prefer eating it raw than cooking it in hot boiling water to avoid losing its nutrient. I chopped it up into small pieces, put them into the blender, added some water and blended them. The result:

But it has more pulps than juices, so I had a tough time putting it down my throat. I didn't throw away the pulps, as I believe most of the fibre is in there. There were still some in the blender after pouring it into 2 cups. The taste is quite close to carrot juice. I didn't add sugar or anything else. Hmm....I think I will opt for cooking it instead the next time coz it tasted much better cooked in soup...haha.

Here are some benefits of taking beetroot that I found from the internet:
"Beetroot has for many years been used as a treatment for cancer in Europe. Specific anti-carcinogens are bound to the red colouring matter which supposedly helps fight against cancer and beetroot also increases the uptake of oxygen by as much as 400 percent. Additional studies are taking place to add support to these claims."

The Star has also reported of its benefit in the link below:

http://thestar.com.my/columnists/story.asp?file=/2007/3/28/columnists/foodsafety/17239112&sec=Food%20Safety

Another of my Indulgence

I bought lots of green veges this morning and plan to cook for the weekend with the fish and chicken that my bf brought from home. I had loaded myself with lots of unhealthy, yet good food during my KL trip on the Raya holidays that I thought of getting myself low calorie and nutritional food for the weekend. However, I ended up getting this for my dinner just now.

Yeah, two regular pizzas to share with my bf. Pizza Hut had this promotion for take-away orders only, whereby you get free one regular crunchy crust pizza with purchase of 1 regular supremes pan pizza. This saved you RM18! One regular supremes pan pizza cost you RM21, and one regular family favourites crunchy crust pizza is RM18.

I had earlier plan to do some weight and abs exercise before i start cooking my dinner. However, I overslept my nap and only woke up at 6.45pm. Then, I got lazy after I woke up. Even worst, I thought of eating pizzas when i saw the Pizza Hut flyer on my table. The flyer had been lying long on my table, and I'm very tempted with the promotion offered by PizzaHut. But each time I mentioned of pizza, he was reluctant to go. But this time, the moment i said pizza, he said "let's go". I was brimming with excitement when he said this, like a kid yearning for an ice-cream.

Then, we headed straight to the nearest Pizza Hut store, in Giant, Bayan Baru. I showed the cashier the flyer that I brought along, pointed to her that i wanted to buy the 'buy one regular, free one regular crunchy crust' promotional item. But this cashier by the name of Asimah couldn't read English, and kept saying they only have free one regular pizza with every purchase of 1 large pizza. Below is a snap of the flyer taken with bf's camera phone.

Sorry for the blur picture, I don't have my camera to use for the weekend. If you can't see it properly, here is what's written there, "FREE Regular Crunchy Crust Pizza (Family Favourites) with 1 Regular Supremes Pan Pizza purchase".

I then told the cashier to ask her colleagues to confirm this. She pulled a long face and walked to the back to ask. When finally it was confirmed, i made payment and came back 15 minutes later to pick up my pizza. When I asked for cheese powder to be poured on top of the pizza, her (the same cashier) face turned again. With the reluctance on her face, I straight away looked for cheese powder and poured them myself while she walked away to take orders from other customer. Well, what a rude staff.

Back home, I was happily enjoying my pizzas with my bf. We had equal share of the pizzas since he is not much a bigger eater than I am. This means we have 1 whole regular pizza each to ourselves....keke.....what an indulgence....i felt so pampered! I have no doubt in finishing the whole pizza since i had taken 7 slices of Domino's pizza before. One regular pizza from Pizza Hut has only 6 slices.

I had made the wrong choice of ordering the combination of Hawaiian Supreme and Hawaiian Tuna. I thought one chicken and one tuna would be the perfect combination, but both were of the same flavour. I am also disappointed with the Crunchy Crust Pizza. This is the first time i tried it. It doesn't taste good at all. This could be the reason Pizza Hut was giving out this free when you buy the normal pizza.

Crunchy Crust Pizza (Hawaiian Tuna)

One small slice of Crunchy Crust Pizza

The Crunchy Crust Pizza is thinner compared to the normal Pan Pizza. I don't like that it had too much mayonnaise and pineaple on it. Maybe this is because of the flavour that I had chosen, Hawaiian Tuna. I also don't like the thin crust. As a conclusion, I will not buy Crunchy Crust Pizza in future....hehe. Also, I will need to find time to include 1 more session to my usual once-a -week gym workout next week.

My next target would be this before the promotion ends on the 31st Oct 2008:

2 REGULAR Family Favourites for RM28 (save RM8)

Plus the HOT Add-On deals for Deli Wings where you can get saving of RM1.80 for 4 pcs of Deli Wings. Sorry, no picture here coz it is too small to be captured clear enough using a lousy camera phone.

Note that the above promotion is for delivery or take-away orders only. My usual dine-in in Pizza Hut would usually be 2 slices of pizza, 1 mushroom soup, 1 drink and 2 pcs of Deli Wings and the bill for one person would usually be close to RM15. Deli Wings is my top favourite!!! It is very very oily, but the taste of the chicken wing is damn too good for me to ignore the 'oilyness' of it for a while.

Damn it, why am I promoting Pizza Hut?