My New FREE Toy

So yeah, this is my new toy - HTC Desire S. I got it free from my service provider. :)

 

I was asked to go to designated place to collect it. I thought maybe I'll go there early, collect it and get back to work again. I was probably an hour early, but after meeting up with people who were there much earlier, I didn't have hope of leaving the place any time soon. They were there 2 hours earlier and the was no sign of their names or any other names being called.

Finally, after more than 3 hours of waiting, I got my phone.It was awesome. My first touch screen phone.

It was 5pm when I left the collection place. I promised to go for a movie with Chee Hoe and we pulled Arnold and Rachel along too. Arnold was reluctant because he has already seen the movie, Puss In Boots, with his cousins. Anyway, we managed to persuade him to watch with us.:)

After the movie, we went for dinner in Johnny's Restaurant. We had steamboat and an a la carte fried rice. Arnold also got the same phone that day, and we played with the phones till it ran out of juice.

One thing about HTC Desire S phones... they run out of battery quite fast and you'll always need to have a backup battery or  a phone battery charger. I can't complain because the phone is free. :)
 

Baking with OLD New Equipments

Two days ago, I made these - chocolate banana cake and banana muffins. Both were delicious. :D

So, I already have 2 cake mixers. The Kenwood (white) mixer is quite old, probably more than 5 years and I send it for repair once last year and it's not that good now. I bought a new Faber mixer when I had the Kenwood repaired, so now I have 2 mixers.

Guess what? A kind elderly lady in church noticed my interest in baking and decided to donate her old heavy duty Kenwood mixer to me. She bought it 2nd hand for RM280 in the 1970s. She hasn't been using it for many years now and thought of giving it away.

Well, I'm the happy recipient. :D I always wanted to own one of these heavy duty mixers but my little interest doesn't justify paying so much, plus the very fact that I already have 2 mixers. 

It's a Kenwood Chef model A.701A.

Look at all the extra stuff it can do on this mixer. Gosh!! Anyway, I only received the machine (obviously), along with the "K" beater, whisk and the jug liquidiser. It's good enough for me. :)

Oh yeah, have I ever told you about my oven?

This is my first oven. It was given to me by my dear friend, Ruth, when she bought a bigger oven. Hmm... what was the year, I can't recall, but I guess it's probably in the year 2006.

And then last year, on the 27th of March, my aunt gave me her old oven. It's probably 30 years old or something.:) I love it. It bakes very well, much better than the small oven and I am able to bake more in a shorter time. 

I also got this cooling tray recently. It's so useful because I bake a lot of cookies at a time. I first spotted it in a kitchenware type of shop and it cost about RM49. I thought it was too expensive so I didn't get it at that time. After a few weeks I saw the exact one in a DIY shop. It was only RM25.90. I grabbed it and was very pleased with how much I saved. :) 

Souvenirs From Hawaii

My sister is back from Hawaii. This is her 2nd trip there. This time I didn't really expect much souvenirs from her because she should have all the interesting gifts covered during her first trip. :)

She got me these :-

A pink T-shirt, a um whatchamacallit waterproof container, a short stainless steel cup, a mote pad, a hair-clip, an ANTI-BOTTLE, and a pair of create-any-pattern-you-like sandals. 

I find 3 items interesting :-

The waterproof container is practical for our PD outings.
The anti-bottle is a flexible container that stands when it's full and folds when it's empty.
The sandals. With just a pair of rubberize soles, strings and patterned hooks you can create so many designs.

Surprises From Hawaii

Nope, I've not been to Hawaii but my dear twin was there recently and my clear instructions were "DON'T GET ME ANYTHING EXCEPT HIKING SANDALS"

Two days ago the twin gave me a bag of what I assumed contain my light black jacket and some other goodies. She also gave me a pair of hiking sandals which was expected because she called me from Hawaii to check if I mind a size bigger.

So anyway, when I finally open the bag, I was amazed to see so many things inside.

A HOT Pink jacket.. WOW... she must have spent quite a bit on this. I have like 3 other light jackets but all of them are black in colour. Hmmm... come to think of it, it never strike me to get other colours. Cool, now I've got a hot pink which screams "LACK-OF-ATTENTION" even from afar.

And you know what's the main advantage of having a twin? I don't have to be there to try on and see if it fits me or not. :)

Next is a pink recorder. Wow! I believe I've not owned one before. Neat.. and it's PINK. Okay, to tell you the truth I don't know how to play this instrument even after taking many lessons during my primary years. So I guess now is a good time as any. :)

A pink-ish water-bottle. Okay, I'm sure by now you would have guessed that my favourite colour is pink. You are so right. :)

A spoon holder, a bar of chocolate, a GET THIS... a pair of no-tie shoelace, a purse ( we buy purses for our siblings EVERY TIME we visit the States), a tube of hand sanitizer, torch light, glitter eye-shadow, a fushia nail polish, and a 2-mirror with the word ALOHA on it.

A pouch which transforms to a bag pack when you pull out all the material from the pouch. Very useful for shopping.

My COLUMBIA sandals. YES!!!! The twin called from Hawaii to let me know that they do not have our size and if a size bigger would be okay she would get a pair for me. I said "sure go ahead if you get for yourself, get for me too". When I tried it on 2 days ago, they fit perfectly... well, they are slightly bigger but it's still okay.

I got these today. I'm here at her house and she gave me sneaker balls for my smelly shoes and a fridge magnet which she insist was very useful for opening bottles. Hmmm.. I "complained" that she bought so many things for me to which she replied "if you don't want, then give me back". Ahhh.. I kept quiet after that. :)

This morning we went for morning walk in Lake Gardens. After that we went over to Top Curry House for breakfast. The place was full of people and we couldn't even order a proper meal. The waiters were just too busy. We had a vadai each and left. That was our breakfast and the twin said she had to do something at 2.30pm and we will only get to eat our lunch at 2.45pm. So I went to her kitchen to check and see if there was any snacks to munch. I spotted a few packs of Korean seaweed and asked if I could eat them. She said okay and she thought that she had given me a pack.

So, this is the 15th item (excluding the sandals since I paid for them) she gave me.. and the only one from Korea. I wonder how much she spent on the stuff she gave me.

Thanks TWIN. :D

All the way from Switzerland

Last week I received an unexpected parcel from a Finnish friend. Okay, it was expected, but I forgot all about it. Let me tell you why I said that. You see, this friend sent a message through FB saying that

he is leaving Switzerland behind (if I can find the airport...)

Now I couldn't let him go back to his country without getting me a souvenir from Switzerland could I? So I made a comment asking if he did buy me a fridge magnet. He replied some 5 minutes later :

What, did I promise such!!! Lets see if I can find one...

2 1/2 weeks later I received this -

The packaging looks interesting. :)


I like the postcard too. :)

And the cuckoo clock.. haha.. from the picture it looks like a cuckoo clock. I went as near as possible to take this picture. Now, look closely again and you'll notice that it's not a clock after all but a fridge magnet :). Press the red button on the top left side and you'll hear the cuckoo calling.

I love these kind of surprises. Thank you my Finnish friend. :)

What happened on My Baking Day

I finally got my portable oven back from my friend. My sister and her husband will be going to Hong Kong tomorrow and they planned to stay with Paul & Hazel. I suddenly thought of baking something for them but I realized that my oven was with Minch. So on Sunday I went over to her house to get it.

But you know, a small portable oven can only do so much (no complains though, the oven was given by Ruth and it's very good). I have to bake one small tray at a time. Feeling generous I decided to make extra for my other friends. This means more time spent on waiting. So what I did was to set up my laptop near the baking area to MSN and FB. :) And hey, I managed to help someone with his openoffice problem (with the help of another person lah) via MSN/Skype.

Half way through baking I had to go and see the dentist. My tooth was aching the night before. It was so bad that I cried. Somehow I managed to have a proper's night rest and thank God the pain was no longer there in the morning. But that doesn't mean that my tooth problem was gone.

So at almost 4pm I went to see my regular dentist. He shook his head and gave me two choices with what I wanted to do with my tooth. Either to extract it (which he strongly recommended) or to do a root canal. Being vain, I told him to try and save it. And so he did.

By 4.40pm, I was out of the clinic and I did some window shopping and then had a drink with Mctc and a close friend. By the time I reached home, it was about 7.30pm. I continued the last of my baking and started cleaning up.

So these are the shortbread cookies I made for my friends. I have some leftovers and hope it will last till my climb to Broga next week. :)

My New Slippers

Crocs.. never thought I would own one, because theynot only cost the earth, it is also hard to maintain in the sense that I cannot put it under direct sunlight too. The material would harden.. that's what the vendor said.

Anyway, the vendor was selling factory rejects, and the slight discolour on the white um.. band (?) didn't matter much to me as long as it's cheap. :)

Impromptu Shopping Spree

Two days ago I went for my morning walk with RW. We didn't call Minch this time but she was there with Matt. They came much later and left about the same time as us. We decided to have breakfast at Matt's favourite coffee shop in Rahang. The usual questions were asked by Minch and one of them was what would we be doing after breakfast. I had to do some housework and RW had other plans. Minch suggested going shopping in KL. I was alright with it because I could do my house chores on Tuesday. RW said she doesn't mind going to KL with us too.

So we went back to bathe and met up again in town. Matt had to go to work so he didn't join in our shopping spree. Minch brought Om along too, so the 4 of us headed to the highway not knowing which shopping mall we wanted to invade.

In the end, we went to Mid Valley because it's one place we were so familiar and there were specific things we wanted to check out.

Whenever I shop I always look out for shoes. My shoes last for about 3 months most of the time.

It looks great, but after much walking I get blisters.. sigh.. I wanted this to be my walking shoes. :) Looks like I have to get another pair of proper walking shoes..

We spent more than 6 hours in the mall. It was fun, just to walk around and check out the things there. We saw moon cakes being sold right in front of the Jusco supermarket. This means that the mooncake festival is just around the corner. My, how time flies...

We reached home at about 7pm. I had a lovely time and was so exhausted that I slept as early as 9pm that day.

FB Chat Got Limit?

I was happily chatting with someone on Facebook when a message appeared in the chat box -

I was taken aback. Strange. I never knew that there was a limit to chat messages in FB. Hmm... we didn't chat that long too. Probably about 2 hours or so. Is it only me or has anyone out there received this message before?

Ikea's 1st Day of Sale

Two days ago, Matt asked if I wanted to go to Ikea today. I was hesitant because there were a lot of things to buy in Ikea.. things which looked nice and have this "buy-me" look in Ikea. More often or not they were placed in one corner of the house or somtimes even in the storeroom.

I decided, maybe I should go, just to update myself. I haven't been in Ikea for a very long time. The word "long" is relative. I think the last time I stepped into Ikea was last year.

I went for a walk with my sisters early this morning and had breakfast with them after that. Then I went to my parents' house to bathe and then went to church to do some work. At 12pm Matt and I left to pick Esther and Minch from their house (they were on leave). We had lunch together. We reached Ikea at about 2.30pm. In my list of things to get, I had to look for a garlic crusher, a shower curtain and a sponge holder.

I found the garlic crusher and shower curtain but couldn't find the sponge holder. As I passed through the kitchen section I saw this -

A kettle. I've been wanting to buy an honest-to-goodness kettle. I had an electric jug kettle, but not one that operates on a stove. When I was in Melbourne 2 months ago I saw De using a kettle with a sprout cover. From that time onwards I told myself, if I ever see one with a sprout cover I would buy it.

I found it in Ikea... and I placed it in the shopping cart. :)


And I saw this too -

A floor lamp. The place where I worked/blogged/chat/FB doesn't have enough light and I needed to get a reading lamp so badly.

It was on sale and I immediately grabbed it.

After checking out, we went to have our favourite hot dog (cost only RM2) and curry puffs (RM1). Esther and I were so hungry after shopping for 3 hours. The hot dogs were yummy as ever and the curry puffs were simply heavenly. I think the hot dogs tasted better than the ones I had in New York.

It was a really a fulfilling day for me. I even finished the book One Fifth Avenue by Candace Bushnell. I slept at 4am because of that. :)

Making Omelettes for Lunch

Last week, I asked my friends if they know of a good omelette recipe. Some commented in FB and one posted the recipe in his blog. Looks easy to make.

Yesterday I tried making one. I had 3 eggs, onions, button mushrooms and cheese. I cooked the onions and mushrooms first and placed it aside. Then I beat the eggs and added cheddar cheese, salt and pepper in it. I poured the eggs mixture into a frying pan - um ... a 25cm frying pan.. and it spread out until it was quite thin. Once the mixture was half cooked, I added the mushrooms and onions. Then I tried to fold the egg skin (how else do you call it?) to cover the mushrooms and onions. The skin broke. :( It wasn't a pretty sight. Later when I ate it, it didn't taste good too. I think it was not cheesy and salty enough and I cooked it in oil instead of butter.

I have 4 more eggs left. Today I thought I would give it another try.

This time I added chicken sausage.



I cooked it in a smaller pan...

A really small 14cm-pan. It looked like a mini pizza. I made sure I used butter instead of oil, and added more cheese and salt.

The pan was so small that I wasn't sure whether the middle of the egg mixture was cooked. Anyway, I put it under the fire for a while longer before transferring it to a plate. It didn't look good but it taste delicious.. but after a while, a bit " jelak" because of the butter and cheese.

I think it will take me a while before I try making omelettes again. :P

My Poor Clogs

I bought the clogs in March 2009. It was so beautiful and fragile that I never really wore them. Two Sunday's ago, I wore them to church. Then I left them in Rachel's car because we planned to go to the Lake Gardens for a walk later.

Later during the week, I saw them in Rachel's car and brought them home. As I was carrying the clogs from the car into the house, one of them fell.

Sigh.. so sad. I kept thinking about it for the next hour.. trying to tell myself that they are only shoes. In time I will forget about them. :(

Goodmaid Warehouse Sales

Where in the world can you buy detergent for so cheap?

Last Friday Matt announced in Facebook that Goodmaid was having a warehouse sales in Senawang. I asked him for the goods and price list and found the products to be very cheap. (50-70% cheaper than what we usually pay). They had the sale on for 2 days only - Friday and Saturday.

I went to the factory in the evening with Mctc and bought a bunch of cleaning products. Fortunately, I brought my little for-luggage-use trolley which I bought in America some time back. I bought some detergent for my mother too who once told me that she uses the dishwashing liquid like it water. She had to buy the 5 liters bottle so that she needn't think of buying them so frequently. I had no such problem. I usually purchase the 1 liter bottle and it could last me the whole year. I don't cook very often. :)

The next day, Minch called up early in the morning and asked if I wanted to follow her to the warehouse sales. She wanted to buy some detergent for her friend. Feeling excited, yet lazy, I told her that I would go with her. So I went.. with my trolley.

We bought so much stuff. My trolley wasn't big enough for all our purchase. I bought more dishwashing liquid for my mom and a few other items I didn't see the day before.

While heading towards the car with our stuff, I saw my church friends. I asked if they wanted to borrow my trolley. At first they said they didn't need one because their mom will only get a few things. Knowing that they would buy more than a few things, I told them to take the trolley and return it later.

Then later in the evening, I asked my aunt if she needed anything from the warehouse sales and she said she wanted the fabric softener. Minch was willing to go there again and she called another friend to come along too. We dropped by at church to pass Minch brother something. I saw my friends - the ones who borrowed by trolley earlier on. I asked them if they had it in their car. They said they saw another church friend in the warehouse and pass edthe trolley to her. Umm.... ok, I thought.

I didn't get many things this time. A lot of the stock was sold out. I could see many empty boxes. Minch's friend brought quite a lot of the same item.

When I reached home, I place them all in a plastic box.

So here they are... enough to last me at least 6 months (for some items) - 2 years. :)

Thinking of Melbourne Again

Look at that. Going to Melbourne is getting cheaper. RM730 (USD 207, EURO146) for a return flight. My last flight was RM952 (just the flight and airport tax).

I told my friends in FB and look what they replied -

LKK at 2:04pm June 17

AUS is flu infection zone. That's why so cheap lah

EL at 2:17pm June 17

and melbourne is the hotspot

ET SK at 4:03pm June 17

I'm going to cry.....I paid SO MUCH for my ticket last year....sigh...

JJ at 5:13pm June 17

RM 730 for a dose of H1N1 ~ dirt cheap. Go for it!

RL at 1:48am June 18

whole world is h1n1 zone in fact...

ET SK at 9:19am June 18

I was told in a FB comment that the whole world is in H1N1 zone except Africa....or has that changed in the last few days as well...?

Looks like I won't be going to Melbourne this year again. :(

New Sandals

My last pair of sandals gave way when I went to the Chiling waterfalls last month. It was a very well-used sandals and I'd used it for both my Mt Kinabalu trips. It was like 2 sizes bigger , not because I wanted it that way, but because I had no choice. I went all around Seremban and KL to look for a pair of reasonable priced sandals and they were all for men!!. The ones for women were priced at RM199 - RM299, the brands of course were well-known worldwide.

I knew I had to look for a new pair of sandals and so I tried looking for the same one. To my disappointment, they can't be found anywhere. I asked at least 2 shops, and they said that the supplier didn't supply that type of sandals anymore.

A few days ago, I went to Jusco Seremban, intending to get myself a pair of shoes. I ended up buying this :-

A pair of sandals which fitted me quite nicely. Minch said that the shoes were meant for children. Not quite believing her, she asked the shop assistant and he confirmed the shoes were really for children. Oh, well.. it fitted me perfectly. I paid and now am a proud owner of a pair of children's sandals. :)

Shopping at MV After the Sale Is Over

Yesterday was my last day home alone and what did I do? I went shopping at Mid Valley in KL. The sale was until the day before and to go to Mid Valley just for shopping during a non sale day was not really a waste of time. Somehow, sales season or not, some shops will still have sales. I went with 2 of my good friends and the reason why they chose MV was because one of them wanted to eat at Kim Gary. We went there just in time for lunch. I wasn't hungry at all and so I told them to go ahead and have their lunch while I shopped.

I went to Carrefour first. Sometimes they have good bargains. Like the one time I was there and got a B&D Drill with accessories for only RM49.90 (USD 14.20 or EURO 10).

It was so cheap. Suspiciously, I asked the staff of Carrefour what was wrong with this gadget and why were they selling it so cheap. The reason was, they wanted to bring in new stock (orange colour) and the had to get rid of the old ones. Later I checked the new stocks and they cost close to RM200 without the accessories.

There was another time I bought a volleyball net for only RM 10 (USD 2.85, EURO 2.00),which I grabbed and paid immediately and later they pushed the price down to RM3.00 (USD 0.85, EURO 0.60) and I also bought the 2nd net. Why did I buy it? Because it was cheap!!! (Later we used them for Kidz Safari in May08).

So, did I find anything interesting in Carrefour?

Yup, I did. 2 books, each cost RM5.00 (USD 1.42, EURO 1.00). They weren't well-known authors but at least I have something to read other than my weather book that I am currently reading now.

Then I went to MPH and Borders, but didn't get anything there because the book which I wanted to buy did not have a discount.

At almost 3pm, I started feeling hungry and wandered over the food garden just next to Borders.

This was what greeted me.. Poufs that spelt FOOD GARDEN. A very unique entrance I must say. I love it. I didn't eat my lunch there. Instead I bought a bun from "The Bread Story". I just wanted something light.

After that, I met up with my friends again and had this :-

"Gui Lin Ko" (herbal jelly) and "liong cha" (herbal drink). I haven't eaten Gui Lin Ko from this authentic shop for such a long time. It cost me 2 plates of Won Tan Mee, but it was worth it.

We left KL just before 5pm. It was a good 3 hours plus shopping. Later we went to Tesco Seremban to shop again.

I really love shopping. :)

My New Hiking Shoes

Check out my new hiking shoes.

I found them in the DFO stores (Discount Factory Outlet) in Melbourne. For a very long time I had been looking out for a good pair of hiking shoes. The ones which I always wore were meant for jogging. My sister got them from America when she was there in 2005. She bought 3 pairs of Nike Air.

I've used the Nikes for all my climbs, but the grip is not good. I went over to Melbourne with the intention of getting a good pair of hiking shoes. I couldn't find any in Malaysia, or rather, it was not common to get a pair of hiking shoes for ladies here in Malaysia.

I'm thinking of wearing them to the Ledang climb this Saturday, but it would be a big risk. A few days ago, I went to the Lake Gardens to test them out. I walked for more than an hour and it was quite comfortable. Hmm.... should I or should I not? I wore the Nikes while I was in Melbourne and I must have walked too much because my toes were hurting.

I think I will wear the new shoes to Ledang. Messner and Sirdar would lecture me, but I think it is more comfortable hiking in them than the Nikes. :)

My Refrigerator Smells

The day we left for Melbourne, Mctc told me that he switched off the main electricity switch. I was like "What?! Why did you do that for? We have food in the fridge". He completely forgot that we needed electricity for the fridge. Not wanting to spoil the vacation mood, I didn't say anything more about it. I don't cook much, so there wasn't much food stuff in the fridge.

When we returned home on Saturday, Mctc opened the fridge. Gosh... the stench that came out was so strong. I was too tired to do anything at the moment.

In the evening, Mctc and I threw all the stuff that went bad. We had some carrots, a couple of capsicums, some leaf vege, chicken sausages, fish fillet, ice-cream, butter, condensed milk, nuts, chocolate chips and dried noodles and pasta.

We threw everything except the nuts, chocolate chips and the dried noodles/pasta.

I put 3 bowls of bicarbonate of soda to take away the odor, but the bad odor is still there. My next move will be "airing" the refrigerator . Sigh..need a place to store the nuts and all.

Today, for the first time in many years, I cooked instant noodles without any meat or vege in it. :(

My Cough Will Be Visiting For a While

Normally when I have cough, flu or fever, I would just drink lots of water to regulate my body temperature.

After I came back from Australia, I developed a cough and sore throat. I had low fever for only 1 day, and that was the day I came back from Australia.

I wasn't very worried about my condition because I knew that I didn't drink enough water while I was in Melbourne. But because of the Swine Flu epidemic worldwide, I thought I better check with a doctor.

I returned to Malaysia on Saturday, 16th of May. My temperature was at 37.5C. The next day, my temperature dropped to 35.7C. On Monday, it went up to 36C and on Tuesday - 36.5C.

Feeling a bit worried that I would not be able to get well before my Ledang climb this Saturday, I decided to go and see a doctor. It was such a long time since I went to a clinic or hospital for my health and so I asked a friend for advice. I wanted to know whether to go to a clinic or to the general hospital.

He advised me to go to a doctor who was working in the Kuala Pilah general hospital. This doctor was one of our Kinabalu climbers last year. So I smsed this doctor for an appointment.

On the way to Kuala Pilah, we (Mctc was with me) passed by Ulu Bendul. That was where we climbed Gunung Angsi last year.

We reached the Kuala Pilah GH at 11.15am. With road blocks and road works, it took about an hour to reach there.

Thanks to the doctor, I was treated like a VIP. I didn't need to fill up any forms or wait for my number to be called. I went straight into the doctor's office. He checked and advised me to go for an x-ray to check my lungs. He knew that my cough could last for weeks and up to 2 months and he was worried I may have tuberculosis or something else.

So I did the x-ray, and it showed that my lungs were normal. Phew!

He prescribe me with a bottle of something to gaggle and some pills to dilute the mucus in my throat.

I were given the "fast lane" number when I collected my medications from the pharmacy. I only have to wait for a few minutes before my number was called.

I went home with a happy heart, not so much of me having a relatively clean bill of health, so to speak, but I was comparing this GH with the Seremban GH. The staff here are more friendly and there were less patients here. The nurses looked happier here too, so unlike the grumpy ones in Seremban GH.

Now, if only I can convince myself that I could climb Ledang this Saturday, with my chronic cough and all....