Month: December 2014

Our Pandoro Party!

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Kid Eating Pandoro

We’ve been eating a lot of panettone this year so I got a large pandoro this time. I love eating panettone and pandoro but I’m usually the only one who ends up finishing it. I can snack on it all night long – that’s how much I love the stuff.

Pandoro Verona

However, I opened a 1 kg pandoro last night and the kids loved it! smirk

Pandoro Mountain

There’s a lot of confusion about the difference between a pandoro and a panettone – even Jamie Oliver got it wrong. He referred to a pandoro as a panettone in his program “Jamie’s Cracking Christmas” and no one in the production crew thought to correct it. Panettone is from Milan and it’s a brioche like bread filled with pieces of fruit while pandoro is from Verona (popular in Venice too) and very distinctively shaped. There are six different types of Christmas cakes in Italy!

Pandoro Sugar

A pandoro is very different from a panettone – it’s a frustum shaped soft sponge like cake, very light, with a heaping of powdered icing sugar on top. There’s a packet of icing sugar included in the box for you to dust the top. You can either dump it right on top or roll the pandoro around it and I chose the former. The 8 pointed star of pandoro makes it look like a snow covered mountain!

Slicing Pandoro

The kids loved pulling pieces of the pandoro and eating it with the powdered vanilla icing sugar! 🙂

Pandoro Icing Sugar

It was a lot of fun and it’s delicious too! Some people don’t like the bits of fruit in panettone and I’ve seen pandoro grow in popularity this year – it’s plain, but that doesn’t mean it tastes simple. The texture of pandoro is softer than panettone and it’s great when you eat it with ice cream or gelato! It has a different texture altogether and it’s perfect for a Christmas centrepiece.

Pandoro Party

I think we ate 1/3 of the 1 kg pandoro within 30 minutes! It’s supposed to look like the Italian Alps during Christmas and it sure is a wonderful sight to behold! We’ll be getting another one next year, in addition to a pandolce (a Genova classic) or a panforte from Sienna.

The 4 hour Christmas Eve sale!

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Donutes Bakery

I was at my local bakery in anticipation for their 4 hour Christmas Eve sale where *everything* is 50% off. It was crazy, there was a velvet rope at the front due to the large amount of people queuing up. I’m a member at Donutes so I got advance notice of this, but there’s no additional benefits for members at this sale (usually we get 5% off).

Donutes Xmas Promo

I think I waited 30 minutes just to get in – there was someone there for crowd control since there’s only a small amount of space inside so someone has to come out before another person is let in. Worse still is the people queuing for the entire family! I don’t know why they allow that, it makes the wait even longer than it should be.

Donutes Xmas Queue

Everyone got heaps of stuff since 50% off is a great deal and it applies to everything from drinks to cakes. Unfortunately, all of their cakes were sold out way before I came so I didn’t manage to get any of the large ones.

Donutes Xmas Bakery

I did get some gingerbread reindeer for the kids and also a panettone style cake they call “Fruity Christmas”.

Donutes Xmas Line

The queue at the cashier was insane as well but it was worth it coz for everything I got…

Donutes Xmas Bill

…the bill came up to only RM 30.30! 🙂

8 fun things we did for our Christmas Eve celebrations!

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Christmas Photo 2014

It’s Christmas Eve today! We actually celebrated this year’s Christmas dinner earlier since the kids have tuition and other Christmas party commitments later in the week. Here’s 8 things we did this festive season:

1. Christmas crackers

Pulling Christmas Cracker

This was the first order of the night! We each had a Christmas cracker (the kids had two) and everyone pulled theirs with a partner.

Christmas Cracker Toys

I got a mini basketball game but the bigger one was looking at it with more than a little bit of envy. Haha. I could see it in her eyes but she was too polite to ask me for it so I exchanged mine with hers (a small deck of Mystery Calculator cards – the least popular one).

Christmas Crackers Kids

The smallest one got a purple hairband and a really cute pair of badminton rackets (complete with shuttlecock) which you can actually play with. The party favor my better half got was a pirate eyepiece. The biggest one also got a deck of cards – tiny ones but a complete 52 card deck. There were also selfie props in the box, which we used for our family Christmas photo.

2. Turkey dinner

Christmas Eve Turkey

I had roasted a turkey with cornbread stuffing and demi-glace earlier in the day and we all ate till we were fit to burst. It’s such a huge bird that I think I’ll be eating leftovers for at least a week!

Turkey Demi Glace

It’s all good though and the demi-glace was delicious!

3. Chocolate Monopoly

Chocolate Monopoly Kids

Dinner done, the kids couldn’t wait to break open the Chocolate Monopoly set so we all played a complete round. You’re actually supposed to eat the chocolates in the middle if you land on a particular color which is already taken but the kids unanimously decided to “keep the chocolate Monopoly pieces forever” so they can play with them next time.

Playing Chocolate Monopoly

I thought that was funny and adorable so that’s the way we played it. No one has ate even a single piece of the Chocolate Monopoly up to now. smirk

4. Eggnog

Borden Eggnog

I bought a quart of Borden Eggnog and doled it out while we were finishing the Chocolate Monopoly game. The bigger one liked it but no one else did except me – I *loved* it. Borden makes a really good eggnog – if you like *ultra thick* custard-like consistency. It’s like drinking crème caramel without the caramel.

It’s so thick you can hear the “glug glug glug” as it attempts to pour out:

The eggnog is more custard than liquid and spiced nicely with cinnamon too and it’s delicious when mixed with a little cognac (none for the kids, of course). Lovely stuff that you see on the shelves once a year.

5. Pandoro

Pandoro

We ate a lot of panettone last year and this year and we decided to get a 1 kg pandoro for Christmas Eve dinner instead. Pandoro is the speciality Christmas cake for Verona (it’s also popular in Venice) and tastes completely different from panettone (which is from Milan). There are actually six (!!!) different regional Christmas cakes in Italy.

Pandoro Classico

I thought I wanted to expose the kids to different foods and since we already ate panettone, it was pandoro for the after-dinner dessert. Pandoro is also a sweet leavened product that’s dusted with sugar and shaped like a frustum. I love pandoro, you can scoop out the middle and add gelato inside and it’s meant to look like an 8-sided snow mountain.

6. Christmas tree

Christmas Tree

I wanted to get a large real Christmas tree (it’s about RM 600) but my better half forbade it. The trees actually shed a lot of needles every day so it can be a chore to clean up after it. We settled for a fake miniature Christmas tree instead.

7. LEGO time

LEGO City

This was the part which the kids were most looking forward to. They have been huge fans of LEGO since the LEGO movie came out and we encouraged their creativity – it’s good for them. The collection that we’re getting for the kids is the LEGO CITY range and I bought them a large set with a large police set-up with boats.

Building LEGO

It basically involves a generic LEGO bad guy escaping with pilfered cash and jewels in a boat while the police goes after him. The amazing thing is that the boats actually float in water! We each assembled a section and I finished up the most difficult part where a thread had to be tied into a hook to attach to the LEGO police boat – it actually has working parts that moves to winch the boat up!

LEGO Floating Boats

We had a lot of quality time together with the kids on this one – various scenarios were enacted and played out. I role-played the lazy LEGO police who would not move out with the truck containing the boat until the kids got the police lingo right. Haha.

LEGO Working Winch

We actually have a new site dedicated to LEGO minis now, it’s primarily done by my awesome better half, who takes amazing posed photos with our growing collection of LEGO minifigures – the site is called tumblingminis.com

8. Family photo

Christmas Photo

This is our Christmas 2014 family photo! It was taken with the selfie props from the Christmas crackers and I thought it made for a nice photo. It serves as a digital Christmas card too – I sent it to my dad and my sister and they both loved it to bits.

Here’s wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from all of us! May the festive season bring you joy, peace and love. 🙂

Roasting our Christmas turkey with corn bread stuffing and demi-glace

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Christmas Turkey

I got a beast of a bird this year for the annual Christmas roast turkey dinner!

Huge Frozen Turkey

It’s a huge 6.5 kg (14 pound) young turkey for RM 192.71. This is over twice as big as the turkey we roasted last year. I was actually torn between getting this and a capon (castrated rooster) so I asked the kids what they wanted.

Turkey Breast

It was a resounding vote for turkey coz they liked the turkey that I roasted last year for Christmas. smirk

Turkey Cuts

There’s no shortages for non-halal turkey this year so that’s a good thing for us. I have no idea what makes a turkey halal or non-halal (probably due to the way it’s slaughtered) but this was a different brand called Norbest from the US and there were large signs warning of it’s haram (forbidden) status to Muslims which I always found a little strange since Christmas is a Christian (or at least secular) holiday.

Defrosting Turkey

I’ve actually cooked with this particular brand of turkey before and since I had just 24 hours to get it right, I used the Fast Defrost method by dunking the entire turkey into water and changing the water every 4 hours.

Trussed Turkey

It was what I did last year too but on a more urgent time scale since this was a heavier bird. Haha.

Cornbread Turkey Stuffing

We also got a pack of demi-glace and corn bread stuffing for a more expedient roast (plus, these two taste really good).

Chopping Vegetables

I chopped up a cup of yellow onions and celery…

Onion Celery

…and sautéed them in butter,

Turkey Stuffing

…before adding it to the corn bread stuffing and gravy.

Giblets Bag

Next it was time to clean the bird, take out the bag of giblets (this is arguably where the old school gamer term gibs originated from for those of us who played shooters like Doom, Quake and Unreal back in the days) and pat it dry.

Stuffing Turkey

I stuffed the cavity of the turkey with my newly made corn bread stuffing mix and (with some difficulty) got it into the preheated oven at 200 Celsius.

Turkey Stuffed

I covered the turkey with aluminium foil and took it off after 3 ½ hours to brown the top and here’s what my turkey looks like after 4 hours!

Turkey Oven

This turkey has a built-in meat thermometer that pops out when it’s done, although we used our own to check too:

Turkey Pop Out Device

I started the demi-glace while the turkey was resting and it was lovely – this is restaurant quality demi-glace, RM 14.95 for ½ cup but it’s awesome! It has reduced white wine inside and you can add your own wine in lieu of water for a tastier demi-glace (make sure to cook off the raw alcohol).

Demi Glace

My better half and the kids loved it!

Carving Turkey

The young but large turkey was carved up according to everyone’s preference – the smallest one wanted a drum while I had an entire leg, the biggest one wanted the huge wing and my better half got a slice of prime breast meat.

Little Kid Eating Huge Turkey

Christmas dinner is always my responsibility and I’m glad we had so much fun with our celebrations – it took me quite a bit of planning and shopping to get enough activities to keep the kids entertained. There’s Christmas crackers, eggnog, presents, and more – Christmas is definitely not over yet!

Merry Christmas everyone! 🙂

Our biannual staycation in KL!

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Hotel Royal

We have made a tradition of taking time out to do a staycation (which refers to staying at a local hotel, not staying at home) twice a year in addition to our yearly overseas trips (Melbourne last year and Frankfurt and Paris this year) and our shorter trips like to Hat Yai about a month ago.

Pavilion KL

You could say that travelling is our passion in life. 🙂

Timelapse Hotel

It’s actually a lot of fun and you get to experience the city where you live from a visitor’s perspective!

Hotel Royal KL

This time around, we stayed at Hotel Royal in Kuala Lumpur and basically:

Staycation Food

1. Ate a lot of food

Mamma Mia Musical KL

2. Caught a musical

Blurry Photo

3. Enjoyed each other’s company.

Staycation 2014

I’ll write more tomorrow, part of the purpose of having a staycation is to get away from the daily things you do and not do anything remotely work related. smirk

Posted: 10:38 pm Kuala Lumpur time

12 things I bought for Christmas

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1. Chocolate Monopoly

Chocolate Monopoly

This is an awesome find for RM 59.95! It’s a licensed Monopoly board game but all the cards, game pieces and property are replaced with chocolate pieces. The rules are somewhat similar but it’s of the spinner variety (there is no Monopoly money) so I thought it’ll be a great game for us to play with the kids on Christmas coz you can eat the chocolate pieces afterwards.

2. Christmas crackers

Tom Smith Selfie Christmas Crackers

An essential for the festive season, Christmas crackers are large pieces of cardboard with a snapper firecracker inside that explodes with a bang. The fun bit is that there’s miniature toys inside – usually tiny keepsakes that can range from a small compass to fart cushions. I bought a pack of six of the Tom Smith luxury version (RM 59.90) – one each for us and the kids plus two extra for my dear’s parents.

3. Snickers Slice n’ Share

Huge Snickers Slice Share

This is a *gigantic* bar of Snickers! It’s not pre-cut so it’s a solid block of candy that weighs 453.6 grams. You have to slice it into pieces yourself, thus the name. I’ve never seen this format before. I think it’s specially made for the 2014 festive season since it fits well with the large family dinner and sharing theme. This solid 1 pound (!!!) block of Snickers costs a staggering RM 68.95.

4. Porky Salt

Porky Salt

Haha! This is made by Garam Haram which literally translates to Forbidden Salt (and it rhymes too). It’s a play on the fact that pork is forbidden (haram) to Muslims and this is literally bacon infused salt. Porky Salt is a local artisanal product that’s just RM 15 and I can think of many ways to use it this Christmas dinner, whether we roast a traditional turkey like last year or go Asian.

5. Panettone

Panettone

What is Christmas without panettone? This brioche like edible is a Christmas staple in Milan and I’ve only seen it suddenly appear on the market in the last few years. I went to an Italian restaurant and had a wonderful “tiramisu” made with panettone in 2012 and I thought it was lovely. We also bought one last year for our Christmas celebrations. It’s tastier than the rock solid fruitcake that we’re used to eating before panettone started to flood the market as an alternative.

6. Giant Juicy Fruit

Giant Chewing Gum

Yup, this classic by Wrigley’s is supersized for the holidays! smirk I loved chewing on these when I was in high school – so much so that my Physics teacher in Christchurch called me “Eater”. Needless to say, I wasn’t a model student but I quite liked that nickname. You can eat in most classes in New Zealand (they’re not as strict as over here) but that particular educator didn’t like anyone doing so.

7. Huge roll of Life Savers

Giant Lifesavers

This classic sweet has put on some weight for the festive season too. The plus sized roll of Lifesavers is now 30 times as large as a regular roll! I used to eat this in high school too, it was cheap and I’m particular to the Musk flavored ones but you can’t find that flavor outside of Australia and New Zealand for some reason. Musk is not a popular flavor except down under.

8. White Cheddar Popcorn

White Cheddar Popcorn

You know how some people decorate their Christmas trees with popcorn? Well, not us, we prefer to *eat* popcorn. Especially if it’s this expensive! This bag of savory popcorn costs RM 21.90 and it’s made in the US by Angie’s. This is the White Cheddar flavor and they use all natural organic ingredients. It also checks all the healthy tick-boxes by being gluten-free, low trans fat, and whole grain.

9. Crème Brûlée

Creme Brulee

I accidentally bought this RM 12.50 packet of crème brûlée, thinking it was crème caramel. I love the latter, have eaten heaps of them as a kid (my mom used to make them) but it seems like they dropped off the face of the Earth! Since the advent of crème brûlée, the preparation without the blow-torched hard crack top seems to have disappeared. It used to be served in coffee-shops and I’ve been missing crème caramel since.

10. Christmas hampers

Christmas Hampers

‘Tis the season to be giving! I bought a RM 280 Christmas hamper for my better half so we could open it on Christmas Eve. I was torn between the one inside the sleigh and the one that’s in a large tube wooden reusable box (there’s only a RM 20 price difference) and after much consideration, chose the former. The retail assistant told me they both contain the same thing, it’s the wooden sleigh that’s more expensive due to craftsmanship.

11. Valrhona chocolates

Valrhona

It hurts my brain to even see this. Haha! We had gotten Valrhona chocolates from France – they have really good single origin Grand Crus and it’s the chocolate of choice for many high end Parisian fine dining restaurants. It’s very expensive to source your own Grand Crus from small gourmet purveyors like what Michelin starred restaurants do so this is the next best thing. I found it while shopping at BIG in Publika – I didn’t even know Malaysia stocks this.

12. Eggnog

Eggnog

You can’t have Christmas without eggnog. I have tried making my own but it’s a time consuming process if you have a turkey and other sides to take care of and store bought tastes just as good. They even have eggnog with alcohol included (mixture of brandy, whisky and rum for 14.75% alcohol) for RM 85.90 for 1.75 litres but if you have your own spirits, you can just get the regular 1 quart (946 ml) Grade A Eggnog for RM 23.90 and add your own to taste.

Short mention:

Christmas Hamper Ling

I used my credit card to purchase this Christmas hamper that I got my better half. I wanted to get my dear something nice and this beautiful reindeer sleigh contains all her favorites – hot chocolate, cookies, Turkish Delight. There’s even some marshmallows for the kids and a stuffed toy that looks suspiciously like Olaf from Frozen. I’ve been using my Maybank credit card for *everything* since I can get my purchases for free with their I LOVE 100% Cashback campaign! Just spend with your Maybank cards from now until 31st January 2015 and get your expenses paid off!

Check it out – there’s nothing better than getting your festive season spending paid off with a 100% cashback to spread some festive cheer! 🙂

An unexpected meal by 1 Michelin Star Chef Dirk Maus in Germany

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Lufthansa Dirk Maus

I was fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time to experience this exclusive event – a meal prepared by Chef Dirk Maus of Restaurant Dirk Maus in Domherrenhof, Essenheim in Germany. He holds One Michelin Star and was invited to do a short collaboration – Lufthansa x Dirk Maus.

Lufthansa

His meals are only available between April – October 2012 for European flights on Business Class only (there is no First Class for domestic flights). I fulfilled *all three criteria* when I flew from Berlin to Frankfurt on the 25th of June 2012 and was pleased when the cabin attendant told me about the specially crafted menu by Dirk Maus.

Warsteiner Beer

The dishes are all from Rheinhessen – this is Chef Dirk Maus’ interpretation of the cuisine in the largest wine producing region in Germany. He’s taken the time to perfect his creations for 35,000 feet since things tastes different when you’re flying. My better half (who shared a delightful meal at the 2 Michelin Star Relais LOUIS XIII with me earlier this year) told me about how tomato juice goes well with flying and it actually has a scientific reason!

The two culinary treats awaiting for us on board was:

Chef Dirk Maus

Brennnesselsalat mit Grapefruit und Orangensegmenten
Nettle salad with grapefruit and orange segments

I had just recovered this batch of photos from a damaged HDD and also found the “tasting notes” which I have recorded on my phone as soon as the flight attendant told me that I’ll be having a meal created by a One Michelin Star chef. Heh. I liked the nettle salad – some of the leafy greens in there are quite bitter but it’s tempered well with the mild nettle and the juicy grapefruit and orange segments.

Auberginen-Ziegenfrischkäseterrine
Terrine of eggplant and goat’s cream cheese

I’ve eaten a lot of terrine and this is visually different from the terrine which I’m used to eating. The contrast between the white goat’s cream cheese in the middle and the aubergine outside was accentuated with a chunk of apricot in the middle. It makes for a very rich and rewarding experience – I didn’t know eggplant could taste this good and it’s seasoned well – salty, but not overtly so.

Dirk Maus HB

I wished that I was on a longer flight so I had a more substantial meal. This is just a small meal on a short hop on a domestic flight in Germany but I’m glad I had the chance to eat Chef Dirk Maus’ creations during such a limited time (and place) promotion. Eating a Michelin star meal at 35,000 feet is one of the more unusual places I’ve done it too (the other being our rented apartment in Paris). smirk

How I came back from Frankfurt with more Euros than I went with

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euro 700

This is a funny (and true) story which I haven’t written about. I’ve been recovering my crashed HDD photos and came across this bunch. This is from my third Europe trip in 2012 and I actually didn’t bring much Euros there coz the hotel and food was paid for. Thus, I went to Germany with a total of 400 Euros in my wallet.

I travelled the country from Dresden to Berlin and when it was time to come back home, I took a flight from Berlin to Frankfurt. Yes, this was the ill-fated flight that delayed me for almost 2 days. Thank God I was flying Business Class so I had a hotel room and food comped at Sheraton (heard the Economy passengers had to choose between either a shower or a meal).

frankfurt casino

Long story short, I was stuck at Fraport for a long time so I thought I might go to the Frankfurt Airport Casino to see how my luck holds up. The good thing about casinos in airports in Europe is that they actually allow cameras – as long as you don’t take photos of other patrons (croupiers and tables are okay). I did the same at Holland Casino in Amsterdam. Judi Poker and judi online are the most trusted online gambling sites in Indonesia, with 5 types of soccer gambling games and 200 other games such as gambling. QQ39bet is the second most trusted online gambling site in Indonesia.

Anyway, I tried putting 100 Euros on Player. They only had a Baccarat table open at the time but that’s my game of choice anyway so it’s all good. I ended up losing all my 400 Euros *and* an additional 1,000 Euros to the house! A friend of mine had joined me at this point and was playing at the Blackjack table. I told him I’m out to withdraw more money and I’ll join him in a bit.

frankfurt casino 500 chip

He later told me he was quite worried about me. I had withdrawn 2,000 Euros at this point and it was all from my credit card! My ATM card had not worked the entire trip. He was there on business so he had a bit of petty cash to play around with but I was using my own money and I was losing lots of it. I decided that the last 1,000 Euros be dedicated to the Blackjack table – a game I do not play much.

frankfurt casino chips

However, as soon as I sat down, I kept winning. I lost count of how many times I got a natural 21, which pays 3-2. I was so caught up with the game that I didn’t even realize I had gotten my bankroll back until my friend nudged me and asked me (he knew I was down 2,400 Euros at this point). I just wish I’ll be somewhere close to this lucky as well when I go play on www.ipadcasino.com.au later! I was actually hovering around the Euro 2,200 point so I took the 2,000 Euros and cashed out, with only 200 Euros to win back the remaining 400 Euros I’ve lost.

fraport casino win

I did have a nasty thought run through my mind at this point – I had tipped the croupier almost 500 Euros at this point (!!!) and would have won if I hadn’t tipped him (tipping the dealer is not allowed in most Asian casinos and will likely get you kicked out). I didn’t realize it, I subconsciously threw a Euro 20 chip his way every time I got Blackjack (that was the second reason my friend nudged me). It almost caused an argument with the dealers when it was time for a change in croupiers. smirk

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However, I still believe to this very day that I wouldn’t have won if I had not tipped the croupier so much. I had uncontested wins (where the dealer doesn’t hit to try and better you) a lot of times when I was the only person who didn’t go bust and I think a lot of that had to do with my generosity. Are you casino lover? if yes! then you must know that PLAY1628 is Online slot casino is referred to as the most careless video game of chance appreciated by many gamers based globe broad.

frankfurt casino blackjack

…and with that last 200 Euro in chips I managed to win 700 Euros. I had already cashed out the 2,000 Euros I won prior to this to avoid the temptation to hit the reserves, and that was the story of how I managed to come back from Germany with more money than I went with. 🙂

Our (potentially) free anniversary, trips and presents!

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Pandora Essence Bracelet

It’s our anniversary last week and I bought a new charm for my better half to add to her new Pandora Essence bracelet. This bracelet is a new one that I bought for her last month, the previous Pandora bracelet is full to capacity!

Pandora Essence Charms 2014

I chose the Intuition charm coz I like the backstory and text – it says “The wisdom of the soul/Follow its guide” and it’s priced at RM 633. It’s a little more expensive than regular Pandora Essence charms coz it’s made with 14k gold.

Pandora Intuition

I went very early in the morning and bought it with my credit card, hoping to get RM 300 off (more about that later) but unfortunately I was too late. Not to worry though, I use my Maybank credit card quite often so it’s just a matter of time!

Pandora Essence Intuition

I actually learned of the Maybank I <3 100% Cashback Every Day promotion when I bought a LEGO Movie set for my dear. I was surprised to see the promotional banner for it just inside the store. The kids are really into Lego nowadays and we just bought another LEGO CITY box originally priced at RM 179.90 for the kids when we went back to Sibu during the weekend.

Lego Cashback

The kids love exercising their creativity with LEGO and we have happily indulged them in this mind building investment – it’s better for them to build something than to be stuck to the iPad playing games the whole day and we are collecting the LEGO CITY series for them to create their very own city!

LEGO Maybank

I bought them three sets of LEGO since they’re so into it now. Yup, we got them all in Sibu as a present for them and we plan to give them one when I come back and leave the other two for Christmas.

KitKat Oreo

It’s always fun to spend with my Maybank credit card since there’s a chance I would get the item for FREE with the 100% cashback promotion. I also bought our flight tickets back to Sibu during the weekend and the return trip to KL using my credit card.

Krave Cereal

We went to Hat Yai last weekend and I used it to purchase some candy for ourselves and the kids at the grocery stores over there. It’s cheaper in Thailand and there’s no minimum spend! I travel so much that my credit card is authorized to go around the world anyway.

Panettone Cookies

Christmas and the festive season is coming very soon and it’s always good to get presents for friends and loved ones. We bought two boxes of panettone (an Italian sweet bread loaf eaten during Christmas and New Year) and a pack of holiday cookies made in Germany as gifts for my dad and our friend Arthur before we flew back to Sibu for the weekend.

Hokey Pokey Squiggles

You might want to begin using your Maybank credit card for the festive season for everything from presents to trips to dining, depending on your inclination coz there’s a chance you’ll get a 100% cashback – making your purchase free! There’s no minimum spend required and the campaign lasts until 31st January 2015.

Sarawak Sambal Laksa Paste

I even used it to buy Sarawak sambal laksa paste from Sibu to bring back to KL. 🙂

Flight Sibu

Don’t have a Maybank credit card? No worries, just apply for one and you just might get a free trip with the I <3 25,000 Bonus Air Miles campaign! Get more details about how to apply for the premium credit cards and the promotion at the I LOVE 25,000 Bonus Air Miles site.

DQ Blizzard Thailand

You can also win yourself a Polo Sedan with the I <3 5 Polo Sedan by just applying and spending with your new Maybank credit or charge cards! You will also get complimentary gifts from spending certain amounts and this campaign period is from now till 28th February 2015.

LEGO City

There’s just plenty of love to go around this festive season, whether you’re an existing or new premium or regular Maybank credit card owner. I’ve been with them exclusively since 2008 and I’ll be using my Maybank credit card for *everything* daily from petrol to dining to take advantage of the I LOVE 100% Cashback Every Day campaign!

My new Toshiba Pro Theatre Full HD Smart TV powered by Android

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4KTV unboxing

I have been using a review unit of the Toshiba Pro Theatre L54 series with a 40” screen for more than a week!

4KTV setup

It’s very easy to set-up using the provided remote (which has a trackball in the middle).

typing 4ktv

Typing is easily done by an on-screen keyboard too (you can also purchase an external keyboard) – this is me setting up the Android system, signing into my Google account and most importantly, linking it to my high speed TIME Home Fibre 30 Mbps connection to view YouTube videos in Full HD resolution!

4KTV WiFi

The set-up process for the Toshiba Pro Theatre 40L54 is so easy it can be done in less than 5 minutes – all you really need is a WiFi connection.

Smart TV Apps

Smart TVs are getting more and more prevalent in the market. No longer can the television set be accurately called an “idiot box” – it’s a lot smarter than humans nowadays!

Toshiba Smart TV

Toshiba is leading the charge with its range of high end large screen Smart TVs powered by Android. The high range Pro Theatre L9450 Series ranges in size from a whopping 84” to 64” and 50” – it’s a UltraHD 4K Immersive Unlimited with more natural color and texture, richer contrast and higher brightness enhanced by Toshiba’s High-brightness panel, wide color gamut panel, revolutionary UltraHD 4K technology and CEVO 4K image processing engine.

UHD Android TV

The narrow bezel makes it perfect for maximum screen real estate – you can really get an immersive viewing experience. It also fits into a relatively thin space – whether it’s your living room or bedroom. There’s Audio Source Filtering, Intelligent Scene Optimizer and Intelligent Auto View to get the most out of anything you’re watching.

4KTV USB

The USB Movie supports 28 different video formats too!

4KTV football

Plus, there’s a Football Mode for fans of the beautiful game out there. The FIFA World Cup 2014 was broadcast in 4K for the first time and I highly regret not having a UltraHD 4K LED TV to watch it for the best experience.

Alchemy 4K

There are people who’re still wary about the availability of 4K content. I’ll tell you right now that there’s a wealth of 4K content out there right now – you just have to know where to look. Netflix is broadcasting in 4K for some of their series like Breaking Bad and you can easily get access to that (they accept Malaysian credit cards) if you use a VPN.

4KTV viewing

I have a 30 Mbps fibre connection at home with no ridiculous restrictions, and with that kind of broadband you can comfortably watch streaming content (it just needs half the speed) on Netflix or Hulu Plus. Just hook up a Xbox One, do a little bit of configuring on your router and you’re good to go. I actually have Netflix at home right now and I’m paying less than what I’ll pay for a local satellite TV provider *and* I get Full HD content to boot!

tv google play

You can do everything you want on the Toshiba Full HD TVs powered by Android too – even run Microsoft Office documents with the popular Android app OfficeSuite 7 and do your Excel spreadsheets! Facebook, Picassa, Twitter, and all Android apps from the Google Play store are available. That means you can play games on your large screen Full HD TV too!

4k apps

Imagine playing the latest Android games like Monument Valley, The Walking Dead, Final Fantasy VI, and Angry Birds: Epic on your large screen Full HD TV! I’m an avid gamer and man, the games look *awesome* – especially Unreal Engine powered titles which can scale up.

4k gaming

Look at the awesome quality! I can’t wait to play Forza Motorsport 5 and Watch Dogs on this high resolution TV!

4k games

Besides playing games, you can also view photos which you take on your camera in the full resolution that it’s meant to be viewed. Do you have a camera that’s above 8.3 megapixels?

4KTV pictures

8.3 MP cameras shoots in 3840 x 2160 and if you’re viewing that using a Full HD 1080p TV, you won’t be able to see the photo as it’s meant to be seen.

4k google

The best part about having a smart TV is that you can multi-task and surf the net using your Android powered TV!

4k sixthseal

I also used my Toshiba Pro Theatre 40L54 to reply comments on my blog. 🙂

4k cnn

There’s really something for everyone, I found it useful to browse CNN while watching CNN! There’s often updated content on the website that didn’t make it to the broadcast and this is the future of “smart TVs” powered by Android.

4k bookmarks

There’s even the usual suspects provided in the Bookmarks centre – everything from Picasa photos to Twitter.

8MP Photo

You already have the tools necessary to shoot 4K resolution photos. The high end Toshiba Pro Theatre L54 Series Full HD with Android LED TV can support your current camera/smartphone (which is likely higher than 8.3 MP) and show your photos on the large screen in its native resolution.

4KTV YouTube

It’s an exciting time in the Smart TV market and UltraHD 4K resolution is coming – with Toshiba’s UltraHD 4K Android powered TV, you can also watch YouTube in 4K which a lot of content creators are already streaming in. It’s 4 times sharper than FullHD and with the third-generation CEVO 4K Engine you can retain stunning picture quality, regardless of screen size!

4k video

Look, now I can watch all my Youtube videos in Full HD! I wish I can keep this, it’s so amazing you have to see it to believe it!

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