events

Buying a new car or just thinking about it?

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bugatti veyron

I’m part of the latter. I’ve driven my faithful Vios for 7 years now and I’ve found myself browsing around to see the latest car news and what car to buy. A lot of people gravitate to heavy news sites but I think the success of a car site is that it’s accessible to people who don’t know a lot about cars (or newbies rather) but yet is still fulfilling enough for the hardcore crowd who wants all the juicy, technical stuff.

live live drive

It needs to capture both sides of the market and I’ve found LIVE LIFE DRIVE to be one of the sites that I browse just about daily nowadays.

It has just about everything you’ll think of, from the latest news to a widget on the side with the most researched cars with immediate star ratings and a link to the review in question,

research cars

I found that feature most useful when buying a dSLR and loved the sites that has it – it shows what cameras (or cars in this case) are popular now – they’re popular for a reason, and shows you a quick rating with a review hyperlink. It’s perfect for those who’re strapped for time or just wants to see what the popular options are.

The other awesome feature which I first found useful when shopping for a dSLR (which come to think of it is a lot like a car) is this:

livelifedrive

You can browse News, New Cars, or Buy a Car by the manufacturer! This is very useful if you’re only interested in, say, Euro cars or have always bought from a Japanese brand like Honda.

The interesting thing about LIVE LIFE DRIVE is that it’s actually a print magazine. That’s where it’s origins are from but all the news and articles are also available online.

I found the Price List feature to be very useful too!

installement

It lists all new cars and shows the full price as well as the average installment price per month so you can quickly browse through and see what you can (or cannot) afford. smirk

That’s the research part of buying a car, or just browsing for news if you’re interested in automotives. There’s also a site where you can actually purchase a new or used car!

carlistmy

It’s called Carlist.my and the best feature of it is that it hooks you up with used car sellers. You can browse by various search parameters or just by price.

You can also choose whether to buy direct from a seller, dealership or sales agent. It’s very useful for when you want to make that step to purchase a new car. 🙂

carlist

There’s more than 119,000 cars for sale on Carlist.my and for those kiasu ones amongst us (hell, who isn’t?) there’s a feature to compare prices of the car you intend to buy too!

lamborghini miura

It’s a great sister site to LIVE LIFE DRIVE and the place you go when you reach the point where you stop thinking about buying a car and actually do something about it! 😉

I was blown away!

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hb ling melbourne

This is a picture of me and my love in Melbourne. I remember the day very vividly, we had just arrived late the night before, crashed at a motel near the airport and came down to the city to explore the place. It was just after we’ve checked into Rydges @ Swanston and we’re just about to take a tram for breakfast at Hardware Lane.

It wasn’t the moment I fell in love with her (that was earlier in the year) but it was the moment I really knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her.

hardware lane breakfast

The cool wind blowing during late autumn while we shared a Big M milk and some candy bars. Stamping our feet to try and keep warm while waiting for the tram. It was a great trip together and we later drove to Phillip Island where the wind was so cold and strong that we were both literally blown away. 😉

I’ve been on many other trips with her since then, from Siem Reap to Bangkok but nothing beats that first vacation to Australia.

ling hb

It’s quite a long story, how we met, and I know that she’s someone that I’ll be with for the rest of my life. I was not wrong. We’ve have our ups and downs and we went through it all like mature adults and I finally realized why all my previous relationships didn’t work.

She kept by my side through thick and thin and supported me during a dark period of my life. I also helped her through the things life throws at you and we’re much closer and stronger now because of it.

ling birthday

I don’t think either of our parents approved much at the beginning but after seeing us together, I like to think that both sides know that we care and love for each other. I love you dear! *hugs*

That’s my KDK “Blown Away Moments” Contest Entry. Well, technically, only the first two paragraphs are – it needs to be under 300 characters. 🙂

kdk blown away

KDK is giving away RM 3,000 cash to the winner of the contest. Just submit your “blown away” moment – your first date, your first concert, the day you got your result, or the day she said “yes”. It’s all about the happy moments in your life – the important ones that shaped your life, and you could stand to win the prizes above!

blown away

Surf on over to the KDK Facebook page and share your happiest moment in life with a photo by going to the Blown Away Moments app. Contest ends 30th July so get on it! There are weekly and a RM 3,000 grand prize! Here’s my entry – vote for me by clicking *here*! 🙂

Generation Today – Win a laptop if you can steal it!

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Interesting fact: The Intel Anti-Theft Service is a *tied* into the hardware so you can’t bypass it by changing a HDD and re-installing a new OS or by flashing the BIOS. You can lock and track your device by just logging into a web page, thus rendering it totally unusable for the pilferer. That’ll effectively turn it into a brick or a very large paperweight!

starcraft collectors edition

I’m a huge fan of Starcraft. I played the original, the Brood War expansion and Starcraft II. I have Wings of Liberty installed on this very notebook I’m writing on and my girlfriend saw me drooling over the Heart of the Swarm Collector’s Edition and secretly bought that for me. I used to compete in Quake III professional tournaments too (ranked #42 in PGL 2001 Melbourne).

My notebook needs a bit of extra processing power for the latest games though so I thought I’ll get the newer Intel CORE i7 ones with more RAM. This is where Generation Today comes in! It’s an absolute blast of a road show extravaganza till 30th June lined up with awesome events!

notebook

Heck, you get to win a brand new Ultrabook if you manage to defeat the Intel Anti-Theft Service with the given clues!

How cool is that?

steal notebook

beat anti theft

I’m a Computer Science graduate and I’ll certainly love to give it a go! 🙂

Oh, and there’s also exciting stuff going on like The Longest Touch Challenge (get your mind out of the gutter) which gives one school a complete computer lab and the participants gets to walk away with awesome prizes to boot.

intel roadshow

Also available is the Graffiti Touch Challenge where 2 units of Asus Fonepad will be given away!

There’s also a promo where you can trade-in your old PC/notebook for a brand new Intel PC at up to RM 600 off! I’m not quite ready to trade mine in yet but I’ll certainly be going for the fun and games, the biggest being a contest where you can win an experience of a lifetime worth RM 8,000!

intel contest malaysia

It’s based on the 5 senses:
Taste
VIP Fine Dining at an Exquisite Restaurant for 2
Feel
Luxurious Spa Trip to Bali for 2
See
KL Skyline Helicopter Ride for 2
Touch
Langkawi Sunset Dinner on a Yacht for 2
Hear
Captivating Musical in Singapore for 2

The Intel Generation Today Road Show will be held at the following till 30th June:

longest touch

You just need to purchase an Ultrabook or Intel-powered device to qualify for the Experience of a Lifetime Contest by filling up the form and choosing which experience you want! I’m due for an upgrade anyway and a vacation sounds fun!

You can join the contest by surfing over to Generation Today or get more details on the promos, contests and road show venues and locations! It’s happening in 14 cities around Malaysia. The Generation Today campaign is sponsored by Acer, Asus, Dell, HP and Lenovo. I’ll be either at the Publika or Sunway Giza road show for the fun and games, and maybe trade-in for a new Intel CORE notebook, see ya there!

generation today

Join the coming roadshow at Publika, KL to collect the final clue that will be released on 21/06/2013, 5 pm!

Plus, I really, really like the idea of walking away with an Asus Vivobook S400 Ultrabook if I manage to nick it in the Unlock The Ultrabook challenge! 😀

Surface RT Launch Party

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surface booth babes

It’s finally here! I had a sneak peak at the ultra-light Microsoft Surface RT during the Windows 8 launch in Singapore last year and was very impressed by it. It’s a thin, sleek and amazingly crafted device functions and both a tablet and laptop!

surface rt launch party

The Surface RT Launch Party was held in Publika on the 25th of April.

microsoft surface

There was a lot of people lining up to be the first in Malaysia to own one of these babies.

tablet made into skateboard

There’s even a custom-built skateboard from a Microsoft Surface device! Carlos Lacerda, the Managing Director of Microsoft Malaysia came on stage on one of these to deliver his speech.

tablet skateboard

They basically turned a Surface into a skateboard. Check it out! It’s incredible! 🙂

elecoldxhot

There was also a performance by a dance crew Elecoldxhot featuring Surface devices. I’ve seen them before and they really hyped up the crowd at the launch.

danny ong

Danny Ong, the Chief Marketing and Operations Officer gave a demonstration of the capabilities of the Surface RT device.

mizz nina surface launch

Mizz Nina also came on-stage to do an impressive choreographed song and dance routine.

mizz nina windows surface

She is also an early adopter of the Surface and told us how using it has allowed her to write songs, review contracts and proposals while keeping in touch with her fans on social media and playing games at the same time!

surface launch

Everyone had a chance to check out the Surface in detail at the demonstration booths all around. It’s really quite impressive and loaded with cool features!

Full size USB port
There’s a full size USB port on the Surface (as in the tablet, not the top – lame joke) which allows you to connect to all sorts of devices. You can plug in anything from a thumb drive to external card readers for your digital camera memory card.
MicroSD slot
The Surface also has a microSD slot so you can expand the memory of the device or transfer files. It’s a feature that is lacking in a lot of other tablets, and a very important one.
HD video-out
It also had a HD video-out port so you can connect it to a large screen television to to show off your vacation photos at home to friends or present a slideshow during a business meeting. It’s the ports on the Surface that makes it so versatile.

surface rt

Touch Cover / Type Cover
There are two options for the Surface device:

  • Touch Cover comes in five vibrant colors and comes with a slim, spill-resistant keyboard
  • Type Cover combines the speed and comfort of a classic keyboard with a super-thin classic keyboard

Unlike other tablets which are not designed to be a hybrid, the Surface does not require third party or aftermarket keyboards to turn it into a notebook. The laptop functionality is built natively into the tablet – the two types of covers comes with an magnetically attached keyboard! There’s a kickstand on the tablet that allows you to use it like how you’ll use a regular laptop.

surface office apps

Surface starts at RM 1,549 and comes with Windows RT – a touch operating system that allows you to have the full Windows experience that you’re used to. There’s Live Tiles and you can download the apps you want from Windows Store. Microsoft Office Home and Student 2013 RT is also included so you can get all your work done as you would with a regular laptop! I was really impressed by it.

surface skateboard

(and also the Surface tablet custom made into a skateboard)

surface owners

Serious. Fun. Starts. Meet Surface.

Cooking at MAGGI Celebrity Potluck with Belinda Chee!

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cooking belinda

I had the awesome opportunity to cook with Belinda Chee a couple of days ago! She created a hearty Fish and Vegetable Soup recipe and I helped her create the dish. It’s a contest called Celebrity Potluck organized by MAGGI and we were the second team to present a dish.

maggi celebrity cooking

I asked Belinda about why she choose this recipe – it’s something that she cooks herself at home and it’s easy to cook but tastes delicious at the same time.

maggi kitchen

The first team came up with a Seafood/Vegetable Tom Yam Soup. Peter Davis (of Mixed Martial Arts fame) cooked the first one and Sazzy Falak cooked the vegetarian version. It’s basically the same thing, except one has more protein in it, had a nice chat with Peter about MMA competitions and weights categories too.

belinda chee

Anyway, I actually cooked twice in this MAGGI Celebrity Potluck event. The first was helping Belinda out with her recipe and it goes like this:

fish vege soup recipe

Yup! I didn’t realize that the walls of MAGGI Masak-Masak Kitchen was actually hand-written with the 3 recipes from the 3 different teams. It was so nicely done I thought it was the décor!

sixthseal belinda

The trick to Belinda’s Fish and Vegetable soup is to stir-fry the thinly sliced shallots with a bit of oil in the pot first before anything else. Chopped garlic and ginger was added to the mix and sautéed for a while for that extra bit in taste.

chef muluk

The item that makes this really fast and easy are the MAGGI Ikan Bilis Stock Cubes. These are soup cubes (ikan bilis is the local word for anchovies) that produces the wonderful flavor and aroma. It’s really very versatile as I came to find out later.

tasting

I tasted it while we were cooking and it’s delicious! You just need 2 MAGGI Ikan Bilis Stock Cubes for 1 litre of water – it’s a standard, convenient pre-measure that makes it easy to scale up or down.

sarawakians

That makes it really convenient to cook delicious and fast dishes! Two MAGGI stock cubes for each liter of water, it can’t get any easier than that. It’s also surprisingly tasty since the ingredients they use basically concentrates the flavors so you get instant stock/soup/topping/whatever you can think of.

cooking belinda chee

The Fish and Vege Soup was left to simmer for 15 minutes and served to the audience afterwards. I didn’t get to eat this one coz it was all gone by the time I got down from the kitchen on the stage. Haha!

mystery ingredient cookoff

No worries though coz there’s a second cooking competition! I was paired with Belinda again and 4 other members of the media joined us for the MAGGI Mystery Ingredient team challenge to create a dish with the following:

  • 1 mystery ingredient
  • MAGGI Stock Cubes
  • Ingredients from the table
  • 30 minutes for everything

mystery ingredient

It felt like a I was in one of the popular cooking shows on TV. Heh. We got “Dory Fish Fillet” from the mystery box and there was a mad rush to grab items from the table.

ingredients table

We could only use those and some of them were nicked by other teams and once it’s taken, it’s gone, we had to make do with what’s left!

masak masak kitchen

Our well equipped kitchen island!

dory fish fillets

We wanted to make something a little different so we went fusion and decided to bake the fish fillets. We’ll just use ginger, garlic, shallots, button mushrooms and celery (I know, a lot of people went “Celery?” too, but it worked out well) to pile on top of the dory fish fillets.

baking

The fillets were sliced and then marinated – the most important part of the cooking. It was a quick marinade (more of a topping) made with MAGGI Tom Yam Stock Cubes. We crushed two of the cubes into 2 tablespoons of water (it’s very versatile – you can use it like this too) and then realized we didn’t have starch to thicken the mixture (!!!).

cooking contest

Luckily, there was custard powder on the table. It’s flavor neutral e.g. not sweet, and it coagulates the tom yam topping to the texture we wanted, so that’s perfect! We dissolved that into the hot water with 2 MAGGI Tom Yam Stock Cubes and poured the mixture on top of the fish fillets before adding MAGGI Thai Chilli Sauce and MAGGI Concentrated Chicken Stock and chucking it into the preheated oven (220 Celsius) for 5 minutes.

siamese fish fillets

We were running out of time and we thought 5 minutes wasn’t enough but that’s all the time we had in the 30 minute cooking challenge. It turned out fine coz dory fish fillets cooks really fast! We all tasted it and concluded it was delicious!

judges

I ate a lot of it myself coz it was so good! There were a couple of fish fillets left after we plated 3 of them for the judges (Siew Ling, the Brand Manager was one of them) and everyone came in and ate some. We didn’t have enough to serve everyone – it’s my fault guys, sorry, I was the one who ate the rest of the fish fillets. I evaded the question at the time, but it was me who ate it all. I apologize. It was tooooo good! smirk

team belinda

Our dish was presented to the judges and we didn’t win but we all got a consolation prize anyway! It was a large senduk (a kitchen utensil used for scooping stuff from liquids) which was perfect! I cook a lot more nowadays since it’s a common hobby I share with my girlfriend. I cook for her sometimes, she cooks for me sometimes. The MAGGI stock cubes will really come in handy here. I want to try out Awal’s recipe for Golden Braised Chicken with Fresh Mushrooms. It was the winner and a well deserved one! It’s so tasty that I must cook it at home – I shall be using the recipe add to my kitchen accomplishments! Haha! 🙂

maggi stock

It was a really fun session! Thanks for helping with the photos Sue Ann! 🙂 I got to cook in a nice kitchen (the MAGGI Masak-Masak Kitchen is really something) and got great tips from the MAGGI Executive Chef (Chef Muluk) and I learned the versatility that comes with MAGGI Stock Cubes. The sky is the limit, it’s not just for soup, but can be used for practically anything! I can’t wait to try it in my kitchen. I’m planning to cook a nice dinner as a surprise for my girlfriend during our anniversary and I bet she’ll love the golden braised chicken. It’s always better to cook than to eat out, I believe – cooking comes from the heart.

maggi celebrity potluck

We named our dish Siamese Fish Fillets. The crunchy texture of the shallots and ginger goes really well with the baked dory fish fillets topped with MAGGI Tom Yam Stock Cubes. I’ll share the recipe we used if anyone is interested! 🙂

A funny story about voting in GE13 (and indelible ink)

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ge13

My voting station is in SRB Tung Hua and all the hype about indelible ink (or rather the delible nature of the ink) has made it the central topic in my mind.

tung hua voting station

I flew back to Sibu to vote in the GE13 (13th General Elections) yesterday and I’m flying back to KL later. I had changed my address here coz I think the Opposition has a good chance in my constituency. There’s three (3) candidates for the 212 – Sibu seat – DAP, BN and an Independent.

rocket

Ling took a video of me this morning letting off a fireworks rocket – I guess that much tells you which party I voted for. 😉

(For those unfamiliar with Malaysian politics, DAP’s logo is a rocket taking off)

oscar ling dap

I don’t even know Oscar Ling, the DAP candidate for my constituency – I wanted to vote for change, so I voted for the party instead of the candidate.

212 sibu

I went to the voting station and got assigned a number. I was asked which hand I write in (I’m right handed) so I got the indelible ink painted on my left hand. It’s done on the opposite index finger.

I took the slip into the voting booth…

malaysian elections indelible ink

…and promptly put my left index print beside the DAP logo. -_-

indelible ink malaysia

Indelible ink has been on my mind all the while and I thought the new rules is to mark for the party you’re voting for using the ink. That doesn’t make sense at all coz:

  1. Voting is supposed to be anonymous and having your fingerprint there isn’t anonymous
  2. They wouldn’t have asked you for the *opposite* finger you write with if you’re meant to mark it
  3. There are writing implements there, just like past elections

I somehow looked past all that and for some robotic reason put my thumbprint (or index print rather) for the DAP candidate.

Mom: Idiot! You’re like a first time voter, being so blur.
Me: I thought that was the new rules instead of putting an X.

voting us

It’s okay though, I asked and old people have used their thumbprints or just put a single dot using a pen on the candidate they want to vote for in the past and it’s *confirmed* counted. It’s all good. 🙂

ge13 removable ink

…and on the subject of the ink, it’s not really that indelible. I’ll say it’s hard to remove, but after a shower and two hand washes, it has faded. I’m sure a dedicated person can totally remove it.

ge13 indelible ink
Obligatory GE13 photo: Giving the finger to show where my support lies. 😉

I have blue ink all over the tissues and other stuff I touch when in contact with oil or water e.g. during lunch!

Update: 212 Sibu is won by DAP! The other major urban seat 211 (Lanang) was also taken by DAP with over 8,000 votes! 😀
Unfortunately, the smaller rural areas didn’t swing due to lack of education and Internet access. This, I believe, will change in the future.

I’m back in Sibu to vote! (and Foochow chicken rice)

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ling hb sibu

I’m in Sibu! I flew back with Ling early this morning and arrived at the airport so I can spend some time with my family (mom is flying back later tonight) before we all go to vote tomorrow. I think we might be voting for different parties but that’s the beauty of democracy ain’t it? 🙂

chopsticks sibu

Anyway, I noticed that Chopsticks Chicken & Rice now has a new signboard. This is a place that has been around since my childhood! I remember eating the mixed rice there as a kid and chu cha (dai chow in Cantonese) when they moved over to Pedada.

chopsticks pedada

However, what they’re really famous for is their chicken rice. My dad is a huge fan of it. There are scores of Sibu people who loves the chicken rice here. Lunch time will be *packed* with people ordering chicken rice and it’s sold out real soon.

chopsticks chicken rice

They’re doing so well that they dedicated an entire shoplot just for it. That place was previously Peppino’s Pizza (also by the same owner).

roasted chicken

There’s a bunch of things you’ll expect from a chicken rice place – char siew, roasted chicken, duck, innards, siew yoke, braised egg and also some that you won’t.

foochow curry chicken

…like this Foochow style curry chicken.

braised egg

It’s the same thing I’ve eaten as a kid – there used to be three compartments (not including your rice) and I’ll have curry chicken for all of them). Arthur ordered this one for us – he was kind enough to pick us up from the airport. It’s milder (in spiciness rating) than regular curry yet more intense (they put a lot of the curry powder). A peculiarity of Foochow cuisine.

char siew

The signboards are new and there’s a lot of people eating there but what I really crave is kampua mee. Unfortunately, everyone was sold out then (must be the people coming back for elections!!!) so we had lunch here.

chicken rice

It’s not too bad though, I think most people come here for the rice – it’s fragrant and what makes Chopsticks Chicken Rice special! The char siew is also good – glazed with honey and with no color additives that makes it radioactive red.

ling in room

We’ll be staying a night here – she’s already met my grandma and we’ll have dinner together and vote tomorrow! 😀

My girlfriend’s two birthdays!

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Birthday #1

ling birthday

This was my brainchild and happened on the day before her actual birthday (we flew to Siem Reap for her birthday vacation). I had planned a series of surprises for the week leading up to her birthday. 🙂

Patchi chocolates

patchi

The first was chocolates from Patchi. This has a special meaning for us (not the brand itself) but coz one of the first gifts I gave her was from Royce, followed by Godiva and this the trilogy of “premium chocolates”.

patchi chocolate store

I got their signature collection from MidValley – she was actually wondering what shop it was and I remember walking in the first time, saying I’ll get her a box and she looked at the price tag and said she doesn’t want it. I know, she’s really an *awesome* person like that.

patchi chocolates

I decided to drop the subject since I knew her birthday was coming up and I wanted this to be one of the presents…and thus, I gave it to her as the start of the birthday gifts. 🙂

24 pink roses bouquet

pink roses

I also planned to walk into her office with a bouquet of flowers that I got from Bloom (which actually has great service compared to Giftlab, the latter has rude delivery guys). I got the 24 stalks of pink roses at my condo, and drove out to her office with the intention of surprising her by walking in unannounced.

girlfriend birthday

It was foiled coz she was already standing outside, ready to go out. I didn’t make it in time before she headed out for lunch. Oh well, it was still a good attempt. 🙂

Giant macaroon birthday cake

giant macaroon

She didn’t want a birthday cake coz she already had some and I remember her saying something about macaroons when we first met that I’ve kept in my mind ever since. I ordered a giant macaroon in lieu of a birthday cake – I got two of them in fact, one pink (salty chocolate) and one red (lime flavored).

macaroon cake

I also got 3 candles for her 30th birthday and pretended I was too tired to stay up…before surprising her with the giant pink macaroon. Well, it’s not exactly gigantic (there are bigger ones) but it’s hard to maintain the crispiness when it’s huge. This size was pushing it.

macaroons

She liked it though and that’s all that matters.

Pandora’s box(es)

pandora

This was a series of surprise gifts I sprang on her. She was staying over since we had an early morning flight (turned out we didn’t have time to sleep at all). I bought her a charm bracelet and three charms from Pandora coz I remember walking through a mall with her and the little ones once and she looked wistfully at the collections.

I made a mental note then to get this for her birthday. 🙂

pandora charm bracelet

I actually asked the Pandora sales person to wrap it in 3 different packages (one of them I just took in the box since I wanted to present it to her in Siem Reap and it’ll be hard to pack a bag without her noticing) so I can do my sequential surprises. smirk

I gave her the charm bracelet first and apologized coz it’s empty and I didn’t have money to buy her charms.

pandora box

She said it’s okay, she’ll just wear the bracelet like that.

I said I bumped into a friend who told me I needed to get a charm chain coz if the charm bracelet accidentally opens, all the charms will drop out (thanks Wendy!).

pandora bracelet

…and I gave her another box.

I said that’s it, sorry about it being so empty and while she asked if I was going to put it on for her…

pandora charm protector

I then presented her with the third box, which contains a pink heart charm. It’s supposed to mean something which I only told her.

pink heart charm

I said that’s all I had, no more surprises (but notice I only gave her 3 boxes when I bought 4?). She was touched though and I’m glad I managed to make her happy during her birthday. 🙂

Birthday trip to Cambodia

birthday trip

We didn’t sleep at all and I drove to the airport the next day. I had booked a very nice boutique resort in Siem Reap which did all my requests for her birthday trip.

happy honeymoon

They wrote “Happy Honeymoon” on the bed and had a bottle of champagne chilled in an ice bucket waiting in the room.

campagne

I also arranged for a Cambodian birthday cake to be presented to her. I got this in advance since it was her birthday the *very day* we flew. We arrived in the morning so we had a day of going around Siem Reap (will post more on our trip soon) and I had to pay for the birthday cake without her knowledge, pretending to go out or forgetting stuff in the room while I was actually talking to reception about when to reveal the surprise.

The birthday cake was presented to her by the poolside (she was puzzled as to why I wanted to hang out there and was annoyed by the mosquitoes). The staff came out and sang “Happy Birthday” and a bunch of French guests there wished her a happy birthday too!

cambodian birthday cake

It was a 3D/2N trip, I told her to bring her passport and I’ll handle everything, from flights to currency, it’s her present so just bring herself! I gave her some USD so she can get back to the resort in case of emergencies though. I’ll write more on the trip later, the last surprise was close to midnight of her actual birthday when I gave her the Pandora charm that I had secretly packed to complete the dual charm collection.

It’s “I LOVE YOU” with a heart made of pure gold which I had hidden all the way from KL. <3 Birthday #2

checkers

This just happened last weekend! Ling and the two little ones came over to my place coz it’s closer to town before getting ready. We had a sit-down birthday dinner at Checkers. It was Florence’s idea – cheers for making it two weeks later so I could do the birthday vacation surprise! 🙂

cakes

The food was pretty alright – they had a decent cheese and bread selection…

hors d oeuvres

…and they had some nicely plated hors d’oeuvres.

lamb

But I thought the best part was the mutton / beef / chicken satay station and the fresh oysters.

tiramisu

The little one took this so it’s a bit blurry:

birthday photo 2013

Happy birthday dear, I hope this was a memorable one for you. I love you always. *hugs*

Cambodian pancakes, Bolt and 4G LTE: Fast. Faster. Fastest!

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cambodia pancakes

I was in Siem Reap in Cambodia and found street vendors selling the ubiquitous meant-for-Caucasian-tourist pancakes that I thought are similar to the ones that are sold in Bali.

cambodian roti canai

They’re not the same!

cambodian pancake

This is actually a Cambodian style roti canai – it’s practically made the same way. You can have it with Nutella, banana, Hershey’s chocolate syrup, Milo or combinations of the above for just 3,000 KHR (0.75 USD).

banana chocolate pancake

It’s served differently though. We had a banana and chocolate pancake and it’s rolled up in a piece of paper so it’s easier to eat.

cambodian pancakes

It’s fast food, Cambodian style!

Closer to home, I saw this TV commercial featuring Usain Bolt running through KL city:

If you don’t know who he is, I honestly don’t know what to say. smirk He’s just the fastest man in the world, being the first person to hold the 100 meter and 200 meter world record and also the first to win 6 Olympic gold medals in sprinting.

He’s faster than you can imagine and he’s now the official ambassador for the Celcom network.

Celcom has come up with the 4th generation of wireless mobile communications, dubbed 4G LTE. LTE stands for Long Term Evolution and it’s 10 times faster than what you’re used to. It’s 100Mbps so think of it as a classic Cat5 cable (LAN cable) running at max speed (that’s the reference for all computer geeks like me ;)).

It was the fastest speed we could go in our university back then and to put 100Mbps into perspective:

  • Downloading a 5 MB song will take 2 seconds flat
  • Downloading a 750 MB movie will be completed in 5 minutes

…and all that on your smartphone!

Celcom has officially launched this service and you can get the 4G LTE modem at only RM 199 for the first 1,000 subscribers! Just visit Blue Cube @ Sunway, Pavilion or Menara Celcom and you’ll even get the first 3 months of data subscription totally FREE! Get more details on the fastest speed in town here or try your luck at winning a FREE LTE modem with 3 months data + subscription with your best Usain Bolt pose on the Celcom First Facebook page!

Salam Mesra Lewis and Nico!

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g force

Do you know that F1 drivers experience an intense amount of G-force whenever they drive? It’s totally unlike this at all – I was just horsing around…

petronas solaris

…but what I wanted to write about is the recent trip Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg made to Malaysia for a Meet The Drivers session at PETRONAS Solaris Serdang!

meet drivers

It was held in the afternoon and the sight of a *real* Formula One vehicle inside a gas station sure garnered a lot of attention.

lewis hamilton

I’m sure that’s a dream come true for a lot of people. I have a friend who’s a huge fan of Lewis Hamilton – insisted on me trying to get his autograph for her and passed her handbag (!!!) to me one season. I didn’t manage to do it but if she was here that day, it’ll have made her day, her week, her month, and even her year. 😉

rc racing

There was also a remote control car racing competition between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. I thought that was a fun concept – I wonder if aptitude with RC cars have anything to do with performance on a real F1 car. I seriously doubt it, but it’s a cute activity. Heh.

hand prints

The two drivers also did hand prints and signed plaques for the Race On contest.

nico rosberg

You know the best part? The two F1 drivers actually filled up the gas tanks of people who came into the PETRONAS station at Solaris Serdang that day! Guess who those lucky people are? They’re Mesra Card Top Spenders! The lucky few who got to get *up close* to Lewis and Nico, pose for photographs and get their cars filled up by them! It’s bragging rights for eternity! 🙂

You might have missed out on this one, but there’s a very nice car (Mercedes-Benz A-Class) you can win by participating in the Mesra Race On Contest!

What is the Race On contest?

It’s an amazing promotion going on at all Mesra stores at PETRONAS stations nationwide. You just need to buy any of these combos:

mesra f1 combos

…and win great prizes! The best thing is that the combos are much cheaper than if you have bought the individual items together, and they make a perfect snack on road trips or just a cool drink with the hot weather here.

prints

You can also participate by purchasing RM 15 in a single receipt in Mini Mesra and unbranded stores at PETRONAS stations (except for Primax 95, Diesel, Kerosene, Touch n’ Go, Cigarettes, E-payment services and controlled items like flour, sugar and cooking oil).

petronas f1

Just fill in your name, email, and contact number and answer an easy question at the back of the sales receipt and put it into the box at PETRONAS stations to get a chance to win!

mesra contest

The grand prize is the new Mercedes-Benz A-Class! There’s also 10 x LED HD Smart TVs, 20 x Macbook Air, 30 x iPhone 5 and 40 x Mesra gift cards for a total of 110 prizes. Get more details at the Mesra site.

It’s so simple and easy to take part – just look at the back of your receipt and jot down your details! 🙂

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