Here's My Story

So finally Daniel and I visited Publika as I've been curious about this place after some friends have gone there. We were there to meet some friends for dinner. A friend chose S.Wine, which interestingly was situated within a supermarket (Ben's Independent Grocer). There was a queue and we needed to wait for at least 20 mins. While waiting, we looked at the menu. They had food that I don't see at any other typical restaurants. It was pricey though. The restaurant was small and cozy. The ambience was quite soothing. Surprisingly it wasn't noisy and so we didn't need to raise our voice to converse. I had pasta olio with brocolli and chorizo sausage. It was the spiciest olio I ever had. I dare say that it was as spicy as a typical asam laksa but less so compared to curry laksa. The spaghetti itself was light in taste but the sausage, a type of Spanish sausage, was filled with spices and firmer than normal sausages. Overall, this was a good combination of flavour...

I used to believe in nationally mandated saving e.g. Employee Provident Fund ("EPF") in Malaysia, Central Provident Fund ("CPF") in Singapore and superannuation in Australia. The former two are administered centrally by statutory boards while the latter is administered privately. At the lowest level, people simply want to live in the present and don't think about savings, for whatever reason. After that, there are people who realised the importance of savings but never do anything about it. Then next are the people who are trying to save but can't seem to succeed due to a variety of reasons (e.g. distractions, emergencies, no monitoring and feedback mechanism). Mandatory saving is then useful for everyone in general. In exchange, government gives tax concession and sometimes incentives for people to save more than the required minimum. However, I am now not so steadfast in supporting such scheme. One reason: government interference that's detriment...

Yes, there were and probably still are gripes from many people about the new Yahoo Mail design and function. In fact, I was one of them but you know what? Now that I used it for a few months, I had already forgotten what the fuss was about. All I remember now that I wasn't happy that they put the latest e-mail at the top of the Inbox - something hardly worth breaking a sweat about. However, I have to point out one really good feature of the new Yahoo Mail: when you open an e-mail to read, it is opened in a new tab. This makes it easier for me to cross-reference with other e-mails without needing to repeatedly opening and closing e-mails. This is quite important for my work. Yes, I know that Gmail has something similar (open e-mail and then click an icon to further open it in a new window) and apparently the old Yahoo Mail has such thing too (something about right clicking or control-right click; sorry, I didn't investigate) but it's simple to use in the new Yahoo Mail b...

This vegetarian restaurant is situated at ground floor new wing of One Utama. It was part of our let's-try-new-things-once-a-week routine. On their menu, it was stated that their food was at least 80% organic, had no msg, used olive oil, less salt, less sugar. Sounds healthy! Firstly, right after we ordered our food, we were given complimentary organic spirulina (the 2 green tablets) and a small cup of lemongrass ginger tea. Gosh, the tea was dense. It was refreshing but probably couldn't drink much more than a small cup at such density. Quite sensible portion. This is a fruits-and-vegetables juice. It was not stated its exact content. Tasted quite bad and came in a really small glass. I suspect that it came from a bottle. I rather have the lemongrass ginger tea. In fact, I rather have MBG mixed fresh fruits/vegetable juice. This is the loh charcoal noodle. Plenty of vegetable I assure you. Plenty of noodle too. In fact, too much noodle. I couldn't finis...

Recently, I helped my aunt to apply for a tourist visa to US for Malaysian. Very broadly, the steps are: (1) Apply online. (2) Pay visa at Standard Chartered (3) Make appointment for interview (4) Collect visa Sounds simple, right? Not at all lol. Here are the troublesome spots: (1) Not only do you need a computer connected to decent internet speed, you need a scanner (to upload photo) and a printer (to print out confirmation). Maybeeeeeee it's ok to assume that everyone has a computer and internet access but a printer? A scanner? It's ridiculous to buy them just for this purpose, isn't it? (2) They do not tell you in advance all  the details needed. Sure, the usual "get ready your passport" etc were there but how about the address of where you're staying in US? The phone number? Details such as the visa number of your previous visa and when were your last 5 visits to US? Fortunately, and for this I give them plenty of kudos, you can save the ...

Finally, I managed to remember to photograph this dish before I started eating it lol. Happened to me many times where I started eating and then discovered how good it was but then regretted not taking a photo of it before eating. After that, despite reminding myself to do it before eating, I almost always forget hehehe. As you can see, the salad portion was quite huge and the arrangement of the vegetables was meticulous. Simple but pleasing to the eyes. I like symmetry hehehe. The first time I ate this, I was surprised at the portion of the fish fillet. It was quite filling and quite delicious. In fact, I could just make do with this dish for dinner. It is one of my favourite meals to have, especially when I'm looking for substantial amount of vegetable. Raw salad tastes refreshing after much cooked food throughout the preceding days. Guess how much does this cost? Only RM9.80 plus 10% service charge. It's a bargain. It also can come with chicken fillet. Perhaps I s...

I'm sure some of you have heard this before: What if you have a dream where you see your mother and your spouse are drowning in a sea? You can't rescue both and so you have to pick one to rescue. Your spouse urges you to save your mother as it is filial to do so and that she has brought you up with much effort and sacrifices. Your mother urges you to save your spouse as you two have much life ahead to spend together and build a family, whereas she is already old. What will you do? I've heard of this several times from different sources but one struck me as interesting for being different. In that version, this dilemma was posed by a psychologist/psychiatrist/a mind expert (sorry, can't remember the exact vocation) and the solution was to stop dreaming. Why put yourself into such unnecessary trouble? I'm not sure whether it was a joke or not but I always remember this and at times posed the same dilemma to other people. Oh yes, sometimes I nearly got smacke...

I am a fan of budgeting and keeping track of expenses, as evidenced in this post . As stated in the second last paragraph of the post, monitoring of expenses acts as an important feedback to the budgeting process. I have adjusted my budget from time to time. Sometimes it's to tighten it i.e. austerity and at times to expand it. Recently, I have expanded it slightly. Specifically, I have expanded my allowance for food. Previously, I budgeted for lunch and dinner costing probably RM6 each. On top of that, there was allowance for more expensive food once a week. Although I still manage to keep to that budget for lunch, unfortunately it's difficult for dinner. This is due to lack of choices around Ban's place. The cheapest is this restaurant selling duck noodle/rice costing RM5. Next up is those Chinese restaurants selling individual rice and noodle dish costing RM5.50 to RM6.50 each. Both haven't factored in drinks as I usually will have herbal tea costing RM1.50-RM2. ...

Congratulations to driver of this car! You are now in contention for the award of "Most inconsiderate driver in Malaysia" for parking on two carpark bays. Your (apparently poor) driving skill and (lack of) civic-mindedness had astounded many. Wish you all the best as the number of qualifiers is increasing exponentially in this country, especially KL drivers.

Ban and I tried Miraku twice. The first time was part of our "try one new restaurant per week" routine while the second time was after we purchased a Groupon voucher for it. Although it's at Paradigm Mall, like a few restaurants there, its entrance is outside the mall. I'm not sure how practical that is, especially if it rains. Imagine that on a rainy day you purposely choose to go to a mall that has underground/sheltered carpark but only to find that you'll have to walk outside in the rain to access its restaurants. Bizarre design. I like its interior design and ambience. There is ample space and seats are wide and comfortable. It does look a little posh. The sushi chef squeezed the rice into appropriate shape as and when needed, rather have them prepared in advance. Similarly for slicing raw fish to prepare sushi and sashimi. This is unlike Sushi Tei where everything is prepared in advance but I supposed that's not a fair comparison. This be...

So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable Creature, since it enables one to find or make a Reason for everything one has a mind to do. - Benjamin Franklin