Here's My Story

As with previous year , we went to Kinpachi and Huang Soy.   At Kinpachi, they had always served a mini appetiser before our main order was served. This time, it was eggplant. I normally don't like eggplant but this was quite delicious. Once again, I had the Daimyou Maki. It was good and filling. I like that it had a variety of filling (seven) that gave different taste and texture. First time Ban tried their Hiyashi Tanuki Soba, which he liked. He seems to favour cold over hot soba. Naturally, this was insufficient for him and so after perusing their menu, he ordered something from their seasonal menu:   Buta Shiokoji Misoyaki. It wasn't bad but it was nothing special: the flavour was too mild and it was harder than expected. He got the remaining 5 slices packed.   We then went to Huang Soy where Ban had their Homemade Chrysanthenum Tea, which tasted...normal :D, and I had Pandan Pudding, which had shaved ice underneath. Think there wasn't enough gula melaka for the shave...

This was at Jaya Grocer outlet at Starling Mall:   Up till even recently, it was still decorated similarly this way. It looks appealing but I can't help thinking that those vegetables are wasted. 

During my birthday month, I was informed by FOS that I have birthday voucher that offered me discount. Oh great: I wanted to purchase a pair of long pants then. Went to the outlet at Paradigm Mall but strangely, they couldn't find the voucher in their system. I called the outlet at One Utama, explained the situation and asked them to check whether they could find my voucher in their system or not. Yes, they could! Yay. So I made plan to follow Ban to One Utama on the day when he exercised at the gym there.  I brought a change of clothings so that I could also exercise at the mall by using the stairs. After exercising, I changed back to my casual clothings and went to FOS to shop for the pants. Got one and paid at a discounted price with the voucher :) It is a good fit for me, after getting it shortened (I'm short). I then went to Lung Ngen Claypot Coffee to have their claypot coffee for the first time. I loved it! Unique and aromatic. Then met up with Ban after his workout and ...

Last year, I opened a joint account with my sister at Maybank . Couple of months ago, I received a mail informing me that my account was "inactive" and was given 30 days from the date of the mail to go to any branch to reactivate it. Failure to do so would incur a administration charge of RM 10 per year 😐 Well, it was already past the 30-day grace period by the time I read the mail. My sister told me that her children's accounts weren't charged anything despite reactivating their accounts past the deadline. Oh, that's great. So I went to the nearest branch the next day. Fortunately, there was hardly any customer and so I was quickly attended to by the office at the front counter. After he did something with my ATM/debit card, I was asked to withdraw money at the the ATM machine to "show" activity. I tried a few machines but didn't work: the machine refused to proceed to next step after taking in the card and spat it out. He then directed me to his c...

Saw these at Bagan Ajam Kopitiam:  

Tea Garden: nasi lemak with chicken rendang. They acceded to my request of replacing the acar (pickle) with more cucumber. Good plating, components complemented each other. The rice has the coconut lemak fragrant, something that is shockingly rare nowadays.   Tea Garden: Hainanese chicken rice. First time encountered such dish. Ban said it was good. Another tick for that restaurant.     Kwong Wah: tumeric chicken. This was from last year. I decided to try after my mum and sister told me it was good. Unfortunately, it was quite plain to me :( Cost the same as the chendol i.e. RM 7.   HWC: hazelnut coffee. One of the better ones.     De Sundays Cafe: chicken katsu. This was pretty good. As with many of their dishes, this is a fusion dish.

I rarely fly. Once a year, for sure I'll make a trip to Australia to spend time with my sister and her family, something that I enjoyed tremendously and of course subjected to their agreement on timing etc. I typically will fly Malaysia Airlines (MAS) to Australia and fly Singapore Airlines (SIA) back home. Other than that, I might at most fly to Singapore once a year via Firefly. In recent years, right after I purchased MAS ticket, I received an email from them within the same day or the next day, offering discount on the next flight. This seems to be a useless promotion to me: how likely that I would want to purchase another flight ticket right after having purchased one already? I would think that even for the those who fly often, they wouldn't have planned that much ahead, right?  Imagine for a typical working person: "I just purchased flight ticket to Australia for my planned vacation in 6 months time and ooooh, they just offered me discount on the next flight. Fantas...

Recently, we went to the Decathlon outlet at Starling Mall to get a pair of swimming trunk for Ban. At first, the cheapest we saw was RM 59 but then I spotted RM 39, further down. He chose a few pairs to try.  While waiting for him, I saw and overheard a dispute over price: a customer was using the self-check-out kiosk when he mentioned that price that he saw to the staff. Staff was surprised ("It's never that price", something like that) and went with him to presumably to check the price tag on the shelf, where I couldn't see. What I saw next was the staff emerging and threw away a small thing, which I surmised to be the incorrect price tag. Once Ban chose a pair, we also used the kiosk to pair. FYI I'm a member of Decathlon i.e. I used their app. To our surprise, the scanned price was RM 59. Ban declined to sort it out with the staff and just paid for it. Back home, I received an email from them, requesting feedback from me, in the style of a short survey. Where...

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After a particular long-ish day at Bagan Specialist Centre (mum had appointment there): Ban: We go home? Me: Yes (few minutes later) Me: Hmmm why didn't Waze take this left turn? I would have done that. (more minutes later) Me: Wait! Your Waze is showing our destination is more than 3 hours away! Ban: Alamak! I chose "Home" (instead of my sister's place in Butterworth) on my Waze. Fortunately, I spotted this just before a suitable exit. Phew! 

  “Traditions are just peer pressure from dead people.” - Eliot Schrefer, Queer Ducks (and Other Animals): The Natural World of Animal Sexuality

  Me: You'll be imprisoned for eating this. Sister: You pay RM3.90 for free accommodation of not more than 2 years. Ok right? 🤣 Me: Everyday get served nutritious wholemeal buns.     Hubby and I guessed that the poster of the food was pasted on an existing poster, likely the one that said smoking is forbidden.

I have ZUS app. I got it because sometime ago I discovered that I could redeem voucher to top up the app's wallet, using Air Asia points. I gained those points every quarter via CIMB Air Asia Saver account. If there's money in that wallet, I'll purchase ZUS drinks as long as it's sufficient and then I'll stop. Although I loved their ZUS Gula Melaka drink, I refused to top up the wallet. If they had allowed me to pay using card, bank transfer or Grab, I would probably have purchased every now and then. Back in July, I received email from ZUS, saying something like they hadn't seen me (read: I hadn't purchased anything via the app :D) for quite a while and so they gave me 30% discount voucher in the app. Coincidentally, it was the month that I received more Air Asia points. There was still the 10% discount in redeeming RM 30 ZUS top up voucher i.e. used 10% fewer points. Nice! At the same time, I noticed that ZUS gave 10% discount voucher quite regularly and s...

 

The redemption for earbuds turned into a complicated affair. As expected, it took more than a week (might have been around 2 weeks) for them to arrive. Accordingly, Ban charged them before using. It didn't work: no connection to his phone or my phone or his laptop. Also, I noticed that the charging pod's lights didn't work either. Ban look at the small insert and sent a message to the given WhatsApp number. To his horror, someone responded saying that that was the number for Singapore Civil Defence Force! Well, joke or not, this doesn't reflect well on the company, Vinnfier. We looked up their website and through that, Ban filled up a form to request support. FYI the earbuds have 1-year warranty. Shortly later, he received an email from them asking him to send the earbuds back to them. That cost RM 7+ via Pos Laju. We were pleasantly surprised that the replacement arrived in a day (or two). Problem was that the same issue occurred omg. So Ban communicated that to them ...

 

Few months back, Citibank emailed me, informing me of the incoming request by their app to change password. Ok, sure, I waited, it happened and I changed. Problem was that I realised I wanted the password to be something else. So, I looked through the app to change the password. I expected it to be in Account/Profile/Security but noooooo, it wasn't there. Wow. One day, I decided to chat with the in-app chatbot (not verbatim):  Chatbot: Please select the relevant topic. Me: *Took a look at the listed topics. None fits*. Change password. Chatbot: Do you mean <topic> or <topic>? Me: No. Chatbot: Please elaborate in detail. Me: I want to change password of my Citibank Mobile App. Chatbot: Sorry, I don't understand. Please select the relevant topic. Me: *WTH* (repeated the whole process until...) Chatbot: I'm just a chatbot. I'm not sufficiently trained to help you 😭 A live agent will assist you.   I'm joking only about the crying bit fyi. App told me that a...

Recently, we went to make the final payment for the hearing aids. Weeks earlier, I was informed that it has arrived. Ashley took back the trial pair and then hand the purchased ones to mum. As usual, she asked mum questions to determine whether adjustment was needed or not. Made minor recalibration of the volume, which mum acknowledged was an improvement. She also paired them with mum's phone. Included in the purchase were two containers: one each for each aid. There is a brush to clean the ear moulds and a small plastic handle for easy dislodgement of battery from inside the cover of the aid once it's opened. We were also given many spare batteries for free. What came as a pleasant surprise was the gift of dehumidifier device (worth RM 400) that is a replacement for the container of silica gel i.e. it's used to actively dry the hearing aids, especially the battery compartments. It's powered by a power bank within and so needs to be regularly recharged. It's easy to...

For the longest time, Mixue didn't serve pure jasmine tea. It was always mixed with at least one other thing (lemon jasmine tea). Yet, one of the videos they kept repeating on their monitors showcased how thorough their process in procuring and infusing their tea leaves with jasmine flowers. I always wondered: if they hyped up the quality of their jasmine tea, why didn't they sell pure jasmine tea? They finally did it recently. If I remember correctly, the first outlet I tried their pure jasmine tea was at Lotus Bagan Ajam, Butterworth (the first outlet in that town and it's popular). It was a letdown: it was so diluted. I gave it another try but at a different outlet: Aman Suria, Petaling Jaya. Yes, this hit the spot! It was aromatic and bitter. Nice :) 

Me: Hi Ashley, What's the brand name of my mum's chosen hearing aids and the model? It's considered mid-range, correct?    Ashley: Good morning, the brand is Unitron.  Model: Stride V1 UP Its consider as entry level yea. Me: Oh, ok. I remember you said that for the ITE version, its range of listening environments is at entry level. This Stride V1 UP's range of listening environments is at mid level? Ashley: ITE version also had entry level and mid level. The difference is how fast and precise the hearing aid process the noise and speech yea. Me: So are you saying that the range of listening environments for Stride V1 UP is at the minimum? Ashley: The hearing aid able to process all range of listening environment e.g in noisy environment, in car and in quiet environment. For entry level, they have noise reduction technology also but of course mid range technology level is more precise. Me: So there is no difference in terms of range of listening en...

Saw this at either Lotus @Paradigm Mall or Village Grocer @Megah Rise Mall:   Haven't seen it again.

I was infected with Covid-19 a second time during a trip to Butterworth. My throat felt a little scratchy and a little phlegmy late Thursday. By Friday, that became sorethroat and the backdrip worsened too. It got progressively worsened until I started coughing while trying to sleep. Tried taking lozenges, antihistamine and phelgm thinner but to no avail. At just past 2am, I gave up and drove to Klinik Putra (Bagan), a 24-hour clinic. It's the first GP clinic I came across that required patients to walk in barefoot i.e. leave foot apparels outside. Despite stating a couple of times that my throat was red, I wasn't prescribed antibiotic. I was prescribed cough syrup (Prospan), the suppressant type so that I could sleep; antihistamine (ceterizine), lozenges and thymol. RM 96 @@ Well, I treat the premium as payment for the 24-hour service. I am impressed that they called a few days to check on me. The next day, it was confirmed that I had fever and so I consulted my usual GP in Bu...

Although the trial pair could be ready in 2-3 weeks, we would get them in nearly a month time to coincide with my next visit to Butterworth.  Getting my mum to use the trial pair went well. Ashley was patient, methodical and informative. She got my mum to practise about 5 times putting on the hearing aids. Key words: hook and push in. When not in use, it's important open battery cover, which has a holder within to contain the battery, and place the device in a container of silica gel (provided as part of the package) to dry out possible moisture. In case of the battery dislodges from the cover or when trying to inset new battery, it should be placed from directly above the holder i.e. not from the side, not from the bottom. Volume can be adjusted manually by clicking the top of the device. It can also be adjusted via an app but that will be introduced only later as the main aim was for mum to get used to using hearing aids, including the significant change in quality and nature of...

  I order noodle dishes in PJ only if they are special. Otherwise, I think it's not worth paying close to RM 10 for a dish that's consist almost entirely only of noodle i.e. little of other ingredients, including meat and vegetable. Sometimes I order one due to circumstances e.g. no other choices, due to convenience of location after running an errand nearby. The above noodle dish came from a stall at Double One Kopitiam. Can't remember the name of the stall. It's located around the middle of the shop, next to the chicken rice stall. I quite like this dish, after adding more sauce (likely dark soy sauce). I asked for a little more vegetable and was impressed with the amount they gave.   This dessert was served by Reban, a new-ish restaurant at Aman Suria.  It fell short of my expectation and not worth the price. Not only that, as I told a staff there, there was a contradiction between the name of the dessert and its description i.e. longan vs lychee.     As stat...

(Emphasis is mine, to show the mistakes) 1. Free Malaysia Today article: " Trump set to ‘apply pressure’ on Xi over Iran ". Sentence: " he United States and China are also set to discuss extending a year-long trade truce, which the two leaders agreed last October in South Korea. But tensions remain high over Trump’s sweeping tariffs. 2. Financial Standard article: " ATO sounds alarm as Payday Super deadline nears ". Sentence: " ATO deputy commissioner Emmer Rosenzweig said more than half of employees are still playing superannuation quarterly rather than alongside wages, despite the incoming reforms requiring contributions to be paid on payday. " Should be "paying" lol. 3. Free Malaysia Today article: " Gauff’s French Open title defence ends, Sabalenka, Osaka set up last-16 clash ". Sentence: " The Belarusian world number set up a meeting with her fellow quadruple major winner, Osaka. "  World number what?  

  I wasn't aware there is such service and on a commercial scale too.

Ban was looking at the bank reward catalogue to use his points to redeem a pair of earbuds. Me: Which one did you pick? Nevermind, I better don't kaypoh and disturb.    *30s later, I took a look at the screen* Me: Wait, why are you getting earphones? Did you pick the wrong one? Ban: Huh? I put in the right code wor *Took a look at the catalogue and pointed out the one he chose* Me: Wrong code lah: it ends in "6", not "4". Can...cancel ar? Ban: ...I'll redeem the correct one. Me: I should have kaypoh-ed 😅

Recently, I fell ill: lethargic and mild fever. Took paracetamol but still the mild fever came back repeatedly. Then I had a thought: I noticed that there was burning sensation in my perineum when I peed and I seems to want to urinate more frequently. Could it be UTI and could fever be a symptom? Apparently yes. Consulted doctor the next morning. She wanted to order a urine test but given that the only symptom left was the gradually-improving burning sensation, she prescribed 3 sachets of urinal alkalinizer. Unfortunately, fever returned later in the afternoon :( Hence I consulted the doctor again the next day. Since it was quite obvious I had UTI, doctor prescribed antibiotic and more alkalinizer despite ordering a urine test. I myself would have asked for antibiotic if she hadn't suggested it first. I continued to have fever for two days while the burning sensation continued to fade but I had to purchase two more sachets of alkalinizer from a pharmacy. Once the urine test was out...

I used to buy drinks from Chagee once a week, utilising the member's Wednesday 15% discount voucher. Then Beutea came along with permanent discount on a number of drinks for members and the discount far exceeds 15%. These two have many similar drinks and their quality seems similar to me. Hence, it was a no-brainer that I abandoned the former for the latter whenever I wanted quality tea drink. The smell is heavenly! On the oher hand, I also indulge in cheap Mixue drinks. My favourite are Iced Latte (no sugar and only during the day) and Pearl Milk Tea (no sugar but their pearls are a little sweet). Currently, they also have Taro Milk Tea , which I also like (with no sugar as the taro itself is a little sweet already). One night, I went to Ban to get Mixue drinks. He almost always does this on the day he worked out at gym for over an hour. However, they ran out of the drink that I wanted. There was no Beutea nearby but there was a Chagee. Well, I just checked the app and was pleasan...

The cholesterol results as compared to 3 months ago :   Significant improvement! Total cholesterol and LDL are now below the personalised benchmarks. "What did you do differently?," my sister asked. None that can explain it. In fact, cholesterol should go up due to (1) and (2): (1)  Exercise regime not much different during the 3-month period. In fact, few days before test, I hardly exercise because of UTI. (2) Diet: no difference. Lack of HDL the week before test because didn't prepare salmon don (I do this once a week) due to illness. (3) Fast nearly 11 hours before test. I will try to repeat (3) for the next test as an experiment. 

I finished one playthrough recently, including its 3 DLC (Descent, Jaws of Hakkon and Tresspasser). One good thing it has over the previous two (DA:O and DA2) is that it doesn't need any mod to make it playable. Then again, the reason why the first two needed so many mods, afaik, is that they haven't been updated to be compatible to current hardware and software. Sadly, that's the only good thing about DAI, It has a litany of problems: (1) Way too long. I spent over 160 hours, not counting the numerous side quests that I skipped. There might be games that I played longer (Baldur's Gate 3, I think) but DAI's side quests are boring. They are like your typical MMORPG quests but that's not what I expect when playing DAI. Also, story-wise, it doesn't make sense that the leader of an army does these micro-level quests. (2) Combat tactic instructions are non-existence. I'm so puzzled why they progressively rolled back this unique game mechanic. That's what ...

This was at Bagan Specialist Centre. According to a nurse, this was put up because a patient had an accident while using these stairs. Hmmm why target these stairs? Patient can have accident anywhere. There were hospitals that encouraged usage of stairs e.g. Penang General Hospital and SJMC .

 

I remember when I first saw it on the concourse floor of Paradigm Mall, it was full with customers. Browse through its menu and spotted food that both Ban and I could try later. The first time we first tried to dine there was unsuccessful: again it was full. Few months later, we succeeded and subsequently dined two more times.   The first time I tried their char kway:   This was good! It had a unique taste that both Ban and I couldn't identify. The downside was that this wasn't enough for me, which means that definitely not enough for the average guy :D So, I ordered their steamed bread with kaya and butter: It was expectedly soft because it was steamed but the addition of butter on top of it, instead of in between the two slices of bread (where the kaya was) made the bread soggy as butter melted on it. I imagine that toasted version should work better.   The second time I tried their nasi lemak with fried chicken: This was good. The key component, the rice, has enough co...

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Mum always has rhinitis which I suspected is the same as mine i.e. vasomotor rhinitis. This is more or less confirmed by the result of the 107 allergen test . Normally, she would just need to use nasal steroid spray (Avamys) and take antihistamine (ceterizine) for a period of time. However, earlier this year, the symptoms didn't improve and it was debilitating: woke up in the morning feeling the stuffiness and pain, took medicine and needed to nap 4 hours before feeling good enough to be awake but couldn't do her usual exercise routine. So she consulted Dr Yeoh and was prescribed antibiotics and another anthistamine. She felt much better soon but relapsed shortly after finishing the medication. Consulted the doctor again and was prescribed another round of similar medication. Again, same results. As expected, Dr Yeoh recommended that she consult an ENT specialist.  In anticipation, I've asked mum to ask Dr Yeoh to recommend an ENT specialist based in mainland Penang. Going ...

So, when suitable, I made an appointment with 20dB. The audiologist, Ashley, kindly informed me of reserved parking bays for us to park in. She was patient and helpful throughout the consultation :) At the outset, I told her of mum's main problem with the previous hearing aids .   Previously, it was the RIC type. It was a little difficult for her to attach them to her ears and more importantly, one side dropped twice.  I thought the ITE type is suitable: it looks easier for mum to attach it because of its size. However, the audiologist said that its vulnerable to breakage if it drops. Also, its range of listening environments is at entry level, whereas for safety issue, we want greater range. (refer to this 20dB webpage ). Ashley recommended the BTE type where the transparent part that goes into the ear canal is customised to fit into the ear. Ashley demonstrated to mum how to attach it to her ear. Results of the hearing test: Bass = low-pitched sounds. Treble = high-pitched s...

Back in 2019 , we got mum a pair of hearing aids but unfortunately, she stopped using them after a few weeks. Firstly, it was a little difficult for her to put them on. Secondly, twice one of them dropped, which I witnessed. A pity that these weren't picked up during the trial period. Mum was contented to make do with impaired hearing and so I didn't pursue further. However, during the trip to Australia (Dec 25 - Jan 26), I was quite alarmed at the deterioration of her hearing. One incident stuck out: we were in a Qantas plane. She couldn't hear the air stewardess who was speaking to her. Even worse was that, she also couldn't hear me the first time I spoke to her even though I was sitting next to her. I also noticed that sometimes people stopped repeating their questions when mum repeatedly misheard and thus responded incorrectly. Most importantly, I was concerned about her safety: what if she's walking outside and can't hear someone shouting her warning to mov...

Dry noodle (dark sauce) at Go Noodle, with pork balls. I was pleasantly surprised at the plentiful vegetable that it naturally came with. If only their soup noodle has similar amount of vegetable. This dish was delicious and I had a couple more times thereafter.     Celebrated a friend's birthday at Daesam Restaurant at Subang Jaya. We were curious about the bias towards "female pork". We were told that female pork wasn't smelly like male pork. True?     Gosh! I miss Seremban lou shu fun konlo. Came across this stall at Hakka Legend (at Taman Megah). The noodle was delicious but unfortunately, all their meatballs were fried. In Seremban, non-fried fishballs were served in a small bowl of soup. Following my sister's suggestion, the second time I ordered this, I asked whether I could have non-fried version but alas, no :( That's the last time I had it.     I was hunkering for tang yuen again around Mid-Autumn Festival but unlike last year , Dao didn't have p...