Here's My Story

After the the purchase made with the 30% discount voucher, I purchased a drink from ZUS one more time before I stopped. I purchased their Gula Melaka latte that I loved so that my mum could try too.  Meanwhile, I continued to receive emails from them that promoted various drinks. Late last month, I received one that said the following (emphasis theirs): " Two months without you feels way too long 💔 We miss preparing your go-to order, seeing your name pop up, and being a part of your daily routine. Come back today and use 25% OFF voucher (just for you)!  🥹   💰 Just select the voucher in your wallet at checkout. Get your daily dose of happiness and save some money too! " Oh yes, I definitely followed the instructions :D I tried their Iced Coconut Cafe Latte. It was nice...if I didn't expect to taste the coconut i.e. the coffee was too strong. 

My mum and sister wanted to dine at Pho Vietz but sadly it had closed down :( So they tried this restaurant for the first time and loved it. I remembered that there was discount at the restaurant given by Grab Dineout. It was 20% first time discount + 10% loyalty discount. So, one day, I suggested to Ban to try it out since we were going to the mall to get lactose-free milk.  I ordered the lemongrass orange tea, which was refreshing and lightly aromatic. Tasted better with honey. Ban ordered the chrysanthemum jasmine tea, which was not bad but the jasmine wasn't strong enough. He took up my offer of swapping the tea since he preferred the lemongrass orange tea with honey. We both agreed that a teapot was too much for an individual. It's more suitable for tea time when you have a long chat with someone over tea and cakes.     We both had lemongrass mint chicken: his was with vegetables while mine was with aglio olio. He was indifferent to it, which means he wouldn't o...

   Why? What's its purpose and why other cars can function without them? 

Me: I'm going to Mixue. Ban: Me too! Me: You cannot! You didn't exercise. Ban: I can. I now use my kaki to jalan and now almost reach it. Me: *laughed* Mum, please rotan him. Ban: Don't want! 😂 

Why does salt appear twice in the list of ingredients? Edit: Now that I read it properly, the first salt is within the bracket which is then the list of ingredients for the first ingredient, soy sauce i.e. it is made of water, salt, soybean, wheat, preservative. 

For sometime, every now and then I received message informing me that Google is phasing out Google Assistant and replace it with Gemini. I didn't think much about it because I used Google Assistant for simple tasks such as setting alarm, setting timer and setting bedtime routine which would set alarm and play an hour of sleep music. Surely Gemini, its successor, could handle such simple tasks, right? Apparently not. A minor complaint is that shockingly Gemini takes a little longer in setting alarm. I know in absolute time, the difference is insignificant but it boggles the mind that the supposed more powerful AI performs worse than its predecessor. Gemini doesn't seem to have the bedtime routine programme and so I had to separately set the alarm and asked it to play an hour of sleep music. As for the latter (conversation isn't verbatim): Me: Please play the babbling brook sound. Gemini: Sure. Do you want me to play that on Youtube Music/Spotify? (Can't remember which on...

During a light-hearted conversation: Ban: No matter what I say, I am wrong 😄 Me:  No, you're wrong! That's not tru 😂

Recently, we were grateful to have been invited to William's birthday dinner at Koha Bistro by House of Wheat. I myself appreciate his partner's penchant for patronising restaurants that we have not tried before. What struck me first, after being seated, was the seemingly ad hoc handwritten correction to its menu:     I had the clams pasta: This was unique and delicious, likely due to the use of ginger. Definitely fusion :) However, I think I would like it better if they had used the normal spaghetti than this thick pasta, which was probably homemade. Also, it was the first time I had sea grapes. Ban had the aged duck breast. This was disappointing, chiefly because it was tasteless. A few of us at the table couldn't recognise it as duck meat. Unsurprisingly, it came with dipping sauce i.e. miso puree, which I didn't like. Judging by what was plated (almost all meat), you would need order a plate of something else (vegetable would be good) to complement it and that means...

  This is one of my favourite dishes to cook: stir fried pork with ginger & spring onion. Ban was the one who found the recipe  sometime ago when he wanted to try cooking non-chicken dishes and I started cooking it when he moved on to other dishes. I forgot why he stopped. Probably because he preferred others that are simpler? Flavourful and aromatic but yes, it has quite a number of steps. Using pork tenderloin suits us because it's lean and tender. I used the extra spring onion to cook the oyster king mushroom, which was just lightly salted and sprinkled with soy sauce. It complemented the pork dish.   This was from the chap fan stall at Megah Good Luck Restaurant, a kopitiam at Taman Megah. It cost only RM 2! I only wanted a third of it but instead, the lady said, "I would give you a little more and charge you RM 2." I suspect they were trying to clear as much food as possible was it was late lunch time (around 1.30pm?). Think the stall did that to the customer bef...

Recently, a friend encouraged us to get a car window breaker in case we need to break the window e.g. cannot open the door and need to get out fast. I thought it's a great idea and so shopped for one and purchased this for RM 11.45 on Shopee: After opening, I noticed that there was a piece of glass in the box too:   Ban guessed that it was for us to test the efficacy of the product. I was doubtful because that seems to be an unnecessary cost given that no other products do that too i.e. to provide sample for you to test the equipment on. I asked the seller and it turned out that Ban is correct! So, I placed a piece of newspaper on the table and tried to use the breaker on it. I thought a few taps would break it :D Ban asked me to hit the glass forcefully and bam! Pieces of glass went strewn over the table and onto the floor. Eeeek. Definitely worked but we needed to hunt those shards and put them away. Fortunately, nobody got hurt. 

(Emphasis is mine, to show the mistakes)  1. Free Malaysia Today article: " Trump says Israel, Hezbollah agree to halt fighting ". Sentence: " But there were fresh signs of tensions between the United States and Washington over the situation in the Middle East. The two countries launched a joint offensive against Iran on Feb 28. " 2. Free Malaysia Today article: " Fifa must rebuild trust after scrapping World Cup investor proposal ". Sentence: " ‘ Ptomote the game’ " 3. Free Malaysia Today article: " Could your daily coffee be linked to less body fat and more muscle? ". Sentence: " A Finnish study found intriguing links between higher coffee intake, body composition and metabolism - although experts tress that coffee itself may not be the cause. "

Recently, we went a short trip to Seremban with my mum. I booked an apartment via Booking.com and as expected, they contacted me via WhatsApp to ask for details and to give instructions. One strange question was where I do come from i.e. which state/city. Why? Even if it's for data collection, how does that help them to improve their business? More instructions were given on the day of travel e.g. videos and additional info on how to check in and how to get to the correct carpark bay. All were expected. What wasn't expected was the additional rules that came in when we were about half an hour of reaching the destination, such as no birthday party allowed, no alcohol, no pets and couple must be married. Wth! I have no issue with such rules but to only made them known after money had been paid and we were about to reach the place was distasteful to say the least. When we arrived, I went checking the place for any defect and reported them accordingly. I also noticed that there wer...

During a dinner:  Ban's mum: *Looks at Ban* Ok, give me a birthday toast. Ban: Happy birthday mum. Ban's mum: It's my 75th birthday. Say a longer toast. Ban: Longer toast. Ban's mum: *Gives up and looks at Bans' brother* You try. Ban's brother: Kaya toast, butter toast. 😂 

  I've seen before laundry version of this, in a mall, but this was the first time I came across shoe wash version. This was along a row of shophouses at SS2.

During a recent actuarial project (valuation of general insurance reserve), auditor pointed out to client the inconsistency of recognising a component of premium (let's call it "CP1") in the total premium but not using it in calculating unearned premium reserve (UPR). So they asked client to include CP1 in their calculation of UPR. Please bear in mind that due to the choice of words the client used, it probably complicated the actuary's and my understanding of what the changes were. I determined which part of our workflow that was affected and looked at the relevant spreadsheets. I pointed out an inconsistency where within the same formula, one parameter excluded CP1 whereas another included it and we multiplied them to obtained estimation of another parameter. I tried my best to explain it to the actuary but first 3 attempts failed. I was frustrated and running out of idea of how else to present this point, when the actuary used a specific example using the data. I t...

Test results as compared to 3 months ago : Yes, it's worse than previous but not as bad as I had expected. During the preceding 2 weeks or more, I had cakes more often than usual (shared with my mum who was here for a while) and might have exercised a little less than usual (no access to treadmill or swimming pool during the 2-night trip to Seremban). Total cholesterol is uncomfortably above the personalised score of 6 but still not alarming. LDL is only slightly above and so that's ok. The good news is triglycerides level fell a lot while HDL improved tremendously. Hence, overall I'm not worried and need not start taking medication. Hopefully my reasons for the deterioration are correct and so it should get better in 3 months time. Meanwhile, I resolved to have a bit more unsweetened soy milk. Incidentally, I fasted about 12 hours for this test and so the vast improvement 3 months ago was probably not due to fasting for 11 hours. That remains a mystery :D 

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...