I got an I-Jerry!!!

Finally - after waiting for quite a while, my I-Jerry has arrived. It is a speaker which works differently. It needs a hard surface in order for the sound to be transmitted. Lift it off the table and it is speechless. Got one for Elaine too. She had been just as anxious as me waiting for it's arrival.

The sound from the little guy is clear and crisp. Been trying all types of music on it for a while. Jerry also comes with 1G of memory so you can input from music players, such as, CD, MD player, or copy from the notebook PC, MP3, MP4, etc, and it can play them on a standalone basis.

Product Specifications:
Fashionable and lovely
Volume control on its ears
Max. output power: 12W
Input AC voltage: 100V-240V
Output DC voltage: 12V
Static current: 1A
Frequency response: 100-17KHz
Sensitivity: 80db
Size: 128*75*75mm
Weight: 740g

If anyone is interested to find out more similar products, go to this site. Or write to

ESSI Asia Sdn Bhd (758945-K)
B-3A-26, Block B, Merchant Square,
Jalan Tropicana Selatan 1, PJU 3,
47410 Petaling Jaya, Selangor Darul Ehsan,
West Malaysia.
Tel: +603-7883 0636 Fax: +603-7883 0955
Email: mailto:info@essiasia.com.my

Thanks Vincent for helping to get them.

Mid Valley/ The Gardens - 7th Sept 2008

My family spent almost 8 hours at Mid Valley and The Gardens today. I think that was the longest time we had ever spent in the shopping complex. Halfway through, Alex was already complaining that his feet was tired...... but they miraculously became okay again when he was told that I had permission from a sponsor to get him his Sony PSP today!!

We were at the shopping complex by 10.30am to avoid the lack of parking lots. Anytime you arrive after 12,30pm on a weekend, you can be assured of little or NO parking lots available. You would have to wait and hope that someone would be leaving near where you are waiting. These waits can be as long as an hour.

First we went to the GAP. I had RM1000.00 worth of vouchers to spend!! Won that some time back and then was told that I could not use it during sales (which was the whole of last month!). Alex and my wife managed to grab a few Tees, some socks and even a backpack. That came to RM802. Used RM800 of the vouchers and paid the difference in cash - all RM2 of it. Got a free water bottle and a free membership added to the whole deal. Okay I guess, since I only spend RM2 cash for everything.

Then we decided to explore the Gardens. We had never gone beyond the 1st floor on all our visits. We got something at Marks and Spencer. Walked into a couple of mobile phone shops. I was looking for a second phone for private use. The Gardens even had ketupat shaped lanterns hanging all over. Was this suppose to be Tanglung Raya?? Went all the way up to Borders (the bookshop) and the GSC Cinema level. By then Alex was thirsty, so we decided to try the "Delights of Gurney Drive" located on level 3 (use the middle escalators, not the ones at the Isetan or Robinsons ends). They had 16 hawker style stalls located all around the dining area offering authentic Penang fare. They claim that they had 16 chefs from Penang preparing the food. You can just make out some of the stalls behind my wife.

Alex and wife are not big eaters, so I ended up ordering Char Kway Teow and Sotong Kangkong (squid with morning glory), a glass of ice lemon tea (which was more lemon and little tea with lots of ice). Wife ordered what she thought was pig stomach noodles. Turns out to be Pig Intestines with kidney noodles. Food was good but pricey. As an example, Char Kway Teow was RM12.80 +10% (svc charge), which Little Penang Cafe in Mid valley only charged RM9.80 for the same thing. Of course the typical hawker only charges RM4 or so in most places.

After lunch, we popped over to Mid Valley. Walked on every 1st and 2nd floors of Jusco, Toys R'Us and so on and by then Alex was complaining of tired feet. According to my pedometer, we had only done about 8000 steps so far. So i suggested that we stopped over at Burger King for a rest and drinks. While he was resting, I popped over to the Samsung shop next to Besk Denki. After a big of haggling, decided on a Samsung SGH-L760 for my second phone. Very basic features - only MP3, 2M camera and 3G. Nothing fancy.

I had SMSed a sponsor if i could buy the PSP for Alex today, since we were there. Sponsor agreed and I told Alex. Eyes lit up immediately. No more tired feet. Made our way up to the 3rd floor. First shop which we had inquired previously had no stock of the Mint Green Slim and Lite PSP. So we went to a second shop. Package, including downloading up to 7 games onto a 4G memory card, came to RM979. By the time we were finished, it was almost 6pm!!

Loooong day!

933 Curry Chicken in a bun - in Singapore

It's been some time since I was in Singapore. During my recent visit, I brought some colleagues to 933 in East Coast Road. This food outlet serves Curry Chicken in a Bun as a house specialty. In addition, they also have Curry Mutton (taste great and it does not have the muttony smell that many outlets have), Curry Prawns and a host of other food. This is the famous Golden Pillow Restaurant of Singapore.

Just like many businesses in Singapore, they also have a website and customers could place their orders online. I was pleasantly surprised during this visit as they have now relocated the production of the buns to a central site in Katong. The outlet at East coast road had been upgraded to serve steamboat, and a carp dish. There was Fish Head curry, Loh Sang (a dish that is normally available during Chinese new Year (and now all year round at 933) and a few varieties of dishes featuring parts of the carp.

Since there was only 4 of us that day, we could only savor a Curry Chicken bun, a fish skin kerabu, a tantalizingly fried fritters (where the honey coated bananas were really delish).

I know I have blogged about the chicken before, but it is still a worthwhile eat. So this time, I'll show you how the bun is prepared from the time it reaches the table until it is ready to eat. The curry chicken is first cooked before it is wrapped in food quality plastic and then wrapped again with grease proof paper. Then it is wrapped with the bread dough and placed in the oven. The temperature of the oven is hot enough to bake the bread, but will not melt the plastic.

When served, you get a big bread bun, which is then dissected into 8 pieces. the packet of curry chicken inside is unwrapped (nice and warm) and the edge of the plastic and grease proof paper folded to form a bowl of curry chicken. The bread is then torn up to dip into the curry and eaten

YUMMY!!

Denai Alam house - almost ready

Rain in the past couple of weeks when I was away in Singapore had slowed down renovation works. I thought the painting of the walls would have been completed by now and it was just a matter of some minor touch ups here and there.

Still , much progress has been made. The grills are finally in. Shirley managed to convince her brother from Bahau to do this (albeit reluctantly on the part of her brother).

I am happy with the colors that I have chosen for the walls. ICI Waterfall color is not a common color to use and I kind of liked it after having used it in my current house. My house is the one in green.

Ready soon!!!

update on eve of Merdeka

What a difference in atmosphere between Singapore and Malaysia!! I was in Singapore for 2 weeks. And this was after August 9th had already passed, i.e., independence day for Singapore. You can see flags draped on every HDB flat, housing and streets. I also managed to catch the National Day address by their Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

He used the occasion to use technology to show his audience the new world of internet. He had his mobile phone camera activated, streamed the video to his blog and showed that to the audience in his address. Instantaneous. Like he said - maybe the world's first political video blog!! BG Lee came across as articulate, intelligent and up to date on current issues, technologies and developments.

Contrast that to Malaysia. On the eve of the 51st Merdeka (National day), there is nary a national flag flying anywhere. Only an occasional blurb on the idiot box about how great it is that we are celebrating Merdeka. There is a dampener felt in the air.

The prime minister (not in caps on purpose) just made his budget presentation yesterday. He is obviously still in denial about the current political scenario. His political party had advocated racism during the recent by election that was won by Anwar Ibrahim (who has since been nominated as the opposition leader of parliament). After 50 years of molly coddling, the malays in UMNO still don't get it - racism is NOT the way to go. Beggar thy neighbor is NOT the way to go.

Idiots!!