Monday, January 26, 2009

Happy Niu Year =)

Wishing all my friends a healthy, happy, prosperous year ahead =)

CNY celebration started off very well with a 2.5 hours chat over the phone with CCW - haven't talked to him for a year before this. And at time I was very worried that I'm losing my precious friends like him to time and distance. But to my surprise, we were able to really talk to each other =P

Will be meeting up with another "old" mate later =)

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Update: some pictures taken using my Canon Ixus 70

Lanterns @ The Gardens
IMG_2563 (Comp)

More Lanterns @ The Gardens
IMG_2567 (Comp)

Reunion Dinner
IMG_2606 (Comp)

Prawns! *drool*
IMG_2607 (Comp)

Friday, January 9, 2009

Say No to War

Today, more than 5000 people have gathered in front of the US embassy to express their dissatisfaction, that US did not play their role in the pursuit of a permanent ceasefire between Israel and Palistine.

And today, Malaysia, a small country in the eyes of the world, has stepped up and called for a UN special session in hope to end the Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip.

Today, I'm proud to be a Malaysian.

This has nothing to do with being pro-Palestine or pro-Jihad. This has nothing to do on who started it first or who's supplying the arms to who. To me, and many many small people and small voices across the world, what mattered to us is that the killing of innocent people and children must be stopped immediately. Bombing of the UN schools is unacceptable. If violence is the only way to solve the problem, I have no problem for both sides to identify a battlefield which is free of civillians, they can fire as much bullets/rockets as they like and bring each other to hell.

As for you, who are reading this, please spend a few minutes to read through the news. Those who were sacrificed deserve a little bit of our time, as a citizen of the global village, let us all remember what had happened in the past 14 days (and unknown days to come).

God please have mercy....

Read more:
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/1/13/nation/3002500&sec=nation
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/1/13/nation/3004291&sec=nation
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/1/13/nation/3003049&sec=nation

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Sentul East

4 January 2009 (Sunday)

We spent the entire morning walking between this 2 condominiums - Tamarind and Saffron. Generally both condos are good...

Saffron is brand new, but considerably more expensive, comes with a small private park and basketball court, better security as you need the access card to get into the lift lobby, selling at around RM 330 per sqf.

Tamarind is 2.5 years old, well-maintained, in fact they are re-painting now, slightly cheaper - selling at RM 300 per sqf.

Both are freehold, good layout which optimizes the built-up area (decent shower room size!) - but both are too pricy for us now...

Anyway no harm to take a look at them...

Saffron @ Sentul East



Tamarind @ Sentul East



Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Happy 2nd Anniversary

Thank you...

For all the good and (hardly) bad times...
For allowing all my once-in-a-month tantrums... (sometimes more than once...)
For all the gifts... (especially my lovely Bagman =D)
For all the good times we spent together travelling to different places...

Most importantly, for the future that we're going to build and cherish together...

Note: also thanks to le squid for her wishes...

Monday, January 5, 2009

Grilled Beef Salad with Ratatouille "Puff"

4th January 2009 (Sunday)

After a long morning spent in Sentul East, we arrived at Bangsar for 2 hours of "rich people" lifestyle =P

Bangsar is a different kind of neighbourhood - it always give me the kinda not-so-Malaysia feel. Of course I still couldn't forget the experience that I had when I volunteered at the World Vision Gift of Hope booth at Bangsar Shopping Center. Lost count of how many LV bags that I saw, and of course, the 2 years old baby girl eating Haagen Daz! o.O" (sorry, HD ice cream is too luxurious even for myself)

Anyway back to topic - we had lunch at a nice Italian restaurant called Telawi Street Bistro. In total, we ordered 1 starter and 2 mains. But only this, the starter, which really caught my attention...

Grilled Beef Salad with Ratatoiulle "Puff"


(Macro shot taken using my Canon Ixus 70 - quite happy with the macro effect!)

This dish is good -medium done tender beef strips + salad + and the superb puff...

Saturday, January 3, 2009

eFixed Deposit

Got a "brilliant" idea to share with you all... introducing the "eFixed Deposit"!

Instead of letting your money rot in the savings account, why not put your in FD using the eFD service? Let me show you some calculation....

Assume we have RM 3000...

1. Normal savings account ~
Max interest rate = 1.51% p.a. (you'll get this interest rate if your deposit amount is above RM 500k o.O")
Interest per month = 1.51% x RM 3000 / 12 = RM 3.78

2. eFixed Deposit (tenure = 1 month, auto-renew) ~
Interest rate = 3.0%
Interest per month = 3% x RM 3000 / 12 = RM 7.50
Note: by using 1 month tenure with the auto-renew function, it's just like another savings account. You can uplift your eFD anytime you want without losing much interest.

That's almost double the amount of interest that you can gain!!

It doesn't seem to be a lot... but with a few clicks, you can get 98% extra interest compared to normal savings account, that's really "no pain sure gain" =)

Note: the above scenario is based on Maybank system; CIMB's eFD does not provide you with the auto-renew convenience, and I just found out that it doesn't allow FD placements from joint accounts.