Uma Rani

Those who lives at Sentul and along Jalan Ipoh should be very familiar with the name. I used to visit this indian (not mamak, they do not sell beef) restaurant during my schoolboy days when i had my tuition nearby. It used to be an ordinary restaurant which offers normal teh tariks and roti's. After 2 years, i went back to the same shop. I was greeted by an alien new restaurant. I thought Uma Rani had ceased operation and taken over by a new tenant. But upon closer inspection, its the same old Uma Rani!


The new Uma Rani

They rented the level above the ground floor and renovated it into an air-conditioned to accommodate more seats. I heard from my friend that they renovated it for 1 year already. Its kinda late for me to talk about it. anyway....


Wide window for better view

The decoration on the first floor is lavish. It has a bar and also chandeliers hanging from the ceiling.


Chandelier. Too much for a mamak stall ok!


a bar

The mamak stall looks more like a cafe now. I ordered roti planta and tosai. The food was not as good as it used to be. And i was disappointed the the nasi lemak was sold out.



I gulped down a cup of neslo and there goes my Sunday breakfast. I heard that they had a projector TV on Saturday and Sunday nights to show live football matches. Uma Rani would be packed with people until the wee hours in the morning.

Saman

I got a letter from the Royal Malaysian Police Department today.


Addressed to the owner of my car

I got a feeling that what's inside will be nothing good....


Yes... a saman! or fine!




I was caught by a speedtrap. I was found to be speeding, about 19km/j over the limit on Lebuhraya Mahameru. I never knew there's speedtrap there. I learnt my lesson and i won't drive fast anymore. RM 150 was quite expensive for a lesson.

Weather causing havoc

Areas around the Klang Valley had been hit hard by storm for the past few days. Today, the storm grew stronger and hit Subang Jaya badly, causing a havoc at the area. The strong wind brought by the storm swept through the town, uprooting trees and also destroying road signs, banners and billboards. There were leaves and rubbish littered all around like it was hit by a hurricane.


unfortunate car pinned down by fallen tree

Some houses even have their roof blown away. Another house was seen having its roofing for its veranda totally destroyed by the strong wind. Fortunately it did not happen back here at home.

For a better future

I am sitting right in IMU Computer Aided Learning Lab (CAL) writing this post. Hardly find any words to describe my surrounding now, but what i see beyond this room is the picture of the interior of an abandoned building project. Aluminium frames/supporters were set up to support the roof of the alledged additional floor and corridors are now badly lit with flickering bulbs and failing lightings. Every inlet for sunlight was either sealed off or blocked, deluding me into the thought that its after working hours when i should be heading back home onto my cozy bed. And this added to my early morning blues which stressed my eyelids more. They were trying hard to prevent me from dozing into a hibernation.

Despite the fact that the school had promised us that the construction/renovation would not interfere with our lectures and studies, the first thing that welcomed me when i stepped into the Lecture Theatre (LT1) for class yesterday was the noise of heavy drilling from above. The incessant perturbing sound of the drills was really testing our patience. At some point during the lectures, the voice of the lecturers became only mere whispers. I wished i knew how to lip-read. And now, there's an orchestra of pilling and machinery works above. I never knew the school has a collaboration with the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra with Phua Chu Kang as the conductor. I doubt that the contractors adhered to the Indoor Noise Pollution Index.

I wished that the authorities would be more considerate and inform the contractors that they should only carry out the noisy works during the evening or night. Eventhough the works are done for better facilities for us in the future, i would rather not have them if it compromise the quality of our studies.

Brokeback Mountain

Congrats to Ang Lee for the Best Director accolade he received during the 78th annual Academy Awards. Too bad it can't have a clean sweep of awards when "Crash" stole the Best Film. Brokeback Mountain, the movie in which Ang Lee directed was a story of 2 cowboys who fell in love with each other at the wrong place and the wrong time. Looking beyond the homosexuality, it's a great love story. "We could have had a great life together," Jack Twist the cowboy said. Perhaps they could have a great life if they were not born within the social constraints of the conservative countryside of the 1960's. In the end, the only place they had for themselves was the fictitious Brokeback Mountain.


Brokeback Mountain, the only place for them to love..... and make love =P
Poor Ernis and Jack.

Fortunately, we have our own...







Brokeback Fountain!




*I'm not gay. Neither does Wei Meng. Thanks WMeng for the pose, and also thanks SuMin for the shot.

How to start a fire

Starting a fire is rather an art than skill. Especially when we are living in a world where gas stoves are easily available and the use of charcoal combustion fire is seeping away from our society. It's not hard to start a fire nowadays, but it is how you start it that matters. And whenever there's a need for charcoal fire for BBQ, that's when i find how hard it is to start a nice fire. With much practice and some past experiences, i finally found the trick.

Rule 1: Use charcoal fragments instead of big blocks. If there are none in the pack, break them into pieces to the sizes of syillings.

Rule 2: Pile them up and leave a space at the centre for the fire starter.

Rule 3: Do not fan when the fire starter was lit. Wait until the fire starter was all burnt out.

Rule 4: Cover the fire starter with bigger blocks of charcoal from above but allow some room for oxygen.

Rule 5: Patience.

When the small fragments of charcoals are red hot and burning, fan it vigorously. A fire would soon appear. And again, be patient and add more charcoal to burn. If u are in a hurry, you can skip all the steps above. Dip your charcoal in petrol and lit it with a lighter. But then your chicken wings might smell like your car exhaust.


nice fire

When all the charcoals turn white, u can spread it over your bbq stove and start your BBQ! I recommend slow fire which is easier to control and your food would not turn into ashes the instant you glance away from the bbq fire. Yesterday i started a fire and bbq-ed the leftover lamb shoulders from a party the day before. They was charcoal-cooked to perfection with a spread of butter. The mutton sizzled under the slow fire and melted fat and juice dripped onto the fire making 'hisses' sound. When they were done, it was eaten with mint sauce bought from hypermarket days ago. YUM! The best lamb-steak i ever had!

Happy Birthday!

Yesterday is my bro's bday. So our family threw a party for him.
It's a steamboat + bbq party but it ended up everyone opting for steamboat and there's only a few of us left around the bbq stove. The food was enough to cater for almost 40 ppl but there's about 20++ of us. We even bought 2 cakes in which one remained untouched. The purchase of the cake took me one full hour to reach home at the jam at LDP near the MRR2 interchange. Cars avoided the stretch of road at MRR2 and thus clogging up the stretch after the toll on LDP. To make matter worse it rained so heavily that i was worried that it might affect the party afterwards. Fortunately the weather gave way and there was no rain in Kepong until midnight. When i reached home, all the guest arrived and the food was all prepared. I did not even have to start up the bbq stove. It was all done skillfully by kak who had been setting up charcoal stoves to boil soup every single day. Then there was the steamboat. There were all kind of balls, fishballs, porkballs, sotongballs, salmon balls to choose from. There were also dumplings, sui gao, fish noodles just to name a few. We didn't manage to finish everything so tonight, we will also have steamboat for dinner tonight. =)

Happy Birthday to BRO!

Refuel

I went to refuel my car today. My calculation was right.


RM63.20 for one full tank of Primax!

It's so hard to maintain a car nowadays with fuel price sky-rocketing. But yet I am grateful that i am driving a Myvi which is quite fuel-economic. For my parent's car with larger fuel tanks twice the size of mine, one refuel would cost up to RM 120. It's an eye-sore to sign off that sum on ccard for petrol alone. Let say if the government decided not to subsidise anymore, 60L tank of a 2000cc car would cost RM 150 at RM 2.50/L. Imagine this newly graduate accountant with a salary of RM1k needs to pump his car 3 times a month. 3x150=RM450! RM1000-RM450 = RM 550. Half of his salary went to petrol! How about house rent? How about food? How about the money to hang out with friends? How about dates? How about household expenditure? How about Astro? How about gym? Haih.. No need drive liao la. Take bicycle only.

When will the age of electric cars and fuel cells come by? Please, let it be tomorrow!

RM1.92/litre

RM1.92 per litre! What!? Yes! The government have announced that the petrol price would rise to RM 1.92/L for RON97 petrol with effect from tuesday.

A 30 sen rise and the gahmen said that they can't continue to dig into their coffers to subsidise us any more since the price of petroleum fuel remains sky high. As usual they will compare our cheap petrol price with other neighbouring countries and say how lucky we are to have such a low rate... blah blah blah.

All i care is that how much it will cost me after the price hike. I made some simple calculations and found out that a full tank which would only cost me about RM52 previously will now cost RM 61!

Die loh.. i guess i gonna start using V-power...


since its diesel... its cheaper

i'm back...

It had been nearly a week since i update my blog. I was busy during the orientation of new batch of juniors. I had one whole week of fun but i couldn't find any extra time in writing blogs since i only managed to reach home at midnite nearly everyday.

The orientation had brought heavy toll on some of us. Some of my friends was sick and dear also caught a fever after the tiring orientation week. i was worried for her and i rather have myself being sick myself.

Dear! Get well soon! Take care!

P106 Orientation Week

The P106 orientation weeks commences. Both the seniors and juniors would have a great week of fun and joy ahead. In spite of the dirty games and embarassing moments, we will have loads of fun and also know each other more. We didn't want to treat them that way, but we must adhere to our course's tradition. It's not our choice to make and do it we must! So juniors, don't blame us... Ngek ngek ngek. Have FUN!

Tawakal Hokkien Mee

We were filled with emptiness and dejection after watching Manchester United bow in defeat to Liverpool in the FA cup fifth round. It had been 85 years since MU lost to Liverpool in a FA cup draw. This defeat was hard to digest and so we decided to fill our disappointment with... supper!

We heard from someone who was told by someone that there was one fried hokkien mee stall near Tawakal which is very popular and nice. So we decided to give it a try.

This shop is located right behind Tawakal Hospital and very easy to find.



The place was fullhouse. Fortunately we manage to secure a table when someone left just at the moment we reached.


The Moonlight Hor




The food was ok ok only. Not as delicious as some ppl said. Anyway, we had a full stomach and also numbed out sorrows.

Ops. Saving Bandaraya

*Bandaraya fishes

This pair of bandaraya fish was from my house's aquarium but we decided to isolate them from the other fishes when they started chasing after them. We put them in a small pail while we decide what we should do with them. It had been a week since they were isolated and on a few occasions, one of them managed to leap out of the pail and ended up on the kitchen floor. And last night, the escape went to the extreme...



Hey, where do u think u are going?!

As you can see, this fish could have easily crawled 5 feet from where it should be. And this daring escape was flopped, not until i found out about it early morning.


Arghh... another attempt failed.
Should have used my skateboard.



*The bandaraya fishes got their name from bandaraya garbage collectors as they also clean up the aquarium by eating up dirt and dung.

Zh'ng old car

I took this pict in the 1 Utama parking. The car looked strange and when i inspected upon it upclose, i found that the owner of this car zh'ng his car to look like AE86 in the Initial D series.


Home-made tofu - Initial D

It is not surprising that there are people who tried to modify their old cars from junks into Initial D's AE86. But for this, the car owner didn't zh'ng his car well. It looked ridiculous so to speak. Either its parody or merely trying to make a fool out of himself, the owner of the car surely did drew some attention. Frankly speaking, i would like to have that car for our orientation InitialP video. Too bad i did not have his contact.

Taiko! Can borrow ur car ah? Where u Zh'ng one?

*Zh'ng in cantonese stands for repairing, modifying, making, etc....

COOL!

There an article in the papers recently which was written based on a research done by the University of Nebrasky of United States. The research was done to identify the most frequently used english word in conversations and they found out that it is the word COOL. According to leading researcher Prof. D. Kruman, he himself uses the word COOL so frequently and he could have easily used it 50++ times a day. This is probably how he achieved the feat.

student1: Good morning professor!
P. Kruman: Hey! good morning! A cool day we have huh.. U look cool today!
student1: Thanz. U look great too.
P. Kruman: Cool!

5 cool's in one greeting. Then in class.

P. Kruman: Hi class! Don't u all feel cool? Is the air-cool turned to its maximum?
Student 2: (raised his hand)
P. Kruman:Yes, that cool-looking young man over there. Do you have any queries?
Student 2: What's air-cool, professor?
P. Kruman: Air-cool? Oh, it's the machine which conditions the air so that u have a cool and comfortable environment to study in...got it?
Student 2: Alrite...(that's the air-conditioner! Stupid!)
P. Kruman: Cool!

Another 5.... Then at the school cafetaria.

P. Kruman: May i have a cool-blended latte, smoked turkey sandwiches and a cool-cream, thanks.
Waiter: Pardon me, can you please repeat your order?
P. Kruman: Ok, a cool-blended latte, smoked turkey sandwiches and a cool-cream.
Waiter: Do you mean ice-blended latte?
P. Kruman: Cool! Exactly!
Waiter: What the heck is cool-cream?
P. Kruman: Ice-cream! Got it?
Waiter: Alright..(Old fag!)
P. Kruman: Cool!

And 6 times more.... Then at home,

P. Kruman: Hi dear! How's your day?
Wife: Fine
P. Kruman: I had a cool day too!
Wife: Alright... (who cares)
P. Kruman: Why is the pasta so cool?
Wife: It's yesterday's
P. Kruman: Cool!
Wife: I had something to tell you.
P. Kruman: Cool! What do you want to tell me?
Wife: Can you stop saying the word cool? F*cking irritating.
P. Kruman: Cool down, dear! Keep your cool and we should have a talk.
Wife: You just did it again.
P. Kruman: Did i? Cool!
Wife: F*ck!
P. Kruman: Why are you acting so cool nowadays?
WIfe: I don't want to listen anymore.
P. Kruman: What's wrong with cool? COOL COOL COOL!
Wife: i want a divorce.
P. Kruman: Cool!..... hey.... wat? divorce?

13 times....

5+5+6+13 = 29 cool's.... already

Yes, no doubt how he can use it more than 50 times per day. Wat a freak!

To dearest:

To dearest Lin Lin:

Happy Valentine's Day!
Love Ya!



inseperable....


Thanz dear! Love the present and the card u gimme!

Taman Sempalit Baru, Raub

Taman Sempalit Baru?

Sounds like Taman Sembelit Baru or New Constipation Garden to me. Haha!
Just joking... My uncle's family lived there and Sempalit is a small town in Raub, Pahang.
It is renowned for its peanuts and not even Hand Mark or Pagoda Mark can match the Sempalit Peanuts. Maybe ppl there used to eat so much of them that they got chronic constipation.

Chap Goh Meh!

CNY Special 28

Today is Chap Goh Meh, and also the last day of the Chinese New Year! The 15th day of the Dog year also marks the end of my CNY Special blogs. Today is also the Chinese Valentine's Day. Happy Chinese Valentine's Day. Love ya, dear!

My family celebrated Chap Goh Meh in a low note as one of our close relatives passed away recently. We had some prayers in the morning and had a vegetarian dinner. This vegetarian dinner was meant to help our tummy to gear down after nearly half a month of feasting. And yet again, my aunt made some great vegetarian dishes out of normal ingredients in which we still filled our stomach to the brim. YUM!


"Bak goh and fatt choy"


"Lin ngou fried long beans"


"Mushrooms with dry taufu"

I wish we will have a prosperous and peaceful year ahead. I had a few new year resolutions in which i hope i can fulfill. May the New Dog Year bless everyone with happiness and joy for the whole year ahead!

GONG XI FA CAI! XAM XIONG XI XENG!

CNY Special 28

MRR2

When i travelled back from Raub recently, i got stuck in a jam at the Kepong stretch of MRR2. The stretch of flyover was closed for public use for repair works to be done. Cracks were found in 31 in 33 of the supporting pillars and the Work Ministry was concerned of the safety of motorists using the highway.


The flyover ahead was empty



jam.. jam.. jam..

The highway was meant to ease the traffic at the area. In the end, it made matter worse.


We had to take a detour near Taman Desa Jaya.



One of the pillars


cracks



cracks with sensors attached to monitor the condition


More cracks...

The condition of the bridge deteriorated and it was ordered to be closed.


MRR2 from another view... what a waste...

I do not want to criticise anyone here and end up in ISA. But it really made me wonder where all the taxpayers money went.

Service

11835km... That's the mileage my car had travelled. It was 1835km over the 10,000km mark for the scheduled service and fortunately i managed to book a time for my 'brother' for his medical checkup. It was not my fault for the extra mileage but it was all because of people who started to worry about their car's condition which cause an exodus of concerned car owners who sent their cars for checkups before the CNY holidays.


Perodua service at Taman Bukit Maluri

It was my first visit to this service centre as i used to travel all the way to Setapak to service my car. And soon i found that how stupid i was to travel for nearly 1 hour back and fro Setapak when there's one just at my doorsteps. Since this service centre is so near my house, i had the luxury to leave my car there and head back home. In contrast, i would normally wait for up to an hour and for my car to be serviced at Setapak and time went down the drain in the customer's lounge reading outdated magazines.


Comment box... Seperate entries for happy people and sad people



got myself some souvenirs
prihatin my ass...



RING RING! Encik, kereta anda dah siap!

After lunch, the service centre called so i went picked up my car. They did the routine oil change and also changed the faulty handbrake system which was in every Myvi of the early batches. I asked my 'bro' how he felt after the checkup but that introvert dude didn't even say a word. I suppose he's fine.

Doctor vs. Pharmacist

Dispensing right has been an issue recently that the doctors' association (MMA) and pharmacist assosiciation (MPS) are discussing on to work towards a plan for the segregation of prescription and dispensing of medicine in local environment in tandem with the developement of our country towards a developed country.

The discussion soon became a debate, and then a quarrel which caused a commotion in both the representing societies when some irresponsible personnels from both sides exchanged opinions and disagreement towards each other in the local newspaper.

I came across with two articles on The Star today, both by doctors. Both suggested that pharmacist practice nowadays is in disarray. I was disappointed that they were generalising on judgement of pharmacists based on a few individual cases of wrongdoings of some pharmacists . What dissappointed me more is when i read an article in the Malaysian Pharmaceutical Society (MPS) i-bulletin in which it referred to a letter by Malaysia Medical Association (MMA) president Dr. Teoh Siang Chin to THE STAR newspaper. Afer reading his article, i made an presumptuous conclusion that what he meant in his article is that.....

NO PLACE FOR PHARMACISTS IN MALAYSIA....

As many had said that the only obstacle for the introduction of dispensing seperation in Malaysia is because of the lack of pharmacists in Malaysia, particularly in rural areas. But many did not understand that the main underlying reason which impedes the developement of the profession is the hostile local environment where even the upmost representative of the MMA was critical in the role of pharmacists in Malaysia. I even read in a paper by a doctor who suggested that pharmacists only work in the ideal society where doctors prescribe and pharmacist dispense and since we are not living in an ideal world, pharmacists are then obselete. I was staggered by what came from a doctor. Shouldn't we work towards an ideal society or should we just stay put at where we are? Forget vision 2020 then! I would not deny that there are some rotten apples among the pharmacy profession who are unethical but they should not brand all pharmacists in the same category as profit-seeking and irresponsible shopkeepers.

We should not point fingers at each other anymore and should sit down and discuss the prospect of an ideal healthcare service together and also to find out ways in which we could cooperate to achieve the goal of providing the best services for the society. Some doctors should have a change in mindset as pharmacists are here to assist them in pharmaceutical care but not competitors for their business. LET'S WORK TOGETHER FOR A BETTER FUTURE!

PS: some discussions on the IMU forum clearly indicates how badly they comprehend the pharmacy profession. And credit to this article which rebuked the MMA president.

1 month old

Baby Hao Ming 1 month old today! Went to Raub during cny and saw my baby nephew. The baby is cute and has great appetite. Drinking lot of milk and growing fast! And cousin is being a great daddy, he's in charge of feeding, diapers-changing, bathing and etc. except breast-feeding.


Daddy day's care...



baby sleeping... shhh....

happy bday!

It's Sumin's and Khang Wern b'day and we had dinner at Chili's to celebrate their big day.

Their birthdays were two day before and also the next day respectively and we chose this day in between to celebrate for them.

As usual, my hand got itchy and i took some photos...



The red-colored essence in this bottle made Heinz the best selling ketchup in America,



And this small pack of sugar makes coffee the most popular beverage,

And a sprinkle of parsley renders the curry perfection,

And like a spread of cheese makes a burger delicious,

Like how love makes life complete,

So what makes a great birthday?!

Friends!!!!




Yes! The best things in life should always be shared... with friends.

CNY Day 10

CNY Special 26

Oh, it had been nearly a week since i updated my blog. Haha! I gave myself a break from blogging for one week during the CNY. I was too busy to touch the computer, and blogging was out of my mind for days. Perhaps this period of time for me to refresh my ideas as i felt that my blog is really being a roadblock for myself and my brain is slowing down, especially during CNY when i was doped with alcohol and bicarbonates. Things happened these few days and i did not had time to jot them down.

Its getting late now and tomorrow i will have class, so i will only fill in the blanks in between when i am free. 5 more days and CNY will be over. Happy CNY!


CNY Special 26

Mahjong

CNY Special 25

During CNY, the elders are playing mahjong and i somehow got to sit next to them and watch them play. Other than citingthe normal Pong! Gong! etc... they also spoke of other funny names of celebrities and animals which intrigue me. After some investigations, i found they are some pseudonyms for the different tiles of the mahjong set. For example...


They called this "Chow Yun Fatt"



Lam Ching Ha



Patrick Tse, Nicholas Tse's father

I didn't know why they name this tile Patrick Tse. Then i was told that this tile is called "Chiah 3" or "slanted 3" in english because of the slant. "Tse" is pronounced as "Chiah" for "Chiah Yian" aka. "Tse Yin" in Hakka. Icic...

And this is a racist one....


Keling Poh or Indian lady....

I was perplexed...What! Why!?

Ok, this is the explanation from uncle.... Because hor, u see, the 8 TONG, is the only TONG tile with all black markings, and indians are black mah, so this is keling poh loh!

Sorry if i offended anyone, but this is had been passed down from generations ago.


Cat catch mouse



Cock eat centipede

I managed to learn about the twists and turns of mahjong after hours of observation and fortunately managed to win some money with it later... hahahaha!



CNY Special 25

CNY day 3

CNY Special 24

Ok, yet another tiring day. Exhausted and broke.

Money lost in 21 points : RM 45-
Money won in Mahjong : RM 16+

Net Profit : RM 29-


CNY atmosphere and joy : Priceless

CNY Special 24