Blackie Turns Five

Time flies. It's been five years since I picked Blackie and the late Brownie, two newborn 3-day-old kittens, from the garden of my previous apartment on a wet afternoon. There were four in the litter, and he was the only black one. He was the tiniest of the litter, and the noisiest, squealing non-stop. It was his cries that led me to him.


Blackie has since grown from an all-black kitten into a tabby with greys and browns, and is a rather quiet cat. Quiet as in, he makes these soft little kitteny mews. Has anyone heard the late Michael Jackson speak? Well, Blackie reminds me of Michael Jackson, where the voice is not compatible with the total package.


From a tiny, skinny kitten, Blackie is one big, fat cat now. He has been the proud recipient of a couple of nicknames from hubby: "Fat Boy" and "Button Face". I like Button Face better. :)


So, happy birthday Blackie, my Button Face. I love you.

How Accurate Is The GPS?

Have you ever been asked "do you have a GPS?" whenever you asked for directions? Well, we have. It seems that almost everyone these days expect you to use the GPS to get you to your destination. 


But how accurate is the GPS? Can you totally rely on it to get you to where you want to go? Most of my friends who own one swear by it.


I have my doubts. I mean, well, the GPS would probably eventually take you where you want to go, but I believe there would be some inaccuracies. After all, it relies on the satellite signals, which I feel could be obstructed by tall buildings, huge trees or even the weather. Astro, our satellite TV, is a good example of how satellite signal is lost during a storm. Moreover, in KL, a junction where you could turn right might become illegal to turn the next day and the maps might not be updated right away.


So, hubby and I decided to conduct a little experiment over a period of two weeks. We decided to use the GPS on his mobile handphone to take us home from places we're totally familiar with. 


The result? If we had followed the instructions of the GPS, we would probably be going around in circles before we reached home.


The first test was from Bukit Bintang to Kepong. The instructions were correct only up to a point. At a junction, the GPS instructed us to turn right at a traffic light which does NOT allow any right turn. Due to the way the traffic lights were programmed, traffic has to move straight ahead and not turn right. Not unless we wish to crash into another vehicle, or have a vehicle smash into the left passenger side of our car. While we'd love to go to heaven, we don't want to die. So, we ignored the instruction.


As we followed the course of the road, the GPS started to 'recallibrate calculation'. And that was the message we were going to hear over and over again throughout the test as we ignored the GPS' instructions and headed in a different route. GPS, why should we turn off onto the NKVE highway to get to Kepong when we're already on Jalan Duta? No doubt we could get to Kepong via that route, but that would be driving off-course to the West to get to the North when we're already on the North. 


And in one of the tests from the "belly" of Pudu, the GPS misread our position and instead of directing us to turn right when we expected it to, it asked us to proceed straight for another few meters and then instructed us to turn right, smack into a building. Yes! It kept saying "Turn right now!". Well, no thank you, GPS, we have no desire to smash our brains against a wall. 


Undeterred, the GPS continued to try to direct this recalcitrant couple by instructing us to turn right when we came to a junction where there is a huge divider in the middle of the road. We have two options: either we smash into the divider, or we could drive against the traffic on our side of the road. No brains required to figure out which option we took. Neither.


So, what's wrong with the GPS? Initially, I thought that perhaps our maps aren't updated. But as the tests progressed, I realised that the GPS most likely had misread our position. It didn't know our precise location. Its signals were probably deflected or blocked by the tall buildings surrounding us for the times when the instructions were wrong, we were in a "belly" of buildings or underpasses.


To check if my hunch was correct, I googled and found that, indeed one of the disadvantages of the GPS is its inaccuracies. I found quite a few articles, but the article below sums it up.   http://www.ehow.co.uk/list_5912431_advantages-disadvantages-gps-systems.html

Shi Xin Hui @ Teen Fest 2010

Photo courtesy of Shi Xin Hui

First, a disclaimer. I was educated in a national school, which means I was taught in the Malay medium. There was only one English book, the English Language book. Since I'm not Chinese-literate, please excuse me if I make some mistakes here and there.


Last night, Teen Fest, a Chinese magazine, held a concert to celebrate something. I'm not sure what, due to my not understanding Chinese. The concert was a chance for local artistes to give back to their fans. There were quite a number of performers, most of them unknown to me and hubby, but not to the Malaysian public.


The only reason I knew about the concert and was there was because Shi Xin Hui was one of the artistes performing. She was born and raised in Malaysia, but became a celebrity in Singapore (another talent taken away from Malaysia.) Click on the link above to read more about her if you don't already know. Or, visit her Facebook page.


Despite the disappointing amateurish stage setup, Xin Hui gave an amazing medley performance from her top hits 'From Taipei to Beijing' and 'Queen', and the theme song from the NTV7 series 'Forever Friends' where she also had a starring role. She really is a star. She has that unmistakable celebrity aura the minute she steps onto the stage, the X Factor, as what Simon Cowell would say.

Being interviewed..... sorry, I didn't understand the dialogue, only that the host asked if Xin Hui is a Malaysian.  ;)

A chance for fans to take a group photo of their idols.

Politics, Folitics, Fodlitics, Foodlitics

I'm in a dilemma. What title should I give this post? The subject matter has something to do with food and politics. Wait a minute. What has food and politics in common? Well, nothing really, except perhaps a politician needs to eat?

Or, how about a cafe bearing the logo of a political party?

We've passed by this cafe numerous times but have never actually stepped inside until Deepavali last Friday. I mean, a political party cafe? Are they serious about the food or are they more focused on political propaganda?

And we would still not have stepped inside had we not been searching for Restaurant Ho Fun, a cafe selling Ipoh kuey teow in both soup and dry version. Despite walking up and down the five-foot pavement a couple of times, we could no longer find this cafe. The address is No. 18, Jalan SS2/63, and we knew it is a few doors away from the KTZ Cafe. At last, we decided to check the actual no.18 unit by counting the shoplots. 

In Malaysia, most of the shops don't display their address, not to mention the unit number anywhere on their premises, so you'll have to look for two lots with a number and start counting down, or up, as in our case.

When we finally reached no. 18, we found ourselves at the DAP Rocket cafe. Looks like Restaurant Ho Fun is no longer around. We're stuck, because at 2:45pm, all the other restaurants nearby have closed their kitchen and no longer takes any orders. Our only other option is McDonalds, which we would rather pass. 

The cafe is a no-frills place, and the party's memorabilia are available for sale at the premises. It is not owned by DAP, but its party supporters and members. Check out the news here >>> http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/11/20/nation/5147095&sec=nation

I must say it's somewhat disconcerting to be sitting and eating under the armpit of Lim Guan Eng, the Chief Minister of Penang. Throughout my meal, my imagination ran wild and I kept thinking I could smell his armpit. I could certainly see his armpit hair, that's for sure, and I thanked my lucky stars that there's no ingredient resembling hair in my bowl of laksa. 

Can you see his armpit hair?

I ordered the Penang Assam Laksa and the soup base is just right, not too sour. I did not add the lime that was served with it. Although the price is a little steep for assam laksa in a cafe, at RM7.90 it is still a reasonable price considering the very generous amount of mackerel fish in it.

I only remembered to take a picture after having eaten like, two mouthfuls.  :)

Hubby ordered the Fried Prawn Noodle. It came with a combination of yellow noodles (the ones used in mee goreng) and laksa noodles. The taste was right up hubby's alley, with lots of egg-ish texture, which wasn't particularly my cup of tea.

The cafe is registered under the name of Just Change Sdn Bhd. 

How To Drive Customers Away From Your Shop

This post is dedicated to all the shops and sales people that have mastered the art of chasing away potential customers.


I'm sure I'm not the only one who has experienced this. I walked into a boutique (or any shop for that matter) and before I had a chance to swivel my head left and right to see what the store has to offer, a sales assistant stepped up to me. "What are you looking for?", "You want to buy clothes?" are just some of the varied questions that assaulted me. It's a boutique, so what did they think I was looking for? Salted fish?? Coffin??


And the one that would surely win an award if I'm in a mind to give one is this: "Found anything?" This is asked before I had even had a chance to see what merchandise the store has!! How could I find anything if I haven't even had a look??!! Excuse me, I had just stepped into your store right this moment and you saw it.


If I was in a good mood, I'd say yes, and hurried down the aisle, taking only a cursory glance so I could get out quickly as politely as I could. If I happened to be in a grumpy mood, I'd say "No, I'm looking for salted fish" and walked out.


I really wish those sales assistants would leave me alone. Perhaps I'll then buy from them. To those who stood at a discreet distance and offered useful information when I asked, kudos to you. You are what a good sales person should be, discreet and informative.