The Archives

Chinese Dessert
05.28.08 | Permalink |Food| 1 Comment

I love Chinese dessert especially “tong sui” meaning sweet soup dessert. We have red bean soup, green bean soup, almond soup, bubur cha cha, herbal egg, peanut soup, black pulut soup, sweet potatoes soup and sweet sago dessert. It makes me drool just thinking about it.

There is this eating place in I-Avenue Bayan Baru Penang call Chopstick. They served mini bowls of red bean, black pulut and peanut soup. All 3 are my favorite soup. I like the way they served it in small portion so that I will be able to taste all 3 soups. They should prepared more variety and I think it can sell well.

Last time when I was small, there is this “tong sui” seller who comes around our house. We used to line up to buy his desserts. We drink them for supper. Yeap, we Cantonese like soups a lot!
FBI Agent
05.26.08 | Permalink |Dream| Comments Off on FBI Agent

Yesterday I was cooking up a little drama in my dream. I dreamt I was assisting some high tech crooks to get some memory chips. I wasn’t sure whether they were crooks or good guys. I helped them to enable the chips so that they can fit it into their high tech machines to view a video. The video was encrypted with some message in it.

The crooks had to leave my place in a hurry. While they were leaving, the FBI agents came to my place and pretend not to see the crooks. All agents walk passed them. The crooks pull me aside and questioned me. I told the crooks that I was on another case that the FBI agents needed some info from me. The crooks told me not to release any info to them. Suddenly I felt I was in a high profile with such intelligence helping 2 groups of people to get to the information they want.

I woke up feeling good. I wonder what it would be like if I was a FBI agent in real life. Oh well, maybe I watch too much TV but I must say it was really a good dream.
Logic Does Not Apply
05.23.08 | Permalink |Tax| 1 Comment

A month ago, I have just completed my tax submission. There is something not right about our tax system. It seems that it is not working for lower income group and it doesn’t benefit them. Why do I say that?

Take for example: We get books rebates up to 1000.

If you are earning 2500 a year, basically the rebates don’t apply to you because you are not subjected to tax. You get no benefit from the book rebates.

If you are earning higher and after all the deduction, the taxable income is 10K. You are entitled to a 3% discount or rebate on books up to 1000 you spend.

If you are earning higher and after all the deduction, the taxable income is 70K. You are entitled to 24% discount or rebate on books up to 1000 you spend.

More than 250K, you get a 28% discount.

If you see the trend above, it means the more you earn, the more discount you get. Therefore the richer you are, the more money you save.

You then argue, hey I pay more % tax if I earn more. Regardless of the book rebates, you still pay the same %. You cannot say because I pay more tax, I should have more discount with books. Not right at all. My point is that the book rebates is not equal for every body.

It should be made that lower income earners should benefit more from it versus higher income earners. This is not the case. Someone ought to rethink of a better method. Don’t you think so?
How Optimist Can You Get?
05.20.08 | Permalink |Scam, Service| 1 Comment
Can you be too optimist? The other day I wrote a feedback to a local D telco company, telling them there are too many menu options with their call directories and no direct options to reach an agent. I went through their list of options and no options to report a fraud. Don’t you think a fraud is important?! Or they are aware of it but there is nothing they can do about it.

You see I receive a SMS spam saying I won 20,000 00 from telco. I realized it was a spam and wanted to report it. However after calling their service line, I gave up. I tried their company website instead which was much easier.

I reported a fraud and gave a feedback of their lousy helpdesk service.

The reply of my feedback came back:

“Thank you for your feedback on the Interactive Voice Response(IVR) service. Be rest assured that your compliments will be escalated to the relevant management for review and it will be taken into consideration for future development in line with our continuous effort for customer satisfaction.”

Since when did I compliment them? Hrmm….

A. Are they being too optimist, taking every issues as a compliment?

B. Are they just generating the same message for any customer feedback? Like a robot with no personal touch, just like their Interactive Voice Response.

C. They don’t know the meaning of “compliments”.

D. Just making themselves feel good???!!! If they treat all issues as compliments, that will be a good performance, right…..WRONG!

My advice to any company wants to use an automated receptionist:
1. Always give an option to your customers to get to a human.
2. Always allowed your customer to go back to the previous menu.
3. Only have few options (3 max) to select and do not have no end listings. Imagine how long I have to wait if my option is the last selection (>10). Don’t torture us!!!
4. No advertisement played at any time, customer time is valuable.
5. Do test out your call system with a group of people. Get feedback to improve. The turn around time for your customer to get to what he needs is very important.
Delicious Double Boiled Soup
05.19.08 | Permalink |Food| 1 Comment

My mom taught me how to make good double boiled soup. She gave me some Cordyceps Sinensis which she gets from the local Chinese medical shop. Cordyceps used to be very affordable but lately it is getting expensive. I heard one piece costs RM70. Fortunately for me, my mom gave me whole packets years ago.

Cordyceps are a type of fungi. It looks like a worm but it is not. The Chinese called it “Dong Choong Cao” It is said that cordyceps strengthens body immunity, improve respiratory conditions, improved fatigue and stress resistance.

It is simple to make delicious soup with cordyceps. All you need is a chicken, water and cordyceps. For my family, I usually just use a chicken drumstick. Put them all into a double boiled pot and boiled for 8 hours or more. After it is done, you can put a pinch of salt to taste. Believed me it taste delicious and it is nutritious. You try it.
Branded Durian
05.16.08 | Permalink |Food, Penang| 2 Comments

Durian season is here and it is every where in Penang. Some are cheap and some are branded. My hubby and I went on a hunt for branded durian. We do not know the price of branded durian. We went to this “Durian Cap Kaki”. We asked for a few of the branded and good ones. I believed he said one of it is Ang Heh and 3 other different kinds. One guy, I believe is the boss, wearing gold chain and rings stood there. I guess you can strike rich just by selling durian.

The ah pek (aka uncle) charged us RM30 each. For those durian lovers, is it overpriced? My hubby said that previously he can get 5 for RM20. I believed that the price was expensive because it was branded. Next time I probably will do a market research on where I can get good cheap branded durian.

Night came, invited my FIL and have a durian feast. I love the Ang Heh, it is creamy and sweet. The rest of them were creamy too and fleshy but bitter. The aroma of the durian filled the entire house even before we open the durian. I guess this is the difference between branded and non branded durian.

It was simply satisfying. Next mission to hunt for cheaper ang heh. Tell me what brand of durian is the pic below:
Transformer BumbleBee OnSale
05.15.08 | Permalink |Toys| 6 Comments

Original Deluxe Bumblebee Transformer from Hasbro
PN: 6633541500
Height: 5.5 inches
Year of Model: 2007

If you would like the above for RM80 excluding shipping charges. Shipping in Malaysia will cost around RM5-10 using post laju. If you are interested, please leave your email on the comment box.
Another Bad Service
05.15.08 | Permalink |Service| Comments Off on Another Bad Service

Me: I am so and so, I would like to engage your legal service for …
Officer: Your file is 9 years ago, let me locate your file in the store. You know, it is so long ago, it takes time to locate it.
Me: How much is your service?
Officer: I need to find your file first.
Me: When can you have that done?
Officer: I don’t know, need to find your file first.
Me: How long does it take?
Officer: I don’t know.
Me: What is the process step of your service, please can I get some info.
Officer: I need to find your file first.
Me: Can you please call me back when you do locate my file?
Officer: I will call you when I locate the file.

Up until now, no calls from her. In fact, I gave a second chance which I call them to follow up. She told me the file has been found and it with the lawyer. She didn’t bother to call me. She also said the lawyer is busy. I guess her company doesn’t want business from me. It is either they have too many customers or the officer is plain lazy.

As compared to:

Me: I am so and so, I would like to engage your legal service for …
Officer: Let me passed you to a senior officer so that she can explain the process to you.
Snr Officer: Bla…bla..bla…
Me: How much is the fees?
Snr Officer: Let me call you back on this, I need to ask my boss.

She called me a couple of times to get my info and provided what I need. She also has a friendlier voice and efficient too. Bottom line, I rather pay more for this type of service.

If I engage the first legal firm, I will probably vomit blood, calling them for follow up. Who knows, they may loose all my files.
What A Fish!
05.13.08 | Permalink |Food| 2 Comments

I ordered fish and chips and this was what I got.

What a big fish on my plate. Frankly speaking this is the first time I see a chef served the whole fish on the plate for fish and chip. I can understand if it was a shared dinner. However the fish was really fresh and delicious. It was a trout. Cost RM14.90. It has some steam vegetables and a slice of bread with butter.

My children were going for my chips, no matter how I protect it. It ends up on their plate.
Night Snack
05.10.08 | Permalink |Food| 1 Comment

Every time I worked late in the night, I will go hungry. Yeap, it is my high metabolic rate that I do go hungry fast on certain days of the month. I just want to chew something. Sometimes I will have chopped carrots to chew on. Other times it will be unhealthy junk food.

Today I got a pack of marukku, an Indian type of snack. It is tasty, crunchy and some actually are spicy. It is made out of flour, urad bean and flavorings. At least it keeps me awake at night.