Seaweed has always been my favourite. I can eat the entire pack, yes few hundreds slices all at one go. My favourite soup is also seaweed soup, the real seaweed kind. In Cantonese, it is called “Kuan Po Hoi Choe”, you can ask the Chinese medical shop. I don’t know about you, but eating seaweed has made my hair black. I seldom get white hair and no need to dye. I never dye my hair too because I cannot stand the smell of the chemical.

Now in the market, brand new Japanese Crispy Seaweed, made in Thailand. Yes Crispy. It is very nice but only thing is, they put a little bit too much salt. It is not very healthy for children. Anyway snacks are never healthy. If you haven’t tried it, go get it from Tesco.

Yesterday was Dumpling Day. My neighbor made dumpling. My house was filled with the delicious aroma of those dumplings. They gave some to me. It was so good, wanted to ask for more. :giggles: I have been having dumpling for breakfast these few days.

I always wonder how they make it. Usually in the wet market here, they will have a special section that sells all the dumpling ingredients. I am always so tempted to buy and try it at home. If any of you know how to do it, please contribute your recipe on http://cookblog.mybabybay.com

Wrapping Method Here.

This is a wake up post for all Malaysians. It is nothing new to Malaysian on how bad their driving ethics or skills are. Here is the non-exhaustive list:

1. Some actually thinks indicators are an accessory. Often you find cars turning without indicating. Some indicate but never bother to turn it off after turning.
2. Drive through emergency lane when there are traffic jams.
3. Beat queuing by squeezing in between especially in toll areas.
4. Very creative in creating more lanes on the road.
5. Speeding behind ambulance as they want to beat the traffic.
6. Speeding on the highway, if cannot overtake on the left side, overtake on the right side.
7. Stop on the yellow box. I bet not many know what the yellow box is for.
8. Stop to pick up passenger or wait on the side of the road with yellow line and cause the long queue of traffic behind. The drive doesn’t even care.
9. Speed down residential area. Now I am seeing more and more speed bums, 3 speed bums in a 200 meters road.
10. Double park, triple park and doesn’t pay attention to the poor fellow who park correctly when he horns.
11. Using emergency indicators while driving, especially when it rains very heavily. Sometimes you cannot tell whether the car is moving or broke down. :sc:
12. This is a classic one. :wall: If cannot find parking in a shopping mall, send a passenger down to look for one. When found, call the driver to come and block other drivers who got there first, from parking.
13. Motorbikes who love to beat the red traffic lights, thinking there are racers.
14. There are certain kind of drivers who couldn’t decide where they are going, driving in the middle of 2 lanes.
15. ….etc…

Now when you are stop by the police because you got caught doing something illegal, like one of the above. What is the first thing you think off? Malaysians are very creative in finding many ways to escape from paying the fine. Think again. If you escape the hefty fine, please don’t complain about the above list, and tolerate every single one of them. If you cannot tolerate all the above, do drive with ethics and be considerate to others. :good:

A very interesting thing I found when I was in KL was that there is a recycle place in Mid Valley. As I was waiting for the sales ladies (30 mins late for work :mad:) to arrive to rent 2 car trolleys, I saw a recycle booth. It is at P1, the car park exit closest to Jaya Jusco. You can bring in newspapers, plastic bottles, aluminium cans (RM2 per kilo), glass bottles, magazines and boxes. Hey its time to do some spring-cleaning at your house. They don’t pay you much but it is a good cause for the environment.

You must be wondering, how am I going to transport all the rubbish there. It is easy, dump everything to the car and go early at 10:00am (opening hours), park near the entrance of Jaya Jusco, at P1. Take some trolleys (20 sen each), filled them up and push it to the booth. After that, you can use that money for parking fees. As I was waiting there for 30 mins, while my kids were trying out the trolley cars, I counted over 10 people came to recycle. :good:

Anyone know of such a thing in Penang? One time I had all the aluminium cans (children milk powder cans), magazines, plastic bottles but I couldn’t find the darn recycle bin. They removed the recycle bin in Green Lane and some other places that was previously there. :sc: I wish the government should set this booths in hypermarts like Giant, Tesco, Carrefour, etc…. Now I can only recycle my newspaper and magazine. There is a lorry that comes around my place during the weekend.

I decided to challenge myself on a mission. It sounds like I am going for a battle. I booked Penang -> KL free AA flights in Dec for Wesak long weekends. Due to unforeseen circumstances, my hubby could not make it. I wanted to celebrate Mother’s day in KL with my mum and bring my children to visit grandma & grandpa.

For those who do not know what LCCT is? It is Low Cost Carrier Terminal, low cost airport for AA flights. I heard it used to be a warehouse.

Pros:

Cons:

I had 1 luggage, 1 hand carry and 2 children with me. The trick is to complete the mission successfully is to bring plenty of finger food or candy. At the Penang airport, it was a bit chaotic as people were rushing to get to the front. Reason being, the kiasu ppl wants to get the best seating, as it was free seating. Anyway, the officer made sure there was a queue for parents with children under 12, senior citizen and pregnant lady to board the plane first. I had to carry Emily and hold Tim’s hand. Although I was first in Q but I gave way to a family with 2 children on strollers, 2 uncles, 3 aunts and an old guy on the wheel chair. The old guy had to walk down the stairs from the Penang airport and walk up the plane stairs. Anyway I was next to board the plane with children. I was relief after I was on the plane.

Later both Emily and Tim were occupied with a lollipop. When we exit the plane, the staircase down was shaking. I was afraid Tim will fall, he kept looking downwards. Fortunately a gentleman helped me by holding his hand. We reached KL safely.

Friday Night: Mother’s day dinner with my family.

Saturday

Morn: Kizsport in 1U
Afternoon: Lunch at Shogun buffet. I was a bit frustrated because I couldn’t find the door as I went to the back of the restaurant. Lots to eat but sad to say only 1 oyster each. 🙁 There was plenty of sushi, scallops, clams, sashimi, salmon, ice-cream for the children, mochi, fruits, tempuras, teriyaki, noodles, soups and plenty of drinks. Adult is RM48 ++ weekends and public hols. After that, did some shopping, children were tired. Emily eyes were small when we were in the car. Tim said “Emily eyes small small, my eyes big big”. Later after 5 mins drive, both doze off.
Evening: Enjoyed mum’s cooking. Yummy

Sunday

Morn: Midvalley shopping. There were so many sales, but I couldn’t shop with the children. I rented 2 car trolleys for them to drive around the mall. They enjoyed it. RM4 per hour, RM3 for subsequent hour. However, I still got some goodies for me and the children.
Lunch: My cousins treated us for another mother’s day.
Dinner: Enjoyed mum’s cooking again.

Monday

Prepare to go home. The children slept in the car on the way to LCC, it is a good thing. It will be difficult for me if they slept on the plane. I cannot carry 2 sleeping children down the plane. They did some coloring on the plane. When I return to my home, I sent both children to nap so that I can unpacked and relax. Mission completed!! PHEW. I felt so satisfied. Next morning, I had to return to work and received good news that I received a bonus. 😎 Next mission in July, tune in and I will surprise you.

P/S Thank God for helping me throughout the trip! :pray:

Yesterday, a few of us from my work place made a trip to dell factory in Prai. That factory produces 80% of the Dell notebook world wide. I am very impress with their supply chain. It is very efficient and no inventory storage that drive cost up, meaning maximize profit at the end of the day. All the notebooks are build to order. A lot of checkpoints, to make sure no missing parts.

Each operator can produce at least 6 units per hour. You do the math to see how many they produce in a day. The factory runs 24×7. All testing on the notebook is automated and softwares are dowloaded in the same way. They have this huge racks, probably 5-6 notebook per rack for this purpose. I notice that the operators who assemble notebook are mostly female. Those in the server lines are male. Probably servers are much more complicated heavier.

Actually Dell does not produce anything, mainly assemble the parts together to make the final product and name it DELL. By the way, if you want to purchase a notebook, order at the end of the quarter. If they run out of the specification you want, they probably bum it up for you to meet the orders. For example, if your notebook has 40G hard disk and they ran out, they probably give you a 60G or next higher in stocks. It doesn’t work all the time, ok, only if you are fortunate enough.

Sorry no pictures for the visit because no camera allowed. However I did take back with me a lot of value added information and a great eye opener. Who knows, I may open up a MELL factory. 😆

P/S I did get some door gift.

I received this today.

01:02:03 04/05/06

I am not sure how many have read TheStar yesterday. Starting today, Microsoft will put an annoying pop-up on your screen if you are not using a genuine copy of Microsoft.

Read here:
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2006/4/25/nation/14053230&sec=nation

By the way, I heard it was crack within 24 hours of the first release.

http://www.boingboing.net/2005/07/28/microsoft_genuine_ad.html

or

other suggestions:

http://earendur.blogspot.com/2006/04/windows-genuine-notification-updates.html

I got some tickets to watch Disney On Ice over the weekends. Thanks to my friend who could get me 25% discount for the tickets. Tim was very eager to watch the show. He kept saying, he want to see Mickey Mouse, Buzz Lightyear and Incredibles which will be appearing. Every time, we pass by the poster, he will tell mummy he want to go watch.

The day came, we watched the 1 pm show, first show in Penang. Fortunately we went to see the first show, because later show have to wait outside the door for the previous show people to clear before they can entered. Imagine the hot sun.

The show was great, I enjoyed every bit of it. Emily didn’t. She slept through Act 1 and cried during Act 2. Probably she was too sleepy or hungry. She didn’t eat much at lunch time and mummy didn’t bring enough food to keep her happy. 😡

Anyway, it was not a big crowd. I would say 50% of the stadium was filled. My hubby took 200 shots, and here are a few for you to enjoy. I will certainly bring them to watch it again. By the way, I spend quite a bit to get those overprices souvenirs for Tim & Emily. The program book already cost RM30.

It was a great performance with a variety of fairy tales. I felt like I was in fairy tale land or in Disneyland. The stunts were ok, a few flips and twist. Music and dialogues were recorded. The program:

Act One
Overture
Goofy and the Zamboni
Aladdin
Finding Nemo
Beauty & the Beast
Classic Princesses
Toy Story
It’s a Small World

Act Two
Mickey Leads the Band
Pinocchio
Mulan
The Incredibles
The Lion King
Finale

Yes, it is true. Newspaper published it yesterday.

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2006/4/11/nation/13929587&sec=nation

http://www.kwsp.gov.my/index.php?ch=81&pg=132&ac=6905

So happy withdrawing and quickly get yourself out of debt. The catch is your account II must have a minimal account of 500 to qualify.

If you want to learn more about the paperwork, read this and this.