Sensasi

Sensasi banned.

More Sensasi in Screenshots.

Cytoderm

?Contact dermatitis

For those interested in dermatology, comments are welcomed at A Skin Blog.

3rd

These are the total Ang Pows I received thus far, dwindling in numbers as years went on. Very embarrassing too, each time I received Ang Pow, people started asking, "When is your turn to give out?".

Not any sooner, I guess.
Any interested investor?

Kong Hei Fatt Choy D2

Here, I'd like to share a hilarious sms which has been circulated through sms:
Hali busat sula mali,
Anjing pegi babi mali,
Sueh sueh pegi ong ong mali,
Beli nimau satu loli,
Satu tawun satu kali,
Wa silap wa veli soli,
Itu ampau sini mali,
Gong Xi Fa Chai,
Manyak happy,
Ala luit boleh joli,
Takla luit tiam tiam dili,
2007 gelenti ong mali,
Semua olang sinang hati.

KONG Hei Fatt Choy

Kek Lok Si

Yesterday evening, I went to Jane's parents in-law's house, which is located right at the foothill of Kek Lok Si Temple. It has been quite some time since I last came here.

Contrary to my expectation, there were not many traffics though on the 1st day of CNY. However, there were lots of tourists visiting the temple, and most of them were foreigners.

While the temple authorities might be boasting about the construction of the multi-million octagon pavillion for the statute of Kuan Yin, I was rather appalled by the neglect of the 'lower part' of the temple.

The tortoise and fish ponds were some good examples. It was such an eyesore to see the once main attraction of the temple, in a horrible and poorly maintained state. The steps leading all the way to the pagoda were also seen with rubbish threwn all over.

I'd just hope they would not be too big-headed, but do consider about certain aspect of beautifying the temple without incurring much spending, especially on publics' donations.

Gong Xi Fa Cai

CNY eve dinner

Here we had our simple CNY eve dinner made by mom:

Pat Po Yu Yun (Fish ball).

Pak Cam Kai or Plain boiled chicken.

Shark fin soup (Combination of real+fake shark fin, crab meat, Chinese and Japanese mushroom).

Fatt Tai Choy (Various vege, sea weed, snail meat, mushroom, abalone slices, sea cucumber, lotus root, scallop meat, sea asparagus cooked in abalone soup).

Har Yan Pah Siong Ku (Various mushrooms and prawn cooked in oyster sauce).

Awan Yang Terpilu

Here is a beautiful song I downloaded from Kristal Kids Idol 2007 sang by a 11-year-0ld girl, Annabelle Voo Pei Pei.

Awan Yang Terpilu

Link

Swatow Lane 2007

Down memory lane, Swaton Lane or "San Sai Kai" (in Cantonese) was once a place where I spent most of my early childhood in the 1970s till 1980s. Every evening, our parents would bring us for evening walk near the then abandoned amusement park, and each time we would stopped by the roadside to buy fruits from Ah Lee's store, yes, the ever famous ais kacang store in Penang now.

Ah Lee's store was unique in the sense that, it did not only sell ais kacang, but rojak and fruits as well. Once upon a time, there was also this unique big "ice ball" where it was sold in a coconut shell that cost only 10 cents. Notably, there was also mini cucumber sold with rojak paste. I don't think I would ever find them now in the whole Penang.

Fast forward, Swaton Lane in 2007 has transformed into an ultra modern hawker centre in Penang. The new hawker centre built on the land of the old New World Amusement Park is not only spacious with an unique high roof, it is also clean and comfortable. Most importantly, there is enough carparks.

After some two months deprivation of hawker food, so today I decided to try out the food over there during our long Friday break. Of course, the first thing I would like to try was the Wan Than Mee.

There used to be this particular Wan Than Mee store that we ate very often in those years. There was this bald man,by the name of Ah Fook who used to cycle around the neighbourhood every morning with his trademark knocking two pieces of stick, giving the sound of "tok, tok, tok" to take orders from the customers. Yes, Wan Than Mee was served upto our doorsteps then. Wan Than Mee was therefore known to us as Tok Tok Mee.

Even after many years, this store still existed at the same old spot by the road side even after a new Wan Than Mee store was opened inside the coffee shop.

Swatow Lane Wan Than Mee
Price: RM3.00 (Medium)
Rating: 5/10

However, I was rather disappointed because the Wan Than Mee that I had today, did not taste the same as before. I was therefore wondering if it was the same old store. However, I did not see Ah Fook around.

Ais Kacang with mango and ice scream top
Price: RM3.50

Nevertheless, not all food were nice. I still remembered, my friends and I had a very bad diarrhea after having the curry mee, and we never eat back at the same store. We also experienced diarrhea after having pasembur and the Sultan Mee many years ago. Therefore, they gave us a bad impression that, we'd never had them again nowadays despite their popularities.

Well, there are more stores in the new hawker centre and I would be going there again next time to check out other food.

Read what others wrote about Swatow Lane:
GluttonRabbit
MalaysiaBest
EpicuriousGirl
PenangLive
Salivate

Get conned again

This was the third time I was "conned" by Tesco. Today, I bought a Fresh & White tooth paste 175 gm at RM 3.15. While on my way back, it just struck me to check the resit.

To my horrow, I was billed RM 5.25 instead! I quickly went back to the customer service counter and complained. The staff then went and counter-checked my claim. She came back and told me that the pricing was correct. She told me that the "blue" box was priced at RM5.25 while the "green" one was priced at a discounted rate, RM3.15.

I refused to believe her, as I have been using the same tooth paste for donkey years and I knew very well what the pricing was. I told her that it was impossible, as the 250 gm toothpaste costs RM4.55, and how could a 175 gm cost RM5.25?

She insisted that she was right.

Dissatisfied with her explaination, I went and checked the pricing again. It was then I realized, in fact, it was my mistake. On numerous look, it was indeed true that the "blue" box was actually tagged RM5.25!

However, any 3-year-old kid would tell you that it is impossible, as the 250 gm costs only RM4.55 (refer to the picture).

It could have been a labelling mistake, but what really put me off was, the reluctant of the staff to admit their mistake.

Anyway for me, it was just easy, I merely returned the goods and asked for a refund.

Hug that lasted 6,000 years

Related: Not even death could part prehistoric couple

A pair of human skeletons lie in an eternal embrace at an Neolithic archaeological dig site near Mantova, Italy, in this photo released Feb. 6, 2007. Archaeologists in northern Italy believe the couple was buried 5,000-6,000 years ago, their arms still wrapped around each other in a hug that has lasted millennia. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

More:
China View
Alzazeera.net

For those lovers who celebrate Valentine cm, "Happy Valentine's day".

Reversed technology

New filter spotted in the clinic.

While we probably might be facing a bad drought soon, warned the meteorologists, here we are draining gallons of water away a day in exchange for a "reverse osmotic" drinking water. It appeared that, for every drop of water filtered, about 10ml of water is also drained and wasted. Not a smart idea.

CNY soon

Just one week before CNY, went to this nursery to buy some CNY decorative flowers.

Cheap sales

Got these items in Tesco:

Nestum Original cereal: RM6.20 RM5.20
Knife cooking oil 5kg: RM12.90 RM10.88
Julie's peanut butter sandwich: RM5.90 RM4.38
Anlene Gold 1.2kg: RM26.50 RM23.78
Dutch Lady milk powder with honey 700gm: RM11.30 RM10.15
Cintan Jumbo Pack 600gm: RM2.70 RM1.98

Fits or Faint

Fits or Faint by Prof Raymond

Haven for Food

Being a Penangite (but atypical one), who have lived here for the past 3 decades, I've never knew many places with good food around here (cause I eat home-cooked food). So recently, kennysia threw a challenge to anyone to write good reviews about food in Penang, cause he is coming here for a promo stint for a new dance studio.

Anyway, here is a kenny-siau blogger who actually took the trouble to write a quite comprehensive review (with nice pictures) on 50 good places for Penang's food. Here's another KS craze.

One thing I don't really understand about "typical Penangite" is that, what is there to boast about when it comes to food? Nothing that actually, really "grand" about, those char koay teow, whether Sister or Lrg Selamat, or Laksa for the matter, that can be found everywhere.

But one thing really stands out about Penang, is that, there are just too many hawkers around selling the same kind of food. Sometimes, I wonder about the hygiene aspect.

This sparks one theory of mine, that, typical Penangites, being "greedy+stingy+kiasu+rude", probably like "extra+cheap+convenience+nice" food being served right at their doorsteps.

That is the reason why one sees a lot of hawker stores being located at every corners of the Island. If you throw a stone from the air, chances that you hit a hawker is probably > 80%. This made Penang Island appears very disorganized and dirty.

Hawker store right in front of the entry of apartments

Not to mention, the typical Penangites, being very inconsiderate to park their grand cars anywhere they like in their grandfather's roads.

Once, a friend from Australia who visited me in Penang, passed a remark that she was actually so surprised to see there were so many hawkers who set up stores anywhere they liked. That scenario gave her an impression that Penang is so dirty and disorganized. She said she've never seen such fenomenon in Australia.

I agreed with her and was then too embarrassed to say anything.

Top 50 blogs in Malaysia

So, which are the top 50 blogs in Malaysia?
Here are the list according to Sabahan.com.

BTW, I stole this funny picture from kickdefella (listed 23rd).

Green monster

Caught these two caterpillars eating on my lime tree leaves.