Brain Ooze

I’ve been tagged by JaseLee to learn about the things that you don’t know about me. Its kinda hard to find something that I have not mentioned in this blog, so I have to dig deep back into history.. If you already knew some of these, since some of you readers were in the same dem school for a good part of my life, just pretend you don’t know.

1. I took ABRSM grade 8 piano exam.. TWICE.. and failed both times. Then I stopped music to attend university. University saved my life, piano lessons are dreadful. Despite that, I suck at piano
2. Despite my hatred for people who wants to be doctors, there was once in my lifetime that I really wanted to be a doctor. Form 6 changed that.
3. I love war movies, I like how ordinary people become heroes because of war. I like machines of war, old and new. I can tell you that the M1A1 carries 4 types of ammunition (HE, SABOT, Phosphor, … and I forgot the last one).
4. People who meet me say that I am an walking encyclopedia of useless information. I know how much milk malaysian consumes vs denmark (or at least I used to remember). Nevertheless, I am still a walking encyclopedia.
5. My parents like my sister more than me. She is the little princess that gets everything. Her room in my parent’s house has aircond. Her room in her rented house also got air cond. I have a ceiling fan.

There you go. Stuff you probably didn’t know about me.

 I am supposed to tag someone, but if you are reading this and have a blog, then you are tagged.

There, lazy way of doing things.

Just arrived back in Penang couple of hours ago.

Enjoy some pics…

Sotong kangkung from Open Air Market. Starts from RM 3.00 a plate. A lot of sotong.

Square Tower @ Kuching Waterfront

Kuching General Post Office

Old Court House

Another shot of the Old Court House

Chinese New Year is coming. Everything has to be new. I’ve been using blogger since I started out this blog. I am wondering if its worth it to change to wordpress. Fiddling around with wordpress version 2.1 but the major problem is importing from the New Blogger into wordpress. I don’t want to lose all my postings so far right.

My major beef with blogger is that publishing articles to my hosting through the FTP is slow and sometimes it fails. The other thing that troubles me all the time is that I have to FTP the pictures in the blog using another tool, then post the links. Means I have to do double work to get pictures on the blog. I think wordpress solves these since the engine resides in the hosting and they have the upload feature.

I read that there are some workarounds (a word we use a lot at work) to getting the blogger postings imported. Will slowly tinker with them. Hopefully I don’t break the blogger.

Resident Evil 3 was one of the games that Winnie has completed. She is no gamer so its nor surprising that the did not complete a lot of games. This is a big thing for us because I did not finish that game.

Yesterday we bought ourselves a bootleg Resident Evil 4, or in some places its called biohazard 4 for PC. Better graphics and apparently better gameplay. I can vouch for the graphics. They are wonderful.

The story started after the destruction of Racoon City. I have not played much, but the game starts with you having to go to an Italian village to rescue the presiden’t daughter.

Time to kill zombies!

With a spanking new oven, which will eventually be handed over to my mom this weekend, we decided to whip something up to test out the oven. Shepherd’s pie was our choice of meal.

Look at the slightly browned mash potato. This was done with 20 minutes over 200Celcius. We would have liked for it to stay a little longer in the oven to get a more golden brown top, but then we were starving and were basically peering into the oven to watch it get baked!

Makan time… it was good. The mash potato was crispy on the top, while the filling was nice and moist.

For the filling:

1. Mutton (minced, ~400g)
2. Peas
3. Carrots (little cubes)
4. Mushroom (sliced)
5. Onion (chopped)
6. Garlic (chopped finely)

Marinate the mutton with a little Worchestershire sauce, salt, pepper and a little sesame oil. Set aside for around 15-30 minutes.
Fry onion till its translucent, then add garlic and fry till fragrant. Add mutton and continue to fry till its almost cooked. Pour in about a tablespoon of dark soy sauce to give it a darker colour. The juices from the mutton will start to ooze out. Toss in the peas, carrots and mushroom. Give it a nice stir, add water and let it simmer for around 5 minutes. By then everything should be nice and cooked. Season with salt if necessary and thicken the sauce with some cornflour and water mixture. Set aside and let it cool.
For the mash potato:
Boil about 3-4 potatoes (depending on potato size) in some boiling salted water. In our case, we peeled the skin off the potatoes first. Once it’s nice and soft, drain the water and mash up the potato. Pour in about half a cup of milk, add some butter or margarine, season it with a little pepper and whip it till it’s nice and fluffy. Place it on top of the cooled filling and pop it all into the oven.

Ever since I was a kid, I’ve heard of a lot of people who migrated overseas. Even in my small town, I used to know a lot of people who have moved to Australia or Canada. It was an in thing back then, so much so that my first bombastic word that I learn was MIGRATION.

Back then, once you tell people that you are migrating, or going to study aboard, a lot of those busy body people will then tell you that life is hard there. People will try to persuade you not to go there mainly because the cost of living is high. This is especially true from the government arm through the media. They would interview a lot of people overseas and the conclusion would be the same, that cost of living is high. They say you take prices of food for example, the convert to RM, and that proves that the food is more expensive if you convert it to RM. Its like saying, “oh one place of char kueh teow in Singapore is $3, convert it to RM and its like RM6.. One plate in Malaysia is RM2.50. Therefore Char kueh teow is cheaper in Malaysia.

Then of course the people in Malaysia got smarter and we realize that we cannot compare prices after conversion to RM. That is because in the foreign country, we are earning in their currency. So we have to compare prices dollar to dollar. Example, if you earn RM3000 here and you earn $3000 in Singapore, you are basically paying the same amount for a bowl of noodles. $3 in singapore, since you earn in sing dollars and RM 3 in Malaysia since you earn Ringgit. Nevertheless that bowl of noodles cost you the same percentage in the pay.

Then people realize that on top of that, imported goods are cheaper if you are earning in a higher currency. An imported shirt cost RM 25 in Malaysia but only Sing$5 in Singapore. This is because global trade is done in US dollar. The cat is out of the bag. People began to retaliate. They migrate!

So the reason that the government is giving nowdays is that you will miss your family and food of this country if you are away. Our food is good and the family is important, what will happen to them here. I got an earful of this excuses from an MCA guy recently when I mentioned that I will get out of this country given the chance. I of course have my bullets ready. I don’t miss the food in Malaysia cause I am a western food freak. Unlike my parents, I can survive with the mat salleh food. I can also cook if I want to. The spices that are used in Malaysia are also available elsewhere nowdays. Family? They are coming along.

Now out of reason.. the Higher Education Minister came out in the open and announced a research that proves people who studied abroad did not get the value for their money! Another attempt to keep people in the country. Well I dont believe the whole bull crap. Its government propoganda. Read between the lines. The minister said Malaysians abroad did not mix well, alienated.. and blame it on the university for not promoting unity. Like the public unis are any better. The chinese will also group with the chinese! And its asian for us to be shy. Its up to the individual to embrace the culture and make it happen. When in rome, do as the romans do!

I don’t fall for these traps. Given a chance, I am outta here!

Kenny, here is where you might want to eat. My Version. Take the path less traveled.

Breakfast

Char Kueh Kak (Also know as char kueh to you sarawakians) Ours is the salty variety. – Macalister Lane.

Turn into Macalister lane from Burmah Road, its the lane after hong leong finance. Its the Second coffee shop on the left, happening place, 2 shops into one. On the left ya. The char kueh stall.. yes its a stall.. on wheels.. on the side of the road. The stall that gives out the most smoke.

There is no indication on the wikimapia of the place but its smack in the middle of the map.

Also good there is the Chee Cheong Fun..

In the scale of 10, the char kueh teow in the shop which is fried by this old couple is rated by my standards as 7.

Lunch.

Nasi Kandar – Line Clear.

Its in a alley.. yes you heard me right.. in an alley off Penang Road. Its just across the Odeon Cinema which now shows Indian Movies. Normally during meal times there is a queue and the place is more happening than the picture below.

Wikimapia to the place.

Penang’s Best Cendol – Lebuh Kheng Swee
After line clear, go for a walk up Penang Road towards Komtar. Do not cross the main road, do not pass go, do not collect $200. Just walk along the same side of the road as Line Clear. Walk past the Chowrasta Market and buy netmeg oil. If you have mosquito problems, get citronela oil. If you are up to it, buy a packet of nutmeg and eat it. Sarawkians don’t like the taste, but since you are in the hunt for wierd and crazy food, what the heck right.

Keep walking till you see Lebuh Kheng Swee (I hope I got the name right). You will know cause there will be two stalls selling Cendol in the street and there will be throngs of people there. Take the right one. That is supposedly the original one but both taste the same.

Take the cendol there, everything else is second fiddle.

I heard the Laksa there is nice too but I personally have not had the Laksa there.

Dinner

Curry Mee, Almond Tea, Sotong Kangkung – New Lane.

One stop center for food. Some penangites say this place is commercialized, but I think they still serve good food for dinner. Go early to avoid the crowds.

Supper

Sup Hameed – Penang Road.
Right across the Continental Hotel. The same road as Line clear BUT on the oppside side and oppside direction (Most of penang road is a one way street). This roadside stall caters for the clubbing crowd. Its beside SOHO. What is good there? SOUP! Mamak soup to be precise, something you don’t get in Kuching. Why compare food? take something you DON’T have there. There is soup for chicken, mutton and beef. There is also the torpedo soup if you asked and also soup for every conceivable innards of the animals mentioned above. Ask for roti bangali if they do not serve with it.

Again there is no markings in wikimapia, just smack right in the middle of the map.

Map of the area

Went for a walk in Western Road (Jalan Utama) during Thaipusam on Thursday. I’ve had this walk many times but never manage to reach the end of the road, ie the temple. This time around I insist that we trudge all the way. The scenery was the usual except for this odd ball.

What is a chinese laughing buddha doing in Thaipusam? Winnie says we Penangites are a bunch of wierd, odd and confused bunch of people. Chinese praying to Indian god and the indians praying to chinese gods.

Then there is the smashing of the coconuts before Lord Muruga’s Charriot. Thousands of coconuts are smashed, I was standing on the other side of the road and we were taking cover behind a parked car.

Again, you will notice that its the chinese that is breaking like thousands of these coconuts.

Some one sent this to me through the email, posting this as a filler.

#10 Life is sexually transmitted.

#9 Good health is merely the slowest rate at which one can die

#8 Men have two emotions: Hungry and Horny. If you see him without anerection, make him a sandwich.

#7 Give a person a fish and you feed them for a day; teach a person to usethe internet and they won’t bother you for weeks.

#6 Some people are like a slinky… not really good for anything, but youstill can’t help but smile when you shove them down the stairs.

#5 Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in the hospitaldying of nothing

#4 All of us could take a lesson from the weather. It pays no attention tocriticism.

#3 Why does a slight tax increase cost you two hundred dollars, and asubstantial tax cut saves you thirty cents???

#2 In the 60′s, people took LSD to make the world weird. Now the world isso weird people take Prozac to make it normal.

AND THE (#1) NUMBER ONE THOUGHT FOR 2007:We know exactly where one cow with mad-cow-disease is located among themillions and millions of them, but we haven’t a clue as to where thousandsof Illegal immigrants and Terrorists are located. Maybe we should put theDepartment of Agriculture in charge of immigration.

A good friend of mine sent me me an offer I cannot refuse, unfortunately I am not in Kuching. The Red Crescent Society, Sarawak Branch are looking for volunteers to respond to disaster. Its not like we are expecting a disaster. We cannot be recruiting people just before a disaster. The volunteers has to be trained way before a disaster, practice what they train and train.. and practice. This is so that once the perfect disaster hit, everyone know how to react, disaster reaction has to be as second nature.

The Sarawak’s training is quite impressive and they have plenty of roles for people to volunteer into. Unlucky me, I was sort of trained into the disaster team but never had a chance to respond to one. Nothing happens when I am around.

If you are in Sarawak and interested, below are the brochures and forms.

English
Mandarin
Bahasa Malaysia