Sunday, April 26, 2009

Açaí Baby



If you ask any BJJ exponent from Brazil, they will do 1 of 2 things. Firstly they ask you if you have tasted açaí and secondly they will ask you if they can find açaí in Malaysia. I've been told that açaí is a type of berry and it's usually ice blended, served cold (obviously) and mostly mixed with granola and I am told it's popular among BJJers in Brazil as it is an energy booster. The picture above which I downloaded from wikipedia should give you an idea of how it looks like when it is served.

More importantly, açaí is I am told and amateurishly verified through the net , high in antioxidants and wanting to believe the hype I've bought Berry Splash which is "Powered with Acai Berry'. It comes in powdered form and doesn't taste all that bad. If I've got the time I will write a follow up review. Hopefully I'll get a bit of benefit on the antioxidant front failing which I'll just enjoy this overpriced Ribena with the kids.

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Priceless

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Come On 0% Interest...Come To Papa


KUALA LUMPUR, April 22 — Malaysia’s annual inflation slowed marginally in March, leaving scope for Bank Negara to ease interest rates further next week to combat the economic woes facing the export-dependent country.

Government data released by Ban Negara today showed Malaysia’s consumer price index rose 3.5 per cent in March, slower than February’s 3.7 per cent rise. Economists in a Reuters poll had forecast a rise of 3.6 per cent.

“The improvement further highlights the easing in inflationary pressure. It will be an opportunity for Bank Negara to cut rates further,” said Action Economics’ David Cohen.

A rate cut of 25 basis points is expected in next week’s Bank Negara meeting, according to a Reuters poll conducted before today’s inflation figures were announced.

The rise was due mostly to higher food and alcoholic beverage prices, while transport costs fell in tandem with lower oil prices.

Malaysia’s inflation rose to 27-year peaks in the middle of last year after the government slashed fuel subsidies because of soaring oil prices, but since then it has cut fuel prices seven times, helping push down inflation.

Inflation peaked at 8.5 per cent in both July and August.

Moderating inflation in recent months has allowed many central banks around the world to step up rate-cutting campaigns to kickstart flagging economic growth, but some have nearly exhausted their rate ammunition, forcing them to look to unconventional measures to stimulate business activity.

The Federal Reserve, the Bank of England and the Bank of Japan have all cut rates to near zero.

Malaysia has employed aggressive measures in a bid to counter the global economic slump that has sent demand for Asian goods crashing. It unveiled a RM60 billion stimulus package spread over two years and cut interest rates by 125 basis points this year.

“A couple of further small slashes with the overnight policy rate this month and next may serve as collateral to ensure the foundation is laid for an economic revival the latest by late 2009 or early 2010,” said Bank Islam economist Azrul Azwar Ahmad Tajudin. – Reuters

Michael Jackson In Malaysia



I've seen my fair share of impressionists of MJ from Malaysia and I've enjoyed most of them. Some were really good and some were, shall we say interesting. But check out the guy above. 5  for guts

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

DoubleTake with PJ Old Town

PJ Old Town 2
PJ Old Town (taken from my Office window)

I've been fiddling about with this piece of photo stiching software for a few days now and I must admit I kinda like it. Basically it is the "nano" of stitching software. Drag & drop your images onto or into DoubleTake and it will stitch the photos together into a 'panorama'. It is that simple.

The above picture is actually 2 pictures stitched together and as you can see, it is not too bad. Nothing fancy, it's just for fun and unfortunately fun costs approximately €17.95 (RM85.00)

For further information, you can visit http://echoone.com/DoubleTake/

p.s. : can you see the 2 guys sitting on the roof? Click on the picture to get the full view at flickr

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Fun Night

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P4060018

2 feet of legal documents + 12 hours with the laptop = 1 affidavit.

2 nights ago was a rare night for me. It was one of those rare occasions where I had to really discipline myself and plant my arse on the chair to sieve through 2 feet of affidavits (17 affidavits in all) and come out with a 1st draft. It wasn't easy but it took me from 11pm till 11am the next day (with a 45 minute gym break at 6 am) to complete the damn thing.

It was later emailed to my partners and was returned with a request for some amendments. Had a meetiing with the clients at 3 pm to finalise things and with that I was essentially free for the entire week. It later took me 10 hours of shut-eye the next night to recover from that episode. Now if I had to do this 10 years ago, I wouldn't even need any extra sleep to recover, but now... Damn! this dog is getting old.

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Uncle Ben Drops In For A Visit



Today Uncle Ben paid us a visit at CheckMat Malaysia for a few friendly rolls. For those of you who are not familiar with Uncle Ben, he's the surfer dude from Down Under who is currently residing in Bali. From the look of things, he hasn't lost any of his ground skills and was consequently making life miserable for us on the mats today. But jokes aside it was good seeing you again and hopefully we'll get to see more of you either here in KL or in Bali.

p/s : Uncle Ben, I lifted the pic from your FB account. Hope you don't mind that I display your ugly mug for all to see

Monday, April 6, 2009

The Lunch Conundrum

Nasi Campur

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Ikan Pari

Ikan Keli


Restoran Anjung Merah II



1 of my favourite places for lunch is at Restoran Anjung Merah II which is located in USJ3A, Subang Jaya. It serves fantastic Malay food with its speciality being ayam kampung goreng & ikan pari bakar (I think). I am not much of an ayam goreng guy and consequently one of the dishes that I never miss is the goreng ikan keli (or fried catfish) sloshed with dollops of sambal . Who would have thought that I might actually like catfish!

The downside of this place is that prices can be a bit higher than other comparable makan joints. However the good thing is that it is located a little bit out of the way and consequently parking is not a hassle even during lunch hours. If you ever find yourself stuck in Subang Jaya during lunch hour, give this place a try, you will enjoy it.

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Kinokuniya 8th Anniversary Promotion



Just a little bit of news for you bookworms out there. Kinokuniya is having a sale of sorts . From 1 April to 30 April 2009, every RM80 spent on a single receipt entitles you to a one Daruma-eye sticker. Completion of a pair of eyes allows you to enjoy a 28% on one book of your choice on your next purchase. This promotion is however only valid for walk-in customers.

Basically Kinokuniya will give you a cut-out of the 'Daruma face' you see in the pic above but without any eyes. For every purchase of RM80, you will get an eye sticker for the face. Once you spend RM160 which entitles you to 2 eyes, you will then enjoy 28% off one book using this Daruma coupon.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

A Night Out For Durians (Translation Needed)





Last night the few of us decided to take Chico & Marcos out for durians. For weeks we've been talking about it since Chico's arrival but after a few false starts we finally went ahead and did it. The place we chose was of course the durian stall in SS2 (http://www.durianss2.com).

Anyway Chico was first up and true to form he liked it and had several seeds. Next up was Marcos and as you can see from the video, he was having a difficult time with the durian, his most difficult opponent since ADCC...hahaha.




Of course subsequently, we proceeded to the hawker stalls nearby to have a taste of the local delicacies. All in all, it was a fun night out