"Celcom, Spring, Doraemon!"

Festive season is upon us, driving to work is a breeze, time for some much needed R&R!

1. Celcom Broadband
Modo was giving subsidy for broadband usage of RM90/month but the account must be under employee's name. Darn, asked TM to change the Streamyx from my bro's name to mine. Cannot pula ask me to cut the line and re-register a line, but need 1 month! If that didn't sound ridiculous to them when they say it, I dunno what will! So went to scout for other broadband services, ended up with Celcom Broadband, heard of this nice offer from WM, RM98/month, Modem RM399, Trial period 1 week.



Well, on the 6th day, I cut the line and got a full refund for the modem! Gosh it was too slow, even with HSDPA. Nice try though, certainly has it's advantages, but it's considerably slower than Streamyx and watching YouTube was a nightmare. Heh, the shop and Celcom didn't even ask why I terminate.. must be used to it alrdy!

2. The Spring
Remember this place I was considering last time? Well, last Sat they released the bumi lots. It was selling red hot last time, with people queueing up at 3AM. So how bout this time?



Nah, still many units available. I went at 4.30PM *almost* bought one unit. But RM323K for 925 sq ft, leasehold, 23rd floor with no swimming pool doesn't really make sense. You can get a double storey terrace at Butterworth for that price! I'd pay RM280K for it, mostly coz I like the design and concept of waking up to face the sea, but not RM323K. Mr.Salesman persistently ask me to reconsider. Screw..:D With the economy being predictably gloomy next year, might be wise to play wait and see!

3. Doraemon
Haha.. you'd be wondering what Doraemon has to do with Christmas @ Queensbay. Probably the new movie out, but hey, don't we all love this cute friend!



Ok, that's it. The fact that I'm blogging from office shows something :P Will be going back to Melaka tomorrow morning. Back to Penang on 30/12. Then, we will be flying (yes, Fireflyz!) to Langkawi for a 3D2N vacation. Hurray~~!

Ok, signing off, take care and have a great holiday!

"Oversized shipment in!"

It's the holiday/year-end season again, and time for Hasbro to triple their income with things like these!


Jabba's Rancor with Luke Skywalker, from which we can do this:

And the Ultimate Battlepacks:

Battle of Christophsis

Battle at the Sarlacc Pit

Ultimate battlepacks cost RM249.90 last year but now they cost RM349.90 each. The high US Dollar exchange is sure hurting us! Even the Rancor costs RM249.90... :-S

"Vintage Bulgaria"

On our first visit to the German bar & restaurant, we noticed the neighbouring shop was pretty attractive with its classical European home design. So, why not just give it a try! We reached early, so managed to get one of the better positioned tables (alot under reservations). Turns out this place serves Bulgarian food.


Top: The pretty deco. Below: Gf ordered the set of the day, which comes with this ultra-tasty, thick with spices mushroom soup! Yummy!!


Top: My Chicken Spindle. They gave chicken breast, which isn't really my type becoz its usually hard and dry... *usually*. But man, this one is wrapped with a whole bunch of fragrant herbs and spices and grilled just to perfect tenderness! Truly respect the skill of the chef; amazing!
Below: The set of the day comes with Salmon with lemon herbs and cheese. Umm, maybe should have left the cheese out, but otherwise, it is superb. The salmon is very fresh and juicy. Phew~~


Top: It also comes with dessert like some kind of choco cream on top of fried sugar. It's a bit weird initially gets better as you eat along. Below: The shop (on the left), just beside the German bar (right).

The bill came up to about RM80+, so it's on the higher end, but my gosh, the food is really awesome! Unfortunately, I still dunno what's the difference between Bulgarian food and German food: to me it's all Western food :P

"Raymond Farewell Part 2"

Raymond had a 2nd farewell lunch, this time with the whole department, at Paddington House of Pancake, Queensbay! For alot of us, this was the first time there. Hmm.. pancakes, eh...

Top: Early birds, Raymond, Fren2, Doris, Leopard. Total number was about 25 person. Bottom: This is what I ordered, recommended by Doris. Doesn't look like much, buuuut it's pretty filling! 2 huge sausages (with cheese inside), 2 beef thing, 1 hash brown, and 2 pancakes.

Top: Raymond's lunch/desert. Nice presentation I have to say. And Ninja generously ordered 2 Flaming Volcano desert (RM65 each!) for all of us to share! Ice-cream's nice, and the banana slices, but no one touched the pancakes :P

Although Sauron mentioned earlier that we split the bill among ourselves, eventually big big boss offered to give us a treat and foot the bill which came to about RM700! Hehe, nice! Overall, the food was pretty decent, just that you can't really eat too much of these things-- will easily geli :P

"Scammed!"

Today was the results announcement of the department Patent Competition. The team with the highest number of submissions by the end of Nov wins. The prize: RM3000. We won the previous round, which offered RM2000. This round, my team was engaged in a tightly contested fight with Ninja's team. Fight until lunch also skip :P In the end, we submitted 12 patents while they had 11. Hurray!

Or so we thought. Today, out of the blue came a dispute. The committee suddenly came up with another rule that in order to be counted, the submissions must have their Docket Number generated (which happens when the patent has been acknowledged by all parties). And based on that Docket count yesterday night, we 'lost' to Ninja's team 8-10! We went to check our Docket Numbers this morning. Turns out, we had all 12 generated vs Ninja's 10. So, there should not be any dispute, because either way, we win.

Not really. The committee put another rule that the Docket must have been generated by the 30th of Nov. What?! And to defuse this situation, they suggested that my team and Ninja's share the RM3000. And why? "Aiya, last time you guys won it already..." By this time, we were absolutely furious. My issue:

1. Why are more and more rules added to this competition? It's like they are trying to find ways NOT to let us win!

2. If you don't want us the previous winners to win, then just tell them upfront. All winners cannot compete in the next round. Then we wouldn't have to waste time writing those patents.

3. For me, it isn't really a problem of the money. It's the feeling of being scammed.

The final result is still not known, but clearly this totally unnecessary episode has left us feeling quite upset! :-S

"More food~~!"

Here comes more food!

Last Friday, had Raymond's farewell at Chilli's Gurney Plaza. Yeah, during office hour: went out at 11am, reach back office at 3pm :P

Attendees.... Raymond, SA, Fren2, Leopard, DOB, Doris. Yasz was taking the pic.




For starters we had Nachos and Buffalo Wings. Nothing too special, but nice. And I ordered: Swiss Mushroom Burger. Gigantic portion. *gulp*

It's been like 4 months since I came back from US, swearing not to eat burgers anymore. Well, I probably shouldn't have ordered this because the first bite I took, the phobia of burgers came haunting me again... ugh.. wonder if I'll ever recover from burger-phobia! But the fries tasted nice though. Fyi, I could hardly finish the meal.....!

But the thing about Chilli's is that it's pretty costly. This burger costs RM23 with choco milkshake RM10, plus tax comes up to about RM38. I'd be fine if it tastes special, but honestly, it's not bad, just pretty standard fare.

Next, last Sat nite, went to Ingolf's Kneipe German bar and restaurant @ Tanjung Bungah. We had some trouble finding the place, made a few rounds, got caught in a jam... man, the place better be worth all this trouble! When we reached there, it was packed, but luckily got a table for us. Hmm, place was not well designed IMHO, coz the echo from people chatting/laughing makes it abit noisy.... :-S



Wasn't long before food arrived. Gf ordered grilled dori fish, mine was grilled pork. Mmm.... nice :D The meal cost about RM60+, and I ordered beer some more. Should be worth a second go next time!