World Music Festival 2008 - Penang

Recently there are a number of banners showing the world music festival will held in May. Just now I google out the web site and saw the price is RM50 per pax per night... tsk, tsk.. expensive, why MBF card holder got 30% discount?? and then after that i read following...

"Open air on a breezy evening under the romantic night skies, the Botanic Gardens will play venue to the three scintillating evenings of the “World Music Festival 2008 • Penang” that will start on 2 – 4 May 2008"

hmm... open air huh? no no no.... I just now just wet like "dropped soup chicken" when stepping out from the office... dann heavy rain though now is not a raining season :/

HP TX2032AU in PC fair

Specifications:
AMD Athlon 64 X2 TK-57 (1.9GHz)
2048MB DDR2 Memory
160 GB hardisk drive
12.1 WXGA HD HP BrightViewWide touch screen Display
DWD +/- RW Double Layer Drive with LightScribe
NVIDIA GeForce Go 6150
Wireless 802.11a/b/g, Bluetooth
Microsoft Windows Viata Home Premium

The HP Pavilion TX2032AU tablet PC that run on AMD Athlon 64 X2 TK-57 (1.9GHz) only cost RM2799 in last week PC fair. The tablet PC was sold out soon on saturday. Anyway, I get a friend to help me bought the table PC with RM2799 later. It is fun to have a touch screen laptop, but the drawback is I cannot install my pitared windows XP on this PC and need to search for the softwares that compatible with Vista. I am not AMD fan, anyway I read the processor review online, Athlon 64 X2 can be fight with Intel Core 2 Duo technology, but it will be a bit more power consumption. I guess I won't use the battery power very frequent, so I am ok for it.

One thing I would like to mention is the original price stated in the flyer only true until last week. I did went to HP malaysia web site check the price before buying it, and yes the price is RM3999. However, I went to HP official web site check again the price today, hmm... the price is now RM2999. Well, they have new modals like tx2028AU and tx2029AU which I didn't see it previously. No wonder lar they slashed the price to 2799 in PC fair.

One week after PC fair, the price droped from 3999 to 2999.

IJM to Launch The Spring Condo in Penang

Launching details:
Date : 3-5-2008 ( Saturday )
Venue : E & O Hotel
Time : 10.00 am ~ 6.00 pm
Land Status : Leasehold
No. of Units : 396 (All Sea View Units)
Built-up Area : 925sf to 1281sf
No. of Carpark : 2 Parking Bays per unit

Facilities / Amenities
1. Basketball Court
2. Barbeque Area
3. Tai Chi & Exercise Corner
4. Outdoor Gymnasium
5. Play & Learn Park
6. Pavillion
7. Chit-Chat Corner

At Ground Level:
8. Multi-Purpose Hall
9. Games Room
10. Kiddies Park
11. Sauna
12. Water Feature
13. Tropical Garden Courtyard
14. Indoor Gymnasium
15. Rest & Relax Area
16. Feature Landscape

TMI and TM Demerger

Reference prices for TMI and TM were set at RM7.85 and RM3.05 respectively as TM closed at 10.90 yesterday. Shareholders will get one TMI share for every TM share held and their CDS account is to be credited on April 25. Just now I took a look at TM counter, last done was 3.54 and high 3.66 :)

Bayan Lepas

We stopped at the Bayan Lepas coastal high way again during lunch time...
It was a gloomy day...

HLeBroking

I signed up Hong Leong E broking services today. I guest it has the lowest broker fee in Malaysia. The minimum broker fee just RM12 and 0.42%. If I am not mistaken, OSK and CIMB iTrade are changing minimum RM28 broker fee. Futhermore, the interface is not bad :)

I was trying to buy Padini this morning at 3.16, but unfortunately it didn't match...

Pikom PC Fair 2008 at Piza

I bought a Olympus digital camera last weekend at PC fair. The FE 270 seems very user friendly and worth for its price. With RM399, it came with free tripod, hand pressing flash light, cleaning cloth, neck strap and 1GB memory card. The seller really tried hard to sell out the products, especially it was the last day. Initially, I was looking for a canon camera, but its price and size doesn't look attractive evet is is well known for its digital camera. Besides, I tend to get cheaper digital stuffs, because the price will drop dramatically in very short period and the technology change faster than you can think. So, what is the point to get the best one? Except for the memory card (Olympus uses its own memory card) this camera is worth to buy at 399 :)

Pizza Hut Sucks

Look at the following pictures, you will know why I say Pizza Hut sucks. We ordered 1 Prawn Olio spaghetti and 1 Seafood Lasagna for dinner. To my surprise, the so called Prawn Olio spaghetti only has 2 small prawns, 4-5 pieces of mushroom and 3 dried chilies. Wow, it costs $8.90! Then I took a look the menu again, the picture in the menu is totally misleading. After, waiting for a long long time, until my friend has finished the spaghetti, then only my seafood lasagna was serving. I felt like I only biting the pasta for the first bite. Curiously, I took the pasta layers out, and trying to see what they put inside. I didn't see anything between top and the second layers. Well, there are something between the 2nd and 3rd layers. Guess what? They just put a few small prawns on it. The 5 cent coin also bigger than the prawns. Pizza Hut really sucks....

Prawn Olio Spaghetti, roadside Cha Koew Teow is better :p

Prawn Olio spaghetti in the menu, it looks better right?

Seafood Lasagna, I think the serving is just enough for the kid.

What? 5 cent coin also bigger than the prawn. How dare they call it seafood lasagna!

Mushroom Course

Previouly I went to University Pertanian Malaysia (UPM) attend a mushroom short course. It took 2 days and we have learned how to grow the mushroom e.g. Oyster Mushroom indoor. The raw meterials are including sawdust (habuk kayu) , padi straw (dedak padi halus) and Kalsium Karbonat. They need to be mixed together with water. They were packed and stim for a few hours. The Inoculating process was done once the bags become cold. It takes around 3 month for Incubating bags. After this, the bags are ready to be opened for harvesting :)

Wind surfing

hmm.. I never see someone did wind surfing at Penang coaster highway before, but I saw a guy was doing that during lunch, when the sun is so strong... We saw him surfing back and forth between Penang Island and Pulau Jerejak ( Jerejak Island).


I just don't when I will have time to do my own stuffs, simple things become luxury...

Sunset at Balik Pulau

We went for a drive to Balik Pulau, Penang. Stopped by the vista area and took a few lovely pics of the sun setting, have a look below :)

Sweet Potato Fries

My friend and I bought some sweet potatos and fried them during lunch. Only some which sticked with bread crumbs are crunchy...
hmm, will do some research how to make it crunchy :P

Here are some tips and tricks making crunchy sweet potato fries, http://www.chowhound.com/topics/378235

Chocolate Ice Cream

This is the first time we use the Kenwood ice cream maker to make chocolate ice cream :)

Dinner

Today, my friend cooked a very delicious lamb chop together with mash potato and onion :)

Manhattan Fish Market

My friend attended a farewell lunch at Manhattan Fish Market, she ordered the set lunch (baked fish with banana leaf) which to her dissapointment "so-so only".

Manhattan Fish Market at Queensbay Mall Penang, Malaysia

low tide...

Tides are low today... as usual i was really tired and 'sian', however things starts to pick up again after 'certain hours' (if you know what i mean...).

Phuket

We went to Phuket about 2 weeks ago. Initially, I thought it is a quiet island with nice beaches. Well, yes, there are a few nice beaches there, the water is clean and clear, you even can see the fishes swimming there. However, the Patong which is where we stay is too developed and commercialized. The first impression is there are a lot of 24 hours mini marts, pharmacy stores, hotels and guesthouses. The road is busy no matter day or night.

I was trying to rent a motorbike when we touched down at Phuket Airport. However, we were told that Motorbike rental is available in Patong but not in Airport. At the end, we took the mini van to Patong. It costs 150 baht each person.

The first two nights, we stayed at Max Guest House which run by an expat. The price here is 800 baht per night. The people here are very friendly. The location is a bit isolated. Anyway, we rented a motorbike from the neighbor at 200 baht per day. We moved to Baantonsai Garden Resort on the third and fourth day. The price at Baantonsai is cheaper, only 650 bath per night. Plus, the water here doesn't smell like rust. The location also is nearer to the beach. It is worth for basic stay.

In Phuket, just the person who drive the motorbike is require to wear the helmet. However, we still seeing a lot of drivers don't wear the helmet. that's way the fatal rate from motorbite is so high. It is better to get 2 helmets, one for the driver and another one for the rider at the back. Motobike is convenient and can access to anywhere.

We also went for house riding in Bang Thao beach, more details in http://phuketdir.com/lagunariding/index.htm. According to my friend, the price is cheap. hmm... I don't know, I am not into horse riding. Anyway, Riding on the beach is a new experience. Since I have no riding experience, the boy was always pulling and leading the horse. He also made the horse running on the beach. My friend horse even went into the water.

We only went to the beach which near to Phromthep cape for swimming. I look on the map, it is called Yanui beach. It is small beach but the water here is cleaner and clearer than Patong. We even saw some fishes swimming here and there. We like it as it is less crowded and clean.

Patong Beach: The whole beach is full by the foreigners.

Baantonsai Garden Resort: It is cheap. Just a few minutes walk to the beach. Motobikes rental are available at 150 baht per day.

Prom Thep Cape: We went to there see sunset, but it was cloudy.

Kanohm Jin: I believe it is called Kanohm Jin after searching the name from internet. We like it, very nice but a little bit spicy.

While waiting...

I think I took this pic in last week, when I was driving home. It was about to rain and yet trafiic jam...

Lunch at Goh Teo Kee

My friend and I went to Goh Teo Kee restaurant at Sungai Ara, Penang for lunch today. In fact, it is quiet famous Teow Chew restaurant. However, we are disappointed with its food, it just not worth for the price. We had Belacan Fried Rice (not enough for 1 person) , Teow Chew Fried Mee (too salty), Old Cucumber Soup and another dish which got cabbage, mushroom and chicken (I don't know what it called, and also salty). No wonder there were only a few customers in the restaurant even it was lunch time...