Hiking up Bukit Engku Busu, Lumut

Bukit Engku Busu is my first hill hike for the year and up to date, I've been up there three time. The hill is located at Lumut, right behind the Lumut Police Station or just before reaching the Lumut entrance of the Naval Base . I can't really remember the last time I went hiking up here but sure enough it was ages ago, back during my schooling days.

[caption id="attachment_588" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Bukit Engku Busu Trekking"][/caption]

The hill is only about 300 metres up but still it is pretty challenging for the inexperienced. Bukit Engku Busu is also part of the Lumut Forest Reserve and comparatively to Broga Hill, this hill has a pretty dense forest vegetation. It is a real jungle trail up there with lots of huge, long roots engulfing the forest floor. Some say if you are to begin your hike early in the morning, somewhere around 6ish am, you may come across some scorpions and even snakes. Thankfully, I never came across any since my last two hike uphill was in the evening. There were mosquitoes instead and they are the only motivation to keep you going up because the more time you take to rest, the more bites you'll get. =)

[caption id="attachment_589" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Engku Busu Jungle Track"][/caption]

Some of the views you'll get from third quarter uphill is the Naval Dockyard view and some clusters of islands surrounding the area. As you hike uphill, you also get to listen to the engine sounds of the ferries commuting from Lumut to Pulau Pangkor.

[caption id="attachment_590" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Naval Dockyard view from the top, just approx 5 minutes before reaching summit"][/caption]

Right on the top of the hill which we took somewhere around 38 minutes to get to, it's just an open area with not much of a view. Well actually there are views up there if you don't mind going a little bit further into the bushes which in our case, we didn't bother to go looking at all. From the top, there is also a route to climb down hill towards Teluk Rubiah which is in Manjung. But from what I see, the route is pretty dense up with bushes and I'm not sure if people still go down that way anymore.

[caption id="attachment_591" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Fallen tree at the Engku Busu track"][/caption]

Anyways, Bukit Engku Busu is still your best bet to keep up your fitness level and to pump up your heart on a very good cardio exercise. I still think our 38 minutes up and 33 minutes downhill was pretty slow. Other daily hikers can easily scale up and down in less than 60 minutes. Despite all that, mountain or hill hiking is not about reaching the summit at the fastest time but it is all about having the greatest feeling of conquering a difficult feat with sheer determination, effort and the strong mindset to constantly pushing your limits to reach the top. A feat that is worth the effort and that is exactly how I feel every time I reach the highest point of any hill and hopefully in the near future, a mountain.

I lurve white water rafting so much and Riverbug crew Rawks!

[caption id="attachment_543" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="The gang before hitting the river"][/caption]

With the title all well said, yea, I couldn't resist the adrenaline cravings. Hence, I did go for my second white water rafting adventure over at Sg.Kampar yet again in December 2009. My first white water rafting at Sg.Kampar was super awesome and the second run was AWESOME-R! Hell yeah it is.

Despite being the second time I went there, it was yet another new experience for me! The river is alive you know, the environment and weather are constantly changing and so will the water rafting experience. This time around, I went with a couple of my old buddies and it was a pretty ad-hoc plan. Made some phone calls to the organizers who are none other than the Gopeng Rainforest people; the lovely David and wife, Janice. Called them up to arrange the schedule and I even forgotten to deposit some money earlier because I was too excited to go for the white water rafting. Haha. That's why, I think, David had to call me on the night before to re-confirm that I was coming all the way from KL to Gopeng the next day. Hehe.

Right, let's move straight to the 'big event'!

This time around we were late and the raft master was already waiting for us. The reason we were late because since we were all coming separately and we assumed that everyone knows we is Gopeng! Haha. Two of my friends actually misunderstood the location and they went to Medan Gopeng at Ipoh instead. LOL. The best part was when my friend was confidently talking to me on the phone saying that, " This is Medan Gopeng. This is Gopeng town la." Hahaha. FYI, Gopeng is a super tiny town or what we call it as 'pekan' and the only bus station it has is a pretty old-looking, very old school look-a-like kinda bus station. Even the buses are one of those old type ones.

Ok, being late - done, Next up was to listen to the raft master quick safety briefing. For some reason, we were noisy and laughing and we had to be 'shusshed' because there was another group listening pretty attentively to their raft master's briefing. Haha. I think Senz, our raft master was doing a real quicky on the briefing since we were very late but not late enough to have some cam-whore sessions with one of the Riverbug crew included. LOL.

I know this Riverbug crew from my previous rafting and this young lad got a handful of nicknames. The last time I went, I think people are addressing him as something else, but this time around when I asked of his name, he was telling me his name is JayZ. Haha.

Some of the things which was different from my previous white water rafting experience during this time around was we didn't go up until the 10km up river. Instead we only made it to the 7th km.  We didn't do body surfing at one of the earlier parts of the river because I was told by my raft master that the place that I had my body surfing before is no more safe. There's a lot of rough rocks underneath and it's pretty dangerous. Hell yeah it is. I did my last body surfing over that place before and bumped me butt straight on those rocks, but it was more fun and adventurous than the one we had this time.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Riverbug - whitewater adventure speacialist"][/caption]

We also ended up 'lepaking' at one of the river banks to jump from the tree and swam around the river. I was looking like an idiot , haha, while jumping from the tree into the river. One was because I've never jump from a tree into a river before. Two, I've forgotten to hold my nose before jumping and water went straight into the nostrils and left me coughing once I resurfaced. The best part, my friend Bulert told me this," Oh, forgotten to tell you before you jump to hold your nose. If not the water will enter your nostrils. " Duh! It already did, thanks man! Haha. Three, the tree was pretty high up and kinda slippery and there was nothing to hold on to before you get to the middle part of the branch, so I had to hold this kind, mat salleh's hand to get me across. LOL. I didn't know why,  but I was so dead on determine to jump from this tree so nothing was embarrassing at that moment.

All in all, the white water rafting experience was super fun and I got to do it with my super old buddies too, so that was  more the fun. Nevertheless, Riverbug crew rawks , always, and I even met my previous raft master, Max or Maxxy ( don't get me started with his full name, coz the nickname has got nothing to do with the real name at all..haha) during the drive back. He was driving the van this time and I'm glad he still recognizes me. Haha. We got talking a little and I told him about my Mt. KK trip this May and he was recommending his 'bro' who happens to be the guide, I think for the Mt. KK climb. So, if any of yous are interested to climb the highest mountain in Malaysia and Borneo, do comment and leave a message at this post. I can share with you the contact details.

P.S: If you ask me if I'll do another run of white water rafting again? My answer will be,"YES!". I'm looking forward for white water rafting at Padas, Sabah somewhere this year. I may have to scout for people who are an adrenaline junkie and don't mind to splurge for some awesome outdoor adventure fun. Mind you, Riverbug also runs the white water rafting experience at Sabah and Padas water rafting is claimed to be the longest 30KM white water rafting run in South East Asia. For more info you can visit Riverbug's website here or call them from the number here in the picture.

Riverbug Gopeng

How to make a sand oven?

The after effect of way too many BBQs and watching endless cooking shows from Jamie Oliver, Robert Rainford and anything cooking related shows on Travel Channel, we had successfully attempted on creating a sand oven during our must have BBQ sessions each year. The whole point of creating an oven from sand is to have the 'steamed' effect on the cooking and also to get back to basic when it comes to preparing simple yet delicious outdoor cooking.

Here is how you prepare a successful sand oven:

1. Your location for the sand oven should and obviously be right on the beach where there is endless supply of the sand.

[caption id="attachment_512" align="aligncenter" width="150" caption="The Beach"][/caption]

2. Simply dig a little hole out of the sand to prepare the oven. Nothing too deep or too shallow. For digging purposes, have a tiny spade handy.
3. Charcoals and some fire starter to make the fire for your oven. Once your charcoals have started to burn and formed into 'bara api', dunno what you call this in English, it's pretty much ready to be tossed into the hole you've dug earlier.

[caption id="attachment_515" align="aligncenter" width="150" caption="Charcoal inside the hole"][/caption]

We always lit up the charcoals from the BBQ set first and later move some of it into the sand hole because by doing that, we can have two sets of burning coals. One on the BBQ set and the other on the sand oven. Also, I think if you are to lit up the charcoals straight from the sand hole, it's going to be a pretty tough thing to do because the sand tend to be rather moist the further down it is below. However, I think it's still possible to lit the coal straight from the sand hole.

[caption id="attachment_516" align="aligncenter" width="150" caption="Burning charcoal in the bbq set"][/caption]

4. Once you have layered the ground of the sand hole completely with your burning charcoals, put directly whatever you want to be cooked on the burning charcoals. In our case, we usually put a huge fish like the Seabass (Siakap in Malay), lightly seasoned it with salt, pepper,spices,lemon, or whatever you want on it and nicely double wrap it on an aluminum foil.
5. Next add more burning charcoal on top of your foil to have a double top and bottom cooking effect.

[caption id="attachment_520" align="aligncenter" width="150" caption="Covering top layer with more charcoal"][/caption]

6. Lastly, cover up the final layer with sand. Make sure you fully covered the sand hole in order for the steam to remain within the hole and create the oven effect that you are looking for.
7. After a good 30 minutes, your fish should be ready to eat and dig the hole up to seize your awesome meal! I suppose, it takes longer time if you have chicken or meat in your oven.

[caption id="attachment_517" align="aligncenter" width="150" caption="Lifting up the fish in the foil using a tiny machete and tiny 'cangkul'"]

Digging out your 'oven cooked' fish

[/caption]

8. The cooking result from this sand oven will produce really moist, juicy and succulent dish; in our case, the yummiest steamed fish we ever had! And this techniques never gets old and definitely a must try thing if you are looking for adventure, beach side, cooking. It is yet, another plus thing for any BBQ-lovers!

[caption id="attachment_518" align="aligncenter" width="150" caption="Yummy Seabass"][/caption]

Putting together all 2009 babies!

Dear peeps,

Do you adore babies? Do you feel happy or do you find yourself smiling by just looking at baby pictures or what more looking at real babies in front of you?

If the answers to the questions above are all Yes, say hooray now! Yep, hooray because you happened to have a 'baby aura' which means you are attracted to babies or children and likewise the children towards you. * Just in case you are trying to Google about 'baby aura', I'm telling you straight out now, I just came up with that term and I have no idea if the term 'baby aura' even exists. Hehe.

Okay, back to the babies...

Since most of my beloved old time buddies and beautiful girl friends are happily married either last year or the year before, a couple of them began their first journey into parentage and motherhood last year and I'm doubly happy for all of them. The thought of having the newer generations amongst the gang is something really exciting and worth to shout about.

If I got my calculation correct, for the year 2009, I became an instant aunt for four beautiful little people! The best part of all, they come from all different races. First one born for the year is a cute Indian boy, Kaviraj, second is a cute little Malay girl, Ayra Zuyyin, the third one another adorable Chinese baby boy, Ian Cheng and last but not least, another charming little Malay baby boy, Aryan Iman. And check out their names peeps. I thought their names are pretty cool, am I right?

Out of the four, I've managed to meet only both Ayra and Aryan. I've yet to make an appointment with Kaviraj's mum to have a sneak peak at him. Haha. For Ian Cheng, you are going to call me Tante Yasmin as your mum and I have mutually agreed on it since your were just a little 'jelly bean'. Haha. Nevertheless, I have this strong feeling that all babies are going to grow up becoming super adorable kids and definitely full of interesting characters just like their mummies. With that, I pray you kids the very best in this world and here are their photos for ya'll to go 'gah-ing' about. Enjoy! *pictures will be put up later. =)

* For the mumsies, I have a new found respect towards you girls, who are now officially mothers for your endurance and unimaginable amount of agony you gals had to go through during the intense delivery of your beautiful babies. I can never imagine the pain and thanks for sharing your labour experiences because that's something you can never read about from the books. XOXO to you girls ( Shalen, Husna, Paah, Marilyn)!

New Year Resolution what?

Hey ya'll! This is my first post for the year 2010. I've been caught up with loads of things since the middle of December and I can say, I'm pretty much settled down by now. Yay! I've also decorated my new 'workplace' with some cute wooden animals and other souvenirs I got mostly from my travels dated way back in 2000.

Oh yeah, New Year Resolution for 2010? What shall it be?

To tell the truth, I don't need another new year resolution this year because guess what, I make my personal target plan every month! So, why do I need a yearly resolution? Haha. Anyways, this year, I'm hoping for more travel plans - a continual outdoor adventure from last year to something more extreme this year, more cash credited into my account, meeting more beautiful people especially people from Borneo ( hehe) and most importantly,doing what I love doing best and enjoy this short life! So people, make the best of your life today and don't wait for tomorrow to start doing that thing you always wanted to do. May God bless us with loads of great things this 2010!

Where have I traveled this year that you didn't go?

Hey peeps! First thing first, do you like the title? Haha. I think it sounds a bit cocky and it is suppose to be that way anyway. It's just for fun though so don't take it personally if you have not traveled or done as much as I did this year. I know that some of you traveled a great deal this year, so why not you share and start tagging people for this post. Just to compare on the most favorable travel destinations this year.

Let's begin with my list of travel destinations for this year 2009:

1. My most memorable of all time travel destination is none other than Kota Kinabalu, Sabah! The reason I wanted to go there so badly was because I've never been to the East part of Malaysia and what more Borneo. I must say, I fall in love with Sabah and most people from the Peninsula of Malaysia who traveled there do agree with me too.

In Sabah, my co partner and I managed to squeeze a tight 3D2N schedule with activities like snorkeling at one of the islands in Tunku Abdul Rahman Park, which was Mamutik Island. We also visited 1Borneo, UMS, Atkinson Clock Tower, Gaya Street, Pasar Filipin, KK Museum to check out all the traditional long houses and we had a great time jumping up and down a trampoline made by 100% bamboo in one of the long houses. Cool rite?

We also made a short visit at Tuaran to visit an old friend of mine and also Tuaran Crocodile Farm to check out the nastiest of all crocs in Borneo. We also did an ad-hoc hike with flip-flops and zero preparation up Mount Kinabalu. Ain't that awesome? Hehe. Mind you we only hiked up until the 2nd Station which was pretty high up, approximately around 3 hours up and down from the starting point. Not bad for a first timer and man, we had a great time up there. Fellow hikers are super fun and awesome people too. We also visited Likas, had awesome and cheap seafood on our last night there, visited Karambunai Nexus to check out the place, spend the night loitering around one of the beaches in KK and of course met some lovely Sabahan people who are very friendly, warm and they are just a bunch of really beautiful people. I love them so much! Haha!

2. A day trip down Pangkor Island which is right smack at my hometown. It was actually a mere pit stop destination right after returning from Kota Kinabalu which was like a week's gap. We had a friend's wedding to attend so we decided to make a quick day trip at Pangkor. It was fun especially the snorkeling part, sun bathing, saw a guy who was almost drown while we were snorkeling - okay, this part was kinda scary, cruising around the island with our rented car, visiting the Dutch Fort and some sort of Pagoda thingy and also taking the ferry back and forth the island. It was plain awesome and a day well spent.

3. Langkawi Island! We managed to hook up with some awesome 3D2N deal with AirAsia which was inclusive of flight and accommodation at Awana Porto Malai. It was a real bargain, only MYR300 each person. That's awesome right?

Anyways, Langkawi is great fun for more outdoor adventure activities and that's the reason we went there for. We had an awesome island hopping day, it was raining, the boat ride was very bumpy and seriously adventurous especially none of us had never been on a fast boat ride on a really heavy rained day! We also had a great time swimming in Dayang Bunting Lake where the water is surprisingly warm during that rainy day and it's kinda creepy because it's dark and green looking lake. We also saw some really huge Hawks in Pulau Lang if I'm not mistaken which was part of the island hopping trip. It was worth the money because it only cost us RM35 for that 3 island hopping trip. Oh, the last island was a beach island so we get to swim around for sometime but we spent the time sipping hot coffee instead because we got all drenched up by then already. The rain and all, I was shivering up my bones. Haha.

Other things, we did the typical touristy thingy in Langkawi like the cable ride up Mt.Mat Cincang, a little hike down a trail around the Mt. Mat Cincang area and we got to have a nice look of the bordering countries; Thailand and Malaysia. Cool rite? Other must have visiting was the Makam Mahsuri, Tanjung Rhu, Cenang Beach, Thai massage Cenang area, Telaga Tujuh crazy 100+ stairs hike, Laksa Langkawi which was not that good at all, haha, visiting Dataran Lang, visiting the newly renovated Hot Spring, driving around the whole island and last but not least, shopping!

4. White Water Rafting at Sg.Kampar. I love it so much and I got more excited because fellow rafting guides are a bunch of Dusun people from Sabah. I was like ,"OMG, I just came back from KK early this year. I love Sabah and what are you guys doing here at Kampar?" Haha. Everything about water rafting, body surfing, doing the Boom-boom, going through back to back rapids from Grade 1-3, getting to know about the Dusun gang and essentially learning more about the other side of Sabah which we Peninsula people have no idea about, really interest me so much. I love every single thing about it especially the adrenaline boost that I get from rafting that I couldn't resist but I had to do it again for the second time. The second time white water rafting experience was like a perfectly new water rafting experience to me! White water rafting is no doubt to die for if you are an adrenaline junkie and the best of them guides are these lovely,good looking, beautiful Dusun guys from Riverbug. I must admit, I <3 Sabah and Sabahan more from these guys. Hehe.

4. Hiking up Broga Hill for three consecutive times. Nothing else to describe this hill, except that it's awesome and if you do it once, you'll be telling yourself," oh I won't do this again, this is exhausting" but, when another friend of yours saw your lovely Broga Hill pictures on FB and they are interested to climb it, you just can't say no to them! Haha. That's why I went there 3 times and I really don't mind going there again and again.

5. Jungle trekking/ guided walk up Bukit Nanas which is located right in the vicinity of KL Tower. Surprise surprise! You never knew that there's a real jungle right in the middle of the city.

6. Jungle trekking/ guided walk inside Kota Damansara park. This was handled by my favourite outdoor nature society which is MNS - Malaysian Nature Society.

7. Jungle walk again inside one of the forest reserve at Bukit Cerakah or now it's known as Taman Botani Negara at Shah Alam.The place is located near the end of the park which is near the reservoir. There was also a fish rearing park and the best part is you get to feed the fishes. I also went for crazy cycling moments around the park which was fun, fun, fun. Did I just say fun thrice? Hehe.

8. Cameron Highland with a twist of outdoor activities. We went to almost all the tea plantations in the highland except for just one I think. Walking up and down the plantation still need a good pair of fit 'legs' because it's either going uphill or downhill. We also stayed in one of the best English-style cottage which was Bala's Cottage. Something like that, I can't remember the proper name of the place. It's very nice, chilly and cottage-like of course. Besides drinking a lot of cardamom teas at the plantations, we made a crazy hiking down the Robinson trail. A good one hour trekking from MARDI to one of the tea plantation at Habu. Trekking was really fun and if we would have planned things well, we could even hike up Mount Brinchang. But let's just leave that for next year okay. Hehe.

9. Gua Tempurung hike but not until the extreme version. It was just the light and easy stroll in the cave until the top of the world something something. Hehe.

I think that's most of the places I've traveled this year. I didn't go outside of the country though because guess what, there's so much to offer within Malaysia itself.

Next year, I'm hoping to discover more places in Sabah like Sandakan, Semporna for diving at Sipadan/Mabul, Beaufort for another crazy white water rafting adventure at Padas river and also reaching Mount Kinabalu summit (with God's will of course). Not forgetting, probably a pit stop down to Tamparuli just to get to know more of these Dusun tribe. Hahaha.

I would also love to go to Phuket, Bali, Bandung ,scuba diving at either Perhentian or Redang or Tioman, revisit Taman Negara at Pahang and if possible also Gua Niah Natural Park at Sarawak. Oh, also, there might be possibility for a EURO trip! Hehe. All that, wait up for next year. And since it's like less than a week for the new year to enfold, let's just plan another wicked activity for this long weekend.

So, you think you've traveled to more interesting places than I do? If you have, share it with me at the comment. I would love to see where should I go next and the places to go that I've been missing! =)

Now I get it, it sucks when ur internet conn is sucky!

I'm feeling you peeps. Peeps who are in constant fidget loathing about their damn internet connection. I begin to wonder, why services have to suck so bad when you are living either on a hilly area or your area is not 'within the coverage'? Come on, for how long we Malaysians are going to endure this issue?

I'm complaining now because my internet is suck big time. I'm not even staying in a remote area. It's a damn freaking city center. It's only slightly located on the hill. And the connection plummets down like crazy. It's far worse than my 1996 Jaring dial-up okay! Or probably it's about the same speed like it used to be more than 10 years back. Bah! This sucks!

I dreamed of a Black Mamba!

Hello readers! Yeah it's YOU! And currently I'm assuming like only 5 of yous. OMG, what is there to cry for? Anyway, I want to ask you a little question. Have you ever dreamed of a snake? Like literally, you went to bed at night hoping for a good night sleep, but you ended up having a nightmare dream with you and a snake or snakes. Have you experienced that before?

I'm asking you that question because yes, I have been of late, had some series of snake dreams. Hmm, pretty interesting or just plain weird right? Oh if you still have not figured out the correlation of Black Mamba and this post, Black Mamba is one of the fiercest snakes in the world. It literally has a black-colored mouth when it opens up its mouth. But no worries, I never dreamed of this Black Mamba before. One was just a snake, the other was a huge ass Anaconda that looked more like a monster, ha ha, and the latest was just a Python I think.

So the point here, I would like to know if anyone knows, what does it mean if you dream of snakes? In my case, I never got bitten by one. It's either it just passed in front of me or I dodged the snake from biting me or the ultimate shocking one was, I ate a snake head. Wo ho ho! All that I experienced only in my dreams alright people. Nothing ever happened in real life and I will surely be chickening out if I even see one pass in front of me.

Therefore, if you think you know some 'insights', do share it with me at the comments. I'll be more than happy to see some 'clever dream interpretations' from you lot. FYI, I'm not superstitious and more of a skeptic and I believe that dreams are just your mind playing games when you are asleep.

Hey consider this: Act like a Lady, think like a Man!

Calling all ladies to read on this very valuable post! As for gentlemen, you don't want to be reading this. You are about to get all your dirty little secrets leaked. Hehe.

This is one Boring post you don't want to read!

Like what the title says, it's a heads up and a friendly reminder of what's coming in this post.  I'll be very surprise if you are still reading this line. Hehe.

Here goes...

Cycling at Taman Botani Negara aka Taman Pertanian Bukit Cahaya Seri Alam

One of the best places to experience easy, fun cycling in KL would be this place: Taman Botani Negara or formerly known as Taman Pertanian Bukit Cahaya Seri Alam or also formerly Bukit Cerakah which is located at Shah Alam. My first visit to this place was way back when I was very young somewhere in the early 90's. I remembered it was a long journey outside of KL and the road was still new. I think most people still know this place as Bukit Cerakah instead of that botani name or the lengthy taman pertanian name.

A lil bit confused on how my site is being crawled and indexed

Lately, I've been doing a lot of testing and checking on how my site is being crawled and indexed on the SERP ( Search Engine Ranking Page). In this case how my site will look like if I run a search in Google. Oh you may be asking, why do I bother to run a search on my site? The reason is simple. The better I rank on SERP or Google, the more traffic I shall gain. And why is traffic important to me? With traffic, comes Money! Yes, as simple as that. If you are still clueless about why I'm so concern about this, go do yourself a favour and start Googling on SEO. Yep! Haha.

Rotating Banner at Life's a commotion!

Just so you all know, those rotating banner or pictures are photos captured by yours truly! Images are taken from a non-fancy-schmancy 2 mega pixels and 3 mega pixels cameras with some contrast, brightness, layer masked editing in Photoshop. I gotta tell you, I do miss doing those wall paper/ website designs with Photoshop during my very first job!

Here's a little briefing about my banners:

Dr. Oz's Seven-Minute Workout

I'm a big fan of Oprah and it's almost natural for fans to follow up on everything from the Oprah Show. And thanks to her, I begin to adore Dr. Oz! I love him because he's so downright straight forward in pointing out health issues and there are so much to learn from him. In short, he's just awesome.

Hiking up Broga Hill, Semenyih

I'm proud to announce that I've hiked or climbed up this Broga Hill for the third consecutive times now! YAY! I figured that on the second climb that would be the last of Broga for me, but what the heck, who could turn down another invitation of Broga  when the sole purpose of climbing is to capture images of the scenery and the climbers! The 'cam-whoring' addition to the climb was good enough a reason for me to continue on the third Broga Hill hike of the year and I wonder if there is going to be more hike on this hill after this.

Butt Exercise with Bob Harper

Ever wanted to have those really cute, tight hot butt? And haven't you fall in love with Bob Harper already after watching episodes after episodes of that "The Biggest Loser" show? Haha. I know one thing for sure, I love to have a hot looking butt and I think Bob Harper is so darn cute. With athletic figure and all, he is to die for! Unfortunately for us ladies, he is so taken, I think he is. Haha.

Terry Fox Run KL 2009

Terry Fox Run is listed on my list of to-dos and unfortunately, I didn't make it for the run this year. The event was held on 1st November at Taman Tasik Perdana (Lake Garden), KL. As for now, I couldn't find any reviews yet about the run this year but I've came across at people's pictures posing with their Terry Fox's t-shirts and I thought the Tees look pretty rad!

Snorkeling at Mamutik Island,Kota Kinabalu

[caption id="attachment_692" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Mamutik Island Sabah"][/caption]

One of the top things to do this year was to visit Sabah mainly because I've never been there before. Haha. Tickets all set and hotel booked, we flew to Kota Kinabalu, hopped on our little red ride with *M, pre checked-in the hotel, straight on drove to Jesselton Jetty, hurriedly rushed to the waiting boat and off we went on the coolest, bumpiest, beautiful boat ride towards Mamutik Island, Sabah. All that we managed to cover within the first 1 hour we stepped foot at Kota Kinabalu. Pretty amazing, huh! Lol!

Mamutik Island is so breathtakingly beautiful and I suppose so are the rest of the islands in Sabah. Mamutik Island is one the five islands located inside the Tunku Abdul Rahman Park, Kota Kinabalu. Initially the plan was to snorkel at Gaya Island but we were told that the island was not clean enough for snorkeling on that day, so we went to Mamutik instead. I think it's the nearest island from Jesselton Jetty and it's boasted to be the best place for first time scuba divers and a good spot for snorkeling. Since FF, my partner in crime didn't know how to swim, we KIV our scuba PADI licensing for next time around. Hehe.

[caption id="attachment_693" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Sandy white beach at Mamutik Island"][/caption]

Upon arriving, we wasted no time, quickly changed into our bathing suits, put on our life jackets and snorkeled on. The water was so clear, blue in color and you get to see the most colorful of all fishes in there. There were also corals and this weird looking black thorn plant sticking out at the bottom of the sea. Snorkeling was so much fun and I couldn't imagine how it will be like if I were to scuba dive. We spent hours in the water and it was noon and the sun were directly under our head but we didn't care. Haha. I got so caught up snorkeling and moving around with the school of fish that I could even touch them while they swim and I really felt like I was in a huge, beautiful aquarium. The best part was when I ended up following this super colorful fish and guess what, the fish pooped while swimming and I saw puffed of whitish coming out from its rear. How cool was that! =)

I also went for some diving (without the life jacket of course) to check out the fishes and corals closed up. It felt really good because I just love the sea and it's amazing how different is life down under.It's just so beautiful!
[caption id="attachment_694" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Fish at Mamutik Island"][/caption]
We got tired of swimming after sometime and ended up chilling on the beach and enjoyed the afternoon sea breeze. Of course we had to do our essential cam-whoring sessions and man, the pictures looks good! Later that afternoon, we hopped on our boat back to the jetty and yes, the boat ride was incredibly fun as well. On the way back, we get to see some parts of Kota Kinabalu town and left the beautiful islands behind for more adventure in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah.

*M - M is our local guide for the whole trip and without him, we'll be so lost in Sabah. Thanks man!
** Boat price for snorkeling is around MYR40 ( I think so). The price is inclusive of life jacket, snorkeling googles and round trip to the island. You got to remember to bring your own food and water into the island because you'll be hanging out on the island for a couple of hours.There's also an information booth at the island and I think you can book for other activities like scuba, those parachute from the boat thingy and also banana boat from this information booth.
***Tickets for this trip can be purchased at the jetty counter and you get to choose other trips too like island hopping and others.

Are you game for a White Water Rafting experience?

I know I'm game and up for it because you know what I've DONE it! My first ever white water rafting a.k.a WWR experience was at Sg.Kampar, Gopeng. When one of the Mat Sallehs who were about to go for their first WWR that afternoon asked how was it? I just had to say with full of enthusiasm, "IT WAS AWESOME!". And that got them all hyped up and excited!

[caption id="attachment_582" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="White water rafting at Sg.Kampar"][/caption]

Driving 101

I'm trying to keep up on adding interesting posts in this Life's a commotion! and I thought about this post last night, while driving pretty fast and in sleepy mode. Yes, I do get sleepy while driving especially when it's late at night. Here is the Driving 101 that I ended up doing and some of the things that I found other people do too.

Driving 101:

Spice of India I

Since today marks the celebration of Deepavali or Diwali for Hindus around the world, I'm going to share with you readers on my list of favourites Indian culinary delights. My introduction into Indian cuisine started since young because being the true Malaysian I am, hehe, my closest friends have always been Indians and I remember having lunches, dinner parties and of course Diwali open house lunches over at my their homes. Nothing gets better from anything home made. My Indian cuisine experience has been even more delightful recently with a little help from my short stay over in India last year.

Back to why Life's a commotion! initially started

As some of you must have noticed, I have changed the title of this blog from Money Making Blogger to something that is already so familiar to me and some of you too! I'm now back on how this writing episodes in my life initially started and yes, I am going to settle for  'Life's a commotion!' as my blog title.

Express Brekkie Recipe - Pukkola

This is my simplified version of a really delish, hearty, healthy brekkie that I got to know from Jamie Oliver, my no. 1 favourite chef! Jamie calls it as a Pukkola. A combination of 'Pukka' and 'Oliver'. If you've live long enough to master the English accent or you happen to speak Hindi, you'll know what 'Pukka' means.

Oopsy...did I miss out on this site?

Oh yes, I did! I'm having one of those writer's block going about, hence the zero update. Since I'm trying to figure out a so called niche for this site, I suppose I'm not doing a pretty good job at it. I just don't know which niche I should stick on to. So far, it's been a random choice between: Travel, Outdoor Adventure, Cooking and Books. Sounds pretty boring for you people? and oh, I don't think I can keep up writing about Techie, Money making stuffs because I prefer reading them on others site instead.

What's new at Money Making Blogger?

I guess I'm pretty much caught up in researching for keywords and making a list of them so that I can use up keywords in each of my future post. Besides that, I'm also 'discovering' everything new about Wordpress.org be it it's Widgets, Plugins, hard coding things on my theme editor, checking out on my server stats, checking on my error stats and stuffs like that.

Choosing the right Web Hosting

To tell you the truth, there's no 'right' web hosting out there not until you have a go at one yourself. I spent quite sometime deliberating on the 'best' hosting provider between Hostgator, GoDaddy, BlueHost and a few others and finally I settled for hosting with BlueHost.com.

BlueHost a.k.a BH easily becomes the 'perfect' choice because it's highly recommended by Wordpress and of course noobs like myself (I'm a newbie in both WP and hosting) will go for it too. So far so good, until this week I was having a short downtime but the problem resolved almost immediately and I did chat with the online support team and he explained me 'stuffs' or suffice to say, nothing that I should worry about.

However, what got me worrying was this warning :

• Your account is actively experiencing CPU limiting factors (throttling).


• During the past 24 hours your account has been throttled for a total of 81841.459 seconds.

And throttling keeps on increasing every seconds.

I'm not quite sure what effect will it have on my site. I've read that page load will be slower than usual and some people are experiencing a decreasing number of traffic too. At the moment, I've raised a ticket and waiting for the support's feedback. Worse to worse, I'll ignore the throttling issue completely and see how long will this site last before it's either suspended or crashed.

Oh well, that's the cost you have to pay for shared hosting eh.=)

Money making Blogger

I'm not sure about this site's title. Money making Blogger? Haha... It's a bit corny and I have to admit, I'm laughing at myself just a little bit. Titles are suppose to be catchy, no? Until I can think of other better title to put up with, I'm pretty happy ( I think so I am) with the one I have right now.

Why people should have a Twitter Account?

The answers are :

1. First and foremost, I HAVE a Twitter account myself. Check out for Yasz_A.
2. It's way better than FB because with applications like TweetDeck, you get to shout out at multiple places like Twitter, FB, Friendster, etc all at once.
3. You get to follow up on the latest, I do mean, latest updates from celebs, travel people, business people, news and pretty much anyone that you happen to Follow in your Twitter.
4. You get to do viral marketing too with Twitter! If you are into internet marketing, this is your best bet for marketing.
5. Everybody else is twittering, so why not you?? Come on, since you are online like all the time during office hours, it doesn't hurt to Twitter as well. Hehe.

So, you are still not ready to jump on the bandwagon like everybody else? Shame on you then...harhar..No, really. Do subscribe on Twitter if you don't want to lose out from the game!

Why people should have a Twitter Account?

The answers are :

1. First and foremost, I HAVE a Twitter account myself. Check out for Yasz_A.
2. It's way better than FB because with applications like TweetDeck, you get to shout out at multiple places like Twitter, FB, Friendster, etc all at once.
3. You get to follow up on the latest, I do mean, latest updates from celebs, travel people, business people, news and pretty much anyone that you happen to Follow in your Twitter.
4. You get to do viral marketing too with Twitter! If you are into internet marketing, this is your best bet for marketing.
5. Everybody else is twittering, so why not you?? Come on, since you are online like all the time during office hours, it doesn't hurt to Twitter as well. Hehe.

So, you are still not ready to jump on the bandwagon like everybody else? Shame on you then...harhar..No, really. Do subscribe on Twitter if you don't want to lose out from the game!

How to create tinyurl at your website?

Ever since people are crazy about tweeting in Twitter, your best bet to squeeze a URL link within the limited amount of characters allowed in a tweet is by having a tinyURL.

What is Tiny URL again? (*you may be asking this too!).
TinyURL is a way for you to shorten the length of a particular long URL into a tiny URL.

So how does it works?
Simply browse over to let say, http://tinyurl.com/ , enter any long URL that you have and it'll get converted to something tiny like this : http://tinyurl.com/lagxuw

There are many websites that provide tinyurl services. Simply google for tinyurl to get the list. All in all, they provide pretty much the same basic service with a slight additional features in some sites.

How to create tinyurl at your website?

Ever since people are crazy about tweeting in Twitter, your best bet to squeeze a URL link within the limited amount of characters allowed in a tweet is by having a tinyURL.

What is Tiny URL again? (*you may be asking this too!).
TinyURL is a way for you to shorten the length of a particular long URL into a tiny URL.

So how does it works?
Simply browse over to let say, http://tinyurl.com/ , enter any long URL that you have and it'll get converted to something tiny like this : http://tinyurl.com/lagxuw

There are many websites that provide tinyurl services. Simply google for tinyurl to get the list. All in all, they provide pretty much the same basic service with a slight additional features in some sites.

Second hand books for sale @KLJunkyard!

Hello fellow readers! I've got another blog it's called KL Junkyard! Haha. Currently I am 'disposing' of my old books from the book shelves and books are selling from RM10 to RM20 tops. Have a look at KL Junkyard to check out the books. If you guys are interested to swap books or want to post your own books for sale at KL Junkyard, I'll be more than happy to do so. PM me to talk business. =p

Check out KL Junkyard NOW!

Second hand books for sale @KLJunkyard!

Hello fellow readers! I've got another blog it's called KL Junkyard! Haha. Currently I am 'disposing' of my old books from the book shelves and books are selling from RM10 to RM20 tops. Have a look at KL Junkyard to check out the books. If you guys are interested to swap books or want to post your own books for sale at KL Junkyard, I'll be more than happy to do so. PM me to talk business. =p

Check out KL Junkyard NOW!

Nijntje Intro Song

My cute lil curly-haired niece is so into Nijntje(*pronounce as Naije)or in English, it's Miffy. Some of the first things she uttered at the airport was Nijntje while pointing the Nijntje logo at her top. Super adorable. And to top it up, this Nijntje song is not bad at all. It's damn catchy. Check it out here for the Dutch version. It's great that I get to pick up a lil bit of Dutch too! Hehe.

Owh, I must share the lyrics here :

Nijntje nijntje kom erbij,
met je vriendjes reuzeblij,
Snuffie,Knorretje en Boris beer
kijk ook Betje is er weer

Lekker buiten iedereen,
niemand blijft alleen,
Nijntje
Een lief klein konijntje
Nijntje
Een pienter konijntje
Nijntje
Een knuffelkonijntje

Nijntje
kijk mee...

Nijntje Intro Song

My cute lil curly-haired niece is so into Nijntje(*pronounce as Naije)or in English, it's Miffy. Some of the first things she uttered at the airport was Nijntje while pointing the Nijntje logo at her top. Super adorable. And to top it up, this Nijntje song is not bad at all. It's damn catchy. Check it out here for the Dutch version. It's great that I get to pick up a lil bit of Dutch too! Hehe.

Owh, I must share the lyrics here :

Nijntje nijntje kom erbij,
met je vriendjes reuzeblij,
Snuffie,Knorretje en Boris beer
kijk ook Betje is er weer

Lekker buiten iedereen,
niemand blijft alleen,
Nijntje
Een lief klein konijntje
Nijntje
Een pienter konijntje
Nijntje
Een knuffelkonijntje

Nijntje
kijk mee...

Create FREE HTML Form Builder at Wufoo

I was browsing around yesterday for a form builder to create at an online sale website. The closest I've always seen is something from Aweber. However, Aweber provides one of those auto respond email, subscription, customer follow-up with some fees which is not what I'm looking for. Aweber can get pretty handy if you are looking for an internet marketing tool for your bisness.

Anyhow, I've found this really awesome FREE HTML form builder by Wufoo. Here are things on why every online business seller should get their hands on Wufoo:

1: Opening an account at Wufoo is obviously FREE and you get to create 3 Free HTML Form and also customize each forms, edit it along the way for FREE.

2. For normal online business seller especially those common in Malaysia, we see most of them posting their personal bank account number, name and phone number on public display on their website. With the form builder by Wufoo, you get to create an order form with really professional looking GUI alongside with an auto generated email sent to both you and your customers who completed the order form. Hence, you get to follow up on your customers directly and share account details and etc through the information from the order form.

So, if you are an online business seller and want to make an impression to your customers, go to Wufoo and get 'em free forms now!! The form making is super simple, easy, comes with choices of templates which you get to customize and simpley paste the generated code to your website and Voila, you'll get your own personalized HTML form!

Create FREE HTML Form Builder at Wufoo

I was browsing around yesterday for a form builder to create at an online sale website. The closest I've always seen is something from Aweber. However, Aweber provides one of those auto respond email, subscription, customer follow-up with some fees which is not what I'm looking for. Aweber can get pretty handy if you are looking for an internet marketing tool for your bisness.

Anyhow, I've found this really awesome FREE HTML form builder by Wufoo. Here are things on why every online business seller should get their hands on Wufoo:

1: Opening an account at Wufoo is obviously FREE and you get to create 3 Free HTML Form and also customize each forms, edit it along the way for FREE.

2. For normal online business seller especially those common in Malaysia, we see most of them posting their personal bank account number, name and phone number on public display on their website. With the form builder by Wufoo, you get to create an order form with really professional looking GUI alongside with an auto generated email sent to both you and your customers who completed the order form. Hence, you get to follow up on your customers directly and share account details and etc through the information from the order form.

So, if you are an online business seller and want to make an impression to your customers, go to Wufoo and get 'em free forms now!! The form making is super simple, easy, comes with choices of templates which you get to customize and simpley paste the generated code to your website and Voila, you'll get your own personalized HTML form!

When friends started asking you these...

....you wonder why the hell they asked?

Yeah, I admit I got a couple of friends who asked me questions that I just downright think they should have asked a totally different person and not me. Here are some of the questions that had me can't quite catch my tongue moment:

Friend (F) :Don't you want to get married yet? You know we are already 26 this year.
Me (M): Huh? ...*thinking for the best answer to reply...Of course la I wanna get married! Which idiot doesn't right? You are asking a pretty stupid question. Duh!

* F was asking me that because apparently she was counting days for her big day and I felt like strangling her from over the phone for talking so 'rubbishly' silly. Haha.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
F : You all single people, what more are you waiting for? Faster la get married. Takkanla wanna wait for us to get babies baru nak kawin kot?
M : * like WTF is she talking? What the hell is this woman thinking talking like that to people? Do I even know this woman???

* Yours truely promptly sent a private message reply to this F saying that of course 'we' single ladies wanted to get married but of course we have to get married with someone else right? Since we are like 'single', how the hell are we suppose to get married? Chill la..what's the rush.
* Deep down in my heart, I feel like killing this woman. Talking without thinking. Haih. But later I gave her some slack after finding out that she's pregnant. I suppose, some preggie ladies are a bit too hormonal. Had to give her some slack though since I just want to be nice to my friends okay! Haha.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
F: I'm feeling all stressed out la since people in my office and most of our friends are already married. I'm so stressed!
M: Wei, chill la! Why you want to rush yourself? I thought you are not ready to commit to marriagehood what? So just chill lah! No need to be so stressed out OKAY!

* In my heart ... I don't get this woman! Haha...Since she's a friend, just pretend to be listening. LOL!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
F : Let's say someone you just met propose to you and wanted to marry you, what will you do?
M: Erm...I still have to get to know the person first. Of course I want to get married, but I know it's not now lah. *thinking again on what I just said. Haha

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Those are some of my friends. They asked me questions that I can't bloody answer. It's worse than having an exam okay. Stop asking me questions like this again! LOL~

It's July and I've forgotten to blog...

Uhh...how time flies really fast although you just ended up being a 'beautiful furniture' most of the time. Anyways, just to highlight a thing or two here.

Since KL is all hyped up with the 'Bonnie Flu'...yes, I call it as 'Bonnie' instead of 'Swine' because I just thought 'Bonnie' is a wickedly cute name to call a pig. Alrite, since the whole hype about people getting infected with the flu and also those news alert saying that a couple of people actually were having the flu during the much anticipated Urbanscape event few weekends back...and surprise, surprise... the following week (last week), we got news from my own condo's management warning us about this 'Bonnie Flu' because apparently some people already got infected within the block. And also...dad came home proudly storytelling about having to wear mask into some departments because a couple of people happened to catch the flu bug. Okay...how did I react on this?

Simply down on some extra vitamin C in vain hope to have extra strong immunity against the flu. =). Some people are also arguing that this health scare is being overrated and scaring the shits of almost everyone. There's still no cure to this and the normal remedy for the infected people is for the doctor to prescribe an extra shit loads of antibiotics, paracetomal, some pills for flu and then asking patients to drink a lot of water and not skipping their meals. It's safe to say that people shouldn't worry so much about this 'Bonnie Flu'. The more you are scared shits about it, I supppose, the more likely that you'll get infected. Haha. It's like a whole psychology thing. Your utmost fear will come to haunt you like that.

And just for laugh, I'd asked a friend living from Down Under about the current situation there. She mentioned that ,"Oh..people were getting worried sick about it last month and 2 people died. By now, people just don't give a damn about it anymore. " Haha. So worry not fellow KL-ians. It's just a bug, it'll shoo away in no time. Stay healthy and stay clean people!

Zee Avi - Kantoi!

I love this woman and this song entitled " Kantoi"! Woman, you kick a$$! For those of you who have no idea who she is... she's Zee Avi lar! Haha! A Petite, soulful, Sarawakian, Malaysian and currently has a record deal with Brushfire Records and man, she's been busy like a bee doing tours in the U.S.

And oh, why do I like this Kantoi song? It's a fun song, very Manglish and every Malaysian loves Manglish right? What's not to like there? And and...the song is such a typical your-bf/gf-kantoi excuses which I suppose most of us have experienced this somehow or rather. Harhar. Happy listening and I'm sure you guys will love this song!

* Check out for more of Zee Avi here!

Keywords Tracker by Nuffnang

I've never really analyzed anything from the Analytics that I have from my Nuffnang account. Most of the time I'm more eager to check if my Earnings has accumulated or not. In most cases, the amount is pretty much stagnant. I'm a couple of cents away from MYR1. Haha. Super pathetic. I KNOW. Haha.

Anyways, I've checked on the keywords I've been getting for this blog for the past 1 month. Here are the list:

mba

da yasz

what makes vemma so special

knm

wots the commotion

thumb sucking

it hurts poem

what's the deal with june weddings

why do dogs sniff each others butts

june marriages

yasz blog

yunaindie band bloggers

yuna performance

chic lit
By far, I think I'm getting at least once a month view for my "Why do dogs sniff each others butts" post. From the list, I'm not really sure where does "MBA" comes from because I don't remember writing anything about doing an MBA. I can't remember really.

Besides these keywords, I get to monitor where my readers are coming from too. I pretty much can say that I don't really have that much of Guests readers here which is bad! Anyhow, I don't expect much since I don't have a particular niche topic for this blog and not much 'marketing' is done anyways.

On that note, I've been thinking a very long time to get my own hosting and domain name. I may be going for yaszamzah.com or yasminamzah.com or a totally niche related domain name. I'm just looking for something catchy at the same time it can projects me as the writer. But some says, my name is catchy enough so that should be alright wouldn't it?=p

Zee Avi - Kantoi!

I love this woman and this song entitled " Kantoi"! Woman, you kick a$$! For those of you who have no idea who she is... she's Zee Avi lar! Haha! A Petite, soulful, Sarawakian, Malaysian and currently has a record deal with Brushfire Records and man, she's been busy like a bee doing tours in the U.S.

And oh, why do I like this Kantoi song? It's a fun song, very Manglish and every Malaysian loves Manglish right? What's not to like there? And and...the song is such a typical your-bf/gf-kantoi excuses which I suppose most of us have experienced this somehow or rather. Harhar. Happy listening and I'm sure you guys will love this song!

* Check out for more of Zee Avi here!

Keywords Tracker by Nuffnang

I've never really analyzed anything from the Analytics that I have from my Nuffnang account. Most of the time I'm more eager to check if my Earnings has accumulated or not. In most cases, the amount is pretty much stagnant. I'm a couple of cents away from MYR1. Haha. Super pathetic. I KNOW. Haha.

Anyways, I've checked on the keywords I've been getting for this blog for the past 1 month. Here are the list:

mba

da yasz

what makes vemma so special

knm

wots the commotion

thumb sucking

it hurts poem

what's the deal with june weddings

why do dogs sniff each others butts

june marriages

yasz blog

yunaindie band bloggers

yuna performance

chic lit


By far, I think I'm getting at least once a month view for my "Why do dogs sniff each others butts" post. From the list, I'm not really sure where does "MBA" comes from because I don't remember writing anything about doing an MBA. I can't remember really.

Besides these keywords, I get to monitor where my readers are coming from too. I pretty much can say that I don't really have that much of Guests readers here which is bad! Anyhow, I don't expect much since I don't have a particular niche topic for this blog and not much 'marketing' is done anyways.

On that note, I've been thinking a very long time to get my own hosting and domain name. I may be going for yaszamzah.com or yasminamzah.com or a totally niche related domain name. I'm just looking for something catchy at the same time it can projects me as the writer. But some says, my name is catchy enough so that should be alright wouldn't it?=p

Cooking updates : Jamie Oliver

Funny that the last time I chatted with this friend of mine, he ended up asking me what's the latest recipe on the menu? Truth be told, I don't cook as much anymore. No particular reason really. I am just finding excuses not to spend too much time in the kitchen. That's all. But suffice to say, I DO miss getting down and dirty with those pots and pans. Hehe.

So what's up with the latest news in regards to cooking?

I've done my share of Google-ing on my dearest number one chef, Jamie Oliver. Here are some of his updates:

1. Jamie and wife Jools are now a proud parent of 3 kids. Their latest edition, little Petal Blossom Rainbow were born on 3rd April 2009.

2. Jamie and Jools apparently have the tendency to give utterly cute, almost cartoon-ish names to their lovely daughters. Check these names out:
1st child - Poppy Honey
2nd child - Daisy Boo

Don't those names reminded you of some cartoons during your younger days? Anyways, I just think they are very adorable names but I can't imagine myself naming my kids that way. Haha.

3. Recently, Jamie has been jetting back and forth US and UK spending loads of pounds to be close to Jools and his girls. He's such a big time family person. Aww, how adorable is that?

So far that's the latest ...I suppose. To catch more of him Follow Jamie Oliver at his twitter and drop by his website too! Cheerios peeps!

Cooking updates : Jamie Oliver

Funny that the last time I chatted with this friend of mine, he ended up asking me what's the latest recipe on the menu? Truth be told, I don't cook as much anymore. No particular reason really. I am just finding excuses not to spend too much time in the kitchen. That's all. But suffice to say, I DO miss getting down and dirty with those pots and pans. Hehe.

So what's up with the latest news in regards to cooking?

I've done my share of Google-ing on my dearest number one chef, Jamie Oliver. Here are some of his updates:

1. Jamie and wife Jools are now a proud parent of 3 kids. Their latest edition, little Petal Blossom Rainbow were born on 3rd April 2009.

2. Jamie and Jools apparently have the tendency to give utterly cute, almost cartoon-ish names to their lovely daughters. Check these names out:
1st child - Poppy Honey
2nd child - Daisy Boo

Don't those names reminded you of some cartoons during your younger days? Anyways, I just think they are very adorable names but I can't imagine myself naming my kids that way. Haha.

3. Recently, Jamie has been jetting back and forth US and UK spending loads of pounds to be close to Jools and his girls. He's such a big time family person. Aww, how adorable is that?

So far that's the latest ...I suppose. To catch more of him Follow Jamie Oliver at his twitter and drop by his website too! Cheerios peeps!

How to put up the retweet icon at your blog?

I knew someone will ask about this one and I was itching to know about putting up the ReTweet icon myself. I came across this blog, bloggerstop.net and tweaked a line or two at my Blogger template to make the icon works.

The exact code which I've added for my blog here is this:

1. Find this tag at your template:

  <div class='post-header-line-1'/>

2. Add the following code right below the above tag:

  <script type="text/javascript">    tweetmeme_url = '<data:post.url/>';    tweetmeme_source = 'Twitter ID';    </script>    <script type="text/javascript" src="http://tweetmeme.com/i/scripts/button.js"></script> 

There are 2 other ways(applying a slight change of codes) to have the icon at your blog with its own pros and cons. However this particular RT will have your own Twitter ID on the line and the tweetmeme link at the end of the retweet which is something like this:

RT @Yasz_A life's a commotion!: Lamb Shoulder and Gourmet Burger Yasz's Style http://cli.gs/12XNZX (via @tweetmeme)

* note the via @tweetmeme at the end of the RT

If you ended up making a slightly different code ( you can check it out here), your Twitter id will not be shown in the RT. Eg:

RT @tweetmeme The Art and Science of Retweeting for Twitteraholics http://tr.im/gzNV

*note that the RT will come from tweetmeme and I don't think you want that. You need to have at least a recognition of your own id in the RT am I right? Hehe.

And yeah, all these codes thanks to the helpful blogger at bloggerstop.net. Probably if you Google more, you'll come up with better codes to put up the RT icon. As for me, this is good enough for now.

* This code formatter will help a lot to post codes in your blog posts.

How to put up the retweet icon at your blog?

I knew someone will ask about this one and I was itching to know about putting up the ReTweet icon myself. I came across this blog, bloggerstop.net and tweaked a line or two at my Blogger template to make the icon works.

The exact code which I've added for my blog here is this:

1. Find this tag at your template:

  <div class='post-header-line-1'/>

2. Add the following code right below the above tag:

  <script type="text/javascript"> 
   tweetmeme_url = '<data:post.url/>'; 
   tweetmeme_source = 'Twitter ID'; 
   </script> 
   <script type="text/javascript" src="http://tweetmeme.com/i/scripts/button.js"></script> 

There are 2 other ways(applying a slight change of codes) to have the icon at your blog with its own pros and cons. However this particular RT will have your own Twitter ID on the line and the tweetmeme link at the end of the retweet which is something like this:

RT @Yasz_A life's a commotion!: Lamb Shoulder and Gourmet Burger Yasz's Style http://cli.gs/12XNZX (via @tweetmeme)

* note the via @tweetmeme at the end of the RT

If you ended up making a slightly different code ( you can check it out here), your Twitter id will not be shown in the RT. Eg:

RT @tweetmeme The Art and Science of Retweeting for Twitteraholics http://tr.im/gzNV

*note that the RT will come from tweetmeme and I don't think you want that. You need to have at least a recognition of your own id in the RT am I right? Hehe.

And yeah, all these codes thanks to the helpful blogger at bloggerstop.net. Probably if you Google more, you'll come up with better codes to put up the RT icon. As for me, this is good enough for now.

* This code formatter will help a lot to post codes in your blog posts.

A change of air

I like it here. Loving it. Very homely. The 'office space' is super comfortable. I can pretty much work anywhere anyways. Still there's a lot to learn and a change of air is always good. I'm also loving this babe Yunalis so much. Rocket is killing me. Got her show close to me though so that won't be an issue.

Happy working and bring on the money!!!!

p.s: what if I can make USD1000/week? It's so so mission possible. Soon enough.

A change of air

I like it here. Loving it. Very homely. The 'office space' is super comfortable. I can pretty much work anywhere anyways. Still there's a lot to learn and a change of air is always good. I'm also loving this babe Yunalis so much. Rocket is killing me. Got her show close to me though so that won't be an issue.

Happy working and bring on the money!!!!

p.s: what if I can make USD1000/week? It's so so mission possible. Soon enough.

If you talk Negative, you'll get Negative - The Secret

Oh yes, I regretted saying all the 'Taik' in all those 3 different languages. It was like a calling for a bad return of the day. Hence, the bloody super worse wedding dinner reception of the year last night. I was brutally victimized and had to hang in there for a bloody horrible 3 hours.

Let's talk briefly about this wedding I happened to obligingly attended.

1. It's one of those datuk, datin, tan sri , nonsense what nots wedding with super duper god knows unrelated to the family organizing the wedding kinda wedding. In short, a typical rich ass Malay wedding. Booo...

2. Okay fine. The setup is like a typical dinner reception la, got sitting and all, very organized until an extend of too bloody hell organized and protocol full of shit. Wedding suppose to be fun and happening okay!

3. The organizer ie the inviting family of the bride made the whole 100 over ish guests waited for the newly weds to arrive at the hall in a tremendously, awesomely fashionably excellent Malaysian Timing, which was like 1 hour away from the expected time of arrival for all other guests. The 1 hour waiting period was an excruciating bloody arse wait because you'll find yourself bloated with air because they served nothing on the beautifully decorated table for 10 except for a pathetic petite bowl of crackers. Within that 1 hour, we ended up munching on that crackers and gulping down that small little Hersey's Kisses chocolates they placed for each patrons as that typical token you get on the all typical Malay wedding. And and, let's not forget that super red 'Air Sirap' with an ultra high sugar content which is proven a close to potent drink for a diabetic. EXCELLENT!

4. Then comes the typical 'tepung-tawar' ceremony. The best part is, people who are a complete strangers (ultra VIPS of the day) to the newly weds where ushered first to do the ceremony as a sign of bloody stupid disrespect to their own frail grandparents and equally 'happy' parents. Hooray, the elders of the family get to 'tepung-tawar' the ceremony at the last of the queue. Excellent when it comes to the cue of 'family comes first'.

5. Next comes the recital of prayers (doa). I was getting excited thinking that I get to eat once the doa for the 'food' is done. Much to everyone's disappointment, the doa recital when on and on and on and on, sounding nothing like the short doa for makan, instead sounded more like 'doa kesyukuran or doa selamat' kinda thingy. Ok fine. We said our Amin but it didn't stop there. Still no food to be served yet.

6. Next, the recital of a surah Luqman which was very lengthy(approx. 15 minutes tops) and I could sense the discomfort of the Indian couple at our table. As for me, I was doing the eye rolling thing to the lady sitting next to me while she gasps in totally bewilderment like ,"Alamak, bace quran pulak ker" or the "omg this is so not happening" kinda look.

7. After nearly 2 hours of waiting and shifting around my seat and sms-ing my friends into glory and 1 purposely missed call later, we finally got served. It was late, people were no more hungry except probably a tad gassy inside and wanted to just gobbled up a bit and leave. Food was alright because we were hungry okay and it's that typical oily, dry, no veg food to make the food tastes supposedly healthy and thumb sucking delicious. Bah!

8. Then comes dessert with a weird 'concoction' of vanilla ice cream, some sprinkles of choc rice and get this, a sweet sour TAPAI! OMG! Like who the hell, created this type of dessert??? and I thought only kampung people eats tapai...hahaha...no offense okay, just a thought.

I skipped the hot drinks and kept indicating to my mum to chow and get the hell out of there. She did finally thought ,"oh well, I think we should leave" after a few minutes of waiting the super VIP to leave the 'hell' in a slow-mo ass manner. Great.

I grabbed my car keys, skipped the hand shaking thank yous with the organizing family whom I know no one and happily zoomed out for home.

Thus, the moral here is : If you think bad, you'll get bad. If you think good, you'll get good. So always, think good people. Avoid thinking bad and of course being bad.

Moral again : Never agree to attend a wedding that you know neither the bride and groom or the family members

Moral again again: Weddings are suppose to be fun, this was the worse wedding I've ever attended and if the wedding got VIPS or super VIPS like Sultan and Menteri, don't think twice about attending. Just DO NOT ATTEND! It's hell and full of protocol shits and left you hungry and regretting. Haha.

Oh well, this post is not a brief preview of the wedding I'd attended. It's a surprise if any of you even bother reading this long post.

If you talk Negative, you'll get Negative - The Secret

Oh yes, I regretted saying all the 'Taik' in all those 3 different languages. It was like a calling for a bad return of the day. Hence, the bloody super worse wedding dinner reception of the year last night. I was brutally victimized and had to hang in there for a bloody horrible 3 hours.

Let's talk briefly about this wedding I happened to obligingly attended.

1. It's one of those datuk, datin, tan sri , nonsense what nots wedding with super duper god knows unrelated to the family organizing the wedding kinda wedding. In short, a typical rich ass Malay wedding. Booo...

2. Okay fine. The setup is like a typical dinner reception la, got sitting and all, very organized until an extend of too bloody hell organized and protocol full of shit. Wedding suppose to be fun and happening okay!

3. The organizer ie the inviting family of the bride made the whole 100 over ish guests waited for the newly weds to arrive at the hall in a tremendously, awesomely fashionably excellent Malaysian Timing, which was like 1 hour away from the expected time of arrival for all other guests. The 1 hour waiting period was an excruciating bloody arse wait because you'll find yourself bloated with air because they served nothing on the beautifully decorated table for 10 except for a pathetic petite bowl of crackers. Within that 1 hour, we ended up munching on that crackers and gulping down that small little Hersey's Kisses chocolates they placed for each patrons as that typical token you get on the all typical Malay wedding. And and, let's not forget that super red 'Air Sirap' with an ultra high sugar content which is proven a close to potent drink for a diabetic. EXCELLENT!

4. Then comes the typical 'tepung-tawar' ceremony. The best part is, people who are a complete strangers (ultra VIPS of the day) to the newly weds where ushered first to do the ceremony as a sign of bloody stupid disrespect to their own frail grandparents and equally 'happy' parents. Hooray, the elders of the family get to 'tepung-tawar' the ceremony at the last of the queue. Excellent when it comes to the cue of 'family comes first'.

5. Next comes the recital of prayers (doa). I was getting excited thinking that I get to eat once the doa for the 'food' is done. Much to everyone's disappointment, the doa recital when on and on and on and on, sounding nothing like the short doa for makan, instead sounded more like 'doa kesyukuran or doa selamat' kinda thingy. Ok fine. We said our Amin but it didn't stop there. Still no food to be served yet.

6. Next, the recital of a surah Luqman which was very lengthy(approx. 15 minutes tops) and I could sense the discomfort of the Indian couple at our table. As for me, I was doing the eye rolling thing to the lady sitting next to me while she gasps in totally bewilderment like ,"Alamak, bace quran pulak ker" or the "omg this is so not happening" kinda look.

7. After nearly 2 hours of waiting and shifting around my seat and sms-ing my friends into glory and 1 purposely missed call later, we finally got served. It was late, people were no more hungry except probably a tad gassy inside and wanted to just gobbled up a bit and leave. Food was alright because we were hungry okay and it's that typical oily, dry, no veg food to make the food tastes supposedly healthy and thumb sucking delicious. Bah!

8. Then comes dessert with a weird 'concoction' of vanilla ice cream, some sprinkles of choc rice and get this, a sweet sour TAPAI! OMG! Like who the hell, created this type of dessert??? and I thought only kampung people eats tapai...hahaha...no offense okay, just a thought.

I skipped the hot drinks and kept indicating to my mum to chow and get the hell out of there. She did finally thought ,"oh well, I think we should leave" after a few minutes of waiting the super VIP to leave the 'hell' in a slow-mo ass manner. Great.

I grabbed my car keys, skipped the hand shaking thank yous with the organizing family whom I know no one and happily zoomed out for home.

Thus, the moral here is : If you think bad, you'll get bad. If you think good, you'll get good. So always, think good people. Avoid thinking bad and of course being bad.

Moral again : Never agree to attend a wedding that you know neither the bride and groom or the family members

Moral again again: Weddings are suppose to be fun, this was the worse wedding I've ever attended and if the wedding got VIPS or super VIPS like Sultan and Menteri, don't think twice about attending. Just DO NOT ATTEND! It's hell and full of protocol shits and left you hungry and regretting. Haha.

Oh well, this post is not a brief preview of the wedding I'd attended. It's a surprise if any of you even bother reading this long post.

Merde! Scheisse! Shit!

OMG...I'm so rushing into finishing up that Merde book. The fonts are big though, so I reckon, if I give my complete concentration, I can finish it up in a whizz. Nothing much to report here actually. Pigging session is up tonight and hoping I only meet strangers.

Just to shout out here, I really envy those people who opened up that online clothing line. Actually, I love those online boutiques and am itching to buy most of them and dreaming to have one of my own with my type of clothings you know. Merde! Online shopping is so bloody in. I will soon, order and order and burn only tiny bits of credit from the bank account.

I shall end this ridiculous post with less Merde, no more Scheisse and of course no Shit!

*Merde is French while Scheisse is Deutsch for that word calls Shit!

Merde! Scheisse! Shit!

OMG...I'm so rushing into finishing up that Merde book. The fonts are big though, so I reckon, if I give my complete concentration, I can finish it up in a whizz. Nothing much to report here actually. Pigging session is up tonight and hoping I only meet strangers.

Just to shout out here, I really envy those people who opened up that online clothing line. Actually, I love those online boutiques and am itching to buy most of them and dreaming to have one of my own with my type of clothings you know. Merde! Online shopping is so bloody in. I will soon, order and order and burn only tiny bits of credit from the bank account.

I shall end this ridiculous post with less Merde, no more Scheisse and of course no Shit!

*Merde is French while Scheisse is Deutsch for that word calls Shit!

After weddings, they started having babies...

Last weekend weddings were alright. I got to eat 'nasi minyak' for two days back-to-back which was aweful for my cholesterol level and overall diet. You see, I don't tend to eat that much anyways and having a super oily, fatty wedding lunches are enough to disturb my ever so healthy eating habit. Hehe.

So, as mentioned on the previous post, a handful of my friends are officially married last week. Hip hip hooray for them and sorry for not being able to make it to most of your weddings. One friend is already back to work yesterday which is rather suprising at least for me. The reason behind her back to work and no honeymoon yet after the wedding is due to lack of leave that she is allowed to take. That sucks isn't it. You have to postpone your honeymoon until like what...end of the year? Sucky but that's the reality for most people.

Okay back to the post's title,yep, after wedding, come the babies making episode of their life. If you ask me how do I feel about this and is it affecting me in any other ways? The answer to that is, hell no, no effect whats so ever unto me. I'm a much happier person actually because I get to become automatic Tante( Auntie in Dutch) when each baby boy or girl is born and delivered by my lovely friends.

I got to meet my old friend from my college days last week and she is blessed with this cute little guy of 6 months old. And for the first time ever, I got to hold a baby and tossed him around despite his neck is still a bit weak. But at least, baby Izz seemed to like me and didn't cry at all. Aww, babies are so much fun to play with minus the taking care part. That part is solely and exclusively left for the biological mum to take care of. Hehe. Ain't instant 'mother' fun?

I'm still doing my count on who is going to deliver their baby next this year. And the worse part, I never thought I would hear myself saying these words to my other friend during the wedding I'd attended. I chocked on hearing myself saying,"Hey, if there's good news, do let me know!".Like why the hell am I talking that way now? Sheesh...I hope I'm not giving pressure to my girlfriends because I know I'm not having the slightest pressure at all. LOL.

Can't wait to actually hold my very own niece too pretty soon. She's going to be spoilt rotten by her Tantes and only Uncle (at least from our side of the family that is). =)

What's the deal with June marriages?

It's June today and a lot to be anticipated this month. Kicking off the day feeling lost, more confused than yesterday but nevertheless, things gradually got better. The whole of last month, I kept getting posts from friends with their colourful wedding invitations which falls closely after one another starting from this 4th, a handful on the 6th and one on the 7th.

Oh how can I forget to mention that I already missed two wedding invitations on last weekend itself? I just couldn't make it. That's all.

I'm by now feeling absolutely tired and eyes close to shut trying to decide on how I'm going to attend four weddings in a week with this upcoming event on the 7th? Also, the fact that I thought my friend will get married on the 6th not until I saw her FB wall asking another friend to come for her wedding on the 7th. Not until then that I actually tore open her invititation card to check and confirm that yes, her wedding is on the 7th and I think I got to skip that event on that day. Haha...

You see, since most of them are going to make their big day falls on the 6th, I was thinking earlier that I will not attend to any of them...because of distance and plain inconvenient plus completely impossible for me to be at all four weddings at the same time. However, since I'm thinking to escape a little something, I'm going to forgo the event and attend the wedding on the 7th instead which is still a few hours drive to reach.

Coming back to the topic, like what's the deal with trying to squeeze all those weddings especially on the 6th of this month? I can never tolerate answers like , "Oh, it's the school holiday" when none of them are actually school teachers. I just don't get the idea at all man...

Anyways, come to think of it, I'm kinda sad that I won't be making it for two of my closest friends wedding. Smart them to have it all at the same day. Can't blame them either anyhow. I guess they are both getting all jumpy and excited with marriagehood and I'm sure, these two are ever so capable of hitting the 'making baby' button like asap. Hehe.. I can't imagine seeing mini M and mini Y ...hehehe..

On that note, I'm proud to announce that me and my girlfriends are officially now Aunties to Shalen's baby boy. The baby is 1 month premature and supposedly he's ETD(expected time of delivery) was on the 4th of July. I've yet to talk to Shalen and I hope the baby is getting strong as days past by. Probably I should pay them a visit since the baby is kept under watch in the incubator.

I'm tired. I should just go to bed.

The end.