I spent the day doing PHP coding for a project at work, and during a break we decided to make a cheesecake.

This time we had a recipe to follow, but were missing a couple (optional) ingredients.

This is the end result: my mummy’s cheesecake recipe.

Looks a bit like a pizza from the top. Here’s how a slice of cheese cake looks after it has set (also after I adjusted white balance):

Recipe is simple:

1. Crush a cup of biscuits (digestive or Marie variety) and mix with half a pack of butter.
2. Line the biscuits in a pan and chill in freezer for ten minutes.
3. Mix a packet of cream cheese with half a cup of sugar, 1/4 cup of milk, juice from 1/2 a lemon and a bit of vanilla essense.
4. Mix till it’s creamy, non-lumpy and smooth.
5. Prepare about 1/2 cup of gelatin liquid and add to the creamy mixture.
6. Remove the biscuit base from the freezer, pour in the cream cheese mixture and place in fridge to set for a few hours.
7. Sprinkle any remaining biscuit crumbs on top for decoration.

It says, “HELP! I’m currently being held prisoner by the Russian mafia… if you don’t approve this they will kill me”.

And it ends with a desperate plea… “they’re coming back now, please send help!”.

Haha.

I thought it was one of the funniest spam comments I’ve ever come across.

1. You would think that the mafia would be selling products like drugs
2. Why would they kidnap someone to spam comment?
3. If they really kill the spammer, then good riddance! (though I think this was just a software program)

It started with a low-grade sore throat, and I was down for a couple of days with fever.

Then the sore throat got worse. Doctor said I had ulcers on my tonsils. At the ulcers hurt whenever I spoke, breathed, or even took a sip of water. Every sip was like drinking molten metal.

I was in so much pain that I couldn’t even sleep.

I tried everything… lozenges, gargling with salt water, gargling with antiseptic mouthwash, taking Manuka honey. Nothing worked.

I contemplated going to ask doctor for some anesthetic spray.

And then last night Poey Chin boiled some nasty herbal drink for me. It was so bitter. Worse of all, it was slightly acidic and it hurt me even more with each sip. It took me half an hour to finish a mug of the drink.

It was supposed to remove the ‘fire’ from my body.

But guess what? An hour after drinking the potion, I could feel relief in my throat. I even managed to drink again without feeling sharp pain.

It has gone down from excruciating pain to a normal sore throat pain. I’m hoping it will go away completely after I take another mug of the drink.

Thank you, my darling wife. I know I usually don’t believe in those Eastern alternative treatment stuff, but this time it worked.

What’s do special about this card is, it was signed by the nurses at the maternity ward.

I’m sure they send it to every patient, but I think it’s a nice personal touch.

It was certainly consistent with the good service we had during our stay, and it seems like management has put some emphasis on customer care.

But then again, it should not be too much to expect five star treatment if you pay five star prices.

Took advantage of the promotion from Maxis, and got the phone for RM1699. I was thinking so hard about this, knowing that I could not afford a smartphone like the iPhone.

I love it!

Why I Chose the Samsung Galaxy S over the iPhone 4

1. It’s an Android phone. The open source OS really appeals to me.
2. Both phones are evenly matched in terms of processing speed and features.
3. The Samsung Galaxy S is cheaper.
4. The iPhone 4 seems to have a lot of issues
5. The iPhone 4 will probably take half a year to arrive here, and cost 3K plus for phone and data plan

Features and Design

The exterior of the phone looks rather like an iPhone 3GS. You can check out Samsung Galaxy S or “vs iPhone 4″ reviews on YouTube to see the phone in action.

Like the iPhone, this Android phone has no physical buttons at the front except for the home button.

The 4 inch Super AMOLED screen is one of the best in the market today. Of course the screen resolution cannot compare to the iPhone Retina IPS display, but I can’t see any pixellation when I put the phone close to my eyes. So I don’t know if the retina display would have been an improvement (for me) or not.

The size of the phone is not too wide, it is slimmer than the iPhone 3GS and fits well in my jeans pocket.

Some online reviewers mentioned that the plastic back makes the phone look cheap, but you can’t really tell that it’s plastic until you touch it (and it doesn’t look cheap!)

The battery life is average. I was playing with the phone for four hours straight (not even watching movies) and it used up 50% of the battery. So I would say that the iPhone still wins in the battery life category.

The phone comes with 16GB of internal storage, but there is a Micro SD card slot that can handle 32GB cards so you have virtually limitless storage capacity.

You don’t have to take off the battery to swap the Micro SD card, which is quite convenient (but you still have to remove the back cover).

It has all the standard connectivity options like Bluetooth and Wifi, which you can turn off to conserve battery life. You can even connect wirelessly to Samsung TVs and play HD video from your phone!

The Software and Apps

Samsung’s Android UI is a bit different compared to HTC or Motorola, but I guess it’s pretty much standard (they’re all like the iPhone).

What I love about the Android OS is they allow you to change wallpapers, have live widgets (like clocks or a stock counter) on your home screen, change fonts.

You can even have live wallpapers! Live wallpapers are wallpapers that change whenever you tilt your phone or touch the screen.

I guess the trade off here is the increased battery usage.

Another thing I love is Swype! Swype is an input method where you slide your finger across keyboard characters instead of typing one by one (Poey Chin says it’s like the Zorro method). It’s surprisingly accurate (even if you miss a few characters) and amazingly fast.

As for the apps… well… let’s just say you need to search for the gems in the midst of the junk. I’m not sure if the Apple App Store has this problem, but there is a lot of low quality apps that don’t deserve to be listed. Even the ‘recommended apps’ don’t look appealing.

Oh, and we are not allowed to purchase apps in Malaysia, so we can only use the free apps (though I’m sure there’s some way to get around this).

But not to worry, there are 100,000 apps out there. In fact, just now when I was browsing the market, I downloaded more than 15 apps!

I have yet to try a lot of apps, so I can’t really comment on the quality of apps. But so far the coolest thing I’ve found is an app that allows you to scan in a barcode (via the camera) and connect to an online store to check reviews and compare prices.

I’m looking forward for the upgrade to Android 2.2, which promises faster performance, integration with Chrome and many other features.

The phone has GPS and Google Maps, but I have yet to test out this feature on the road.

The phone comes with an eBook reader that read ePub format books. I tried to get Kindle but I guess it’s not available in Malaysia either.

Data Usage

Since I’ve subscribed to Maxis 500MB data plan, I have to be very careful about my 3G data usage.

The first thing I did was to install an app (3G Watchdog) to monitor my 3G data and warn me if I exceed a certain quota.

The second thing I did was to setup my iMac to share it’s internet connection via Airport, so in essence I got a free WiFi hotspot at home.

But my advice to you is to turn off automatic and background updating tasks unless you are on WiFi. How I wish there was an app to automatically enable or disable those settings depending if there was WiFi available.

Camera and Video

The 5MP camera is comparable to some point and shoot compact digital cameras out there.

Special features include touch-to-zoom, smile detection, image stabilizer, exposure adjustment.

The camera does rather well in low light conditions. The following photo of baby Daryl taken at night, with yellow wall light and no flash (the phone doesn’t have LED flash).

The video camera can shoot in HD, and the audio capture is really loud and sharp.

There is a camera at the front of the phone, which allows me to make video calls.

Android Fanboy or Apple Fanboy?

I don’t really care if the Samsung Galaxy S is touted as the iPhone 4 killer, because I personally feel both phones have advantages and disadvantages.

I love Apple computers and would probably continue to buy iMacs and maybe an iPad. If given an iPhone, I would grab it immediately.

But I also love the Android ecosystem and all the cool things happening there.

So I would say that I’m neither an Android or an Apple fanboy. I just love things that work well. It doesn’t mean that I love or hate a company because I bought a product from a competitor.

Conclusion

I just love the phone so much, because it combines a phone, camera, eBook reader, personal organizer, portable gaming system and so much more.

I guess any modern smartphone would make me happy, but I don’t regret buying the Samsung Galaxy S.

If you remember, I bought a Proton Persona SE for the same reasons. Lots of value added features at a lower price.

I’m happy that I managed to buy something I really wanted (giving in to spending temptation again), but then again it was at a good price.

Last week I baked some bread, and this week I decided to make an apple pie.

I didn’t have an apple pie recipe with me, so I just estimated what I thought to be right.

I started off mixing 1 cup of flour with half a packet of butter (the normal oblong type you get from supermarket). I used a fork to mash it all together until it looked like mash potatoes.

After the flour and butter became like crumbs, I added 3 tablespoons of ice water. I used the fork and my hand to knead the dough together, making sure it was mixed well.

You will know it’s mixed well when it looks like durian (hehe).

At that point, the dough seemed a little damp, but I hoped it would turn out ok. I wrapped the dough in plastic and put it in the freezer (to make it easier to roll later).

I peeled and sliced two medium apples (those RM10 for 6 size), draining them dry and coating them with 3 teaspoons of brown sugar (you can adjust according to your taste, but generally the apple should be sugar coated).

When the apples were ready, I removed the dough from the freezer, broke it in half and rolled with a rolling pin to make the base. By that time, the dough wasn’t damp any more and just right for rolling.

I didn’t have any baking dish so I used the metal plate we normally use to steam fish.

I made sure there was a bit of extra pastry at the side, then I lined the apples over the pastry, filling in all the gaps.

Made a mistake here, the apples were still too damp!

I rolled the other half of the dough to cover the pie, squeezed the sides shut and removed excess dough.  Then I used a fork to poke some holes to let the steam escape.

I had a bit of extra dough so I made some dough strips and decorated the top.

I put it in my little toaster oven for 30 minutes at 125 C, but after 30 minutes it wasn’t cooked So I baked it for another 15 minutes at 200 C.

After it was done, I left it to cool while taking some photos.

Took some close ups and wondered if a macro lens would get better shots.

I cut a slice and served with some ice cream.

The bottom of the pastry was a bit damp. I saw some apple juice accumulated at the bottom. But the taste was alright.

Disclosure: This wasn’t the first time I made apple pie, but the last time I did was 20 years ago while helping mummy.

Next time I will have to make sure the apple is dry. Some cinnamon would also be nice. And maybe I don’t have to poke so many holes in the pastry.

The first thing Rachel looks for is the swing.

She insisted on wearing her sunglasses.

She is picking up words very quickly, imitating everything we say.

Wanted to take photos of Daryl, but he refused to wake up.

Rachel at the see-saw.

Mama and Daryl in the background.

A shot of everyone.

Does it look delicious? My house is now filled with the nice smell of fresh baked bread!

I jotted down the recipe in my little note book. I know, I’m a little weird because I come out with flow charts for a bread recipe.

I spent about half hour preparing the ingredients, kneading the dough and waiting for it to rise.

Then I put it in my little toaster oven for 25 minutes. I got this oven for free because I exchanged my credit card points for it.

Since it was my first time, I left it in the oven a little too long. So the outside became kind of toasted. Looked more like baguettes when they came out.

While waiting for the bread to cool, I took so many photos of my bread. I took my first bite and the skin was a bit too crunchy, but the inside was warm, fragrant white bread.

I don’t really know if they qualify as bread. Maybe can call them buns. This is how the actual size looks in my hand.

I would say my experiment was a success. Perhaps I could share the recipe and step by step guide in a future post. Let me get more practice first.

Poey Chin says the bread is too dry. She suggested I add a bit of milk and coat the top with egg whites. She said she can dip in kopi O to eat.

However, I’m so happy I made something edible.

I have collected my first Google AdSense payment!

At the end of this post is a guide on how I received AdSense payment via Western Union at Pos Malaysia.

The payout amount was USD 240.63, which converted to RM772.

I always feel a bit ashamed to reveal my blog earnings, because it took me 3 years to get USD 240, and it’s probably going to take three more years to get the same amount.

I altered my screen shot somewhat to show the peanuts I’m earning.

I suspect some of you can get this amount in a week.

But how do I feel? My hands were trembling as I took the cash. It is finally in my hands. All those numbers on the screen finally turned into physical money in my pockets!

I feel happy and very satisfied.

What will I do with the money? Most of it will go to BlueHost. Web hosting will cost me around USD 160 for the next two years.

The remaining will help to buy some diapers and milk powder. Not so glamorous eh?

Some of you might ask me how you could also get AdSense income?

My answer is, don’t ask me because obviously I haven’t got it right yet. Ask me again if I earn thousands.

The only things that worked for me are: targeting keywords, strategically placing ads for specific post (instead of display for every post), and generally trying to get search engine referrals.

Some will also ask me if it is easy to earn money blogging. My answer is no. It’s not easy thinking about things to write, and finding the time to do the writing. It’s extremely difficult to get visitors and readers.

And there’s a fine line between writing for your regular readers and writing for search engine visitors. Hard to please both.

I have to thank Vedis for sharing with me the steps to receive Western Union payment.

While she usually does it at her bank, I chose to receive my payment at the post office.

Here are the steps to receive AdSense payment via Western Union at any Pos Malaysia branch:

1. Go to your AdSense – My Account – Account Settings
2. Make sure your payee information (name and address) matches your IC.
3. Under Payment Details, choose Western Union Quick Cash. Make sure the Payee Name matches your IC. You may want to play around with the first name/last name until you get it to look the same.
4. Once you cross the payment threshold, Google will release payment after 30 days.
5. Go to My Account – Payment History.
6. Go to the line where it says Payment Issued, and click the ‘Details’ link.
7. Note down the MTCN number, payment amount in USD, and Google’s address.
   Google Inc.
   1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
   Mountain View CA 94043
   USA
8. Remember to bring your original and photocopy of your IC to the post office
9. Take a Pos Malaysia – Western Union Receipt of Money (Penerimaan Wang) form from the counter. It has a yellow header and the Western Union logo.
10. Get a number for Kaunter Pelbagai (at my post office, it was button B)
11. Fill in your name, address and phone number. The form didn’t have enough boxes to fit my address so I just wrote over the boxes.
12. Then fill in Google’s name and address
13. Fill in the amount in USD, sender country (USA) and the MTCN.
14. Finally, sign the form.
15. Give it to the counter, and if everything is ok you will be paid in cash.

P/S: Outside the post office I was interviewed by a Sin Chew reporter regarding the postage rate increase. See if anything appears in paper tomorrow. Just hope I won’t get flamed for my remarks hehe.

Sleep deprivation is common, but at least I get to watch some World Cup at night.

Things are busy at work too. After the failure incident, we are starting again on another project. This time wiser, and hope we learned from our mistakes.

I hardly have enough time at the office, and don’t have any time to rest, which is good because I’m motivated to make things happen.

Oh yeah, back to the subject of this post.

Photos of our kids sleeping.

Rachel has really grown up a lot. I look at her, and she’s grown taller now. Her features are no longer baby-ish. She looks more like a toddler each day.

My sweet girl. So angelic when asleep, but driving us crazy when she’s awake. And yes, she’s still sucking a pacifier. No luck weaning her off so far. Any tips?

I think this photo was taken about ten days ago. It was the day of Daryl’s full moon celebration. He got sick too. I think I passed my virus to him

Rachel is awake!

After Rachel’s morning milk, she will look for her baby brother and try to touch him. She’s learning to be gentle with him, but we’re still cautious.

Baby Daryl is chubbier now, compared to when he was born. He’s putting on quite a lot of weight, and thats great because he was rather small sized when born.

His crying is also getting louder nowadays, similar to Rachel. And that worries me somehow…

Poey Chin took this photo of me kissing baby Daryl.

It’s been almost a week since I carried baby Daryl, because I was sick since last Friday.

That’s all the photos I have for now. Hope I will have an opportunity to take more photos after the pui yuet goes home.

Some of the elderly don’t like us to take photos of babies for some superstitious reason.

It is something that troubles often, but I have never taken the time to write about it, to explore my feelings, to think it through.

The thing that is bothering me is, is it bad for me to indulge myself? Is it wrong to buy something that I really want?

If you have read this blog long enough, you will see glimpses of the demons that are waging battle in my head.

The Problem

It is almost impossible not to be bombarded with ads or reviews for the latest desirable tech gadgets.

Sometimes when I see the latest Android phone or a useful iPhone application, I am really tempted to get one.

The Android phones are looking really good right now, especially with the Froyo upgrade.

Then I tell myself that I can’t really afford an iPhone, or that the money I save is for the future. The iPad temptation just makes it worse.

Why I’m Unhappy

And that is my problem. I save my money for the future, but in the short term I am unhappy.

I look around me and everyone has an iPhone, even those who have no idea how to use it to its best potential.

When my daughter misbehaves, she sends me into bouts of sadness and depression.

I’m saving all my money for her future, and this is how she treats me?

I am constantly asking myself if it is worth it?

The Downward Spiral

In those moments of sadness, it doesn’t seem to be worth the effort and sacrifice.

I’ll tell myself that I only have one life to live, so why not enjoy it with something to make me happy?

After all, it’s not that I don’t have the money. It’s just that I don’t want to spend the money. Why be so stingy with myself?

So I’ll go to YouTube and various websites to read the latest phone reviews. I’ll start scouting around for the best deals.

Then I start to feel guilty.

Guilty that I am spending my future away. Guilty of self indulgence while I advice others on my blog not to do the same.

Guilty of spending money on myself while I ask those around me to give up luxuries (e.g. life without Astro). Guilty that I am not planning responsibly for my family.

And this guilt is painful. I just bury the pain, looking forward to a better future with the money I save.

I tell myself not to look at these things, to focus on the bigger goals in life. And it works, for a while.

And then something happens, and I question if it is all worth it again…

My Struggle

I don’t know if any of you experience this, but I actually hurt whenever I see an iPhone ad on TV or on a billboard.

It feels like a knife stabs my heart and twisting it around.

It hurts because I see something I will never be able to have.

Making things worse, Apple will probably announce the next iPhone model today. (Update: iPhone 4 released!)

Moving On

There are only two ways to go from here.

I could just go ahead with the purchase to make myself happy. But the question I ask myself is, will there be another new ‘thing’ I desire after this?

The second path is to break free from consumerism. Break free from the desires planted by popular culture and advertising. Be grateful with what I have instead of wanting more.

My brain tells me to choose the second path, but my heart alternates between the two choices.

Self Analysis

As I complete this post, it dawns on me that the problem has nothing to do with buying a new phone for myself.

Even getting a new phone for free would not solve the problem.

There’s a deeper dissatisfaction or discontentment that I cannot pinpoint.

Maybe my priorities are out of alignment. Maybe I’m too selfish. Maybe I’m too inconsiderate. Maybe I’m just thinking too much.

I don’t know.

I just got my second Nuffnang cheque in the mailbox!

My earnings this time was RM210.58, which took longer to accumulate compared to my first cheque.

I will use the money to extend my domain adinochang.com for another 5 years.

Thanks Nuffnang, and keep those wonderful campaigns coming!

Getting There

I’ve written some simple directions to get to Bukit Cahaya Seri Alam in my previous post, but nowadays we all have GPS and Google Maps so it’s time to upgrade a bit hehe.

Map from Federal Highway Batu Tiga toll plaza:

View Larger Map

Public Transportation:

RapidKL Bus 63 or 338 from KL, stop at the bus station near a Maybank building in Shah Alam town centre and transit to a taxi.

KTM commuter to Shah Alam station and transit to a taxi.

Activities at Bukit Cahaya

Here are some activities at the park:

1. Camping
2. Swimming
3. Cycling (you must rent park bicycles, own bikes not allowed)
4. Walking / jogging
5. Stay at chalets
6. Picnic
7. Barbeque
8. Cactus Garden
9. Four Seasons Climate House (Rumah Iklim)
10. Animal park
11. Mushroom Garden
12. Bamboo Garden
13. Spice Garden
14. Orchid Garden
15. Looking at plants and animals
16. Feeding mosquitoes (hehe)
17. Fishing (RM2 charged per rod)
18. Visit paddy field and traditional rice harvesting method
19. Climb lake observation tower
20. Hiking to observation tower
21. Hanging bridges
22. Skytrex Flying Fox
23. Paintball
24. Visit and walk on top of a dam

Rumah Iklim

The Four Seasons House will change in the following months:

December to February – Winter

March to May – Spring

June to August – Summer

September to November – Autumn

The display will be closed for a couple of weeks at the end of each season.

Personally I think they should just build three more buildings, and have all four seasons on display all year round.

You need to pay RM3 per adult, RM1 per child (under 12 years)

Skytrex Flying Fox Adventure

This new addition to the park allows you to fly up to 22 metres above the ground if you’re not afraid of heights.

There are 3 courses available:

1. Little Adventure for beginners and kids
2. Extreme Challenge
3. Big Thrill, the feature attraction

You need to book weeks in advance because it is very popular.

Visit Whoa Adventures for bookings, course descriptions, safety information and discounts.

Tips

Here are some tips to make your visit more enjoyable:

1. Set expectations. The park is huge, and there will be a lot of walking.
2. Bring mosquito repellant, wear long pants and long sleeves
3. You can always purchase drinks at the shops in the park, but you may want to bring your own food if you are not flexible with what you can eat
4. The ground can be slippery with mud or moss, so wear shoes with good grip

Sharing

If there are any mistakes, please let me know so I can update with the correct information.

Feel free to share your experience and reviews in the comments section. I haven’t been there for a while, things may have changed.

Do share photos of your trip, I will put a link to your Flickr album if it is good!

Hope you have a safe, pleasant and enjoyable trip with your friends and family (sounds like flight attendant haha)

I’ve finally made the decision to live without Astro TV.

This is a rather major decision, having lived with Astro for almost 8 years.

Some of you may even wonder why I’m taking such a ‘drastic’ move. What would we watch on TV if we didn’t have Astro?

WHY!?!?!?

First of all, why did I come to such a decision?

1. To save money. If I cancel my Astro subscription, I get to save RM600 a year. The money may not be a lot, but it helps to feed another mouth.
2. Rachel is starting to get addicted to TV cartoons. I don’t want her to start learning bad things from the TV.
3. TV programs don’t add much value to my life.
4. The Internet has become a viable alternative.
5. I’ve had several bad experiences with the company. First they allowed complete strangers to re-open an account under my name (and charge me for it), and they send me an SMS each month reminding me to pay my bill, even before the due date!

My Expectations

I’m willing to give this a try because I expect the following improvements:

1. We will have better quality time. Nowadays our evenings and weekends are spent staring at the TV. Not much talking to each other.
2. More time for other activities such as exercise, going for outdoor activities, or just playing board games.
3. Less likely to gain weight from those tempting food commercials
4. Rachel and Daryl to grow up reading books, rather than watch TV
5. No more temptations to upgrade to a HD TV.
6. Fewer late nights staying up to watch TV

Do take a few minutes to check out a blog post by Celestine Chua on 10 reasons to stop watching TV.

I agree with many of the reasons.

I do expect a rather difficult transition period, removing Astro TV from my house.

There are some potential difficulties:

1. Rachel will be bored
2. We will miss live TV events and sports events
3. Poey Chin will miss her evening news
4. Poey Chin will miss her TVB series
5. Visitors will be bored at our home

But the TV won’t be totally gone. We will still have the free channels. We will still have a DVD player and the Nintendo Wii for entertainment purposes.

I just know that this will be for the best.

Action Plan

Here is my plan.

For the month of June, I will start to look for entertainment alternatives, and solutions to address the difficulties I foresee.

In July, we will do a trial run. I will hide the Astro smart card somewhere, and we will see how things are.

If we can live without Astro, I will then cancel my subscription shortly thereafter.

Some of you may be wondering what Poey Chin thinks about my idea. She said okay, but gives me the resigned look she gives me whenever I want to try something crazy.

Help

Do you have any resources for watching TV programs online? Do you have any tips to share?

So is life possible without Astro TV? Stay tuned for updates on my experiment!

Photo By: Thane Works / CC

I love to read, and I’ve been reading since I was young. One of my favorite moments last year was finding a library in PJ stocked with thousands of books.

I’ve updated the books that I’ve read into my Goodreads page. That’s more than 60 books since last year.

After so many years, there’s a certain pattern I noticed when I read books. I thought I’d share this pattern with you.

Choosing a Book

This is more difficult than you can imagine. I could spend an hour browsing hundreds of books and choose only one or two.

A book is appealing to me if:

1. It is about a topic I like
2. It is from an author I like
3. It promises to have a unique, interesting story (nothing predictable)
4. The table of contents looks interesting
5. It promises a satisfying read (is not too less than 300 pages)
6. It has a nice cover

The Quick Glance

If I spot a book I like, I pick it up off the shelf, then I look at the back or the inside covers to read the marketing blurbs that describe the book contents.

I look at the price tag. If I feel it’s too expensive, it goes back on the shelf immediately.

The Browse

If possible, I like to browse through the contents of the book.

Maybe I would read the first few paragraphs of the book, or I would randomly read from one of the chapters in the middle of the book.

I try to understand the author’s style. I put the book back if it is too complicated, boring, or has a lot of profanity.

For non-fiction books I try to evaluate if there is something new I could learn from the book.

The Checkout

When I’m ready to checkout, I look through my book selection again. I try to eliminate books that are not really worth the price, books I could get from the library, or books I could buy another day.

Opening the Book

When I get home, and I finally have the time to read the new book, I like to look at the front and back covers. I like to flip the pages a little and smell the paper.

I read everything, from the copyright notice, to the dedications, to the table of contents.

The First Chapter

Some books take some getting used to, so the first chapter is really slow reading.

There are totally new characters (I have to visualize each one of them in my imagination), new environments, sometimes even new technologies to understand.

The Whole Book

Once the action begins, the rest of the book goes by quickly.

If it is a great book, I could stay up to the late hours of night with the book. The pages go by too quickly and I can’t have enough of the book.

If it is a bad book, it will really be a painful exercise to finish the book. In extreme cases I will just skip entire chapters entirely.

Finishing the Book

Finishing a book makes me feel weird. If the story was a good one, I’m usually left with a lot of questions in my mind. I’m still lost in the world of the book and it feels like I’m still dreaming.

For non-fiction books, I go back through the book and try to apply what I’ve learned.

It always feels sad that the book has ended.

If I enjoyed the book I will look for more books from the same author.

How About You?

Do you read books the same way? Which is your favorite part of the book reading experience?

Photo by : Gibson Claire McGuire Regester / CC ND

I had time to snap a few photos and upload online. Here are some (i.e. more presentable) shots, taken with my new prime lens.

This was taken in his first week actually. You can see his skin was really yellow. He had to go back for 24 hours of photo light therapy. My wallet also need therapy after damaged RM700+.

Another shot of baby Daryl sleeping. Looks so peaceful I feel like sleeping now. Poey Chin said he looks like me when he sleep.

Daryl opening his eyes. He’s asleep 22 hours a day. Only wakes up at bath time and feeding time.

Rachel jie jie giving baby Daryl a kiss.

Father and son photo. Sorry ya, pai seh show you my ah pek shirt.

Latest photo of Rachel (for facial features comparison purposes)

It has been two months since I’ve thrown a shot at a bowling alley.

Today I had the luxury of time to sit down and reflect on all the things going on.

There are many things that I want to do, many chores to complete, and a lot of reading to catch up on.

But one thing I really miss is the bowling alley.

Oh my bowling alley darling, here are ten things I miss about you:

1. I miss the smell of the equipment and the lanes
2. I miss the sound of the bowling pins falling down
3. I miss the elation of throwing a strike
4. I miss my bowling ball, and also miss peeping at other girls. Oops, I meant other cool bowling balls.
5. I miss how I can release stress by channeling negative emotions into hitting the pins
6. I miss the anticipation of a few hours of uninterrupted bowling
7. I miss the times I forget everything else, when I am focused on bowling
8. I miss the opportunity to improve my skills
9. I miss just sitting there, dreaming of one day owning a bowling alley of my own
10. I miss the satisfaction of an improved score, or the agony of a lousy score

I guess I’ll have to make do with bowling on my Nintendo Wii now (yes, I wrote that post on Squidoo).

How about you? Do you miss an activity because you don’t have time? What was that activity and when was the last time you did it?

Photo By: Magic Madzik / CC

The single deluxe room costs RM338 per night (which cost more than a holiday apartment in PD).

The difference is, you get much more floor space, and it comes with a sofa bed.

This is how the sofa looks like in the day time…

At night it transforms into a cosy bed!

Although it may seem expensive (compared to RM90 for a 4 bed sharing room), I think it was money well spent because:

1. I got to sleep with Poey Chin, helping her get water, food, get up, change, go to the toilet. I think it helped her feel better to have me close to her.
2. I could wait in this comfortable room while waiting for Poey Chin to come down from the OT
3. There was more space to put our stuff, didn’t feel so cramped
4. More comfortable for visitors
5. We got to discharge baby in our room instead of at the discharge room
6. A single room with an extra bed will cost RM300, which is almost the same.

Poey Chin kept telling me that I looked like I was on holiday. It felt a bit like staying in a hotel room too, except you have nurses coming in every few hours.

I even went down to Starbucks at night to buy some pastries because we felt like munching some food.

This was Poey Chin’s first day breakfast… porridge, bread and Milo. I like how they cut the crust off the bread.

It was a really pleasant stay. Poey Chin and Daryl were well taken care of.

The only unpleasant thing was the bill haha.

P/S: Tip to save cost: bring your own maternity pads, latex gloves, bed lining, and baby diapers.

Last Friday the water heater in my second bathroom failed to work. The power was on, but the heater just didn’t work.

This water heater was inherited from the previous condo owner, so I guess it has to be more than 5 or 6 years old.

It is an Ariston brand water heater, and I assume it lasted so long because it is an imported brand.

My parents adviced me to get a new one because the water heater was so old.

This morning I checked out the prices in the store and a new Panasonic water heater with installation comes up to RM400.

Having recently spent so much money on baby Daryl, I decided to try getting an electrician to come take a look first.

I came home, studied the water heater and I noticed a little Reset button at the top of the heater. I pressed the button, and voila, the heater worked again!

So happy that I managed to delay replacing my water heater, and saving so much money!

Photo By: renaissancechambara