Yuen Cindy Life

HOMEMADE SUBWAY TUNA SANDWICH

noreply@blogger.com (yuencindy) — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 10:25:00 +0000

Bought my mum subway burger buy one free one with drink at RM13.90. Copy their style, make my own tuna sandwich with Mossimo bread, cucumber, tomato, salad leaves, mayonese and ayam brand tuna with sunflower oil (light).

The cost is :

Tomato                                                                         RM0.40
Cucumber                                                                    RM0.50
Salad leaves                                                                 RM0.70
Mayonese (half packet)                                               RM0.60
Mossimo bread                                                           RM2.10
Ayam brand tuna flakes with sunflower oil (light)     RM4.40
                                                                                    -----------
                                                                                    RM8.70
                                                                                    =======

I made 5 sandwiches from the above ingredients, so the cost less than RM2/- per sandwich.

MELAKA CHINA LADY

noreply@blogger.com (yuencindy) — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 20:05:00 +0000

You all might be wondering why so long I have not blog, I have terminated my house internet (streamyx) due to the slow surfing time and also to save money as I hardly have time to use it.

Now if I need to surf, I will go to my in-law's house where they use Maxis Fibre, the speed is very fast and can watch Youtube movies also. My husband's nephew and niece also surf there, one Maxis Fibre for all family members to use, very cost effective including Astro. But most of the time I will do internet banking and sometimes watch free hongkong movies using YouTube. If I have time I rather cook to have a good meal than wasting time surfing, he, he I belong to the older generation, not like the younger generation who carry their Ipad 24 hours.

The purpose I write today is to share the humorous conversations I have with my father the other day. So let make it short as I don't have much time to write also.  It seem that my father receive quite a number of calls from his friends and sometimes he speak broken mandarin also (my father is English educated). I asked my father when he started to learn to speak mandarin....you see, you see, my baby is crying and I have to stop to feed him, (now I am on maternity leave), where I got time to write. I share notebook with my husband and when I use the notebook, my daughter also always want to watch her children Youtube, you see where I got chance to use the notebook...

My father said it was a China lady who called him. "I introduced her to my friend, Peter, he need woman, I don't need, he is a used car saleman, he got income and I don't have, summore he is chinese educated, can communicate with her better."

"How old are they" I asked.

"Peter is 60 and the China lady is 40, she married young and her son is already 20 at Beijing."

When I ate dinner with my father in one of the coffee shop in Melaka, Peter and the China lady joined in. The China lady looked much older than me, she is older than me 2 years but her complexion is fair and smooth, she wore a nice black T-shirt and half-knee jean. I commented on how cheap Melaka food with a plate of Hokkien Char two people portion only cost me RM5 where I have to pay RM12 for the same food in KL. Peter commented on how expensive his son pay for the crab they eat at KL. All of them were matured person, very calm and the China lady also talked nicely. When they left, I asked both of their marital status and my father said both of them are divorcee.

"The China lady already lived in Melaka for 6 years. Last time she rented a room, now she already upgraded herself and rent an apartment."

"The China lady work? What she work as?" I asked.

"She work as sex workerlah, she will call you and not you call her. Sometimes I will give her RM20 or RM50 to make her day for accompany me to eat my meal but not any amount she demand"

"What is her relationship with Peter?"

"Their relationship is friend-friendlah, Peter can be her free driver and treat her meal. If she is too demanding, Peter will dump her"

"She don't know how to drive?"

"How can she know how to drive, she is a foreigner and don't have driving licence."

We also discussed about the Geneva Gold investment.

"You think the money you lend to Botak is more risky or the Geneva Gold investment?" I asked.

"Of course Geneva Gold investment is more risky as we do not know what they do with our money but I know what is Botak doing and his business model, he lend the money to the Indonesian labourers and keep their passports. He charged them 40% interest per month and give me 4% because he said he has to do all the donkey work like go after the debtors if they fail to pay their debts. It is some sort like micro-financing."

My father drove cross a coffee shop and a strong botak man waved to us.

The next day my father received a call from a friend again. He stopped his car at a block of apartment nearby and a old thin man with a walking stick (walking with a stick like half blind man) waiting for him. He helped him to get into his car as he need a lift to the Melaka Sentral bus station.

"How much you can contribute? Maybe 10+5" my father asked his friend.

The thin old man said, "RM10."

Then we went to a dim sum coffee shop and ordered tea, pau and 2 plate of dim sum. The bill come to RM8 and I paid it. The thin old man took out RM10 and my father snapped the money from him.

"I already paid the bill, why you take the money from your friend?"

"I don't want him to make it a habit and for the petrol charges also."

The thin old man said to me, "Thank for the treat."

I think he is around my father's age, very thin, wearing fake hair (I don't remember what it is call, maybe I have to look into dictionary) and my father said he had a neck cancer.  I asked where his family member and eventually he told me his story....

"I started as a salesman during my young time, Toyota salesman. Then I involve in the stock market and make a lot of money, in the 70s... I bought quite a number properties and put my name and my wife name. In the 80s... I started losing money and have to sell my properties. My wife have to sign for the sale of the properties and she get hurt. We divorced and my three daughters stay with my wife and my mother in-law. There is no third party involved and I love her very much."

After the breakfast my father drove us to Melaka Sentral bus station and helped his friend to get into Rapid Tampin bus. He want to go to Tampin to meet somebody.....

On my way back to KL in the bus, I thought, "Another divorcee, they are alone and not with their children, they have their own reasons..."

I told my husband about the China lady in Melaka, Peter and the thin old man and my husband said,
"You still not worried your father start to involve with China lady?"

"RM20-RM50 is a small amount of money to pay to a woman to accompany you." I said.

"RM20-RM50 you said a small amount of money?"

I pursed my lip, fed-up with my husband's stingy and thrifty character and said nothing after that....

MADONNA MATERIAL GIRL

noreply@blogger.com (yuencindy) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 01:44:00 +0000

I told my father when I visited him at Melaka the other day that I like Madonna Material Girl song especially the lyric, "If they did not give me enough credit, I just walk away....". ,

My father laughed and said, "That mean that material girl said, choy lei pun sor - in Cantonese, they only offered themselves to the highest bidder."

He added, "Some man said they are prostitute, it is because they can't get her, she only offered herself to the man who can pay for her service. Because they want to earn money at their prime time, they also know when they get old, they will get rejected also eventually. Like the China women said, you feed me, ah? They are not the roadside prostitute, they can said no one, you know."

"That is why woman spent so much money on make-up, hairdo, accessories and clothes to make themselves pretty."

"But now time has changed, now man become woman chauffeur. I will not want to become woman's Ahmad (chauffeur). Like that Eurasian ladylah, (a woman living near my father's residential area), she don't know how to drive and her husband is always at overseas, (her husband is Caucasian, a pilot trainer). She called me and asked me to drive her around, she is so rich and she only give me RM10. The other day she also asked me to drive her around and belanja me eat bak kut teh. She is so kedekut, how can she take more than she give? Some more she sit behind, unless she sit in front and let me touch her."

I laughed after listening to my father's opinion and wicked intention.

I also told my father about Lady Gaga who earn a lot of money by having bad image. Also James Patterson being the highest paid author in the world where I passed a story book by him title, "Pop Goes the Weasel, Alex Cross's serial" for my father to read. My colleague donate her story books for our company charity sale but nobody buy the book and eventually those unsold books was given to our department's staffs. Only me who is interested in books and brought back the books but did not read it until one day I read in The Star newspaper that James Patterson is a highest paid author in the world. My father read the book and passed the book to his cousin to read and his cousin said James Patterson come up with another new book, "The Fifth Horseman".

My father said, " Lady Gaga is like a trend and fashion, everybody follow the trend and her fashion. Between Lady Gaga and James Patterson, Lady Gaga is easier to get known because everybody can visual her and listen to her song but not everybody can read book."

Decent Nice Food at Yulek Area

noreply@blogger.com (yuencindy) — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 08:11:00 +0000

Nowadays when come to eating, I never travel far anymore, I look around my residential area and found out that there is a lot of nice decent food nearby. I will not introduce the already famous one like the Yulek Yong Tau Foo below Jalan Kas Kas flat nearby Taman Cheras Market or Restaurant Meng Shiang wantan mee with its famous barbeque pork.

There is Restaurant Palace Rice Vermicelli nearby Taman Cheras Market, where its specialty food is white noodle with wantan. The price of the noodle is also very competitive where a bowl of noodle only cost RM5.50 package with 2 minced pork wantan and 1 big minced pork wantan with shrimp. The specialty of the wantan is its minced pork wantan is bigger than the other ordinary wantan sold by other hawker and the big minced pork wantan with shrimp has big chunk of shrimp as they use big shrimp to make it.

Now I will choose to eat at restaurant that only sell their food and not mix up with other food stalls like coffee shop as I know this type of restaurant offer a better taste food. If I simply pick a food stall in the coffee shop that I don't know to eat, there is a high chance that their food is below average and not good taste.

LIVE GREAT with DELICIOUS FOOD at REASONABLE PRICE!

KL Bird Park

noreply@blogger.com (yuencindy) — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 05:46:00 +0000

Go to KL Bird Park today with the free tickets I got by buying a book (Essential Education by Expatriate Publisher) for RM10 from Parenthood exhibition at Mid-Valley. Despite the pricey entrance ticket, RM20 for mycard adult, there are still many parent bringing their children to visit the bird park. maybe it is due to school holidays.

Here are the pictures of the birds in the Bird Park, at least you will know what to expect from the visit. There is also bird show and air-conditioner bird gallery, where they exhibit dead bird in the gallery.

Very tiring visit as have to walk very far in the Bird Park as it is the world's largest free-flight walk-in Aviary.

Good Treats at 2nd Maternity & Children Expo

noreply@blogger.com (yuencindy) — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 14:47:00 +0000

Go to 2nd Maternity & Children Expo and quite happy with their treats. Redeem a goody bag (not much things in it, only sample of anti-bacteria shower foam Shokubutsu, Ban Kah Chai stomachache pills and Enfagrow milk). Inside the goody bag still have vouchers to redeem free gifts at participating booths where I redeem MAM BPA free orthodontic pacifier for babies 0-6 months old. I also redeem a table calendar 2012 from Sweet Cherry booth.

I buy a glass Pureen milk bottle at the expo at RM12 as glass milk bottle is very hard to find at deparmental stores. I do not buy any diaper this time as unable to find cheap diaper at the expo, not like the last visit where I can get big pack of diaper for RM20. I plan to buy teats but do not buy any as Pureen booth do not sell any of them and the rest branded one is too expensive.

The best treat I get at the expo is I buy a book, essential education from expatriate lifestyle publisher for RM10 and I am given 3 adults and one children admission ticket to KL Bird Park. I have long to go to the Bird Park but the admission ticket is just too expensive.

I also redeem all my citibankcard points at the expo because there is Citibank booth at the expo. I redeem a Fisher-Price educational phone and top up RM6.20 as my citibankcard points is only worth RM33.70 and the phone cost RM39.90. It save my hassle as I don't have citibank online to redeem gift. I also plan to cancel my citibank credit card as they are going to charge me RM50 government tax next year. But currently they also have an attractive promotion for new credit card customers where they will be given RM150 cash back when they swipe their card 6 times within 2 months after receiving their card.

I already applied for Arab Malaysian credit card which I find their promotions are very attractive where RM50 cash bonus will be given if you use RM350 in 60 days after you receive your card. On top of that if you shop on Saturday and Sunday at hypermarket like Tesco, Giant, Jusco, Carrefour, Cold Storage, Mydin plus pharmacies like Caring, Guardian, Watson and departmental stores like Isetan, Marks & Spencer, Metrojaya, Parkson, Robinsons and Tangs calculated in block of RM100, you are given 20% cash back. I do shop my groceries at Tesco and Giant and buy medicine at Caring pharmacy, so the discount is useful to me as I able to save my money on groceries and medicine. They also give cash back of 20% on weekend at petrol station like BHPetrol, Caltex, Esso, Mobil, Petronas and Shell where another extra 5% for Caltex (Caltex 5% extra valid until 31 December 2011). The rest of the program valid until 31 March 2012. Also able to save petrol cost with this credit card although not as pretigious as Citibank credit card.

OCBC bank also offer their OCBC Titanium credit card for free and also RM50 cash bonus but what I want is Great Eastern OCBC credit card where I can get rebate in insurance premium and some rebate in medical bill. I cancelled my OCBC Great Eastern credit card because they want to charge me annual free and government tax RM50 although I have called them several times to waive the fee. I find it is not worthwhile, even I enjoy maximum rebate on insurance premium for my family members, I still have to pay annual fee and government tax where the rebate I get is use to pay those fee. Back to square I didn't enjoy any benefit by using their credit card. They also set a very high spending limit per annual to waive the annual fee and government tax.

I enjoy listening to Madonna song, Material Girl where she sang, "They (the guys) don't give me proper treating, I just walk away." I find all the credit cards are competing each other in term of their benefits, so just walk away if they are not giving you enough treats to continue using their credit card.

Dim Sum Buffet at Cheras Business Centre

noreply@blogger.com (yuencindy) — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 12:38:00 +0000

Today I eat dim sum buffet at Restoran Janbo located at Cheras Business Centre. They have variety of dim sum selection and they offer their buffet dim sum at RM16.50 per person in the weekend and public holiday and RM15.50 in the weekday. The price did not include chinese tea RM2.30 per head and service charge 5% and government tax 6%. The total bill come to RM41.74 for 2 persons.

We ate as much as we can but we cannot waste the food as each basket of dim sum wasted will be charged RM3. Among our dim sum selection were the followings :

Siew Mai

Prawn dumpling

Yam dumpling

Black pepper dumpling

Shark fin dumpling (with corn and prawn filing)

Mushroom dumpling

Steamed chicken herbal

Sweet chicken feet

Steamed pork rib

Fried prawn roll dipped into mayonise

Fried dumpling dipped into mayonise

6 egg tarts (the egg tart is quite small but you can eat as many as you can)

Century egg porridge (quite small bowl)

Fried carrot cake with bean sprout, egg and vegetable

Char siew chee cheong fun

We ate 20 selections so that our money worthwhile spent but I can't remember all of them. I took a few photos only as after our stomach full, we started to slow down and order one by one to make sure that we able to finish the food without wasting.

There were also glutinous rice (lo ma kai) and char siew pow, pandan pow but we didn't eat that because it will make us full very fast. I can say that the dumplings, chee cheong fun and steamed pork rib were so so only but the yam dumpling, steamed herbal chicken, sweet chicken feet, fried prawn roll, fried dumpling, egg tart, fried carrot cake, century egg porridge tasted ok.

We were very full, we didn't eat our lunch after the dim sum buffet. We came as early as 9 am but were served with food only at 9.25am. At first we are the only customer there but in the end there were 7-8 tables occupied. The restaurant also selling mini claypot dishes at only RM9.90 like claypot assam stingray, curry fish, slice fish cook in variety ways, curry chicken, chicken, squid, pork, spare ribs, prawn, bean curd and vegetable cooked in variety ways, claypot braised duck and ginger duck. Maybe next time we will try the mini claypot dishes. The dim sum buffet start at 9 am in the weekend and public holidays and 10.30 am in the weekdays. There is parking fee of RM3 outside the restaurant, try to park far a bit and walk to the restaurant if you want to save the parking fee. This restaurant also doing wedding table.

We eaten dim sum buffet at Mandarin Palace located at Federal Hotel nearby Jalan Bukit Bintang but find it quite pricey compared to this time buffet. Our bill came out to be less than RM70 for 2 person after including the tea and those 10% service charge and 6% government tax not including parking fee RM7. The dim sum buffet price is RM25 per person. My husband still prefer the Federal Hotel dim sum buffet as there were char siew meat, roasted pork, duck meat and vegetarian duck meat.

Nowadays I prefer to eat nearby my residential area as there is cost of travelling to the city to eat. I always go through groupon advertisement to look for discount dining but most of them is located quite far from my residential area and located at shopping mall in the city. I have yet to find a discount dining through groupon advertisement that was nearby my place. So far only purchase one groupon to buy organic bread at organic shop at Tesco Extra, Cheras very nearby my residential area.

STAY-AT-HOME-DAD (DAD'S LOVE, PART 1)

noreply@blogger.com (yuencindy) — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 17:00:00 +0000

It has been a week since my husband become stay-at-home dad. He resigned from his high pressure job in Ipoh to take care of my daughter who is slow in development because the first five years are critical years for a child development. His position as a Head of Department was not easy, the factory technicians was not easy to control, the machines was not stable and breakdown all the time, long working hours make him cabut from his job after six months. He told me that his heart was heavy most of the time and the job will shorten his life span. I don't bother much since he said his passive income from rental of his property can cover the family expenses. There is no more house and car installment to take care of, so he can throw away his rubbish job and opt to be self-employed and become freelance.

My quality of life dropped tremendously when he worked at Ipoh. I didn't have enough sleep most of the time as I had to tend to my daughter after work and also did housework. After delivery of my daughter my weight stay at 51kg but in six month when he was working at Ipoh, my weight drop to 46.8kg. I didn't have to go to slimming course or gym or diet, overwork will automatic reduce my weight. I was too busy and don't have much time for myself. I felt tired most of the time when I went to work, I napped during my lunch time.

After my husband back home and become stay-at-home dad, I feel that there is increase in my quality of life. I have enough sleep and more energetic at work. My weight increase to 48.4kg only after one week my husband stay at home. I have more time in the morning before going to work to choose the food that I like to eat for breakfast, I eat more, do less housework, more time to rest that make my weight increase.

Quality of life is not material based, if you can be thrifty and satisfy with that the only much you have, you will not be desperate chasing money to satisfy your material need. Financially literate is important, avoiding bank loan that eat up a big chuck of your salary especially housing loan and car loan that charged you interest. In the end you are working to feed the bank. When I was young, I was inclined to take housing loan and car loan, eventually I learn my lesson, I settled them off before I was 30 years old. That is lesson number one.

Lesson number two, find alternative investment rather than placing your money in the bank. The bank give you low interest on your fixed deposit, again bank is an enemy to your wealth. I started to learn about foreign currency fixed deposit in the bank, my own company product that invested a variety of funds and property investment and rental from my husband. Without bank loan and bank installment, you can invest your saving in those investments, create passive income a few years once, in the end you have enough passive income to retire early.

The only lesson number three I have yet to learn as I do not want to take risk for the moment is that take loan from the bank to invest, maybe in property, that sound much more smarter than the first two lessons that is using other people money to create your own wealth. Those are for risk-takers, their pocket are empty, why not take risk, if I win I become rich, if I lose I become bankrupt since now also I penniless, they have nothing to lose.

Like the old man gambler, they are old already, life is short, so they don't carelah, they buy numbers like Toto, if they strike, they become rich, if they not strike, continue to become like thatlah....

PRE-CHINESE NEW YEAR HOLIDAYS (MOTHER'S LOVE) PART 5

noreply@blogger.com (yuencindy) — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 14:51:00 +0000

It has been more than a week my husband work at Ipoh. I learned to cope by myself with my daughter here without a maid. My Indon maid had ran away more than 2 months ago and unable to get a replacement. Eventually I got used to it without her and I started to set a routine after my husband work at Ipoh. The routine is must sleep at 10 pm during working day so that I have enough sleep and energy to work tomorrow. Bring my daughter back from my in-law house, feed her with her supplements, take my bath, I have to take my bath with bathroom door open to monitor my daughter. Then wipe my daughter, brought her to bathroom to shi-shi. Then change her cloth to pyjama and change her diaper also. Around 9pm or later feed her with milk.

If my daughter has not sleep, I just left the light on and let her play around the bedroom. My sister in-law has been very helpful, most of the time she will bring my daughter for a walk before sending her back to my house during working day. I go back first to my house and settle some housework like doing laundry, then my sister in-law will send my daughter back after a walk.

Today is a pre-chinese new year holiday, Wilayah Persekutuan holiday, this is how I spend my day. Brought my daughter to Yulek market with trolley and had my breakfast. Then went back, hang to dry my clothes after laundry and bath my daughter. Then cook porridge for my daughter, sometimes I use serbuk ikan bilis for the flavour, add onion oil, oyster sauce, soya sauce and salt. Then I steamed fish (white prompet) for lunch, put the white prompet on the a plate, put cut ginger, fried onion, oyster sauce and soya sauce. Put to steam at rice cooker for around 5 minutes, I did not cook the rice, just cook the water. Then I fried garlic and put in on top of the fish together with the oil. After that I put rice wine on the top of the fish and it is ready to serve. I ate the fish without rice but my daughter ate most of the fish. I drank Milo and ate oat biscuit also for lunch.

My brother in-law also has been very helpful driving me to HUKM for my daughter follow-up, speech, fisio and occupational therapy, must give big ang pow to him this Chinese New Year. He also offered to help me to cut the lock of my Yulek flat tomorrow because my tenant did not pass the key to me after she move out. I unable to find a spare key for the lock of my Yulek flat.

I don't feel difficult without my husband with a lot of helping hands in the family. Few days before Chinese New Year holidays give me the taste of being homemaker. After Chinese New Year my husband aunty will become my daughter babysitter, she will be at my in-law house when I am working and follow me back home in the evening. Life will be easier then.

I am working on my father's passive income, flat and shop apartment rental. Eventually it will become my passive income in future. My husband also agree to give me allowance if I am not working after his job stabilised in Ipoh. It give me a big relieve as working is no more compulsory but optional. I am looking forward to Ipoh, nearer to my hometown, Penang, a new place, a new life and a new beginning.....

WEEKEND WITH DAUGHTER (MOTHER'S LOVE) Part 4

noreply@blogger.com (yuencindy) — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 05:38:00 +0000

After my daughter's heart operation due to Atrial Septal Defect, most of my weekend is spent at home. I have cut my eating out, friday night I will plan the weekend lunch menu for the family. I also felt that it is a waste of money to eat out and I also want to save back my money after the hefty hospital bill.

On Thurday I will go to the night market nearby my house to buy fresh fish and vegetable for the weekend. Why want to waste money to eat steam fish at restaurant when we can steam a fresh fish at home with very little time for less than RM10? Can also buy a bunch of vegetable for RM1 to make a vegetable dish like fried vegetable. For soup I will use chicken bone which I bought it at the market nearby my house for only RM1 where I used it to make different type of soup including herbal soup. So for weekend lunch for 3, it will cost only less than RM10.

I tried buying economy dish for lunch but find it too little and not enough to eat which make me still hungry after the lunch. It seem that cooking our own meal more economical where we have bigger portion of fish or meat and vegetable to eat. The soup is also more nutritious where the meat from the chicken bone can be shredded from the bone for my dog food.

For my daughter meal, sometimes will prepare carrot and potato porridge, in the afternoon will prepare banana milk shake where I blendered banana with my daughter's milk and put honey in it. Sometimes will buy taufufah and put honey in it for her to eat.

Weekend routine.

Morning - Go to market to buy breakfast and sundry. After coming back, read English and Malay newspaper while monitoring my daughter at home. My daughter will be sleeping and crawling on the floor.

Afternoon - Have lunch. Checking email and surfing internet. Seldom have the opportunities to do it in the weekdays as I do not have my own computer and my husband occupy his notebook most of the time. That is the reason I seldom blog nowadays or active in facebook. Somemore have to sleep early to work tomorrow, if I am tired, will drink a small cup of DOM before sleep or else will drink Anlene if not tired. And sometimes go to Tesco to buy grocery.

So how you all spend your weekend?

PANTAI HOSPITAL CHERAS Antenatal Class

noreply@blogger.com (yuencindy) — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 10:15:00 +0000

One boring afternoon on 10th July, no activity, I called Pantai Hospital Cheras to reserve a place for its antenatal class. As I called on the day the class was held, they told me that there was no more seats for the class. But since Pantai Hospital Cheras is within walking distance from my house, I did went there and they just allowed me to attend the class.

There was quite many couple with their wife pregnant attended the class. The topic of the class was Delivery & Labour Process, Breastfeeding, The Wonder of Stem Cell by StemLife, Baby Bathing and Nutrition During Pregnancy by Dumex.

They were generous with their refreshment with fried rice, sweet malay kuih and plastic glass of mixed fruits like red and green apple, grapes and etc. There were 5 OSIM pillows massager to be won and I am the second participant to win the pillow massager by answering their simple question why durian is no good for pregnancy. I have been proactive to pick up my hand and answered that durian is full of carbohydrates and sugar and no good for pregnancy. The pillow massager was sponsored by Dumex who gave talk about nutrition during pregnancy.

After the talk, we were given goody bag that consisted of the above gifts. So Great Eastern also sponsored the class with baby bib, I love Dad. We were also given a complimentary baby book where I saw MPH bookshop sell it for RM18.

I am quite happy bringing home the gifts given.

MY DAUGHTER'S FIRST BIRTHDAY (MOTHER'S LOVE) Part 3

noreply@blogger.com (yuencindy) — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 02:48:00 +0000

Birthday girl in new dress

Last 2 weeks I have celebrated my daughter's first birthday following the chinese lunar calendar although her actual birthday is on 9-7-2010. I became a member of King's Confectionery for RM20 where I can buy their cake for 50% discount. So I bought 2 half kilo cake for less than RM40, one was cheese cake and another one was forest fruit cake.

Beside that my in-law have prepared ang-ku, fried chicken wings, fried mihun, curry egg stuffed with meat, glutinous rice, curry chicken and red eggs.

That friday also I discovered my daughter had ASD (Atrial Septal Defect, jantung berlubang) from HUKM hospital. My daughter had numerous follow up at HUKM hospital due to her development delay and most of the time is my husband who brought her to follow up at the hospital. My husband told me that he need to change job as his current job is not stable, if his company listed in share market in Japan, they will close down the plant that did not generate profit.

He might be applying a job that need him to travel outstation for 3 months and be home around a week. He might also be applying a job at Ipoh where he will come back in the weekend. I am been worrying how I am going to cope with my daughter's hospital appointments as the hospital had arranged many early intervention programs for her like physiotherapy, child development and etc. My husband suggested me to resign if he got a high-paying job that need him to work outstation but I don't like the idea of losing my job. I guess only people who have children and parent who have a lot of hospital appointments will feel like how I feel now, not enough leave to cope with the hospital appointments.

It is not the worst of the problem, we don't have house or car installments to worry about or money problem with the ASD treatment. ASD problem can be solved with money by having the treatment, I got even stressed out about the down syndrome and congenital hypothyroidism which will cause mental retardation which even money can't solve the problem. I know even ASD problem will be a big problem for poor family that can't afford the treatment.

I celebrated my daughter's first birthday in a simple way, only between our close family members. Happy Birthday to you, my daughter.... with love from mum...

to be continue.....

FANTASY MORNING MILLIONAIRE

noreply@blogger.com (yuencindy) — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 15:41:00 +0000

One fine weekend morning, I have a planned weekend, drove to my office and park my car there. Then I took a bus to the heart of the city to attend a seminar on how to create passive income.

I did my homework with enthusiasm to list all my income, expenses, assets and liabilities as requested. When I arrived, there were many people like me who is as enthusiasm as me to attend the seminar. When we registered, we have to sign a disclaimer form that we have to take full responsibilities on the products purchased through recommendation of this seminar.

The speaker was as enthusiasm as us, I can say she is a good speaker but after a while I got tired sitting listening to her physchology talk. She was telling her childhood story and a few successful people story. I left the room around 11 am and while taking the lift down, there was 2 aunties and one uncle inside the lift. They asked me wheather I am going home and the uncle said he had signed up the property club package that cost him around RM2k plus, the aunties got excited and invited him for a drink at kopitiam cafe in the building. I joined them as I also want to know about the property club package. They ordered drinks and as thrifty as usual, I did not ordered mine.

He told us that in this seminar they will expose to us money making instruments in the market. About the property club seminar, he said he was in the real estate and want to learn more about properties, so he signed up the package. He said they teach how to borrow money from bank or relatives to buy properties. There were group of people who is also the club member will meet up in regular basis to discuss how to make money from properties.

I asked did the package help him to earn money through properties, he said they did recommend properties for him to invest like London property. I asked him how about managing the property like selling and renting it out, he said they will do everything for us. But he did not said wheather he did invest in this overseas property. He told us that the package is not worthwhile the money spent. I think it is some sort of entertainment for uncle like him where through this club he can widen his social friends.

One aunty said, "I am so disappointed that I come all the way to hear all these craps, you know I have to send my son in the morning to somewhere else just to attend this seminar. It seem like a physchology and motivation seminar. "

Then the aunty said again, "I thought they will teach us something about properties. Maybe they will teach us something as they ask us to bring calculator."

"Are you going back home?" they asked me.

"I have to go back as I have baby at home."

I went up to the room again but now the people were outside the room as they were having a break now. I tried to ask the staff about the content of the program afterwards but they asked me to ask other staffs and they also not sure of the program. I remember the speaker said in 2 days she will mirror us, make us do the things that we are uncomfortable to do so that we can come out from our comfort zone to achieve success. At last I decided to leave.

When I reached home I have to eat outside as I have not planned the lunch menu for that day. As I know the property seminar teach us to borrow money from the bank to buy property and rent it out, the excess in difference is our passive income. But they teach us to play it big like borrow a lot of money (in millions) to buy property to create 5 figures passive income a month. Maybe your income just too small for the bank to borrow you a lot of money. How if you unable to find tenants when the economy is bad to rent your expensive shop lots? You will be in great debt!

It is not my game, I only can play it small first buying cheap property like flat with my own money and get rental which return is much better than the bank. And it is also a hard work like searching for property in advertisements, acquire the property, painting the flat, about looking for tenants, can get the help from real estate agents. The process look more real, their method is unrealistic to me, maybe they only can make me day dreaming like a fantasy morning millionaire.

On Sunday I continue my routine, planning for lunch menu and porridge menu for my baby.

MOTHER'S LOVE (PART 2) FREE STORY BOOKS

noreply@blogger.com (yuencindy) — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 13:51:00 +0000

frontpage

backpage

Hi everyone and to all the mums that I knew...

I want to develop my daughter's intellectual in future, so I visit bookshops searching for children story books. To my surprise it is priced so high that I can barely afford them. Most of the books is priced more than RM20-RM30, maybe because they come from overseas and after the exchange rate with our low value of ringgit, we have to pay a lot of ringgit to get a book. Now I am wondering wheather I earn enough and it seem book is a luxury to me. I read everything that come free like newspaper and magazines which my father in-law is a newspaper agent but I still need children story books to develop my daughter's vocabulary.

I regreted I gave away a lot of my English story books (including Enid Blyton story books, just can't remember how I got them, couldn't be possible I bought them as I was poor during my childhood) to a bookshop owner in exchange of exam books because the bookshop owner want to dispose his exam book as my year is the last year of the same syllabus. I was poor during my childhood, so I exchange my story book to get exam books so that I don't have to buy them.

I got to know that there is a bookshop at Level 3, Amcorp Mall, Petaling Jaya named BookXcess that that sell books cheaper from The Star newspaper. Maybe one day I drop by to the bookshop to have a look. Kindly visit their website at www.bookxcess.com

Thanks to The Star newspaper I read one day where I got to know a website where I can download children English stories and poems for free. The website address is
www.sharing-books.com

See, I printed out the story and make it a book. Stick the first page with gum to a cardboard to make the front cover and back page to cardboard also to make back cover. Punch two holes and use ribbon to tie them up, now you got a handmade children story book!

Hope the ideas will help those mums who find children story books is too pricey and would like to make the story books themselves. Sometimes bringing the children to library is also too time consuming and the library might not be near the house. And to those who is kind and generous who wish to donate their unwanted children story books to me, can drop me an email at edennayuen@yahoo.com Thanks a lot for your generousity :)

MAHKOTA CHERAS CLAYPOT FISH

noreply@blogger.com (yuencindy) — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 06:19:00 +0000

Like dishes in claypot? Then you all should try dishes at Restoran Wang Hee at Mahkota Cheras. One of the specialty food in that restoran is the claypot fish, it is cooked with wine and served in the claypot. This claypot fish cost around RM26. Other dishes we ordered was herbal chicken in claypot, claypot tofu, fried vegetable with chilly belacan and chilly cuttlefish (the taste is sweet and sour.)

I can rate that the claypot fish and the claypot herbal chicken taste good. The claypot tofu taste good also but the fried chilly belacan vegetable and the chilly cuttlefish taste average only. On overall nothing to complained about the food there.

The total bill for all this dishes with drinks and 6 plates of white rice for 6 adults and 2 small children is around RM120.00. Though the price is not that expensive but the portion of the food is not that much also. I went back feeling not very full after having that dinner.

MAKING MONEY WITH INVESTMENT-LINK POLICY

noreply@blogger.com (yuencindy) — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 12:46:00 +0000

Would like to share with you all how to make money using investment-link policy. You have to buy a single premium investment-link policy (Supreme Growthlink Insurance) from Great Eastern, if you are the company staff, you will get 100% allocation and if you buy from agent, you will only get 95% allocation. It is ok to buy from agent if he can help you to make money from this policy but the agent want you to surrender this policy after he help you to make certain amount of money and buy this policy again so that he can make a fresh commission again. Of course, if you want his expertise, you have to let him earn some commission.

Of course I will explain to you all how to make money from this policy free of charge. All you all have to do is follow up my blog. One method of making money using this policy is switching from one fund to the other fund. To play this switching game, you must have 2 funds (that mean 2 platforms, one is safe platform and the other one is more dangerous platform.) The safe platform is fixed income fund where the price do not fluctuate much and the more dangerous platform is progressive fund where the price fluctuate more. Our aim is on this progressive fund because the more the price fluctuate, there is more opportunities of making money. Switching is based on bid to bid price, so you will not suffer bid and offer price difference lost.

Let say my initial investment is RM20,000 where I placed RM5,000 to buy 2,672.37 fixed income units at RM1.871 per unit price. I placed my RM15,000 to buy 8090.61 units progressive fund at RM1.854 per unit price. Of course there is one time management fee of RM100 for this policy. Don't bother of the insurance charges because it is very little for this policy and you can choose a minimum sum assured of coverage.

Let say I switch out 8090.61 units from progressive fund at RM1.766 (RM14,88.02) to fixed income fund and buy 7,986.59 units at RM1.789. The first switch of the year is free of charge and subsequent switch is RM25. So each transaction that make money will involve 2 switchs, one switch out from progressive fund into fixed income fund when the price of progressive fund is up (because we have more money from the progressive fund when the price of progressive fund is up to buy more fixed income units) and switch into progressive fund from fixed income fund when the price of progressive fund is down so that the money can buy more units in the progressive fund when the price of progressive fund is down. So make sure you make more than RM50 for these transactions.

Let say I switch out all the fixed income units (including the units I bought initially with my RM5,000, that is 10,602.23 units at RM1.795 (RM19,031.00) to progressive fund and bought 10,937.36 units from progressive fund at RM1.740. You see the price of the progressive fund drop from RM1.766 to RM1.74 where I bought in additional progressive fund units (switch in). So let us check roughly the gain of the transactions, the initial units in progressive fund is 8090.61, I already increase my progressive units to 8211.14 (make the calculation simple, RM14,288.02 divide RM1.74 with disregard of some money I make when switch out my fixed income units at RM1.795.) 8211.14 units minus 8090.61 units is 120.53 units, that mean I make extra 120.53 units times RM1.74, I am making extra RM209.72 out from my switching fee RM50.00.

Ok, this is only initial switching and I am not going to elaborate further as it will take up much of my time as I am a working mother with limited of time. The principle is aim the progressive fund where the price will fluctuate more, when the progressive fund price up, switch out to fixed income fund and when the progressive fund down, switch into progressive fund to buy additional units. Fixed income fund is only a platform for you to do the switching.

There is a real example where this game earn around 48% return in one year plus (less than 1 and half year) after minus less than 100 switchs cost between the period (around 90 something switchs), the return around 41%. Even a fund manager cannot make such a good return right?

I think I want to start this game as it is more low risk than the share market and the New Zealand currency Fixed Deposit. Each transaction is only RM25 where share market buy sell cost is around 1.5% and the New Zealand currency buy sell exchange rate cost is 3%.

Of course I cannot guarantee you will not lose money and get a good return, the price up or down is based on the market trend and your luck also, I can only show you all how to make money with switching method using your investment link policy, you all have to monitor the price also. (You all can check the fund price at lifeisgreat.com.my website.) Good luck with your investment.

DRIED MEAT TASTING NEARBY PETALING STREET

noreply@blogger.com (yuencindy) — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 07:18:00 +0000

Chinese New Year coming, so went to Petaling Street to buy some dried meat before I go back to Penang. Those brands around are Loong Kee, Y. Chen Siang, Syarikat Kiew Brothers, Bee Cheng Hiang and Hock Seng Guan.

The first chicken dried meat I tasted when I arrived there was Hock Seng Guan. It was very delicious and after I tasted the rest of the chicken dried meat, I still prefered this one. When my mum came to KL the other day, she looked for Loong Kee and Syarikat Kiew Brothers chicken dried meat though I still think they are not the best. My husband said the dried duck meat at Syarikat Kiew Brothers tasted good also and they even have dried prawn meat. My husband always like to buy Y. Chen Siang dried pork meat.

At the end of the journey, I bought 100gm Hock Seng Guan dried chicken meat. Their price is slightly more expensive compare to the others, RM21.60 for 300gm dried chicken meat. My husband chose to buy 300gm Hock Seng Guan dried pork meat.

Although Hock Seng Guan is not as famous as other brand, after I taste its dried chicken meat, I still think it is the best. But its dried pork meat is too hard and I think Y. Chen Siang dried pork meat is better.

Dining at Cruise Tasik Putrajaya

noreply@blogger.com (yuencindy) — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 09:30:00 +0000

Dined at Cruise Tasik Putrajaya the other day with colleagues and the above was the pictures taken. I felt that the package is very expensive, RM102.00 per head where we sat in the cruise for around one and half hour while having our lunch. There was also not much selection of dishes and we were also given a door gift where inside contained a packet of twisties, a sweet corn flavour bun, a box of drinks, a bar of chocolate, a few sweets, 2 small puddings and a gift.

While cruising at Tasik Putrajaya, we able to see the government buildings and the mosques. Suitable for short family outing and it is more worthwhile to take passenger cruise, RM30 per adult. You can also take perahu dondang sayang at RM20 per adult. Anyway we just want the experience of cruising around Tasik Putrajaya.

MOTHER'S LOVE

noreply@blogger.com (yuencindy) — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 07:51:00 +0000

Everything started when I brought my baby to the government clinic nearby my house for injection. My baby was underweight for a few months, so the nurse there recommended me to go to Pusat Perubatan Premier PPUKM, Bandar Tasik Selatan for further check up. When I went there with my baby, the waiting time was long, eventually a malay woman doctor attended to us. She told me that the baby reaction was slow and she can't find the thyroid stimulating hormone report in my child health book. Then the clinic staff took my baby blood, they took more than half an hour to take my baby blood and it was very painful, my baby cried her heart out very loudly. On the way home, I scolded my husband for not collecting the thyroid stimulating hormone report from the maternity clinic where I gave birth to my daughter and now my daughter had to suffer a big pain for taking her blood to do the test again. After that we forgot about the report.

Our appointment was set next month and I returned again next month with the baby, my brother in-law drove me there as my husband went to Japan for 2 weeks. Again I have to wait for 2 hours and another malay woman doctor attended to me. She told me that the blood report showed my baby was diagnosed with congenital hypothyroidism with her thyroid stimulating hormone report showed 6.81. Anyway she said they unable to check Free T4 because they only able to collect my baby blood lyse. I was panic at first but the doctor told me that there is medicine to cure the illness and I don't have to worry too much. I wrote down congenital hypothyroidism word and the doctor gave me recommendation letter to HUKM for further check up.

I was quite worried, I asked the nurse over there how to go to HUKM and they told me there is a shuttle every hour from the clinic to HUKM. I told my brother in-law that I want to go to HUKM and asked him to drive my maid and baby back home. I took 12.30pm van shuttle to HUKM but the nurse over there unable to give me appointment as there is no doctor on that day that is Thursday and tomorrow is Awal Muharram holiday. The nurse took my recommendation letter, I asked her to photostate one for me and she said will call me to inform me of the appointment date. I left the hospital disappointed and took a bus outside the hospital back to Taman Maluri, from there I took another bus back home.

I have no computer at home as my husband took away his notebook to Japan and my in-law house computer was not working, I ended up in the cyber cafe nearby my house to check the congenital hypothyroidism illness. I was shock and got panic when I read about the illness and my baby already more than 5 months when she was diagnosed with this illness and now she was without medicine.

Congenital hypothyroidism (CH) is a condition of thyroid hormone deficiency present at birth. Approximately 1 in 4000 newborn infants has a severe deficiency of thyroid function, while even more have mild or partial degrees. If untreated for several months after birth, severe congenital hypothyroidism can lead to growth failure and permanent mental retardation. Treatment consists of a daily dose of thyroid hormone (thyroxine) by mouth. Because the treatment is simple, effective, and inexpensive, nearly all of the developed world practices newborn screening to detect and treat congenital hypothyroidism in the first weeks of life.

If she was diagnosed at birth, maybe there is 100% effectiveness of treatment but she was diagnosed after more than 5 months that make me really panic and don't really know what to do. I quickly emailed my husband and went back home to think of solution after half-an hour at the cyber cafe although I already paid for one hour usage. I quickly took my baby to Pantai Hospital nearby my house but they directed me to one of the paediatrics specialist clinic. Unfortunately the doctor did not want to accept my case as she will be going for holidays at overseas for a few months and her last day consultation was on Saturday. I went to emergency unit and the nurse told me that another paediatrics specialist will available only at 6.30pm. I was so panic and in mind I said I must save my daughter from mental retardation. I went back to my in-law house, my father in-law asked me not to go to Pantai Hospital and waited for my husband to come back from Japan, then only make decision. My brother in-law called his doctor friend and he told me that my daughter will be ok after taking the medicine to calm me down. My father in-law said there will be no difference if my daughter take the medicine today or a few days later.

I called the maternity clinic where I gave birth to my daughter to check for my thyroid stimulating hormone report. They told me that the test was normal. Then I called a private clinic where my baby always get treatment but nobody answered the call. That evening, although raining, I walked to the clinic as it was nearby my house as I knew it open from 7pm to 9.30pm but unfortunately it did not open as tomorrow is Awal Muharram holiday. I called the other paediatrics clinic attached to the maternity clinic where I gave birth to my daughter and they told me that they have the medicine. After that I planned to take my daughter to the private clinic nearby my house on Saturday (as it closed on public holiday) for further check up.

My husband called me that night from Japan told me that if this illness been treated within 3 months, the effectiveness of the treatment is 100% but if it is treated after 3 months up to 6 months, the baby IQ will drop to 78. The IQ for normal people is 90 to 110. If it was treated after 6 months, there will be permanent mental retardation. I can't sleep the whole night thinking of the illness. Tomorrow morning my husband called again asking me to quickly bring my daughter to Pantai Hospital for check up as it was only 3 weeks before my baby reach 6 months old.

I quickly brought my baby to Pantai Hospital on 18-12-2009, that was Awal Muharram holiday and there was no paediatrics specialist on that day. I went to the emergency unit, the nurse said why I have not come yesterday at 6.30pm where there is paediatrics specialist. I said I was very confused yesterday and my father in-law asked me not to go to Pantai Hospital. The emergency medical officer said that I was very narrow minded only thinking that my daughter was diagnosed with congenital hypothyroidism when in actual fact that she might be diagnosed with other illness. I said that this illness cannot wait as she was diagnosed with this illness too late already and I need to give her medicine as soon as possible. The young medical officer said the blood taken by the Pusat Perubatan Premier PPUKM, Bandar Tasik Selatan is only blood lyse. He said I will not listen to him in this panic situation and if I want my daughter to be checked by specialist I have to admit my daughter. He even told me that if I admit my daughter the blood test will not be out today as today is a public holiday. I asked for his advice, he asked me wheather my daughter has medical insurance as the hospital require RM2,000 to admit my daughter to the hospital. I bought a group dependent medical insurance from my company (yearly premium RM146.65) but the insurance is not inforce for more than 30 days yet. He advised me to take the blood test today and come tomorrow to take the blood test report. If the diagnosis is confirmed, I can see the paediatrics specialist tomorrow and get the medicine. So I followed the doctor advice and the doctor took my daughter's blood. This time my daughter did not cry a lot, just cry a little while and the blood already been taken. I went back to my in-law's house and asked my brother in-law to drive me to maternity clinic. The maternity clinic upstair open on the Awal Muharram holiday but downstair not open. I took the thyroid stimulating hormone report from upstair maternity clinic and the report showed normal. I went to Pantai Hospital again to show the doctor the report and the doctor said what is important is the blood test report taken today.

In the afternoon I brought my maid and daughter to Leisure Mall to release my tension. The next day I went to the hospital at 9 am to collect the report and the report show normal. I felt a big release, my husband called me and I told him the result. He told me that he has no appetite to eat and unable to sleep. He came home on Saturday night and planned to take my daughter to see Hospital Pantai paediatrics specialist on Monday.

Mum love you, will try mum best to save you from any illness.

OCBC MIGHTY SAVERS PROMOTION

noreply@blogger.com (yuencindy) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:28:00 +0000

What is the bank latest promotion? I think OCBC has an attractive promotion for couple with children. On every first weekend of the month, Saturday and Sunday, from 10am-3pm, couple can come to one of the OCBC branch, Main Head Office in KL, Ampang, Kepong, Subang Jaya, Bukit Damansara, Petaling Jaya, Puchong and Klang to open mighty saver account for your children and enjoy generous 4% per annum interest rate on 3 month Fixed Deposit.

The minimum and maximum placements per customer are RM10,000 and RM50,000, the fund must be a fresh fund outside OCBC account, husband can make a maximum placement of RM50,000 and wife can make another placement up to maximum RM50,000 provided both of them open mighty saver account for their children, that mean one account with husband as a guardian and the other account with wife as a guardian.

To obtain the red mighty saver coinbox, you have to place at least RM1,000 in your child Mighty Savers account for 3 months or else you can opt to place only RM200 in your child mighty saver account and you will get only the wristband, sticker and Mighty Savers Sticker Card.

You can ask your children to stick all the stickers on the Mighty Savers Card and return it to the OCBC bank with a saving of RM20 in your children Mighty Saver account and OCBC bank will give your children an encouragement gift.

On the first weekend of the month, you can also bring your children to the bank to have fun as there is a mascot coming to the bank on Satuday of the weekend. This entertainment for your children is also free, if you bring your children to other playground center, you have to pay subtantial entrance fee.

I find that this promotion is very attractive, even better than the New Zealand foreign currency Fixed Deposit which earn me interest only around 4% plus per annum, somemore with exchange rate risk. Only that the fixed deposit term offered is too short that is 3 months only. Next month this promotion is still on.

aquaria KLCC

noreply@blogger.com (yuencindy) — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 04:57:00 +0000

Went to aquaria KLCC yesterday and these are the photos taken. Now we can use touch and go card to pay for the entrance ticket. Though there are reptilia and insects display but the main attractions is the big fish, shark and the big turtle. There is also a show showing professional feeders feed the fishes, big turtle and the sharks.

Find that the entrance ticket of RM28 is quite expensive, very fast we can finish seeing all the fishes, sharks and big turtle in the aquariums.

GREAT EASTERN MALL

noreply@blogger.com (yuencindy) — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 02:05:00 +0000

Great Eastern Mall

Great Eastern Life Assurance office

Baby room

Kidsports & Gym

AtHome

Lovely Lace

Southern Pottery

One boring Saturday afternoon I took my baby to Great Eastern Mall. I felt very comfortable window shopping at this mall because there was not many people with a lot of space to push my daughter stroller throughout the mall. There is also a baby room for family who want to feed their babies.

OCBC bank is located at Great Eastern Mall to facilitate the Great Eastern Life Assurance Company staffs to withdraw their salary. At the right hand side of the mall is Great Eastern Life Assurance office.

Marie France Bodyline slimming centre also located at Great Eastern Mall. And for book lovers, we have MPH bookstores. There is 2 Japanese restaurants in the mall, Daidomon and Kiku-Zakura. Other restaurants are Penang Village and The Chicken Rice Shop. And for snacks and cafe, we have Delifrance, 1901 Hot Dog (which offer hot dog at RM1.99 on every 19th of the month), Starbucks coffee and O'Briens Irish Sandwich Bar. There is also a food court at the third floor of the mall.

And for fashion, we have British India and Zang Toi. For bedding, we have Aussino. Those who wish to buy gifts for this coming Christmas, you can have a look at Lovely Lace and Hallmark.
Guardian and Watson are located there for toiletries and personal care. There is also beautiful shop for home decor which I took pictures above, AtHome and Southern Pottery.

You can also drop your kids at Kizsports & Gym or accompany your children to play there . For optical, there is England Optical. There is also a petshop called Pets Wonderland. For supermarket, we have Cold Storage at the lower ground floor. For children toys, we have Toycity.

I felt that Great Eastern Mall is a very suitable shopping mall for family with children and baby because there is not many people and the family can shop with least hassle. This shopping mall is very different from other bigger shopping malls that are more busy like Suria KLCC, KL Pavilion, Sungei Wang and Berjaya Time Square which are more suitable for young people.

Though the things there is quite expensive and I can only afford to do window shopping, I enjoy myself very much as I like the environment, comfort and luxury there.

Great Eastern Mall where family with children and baby hangs out.

NEW ZEALAND CURRENCY UP AGAIN!

noreply@blogger.com (yuencindy) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 05:33:00 +0000

After a long wait for more than one year, at last the New Zealand currency up again. So I redeemed my OCBC New Zealand FD and got overall 4% plus interest per annum, almost double the normal FD rate. I felt not worthwhile due to the risk of the foreign currency where there was one time the rate drop to 1.90 (selling rate), if you redeem, you will get much lower rate. So the risk is more than the return, not going to buy again unless the rate drop to the lowest 1.90 again. Still remember many years ago, when ringgit depeg, the New Zealand currency drop to the lowest 2.25 and during financial crisis last year, it drop even lower 1.90. I think it is too much risk to take when compare to the return.

Summore the interest rate of New Zealand foreign currency also already drop to 2%, almost same as our normal FD interest rate. This time I redeem my foreign currency FD with no excitement, not like last time when I earn around RM500 in less than one month when the rate went up above my buy in rate. I bought is at 2.4885 and sold it at 2.529. This time I bought it at 2.4923 and sold it after 15 months for 2.501.

That is how the interest is calculate. When you bought it at 2.4923 for 10,000 New Zealand Dollar, your investment is RM24,923. After 15 months, your New Zealand dollar together with your interest add up to around 10,505.97, for example. You sold out at 2.501 and got back your ringgit RM26,275.43. Your profit is the difference, RM1352.43. To calculate your annual return of your investment, you divide RM1352.43 with 15 months, your duration of investment. You got around RM90.16 per month and times with 12 (1 year have 12 months) and you got RM1,081.94. You use RM1081.94 to divide with your initial investment RM24923 and times 100,you got around more than 4 % of interest return on your investment.

So this is the second lesson I learn from the New Zealand currency investment, it is not worth the risk to take compare to the return. Will buy again when the rate drop to the lowest, maybe 1.90. A few years back, the lowest rate after ringgit depeg is 2.25. Of course earn fast money like earning RM500 in less than a month is more excited than earning the interest after a long wait of 15 months, seeing the rate drop to the lowest 1.90, creating fear that we might lose our money.

My father told me, "Imagine how much I will earn if I buy in at 1.90 that time."

I told him, "Don't be greedy, we consider lucky that we don't have to wait for too long for the currency to up again and lose our money."

I also sold my foreign currency FD at Public Bank when the New Zealand currency went up to 2.60 and I sold it at 2.52 when I bought at 2.57. I still earn interest more than 4% per annum as I have place the FD for quite sometime. Just left the last one at Hong Leong bank in Penang, unable to redeem because the FD is placed in Penang and have to go back to redeem at Penang, no worry that one can lose money as it was placed a few years back during ringgit depeg cause the compound interest for a few years able to overcome the drop of the rate. I felt this time is the best time to redeem the New Zealand foreign currency FD as the rate already gone up to 2.60 and I only seen it gone up to 2.65 once, a very rare condition.

So I can consider myself lucky for not losing money and still can earn some interest better than normal FD but I will not take risk again as it is just not worthwhile the return I get. Of course investment is not as excited as gambling where I got fast money in less than one month. In fact I intend to gamble and in the end I got stuck when the rate drop. Now I have to thank the god for making the rate up again and I cannot expect for more.

ALEX THOMPSON AND WASIU OLABODE EBAY BUYER SCAM AGAIN

noreply@blogger.com (yuencindy) — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 00:03:00 +0000

I received an email thanking me for my post in my blog "RM448 scam lesson" on October 2008 for saving an ebay seller from being scammed by a fake ebay buyer named Alex Thompson.

Here is the email contents :

ACER Aspire 4736G 4GB RAM, 320GB HDD, T6500 for sale

Hi Cindy,

I am trying to sell my laptop on ebay... and this is what happen... (email below) I am working in a bank and was wary about money laundering and scam. I do a search on the internet and read your blog.

Alex Thompson and Wasiu Olabode

I guess i have to thank you for posting the blog.

Hi Alex,

I have checked with DHL and the cost for sending this notebook to AZ, USA is SGD170. Total amount incl. shipping will be SGD1,000.

You ok with it?

Thanks for your mail, I will like to inform you that i want the item to be send to USA you can go and send the item by fedex or dhl or register mail post office is safe and secured, so I want you to calculate the total cost all together with the shipment cost to USA and your full Bank information so that I will able to process with the payment fast...

here is my son address below...

Name.....Wasiu Olabode
Address...16640 N. Ridge Rock Trial
City... Catalina,
State....AZ.
Zip Code... 85739
Country..United State Of American

and i want you get back to me with your full Bank detail here below...

Holders Account Name;
Account Number:
Bank Name:
Telephone Number:

Hope to hear from you soon.

Thanks

Hi Alex,

sending laptop to europe/usa could be costly as I mentioned. also, there may be sale tax of 7% GST involved. If you dont mind, i'll charge you sgd150 extra for sending this item to your address. will certainly enclose the change in the form of cash if there is any. Deal?

item cost: sgd830

est. postage & sales tax: sgd150 (will be refunded based on actual cost)

total: sgd980.00

If you agree, pls provide your address for receiving this item. I'd prefer you to do a wire transfer to my account. Agree?

But i dont mind, just tell me how much including the shipment cost and I will pay you.

Hope to hear from you soon.

hi alex

Thank for your interest

I am sorry to turn you down knowing that it's a gift from a loving father to his beloved son.
It'll be too costly and fragile to send the laptop from singapore to u.s.a./uk

take care

Hello Seller, I'm Thompson Alex from United Kingdom am here interseted in buying your item for my son who is in U.S.A, if is available for sale get back to me vai email me at(thompsonalex36@gmail.com) let me know how many of this item you have available for sale..

So far I received 2 emails (including this email) from Singapore ebay seller thanking me for my post in my blog regarding Alex Thompson and Wasiu Olabode . But beware, he might change his name and inpersonate as a generous ebay buyer again.

FOUR HAPPY SEASONS RESTAURANT

noreply@blogger.com (yuencindy) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 13:06:00 +0000

Crispy Squid Ring

Braised Bean curd in claypot

Vietnamese Combination Fiesta
RM10

Vegetable of the day

Chinese BBQ Duck Spring Roll
RM10

Wok Fry Prawn in chili

Mix Combo Platter
RM15.80

Thai Fried Rice
RM11.80

Sizzling Homemade Tohu
RM10.00

Stir fry chicken

Went together with another 2 couple of my husband's friends with their children to Four Happy Seasons restaurant last sunday during hari raya holidays.

We ordered set dinner comprised of the following dishes for 5 pax at RM67.90.

Wok Fry Prawn in chili
Crispy Squid Ring
Braised Bean curd in claypot
Stir fry chicken
Vegetable of the day

We also ordered additional dishes, Vietnamese Combination Fiesta, Chinese BBQ Duck Spring Roll, Mix Combo Platter, Thai Fried Rice and Sizzling Homemade Tofu. They also gave us 4 cons of ice-cream (similar as Mcdonald ice-cream) after the dinner.

The bill came out around RM167 including drinks and taxes. Not cheap although they advertise in their namecard 5 stars restaurant 3 stars pricing. But the environment is good and I snapped the photo of their winter restaurant upstair where the temperature is below 15'C.

This restaurant is suitable for dating couple with its good environment and winter room. But in term of its food, I can rate them average only. For those who wish to bring their girlfriend to this restaurant, you can visit their website at :

http://www.4happyseasons.com/

There are promotional set lunch, 3 appetizer, main course, dessert and drink at a very attractive price (from RM7.90) in their menu. You can also see their other dishes and the price in their website menu. The address of the restaurant is No 9, Jalan Wangsa Delima 1A, Section 5, Wangsa Maju, 53300 Kuala Lumpur.

But I prefer to go to my favourite restaurant, Restoran Lucky Sin at No. 72G & 74G, Jalan 4/91, Taman Shamelin Perkasa, Cheras, 56100 KL. I find the promotional lunch there is more attractive which each dishes is only RM5.80 and the restaurant also did not charge 5% service charge and 10% government tax.

This is what I ordered for 4 persons :

2 bowls of sharkfin soup (RM9.90) each

Kam Heong prawn

Chicken in marmite sauce

Sweet and Sour pork
Tofu
Rice for 4 persons (RM1.50 each)
4 glass of tea (RM0.50 each)

The sharkfin soup and chicken in marmite sauce taste good and the total bill came to RM51.00 only. You must know how to order also so that you get the best food at a very reasonable price. You must order glass of tea and not tea upon headcount as tea upon headcount is more expensive (RM1 to RM1.50 per person). They also got promotional crab where 1 kg crab is RM22.90 cook in chilly sauce, pepper or salted egg. Now they have herbal chicken promotion during dinner time, one chicken for RM5 but you must dine in 3 persons and above. Their Buddha jump over the wall is RM29.90, also promotional price but the taste is not so good and I find it expensive also as it is only very small bowl.

Among the restaurant I visit, I always would like to return back to this restaurant Lucky Sin as I find the food taste good and the price is very reasonable also. But they did try to charge extra to the customer who is not familiar with this restaurant like charging tea based on headcount. There was one time we think that RM1.50 rice per head count is quite expensive and we come with big family members and ordered fried rice and fried mee hoon and they charged us RM20 for the fried rice and RM20 for the fried mee hoon which is much more expensive if we ordered rice based on headcount. They did try to charge extra while offering promotional dishes to attract customers to come to their restaurant.

I also ever went to a restaurant who also offered promotional set lunch at RM50 inclusive of rice and tea, we went there four person and the dishes are :

Sliced fish in sweet and sour sauce

Braised chicken in claypot

Fried vegetable

Delicious tofu

Soup of the day

I will not go back to the restaurant as we unable to choose the dishes we like from the promotional set lunch and the food menu is a very normal one and taste average only. I prefer the restoran Lucky Sin where we can choose the dishes we like and around this price we can have sharkfin soup as well. And around this price we can also have 1 kg of promotional crab and 3-4 promotional dishes where we can choose our dishes.

Sometimes I find doing food business is difficult, they must serve their customer good food with a very reasonable so that customer will find them generous and want to come back to their restaurant again.