:: hypptv turns one ::

"Happy Birthday to you... Happy Birthday to you... Happy Birthday to HyppTV... Happy Birthday to you..."

HyppTV - Malaysia's latest pay TV service has turned one year old!

In case you didn't know much about HyppTV, here's a brief on what it is all about and what makes HyppTV more special than others:

• HyppTV is delivered digitally via TM high speed broadband, UniFi no matter rain or shine to your television.
  
• Offers variety of channels either for entertainment or education for both adults and kids, which include latest movies, tv series, documentaries, news, cartoons and many more.
  
• 3 types of channels:
• Video on Demand - say goodbye to fixed program schedule and watch your favourite movies, news or tv series at your own time convenience. Choose from Home Cinema: Hollywood, Kids Favourite, Hollywood Premier Series and a lot more.
  
• Live TV - watch the usual local broadcast channels (TV1, TV2, TV3, etc.) and various international channels (BBC Lifestyle, Fashion TV, STAR Chinese Channel, FOX Crime HD, Travel Channel, etc.) *For Man Utd diehard fans, they also have MUTV running live for you to watch ;-)
  
• Inter@ctive Channels - where you could share your views, comments or dedicate personalised message to your crush or loved ones through variety of channels namely Malaysian Football, Play Games, Cinema Movie Trailers and a lot more.

• Watch out spoilers as you'll be the first to watch latest tv series within 24 hours after they are shown in US.
  
• Say sayonara to "service is currently not available" message because HyppTV allows you to watch your favourite programs in any weather, even during heavy rain, without distruption. Cool huh?

Learn more about HyppTVand its contents through this link: http://www.unifi.my/hypptv/

or follow the Hypp World Facebook page.

*****

On another note, in conjunction with its first birthday, HyppTV will be throwing an exclusive blogger's party on Friday, 6 May 2011 at Neo Tamarind, Jalan Sultan Ismail and through Nuffnang, they are giving away 30 pair of invites for the most creative blog entries.

I'm very interested to join the celebration especially after knowing about the dress code, which is to dress up as your favourite Hollywood character. I love dressing up for events and I'm such a good sport so that should make me deserve a pair of ticket :-D 

To accentuate this, here's a photo of myself as Mister Potato during Mister Potato Contest which I was the grand prize winner:

 OMG! Was that really me? :-D

Other reasons why I deserve to be invited:

• In spite of being able to learn more about what HyppTV is and spread the news about its benefits to others, I would love to attend the event so I could meet all the lucky bloggers out there. The event would be a great platform to mingle around and know each other as in real life rather than virtually.
  
• I'm looking forward to loosen up and enjoy myself in a celebration after working 24/7 since past few weeks. HyppTV birthday bash would be a great stress reliever!

Since I'm currently pregnant like the pretty Natalie Portman, I would be her as Queen Amidala in the Star Wars trilogy.

 the white faced Amidala

I actually like Anakin Skywalker's strong character so it would be great if I could be his Queen Amidala for a day. Star Wars is one of my hubby's all-time favourite movie too and if I got invited, I will definitely attend the event with him. Better yet, we will both come as the couple; me as Amidala and hubby as Anakin. Ahhh, I've started imagining ourselves in one of these costumes already...

in space suit

sweet but too sexy for my huge belly

lovin' the light sabers!

finally, amidala in a scarf!

........what do you guys think? ;-)

:: one word wednesday ::

.TIRED.
:-(

:: the final stage ::

Entered the third trimester two weeks ago, which means I'm now in the final stage of pregnancy. Already preggie for 7 and a half month, only 2 months (or less) left before entering the labour room. Frankly speaking, until today I never let my mind wandering to what's gonna happen in the labour room later so I'm still cool about it. Sometimes I do think we're among the coolest parents-to-be. We're excited to welcome the lil one but we hardly think much or freak out about what's gonna happen later. We do have our plan so we just go with the flow. Not sure whether that is actually a good sign or not but I believe parenthood will comes naturally when the time arrives. I don't intend to criticize, but being pregnant and expecting doesn't mean you have to talk about pregnancy, motherhood or parenthood all the time. As long as you already have plans for yourself, your partner and the baby, there should be nothing much to worry (and talk) about. 

Preparation for the lil guy is almost done. Previously I did share about our first baby shopping spree when we bought small necessary items like clothings, napkins, changing mat, etc. Around a month ago we did went for the second baby shopping spree though and bought  two major items instead; stroller and baby cot. Although some people said we can buy the stroller later, we still bought it early because the one that we want is always out of stock. After several research done by hubby, we have decided to buy the Quinny Buzz 3 and to be exact, a red coloured Quinny Buzz 3. Red Quinny is among the top seller besides black so they are mostly sold out. When we knew there was only one left in myBBstore, we didn't think further and went to their Kelana Jaya outlet straightaway to secure the stroller in Rebel Red. For your info, myBBstore sells a lot of baby stuff and offered good price for the Quinny Buzz 3 + Maxi Cosi Cabriofix combo. The only one left was the 2011 edition and it was a bit different from what we usually see in other shops before, which was the 2010 edition. 2010 edition comes with a stroller bag and another extra seat cover fabric, whereas the 2011 one doesn't has the extra cover and comes with a stroller basket instead of the bag. Since we already bought the basket way earlier because we never though there will be other different version, we requested the shop to change it with a bag and fortunately they agreed. 

Later that day we made our way to Ikea and bought a white baby cot and its accessories such as mattress, quilt, pillow, bedsheet and quilt cover set. From our research through internet and few visits to shops, baby cot and its crib set is quite pricey than expected. I insist of having a white baby cot to match our bedroom set and white ones are a bit more expensive than the biege coloured! The cot that we bought from Ikea priced RM399 but that is considered reasonable than what other shops are selling. Everything is all set for the baby now. Bee has assembled the cot two weeks ago and it is placed in our bedroom. By the way, KiKi tagged along when we did our shopping and she was "busy" too when we were assembling the cot. 

We have also tested the stroller and look who was enjoying herself, strolling lalala...

Everybody is saying that KiKi will be jealous when the baby is here later. No doubt, I'm a bit worried of that too but hopefully she'll be fine. She has cherished our life and been with us all these while, so she will still be our cat no matter what... Insyaallah we'll be one happy family, the four of us - hubby, me, baby and KiKi :-)

As for now, there's nothing much to do except washing the clothes and sheets with baby friendly detergent. I still have to run over the checklist to see what other important things are left to buy and also prepare "the bag" with items that are going to be used and worn in the hospital after labour. Oh, I haven't mention that my last checkup with the panel clinic was held last week, which means I will later have my checkups at the hospital instead. We have decided to have our baby delivered at Putrajaya Hospital, after being recommended by hubby's friend who has his baby delivered there end of last year. Apparently Putrajaya Hospital has a private wing or known as Full Paying Patient program to cater patients who require convenience of a private hospital at a government hospital. Patients are able to choose the specialist, given priority lane during checkups and enjoy other facilities at First Class Ward or Executive Ward. My first appointment due on 3rd May and I shall share my experience later. 


I guess that's it for the time being. Nothing much differs than previous months except gaining another 2kgs. I'm trying to be cool with it though... goosfrabaa goosfrabaa... Clothes are becoming more limited than before and like it or not, I think I still need to buy another one or two maternity tops to be worn in this last few months. Despite the challenges, I'm still thankful to be given the strength. Alhamdulillah I still managed doing house chores and other activities at work as usual although I didn't visit the kitchen much. I'm also thankful for having a husband who understands me and never fail giving his endless support. Thank you Bee and I love you with all my heart... mwahsss!

:: happy earth day ::

Hello peeps. Sorry for the lack of updates but it has been a very hectic week for me. I even left office after 9:00pm for two days in a row due to work and I couldn't wait for the week to over. Really need a good rest *sigh*. Thank God it's already Friday and do you know it's not an ordinary Friday cuz today is the Earth Day! 

In case you didn't know, Earth Day is a day dedicated to inspire awareness and appreciation to the earth. It was first held on this date, 22 April 1970 in US but then became an international event in 1990. I'm not a hardcore environmentalist, but I do support activities that are related to loving and preserving the earth; and I'm lucky working in an organization that supports the same initiatives too. Through out this week various activities have been conducted in Menara TM like writing pledges, bring your own food container day, quizzes and info sharing; just to name a few. Today, in conjunction with the big day we are encouraged to wear green in showing our support to the mother nature apart from other activities like collection of items for reuse and recycle programs.

It's never too late to show your support, so why not join the celebration? Simple activities like printing or writing on recycle paper, plugging off electrical items from the sockets, separate trash according to its types; either aluminium, glass or plastic and throw in recycle bins, going shopping with own grocery bags and many other simple, daily activities still counts. Let us appreciate what's left to be appreciated and let's go green...

;-)

Happy Earth Day

Peace!

*keywords: earth day 2011, earth day activities

:: speechless sunday ::

Date: 170411
Time: 9:15 pm - 11:10 pm

Venue: Summit USJ

Speechless Moment #01

Him: Do you have this in size 5?

Male S.A: I'll check for you

*gone and came back later*

Male S.A: Sorry, size 6 is the smallest. Is it too big for you?

Him: The size fits me but it's a bit loose

Male S.A: Do you want to have a look at women's sandals? They're a bit smaller

Him: No

*after a while and before we left*

Male S.A: Don't you want to have a look at women's sandals because they are in smaller size

Him: Why should I? Women's sandals are meant for women

Me: (speechless)

Speechless Moment #02

Me: Is this white watch made of...errr...

Female S.A: Ceramic? No, that one does but it's expensive. RM990

Me: Oh, and it's nice... Can I have a look?

Female S.A: It's expensive. RM990. Almost a thousand

Me: It's quite big for me anyway

*left the shop*

Him: She thought we couldn't afford it. That's why she kept mentioning it's expensive

Me: (speechless) ---- grrr...

Speechless Moment #03

*Right after Scream 4 ended*

Me: (speechless)

:: it's back! ::

Haven't had it for a while...

...but today it's back...

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it's my favourite hot jacket potato!

...with butter

...melted cheese

...and baked beans.

*****

Jacket potato is the easiest scrumptious dish, perfect to fulfill your hunger anytime. You only need a potato and the rest is for you to decide and explore.

STEPS:

1. Wash a Russet potato with its skin and make small holes with a fork all around it.

2. Put it into the microwave for 5 minutes.

3. Cut into halves, spread butter and fill with your favourite toppings. 

My old time favourites are slices of cheddar cheese with baked beans... super duper yummy!

*keywords: easy jacket potato, easy baked potato, how to make jacket potato, how to make baked potato, how to cook jacket potato, how to cook baked potato, simple lunch, simple dish, easy dish

:: free pretzel day ::

Hey, have you heard?

Auntie Anne's is giving away FREE pretzels - TODAY!

Just beat the queue for Original or Cinnamon Sugar pretzels from 11:00 am till 2:00 pm at these locations:

- Berjaya Times Square

- Alamanda Putrajaya

- AEON Cheras Selatan

Happy "Pretzeling" yaw~! ;-)

:: masak lemak cili api ::

Ask anybody from this country about Negeri Sembilan and its food, I bet most will associate it with "masak lemak cili api". Being 100% originated from Negeri Sembilan (born and raised), masak lemak cili api is indeed my favourite dish to be eaten with plain rice. If you only want to cook one easy yet heavy dish either for lunch or dinner, I would propose you to cook masak lemak cili api because it is very simple. For your info, masak lemak cili api can be cooked with a lot of different ingredients and they usually come in pairs. Among famous pairs are chicken + potatoes, prawns + long beans, duck eggs + pucuk ubi, pucuk paku + anchovies, yam + anchovies, pisang muda + salted fish, salted fish + pineapple, just to name a few. Listing all those ingredients made me salivating with hunger because I could imagine how each of them taste... but the most famous pair and my most favourite among all is daging salai (smoked beef) + belimbing buluh. Another option for belimbing buluh if it is not available is bacang as they are both soury. 

Cooking the dish is very easy because once you already know the basic, the rest is for you to decide and explore. The 3 main basic ingredients required are real tumeric, coconut milk & cili api. Adding lemon grass would be better but it can be considered optional. I have been asked by several aunties who came from other states on how Negeri people cook the masak lemak because it tasted different from what they cooked at home and the key points here are:
- to use real tumeric instead of tumeric powder
- to skip using onion or shallot in the cooking


Last Tuesday I managed cooking masak lemak daging salai with belimbing buluh, thanks to a colleague, Alya Iswani who gave some of the fruits from the tree in front of her house. We went back to Seremban during the weekend so Bee bought the smoked beef from Pasar Tani. I only knew that smoked beef is only easily available in Negeri Sembilan but not in KL when I started working here. Previously I thought it is easily available anywhere. Anyway, let me share with you how to cook masak lemak cili api with smoked beef and belimbing buluh in original Negeri Sembilan way...

 

INGREDIENTS (2 - 4 pax)
- 1 thumb size of real tumeric
- A number of cili api according to preference
- Coconut milk
- Thin slices of smoked beef
- Belimbing buluh
- Salt

STEPS
1. Crush belimbing buluh lightly with mortar and pestle to take out the juice. Throw away the juice.
2. Crush tumeric with cili api and salt into tiny bits using mortar and pestle.
3. Put the crush tumeric & cili api with smoked beef and belimbing buluh in a sauce pan.
4. Pour the coconut milk into the sauce pan.
5. Light the gas, leave to cook and stir occassionally.

See, it's that easy but the result is oh so yummy :-D If you want it to be a lot easier, just blend the tumeric with cili api using a blender and use a box of coconut milk instead (my mom won't approve that though). Similar steps are used for any other combinations by changing the beef to chicken, prawns, etc. Happy Trying!

*keywords: resipi masak lemak daging salai, resipi masak lemak cili api, resipi masak lemak, cara masak lemak cili api

:: the one about i-city ::

I have a lot to share and tell but I was either too tired or too occupied with something else to blog (most of the time I was too tired though). My unit just took over a big task from another unit and the handover was last Tuesday. Ever since that, I've been busy studying, trying to simplify any possible procedure to make things much easier. The thing is, I can only do the thinking part after office hour because there were too many requests to be entertained during office hour. So in the end I have to stayback until 8 something every night and reached home just to lie my head on the pillow before a new day starts.

I have been reading and listening to people's experiences on their visits to I-City Shah Alam since ages ago. Despite that, I still knew nothing about that place except it has lots of lights and also famous female ghost (just google 'hantu i-city' and you'll know what I meant). After living in the dark for the Earth Hour celebration two weekends ago I made my way to the I-City with my dear cat to visit hubby who was handling an ICT Carnival booth there. Seriously, if not because of that I'm not sure whether I'll be visiting that place after all. I just followed signboards available on the federal highway and when we reached, a number of cars were already queueing to enter since it was Saturday night. Parking fee is inclusive of entrance fee and it was RM10 per car. The car in front of ours had 7 people congested inside and I considered that as managing cost effectively... hehe.

Bee had to pick us up at the elevated parking building because I didn't know where to go. There were so many people that night and I was surprised to see the area had many shoplots and buildings because I previously thought it was just a huge open space. The ICT Carnival was even held in a covered area so we lepak at modernopc booth for a while before made our way to see the lights. The whole place had somekind of festival-like ambience. Besides crowd of visitors, there were reptiles show where we were allowed to take photos with a gigantic yellow snake (ular sawa) and other creatures, apart from donkey riding, glow in the dark show and booths selling lights and glow in the dark stuff. 

We reached the lights area and from what was seen, most people were just strolling around, taking photos. There were lights in the shape of trees, animals and many others which I couldn't be bothered much. What I had in my head was "how much do they pay for electricity in a month?". I felt inappropriate to be there because I just didn't know how to appreciate those static lights. Yet still, we did take several photos for memory's sake, especially that KiKi was with us too. I think KiKi might be the first cat visiting I-City as a visitor... hehe. 

It was kinda hard to take photo because there were too many people so after few snaps we just walked around to the other side. There was this gated area of lights with only few people inside and apparently there was entrance fee of RM2 per person to enter that small area... no wonder it was not congested. Anyhow, we could also convert the RM10 parking ticket to enter for 5 people and luckily I brought along that ticket in my bag so off we went inside. There were nothing much actually, just lights in the shape of cow, giraffe, orange tree and santa with his reindeer. Since there were only few people, it was easier to snap some more photos without being distracted or waiting for turns. We then went back to modernopc booth and just sat there until the carnival ended.

As I said earlier, if not because hubby was working there, we surely would not visit I-City. Yet, it was still worthwhile if you have nothing else to do or wanted to bring family members who came from outside Klang Valley for a visit. It can be a good place for an outing with friends and even a date with your gf or bf because there were so many people around you although it is dark. Most people who came must be those who live around the area too because there was this uncle who came with his family in his sarong or kain pelikat while his wife came in her one piece long night t-shirt. Feels like home, eh? 

FAMILY PHOTO ;-)

On our way home that night we stopped by for supper at Aimar Char Kuay Teow in TTDI Jaya with the rest of modernopc team, inclusive my sis in law who was so helpful following his big brother. It was already near 2 am I think and there were only 5 plates of char kuay teow left for us to order. Apparently that restaurant is famous with its char kuay teow and it did taste good. The portion was a bit small though, but I just knew that char kuay teow is meant to be cooked in small portion. Still, there were options for kuay teow besar, kuay teow special and kuay teow besar special; and special means more prawns. We enjoyed our food and even KiKi enjoyed eating the prawns from inside her carrier bag... 

I highly recommend the restaurant and we did return for dinner last Thursday night. They also have satay and Thai food so we planned to try their Thai food perhaps in the next visit because according to the menu, a set for 2 which includes rice, siakap or bawal (seabass / pomfret), ayam or daging kunyit (chicken / beef fried with tumeric powder) and tomyam... errr I think there's tomyam in that set only cost RM25, which is considered reasonable. Well, at least we have another place to have dinner instead of the same ol' places like food court SS19. Previously we had gerai tomyam Sunway in the list but we have banned it because quality of food has became poor but the price is getting expensive. To Aimar Char Kuay Teow... please don't let us down ya :-D

*keywords: icity, i-city, shah alam, kuay teow sedap shah alam, selangor

:: dear baby (#01) ::

Dear Baby,

Last night mama and papa decided to name you ...
The first name was chosen by papa and your middle name was chosen by mama, both have its own meaning in arabic that compliments each other. Hopefully the chosen name is perfect for you; and may those meanings reflect your life and personality. In the meantime, just keep on playing and turning around inside mama's huge belly cuz mama will surely miss those moments later.

Love,
Mama.

:: another price increase for petrol tonite ::

Walaweh. Thanks to the Government, another price increase for RON97 this year~! 

KUALA LUMPUR: The price of RON97 petrol will go up by 20 sen to RM2.70 per litre effective midnight tonight (12:01am / 02.04.11) according to the Petroleum Dealers Association of Malaysia (PDAM). 

PDAM deputy president Datuk Zulkifli Mokti said the increase was due to the rise in the price of crude oil to US$114 per drum this week from US$105. "This is due to the crisis in the Middle East," he said when contacted by Bernama tonight. Zulkifli said the price was likely to increase in the future due to the situation in the Middle East which he added could prolong.

On Jan 31, the price of RON97, which was floated according to the prevailing oil market price, rose by 10 sen to RM2.50 per litre.

RON95 petrol remains at RM1.90 per litre. - Bernama 

*source: thestaronline

*keywords: fuel price, price increase, harga minyak naik, harga ron97, harga ron95, ron97, ron95