The T-Junction Question

Can you spot the pink, red, and yellow taxis?

I meant to start writing on Bangkok but I'm not done with editing the photos. So anyway, here's a 'Food For Thought' question for you guys today. It's just something that popped up in my mind when I was stuck in the horrible jam to work.

Imagine this,
You're at a T-Junction. The roads are jammed up. At one junction is a Fire Brigade truck with fully dressed firemen. At another is an Ambulance with its siren on. At the third junction is the King's official car with all His Majesty's police escorts and safety cars with their hazard lights blinking.

Question: Who do you think have the rights to be given way FIRST? The Fire Brigade, Ambulance or the King?

Remember, not giving way to anyone of them is an offence ;-)

There's no right or wrong to this question of course, just that I want to know how you guys will react if such a situation was to occur. Please state your answer and a brief explanation :) Thanks!

All You Need to Know About AirAsia X

When I did my pre-trip research for Perth, I was trying to find out how Air Asia X would look like, the seats, the seating layout, the food offered on board etc. But to my dismay I couldn't find any, except one blog post which has no pictures to give a clearer view of the airplane. Just like every time before making a decision to try any eatery outlet, I'll do some reading on the place first on the internet. So, I expected there will be some bits of info and pictures on the internet about Air Asia X.

Sadly there was none to be found.



Well, I'm here to save the day! I'm going to do a post on Air Asia X to benefit those who are traveling by AAX for the first time and want to know if you're going to survive the long hours/long haul flight.

The Airbus plane's seating layout is 2-4-2, meaning 2 by the left window, 4 in the middle and another 2 by the right window. The older planes has a 2-3-2 layout. The walkway is extremely narrow, if you've taken the usual AK flights (domestic and overseas flight that is no more than 4 hours, ie. Kota Kinabalu, Bangkok, Guangzhou, Bali etc), it's something similar even though the seats are 3-3.

Please let me quote from Walter who left a comment to correct me on my facts,
"AirAsiaX has 3 A330s, 2 is owned. 1 is leased. The two owned A330s have what we call the "sardine config". 2-4-2 leather seating, with seatback tv. The leased one has the 2-3-2 cushion seating (was an ex AirCanada plane), without personal tvs. But i heard the leased aircraft is fitted with sardine config now.

AirAsiaX does not operate any boeings at all. The flight used for KUL-PER is the Airbus A330."



Depending on aeroplanes, the seats do differ. For instance, when I was flying to Perth, I overheard from the speakers that we had the opportunity to fly the new Airbus, so the seats were lined with fabric rather than these so-called default black leather seats. I think the fabric seats were more comfortable but 'comfortable' by definition here actually means "better than the leather seats but you'll still suffer a backache nonetheless".



The black leather seats were horrible! First, the so-called reclining function is crap. It's not even reclining to start off with, rather the push of the button merely slides the seat by an inch and that's it. I was lucky to have all 3 seats by myself when I departed Perth but like I said, these black leather seats are horrible! I had a terrible bodyache during the flight. The fabric seats were better in terms of "recline" definition.

Don't even think about the 13 hours flight to London.



For the older planes, there's a screen behind every seat but don't be too happy if you're expecting movies/games/music to entertain you while you're suffering with the seats. Air Asia being Air Asia, "sells" these entertainment to you and it costs RM30. There are quite a number of movies to watch of course, but if you're scrooge, just bring your Ipod video or DVD portable player lah. Good thing with these screens though is that they provide information such as ETA, Time to Destination, the route map, and basically info about the journey.



Don't worry about the immigration cards that you're supposed to fill before entering a foreign country as the crew does go around distributing these cards. Oh and a note for those planning to enter Australia, there's an alternative to getting your Visas. Actually you can just apply it here. It only takes a few minutes to fill in the forms and pay AUD$20 and you're good to go. Don't panic when you see others having a Visa label in their passports because applying online means it's paperless and your info are already in the online database. I got quite panic when I saw everyone having a Visa sticker in their passport, for a moment I thought I wasn't gonna make it to Perth :-S



For meals, I pre-booked online and picked the International Meal- Big Bruce BBQ Chicken. It is RM15 if you pre-book online. The meal comes with a miniature 350ml Spritzer water (the bottle is really cute!!) and a bar of Kit Kat Chunky.



To be honest, the meal exceeded my expectation. It tasted pretty good and I love the potatoes!



When I went to Bangkok, I did not pre-book any meals thinking that it's just a 2 hour flight... but I was hungry during the flight and got the Roast Beef with Mushroom Sauce. It is at RM10, would probably cost RM8 if pre-book I guess. The picture looks pretty tempting eh?



AHAH! A case of "sample not looking like the real product" huh? Somehow the beef didn't roll out like it is supposed to be in the menu........ Hmmmmm.

Overall, my experience with Air Asia X is not too good. I won't recommend to anyone if you need to take a flight more than 3 hours. If budget is your main concern, then there's no other choice, but if it isn't, MAS or other alternative airlines would be the better choice. Oh a word of advice, always be early to check-in as the queue can get pretty long for popular destinations.

Another good news would be the new LCCT airport is more spacious and cleaner now, and if you're a Malaysian passport holder (provided your passport is embedded with chip) lookout for the passport machine so you can avoid the queues at the immigration counters!

Hope this bit of info and pictures helps :)

Updates!

Pls forgive me for the lack of updates. The internet connection at home is being a bitch that I can't even upload a SINGLE photo to my flickr, hence no photos how to write anything??!

I wanted to show you guys the most awesomest drink in Bangkok........ it's nothing alcoholic (surprisingly hehe!) but it's so damn good I had something like 4 bottles there and brought 2 bottles back home. To keep you peeps in suspense, go on and guess what it is!!

Winner gets 5 Baht! :D

Oh on a relatively related note, I was saying about the very awesome Smirnoff Double Black Ice with premixers I had in Perth in this post. Guess what! I found it in Bangkok at The Big C supermarket (The Big C = Carrefour in Malaysia). I grabbed a pack of 4 bottles at only 199 Baht (about RM19.90) and thought this is the best damn thing that I discovered (besides the most awesomest drink as mentioned above), but you know what!!

Damn potong stim ok... I was about to put in the trolley when the staff told me we couldn't buy it!!!!!! I was like "WHAT!! WHY!!" Then she said that no alcohol can be purchased before 5pm!! Read the signs. WTFFFFFF! I couldn't believe what I heard. You should have asked Eiling how my expression was. Totally in disbelief that such a rule can apply in Bangkok where I found my favourite drink on earth (besides Perth and US maybe).

Then I read the notice carefully. It said that alcohol can only be purchased from 11-2pm and from 5pm to maybe 8pm or something. The clock shows 2.30pm. We were late by half an hour and early by 2 and half hours.

Needless to say, I could have gone back to Malaysia a super happy tourist but now I'm just a tourist without the super and happy part.

Bought from Australia

Greetings from Malaysia again! I arrived this morning at 11.30am with 2 heavy bags, all containing my loot (and dirty laundry) from Perth. I bought so much of jewelleries that it will please all the females at home. Some food stuff, clothings (I try not to buy so much as I'm hitting Bangkok end of the month), cookbooks for mom...

AND my favourite L'eau Par Kenzo Pour Homme for such a steal! Even after converting! It is in a coffret set, EDT 100ml + Shower Gel 100ml for only AUD55.80 (after conversion= RM134). The single 50ml is already retailing at RM180, Malaysia DF Price. Yes I know it's a male fragrance, but trust me it's the most unisex pour homme evarrrr. It was almost love at first sight when I went testing perfumes around the shop when I was still with my previous company. I also got two 20ml bottles of CK In2U at only AUD20 each.

I got most of my clothes from the factory outlet stores at Harbour Town. My most expensive purchase would be AUD 19.95. Given on a dollar-to-dollar comparison, the stuff here are so much cheaper! You'll find most of the shops with "Nothing over 9.95" corners. I got the colorful shawls at Cotton On for only AUD1 each, I bought all 4 colors :D The jewelleries I got was such a steal as well (again, the rule is don't convert...). You'll probably find some of them at Lings & Blings later :D



The most interesting steal however is these miniature bottles of famous liquor at AUD5.99 each from the duty free shop in Perth Airport. I wish I could buy all of them but liquor allowance for M'sians are only 3 bottles of these 200ml miniatures. I bought 3 when I arrived and another 3 when I departed.



The cutest has got to be the Absolut because I'm quite a biased like that, I love Absolut bottles! The picture above is a visual comparison- 1 litre, 20cl and 5cl. The 20cl looks too cuteeeee. Now someone must donate me a bottle of the Absolut Blue 5cl so that I can have a happy family :DDD



I don't have the litre size for Bailey's, so here's a visual comparison of the 20cl bottle and 5cl one. So cute right????

Sunday Update

While I was on my way back home this evening, the clouds were distinctly fighting with each other. There is apparently 2 clans- the Black and the White. The Subang Jaya side was on the dark side while USJ spots a clearer sky.



It started pouring soon after. First soft droplets of water which evolved into hard droplets that hit the windshield with a ice cubes-like sound effects. You know the rain is going to be strong.



As Priscilla Patrick will say during the traffic reports, "Traffic is backed up to the Kewajipan Roundabout........"

Rainy season. Good for sleeping. Good night, ta!

The Chinese New Year Statistics Report

I know Chinese New Year is long gone but I am sure you do the same thing too after the 15-days festive celebration- COUNT ANG PAOs!!



(p/s: This post is intended to bring back the CNY mood in the midst of a very busy week at work)

Every year I do the same, in fact there's no particular ritual for me (some people tell me that they don't open their red packets till after the 15th, some tell me they don't open the ones given by their parents, some say they keep it in their wallets for blessings etc), I for one open my ang pao right after the person who gave it away looks the other way! *sniggers* :DDDDD

Here, I have compiled information and tabulate statictics charts and shall give you a report on my CNY revenue collection. I'm telling you I have been doing so much reports for the past week that drawing up a chart has become my forte at work these days...





Total Ang Pao collected this year would be 36 packets. Most of which are from relatives and a few from colleagues and boss. I wish I did a statistics report last year and the previous years so that the accountant in me knows whether this year's quantity collection has improved or eitherwise. I shall do that next year!



Of all colored ang paos ever manufactured, I like GOLD ze best! Gold packets always give me an impression that the amount given will justify the color. Most of the time it's just red inside but I've been pretty lucky this year as all gold packets I received is valued RM30 and above! Woohoo!

Before I reveal which ang pao packet is my favourite and will deserve the BEST LOOKING ANG PAO OF THE YEAR Award, allow me to show you some statistics first......



Banks love to give out ang pao packets during CNY and people love to use ang pao packets by banks on CNY, so it's not surprising that I received the most bank-sponsored ang paos, 25 out of 40 or 62.5%.



There were also some red packets from big corporations like Genting, CSM, SP Setia and Sunshine Supermarket (I remember very well it's from my Penang aunt as she gives out Sunshine Supermarket ang pao every single year and Penang is the only place with SS?). Then there were quite a few from Magnum, Sports Toto and Da Ma Cai (grrr, still geram with my 'so near yet so far' of hitting jackpot encounter).



Also, from the liquor companies, there's 2 from DOM Benedictine (by Bacardi Martini) and 2 from Martell (by Pernod Ricard). DOM's ang pao was quite bad quality, Martell's was much nicer :) There's also one from Hennesy (Gold Packets picture, 2nd from left).


The BEST LOOKING ANG PAO OF THE YEAR Award goes to.............



The Royal Bank of Scotland! This was given by Ms Koh, former Student Affairs Manager at our college. She always give very special looking ang paos and this year is of no exception! Besides being gold (my fav!), the design is very special, opens up like a paper wallet, very simple but creative!


The BEST BANK-SPONSORED ANG PAO Award goes to.......



OCBC Bank! I actually received 2 from OCBC Bank, one is red and the other is peachy pink. I think they produced a few designs, like a set- collect all 4 designs or something! For a relatively unpopular bank, OCBC did a good job here unlike the very boring designs by other banks. HSBC's ang paos are equally good too, as you can see above (the gold packets picture).


Ok, here comes the TOP REVENUE CONTRIBUTORS Award........



My Parents of course!!!

Here's the revenue statistics......



Top contributor would be my parents, followed by C's mom, my boss, Ms Koh and E's music teacher (who sells the most awesome kai see hor fun in the world)..... I did not put in the RM10 and RM5 contributors as there were too many and I can't possibly remember.



Looks quite a lot of money but I can assure you 3/4 of it is gone now, mainly to petrol and toll, mobile phone reloads, losing some to the friendly card games, my daily lunch money, financing my Perth trip in March, February household contribution etc.

You can also read Z's Ang Pao Awards here.

So Near Yet So Far

Remember my previous post on the ingenius ang pao idea by Pernod Ricard? Well, I was very excited about the results. Who wouldn't as the ticket may have a chance of striking the jackpot righttttt...?

The number's 9392, 9392, 9392... repeat and remember that.

Let's check the results.



It came out 3rd prize- 9293!! Well because I am not well versed with how the game goes, I thought I might have some chances in getting some money because my number has 9, 2, 9, and 3 numbers, but only reversed. A quick check with Khian and HB, I was left disappointed :( Apparently I can only consider 'winning' if I have all the combinations.

Sighs, why..... I think the 'so near yet so far' feeling is worst than not striking any number at all!

p/s: HB said if I could have won RM500 if I had all the combinations or my ticket no. was 9293.

Because BLINGS rhymes with...

LINGS :)


http://lingsnblings.blogspot.com

This is a pimp for our online boutique :)


We are reviewed at Shopping Critique!

Everything is handmade by Eiling and I. So if you're interested to buy a gift for someone or to bling up your life, do head on to our site at http://lingsnblings.blogspot.com. If we know you personally (ie. online/offline friends) we'll even throw in a 10% discount for you! At the moment, we have a range of pendants and earrings in our collection. I am also making cufflinks and wine markers as well.

/ends pimp

There's No Free Lunch...

... But definitely FREE LIQUOR!


/cue for banana emoticon dancing


A bottle of Piper Heidsieck (worth RM100 dutyfree price) and Macallan 12 Yrs, Highland Single Malt Scotch Whisky (worth circa ±RM140) and a bottle of Otard Cognac (worth circa ±RM120) as CNY gifts from my liquor suppliers from work. I have been wanting to try the Macallan for ages and the wish has come true, without my own expense! OoOh and the Piper Heidsieck champagne too... which I was too shy to help myself to at the Golden Lounge. I'm planning to give away the Otard though when I go for house visiting and I have exactly a house in mind *wink*.



Anyway the above picture is a teaser for a forthcoming post on the family's current liquor collection. More pictures of our alcoholic hobby soon!

p/s: Nolah we're not that alcoholic... there's a difference between buying then keeping and buying then drinking ;)


Work is out! CNY is in! Happy Chinese New Year people! Start eating, drinking and gambling... but don't get too fat, wasted and poor!

/ends banana emoticon dancing

Of Colorful Cuppacakes & NY Resolutions

12 Cuppacakes for the 12 months of 2009


Never too early or too late for Christmas


Winnie the Pooh gone orange!


Ugly duckling to beautiful swan


Butterfly kisses to you





These cute looking cuppacakes were seen on the dining table one fine evening. Mom went for some cake decoration class and I think she did a fine job at this. This is called the art of decorating cakes using fondant and marzipan. At least now cakes and muffins don't have to look so conventional and dull. My favourite was the snowman! I especially suck at clay moulding so I think mom did a great job and definitely worth some pictures.

For better resolution pictures, please visit my flickr set.

~

2009 NY RESOLUTIONS


#1. Drink more water! Opt for mineral/still water when eat out. If there's a choice between liquor and water, first drink liquor then drink loadsa water :D


#2. Cut down on unneccessary purchases (Read: impulse buying). I bought a fedora which isn't in my size and used it once for less than 15 minutes just because I wanted one for a costume themed event.


#3. Pamper myself with good food so long as I can afford it. If I cannot, then make someone to treat me HAHAHA.


#4. Be less lazy. Don't we all say this every year?


#5. Last year, I made a resolution of paying every eatery outlet at The Curve a visit but it is still not achieved because I refuse to dine at kopitiams. This year my resolution will be pay a visit to every eatery outlet at The Curve EXCEPT kopitiams and overpriced common hawker fare.


#6. Just for sakes: EARN MORE MONEY $$$ without robbing the moneychanger or bank.

Since losing weight and all that doesn't work on me (infact I need to gain weight and meat), the resolutions above looks quite achievable righttttt.... :D