TIP OF THE DAY

Have you check your tyre recently?

I had a punctured tyre recently but just changed it with the spare tyre as I was in a hurry to go to work. I managed to visit the tyre service shop last Saturday to repair the punctured tyre. I decided to interchange my front tyre with the rear tyre as to maximize the tyre performance.


If you decided to interchange the wheel, the wheel must need tyre balancing as well as wheel alignment. When all the process is met, the mechanic will check whether any side of the wheel wear or tear badly (makan tayar). If any side of the wheel found having bad wear, some adjustment is done to offset the wear. Nowadays, it will take a short time performing that process as compared previously. They will use some string and water hose filled with water for the alignment process. All the process now is computerized and easy as what is needed a good mechanic to operate it.


This is a tip of the day to all new drivers.

DEAD PERSON INVOLVED IN AN ACCIDENT

It was reported that a hearse had its journey to a burial site disrupted after it was involved in an accident with a minibus. Since the hearse could not move after the accident, the dead body had to be carried by several people to the burial ground nearby. Minor injuries only occurred to one of the dead man's relative. Others escaped unscathed, including the dead man body. It was reported in today’s newspaper.

Chinese Proverb:

When someone shares something of value with you and you benefit from it, you have a moral obligation to share it with others.

A CRAWLING WORM ON DEEP FRIED PRAWN DISH

Last Sunday I attended my sister in-law birthday dinner at one of the restaurant in town. It was my first dinner at that restaurant and I was impressed by the décor and best ambience of the restaurant which suit for family dinner and for parties amongst friends. According to its website which I took from the business card, there are strings of branches throughout the nation.

There were singers entertaining the diners from table to table. When it was our table turn, a happy birthday song was sung followed by a series of evergreen English songs and the ever popular Sayang-sayang Kinabalu. We sang along with the entertainers and sway our body to the beat of the guitar. I never experienced such a treat by a restaurant management to have its resident entertainers singing to the diners before. It was a really a cool thing to me.

It was a prawn course that halted my appetite for a while as unfortunately a green worm was crawling on top of the dish. My sister-in-law was trying to pick the worm with her chopstick when we told her to stop and called the waitress instead. Fortunately, the dish was just put on our table when we noticed the crawling worm. The worm must have come from the leaves as decorations to the dish. We didn’t make so much fuss about it as it was taken immediately while the singers were trying to divert our attention to their singing which proves successful. The management must have a sigh of relief as the celebrant didn’t make so much fuss. I hope she had a good discount instead.

MY FAULTY CENTRAL LOCK

I checked my central lock with a technician at one of the accessories shop and found to be faulty (I changed the faulty original before with cheap central lock ). I pick a much better central lock with the price of almost RM200. In the midst of installing and testing, one of the lock fails to function. It won’t lock or unlock when the remote control was activated. It was just like a tape player where the ejection button fails to eject the cassette from the tape player. It was found the ejection pump of one of the lock faulty and need replacing which costs me RM17. After a long wait, the installation was completed.

A few days later the passenger side lock failed to function and also when the car was not locked, it automatically locked which was correct as what I was informed. The problem was that the lock won’t push in and when you open the car door the alarm will be activated.

I went to see the technician again and another ejection pump was replaced and I was charged RM30. I asked them to solve the other problem but after checking and even calling their central alarm agent in KL, they failed to solve it. I also ask the technician to adjust the sensor sensitivity as it was irritating even a knock on the car hood, a thunder or heavy rain will triggered the alarm system.

*Faulty ejection Pump

I informed them to look for me when they can solve the problem as I was in a hurry to attend a birthday party lunch.

ORGANIC CHICKEN

Organic vegetables and now organic chicken was introduced to the consumer who are now health conscious society. It never crosses my mind about organic things before but when I come across it in the market or supermarket, I am now aware of its existence. Although the price is much higher than the commercial feed chicken, consumers still buy it.


Rearing organic chicken, which tastes similar to the ‘ayam kampung’ but has more flesh, the meat tastier, firmer and stronger. It also has low fat level and suitable for people who practices healthy lifestyle or people with high blood pressure or high cholesterol.

Some of the chicken feed used to feed the chicken is Soya bean, rice bran, wheat ban and fishmeal mix. Apart from that they also add specially formulated formula into the feed.

It is most satisfying knowing that the chicken we buy are healthy produce and hope others in the industry would shift toward organic farming for a health conscious society.

CONGEE CHICKEN (PORRIDGE)


I still think that preparing rice congee using ‘Ayam kampung’ is the best. When I was small, I remembered eating rice congee and was only given one chicken thigh and top portion of the chicken wing which resembled the chicken thigh. Every time my mum cooked congee, I was looking forward to be given the chicken thigh. It was a bit unusual to cooked congee with big chicken parts but that was what my mother did. The big chicken parts were for the kids while the organs and other chicken parts were for the adults then.


Ever tried keeping cooked chicken portion (steamed) inside a jar of salt? I used to keep my chicken portion inside a jar of salt and kept it overnight inside the jar. I found it tasteful and delicious when eaten afterward. I was doing it during my studying days but haven’t done it for decade.

YOUNG ENTREPENEUR

I acted as a reporter today as I interviewed a young lady at her stall selling local fruits. She is on her early 20’s but already has the mission to be young and enterprising entrepreneur in the future. She has been selling local fruits at the stall since 3 years ago. She has a 19 years brother helping her with the stall.

When asked how much she makes at the end of the day, she merely answered ‘boleh lah’. When I pressed furthered, she said she could sell almost RM100 worth of fruits depending on the situation like pay day.

I bought 2 types of local fruits, Banana and Mangoes. For two Mangoes cost me RM6.00 and the Banana RM3.00. I was trying to convinced the young lady to get her picture but maybe change her mind after telling her I blogged. Maybe the brother would not mind but too bad he was not at the stall at the time.

Grilled egg plant soaked in eggs and fried

On friday we went for our lunch and discovered this menu which was delicious. It was a grilled brinjal or eggplant soaked in a beaten egg mix with ingredient like chop pasley, chilli and onion and fried.

A FRIEND REGISTERED HIMSELF AS A NEW BLOGGER IN OCTOBER 2008

I opened my yahoo email last night and one message from my messenger of a friend informing of a blog address. I opened the blog and there was a new blog member registered only this Month. There was no introduction but a well written Banana recipe as its first posting and maybe I will try the recipe one day.

A very unique title of the blog which is called Bachelor easy recipes (I hope I am correct as I did bookmark it at my home PC … drafting my blog post at my office PC). The owner called himself as ‘FOODY UNCLE’. Looking forward to a very interesting blog posting from our new blog member and hope to learn what’s on the menu from time to time.

Congratulation on your new blog Uncle foody …. Are you concentrating more on food in your posting?

7 anti-aging super foods

When we discovered our first gray hair, some of us were visibly confronted with the reality that we are aging. When we grew older there are dos and don’ts on our eating habits as some of us have health implication such as high blood pressure, diabetes and other implications. I read about some articles regarding how to eat to age healthfully. There are seven category of healthy food that may slow down the aging process in us. Try some of the food in your diet and good luck!

Chocolate

Blueberries


Fish

Nuts

Wine

Olive Oil


Yogurt

I VISITED TAMU ON THE MORNING OF 2ND DAY OF HARI RAYA

I was complaining about the searing temperatures on the first day of Hari raya yesterday in my blog posting but ended with a heavy downpour yesterday afternoon. It was reported in today’s newspaper that the street of Kota Kinabalu city turned to virtual rivers. Many complained of sweaty discomfort under the intense heat characteristic of the weather condition of late. Average temperature in Kota Kinabalu was found to have increased by one degree Celcius since the 60’s as said by a local geology professor.

As I was typing this posting, the sky darken amidst intermittent sound of thunder can be heard. Our office closed for three days as we were given another off day (Friday) as majority of our staff are Muslim. All goverment department and private sectors are open as usual.

Yesterday morning (2nd Day of Hari raya) I went to TAMU (Market) ground in Donggongon just to look around and I brought my camera just in case there’s some interesting to snap at. Actually, there were a lot of interesting items to shoot at but sometimes felt embarrass to take pictures. Here are some of the pictures that I managed to snap.

Pix 1 - Local Handicraft for sale

Pix 2 & 3 - Old tradition never die. You will find anything that our Mums, Auntie's and great grandma's needs

Pix 4 - Unique way to keep knives inside a cage. Good for safety reason.

Pix 5 & 6 - Although it's only 2nd day of Hari raya but our Muslim friends were selling their prawns, dried salted fish and anchovies.

Pix 7,8 & 9 - Fresh water fish like Catfish, Jalak and Eel were also on sale.

EATING KANGAROO COULD HELP FIGHT GLOBAL WARMING

It had been a very hot first day Hari raya and spent most of the time watching TV and surfing the internet. I went for an early walk at the Jogging track at Bukit Padang around 4.00 pm but alas there were a lot of people there already. I spent about more than an hour walking around the jogging track which covered 6.3 KM.



Today, the 2nd day of Hari Raya also a very hot day but at least windy although the sun is so bright. I read in the newspaper today regarding a suggestion by an Australian scientist to eat Kangaroo to fight global warming. It was said that the belching and farting of millions of farm animals is a major contributor to gas emissions.




Kangaroos, on the other hand, emit negligible amounts of methane gas. In the report livestock, mainly cattle and sheep are responsible for some 67% of agricultural greenhouse gas emissions.




Well, it would be nice to eat Kangaroo’s meat if it will help reduce global warming but finding the meat here in Malaysia must be hard to get. Secondly, how many people dare to eat kangaroo’s meat?

SELAMAT HARI RAYA

Have you experienced most of the shop closed during the first day of Hari raya? This morning I went to ATM kiosk to pay for my credit card facility in town and observed the road was almost empty except for the Muslim friends donning their Malay attire going to the state mosque for prayer. After paying for my minimum credit facility, I observed most of the Chinese restaurants were closed including my favourite restaurants.

One unique feature of Malaysian celebrations is the concept celebrating it by all the races. When one of the races celebrated their festival, all Malaysians join to celebrate it and held open houses and invite friends to their house.

In a Malaysian family of Sabah origin, it is not surprising to see members of the family consisting of many religions to celebrate major celebration together. They believed religion should never be an obstacle for a family to celebrate together. They felt that they are never different from one another although they have different beliefs.

When celebration like Hari raya, two to three days before Hari raya, the office where the percentage of Muslim staff are high, the office becomes ghost office because many of the Muslim staff are on leave for Balik Kampung. It is good for the non-Muslim also for they will have less work. To all Muslim friends ‘SELAMAT HARI RAYA’ to you and your family.

DO MEN WEAR PERFUMES?

That's an interesting question isn't it? Do men like fragrances, and would they like to be given a perfume as a gift? Most men, I think it's true to say, like fragrances, or perfumes, worn by their women. But would they like to wear a perfume themselves?

A lot of men do wear perfumes now, even if they're not aware of it. What is an aftershave for example, but a perfume with another name? It's just a masculine perfume, or smell. Aftershave is a convenient way for men to wear perfume without actually wearing perfume.

I wear a male perfume from time to time, and like it. I don’t wear it all the time; I choose my moments, like going for a party and I prefer soft or mild smell perfume but effective. I will never wear a strong-smelled perfumes cos it will loose the sensory function on many people’s nose. I remembered one occasion when a friend wear a strong smelled perfume and mix with his body odour proved to be too much for me. I drove a bit faster than normal just to reach his destination. I was too happy to drop him to his destination with great relieved to my tortured nostril.

Perfume automatically calls women to mind. However, 46 percent of women and 49 percent of men over the age of 15 in cities use perfume, according to a Target Group Index (TGI) that I read. Therefore, there is no distinction between men and women when it comes to being well groomed, especially in these days of describing people as sophisticated and sometimes abnormal to the eye.

What’s the price of perfumes you ever bought?

Ever since I wear perfumes, I’ve bought different types of perfumes and the price differs. Initially when I started wearing perfumes, I used perfumes in the region of more than one hundred ringgit of the price but now I did buy more than two hundred ringgit as though as if the price was normal. Once you’re addicted to the fine smell, the price is secondary. After all if you wear it occasionally, then it is worth it.

Presently wear Chic, Calvin Klien and 212 perfumes. I don't stick to a single brand of perfume as what I look for in a perfume is its pleasant scent.

Is the trend going up?

Men are clearly more comfortable wearing fragrance and more willing to spend on it. The majority of men today wear fragrance mainly to please themselves. And the research shows nine out of 10 men who wear fragrance choose and buy it themselves, a significant change from 10 years ago when men were influenced and reliant on women to make this decision.

PANGKIS @ A PIERCING SCREAM

Pangkis is a Kadazan word which means a cry, a yell or a scream. It can be heard during performances of the Sumazau dance. Usually the Pangkis can be shouted at regular intervals by the men who performed the sumazau dance. Women rarely yell the Pangkis but don’t be surprised to hear their piercing scream when they get drunk and aggresively forcing alcoholic drinks especially to the men dancers.



I read about an article about Pangkis and it inspires me to write about it through my experiences when that piercing scream was performed during some ceremony by Kadazan Bobohizan or priestess. Those ceremonies during that time were regularly performed due to a fact that a number elders during that time were pagan which organise such ceremonies.

During one of the ceremony like Monogit or to appease the spirit, I remembered there was a bobohizan dancing around a circle of people with a sword in hand. That was the time when we were asked to yell loudly the Pangkis at regular intervals. I was made to understand that it was done to help the Bobohizan to fight the evils. It also symbolizes the return of the strayed Bambazon, as in the Magavau ceremony, which the Bobohizan has to bring back.



Pangkis Pangazou means was the triumphant cry by a Kadazan warrior who managed to cut his opponent head during a fiery fight. During those days only the strongest men can survived and saved his villagers from attack from other opponent from other villages. The number of human heads or skulls symbolizes that he was one of the greatest in the likes of Monsopiad and others.


The triumphant cry by the warriors will no longer heard in this era of modernization but during wedding or Harvest festival, this scream will be replaced by a triumphant joy and merry making. Pangkis will remain in our midst if the younger generation commit themselves in preserving the traditional scream whenever sumazau dance is performing. Kiihoi …….

Chinese Proverb:

'When someone shares something of value with you and you benefit from it, you have a moral obligation to share it with others.

COMPUTER SERVICE CENTRE CHARGING EXTRA COST

My computer was returned to me after I inquired about it the next day but after testing it, I found out I was having difficulty to boot it and seems to hang. After just using it for a week I decided to send it to be repaired for the second time. I send it to the shop where I bought it in 2005.



It was booted up and checked at the Service centre and was informed the CPU was the problem. I argued with the technician about it as I was able to boot it up. He then decided to check again and will be updated of anything that needs to be replaced. The service charge for formatting, files backup and favorite’s backup would be RM30 only. Deep inside me, I know they will find ways to charge me more for the services.



I only received a call from the service centre the next day informing me that the power supply unit was having trouble and should be replaced. There was no problem with my power supply unit as far as I know but I didn’t argue with the service centre technician. In about an hour I was called to take my computer as all was repaired with charge of RM69 for which the power supply costs me RM39.




So guys out there, if you happen to have problem with your computer think twice before needing services from the advertiser. They maybe good and knowledgeable but they need experience to repair your computer.

Kadazandusun pay to learn KadazanDusun

I read in the newspaper today regarding individuals to undertake a basic course in Kadazan language at a private learning institution in Penampang town. It may sound strange to learn and pay to learn their own language but better late than never to learn your own mother tongue.

Some of the student said that it is a waste of not learning their language as all this while they speak Malay and a bit of bazaar Kadazan. Another student whose mother a Chinese only speak English to his Kadazan father. Both student can now speak the language fluently and can converse with their friends in the community. It is commendable on the part of the student who was deprived by their Kadazan parents to teach them their Kadazan language and with commitment decided to undertake the course until they can mastered the language.

My neigbour’s children speak Malay language amongst them although their parent speaks to them in the Kadazan language. Is it because their friends, most of them speak in Malay; was the reason why the children speak in the Malay language or because of the role of the media e.g. TV etc? I think the parent should make sure their children learn the language at any cost as what we can see now; younger Kadazan doesn’t know the language.

Sign language.

MUDAH.COM ADVERTISER MAKES ME NERVOUS

Mudah.com.my is a Malaysian marketplace for buying and selling Online.

My home computer was giving me problem and I was sure infected with spyware. I tried to use my available anti spyware but still unable to get rid of it. I called a technician who once attended my problem but was busy with his work. I remembered about MUDAH.COM and contacted one fellow by the name of Bona. We arranged and met and he informed me that he need at least few hours to check the problem.


I had my CPU taken by the technician since yesterday evening (4.00 pm) and until now I was not informed of the problem or had been contacted. I am getting nervous by each hour. I will give him time until noon and if he fails to contact me then I will call him. I only have his phone number and his car plate number as a security. Hopefully he keep his word, repair my computer and send back to me soonest or I will apply plan A (Plan A – don’t know yet).


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