A Visit to the Park

Last Sunday, I decided to bring my daughter to a place with a bigger playground. There are a few playgrounds around my neighbourhood and Clarisse had visited a few of them. This time around, I decided to bring her to somewhere which I passed by many times but had never step foot into the place until last Sunday.

Taman Jaya is a park nearby Federal Highway which has a lake in the middle of the park. The lake has been a popular fishing spot for people who has the patience in angling or fishing. Everytime I passed by Taman Jaya on the lrt, I can see many people exercising in the park, adults jogging around the lake, kids immensing themselves on the playground. Life is a bliss seeing everyone enjoying themselves and sharing laughters and moments of togetherness.

The playground is well-maintained overall. The rides and plays still look new at least. I didn't have the opportunity to jog around the park though as has been entasked to look after personal properties since my wife accompanies Clarisse in playing the rides at the park. But I did get a walk around the lake with the family before we headed home. At the same time, I didn't want to miss the opportunity to snap some photos of the park and the playground.

The rides still look well-maintained

A monument in the park

Lots of fun for the kids

Various exercise equipment for adults

Another playground area in Taman Jaya

Tarzan on the chain? Or Spiderman?

Various fountain points on the lake

My favourite photo - a reflection of the TNB building

A Less Than Wonderful Lunch

Last Saturday, I took a nice afternoon drive to Subang Jaya for a lunch at Allegro Café Trattoria Italiana. Subang Jaya always hold a fond memory for me as I received my tertiary education there before moving to Perth for my final year. In total, I spent about 2.5 years in Subang.

Allegro Café is not hard to find as I know my way pretty well along SS15 as well as I have looked up the place from Google Map. What surprised me is that most of the roads in SS15 have been turned into a 1-way street and you have to drive a big round if you overshoot your spot.

Allegro is an Italian café nicely situated on the 1^st floor of a 3-storey shoplot. The deco is very warm and relaxing. You certainly feel at ease with the choice of colour and furnitures in this café. There are about 10 tables inside the café while the balcony holds 2 tables that easily seat 3-4 persons per table.

Our balcony seat oversee nice garden deco

As I reached Allegro around 1:00pm, the place is already packed with diners. Armed with my Groupon voucher which gave me a wonderful Italian lunch cuisine for 2 pax at RM20 only instead of RM90! The waiter told me that all the tables inside the café are fully taken. Luckily, I saw an empty table at the balcony area and quickly asked for its availability. “Yes! You can sit there” was the best 4 welcoming words at that point in time.

In about 5 minutes, a Caucasian came to our table with the menu. I presume he’s the boss by the authoritative ways he speaks. Let’s call him the Boss right now. The menu is a tad disappointing as it just a sheet of A4 paper with a fix menu printed menu of in. You have a mushroom soup with garlic bread, a choice of 3 different spaghetti to choose from, a drink and an ice-cream dessert. I made my decision very quickly as it’s a simple menu which my wife was undecisive over the which of the 3 spaghetti to choose from. It was less than 30 seconds for her to decide but Mr Boss is already running out of patient and asked us to decide fast. I do understand that the place is packed to the brim and there are 2 waiters serving the hungry lunch pack but at least he can be more courteous. Annoyed by Mr Boss’ attitude, both of us ordered the same main course and drinks.

While waiting for our set to come to our table, we saw more and more diners coming in with vouchers which I presume must have purchased from Groupon. They all left with disappointment as there’s really no more empty tables. Waiting is not an option as the café is compact and does not have a designated waiting area. Mr Boss decided to bring our ice lemon tea after more than 20 minutes. And 10 minutes later, our mushroom soup and garlic bread came. I find the ice lemon tea lacking the tea flavour while the mushroom soup is a bit salty for my liking but my wife thinks the mushroom soup tasted OK for her.

Mushroom soup and ice lemon tea

After being glued to our seat for about 1 hour from when we first sat down, Mr Boss came back with our main course. How wrong was I to think that since it’s a set lunch, the meals will be served fast. I totally got no idea why it took 1 hour for the main course to be served! When the spaghetti arrived, I was dumbfounded. To think that this meal is originally worth RM90 for 2 must be a big joke. The spaghetti is really a small portion. I would think that this meal is worth RM10 instead of RM45 per person! The serving is really small even for a small eater like myself. I quickly chow down my spaghetti in no time seeing that the café is getting more and more crowded with so eager diners coming in and leaving in disappointment as all the tables are taken.

Though nicely flavoured, it's really a small plate

After finishing the main course, Mr Boss came out again with the ice-cream. This time I am totally convinced my meal should rightly cost RM10. The single scoop of ice-cream is pathetically small. Mr Boss is so courteous to serve the ice-cream without a spoon. Maybe he does expect us to swallow the whole scoop since it’s such a small scoop. Furthermore, he has the guts to say “After you all are done with the ice-cream, you all can leave. They’re many people waiting to be seated.” That was said when he served the ice-cream without the spoon. While we were seating on the bench, looking at the ice-cream melting away before the presence of the spoon, Mr Boss has moved on to take orders from other tables. He doesn’t even want to care if you need to scoop the ice-cream with your fingers or swallow the whole mini scoop. You just have to wait for your spoon to arrive like how you wait for 1 hour for your main course to arrive. YOU JUST HAVE TO WAIT !!

Never will I step foot into this place again. Totally disappointed….

Run Forrest Run !!

Last week, I made a short trip for lunch at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co at The Curve. Reason I went there was that I bought another fantastic deal from MyDeal.

The deal was : "Shrimp Feast at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. @ 50% OFF. ALL THE SHRIMP YOU CAN EAT at RM 43.35 nett instead of RM 86.70"

I have not dined at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co before this even though I have passed by this place many times. The restaurant is actually based on the movie "Forrest Gump" - one of my all time favourite movie starring Tom Hanks which the movie also won a few Oscar awards.

A quick search on the Net tells me that the company was founded in California back in 1996 and it has got more than 30 outlets internationally by now.

Side view of entrance to Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.

With its big signboard and eye-catching deco, one can hardly miss the restaurant situated on the 1st floor of The Curve.

Entrance to Bubba Gump Shrimp Co

Service was prompt as there is a waiter standing outside the restaurant ushering you to an empty table once you step into the restaurant. Seatings inside the restaurant are quite limited and I think I counted close to 15 tables available, mostly for 2-4 guests per table. However, there are plenty of seats for alfresco dining. Since, Bubba Gump is a corner unit, seatings are arranged neatly to the maximum capacity with more than enough walkway for diners and food servers.

As the tables inside the restaurant were fully taken, me and my wife opted for an alfresco seating. I passed on my MyDeal voucher to the waitress and our first course arrived in less than 10 minutes. Hmm.. I am beginning to like the service of this place.

First, came the Shrimper's Net Catch I .It's a bucket of shrimps. I opted for a mix of Bubba's Garlic Spice and Secret Recipe Cajun Spice. The looks of the shrimps being poured onto the tray already wetted my appetite for more. It also came along with a sparkling lemonade (which I find the taste rather bland). The shrimps are really as good as they looked. Squeezing the 2 slices of lemon onto the shrimps, both of us quickly got into the mode of peeling the shrimps from its shells and feeding them into our hungry mouths. It was really lips-smacking good!! The mixture of the spices really blend well with the prawns. However though, I find it a little bit salty for my liking but it's bearable. While we were half way eating, the waiter was very prompt with his service. He came and clean up our plates filled with the shrimps' shells. Once we placed the new clean plates to the table, we continued with our meal.

Shrimper's Net Catch

After filling half of our stomachs with the shrimps, we moved on to the dessert. It was the Chocolate Chip Cookie Sundae. This really look appetising. It came in a pan with the chocolate chip cookies base, topped with 2 scoops of vanilla ice-cream and 2 scoops of whipped cream and garnished with a mint leave. You will find chocolate sauce and syrup on the plate as shown in the photo below.

 

Chocolate Chip Cookie Sundae

The sundae was magical! The first mouthful itself spells wonder! It's really that great. Biting into the base with the chocolate chips inside is like heavenly. Oh ya, it also comes with peanuts (lots of them), making it a really awesome treat. You're advised to share it with a second or third person as it is quite filling.

A close up short of the heavenly Chocolate Chip Cookie Sundae

I really had a great meal at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co at The Curve. Really a great deal thanks to Bubba Gump and MyDeal.

For those who wanted to check out this restaurant, below are the addresses of its outlets in Malaysia.

Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. @ the Curve, Lot 145, 1st Floor, Jalan PJU 7/3, the Curve, Mutiara Damansara, 47800 Petalling Jaya, Selangor, Tel: 603-7710 9862 / 63 Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. @ Sunway Pyramid, OB.K2, OB.K3, OB.K3C & OB.K3D, Oasis Boulevard, Sunway Pyramid Shopping Mall, No, 3, Jalan PJS 11/15, Bandar Sunway, 46150 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Tel: 603-5638 4559 / 5635 3559

Bona petite!!

Super Dan completes it !

Lin Dan is simply the best badminton player of the century! He's the world's most celebrated men's singles badminton player.

I have to admit that I am not a very big fan of Lin Dan. To me, he's kinda cocky and not the friendliest badminton around. However, I do have to admit that he's simply a class above the rest of the players.

Both Lin Dan and Chong Wei are consistent players and usually reached til the Finals in whichever tournament they took part in. Lin Dan has been Chong Wei's arch rival or nemesis on court for a number of years already but Chong Wei still have not find the right weapon to subdue Lin Dan. Not that Chong Wei is a bad player. In fact, Chong Wei is a badminton player of great stamina and reflexes. Even the people who filmed Chong Wei for a documentary were very impressed with his physical fitness. Once can certainly sees Chong Wei's quick reflexes on court, especially when he's so quick up again after landing with his hands on the rubber mat of the badminton court. Very often you will hear such comment of Chong Wei by the match commentator praising Chong Wei for his reflexes and how well he got along with the other players in the badminton circuit.

Lin Dan's match against Chong Wei in Asian Games' Badminton Men's Final is a great showcase of Lin Dan's strength and skills. It was a very exciting match. Though being Malaysian, I strongly hope that Chong Wei will win the game and bring home a Gold Medal to Malaysia, we all know it was a herculean effort to beat Lin Dan especially in his home land, China. Lin Dan won the game 21-13, 15-21 and 21-10. By winning the gold medal in the Asian Games, Lin Dan became the only player in the world to have all the badminton titles i.e. Olympics, Asian Games, World Championship, All England, BWF circuit super series event, Thomas Cup. In fact, this Fujian southpaw badminton player was already a world number 1 player at the early age of 20. I am sure at 20 years old, many of us have not even graduated from tertiary education yet but Lin Dan already helm the highest ranking and at 27 years old, Super Dan (as he's fondly called by his fans) is already at the top echelon of badminton.


Photo extracted from Wikipedia

Froyo Deli’s Frozen Yogurt

 

The website www.mydeal.com.my is simply marvellous!! I simply love this site. A BIG THANK YOU to fellow blogger, Nicole Tan (www.nicolekiss.blogspot.com) for featuring this website in her blog back in August’10.

What’s this site all about?? Well, every day this website features an item for sale at a heavily discounted price. On average, you will be offered a deal for 50% or more. The deal varies from dining, self-pampering ie. aromatherapy, spa to car wash and waxing. This website currently offers deal in Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Johor.

The deal I am going to blog about is actually the second deal which I have purchased from this website. Almost everyday, I surf into this website to find out the latest goodies the website has to offer.

To share with you all out there, below is the deal which I wanna blog about:

50% Off Medium Frozen Yogurt Package with Choice of 4 toppings @ The Froyo Deli for only RM 7.25 instead of RM 14.50!

I have to be frank that when I purchase this deal with my credit card online, I have no idea what or where is Froyo Deli located. I have to google up the address to find out exactly where the deli is located. So, I printed out the Google Map and tuck it nicely in my wallet to be taken out as guide when I visit Froyo Deli.

So, 2 Sundays ago when I am heading back to KL from Seremban, I made a detour to Desa Sri Hartamas to feast myself on the frozen yogurt which I have bought from www.mydeal.com.my. Though I easily made my way to Desa Sri Hartamas, I have problem finding the exact location of the shop even though my GPS already indicated that I have reached the destination. The signboard of the shop is simply too small to be eye-catching. There’s no big signboard from on the shop to indicate the name of the shop. Instead, you will only find a round signboard with the face of a bunny (see below) to welcome you to the shop. They could have made the sign a little bit bigger.

Upon entering the shop, my Sis volunteered to be the photographer and took some photos of the shop’s interior. The decorations in Froyo Deli is very simple, towards the taste of a minimalist. The setting is very casual and relaxing.

Even the menu is very simple. The frozen yogurt, made fresh daily, comes in 2 flavours, plain or strawberry or you can order the twist which is plain yogurt mixed with strawberry flavoured frozen yogurt. The owner is kind enough to offer us a sampling of the flavours first before settling down to place out orders. My voucher allows me to choose 4 toppings from the many variants available. As usual, mango is my automatic choice of fruit. I chose longan, sunflower seed and colour sprinkles as my 4 toppings.

A wide variety of toppings for you yogurt lovers to choose from

While waiting for the Owner to prepare the frozen yogurt, my Sis put her spare time into good use again, snapping up another photo of the mock serving of the Froyo Deli’s frozen yogurt, tastefully placed on the aluminium table near the entrance of the shop.

Looks tempting huh? These are not real, hehe!

Finally, after waiting for less than 5 minutes, our orders are ready to be served to the mouth of these 3 first-timers. My wife settled for the plain yogurt, my Sis ordered the twist while I ordered the strawberry flavour. After a few rounds of flavour tasting among the 3 of us, I concluded that the plain yogurt flavour is the nicest. The strawberry topping is very fresh and the Owner is certainly very generous with the quantity of toppings served. The wide variety of toppings available certainly complement the frozen yogurt well and would satisfy the cravings of almost everyone who frequent Froyo Deli. The only grumble which I have is that Froyo Deli should have offered salted peanut or crushed peanut as toppings.

2 sets which I purchased using the voucher from www.mydeal.com.my and another ala-carte order

Simply yummy!!

After spending a good 15-20 minutes in the shop, we have 3 satisfied customers. Then again, I have another complain. The shop does not have any drinks on its menu. You only find frozen yogurt on the black board with the different pricing based on the number of toppings you ordered. What about drinks? No coffee, tea or fruit juice available? Not even plain water was served to complement the yogurt or available on the menu. That’s a little bit disappointing though I was not thirsty at that point in time. I do hope the Owner will offer some drinks to the customers. Having a wide variety of magazines is a good past-time for those who would like to do some light reading while enjoying a nice cup of yogurt, but do serve drinks please………

Great Deal at MyDeal.com.my

While reading the blog from a famous local blogger, Nicole Tan, I was being introduced to a site which sells F&B, Wellness, Car Wash etc at exceptional discounts. According to Nicole, she was a bit sceptical too at the beginning but just gave it a try since the amount involved is not very big. Great deals start from as cheap as RM10 or lesser. The website is called :www.Mydeal.com.my

Basically, how this site works? Read below. I copied it from MyDeal.com.my as I'm too lazy to explain it myself, hehe.
How does MyDeal.com.my work?

Every day you'll find a new hot deal on MyDeal.com.my at discounts between 50-90%. Once the minimum number of buyers for a certain deal is reached, the deal is "on". After the deal period has passed (usually 24 hours) you will receive an email from us with your electronic coupon or a confirmation email that your coupon has been sent out to your home address. Since we aggregate a large number of buyers for each retailer, we're able to pass on these kinds of discounts to our customers. Once you received the coupon via email or post you can simply go to the merchant and enjoy your deal!

Here's how it works:

1) Click on "Buy Now" to reserve the deal for you. When the minimum number of buyers is reached, the deal is definitely taking place!

2) Tell all your friends, colleagues, family members and your neighbors about the hot deal that's going on! That way the chances are higher that we reach the minimum number.

3) In case the minimum number of buyers is not reached, the deal won't take place. In this case you'll get a full refund of the fee you paid to your credit card or PayPal account. Check back the next day - for sure a deal will be going on!

Easy right? I started off by making a purchase for Lecka Lecka at 50% discount. I just have to pay RM16 for 2 vouchers! The deal comes with 2 scoops of any our your preferred Lecka Lecka flavours and a bottle of Esprit drink. I utilised my voucher last Sunday at e@Curve. I wasn't very sure of myself when I approached the service crew at first. What if my vouchers are fake? What if they don't recognise what I have? Am I going to embarass myself in front of everyone at a busy shopping mall? I was so relieved when the staff at Lecka Lecka counter accepted my voucher and gave me the same service as a regular customer.

Now, I am hooked to this website. Everyday, I visit this website for the Deal of the Day. The deals are available in Klang Valley, Penang and Johor. Maybe you guys and gals who have not visited this website should check it out. You can really enjoy some good stuff at great discounts!!

Where Have I Been ??

I have been missing from my Blog for a long, long time again. The last posting I put up was somewhere in July. So, I have been away for about 3 months I guess.

Life moved on. I have left my previous employment with a related company of a well-known blood testing Group, handling the financial affairs of a chain medical GP practise and distributor of health supplements.

I have been commented by some friends as well as fellow interviewers for not being staying long with a company that I have worked with. My longest period of employment with 1 company is 3.5 years. I have now worked for almost 13 years and I have worked for 6 companies! Of course, I would not like to be potrayed as a job-hopper too. It's just that opportunities came along the way and I would like to take the opportunity to move up the career ladder. Else, why I would I want to study until Univeristy level, equipped myself with a Degree but working just as a clerical staff in a Company. Aim high right??

Well, I have just joined a local media agency. So now, I am in an advertising line of business. I landed myself in the role of a Finance & Admin Manager - overseeing Finance, HR, Admin and IT department. It's a small company with headcount of not more than 10 but it's a pleasant office to work in. The company is not too far away from where I live at. This company has been established not too long. It has been around for about 5 years but the CEO/Owner is someone well-known in this industry. In fact, he has been in the advertising line for almost 20 years, helming top position in companies he worked for before moving forward to open his own company. He come across as someone very knowledgeable in many topics. I do see him as a mentor in certain way and I do hope this employment will keep me grounded for some time ;-)