The above collage house two Starbucks 2012 planners, one from Malaysia and the other from Philippines. The Malaysian planner comes in a black box and has cream leather feel cover. The Philippines on the other hand, came in a cloth bag and has a wood cover. Being a notebook addict, I could not resist myself not getting these planners. Though I don’t like the planner type pages, I love the cover, especially the Philippines wooden cover. Maybe this will nudge me to using it in 2012. Well, if I don’t use it, I can always hack it with blank pages or ruled pages. By the way, I have down loads of coffee for these planners, just part of the monthly coffee ration. 

Sept 11, 2011, I did not make it to round island. After months of training, on this faithful even, I was down with fever. I later found out I had dengue. It must have been one of my training trip where I got the mosquito bite. I did attend the event, only after the rain, which is about 10am. I cycled from Gurney to the finishing line. Went to get my medal, waited till the Lucky Draw and went home empty handed.

Yu Kee Bak Kut Teh

I found this place through Google Places and Bloggers. The Google Places coordinate on Google Map is a little off and we had a hard time finding the place the first day. As in all Malaysian Bak Kut Teh restaurants, all kinds of Bak Kut ingredients are available with sides of tofu and assorted vegetables. Sadly, the vegetables we ordered did not come. Each of the dishes are presented in small plates and the prices are based on how many plates you consume. The Bak Kut tea has a very strong medicinal taste with a pack of heat to it.  Its very different from those had in Peninsula Malaysia and its a must try for those who visits Kota Kinabalu. Even the Chinese Tea (Tie Guan Yin) was served on a tiny cup and the flavor was foreign to me.  It complements the Bak Kut Teh well. Yu Kee BKT Facebook.

Fook Yuen Cafe

I We took a cab to this restaurant for breakfast and the cab fare were more expensive than what we spent on the food.  This is the sad state of Malaysian Taxi where out of the capital of Kuala Lumpur, metered taxis are almost non-existence or the meter were never used. We later found out that Fook Yuen Cafe has a branch at Gaya Street and we had our subsequent breakfast there. This restaurant offers Bread, Pastries, Toast/Steam Bread with Kaya and Fried Noodle/Rice with assorted sides such as sausages, yong tou fu, etc.  We started with the recommended Butter Kaya toast and Milk Tea (Teh Si).  The Butter & Kaya Toast was better than the steam ones and was much more generous compare to Old Town Kopi Tiam. The Milk Tea need some getting used to. We later develop a liking to it and found that it goes well with oily food where it helps to wash away the oily after taste on some of the food offered.  Fook Yuen Cafe Facebook.

Five Star Chicken Rice

I stumble upon this place while searching for Yu Kee Bak Kut Teh on the first day. This was the brightest lit shop at Gaya Street and with a few patrons. We decided to try it out and was not disappointed. The chicken was very smooth and tasty.  We also had the soup with fish cakes, though it is not the best, it complements the Chicken rice Well. Five Star Chicken Rice Website.

SEDCO Complex Seafood

Can’t come to Kota Kinabalu without trying out the Seafood. We just had to try out one and found this Sedco Complex at Kampung Air, Kota Kinabalu. Coming from Penang (Andaman Sea), we were very interested to try out the local (South China Sea) catch. We tried the 4 dish above, RM50 for Tiger Prawns, RM50 for Sea Crab, RM50 for Rock Fish (with green bones) and Sabah Vegetables fried in Sambal. There were various types of seafood, and since there were two of us only, we couldn’t try all, plus, we were not that adventurous. At Sedco Complex, there were about 3-4 Seafood Restaurants there, with each concurring their end of the complex. Some bloggers said this place is cheap, we thought it was ok and definitely cheaper than the Chinese Seafood restaurants scattered around the city.

Tuaran Mee @ Seng Hing Coffee Shop

On our last day, we went to Seng Hing coffee shop which was famous for it’s Tuaran Mee and Laksa. Tuaran Mee was indeed unique and we have not come anything like it in Peninsular Malaysia. Its yellow egg noodle fried with sausages, roast pork and egg. The laksa or Curry Mee is also unique where it is sour, more like a fusion of curry powder, coconut milk and tom yam. Tuaran Mee comes in Fried or Soup version and it is the most ordered dish among the patrons there. Tuaran Mee from around the web.

We enjoyed our stay at Kota Kinabalu as much as we enjoy the food there. Mostly, the unforgettable Tuaran Mee and Bak Kut Teh marks Kota Kinabalu as one of the Food City of Malaysia.

I came across this little notebook in Tesco Malaysia and was intrigue to get one to try out. I have been using the Unicorn Colors notebook and found this to be a cheaper version of the Colors. Priced at RM12, it comes in Black and White. It has a hard cover and leathery feel and the size is smaller and thinner than Unicorn Colors A5. There is no back pocket to this Unicorn Privilege and it comes with Memoranda in the front and Telephone & Addresses in the back. The paper is cream in color and a little smooth to the touch. The right side of the notebook is ruled, while the left is blank.  My fountain pen ink sits well without smearing and writes smoothly. The smear through was also less than the Stabilo OHPen and Sharpie Permanent Pen. For the price, the book meets my cosmetic and functionality requirements. My only complaint is that the book is a little small compare to other A5 size books and was a little thinner, means less pages to write on. For RM12, what more can I expect.

7 weeks since I bought my Fixie, I have yet to be ready for the 2011 Campaign for a Lane Round Island ride. The ride is almost 80km long and need to complete it within 5 hours. Half the round island journey is hilly and this is my biggest challenge on a Fixie. I am training my legs to climb climb climb and also to be able to slow down on a downhill. So far, I have not bee able to go beyond 11km in my training and with 41 days to go, its crunch time. Maybe my solution is this Two speed Fixie, yes, the world first two speed fixie from Bedovelo (Swiss).

On the bike yesterday and today brings out the joy of cycling. Fixie or fixed bike is very different from my previous bikes. It keep reminding me that I am not on a normal bike, especially coming to corners where I have to slow down. I have to use my led muscle to slow down and it’s something I have got used to. I still haven’t learnt to skid, maybe because of my front brake which I keep putting skiding off.

Riding on my Fixie to work is like living a lifestyle dream. I have yet to make it as a sustainable lifestyle, but I am getting there. I’ve got the hardware and the will, what’s left is just living through it…

When I first play Gowalla, I was also venturing into Foursquare.  I stop after a while as there were no special mayorship incentive in Malaysia and nothing to collect, except badges.  Again, there were not that many players/users in Malaysia then.

Recently, I started to check out foursquare again.  To my surprise, the users/players has mushroom exceeding those playing Gowalla.  Better still, there are special offers for foursquare players right in my City of Penang.  Below are three of that I discover at the time of this post.

We went to check out the LadyBird Keyword series and found out that there are a total of 12 series with 3 books for each series totally to 36 books.  The MRSP for each book was RM9.90 and we work out the total cost needed.  Thanks to a few friends, namely EC, Mok and Dora, we manage to get two sets for the kids and two huge roll of plastic book wrappers and plenty of cellotapes. 

We went over to the home at Dec 18, 2010 and handed over the books.  When we arrived, the kids were all sitting quietly reading.  The Ivory Group also arrived at the same time and they were having an event with the kids.  After leaving the books on the sofa, and briefly talked to Dr. Chandra, we left the home happy finishing one of the task we set to achieve.  We hope the kids at Shan Children’s home benefit from the Ladybird Keywords series and may they reap greater knowledge from reading. 

Traffic was to the minimal, there are still quite a number of cars on the road at this hour, but less than day time.  Dawn arrives when we almost reach Ipoh, my wife ask to go for Dim Sum, I had promise her earlier that we would.  Not wanting to queue too long to pick up phone, I took a rain check on the dim sum and whiz pass Ipoh.  As we enjoy dawn and the beautiful scenery, the whole world lighted up and the sun came.

We arrived at the Gardens at 8.30am and started to queue up.  There was more than a hundred people in front of us.  We queue up to the car park and I was drench with sweat by 10am when they started to give out numbers.  We receive 3130, not sure if we were the 130 customer for the day.  Once we got the number, we get to go into the foyer to play around with demo sets, have apples and drinks and wait for our number to be called.

At 11 something am, our number were up and we proceeded to the registration counter, once that done, we go to another payment and phone collection counter and finally that done, there is the activation counter.  Plenty of Maxis staff helping along the way, they try to make this as painless as possible and try to accommodate as many patrons as fast as possible as the previous day, they went home after 4am.

There were 25% discounts on the phone covers, and we got a nice leather flip cover and went straight for lunch.  I tried to restore the 3GS backup to the iphone 4, but itunes need to download the latest OS4.1 to do it.  The download speed was so slow that I cancel the restoration and finish up lunch and head back.

We reach Tapah at about 5pm and went to have Curry Chicken Bread.  One huge bread shared by 3, stuff with carbohydrate and loads of curry chicken, we continue our journey home. We arrived at home at 8pm and the day is yet to be concluded.

I am currently restoring the 3GS backup onto iPhone4, and it is taking forever…

There and Back Again for iPhone 4….