The Philips Trio - My Kitchen's Company

I blogged on my Philips Saeco Coffee Machine here, last September 2012. A year later, I have added on another 2 machines to accompany it. It was coincident, trust me. 

The Philips Air Fryer HD9220 was a result from a friend whom hard sold this to me. After thinking twice and trice, I had got my source down south to ship me one. It had been great company and tool, especially when it comes to frying without oil. First attempt was always potato wedges!

Nicely fried wedges

Fried pumpkin and sausages

Honestly this wasn't the 1st trial. I have done marinated chicken breast for my salad.

Following my recent shopping walkabout at the HomeDec, I noticed new recipe with this tool. And so I tried them for a small omelette. Indeed successful.

Omelette

Healthy dinner

It had been selling with high sky price here in Klang Valley, while it was at SGD$239 during the mid year sale. If you wish to shop for one now, I heard its selling at SGD$229 at BEST Singapore, as the digital version is going to hit the market soon, in fact it is already available in Singapore.

The latest family addition had been the Philips Electric Pressure Cooker HD2139/62. This deal was a little different, as Singapore's published price is at SGD$249, while Klang Valley was selling at RM399 during HomeDec (in fact Harvey Norman was selling with additional 10% discount during HomeDec weekend). Honestly, I would say the pressure cooker has more function compared to the air fryer. 

So far, I had experimented... Bah Kut Teh, Chicken Herbal soup, Black bean soup, porridge, and sorts of bihun soup meal. I have yet try bake fish and any other meat tendering dish, i.e. rendang or curry chicken. It has to be good, in fact its specialized in tendering meat.

The Trio Philips

For recipe, you could find some ideas from Philip's My Kitchen website. A specialized FB page for Air Fryer fans is available here too. In fact, I personally prefer the Taiwan version of My Kitchen (Chinese).

• 飛利浦 》智慧萬用鍋食譜 https://www.lifestyler.com.tw/post/Article/list/Kitchen?pclass=A02
• 飛利浦 》健康氣炸鍋食譜 https://www.lifestyler.com.tw/post/Article/list/Kitchen?pclass=A03

Happy cooking, happy testing!

2013 Year End Tasks List

It's almost the end of 2013, how time flies! One has so much to do, but so little time to do.

What's there so much to do? My wish list  goes like this...

1. Electronically clean up - what's that mean? Mailboxes, files, folders, phone book, pictures.. All needs to be organized.

2. A revamp on this blog page - or should I setup another blog space? I recently lost my old pictures and comments featuring countless memories in multiply.com. What's the lesson behind? Should I trust free hosting page? Will see, may go back to paper diary! Lol..

3. Documenting my dreams - I have too much to be off loaded from my brain. It's getting heavier these days, poor brain.

4. Place down action plan to those dreams - hmm... This is rather difficult, and I should place away the procrastination. [here's why I dare to document them in my blog]

5. Holiday planning for 2014 - somewhat related to #3 above. 

6. Blog topics - some topics had been lining up in my brain. That's time to off load... But again, looks like I would need to sleep with my lappy very soon. :)

p.s. I wrote this from my phone, while waiting aimlessly over a boring weekend out there.

Weekend Trip - Tg Sepat, Aug 8 2013

It was about 4-5 years since I been to this place. The particular location was once made happening by AhXian, a local Chinese food channel, and that was the time I was one of those who 'flocked' into the village.

This time round, I could not recall what brought us there. Only recalled there were 3-4 cars that Sunday, on which we went on a Sunday family day trip. To me, its another adventure over a weekend day trip. Couldn't miss any food or shopping.

Stop #1 - Mr. Black Hainanese Pau shop 

(Google Coordinate : 2.659064,101.566369)

Some prefer to queue up for the famous one in the main village area, but we so happened met a warming local at a coffee shop. She'd been very helpful and pointed us some hidden places to shop. The locals prefer this pau shop, not sure why. Perhaps is to avoid the heavy tourist crowd, for some reason, the famous one seems to be overrated. I didn't had a chance to buy them the last round, neither this time. Honestly, I am not a pau person, hence I didn't even buy anything from this Mr. Black pau shop.

Mr. Black Pau Shop

Stop #2 - Kerepek Ubi

(Google Coordinate : 2.659611,101.568236)

Another local introductory buy the lady in her motorcycle. Good quality and deal for locally made snacks - potato chips. It comes with 6 flavors, can't remember all the favors but I know I liked the black pepper the most.

Kerepek Ubi Uncle's home

Uncle's stock

Stop #3 - Ever famous Pau at Tg Sepat

No tourist will miss this location. In fact, it's just a street away from where we bought the chips. Look at the queue, and it flew all the way to the main street. Imagine how tourists queue up under the hot sun.

Since we didn't fancy, we made ourselves towards a place to chill. Passion fruit drink was nice. And its local coffee was good too. It's shopping time!

Queue at the famous Pau

Passion fruit drink

Local coffee

Stop #4 - Home made fish balls

(Google coordinate : 2.659611,101.568236)

Another hidden supplier for the locals. We made to another local's house for their homemade fish balls. It was great, and obviously not commercial. Just like those feel of not needing to literally fight with tourists.

Home made fish balls

Made to fed under the hot sun

Stop#5 - Hai Keng Seafood

(Google Coordinate : 2.655535,101.566227)

Last highlight by our local guide. Another local hidden place to dine. We all love the  traditional ambience, overlooking the sea. We had pretty nice sea breeze that afternoon. Lunch was good, with serving of tody + stout, local fried fish, and many many special local dishes we had not try before. It was tasty.... awesomely good.

Hai Keng in Hokkien means Sea View

Local styled restaurant

Toddy with stout

Lala fried Bihun

Local fried fish

Fish meal and fried cuttle fish

The bill for 12 pax

Stop#6 - Gold Coast Morib

This was unintentional, but we wanted to check out if we could have any possible plan to have a 2 days 1 night stay over.

Gold Coast Morib

The Lobby

Crab hunting by the beach

Very summarized trip report. Nevertheless, the lunch was great :) Return is on its way.

Love my spine - Part 1

Couldn't exactly recall what else I had in my pending blog list. Time has flown so fast, that I had not been able to stay in front of my MBP for more than 10min over a weekend. Is either that, or I was away somewhere out there. Someone been asking if I am joining trip advisor lately, lol.. Oh well, how I wish if I could do that outside of weekend, isn't that cool? *dreaming*

Honestly speaking, I am a lazy freak whom lack of determination in yoga. Being a occasional yogi made me learned a lot on my own spine and vertebra, in such it had been a long while since I realized my spinal vertebra had been in 'tensed' condition for a number of years. Self observing is the greatest lesson I had learned in my yogi life.

Know your spinal structure here. I have severe tense on my cervical spine (neck) C6-7, causing discomfort on my neck and lately on my right hand shoulder. This had been a prolong problem, which I discovered it since younger days. Upon discussion with my yoga instructor, it seems my back spine is slightly longer than a normal Asian. Hence, I would find myself not able to fit into most Asian build chair, things made worse when I get myself on a lazy spine most often. 

Knowing the problem but not correcting it, will cause continuos discomfort. I decided to try on some easy and lazy product out there. Been eyeing BackJoy Posture+  for the past couple of months before I decided to give it a try when Isetan had 10% discount on this product. This product particularly help lifting our lumbar, but it does not 100% correct my cervical spine problem. Nevertheless, I do find 'some' improvement  over my back, as pressure does not really force my butt to the seat. It's recommended for whose buttock needs to stay on the seat most of the time.

Next is my other relatively pricey investment for my neck. This iZest Neck Relax supposed to correct my cervical spine misalignment. Super simple tool, but I would need to invest 10 minutes a day to correct my spine. So far its still in good use, hope I could continue to be determined in using them all.

Health is treasure, be mindful of own body and soul. Happy exercising and give more attention to own body.

Dive Trip - Redang Island Jul 20-22, 2013

Yes! 1st dive trip of the year. Felt excited prior to the trip, as it brought us many of our 1st time memory. It was fun to have bunch of close friends who dive together. We had achieved the best collaboration ever in a friendship, compared to others experiences, I am very pleased to have such a pleasant group buddies whom can travel together without much hesitation.

Alright... what's 1st?

• First time driver to the east coast - she enjoyed it and plan to do more... yeah! means we will have more of such trip?
• First time stopping by for dinner at Cherating - yes, my partner is from the east and he never bring me there before, nevertheless he introduced us this place for dinner
• First time checking in a remote hotel passed midnight, in the middle of a 'kampung' golf course - yes, we pulled over a night at KT Golf Resort before continued our journey to the island
• best still... we booked the hotel on the same morning itself, via Agoda (it was on 50% sale!)
• First time for me, visited KT China Town - we went round and round hunting for breakfast, since it was fasting (a.k.a. puasa) month, it's impossible to get nasi lemak or nasi dagang for breakie
• Enjoyed the slow ride and patient search for every single direction, no issue for having a wrong turning, coz the group will keep ourselves up with positive energy...
• First time holding my new GoPro Hero3 Silver edition - but I lost all my pictures and UW videos due to rewrite setting on the set (ouch!! such a good lesson learned, should have learned from a friend whom eagerly download the pics every day) 
• Pic/Vid which I missed the most? - A doggie came by sniffing my camera @ Turtle Alley & the cute Nemos underwater :( (well, at least I kept them in my memories for the mean time)

Here we go... off from the office

Restaurant Duyong, Cherating for dinner

Atap restaurant view

KT China Town - stopped for breakfast

Turtle Alley

Other 1st?...

• I twisted my right ankle while stepping off from the ferry, oh no.... on the 1st day of dive? I could not believe it, but I didn't gave up... managed to get myself up and asked for some iced on it while my friends proceeded with check in
• Didn't injured myself badly, I guess (at that moment). Had my Phiten gel handy, that saved my ankle from further swelling. Thanks to my friends who being patient with my slow baby steps while walking up and down the stairs, and the sandy path towards the dive boat :(, guess I burned more fat and energy that time, for dragging my foot with the heavy tanks on my shoulder

We settled at Redang Bay Resort. Rooms are not as great, typical budget Redang styled! 3 of us had a newly renovated room but the other 2 had a bad experience with the old room just next door. Thank god they are not those who made a great fuss on such services. Our team leader tried to ask for change, unfortunately it wasn't successful.

Despite some minor indecent experience, we did enjoy the company. Dive visibility wasn't great, and we didn't seen much compared to our last year's trio trip. Any, the experiences and togetherness counts.

Our room

A lot of time were spent on land. There was one of the lunch and interval time, we found the glaring blue skies, and we had privilege where we don't need to join the usual non-divers who have their lunch and dinner at the dinning hall. Lunch was reserved and served at the bar.

Super blue skies

Lunch at the bar

Nice deco

Redang Bay Main entrance view

After the last dive, some of us went for long walk checking out other potential resorts for us to plan our next diving trip. Apparently, there are many more clean and looks-up-scale resorts, similar to Laguna Redang's standard along the beach. Worth to explore for next year or following year's trip.

Mo Mo Tea place... still exist after so many years

Last day... check out day. We need to gather rather early that morning, around 7am as the main ferry will depart the island 730am. The island authority has centralized the ferry service for all the resorts, instead of having own boat service, they are now sharing a larger ferry departing and arrive at Shah Bandar, KT ferry terminal. It's disadvantage for timing reason... not many options except the few we could take.

Early morning 630am view

My tired ankle...

Bye Redang Island

 Many many 1st time experience within the trip, some wasn't a good one.. nevertheless, it was a great outing. Good company, good food, good laugh... Till then for the next trip. Due to my busy schedule this year, looks like I will only have this one and only dive trip in 2013. Hope to have more trips this year. Till then buddies!

Healthy Living - The Neti Pot for nasal irritation

Many weeks ago, when haze struck us here... my yoga instructor reminded us of this tool. To be honest, I had this tool many many years ago (at least 5?). Never had the chance to try, or rather lazy to try. 

My nose was rather irritated during the 2nd mild strike of haze couple of weeks ago. Thus so, I made this virgin trial into my nose. Such an interesting way of nose cleansing. With some mild salt water in it, pouring over form one nostril to another. For first timer like me, you might find its a little irritated not only at the nose, but you may find your ears and eyes get irritated. Nevertheless, my nose were such clear after that. It's good to keep this cleaning regular at least once a week.

It's call Neti Pot

Youtube has always been a good How-to guide for almost everything.. :)

Worth a try for a healthy lifestyle. 

Body Healing Techniques - Isogai

Being a yogi (limited practice) for the past 7-8 years made me feel going no where further, except with a slight improvement for my body strength, I am yet able to relax and hold myself flexible. My 1 week once lesson (with some skipped classes over the years), I would say I am still able to maintain some of my inner strength, but honestly, I should have done better. I am honest to say, its all due to my laziness and lack of determination.

Looking at the brighter side, I learned a lot on my own body and bone structure, through the continuous  sharing by my yoga teacher. Her sharing are not limited to yoga poses, spine and bone structure, core muscles strengthening, most importantly we learned to identify our inner self, through the bottom of our heart. It may not be a pure meditation practice, but through words and experiences sharing, some stories could reflect our own self with its pretty much similarity. I enjoyed such classes (that's why I have been with the same teacher for the past 7 years).

Isogai technique - quick intro. I find it the simplest technique one could use to strengthen back muscle, correct misalignment of pelvics, and many many more. Being a lazy person (me), I find myself more interested on this exercise. At times I could have dozed off to sleep. However, my only failure is to keep up its determination. Only thing I need is a flexible belt.

Check out the youtube video below, if you are interested to try this out. When you are on it, one could feel the legs been adjusted immediately.

Glow your inner self, grow your health.