Earth Hour 2009.. Do a part for our planet!

Join for Earth Hour at 8:30pm Saturday March 28 2009 or Donate to Earth Hour now!

Earth Hour 2009 aims to reach more than one billion people in 1000 cities around the world, inviting communities, business and governments to switch off lights for one hour at 8:30pm on Saturday March 28 and sending a powerful global message that we care enough about climate change to take action.

62 countries including Malaysia have committed to participate in WWF’s Earth Hour in 2009. This will be the first time Malaysia officially takes part in Earth Hour.

KL Tower has pledged their support for Earth Hour
One of Kuala Lumpurs most iconic landmarks, The KL Tower has graciously offered their support to the Earth Hour movement by providing the venue for the launch of Earth Hour today as well as for the Earth Hour event on 28 March. "Menara Kuala Lumpur, under it's Tower of Hope programme, is committed to raise awareness on climate change and being the first monument in Malaysia to participate for this cause, we would like to call upon other buildings in this country to do the same." said Dato' Zulkifli Mohamad, Chief Executive Officer of Menara Kuala Lumpur.

Dato' Dr Dionysius Sharma added "We are ecstatic that KL Tower has pledged their support for Earth Hour and we are hoping to get our world famous KLCC Twin Towers to be involved as well. Other iconic landmarks around the world such as the Taipei 101 tower in Taiwan and Dubai’s Burj Al Arab have already pledged their support for this cause".

** Source from Emedia News

8tv will shut down tv transmission from 8.30pm – 9.30pm on March 28
"And in support of Earth Hour 2009, for the first time ever in tv broadcasting history, 8tv will shut down tv transmission from 8.30pm – 9.30pm on March 28. This transmission shutdown, done during our peak prime-time hour, will send a strong message to all Malaysians about the need to slow down climate change.” said it’s 8TV’s Chief Executive Officer, En. Ahmad Izham.

** Source from Emedia News

Having Pepper Lunch as Valentine’s dinner

Yes, believe in your eyes; Shelyn and I had our Valentine’s Dinner at “Pepper Lunch”. My plan was actually to have our Valentine’s dinner at another restaurant at Pavillion with more romantic ambience. However, it was fully booked. As Shelyn’s guide of Pavillion (She never been to Pavillion before), I brought her to look around for foods.

Finally, we saw this restaurant “Pepper Lunch” at the same floor as “Food Republic”. Since I read about this restaurant from newspaper, and Shelyn told me she reads it from blog before; we decided to try it out.

Shelyn ordered Salmon rice, and I ordered Hamburger beef steak and Chicken combo. We added RM2.50 for drinks and Shelyn added RM0.80 for cheese.

The foods served within few minutes, and the waiter is kind enough to brief us on how to deal with our foods. Our food was served in Sizzling Iron hot plate, and we supposed to do some cooking before eat, since "Pepper Lunch" labeled itself as "D.I.Y Steak Restaurant". There’s a paper label around the Iron plate, warning us for the hot iron plate and showing the steps to deal with our foods.

For Delicious Steak & Hamburger:

1. Spread butter evenly
   
2. Sizzle it till desired done


3. Lastly, add special sauce (Their garlic soya sauce or honey brown sauce)
   

For Pepper Rice:

1. Delicious butter hidden inside


2. Mix evenly to cook well


3. Lastly, add sauce!

If it's not clear enough, you can always look at the repeating video show on LCD monitor hanging on the wall.

My Hamburger Beef steak and Chicken combo served with a bowl of Japanese rice. The chicken taste normal but the steak is nice. No wonder it’s the signature dish of this restaurant.

However, I can’t taste any difference for the garlic soya sauce with compare to normal soya sauce. I didn’t try Salmon rice, so I leave it to Shelyn to comment on it.

Shelyn is busying taking photo to put on her blog

It cost me a total of RM27.30 for this meal: Hamburger beef steak and Chicken combo @ RM24.80 + Orange Juice @ RM2.50. I think it is worth for the quality of foods and the experience I had in preparing the foods myself.

Chinese Valentine's Dinner at Tony Roma

This year, my hubby and I had early Valentine’s celebration. We decided to have dinner on 9th Feb (Chap Goh Mei) - Chinese Valentine’s Day. The reason was he will be going to Bangkok for one month job attachment starting from 10th Feb, and not able to celebrate Valentine’s Day with me.

Since I love “meats” and “ribs”, my hubby decided to bring me to Tony Roma. He tried this restaurant with his friend before and he thinks its worth to dine at there again. Of cause I agreed with him since I’ve been longing to try out this restaurant also!

Tony Roma has a few branches around Klang Valley : The curve, The garden and Sunway pyramid. We choose to dine at the nearest branch at The Garden. The advantage of having an early celebration is no reservation required, no traffic jam and lots of parking bay available! We walked in and make our own choice of seats, since its Monday and there are a lot of vacant seats.

I look at the Menu for a few minutes, and decided to give up. I think the fastest way to order is to get the waiter’s help. Indeed, within few minutes we decided to follow the waiter’s recommendation and ordered one bowl of soup, one starter, one main course and one cup of free-flow juice. It sounds too little for me, and I’m thinking to add on another main course later.

Here is what we ordered:

Soup:

Baked Potato Soup
Topped with grated cheddar cheese, bacon and chives.

I can’t resist on cheese and bacon... it’s a really fast decision for soup..

Starter:

Onion Loaf
Giant hand-cut Spanish onions, breaded, deep fried and served with our house BBQ dipping sauce

There are two types of serving size: Full @ RM19.90 and Half @ RM16.90. My hubby intended to go for full since it’s only RM3.00 different. (My hubby is always good in calculation) However, the waiter advised us to take Half Loaf instead, because we have only 2 persons and full loaf will be too much for us. After consider sparing our stomach for main course, we ordered Half loaf as recommended.

Main Course:

Roma Rack
3 pieces of Beef ribs with 2 choices of side dish

Again, now is the choice between Roma Rack @ RM49.90 and Full Rack @ RM69.90. The waiter recommended us to take Roma Rack which consist of 3 pieces of beef ribs. Even though I think 3 pieces are too little for both of us (people who knows me will understand this, I’m definitely not a small eater), however, looking at the sincerity of the waiter, I decided to follow what his recommended. (Actually I’m thinking to try other main course if really not enough later on..hehe..)

They served us a small piece of French Bun with garlic butter in short while.
Then follow by Free-flow mango juice.

After few seconds, here come the baked potato soup.. This is the best soup I ever try… even it’s a bit salty, but it’s thick enough and smell and taste really nice. I’m satisfied with the generous amount of bacon also.

The Onion Loaf served few minutes later.. It tastes exactly like Onion rings except it stick together, and you need to separate it out before put into your mouth. I start to feel full, after finish the half of the Half Onion Loaf!! I decided to stop because I still want to enjoy our main course – The ribs…

Finally, here comes the Roma Rack… It looks so crispy and delicious. It was really awesome - a little crispy on the outside, but the meat was still soft enough to come off the bones easily. They are prepared with some special red sauce that tastes nice with meats… After finish one piece, I surrender myself; too full… and let my hubby had the other 2 pieces. My stomach got no more rooms for other main course and dessert! And we still got 2 side dishes, half bowl of soup and half of half loaf onion! This rarely happened to me as I have the well-known bottomless stomach!

Lastly, we requested the waiter to help us “tapao” the Onion loaf and fries, and asked for bills. The total bill cost us RM85, and the waiter told us to vote for him online by providing the bill number, if we think his service is good. He told us he can get a reward if he been vote as the best service staff of the month.

Here I would like to take opportunity to say sorry to the waiter, I do think that he provided us a good service, but I can’t vote for him, because I misplaced the bill. By the way, I think this kind of competition is really good to motivate the staff to perform, at the same time to build up company reputation by provide good service to customer.

My Valentine's Celebration

This year I have a very special Valentine's celebration.. I'm not celebrating with my hubby, but with my best friend - Shelyn ! My hubby and her bf was away to Thailand for works, and we two lonely ladies, decided to make it a special day for ourselves..

Before we decide on what to do on this day, Shelyn asked me: "What are the things you can't do with your hubby?" Without a second thought, I replied: " Sing K lor.. my hubby doesn't like to sing." Hmm.. it's truth, but this is not a special things to do on this special day.. After that I told Shelyn: " Why don't we pamper ourselves with Spa treatment on that day? and we can go shopping as well.." "Ya," this time Shelyn reply spontaneously, "I can't shopping with Don"..

So, it's decided, and later on Shelyn sent me a link to Jojoba promotion, RM260++ for Valentine spa package for 2 pax, and asked me to call for reservatation.

I called to reserve the package on 14th Feb, 2pm. I asked the receptionist whether it's located at Times Square, she answered me yes. She confirmed my booking and told us the price will be RM299 for non-member. I then confirmed with shelyn that booking done, without notice that I've actually done something wrong.

On Valentine's day, I'm so happy and reached Times Square on 1:20pm. Shelyn was late because it's crowded and hard to get carpark in Times Square. Lastly she able to reach on 2pm and we proceed to Jojaba Spa located at Level 15 of Times Square Hotel.

After we reach, we told the receiptionist that we have reservation on 2pm, but they are not able to find our record in their list. They told me i might call to the wrong branch for booking as many peoples done the same mistake. Honestly, I about to get angry and going to show them my black face, because I'm so confident that I called the correct branch, and think that they don't admit their mistake. I show them the number that I call, very confidently, and then so embarass that that lady told me i actually called to Rimba Spa at Royale Bintang ! I was like "Har? Really? Die lor".. coz i would have let Shelyn down, and we can't enjoy our Spa, because it's too late to rush to Royale Bintang ..

Luckily the lady is nice, she then told us we can go for another package but not the Valentine package because the room with shower facility are occupied. She then recommend us Jojoba Ultimate which cost RM280+ per pax. However, it's over our budget. After seeing us in a pity face, the lady went to her manager and come back to us with a good news. They agree to offer us for RM299++ for 2 pax for the Jojoba Ultimate package. That's nice! Shelyn and I agree and proceed to the treatment.

Our treatment first start with Ear Candle treatment, together with shoulder and ear massage. I felt so comfortable and felt asleep. I don't really know what the therapist did, just noticed she put a candle into my ear, and massage my shoulder and arround my ear.

This is what i found from web, some details on ear candle treatment:

"How do ear candles work?
The healing properties of the Hopi ear candle has its foundation in two primary physical actions. First, the slight pressure created inside the ear candle, and the vibration of the rising air column, serve to gently massage the ear drum and promote secretion in the frontal and paranasal sinuses. This has an immediate effect of regulating ear pressure. Users often describe a soothing, light sensation in the ear/head area. Second, the locally applied warmth stimulates vascularization, invigorates the immune system, and reinforces the flow of lymph.
Ear candles users often report successful treatment of nose and throat congestion, sinusitis (or other sinus problems), headaches, T.M.J. pain, tinnitus earaches, and swimmers ear. Most day spas and other relaxation professionals will offer ear candling, because ear candles are an ideal relaxation treatment for stress or anxiety related symptoms. Ear candles, generally speaking, tend to soften earwax for easy removal At the same time, important acupuncture points and reflex zones are stimulated, causing further relaxation of the muscles in and around the ear, which can also help the ear and sinuses to open up."

After the ear candle treatment, we continue with Aromatherapy massage. The therapist massage technique is really good, even better than Thai massage i did at Phuket. I was so comfortable and sleep again, until she woke me up and ask would I allow for breast massage. I agree and then they continue for the breast massage.

After massage here come Aroma eye pillow treatment. After that it end with facial and mask treatment. The 120 mins treatment ended with a fresh and awaken me, I'm quite satisfied with this treatment. While waiting for Shelyn for changing her clothes, the therapist showed me my ear wax from the ear candle treatment.. Wah, it was a lot, and I really don't know when they collected that.

We walked out from the room and took a few photo:

Me and Shelyn

Nice ambience

Time to pay, it cost us RM343.85 after added tax for 2 pax. I think it's worth for the treatment and service we received. Another good things is they didn't waste our time by doing their marketing to persuade us to join as member. I will definitely make Jojoba my choice for next Spa treatment.

My Bali Trip Planning

Bali is one of the favorite places to visit of mine, so as my husband's. My husband want to make the trip different than all the other island tour we had previously, this time he wants to make it a family trip! We invited my hubby family to join, our parents and siblings, total 7 of us. I able to get zero air fare tickets from air asia on last year June, it's pretty cheap, only RM300 per person.

Since this is not really a small group, and involve parents, we decide to make sure all the tour and hotel is book before we reach there. This is to confirm our parents will have worry-free tour .. After few survey, we decide to book the hotel and tour package thru one of the Bali local travel agent - Bali Amazing tour.

The package they offer for tour package, cost USD40 per person, including:

- Day 1 - Day 3 tour
- Transport, driver, chinese speaking tour guide ( consideration for our parent as well)
- Entrance Fees
- Parking

We are required to add on USD50 per person, if we want to include 3 x lunch + 3 x dinner as well. USD50 for 6 meals means around RM30 per meal, which i don't think it's worth. Other than that, the food that they offer are those chinese style food. I think we should try balinese food since we should experience it. We can have chinese food everywhere in Malaysia, why would i stick to chinese food when i am visiting other country? I would rather try Babi Guling, Crispy duck...and those i read from my best friend's - Shelyn's blog.. lol

Anyway, I didn't turn it down rightaway, i told them i will consider and let them know when i reach there. As for hotel, they recommend us to stay in Kuta and Ubud area. Since we are on 6 days 5 nights trip, it's rather heavy for the expenses on recommendation. To save some money, we decide to stay in budget hotel, those 3* hotel in Kuta for 1st -2nd night and 5th night, which cost us about USD30 per room per night.

As for the 3rd - 4th nights, i requested them to help arrange us to stay in Saren Indah, a 4* hotel in Ubud, http://www.sarenhotel.com/ Saren Indah located just 100m of Ubud Monkey forest, nestled between rice fields and tropical rainforest. I think it should be quiet and peaceful to stay. The main consideration of mine is, it offer free shuttle bus to Ubud market, very convenient for shopping on our free and easy day on the 4th day!! Other than that, this hotel also received quite good rating from Tripadvisor, which give me more confident on it.

I'm counting down to the Bali trip right now, which is my 1st trip in year 2009. Hopefully it will be a nice one, and i'll blog it down from Day 1 to Day 6 when i come back!