goodbye 2010, hello 2011

it's only hours left before we bid farewell to 2010....10 years ago i was in form 3 and now i'm already 25 and a married man....time do pass fast....many events happened this year which were significant to me....got married this year, went for our 1st honeymoon this year, completed my masters degree this year, left HP & joined AT&T this year and a few other events which had slipped off my mind....it has been an interesting & fun ride experience this year....

today's a friday and it's a holiday....would like to congratulate & thank the Malaysian football team who have won the AFF Suzuki cup....due to their triumphant victory, the prime minister have declared today as a public holiday to celebrate the Malaysian team victory...bravo to the Malaysia football team....went out at about 10.30 am as today me & my wife together with my mother in law & sister in law together with our nephew had brunch at the Mei San Dim Sum, Quality Hotel KL....it's been a long time since i had my last dim sum meal....can't really remember when was it....but i must say it was splendid, marvelous....was really really satisfied with the meal....was super duper full....me & my wife then took lrt back to the sri petaling lrt station as we parked our car there....then off to palace of the golden horses to redeem the voucher that we got from the lucky draw at the electronic expo,mines....we arrived quite early, so we hung around at the lobby area....and about 2.45, one of the marketing executive came and took us to the mines marketing area lounge since we were already member of the palace vacation club....otherwise, there will be a tour around the palace of the golden horses....and so, we were given a voucher of 2d 1n stay at either Perdana Beach Resort, Langkawi or Country Heights Resort, Kajang or Palm Springs Resort, Port Dickson and also a 50% voucher on F&B and a voucher for a complimentary health check....

after that, off to Shah Alam to the bridal expo or pameran pengantin as my wife need to pass her wedding dress to one of the exhibitor there which was our mak andam during our wedding....the mak andam will be putting up my wife's wedding dress at the exhibition for those future bride who would like to rent it....after passing the dress and a walk around at the exhibition, it's time to head to home sweet home....

more or less that was my today's activity for the last day of 2010.....this would be my last post for this year, 2010....hence, i would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a very happy new year....may you have a blessful new year.....stay tuned for more posts next year....

My New Gadget ; The Garmin-Asus Nuvifone A50

hola2...it's been a while since i haven't updated this blog (well, not really)....the recent saturday, me & my wife went to the mines shopping fair to have a look at the much anticipated Electronic Expo 2010 held at the Mines International Exhibition Center, MIEC....we went out at about 10 in the morning...reached there and had our breakfast first b4 going to the electronic expo...had breakfast at one of the kopitiam...ordered mee goreng mamak, bread toast & half boiled egg....after breakfast, off to the expo....before entering the expo hall, we filled up a lucky draw form....upon entering the expo hall, there was an expo, yeahh....but the booth & participants of the expo were a bit dissapointing....i would say that PC fair was 10 times better and merrier than it....nevertheless, we walked around and found several interesting products over there.....the one that i was targeting was the android tablet PC.....found 2 choices that i was interested and within my budget ofcourse....couldn't remember what was the price but both tablet PC was in the range of RM600~RM800....buy or don't buy...buy or don't buy....buy or don't buy....lastly, i decided not to buy it due to financial constraint for the current & next month....also, we stumbled onto the coway water dispenser that we were dreaming to have....well, that too will be next time i guess....since there were nothing that we wanted to buy over there, no point of staying there anymore....so off to mines shopping fair back....

went for a walk at the top floor at the IT store and went around to the booth selling handphones....so far i can say that mines shopping fair had one of the largest area of booths selling handphones in selangor & kl apart from sg. wang plaza & lowyat....went to survey htc aria & htc wildfire juz to have a picture what the price was since it was under my wish list....then came to this one shop booth and the sales person showed me both htc aria & htc wildfire price....then i asked how about garmin asus.....was it okay....he then straight recommended it and even showed the quality of video of garmin asus A50 compared to both htc aria & wildfire....and the garmin asus A50 loaded faster than both the htc's.....feeling not enough of comparison, the sales person even compared the video quality of the A50 to htc desire which was more superior than both htc aria & wildfire....and guess what, angry birds can be played in the garmin asus but not in the htc wildfire due to the higher processor power of garmin asus A50....hmmmm....hmmmmm....hmmmmmmm.....this made me thought of making the payment into credit card installments....hahahhahaa....told the salesperson that we wanted to go for a walk first to do some thinking and considerations....

since it will take some time to think whether to pick up the garmin asus A50, me & my wife went for our lunch first....so, during lunch, the consideration was made....one thing that garmin asus is superior towards all the phones out there is it's state of the art GPS navigator....i've used the garmin software in my nokia E66 and i know how good it was....and since GPS is a must in any phone that i'm going to buy, the garmin asus A50 really had the huge advantage where the GPS navigator is built in....hassle free of needing to install third party GPS software into any phone such as nokia or htc....even so, the GPS in the garmin asus A50 isn't the normal one installed in other phones as third party software.....the A50 GPS even has lane guidance which comes in handy when arriving at several lanes....and also it has the 3D view of the map which was really cool....since my budget was quite tight, i compared the garmin asus A50 with the htc wildfire which was cheaper than htc aria....then, in terms of processor power, the A50 was better with Qualcomm MSM 7227 600 MHz processor compared to the wildfire which was Qualcomm MSM 7225 528 MHz processor which is why according to the salesperson, angry birds couldn't run on the wildfire....it's 2-0 now....in terms of the exterior design, i loved the A50 better than the wildfire which was much more sleeker and stylish....3-0 now....both are HSDPA capable, wifi built in and runs on android 2.1 eclair....in terms of features, the wildfire had more than the A50 with the likes of HTC sense, turn-to-mute and lift-to-dim-out a call, accelerometer sensor for UI auto-rotate, proximity sensor for auto turn-off, optical trackpad and a few other things....but i dun really mind about the extra features which gives extra credit to the wildfire....but the wildfire scored in this, so it's 3-1 now....in terms of internal phone storage, not sure how much storage the wildfire has but it's stated 384 MB RAM; 512 MB ROM but both numbers are far lower than the internal storage of the A50 which was 4 GB....wow!....if i add in my 2GB of microSD card i'll be getting 6GB of storage....that's more than enough for me as an average user....so the A50 scored in this section.....4-1 now....as for the camera, wildfire's was better with a 5 MP while the A50 has 3.15 MP....but camera isn't really important to me too....as long as i can snap a pic, it's good enough....if i want to capture pics that are better in quality, might as well get a DSLR....but for camera, the wildfire wins...so 4-2 now....and so, the verdict will be the Garmin-Asus Nuvifone A50.....and as expected, i bought the gadget after trading in my Nokia E66 for RM300 which then came to the price of RM1000....but to think of it, i think the price was way higher than it should be....but, what to do, i've bought it, enough said.....below are the detailed specs of the Garmin-Asus Nuvifone A50....

owh yea...remember about the lucky draw at the Electronic Expo?....did i mention that i hit the lucky draw....well, yesterday got a call from the Golden Palace Marketing that i did not get the Grand prize which was a night stay at the Palace of The Golden Horses (well, dun really mind though as i've stayed there 1 night before and will be staying there again for another couple of times :P ) but they have selected 20 other draws for their appreciation gift which was either voucher to stay at one of the resort at kajang, port dickson or langkawi....the selections of preferred choice was quite obvious as me & my wife will want to get the voucher for langkawi resort stay....so, tomorrow will be heading to the Palace of The Golden Horses to collect the voucher....yippieee!!!....

Shell CF Family Day KK

last weekend, i joined my wife for her department's family day at Kota Kinabalu, Sabah....it was held at the Sutera Harbour Resort, Kota Kinabalu....actually there were a few other departments that were invited to join the Commercial Fuel department such as bitumen and aviation, to name a few.....my wife went to KK on thursday with the rest of her office colleagues while i joined her on friday as i couldn't take any leave due to i'm still a newbie at at&t....so, on friday evening, took the 6.45 pm flight to KK and about 9.15 pm, reached the KK terminal 2 international airport and was officially the 1st time i set foot on KK and on sabah....yeayyy~.....after checking out, took a cab to the Sutera Harbour Resort....since i arrived at nite, couldn't really enjoy the view of sutera harbour resort....but from a glance, the resort was beautiful....caught up with my wife at the lobby as she just got back from diner....and we then head up to our room....the room was quite nice....almost like the one at the Palace of The Golden Horses but PGH was much more better....after i had my bath & diner, it's time to get some sleep....












the next day morning, me & my wife went down for breakfast at about 7 am but it was already bright as 9 am at the peninsular....had breakfast at the resort's cafe house and the cafe house was next to the marina harbour of the resort....wow~....it was really amazing....now i know why the resort was called sutera harbour resort....after breakfast, we joined the rest of the staff and their family members for the marching activity....the staffs were divided into 4 team houses, red (which me & my wife are in), blue, green & yellow....there was a marching competition between the 4 teams....it was quite entertaining watching them march with their own creativity and marching ideas.... :P after the marching, there was an amazing race competition for those who participated....for the rest who are not in, there was another activity.....an art activity which is to make a 'tepak mangga' i think if i'm not mistaken about the name....was quite interesting....we had to complete it before 12 pm....and at 12, it's time to submit it....4 different 'tepak mangga' with 4 different kind of creativity....after that, we head to the ball room for our lunch....it was a buffet lunch....the cuisines were not bad, as long as it is edible....after lunch, went back to our room to have a rest and to escape from participating the singing rehearsal for the nite's diner hippie theme....eventually, we slept till 5 o'clock :P


















the diner starts at 7pm but everyone must be at the lounge area at 6.30 pm....me & my wife went down at about 6.40 pm and there lounge area was already packed with the crowd.....everyone's in their hippie outfit as the theme for the diner was hippie....at around 7.15 to 7.30 i guess, all of us entered the ball room....upon entering the ball room, it was already decorated with the hippie theme & sense....before makan time, the MC was introduced which was Fred (that guy is really kinda funny).....he really brought up the mood for the nite together with the super sporting & hippie general manager of the CF department....was really surprised & amazed by his funkiness....never had i saw a GM with that kind of attitude....after the speech by him, everyone head to the cuisine area as the diner was also buffet style....in between the event, there were performance by a band, singing & dancing competition by all the 4 team houses, lucky draws and much more....it was the best diner nite i've attended so far.... really enjoyed it....around 12 o'clock, it's time to call of for the day....me & my wife head up to our rooms to have a good nite sleep....






























the next day morning, we went for breakfast at about 8 am....went down a little bit late today as there were no more activities on that day....we're going back to KL....after breakfast, me & my wife went around the resort to have a walk while gazing at the beautiful landscape of the resort....the sea view was beautiful, the marina harbour was impressive and the whole resort was really nice....after enough of sight seeing, we went up back to our room to pack our stuffs as were going to checkout at 12....after checking out, took the hotel's cab to the airport....before checking our bags, we bought some frozen seafood to bring back to KL....they say it's cheap compared to the peninsular....dunno how much cheaper it was but it's not every time that u get to find & buy tiger prawn at KL....so why not get some here in KK....at about 2 pm, we boarded our plane to head for KL....we'll definitely come back to KK one day....

R&R , winners of The Amazing Race Asia Season 4

last nite marks the finale and the end of a life time journey for the contestants of the Amazing Race Asia season 4 and especially for Richard & Richard....congratulations and a big applause to them....they really deserved to win it.....they have been consistent throughout the race, only once did they had a bad position, no playing dirty and they were really down to earth....




the last leg last nite saw them overtake michelle & claire and natasha & hussein.....Richard & Richard were favourites to win the race and it was expected of them.....but really admired michelle & claire's determination although they were the last to leave korea heading to singapore where the race ends....despite being the 1st to leave korea & arrived at singapore, natasha & hussein ended being the last to finish the race....the handicap of hussein to endure physical challenges was the main reason they ended up last....the turn point of the competition was during the rope crossing at the Marina Bay Sands where they need to cross from one tower to another on a string rope (juz like what u see in the circus)....previous leg have shown that hussein was not capable of that similar challenge....it should really have been natasha to endure that challenge....well, what to do....to bad for them....but nevertheless, they were strong opponents too and was proved the previous leg before the final leg....

the challenges were tough....the journey was really exciting....made me felt like participating too....probably i should submit my application next year... :P anyway, congratulations again to Richard & Richard, winners of The Amazing Race Asia season 4.....

Palace of The Golden Horses

as promised, here's the post of me & my wife at the Palace of The Golden Horses....

last weekend, we spent the saturday nite at the Palace of The Golden horses....we got the free 1 nite stay at there upon signing up for the Palace Vacation Club membership (http://www.palacevacationclub.com/) thanks to my friend Hazrin for submitting my name for the invitation to join the PVC....not sure whether i should be mad or glad to him.... :P also upon signing up, we got another 2 nites for 2 rooms stay at the Palace of The Golden Horses, 3 days 2 nites stay at PVC internal resorts, free RCI bonus week of 7 nites, 7 nites entitlement stay at PVC internal & affilliate resorts and a voucher of 1 nite stay at the PGH (Palace of The Golden Horses) which used it last saturday weekend to celebrate our 6th anniversary of being a couple (wow!it's that long).....and also plus several other vouchers we were given upon signing up....

we checked in at the hotel at around 3.30 pm....after checking in at the reception, we headed to our room....we got the deluxe room which was the cheapest but when we entered the room it was "WOW~".....although deluxe was the cheapest, it costs 700++ per room per nite....never in my life had i slept in a hotel room that costs almost 800 ringgit and will definitely won't be spending almost 800 ringgit on a hotel room for only 1 nite....heheh....i'll let the pics say the words....

















after checking in, we then took a walk around the hotel....seriously it was one of the best hotel that i've ever seen...the design, the layout, the decorations, no wonder it was called 'Asia's Most Extraordinary Hotel'....since it was Asia's Most Extraordinary Hotel, it was expected too that the price of food and cuisines are extraordinary as well.... :P due to the extraordinary price of the food & beverages, we decided to go to The Mines Shopping Fair instead to have diner there.....after diner, went back to the hotel and called off for the day....

























the next day, it's time to checkout of the hotel....like every other normal hotels, checkout time was 12 pm and at exactly 12 pm, we were at the reception to checkout....but we're coming back next time PGH....it's gonna be another 2 times....hehehehe....