Bear, Diah and Pasha

from Bear's Kitchen Sept 2010

2010-10-13T22:05:00.001+08:00

Aidil Fitri 2010 - Jakarta - Solat Raya

2010-10-13T21:46:00.000+08:00

It's time to perform the solat and this year we were back to the same place where we perform our solat last two years. Unlike in Malaysia where we usually do our prayer at mosques, in Jakarta, it's done not only in mosques but other places where many people can fit in and do prayers together. As for us, it was the car park of one of the government agencies there.

On the way to the solat area. Papa Bear, Pasha and Akung. On the next pic, Mama Pasha, Aunty Sita and Aunty Ruri.

Pasha and her aunties and Pasha watching as everyone getting ready to pray.

The view of the praying area and Pasha with his 3-finger peace sign.

Upin, Ipin and Hello Kitty and a family pose on the way back from the prayer.

This was the second time that we took Pasha for the Solat Raya. The first time was last year in Kuala Lipis but he was still too small and it did not end up well. This year, at 3 years old, he was able to enjoy it.

Update from KLIA

2010-10-13T21:45:00.000+08:00

It's the last day of Ramadhan and I am writing this at Terminal 2, KLIA waiting for our flight to Jakarta. I have not been actively blogging for the past few weeks. Why? Here is the excuse. It is due to momentum. What momentum? Well, due to the failure of our Jaring broadband and the few days waiting to get the P1, I lost the mood... At the same time, my Ramadhan timing was totally out of synch... I would fall asleep around 10pm and wake up around 12 midnight. Then I would be up until sahur... As a result, most fo the day time, especially at work was spent yawning and yawning and yawning.... including some dozing off while driving... In short, blogging was somewhat too difficult to perform... especially after having lots of delicious food for iftar...

There you go.

From Bear's Kitchen 0810

2010-10-13T21:44:00.000+08:00

didominasi warna merah kuweh2 pesenan bulan agustus ini.. mudah2an tambah semangat berbaking lagi.. amien..

Surprise!

2010-10-13T21:43:00.002+08:00

One afternoon when I was about to have lunch in Kampung Baru, I received a call from Isabelle. It was about planning a surprise birthday dinner for her hubby, Syam and for Mama Pasha. Both of their birthdays were only 5 days apart. Mama Pasha's was on August 12 and Syam's was on August 18. To make things less obvious, we finally decided to do it on August 17 at TGIF Subang Jaya...

The outcome. 100% success to surprise Mama Pasha but not a full surprise for Syam. The reason was due to spoilers provided by none other than the little Adam..

By the way, we chose TGIF since we knew that they would always do "stuffs" to those who celebrated their birthdays there... In this case Mama Pasha and Syam had to sing a song each... Only is you could hear what Syam sang... LOL!

Here are some photos of that night. Pictures ambil tanpa kebenaran dari blog Isabelle... Jangan marah! Nice shots and free "promotion" from us :) If you need a cameraman, you know where to find one. <-- advertisement.

Pasha after a scolding for misbehaving at the table and Mama Pasha who got a big "Got You!" by Papa Bear.

Excitement on receiving a new, much needed gadget and a little card from Isabelle and family. Pasha helped in unwrapping...

Pasha and Mama laughing about something.

Adam chasing Pasha all over TGIF.

Syam opening a present while Adam trying on a black hat that we got for Syam and Isabelle tempting Pasha with some cheese tarts.

The Accomplice and The Mastermind and The Bear family.

Isabelle, Adam making faces and Syam and all of us!

It was a great dinner and time for all and for both Isabelle and Papa Bear, we know where NOT to have our birthday dinner at...

Surprise!

secubit rasa..

2010-10-13T21:43:00.001+08:00

kemarin pagi saat bear bersiap2 berangkat bekerja pasha terbangun dr tidurnya.. melihat papa dan bertanya...
pasha: "papa.. kemana??"
papa: " mau kerja nak.. "
pasha: "kenapa kerja..??"
sejenak kami berdua terpaku pada pertanyaan kritis pertamanya..
papa: "supaya papa dapat uang jadi bisa belikan milo untuk pasha.."
pasha:"ooo.."
dlm hati tak tau mesti merasa takjub apa girang.. anakku sudah besar.. sdh mulai mempertanyakan perbuatan yg diambil oleh ayah dan ibunya..

kalau sudah begini.. terbersit sebuah pertanyaan dalam hati kecil.. sanggupkah aku meninggalkan anak kesayangan ku dalam asuhan orang lain?? sanggupkah diriku untuk tidak lagi mendapatkan "privillages" yg pertama melihat kemajuan dalam perkembangannya..
aku jd bimbang... pertanyaan2 itu kembali menggugah niat awal ku yg sudah bulat sebulan yg lalu untuk kembali bekerja setelah lebaran nanti..
seandainya aku tetap dirumah mengasuh anakku dengan tangan ku sendiri mampukah aku menunaikan kewajiban finansialku pada sebuah instansi yg bernama bank??

Berikan aku petunjukmu ya Allah.. sungguh aku tak mampu memilih...

Now online with P1 WiMAX

2010-10-13T21:42:00.001+08:00

My last post was about 10 days ago. By the way, the last post in Bahasa Indonesia was written by Mama Pasha and not Papa Bear. Some of you thought that Papa Bear wrote an entry in Bahasa Indonesia. No No No... That's Mama Pasha. Look carefully at the author ya.

Anyway, I have not been blogging and blog walking since my last entry. The reason was due to the fact that our router that connected us to the SOMA Port broadband modem from Jaring got hit by lightning. It went cuckoo. LAN was OK but Internet kaput-ted... So, instead on investing on another router and face the uncertainty of compatibility with the SOMA Port, I signed up for P1. But, no need to potong since the Jaring broadband was wireless as well...

This is not the first time I tried P1. You can read about my first P1 experience here. They told me that they would be upgrading my area and they did keep their words. MAXIS told me that they are going to upgrade my area by July 2010 and they failed. UniFi is the worst of all. They went silence...

DX-230 replacing DV-230

So, now, this entry was posted via P1. Just finished setting up the Wi-Fi security and things look good so far for a 1.2Mbps connection. Why ditched Jaring? The main reason is that the SOMA Port is a single user modem. You need a router to share the connection but Jaring does not support this. We have 3 computers at home that need the internet... If you hit a problem when connecting via a router, they simply refused to provide any support. They would ask you to remove the router first. Well, now I removed them... Too bad...

Hope that this P1 would remain as good as it is now. My neighbor at the back said that she has no issue so far. My friend somewhere at the end of the world around Rawang said he is a satisfied customer. Let' see...

Konversi ke Lesen Memandu Malaysia

2010-10-13T21:41:00.000+08:00

Entry ini khusus untuk temen2 indo udah punya Surat Izin Mengemudi dan pengen tuker ke SIM Malaysia tanpa harus ikutan kursus.. G copy dari web JPJ yg diperbolehkan mengajukan permohonan konversi sim ini adalah..
1. Warganegara Malaysia/ Penduduk Tetap
2. Pemegang Pass Pekerjaan (Profesional Sahaja)
3. Pemegang Pas Pelajar (PHD sahaja)
4. Peserta Malaysia My Second Home Programme (MM2H)
5. Berkahwin dengan Warganegara Malaysia

nah g termasuk kategori no.5 jadi yg g lakukan adalah:

1. bikin surat pengesahan sim yang sudah ada di KBRI..(biasanya sehari jadi.. hrs datang pagi2 ya.. biar sblm makan siang sudah selesai ..) dokumen yg harus di persiapkan adalah..
• Paspor RI dengan visa sosial/visa kerja dan alamat di Malaysia
• Identity Card/IC bagi Penduduk Tetap.
• Surat Izin Mengemudi
• Surat Nikah
• Seluruh persyaratan adalah dokumen asli dan fotokopi.
• Biaya : RM 55 (lima puluh lima)
nanti dapet surat kayak disebelah ini nih..

2. trus bawa dokumen tadi ke Bahagian Pelesenan Pemandu Ibu Pejabat Jabatan Pengangkutan Jalan Putra Jaya alamatnya 2.937466,101.704703 baserta..
1. Passport
2. Visa –Tempoh sah tidak kurang dari 1 tahun.
3. Lesen Memandu Asing yang sah
4. Terjemahan lesen Memandu Negara Asing daripada Kedutaan Negara berkenaan( sekiranya lesen tersebut bukan dalam Bahasa Inggeris)
5. Lampiran B2(*minta aja ama mbak2 di konter depan bagian perlesenan jpj putra jaya..)
6. Surat Nikah asli dan copy
disebelah kanan ini gambar form nya..

klo udah mbak2nya akan check smua copy dokumen dan di stamp sah.. nanti dikasih 1 kertas kecil dan disuruh tunggu selama 1 bulan.. either berita sukacita atau berita dukacita..

nah klo udah dapet surat sukacita.. surat itu bisa dibawa ke JPJ terdekat.. dalam kasus g... kita pergike JPJ padang jawa.. untuk bikin simnya.. dokumentasi yg perlu dibawa.. adalah..
1. Form JPJ L1 (bisa minta di loket depan sebelum naik ke atas..)
2. SIM asli dan copy yang masih sah tempohnya untuk 1 tahun;
3. Surat sukacita dari JPJ Putrajaya
4. Pasport asli dan copy
5. 1 keping photo berwarna ukuran passport
bayaran RM20 untuk administrasi dan
RM30 untuk izin mengemudi selama 1 tahun..
dan akhirnya.. taraaaaa...

siap gantian nyupir mudik ama pak beruang.. hehehehe..

Iftar Ramadhan Menu August 14, 2010

2010-10-13T21:40:00.000+08:00

Mama Pasha was under the weather and therefore, we did not go out to any Bazaar Ramadhan. I just went to the club house and there was only one table opened. Nasi Minyak was the only food sold and I bought it.

Nasi Minyak and Rendang Ayam aka Chicken Rendang.

The Acar that came with the Nasi Minyak was complete with pineapples, cucumbers and onions and Pau Kacang Merah aka Red Bean buns.

Some juicy watermelons and an exhausted Pasha, which is not part of the food...

Selamat Berbuka!

Iftar Ramadhan Menu August 13, 2010

2010-10-13T21:39:00.002+08:00

Chicken and Beef skewers

Onde Onde aka Klepon aka Buah Melaka

Karipap Sardin aka Sardine Puffs

Home made Bandung Cincau

Nasi Dagang

Nasi Ayam Berempah aka Ayam Berempah Chicken Rice

Selamat Berbuka!

Birthday and Anniversary

2010-10-13T21:39:00.001+08:00

Today is Mama Pasha's 33rd birthday as well as our 4th Anniversary!

Birthday card from Papa Bear to Mama Pasha.

Anniversary card from Papa Bear.

Earrings and ice cream cake for Mama Pasha.

Mama Pasha's and Papa Bear's presents.

Happy BirthdayMama Pasha. Pasha is the dedicated candle blower.

Papa Bear trying to open his present at 4+ am... tengok la muka...

The ice cream cake will be eaten tonight after the Iftar...

Perpanjangan Passport di KBRI KL

2010-10-13T21:38:00.001+08:00

Kemarin kita jalan2 ke KBRI.. dengan niat mau ngambil hasil keringet di bazar.. mikir2 sekalian lah.. memperpanjang paspor g.. yg walo habisnya masih taon depan.. tp dikarenakan visa udah habis bulan depan.. mendingan bikin paspor baru dulu aja.. sebelum pulang kampung sept 9 nanti.. seharian nongkrong di kbri.. habis ngantri masuk di kasi formulir untuk perpanjang pasport.. trus g fotocopy deh dokumen2 yg diperlukan di kbri tanpa dipungut biaya.. mungkin karna besok mo puasa.. lautan manusia jg yg dateng ke kbri hari itu.. yg membuat nomer antrian yg g dapet lamaaa bener dipanggilnya.. begitu dokumen udah lengkap.. g kasi nomer antrian g ke bagian photo.. gratis jg nih sekarang.. trus liat nomer antrian dilayar.. masih itungan 1210 padahal nomer antrian g masih 1423.. ya sud.. ke kantin aja lah makan gado2 ama bakso dr pada umpel2an di dalem gak dapet duduk.. trus diusir2in ama petugas kbri klo berdiri2 di gang ato deket2 loket.. akhirnya nomer g dipanggil juga setelah jam makan siang.. begini nih akibatnya klo datengnya kesiangan.. dari rumah jam 9 , jam 10 nyampe kbri.. ambil dokat dulu ke lt.7 ama pak sofyan bag. keuangan.. akhrinya jam 10.30an baru bs ambil formulir.. dilayanin jam 2.30.. dgn sikap teges dan nge-bossy banget.. g jg hrs jawab bbrp pertanyan berkaitan pernikahan seperti.. nama suami siapa... udah berapa lama tinggal disini.. nama ayah kandung siapa.. menikah dimana.. knapa paspor nya lecek bisa didenda looohh.. :P anaknya baru satu ya?? setelah bayar RM75 g disuruh tunggu lagi sekitar sejam-an kata doi.. yg ada paspor g baru kelar jam 4.15.. dan pasha dgn suksesnya bobo digendongan mama... udah bosen banget dia nunggu.. hihihi.. tp hebat lah skr kbri proses perpanjangan bisa selesai dalam waktu 1 hari.. dengan menghadapi berbagai macam manusia dan permasalahannya.. maju jaya deh KBRI KL.. akhirnya.. selesai jg urusan dgn kbri.. untung bgt sekarang tempatnya udah ber-AC.. coba dulu.. g bela2in bayar tiket kapal deh pulang ke dumai cuman buat perpanjang pasport doang.. heheheh..

btw buat temen2 yg blm pernah ngurus perpanjangan pasport di kbri KL ini g share persyaratannya..

Mengisi formulir paspor/splp*

Membawa paspor lama

Fotokopi paspor lama (halaman identitas dan halaman visa/permit)*

Memiliki ijin tinggal di Malaysia lebih dari 6 bulan

Membawa fotokopi IC majikan (untuk pekerja sektor non formal : maid, baby sitter) atau surat rekomendasi dari perusahaan (untuk pekerja sektor formal) atau surat rekomendasi dari kampus/sekolah (untuk pelajar)*

Mengisi kontrak kerja (bagi pekerja sektor non formal : maid, baby sitter)*

ciaooo.. ;)

Niat Puasa Ramadhan

2010-10-13T21:37:00.001+08:00

To all my Muslim readers, selamat menunaikan ibadah puasa di bulan Ramadhan! Happy fasting!

Just to share with all of you, here are the Niat Puasa Ramadhan in Arabic and in Malay.

Daily Niat

Sahaja aku puasa esok hari pada bulan Ramadhan tahun ini kerana Allah Taala.

Yearly Niat

This is recommended for those who always forget to say the daily niat.

Sahaja aku puasa untuk sebulan pada bulan Ramadhan kerana Allah Taala.

May Allah bless us all and have a great Ramadhan to all!

Family outing before Ramadhan

2010-10-13T21:36:00.000+08:00

Ramadhan is around the corner! Every Muslims are getting ready for the fasting month. As for us, last Saturday, we joined the celebration of Indonesia's 65th Independence day at Tasik Titiwangsa. It is supposed to be held on the 17th of August but due to Ramadhan, the celebration was done earlier. Mama Pasha rented a table to sell cupcakes and cookies.

Mama Pasha and her cupcakes, cookies and chocolate lollies.

We managed to sell almost everything! So, it was the effort of getting up at 6am and arriving there at 7:30am. You can read more about it at Bazzar Hari Kemerdekaan RI yang ke 65. The entry is in Indonesian. Let me know if you need any translation. Nevertheless, you can always look at more pictures over there.

Pasha and Dana

And Pasha, as usual would always be with us. He minded his own business and it was not really a hassle for us to have him around. Just get him to be preoccupied with something and we could go about doing our stuffs. By the way, pretty girls always do the trick...

Papa Bear and his favorite pose...

You! That's me with my MIL. I just finished my lunch + teh botol + a banana + teh tarik. Despite the pose, I had a great nasi padang at Seri Garuda, Kampung Baru. Yes, we went there again. That was our second time there since Mama Pasha was craving for nasi padang.

Papa Bear's lunch

White rice

Ikan Merah (gulai) aka Red snapper (curry)

Hati lembu aka Liver (ox)

Terung aka eggplant

Urat Tunjang (gulai) aka Beef tendon (curry)

How's that? Can you eat what I ate?

Runaway Train - Live by Soul Asylum

2010-10-13T21:35:00.000+08:00

In 1994, I was sent to Switzerland to collect and bring back some technical drawings. For 5 weeks, they put up in a house in a quiet little kampung called Langenthal. In between the sound of cow bells and the fresh smell of cow dung every time the window is opened, the only entertainment there was from a small TV in the basement.

It had limited channels and all of the were in German. My favorite channel was one music channel, which I could not remember the name, that played lots of German and French songs and once in a blue moon, would play an English song. During my 5 weeks there, the only English song that was aired over and over again was Runaway Train by the rock band Soul Asylum...

Enjoy the music from the past :)

By the way, this song won Grammy Award for the best rock song in 1994.

Call you up in the middle of the night
Like a firefly without a light
You were there like a blowtorch burning
I was a key that could use a little turning

So tired that I couldn't even sleep
So many secrets I couldn't keep
Promised myself I wouldn't weep
One more promise I couldn't keep

It seems no one can help me now
I'm in too deep there's no way out
This time I have really led myself astray

Runaway train, never going back
Wrong way on a one-way track
Seems like I should be getting somewhere
Somehow I'm neither here nor there

Can you help me remember how to smile?
Make it somehow all seem worthwhile
How on earth did I get so jaded?
Life's mystery seems so faded

I can go where no one else can go
I know what no one else knows
Here I am just a-drownin' in the rain
With a ticket for a runaway train

And everything seems cut and dried
Day and night, earth and sky
Somehow I just don't believe it

Runaway train, never going back
Wrong way on a one-way track
Seems like I should be getting somewhere
Somehow I'm neither here nor there

Bought a ticket for a runaway train
Like a madman laughing at the rain
A little out of touch, a little insane
It's just easier than dealing with the pain

Runaway train, never going back
Wrong way on a one-way track
Seems like I should be getting somewhere
Somehow I'm neither here nor there

Runaway train, never coming back
Runaway train, tearing up the track
Runaway train, burning in my veins
I run away but it always seems the same

D cuppies July 2010

2010-10-13T21:34:00.000+08:00

by http://cuppies.kisahberuang.com

Weeding out bad followers on your Twitter

2010-10-13T21:33:00.002+08:00

This entry applies to those who are using Twitter as a tool to do whatever it is that you do. If you are not using Twitter, you can skip the entry and go straight to the comment form and tell me that you do not use Twitter... :) ... And if you are a celebrity using Twitter, this entry does not apply to you too...

Assuming that you are using Twitter to promote something, you would need to have lots of followers. In order to have many followers, you have to have something that attracts people to follow you or you can start following as many people as you can and hopefully some would then follow you back in return. The latter since to be a workable method to build up your followers despite that it is a time consuming effort.

But then, there is a problem to that method. Twitter impose a limit to the number of people that you can follow based on some caculated ratio that is only known to them. That means, if you only have 1 or 10 or 100 followers, you could only follow up to 2000 people. After that, the ratio kicks in and you must have some number of followers before you can follow 2001 people. This is mainly put in place to get rid of spammers and other undesirable people.

So, from time to time you would get people following you and some people, such as I, would then follow them back in the intention of having mutual benefits of following each other. Like anything else in this world, there would be some bad people who would follow you just to get you to follow them back so that they can increase their followers. Once you have followed them, they would them un-follow you so that they can start following someone else and increase their follower again. You would end up with less followers thus you are unable to add more people to follow... Bad eh!

What can you do? I think that there are many tools out there to help you manage this. My favorite is FriendorFollow. This is a site where you can check/do 3 things.

People that you are following but they are not following you back

People that are following you but you are not following them

People that you are following and they are following you back

I make use of no. 1 and 2 a lot. No.1 is for me to remove those who have stopped following me. You don't follow me, why should I follow you unless you have something that I really like.

No. 2 is used when I want to return the favor to those who take the trouble to follow me. But when they misbehaved, I would then use no.1 on them... :)

By using this, I can weed out any bad followers as easy as 1 2 3...

The service is Free! No registration required. Just key in your Twitter ID on the front page and then use the Following, Fans, and Friends Tabs accordingly. You must log on to your Twitter if you need to follow or unfollow someone. FriendorFollow is at http://friendorfollow.com/

Happy Twitting!

The Flame – Live by Cheap Trick

2010-10-13T21:33:00.001+08:00

Another blast from the past. The Flame was one of the songs that I played a lot in 1988 when I was living in the US. 1988 was my first year in the US and I was longing for home, family, friends, people and pets... I was stranded by myself in Beaumont while all my friends were having a great time in Houston... duh... They are both cities in Texas and only about 1 hour drive away, in case you are wondering...

Anyway, here is a live clip of that song, which was first released on July 25, 1988.

Enjoy listening... Layan... And here is the lyric for those who wish to sing along or wondering what were said in the song...

Another night slowly closes in, and I feel so lonely
Touching heat freezing on my skin, I pretend you still hold me
I'm going crazy, I'm losing sleep, I'm in too far, I'm in way too deep
Over you, I can't believe you're gone
You were the first, you'll be the last

Wherever you go, I'll be with you, whatever you want, I'll give it to you
Whenever you need someone, to lay your heart and head upon
Remember, after the fire, after all the rain
I will be the flame, I will be the flame

Watching shadows move across the wall, I feel so frightened
I wanna run to you, I wanna call, but I've been hit by lightning
Just can't stand up for falling apart
Can't see through this veil across my heart
Over you, you'll always be the one, you were the first, you'll be the last

Wherever you go, I'll be with you, whatever you want, I'll give it to you
Whenever you need someone, to lay your heart and head upon
Remember, after the fire, after all the rain
I will be the flame, I will be the flame

I'm going crazy, I'm losing sleep, I'm in too far, I'm in way too deep
Over you, you'll always be the one, you were the first, you'll be the last

Wherever you go, I'll be with you, whatever you want, I'll give it to you
Whenever you need someone, to lay your heart and head upon
Remember, after the fire, after all the rain
I will be the flame, I will be the flame

Whatever you want, I'll give it to you
Wherever you go, I'll be with you, & whatever you want, I'll give it to you
Whatever you want, I’ll give it to you

Half Naked

2010-10-13T21:32:00.000+08:00

The luscious flesh is half exposed. Voracious fingers are quickly losing their patience. The desire to fully uncover is unrelenting... And...

What were you thinking of?
I am talking about my half peeled Salak. This one was brought over from Dumai by Akung and Uti Pasha. Have you eaten it before? I do know some people who has never heard or seen this fruit before.

Salak aka Salacca Zalacca aka Snake Fruit is a species of palm tree from the Arecaceae family. The skin is reddish brown and scaly thus the name Snake Fruit come about. The skin has a distinct tip and by pinching the tip, it can be sloughed off and pulled away.

Inside, there are three lobes of edible flesh. The taste is normally sweet and somewhat acidic. Each flesh contains a hard inedible seed. Do not try to bite or eat that!

Anyway, that was my last Salak...

Yet another Sunday at Kizsports and Gym OU

2010-10-13T21:31:00.001+08:00

There is a place where Pasha likes to go on weekends. This is the place for him to release all his excess energy as well as an opportunity to get out of the house and meet other kids out there. This place is called Kizsports and Gym. There are a few outlets out there but the one in One Utama is the best for him.

This is one of his favorites. A little swimming pool where he can slide into those colorful balls. Those balls are generally harmless. Most of them would hit your head with a thud but a few of them would hit your head with a "ke-tonk" sound... Those are the few harder ones. We would normally be throwing balls into the pool as well as at each other over here.

And this is the one that Pasha likes the most out of his favorites. You need to climb all the way up there and go down via that spiralling green tube that you can see a bit on the left of this picture. The entrance to the tube is where you see a red pail hanging by a pulley as shown. Mama Pasha and Pasha are up there on the second last landing before shooting down the green tube.

That's where you come out. Both of them made 10 trips into the green tube and Pasha still wanted more... 10 times! Bravo Mama!

And yes, Papa Bear did it too. Once only! It was harder than it looked. You had to crawl through series of tubes, netting and climb up multiple landings to get to the top. I kept on asking Pasha to wait for me as he was zip-zapping his way to the top. He even gave me the stop-whining-and-hurry-up look as I asked him to wait at every landing... Banyak betul energy budak2 rupanya...

For those who prefer a less strenuous action, the big slide is a good choice at it is quite easy to reach and you can take your own sweet time sliding down as the slide angle is not that steep.

And finally, the good boy deserved a good kiss from Mama... By the way, Pasha refused to go home and we had to "bait" him with a trip to Toys R Us... And he grabbed the Action Chugger there...

Baby Allysa, Sate Kambing and Kolak Durian

2010-10-13T21:30:00.002+08:00

About visiting Baby Allysa. A little gathering with some yummy Javanese food...

Baby Allysa. Born on July 15, 2010. Latest addition to the family of Mas Adi and Mbak Ira.

Mama Pasha and her kids. Not quite... :) Aiman and Allya, the big brother and sister to Baby Allysa and Pasha.

Akung Pasha and Uti Pasha with the kids. Mas Adi looking on...

Aiman and Allysa, the big brother and sister.

Mbak Ira helping herself to the food... Yum Yum...

Papa Bear and the sleeping Baby Allysa...

Now the food part. Where's the food? Sorry, did not get the chance to take picture of the delicious food. Well, this entry should be more about the baby and not the food. However, there are lots of pictures on Google so, just click the links below...

We had sate kambing aka mutton satay as the main dish, you can view some uploaded pictures in Google here.

We also had some kolak durian aka durian compote, eaten with ketan aka pulut aka glutinous rice for dessert. Very nice eaten warm! See some pictures in Google here.

Apart from that, we also had gulai kambing aka spiced mutton and pepes ikan aka steamed fish in banana leaf eaten with warm rice. You can view their pics here and here.

Lovely treat of Javanese food... Burp! Excuse me...

Students want PTPTN to go to UUM

2010-10-13T21:30:00.001+08:00

What a strange title for this entry. Well, it's the Google Search entry again! PTPTN and UUM dominated the Google Search in Malaysia for the last 7 days. These two keywords covered 6 out of the top 10 search keywords. Students and parents were probably trying to secure education loans from Perbadanan Tabung Pendidikan Tinggi Nasional (PTPTN). I did not realize that now application can be made online via the ePinjaman.

Many months ago, one big shot from PTPTN was interviewed on BFM. He said that they are running on deficit and yet they can still give out loans... Some local banks still help them... CSR mumbo jumbo...

All I can say to those owing PTPTN, you should pay back since if you did not do that, your children, our children, later, could no longer get anymore loan and you were the one that spoiled the whole thing...

But why Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM)? It beats me. May be those going there have better chance getting the loan... Or maybe students want to go there so that they can easily buy cheap stuffs at Bukit Kayu Hitam... Really? You tell me...

By the way, Cut Tari is third in the list. May be some students wanted to cool off their heads after submitting their online application by looking for her. Or, it could be that some parents, using the excuse of finding out about PTPTN and UUM, actually diverted their searches to Cut Tari. Any better explanation, anybody?

Thanks Google for making blogging fun!

Yahoo! Messenger messes up Firefox

2010-10-13T21:29:00.001+08:00

This is for those who are using Firefox and Yahoo! Messenger but very much in love with Google Search.

One fine day you happily installed Yahoo! Messenger on your computer. Then you realized that your happiness was short lived when you discovered that Yahoo!, without asking for your permission, had changed your Firefox Location Bar and Default Search Engine. Now when you put in your keywords in the location bar, Yahoo! Search would be fired up instead of your beloved Google Search. You then looked all over Firefox and unfortunately, there was no way to remove it.

You can now live with it or you can do the following...

Changing the Location Bar search

Type about:config in the location bar aka address bar and press enter.

Type keyword.URL in Filter.

Double-click on the displayed line.

A box will pop up. Change the string value to http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=navclient&gfns=1&q=

Or if you want to fire up the Lucky Search, use http://www.google.com/search?btnI=I%27m+Feeling+Lucky&q=

That's it for the Location Bar search. If you want it to search using something else, you can always modify the string value to your liking.

Changing the Default Search Engine

Type about:config in the location bar aka address bar and press enter.

Type browser.search.defaultenginename in Filter.

Double-click on the displayed line.

A box will pop up. Change the string value from Yahoo to Google.

Done.

You are now free of Yahoo!

Solving the missing Facebook Badge

2010-10-13T21:28:00.000+08:00

Are you using Facebook badge to promote your Facebook on your blog? Have you encountered the problem that after a while, your badge just disappeared and only the links were visible? Well, that infuriated me!

I know that there could be many solutions out there that address this issue but I have found one that works for me. The solution is pretty simple. You just need to change a word that was automatically generated by Facebook.

<!-- Facebook Badge START --><a href="http://www.facebook.com/papaberuang" target="_TOP" style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;,tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; font-variant: normal; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; color: #3B5998; text-decoration: none;" title="Berry Bear">Berry Bear</a><br/><a href="http://www.facebook.com/papaberuang" target="_TOP" title="Berry Bear"><img src="http://badge.facebook.com/badge/661479842.364.1910549269.png" width="120" height="239" style="border: 0px;" /></a><br/><a href="http://www.facebook.com/badges/" target="_TOP" style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;,tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; font-variant: normal; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; color: #3B5998; text-decoration: none;" title="Make your own badge!">Create Your Badge</a><!-- Facebook Badge END -->

Depending on the blog platform that you use, you would get a bunch of code like above. Now look for a code that provide the link to the badge image. Just look or search for the word "img". You should get something similar to mine below:

<img src="http://badge.facebook.com/badge/661479842.364.1910549269.png" width="120" height="239" style="border: 0px;" />

You would notice that the image URL has the word "badge" written twice. Change the first "badge" to "www". Your code should now look like this:

<img src="http://www.facebook.com/badge/661479842.364.1910549269.png" width="120" height="239" style="border: 0px;" />

That's it. Your badge should be there now. Happy promoting!

p/s:

I have not tested this thoroughly. Not sure whether the badge would be automatically updated once you changed your profile picture. Try it at your own risk. So far, I am happy with my result.

No float:center in CSS

2010-10-13T21:27:00.000+08:00

What float? Root beer float? Nope, I am talking about the CSS float command. CSS is definitely not a walk in the park to most blogger. Me included. I have no formal training on CSS and so far I have been relying on trial and errors and researches in Google. The most complicated project that I did for the blog was adding a 3-column widgetized footer that you can see today. It's peanuts to some of you but a big achievement for me. Took me many days and had to combine solutions from various experts and/or so-called-experts just to get it working. And this post is related to that footer.

After completing the 3-column widgetized footer, I had the problem of aligning them to the center of the page. CSS does not support float:center and Divs does not recognize the <center> command. CSS only allows float:left and float:right and that's about it. I guess it does not make sense to float things to the center of nowhere...

My first workaround was to play with the margin.

float: left;
margin: 0 0 0 190px;

That code started the footer 190 pixels away from the left edge of the screen and that worked for me. However, one or two visitors were complaining that the chat box, which is on the right footer was way too far down. I did not understand the problem at first. Then upon testing it on a 800x600 screen, I found that there was not enough space for the right footer to be on the right. So, it went below the left and the middle footer. Duh... Back to research then...

Finally, after hours of research and reading articles from mostly frustrated people who wished that there was a CSS command that would center everything, I bumped on the solution. It was really simple. Instead of using float, I just need to play around with the auto margin function. Found this while reading the whole CSS of this theme one line at a time...

width: 960px;
margin: 0px auto;

See, there is no need to float it anymore. It is important to specify the width so that the browser knows where the center point is.

p/s:

This entry might make no sense to most of you but I need this as my own reference when tweaking new themes... Yup, Papa Bear does not create, only tweak...

You’ll Never Find Another Love Like Mine

2010-10-13T21:26:00.000+08:00

If you have watched Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, you would know Scrat, the saber-toothed squirrel that was obsessed with acorns. In Dawn of the Dinosaurs, Scrat was torn between his love for acorn and Scratte, the female saber-toothed squirrel that could fly...

Pasha is now obsessed with Scrat and he calls him Misquit. I had to put the video in his PC so that he could watch it anytime he wants...

And now the song You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine is stuck in my head...

Here is Pasha's favorite scene.

And here is the full song for you to enjoy...

Pasha hopes you like that!

The Prince of Brunei wants to give me lots of money

2010-10-13T21:25:00.000+08:00

Best giler! I received an email from Prince Jefri Bolkiah! Go on and read...

Dear Friend,

I believe i can call you friend. I am Prince Jefri Bolkiah of Brunei . I am the youngest of the Sultan's three brothers. But its like a joke being called a prince. The Bruneian royal family have turned me into an outcast. I am presently in Europe . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Prince_Jefri_Bolkiah

My Brother the Sultan of Brunei masterminded and initiated much evil against me. He envied me as a person, he envied my life style, he was intimidated by my way of life, and thus plotted with his infidel advisers to get me arrested for nothing. He levelled all forms of corruption allegations against me. He accused me of taking US$16 billion of the royal treasury's money. He labelled me a criminal and ordered for my arrest.

My Brother the Sultan of Brunei did this to me his younger brother. Yes i agree that I spent Money, but I am bewildered by the accusation that i misspent $16billion. It's not that easy to hide, I keep asking the lawyers, where did it go? I have already turned over billions of dollars worth of property, including the Plaza Athenee hotel in Paris , The New York Palace Hotel, the giant yacht, Airplanes, the car collection, and more than 100 paintings by Picasso, Renoir, Modigliani and others. Late last year, I surrendered five rare diamonds, secured in a Europe vault, valued at roughly $200 million.

My Brother the Sultan, Hassanal Bolkiah, has ruled since 1967. He is the world's wealthiest ruler, with an estimated fortune of $22 billion. DESPITE HIS WEALTH, he still feels intimidated by my little Money. I have turned over the various assets, but my brother the Sultan will not let me keep enough money to maintain a more modest version of my prior lifestyle. Now the Sultan's advisers have started legal proceedings to evict me from my London mansion. We don't know where we are going to live.

They want me to give it all back, now i am worried that i may soon be homeless and forced into bankruptcy. While in Brunei , my favourite car to drive was a Ferrari 550, a sleek sports coupe that i used to take for a spin late at night when the roads were quiet. Now, I like the Mini. I drive a black small mini around Europe . I am been watched by private detectives employed by my Brother the Sultan. He wants to ruin me, but he cannot.

My friend, i don't know you, but i strongly need you to be of help to me. I want you to take me as a friend in need and do something for me that will also benefit you. Right now i cannot trust anybody close to me. I have been betrayed by my friends and family and I am tired of talking to lawyers. I prefer to take the risk of soliciting the assistance of a stranger. You may think i am going crazy, but i am very sane. As it stands, i am about to go into hiding and this would mean living in worse conditions than i am now but
i believe that it would be better of because i am placing faith in this letter that with your help i would live the sort of life i deserve with my family.

I have some funds stashed in foreign countries, but i cannot touch these funds hence they are discovered by my King Brother watching my every move like a Hawk. I need you to assist me in these financial steps of securing my entitlements. You will benefit immensely from this financial exercise. I am an easy going gentleman, so please be rest assured that my business relationship with you will be very sincere and this friendship will extend to our children.

Yours Sincerely,
Prince Jefri Bolkiah.

There you go! Papa Bear is going to be very rich soon. So, if any of you need money for anything, put your requests in the comment ya!

Ya right! Fat chance! Dream on!

LOL!

p/s:
This "Jefri Bolkiah" <princejefri222@gmail.com> must have read the wikipedia in very details to be able to come up with such an email... and I wonder is there any idiot out there that would really fall for something such as this...

June Cakes..

2010-10-13T20:59:00.000+08:00

1. Isha's Mickey Mouse ClubHouse Bday Cake

2. Papa Bear's Momoo poo Bday Cake

3. Dayries's Thomas the tank engine 3D Bday Cake..

4. Naia & Salsa Disney Princess Cuppies in tiers..

5. Rayyan's ToyStory Cuppies

6. Shafiya's Garden theme Cuppies.. & Red Polkadoty Minnie Mouse Tiers Cake

7. Uncle Emir's Zynga Poker Bday Cake..

promote me pliiiiiiiiiiiiss.. ;) :P

Go to http://cuppies.kisahberuang.com/ for more info!

Dinner in New York

2010-07-01T07:27:00.000+08:00

That sounds fabulous! Having dinner in New York! Not quite New York but New York New York in 1 Utama... Actually Mama Pasha wanted a BBQ dinner and using the directory, we found the BBQ Plaza. We were not that familiar with the new wing with Forest, Promenade, High Street and whatever else they called it there, we had to go up, down, here and there and finally we found it. Unfortunately, it's NOT Halal... duh... buat penat jer... Why didn't they just put an indicator on the directory so that we would not waiter time hunting for something that we could not eat? So, since we were hungry and a bit lost, we saw New York New York. I asked the waiter, "Is this place halal?" "Yes, absolutely halal. I am halal too...", chuckled the waiter. Not quite sure what he meant by that...

Pasha was preoccuppied with my phone and Mama giving a smiling pose hiding her hunger...

Was too lazy to go out and take the first pic and the table marker...

The cozy interior and Papa, half sleepy, half hungry, half tired and half...

The huge Root Beer float. Look at the tempting ice-cream...

At last, the food arrived...

Mama tried the Juicy Burger. It was great but Mama said the burger at Kiwi Xpress is a bit better. Papa ordered the Spaghetti with Giant Meat Balls. Those balls were bigger than golf balls and just a bit smaller than tennis ball. The taste? Not bad but with some Italian factors missing...

How to find this place? Since we were quite lost, we can't tell you exactly. It is somewhere in the new wing of 1 Utama Shopping Center. Just use the directory and you would find it.

There you go. 3 foodie posts in a row!

Ayam Penyet and Mee Sup at Ani Sup Utara

2010-06-30T08:56:00.000+08:00

Last Saturday we decided to have lunch at another restaurant in Seksyen 9, Shah Alam, just at the corner behind the Nasi King. The place is called Ani Sup Utara or can be translated as Ani's Northern Soup... Canggih jugak bunyi nya...

Pasha eating strawberry yogurt while waiting for the food and Mama's Bandung Cincau.

Those were the food that we ordered. Mama took her chance with the Ayam Penyet (top 2 pictures) after huge dissatisfaction with the Ayam Penyet at Ayam Penyet AP. Again, it was not up to her expectation even though, to me, the chicken here was much better than the one at Ayam Penyet AP.

I tried the Mee Sup Daging (bottom left). The Beef Noodle was quite nice but on a whole, there was nothing really special about this dish. It was just another noodles in soup...

Not fully satisfied, I went for the Nasi Lemak Bungkus. Finally, this Nasi Lemak Bungkus (last picture) was something worth trying. It was good. Not too sweet and not too hot. Just nice! No wonder Papa is getting bigger, sideways, eh....

More pictures of us eating and eating and eating and Pasha with another serving of strawberry yogurt...

That's how the restaurant looks like and an out of focus logo of the place. Read the tag line: Ingat Sup... Ingat Ani Sup Utara... Ya la....

There you go, another foodie entry from us. Will there be a third food entry in a row? Just wait and see....

Nasi Padang at Seri Garuda Emas

2010-06-30T08:54:00.000+08:00

We were in KL last Friday, June 25, 2010. I had a meeting at Menara Perak while Mama Pasha had to do her driving license verification at the Embassy of Indonesia so that she would be able to convert her Indonesia driving license to Malaysian driving license so that she could legally drive... shhhh...

Our tasks completed by lunch time and we decided to try out the Nasi Padang at Restoran Seri Garuda Emas in Kampung Baru. With the aid of GPS, we managed to find the place located at Jalan Raja Alang, Kampung Baru... right across the street from the 7-11.

Pasha drinking Papa's Teh Botol and RockMama reading the TKI newsletter.

We were hungry so we went and chose whatever we wanted to eat and we ate. As simple as that. I took the Ayam Pop. Prawns with Petai, a hard boiled Egg in yellow gravy and Mama as usual, took the Ayam Panggang and Tempe along with some Soup for Pasha. Teh Botol was available there too. In bottles and not boxes!

Since this is a hungry people blog and not a food blog, the above is as much food details as you can have...

I like the Ayam Pop here. It was better than Sari Ratu's and as good as Pak Datuk's in Melaka. Mama Pasha did not quite like her Ayam Panggang. I think it is a sign that she needs to go back to Jakarta or Dumai...

Pasha attacking the Es Teler and the bunting saying that they are now open 24 hours.

The Es Teler was not quite the same that we used to have. The main ingredient, Jack Fruit, was noticeably missing from this one. It was more something in between ABC and Es Teler...

Mama and Pasha and the Es Teler and Thata and Wewit/WitWit (not sure about the name arr...) that came later...

If you want to add another Nasi Padang place to your list, head over to Jalan Raja Alang in Kampung Baru or if you are using a GPS, look for Garuda. If you can't f ind Garuda on your GPS, yor map is not up to date... Ciao!

Cleaning up and saving Money

2010-06-26T10:10:00.000+08:00

Mama caught Pasha singing while putting coins into his camel coin box.

Pasha is busy saving money for his toys. He wanted to buy more trains from the Thomas and Friends as well as the Chuggington TV shows. We told him that he must save some money first before we can buy him another piece to add to his collections. He somehow understood that we need money to buy his toys and therefore, he must make sure that he fills up his coin box as and when Papa gives him coins...

Does he know how much he need to save to buy one train? Yes, he does. One full coin box can buy one train. Lucky for us he is only 3+ thus ringgit and sen have no meaning to him yet... For now, at least...

Wondering what is he singing in that video? Here is the lyric...

Clean up clean up everybody everywhere. Clean up clean up everybody do your share.
Clean up clean up everybody everywhere. Clean up clean up everybody do your share.
Clean up clean up everybody everywhere. Clean up clean up everybody do your share.

If you know Barney, you would know that song...

Enjoy!

World Cup Results first please

2010-06-24T06:15:00.002+08:00

Visited Ms/Mr/Madam/Mrs Google to find out what Malaysians are google-ing for the last 7 days again. As expected 2010 World Cup South Africa is in the list. Not at the very top but still in the top 10 list. Want to know what is number 1 for the last 7 days? Will tell you at the end of this entry... sabar...

Many Malaysians were looking for World Cup Results and I guess this is due to the fact that not many people could afford to stay up late and watch all the games. Not to mention those who rely solely on RTM, the so called partner of 2010 World Cup, that only showed a few selected matches... Duh... I am one of those who do not subscribe to the sport channel on ASTRO... Oh well... There were times when I wanted to watch those matches that I like only to find out that RTM was showing something-that-I-wonder-who-would-watch program...

Anyway, I do not have any favorite but I would really love to see South Korea make it past the second round. I believe South Korea is the first Asian team that made it to the second round so far. Correct me if I am wrong ya... So, being truly Asian, I dream that South Korea wins the cup... Dream ya... LOL!

Lee Jung-Soo of South Korea beats Vincent Enyeama of Nigeria

What about Australia? The thing is I was taught during my geography classes that Australia is in the Australia Continent but then the soccer people keep on referring Australia as an Asian team. Which is which ha? Not that I have any problem with that but it makes me geographically confused...

How about Malaysia soccer? Quoted from an article in Wikipedia:

The glory days of Malaysian football in the 1970s and 80s, when names like Mokhtar Dahari, Santokh Singh and Soh Chin Aun would strike fear in teams all over Asia and Malaysia used to beat South Korea and Japan are gone. Football in Malaysia is in the doldrums.

There you go...

As promised, Malaysians were searching for Azrinaz Mahzar Hakim more than the World Cup Results. She is the lady that was divorced by the Sultan of Brunei on June 16, 2010. Go google that yourself okay...

What about Luna Maya and Ariel Peterpan? They are no longer in the top 10 list. Good Malaysians...

That's all for now.

Out for Lunch

2010-06-22T13:28:00.000+08:00

Posted on the June 21st, 2010 under Family & Friends,Food & Health by papabear

Nasi King Restaurant, Seksyen 9, Shah Alam @ June 19, 2010.

Papa Bear ordered the Nasi Beriyani Gam Kambing – The Nasi Beriyani Gam is a bit gam-less. I had tasted the original Beriyani Gam in Batu Pahat and this one was not even close to that. As for the lamb, it was not the best that I have tasted so far but was still reasonably tender and tasty.

Papa Bear’s ABC! This one was great! One of the best ABC so far. Pasha in the background trying to topple the ice-cream. The serving was good for 2 to 3 people. This could be a good desert…

Pasha attempted to resist the ABC and he actually did! Actually he was coughing a bit thus he decided to forgo the ice-cream. With the ice-cream out of the way, Pasha and Mama waited for their lunch…

Finally, Mama Pasha’s Kailan and Omelette arrived together with the cutely shaped white rice served with some crackers on the side. We wondered what they used to get that shape on the rice…

Pasha’s Fish and Chips was the last to arrive. It came complete with fries, cucumbers, a piece of tomato and tomato+mayonnaise sauce. However, Pasha was busy playing with Mama’s glasses instead of eating his lunch…

Papa immediately put on some weight after finishing that big plate of Nasi Beriyani and the huge ABC. Just look at the picture above. As for Pasha, posing with Mama’s glasses is much better than eating the Fish and Chips…

The End.

My Water Moments

2010-06-22T13:24:00.001+08:00

Posted on the June 19th, 2010 under Out and About by papabear

It has been a while since the whole family last went to the swimming pool even though the pool is just right behind our house. So, one fine evening, clad in our wet suits and armed with a digital camera to capture the water moments, the three of us headed to the swimming pool. The weather was great and the pool was clean with not too many people splashing around.

We were looking forward to some free and easy moments for the three of us until…

Papa Bear: “Pasha, let’s go to the big pool. The water is nicer and you have a much bigger space to float around.”

Pasha: “No Papa. Pasha is not going there. Pasha likes it here. Sini aja Papa.”

Well, after some tricking and baiting….

Mama Pasha: “Pasha, look! Papa is taking our photo!”

Pasha: “No Mama. Pasha wants the grey pool…” (That’s what he called the wading pool)

Mama Pasha: “See Pasha, everything is fine. there is nothing to be afraid of…”

Pasha: “No Mama. Pasha is not fine. There are monsters under the water!

These are some of those moments how I wish that my digital camera is waterproof and I can be in the water and take these pictures without having to get out of the pool…

Papa Bear: “Are you happy now Pasha? Let’s go back to the blue pool.”

Pasha: “No Papa, Pasha tak mau! You have to show me no monster under the water…”

Oh boy! Now I really wish that I have a waterproof digital camera so that I could take pictures under the water and prove it to Pasha that there is no monster under the water. Instead, there are just lots of tiles, some coins (where did those come from?) and some legs belonging to people who were swimming as well as pretending to be swimming…

How I wish I have the Sony DSC-TX5 in my hands at that time. I could just dive into the water with it and take pictures of stuffs under the water and show it to Pasha and he would be convinced that there’s no monster there…

The Sony DSC-TX5 is a gorgeous digital camera that comes with 5 different colors. The main feature that I really need is that the camera is waterproof up to 3 meters. Deep enough for me. Not only that it is waterproof, this digital wonder is also temperature, dust and shock-proof! Superb!

Some of the other cool features worth mentioning here are:

The Handheld Twilight mode (picture on the left) and the Anti-motion Blur mode (picture on the right) where your images boast 50% less noise because the high sensitivity “Exmor R” CMOS sensor coupled with BIONZ imaging processor allows the camera to superimpose six visual frames to create a single optimised image. This means you are able to shoot with high ISO settings in low-light environments, reducing noise and subject blur, giving you clear and sharp images.

On top of that, the Intelligent Sweep Panorama feature (the top picture) let you enjoy beautiful panoramic shots by sweeping your camera horizontally to create stunning landscape shots, or vertically to capture tall objects. It also recognises faces or subject movement automatically and cleverly stitches the photos together to create a natural-looking panoramic shot.

Lastly, but not the least of some of the cool features of the Sony DSC-TX5 is its ability to capture fast actions or a moving subject in a sequence of 10 continuous frames per second (the bottom picture). This sequence of continuous shots are also grouped to simplify playback as the camera analyses each group in order to locate and display the best shot automatically.

Go to http://www.sony.com.my/product/dsc-tx5 if you want to find out more about this digital camera that gives you the photographic power to shoot in style whenever, wherever.

“Can I have one DSC-TX5 now?”

Snatched right before my Eyes

2010-06-22T13:21:00.000+08:00

Posted on the June 19th, 2010 under Daily Living by papabear

I was like… Oh my God! Astaghfirullah…! What the… ?

It happened so fast that there was nothing much that anybody can do anything about it…

I am talking about a snatch theft that took place right before my eyes earlier this afternoon while I was driving from KLCC to my office…

Jalan Ampang Hilir

For those who are familiar with Jalan Ampang Hilir between the Ampang Hilir Condominium and Lanson Place, you would know this place well. Quite an elite location in KL.

I was driving towards the roundabout and there was a car in front of mine and a motorcycle was in front of that car. Nothing out of the ordinary was noticed until suddenly the motorcyclist revved up his bike. I thought it was just another Mat Rempik in action. Shortly after that a guy came running onto the street and jumped to the back of the bike!

By this time I saw an Arab lady on the curb just next to the condo yelling with her hands flailing and grocery bags all over her feet. Only then I realized that she just got snatched and nobody could do anything. It happened within seconds… 1001, 1002, 1003… the thieves were gone…

I read lots of similar stories in the mass media and usually the first thing that came to mind was how come people were selfish or uncaring and let things just happen? Now that it had happened right before my eyes, I realized that under certain circumstances, there was really nothing much that we can do but feel sorry for the victim…

Even if you wanted to be a hero, you would never know what you are up against. Even if you have a black belt in Karate, you would still not be able to move faster than a bullet… Is the risk still worth it?

So people, especially the ladies, be careful when you are out there. Take extra precautions and be aware of things that go around you. Try not to expose your valuables. We have read a lot about these cases and some even resulted with permanent injuries as well as death…

Take care my friends!

The Last of the Mangosteens

2010-06-17T09:44:00.002+08:00

Posted on the June 17th, 2010 under Food & Health by papabear Edit

Mangosteen aka Manggis aka Garcinia Mangostana

Few weeks back bought some mangosteens from Giant in Plaza Masalam. Ate a few of them and left the rest for Mama Pasha who happens to be another mangosteen fan. Last week, I saw the last of the mangosteens sitting on the table. So, before gobbling it up, I took these photos.

Mangosteens is not just another fruit to me. Thanks to it, I had done something that I could never have done in my life.

I climbed a tree. A mangosteen tree to be exact.

So, what’s the big deal about climbing trees? Well, I grew up in a town area where trees were for shades and decoration rather than for climbing. Most of my cousins grew up around fruit trees. While they had gone up some rambutan trees, the best I could do was wait for them to throw some fruits down.

The sweet, tangy and citrusy flesh

Then one fine day, I was introduced to the mangosteen trees. It’s not very tall and have lots of branches all over it. I made my historic tree climbing then. Until now, that was about the only tree that I have ever climbed… Kesian betul…

Later in life I realized that I have a bit of Acrophobia… I am pretty much okay if the place is all covered up such as, standing at the edge of one of the windows of the PETRONAS Twin Tower at level 68 but I would be totally shivering if I were to stand on the edge of an open, tree top, observation platform… Kecut perut….

Unfortunately, mangosteen does not cure Acrophobia… Too bad.

There you go, an entry that is not about the FIFA World Cup 2010. An entry about a fruit that one day would only be available on printed and electronic media.

How many of you have actually seen a mangosteen tree? Will mangosteens become extinct? What do you think?

We wear it the other way around

2010-06-15T13:12:00.000+08:00

Posted on the June 14th, 2010 under Parenting & Kids, Pasha by papabear Edit

Pasha wore his shorts by himself tonight. It was one of those nights when he decided to put on his own shorts. It is a trick that he just learned recently. Must be one great achievement for a 3 year old… I could not remember when I started to put on my own shorts as it was not recorded in my history… hehe…

But,… look at what had happened…

Well, he got it the other way around. The back to the front and the front to the back.

So, why the entry title said we? That is due to the fact that Mama Pasha caught me wearing my shorts the other way around too at the same time! LOL!

Oh Boy! Like father like son. Double LOL!

A picture of me wearing it the wrong way? No No No… This entry is rated PG only….

Anyway, I corrected mine but Pasha refused to change his hence that picture above was taken.

Argentina escapes with a slim win over Nigeria

2010-06-14T14:56:00.003+08:00

The only goal by Heinze

Just finished watching the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa live telecast of the match between Argentina and Nigeria. Ended up with Argentina beating Nigeria with only a goal. Argentina 1 – Nigeria o.

In my opinion the game deserved a draw… Argentina’s fans surely hate that remark…

And Messi… Well, he was a mess… LOL!

I think Maradona had lost more calories than Messi just now…

On the other hand, Enyeama, the Nigerian goalkeeper was superb! Messi could not beat him.

The Boys are in the House

2010-06-14T14:55:00.002+08:00

Posted on the June 11th, 2010 under Family & Friends by papabear Edit

The boys are in the house!

The Men

The Father

The Husbands

The Boys

The Brothers

The Guys

On the sofa from left: Semmy, Zaidin, Papa Bear and Pasha Bear

In front: Alif

6 June 2010, Shah Alam

The beauty of friendship…

Luna Maya is Hot in Malaysia

2010-06-14T14:55:00.001+08:00

Posted on the June 9th, 2010 under Google by papabear Edit

Checking Google on what Malaysians searched the most for the past 7 days brought up Luna Maya to the top. A name that was unfamiliar to me although I have been to Indonesia quite regularly. Obviously I was not into these celebrity stuffs… I am sure by now many Malaysians already know that Luna Maya is an Indonesian artist that suddenly shot to fame due to her alleged hot s-e-x video with Ariel Peterpan. I know some songs from the group Peterpan but I have never paid attention to Ariel…

No wonder I have seen lots of local bloggers posted about Luna Maya and some of them even embedded the mentioned videos. I have not seen any of the videos myself since the first thing that came to mind was that I do not think that the videos are genuine. Somebody someways or somehow must have put some videos together just to do something bad to these people or to make some profits out of such hot stuffs… Do you happen to know anyone laughing to the bank already?

Maybe some of my Indonesian readers can tell us whether they are really in those videos or not.

Anyway, Malaysians have been busy searching for Video Luna Maya on Google and she managed to to put the Gaza and Israel stories behind her. Surprisingly, FIFA world cup in South Africa did not even made the list for the past 7 days. Now we know what Malaysians are more interested in ha!

Naughty Malaysians!

Anyway, to follow the trend, you can download the said videos at the end of this entry!

Fat chance! You are not getting any of that stuff here.

Go and search somewhere else… Shooooh!

20% Toll Rebate from Touch ‘n Go

2010-06-09T09:33:00.000+08:00

Posted on the June 9th, 2010 under Out and About by papabear

The 20% toll rebate has been available for quite sometimes now but many people still asked me about how to get it. So, this little tutorial will light the way…

The Card

Firstly you need a Touch ‘n Go card. Any card with that Touch ‘n Go logo will do. Above is my card that has seen better days but it still works perfectly. If you do not have the card, go and buy one. The easiest place to buy is at the Toll Offices that have the Touch ‘n Go logo on their signboard.

Once you have the card, you can start using it to get the rebate. There is no application required. Just use it!

The Calculation

To qualify for the rebate, you must use your card 80 times or more in a month. This means 80 toll payments is the minimum transaction that you must have in a particular month. Only toll payments are counted. Payments for parking, Burger King’s meal, and others will not be counted. The amount of toll that you paid does not matter. Only transaction numbers matter.

Example: In the morning, I travel from Shah Alam to KL City Center via NKVE and DUKE. I have to pay RM3.30 at the Jalan Duta Toll and another RM2.oo at DUKE. This gives me 2 transactions.

In the evening, I travel from KL City Center to Shah Alam via MRR2, KESAS and ELITE. I have to pay RM2.20 twice at KESAS and RM0.50 at Batu Tiga Toll. This gives me another 3 transactions.

So now I have 5 transactions a day. If I keep doing that for 20 days, I will have 100 transactions and that qualifies me for the 20% rebate. You can use it at any toll regardless of the operator.

80 transactions a month means starting from the first day to the last day of the month. In February, number of days are less and therefore, you must ensure that you have enough transactions for that month. If you only made 79 transactions for the month, you do not qualify. It must be 80 or more. You can always try again the next month.

How to Claim?

You can go to Touch ‘n Go office or just drop by any of the Toll office that have the Touch ‘n Go logo on its signboard. Make sure you bring your Touch ‘n Go card along! No card no rebate. Present the card to the counter. You just need to say, “Rebate”. Smiling is optional but highly recommended… They will check your transactions and the rebate amount will be credited into your card. Similar to when you top up your card.

You will the receive your card back and a receipt like the one above. That is my 20% rebate for my toll transactions in May 2010. If you used the highways a lot then you would see a substantial figure for your rebate. You can continue using your card with the rebate as additional credits.

How to Check?

There are two easy ways to check the number of transactions that you have made for the month. First you can register at Touch ‘n Go website at http://www.touchngo.com.my/. Look for the 20% Rebat Tol banner on the left just below the header. Alternatively, similar to what I did, since I need the submit my toll claims, I registered for the e-Statement at http://e-services.touchngo.com.my/e-Statement/. Make sure you have the bunch of numbers at the back of your card ready when you register as that would be the key to identify your card.

You may also call their care line at +603 7628 5115 or email them at careline@touchngo.com.my for more details.

There you go. Happy touching and going!

Happy Birthday Papa Bear

2010-06-07T08:33:00.000+08:00

The Cakes!

The Bear!

The Moo-Moo. Don’t ask what Moo-Moo did…

The Reminder! Numbers!

For Green Earth…

The Card!

The Home Made Card by Mama and Pasha

The Blow!

Papa’s Turn

Mama’s Turn

Pasha’s Turn

The Presents!

The much needed backpack!

A cool blue t-shirt

The … What do you call this?

Thanks to my dearest Mama Pasha and Pasha for the cakes, the gift and the love. The cakes are all made by Mama Pasha. An advantage to me since she bakes customized cakes for any occasions: http://cuppies.kisahberuang.com/. (sempat promosi nih!)

Thanks to all friends that came for the surprised lunch with gifts: Isabelle, Syam, Adam, Diah Chong, Kaylee, Shun Li, Irina, Zavier, Zaidin, Semmy, Thata, RockMama, Alif, and someone from Saudi (nama lupa…isk isk isk… ya maap…)

Thanks to those who sent their wishes via SMS and Facebook! You gals and guys rock!

May Cakes..

2010-06-04T18:16:00.000+08:00

Bu Aya Farmville Bday Cake..

Bazaar Cuppies

Surprised Bday Cake for uncle Semmy..

Izzmir Race Car Theme Bday Cuppies

KayLee Barbie Cake

Anci Dewi Gift Box Bday Cake

that’s it for may..

More cakes at http://cuppies.kisahberuang.com/

April Cakes

2010-06-04T08:58:00.002+08:00

Posted on the June 4th, 2010 under Food & Health by mamapasha Edit

ada 2 pesenan bulan april ini.. satu pesenan mbak lenny dr iran.. yg udah wanti2 ke g dari bulan akhir tahun lalu.. baru terwujud awal april.. qeqeqe.. themenya princess cute deh.. simple round shape blackcurrent choc cake dgn special request 3 figurin king, queen and princess.. masihb lm jago dgn proporsi figurin nya.. tp udah gak mendet (*berkat cmc powder) dan wajahnya udah lumayan.. karna bisa dilukis pake spidol gula.. lebih gampang aplikasinya..

yang kedua pesenan syukri.. ngadoin soadaranya.. kuweh jerapah.. awalnya gak pede mo bikin berdiri.. but berkat mr.googlee.. berhasil jg g wujudkan keinginan customer baru g.. standing giraffe cake.. walo again part proposi g masih blm sukses.. payah.. masak jerapahnya jadi kontet.. hahaha.. mana bahenol lagi.. but cukup cartoon lah.. dgn senyum tengilnya.. gpp besok2 coba lagi sampai berhasil!! doakan ya teman2..

yg selebihnya pasti udah pada liat dan baca darii entry2nya beruang kan yah.. 2 kueh ulang tahunnya pasha.. yg thomas untuk di shah alam ngerayain bertiga.. yg chuggington untuk di jakarta.. ngerayain bareng sahabat2 dan kerabat sekaligus reunian..

nah balik keurusan promosi nih… buat temen2 yg pengen nyobain kueh2 mamanya pasha.. gak nolak loh klo di order walo cuman beli kurang dari 10 cupcakes.. pasti di ladenin dengan senang hati.. delivery klo weekend bisa dianter untuk kl dan sekitarnya.. dan klo hari kerja paling jaoh g bisa meeting point yg ada jalur lrt atau komuternya.. hand carry loh special ama g and pasha.. tentu ada extra charge nya.. telp ke diah aja yah.. +60123102076

klo mo liat sampel2 kuweh lainnya bisa mampir keblog satu lagi..

http://cuppies.kisahberuang.com

ciaoooo!

Checking out I-City

2010-05-28T06:18:00.001+08:00

Tonight we visited the I-City. Located just a few minutes from our home, we decided to go there since Papa Bear's Mom is here visiting and she has never been there. We just need a reason to go there... In fact, all of us have never been there since it is too near to us. You know how people always prefer to visit places that are far far away rather than those places that are within a walking distance from them...

From a distance, that would be the first thing that you would notice. Colorful trees! At first we thought that they were real trees but when we got there, they were not real trees... That's good! We would not like to see real trees being treated like that... Anyway, it was a breathtaking sight!

Mama Pasha, Bear's Mom and Pasha posing among the colorful trees...

Now it's Papa Bear's turn to pose and Mama Pasha take the picture...

It was not easy to get Pasha to stay still while we took his photo without the help of the flash. Anyway, Pasha had a great time walking around the park. He must have felt like a big boy as he refused to let us hold him. The yellow thing that he hit was actually a crescent moon shaped lamp. Now it looks like a tanglong...

This shot of Pasha and Mama taken at the bazaar area. Pasha was already preoccupied with the flashing and twirling light stuffs that were on sale there. He finally chose a remote controlled car with lighted tyres after spending some time trying to decide what he actually wanted out of the many interesting stuffs sold there...

Peace!

I-City is a good place for a whole family to just hangout and go for a fun stroll at the park. Located in between Shah Alam and Bukit Raja, it is open from 7pm to 2am. Don't go there during the day okay!

Our trip was worth it!

Coming Home

2010-05-25T06:05:00.000+08:00

MAS flight from Jakarta to KLIA - April 25, 2010

It was time to go home. A clear day with the sun shining brightly and the sky... err what did the sky supposed to do eh? Well, the sky was clear dotted with some sparse clouds... Yeah.., something like that as shown in the picture below. It was just past noon WIB when we took off...

My definition of sparse was that I could see the ground from up here...

Pasha was seated by the window while Mama was in the middle and Papa was on the aisle seat. Yo can see how bright was the day from the window next to Pasha. I was sleepy and Mama and Pasha were hungry... Just wait until the food was served...

What did I tell you? Mama and Pasha were busy digging into the food. What happened to Papa? Papa Bear ate after these pictures were taken and no picture of Papa Bear eating because Mama was too hungry too snap any picture... heheheh...

Soon after that, I went to sleep... If I am not mistaken all of us went to sleep... Did they? Hmm....

Goodbye Jakarta...

Pasha’s day out

2010-05-22T06:57:00.000+08:00

Posted on the May 22nd, 2010 under Pasha by papabear Edit

Pejaten Village Mall – Jakarta April 22, 2010

It was Pasha’s day out. Before he got totally bored at home, we took him to the Pejaten Mall so that he could run around for a while. He loves any playground and he would say yes especially if the place has at least a slide. He has an obsession with slides. When he was younger and smaller, my body was one of his first slides…

Here are the pictures taken at one of the playgrounds in the Pejaten Village Mall where Pasha and his Aunty Yuyi (Ruri) had a blast!

Pasha loved climbing and walking on high ground but Aunty Yuyi was having a bit of a problem there.

“It’s strong enough to support adults Aunty Yuyi. So, do not worry too much!”

Pasha is on the ground again and Aunty Yuyi felt relieved.

“What’s in the pool Pasha?”

I was tempted to get onto the bubbly pool but I managed to hold myself after contemplating about the consequences of bursting it. The plastic felt quite thick though…

This is Pasha’s favorite place. It’s a big slide. First he made Aunty Yuyi follow him down the slide. Then he had a girl joining him up and down the slide and finally, he had another boy who happened to enjoy the slide as much as he was…

Then a ball was brought up to the slide as well. Somehow the two boys felt an extra sensation when the ball joined them sliding down the big blue slide. That poor ball had never been so scared in its life that it didn’t say a single word…

There you go! Aunty Yuyi finally could easily breathe. The ball was feeling better when it had to slide no more and most importantly, Pasha had a super duper sliding-with-a-ball time!

Nasi Padang and No reverse Gear

2010-05-20T07:14:00.001+08:00

Jakarta April 24, 2010 - Somewhere in the city...

After spending more than half a day at the Inacraft 2010,we headed to our MPV to go home. Guess what? The MPV could not be reversed anymore. No matter how hard we tried putting the MPV into reverse, it kept on going forward. In the end, it had to be pushed out of the parking lot until there was enough space to move forward. When I took over the driving, I realized that the car only third and fourth gears left. So, first, second and reverse gears were gone!

Anyway, since all of us were famished after a long walk in the exhibition hall, we decided to get our lunch first. The trick was to go to a restaurant where we could easily park and not having to worry about reversing too much. Basically, if the MPV could be pushed out from the parking, that place would be selected.

Eventually we found a nasi padang restaurant by the roadside. The place was nice and food was not bad either despite being a bit pricey compared to the nasi padang places that we would normally go.

PapaBear pushing the 1,950kg beast + a 100kg brother in law at the steering wheel...

Here are the pics at the restaurant. I was too hungry to take any picture of the food but you could see some of them there. In KL when you go to a nasi padang restaurant, you choose what you want and then only they would serve you. In Jakarta, and other parts of Indonesia, I think, you just have to sit down and they would just bring everything to your table. Then you just eat whatever you want and leave the rest. You only pay for the food that you ate.

Anyway, it is not recommended to click on any of the pic above for a bigger view as we were busy making faces... You have been warned!

Inacraft 2010

2010-05-18T08:44:00.000+08:00

Jakarta April 24, 2010 - Inacraft 2010

Inacraft 2010, an Indonesian craft exhibition, was held at the Senayan Stadium. Mama Pasha was looking for some batik stuffs. I was looking for some trinkets to bring back home as souvenirs. Visitors had started to flood the place by the time we got there. Must be due to the fact that the day after was the last day. I guessed most of them were saving the best for last...

Mama Pasha & Pasha doing the t-shirt painting

Since people were just coming in, the place was not that crowded yet. A few hours later, you could hardly take photo of any booth there as all you could see were people and more people. It was amazing how many people were attracted to crafts. The seventh picture is showing Vincci as one of the exhibitors. Didn't know that Vinnci's shoes fall under craft category... hehehe...

While walking around looking for things that we wanted, Pasha spotted the t-shirt drawing spot under one of the stairs and he requested to join in. Out of the few limited designs that they had, Pasha went for Upin and Ipin. Pasha does not regularly watch Upin and Ipin as his favorite channel is Playhouse Disney but once in a while when we changed to TV9, he would enjoy watching Upin and Ipin. As a proof, he recognized them instead of those other unknown animals or cartoons...

So, this entry was not that much about the craft after all. Anyway, Mama Pasha got some batik stuffs and I got a few keychains and fridge magnets...

Breakfast in MPV

2010-05-17T06:46:00.001+08:00

Jakarta April 24, 2010

You read it right! I did not mean to write about breakfast in bed. This is breakfast in MPV and so far I only got to do it in Jakarta. That's the beauty of Jakarta. Anything goes!

It was a fine Saturday morning and we decided to send one of my sister in laws to her uni at Universitas Prof.Dr.Moestopo (Beragama). Notice that word "Beragama" in its name? I was told that for a student to study there, he or she must have a religion... Trying to imagine Universiti Teknologi Mara (Beragama)... Sounds kinda weird... But, that's the name. This morning I found out that even Malaysians go there for their dentist degree... Whatever they called that study is... So, it must be a well known school for dentists...

So what's so special about having breakfast in van? Well, the thing was, there's a tasty lontong for breakfast sold at one of the stalls new the uni. There was no way for us to park near the stall as there was not even a parking space there. By the time we got there, there were already lots of vehicles parked ahead of us and our spot was about 300 meter away from the stall.

The lontong is called Lontong Jhon. I thought the name was John but, as they told me, the owner of the stall always wear a soccer jersey with the word John printed at the back. You know how soccer jersey is. Out of curiosity, I walked over to the place and saw this guy wearing a red jersey with the word "Jhon" written at the back. Hence the Lontong Jhon...

And the only way to describe this lontong - delicious banget!

Oh ya! The person in the last pic is my other sister in law who single handedly brought all the lontong, including the plates, all the way from the stall to our MPV. Thanks Sita!

Pasha was still asleep when we got there... And the rest were all smiles after a delicious breakfast in the MPV!

Don't know what lontong is, click here!

Floras of Rumah Stroberi

2010-05-15T03:14:00.000+08:00

Continuing from Strawberry Picking...

This should be the conclusion of the Bandung trip series. The other attraction at Rumah Stroberi was the floras that covered every inch of the place. No matter where we went, we were greeted by gorgeous floras of different shapes, sizes and colors. I seriously did not know what each of them was except for one, which was the Bunga Raya or well known as Hibiscus rosa-sinensis. Aku buta bunga... I just loved snapping them and that was all about it.

These flowers reminded me of our trip to Cameron Highland a few years back where we had lots of flowers to feast our eyes upon as well. That would be the time when I wish I had a DSLR... Mahal ler...

Here are more of the awesome flowers. Most of them were white, yellow and pinkish... Must be purposely grown to match the strawberries... Pandai la aku...

These are the final pictures. So, enough flowers for now.

Stay tuned for our next entry!

Strawberry Picking

2010-05-14T07:55:00.001+08:00

Continuing from Nasi Liwet for Lunch…

As promised, here is the entry on strawberries. Actually when we got there, most of the strawberries had been picked by some other tourists. Fortunately, there were still some left for us to pick. Without haggling for the price, we picked the scissors and the plastic containers and went to the strawberries. Did I say haggling? The truth is that there was no need for bargaining as the price charged was reasonable… Watch out strawberries! Here we come!

It was Pasha’s first time picking strawberries and he was having lots of fun. He was truly excited when given the honor to cut the strawberries. In fact, all of us were very excited as well as it was not everyday that we had the chance to walk around cutting down strawberries from their plants… Best giler!

Can you see the fruits of our labor up there. Literally..haha… When the strawberries were weighted, we were actually short of the minimum weight. I could remember what was the weight as I was not really paying attention… Anyway, we asked the person who mannend the lot to complete the picking for us. Talk about some lazy bumps here…

How was the taste? Well, they were not completely sweet but not that sour either. Pasha could eat them just like that and to me, it was not bad at all. They tasted a bit better than what we normally get at our very own Cameron Highland.

Stay tuned for the series finale…

Nasi Liwet for Lunch

2010-05-13T08:24:00.000+08:00

Continuing from Rumah Stroberi...

Many readers have asked about the Nasi Liwet. What is Nasi Liwet? It is quite difficult for me to explain but all I can say is that it tasted really good. Anyway, you can click this Google link to read more about it: Nasi Liwet.

I have some pictures of the Nasi Liwet set that we ordered on that day. The rice was the main dish and from there on you can add whatever else that you like such as, grilled fish, grilled chicken, grilled lamb and many others. Basically, you can eat it with varieties of other dishes but believe me, it tasted great on its own as well. It was something like our Nasi Lemak but still it had something in it that made it unique...

Here you go. That was our Nasi Liwet and some of the other dishes that came with the set. A set for 4 people was only IDR110,000 (RM40 or USD 12). A very reasonable price for such tasty food.

Here are some photos of Pasha. The first one was taken after we were done with our strawberry picking (the entry on this would be published later. Sabar ya...). The last picture was one of the cats that made their home there. Pasha had a wonderful time playing with those cats and he stopped until that cat in the picture gave him a couple of scratches... Meoowww!

And lastly, for this entry but not the last for this Bandung trip, more pictures showing the surrounding of the Rumah Stroberi. One thing for sure was that it had lots of space for kids to run around...

Stay tuned for the entry about strawberry picking... Coming soon!

Rumah Stroberi

2010-05-12T08:22:00.000+08:00

Continuing from Bandung – Looking for strawberry farm...

Rumah Stroberi or directly translated to English as Strawberry House was a place that worth the trouble and a long climb up the hill to get there. The place was highly suitable for a family getaway and to us, apart from the scenery, the strawberry picking and the delicious Nasi Liwet were the highlights of the place...

Take a look at some of the pics that we took over there. See all the greens surrounding the place. Pasha loved it a lot as he got to explore the place and not to mention that the whole place was clean and well maintained. Cantik kan?

There were lots of flowers around the place and I would be posting that in another entry and there were also strawberries that you can pick and that would be in another entry as well... Tunggu...

Now, enjoy the rest of the pictures. I like that wheel and I don't know why... Look at the backgrounds. They were lots of green colors around... a far cry from the concrete jungle of Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur...

Till the next entry, stay tuned...

Bandung – Looking for strawberry farm

2010-05-11T07:32:00.000+08:00

Posted on the April 23rd, 2010 under Traveling & Holidays by papabear

On 23/04/2010 we went to Bandung to attend Tity Sweets wedding at Kota Baru Parahyangan. Unfortunately, our camera ran out of battery and therefore, we did not have any photos taken by our camera. We did take some photos using some other people’s camera but we have yet to see our pictures surfaced anywhere… Macam la ada orang nak publish gambar kita orang ni…

Anyway, after we were done with the wedding, we decided to look for some strawberry farms. The first option was a farm called All About Strawberry. Unfortunately, when we got there, they had run out of strawberry to pick. So, we decided to look for another farm called the Rumah Stroberi (Strawberry House).

Before we began our adventure drive looking for the strawberry farms, we stopped for a quick lunch just outside of the housing complex where Tity Sweets live. We decided to go for an economy Japanese Restaurant. The food was so-s0 but then compared to the price we paid for them, it was not that bad…

Pasha was busy playing with the tractor that he got from Tity Sweets as his birthday present. He was preoccupied with picking up batteries with his new toy and once in a while stopped for a sip of Teh Botol, the famous Indonesian soft drink. It’s tea with jasmine flavor and excellent when served chilled…

Then we went for our farm hunting and as mentioned above, we had to go for the second option, which was the Rumah Stroberi. It was a long journey as we had no maps, no Internet access over the phone to check the Google Maps and no GPS as I have not downloaded the Indonesian map into my Garmin Mobile XT. Jadi redah je la…

After stopping a few times asking for directions, we finally made it to the place. In the last picture, you can see Mama Pasha alighting from the minivan as we arrived at our destination…

To be continued…

Birthday party in Jakarta - Final

2010-05-09T08:15:00.000+08:00

Continuing from Birthday party in Jakarta – Part 2...

This would be the last part of Pasha's birthday party in Jakarta... Akhirnya... Now let's see what did Pasha get from uncles, aunties and friends that came that evening...

His favorite is the Thomas train set as he could not let his eye off it. He was patiently waiting for me to finish taking all the pictures before he could open the box. The other presents include some t-shirts, a mickey mouse basket ball set, a play dough set, a write and wipe book, a few puzzles and a transformer... Thank you all for the lovely presents...

Here are the pictures of some kids that came to the party and Pasha posing with some of them... A birthday part would not be as much fun without kids running around and once a while, messing up stuffs... Mak bapak le yang pening...

Now posing for the last times, all the parents and kids... Till next time and hope to see everyone again! End of a great birthday party in Jakarta.

Birthday party in Jakarta - Part 2

2010-05-07T08:49:00.001+08:00

The party begins... Continuing from Birthday party in Jakarta - Part 1...

More friends have arrived and the party started. Pasha has been eyeing his birthday cake. Not so much about the cake but more about getting the opportunity to blow his birthday candles one more time...

Candle blowing was the most exciting time not only for Pasha but for other kids as well. No wonder that some kids would just fight their way through other kids to get as close as possible to candles... If in KL he blew the candles on his Thomas cake, in Jakarta the candles were on his Chuggington cake.

Then came the time to open the presents. Pasha got some new presents again. That was the third present opening ceremony for him. As he opened the Thomas set, he stopped for a while and ignored the other presents. Somehow, Thomas is still his best toy ever... Cinta kali ama Thomas...

After some distractions, Pasha agreed to open the rest of the presents but as soon as he finished with all the presents, he went back, to no other than his Thomas set... In the last photo, Pasha had already made his way to the his hideout (the bedroom) to open the Thomas set...

To be continued...

Birthday party in Jakarta - Part 1

2010-05-05T06:45:00.000+08:00

Continuing from Nasi Tumpeng and more presents for Pasha...

Finally Sunday came and it was time for Pasha's Birthday Bash. We had his first birthday celebration at home as he would not be able to figure out things at one year old. His second birthday was held in Gymboree Bangsar and it went great. At that time he already understood the fun of having a birthday party. This year, we have been requested to have the party in Jakarta and there we were...

Two friends and their family came early that day. We were not quite ready yet. Look at Pasha who was still wearing his bedtime t-shirt and shorts and I was also still wearing my shorts on the third photo up there. Tapi kami dah mandi la time tu... One thing for sure, Pasha was thrilled to get visits from other kids...

While we were not ready, the food was all ready and served. We had the Thomas cake that we brought all the way from KL, friend noodles, something wrapped in banana leaf that were bought from the local market and the main attraction, the Chuggington cake complete with some cupcakes.

To be continued...

Nasi Tumpeng and more presents for Pasha

2010-05-04T06:05:00.001+08:00

Continuing from Off To Jakarta...

Since we took an early flight from KL, we have lots of day time to spend that Saturday in Jakarta. As a tradition in Mamapasha's family, the special food for the birthday person would be the Nasi Tumpeng Kuning or a direct translation would be the Yellow Conical Rice. Below are some photos of the Nasi Tumpeng and its accompanying dishes...

Next pictures to the Nasi Tumpeng are fried tempeh, bumbu bali.. agaknye la.. which was tofus and eggs in some soupy sauce, fried ikan teri, ayam kremes (fried chicken) and mixed vegetables... quite a complete meal ha...

Those are the photos of us enjoying the Nasi Tumpeng including Pasha even though he was, most of the time, preoccupied with his Thomas cake. He did take a few mouthful and that was it. Well, for your information, Pasha is not really big on eating... payah betul nak bagi makan Pasha nih...

here are some shots of Pasha taking a break as well as "torturing" his uncle Nanang with the balloon blowing "game". You could also see that he still has the fascination for fans... There must be something about a fan that could really grab his attention like no other thing...

Later that night, Pasha was treated to another round of presents from his grandma, aunties and uncle. There was a new Thomas the Tank Engine to replaced the two that were lost somewhere on a ferry to Dumai and in IKEA. There were some puzzles, coloring books and t-shirts.

Pasha's birthday celebration has gone to round 2!

Off to Jakarta

2010-05-01T13:26:00.001+08:00

Continuing from Happy Birthday Pasha.

We arrived very early at the KLIA. Some shops were still closed and the check in counters would not be opened until 6:00am. We checked ourselves in via the check-in kiosk but for some reasons whatsoever, after spending many minutes trying to figure out how the machine works, it was unable to dispense the boarding pass... So, we still had to go through the manual process at the counter. Later I was told that it could be running out of pass... Oh well...

So, to kill the time, we had a little breakfast (with a big price tag) somewhere near the MAS check in counters so that it would be easier to see when they are open...

Right at 6:00am the check-in counters opened and we got our boarding passes, with the seats that we selected during the self check in at the kiosk. At least this one worked much batter than the one used by AirAsia that could not even read the passport details... One up for MAS.

The flight was on time and we boarded the aircraft via the bridge from the terminal. No more walking to the aeroplane like we used to do when we took AirAsia at the LCCT. Not long after the flight took off, we had our breakfast served. The choice of food on the MAS flight might be limited but the great thing is that the set came with a complete main dish, a drink and a dessert. On top of that, you can order additional drinks for free. Imagine how much it would have cost you if you were having that on an AirAsia flight... Times 3 pax... It just does not make sense...

Pasha woke up very early for the 7:50 flight to Jakarta. Shortly after breakfast, he went back to sleep...

Now a little note about our flight. When we hunted for the tickets to Jakarta, the MAS and AirAsia tickets were about the same price. We decided to go for MAS due to:

Depart from KLIA instead of LCCT. KLIA is way much more comfortable compared to LCCT.

We did not have to talked to sour faced check in staffs at the AirAsia counters (especially in the morning). The MAS staff who checked us in was very cheerful at 6:00am.

We did not have to worry about paying for extra baggage as the allowable weight by MAS is much higher than AirAsia.

We did not have to worry about paying extra for food.

Kids would always get to board the plane first without having to pay for such privilege.

That should be enough reasons. Do you still want to go on AirAsia? Only if MAS have more flights, AirAsia could be flying only goats and cows... lalalala....

Happy Birthday Pasha

2010-04-19T00:45:00.002+08:00

Pasha turns 3 today! It was just passed midnight and Pasha was still wide awake watching his favorite "bedtime" videos... I was already enjoying my trip to the La-La Land when I heard... "Happy Birthday Pasha!" from MamaPasha...

It was the moment that Pasha had been waiting for since yesterday... Well, that yesterday was only a few hours ago... But, I guess, for a 3 year old, few hours could feel like a few days... The Thomas cake was specially baked by none other than the owner of d Cuppies herself, MamaPasha. The moment that Pasha had been wanting the most was the blowing of the candle and finally. that morning, he did it... Dah besar anak ku...

Next came the time to open the presents. MamaPasha bought the three most wanted Chuggington characters for him. They're Wilson, Brewster and Koko. I said most wanted since it would be extremely difficult to but them at any toy store in KL. Luckily MamaPasha managed to get all three just in the nick of time...

Anyway, Pasha took Koko first and did not know that Wilson and Brewster would be the surprised for his Birthday. In short, he was elated to find them that morning... So, now he has all three of them... Ans Koko is still his favorite engine.

As for PapaBear, I was still half asleep at that time but waking up at that moment was priceless...

For Pasha, we would be having the birthday party in Jakarta tomorrow and we are sure that he would enjoying another round of candle blowing time soon!

Happy Birthday my son! May you grow to be a great person! Amiin...

Our new Digital Camera

2010-04-12T09:04:00.000+08:00

Apr 10th, 2010 by papabear

We bought a new digital camera last week. It was on sale at Foto Shangri-La. The sale price was RM298 for a newly released Nikon COOLPOX L21. How do you pronounce it? Is it Knee-Con or Nye-Con or Nigh-Con?

We need a simple camera to operate from a reputable brand and at the same time it would not burn a hole through our pockets. Before we found this one, the closest was Sony DSC-S2000 selling at RM399.

Our budget was RM300. Terlebih la pulak…

One morning, on my way to work, there was an advert on digital camera sales at Foto Shangri-La. Apalagi, went to their website and saw the sales. That weekend, we dropped by their outlet at OU and bought it. Mamapahsa liked it pink and we got it pink.

At the same time, we left our old but super strong Panasonic FX-7 there to be repaired. So, that was the reason for getting another camera. Pasha broke the battery and SD card lid. The whole lid was already gone by the time we sent in the camera. It was a robust camera and once fixed, it would be one of Pasha’s toys… He loves snapping his own pictures and now he can have his own digital camera that comes with Leica lens, anti-shake and 5.0 MP lens. Boleh tahan jugak la for a toy!

March Cakes

2010-04-06T15:17:00.004+08:00

kisah ttg masing2 cake bisa di baca disini ya..
http://cuppies.kisahberuang.com

Food and Fun Sunday

2010-04-05T03:06:00.000+08:00

Apr 4th, 2010 by papabear

We had food and we had fun and those are two of the most important ingredients in leading a happy life. Betul tak? To start off, Mamapasha’s giraffe cake made it to Restoran Rebung! Do you know this restaurant? If you don’t then susah la babe… This is the restaurant owned by the famous Celebrity Chef Ismail. Now you know.

Can you see the giraffe at the center of the pics above? For your information, that is not a soft toy or plastic giraffe but it is a real cake. The first standing and kept on standing cake made by Mamapasha. Bravo ayang!!!

Chef Ismail did not order that cake but one of our customers did and it so happen that he was having his surprise birthday party event at Rebung. So, we tumpang the glamour arr..

If you want a cake like that, visit us at http://cuppies.kisahberuang.com/ and talk to Mamapasha. Free advert nih… ha ha…

Next, we went for our late lunch at Chawan in Bangsar Baru. We went there many times when Pasha was schooling at Gymboree.

Mamapasha would always ordered the same dish over and over again and that was the Lontong. I, on the other hand, would always go a dish that I have not tried and this time it was the Curry Laksa… It was not as nice as I expected… My fovourite would still be the Beriyani Kambing, Nasi lemak, Nasi Dagang and Ubi Kayu Rebus….

Enough food for all. Next stop was KizSports at Bangsar Village II. We paid Rm25 for an unlimited session plus another RM17.70 for 3 pairs of socks. Next time must remember to bring our own socks ha! To make the story short, that place was Pasha’s heaven. I wouldnow let the pics do the talking…

Anyway, both Mamapasha and Pasha had a good exercise that evening. Papabear cheated and decided to only do the pic snapping… hehe.. Furthermore, ayang, I might get stuck in one of those colourful tubes you know…

Finally, we were back in Shah Alam and before heading home, we had dinner at Kedai Kopi by the Shah Alam lake… If you want some reasonably nice food at a price that would not make hole in your pocket, this is one of those places that you can go.

Mamapasha ordered the fried kueyteow or kuetiau or I don’t the know the right spelling for that and I had the Mee Bandung. Pasha had some fries and shared the coconut water with Mama…

Shortly after we paid for dinner, Pasha want to sleep and he was still sleeping when I typed in this entry…

That was our Sunday…

Penat but lots of fun!

How to train your Dragon

2010-04-03T06:44:00.001+08:00

Apr 2nd, 2010 by papabear

This was the first movie that the 3 of us watched at the cinema. The movie was full of laughter, many suspense, a bit of romance and lots of fiery but cute dragons… cute like dogs…

This was how the story went:

Hiccup is the son of the Chief, Stoick the Vast, on the island of Berk. Hiccup’s village is plagued by dragons, which raid the village and steal from their stock of sheep. Hiccup works as an apprentice to the blacksmith, Gobber the Belch.

One night during a dragon raid, Hiccup hits the never-before-seen Night Fury dragon with an automatic net launcher that he built himself, but nobody else in the village sees it. Attempting to get proof, Hiccup travels into the forest where the dragon may have fallen. He comes to a small canyon and sees the Night Fury tangled in his net. After struggling with himself, Hiccup can’t bring himself to kill the helpless dragon and sets it free…

The rest, go and watch the movie yourself… Kalau cerita semua, tak best la kan….

In summary, you can say that dragons are man’s (and woman’s) best friend…

I highly recommend that you watch this with your family or friends… If alone, better watch at home arr…

Taking Pasha to the Movie

2010-03-29T09:09:00.001+08:00

Mar 28th, 2010 by papabear

On Saturday, we decided to take Pasha to the movie for the first time. He is almost three now and we thought that it would be the right time to take him to the cinema. Furthermore, we, ourselves have not been to the movie for more than 3 years now… That’s a long time. Downloaded movies watched at home could never beat the excitement of the big screens at the cinemas…

Before the movie started, we went for lunch at the Gerobak, an Indonesian cafe located just at the entrance of the Cathay Cineplex at Cineleisure. The empek-empek kapal selam and the teh botol were excellent but the fried chicken and sayur asem were not that good. My pangsit was quite okay though… Pasha loved the empek-empek!

Here is photos of Pasha enjoying his popcorn while waiting for the show to begin. Pasha really liked the salty popcorn. I did not get him the sweet version as he might get super hyper in the cinema… Looking at the popcorn containers, looked like Malaysians preferred the sweet to the salty popcorn… No wonder we need to have campaigns about taking less sugar…

Oh no! Grumpy bear! That is a photo of me forgetting to smile… duh… It was an exciting day and I was not quick enough to smile… duh… Nevertheless, we had Pasha doing all the smiling… That would be good enough then… And yes, we went to watch Dragon, without the 3D. We did not think that Pasha was ready for the 3D glasses…. RM200 if you damaged them… Giler…

Finally, we got into the cinema. Yeah, I missed the smiling moment again… double duh… Pasha was quite comfortable for the first 30 minutes, got a bit restless during the next 30 minutes and lost focus throughout the movie after that… The last position he was at was at the stairs playing with a girl who happened to lose focus as well…

Well… Anyway, Dragon was an excellent movie. You should go and watch it.

UniFi is here

2010-03-27T19:40:00.000+08:00

Mar 26th, 2010 by papabear

Would it be just another hype? Could it change the broadband landscape in Malaysia? UniFi is the recently launched high speed broadband services (HSBB) and it is already making waves…

I sent them and email asking them about the service availability at 40100. Here is the reply:

Dear Bear,

We just checked your address against current availability, and as of today, your address IS NOT serviceable.

However, we are adding FDCs (Fibre Drop Cabinets) as fast as we can, concentrating on the SBJ, Bangsar, TTDI, and Shah Alam areas.

Please take the time to go to

http://www.tm.com.my/connecting-you/digital-lifestyle/hsbb/_layouts/TM/hsbb_form_new/HSBBInterest.aspx

register with us.

Please register as we will be using the registration list to call customers who can get the service as we add new FDCs. Feel free to call us in about a month and we will check for you again. Our goal is to produce better customer service than TM has had in the past. We want to win your confidence!

Thank you and have a nice day! J

Regards,

Shira

TM UniFi Centre

(Sales) : 1 300 88 1222 Mon-Fri (9am – 9pm) , Sat (10am-6pm)

(Customer Support) : 1 300 88 1221 (24×7)

E-Mail: enquiry@unifi.my

Sadly, 40100 is not ready for it yet. What a shame. I would be contacting them again next month!

Nuffnang Ka-ching

2010-03-25T08:13:00.001+08:00

Mar 24th, 2010 by papabear

I banked in my first Nuffnang check today. Not much but it’s as good as not having to fork out my own money to pay toll to work for one whole week…

RM 50.49

Not bad for part time blogging ha!

Thanks Nuffnang!

Have you cashed out yours?

Shutter Island

2010-03-23T07:03:00.000+08:00

1954. U.S. marshal Teddy Daniels is assigned to investigate the disappearance of a patient from Boston’s Shutter Island Ashecliffe Hospital. He’s been pushing for an assignment on the island for personal reasons, but before long he wonders whether he hasn’t been brought there as part of a twisted plot by hospital doctors whose radical treatments range from unethical to illegal to downright sinister. Teddy’s shrewd investigating skills soon provide a promising lead, but the hospital refuses him access to records he suspects would break the case wide open. As a hurricane cuts off communication with the mainland, more dangerous criminals “escape” in the confusion, and the puzzling, improbable clues multiply, Teddy begins to doubt everything – his memory, his partner, even his own sanity.

Boleh pening jugak tengok citer nih…

In the end? What’s real and what is not? Is he really a Marshall or just one of the patients or something else..?

Watch it to find out.

Fans of Leonardo DiCaprio should look for this movie.

Love bites

2010-03-20T06:11:00.001+08:00

Ouch! I was watching the American Idol a few days back and they were doing the Rolling Stones stuffs. Suddenly, it reminded me to one of the songs that I used to listen to a lot during my first few months living in the US... Agak agak jiwang la zaman tuh... Well, it has got nothing to do with Rolling Stones though... It's just about some of those good old years memories...

Enjoy Love Bites by Def Leppard.

If you've got love in your sights
Watch out, love bites

When you make love, do you look in the mirror?
Who do you think of?
Does he look like me?
Do you tell lies?
And say that it's forever?
Do you think twice, or just touch and see?
Ooh babe
Oh yeah
When you're alone, do you let go?
Are you wild and willin', or is it just for show?
Ooh C'mon

I don't wanna touch you too much baby
'Cos making love to you might drive me crazy
I know you think that love is the way you make it
So I don't wanna be there when you decide to break it
No!

Chorus
(Love bites, love bleeds)
It's bringin' me to my knees
(Love lives, love dies)
It's no surprise
(Love begs, love pleads)
It's what I need

When I'm with you, are you somewhere else?
Am I gettin' thru or do you please yourself?
When you wake up, will you walk out?
It can't be love if you throw it about
Ooh babe

I don't wanna touch you too much baby
'Cos making love to you might drive me crazy
Oh

Chorus
(Love bites, love bleeds)
It's bringin' me to my knees
(Love lives, love dies)
It's no surprise
(Love begs, love pleads)
It's what I need

(Guitar Solo)

Oh yeah!

I don't wanna touch you too much baby
'Cos making love to you might drive me crazy
I know you think that love is the way you make it
So I don't wanna be there when you decide to break it
No!

(Love bites, love bleeds)
It's bringin' me to my knees
(Love lives, love dies)

(Love bites, love bleeds)
It's bringin' me to my knees
(Love lives, love dies)
It's no surprise
(Love begs, love pleads)
It's what I need

If you've got love in your sights
Watch out, love bites

Never ending project

2010-03-17T06:47:00.000+08:00

Mar 16th, 2010 by papabear

It was supposed to end in February 2010 but it did not…

Then they committed to end it by the end of March 2010… That would not happen either…

That’s one of my current project… Project DeeElPee.

Project for people who are full of gas and oily stuffs…

Last time they were always talking about granularity…

The Italian talked about it. The Honkee or are they called Hong Konger? Anyway, they talked about it too.

The Singaporeans talked about it… and the Indians as well…

Soon enough, the Malaysians like it too…

Granularity.

Then things got so mixed up. Mixed up to a point where we were having meeting of minutes…

So, someone took minutes in the meeting of minutes… Strange but true…

Recently, it was a lot about false positive…

You look positive. False…

Are things positive?

Things look like they are getting worse when we started trying to send emails via attachments…

So now we use an attachment to send an email with attachments…

But looks can be deceiving…

Things are getting better.

It might not make sense.

To you.

LHDN gave me CP500

2010-03-14T21:42:00.003+08:00

What a surprised! I didn’t even now that there was such an income tax form called CP500. Macam macam la dorang ni nak ambil duit kita… After google-ing it, I found out that CP500 is more applicable to those with side incomes.. Incomes that came from selling insurance policies, multilevel marketing and anything of that sort…

I was asked to pay RM380.oo in 6 installments… Sesuka hati mak bapak dorang je…

So, I called up the Customer Service Center at 1-300-88-3010 to seek some clarification. The first question that the person asked was whether I do have any side income or not… I do not consider blogging as a source of side income and therefore I said no…

He then as me to wait for him to check something and after a while he came back and said that my CP500 form has been cancelled…

Hmm…

So, if you are also one of the lucky Malaysians who received CP500 form and you do not have any side income, make sure you call them to verify it’s status…

Kuala Lipis Trip...

2010-03-12T08:42:00.010+08:00

Ceritanya.. Wan Raisah.. Mertua g.. Neneknya si Pasha.. diminta bikin acara syukuran nyambut menantu ama adik ipar.. Karena modal terbatas.. jadilah g ketibanan kerjaan bikinin camilan and dessert juga makanan untuk hantaran balik ke keluarga besan... segala permen, handuk kecil, mini jelly dan kotak2 goddie bag udah disediain ama sodara2 emak lainnya.. tinggal nambahin 1 jenis cupcake disetiap kotanya yg totalnya ada 200buah..

berikut penampakan 8 jenis cupcake yg g buat untuk acara tersebut..

sepanjang g sibuk didapur mengadon bahan untuk 200 cupcake + 25 cupcake hantaran + 1 wedding cake itu.. yang ti nya pasha lah yg ngambil alih tugas ngelonin dan ngeladenin pasha... dan ini adalah salah satu contoh kegiatan mreka berdua.. hihihi.. uti dikerjain pasha disuruh mewarnai terus.. :P sementara dia asik2 main entah ngapain aja tapi klo balik lagi gambarnya gak dikerjain pasti bakal ngambek..

penampakan kulkas g.. penuh ama cupcake.. sampe cake g jungkir2 demi masuk semua..

penampakan 200cupcake setelah dibungkus individual..

setelah manten sampai dirumah.. pasha kangen udah lama gak ketemu diajakin ngobrol dah..

suasana makan2 di luar rumah setelah tahlilan..

hidangan hantaran balik untuk keluarga besan..

ayam percik ayamas, photo cake pengantin, macaroni schotel..

ditambah hidangan es buah setup nenas ala utinya pasha.. special buat keluarga besan..

Hari itu.. g jatuh cinta lagi melihat bentuk kasih sayang suami ku kepada ibunya.. dia yg g tahu dalam kesehariannya selama hampir 4 tahun menikah.. gak pernah mo ngerjain apa2an dirumah nya sendiri.. hari itu dgn mata kepala g sendiri menyaksikan.. dia melakukan smua bentuk kerjaan tanpa milih2.. dari nyetepless goddiebag yg udah g isi sebanyak 200bh.. masang tirai untuk layar background tempat makan pengantin, nyusun kursi tamu, menghias meja makan pengantin, sampe pasang seprei dan gorden dikamar pengantin dia kerjain smuanya... salut banget dah.. klo dirumah mah boro2 banget dia mo ngerjain begituan!!! saking sayangnya dia sama ibunya.. smua dikerjain dgn sungguh2.. smoga Allah memberikan banyak kemudahan dalam hidup mu duhai kekasih hati mu.. karna bentuk cinta yg tulus yg kamu berikan kepada ibumu..ibumu.. ibumu..

me luv u papa.. mmwaaaah!

utinya pasha.. lega dah akhirnya kelar juga acaranya..

sukses alhamdulillah walau kaki terpincang2..

gak bisa duduk di lantai..

karna kamar tidur kita dipake manten.. jadilah tergusur ketempat ini.. lumayan bersih hotel baru.. RM93 untuk kamar dengan 1 Queen bed plus 1 single bed.. dan cukup luas menerut g ketimbang Lipis Plaza...

sekian kisah saya hari ini dan trima kasih...

Kelantan Trip..

2010-03-10T05:22:00.002+08:00

Feb 24, 2010.. by mamapasha

bikin 3 cake.. yg cosmetic bag.. untuk temen baikku yg lagi ultah.. yg LV Speed 30 dipesan Bella untuk hantaran kakaknya.. LV Beverly MM yang terakhir untuk hantaran adik ipar… cake terakhir ini dibawak travell almost 12hrs driving.. ke kelantannya lewat kuantan dan trengganu dulu jadi sampe ditempat udah gak berbentuk dah cakenya.. tangkai pegangannya putus.. klipnya kebuka.. pusing dah g.. akhirnya di kotakin dalam keadaan yg seadanya.. duh nggak banget deh bawa cake sejauh2 gaban lagi.. dari trip cake hari ini akhirnya g belajar.. klo fondant itu kokoooh banget!! asal…. butter cream buat pelapis nya gak terlalu banyak.. jadi melekat dengan sempurna.. gak ada kelebihan creamnya.. yg membuat cake jadi melted.. another thing.. siapin bener2 smua dekorasi fondant 1 minggu sebelum di pasang di cake.. jadi bener2 keras dan gak bakal berubah posisinya..

anak g lagi punya hobby baru.. mewarnai buku.. hihihi.. tiap 2 minggu beli buku ma crayon .. thomas and chuggington tetep jadi fav-nya… satu lagi.. dia demen stiker.. jadi g kudu nyiapin satu buku khusus untuk nempel2in stikernya.. eheheh.. udah pinter deh pasha sekarang.. bulan depan udah mo ultah ke 3 ya nak.. hehehe.. sungguh bermanfaat banget deh didikan utinya.. klo ama mama smuanya suruh mama yg gambar ya.. klo ama uti mau gambar sendiri.. sampe bingung mama gimana caranya uti bisa bikin pasha mau gambar sendiri..

Feb 26, 2010.

nyampe kota bharu udah jam 8 malem.. cuman ada 30mnt doang buat siap2 dan lgs ke masjid baut majlis akad nikah.. gak langsung pulang setelah acara dapet jemputan “supper” dirumah besan.. sungguh hari yg melelahkan.. pasha udah kelaperan.. tapi gak bisa nahan ngantuk dan capek.. jadi dia tertidur sebelum nyampe tempat makan… mana pake acara nyasar lagi salah rumah.. duh lucu banget deh.. gak guide konvoinya ni.. ngocol deh!! )

besoknya pada bangun siang.. pegel.. sempet nyarap dihotel.. mandi2 baru deh jalan ke tempat manten.. sekali lagi kejadian.. penganten ketinggalan alat perang nya hahaha.. yg lebih lucu lagi meninggalkak aki tam di rumah.. masya allah.. saking panik nya sampe orang jg sampe ketinggalan dirumah mana udah dikunci smua lagi.. masya allah.. pok da… how ever.. its pleasant moment deh.. dapet sodara2 baru…

G akuin.. Trengganu adalah kota yg sungguh indah… Melekat manis dalam ingatan.. duh g langsung jatuh cinta deh.. pantainya ituuu…. waaaaaaaaa… dalam perjalanan kesana jg ngelewatin komplek petronas.. yg mirip banget ama komplek pertamina dumai.. dengan kilang2 minyak.. dan aroma nya.. membuat g berasa di kampung halaman sendiri.. pemandangannya gak jauh beda ama masa2 g dibesarkan dulu… dan pasha pun bener2 enjoy pantai trengganu…

Pasha's Update

2010-03-10T04:37:00.002+08:00

March 9, 2010..
cmn pengen nandain hari bersejarah dalam hidup g..
hari ini untuk pertama kalinya g sanggup ninggalin pasha sendirian dikelas musiknya..
minta ijin ke pasha klo g pengen ke belakang bentar.. and during 45mnt session dikelas itu tanpa g.. gak g sangka ternyata pasha sanggup stay didalem kelas and mau denger instruction dari guru musiknya.. beda banget ama pas g atau utinya tungguin.. subhanallah... kamu sudah besar anakku... sudah selangkah lebih mandiri.. sayang kelas di gymboree sudah harus berakhir minggu depan.. this sunday is going tobe his last day at gymboree programme.. *uhuks.. mama yg lagi sedih..

One for Touch’ n Go

2010-03-10T04:34:00.000+08:00

Mar 8th, 2010 by papabear

I noticed that one transaction was missing from my Touch n’ Go eStatement and it was one of the biggest transaction for the month. It was a RM21.00 transaction for a trip from Jabor to Karak… That might affect the 20% rebate amount for the month of February… Banyak tuh!

As usual, I called up the online customer services to give them the benefit of the doubt that this time it would not be another bad experience. I spoke to a person called Ms Tagala… It didn’t take long for me to anticipate another row with the phone service people… duh…

I told her that I needed an assurance that the amount would be reflected accordingly for my rebate and she refused to give me a straight answer by saying that it was a common thing that always happened to their system… What a system that they have… Finally, I agreed to have a fax the missing details to me for my reference if needed. And that’s when the nightmare started…

When I checked the fax machine the next day, there was a cover page saying a total of six pages but the rest of the pages were not there.

So, I called up again and this time a guy called Mr Fibroid answered and he promised to fax me a fresh copy. Again, I checked the fax machine. It was neither a fresh fax copy, since Ms Tagala’s name was on the fax cover and again, only the cover page was there.

I had to give them a call for the third time and Mr Fibroid was there again and asked me to wait at the fax machine. I waited… and waited… and waited… This time, not even the cover page appeared! Bodoh betul!

I then made the fourth call and another lady picked up asking for my card number again… I told her, “You guys are really ridiculous” and I put down the phone.

Then I made the fifth call and this time Ms Tagala picked up and I told her about her fax problem. She did not even apologize and told me that she would fax another copy… Memang la bengong minah ni…. I told her she can fax it to herself since I want my copy emailed to me. She just said ok… It was like talking to a zombie… without the usual zombie gnarling sounds or whatever sounds that zombies make….

A few days later, I got the statement mailed to me but it was the statement for the whole month of January 2010. All I asked for was for a specific day in February 2010. The email did not come with any greetings and signature. There was only, “Upon your request, we herewith enclosed missing transaction for your reference”. That confirmed Ms Tagala was really a zombie. One rude zombie. I wonder how much do they pay zombies compared to normal humans?

So, out of sheer dissatisfaction, I wrote them an email:

Hi there,

I think there is something wrong with your call center staffs, particularly Tagala? I have told her many times that the missing record that I needed is for 26 February 2010! Why are you sending me transactions for January 2010?

Please get you act together and send me the correct transaction records.

Papa Bear

And finally, after sending the email, Touch n’ Go decided that they should get a human to attend to me. I received a call from Ms Aliza and followed by an email and the statement that I needed:

Dear Papa Bear,

Thank you for your email.

First of all, we regret that our service is not up to expectation during your call to our Careline Centre on 04 March 2010. We will ensure that all our staff are continuously trained to assist customers effectively.

We enclose missing transaction no. 62098 and transactions from 25 – 27 February 2010 for your reference.

If you have any further enquiries, please do not hesitate to contact our Touch ‘n Go Careline Centre at 03-7628 5115 (7.30am to 7.30pm : Monday to Sunday), email to careline@touchngo.com.my or logon to our website, at www.touchngo.com.my for more information. We will be glad to assist you.

Yours faithfully,
Aliza
Touch ‘n Go Careline

There you go. Why couldn’t they get it right the first time? Buang masa betui!

Anyway, thanks to Ms Aliza for resolving the matters promptly and watch out for Ms Tagala the zombie of Touch n’ Go!

Another one with Maxis

2010-03-03T09:06:00.000+08:00

Mar 2nd, 2010 by papabear

I had another tiff with Maxis a few days ago. This time was about trying to clarify some amounts stated in the monthly statement. I had called the call center and somehow, the first person that I talked too was unable to complete the assistance due to time and the second person, the one that pissed me off, led me to write an official complain to Maxis. As usual, real names are not used here for obvious reasons…

Hi,

With reference to your SMS from Maxis CS on 26/12/2009, I should write directly if I am not getting the required services from your online Customer Services. Here are the problems:

The problem on the statement dated 14/2/2010 was logged with Ms Zuzuka on 24/2/2010. However, due to the time taken for her to check on the problem, she had to call me back but unfortunately, I did not have the time to answer her calls.
Today, on 1/3/2010, I called back the Broadband Customer Services and this time another person called Ms Tang attended to my problem. The issues are:
Ms Tang refused to pass the call to Ms Zuzuka and insisted that I give her details for Ms Zuzuka to call back. I refused as this would waste more time. I asked her to take on the case.
Ms Tang took on the case but reported that there was no information left by Ms Zuzuka on my problem. I had to explain the whole thing all over again to her. Why is my reported problem not logged into the system so that the next consultant can follow up instead of asking the customer to repeat everything all over again?

On the statement dated 14/2/2010 for 0122223333, the total amount billed is 37.16. According to Ms Zuzuka and Ms Tang, the amount in the system is 32.68. Why is the difference?
I have asked both of them to explain on the statement as I do not understand the figure 100% Bundle Rebate x 2 months -15.35 and RM20(Bonanza Bundle Rebate) -15.49. How do you arrive to these figures?
Ms Tang did not want to do anything else and asked me to bring the statement to the nearest Maxis center for clarification. That is unacceptable. Why do you have phone support if I need to take off from work and visit your center?

Hope to hear from you soon.
Thanks.

The good thing was Maxis replied promptly and the explanation given was exactly the kind of response that I would expect from the call center staffs. Here is the reply:

Dear Encik Papa Bear,

Thank you for contacting Maxis.

We understand that you are eligible for 2 months free access fee from registration date of your Maxis Broadband service. In the 1st statement of account dated 14th December 2009, you have been charged on a prorated basis at RM53.47. The rebate was given according to its amount charged.

In 2nd statement of account dated 14th January 2010, you have been charged RM88.00 and the rebate was accordingly given.

In 3rd statement of account dated 14th February 2010, the access fee was charged at RM68.00 while the rebate of RM15.35 being the difference from the 1st month has been given. Rightfully the amount of rebate that is supposed to be shown in the bill is RM14.53 (RM68.00 access fee minus RM53.47 from December 2009 statement). However, the system has given an additional rebate of RM0.82 cents (RM15.35 minus RM14.53).

After the free access fee period ends, you are supposed to be charged at RM48.00 per month. In the same bill dated 14th February 2010, a rebate was given at 15.49 when you are supposed to be getting a full rebate of RM20.00. The difference of RM4.51 has been accordingly credited to your account. This credit will reflect in your upcoming statement of account dated 14th March 2010. Rest assured moving forward you will see a complete rebate of RM20.00 in your monthly bills.

Please accept our sincere apologies for the inconvenience caused in relation to your recent service experience. This incident has prompted us to stress the importance of service delivery and our commitment to our valued customers. We acknowledge that there is some work for us to do in order to restore your confidence in this respect and we accept the challenge gratefully. Herein, we would like to reassure you that training programs and materials are currently being reviewed and fine tuned, for the benefit of our new and existing personnel.

This incident has prompted us to stress the importance of service delivery and our commitment to our valued customers. We truly appreciate the time you have taken to bring this matter to our attention. We value your feedback as it is through such comments that we are able to monitor our services and keep abreast with customers’ expectations. It will definitely help us to further improve our service delivery

Hope this helps to clarify your concern. Should you have any further queries, you may call our Broadband Hotline at 1800 822 000 for assistance.

Thank you.

Yours sincerely,

Dolby Irs
Customer Relations Unit
Customer Operations

This is the kind of reply that we should get from any service provider. The kind that shows effort, knowledge and politeness. I was happy to receive such response and I do hope they meant what they said.

There is still hope for Maxis!

P/s:

That Ms Tang. I have no idea what she was. She did not sound like a Malaysian based on the way she talked and yet she could definitely speak Malay well even with that somewhat unfamiliar accents that she had…

HP Support is a Joke

2010-03-01T06:41:00.003+08:00

Feb 25th, 2010 by papabear Edit |

[CAUTION! This is a very long entry. Read on your free time. Names have been changed for obvious reasons] I was having a problem with my HP notebook and I decided to contact HP online support. My problem was due to a message that kept on popping up every few seconds:

One of the USB devices attached to this computer has malfunctioned, and windows does not recognize it.

It all started when I disconnected my USB modem after using it and suddenly the computer tried to scan for hardware drivers and then failed followed by the message above. That’s when I contacted HP…

[Wednesday, 24 February 2010 11:44 PM] — Automatically generated message:
Thank you for using HP’s Instant Active Chat Support. Our Chat Support is provided free during your warranty period. Your request has been received by our Technical Support Center, and has been queued. Support for HP Notebooks, Desktops, and Printers are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You will receive a response to your support request in 5 minutes or less.

Starting from Jan 1st, HP will stop free support for out of warranty Consumer Notebook . And from Feb 1st, No free support for out of warranty Commercial Notebook. Alternatively, you have the option to seek self-help support from our website at www.hp.com/go/bsc or you can bring your notebook to Service Center for chargeable support.

[Wednesday, 24 February 2010 11:44 PM] — Automatically generated message:
For reference, your Case ID is 4610956850

[Wednesday, 24 February 2010 11:45 PM] — Automatically generated message:
The HP Support technician, Abeeba B has been assigned to your case.

Note the start time: 24 February 2010 11:44 PM and Abeeba B was assigned to my case.

[Wednesday, 24 February 2010 11:45 PM] — Abeeba B says:
Hello Papa Bear, thank you for contacting HP Active Chat Support. My name is Abeeba and I see you have a question regarding your Notebook. Please give me 2 minutes to review your information. Thank you.

[Wednesday, 24 February 2010 11:50 PM] — Abeeba B says:
How are you doing today, Papa Bear?

Those are automated greetings. The two minutes took actually about 4 minutes. Anyway, she needed the time to read about the problem that I was having and I guess 4 minutes were being used to seacrh their knolwledge base, assuming that they have one, or google-ing it up…

[Wednesday, 24 February 2010 11:51 PM] — Papa Bear says:
not so good. the popping up message is annoying

[Wednesday, 24 February 2010 11:51 PM] — Papa Bear says:
and i could not use my mouse and my webcam

[Wednesday, 24 February 2010 11:51 PM] — Abeebaa B says:
I shall try my best to assist you.

[Wednesday, 24 February 2010 11:51 PM] — Abeeba B says:
Before we proceed, could you confirm the following details:

1. Primary contact number: 0123456789

2. Country you are currently located: Malaysia.

[Wednesday, 24 February 2010 11:53 PM] — Papa Bear says:
yes

[Wednesday, 24 February 2010 11:55 PM] — Abeeba B says:
Are you referring to the notebook with the following information:

Serial Number: CNU93294K4
Product Number: VM567PA#UUF
Model: Probook 4310s.

[Wednesday, 24 February 2010 11:55 PM] — Papa Bear says:
yes

[Wednesday, 24 February 2010 11:56 PM] — Abeeba B says:
Let me know the Operating System installed on the Notebook.

[Wednesday, 24 February 2010 11:57 PM] — Papa Bear says:
windows 7

[Wednesday, 24 February 2010 11:58 PM] — Abeeba B says:
Thank you for providing the required details.

Almost 15 minutes gone and we have only achieved getting some of my basic information for her reference… My responses were fast but her replies took time to come back… At 11:58 PM, she’d better have a solution for me… Ngantuk and penat weeii…

[Wednesday, 24 February 2010 11:58 PM] — Abeeba B says:
Try this, Disconnect all USB devices except keyboard and mouse.
Go to: Start>Run>type DEVMGMT.MSC press OK
Scroll to the bottom to Universal Serial Bus Controllers.
Right click each one, one-at-a-time, and click Uninstall.
Reboot, which will reinstall your USB ports. Connect your devices
and let us know if it worked.

[Wednesday, 24 February 2010 11:59 PM] — Papa Bear says:
how do i contact u after reboot?

The fun started. Noticed that she asked me to run devmgmt.msc. That was supposed to make you think or say, “Wow! HP support is good…” Anyway, before you go wow and do the mexican wave, that command is the same as asking you to open your Windows Device Manager but I guess in order to avoid answering question such as, “How do I open my Device Manager?”, that command would save the day…

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 12:00 AM] — Abeeba B says:
You could get back to us with your observations on this same chat:

To resume the chat, please enter instant support web site using this URL: http://instantsupport.hp.com in your web browser and launch Active chat. Please click ‘View your other Active chat issues’ and then click the chat listed.

For your reference, the chat ID is 3399428.

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 12:00 AM] — Abeeba B says:
Till then I shall place this chat on hold. Is it okay?

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 12:01 AM] — Papa Bear says:
u said disconnect all USB devices except keyboard and mouse. my mouse is no longer attached to the usb port. do u want me to reattach it?

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 12:01 AM] — Abeeba B says:
No. Please disconnect all the USB devices if connected.

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 12:03 AM] — Papa Bear says:
ok nothing is connected and running DEVMGMT.MSC now

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 12:03 AM] — Abeeba B says:
Alright.

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 12:03 AM] — Abeeba B says:
I shall place this chat on hold. You could get back to us after performing the above steps.

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 12:04 AM] — Abeeba B says:
Papa Bear, please let us know the results after performing the troubleshooting steps. Till then I shall place this chat session on hold.
You may resume this chat session, please enter the Active Chat Support web-site using this URL: http://h50203.www5.hp.com/hpisweb/customer/HPInstantsupport.aspx, click on ‘View your other Active Chat Issues’ and then, click the Chat ID listed.
You may also use the Case ID 4610956850 to start a new conversation after 72 hours, using the link: http://www.hp.com/go/ispe.
Thank you for contacting HP, have a good day.

Abeeba

See the text in bold above. At first she asked me to disconnect every USB device except for keyboard and mouse. I have told her that my mouse is not working and it was already disconnected and when I asked her again and she then said disconnect everything. My worries started here and the time was alread 12:01 AM, the next day…

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 12:06 AM] — Papa Bear says:
Abeeba, while i am trying to uninstall one by one, the windows is reinstalling them back one by one…

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 12:06 AM] — Automatically generated message:
The HP Support technician, Abeeba B has been assigned to your case.

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 12:06 AM] — Papa Bear says:
so what do i do?

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 12:07 AM] — Abeeba B says:
You would need to uninstall and then restart. Windows would re – install automatically.

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 12:08 AM] — Papa Bear says:
as i said, i was trying to uninstall one by one but the windows kept on reinstalling it one by one as well. so how do i get to uninstall all of them and reboot

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 12:09 AM] — Abeeba B says:
Uninstall one at a time and restart after each uninstallation.

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 12:10 AM] — Papa Bear says:
Abeeba, do you read what i said? if i uninstall 1 the windows will immediately reinstall it!!!!

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 12:10 AM] — Papa Bear says:
do u want me to uninstall one and restart and repeat for all 10? that would be ridiculous?

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 12:10 AM] — Abeeba B says:
Yes. I read it.

I tried to do as per her instruction and yet the Windows were reinstalling each and everyone of them. Anyway, if she was an experienced support person, she would have told me not to worry about that as I just need to keep on uninstalling every single one and do a reboot later. So, I was getting more worried and I did not think that this person really knows her stuffs and the time was already 12:10 AM…

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 12:11 AM] — Abeeba B says:
Check if the USB devices work now after uninstalling.

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 12:12 AM] — Papa Bear says:
nothing works. it did not detect my usb mouse and my webcam is still not detected as well. the webcam is built in.

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 12:12 AM] — Abeeba B says:
Okay.

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 12:12 AM] — Papa Bear says:
but it can detect usb drive

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 12:13 AM] — Abeeba B says:
Try performing a System restore to a date when it worked well and good.

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 12:13 AM] — Papa Bear says:
how do i know what date is that?

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 12:13 AM] — Abeeba B says:
Click on Start -> type System Restore in Search -> Click on System Restore and then select the date and time the notebook worked fine to proceed with the System Restore.

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 12:14 AM] — Abeeba B says:
As you have informed that it happened a few hours ago, try to restore to any date prior to it.

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 12:14 AM] — Abeeba B says:
This would work only if you have created a restore point.

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 12:14 AM] — Papa Bear says:
how do i check my restore point?

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 12:15 AM] — Abeeba B says:
Please follow the above step.

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 12:15 AM] — Papa Bear says:
btw, i checked again, after uninstalling, even my usb drive fail to work now!

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 12:15 AM] — Abeeba B says:
You would need to restart the Notebook once after you uninstall irrespective of the Windows re – installs it again.

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 12:16 AM] — Abeeba B says:
Have you restarted the Notebook at least once?

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 12:16 AM] — Papa Bear says:
ok let me do a reboot now

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 12:17 AM] — Abeeba B says:
Alright.

There, what did I tell you. She just didn’t know what else to do. She asked me to do a restore… duh, I could have done that on my own… But then, having using Windows since Windows 3.0, the restore option has never really worked for me…

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 12:25 AM] — Papa Bear says:
it didn’t work. my mouse and webcam is still dead. msg: device driver software was not successfully installed. the original message is still popping up. why is it trying to install a device when no device is connected?

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 12:26 AM] — Abeeba B says:
Okay. Try performing the System Restore. Please refer the below weblink to do the same.

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&objectID=c01835735&jumpid=reg_R1002_USEN

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 12:29 AM] — Abeeba B says:
As this process may take a longer time, Is it okay if I place this chat on a holding queue as of now?

You could get back to us with your observations on this same chat:

To resume the chat, please enter instant support web site using this URL: http://instantsupport.hp.com in your web browser and launch Active chat. Please click ‘View your other Active chat issues’ and then click the chat listed.

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 12:31 AM] — Papa Bear says:
will this affect my data?

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 12:32 AM] — Abeeba B says:
System Restore wouldn’t affect the data. It would just roll back the state of the Notebook to the date when it was at that date.

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 12:33 AM] — Papa Bear says:
ok then. will run it and let u know the outcome. thanks.

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 12:34 AM] — Abeeba B says:
Alright. You are welcome.

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 12:34 AM] — Abeeba B says:
Papa Bear, please let us know the results after performing the troubleshooting steps. Till then I shall place this chat session on hold.
You may resume this chat session, please enter the Active Chat Support web-site using this URL: http://h50203.www5.hp.com/hpisweb/customer/HPInstantsupport.aspx, click on ‘View your other Active Chat Issues’ and then, click the Chat ID listed.
You may also use the Case ID 4610956850 to start a new conversation after 72 hours, using the link: http://www.hp.com/go/ispe.
Thank you for contacting HP, have a good day.

Abeeba

At 12:33 AM I was still trying my luck but she had just run out of script…

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 12:48 AM] — Papa Bear says:
system restore did not complete successfully. your computer’s system files and settings were not changed

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 12:49 AM] — Papa Bear says:
details:

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 12:49 AM] — Automatically generated message:
The HP Support technician, Joe J has been assigned to your case.

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 12:49 AM] — Automatically generated message:
The HP Support technician, Joe J has been assigned to your case.

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 12:50 AM] — Papa Bear says:
system restore failed to extract the file (C:\windows\system32\drivers\sfi.dat) from the restore point. an unspecified error occurred during system restore (0×80070005)

As I expected, the restore option failed and my problem was still there. at 12:50 AM, I was exhausted and annoyed…

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 12:50 AM] — Joe J says:
Hello Papa Bear, my name is Joe Joseph with the Active Chat Support group and I will be taking over your case from here. Please give me 2-3 minutes to review the history of the conversation.

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 12:53 AM] — Joe J says:
I understand that you are facing issues with USB drivers and the previous engineer had given steps to reinstall USB drivers and system restore.

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 12:53 AM] — Papa Bear says:
yes

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 12:54 AM] — Joe J says:
I see that the system restore and driver reinstallation did not help to resolve the issue.

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 12:54 AM] — Papa Bear says:
it only affects the mouse and at the same time the built in webcam is dead as well

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 12:54 AM] — Papa Bear says:
system restore hit an unspecified error.. whatever that is…

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 12:54 AM] — Joe J says:
Are you using any external mouse by connecting it to the USB port?

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 12:54 AM] — Papa Bear says:
yes

They reassigned my case to another guy. It would make you think that HP Support actually assigned your case to a more senior support person but in my opinion, they had just assigned me to a guy who had the other part of the script that they were using to support me… Bengong! This guy even asked me if I was using a USB mouse. Hello! Do they still sell serial mouse over there?

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 12:56 AM] — Joe J says:
The web camera also uses USB drivers for working. Because of this reason the USB mouse and web camera are not working.

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 12:56 AM] — Joe J says:
Please let me know whether you have made any changes to the notebook just before the occurrence of the issue.

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 12:57 AM] — Papa Bear says:
it just happened out of the blue. the mouse was working and suddenly the computer started to scan for device driver and errors came out and that was it. no changes to the notebook since it was working fine

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 12:58 AM] — Papa Bear says:
i could still use my usb thumbdrive and usb modem

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 12:59 AM] — Joe J says:
Okay, I apologize for the inconvenience caused due to this issue.

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 12:59 AM] — Joe J says:
Let me take care of this issue in the best possible way.

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 1:00 AM] — Joe J says:
May I know the antivirus software installed on the notebook?

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 1:00 AM] — Papa Bear says:
comodo internet security

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 1:00 AM] — Joe J says:
Is it a free software or paid software?

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 1:00 AM] — Papa Bear says:
free

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 1:03 AM] — Joe J says:
I would like to inform you that free software may not be helpful in removing the viruses. HP recommends Norton Internet Security for protecting the notebook from virus and spyware.

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 1:03 AM] — Joe J says:
This type of issues also occur if the notebook is infected with Virus or spyware.

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 1:04 AM] — Papa Bear says:
well it managed to detect virus that was not detected by norton a couple of times

Look! Now this guy was trying to blame it on the virus. If the creator of COMODO reads this, he would be pissed… I am very sure that my notebook is clean and COMODO has been working fine and COMODO did kill some viruses that was not detected by any of those paid software… How dare you! It was 1:04 AM and I think I had the right to be feeling angry at about that point in time!

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 1:04 AM] — Joe J says:
Okay, could you please follow the steps given below to check the current status of the driver.

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 1:05 AM] — Joe J says:
1.) Click on round pearl button (Start button) >> Then right click on “Computer” >> click on “Properties”
2.) Then click on the “Device Manager”
3.) From the list click on the “+” sign beside each item.
And let me know any yellow mark is showing beside any item.

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 1:05 AM] — Papa Bear says:
ok

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 1:06 AM] — Papa Bear says:
yes two of them under universal serial bus controllers

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 1:06 AM] — Papa Bear says:
one is showing unknown device and the other one is USB composite device

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 1:06 AM] — Joe J says:
Right Click on the Device which has question mark (?) or exclamation mark (!) , select properties.
From the windows which appears, select Details Tab.
Under that provide me the Device Instance Id or Hardware Instance Id.

Note: Please provide me the complete Device Id by scrolling the windows which appears.

Example: PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_27CC&SUBSYS_30BB103C&REV_02\3&B1BFB68&0&EF

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 1:08 AM] — Papa Bear says:
for the first one: USB\UNKNOWN

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 1:09 AM] — Papa Bear says:
the second one: USB\VID_04F2&PID_B159&REV_8539 followed by USB\VID_04F2&PID_B159

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 1:11 AM] — Papa Bear says:
those are under the hardware ids… are those what u r looking for?

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 1:11 AM] — Joe J says:
Thank you for giving the device instant id’s.

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 1:11 AM] — Joe J says:
Yes, those are the one I am looking for.

He asked me to check some things and from the things that he wanted to know, I was pretty sure that this guy knew nothing and just waiting for the time to ask me to format or reinstall the OS… They always do that when they are clueless…

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 1:14 AM] — Joe J says:
Please disconnect the USB mouse from the notebook then follow the steps given below.

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 1:14 AM] — Papa Bear says:
the mouse is no longer connected

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 1:15 AM] — Papa Bear says:
because if i connect the mouse, the message mentioned during the start of the support would be popping up non stop

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 1:16 AM] — Joe J says:
Okay, have you tried connecting the mouse to different notebook or desktop computer to check whether it works fine?

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 1:16 AM] — Papa Bear says:
yes. the mouse work on my other computer and the mouse from the working computer produced the same popping messages

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 1:17 AM] — Joe J says:
Okay.

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 1:17 AM] — Joe J says:
Now follow the steps given below.
Press the Windows key and R key at the same time to get the “Run” window
Type ‘devmgmt.msc’ (without quotes) in the open box and click ‘OK’
This will open Device manager. From the device manager window click on “Computer” and then go to the “Actions” menu and select “Scan for hardware changes”

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 1:18 AM] — Papa Bear says:
done

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 1:19 AM] — Joe J says:
Now check whether the same yellow marks are showing in device manager beside the same entries.

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 1:19 AM] — Papa Bear says:
still yellow at the same 2 devices

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 1:20 AM] — Joe J says:
Okay, try installing the web camera driver using the link given below then we will check for the issue.

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 1:20 AM] — Joe J says:
ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp44001-44500/sp44106.exe

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 1:24 AM] — Papa Bear says:
program compatibility assistant screen came up

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 1:25 AM] — Papa Bear says:
this program might not have installed correctly

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 1:25 AM] — Papa Bear says:
options: reinstall using recommended setting or this program installed correctly

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 1:26 AM] — Papa Bear says:
or cancel

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 1:26 AM] — Joe J says:
Please try the option ” reinstall using recommended setting” and check what happens.

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 1:28 AM] — Papa Bear says:
no more message

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 1:29 AM] — Joe J says:
Did you get any message showing the completion of the driver installation?

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 1:30 AM] — Papa Bear says:
nope. no message at all.

At 1:30 AM, this guy was really clueless… I was getting more and more irritated…

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 1:31 AM] — Joe J says:
Okay, now please go to device manager and check for the yellow marks.

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 1:31 AM] — Papa Bear says:
they are still there

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 1:34 AM] — Joe J says:
Okay.

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 1:36 AM] — Joe J says:
Papa Bear, let me know the windows 7 edition installed on the notebook. Is it Home Basic, Home Premium or Professional?

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 1:37 AM] — Papa Bear says:
windows 7 enterprise

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 1:37 AM] — Papa Bear says:
my company is under the Microsoft partner

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 1:40 AM] — Papa Bear says:
do u need more time? i need to get some sleep. itis almost 2am here

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 1:40 AM] — Joe J says:
From the trouble shooting steps so far done it seems that few operating system files are corrupted. The USB drivers are actually integrated to the operating system. So in order to reinstall those drivers from scratch we need to reinstall operating system.

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 1:41 AM] — Papa Bear says:
i am afraid u are going to say that…

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 1:41 AM] — Papa Bear says:
the last problem i had was given the same solution as well

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 1:41 AM] — Joe J says:
I fully understand your concern on this issue. We have done the possible trouble shooting steps for resolving this issue.

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 1:42 AM] — Joe J says:
Reinstalling operating system is known as recovery. The recovery will reset notebook back to factory settings. So you need to take back up of important personal data like songs, pictures, etc before the recovery.

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 1:43 AM] — Papa Bear says:
yeah have been doing that a couple of times since i am using this hp notebook

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 1:43 AM] — Papa Bear says:
never had to do this with my acer notebook

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 1:43 AM] — Papa Bear says:
their support have been able to provide solution without reinstalling the os

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 1:43 AM] — Papa Bear says:
it is really a bad experience for me…

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 1:44 AM] — Papa Bear says:
my acer notebook is a year older than this and yet there was never a need to reformat or reinstall the os…

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 1:44 AM] — Papa Bear says:
as for this notebook, this would be a third time already…

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 1:46 AM] — Papa Bear says:
it’s really bad… but i honestly think that hp support is not as good as when compared to acer or ibm… the knowledge of the support people are somehow not at par with others… sorry having to say that but i could only compare with my other products that i am using right now…

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 1:47 AM] — Joe J says:
I understand how you feel when things don’t work the way they are supposed to, If I were to be in your place I would feel the same way.

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 1:47 AM] — Papa Bear says:
yeah.. especially when hp supports failed me 3 out of 3 times…

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 1:48 AM] — Papa Bear says:
anyway, i am going to throw this notebook back to the distributor as it is still under warranty and ask for replacement…

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 1:48 AM] — Papa Bear says:
thanks for your time

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 1:49 AM] — Papa Bear says:
but i am sending this log to hp with an official complaint… just to let you know…

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 1:50 AM] — Joe J says:
I fully understand your concern on this issue. Before doing recovery I would recommend you to try the power drain to remove the static charge from the notebook.

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 1:50 AM] — Joe J says:
Here are the steps for power drain.

1. Disconnect the unit from the AC adapter and all external devices
2. Remove the battery and hold the power button for 45 seconds. This is to discharge any residual charge present in the unit completely
3. Restart the computer using only the AC adapter

[Thursday, 25 February 2010 1:51 AM] — Papa Bear says:
ok got it. tq

What did I tell you. Those were typical responses that you would get from HP Online Support. The final solution would always be to reinstall your OS or reformat your computer… And the best part, it would take hours and sometime days before telling you to do that… Just that!

So, what was the actual problem?

I went to sleep and later that morning, while in the bathroom, I was thinking about the problem and started to do some thinking. The error was about unknown device and I went through all my USB devices in my head. Mouse is known. USB modem is known but the USB adapter cable for the modem is not really known.

So, I got out of the bathroom and connected the USB adapter cable without the modem, Voila! Problem solved!

Hempeh punya HP Support!

Pasha and the maracas

2010-02-23T10:22:00.002+08:00

Feb 22nd, 2010 by papabear

Maraca is one of the musical instruments that almost everyone, who is normal, can play. In fact, most of us got our first maraca when we were still babies. So, the next time when somebody ask you whether you play any musical instrument or not, make sure your reply is yes…

You can play the maracas! Kalau tak tau jugak… ada kes lain la tuh…

Here is a video of Pasha and Mama Pasha having some great time with the maracas at Gymboree… Don’t they look like they are having lots of fun? Do you think you can play the maracas.

If Pasha can do it, you can do it too…

Have a break! Play the maracas….

Kids do the darndest things

2010-02-20T06:44:00.000+08:00

Feb 19th, 2010 by papabear

Yes they do and Pasha is no different… Take a look at these pictures and you would agree with me…

First picture - Nature’s call! We were on the way from Kuala Lumpur to Kuala Lipis fighting through the traffic jam along the Karak Highway during the CNY break. Suddenly, Pasha said:

“Mama, Pasha mau ek ek”

If he already asked to go, we’d better not wait any longer. I found an exit and drove into it. He went into position and then he got distracted by the stick I was holding to chase some monkeys away… Yeah! there were monkeys there… Eventually, he abandoned the whole idea….

We drove on to the next proper rest area and he did his business there…

The next two pictures – Stickers Time! Location: Grandma’s house. Mama Pasha bought him a book full of stickers. It took him quite sometimes to figure out how to peel the sticker off the book. When he finally did, just look at the results. Hancus….

Last picture – Safety First! Here is Pasha riding the shopping trolley at Tesco Shah Alam. I gave him that blue whatchamacallit thing… I tried it on his head and he loved it. He wore that around for a couple of minutes before he got tired of adjusting it as it was a bit too big for his head…

He dropped it once he got his hands on those ice that they used to put the fresh meat. fish, chicken and prawns on… Well, it was within his reach since he was sitting in that trolley…

He even picked up some prawns for me…

i lost my K310 in a cab

2010-02-18T21:21:00.000+08:00

dibeliin suami October 20, 2007...
dan dengan suksesnya g tinggal ditaksi on Feb 18, 2010.. doooh!!! pinter banget sih jadi orang... :((
sampe hari ini kagak balik tu telpon...
nasib2..
beli hp baru kagak sanggup hp yg ada malah kebuang...
bt banget dah!!!
balik lagi dah pake hp jaman batu.. :((