Today, I suggested that we pay a visit to Cold Storage at Jaya One, which just opened on the 18th of April. It’s quite unique, it’s a standalone building next to Jaya One. When we arrived, it so happened there was a nice parking lot right in front, and we were told that parking was free for the first hour as long as we purchased something (otherwise it would be RM2 for the first hour).

As we walked in, the first thing that caught my eye was a Jelly Belly dispenser! I’ve never seen Jelly Bellies sold like that before. There were only about four flavours in the dispenser, I think it was Bubble Gum, Tutti Frutti…and I can’t remember what else. The others that were sold were normal packaged Jelly Bellies.

Another thing unusual about this Cold Storage was that there were lots of salespeople offering samples of their products. Normally Cold Storage never offers samples! Well, we sure took advantage of that…here’s a list of the different things we tried.
1. Kellogg’s muesli bar
2. Some kind of Korean instant noodles
3. Bud’s ice cream – Almond & Mocha flavour (this was really yummy!) and Cookies & Cream
4. Gelatomio – Strawberry yoghurt flavour (good as well, kind of sourish) and Black Sesame
5. Non-halal section: Smoked ham, normal ham, siew yuk and home made pao!
6. TuckerBox’s Aussie pie

I think that’s all, but there were a lot more things being offered! I saw salads, some sort of raw fish, more ice cream…and the list keeps on getting longer. I wonder if it’s because it’s the opening week, or if it’s going to be like this all the time. If so, you might see me there a lot more from now on. As for the 59 cents, well, we had to buy something to qualify for the free parking, so we walked out with a 59 cents Polo sweet. Hahah…

It wasn’t all freeloading, though, I think I’m tempted to buy the Bud’s strawberry yoghurt flavour the next time I get some ice cream! It was under RM10 for a tub which was 250g. Have I tempted you to make a visit to the Cold Storage @ Jaya one now?

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SkyTrex Adventures is a place where you can enjoy jungle trekking from a level never done before – through the canopy of the forest! Test your agility, challenge your fear – walk, crawl, glide and swing through our different trails in the sky, in total safety while appreciating the wonders of Malaysian tropical rainforest.

I had read about it in the newspapers quite some time ago, but never got up the energy to go and check it out. This provided me the push I needed in order to get going. Together, Eel and I googled several blogs that talked about it, and it looked really interesting, if not a bit scary at certain points! Anyway, we decided to go, and invited our group of school friends to come along.

My advice? Don’t wear shorts. It bunches up and feels pretty uncomfortable. Guys, be prepared, the harness enhances your “package” a lot. And also, it would probably be better to wear a long sleeve shirt, I wore a short sleeve shirt, as you can see, and by the end, I had rope burns. You can also rent gloves there, if you want, it does save you some pain. Oh, and don’t try to be a smarty-pants and put the harness on by yourself, unless you really know what you’re doing. Some of the guys in the other groups tried that, and during the training session, the person in charge had to go and fix the harness for them.

Once we got our equipment on, we were taken to the side where we were shown some of the different obstacles we would be encountering. The trainer briefed us on the pulley, carabiners, harness and the correct methods to use them. It felt really overwhelming at first, but after we went through all the obstacles, we kind of got the hang of it. That was only the “easy” part, I believe the height was only a couple of meters of the ground. Later on, the actual course was up to 17 meters above ground!

After graduating from the training, we started off on the main course. The first obstacle was climbing this ladder, which seemed to go on forever and ever! Furthermore, only one person at a time could climb the ladder, so I felt doubly pressured to go faster, even though all I wanted to do was stop and rest for awhile.

I don’t have too many pictures of the obstacles itself, it’s hard to take pictures whilst going through the course. For the picture above, it looks easy enough, but what you can’t see is that it tips from side to side as you walk along the wooden bars! One of the hardest tasks that we went through was this one where there were horizontal wooden planks. In between the planks was a rope dangling, and you had to lean forward to grab the rope, and swing yourself to the next plank. Sounds scary, doesn’t it? But you feel a great sense of accomplishment after finishing it. If you’re too scared, they do have these alternate routes, I think they call them “Chicken Exits”, where you just flying fox your way past to the next obstacle. There was actually a guy in the group after us that did it! Hehe, I felt really smug because I completed it and he didn’t!

In this obstacle, we had to swing on a rope from a platform, and we would smash into this rope net. We then needed to cling onto the net, let the rope go, and climb up to the next platform. See Terence in red, and a sliver of green beside him? That’s me! All in all, it was a fun outing, although at times, I had the thought, “What on earth am I doing to myself??”

And guess what? The advanced course should be opening up some time this year, where it’s even higher and tougher than the current one! Hmm, not sure if I’d want to go for that, though. Definitely something you should try (although you can’t try it if you’re over 100kgs, there’s a weight limitation!). There’s even a children’s course there, a kid was having a birthday party on that day, and it looked so fun! Something different from the normal A&W / McD’s birthday parties I used to go for!

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I don’t take online quizzes very often, but every now and then, I see one which I just have to take. Whilst browsing through someone’s blog, I came across this Nerd quiz, which so attracted me. Haha, I suppose by just saying that I was interested in a Nerd quiz, that makes me a nerd by default!

I do like many things, which I suppose some people might call nerdy, so I took the quiz! I scored highest as a Literature Nerd, no surprise there! I’ve always been a huge reader, although I don’t read that much nowadays compared to back then. Now, I’m pretty much limited to a few minutes before work (whilst brushing my teeth and getting dressed!), and awhile at night. Second highest was Science / Math. I was never a big fan of Science, Biology was OK, I suppose, but I loved Math! Especially Additional Mathematics. Hehe..whilst other people around me were struggling and failing, I usually scored pretty high. I liked doing the previous years papers, and I’d usually do them multiple times!

Oh yes, and I was also in the school band, for 7 years, if you count my years in the primary school band. I played the pianica (like a mini-piano, but you blow into this tube and then only the music will come out). Then, I got promoted to saxaphone, then violin, then back to saxaphone once again. I even went to a band camp. And this is where people who have watched American Pie go, ‘One time…in band camp…’ I also love playing the PS2, more towards RPG games.

So, if that makes me a nerd, then so be it! I’d rather be a nerd than one of those bimbo-y girls who love to go shopping, spa treatments, facials, mani-pedis, etc. That’s just SO not me.

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Well, in my last post I was saying that I wanted to start doing different things with T during weekends. That night, I started going online to see what other things we could do. I found a waterfalls site which is actually pretty good. It lists down all the different waterfalls around the area, and rates the difficulties along with comments about how easy / tough / commercialized the waterfalls are. T didn’t seem too interested in that, he said that it wouldn’t be fun with just the two of us. I don’t know what’s the difference between going on holiday vs waterfalling with just the two of us. Seems the same to me!

Anyway, I asked him to suggest something different, and he said, ‘Let’s go jogging!’. Ugh..I’m so not a jogging person, but I agreed anyway. So, early the next morning (it was Thaipusam), we got ready to go jogging at the TTDI park. When we reached there, I started jogging for about…five minutes, and I got tired. Heheh, I told you I’m not a jogging person! I ended up walking briskly for three rounds of the park. Hey, it’s still exercise, right? I kept telling T to jog ahead of me and he could catch up to me in the next round, but he insisted on sticking with me to keep me company, which I thought was rather sweet of him. Overall, I guess it was quite a successful outing. Now, the only thing I need to do now is to get my stamina up!

So, the next thing that was on our list was making my version of CNY cookies. I didn’t want to make cookies, because there are lots of cookies during CNY. Instead, I googled for a chocolate cornflakes recipe, which can be found here.

Ingredients needed:
One bar of baking chocolate (I used Van Houten, yummy!)
About 3/4 of a big box of Kelloggs cornflakes
A few tablespoons of butter
A cup full of honey

Step 1 is to melt the chocolate. I didn’t want to melt it over the stove, because I kept on reading about people burning the chocolate, etc. The easiest way was to break the chocolate into smaller pieces, and microwave it for about 1 1/2 minutes. Easy peasy!

Then, add the butter, honey and chocolate into the pan and stir until it’s well combined. Those are T’s helping hands, btw!

When it’s well mixed together, add in the cornflakes, and mix once more!

Finally, just put little blobs on the foil covered plates, and leave in the fridge to cool (I wanted to put the cornflakes in those mini paper cupcake holders, but T said it was too much work. I thought that since he was already helping me, I wouldn’t push my luck too far!). For those of you with a sweet tooth, this is a really good recipe, and it’s so easy and fast to finish. Everyone who tried it loved it, and my dad even had two pieces which is the ultimate compliment coming from him!

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Although I’ve been back for three years, I’ve never gone to Putrajaya, I always think it’s so far! I was quite impressed by the buildings I saw, they were really different from the buildings in PJ and KL.

Even the lamp posts look different in Putrajaya!

If I knew how to use Photoshop, I could get rid of the lorry. Since, I don’t, pretend it’s not there, the bridge is still pretty impressive. It’s called the Seri Wawasan Bridge.

Like the picture says, it’s the Palace of Justice.

No idea what this is, but it looks cool!

I think this is the Ministry of Finance building.

I really like this shot, it’s the Putra Mosque. According to the Shangri-La brochures, you can take a cruise down the lake and have dinner. It’s pretty pricy, about RM120++ per person.

This building was just down the lake from the Putra Mosque. Again, I don’t know what it is, but it looks pretty! It kind of reminds me of Mr Darcy’s home (from Pride and Prejudice – the BBC series).

This is the Prime Minister’s office, it’s so huge!

And this is the unassuming entrance of Shangri-La, Putrajaya. We finally arrived at our destination!

So, for all you guys who haven’t been before, I think you should make a trip out there, it’s really interesting. There were actually a lot of tourist buses, I guess it’s a pretty famous tourist attraction. If tourists go there, you should go at least once as well!

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My family was no exception, although we did buy the ready made dough. It was pretty fun to roll up the dough into little balls, probably I was influenced by the pretty pink colour!

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I’ve been busy these past couple of weeks reliving some of my old hobbies. I was in Mid Valley the other day, and I walked past Jigsaw Puzzle World. I wasn’t going to go in, until I saw the sign “60% SALE!”. So of course, I had to go in. I picked up 2 Disney Villain puzzles, at RM30 each, which was super duper cheap. I went back, and started thinking that I should have gotten the other 2 puzzles as well (it’s a set of 4). Haha, so the next day, I went back and bought the other 2!

The coolest thing is that they’re all Glow in the Dark puzzles, so they look awesome! I’ve finished the Sleeping Beauty one already, will put it up soon. In the mean time, Happy New Year everyone!!

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Recently, my aunt came down from UK, and bought me a book of sudoku puzzles. Even though I love doing logic puzzles, and crossword puzzles, somehow sudoku never really appealed to me. Well, a couple of days ago, I felt like I had to do at least ONE puzzle, to show that I appreciated her present. After awhile, I found myself actually enjoying it!

When I went to work the next day, I decided to google sudoku, to see what materials were available online. I managed to find Web Sudoku.

This is a really amazing site. It claims it has billions of sudoku puzzles, available in easy, medium, hard & evil. After you finish the puzzle, it gives you statistics, like how long you took to finish the puzzle, and your overall rank. With sites like these, who needs to buy the books?

Well, so far I’m up to puzzle number 11 on the easy level. Unfortunately my brain doesn’t seem cut out for the harder levels, I even got stuck on medium! People say that practise makes perfect, let’s see how good I get…there are..a few billion puzzles left to do!

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Those of you who do not know what a Tim Tam is, what are you waiting for?? Go out to the nearest supermarket and pick a packet up, unless it so happens that Tim Tams are not exported to your country. Tim Tams are a chocolate biscuit, with a coating of chocolate surrounding the biscuit. From just the original version, they now have many different types; Original, Chewy Caramel, Mocha, Double Coat and Classic Dark Chocolate.

Although Tim Tams are manufactured in several different countries, the best one that I have had so far, is from Australia. When I was studying there, I used to wait for the Coles sale, and buy packets and packets of Tim Tams to stock up in my house! I also learnt how to do, what is called, the Tim Tam Slam. Trust me, it is an experience that everyone should have.

What you need to do is to make a hot drink like Milo, hot chocolate, etc. Then, you take out your Tim Tams from the fridge, bite both ends off, and dip it into your drink and suck. Basically, the Tim Tam becomes a straw. It is oh-so-wonderful. The hot drink will melt the Tim Tam from the inside, and just before it disintegrates, you pop the whole thing in your mouth. You will end up with a gooey moutful of warm chocolate and biscuit. Yummm…

The unfortunate thing is that Australian Tim Tams are not sold locally in Malaysia, or if they are, I have not found them yet! So, I need to wait for friends to come back, and ask them to buy Tim Tams for me, otherwise, no Tim Tam slam!

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Step 1
———
If you are using tinned fruit, make sure you have a functional tin opener, and not one that takes at least 15 minutes to open ONE can.

Step 2
———
Mix the powder WITH the sugar before pouring it into the boiling water. Never, never put it in the water without mixing it with the sugar before the water has boiled, otherwise it will start forming gel blobs which will be impossible to melt. If, by any chance, this has happened to you, you will need one large strainer and one large bowl, so that you can strain the lumps out, mash them into smaller pieces, and then dump them back into the water in hopes that they will dissolve this time. If it still does not dissolve, take the lumps out and throw them away!

Step 3
———
If you decide to cut back on the sugar, and use the syrup from the tinned fruit, PLEASE make sure that the top of the tin is firmly attached, or else remove it totally, otherwise there is a chance that the lid will fall INTO the konnyaku mixture.

With these handy tips, hopefully you will never make any mistakes again! Seriously, the only thing that was my fault, was Step 1. I’ve known for ages that my tin opener is useless, but hey, my maid always seems to be able to open the tins somehow, so why bother buying a new one? The other mistakes were made by a friend-who-shall-not-be-named.

P.S. Maybe making konnyaku jelly IS idiot-proof after all. It turned out pretty well, according to my mum!

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