Stockholm Beauty

Some sharing of the beautiful Stockholm cityscape during the winter and what makes Swedish design so good to own. Hope there's another chance to go back there next year.

> Stockholm city view from top of the bridge at Slussen

> Reputed to be the most interesting shopping centre: NK

> Creatively decorated metro stations at Hornstull

Morby Centrum

T-Centralen 

 

> Swedish design products

 

 

> 7-Eleven

> The shop that we missed: Nordiska Galleriet

> Made in Stockholm product: Absolut Vodka

Felt Sad For Japan

Before the big magnitude 9.0 earthquake happened in Japan on 11 March, there was a quite big one that occurred on 9 March that scaled at magnitude 7.2. Considering all the events that turned up from 9 March till today (17 days time), this ranked as the worse event of the year.

Normally, we only heard about earthquake, and at most with tsunami coming in after that. But this time in Japan, particularly Sendai and Fukushima area, they had 2 big earthquakes, followed by tsunami, knocked-out nuclear plant, radioactive exposure, regulated electricity supply, limited clean food and water supply, and cold weather. Translated into human form, it means getting cold, fever, cough, measles, sore throat, back ache, and stomach ache one after another. Until today, the fear on radioactive exposure is still present and no one can answer when the problem will be solved.

My wife was one of them who got to experience the earthquake, though not during the first tremor. She had seen how cars can swerve on the road, how chaotic the traffic was after the earthquake, how inconvenient not to have phone to use, how scary to feel 16 times of tremor at 8th floor of the hostel, and how discipline, organized and calm the Japanese responded and reacted after the earthquake.

She was considered lucky because when the main tremor started, she was far away on the south western side of Tokyo. She and her group of colleagues reached the hostel in Tokyo safely and managed to miss the heavy traffic jam and road blocks that happened soon after. They eventually got out of Tokyo via Narita airport after stranded for 2 days. After she got back, more bad news about the explosion and nuclear radiation leakage came out and affecting the livelihood of the Japanese. It was also fortunate that her overseas course was planned for 2 weeks, and the disasters happened on the last few days. Imagine if they had another week to complete the course, and all they can do is to stay indoor with limited electricity, risk of another earthquake, further exposure to the radiation and potentially dangerous food supply.

Today's 1Joke : 23 March 2011

This was the news of the day yesterday, and another that involved DS Anwar Ibrahim. I just do not understand the Malaysian law because no action is or will be taken to someone or a group of people who played porno video clips to the general public, for confessing of having possession of porno video clips, and openly said they are involved in filming someone in private (or voyeuring).

It seems like politics is above everything because people are allowed to do such things when you are on the "right" side. Remember Gary Ng, who was caught and put behind the bars for filming his own "adventures" and possessing porno video clips, and the HK guy who was caught for releasing Edison Chen's photos.

Kita memang Boleh!

Back From Cold Winter

Got back from another once in a lifetime experience trip to Stockholm. It was the 2nd time going there on business trip during winter, but I do hope the 3rd time would happen in summer or spring time. Going there in winter was a big challenge for us, Malaysians especially when we were exposed to the chilling wind and winter temperature of between -5 and -10 degrees. On our last day there, the temperature dipped to -18 degrees. Even Stockholmers thought we were tough and surprised that our winter clothes can keep us warm.

We took the cheapest way to go to city centre from Arlanda Airport, that was by Swebus that only cost SEK89. It is advisable to either purchase the ticket online or from the counter because buying from the driver cost an unbelievable SEK110. The place to stop is Central Station, which consists of train and bus station, and metro on the opposite.

We had only few days in Stockholm, and covering Gamla Stan (Old Town) and visiting design-related shops were our other targets. Of course, first priority was to finish off our work and do what we were assigned to do. This time, I didn't find Gamla Stan as interesting as the first trip. We reached early, but found almost all the shops were not opened until 10am.

The things in Stockholm were extremely expensive, and I think our high paid executives will also feel the pinch. This made us think that shopping in Malaysia is still not too bad, but better still if it was done in Thailand. This was also why Swedish likes to go to Thailand (other than the other reason best known to them).

Some interesting facts were learned this time.
1) There is only 1 company licensed to sell liquor, and Absolut Vodka originated from Stockholm Reimersholme area. However, it was cheaper elsewhere in the world (Thailand airport and Malaysia) than in Stockholm.
2) The things were expensive in Stockholm not because of the taxes imposed on the goods, but because Stockholmers can afford to pay the high prices.
3) Stockholmers seldom eat Swedish food when dining outside, but like Thai, Chinese and Japanese food a lot. Food prices were comparable to those in Hong Kong.
4) You can still find many people using Sony Ericsson handphones, besides iPhone. iPhone is called iFynd in Swedish.


I found 2 reasons why I should visit Stockholm again, and hopefully in next year with my cool colleague. It would be good if we could extend my visit to cover Copenhagen or Oslo.
1) To visit Nordiska Galleriet- a design-themed shop
2) To visit Skansen- an open air museum (not advisable on winter)

Eve of Holiday Is Always the Best

Started my holiday break a week earlier, but it felt like CNY has already started from the first day of my break. I usually worked until the eve of CNY, and when this break came early, the festive mood came early too. As usual everyone was eager, energetic and the festive mood had set in, though the actual day was another 5 days to go. This year, I spent my CNY at Sarikei, and tomorrow it is time to continue celebrating back in my hometown in PJ.

It's true that when New Year comes, you will get to eat stuff that you hardly has chance to taste throughout the year. This year, to me, the main course is the Sarawak layer cake. You can see it in almost all the house, and it is a must have like pineapple tart, prawn keropok or kuih kapit to Klang Valley folks.

Many people may have seen the famous Indonesia layer cake and thought that the Sarawak version looks the same. But they didn't know that Sarawakian are a creative lot, with many unthinkable colors added into the cake such as blue, pink and black. For them, rainbow consists of not only 7 colors. The only downside is the taste, as different colored cakes may end up giving the same taste.

In Klang Valley, green cake is 99% pandan flavour. But in Sarawak, it could also mean peppermint or just plain natural.

Celcom BlackBerry Torch 9800 - Yes, I Want!

I must confess that I only know Blackberry (BB) after I saw in the papers that President Obama is using it. There is even a book written on Obama's Blackberry by Kasper Hauser. Before this, we were more familiar with Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Samsung phones, but now, we can also find a BB long distance cousin by the name of "Blueberry" from China.

My first encounter with a BB was the unit that I won from a contest jointly sponsored by Celcom, and the model was Blackberry Curve 8520. After using it for some time, I knew I had became a fan, and I bought another for my spouse so that we can do BB Messenger. Frankly, the thing that captured my attention and interest were the keypad and its distinctive BB look.

Nowadays, the waves of smartphones is hitting everyone like tsunami, where everyone is thinking of having one. Blackberry Torch is the latest kid of the BB family, and it comes with the same look as his siblings but with additional touch screen feature. I am used to touch and type feature because I carry 2 phones due to my work nature; a touch screen phone, and a Blackberry Curve.

I think both touch screen and BB keyboard complement each other, rather than competing with each other. With a full 3.2 inch touch screen, I can browse and pinch through websites effortlessly, while zapping between pages. Besides, playing the multimedia such as video or audio player would be easier to control and maneuver with touch screen.

As a heavy SMS user and blogger, I would definitely rank having a QWERTY keyboard as a must have. I might feel awkward updating my entries and updates in Twitter and Facebook without punching on the keypad. I also used it quite often during my game session. It is really having the best of both worlds in one tiny smart gadget.

I would recommend to sign up for a data plan if you own a BB, especially in this digital age. If you notice closely and study thoroughly, Celcom actually offers some affordable packages that comes with an offer of the newly launched BB Torch 9800 phone at eye captivating prices. For the beginners or potential user of phone web surfing, the basic package of Celcom Exec 50 is sufficient for you to kick start the habit. The monthly commitment is not too taxing, only RM118 per month and this includes call and data packages.

What's more, it comes with an irresistible offer of BB Torch 9800 at only RM1,688, with a saving of RM500 compared to its promotional RRP price of RM2,188.

At the recent Celcom Blackberry Torch launching event on 29 October 2010, "craziness" and "8" were the words of the day with offers such as RM8 for a brand new Blackberry Torch for the 1st 10 customers to sign up for Celcom Exec or Celcom Biz. I believe the first 210 customers must have camped at Pavilion the night before, as the next 100 customers got it for RM488, and the remaining 100 customers got it for RM888. This made me recall a memory of the long queue I went through at overseas, where I was in the queue for 4 hours just to enter the museum for free.

The offer also comes with a FREE Limited Edition BlackBerry Torch Door Cover, FREE BlackBerry Torch hard casing plus FREE Call Me Tones for 1 month worth RM5, games, apps for BlackBerry®. Just Dial *118#, and select STUFF FOR BLACKBERRY!

Extreme Cheesy 6

 

Everyone will be crazy about Pizza Hut's new offer: Extreme Cheesy 6 Pizza. I remembered few years back, there was a similar pizza promotion by Pizza Hut, and I gave 110 marks for it - 100 marks for the tastiness and additional 10 marks for the memory. I can still remember how good it taste.

Number "six" is usually associated with good things (as below).

Pizza Hut is very clever to select the best six cheese to offer on their pizza, and this time, the 6 Cheesy stars are Cheddar, Mozzarella, Parmesan, Provolone, Monterey Jack, and Romano. 

 

 

Not only was I crazy about the tasty cheesy pizza, even my baby was as enthusiastic and she can't wait to take her first bite at the pizza.

I’m crazy about Cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeese!

Are You Moist Enough?

I learnt that a girl must do the basic three-step skincare for the face everyday without fail – cleanser, toner, and most importantly moisturizer. This is what most of the guys should learn from their female partner on taking good care of one's skin. However, for most guys, it is usually splashing with water (cleanser) and wiping with towel, and expect the water double acts as toner and moisturizer. The more health conscious guys will use tissue or handkerchief to wipe. Others may just opt for a quickie by swiping their face on the sleeve, both left and right!

Often, people care about their face more and neglect moisturizer for the skin on the rest of our bodies. This causes dry areas appearing on places such as knees, heels, and elbows because of built-up skin cells in these areas. Beneath the surface, it is important to note that healthy skin is 90% water. Therefore, it is important to keep our skin with enough moisture by applying the correct lotion and eating healthy. Getting moist doesn't mean keeping the skin sweaty or oily.

 

Fear not if you are starting to worry about getting dry skin, as Vaseline is unveiling its new body lotion range catering to different skin needs, with variants like Total Moisture, Healthy White, Intensive Rescue, and Aloe Cool and Fresh.

With enough moisture protection, it helps to give our skin the strength and flexibility to protect our body. This flexibility allows me to tweak my fingers, and bridging my index and little finger with ease.