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The Versatile Witch

iamthewitch — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 04:28:57 +0000

OK I’m sure by now most of you would know that I seldom do tags. In fact, I only remember doing one tag before in my blog. But, since Caroline has been so nice to me, I’m going to give her face and dedicate this tag to her. *LOL* She recently tagged me with this award “The Versatile Blogger“.

The Versatile Blogger award

Apparently the rules of the tag are

1. List 7 random things about yourself

2. Share the award with up to 15 other bloggers

3. Link to each of the recipients and let them know they’ve been tagged via comments on their blogs

4. Thank and bring the love back to the person you won the award from by linking back to them

So, here goes my 7 random things:

1. I love my husband.

2. When I see a toilet bowl covered in public toilets, I would not open the cover and would move on to another toilet instead. You don’t know what you’d discover beneath eh?

3. I haven’t gone to the gym for the past month! My gym membership is wasted.

4. I love my grandmother’s cooking. I used to complain being bored eating home cooked food every day but now I miss her cooking when I’m out working!

5. My blogger friends call me Maggie Cheung or Cheung Man Yuk because they think I look like her. And a few friends told me I look like Taylor Swift. Even Saucer.

6. I have problems shopping for shoes because I have big feet.

7. My fingernails turn purple when I’m too cold.

Done! I would tag the following:

Saucer
Uli
Xin
Esther
Andrew

Of course, anyone please feel free to do this tag and leave your link here, because I’m very interested to know 7 random things about YOU.

Sex and the City 2 – Movie premier

iamthewitch — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 02:00:01 +0000

Remember the SKYY Vodka event that I attended in conjunction with the movie Sex and the City 2 movie? Well, the bunch of us who went were lucky enough to be given movie premier tickets to watch the show yesterday, before its official release on the 17th of June 2010. Being a fan of SATC, I was really looking forward to the movie! Taking place at GSC Pavilion, Saucer and I reached just before 7pm (which was the time stated on the ticket), only to find out that the movie would be starting at 9pm instead! 7pm was the pre-cocktail session, courtesy of no other than SKYY Vodka.

The backdrop

Since we were early, there were only a few others there and we had the whole place to ourselves! *LOL*

Pre-cocktail

SKYY Vodka

Look at the number of cocktail glasses getting ready to be served!

Cocktail glasses

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Beautiful Sights at the Melaka River

iamthewitch — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 02:57:05 +0000

This post is going to be all about pictures! Saucer and I were at Melaka last weekend to visit a new restaurant at the riverside and I couldn’t help but fall in love with the beautiful sights at the Melaka river, especially when night fell. We reached there just when the sun set and dusk befell us.

Melaka River during dusk

The river and the ancient houses definitely reminded me of my trip to Hangzhou and Suzhou early this year. Those beautiful ancient villages with a river in between them.

Ancient houses by the Melaka river

Took this from the bridge across the river

witch at Melaka River

Of course, with a river so pretty, it’s not surprising that the River cruise is a popular activity here. With boats passing by ever few minutes or so, FULL of people!

Melaka River Cruise

While exploring along the riverside, Saucer took some portrait photographs.

Portrait photograph by Saucer

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What is unconditional love?

iamthewitch — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 09:29:00 +0000

I believe everyone has heard of this phrase ‘unconditional love’ before. But does everyone truly appreciate and understand what it means? When you think about it, this phrase indeed bears a deeper meaning that it appears to be. Many people think that they are giving their partners unconditional love, especially when they are in love. or during the early stages of courtship But have you ever asked yourself, would you still be with the same partner if he/she

has an incurable disease?
lost all his money and is surrounded by debts?
wants to relocate permanently to another location which is far far away from your own family?
meets with an accident and becomes permanently paralysed/handicapped/etc so much so that constant care is required from you?
does not have the capability to breed?

Now for those who are married, perhaps they might think there’s no choice but to stick with the same partner and try to make the best out of it. But for those who are just in a relationship, what if one day you discover your partner to have one of those things listed above? Do you think it will change the way you love your partner? I’m not saying that I’m being cynical but really, when you think rationally, don’t you think most people would flee if given a choice?

I think I would not. What about you?

Earth Hour 2009

iamthewitch — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 01:03:00 +0000

After much hype and publicity, the Earth Hour has come and gone. What did you do during that one hour on 28th of March 2009? As for me, I was back in my hometown in Kampar, spending time with my family members. When we talked about Earth Hour, especially with my grandparents, they shooed away the idea, saying that it was silly and it would make us vulnerable to theft in the dark. Of course, my brother and I both said that as long as all of us were at home, there should be nothing to worry about. My grandma also opposed to the idea, because she said it would be difficult to eat in the dark, while my grandpa said that as long as all other lights were off, then we could turn on the dining area lights to eat!

Earth Hour 2009

Anyway, come 8.30pm on that night, my brother was persistent, and he went to fetch a couple of candles to light up the dining area. He also placed a couple on the dining table, so we effectively had candle-lit dinner! The drawback was, of course, with the candles being lit, we had to turn off the fan as well to prevent the candles from going off. So, I think we were more affected by the hot temperature rather than the dim lighting. But we persevered and watched Deal Or No Deal during that period. (I know we’re not supposed to watch TV as well, but majority wins in our family) Which reminds me, the contestant that night was silly and greedy to have pursued even after being offer RM20+k for his case. In the end he only got RM3k. *shakes head*

So, I suppose for the first-timer like me, my experience wasn’t that bad. I think as long as we have the will to do it, we can convince others to as well. In this case, both my grandparents gave in finally and we had an enjoyable candle-lit dinner for the first time at home. *LOL*

What did you do during Earth Hour?

Christmas countdown at The Curve

iamthewitch — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 02:40:00 +0000

It was the Christmas eve, and I took Firefly down to KL for my long holiday. Did you know that Firefly now has a whole new flight of planes? Their seats are all leather! Previously, my friends used to complain about Firefly’s seats because there was this smell that they couldn’t stand. Somewhat similar to the smell of the seats in the cinema. Anyway, now there’s no more such smell, only the smell of brand new planes.

Back of seats

Leather seats

What’s more, they even serve refreshments on the plane! Granted it’s just a muffin and orange juice, but still, it’s so much better than having to pay exorbitant fees for a cup noodle (note: Air Asia). Anyway, the flight was just less than 1 hour, so by the time they serve the muffin and the orange juice, it was almost time to land. So, I’d say it’s a pretty good distraction. Plus, the muffin was actually yummy! I was surprised too. Never judge the book by its cover, they say.

Pandan muffin and orange juice

By the time I reached Subang airport, it was around 7.45pm. Saucer was already waiting in the car for me by then, and we proceeded to look for dinner. Our initial plan was to go to Cineleisure Damansara’s Tony Roma’s for Christmas Eve dinner. However, as luck had it, we were stuck in terrible traffic jam at the LDP. Of course, it was Christmas Eve and we wouldn’t expect anything less than a massive jam. After painstakingly enduring the jam, we were in the carpark of Cineleisure and fortunately found a parking space. By the time we were in the mall, it was already 8.45pm.

Heading towards Tony Roma’s, my heart fell when I saw an extremely LONG queue in front! When we approached the restaurant, we were told we had to wait at least 40 minutes for a table! I was already starving at 9pm, so we went to search for other restaurants. All of them had long queues! Gosh… Now you know it’s not a smart move to go to restaurants during peak periods without reservation.

In the end, we went to some hidden kopitiam in the LG floor, where there was no queue. I was too frustrated and hot by then that I didn’t even bother to take pictures of the food I ate, or where I went.

Anyway, after that, Saucer suggested that we went for coffee to calm my nerves down. *LOL* We went to Gloria Jeans, which was luckily not packed at all. We even found a nice spot in the aircon room! This is me enjoying my drink.

witch at Gloria Jeans Cafe

At around 11.45pm, we proceeded to go to the countdown spot, where many people were already waiting.

Christmas tree

The crowd there was just incredible! It was almost impossible to even move! There were people at every spot on the ground. Simply amazing.

Crazy crowd

Since Saucer’s car was parked at Cineleisure, we attempted to cross over the huge crowd, but with punishment! Our punishment was those annoying aerosol foam. People surrounding us were spraying the foam everywhere and the smell was just appalling! I’m telling you, I never knew those foam could have such a strong, pungent smell. It made me and Saucer choke and cough for a long time even after crossing the crowd.

More crowd

By the time it was 12 am, there was a countdown and then more foam. Saucer and I just quickly went indoors to avoid the foam. Never shall I go near anyone who has a can of that anymore.

Halfway crossing

This is a little late but Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I end this post with my favourite snack of all time! *drools*

My love

My first time with Aeroline

iamthewitch — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 23:58:00 +0000

I have heard many comments about Aeroline before, and once it started operation in Queensbay Mall Penang, I took the opportunity to give it a try. Basically, what made Aeroline different is that it claims it’s a convenient way to fly. In other words, apparently it gives you the same comfort of flying without the hassle of checking in, going to airport, etc. It also claims to bring the standards and comfort of air travel to customers to ground travel.

Apart from that, Aeroline introduced the concept of mobile business lounges on the road, with attentive on-board crew to serve food and drinks. There is actually a lounge area on the first deck of the bus, with sofa and a table in the middle, sort of like a mini conference room. Plus, every seat is powered with a AC power point, so using the laptop is not a problem!

What I like about Aeroline:

1) Online booking for Penang-KL or KL-Penang
This is extremely convenient especially if we want to book tickets to come back from KL. Usually you need to buy the tickets from KL bus station itself, but for us who are in Penang, it would be difficult to buy the tickets beforehand. We’ll have to ask someone from KL to help us buy, or take the risk and only buy the tickets only when we reach there.

2) Pick up/Drop off at shopping malls
This is another big advantage of Aeroline, as it does not stop at the busy Pudu bus station. I can’t tell you how much I detest Pudu! It’s always freaking crowded with people and cars, and the place just gives me the creeps especially at night. But with Aeroline, it goes directly to the shopping malls in KL such as KLCC, Sunway Pyramid or One Utama. Isn’t that cool? Door-to-door shopping! Also don’t forget the safety part.

3) On-board toilets
This is extremely useful for people who tend to visit the toilets often. Having toilets onboard means that you never have to worry about drinking that bottle of water, or that cup of coffee. However, the toilets are for light usage only, so heavy users are requested to inform the steward/stewardess so that the driver could stop at the nearest rest area.

4) Meal on board
Depending on your boarding time, Aeroline provides a meal for the passengers. I have friends who were served with Subway sandwich before, and for me, I was served with Chicken Rice once. Food was not too bad, but it was definitely convenient and useful for the long journey.

Dinner

Chicken rice

5) Movies on LCD screen
There were two movies shown during my journey from Penang to KL. One of them was Alvin and the Chipmunks, which was really entertaining and kept me occupied for almost 2 hours. Even though the big screen was shared, each seat has its own speakers on top of your head (near the aircon vents), so you would not have problem of not being able to hear what’s being said.

6) Blankets on board
For the very cold night time journeys, or when the aircon chose to be extra cold on that day. The blanket is very useful to keep warm.

7) Comfortable seats
In case you haven’t noticed yet, I’m a very tall girl and I always have problem with legroom – be it in cinemas or in aeroplanes or cars. However Aeroline’s seats are comfortable and have plenty of legroom. Plus, you could actually recline your chair until it’s almost horizontally flat! Of course, the drawback is that once you’re lying flat, your head is pretty much close to the lap of the person behind you. Very weird position. *LOL*

Window seat

Leather seats

What I don’t like about Aeroline:

1) Long journey
No matter what they claim, it’s still a bus and it depends heavily on traffic conditions. If your travel time coincides with the peak hours, then be prepared for massive traffic jams. I went to KL on a Thursday evening at 5pm and boy, the jam on the bridge took more than 30 minutes! I was just unlucky because jams usually occur on Friday evenings only. *sigh* The whole journey took me exactly 5 hours to reach 1 Utama. Butt ache OK.

2) Limited travel times
Perhaps due to its relatively new service, there are only 3 time slots to KL each day, and each of them goes to different malls. 1 for KLCC, 1 for Sunway Pyramid and 1 for One Utama. If you want to go to 1 Utama, you have to take the 5pm bus. There is no other choice for you unless you want to go to a different drop off point.

3) Aircon too cold
This is by far the biggest problem for me on bus! Traffic jams, I’m still OK, if the bus is comfortable enough to distract me. But the aircon in this bus kept blasting onto my head, it was TOO cold and strong. Even after I closed up the vents, there were still small holes where cold air could escape from. Gosh. During the first couple of hours, I could still stand it. But during the last 2 hours, I was shivering and even the blanket did not help much. Unless I covered my whole head underneath the blanket, which would mean that I couldn’t breathe. *frown* Next time I should bring some cellophane tape to close up the holes!

So, there you have it, my 2 cents on Aeroline. It is indeed more convenient and comfortable than other buses which stop at Pudu, but of course my first choice will always be Firefly! If the Firefly tickets get too expensive only then I will revert to Aeroline. After all, nothing beats flying when it comes to travelling.

Petrol price has a minimum!

iamthewitch — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 00:31:00 +0000

I read The Star news today to find out whether there was going to be any reduction on petrol prices, seeing that it’s almost the end of the month now. What I was greeted with, was a moron by the name of Shahrir Abdul Samad saying that the petrol price will have a minimum of RM1.92/litre, regardless of global oil price. According to him, this would bring some stability to the retail price of petrol. I do not understand what he meant by this? Is there anyone complaining on the recent reduction in oil prices? If anything, we as the consumers don’t mind this kind of instability at all, if the prices keep plummeting.

Also, on the point of petrol station owners’ losses, I think this is just an excuse. Really, if proper planning is being done, I’m sure this could be very well-managed. There was this petrol dealer quoting in the same article:

Ahmad Sarpur, a dealer in Johor, said dealers could lose between RM13,000 and RM25,000 each time petrol is reduced by 15 sen per litre.

“This is because there is a minimum order quantity of 21,000 litres that we must pay for immediately. There is no credit,” he said.

I wonder how he did his calculation? Let’s say he orders a minimum quantity of 21,000 litres, and with a reduction of 15 sen per litre, that would come up to 21,000 x 0.15 = RM3,150. Where, pray tell, did the figure of RM13,000 to RM25,000 come about? And I haven’t even included the 12 sen margin allocated to all the petrol dealers. If that is taken into account, the losses would only be 3 sen per litre, translating to RM630, assuming minimum quantity is ordered. Also, another assumption is that NONE of the petrol is sold from the morning when the dealers get the petrol delivery, until the night when announcements are usually made.

Now, do you think the excuse provided by the certain moron is actually bullshit? If the petrol dealers really want to minimize losses, the government could either:

1) Provide the dealers 2-3 days notice in advance, so that the dealers could buy the minimum amount for that few days. Or better still, the petrol dealers should be smart enough to know that petrol prices will usually be adjusted at the end of the month, and should only stock up the minimum quantity by then.

2) The government can always reduce just 12 sen per adjustment, but with NO minimum amount of RM1.92/litre. If they reduce 12 sen each time, the petrol dealers are theoretically not suffering from losses.

Finally, the same moron also mentioned selling the petrol at the minimum of RM1.92/litre would enable the government to reduce its subsidy on petrol if the global price fell further. So this is the main reason of setting the minimum? So that the government could SAVE and the rakyat should pay the so-called ‘subsidy’ instead? This is such a stupid excuse! In the first place, the subsidy amount has already reduced to a meagre value, and if the price reduces, I don’t think the subsidy should be reduced! That was what was promised to us when the petrol price was increasing. Now that it’s on the decreasing trend, they want to consider pulling back the subsidy? Is that fairness?

I am appalled by how and what the moron thinks. How could he not think on behalf of the consumer? And that, coming from a Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister, who doesn’t really take the consumers’ welfare into consideration.

I don’t agree, why must the government put a minimum on the petrol price if the global oil prices keep plunging? Does it make sense to the consumers if say, one day the petrol price retails at RM1.80/litre and we STILL have to pay RM1.92/litre?

Guilty as charged

iamthewitch — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 00:54:00 +0000

I am utterly fuming as I’m writing this post. Is there any word stronger than anger to express anger? This coming from an Umno division chief himself on a ceramah! I am flabbergasted to say the least. In case you didn’t know yet, the innocent Bukit Bendera Umno division chief, Ahmad Ismail has outrightly claimed that he’s not guilty for mouthing racist remarks last week. And to quote him: “As far as I am concerned, I did not say or do anything wrong. So why should I apologise?”. I have never heard of anything so ridiculous! The fact that he could openly declare that he’s done nothing wrong even after the Deputy Prime Minister himself apologized on his behalf while he was busy having fun with his sepak takraw game, totally baffles me. How could anyone be so irresponsible and be outright bold about it? Without a feeling of guilt? Just to refresh your memory, Ahmad was allegedly claimed to have described the Chinese as “immigrants squatting in the country, thus were not entitled to equal rights in Malaysia”. Which part of that statement is not racist? I say the whole statement is so immersed with racism that I could smell it from 100miles away! And yet he still refuses to apologize, claiming that he is innocent and did nothing wrong. As far as I’m concerned, he can certainly go to hell with such remarks.

The fact that he could boldly stand by his racist remarks and claimed that he’s not done anything wrong would definitely spark fire in the Chinese community. This coming at a time when BN support is at one of its lowest (if not lowest), will really boost the popularity of Anwar Ibrahim, who has stood by the notion of racial equality in Malaysia. I applaud Anwar for being able to look at people past the colour of their skin, unlike some. What I can say is, if Ahmad still refuses to apologize and admit he’s done something wrong, havoc will occur especially by the Chinese community, and rightfully so.

Change

iamthewitch — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 00:48:00 +0000

The Mother of all elections has just come to an end. Were you all waiting with bated breath for the news announcement yesterday? I know I was! But I had no doubts in Anwar though, from the first announcement of the partial results, he was already leading by more than 3000 votes, which was significant. If you didn’t know yet, Anwar Ibrahim finally won with a landslide victory, landslide because of the huge majority that overpowered the previous win by his wife Wan Azizah. Anwar Ibrahim garnered 31,195 votes, Arif Shah Omar Shah (from BN), 15,524, and Hanafi Hamat, 92. Anwar won with a majority of 15,671. (From malaysiakini) Some people say that we should salute the Malays in this election, because they’re the majority in terms of Permatang Pauh population. Apparently, Malays have always been subject to immense pressure to vote for BN candidates so as to ensure the future of Malay race is safeguarded. However, today, it shows that they are not afraid of the pressure anymore, and they have come out from their shells and daringly practised democracy to fight for change.

Change. That is the only thing we’re hoping for right now. The only thing we can do. As the people of Malaysia, we can only go so far as to voice out our choices in the elections and I believe that we’ve done so bravely. We have done our job. Now, it is the time to sit back and marvel at our chosen leaders doing their part of the deal. We will never know whether they are going to do what they promised earlier, or whether they’re going to be better with the current leadership. But what we all know is, we’re definitely not going anywhere right now. So, why not?