Secret Recipe secretly cheating?

Update @ 14th Nov 2006
I have tried several Secret Recipe shops and all of them does have this defect. So on one occasion, I had to ask. The reply was simply, "The machine rounds up the number. Would you like your change?". This proves that SC's staff are aware, and in order to get your 2 cents back, you NEED to ASK!

Now the best part.... almost a month now.. no action from KPDNHEP. Why do I even bother?



Btw, same thing happen today at KLCC foodcourt - Bengal's corner. 2 cent was not return again. Why does this happen to me?

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I decide to buka puasa with my favourite Secret Recipe cake last week. However I come out with 2 slices of cakes and alot of questions. Have a look at the receipt below. Do a bit of math, and can you tell me where did my 2 cents go?




I know my maths is weak... so can anyone explain this? Btw, I didn't get my 2 cents back as I paid RM 50, and the cashier return RM 40 back. I have filed a complain with http://e-aduan.kpdnhep.gov.my. Lets see how its goes.

Open Source Symposium 2006

I attended a 2 days event on Open Source held at Ritz-Carlton Hotel. I took the monorel for the first time. Not bad.

Clearly evident was the numbers of participants. This could be due to TechEd event going on simultaneously in KL. The numbers for TechEd estimated over 1000 while Open Source had less than 300 participants. On the second day, most sessions was attended no more than 50 people.

But the food was good. They really spend money to feed everyone. I don't think you can get that at TechEd.

I found the content of the symposium to be interesting to a certain extend however the selection of title and the quality of speakers was poor. There were only a few select exceptional speakers such as Shane Owenby - Red Hat APAC, Dinesh Nair - QubeConnect, Dr. Yusseri Yusoff - former Consulting Project Director for MAMPU and few others.

I can't comment on the rest of the talks which I didn't attend. Most speakers do not speak in passion about the technology nor offer new insight although everyone was knowledgeable. The talks was mostly catered for experienced Red Hat users or developers. No afford was taken to introduce the basics of Red Hat. I hope there will be more improvement in the following year.

The 2 days events had a tagline which was notable in every talk - TOC (Total Ownership Cost) and Vendor Lock In. Very Anti-Mircosoft atmosphere. The cool part was the presentation was done using a Linux OS notebook using OpenOffice (or was it Star Office?).

I am not a Open Source or Microsoft evangelist. To me, what is important is what technology that can deliver the requirements that I have in a productive, fast and efficient manner. If I have to pay for a software, then I will if it really helps my productivity. If Open Source can provide the same solution and helps my productivity, then by all means I will use it.

Fitness First Review : IOI Mall Puchong

Located within IOI Mall Puchong. You can't miss it if you are heading to KL using the LDP.

• Parking is RM 1 for the 1st 4 hours. Then subsequent is either 50 sen or RM 1. I would imagine getting a parking here during weekends will be a nightmare.
• The entry point is ground floor. So you can park at the open car park and walk across. I got fooled because I saw the signboard way up and I thought it was on the upper levels. Took an unnecessary journey to park on the roof and walk all the way down.
• First impression. There is sure alot of cardio equipment here.
• Single level concept.. thank God.
• Receptionist, nothing to shout about.
• The men's locker room seems big, but don't be fool. Strategic placed mirror makes the room look big. But its all new and clean. Locker seems smaller compare to others place.
• Free weight area abit smaller compared to FF Curve. They have about 5-6 work bench. The rest pretty much the same as DU.
• Juice area, quite small.
• Somehow, I feel the PTs here are unfriendly.  Just me...
• Machine, the usual. Didn't really pay attention to them.
• Plus point, all the equipments are spanking new. Even the dumbbells looks virgins.

Ratings? 


Check out for more reviews below
FF Menara Axis
FF The Curve
FF DU
FF Consplant

Back from Cherating

I just got back from a much needed vacation. This time around, the destination is Cherating. This is my second time to Cherating and to the same hotel - Impiana Cherating. This hotel with its rustic and ala Malay traditional architecture capture my attention and mesmerized me on my first visit. But what really made me return is the placement of the rooms close to the sea, where you can hear the sounds of the thundering yet soothing waves from your room.

This is where I laid back and enjoyed the breeze and sounds of the waves.

The main purpose of this journey was not to enjoy or to take a break, but rather to have a quite environment for me to reexamine my purpose in life. I have achieve half of the objectives I set out to do here. The rest, time will tell.

The beach... regret not spending more time here...

In Cherating or Kuantan, life moves in a much slower pace. I felt I was moving much faster than time and the cruel reason is because I have been obsessed and influenced with KL's ruthless lifestyle.

Here, you are able to relax and wind down. I could really feel the difference. People are nicer and life is much more simpler. There is nothing to rush for or to compete with.

The moment I got onto Karak-KL highway, I saw the ugly side of these Ws plat numbers. Sigh... I wish I could stay longer.

I bid farewell to the sea... liken to the ebb and tide, my life is such.


I hope a day will come when I can rejoice my success in life with a dwelling near the sea. Put away the hatreds and disappointments and embrace life the way it should. We all can learn a thing or two from nature.

This entry was published using Windows Live Writer. Pretty cool software. Sadly blogger.com does not support image publishing.

A new year to begin

95% emotionally recovered and feeling great. Been starting to hit the gym, although I feel like a beginner. Couldn't care less about what has happen in the past. Everything happens for a reason. So "life", here the deal.. I ain't giving up, so keep trying, loser.

25th July, my birthday. Started the celebration with my wife and a nice cake from secret recipe. My staff threw me a surprise party. It was kindda touching as I didn't expect them to go to such extend. I guess ppl show their respect and affection in a different manner.

My friends threw me a party as well. For the first time in my life, I celebrated a birthday party with friends. I know its pathetic, not everyone is popular, ok? It was great buffet dinner and its nice to know you have friends who care (finally, i am not alone in this world). Lucikly, no one threw me a party in the gym.

It made me realise that I have so many ppl around me that actually took the effort to rejoice a celebration for me. I gotta cherish this ppl and make more effort to acknowledge them. Life is not bad after all, yah?

Recovering

I have been out of action for 2 months now. The hand injury is getting better, but emotionally I am healing as well. Cryptic? Simply put, the past month, I had endured some painful setback in life. It's one of those event that really changes your life as you know it. You are paralyze emotionally and you need to step back and re-look at your life.

I am not good a dealing with emotional breakdowns, as usual my life breaks down together. Finally after a month plus, I have pieced up my life together, although some part of it is still missing (eventually I'll find it).

As of present time, my body is back to where it was 6 months back. I need to refocus on my gym and nutrition again (been feeding on pizza, ice-creams, chocolates like nobody's business). I need to refocus on my career and family again. Lets put this way, its Ganee 2.0 booting up soon.

Company Trip

I just got back from my company trip held at Summerset, Rompin. This place is really ulu, where ther is no line and surrounded by jungle.

The trip was fun and nice, but consist alot of team building activities. The worst activitiy was to dig out sand from the beach to built a small tunnel, using your bare hands. On that day, I felt how a dog will feel like...

Most of the free time I get which is between lunch hour and evenings, I dive straight into the pool. Yup, good old cardio exercise. The funny things is I didn't see the gym here eventhough its listed on their brochure.

Pool is clean and nice, and we did spent quite abit of time playing water polo.

The sea was quite rough with big waves. The night was fantastic whereby the sky was brightly lit with stars.

Among the activities we played was water polo, volley ball and beach soccer. Unfortunately, my wrist got worse and now this is my 3rd week that I am out of the gym. I hope to get well soon, can't wait to get back to gym.

My Protein

Left - Old, Right - New

Just got my tub of protein powder from EgoNutritions.com. Its a new improved Whey 100% Gold Standard. Out of curiosity, I was comparing the the old tub against the new one. Right off is the weightage, the new one is 5.15lbs while the old one is 5lbs only.

There are a few others differences as below...

Left - Old, Right - New

Eventhough the protein is up 1 gram, but the cholesterol and sodium is up. I wonder what new ingredients they have to put into this protein powder. Maybe its time to switch to another protein?

Out of Action

Arghh... the worst thing to happen to anyone training with weight.. INJURY. I sustain a wrist injury. Its been there for sometime but as the last workout, I think I went in abit aggressive. I had to see the doc after I notice the pain didn't go away and there was a clicking sound around the wrist area.

He slapped around bandage and told me to lay off weights for 2 weeks. That sux! Guys, injury sux and can set you back for sometime. So go easy and listen to your body. Now then, tomorrow is shoulder day.. hmm....

Gym for bunnies and yuppies

I just gotta blog about this. In the US, there is this gym named "Planet Fitness". Their tagline is "judgment Free Zone". Using this tagline, they tailor their gym for Cardio bunnies and Yuppies. Why do i say this? Several reasons

• They do not have squat rack
• They do not allow deadlifts
• No T-bar rows
• There is no dumbbells heavier than 40lbs. What!?
• If you drop your weights or make noise they will slam of the LUNK ALARM - its kindda loud siren to embarrass you. - I don't like the alarm idea, but I agree on this rules, although you ought to be allowed at least a grunt.
• Bodybuilders are openly discouraged to sign up with their gym

Understand why now? I seriously believe they shouldn't call themselves a gym. What kindda gym that doesn't allow bodybuilding? Sissy club?

You seriously gotta check out their radio commercial. Damn funny.

Now it makes me worry, I just hope FF does not follow the same steps in the future. Right now they are looking more and more like "Planet Fitness".....