■ A shelter A Home

Today, during office hours, my mom calls my mobile phone up to ask do I know any Humble Roofers! First thought that “zoomed” across my mind is that…why are you looking for a roofer? You are staying in an apartment where there is no roof for you to repair! She then answered me that it is my aunty (my mom’s eldest sister) looking for a reliable roofers.

My aunty house’s roof having problem some time back and now the situation is getting worst as the moisture enter causing more damage to the ceiling board and walls. So, she must fix it soon else the problem might cost her more expensive at a later date. Since I know a few constructions firm that have some reliable humble roofers where myself also pleased with their workmanship and experiences, I recommend those roofers to my mom and asking her to pass their contact numbers to my aunty; let her contact and dealing with them personally.

Well, finding a qualified and reliable Humble Roofers is not easy as we might look into their workmanship, their know-how to do the correct jobs and the best is to get a reasonable quote from them, just don’t get cheated by them.

■ The Muffin

One more quick breakfast for me this morning – that is Muffin from Kenny Rogers and a cup of Milo. First, I plan to eat all the 2 muffins but it is too full for me so end up I took the banana muffin while hubby took vanilla muffin. I bought the muffin yesterday night at Queensbay Mall. Anyone like Kenny Rogers muffin?

■ My Dream Car

As I said in my previous post (dated 20 Jun 09), me and hubby went to a few car shops to have a look for cars; since hubby’s car is too old now, 10 years old and now keep showing problems already! Anyway, we managed to get information on Honda Civic 1.5L, Toyota Vios 1.5L, Hyundai Elantra 2.0L and Chevrolet Optra 1.6L and 1.8L. Even though we not yet decide to change the car, I think is better for us to get some information ahead before we really made up our mind, we also test drive these cars…hah!

Among these few cars, I personally most interested and feel satisfy with Hyundai Elantra; very powerful car and the technology are superb as well as the safety features, it is electronically controlled Motor Driven Power Steering, it has luxurious cabin and the interior design is spaciousness. The blue light meter make the car internally look so fabulous. Overall, Elantra is look so elegant to me.

Since hubby is entitled to enjoy the instant car loan benefit from the company that he worked for, it is better for us to make a good comparison see whether the car shops is offering more lower interest rates or vice versa.

Hope that I’ll owned my dream car “Hyundai Elantra” one day!

■ Ginger & Black Fungus Chicken

This is another home-cook dishes that I prepared quite some time back. Now, I post it up here in my blog. I found the recipe via internet and I’ve the urge to try the recipe out! So I did it…a successful one and very tasty somemore!

Ingredients:

1 skinless & boneless chicken (cut into strips)

2 inches ginger (peeled and cut into thin strips)

1 teaspoon oyster sauce

1 1/2 teaspoon kecap manis (sweet soy sauce)

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon fermented soy beans (taucheo)

4 pieces dried black fungus (pre-softened in warm water for 30 minutes, then cut into bite-size)

1 1/2 tablespoons cooking oil

1 onion (quartered)

2 tablespoons water

1 stalk scallion (cut into 1 inch length)

Method:

Heat up the cooking oil in a wok and stir fry the ginger strips until aromatic. Add in the onions and black fungus and do a few quick stirs. Add the fermented soy bean (taucheo) before adding the chicken strips into the wok. Stir-fry the chicken meat until the color changes, then add in oyster sauce, kecap manis, and sugar. Stir all ingredients together before adding in the water. Add the scallions, do a few quick stirs, dish out and serve hot with steamed rice.

How, look tasty isn’t it? Come…come…we eat together yah!

■ Debt Consolidation Program

Are you headache with your debts and can’t have a good night sleep at night? Struggling about the amount owe just too much? And interest rates keep rising? At this moment, you might be thinking is consolidating your debts into a single low interest monthly payment would probably save you up thousands of dollars as well as speeding up the process of your debts pay off!

Well, if you think that debt consolidation could help your financial burden then www.nodebttoday.com; where with their online debt consolidation counseling program certainly is the best option for you. Take a few minutes to fill in your debt consolidation program and your estimated debt amount and then fill in some of your personal particulars and let the system run. Well finally, the system will matched the right debt consolidation option to help you up! Oh yah, not to worry about your details as the system is completely secured and privacy.

There are three most popular methods of consolidation, namely bank loans, credit card balance transfers and professional consolidation services. You can find out more on how these three methods works via the above link. Just take some time to read on and I’m sure it will benefit you towards achieving free debts.

■ The "Thoh"

My this morning simple and quick breakfast – The “Thoh” (pronounce in Hokkien dialect). I bought this “Thoh” at market. Usually, I will keep this “Thoh” in fridge and when I want to eat it, I'll take it out and steam it with my steamer for 15mins. There are 2 types of filling; they are with “lien yong” or with “peanut”. I prefer the peanut one! Well, with 2 of these “Thohs” and one cup of “milo”. I’m full already.

Want to have some? I still have in my fridge…

■ No Fax Cash Advances

Are you run out of cash to pay your unexpected bills or over-budgeted expenses? Need cash advance to get through your emergency financial matter? Well, applying no fax cash advances online with www.urgentcashloan.com and let them help you to get your quick cash to pay off your debts today! This is a faxless application process where you are not required to fax in your personal information in order to get approved for the cash advance and you are getting your fund as quickly as possible.

Nowadays, there are so many online payday loans providers available in the internet. What you need to do is just a few clicks away to get your quick cash done! An individual can apply up to $1500 for the cash advance and each lender will have slightly different requirements but not to worry, what you need to do is just to answer a few questions about your financial situation and you will definitely be getting approval for the loan within hours of applying. All this can be done right in front of your computer; be it from your comfort home or office. And bear in mind that all your application and financial information are absolutely secured.

■ A Good Scheme For Old Folks

This morning when I wrote about mortgage rates article, I came across one new term that I never know before, that is “reverse mortgage”. So what is it actually? Well, a reverse mortgage is a scheme instead of the homeowner (usually and elderly or retired person) paying installments to the bank but now the bank pays them money until the total payments reach a predetermined limit. The loan does not have to be repaid during the homeowner’s lifetime and the bank is willing to let the homeowner to stay in that property too! But until the bank has paid the homeowner the entire “reverse mortgage amount”, then the homeowner will lose his/her ownership of that property to the bank or until the last remaining borrower passes on, then the bank gets the mortgaged properties. Well, this is a strategy plan for old folks in western countries to free up the equity value of their property, enjoy more cash-flow, before they "move to another world”.

However, there are pros and cons in this reverse mortgage. The most benefits are the freeing up of cash for any purpose; creation in additional of monthly income and this is a good way to help retirees who are in need of money. Secondly, this is helpful for those elderly who are childless. They can’t sell their houses while they are still alive because they need a place to stay. After they are dead and gone, the sale of their houses will no longer benefit them, so the bank will get the properties. On the other hand, the most disadvantage of a reverse mortgage is the diminished value of the properties which will ultimately be left to heirs.

I do not know whether in Malaysia, our local banks have this reverse mortgage scheme for old folks or not! Please share with me here if you know about it.

■ Buying A Home

When we talk about buying home, home loan and home mortgage rates are the things that we might considered about. What is mortgage? Well, mortgage is a loan to finance the purchase of real estate, usually with specified payment periods and interest rates. The borrower gives the lender a lien on the property as collateral for the loan.

A normal practice over here is that, home buyer can either get the home loan and mortgage with the developer assigned banker or buyer can personally search and get their own banker that they think the offer is much more better than the assigned one!
Well, for me and hubby, we will look for our own banker and make comparison between each bank to get the lowest home loan as well as mortgage rates that the bank offered. As a modestly lower rate could save us up to hundreds of “Ringgit” on our monthly mortgage payment! And a house is probably the largest purchase that we’ll make in our lifetime, so we better do it right.

But finding our own banker could be a time consuming and tiring process for us. I’m not sure whether we can search any banker locally and get their online comparison for the best rates on loan and policies like what other country could! Well, http://www.lowerrates.com/ is one of the online sites where buyer can get comparison of all sorts of loans, credit cards, insurance policies and more on the internet; it is so convenient and consumer-friendly.

■ Hazy Days in Penang

The haze is back again to Penang several days already. The sky looks so gloomy. According to newspapers (dated 19 Jun 2009) reported that the haze which is enveloping Penang state has worsened with visibility in Bayan Lepas area dropping to 4km at 10am while Prai and Butterworth, it was 5km.

As today report from DOE (Department Of Environment), Penang API (air pollutant index) is recorded as moderate with 57 at 11am and 55 at 5pm. Note that the unhealty API is between 101-200. So, it is not a good time to have any outdoor activities and also to all "rakyat Malaysia", please try not to do any open burning activities!

Nota / Note

* = Habuk Halus (PM10)

c = Ozon (O3)

a = Sulfur Dioksida (SO2)

d = Karbon Monoksida (CO)

b = Nitrogen Dioksida (NO2)

& = Lebih daripada satu pencemar

# = Masalah Teknikal

■ Car Insurance And Home Insurance

Hubby’s car is 10 years old now. It is manufactured in year 1999. We used to call this car as “old” car…hah! Lately, this old car keeps showing problem…I think it is time we need to change a new car already! Since today is weekend and we both do not have any special plan, so we went to a few car shops to look for details and car price even we are not really decided to have a change yet! We will gather all information of each model that we afford and will make a comparison before we really decide which one to go for.

Since car insurance is one of the benefits that all employees entitled in the company that hubby work for, so we usually sign up our car insurance package with that insurance company with a special offer rate for employees and the premium is really worth the price. Normally, we will buy the First-Party Coverage and on top of that, hubby will extra purchase the Windscreen Coverage as well as Special Perils Coverage. What about you guys? Do you think that two “Coverage” are important?

Anyway, we overheard that the insurance company might launch a home insurance for employees soon. Once this is launched, we will for sure immediately to get the homeowners insurance quote to compare with our current one to see which one is more essential to our financial well-being.

Cash..cash...cash

We usually heard the term of “Bad Credit”. Do we really know what is it actually? Well, let me briefly define this term here. Bad Credit is to describe a poor credit rating include making late payments, skipping payments, exceeding card limits or declaring bankruptcy.

Nowadays global economic turns very badly, many factories over here in my country having shutdown and employees are force to apply leaves for the shutdown period. For those employees who have no leaves, they will be unpaid during this shutdown time frame. Well, shutdown is really putting all employees into a total state of panic and worried. It is really painful for those who facing “unpaid” as this is mean no income for them during the shutdown period. When people start to face lack of cash, they tend to making late payments and skip payments; due to this situation leading to increase of bad creditors!

Are you one of the victims of bad credit? Do you need emergency cash to cleaning up your poor credit? If you are, then bad credit cash loan is the solution for you. http://www.easyonlinepaydayloan.com/ is here to help you up! Log on now to this site to find out how they provide guidance to help you overcome your financial problems.

■ My Home-cook Clams (Siput) dishes

I took these photos quite some time already just that I did not post up in my blog. Well, this is my home-cook clams dishes (or Siput in Malay word). It is very easy to prepare, what we need is only garlic, ginger, sugar, salt, thick soy sauce and clams.

Method:
* Soak the clams with salt water for about 30mins.
* Rinse the clams with water tap after that.
* Heat up the pan/wok with cooking oil. Then fry the garlic and ginger till fragrant.
* Put the clams into the pan/wok; follow by thick soy sauce, sugar, salt and water.
* Cook till the clams “open up” and they are done - served with steam rice.



This is the ginger, garlic and sugar.



Top Left – The clams after rinse with water tap.
Bottom Left – Closer view of the clams.
Top and Bottom Right – The clams after cooked.

Hmm…this is yummy! Want to have some?

Note: These types of clams are not always can find in wet market. It is very much depending on ocean tides (sorry I’m not sure they are easily get during low tide or high tide). Maybe you guys can share with me.

■ A Very Cute Personalized Children's Plates

I like to see children items especially children clothing, shoes, socks and other children accessories. I think because of their design, colourful material, and miniature size; make all the things turn out to be so cute. Lately, I read through one magazine, under the advertisement corner, there are a lot of shops selling all babies and kids stuffs but there is one very unique shop that catching my eyes because the shop is offering custom embroidery and monogramming for customers (of course with extra charges) with purchase of any items in the shops. The idea is so brilliant that we can have our personalized items or gifts to be present to someone! They even make personalized children’s plates where customers can request the kids name to be printed on the plate.

Besides plates, many other items also can be embroider such as toddler backpacks, bath towels, baby sippy cup, shoes, shirts, socks, blankets and many more! In the shop, they also sell some children ride toys. Ezy roller is one of the famous rides for kids from age 3 to 14. But I still think it is vital to teach young children how to ride this roller with parents’ supervision.

■ I Make Sushi Maki

Last week I try to make Sushi Maki with cucumber and crab meat as the fillings. This is the 1st time I try it and to my surprise the taste turn out just perfectly and it is yummy! Not bad…

Things that I need to prepare the sushi are:
1) mat
2) Japanese rice
3) Rice Vinegar
4) Sugar and Salt
5) Nori Seaweed
6) Cucumber and Crab meat
7) Wasabi
8) Sashimi Soy Sauce



This is the cucumber and crab meat (I steamed the crab meat for 5 to 10 min).



Cooked the Japanese Rice and once it cooked, take it out and flatten it on a big plate, if can “fan” it.



Ready the vinegar mixture by boiling the rice vinegar with sugar and salt till melt. Then try to pour one spoon by one spoon of the vinegar mixture to the rice until you get a perfect taste of the rice.



Wrap the mat with wrapping plastic.



Place the Nori seaweed on the mat and start to spread the rice onto it (make sure to wet your hand to avoid the rice stick on your hand) and follow by putting the cucumber and crab meat at the center of the rice. Then start to roll and wrap it.

Sorry, I cannot share with you all the following photos as my hand is mess with rice and wet, I can’t snap any photo and by that time hubby was not with me, so no one help me to snap photo!



Finally, cut the roll sushi into small pieces and served.



Oh yah, not forgotten our best friends – wasabi and sashimi soy sauce.


Apa macam JLE, boleh pass kah? (How is it JLE, can accept or not?)...hahaha!
“Nevermind-lah”, as long as can eat and taste not bad, fine with me already…

■ She Is Work Hard To Achieve Her Goal

Since my sister just starting up her home-based online business selling clothes and handbags, I think I better recommend her to visit www.wholesalenewsletter.com whereby it is a free email based newsletter that talks about all topics related to Wholesale goods trade, e-commerce and running a home-based business. I’m sure if she’s joining up their mailing list, she could beneficial herself from obtaining more Wholesale news and guidance on how to improve and owned a successful home-based web business of her in future!

In fact she is planning to cover a wide range of products at her online business besides clothes and handbags. Things like jewelry, hair accessories (hair clips, hair pins and more), babies and kids clothing, shoes (kids and adults), cosmetics and watches are the few more items that she is interested at. She is now trying hard searching for better price-offer Wholesale sources locally and abroad (country like Thailand, Vietnam and China). I can see this is rather a time consuming task as it’s involve a lot of negotiation process besides finding a reliable and legitimate wholesaler and so on and so forth. She still has a long way to go anyway in order for her to be able getting her business running on track. Even though she knows that she is a bit “late” to involve in online business where people out there starts their business ten years back…but still there are more rooms for business owner like her to jump in! Her “never give up” spirit is the rule of thumb for her to success in this online business. What I can see so far, her business is quite good in response. That is a good sign for her, thumbs up!

Anyway, I believe the hard work and effort that she put on will bring a success in her business one day! I pray for you, sis!

By the way all my readers, I have added my sister’s link in my blog at the “left-side” side-bar under the subtitle of “Online Shopping – Pretty Princess Fashion”. Pop over and visit her site when you have some spare time!

■ Movie-Watching At Cinema

Last Saturday (23 May), hubby and I went to GSC (Golden Screen Cinema) Queensbay Mall (QB) to have movie-watching. We watched "Night At The Museum 2". In fact hubby bought the ticket online on Friday.



On Saturday, we went out from house at 10:50am. We reached QB at about 11:10am. We went up to GSC to get our ticket. And movie will start at 12:20pm; Cinema#1; Seat are D9 and D10.



Since Cinema #1 still not in “NOW SEATING” mode (as the light not turns on yet) and we still have some time, we went to Jusco to do a little quick and fast shopping. And items that bought are then “thrown” inside our car…hah!



So from car park, we back to cinema by 12 noon and now the Cinema #1 is “NOW SEATING” mode already. So hubby line up to buy 2 boxes of popcorns (regular size), 1 bottle of drinking water and 1 hotdog for just in case we feel hungry inside the cinema.



Well, the actual time for the movie to start playing is at 12:30pm and it finish at 2:00pm. Overall I like the show. What about you?

■ Unsecured Personal Loans

Due to global economy issue, Unsecured Personal Loans is getting more and more popular especially to those “small-and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs)” businessmen, whereby some of them facing the dwindling demand for their goods and products. In order for them to sustain their business for not “closing down”, applying Unsecured Loan might be one of the solution for them to overcome their financial problem. Even as an individual, some of them also becoming the victim of economy crisis and “unemployed” now, so they tend to apply Personal Loans as well for paying their mortgage arrears, car, daily expenses and any financial emergencies that an individual can think of!

What is the different between Unsecured Loans and Secured Loans? Well, Unsecured Loan, there’s no requirement of collateral and borrower need not pledge his/her assets to gain the loans. Borrower need not be verified by any supporting documents. Usually, the funds can be available within two business days; quick approvals and easy application process!

Whereas the Secured Loans; borrowers need to pledge his/her assets as collateral to gain the loans. The assets may be forfeited to the lender if the borrower fails to make the necessary payments. And usually the funds are made available within a period of thirty days after submitting an application.

■ Introduce My Sister's Blog To All

I want to reveal my sister’s blog now. A blog for her to get some extra income by selling clothes online. You can always pay her a visit at “Pretty Princess Fashion” even you are not planning to purchase any clothes, well…window shopping! Oh yah, she will upload more stocks in her blog from time to time. In that case, please come back for viewing! Thank you.

■ Nature Cares For Your Health And Beauty

I was chatting with my friend about make-up and cosmetic stuffs the other day. I said, I’m not wearing any make-up on my face and also dislike and not used to have something “stick” on my face even it is a very light make-up! I prefer natural and simple…Well to me, not wearing any make-up doesn’t mean not taking a good care of your facial! What about you guys and girls out there, you put on make-up? Buying any cosmetic products? Buying any facial products? Or buying any body and bath products?

Oh yessss…I do taking care of my skin especially my face. What brand of facial product that you use? I’m using Avalon Organics (Lavender) brand. I get to know about this brand through a friend of mine, she keeps raving about Avalon to me, so I tried it one day and it leaves my skin feeling soft, smooth and moisturizing at all times. And honestly say, after using this product, I do not feel my skin get irritants, but my skin actually felt better than before. It just worked well!

Avalon products is available at organic shop here in Penang. Previously, I can get it from Pantai Mutiara Hospital’s organic shop, but too bad now they don’t sell it anymore! So, I only can purchase this product from one of the “natural” shop at Gurney Plaza (near to cold storage). And sometimes I do asking a favor from my hubby’s colleagues to buy back for me when they have a business trip to United States. Of course, the other alternative way to get this product is - I can always purchase online!