And I wonder how true they are.

1.   If you drop a whole egg on the floor, pour salt all over the egg, let it sit for awhile, then use dustpan, the egg will come right up, without all that mess.
2.   Soak stained hankies in salt water before washing.
3.   Sprinkle salt on your shelves to keep ants away.
4.   Soak fish in salt water before decaying; the scales will come off easier.
5.   Put a few grains of rice in your saltshaker for easier pouring.
6.   Add salt to green salads to prevent wilting.
7.   Test the freshness of eggs in a cup of salt water; fresh eggs sink;bad ones float.
8.   Add a little salt to your boiling water when cooking eggs; a cracked egg will stay in its shell this way.
9.   A tiny pinch of salt with egg whites makes them beat up fluffier.
10.  Soak wrinkled apples in a mildly salted water solution to perk them up.
11.  Rub salt on your pancake griddle and your flapjacks won't stick.
12.  Soak toothbrushes in salt water before you first use them; they will last longer.
13.  Use salt to clean your discoloured coffee pot.
14.  Mix salt with turpentine to whiten you bathtub and toilet bowl.
15.  Soak your nuts in salt brine overnight and they will crack out of their shells whole. Just tap the end  of the shell with a hammer to break it open easily.
16.  Boil clothes pins in salt water before using them and they will last longer.
17.  Clean brass, copper and pewter with paste made of salt and vinegar, thickened with flour
18.  Add a little salt to the water your cut flowers will stand in for a longer life.
19.  Pour a mound of salt on an ink spot on your carpet; let the salt soak up the stain.
20.  Clean your iron by rubbing some salt on the damp cloth on the ironing surface.
21.  Adding a little salt to the water when cooking foods in a double boiler will make the food cook faster.
22.  Use a mixture of salt and lemon juice to clean piano keys.
23.  To fill plaster holes in your walls, use equal parts of salt and starch, with just enough water to make stiff putty.
24.  Rinse a sore eye with a little salt water.
25.  Mildly salted water makes an effective mouthwash. Use it hot for a sore throat gargle.
26.  Dry salt sprinkled on your toothbrush makes a good tooth polisher.
27.  Use salt for killing weeds in your lawn.
28.  Eliminate excess suds with a sprinkle of salt.
29.  A dash of salt in warm milk makes a more relaxing beverage.
30.  Before using new glasses, soak them in warm salty water for a while.
31.  A dash of salt enhances the taste of tea.
32.  Salt improves the taste of cooking apples.
33.  Soak your clothesline in salt water to prevent your clothes from freezing to the line; likewise, use salt in your final rinse to prevent the clothes from freezing.
34.  Rub any wicker furniture you may have with salt water to prevent yellowing.
35.  Freshen sponges by soaking them in salt water.
36.  Add raw potatoes to stews and soups that are too salty.
37.  Soak enamel pans in salt water overnight and boil salt water in them next day to remove burned-on stains.
38.  Clean your greens in salt water for easier removal of dirt.
39.  Gelatin sets more quickly when a dash of salt is added.
40.  Fruits put in mildly salted water after peeling will not discolour.
41.  Fabric colours hold fast in salty water wash.
42.  Milk stays fresh longer when a little salt is added.
43.  Use equal parts of salt and soda for brushing your teeth.
44.  Sprinkle salt in your oven before scrubbing clean.
45.  Soaked discoloured glass in a salt and vinegar solution to remove stains.
46.  Clean greasy pans with a paper towel and salt.
47.  Salty water boils faster when cooking eggs.
48.  Add a pinch of salt to whipping cream to make it whip more quickly.
49.  Sprinkle salt in milk-scorched pans to remove odour.
50.  A dash of salt improves the taste of coffee.
51.  Boil mismatched hose in salty water and they will come out matched.
52.  Salt and soda will sweeten the odour of your refrigerator.
53.  Cover wine-stained fabric with salt; rinse in cool water later..
54.  Remove offensive odours from stove with salt and cinnamon.
55.  A pinch of salt improves the flavour of cocoa.
56. To remove grease stains in clothing, mix one part salt to four parts alcohol.
57. Salt and lemon juice removes mildew.
58. Sprinkle salt between sidewalk bricks where you don't want grass growing.
59.  Polish your old kerosene lamp with salt for a brighter look. Remove odours from sink drainpipes with a strong, hot solution of salt water.
60.  If a pie bubbles over in your oven, put a handful of salt on top of the spilled juice. The mess won't smell and will bake into a dry, light crust which will wipe off easily when the oven has cooled.

There is a photography club in my company and last week I joined them for a photo shoot out using newly bought studio lights. With no proper equipment with me especially a flash light, I depends my Nikon D40 built in flash to trigger the studio light's sensor. And to prevent the built in flash's light effect on the subject, I cover the built in flash with a piece of black colored clothe. I tried white color papers early but it didn't work. It turned out the photo is quite good despite this is the first time I taken photographs in a studio environment plus the McGyver's style flash setup. :)

Introduced by Poh Sze, the store name 家家来 means 'every families come', and I found out it's really a good place to have lunch with colleagues or family. Besides roasted dishes 烧腊 like Char Siew 叉烧 and Siew Yok 烧肉, they also make very tasty Teow Cheo style steam fish 潮州蒸鱼, and chicken craw simmered in seasoned soy sauce 卤鸡脚

All fully seated even its 2.00pm, way pass lunch time and it's Saturday somemore

Roasted chicken and pork are hang for customers to see how nice it looks. Besides is the nice looking Cha Siew.

Chicken craws simmered in soy sauce and cooked with pork's leg. Besides is Teow Chew style steamed fish

Front Entrance

Logo of the Yogitree

Grilled Portobello Mushroom with garlic, cheese and bread crumbs

Brown Rice with Ayam Percik & Ulam

Butternet Squash Soup

The restaurant's environment

I will be going to climb the 4th tallest peak (over 4000m) in South East Asia tomorrow and will only be back on Tuesday.

Wish me all the best and see you next week.

 
Copy from other website first, next week will post some pictures here. This website offers good advices for climbers to be.

Also looks like a nerd's life... got the coolest gadget... but drive a lousy car... but the pretty girlfriend part? Gee...

Since when convenient store assistant got Zune (or IPod)? Not here in 7-eleven...

I like the song very much, its Girl from Mars by Magneta Lane

Your Digital Lifestyle

  
Video: Your Digital Lifestyle

Just saw the MV of Beijing Olympics theme song today at Astro, actually I think this song has been around for quite sometime. You can get it from YouTube also. Featuring over 130 Chinese artists from all over China incl. SAR Hong Kong and Taiwan.

[YouTube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XOkYTzMHWc]
YouTube - Theme Song for Beijing Olympic 1 Yr Countdown - We are Ready

You can also download the song (in WMA format) and MV  from Beijing 2008 official website here.

http://en.beijing2008.cn/1year/song/n214119950.shtml

My telco DiGi telecom gives me extra 50% Birthday Reload Bonus when I reload my prepaid phone during the week of my birthday up to a maximum of RM50.00. Since this is free, why not donate part of it to charity such as World Wildlife Foundation "Save Our Turtles" program. The program allows people to donate via SMS where you can use your free reload credit. Just type WWF <space> Your full name <space> Email and send to 39398 then RM3 will be deducted from your account to WWF.

Now that election day is confirmed 8th March 2008, better find out where you are going for your polling district.

The web site is here. http://daftarj.spr.gov.my/daftarbi.asp

There you go, the photos taken with my Leica C-Lux 1 and Sony Ericsson K800i has been uploaded to Live Spaces. Some of the photos are in panoramic view created using Windows Live Photo Gallery. Blogging details will be done later, but for now you can now check out the photos. :)

Life @Krabi http://patrickyong.spaces.live.com/photos/cns!732D1D42507315A3!1695/

Scenery of Krabi http://patrickyong.spaces.live.com/photos/cns!732D1D42507315A3!1695/

Food of Krabi (and Air Asia too) http://patrickyong.spaces.live.com/photos/cns!732D1D42507315A3!1643/

Fauna and Flora of Thailand http://patrickyong.spaces.live.com/photos/cns!732D1D42507315A3!1620/

Just back from Krabi, Thailand trip this afternoon. I am still touching up my photos to be uploaded to Live Space. Will start blogging about my trip after I am done. :)

Kota Kinabalu is the next stop for my TechNet MSDN Roadshow, little wonder as I am writing this post on my way back to KL, I am visiting KK for the 2nd time in one year and going to climb Mount Kinabalu in April. There is always a aura of mystery around this place as it offers a lot to explore. But cut all the crap, I actually like the warmth of people, the freshness of air and also the tastiness of the seafood here.

Hyatt Regency

Touching down at Hyatt Regency Hotel, we open up the bottle of Tuak bought by Jabez at Kuching Airport. It only sold for RM10 compared to RM28 at Hilton Kuching. (Check out my previous post). And since from Kuching to KK is a domestic flight, one can hand carry the liquor on board the plane. Tuak which is actually rice wine, is sweet and smooth so I enjoyed it. It's really different from the Chinese rice wine (much higher alchohol content and dryer) so I will definitely intro it to my friends from China if they come to KK.

Geoduck Fried Ginger & Spring Onion		Steamed prawn
Steamed red garrupa		Steamed crab using Chinese rice wine
		Some of the exotic seafood found in East Malaysia

Again, I found myself back to Kampung Air seafood with my colleagues. This time I order geoduck (above) again but it is fried with spring onion and ginger. Taste a lot better than steaming with ginger and garlic. We also had steamed crab with Chinese rice wine (very yummy!). Look at the photos above, whole table is steamed dishes, all because Jaime is having stomach upset so we got to take good care of her after all the hard work she done for us.

Pork rib, full of sweetness from the sauce		Fried prawn
Deep Fried Sotong (Calamari)		Again steamed garrupa but this is the best I ever tasted.

The next day after the event a customer bought us to suburbs to enjoy seafood again at a restaurant called Tanker. I had the best and freshest galupa fish I ever had. We ordered prawns and sotong also. while we try to avoid ordering red meat here (go back KL eat la!) we had a dish a nice pork rib under the recommandation of the waitress. True enough, the sauce that comes with it taste like from a char siew stall that existed at Petaling Street years ago.

 Yuan Li Fish Noodle

Went back to Yuan Li again for the tasty fish noodle just after I check out from hotel. One bowlful of fish meat, even the noodle is made of fish meat.

Should you really enjoy the seafood here, why not share it with friends and family back home? There are stores at the airport where you can buy frozen seafood, they will packed in with dry ice in a box for you to carry back. So you should always look for exotic stuff like lao shu ban, sea cucumber and giant size tiger prawn. In where I stay in KL, you can buy these at market, maybe have to pay a premium at restaurants.

Ipoh Oldtown Coffee Shop is a cafe franchise which have been mushrooming at cities across Malaysia. So after my talk at Penang, I drove down to Ipoh to pay a visit to my friend. Ipoh people like Penangites, have always been proud of their own food. However it is not simply 'blind' enthusiasm, the Hor Fun (rice noodle) and the coffee here claimed to be the best in Malaysia and Singapore! Most visitors will come to Ipoh town area to try out the Wong Kee chicken hor fun but this time my friend bought me to another stall which opens at night only. The place is called Fifteen Tower. The rice noodle itself is as good as Wong Kee's but the soup taste different. It is as if it been cooked all day and little spices are added. Taste very natural but nice. The portion however is smaller so you got to order 2 for big guy like me.

Not the best steamed chicken I had but it is better than those in KL		This is why my friend bought me here. Hor Fun in chicken soup		Just a simple stall with the boss preparing the food and a foreign worker helping him to serve the customer

So next morning my friend bought me to the original Ipoh Oldtown coffee shop. It is actually called Nam Heong. Like any typical Chinese coffee shop here, the shop owner sells coffee while he rented out the stall spaces for others. So besides coffee you got other noodle stalls or rice stall rented by others. Quite different from the fancies opened by the son of Nam Heong's boss where everything is prepared and sold under one shop.

Because I just had my lunch, we decided to go to the opposite coffee shop Sin Yoon Long which the white coffee is as good if not better than Nam Heong. They do not have stalls there but sell pastry inside the shop. So I got myself a glass of iced white coffee and Kaya sponge cake (pic below). After I tasted the white coffee here, I don't feel like visit Ipoh Oldtown franchise in KL anymore. The white coffee here is so much better and I ordered by Kaya sponge cake to take back to KL later.

Tea time @Sin Voon Loong, iced white coffee and Kaya sponge cake

The original Ipoh Old Town Kopitiam

Because of the short trip I did not managed to visit Ming Kee vegetarian shop here near the Ipoh market. They make the best vegetarian duck and char siew and for the pass 20 years since I first tasted it, never had I found a match. So hope I will go back soon and check out the place.

Leaving for Kota Kinabalu today after 3 days at Kuching for TechNet MSDN Roadshow. Initially this morning I wanted to wake up early to enjoy the sun rise view at Sarawak River but ended up overslept. Last night was enjoyable night our with the team. We had dinner at a seafood restaurant known as 'Hai Pa Wang' Seafood.

2 statues of cat(s) at different part of Kuching. If you join Amazing Race and they ask you to look for 'cats' in Kuching, please take note.

River view from my hotel room, below is the sunrise view. :)

So at Hai Pa Wang, we had giant crab, oyster pancake, fried prawn, and seafood soup. also tried one a local vegetable known as Bilin which can't have it elsewhere. Look like some kind of parasite plant I saw previously in KK national park. Taste a bit like Kangkung but after all it is fried with chili belachan. The meal at Hai Pa Wang is quite cheap also, a dinner for table of 9 cost only

Hai Pa Wang Seafood

Bilin, pay attention to how the leave looking like. it has a swirl like leave, which is normal for most parasite plant		Seafood soup		Fried prawn, my favorite style of preparing the prawn because this way even the shell of the prawn is crunchy
Oyster pancake, although the oyster taste fresh, but not good combination		Crabs!! the arrangement look like a Taiwanese cartoon where a couple of pandas are stack on top of each other		Crab lining up to get into our stomach...

  2 MVPs who joined us for the trip, Jabez Gan (left) and Chan Ming Man (right), receiving their souvenir for the contribution.

So the next morning, Ming Man bought us for a bowl of Sarawak Laksa. Unlike Assam Laksa from Penang or Ngonya Laksa from Melaka, Sarawak Laksa taste like the combination of both. It is spicy and hot but on the same time a bit sour because of addition of lime juice.

	Beef soup RM4.50		Sarawak Laksa (you can choose the size of the prawn) This is the medium size. RM4.50

After that, not enough, I can't say I visited Kuching if I didn't check out Nasi Baria which is a type of rice planted on hill. Got to know from the hotel restaurant they have it in the menu, I head back to Hilton for 2nd round of my heavy brunch.

So there I go, ordered a set lunch of Nasi Baria, comes with the Bilin vegetable and also bamboo chicken. The Nasi Baria went compared to normal rice in Malaysia, is softer and has a better texture when you chew on it. But what really make me excited is the tastiness of the chicken soup. Having cooked the chicken meat in bamboo, the effect is like cooking the chicken soup in slow cooker for a day. All the essence of the chicken is found in the bowl of soup there. Together with Bilin, I can say all the 'goodness' of Sarawak cooking is found in this set lunch worth RM19.00.

Just reach the Cat City today (Kuching sounds like kucing, Malay word for cat) for TechNet MSDN Roadshow. Took Air Asia over and luckily no delay, heard the budget airline has only 80+ on time rate. The weather is good today with a nice view from the plane.

It's forest everywhere for Sarawak		I think it's the widest & longest river
Kuching town from top		Network of rivers and streams joined together
				Assume this is a fishing village

Upon arrival, checked in to Hilton Hotel Kuching which is beside the Sarawak River. The service and room is nice, even though it is quite a old hotel here in the city.  Some more got a bottle of Tuak in the room at the price of RM28.00. Not sure will I like it so didn't open.

The famous Thai restaurant in Penang, which previously located near Mount Eskin, has moved to Jalan Kerian, somewhere near MacAlister's Road opposite the Red Rock Hotel (refer map below). It is situated at a row of shops known as 8-row, because the 8 shops there are unique pre-war buildings suitable for restaurant. Since started, one need to make reservation for table because there are only about 8 tables inside and demand is always good during holidays and weekends.

Got car park some more.

  Famous appetizer at Yellow House

Crab meat with sweet sour sauce

Can't call it Thai cuisine without Tom Yam soup

The sour steamed fish here is simply delicious and fresh

The famous Pancake used to be at a coffee shop behind Standard Chartered Bank at Beach Street. Now it has moved off the road to Church Street. I just walked about 200m down the road and Church Street is on the right. This Thaipusam I go back Penang for MSDN TechNet Roadshow and had the opportunity to check out the new place for breakfast. Actually it's an old place called Hwa Pin coffee shop. As with any coffee shop here, there are many other stuff to eat.

(Haw Pin coffee shop in a pre-war building. Just like most coffee shop in Penang town area)

First thing first I ordered the banan pancake which is available for RM2.20 (or larger portion up to RM5.00). My advice to you is not to eat it hot when served, leave it there for a while and you can smell the fragrance of the sesame seed. When I was young, this banana pancake is only available here but now there is another stall at Pulau Tikus selling the same stuff. Nowadays every trip back to Penang I will come and fulfill my graving for the pancake.

(The aunty making the pancake in the background, she been operating the stall since I am a boy)

People always complain that Penang hawker food, although is cheap but also small in portion. But look at positively I can order another plate of Hokkien Mee (KL folks call prawn mee) again for RM2.20. The food at this Hwa Pin coffee shop really got good standard. Early in the morning and you can taste the tastiness of the prawn soup, this means the stall owner must had wake up very early to prepare the soup.

(Hokkien mee or Prawn mee as the southerners like to call it)

Can't start the morning with out a good cup of coffee, the 'kopi' here is different from Starbucks but offer the same oomph because it is thick enough. Normally people will order 'kopi gao' (kopi is the Malay word for coffee and gao means thick in hokkien), at RM1.20 this is cheap and nice.

  (Kopi Ping Gao!!)

With the acquisition of MapInfo, finally we might have detailed Malaysia's map in Virtual Earth with APIs and web services exposed to developers! So the first thing I did was to click on MapInfo and try to locate places I used to stay, studied or worked. To my dismay what I found out that Sek Tinggi Chung Ling (my high school) is misspelled as Chueng Ling, no wonder I can't locate my school via the search box la!!

From: liansee@padini.com

Subject: RE: friend missing?
Date: Thu, 29 Nov 2007 12:53:12 +0800

Dear Patrick,

Yes she has.

Thank you for your concern.

Regards,

Liansee

-----Original Message-----
From: Patrick Yong

Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2007 12:25 PM
To: liansee
Subject: RE: friend missing?

i got news that you colleague has returned home.

Thanks & Regards,
Patrick Yong Chee Meng