
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Gathering & Food Hunt: Restaurant Look Up Point, Langat Hill

Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Lifestyle: Liverpool Purse

Sunday, October 25, 2009
Food Hunt: Nando's Sunway Pyramid







Friday, October 23, 2009
Malaysia News: Budget 2010: "1Malaysia, Together We Prosper"
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak has tabled Budget 2010 with the theme "1Malaysia, Together We Prosper". Totalling RM191.5 bil, he said it would be the foundation of a new economic model and precursor to the 10th Malaysia Plan.
These are the main highlights of the speech as per delivery.
* Time for country to move to an economy of innovations to face the challenges of the future
* GDP for 2009 expected to be -3%, better than previous projections of -4% to -5%
Prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak - with Secretary General of Finance Tan Sri Wan Abdul Aziz Wan Abdullah, Finance Minister II Datuk Seri Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah, Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Chor Chee Heung and Datuk Dr Awang Adek Hussein - is ready with his briefcase containing the Budget 2010 speech outside the Finance Ministry's Office in Putrajaya Friday.
* Focus of Budget 2010 will be on well-being of the people
* Three strategies:
- driving the country towards a high-income economy,
- ensuring holistic and sustainable development,
- focusing on the well-being of the rakyat.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak tabling the 2010 budget at the Dewan Rakyat, Friday.
* Taxpayers will get tax relief on broadband subscription fee of up to RM500 from 2010 to 2012. Civil servants can apply for computer loans up to a maximum of RM5,000 from the govt once in every 5 years.
* RM6bil for agriculture sector for irrigation of paddy fields, fish production, fruit farming, livestock farming infrastructure, training
* RM2bil subsidy for farmers and fishermen including subsidies for fertilisers, incentives for padi yields and allowances for fishermen
* RM9bil to finance infrastructure projects including road and bridges projects and rail, sea ports and airports facilities
* RM1.5bil fund to promote green technology by providing soft loans to companies that supply and use green technology
* RM200mil Creative Industry Fund to finance film, drama, music productions, animation, advertisements through Bank Simpanan Nasional
* RM30bil to be allocated to enhance primary and secondary school education nationwide
* Rewards for students who excel in studies:
- 30 National Scholarships for the creme de la creme of students, stictly based on merit
- Conversion of PTPTN loans to scholarships for students who graduate with 1st class honours degree, beginning from 2010,
- Offer of netbook package, including free broadband service, to university students for RM50 per month for 2 years.
* The Permata programme, which emphasises on early childcare and education, including the gifted child programme, to get RM100mil
* Insurance industry to be improved to meet market demand.
* Govt to clamp down on the abuses committed by Ah Longs by enforcing Anti-Money Laundering and Anti Terrorism Financing Act 2001. Moneylenders Act 1951 to be also reviewed.
* Allow 100% foreign equity participation in corporate finance and financial planning companies compared with the present requirement of at least 30% local shareholding.
* To ensure rapid development of financial services, the existing tax incentives to be extended to 2015.
* Among steps to combat corruption is to set up 14 Special Corruption Sessions Courts and 4 Special Corruption Appeal High Courts.
* Tax of 5% to be imposed on gains from the disposal of real property from Jan 1, 2010. Existing tax exemption will be retained for gifts between parent-child, husband-wife, grandparent-grandchild.
* To promote prudent spending, a service charge of RM50 a year to be imposed on each principal credit card and charge card; and RM25 a year on each supplementary card, effective from Jan 1, 2010.
* To ensure that fuel subsidies only benefit targeted groups, Govt will implement a fuel subsidy management system in early 2010, which will utilise the MyKad.
* All ministries and govt departments are required to provide day care and education centres for children of civil servants.
* The maximum income tax rate for individuals to be reduced to 26% from assessment year 2010. Personal relief increased to RM9,000.
* Police force to get RM1bil to improve its services in govt's efforts to reduce crime. Major measures include to increase police presence, including mobile police stations in 50 crime hotspots.
* To promote house ownership, Govt will launch a scheme that enables EPF contributors to utilise current and future savings in Account 2.
* Employees' EPF contribution to be increased to 11% again, on a voluntary basis, effective immediately. However, from Jan 1, 2011 employees' EPF contribution will revert to 11%.
* Personal relief for EPF and life insurance schemes to be increased to RM7,000.
* Source & Photos: The Star Malaysia 23/09/09
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My Comments: After so many years, basically I think the 2010 budget doesn't really benefits to the rakyat except those who are paying taxes. It focuses more into our personal income tax portion where the rakyat need not to pay more tax. Other than that, I don't see any benefits that could spur the rakyat and the economy. For education portion, the federal government will also help but sponsoring or subsdising the funds for those scoring good grades in their exams. Other also including some fund allocation to different sectors and this would also benefits those sectors I guess. When you talking about 1 Malaysia Budget, by right it should spur more good news to the rakyat and help their burden. What about for those who are not paying taxes? Any good news for them as well? I don't see any good news for them too. Overall, it was a moderate budget and we shall see whether the budget announced would spur the economy or not?
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Food Hunt: Nong & Jimmy BBQ Seafood Restaurant (Part 1)

Hello folks,
Welcome back to a lovely Sunday evening here. After watching movie & shopping at Tropicana City, Me & Kimmy have decided to go have BBQ Seafood restaurant at Kuala Lumpur. Not only that, to try these BBQ Seafood, we need another companion so that we can try out more dishes. So, I have invited my brother Alan Leow to join us for this food hunt trip. After watching movie, I go and pick my brother up and we are ready to go to Taman Cahaya located near Ampang, Kuala Lumpur. While we are travelling, we are looking forward to the food over there as 3 of us are very excited to try out the food there. We knew that we could not try out all the food there on 1 day so we decided to go there for the 2nd time again later. So this topic would be named as Part 1. We reach the Nong & Jimmy BBQ Seafood Restaurant at about 6.45pm. Then it was so packed with people already and yet, the people are still coming in numbers. I would say very good business.




The food came and 3 of us are very satisfied with the food served. Let's go straight to the comments of the food. The Tom Yum Gung was pretty impressive because of the taste. It was pretty spicy and sour and well balanced so if you loved this, then I would guarantee you will say nice to this tom yum gung. The spinach with the sambal belacan was very nice and a little spicy as well. Nothing special about it and the chef cooks this dish very delicious as well. For the grilled part, the grilled stingray was pretty impressive. It was covered with the curry powder at the top and the flesh of the stingray; while eating with the chilli sauce (sweet & sour as well) served will add the juiciness and tastiness of the fish as well. Finally the grilled sotong, was pretty plained in its decoration BUT don't look down into it. The grilled squid was very nice as the squid is very soft and easy to bite. You can smell the fragrance of BBQ flavour and when you chew at your mouth, it was an easy and pleasant dish to take as well. The 3 of us was very impressive by the food there and we vow to come back for the 2nd time again.
Last but not least is the price. It was in my surprise when the bill came to me. For the 4 dishes that we've ordered only costs about RM49.70. and the portion was average and suitable for 3 people to dine. Besides, it also includes drinks as well as 5 bowl of rice (2 added bowl of rice) and NO TAX being charged for this one. It was unexpectably cheap and I wonder the crab and fish over there would be cheap as well? Stay tuned for out Part 2 coming later when we visit the restaurant again later. If you guys opted for cheap and reasonable food as well as the food is nice, Nong & Jimmy is the place definately to be and remeber to come a bit earlier (between 6.00pm to 7.00pm on weekeends) because the parking there is very limited. Even those paid parking (RM2) also will be full and then you will have difficulties of finding a parking space. Before ending this posting, I would also recommend you to try other seafood that I've not tried today including grilled crabs, The Thai style steamed fish & Thai deep fried crullers with pandan kaya as I heard this both dishes are very delicious as well. You may ask the waiter for recommendation and assistance as well. Aights, enjoy yourself! :) MY RATING: 5/5; KIMMY RATING: 5/5; ALAN RATING: 4/5
Address:
Lot 27363, Jalan Cahaya 1,
Taman Cahaya, Ampang,
Selangor.
Telephone: 03-4251 1807, 019-261 1345, 012-273 8069
Business Hours: 6.00pm till 11.00pm (Closed On Mondays)
Cinema Movie: Surrogates


Saturday, October 17, 2009
Food Hunt: Restaurant Teppanyaki, 1 Utama






Address:
LG 327, 1 Utama Shopping Centre (New Wing),
Lebuh Bandar Utama, Bandar Utama,
47800 Petaling Jaya,
Selangor, Malaysia.
Telephone: 603-7729 4450
Business Hours: 11.00am - 10.00pm

Cinema Movie: Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs

My Comments: It was yet another outings for us on the Deepavali day. We've decided to go for movies and 1 Utama would be our choices again since it's near to our place. Me & Kimmy arrived at GSC 1 Utama around 2.30pm while the movie starts at 3.00pm. Let's go straight to the comments of this movie. Since this is a cartoon typed movie, the animation of this movie is perfect and the storyline sounds more like a family chronology and it's filled with good jokes as well. It was a simple and understandable movie as usual as it not only cater for the adults but also for the kids as well. You can actually guess what's happening while you are following the sequence of this movie and there's no shocking or guessing on what's happening. It's a very clear cut movie and this movie looks more into like a "The Day After Tomorrow" movie except it was replaced by various food only (you need to watch this to get what I mean). If you are looking for something to laugh, this is truly a recommended movie for you and the storyline was well developed as well as the graphics was amazing. Full marks for this movie. MY RATING 5/5 ; KIMMY RATING: 4.5 /5

Thursday, October 15, 2009
Food Hunt: Domino's Pizza, Carrefour Subang Jaya



We started out journey from Kelana Jaya at about 7.45pm and reach there about 8.10pm where there is no traffic jam. When we reach the restaurant, there are very less people enjoying the pizza's there because many of them prefer to dine at home because the delivery service is FREE. But let me tell you, if you dine-in the restaurant, you will get cheaper price and get to eat more food compared to the delivery method. Without wasting any more time, me & Alan looking at the dine-in menu and of course there are not many choices to choose from. Only 4 sets are pretty attractive to me as it's suitable for us as well. Finally me have made a decision where we took the SET B package which also called as Indulgence Set. This set comprises of 1 Regular Pizza, 3 pieces of Garlic Twisty Bread, 1 Garden Salad & 4 pieces of BBQ chicken satay sticks (please see pictures). This set costs RM30.00 and it's not including drinks yet. Me & Alan have ordered Coke and it costs RM1.80 per glass each. The bill came and it costs about RM38.00 after tax. Per person costs us about RM19.00 per pax.


It's not so expensive because we get to enjoy more food with the amount money u paid for. After the meal we are very full and satisfied with the amount of food that we consume and now here's the review of the food. The pizza was just normal but a lil bit dissapointing as it's not as good as the pizza in Mid Valley branch. So far, I will rate Mid Valley the best as the pizza are more tastier than the pizza that we eat in this Domino's pizza outlet. We've ordered the Aloha Chicken and from my past experience, this pizza is nice and delicious to eat but today it was pretty dissapointed as it seems. I would say different branch had the different pizza taste. About the side orders such as Garden Salad, BBQ chicken satay sticks and the garlic twisty bread, it was good and tasty and I can give high marks on this one. Among the best is the BBQ Chicken Satay sticks where it's the most delicious among all.


Meanwhile, my brother Alan told alexleow-kimmy.com that the pizza was just normal and nothing special. This is his first time trying out Domino's Pizza and nothing can convince him this time. Bout the side orders, he said it's very nice and better than the pizza of course and the best side orders, he would pick the BBQ Chicken Satay sticks as well. If you guys would like to try out Domino's Pizza, I would not recommend you the branch in Subang jaya Carrefour and I would recommend you to go Mid Valley branch for more better and tastier pizzas. For the side orders, it would be the same for all branches. Enjoy! MY RATING: Pizza: 3/5; Side Orders: 5/5. ALAN RATING: Pizza: 3/5; Side Orders: 4/5
Address:
F3-03,Carrefour Shopping Complex,
Jln SS16/1,
47500 Subang Jaya,
Selangor.
Telephone: 1-300-888-333
Business Hours: 10.00am - 10.00pm daily