tumbling along

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Up Beat

Latest update on my Up Beat endeavour!

A PC alternative for those who don’t have Guitar Hero!

Up Beat Keep the rhythm and rock the party!

Play this free game now!!

Special thanks to Adino for getting me addicted to this game! LOL

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<td style=”font-family: verdana; font-size: 11px; color: #000; padding: 5px 10px;”><a style=”display: block; text-decoration: none;” href=”http://www.miniclip.com/games/up-beat/en/”><img style=”margin-right: 5px; border: 0;” src=”http://e.miniclip.com/images/icons/upbeatsmallicon.jpg” alt=”Games at Miniclip.com – Up Beat” width=”70″ height=”59″ align=”left” />
<strong style=”color: #000; border: none; text-decoration: underline;”>Up Beat</strong>
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<p style=”margin: 0; clear: none; text-decoration: none; color: #000;”><a style=”display: block; text-decoration: none;” href=”http://www.miniclip.com/games/up-beat/en/”>Keep the rhythm and rock the party!</a></p>
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<td style=”font-family: verdana; font-size: 11px; padding: 5px 10px; border-top: 1px solid #ccc;”><a title=”Games at Miniclip.com” href=”http://www.miniclip.com/games/up-beat/en/”>Play this free game now!!</a></td>
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keeping at it

One of the things I find most intriguing and mind boggling at the same time about life, is how two people, unique and of the opposite sex, brought up in varying environments under various influences, can live life harmoniously together as life partners. For a spectator, it may appear to be something pretty amusing. But for those in the thick of it – no small matter. Issues ranging from individual habits,

Be it Hollywood-churned ones, or real-life testimonies, we hear and see various kinds of relationships and their results. While on the silver screen it takes at most 3 hours to bring a relationship to a happy ending (or in some other cases, otherwise), in real-life it takes much more time and effort. After all, these relationships as life-long. One of the most important ingredients if you ask me, is commitment towards each other and commitments towards the relationship. To me, that translates into never giving up on each other and continuously working on the relationship together.

In Mark Gungor’s article Same Argument, Different Day, from which my thoughts and this post spawned, he starts off by laying down the fact that:-

… one of the greatest problems that couples face in marriage, whether you have been together two years, 20 years or 40 years, is the fact that we have to deal with issues over and over and over… People get so frustrated when they keep circling around and coming back to the same arguments continuously and they never get resolved. Husbands and wives become convinced that there is something wrong with their marriage (or at least the other person!) and it can lead to great discouragement.

So where do we go from here? We keep at it of course! Mark Gurgor likens  this to being a diary farmer cleaning up after his cows. Farming can be very profitable, but the farmer also has to contend with the mess! He goes on to say that we have to keep on cleaning the barn… even if it’s the same mess over and over.

For me, the most important thing I picked up from this article was this little gem

People live under the delusion that because they have talked about something or tackled it once, that it should be done, but it’s not true. Often problems arise from differences in temperament or just ingrained habits. But honestly, so much of what couples are faced with in marriage has a lot to do with pure selfishness on our parts. And because dying to self is a life long process, so is dealing with all the stuff that happens in our relationship in the meantime.

Don’t grow weary; don’t give up. Readjust your expectations and know that it’s ok. Maybe you “can’t do this anymore” today, but regroup. Take a deep breath, face the issue yet again and remember that it doesn’t mean there is something wrong with your marriage because you are arguing about the same thing for the 547th time. Be like the dairy farmer and just clean up the mess and enjoy the “in the meantime” until you have to face it again.

Here’s to working towards successful relationships!

i’m lovin it!

YES! McD’s Prosperity Burger and Curly Fries are back! Just got my fix last Monday. YUM! But I must say, between the burger and fries – I order the Prosperity Meal more for the fries than I do for the burger. Curly fries ROCK!

buffets, past and present

I just had a buffet lunch last Sunday at The Royale Bintang. The food was only so-so. But for a sub-RM30 buffet of which patrons are allowed to sit through literally the whole afternoon (we were there from 1pm to 4pm), one can’t complain too much.

Anyway, the point I want to make was that I can barely eat half as much as I used to at buffets. Used to here, refers to my early-20s and before when I was able to go for replenishment after replenishment of grub! Can’t really say how much I used to eat, but a good indicator was when I used to be able to eat up to 50 sticks of satay, or in another instance, up to 50 otak-otaks. I don’t know if that’s much for you, but the fact is, I can’t eat that much anymore. I now concede, that if and when I decide to go for a buffet nowadays, it’s more for the variety of food being offered rather than the quantity.

Which brings me to my next topic – Vincenzo’s Sunday Champagne Brunch. RM98 per pax for a brunch buffet with 2 glasses of champagne, free flow of bubbly, wines and mocktails. A little pricey? Not so for CIMB and Direct Access Credit Card holders (myself bring on of them). Every cardholder who brings a guest gets to eat for free i.e. 50% discount for 2 diners, 33% discount for 3 diners and so on so forth (for more details, click here). Well, I’ll definitely be making a trip there before the promotion ends on 27th December. RM98 for 2 people for a buffet with 2 glasses of champagne and free flow bubbly, wines and mocktails – who wouldn’t

Adidas Supernova Sequence

My latest purchase – a pair of Adidas running shoes! I’m usually very hesitant about making purchases above RM100 (food not included) – but so happens my previous Power shoes gave way at a time which I was gung-ho about playing squash with Lydia.

I started my hunt by checking out what promotions were available at the time and found out that RSH was having a promotion, offering 10% discount for purchases above RM100 and 20% discount for purchases above RM200 on selected brands. For Adidas, I was only eligible for the 10% discount even though I spent well above RM200. But lucky me, I was also eligible for a 15% Cash Back with AMEX! Effectively, pending my rebate from AMEX, I would have saved close to 25% of the original value of the shoes.

So how did I end up picking this particular pair? Well, it was the best fitting pair for within my budget Here’s more about the Adidas Supernova Sequence.

Raul Midon – State of Mind (2005)

I think I was very lucky to have gotten this album at the very first shop I checked. Am loving it oh-so-much! Acoustics. Rhythm. R&B. A dash of Latin American.

This guy showcases a completely different style of playing the guitar – incorporating plucking, slapping, hammering, strumming and harmonics. Genius. What makes it all the more amazing is that he was blind since young. Speaking of which, featured in one of the songs in this album, is Stevie Wonder on his harmonica.

Well, find out for yourself what he’s made of in the youtube video below… State of Mind, one of my favourites from the album. Pay particular attention to how he does his “mouth trumpet”

offers, offers, offers!

I’m pretty much a sucker for deals. Not in the sense that I get ripped off, but I like checking out items and services on discount/promo/sales – be it walking around in a grocery shop looking for food items on discount, checking out a credit card company’s latest offers for it’s card-members or just strolling around in a shopping complex during sales periods.

So when I chanced upon Offer Station some time back, it proved to be a real gem! It (somehow) pools together offers of all sorts and organises them into categorises i.e. Offers, Warehouse Sales and Dining, amongst many. It really is practical. On a personal note, I’ve already made some savings (mostly on food) by checking out Offer Station first. Most recent was when I was looking for a place to eat Thai food – of which we ended up dining at Celadon, where I was entitled to a 10% discount plus a 10% rebate. Also, not too long ago were visits to One Utama’s Dockers and Levi’s store, which were offering discounts up to 50% and 70% respectively.

This coming weekend, I’ll most probably be paying a visit to The Summit USJ to check out the Metrojaya Shopping Carnival with Lydia. Who knows, we might be able to find something neat at a discounted price

home cooking adventures #3

Ladies and gentlemen, presenting to you our latest home cooking adventure… this time, it’s Aglio Olio served with Swiss Brown Mushroom. Looks good, tastes good!

Basic ingredients – lotsa Aglio, that’s garlic and a generous amount of olive oil (Olio). Some other ingredients include swiss brown mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, yellow capsicum and some dried chillies.

Unlike our previous two cooking adventures in which we recipes with step by step instructions, the recipe we had this time only indicated the ingredients needed and did not give any instructions as to which goes into the pan first. As a matter of fact, adding mushrooms wasn’t a part of the original recipe – we just decided to have a little bit more to our Aglio Olio, not to mention a handsome pouring of wine in the preparation of the mushrooms

End of the day, our experiment turned out delicious! The only thing we thought we needed to improve on was the order in which the ingredients are put into the pan. We’ll see how that goes the next time we make pasta again.

golfing around

I must say, 4 years back I knew nothing about golf and had no interest whatsoever in getting myself involved in the sport – whether as a player or spectator. My first real exposure to golf, as a spectator at least – was during my tenure at one of my previous jobs in which one of the responsibilities of my group was to transmit the latest scores of ongoing golf tournaments. It was through this responsibility that I eventually understood what birdies, eagles, pars, unders and overs were.

In the latest development involving myself and golf… just yesterday, I played golf for the very first time. It was at the driving range, and using a 9-iron I (only?) managed to hit the ball some 50 metres. Apart from that, what do I have to show for my first hand at golf? A nasty blister.

All in all, I’m quite happy with my first experience at playing golf. I have to say that it is a sport that involves not only strength and speed, but also precision and focus. Quite an interesting combination if you ask me. Having said all that, I know that there’s a certain someone extremely exhilarated at the prospects of me picking up golf – even if it’s just the occasional trip to the driving range with her