Year: 2008

Anna Cake Training Centre Free Demo

August 12, 2008August 12, 2008 sweet surrender 15 Comments

Got the free demo class coupon from My Privilege Book and I went to the free demo with my sis. One person needs one coupon, so I asked for another one from Jimmy. Annna.net(has to use this as the owner of the training centre is also Anna *LOL*) was supposed to be joining us as promised months back but she got something to do last Saturday so I went with my sis.

It was not easy looking for the place. I’ve never been to that area *LOL* Asked around and I still didn’t really get how to go there. At the end my father told me how to go there from Kuching Specialist direction and I tried my luck and finally found it! Same row as Sahara Cafe, Eastern Times behind it, and there’s a J&J something-something, not the J&J Cafetaria though. I didn’t know all these places so with the instructions I got, it’s all not that helpful hahaha…

I went there from Kuching Specialist direction instead of from Friendship Park like many people told me. Drove straight up, ignored the first junction(Canna 2) on the left, go straight up and see the second junction(Lorong 2) on the left, turn into this junction and then drive until another junction on your right and turn in. You will see a big market and shops there, it’s located at one of the blocks, very easy to find as it’s not a big commercial centre.

We went in, then we were required to pay RM5 for the ingredients and we would be given takeaway. We were given with the list of recipes, there’s no instructions there, you have to write them down yourself.

I took photos of the workstation with my phone.

After I took the picture on the right, she said that we were not allowed to take any photos during the demo, we could only take the photo of the final product. So… I had to keep my phone and concentrate on what she’s teaching.

The demo for last Saturday was Mango Pudding(not in the photo, forgot to take photo of it), Taiwan Tofu Cake(right), Wholemeal Banana Cake(middle), and Fruity Jelly(left). These were what we got to bring home but in very little portion *LOL* We did eat there as well. Very delicious 😉

I thought it would last from 2pm-5pm but it ended at around 3.30pm. WOW! So fast, 4 recipes done in such short hours, that’s what you call multitasking. Just for one recipe I could spend one whole afternoon to do it and this? Less than 2 hours! WOW! Impressive.

Anna is very friendly woman and she got a lot of achievements under her belt. She provides training for those who are interested in baking. I observed the way she taught her students during the demo as she was doing two tasks at the same time, demo and teaching, she’s really good. She doesn’t spoon feed you but encourage you to discover everything along the way by practical and asking questions. To complete the course, if you are taking once a week class, it will take you 1 year to complete the whole course to get your certificate; if you take up full-time course, it would be about 4-6 months.

I’ll share the recipes with you when I’m free, they are very easy to do 😉

My Kitchen

My Canon IXUS-es

August 11, 2008August 11, 2008 sweet surrender 11 Comments

Hehehe… In this post, I’ll take about my new camera also 😉

Showed you this picture before, my 3 IXUS-es. My whole collection *LOL*

Left: My newest IXUS bought it from Kuching, Canon IXUS 80 IS, the biggest of all! The cheapest of all! Got it at RM999

Middle: Just retired IXUS bought it from KL, Canon IXUS i zoom, I think I’ll ask my bro to assemble it and do some soldering to the wires 😛 That should fix the problem, happened to find out about it last night in a forum hehehe… If it’s fixed, HURRAY! I have two cameras to use 😛 Lasted 2 and half years.

Right: The first generarion IXUS bought it from Singapore and the most expensive one. Lasted 1 year only -.-”

Here’s a combo photos of all the 3 IXUS-es, see the differences of the designs and sizes and of course the colours 😛

I like to take macro shoots and all these 3 served me very well! The photo qualities are always exceptional!

Let’s start with the first IXUS, got this in December 2003 in Singapore. My dad bought it and then I’m the hogger and ended up became mine *LOL* What to do? I’m the one who used it the most, the rest of my family members didn’t use it much, might as well give it to me hahaha… This one doesn’t have optical zoom, just digital zoom. However, it took fantastic macro photos. This is how I discovered the fun of macro, thanks to this camera.

Next, second IXUS, got it at RM1300+ at Low Yat, KL somewhere in January 2006. Gave me tonnes of problem and sent it in and out of Canon to fix as the problem could only be discovered by luck. The battery contact was faulty! Then I found out the macro seemed not working but in fact there’s no problem with it, you can only use the macro when you use optical zoom else it’s just normal photo, it won’t change to macro mode automatically even after you choose the macro mode. Got pretty nervous when it reached the one year mark but good thing it was OK and lasted another 1 and half year. Phew… Then E18 came…

The latest IXUS, RM999 only with tonnes of freebies but not all useful *LOL* Except the SD cards(1GB and 2 GB), neck strap, tripod, screen protector and casing. This camera is very bulky unlike the previous two. It’s quite pain in the ass to bring it around 😛 However, the photos quality is pretty good and with my shaky hands, the IS is really useful and great for taking photos in low light condition. The macro was quite good coupled with the IS. I haven’t use much of it though as there’s not much events going on and do not have any outings to shoot lots and lots of photos. I haven’t camwhored with it too! 😛

These are the freebies that I got from buying this new camera at Sarawak ICT Expo 2008. Hopefully this camera can last me for at least another 3 years. *CROSS MY FINGERS* For your record, I had taken almost 600 photos with it hahaha… All the photos in this post were taken with my sis’ Olympus.

You can see some of my selected photos taken with my cameras in irenelaw.com

That’s all for the post today. Enjoy your day! Hehehe…

Tech Stuffs

LASIK For You?

August 11, 2008August 11, 2008 sweet surrender No Comments

Many people going for LASIK nowadays and many are very happy with the result. FDA panel meeting recently stated that it’s safe and the success was reaffirmed. You dare to do it? You plan to do it? I don’t hahaha… Anyway, if you dare and planning to do it you should get more information to ensure that you are well informed.

According to Kerry D. Solomon, M.D. a world-renowned ophthalmologist and refractive surgeon at the Storm Eye Institute, the moderm LASIK is safe and have better visual result than it used to.

Modern LASIK combines 3D mapping and customized treatment and it’s approved by the US Military & NASA. Their pilots and austronauts are using this this technology to improve their eyesights. However, this is not for everyone. This is what you should know. On average, there are 20-25% of people cannot undergon this process because they might have thin, irregularly shaped corneas or unrealistic expectations. Are you one of them?

If you are not sure, you should get yourself examined. It takes 2 hour which includes 3-D mapping, customized wave-front measurements of your eye and an examination of your corneas. You should also do research and get referrals from people that had done it.

The surgery doesn’t hurt but you have to make sure you know clearly about the benefits and risks. There will always be little percentage of complications. In LASIK, it’s less than 1% but it’s still a risk you have to take note of. The complications can be dry eye, halos & double vision but these could resolve over time or are managed by enhancements or therapy such as drops to replace the eyeâ€™s moisture.

After reading this, what do you think? You can get more LASIK information here.

Interesting

The Longest Blackout In My Life

August 10, 2008August 10, 2008 sweet surrender 9 Comments

I was happily online and wanted to started my work and PUFF! Everything went black! I thought it’s only my area but later found out that whole Kuching was having this problem. Then later heard another news that whole Sarawak was affected! WOW!

It’s the longest blackout in my entire life living in Kuching. At about 6.30pm it started then only came back at 10pm+. During this 3 hours+, what would you do? No electricity, no TV, no fan, no computer, no Internet, nothing… Even had to shower with cold water brrr…

For us, we had our candlelit dinner last night. Hehehe… I decided to play with my new camera to test how good it is when under very dark situation. It could take steady photos even with my shaky hands hehehe… No bad… Most photos taken with macro mode and only 2 photos had their curve adjusted, the rest are original photo out from the camera.

Then also took photos of my phone in the dark.

During the long hour of blackout, we played with our cameras, mobile phones, candles and torch light. At the same time whinning and asking lots of questions about:
“Aiyoo… When will the power be back?!?!? I want to watch TV/my BT download halfway/I uploaded my file halfway/I want to online/it’s hot/I want to shower…”
“Why time flies so fast when no electricity!??!”
“Come, come, try to shoot this, shoot that.”
“No hot water to shower!!”
“Where’s the other torchlight?”
“Why the matches cannot use one!”
“Why other place already got power supply we haven’t got any?!?!”
“Will this last whole night!??! I want to watch TV/I need to work!!”
“Anything to do or not? Boring…”
Whole night repeating the same phrases 😛 Imagine that. Hahaha…

Shoot candles.

More candles.

Lots of stars can be seen during the early evening but later all gone and left the moon.

What you did during such long hour of blackout last night?

Read the news about it here

Uniquely Kuching

Beijing Olympic Grand Opening Ceremony

August 9, 2008August 15, 2008 sweet surrender 5 Comments

OH WOW! The longest blackout in my life! 3 and a half hours! Will talk about it tomorrow. Gosh… I have so many things that I need to do. Guess what?!?! It’s whole Sarawak blackout!!

Hahaha… I’m nuts 😛 Just imagine I was there, this post is just some scenes from our local TV station.

We were expecting to watch it on Satelite in Phoenix TV but who knows they don’t have the right to the live telecast, had to look for CCTV but didn’t know which position and channel so ended up watch our own local TV station, TV1 which only started to air it at 8.30pm sigh…

Missed the beginning and the beginnig was the best part.

The most boring part was the contingents walking into the stadium.

Luckily the Malaysian team came out at the beginning, contingent number 10.

After that Id idn’t watch but online hahaha… The TV was just on waiting for the climax.

The stadium and the president of the organising committee.

The children sang while the Olympic flag was on the way to the flag pole. I notice I forgotten to edit the picture of the people carry the flag to the pole *LOL* Lazy…