Entertainment - Ombak Rindu

by pEANutbutter

Figure 1: Promotional poster of Ombak Rindu

I don't normally watch Malay movie, not because I was prejudice against it. I grow up watching all P. Ramlee movies, and just like Michael Jackson and Bruce Lee, they are the pioneers in their respective fields. I don't deny that there are some very good Malay movie out there like Anak Mami, etc. However, the problem with this movies is that, its audience specific. Example like Anak Mami, if one doesn't know the northern Malay dialect, one will be clueless. Clueless is bad.

When it comes to movie, I am open to anything new and fresh ideas. In fact, by watching this movies, I learnt something new about cultures and society. Like the Crying Ladies, a movie from the Phillipine. Who would have thought there is such an occupation where one is hired to cry in funeral. Taboo on National Geoprahic Channel are also my favourites where they showcase practices around the world that is consider taboo to the general public. As Ombak Rindu has garnered a lot of attention, my curiousity got the better of me. I didn't get the cd or make my way to the cinema as the crowd is crazy. I watch it online.

The story line is a bit complex. To watch this movie, one has to exclude the logic whether in reality it could happen. Consider it an adult fairy tale. So do not judge it in a manner its mission impossible. But then I have heard and witness strange things that defy logic happening in reliaty. In short, this movie may sound impossible, but it can happen. It does not involve aliens or vampires, and do not compare with how Tom Cruise cheated death in his movie. If this was a Hollywood movie, it would have been a dark fairy tale which I can liken it to Twillight as it has a disturbing message (ie: fall in love with somebody that may kill you). But has an open mind and watch this for pure entertainment.

Basis 

Izzah, a simple village girl was sold off to a pimp to be a prostitute by her uncle on the pretext of paying for her aunt's surgery. As she tries to escape, she bumps into a prospective client, Hariz. However, she was still caught and was brought back to the entertainment outlet where she was force to drink alcoholic drink until she passes out. Later, Hariz asked for her when he finally arrived at the entertainment outlet. Although she is unconcious, he still proceed to have sex which is consider rape. As she awaken, realising that she has been rape, she begs him to take her along with him. A mistake has happen, and being a religious and pious woman, in the circumstances that she is in, she hopes to not make it worse by continuing being a prostitute and has to serve other men. Miracously, he bought her over from her pimp although he was hesistant and make her, his mistress on the condition that she has to give in to his lust whenever he wants it.

 

He keeps her in one of his houses in the outskirt of the city. In the earlier part of this arrangement, Hariz did try to force himself on Izzah but guilt overcome him when Izzah started praying for protection. Sensing his frustration and she is deeply in debt to him for recuing her from the pimp, she propose marriage, so to at least made their relationship legal in the eyes of God. Again, Hariz was hesitant as he feel Izzah doesn't deserve to be his wife. He only agrees after she mention not to claim any right as a wife. They were married in Thailand, which is not legal by law in Malaysia, but for Izzah, hopefully, at least in the eyes of God its legal.

Figure 2: A touching scene from Ombak Rindu

Falling In Love

As the story progress, Hariz starts to fall in love with Izzah for her demure and gentle manner as he was impatience and hot temper. However, one day when the driver of Hariz's mother, Pak Dollah which was assigned to buy household supplies for Izzah chance upon her vomiting, he thought she was pregnant. Hariz became furious and was barging into the house to force Izzah to abort the baby. However, it was a misunderstanding as Izzah wasn't pregnant. As she has past experience of violence from her uncle, she got scared that affected her badly, emotionally. She tries to avoid confrontation with Hariz the morning after the incident after she fainted the previous night. Watching her afraid for her life, Hariz turns mellow and develop the urgency to protect her. From then on, their relationship turns to real love. However, the brief happiness didn't last long as Hariz childhood friend, Mila, which was in love with him, returns from oversea and expects their wedding to proceed as planned. Due to pressure from both families particularly Hariz's mother, Datuk Sufiah, Hariz reluctantly weds Mila. Izzah accepts the situation and did give her blessing to him so that he will not go against his mother wishes.

 

At this time, Izzah was hired by Hariz to be his secretary. As Izzah is deem the least likely person to be a mistress, Mila befriended her in the hope to find out the woman that Hariz confess to have love because as Hariz's secretary, Izzah would have known his every movement. As Mila search for the woman, one day both Mila and Izzah encountered Hariz hugging (the truth is consoling) his staff, Wafiah, which also appear to be a close friend of Mila, when Wafiah was upset after breaking up with her long time lover which is also a married man. Mila was very sure the woman she been looking for all this while is Wafiah and barge out in anger, but all Hariz could think of is Izzah's feeling. As Hariz was pursuing Izzah by car, he got into an accident.

Figure 3: The turning point

Betrayal 

While Hariz was recuprating from his injuries, Datuk Sufiah took the opportunity to get rid of Izzah by evicting her from Hariz's house and confiscate her car and phone. At the same time, Datuk Sufiah ordered anybody in contact with Hariz to barred him from using the phone or leave the house. At the moment Izzah has given back the car and phone, and was about to leave the house, Hariz manage to steal an opportunity to contact her but it's too late. Datuk Sufiah has successfully disconnect communication between Hariz and Izzah. With no where to go, Izzah returns to her hometown. She could rely on Pak Dollah and his wife (which eventually became very close to Izzah after finding out the truth about her relationship with Hariz), but they was away for Haj.

 

Circumstances brought Izzah's back to the city after her close friend from the village, Mail, got a job offer in the city. In order to assist him, she brought him to Pak Dollah's house. Here, Pak Dollah's wife, Mak Jah, figures out that Izzah is pregnant which was confirmed by Izzah's herself. At the same time, Datuk Sufiah has assign a private investigator to tab Izzah's every movement to tarnish her reputation further. As Izzah and Mail are very close since they are childhood friend, the private investigator manage to capture photos of them together, but nothing intimate. Since Izzah's past history of getting involve in prostitution and up to this point, Hariz doesn't know much about Izzah's background, he believe his mother that Izzah is cheating of him since his accident. Disappointed, Hariz swear to hang their marriage in the balance. As  his marriage to Izzah's is not legal in Malaysia and by Islamic Law, a husband need to agree to a divorce, there is little option for Izzah to file for divorce even if she wants to in this circumtances.

 

As Hariz got away after letting Izzah know of his decision while he was visiting Pak Dollah, Izzah ran to chase after his car which cause her to fell and almost lost her pregnancy. In the hospital, Mak Jah advised Izzah to be very patience, and Izzah accepted the fact that Hariz is leaving her but find consolation that she still has his baby. Furious, Pak Dollah confronted Hariz in the presence of Datuk Sufiah. Finally, the truth was leaked about the true identity of Hariz. Apparently Datuk Sufiah went through three failed pregnancy. With no other way to console her, the late husband begs Pak Dollah for his youngest child. Despite protest from Mak Jah, Pak Dollah given Hariz away when he was a baby and continues working for Datuk Sufiah's family despite the bad treatment over the years, just so that he can be close to Hariz. At the same time, Mila overheard the whole conversation and finds out the truth about Izzah.

Figure 4: Finally together

Forgiveness 

Overwhelm with guilt, Hariz went to Izzah's hometown to look for her. There, he asked her for forgiveness and another chance to make things right, never expecting that Izzah has long forgiven him. Later, Mila too arrived at the spot and requested to speak to Izzah alone. Mila finally accepted the fact that it wasn't Izzah that is the third party in the relationship, but it was her all along. Although Izzah is willing to accept Mila in this polygamy marriage since it's legal in Islam, Mila couldn't accept the fact that Hariz will be with another woman and he might never love her back. Eventually, Mila decided to end the marriage and seek Hariz to divorce her, giving her a chance to seek her very own true love.

In the end, Izzah and Hariz was seen on a yacht moving on with their life awaiting the birth of their baby while finding out Mila has achieved her long time dream of becoming best actress.

 

Ombak Rindu (literally translated as Waves of Longing or Longing Waves). The title may seem odd but I think it has something to do with the lost of Izzah's parent at sea. So the waves of the ocean indicates her longing for her parents. I do find it quite a creative title that the author came up with. However, it doesn't sound nice when translated into English. (Note: This movie is an adaptation of a novel with the same title by Fauziah Ashari)

Happening - Moonlight Movie (Almost...)

by pEANutbutter

Figure 1: Promotional Poster

Last Saturday, we went down to the Indoor Arena of Bukit Kiara Esquestrian Club for a movie night out (actually 2 movies). The movie started at 8pm, but I mistakenly thought 8.30pm. But no matter what, we arrived at the nick of time, and probably just missed about 5 minutes of the first movie. The movie is screened in an indoor arena, so no worry about rain. However, it's not literally movie under the moon and stars then. But with the unpredictable weather these days, rain overides view.

Two Movies Back To Back

The first movie of the night was Puss In Boots. BUTTERfly look forward to catch Puss In Boots although he wasn't a big fan of cats as he never been to an equestrian park before while flyingraKUN was doting for the second movie of the night, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. It was fun, but don't expect great quality sound system. Subtitles in English is displayed though so this really helps. Some stalls are set up to sell food, drinks, and of course, Unifi booth. For your information, the event is organised by HyppTV, an internet tv subcription. To get HyppTV, you need Unifi highspeed broadband. Among the food stalls available are KFC, Pizza Hut, a bakery, and some local snacks. Variety of drinks available such as 100 plus, Gatorade, Tropicana Orange, etc. But do expect to pay a slightly higher price. So that's why we brought our own food. But we did buy Gatorade from the vendor which cost RM4 (500mL bottle). The only essentials that we forgot are mat and pillow for us to have a picnic at the indoor arena sand field (not sure what it's call, but this indoor arena is for horse competition. We are suppose to laid back at the sand area of the arena). So, we are forced to enjoy our movies sitting at the spectactors' bench surrounding the arena for almost four hours. Our mistake.

Figure 2: The environment at the event

Essentials 

1. Mat suitable for sandy surface (something used at beaches is good here too)
2. Pillows. I seen some people with a rectangle box for them to lay. Not sure whether its free or it comes with a price. Better bring your own.
3. If not willing to pay the price, pack your own food. Its nicer anyway.
4. Mosquito repellent. Just in case. I wore thick panty hose, no problem.
5. Umbrella. To commute between your car and the arena just in case it rain.

Bus are provided for those who park very far from the arena. As we are there at the last minute, we are allowed to park at a nearby location between walking distance. But we may not be that lucky the next time. While walking to the arena, a bus pass by us loaded to the brim. 

The Verdict

It was a nice experience, but it would take a very very long time for us to try this again. The directions there wasn't clearly stated. We got lost and simply attempt to guess which road we should go by simply using logic sense (We know its somewhere on the left side of Sprint highway nearby the equestrian club, if you coming from Federal, so any road heading left, we try). We went through the main entrance of the equestrian club, but was asked to turn out and use another route. Turns out the entrance to this event is at the second entrance which is further in front of the main gate of the equestrian club, but the guard at the main gate directed us to the opposite direction. So it would be good if the organisers can improve the signage to  this event.

The event anticipated about 5000 spectators. But judging from the response (in measure of the arena's capacity), it wasn't good. Only about 30% of the seats and spaces are filled. To top it up, I rather watch DVD at the comfort of my own home.

Food Review ~ QQ Snowmix Sri Petaling

by BUTTERfly

Another Groupon deal, for RM9, I got RM20 worth voucher to indulge myself in some icy Taiwan desserts. There is warm desserts too. I'm sure many would have agreed with me that the craze started with Snowflake, from their very first branch in Subang. Soon, many competitors (or copy cat) start mushrooming around KL. QQ Snowmix in Sri Petaling doesn't just cater to hot and cold desserts, there is also Taiwanese snack to indulge in. I actually went there for dinner.

Copycat?

Figure 1: Soya Ice Series

I not sure about this, but QQ Snowmix apparently originated in Taiwan and was quoted as one of the top 10 dessert store (or was it the dessert itself listed as top 10? Business gimmick). As for Snowflake, from what I read written on Snowflakes' store, the founder migrated to Malaysia and start longing for Taiwanese desserts. So in the case of chicken and egg, I couldn't confirm which come first. In comparison, I feel the dessert at QQ wasn't as nice as Snowflake. As for the fried snack, again, it wasn't that nice compare to Shihlin. However, they has more variety of snack as compare to Shihlin.

 Icy Hot Affair

1. We ordered only one icy dessert as the weather is quite chill. Soya Ice Series contain soya bean ice, covered in grass jelly (cincau) and toppings of yam and potato taro (texture like muachi -glutionuos rice made into gummy like ball). (Rating: 4/5)

Figure 2: Taiwan Sweet Potato Stick (buy 1 free 1)

2. Taiwanese Style Fry Chicken is nothing to shout about. I feel it's way too salty. and the meat is not tender. (Rating: 2/5)

3. We also ordered Tempura, expecting seafood like squid, prawn, etc. Guess I'm too ambitious. This is comparable to Shihlin's tempura. It tasted something like Korean's seafood rice cake but this is fried in tempura's batter. For those who don't favor garlic, this dish has heavy garlic taste. (Rating: 5/5)

Figure 3: Tempura

Figure 4: Taiwanese Style Fry Chicken

4. Taiwan Sweet Potato Stick has a great offer of buy 1 free 1 since we went on Saturday. That's when we realise we are in deep trouble as the RM20 voucher super exceed our ability to finish to food. The potato stick is nice and I feel it's healthier compare to frozen french fries. (Rating: 5/5)

Overall, we spend all our credit and only has to top up RM1.80. In total, we paid RM10.80 for a very filling meal. Highly recommended if you want to eat Taiwanese dessert on a budget. It wasn't that bad, it's cheaper, and less crowd.

Coordinate: 3.071245.101.692227

Editor's Note ~ May 2012

Its almost middle of May, so this Editor's Note is long overdue. As all of us was away for a long awaited holiday treat, we bump into some obstacles, and was glad to be home (in one piece) to make it back on pEANutBUTTERflryingraKUN. Look forward to our adventures and more. Hope you enjoy what we dish out. Peace!

Sincerely,

Gadget - Telecommunication 101

by pEANutbutter

Remember once upon a time when our cell phone are nothing but a telephone? Yes, there's isn't any other alter ego. A phone was suppose to act as a phone. Not a personal computer, a camera or your game console. But modern day phone has to be more than a phone. This include the basic phone from Nokia. I am guilty of this too as I grow dependent of my phone as an alarm clock! The reason being is that loud ringing noise from our conventional clock give me a headache. If the sound is too soft, the odds are 2 out of 5 times, I may not wake up. A phone is a good alarm clock as you get to choose your ring tone and it vibrates. Most of the time, the vibration itself is enough to wake me up. 

So when I leave my old Nokia 5300 battery's expanded (bloated) up to the point it crack the phone shell (I leave it charging for far too long), I feel its more viable to get a basic phone rather than get a new battery as I need to replace the shell of the phone as well. The shell is falling apart and every other day, small pieces of it is coming off bit by bit. Poor quality plastic and I find this commonly happens to slide phone. Nokia 5300 is my second slide phone. The same thing happened to my Samsung slide phone which I use less than 6 months. Back to Nokia 5300, the phone is almost 5 years, time to let go. It has serve me well.

Figure 1: Nokia 101 in Phantom Black

Nokia 101

I narrowed down my quest for my 'alarm clock' to two options, either Nokia 100 or Nokia 101. After some research, I found out that Nokia 100 is launched in 2010 wherelse Nokia 101 is 2011. With the difference of between MYR 20-30, definitely a new model is more attractive. From what I learn in semiconductor classes, electronics have lifespan. So the newer the better. You can't rely on your phone dealer to tell you honestly the production date of the phone. Besides, Nokia 101 has far more attractive feature, notably its a dual sim card phone and it support micro SD memory card up to 16gB! With this feature, it also boast itself as a music phone (but do not expect very good quality sound system). The only downside is that, the phone does not support usage without a sim card, which is odd for a music phone. I use my deactivated accout's sim card for the phone as I do not has a secondary phone line. So, I am still able to use it offline.

Figure 2: Nokia 101 in Coral Red

The one thing that make me love this phone so much is the battery capacity. Search on the internet, it was noted in some forum that the battery could last up to 26 days on standby mode. Official standby time noted in the user's guide are up to 777 hours (32 days!). I was a bit sceptical, so I did a small experiment. I fully charged the phone on the 4th of April, and the battery lasted for the next 20 days before it give out the warning signal that the battery is running slow. As it was weekdays and I required my phone to be my reliable alarm clock, I'm force to charge the phone before it went totally dead. Else, I feel the phone can still last for another half a day, at least. Besides that, I been using my phone as an alarm, I didn't off it at all in the past 20 days, I did play around with it a little, etc. So, 26 days may be hard to believe, but I think it is achievable if the phone is purely left for standby. But I feel 777 hours is over estimated. Not sure about talktime, but its stated 8.5 hours in the user's guide. Don't have to worry that you are disconnected from the world when disaster strike like flood that last for days, the electricity supply is cut off and you don't have a landline at home (how many people actually use home landline these days?). Ipad and Iphone are totally useless gadjet in such situation as their battery don't last long.

Features

1. Support Micro SD memory card up to 16gB
2. Loudspeaker
3. Radio (requires the headset as the antenna)
4. Flashlight
5. Colour screen (basic resolution)
6. Alarm with repest features
7. Vibration
8. Dual Sim Card support. Both card can be activated at the same time. However, this will consume battery.
9. Roughly 2.5 hours charging time
10. Phonebook support picture for profile of phone numbers saved.
11. SMS with predictive text.
12. Calendar with alarm reminder.
13.  Mp3 player (songs need to be save in the memory card)
14. Calculator
15. Some basic games - sudoku, car racing, snake.
16. Warranty 12 months
17. Comes in phantom black or coral red (something similar to siamese pink)

User's Guide http://nds1.nokia.com/files/support/china/phones/guides/Nokia_101_UG_English-HK.pdf
Retail: MYR95.00 - MYR120.00

Recipe ~ Fettuccine Carbonara

by BUTTERfly

Putting on my chef's hat, I think I will introduced to you the first food that I manage to cook successfully up to a chef's standard (yes, I'm a lousy cook. So if I can do it, so can you!). What I mean by chef's standard is I manage to made it comparable to the pasta you can get in places like Secret Recipe. I prefer fettuccine to spaghetti as I feel the wider surface of fettucine helps one to savour the taste of the creamy carbonara sauce. Note that all the ingredient need to be roughly estimated depending on size of serving. Use your judgement as I don't measure my ingredients. Also note the price quoted are rough figures.

Figure 1: Fettuccine Carbonara

Ingredient
1. Fettuccine
2. Butter
3. Bacon (choice of pork, beef or others) - sliced into small pieces
4. Salt
5. Pepper
6. Egg yolk
7. Parmesan cheese (grated)
8. Cooking cream
9. Cooking oil

Preparation Time: 5 minutes
Cooking Time: 15 minutes

Cooking:
1. Fettuccine - Boil water in a pot. Add a little bit of salt and cooking oil (so that the fettuccine would not stick to each other) when the water is boiled (ie: there's massive bubbles on the surface of the water). Then add fettuccine into the pot and monitor it so that it will not stick to each other from time to time. Boil until its soft but firm. Do not overcook it. It is best to refer to the cooking time of the fettuccine at the back of the packaging. Off the gas, drain the fettuccine and put it into a bowl. Add a little bit of butter, stir it into the fettuccine so that it will not harden and stick to each other while you are making the sauce.

2. Bacon - While boiling the fettuccine, you can start frying the bacon with cooking oil in a pan (it taste nicer with olive oil). When its done, you may also add the fettuccine into the frying pan instead of letting it sits in a bowl. Stir it well in the pan together with the bacon. Thus, the cooking oil and the bacon's oil helps keep the fettuccine soft and separated from each other while you are making the carbonara sauce.

3. Carbonara sauce - In a bowl, add an egg yolk (1 egg for 1 serving), cooking milk and grated parmesan cheese. Stir it well.

4. Add the cooked fettucine and bacon into the bowl with carbonara sauce, mix well. Make sure the fettuccine and bacon are warm, but not hot as this will cooked the egg in the sauce. Finish it off with some sprinkles of salt and pepper to taste.

Product - Nesquik: Down Memory Lane of Childhood Dreams

by BUTTERfly

Growing up, I was a difficult child when it comes to food. Not that I was stubborn and prefer to consume junk foods. It's just that most food makes me nauseous, which includes milk. As I was prone to have bloated tummy too, everything I eat or drink has to be warm. To grow strong and healthy bones during the development years, kids need to drink calcium rich products such as milk, so I has no way of avoiding it. My mother was persistent. I remember a time where she need to brings thermal flask for hot water to make warm milk for me wherever we go.

After years of coaxing me to drink milk, on one fine day when I was out on grocery shopping with her (I was probably 7 or 8 year old), I came across a 'bunny' and everything changes. Nesquik, a chocolate powdered flavouring mix got my young eyes attention because of the cute bunny on the packaging, and my mother never had any problem at making me drink milk ever since. In fact, I eventually learn to love the milk flavour all by itself. As the price of Nesquik increase and hard to source (you can't find it in normal supermarket, unlike Milo), I also eventually learn to grow to live without it (didn't want to burn a hole in my parent's pocket). This stuff is expensive, and I drink it as if I'm addicted to it. However, today, when I came across the cute 'bunny' again, I just have to savour it. Got it in a resealable bag of 110g at RM7.60 @ Big Ben, Publika, Solaris Dutamas.

Figure 1: Groquik

What is Nesquik?

As the name suggest, a product a Nestle, Nesquik is basically chocolate powder to be added into milk (hot or cold) to made chocolate flavoured milk. It's rich with chocolate flavour, sweet and smooth. Firstly introduced in 1948 for the European market (yes, this thing is even older than my parents), the product grows to include many other flavour too, such as banana, strawberry, vanilla, cherry, etc. Ideal for milkshakes.

The product also ventures into chocolate syrup (for ice creams) which eventually include all the other flavours, candy bars, breakfast cereal. The cutest one of all is the hot cocoa mix which contains bunny shaped marshmallow. Unfortunately, I can't find this in Malaysia so far.

Figure 2: Quicky

The Iconic Bunny

Debuted on the can of strawberry flavoured Nesquik, he is known as Quicky, the Nesquik Bunny in some countries. Certain countries has a dog call Groquik (I still can vividly remember some packaging are endorsed by this dog), a kangaroo and also a anthropomorphized box call Mr. Nesquik as the mascot of Nesquik initially. I believe the dog is named Groquik to indicates that by drinking Nesquik, you will grow fast. But it was one fat dog, and instead of grow fast, it kind of give the impression Nesquik will make people fat. Eventually, Quicky was the one and official mascot of Nesquik until today.

Nesquik can be found in Big Ben and Cold Storage.