A long on EURCHF

Entered a long position on EURCHF... hoping Swiss central bank will intervene in the market. Attached the hourly chart below:
The monthly chart shows that presently, it's reaching almost the same levels of previous lows within 10 years of historical data. **crosses fingers**

Starched Pork Strips!!!???

My another culinary adventure has brought me to savor a long forgotten dish called 'Bak Kee' (Hokkien). Located at inner city Georgetown, it's a kopitiam easily drove passed although brightly lit.
Named as Fountain Cafe (Wikimap), it's selling a specialty Hokkien dish, made out of strips of pork, very generously coated in starch. Ordered a bowl of it, it's served in clear soup with lots of cabbages and lettuce.

On a personal note, I don't really fancy this dish that much. It's mostly starchy, and with some hints of pork in the middle. The soup is sweet and tasty from juices of other meats boiled in that cauldron.















Another side dish, is a Penang favourite, fried oyster omelette from the same place. Although poorly photographed because of poor lighting (it was al fresco, in the late evening), it's clearly seen that the oyster is served on top of the fried egg. It struck me as funny, because an omelette is supposed to have it's oysters folded and fried in the beaten eggs and starch.
In this case, we had to eat them separately, which is a little odd to me. For the taste, I would put it as mediocre.

I felt dizzy...

I felt dizzy with the thought of being trapped in an invisible sphere. Feeling my way around, looking for a way out, but yet in futile attempt. Carefully prodding, fearing the burst of the bubble that might cascadingly burst other beautifully shaped bubbles. The constant noise buzzing around my ears was distracting me from feeling my way through this sea of foaming bubbles.

I felt dizzy with the coldness of crystal in my hands. Little droplets of condensations moisted my hands giving a sense of momentary relieve from the sweltering humid heat. The smoothness of the pear shaped glass was quickly felt, and fingers carressed it to clear the droplets of condensation, seeming to hug the crystal like bees protecting their hive.

I felt dizzy with the heat burning through my throat. The warmth flowing through, gave a much different sensation than the heat of the weather. It had the opposite effect of relieving uncomfortable body by numbing the senses. The mouth was awashed in tannin, the touch was dulled, the sight was blurred, the smell was sweet, and the mind slowly less noised.

I felt dizzy with pop of the bottle, corked on too tight or rather, or I had lost my strength. The sloshing of the liquid provided some music to the ears, drowning the consistant noises driving my head senseless. As the drops continued to fill the glass, the clear crystal was vibrating in resonance to the pour, amplifying the drips that drowned the noises.

I felt dizzy looking at the computer screen, trying to follow Facebook instructions while sipping on the crystal. Numbered from 1 to 9, I followed through 1. And then 2, and 5 and 3 and 7....Hold on! A mouthful went through my throat again, and repeated the steps. Some noises came again, and yet again, drowned by the sounds of gulps in my throat. The pounding of the esophagus on the walls of my chest provided was like the hammering of piles, deafening the noises buzzing my head.

I felt dizzy standing up and felt the world shifted sideways. A step forward seemed like a step backwards, a step up seemed like a step to the left. There were no more noises in my head. It was magical. I knew I had to lie down, and when my senses were not totally numbed, oral hygiene came to mind, and washed the emptied glass.

I felt dizzy as I laid on bed, murmuring forgotten phrases. The warmth of the blanket provided much needed comfort from the cold air blasting out from the air cond.

I felt dizzy when woke up with a slight headache. I felt dizzy thinking about what happened.

I no longer felt dizzy realizing that it was a reckless act. Feeling dizzy, can be remedied by other methods. Temporary cures would not have been needed had there been prevention measures.

Forex updates

Thought of summarizing forex markets of the week... but stumbled onto an article by ForexCrunch which gave quite a comprehensive study on the engines of forex for the week.
Looks like I have a way long way to go to be able to write summaries for some trades, so, meanwhile, do enjoy a quick read at the link above.
Anyhow, I shorted AUDNZD, based on Kathy Lien's outlook. **crossing fingers**

Bye Bye Kittens

Bye bye to the cute adorable kittens who have left their birthplace.... It's been 3 days now that they haven't returned, and I pray that they had found a much better home!...
Bye bye....

Potluck feast

On the occasion of farewell to a friend who is going to leave for good to Australia, we have decided to organise a potluck/cook-together.

My task was to cook spinach... and I just browsed through one of the many recipes that I can search from the internet, and came up with this:


Recipe:
1kg (roughly) of spinach, leaves plucked and stalks de-fibered.
1/2 salted egg coarsely chopped
1 century egg sliced to quarters
100g of anchovies (ikan bilis)
a fist of 'kei chi' (cantonese)... chinese wolfberry
3 cloves garlic
sugar and soy sauce
roughly 3 cups chicken stock (although I conveniently used pork stock, that my friend had to pre-cook his pork meat for the use of curry pork)

Sauteed the anchovies and garlic until golden, before pouring in my pork-stock. Left it to boil for about 5 minutes to get the flavor of the anchovies out and also to reduce the huge amounts of water.

Then, threw in the cleaned and peeled spinach. Left it to cook for about 3 minutes before adding salted egg and century to cook it a little more. Lastly, 'kei chi' was added to add color to the dish, and seasoned with sugar and soy sauce... QED.

Then, laid back, and wait for my other friends to finish up with other dishes... It was a gastronomical delight for 8 of us!



Thai coconut milk chicken stew






Plain blanched lettuce Salted fish and pork stir fried







Curry porkStir fried chicken breast with mushrooms

Roti Bakar

A brunch on a Saturday morning started off with a hearty bowl of 'Koay Teow Soup' at the wet market of Penang Bazaar. Yummy.... and adjourned to nearby so-called-famous Toh Soon Cafe at the alley of Campbell Street.

Nasi Lemak... Simple coconut milk rice, with anchovies, and a quarter of an egg. Deliciously packed in traditional banana leaf and newspaper...

Then, the toasted bread and coffee were served.























And the verdict: The toasted bread was nicely done. Contrasting texture of the soft and fluffy texture of the bread, versus the crispy outer layer. Guess it must be the wonderful way it's being charcoal-toasted. The kaya wasn't that great, but was complimented by the generous rich spread of butter all over the toast.

For the coffee, it's unique, but didn't have much aroma of a coffee. Although it's a little bland, but was made thick, enough to awaken the dulled senses of morning drowsiness. According to unconfirmed sources, the owner self roasted the coffee beans again, adding secret ingredients of his own after buying in from wholesaler of coffee beans.

For those who is up for a food adventure, I've included the Wikimap of the location.
Bon appetit!

Ringgit likely to strengthen

Bank negara raised overnight policy rate to 2.25% citing strong Malaysian economic growth. (sourced from TheStar)... As cited in my earlier post on GBPMYR, the Ringgit has risen substantially against the Pound.
Riding on the optimism of the strong Malaysian market, and the debt problems and high unemployment claims of Britain, we will need to see if the Ringgit will break the support level at 5.00.
If it does, I would be seriously looking at ways to take advantage of the weak pound.

Junctionless Transistor

Courtesy of EEtimes: The world witnessing the first junctionless transistor.
"The breakthrough is based on the deployment of a control gate around a silicon wire that measures just a few dozen atoms across. The gate can be used to "squeeze" the electron channel to nothing without the use of junctions."

"Of course, crimping a silicon nanowire to control current in a lab setting and manufacturing these junction-free transistors en masse are two completely different things, and it remains to be seen whether the innovation can scale effectively across the chip industry. But if the technology does indeed pan out on a large scale, the breakthrough could lead to a paradigm shift in chip architecture."

So, basically, we will only be using a gate to 'squeeze' the electrons out from flowing across the nano-sized wire. If these become a reality, it will contribute significantly to cheaper transistors in the future, and more energy efficient devices as the leakage current will be significantly lower.

Therefore, we will see less of gated-channel transistor:

and more of this in the future:

Cross section of a silicon wire with wrap-around insulator and overlaid gate

More geeky info can also be read at PopSci.

Feeding time

Captured the mum feeding her kittens, and I think she has grown accustomed to me. No longer run away or being defensive when she sees me. So, took the opportunity to take a pic of feeding time... Apparently, it seems to be quite a relaxing procedure.
Sucking on the nipples is a good relaxation activity! Hahah.

Carbonara spaghetti

For the evening, I endeavored to try making carbonara spaghetti for 6 (dad, mum, nephew, sis and bro-in-law) using an ingredient meant for 3!... Letme explain.

I started off with a gift from sis, a can of Prego Carbonara sauce with the recommended serving for 3. Guessing that the contents will be quite salty, I improvised like Iron Chef (i can hear your thought bubble "OH Puhleeezzz")... opppsss. I mean experimented.

Ingredients:
1 can Prego Carbonara sauce (Campbell's)
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup cream cheese
enough spaghetti for servings of 6
2 slices ham coursely sliced (not bacon. bought wrongly)
5 cloves garlic (chopped up)
6 button mushrooms (sliced)
1 stalk of coriander leaves finely chopped (should be parsley)
pepper and Formaggio cheese to taste
olive oil

Started off by doing all the normal things. Cooking the spaghetti to al dante and dishing it up and added olive oil to prevent sticking.

Boiled the milk in a small pot to reduce it to about 80% then, turned off the heat to add cream cheese and egg white from 2 eggs, and stir until it was well mixed up. Supposingly, the egg white won't be too cooked but I added when it was still hot, and it didn't turn out quite smooth.

Having made that blunder, left that aside, and continued to fry the garlics and mushrooms until a little golden in a wok. Then, the ham into the wok, until it's a little golden as well.

Then, went in the opened can of Prego sauce (tasted it a little and quite salty) into the wok and mix it up a little over low heat. Then, turned the fire off before it starts to bubble.

Then, to salvage my blunder, I sieved the contents of the pot into the wok, and discarded what must be the over-cooked egg whites. Then, turned back up the fire to low heat, and threw the spaghetti, 2 egg yolks and coriander (couldn't find parsley in market, and thought this is almost similar) in to mix well. Formaggio cheese and pepper to taste, depending on individual.

Result... YUMMY.. and I'm not boasting. Good testimonials from everyone. heheh... apparently, I had successfully neutralised much of the saltiness from Prego sauce.

Reflecting back, I think I could have done better with a cup of cooking cream and half cup of Parmesan cheese to add up to the sauce, instead of the milk, cream cheese and eggs.

The salad didn't turn out that well.... 1 lettuce, 1 stalk 'yau mak', 2 tomato, a small bowl of mint leaves, and an orange for the juice. The orange didn't give enough ooomphh...

Ended the dinner with a HUGE juicy watermelon. It cost only RM9 for a 9kg++ jumbo sized 92% H2O container! Sweet, thirst quenching dessert to end an evening. FYI.... my palm is pretty big.

Signing off.... [burp]....

GBPMYR almost 10 year low

The pounds is getting pounded, as explained by fundamental analyst supremo, Kathy Lien ( 5 reasons why the pound is being pounded). As reflected by the chart that I have below, the MYR (Malaysian Ringgit) is enjoying its own strengthening against the pound.
It's approaching a 10 year low, (almost 5.00) and the last time it happened, was early 2009 when the world financial turmoil started. During that time, the collapse of Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch (to name a few) has sparked a worldwide panic and the lost of confidence of the world's financial market. Well, this time, the GBP (Great Britain Pound) is down partly because of concerns about the upcoming elections.
When will the rebound be!? Noone knows... But probably we've entered a period to pick up some good bargains. However, the downtrend hasn't been broken yet. Good luck profiting!

Dusk...

After a long tiring session at the gym, the sky unfolded in a crimson hue.
The simple pleasures of life, and what a sight to behold!. And my Samsung Omnia captured the moment...


Shifting to the left..............

















And the new apartment 'Sky Homes', towering above me, providing a cooling shade over the pool in this hot sweltering weather.


Anyways, time to relax my muscles!! *splash*

Manglish in Penang

I took this picture quite a while ago... when paid a visit to Pantai Keracut.
Happened to notice the cheeky display... and then, noticed the Manglish.
I don't know whether to laugh at the witty posts or the gross spelling mistake.

Please click on above pic to enlarge

Kittens Galore!

A litter of delightful kittens from a stray cat has decided that the gaps amongst my flower pots are a cozy place to grow up. So so cuddly... but when I tried to pat them, they gave a nasty hiss.... haha. Cats being cats!
"Meow... i want milk, is that a finger? or a nipple?"


"Join us in the cuddle!!"

Count the kittens in the litter!!! Hahah... it's quite a puzzle when they are all in a group hug.