What's your motivational profile?

I never really mentioned here that I'm actually a 'qualified' Unit Trust Consultant.  I took up the path sometime last year for two main reasons:

1. To give moral support to a friend who turned full time and shortly after her daughter became very ill
2. To give myself a chance to learn a new skill and explore if the new path will lead me to something new, be it economical or personal related

It has been more than 6 months. It didn't really take off.  The drive is just not there.  From a practicality point of view, it's not that difficult to earn something out of it, but successful ones will want to build a sustainable business and the eventual goal is to have a comfortable flow of passive income.

I've got some success with a few friends, and it did seem easy enough. A couple of signatures, submit some forms and commission in the next month.  Much much easier than sitting at the desk for hours looking at numbers?

However, for whatever reasons..I couldn't find motivation to build further.  I don't even pay attention on my own portfolio.  It's just not my cup of tea.  Economic graduate so called.  No wonder I didn't do well :P

So, long story cut short...I think this is not my forte.

And I wonder again...what motivates me? What kind of work turns me on?

Well, to some extend I enjoy data churning, problem solving, learning up new tools / software...(I swear, I'm not saying this just because it's part of my job for the last 15 years).

I enjoyed helping to promote the MADE charity event. 

I enjoyed helping to setup and manage my friend's bakery Fb page.

Sigh..so how now?

Apparently there are a few factors to consider when trying to understand our own motivational profile, according to http://www.yourofficecoach.com:

Achievement - prefer tasks that have a clear beginning and end, rather than process jobs

Interaction -  value relationships, may extend co-worlers relationship to friendships

Creativity - dislike repetition, enjoys finding new ways to do same tasks

Leadership - enjoy leadership roles, prefer interating with higher managers

Service - motivated by opportunity to help others

Problem Solving - enjoy providing advice to complicated issues/problems

According to the same article, by using a 5 pt scale from Very High Importance to Very Low Importance, rate how important are each of the above is to you, than do the same to your work.  Compare the two results, to see if there's a gap.  I did it ..boy..what a huge gap I have when compared to how I see myself vs as a UT Consultant :(

I also did this Quiz : http://www.oprah.com/spirit/How-to-Determine-What-Motivates-You-Motivation-Style

haha..I'm nuts, I know.

Will share results in next post. Gotta go now!

Nailless

It's a toe nail.

Finally, it  fell off, nearly two months after the Half Marathon in early April.

It has been loose and dangling about for last 2 weeks, very irritating.

Like many runners, I get this problem whenever I run long distance, only on this particular toe.

It blackens, and then fall off eventually.  

It happened when I did the Penang Bridge Half back in 2010, and it took soooo looong for the nail to grow back.  

Now, I'm nail-less again.

I wonder if the other regular marathoners have any nails :D

Wheatz & Grainz

I do like bread as I'm a carbo person, but I'm also Chinese.  So I prefer rice and noodles as a main meal, hence, I don't know much about bread until my friend started this bakery.

Initially, I mis-heard the name of the bakery as "feet & brain" : D

Forgive me. As I really don't know much about bread, wheat and grains.  I'm CHINESE!

Two of the three partners of Wheatz & Grainz were former corporate brand and marketing managers, hence, I believe they have done the due diligence before deciding to go onto this platform.


Main description from their Facebook Page says:

Wheatz and Grainz is a local bakery that serves a range of European-style healthy bread, cakes and pastries. With the concept of 'healthy eating' being the driving force of the bakery, breads, cakes and pastries are freshly made everyday.

Baguette - I was also told, a good baguette has many holes :P

After some probing from me, a not so healthy layman consumer, I was told that they use whole wheat and un-bleached flour.

Doesn't make much sense to me still :P

Let me do some googling..

Best Bread Tip No. 1: Go for 100%

(Source: http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/features/the_best_bread_tips_for_buying_breads)

Just "whole wheat" doesn't cut it. Neither does "made with whole grain," Look for labels that say "100% whole wheat" or "100% whole grain," and don't settle for anything less. If it’s 100% whole wheat, the first ingredient listed in the ingredient label will be whole-wheat flour or 100% whole-wheat flour.

You want whole grains because they're naturally low in fat and cholesterol free; contain 10% to 15% protein, and offer loads of healthy fiber, resistant starch, minerals, vitamins, antioxidants, phytochemicals, and often, phytoesterogrens (plant estrogens). With all those nutrients in one package, it’s no wonder whole grains provide so many health benefits, including protection from heart disease, stroke, diabetes, obesity, and some cancers.

Unbleached white flour is typically all-purpose flour that has not been bleached.

 (Source: http://www.ohio.com/lifestyle/abraham/differences-between-unbleached-white-and-white-whole-wheat-flour-1.243201)

Bleaching is a way of chemically aging flour without the wait. When flour ages naturally, it changes color from creamy ivory to white. When chemically bleached, in addition to the color, the flour’s structure also is changed, so that it does not form gluten as well as bleached flour.

Bleached flour is used when you want results that are light and delicate, such as cakes, cookies, pie crusts and other pastries. In bread-baking, formation of gluten is critical to the structure of the dough and bread, so use unbleached flour for breads and pizza crusts that you want to rise, shape and have a chewy final texture.

Whole wheat refers to the flour’s composition. While all-purpose flour is made from just the endosperm of the wheat berry, whole- wheat flours (regardless of their color) contain the milled bran, germ and endosperm. The bran actually hinders the development of gluten, which is why whole- wheat bread is heavier than bread made from just white flour.

Alright.  Enough of facts.

My verdict?

Wheaz & Grainz is located in the quieter part of TTDI.  Parking is fairly easy. I'd definitely come back here when I need a place to snack and coffee and probably some quiet me time after a tough day.

Yes...they serve coffee!  They apologetically admit that they are not professionally trained baristas but they did take the trouble to invest in a good coffee machine and 100% Arabica beans.

I like the coffee.  If only, they have time to polish up their barista skills :P
Since I know them, I've been given the challenge to make my own..it's definitely not easy to make a perfect cuppa!  May be I'll drop by more often and learn up the skill, soon you'll see me as the part time barista in the outlet?

Oh ya..do ask for some biscotti, I love them!

RM4 per pack to take home, if you're lucky, you get some for free tasting to go with the coffee.

Good variety of biscotti and such to go with your coffee

As for bread, I must say they're good. Prices are reasonable I was told by my other friends who are regular bread buyers.  

A loaf of baguette for RM5, good?

A country loaf for RM9, good?

Here's me trying a piece of Olive Rosemary with balsamic vinegar, surprisingly I like it!

Other yummies on the daily menu includes soup of the day, cakes, pastries, sandwiches, etc.
Hop in for a try!
P/S: I had the honor to try their Triple Layer Cappuccino Cake, it was yummy :)

For more information, visit their Face Page at https://www.facebook.com/wheatzngrainz


Address:

46, Lorong Rahim Kajai 14, Taman Tun Dr. Ismail, KL

(Same block as Continental Tyre near Hong Leong Bank)

Closed on Mondays

Bentong

Last weekend was a long weekend.  It was also the beginning of a two weeks school semester break.  Many took the opportunity to get out of town for a short break. It was nice to see so many holiday postings in Facebook.


I went to Bentong with some friends, just for a day.

Main objective was to eat, eat and eat.

First stop was at the morning market, come to think of it, isn't it strange that we don't visit our own local market but chose to visit a market first when we travel.

Anyway, we skipped going into the wet market area :P

We walked about the outer area, searching the famous kaya puff stall.  There were also many other stalls that sells different kinds of food from nasi lemak, to roti canai, fried noodles, yam cakes..etc.

I wished I had many stomachs.

One particular stall has these that caught our eyes.

We stopped to buy some snacks.


I couldn't resist the yam cake.  When he asked, how many pieces? I said Two.

We took these and made our way to the upper floor to look for the dim sum shop.  We were referring to a blog write up as our so called 'travel guide' :P

Found our dim sum shop, and your's truly here over ordered, not knowing that two pieces of yam cake is this MUCH:

Sigh.I think age has caught up.  I couldn't eat much for the rest of the trip after having the above :(


Oh..this is one of the many old time tailor shops that operates on the upper floor of the market.  Don't see these anymore in bigger towns.

We were too full to eat anything else after that meal.  So we took an aimless stroll around town, hoping that the food will digest quickly.  We still had wan ton mee, yong tau foo, home made ice cream, fish head curry in our itenary!

Since, we were waiting for another gal to arrive, so we decided to do a little walkabout looking for a nice place to have tea/coffee may be.

FYI, unlike Melaka or Penang, there're no malls here.

Referring to the blog again, I wanted to locate this place called Raub Kari Kepala Ikan, that apparently serves good teh tarik and vade.

After a long walk, we found the street but didn't see the shop, but found it later when we decided to get back into the car for a drive about.

This is special tea with fresh cow's milk.  It's strong and nice.  The vade's good too.  The shop is supposedly famous for it's fish head curry, unfortunately we're too full to eat any.


It was then about 1 ish, we were ready to attempt our wan ton mee and yong tau foo.


Unfortunately it was sold out when we arrived, so we ventured into a roadside stall to have something equivalent.

Curry Mee & Yong Tau Foo

The yong tau foo tasted quite different.  Nice! Curryy mee broth is quite different from what we usually have in KL.  We like the crunchy stuff, tasted like strips of fried bean curd sheet.  We ordered wan ton mee too.  Overall, quite good. Not spectacular, may be I was still too full to enjoy the meal.

In fact, we were so full after this meal that we sat there for another hour or so.  There were only one or two other walk in customers, so we could sit for as long as we needed to :P

Well, so much about being too full, guess where we went after an hour :D

Kow Po Homemade Ice Cream 

And yours truly here was so excited seeing other customers having a cone, I ordered another one on a cone, just for the fun of it. Haha.

Enough of eating. Although we spotted many other roadside stalls, we were too full to indulge.

Fortunately, I managed to persuade the driver to make a stop at the Chamang Waterfall.

 So refreshing right?
The drive was quite winding, but it was worthwhile.  There were proper car park, and there's no need to hike nor walk, the water fall was right in front of the car park.

Did I say no more eating?

Haha, early dinner stop around 5ish or 6, at Kampung Bukit Tinggi, about 45 mins from Bentong.

Fish paste & Mihun in Minced Ginger and wine soup

We also ordered three other dishes, crispy stir fried pork belly, a vege dish and some tou foo pok in soup.]

And I had rice -.=

YB

According to a simple search in the web, Yang Berhormat (Y.B.) literally means The Honorable.

So, we address our MPs as YBs.  While some are really honorable and respectable, some really behave like typical politicians that don't talk sense.

Below is a video created by a comedian to make fun of the way 'some' of our YB behaved :D



Only in Malaysia.

Sick again

7 days ago, I was sick.

Stayed a way from coffee which I believe was the main culprit of the bout of gastritis.
Was almost eating normally again, then I happily ate this:

Japanese Ramen in special thick broth

Sure it was tasty, but it must be too oily for the recovering stomach.

Purged a couple of times last night, and today.
Doesn't seem to be a serious case but tummy's uncomfortable, food intake's minimum, hence, low energy level.

I'm sick again :(

On my Birthday

Ok..here's a happy post.  This post was shelved amidst all the elections drama.

It was my birthday some weeks ago.

As with all birthdays..I don't really plan anything special for myself.

It happened to be a Saturday..and on the very day the running community decided to get together for a hike at Bukit Gasing to make a stand for a safer Malaysia following the tragic incident that took the life of Madam Irene Ong who was killed at the foot of the hill on broad daylight.

Two days after the incident the race director of the just concluded Malaysia Women Marathon voiced out : 

“I am able to organise a women's event but what good would that be if there are no safer havens for women to come out to exercise.”

Hence, the appeal for runners to come together for this gathering, despite the short notice.

The main objective was to collect as many signatures possible for the memorandum to appeal / ensure the safety of runners (women especially).
Read more about the day HERE

We didn't arrive early enough to catch the speeches but managed to sign the memorandum :)  before going up for a nice hike.

Since it was my birthday and some of our initial plans for the day was cancelled, we had the day free & easy.

And, my definition of free & easy is Eat. eat and eat.

After all, what can else can be done when they are only two of us.

If you're wondering..Us means me and Jenny.  We classify our relationship as part time 'lovers' as we only get together when we don't have other better things to do.

After all, I think only this friend will do crazy stuff with me.

Breakfast treat at Yeast Bistronomy

Lunch treat at Lot 10 Hutong

Tea at Lot 10 Hutong

The infamous crepes at Nadeje PJ

And finally..a Beautiful Mess as a finale :D

I was sick

About 42 hours ago I had the worse gastritis attack ever.
After throwing up, thankfully only once, I felt the body shutting down slowly.
Stomach was empty, but eating was impossible.
Slightly feverish, joints aching, tummy was uncomfortable, woke up several times in the night by the discomforts.

Woke up in the morning, hoping to feel better, but no.
I couldn't eat anything, head was pounding. Didn't even have energy to play candy crush.
The weather was so hot, I didn't want to even to step out to see a doc.
I just slept and slept. Drank lot's of water, pee lot's and felt slightly better by evening.

Never felt happier about being able to eat a piece of bread :D

Skipped dinner but had a warm milo with oats.

Continued to sleep!
I knew I'd be alright by then cos I was craving for some bihun with soup :D

I think I must have slept 24 hours in total!

Woke up the next day feeling so much better.  Had a light breakfast. Skipped coffee.  
And yes, I made myself bihun soup for lunch :)

And yes, I worked.  Worked 12 hours in fact.  Not a single drip of coffee.


And I'm still awake now at 1.45am :s

Candy Crush ran out of life. that's why I'm blogging. duh.

Only In Malaysia

I'm attempting to start a compilation titled Only In Malaysia either via this blog a new blog or in Facebook.  I know there are already something similar out there...but I'm going try to do one on my own to highlight and remind everyone - one simple yet meaning message that many of us tend to overlook and take for granted.

"We are beautiful just the way we are, let's keep it this way, Malaysia"

For now, I'll be posting via Only in Malaysia pagetab (see above) or click HERE

08.05.13 - Post GE13

Majority of Malaysians were devastated after 05.05.13

Many struggled to get back to daily routine, constantly asking themselves...so, what now? Do we carry on with life as if nothing had happened? Do we accept this as a closure? Or do we keep on fighting?

Despite numerous rubbish reports and statements made by some irresponsible parties...we remained calm and sensible.

Into the 3rd day, I see most friends had changed their FB profile pictures to new ones.  I see it as a positive sign..we are moving on.  We cannot stay in darkness for too long.  Forward is the only way to go.

I quote a friend.. "I love Malaysia (and I didn't know until this lately)"

08.05.13 Malaysians united to be even more stronger and determined to demand for what we believe in.

08.05.13 will be a day Malaysians (may be even the world) will remember for life.

Photo Credit : Facebook Page of  1000000 People Request for the Whole Cabinet to Resign

Estimated at least 50,000 braved the rain and heavy traffic on a busy Wednesday evening.  Many had to walk as far as 12km or more to reach the stadium.  Many were not able to enter the stadium. Yet, it was a merry atmosphere.  Apparently, people just wind down their windows and chatted away.

Opposition leaders arrived in motorcycles instead of fancy cars and escorts.




The expressway was jam packed.  It's now 1.30am, I believe many (including one or more prominent Member of Parliaments) are still on their way back. .

There were no riots.  A show of strong unity and solidarity by civilised Malaysians.

I love you all.  You're so cool!


I'm so proud to be a Malaysian.


Read more HERE

06.05.13 - Post GE13

It was a sad sad day for us in Malaysia.

We had high hopes.  It seemed possible.  May be the unofficial results mislead us?  May be the opposition were being too ambitious...and we got overly excited.

But..how could this be merely our imagination?

Final Rally on the eve of GE13

(Source: Facebook Page of "1,000,000 Chinese don't want MCA to represent Chinese")

At around midnight everyone were still in high hopes.  About 15 mins past midnight, a friend whatsapp-ed to say that it wasn't looking good at all, based on sources she had on the ground.  Within a few messages exchange the official numbers suddenly moved and jumped by double digits.

It couldn't be...everyone was stunned.

Darkness invaded my facebook within minutes. Malaysia mourns...

Thousands of Malaysia Facebookers changed their profile picture to BLACK

I didn't expect myself to be affected so badly.  Retweeted my last tweet (reluctantly) for the night as follows :

Retweeted FMT News (@fmtoday):

GE13: Official: BN has 95 parliamentary seats as at 12.20am. Needs 17 more for a simple majority

I logged off and turned to Candy Crush to calm myself down.

I think I finally dozed off around 2am..after several rounds of switching between Candy Crush, Twitter and Facebook.

Facebook was even more gloomy in the morning when more friends changed their profile picture.  So touching and yet saddening.  We should be celebrating if not for.....damn it..

I learnt a new acronym though - P.K.H.K.C from my cousin's status - a nice guy who is normally composed and quiet both in person and in Facebook.

It's a series of chinese vulgar words...go figure :D


Then..a friend shared this:



I cried.

Read the unbias report from BBC News - HERE

Ceramah

I've voted in at least 3 or 4 elections so far. (Right, now you know my age!)

In the first two experience, I, and I guess same as everyone else, was very much indifferent.  The opposition wasn't strong and everyone didn't think there's a need or rather chance to change things.

Internet access was limited.  There were no smart phones.  There were no you tubes.  No twitter.  No Facebook.

I believe the whole social media and internet landscape erupted in 2006-7.  Twitter, Facebook, Blogs became one of the main information sources for various matters, politics inclusive.

Still, during the 2008 elections, I didn't pay much attention to political news.  There wasn't much sharing back then.  I wasn't into you tube viewing either.
Mainstream media was still pretty much the main exposure, for me at least.  I didn't bother about attending talks (ceramah) either.

BUT. I did change my choice of vote.  Not much discussion about it, I decided to 'try'to vote for a change.  And apparently, everyone else (many) did the same.  Hence, in 2008 a political tsunami happened in Malaysia.

Only after the elections, a friend told me that throughout the campaign season people were very supportive in attending ceramahs (talks/ diagous) by the opposition.  Youtube was flooded with video clips of huge crowd rallying for the speakers, I was told.

The opposition took full advantage of the momentum created in 2008 and continued to ride on the internet and social media platform for the next five years.  Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Live stream became a very important source of information.

More and more people were exposed to issues that we've never pay attention to before ..simply because no one was given access to share in mainstream media.


This time around, almost everyone I know had attended at least one live ceramah.  Our facebook feed is of course flooded with video clipsof ceramahs around the country and many other information.

So, as mentioned in previous post..me too was caught up watching ceramah via you tube videos.

And thanks to technology..we can even watch direct from the TV.

So, being a 'blogger' I've gotta have at least one post with live ceramah pictures, kan?

This is considered the smaller version relative to those with bigger names attending.
Still...look at the crowd!  This is just a portion of them.
Many more sitting at bus stops.  By the side walks. etc.

Hawkers taking advantage of the crowd.  It was like a carnival.

Traffic jam in a residential road at 9pm.

So..okay la..I think I've watched enough you tubes. "Attended" a ceramah.  

Let's pray for a safe and smooth  election on 05.05.13

Join us at : https://www.facebook.com/JomDoa