Gigi 炎明熹 - 最動人一次 Review

 

                          

After being "freeze" from any work by her management company TVB due to contract renewal issue, Gigi finally release her latest single 最動人一次. This song is made to be the theme song of her upcoming musical special 恋上西沙. This is especially made to promote new launching of property in Sai Sha Go Park.

Composed by Harry Ng who also composed another advertisement related song of Gigi's. Also, the same lyricist Sandy Chang was engaged for this song. So, the quality of this song is ensured to be of top notch. And it really is top notch. Easy remember melody and hook with lyric that is easy to loop in your head.

Of course, Gigi's perform this song well with her calm and soothing voice. Using head voice in some of the end line and also her signature Gi-tone. In less than 16 hours the MV on YouTube already garnered more than 177K views. Proofing that her popularity is still there even though she was stopped from doing any work for more than 5 months.

If the contractual renewal issue is real (Gigi chose not to renew her contract with TVB and TMG) then 最動人一次 might be the last song of her with TMG. Fans will need to wait another 6 months or more until her contract ends before her next new single. It will be interesting to see which music label or artist management company Gigi will work with next.

Simon Listened: 5/5

SeowRead: How Was Your Day by Boey

 

Breaking away from his previous "When I Was a Kid" series which are stories about his childhood, Boey's latest book, "How Was Your Day" takes on the subject of being a young adult. I think this is clever transition as the first book of "When I Was a Kid" first published way back in 2011. The kid who first bought the book when it was published would have now going through experience similar to Cheryl, the young adult that "How Was Your Day" will be telling us. 

Cheryl, a young adult at the age of 28 is facing what most young adult face in the working life. It starts with her job interview and what she faces during her changed of working environment. I won't want to spoil too much here.

I faced a similar experience as her in my first two full time jobs. Managers that shout and scold that also sometime likes to micromanage. I find it happens when the manager is way older than me, I was in my 20s and my manager then was in their 40s. As I changed jobs, I found that manager that was near my age has a much friendlier management style. I of course able to survive (maybe I am a male) the scolding and even became friend with my older managers as I will stand at their point of view on why they will be like that. As time goes by their attitude towards me changed.

Apart from stories about her at work. We also follow her relationship with her parents. Like most young adult who wants to make their own decision yet still get the nagging from parents. Because no matter how old we are, in our parents still view us as a kid. I found it a bit weird is why she mentioned "Jusco" instead of "Aeon" even in the year 2020. Jusco changed its name to Aeon in 2004. So, Cheryl would be around 12. Oh well sometimes name will get stuck from young. Maybe it is Boey that is still stuck with the name.

To summarized it, I found myself more excited to read "When I Was a Kid" series as it serves as a nostalgia to me. Boey and I both grew up in the same era after all. As for "How Was Your Day", it is a been there done that kind of reading. As Boey said in his interview, Cheryl is all of us. I think most young adult or even late teens will get more out of it than I whom is already 45 this year.

P.S. R.I.P. 小强&百脚.

Gigi 炎明熹 - 還有一艘救生艙 Review

This is the second single released by Gigi Yim in 2024. For the first time in her MV she has got a love relationship with a male actor. This song is about long-distance relationship that didn't end well. 

I think this is the first time Gigi has a typical Canto style ballad in her song list. She did very well in bringing out the emotions of this song in her singing. I teared a bit just 30 seconds into the song when I first heard it.

I love her ad lib as always. I would say this song will likely become very popular amongst the fans. Hopefully the Hong Kong radio stations will help to broadcast more of this song in the airwave.

Simon Listened: 5/5

If Your Plan A Failed, There's Always Plan B

There was one time colleague A asked another colleague B during lunch time, where to go for lunch? So, colleague B replied,"We are going for Plan B.". Colleague A then asked,"So where are we going for plan B? I didn't know we have a plan A". Hahaha. Colleague A didn't know Plan B is the name of the place that he's going to eat in.

Joke aside. Last week, thanks to Nuffnang's interest group #NNTasteBuddies, I got to taste a variety of food from Plan B that I haven't tried before. There are just so many choices in the menu. We went to have a food review session in Plan B, Bangsar Village. Henry, Mai Sarah, Saimatkong and Jun Zheng were there too.

Now let's starts with the coffee. Plan B has their own blend of roasted coffee, which I found is quite nice. I had Flat White and later an Australian Iced Coffee.

A scoop of vanila ice-cream in the iced coffee. Nice. I don't even have to put in the syrup.

Now let's eat!

Avo Quino is kind of of dish that one will order for breakfast and it's vegetarian food.

Avocado and poached eggs? My kind of thing.

We were told that one of their more popular pasta dish is the Asian-Style Soft-shell crab spaghettini. This a kind of a fusion dish. Rich butter sauce covered the spaghettini and a tinge of curry leaves. Yums. Recommended to be shared if not it will be too jelak.

Looking for pasta with more greens? Look no further. We tried the Arugula Pesto Spaghettini with seafood (please not the seafood is optional). Aroma of pine nuts from the pesto sauce is nice. Pasta is cooked al dente.

In between the heavy stuffs, we added something refreshing like the Som Tam Crab salad, which is green papaya salad. BIG Group's marketing people love it.

Nasi Lemak Goreng is a combination of two of our all time favourite mamak food, nasi lemak and nasi goreng kampung. I like the sourish sambal, it's so appetizing.

Going for some tea time snack? One can opt for Spicy Fish Tacos. To me not very spicy at all. Fish is cooked just right. Sweet potato fries as side is something not normally found but it's the norm for Plan B.

Not a fan of fish? Why not go for the Char-Grilled Kimchi Chicken Burger? Burger is tender but I will like the kimchi to be a little bit more sourish.

Oh, Plan B just revamped their menu, some of the food we tried are new in the menu. They took out my favourite Ox Tongue Sandwich :(

Now the mother of all comfort food must be the Buttermilk Fried Chicken. Crispy skin and the meat still juicy and tender. It's so sinfully good.

Now even though we are quite full already, we still make rooms for dessert. The Coconut Cake is nice.

But the Apple Sugee Cake is awesome! Warm apple sugee cake eaten with the cold vanilla ice-cream is da bomb. I think it will paired very well with coffee.

Plan B is really a good place to look for comfort food and a cuppa. Plan B has outlets in Bangsar Village, Mid Valley, Publika, One Utama, Paradigm Mall and Ipoh. Click here for the address and business hour.

My Virgin Android Experience

Okay. I've never use an iOS or Android phone before. The only smartphone I've been using is my two years plus Nokia E7 which runs on Symbian, which I've upgraded to Symbian Belle. So last week I've got the opportunity to review not one but two Android phones for a week. One is the mid level Ninetology's U9 X1 priced at RM 1099 and the other is HTC One, priced at RM 2299.

Taken with HTC One

Taken with U9 X1

Yes. There's a huge price different between the two, how to compare? Oh, well. For an Android virgin like me it's easy. With the premium price, you'll get the aluminum body of the HTC One and a plastic one with U9 X1. Thew downside of aluminum body is weight is a bit heavier and heat transfer fast. So, it gets kind of hot when I used the HTC One for more than an hour and the heat is bearable for U9 X1.

Usability wise, both are quite the same while I found that U9 X1 seems a little bit more user friendly. I like the HTC Blink Feed though. It summarizes all my social network in one page and all updates are shown. Kind of cool too.

Phone camera nowadays is one of the function that people compares in a smartphone is the camera. X1 has a 13 megapixel camera while HTC One has a 2 micron ultra pixel camera which gives a 4 megapixel photos but with great sharpness and details. To me, HTC One's camera is slightly better but still U9 X1's camera is way better than my Nokia E7's all focus camera.

Taken with HTC One

Taken with U9 X1

Taken with U9 X1 in low light no flash

Both phones are quite responsive with HTC One had a bit of edge, maybe due the the processor speed different. I have not issue running Candy Crush or War of the Fallen. I even can send requests to friends in Candy Crush with little or not lagging at all.

One thing the X1 lack of is the built in application, it's pretty much comes with the standard Android Jellybean default apps while HTC One has quite a few of their own apps like HTC Zoe. Oh well, for RM 1099, I found it to be a pretty decent smartphone in terms of usability. It suit my needs for Facebooking, Twittering, Instagraming, Gmaling, surfing and occasional gaming. Oh, it has dual sim cards. I can put my normal size SIM card and use but not the HTC One because only micro SIM can be used. Also, Google Play would have tons of app to download so for me built-in apps design by the phone manufacturer is just a bonus.

If I am low in budget and looking for a decent Android phone, U9 X1 would be one of my choice. For the higher end phone and has the budget to splurge, well, there are a lot more choices aren't there?

Oh, you're a blogger too? Then join the Tech Kaiju to get a chance to review phones and gadgets too! More details here.

Vault Wine Bistro, Menara Glomac, Damansara

Tuck away in this new building named Menara Glomac in between TTDI and Tropicana City Mall is Vault Wine Bistro. A place with simple and cozy design.

Because the building is still quite new so there was ample parking space and also the parking is currently free of charge. So, it's good to come by here for lunch or dinner because it's not too crowded yet.

It's two days before Chinese New Year when we were gathered here for a food tasting session. So, we decided to toast for CNY with
Prosecco Col Solivo Champagne - RM 100.

While enjoying our bubblish drink, we started with some starters.

Crispy Calamari - RM 15

I like that it's crispy and not to salty the batter. It will be perfect if the squid ring is bigger.




Roasted Pork Belly - RM 16

Yums. Roasted Pork Belly stir-fried with camerelized dark soy sauce. It goes quite well with champagne but beer will be perfect.




Fried Chicken Wing - RM 16

Fried chicken that taste better than KFC. Crispy outside soft and tender inside. Careful not to bite too eagerly when it's first served because it's still very hot.

After such a meaty starters, let us refresh out palate with Arugula Salad - RM 16. Fresh arugula tossed with olive oil with balsamic vinegar. Add in a bit of diced oranges. Some might not like the unique taste we arugula but I love it. It will goes very well with cube feta cheese.

The Seafood Marinara - RM 28, the pasta is cooked al dente. Fresh ingredients makes it taste good and the sauce is not too overpowering the seafood.

Prawn & Scallop Aioli - RM 38 is great with the fresh prawns and scallops seasoned just right. What we didn't expect is the mashed potato stole the spotlight. It was smooth and creamy with rich butter taste. It was so good that we ordered mashed extra mashed potato - RM 6. Too bad not all the batch of mashed potatoes are created equal.

The Trio Mushroom Soup - RM 12 was not in the tasting menu but a few of us are soup person, so we side ordered this. It didn't disappoint us, the soup is smooth and rich with the taste of mushrooms.

Succulent Spanish pork is used to make the Marinated Pork Rib - RM 48. The fat and meat ratio is just right on this piece of rib. Juicy and tender. Too bad due to the bad weather in Europe, the signature dish of Iberico Pork Steak was missing from the tasting menu. I'll sure will come back again for that.

Aglio Olio - RM 18 is the simplest way to enjoy pasta.

Mix Sausage Platter - RM 38 consists of Italian Sausage, Spicy Nungarian Sausage, Nuernberger Sausage, Chorizo Sausage and German Pepper Sausage. A savory dish that best goes with beer.

Simple and minimum items in the menu to control the quality of the food.

On the eve and on Valentine's Day 13th & 14th Feb 2013. Vault Wine Bistro will have a special Valentine's Day set dinner. For RM 98++ per pax, one would get Asparagus Soup with Truffle Oil, Pan Seared Scallop with Caviar Sauce, Spaghetti Aglio Olio with Prawn, Smoked Duck Breast with Grilled Asparagus and Orange Reduction, Marinated Iberico Pork Steak with Cheesie Mashed Potato and Red Wine Sauce, and end it with Tiramisu Hazel Crust.

Oh my, such an exquisite menu. I'm salivating while writing this. If you have no place to celebrate your Valentine's Day yet, then Vault Wine Bistro will be a good place. A nice place to dine with your family, friends and lover.

Address

Vault Wine Bistro
A-G-7, Block A, Glomac Damansara,
No. 699, Jalan Damansara,
60000 Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia

Tel: 03-7725 7266

Mon - Fri: 10:30 am - 12:00 am
Sat: 5:00 pm - 12:00 am
Rest every Sunday

For more information about and details of Restaurant:
Vault FB Page: http://www.facebook.com/vault.wineandbistro/

Scholl Arch Support Shoes

Thanks to Scholl Malaysia, I was given the opportunity to review some of their products. The product I chose to review is their Men's Range with Arch Support comfort technology leather shoes. I chose it because I wear leather shoes to work almost everyday, which then I can compared it with my current leather shoes.

First of all, I found that the Scholl Arch Support is lighter than my current shoes. I've been wearing these shoes for about two weeks now, I like the soft footbed that cushion my feet, which my other shoes hard quite hard on my feet. My feet also will not slide in the shoes which made my feet tire easily due to the muscle strain  because of the need to hold the feet still on the shoes.

I felt that my body composure is better when I was wearing the Arch Support shoes, my back will not be as stress as when I was wearing the other shoes. Arch Support is design for optimum comfort for flat feet, weak or fallen longitudinal arches.

If you feel pain under or back of your heel or knee pain, you can op for Scholl's Bio Mechanics range consisting of slippers that provide the greatest comfort due to the Bio Mechanics foot bed. This foot bed is clinically designed to help realign the posture of the feet, thus relieving the wearers of some of the most common foot problems. Women will be enticed with the various floral inspired designs in the attractive colours of gold, silver and pewter, whereas the men will be donned in rugged slipper designs in down-to-earth colours of brown and black.

There are a lot more range from Scholl that is built with one or more of the eight comfort technologies Memory Cushion (adapts to the foot’s contours and springs back into shape for support at each wearing) ; Bioprint (conforms to the natural contours of the feet for arch and heel support) ; Gelactiv (its impact absorbing gel relieves fatigued legs) ; Arch Support (a soft foot bed provides comfort for flat feet or fallen arches) ; Sole Support (relieves pressure on the ball of the feet while exercising and toning toe muscles) ; Massage (massages the soles of our feet, relieves tension and improves blood circulation) ; Bio Mechanics (provides natural pain relief and realigns feet and body to reduce pronation) ; and Starlit (promotes better posture, improves blood circulation, exercises muscles and tones legs). The Scholl 2012 Autumn/Winter collections are as follows:

Dania

Destinee

Festive Ladies

Darron

Men Festive

Doris

Christina 2

Doris

No matter whether it's design or different type of comfort level you are looking for. Scholl will surely have some shoes that are suitable for your needs. For more information of the different comfort technologies be sure to visit Scholl's Official Website.

About SCHOLL

Founded in 1904 by Dr William Mathias Scholl, SCHOLL has been looking after feet for well over 100 years in more than 70 countries worldwide. Continuing the legacy of its founder, Dr Scholl, who believed that “the feet provide the foundation for the rest of the body”, the brand is dedicated to improve the health, comfort and well-being of people through their feet.
A heritage brand, SCHOLL remains committed to introduce footwear and foot care solutions which have the latest innovations and foot bed technologies to ensure that feet are given the best care.

MyReview: Marvel's The Avengers

Thanks to Nuffnang I got to watch Marvel's The Avengers yesterday night, a day before the official premiere in Malaysia.

 

Don't plan to write too much here to spoil the movie for you.

I think it's quite balance on how each heroes get to show their stuff.

I love the battle scenes. A lot of mixed battles. Heroes versus Heroes. Heroes versus Villain. Strong versus Strong. Strong versus Weak. Weak versus Strong. Funny thing is I didn't see Villain versus Villain.

  

If you think Tony Stark is funny, wait till you see Dr. Bruce Banner and his alter ego The Hulk. If he's not funnier then he is a match for Tony Stark.

As in any Marvel movie, stay back after the title credits but don't have to stay back after the ending credits. I'll watch it again in IMAX 3D. Hopefully I will be able to purchase a ticket.

Rating: 5/5