Anyway, I like the concept and I like how we can see all those raw ingredients there before they’re cooked. The desserts place shows an awesome selection of yummy looking, mouth watering desserts. One day I’ll go there just to try the cakes! LOL… Yup, although the banana cake just now was quite a dissappointment, I am willing to give Masche another chance. :p

No photos were taken at Masche though. Will post some when I go there again one day.

Anyway, back to the topic. Yup, yup relaxing Sunday indeed. After lunch, Conrad and I went jalan-jalan in the Curve, looking at cute and interesting stuffs. Metrojaya was having a sale of some kids’ toys at the center court. Saw lots of toy trains and the railways, lots of gundam robots on display too.

Then, we bought ice cream!!! Hee… Another dessert to ‘compensate’ for the lack of taste of the previous one ;p

I actually wanted a Choco Top, but I was told that they ran out of stock for Choco Top. Huhu. So I had to settle for Chocolate Twirl instead. Thankfully it is nice anyway!!! :p

Then, I saw a signboard near McDonald that was pointing outside, which says “Cupcakes Chic”… Well, being a sweet tooth that I am, I was surprised to know that there’s a cupcake shop somewhere at the Curve. So, we decide to check the shop out. Located facing the road, next to McDonald, Cupcakes Chic has quite a small cute looking outlet there. The staffs there seem friendly. As soon as we entered, we were greeted with smiles and warm greetings.
I went to check out the cupcakes on display. Err… I think the cupcakes there look more like muffins though. But then again, I might be biased as I prefer the look of the +Wondermilk Cupcake and yeah, I kinda wish I would find something like that there in Cupcakes Chic.

Well, since I didn’t find the cupcakes as cute, I didn’t try any. Also for the reason that they look more like muffins, and I am not a fan of muffins actually. So yeah, that’s my short encounter with Cupcakes Chic. Hehe.

There is a cute candy shop somewhere nearby there too. You can find all aorta of ‘weird’ @ ‘different’ looking candy there. The cutest one that I saw was a Candy Lipstick - It is actually candy in the form of lipstick and it’s so cute, because the ‘lipstick’ is Hello Kitty’s. LOL :p

Well, after all those ‘window shopping’ and ‘lurking around’, I finally bought some magazines at Cineleisure and a Korean drama DVD, ‘Spy Mate aka My Girlfriend is an Agent’… Plan to watch it tonight. Hopefully it’s nice!
O ya and I bought some present wrappers as well (one of my hobbies: collecting present papers. Hee). This time, it’s a collection of present wrappers from the 19th Century French Flowers. Love them!

Generally, men and women are attracted to things beautiful in their eyes. This general rule applies to me as well. However, the metaphysical property of each crystal and gemstone are what modern people would like to call as an added value to our favourite things in life.

Yup, today I feel like writing about another favourite things in my possession. Hee… The title says it all - Crystal & Gemstone. I have known for some time that crystal and gemstone are well-known for its healing properties, etc. However, I have to admit that what really attracts me in the first place is its beauty.

Being a typical girl that I am, I was first attracted to the beautiful and shiny colour of swarovski crystal. I first owned a purple & white swarovski crystal bracelet. The lady selling it informed me that the crystal bracelet was good to ensure clear mind @ clarifty of mind & for good luck. Not that that matters so much to me though at that time. Hee.. I just love the pretty light purple colour of that bracelet. But I do have to admit that my mind was indeed clearer and I was able to grasp things @ new ideas faster then. (Hmm… Maybe it’s just me, and not the crystal… Haha!)

Anyway, that was history. That particular bracelet was then broken and all crystal was then let loose. This happened when I was driving. Hence, I just put the bracelet near my hand brake while I stopped my car at the jockey carpark. I was rushing at that time and never did it occur to me that my favourite bracelet will be stolen. *sigh*

I guess I must have forgotten about that bracelet as well after I returned to my car (the jockey giving me back my car key & all)… Only a few days after that I started to look for that bracelet again (as I was thinking of sending it for repair). But a’las… It was no where to be found. Sad, yes… But I decided not to make such a big fuss of it though. My wishlisht is now to get another light purple crystal or gemstone bracelet. I am seriously thinking of getting an amethyst bracelet soon. (Yup, among others, besides of my love for the colour purple, it is also because of its known healing power to relieve headache…)

Oh well, in the meantime, I have my other favourite crystal & gemstone accessories to enjoy at the moment. Hee… Usually, I won’t really be out looking for these crystal & gemstone. If I so happened to be in a place where I spotted some sort of crystal & gemstone that can make me fall in love with it, for sure I will then buy it. Yup, some people might say that I am buying things on impulse. Hee… That is just me, alright

Here are some of my favourites:

Hematite Necklace - Hematite is another type of stone that I am quite familiar with. When I said “familiar with”, I meant that I have had an encounter with Hematite since I was a young kid. Hematite is one of the stones that I am strongly attracted to. When I was younger, in my teenage years, I used to wear a Hematite ring. My mom said Hematite is good for blood circulation. What really attracts me about Hematite is the polished surface of it which somehows drawn me to this stone. Now this is my favourite necklace here!

Besides that, I kinda like this one too. It’s a necklace with birthstones.

I want to upload another 2 pictures of my favourite crystal bracelets. But the internet connection at home is a bit crappy now. So I’ll save that for another day I guess. Well, what’s your favourite crystal or gemstone?

I am now connected to the Internet via my Sony Ericsson Z610i. While some might not realize it and while some may have yet to try it out, some mobile phones can be used as a modem to connect to the Internet. It may differ according to the model of your mobile phones and the service provider that you are currently using though.

I have known for a fact (by reading through the manual) that my simple looking Sony Ericsson Z610i is able to function as a modem even from the very first day when I purchased this phone in 2007. However, today is the first time I am trying out this particular function by connecting it to my laptop.

Yup, it’s that easy - Just connect the USB cable to the phone & the laptop (or desktop), and hey presto, you’re connected and ready to surf the ‘net. But of course the connection is not as fast as the broadband that we normally use, but still, it is not that bad. It took less than a minute to fully load this weblog.

An awesome function, I would say. Hmm… Maybe I should consider terminating my current wireless broadband service at home. I mean, who would need another internet connection when one can easily stay connection just by simply connecting one’s mobile phone to the computer, right. And of course, it is also important to ensure that you are subscribed to the unlimited internet package through your phone service provider. You do not want to get a heart attack when you see your phone bill at the end of the month, right. Hehe.

For those who thinks that the connection through mobile phone is too slow for their daily use, Sony Ericsson does provide other Mobile Broadband devices cattered for an individual on the go. To see more of these devices, you can check it out at Sony Ericsson’s website here. But I am not sure whether it is compatible with the local service providers or not… That, you will have to check it out for yourself.

In any event, there are other mobile broadband devices that are currently recognized and registered with Maxis and Celcom. One can always opt for that as well.

As for me, I am going to test out the Internet connection through my mobile phone for a couple more days to analyze its convenience and functionality by going to more websites. If it is definitely as good as the current wireless broadband that I have at home, I am seriously going to consider switching to ‘net usage via my mobile phone alone. I guess as long as I am not downloading BIG files, this should be more than sufficient.

Oh yeah… If you want to know which service provider I am using now, it’s Maxis.

p/s: Who needs a BlackBerry or an iPhone now if your current phone is just as smart? :p

Just recently, my nephew, Gavyn Marc Labunda turned 1 year old. So I decided to created a magazine cover for him!

There… Don’t you all think Gavyn looks adorable? He’s famous now!

For me, as I am only using a Sony Ericsson Z610i, I am still contemplating whether I should try Fennec on my mobile. Currently, I am using Opera Mini on my mobile and I am happy with it.

There will be a lot of competitions in the world of mobile browsers soon. Even Microsoft will be introducing Internet Explorer Mobile 6.0 soon. For mobile users, of course it will be fun to experiment with all these, provided that mobile & internet security are all covered and included in any one of these, right.

I am downloading Fennec for my Windows now. It’s 9.1MB in size. Let’s see how this goes.

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Here are some screen shots of Fennec on my Windows Vista Starter. Just click on the image below to enlarge them.

My comments: I prefer the look of Opera Mini. But then again, I am not able to comment on the web browsing experience for Fennec. Therefore, I reserve my comments on that until I have the chance to try it out.

However, I do believe that I will like Fennec very much, as I am a fan of Firefox browser for some time now. If Fennec is very similar to the normal Firefox Internet browser, I am sure I would have no problem loving Fennec.

In the settings functions, as can be seen from the fourth screen shot above, there are a lot plug-in able to be downloaded and installed on Fennec, hence it very much resembles the function it has on a pc. And that is good. I hope Fennec is available for download to other mobile devices as well so that I can have the hands-on experience of it through my mobile.

At first, I was contemplating between Sony Vaio and Dell. Both brands have pretty-looking notebooks with vibrant and cheerful colours. However, a comparison between the specs and pricing wise, Dell’s notebook are definitely much much cheaper. The reviews were not that good though. And there will always be a doubt in me about buying stuffs online, especially notebook. Finally, I decided, let’s put the looks of the notebooks aside and concentrate on the functionality.

So yeah, I decided to go and have a look at the notebooks on sale at the Digital Mall, PJ. I was attracted to some of the smaller-sized notebooks; very compact, light and cute! Haha… But the functions are limited though. The smaller notebooks will not be able to tolerate heavy duty graphic-editing related jobs or even heavy duty 3D games. Well, it’s not that I am doing either one of that, but it is always good to know that you can do more with your notebook than just typing. And yeah, I do not want to be paying more merely for the size and mobility that such notebooks can offer without the functionality being there. So I made up my mind that such notebooks are not suited for me and my lifestyle.

Then, I saw the NEC VERSA S3500. It’s small, it’s light, its specs are good, it looks good, it looks reliable, it’s almost perfect! Yeah, I said almost… Because it only has 1 colour - the metallic dark silver.

Ooo… Hmm… I wanted a notebook with another colour, actually. Preferably white or pink. So, decided to have a look around some more.

After a while, I realized that NEC VERSA S3500 is indeed the perfect notebook for me. The specs and the pricing are good.

The specs offered -

1. Operating System - Genuine Windows Vista Home/Starter
2. Processor - Intel (R) Premium (R) Dual CPU T3400 @ 2.16 GHz 2.16 GHz
3. Memory (RAM) - 2GB
4. System type - 32-bit Operating System
5. Hard disk - 160GB
6. And all other specs as stated HERE.

I also got a lot of free stuffs, like a 4GB Apacher pendrive, a headphone, a cooling fan for the notebook, LCD Cleaner, laptop bag, NEC optical mouse and about 20 cute games pre-installed in the pendrive.

The price that I paid for all - RM2,599.

I think that was not bad a deal.

So yeah, this is my new ‘toy’ - NEC VERSA S3500. Been having it for about a month now. So far, I think it performs well. What I love most about this notebook are these -

1. It is TOUGH - It is made of tough magnesium alloy chassis - hence it is TOUGH! Haha. But seriously, it is. I can simply chuck the notebook in my big shopping bag yet when taken out of the bag, the notebook still looks brand new. No scratches, no nothing.
2. It is COOL - Also, because of the material that it is made of, the notebook does not generate heat on the keyboard surface or on the mouse pad. It stays cool the whole day. This is very, very important as it keeps me comfortable all the time when I’m using the notebook.
3. It is VERY LIGHT & SMALL - Third, of course because this notebook is very light, and very compact! It gives me mobility. Like I said, I can simply chuck it in my shopping bag with the rest of the stuffs in there, and continue on with my shopping activities. It’s so light, it does not refrain my movements!
4. It is SLEEK - The look is so sleek and professional, it suits all kind of professions.
5. It has EVERYTHING - Lol… For me, that is. It has wireless, wi-fi, blue tooth, and all other ways possible to ensure I am connected to the ‘net all the time.

Tell me, what is there not to love about this notebook?

More photos from different angle of this fabulous notebook are viewable here: NEC VERSA S3500 Minisite.

The only trouble is how long was your site down? How many visitors did you loose? How many sales were lost? The questions are endless.

But even if your site is online it may be too slow for people to use at times throughout the day. How would you know this? Well truthfully you wouldn’t but what you would see is a decrease in traffic. You might think you’re loosing visitors when really it’s just that your web site is too slow.

These questions plagued me for some time about my site. The good news is there are services that will send you an email (or text message to your cell phone) the minute your web site goes down. They will also measure how fast your site is throughout the day and give you nice graphical reports of how your site is performing hour-by-hour and day-by-day.

I recently came across such a service called InternetUptimeMonitor.com. They do all of the above and I’ve been pretty pleased with their service on my site. It gives me a lot of piece of mind knowing that throughout the day if my site goes down I’ll get an email.

If I have a day with low traffic do you know the first place I check? You got it! InternetUptimeMonitor.com. Why? Because maybe my site was really slow and that’s why my traffic was down!

InternetUptimeMonitor.com offers two flavours of their service Free and Paid (for Businesses). The differences between the two accounts are how often they check your site, if they watch it from around the world or just the USA, and if you get cell-phone text messages alerts or just email alerts.

If you’re a business that’s making any money at all online I’d recommend their business (Gold membership) because it costs you too much money to have your site down. If you’ve got a blog and use it for fun or aren’t making much money yet use the free membership.

Use this link below you’ll get 65% off their premium package when you’re ready to order. This is a special link I’ve been given for readers of my site and it’s not available to the general public:

Start Monitoring Your Website Now

Everyone should monitor his or her web site because you never know the next time your site will go down.

Actually, I’ve been wanting to update with photos of some events (weddings) that I attended these past 2 weeks. But I haven’t got to upload the photos as yet. So yeah, I’ll save it for some other time I guess.

Anyway, I was checking out Nuffnang just now when I saw this post about Malaysian Dreamgirl Audition. Basically, the Malaysian Dreamgirl Audition is about a reality TV show on the lookout for a “Malaysian Dreamgirl”, of course.

This show reminded me of Kholyn’s post in her blog, “Who can be the next James Bond/Bond girl?”. I remember Kholyn put up a very lovely photo of her and her friends in their traditional/native costumes then. Let me see whether I can get hold of that photo… Yup, here it is:

Nice, right. Kholyn, rather than trying for the James Bond girl thingy, maybe you should go for the Malaysian Dreamgirl audition! Anyway, for anyone who might be interested, the audition dates and venues are as follows -

I think the most interesting part of this would be the PRIZES! Among others, there’s a brand new Chevrolet Aveo Lux 1.4(A) to be won, plus a RM10,000 cash and HP Pavilion Notebook (these are the interesting prizes, I think). Anyway, besides these 3, there are other body care, skin care, hair care, etc. to be won. The serious model to be might think that the Andrewsmodel portfolio and the Spread in InTrend magazine to be the most interesting prizes to add an edge to one’s modeling career.

I suspect that this is going to be something like the American Next Top Model TV reality show. Well, let’s see how far Malaysia can go to find its Dreamgirl… Something to look forward to on TV next year!

For more info on the Malaysian Dreamgirl Audition, visit the official website here.

Besides the audition itself, there are other interesting contests to participate there as well, such as the “eCard Blast” contest, “the Viewer” survey and others. Check out other contests here.

Well, enjoy!