Jan Leow's Blog Page

Milestone, baby can sit!

Oh, yes! Just today, placing baby in sitting position without any support, he could balance himself while whacking at his baby toys! I tried it yesterday and he toppled over onto my hands, so this time round I prop him up and he could sit without any support! Of course I still place my hands nearby just in case, he still looks a little shaky, but by and large he is sitting pretty much on his own!

Crawling still not there yet, though he just might judging from baby pushing his butt upwards. However he likes to sit on the baby walker and move around. So those motionless baby rocker as well as that chair sitting trainer my wife bought is no longer wanted. In fact baby make a tantrum if you place him on those as he couldn't get himself mobile!

Sometimes just can't sleep in hotel

I don't know what happen, but sometimes just can't sleep in hotel. Last night after dinner, went back to Syuen Hotel in Ipoh, don't know just what happened despite the nice comfy bed, I just couldn't get much sleep.

Well I had to ferry my visitors around yesterday and we had a nice big hearty dinner. Drank some shoujiu and beers but i controlled as i need to be alert the next day for the long meeting and long drive to factory, KLIA airport and hotel in PJ and KL.

The visitor's schedule is spread out all over the place so it looks like a long tiring drive all over the place.

Could be the thought of the long drive ahead and many things on my mind causing my little nigth insomnia. Ah, just one of those nights I suppose.

iPhone 4 package from Maxis is just way too popular

iPhone 4 package from Maxis is just way too popular. My boss and my brother both also wanted to get an iPhone 4. The package from Maxis is quite good. Just pay RM1390 and sign up for iValue 1 plan for 24 months and you can an iPhone 4. The deal is pretty good. The iValue 1 plan requires a commitment of RM100 per month which include data charges as well as calls.

My boss made a study between the iPhone 4 plan in Singapore vs Malaysia determined that the Malaysian deal was much better. Besides, we already have an existing account with Maxis, so just need to change his line to the iValue 1 plan. The RM100 calls and data usage commitment amount can be easily achieve and very likely to be exceeded based on the current billing. Just that once his line is converted, we will lose out on the call sharing plan. Which means for the rest of us staff whose usage is below the committed amount it does not auto balance to his heavier usage. Looks like I just have to downgrade our current usage commitment further, perhaps to the RM30 usage plan. Yes, our usage is really low! 'Coz boss don't allow us to call suppliers using IDD, keep every conversation short or use email only. Ugh! How to work-lah?

Meanwhile, the iPhone 4 is such a hot item all the Maxis centres now do not have stock of iPhone 4 at all! Today I tried the TTDI Maxis centre and there was a large crowd of people queue to sign up for the iPhone 4 package despite having no stock of iPhone 4! For company line though, even if there is no iPhone 4 available we could just sign up first and placed on waiting list. Unfortunately to even sign up like this I have to be stuck in the queue! I decided to give up for the time being as I have other fish to fry.

I think iPhone 4 is just a crazy fad right now. Personally having given my wife's iPhone 4 a spin, I didn't really like the feature as much as Android. In order to download any app whether free or otherwise, you will need to provide a credit card number to the iPhone store even if it is free or trial / shareware program. Now doesn't that sucks?

Anyway, I review the iPhone 4 later. As of now, I'll just go for a San Francisco Coffee Latte with the free voucher my wife passed me. Then head back to office to catch up with work. Better spend my time to do something productive than to waste time on the queue to get a Maxis iPhone 4 that is not available.

[update 27/12/2012]

Selecting a better Maxis Plan


How time flies! The iPhone 4 contract was about to be due. Along the way I learned that the iPhone value plan was no good. If you have several supplementary family plus lines or using Value Plus plan for company line, the unused portion from the committed balance are not shared. ie if you have low phone usage user, the unused portion of the committed Value Plus could not be shared and vice versa.

Anyway the 2 years contract period would be over soon and I have done a study on the charges and values. The best now was to swap over the useless iPhone plan back to the Value Plus 50 or 80, and switch to 1GB data (now without having to worry about over quota as they would cap it under FUP (fair use policy) so no data charges if over quota).

Whenever you have supplementary lines and you have users that are low usage and high usage, using the Maxis Value Plus or Family Plus package plans are the best way to ensure optimum usage of mobile phone billing.

Nothing like home cook food

Nothing like having a home cook meal! It may be nice to go out for some fancy Malaysian food, but in the end, home cooked food is still the best!

Eating out the food may be oily, too much MSG, salt and perhaps less healthy. And yes, fancy Malaysian restaurants are nice but somehow home meals still hits the spot. Yes?

Rozel TV Table defective

Recently my wife purchased Rozel furniture to replace the older ones. This ought to be a good brand, unfortunaly the Rozel TV console table seems to be chemically untreated. It was infested with termites. Not long after purchse holes could be seen appearing and we could see wood dust dropping out of the holes.

By right the Rozel furniture should be replaced but we get such poor service from Rozel. The representative just kept procrastinating to come over and view the defect. My feeling is that if they kept delaying hoping we may get frustrated and forget about this. Fat chance! More holes are appearing and there is a risk the termite will spread to other furniture and infect the house too!

Sigh! After lodging the complaint the HQ of Rozel says they will process the complaint in two weeks. Up till now still no word. Will see.



[update]
Ok, finally they replaced it with a new one after they took back the defective Rozel TV table and did some checking.

Normally the wood is soak in anti termite chemicals, but I guess their supplier may have forgot to soak that particular piece. Whatever, as consumer, since we bought from Rozel we deal with Rozel. And Rozel will have to deal with their supplier. That's how it works.

Fridays Restaurant

After my son was done getting his jab from the paediatrician, wife, baby and I decided to hop in to Subang Parade Friday Restaurant for lunch.

It has been ahwile since we had a meal at Fridays Restaurant. And guess what? With baby in tow, they made good on the promise, 'kids eat for free!'

Even though baby can't eat yet, Fridays Restaurant allowed us for a free kids meal. We order the fried fish with fries free kid meal, and for the regular meal, we went for salmon pasta and a nicely toasted sandwidch with grilled chicken with clam chowder.

Mmmmm....

Delicious!

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FH20

Decided to buy my dad Panasonic Lumix DMC-FH20 digital compact camera to replace his old Fujifilm camera which he has been using for so many years. Time to upgrade his digital camera.

Bought this Panasonic Lumix FH20 from Digital Mall section 14. It was the last unit going at RM750. It has 8x optical zoom and 14 mega pixels.

This Lumix camera may be simpler than my TZ but is more than adequate for my dad. Plus the iA mode makes it easy as it will intelligently set the correct settings automatically for picture exposure.

Not bad for a compact camera.
Panasonic Lumix DMC-FH20