An Overpriced Meal At Kopisan, Lawan Kuda

OVERCHARGED.... ?

We have been to this shop several times last year and most times, we went there for coffee and toasted bread.  My friends even had make friends with the owner, I mean just talking talking la... not specifically those "friends" whom we go out with... 

Back to our lunch at this Kedai Gemuk in Kopisan, Gopeng, the reason we went there was to buy their Pandan White Coffee, instant 3in1 packets.  My son told me that the coffee that they manufactured is very nice.  And naturally, when son says nice, the mama will surely go and buy some more, right... even though the drive takes around 30 minutes to reach!

OK, back to our lunch again.... LOL.... for the first time I ordered mihun and a few others.... and when I saw the itemized bill, I was a bit ... ok, only a bit astonished.  Oh by the way, it is not a cafe, it is just a kedai kopi, a small coffeeshop in a very small village, though small, the prices can be quite high.  LOL... 

I ordered a plate of economy mihun... 

Small portion, I don't mind... 

Nothing in the mihun... I don't mind...

But I minded when I saw the bill....

It cost RM4.... !!  Really??

Then the Boss said RM2.50 for mihun and RM1.50 for the sambal...

Seriously?

Toasted Bread.... kaya and butter.... RM4.80...

Another What from me... LOL...

I asked him why so expensive...

He said .. good butter...

OH...

A small bowl of porridge...

This one, I could not remember how much.... 

No peanuts, no meat... not visible... LOL...

But since I cannot remember the price... I cannot comment...

Their sticky rice with kaya is nice.... 

Again, I did not see the price...

By then, I was just telling myself... next time, just don't order mihun or bread... 

LOL... 

My barley water with lemon... RM3.50...

Normal barley in Ipoh city is RM2... 

Add two pieces of lemon.. oh well... no comment....

Besides the above food, there are another two cups of coffee...

All in, the bill came to around RM22.... 

Lastly not least, this cost RM20 each...

NO comment....

I blame it on the Covid-19...

People just have to make ends meet after the long lockdown!

LOL... 

Property Market during the Pandemic

Data from the third quarter of 2020 about the general state of the property market have been recently released by the National Property Information Centre (Napic), an institute that is a part of the Valuation and Property Services Department. A 7.4% increase in the volume of transactions from the third quarter of 2019 indicate a strong demand for real estate at the end of last year, which is a strong recovery from the slump during the pandemic. However, there is also a 2.4% contraction in the value of transactions when compared to the third quarter of 2019, which means many transactions in Q3 2020 involve properties that are lower in price.

Properties in the retail and commercial sector took the hardest hit with a 10% reduction in terms of volume, and a 37.4% reduction in value of transactions in Q3 2020 when compared to Q3 2019. Residential properties meanwhile experienced a year on year 5.1% increase in volume and 6.9% increase in value of transactions in Q3 2020. 

This increase in residential property transactions can be attributed to the incentives and assistance offered by the government to promote home ownership which was announced in the middle of 2020. This campaign provides stamp duty exemptions on instruments of transfer and loan agreements for the purchase of residential homes between the value of RM300,000 and RM2.5 million. These exemptions were again put forward during the 2021 Budget announcement where full stamp duty exemptions on instruments of transfer and loan agreements are to be applied to any purchase of a first home valued at no more than RM500,000. This contributes to savings of about 2% of the property value in terms of miscellaneous fees and charges in addition to the value of the property and loan interest. 

Another contributing factor that spurred the demand for residential properties is the record low Overnight Policy Rate (OPR) set by Bank Negara since July 2020. The OPR has been maintained at 1.75% since then, with another meeting to revise the rate scheduled in June 2021. This resulted in much cheaper loans for prospective homeowners as banks across the country reduced their base rate. There is no better time to shop for home loans as most banks offer an effective lending rate of around 3.0% to 3.2%, with some as low as 2.85%. The OPR is not expected to increase anytime soon as Bank Negara is looking to encourage spending and alleviating deflationary pressure over the year 2020, where the Consumer Price Index (CPI) declined 1.4% in December 2020 from the year before. Thus, the cheaper rates can most likely be enjoyed for a significant tenure of the loan if a full flexi loan is preferred.

For a first home owner looking for a property valued at RM500,000, with a 10% deposit and a 30 year loan tenure, the total cost of ownership calculated at the interest rates of 2.8%, 3.05%, 3.3%, and 3.55% range from RM715,649 to RM781,981. The calculator used to compute these values can be accessed from here. At the interest rates of 2019, it would have cost roughly RM70,000 more to purchase a property of similar value. It is truly a great opportunity at this moment for prospective first home buyers to purchase a home this year. 

First Visit At Yummy Food Garden, Falim, Ipoh

YUMMY IN MY TUMMY.... 

Out from my house already by 8.30am, we trio went to try the food at a factory turned into a food court in Falim.  From the outside, it is just like any other factory. If my friend did not tell me, I wouldn't know it has a public food court in the factory premises itself and the it is called Yummy Food Court.  

Oh, I should have taken some pictures, this is my failure, I am more on the food than the surroundings!  I guess I have to go again some day.... 

According to my friend, there are more stalls when it first opened two or three years ago.  He was surprised to see that many stalls are now closed, must be due to the MCO in 2020.  Anyway, my intention is to try out the Doris curry puffs which I have seen a lot of people post up in Facebook and they are sold out fast, I heard... 

I saw the stall upon entering... 

Quickly I walked over to see what they sell... 

Saw that the curry puffs were done there and then...

Cost RM2.70 each and still warm when served... 

Still crunchy upon biting....

A bit too spicy for me.... 

Fillings more on onions... 

Other than that, I could say... the taste is not bad la... 

Maybe I was expecting more potatoes or some visible meat at least... 

From the same stall, I ordered a plate of Chee Cheong Fun... 

It cost RM4.50.... 

Next time I might try the curry gravy with pork skin... 

Char Koay Teow for RM6... 

And a bowl of Prawn noodles also RM6....

Looks good but my friend told me it is so-so only....

Anyway, there are other stalls which we have not tried...

We might go there again... but not-so-soon... 

Sunday Western Breakfast At Breda Cafe, Ipoh

IT'S A BEAUTIFUL SUNDAY!  '

Ipoh is in orange zone now... for the next few days, it might go back to green safe zone if it continues to have zero cases.  Yay!!  Perak now is under Recovery Movement Control Order, we can move about inter-district but not inter-state as yet.  Pray that the whole Malaysia will be "recovered" too!

The night before, I was planning for today's breakfast and I googled for "healthy breakfast cafes"" in Ipoh.  A few popped up on my handphone and after reading the reviews etc etc, I settled for Breda Cafe.  The images are very enticing... and they turn out to be real when we went there this morning around 10am.  

The place can accommodate 30 people max and by the time we went in, there were only two tables-for-two left.  Wow, the food here must be good!  Had a hard time choosing what to eat... I settled for the Toasted Avocado Breakfast.... 

This is my order... RM21

Generous with the fillings... 

Avacado on toasted sourdough...

Topped with spinach, mushrooms and two poached eggs nicely done... 

And some salad at the side.... 

This set cost RM28...

Comes with a free drink... 

I like the cat spoon.... 

However my friend was quite disappointed....

The eggs are broken... unlike mine, very nicely done...

Not so impressive...

It is called Soul in a Bowl...

Back bacon, greens, wedges and eggs all in one bowl...

Total cost of our breakfast RM49.....

At this time of writing, it is 3.20pm

And I am still very full... 

I think it will last me throughout the day!

LOL... 

Studies In Today's Technology

In today's world technology and for market leaders, mature providers and analysts in the cloud computing space increases, one has to be competent to lead in public cloud adoption. In order to stay competent in today’s world, one has to acquire new skills to design, deploy, and manage applications in cloud computing.  

To keep up with this achievement of today's academic, you can start off with Spoto Microsoft 70.   So what does Spoto do?  Spoto is a Technical team which has a 17 years experience in IT Certification exam training and reference materials involving study guides, questions, and answers or practice tests, tutorial videos among other features.  They have a team of professional experts to assist you in passing Cisco exams even at the first try.  Examples of these exams involved Cisco CCNA, CCNP, CCNP DevNet, CCDE, EI, CompTia+ among many others.  Guaranteed that all questions and answers are accurate and valid, they are confident that as long as you study their products thoroughly, you will have no problem with the examinations.

So do you want to pass the Microsoft Certification exam ?  Here are a few points for you to undertake:

1.  Establish a learning program - Prioritize your study time

2.  Review the topics covered in the exam - The Microsoft certification exams are so detailed, the questions are designed to challenge your knowledge.

3.  Take the practical exam by treating them as real exams so as to make you understand what you should do.  Spoto provides Microsoft exam dumps and Microsoft practice tests to help you better prepare for the exam.  More can be read here on Microsoft Azure Certification.

4.  Prepare the best laid plan, execute and monitor it to your best ability to prepare the Microsoft exam smoothly.

5.  Last and not least, Rest and Relax, don't panic and know that you have tried your best to prepare.  Don't overstress yourself, there is always a second time.  Acknowledge that you can miss a question or getting confused by one, anyway, how it goes, do remember that it is not the end of the world.

There is always other pathways for technical positions, Microsoft is one of the best certification to get through to one.  Each of these certifications provides professional advantages by providing evidence of global recognition and industry recognition for mastery of skills in digital and cloud businesses.  Do not fret, exams can be retake, even if you do not pass, there is still a chance to get a clear understanding of the subject matter and be fully prepared for the next exam.  If you need more information and details, do log in to Spoto and read all about it.  Buy online for any packages that you need and you will find that your exams are made easy even on your first attempt.

Plus Body Shaper For Women

Hot wave is in Malaysia!  The weather is so hot that I rather stay home than going out under the sun.  With this Covid-19 pandemic, it is always safer to stay home if necessary.  I only go out for groceries and sometimes dining out when I feel fed up of cooking.  So what do I do to pass time during the day?  I go online shopping!  The weather or the pandemic did not did not deter me from browsing online websites to keep myself occupied with the latest trends and how to look good. Not only me, my friends also log in online to do their groceries, food delivery, shopping for clothing.... nothing can deter us from browsing, right

Each day I weigh myself, even with homecooking food, I still grow sideways, my weight becomes heavier instead of lighter.  If I am not careful, I will gain more than ever before.   I must continue to exercise regularly to sweat out the calories, eating and sitting down most of the time is a No-No.  The only consolation is that I can always get plus sizes dresses for myself if it happens, meanwhile I like to browse these exercise outfits, something like a body shaper for women... well, just to remind myself that my shape is really OUT and I need shaper to put me back to shape!  LOL... 

Ever heard of Shapellx website?  From what I read, the latest trends of the waist trainer is from this website, they have the best waist trainer for weight loss and it comes with all body types and sizes including the plus sizes.  One does not have to be self conscious of their outlook appearance, with the plus size waist trainer, it provides a magnificent and elegant shapewear with its finest and quality material.

On top of that, these plus size waist trainer for women come with a soothing touch for the wearer and not only that, it has a longlasting usage as well.  They are the best shapewear to get rid of hip dip, designed to get rid of the hip dip.  It comes with a robust sticker to offer stronger adhesion and to flatter the waist and tummy at the same time.  

For more information, do click on the website for more designs and features!

Satisfying Breakfast At Station 18, Ipoh

BREAKFAST APPOINTMENT with another group of friends, I drove all the way to Station 18.  I allowed my friend to lead the way after picking her up from her house which is nearby to this "Food" area.   There areTwo rows of shops selling breakfast items for us to choose from and we walked along the shops to decide what to eat and finally we settled for Man Yii, a corner coffeeshop.... 

On the safe side, do not come during the weekends, the cars would be parked here and there without following legal laws.  Since today is a weekday, we could get a table easily for three persons.  I was told that the food here in Man Ji is nice especially the curry noodles.   And that was what I ordered for myself.... 

A very big portion.... too much for me.... RM7

I quickly asked for an empty bowl and gave half to my friend.... 

Two of my friends ordered the same thing...

Chee Cheong Fun...

I did not try but received feedback that it was tasty too!

We ordered this to share....

Yes, very soft and nice... 

The taste reminded me of the good old days!

Yes, this morning breakfast is indeed very Satisfying!