Sunday, June 30, 2024

Log | Back to Basics, Boba Edition

 



It's raining and all I want is to just go back home and sleep but I'm going to do what I've got to do as it's the last day for me to submit all the documents needed for my work although I'm still not done yet.
Good news, I have two weeks extension.

Still, I really just want to be done with all these s**** like right now.

 Been missing cafe hopping a lot lately so I guess this basic boba from Tealive will do for now.

Friday, June 28, 2024

Log | Missions Completed

 





As I expected, lots of matcha-based beverages launched by different cafes recently and I'm starting with one from ZUS Coffee, their new Not Pistachio Latte. 

I'm already a big fan of their Barista Coconut milk so this is a must-try for me and I loved it! Not too sweet for my taste and even though there's no actual pistachio in it, it did tasted similarly. The matcha tasted nicely too with slight bitterness that got balanced out with the creamy coconut milk. I requested whipped cream as I was picking this up instead of the usual delivery to my office and overall it's a lovely treat after months of late nights at the office as I was dealing with my accounting auditors.




On average, I usually managed to complete like one or two missions but I did more for this month of June. The one mission that I completed for the first time ever since they've came up with their app is that one for the early bird. Like I said, I've been spending late nights at the office hence I needed more caffeine in the morning. Boy, I'm so glad as I can finally go back to my normal office hours after more than 3 months and I can't wait to catch up with so many things especially this season's anime but first, I'm going to get some good night sleep.



Thursday, June 27, 2024

Throwback Thursday | My Hero Academia Manga

 



I've been following My Hero Academia's manga for about 3 years now; I was filling the void in my head after I've finished reading Demon Slayer's over 200 chapters in a single night and I was like, what's next on my shounen list?


My Hero Academia first came to me in the form of anime that can be easily streamed on Netflix but I'm more of a manga reader hence these throwback photo of when I first bought the official English translation by Viz Media. As usual, I got them from Kinokuniya's webstore. 


Fast forward to several days ago, the mangaka, Kohei Horikoshi has announced that there's only 5 chapters left to the main series and I've felt this big wave of relief because I was expecting that to happen after reading chapter 425. Up to this day, there are 38 volumes have been released that include 386 chapters with volume 39 coming in October. In Japan, volume 40 that include up to chapter 410 has been released back in April so I guess there are 2 more volumes left for this series to complete.


But will I truly be happy when the series ends?




Wednesday, June 19, 2024

Wordless Wednesday | Finally

 


Monday, June 17, 2024

Log | Japanese Matcha Frappe at ZUS Coffee

 



This was exactly a month ago, before the chaos began. June is the month when I would be dealing with auditors so I’ve been having late nights at the office quite frequently throughout the past month but I know that new matcha-based beverages are coming usually at this time of the year so I just can’t wait for this to be over! 

Saturday, June 15, 2024

Log | Sambal Carbonara Fettuccine at Guan's Kopitiam, Gaya Street, Kota Kinabalu

 



It's spicy, savoury and just the right amount of cheese with lots of mushroom. Loved it!

Friday, June 14, 2024

Log | Renewing My Car Insurance and Paying for Road Tax

 


While I actually haven't got my driving license yet; I've been so occupied with work since last year till February this year, so I couldn't register for MyJPJ Android app as having one is a requirement therefore in need to manually pay the road tax for a car under my name at the nearest JPJ counter. But before that, I was going to need to renew my car insurance so I opted for one that I conveniently applied and paid for via Maybank Group's member; Etiqa .





First, I saw the application while exploring Maybank's MAE app above but to pay the insurance, do it on a browser on your smartphone or computer so you can approve the Secure2U on your MAE app to proceed with the payment. Quick reminder for those of you who are still using the previous Maybank2U app, the last day to use it will be end of this month as it'll be discontinued i.e. Maybank will no longer provide support afterwards.





But I, on the other hand, applied for the insurance right from the app for the first time and got stuck at the payment page because I cannot return to merchant's page i.e. Etiqa therefore I've had to go to Maybank's branch counter to reset my application and then proceed with the payment.


Now, let's talk about the things I had to consider when it comes to the total Contribution so first thing first is the Sum Covered. Ranging from the Market Value; usually the low end of the sum covered to the Agreed Value; the higher fixed sum covered as the payout in the event of a total loss claim.

As it's merely been a year since I've had this car, I opted for the Agreed Value that will mostly cover the outstanding balance of my loan instead of opting for the most common albeit lower Market Value.

Next is whether to add any additional coverage like  windscreen or window breakage, all-driver, natural disasters, etc. but I didn't opt for any as I was already exceeding my allocated budget to renew the insurance policy. I'm just happy to get the complimentary 'Drive Less Save More' add-on where I can get up to 30% cash rebates for low mileage when I renew my insurance next year. 

Another reason why I chose to renew my car insurance by myself is because of yes, you guessed it, the 10% discount! I've received several quotations from different parties like Toyota Malaysia via WhatsApp, my previous insurance company and my dad's usual JPJ runners but all of the Contribution amounts still above the amount that I've paid by myself and all of them gave me quotations with lower Market Values which all in all has triggered my curiosity to settle this task independently.



Source


One thing that's kind of a misstep to this whole process is indeed the next order of business i.e. paying the road tax. As I was so occupied with work for almost 3 weeks after renewing my insurance with my mum; the regular driver of my car had my younger brother who's on break from work driving her around, I only remembered to go to the JPJ counter nearby literally last week to pay for it. 

If you didn't know like I did, you have to pay your road tax within 10 days after renewing your insurance policy or you only get to pay for a 6-month period. Whether the fact that an insurance policy that's to be renewed annually expires within a 12-month period couldn't be more obvious like it was about to hit me in my face, I overlooked that fact therefore I'm going to need to be in contact with Etiqa 2 weeks before my road tax became invalid to apply for an extension of my current policy so I'll have at least another 6 months to it and then I can pay the road tax covering that remaining period.

Only after that I can go for another round of renewing my insurance policy; fingers-crossed the car is driven less than 15,000KM or I won't be eligible for the 'Drive Less Save More' cash rebates and only then I can hopefully get to pay for a 1-year road tax. Hopefully, I get to pay that tax right from my own MyJPJ app. 

Sunday, May 19, 2024

Log | Cleaning My Suede Shoes

 



Technically, I wouldn't call them as pair of suede shoes but there are some suede materials on them and there was this huge warning sticker that they cannot be washed with water or worn in rainy condition right on the sole so I'm going to treat them as suede shoes at this point therefore in need to look for shoe-cleaning kits suitable with this or similar materials.

I was searching and scrolling up and down my Shopee app when I've finally found affordable and most importantly, local suppliers for these shoe-cleaning products; Sole Balms® Suede Kit, Easy Foam Cleaner and Premium Brush.


First, let me just share with you guys the first step to clean these suede shoes or the only step you need; depending on the severity of the stains on your shoes which is to remove the surface stains. 




For this dry cleaning step, I'm using the Suede Kit that consist of suede detailing brush and suede rubber eraser. The brush isn't that stiff and it was easy to remove dirt that cling onto the suede and it's made of nylon therefore free from animal hair; imperative to Muslim users like myself. The eraser did a great job at removing the dirt off my shoes and I didn't even need to use a lot of force for this step. Here's photos of before and after I'm using the kit : 




It's actually kind of nice to see the suede texture being revived like that; personal preference of mine.




I mainly used the corners of the rubber eraser to focus on smaller areas like those at the lace holes and front part of the shoes.

Now for the rest of the shoes, I'm using the Easy Foam Cleaner and the Premium Shoe Cleaning Brush.




As I don't want to risk by using water to clean these shoes, this cleaner is perfect as I don't need extra water to foam it up thanks to the pump as well. Simply pump the cleaner onto the soft brush and start brushing your way through the areas of the shoes. Use microfiber cleaning cloths to absorb the excess foam afterwards. Even though the brush is indeed quite soft to be used on the suede material, I still wouldn't recommend to use force while brushing as I do notice that some of the suede material did came off so be extra careful.
 



For my first cleaning routine, I used about a fifth of the bottle for these pair of shoes which is quite a lot but according to the guys at Sole Balms®, you can try using less cleaning product by adding some water i.e. wetting the soft brush slightly prior adding the foam cleaner. I'd be sure to try that next time but even after trying to dry the shoes with multiple microfiber cloths, I still felt some of the suede areas quite damped so I left them to air-dry overnight.




The next morning, I simply used the brush that came with the Suede Kit to sort of fluff the dried and flattened suede texture and totally feeling satisfied with how cleaned my shoes are now after months of enduring the time I couldn't wear them with my beige outfit.




With my recent purchase of more suede material-containing shoes, I'm so glad I got myself extra bottle of the foam cleaner plus I get to save some shipping fee to EM. Overall, I'm quite satisfied with the products and looking forward to my next cleaning session.


Are you obsessed with sneakers too? While I refuse to get the latest release of Adidas Samba, Specialz or Gazelle, Puma Palermo or Creeper even the cute NewBalance 530 series (I remember I was obsessed with the 574 back in uni), I finally got myself a pair of Mexico Delegation from Onitsuka Tiger; a Japanese brand indeed but I guess I'll save that for my next entry. 


Friday, May 10, 2024

Log | Dalgona Matcha Latte, Haru Cafe, Hilltop, Kota Kinabalu

 



Wednesday, April 24, 2024

Log | Short Trip to Kinokuniya

 






Thursday, March 21, 2024

Log | TWG Tea at the Gardens, Kuala Lumpur

 




Sunday, March 17, 2024

Log | Rearranged My IKEA Billy Bookcase

 



It's Sunday and I just woke up figured I want to rearrange my bookshelf after putting it off my list of chores after so long and especially when bunch of manga just arrived yesterday.




I've been wanting to get another bookcase but I'm really out of space in my hobby room so for now I'm going to try maximise the little space that I have in my existing shelves. I've already packed all my Funko Pop!s and Gunpla kits into moving boxes as I'm planning to send all of them to my parents house soon. Dad promised to renovate his old office into a mini studio for me but mum wants me to have her home office instead as she already planned to turn dad's old office into her personal storage for cooking utensils. I'll update you guys on that later.


I've cleaned the area and then rearranged the shelves so I can have similar heights for all the tiers on the bookcase.




I've figured I could reuse the protector boxes that I've got from Sheldonet Malaysia to raise the manga placed at the back but I don't really have lots of them so I guess I'm going to use slightly broken plastic protectors as well.




After placing all my Kodansha's Attack on Titan manga, I've noticed that I can raise the manga a little bit higher when I turned the box to its other side instead. 




It's really nice to see the titles popped out like that instead of removing the front volumes back and forth whenever I want to read the ones at back. Plus it's easier to check for the latest volumes of unfinished series whenever I want to preorder the next ones. After removing some of the boxed figures off the shelves, I even gained a whole empty tier at the bottom which is great news as I'm planning to get Gundam the Origin manga which are published in hardbacks and there are 12 volumes so I'd be sure to put them at the bottom shelf as I imagined their quite heavy.


Overall, I'm loving this arrangement for now but I seriously need to back order another of this Billy Bookcase from local IKEA reseller but I'm going to need to rearrange the hobby room again for that. Also, to all fellow toy figure collectors out there, do you guys know that IKEA discontinued their Detolf shelf? I currently have 3 and was hoping to get another but now I don't know where to get a new one or I guess I'll just have to look for a used ones instead.


Saturday, March 16, 2024

Log | First Japanese Light Novels

 


Thursday, February 29, 2024

Log | Pink Dragons

 



I think I've been having a lot of this Watermelon frappe from ZUS Coffee throughout this month of February and it's safe to say that this is officially my pink drink of the year!




Thursday, February 22, 2024

Log | Long Walk at Perdana Park, Tanjung Aru, Kota Kinabalu


 

Saturday, February 17, 2024

Log | Gigi Coffee has Landed in Kota Kinabalu

 


Wednesday, February 14, 2024

Log | Matcha Date

 






Sunday, February 11, 2024

Log | Casetify x Jujutsu Kaisen Limited Edition Phone Case and Lanyard

 








Friday, February 2, 2024

Log | Savoury Taufufa at Ikosoya, Lintas Jaya Uptownship

 



I've had tried different porridge my whole life but this is the first time I ever tried a savoury taufufa and I truly loved it! Hope this makes to their permanent menu.





Tuesday, January 2, 2024

#1 Roastery, City Centre Sandakan, Sabah.

 









Monday, January 1, 2024

Log | Happy New Year