Project 365: Day 39 The failed ban jian kuih

The last night my sister is in London before going back to Nottingham, she said she wants ban jian kuih, or apom balik I was told. It's a food which I'm not really fond of growing up but grown to appreaciate as I got older. My favourite was the thin and crispy ones sold at "hai tao ki" in Alor Star. Sweet, nutty and crunchy all in a small pack.

Anyway, it was a tiring day driving the sister up to Harlow in a honda civic hybrid. I must admit I quite like that car, the whole feel of driving it, and of course the morally superior feeling of driving a clean car. What a bunch of hypocrits, they are no cleaner than turning my heater off for one hour and leave it on for the rest of the day. In any case, it is a triumph of innovation once again.

Well you guys should get what I mean. I was tired from all the driving and now I have to attempt to make this kuih for the first time. It wasn't the most aesthetically appealing thing I make but it does the job of solving the cravings. Yes it's burnt and we had to eat the inner part without touching the burnt part but it was all nice. The next attempt will be much bettet, I've got a feeling.



Best regards,
Jing Qi Quah

Project 365: Day 38 I like window shopping

No longer able to afford shopping for things I like, I tend to wonder off in my own little world when I go out shopping with yours dearly. The department store is truly one of the biggest innovation of humans, I really mean it.



A day out window shopping can broaden your horizon much more than travelling in my humble opinion. Where else do you get to see 50 different types of pepper grinder each claiming to be the best. The most astonishing thing is that they all sell. You also get to see the latest innovation, like a so called best wine bottle opener in the world, a double pot you can use to heat stuffs using steam (making delicious butter sauce for steak), and the different types of teapots. Whoosh, it's a brave new world out there for innovators.



I said innovators because let's face it. This world needs more inventors but inventors are hard to come by these days. On the other hand, most entrepreneurs nowadays are genius innovators. They see a need in the market, no matter how small the need is, they will find a way to fill that gap. The market is no more saturated than stones in a bowl, you just need to be sands, or even water if you wanna be bruce lee.



Remember, no matter how small the gap, you just need to be smaller to fill it up.



A picture of deno and my sister looking tired after walking thru countless shops and buys NOTHING. Hahaha, it's the process that's enjoyable, think about it.







Best regards,

Jing Qi Quah

Project 365: Day 37 Ye Olde Scallop Tartare

Well it isn't that old. Quite like a new recipe of gordon ramsay's I tried with deno like 2 years ago. The taste of it I could still remember 2 years on, and the recipe will be with me for a long long time. So go ahead drop me an email or a call if you want the recipe too.



The day started out with us going to borough market to hunt for some fresh hand-dived scallops. Now this is the important bit, since dretched scallops tend to be too sandy and remember we're eating them RAW.



Next you gotta remove the scallops from their shells, separate the red meat (or roe) from the white meat (or muscles). Mix the ingredients together the chopped up white meat and serve up on baby gem lettuce leaves. Absolutely refreshing on a hot summers day accompanied by a bottle of splendid riesling wine.



Ingredients: raw scallops (white meat), mascarpone, creme fraiche, chervil, lemon, salt and pepper, baby gem lettuce.



Give it a try, don't bother about measurements it's all about making it to suit your taste.









Best regards,

Jing Qi Quah

Project 365: Day 36 Siewch's farewell dinner

I went to saint germain's at farringdon today for siew ching's farewell dinner. Yea it feels weird when somebody is leaving for good but hey, home is 13 hours away and internet is borderless, it isn't that bad. It also started me thinking, should I go back as well? I think not yet, it's not the time yet.

Now let me say something about the restaurant. I had goat's cheese for starter and coq au vin for main. I have to say that looks can be deceiving here, look at the duck confit everybody had, it looks great but what lurks underneath it, the thick layers of fat, made eating it next to impossible. Why didn't the chef cook the fats down I don't know, but when you're cooking duck, please put it in the oven for at least 2 hours for the fats to melt out.

The dinner itself was kinda fun. Met lots of people whom I haven't seen in ages and bullshitting over a meal is a pleasure of life. It truly is.


Best regards,
Jing Qi Quah

Project 365: Day 35 Stud 100

Quite an uneventful day except for the boring G20 meeting which got world markets rallying on false hopes. Printing money to solve an economic problem, ha, let's see how well that works now since it never worked in the past, fascinating really.

Anyway, I was on the tube and guess what I saw on the advertising space on the carriage I was in.

STUD 100. Apparently for £6.99 you can delay ejaculation for ....... wait they didn't state the length of time, will somebody try it and let me know? So viagra prolongs erection and this delays ejaculation...... What if you combine the both?

Again, please do let me know what happens if you tried it.



Best regards,
Jing Qi Quah

Project 365: Day 34 Watchmen

I went to watch Watchmen in Greenwich on Wednesday and let me tell you my first reaction after the movie ended.

"The movie is just damn weird."

I mean I was expecting it to be some superhero movie where there is hero vs evil like batman or superman. But all I got out of the movie were some weird blue naked man and weird 5-minute sex scenes in a flying machine up in the sky. Not that it wasn't hot. But if I wanted sex scenes I'd rather watch porn. The fight scenes were not too bad though, some serious moves there with rage.

All in all, it was just weird. And particularly so after I watched Knowing in the afternoon, another weird movie.

Anyway picture was of greenwich peninsula where imax greenwich is located and the sainsbury's where I bought some snacks to smuggle in for the movie.


Best regards,
Jing Qi Quah

Project 365: Day 33 Nestum tau kwa

I was itching for some nestum prawn since that tasty vegetarian nestum prawn meal back in the temple at bukit mertajam. A few days after I got back, I found 2 packets of nestum prawn mix in the cupboard and decided to cook them. The problem is, I'm vegetarian for the day so what could I substitute it with? Yours dearly said she wanted to eat tofu so I came up with the idea of deep fried tau kwa with nestum.



And the end product? Seems a bit burnt but tasted just as nice. Not a bad twist to it eh?



I also started reading a book titled "white tiger" a few days ago. Quite an interesting book which started with "For the desk of His Excellency Wen Jiabao", a very inviting beginning indeed.



I'm also working on a project right now to keep myself occupied. Hopefully I can start my own little thingy here in a foreign country.



To my readers, please be supportive when it take offs yea?

Best regards,

Jing Qi Quah

Project 365: Day 32 Crapness

Can't believe it's only 1 month and I already forgot to take a photo each day for project 365. Anyway let's make do with what I got, starting from last saturday. Went out for dinner at the favourite iranian place, Alounak on Westbourne Grove. Attendees for dinner were Francis, Sush and yours dearly. The lamb was as usual very tender and tasty, with a strong smoke flavour, yum.

After dinner, we went over to Soho for dessert and Princi's. Check out the nice deco for the table against the wall.

Water features, when placed appropriately, sometimes enhances the feel of a room. If you're a student of feng shui, you'll realise as well that it is also important to place water features at some places to lift the energy of the room. Think aquarium and why people build ponds to rear japanese kops, isn't it so?

Anyway, the night ended with some drinks at La Perla on Charlotte street for Tse Jian's birthday. I quite enjoyed the margerita there. One thing I forgot for the day was to be a vegetarian for the day. I guess I can substitute days..... hehe.



Best regards,
Jing Qi Quah

Time at home and coming back to UK

Project 365: Day 28 Sister Caught me sleeping, @#$%^&

I was happily getting my back massaged on the massage chair the day after the funeral when I accidentally fell asleep (It was very comfortable ok......). Not the nicest of my pic but oh well, the kids sneakily took a pic of me sleeping. And this isn't the only pic they took, my life is ruin, NOOOO!!!! Can't they just let me sleep in peace?

Project 365: Day 29 Back at home in KL, here's my garden

I got back to kl after the first 7 days ended. I know I left out taking lots of pics but my mind wasn't set on taking pics. Had the pleasure of stopping by Ipoh to taste the "big head prawns" at Mun Choong restaurant on my journey back. With every bite, I feel my artery getting clogged up more and more, why are nice foods always bad for you??????

Anyway this is a shot of my garden during the one day I get to spend at home. My room has been empty for almost 11 months of the year and it certainly gave me a spooky feeling everytime I sleep in there. Guess I need to load it up with stuffs but what's the point in doing that when I'm not home most of the time? Sigh......

Project 365: Day 30 Bought myself a new pair of shoes

Went to do some shopping a few hours before boarding my plane back to London and bought myself a new pair of shoes. I kinda like the design at the front of it, at RM130 I think it's a bargain for it was really comfortable as well. I also got yours dearly her face wash set and boy were they expensive...... sigh.

Project 365: Day 31 Back in UK, on train towards London Paddington

A shot onboard the Heathrow Connect train back to Paddington (Heathrow express too expensive la since I'm not constrained by time). I was a bit depressed leaving home again and coming back to the cold weather here, just to prove that it was just too comfortable at home.

Project 365: Day 27 Some smiles to ease the gloom

If you've ever had to attend a funeral of someone dear to you, you would sense the gloomy atmosphere from 100 meters away. But thanks to my younger cousins this time, the atmosphere seemed less tense. Maybe they just don't know how to feel sad yet, after all the only emotions children know are happiness and anger.

Here's a pic of one of my youngest cousin, who incidentally tries to show off his dimples. Don't you just wanna pinch his face? Anyway I think they are just enjoying their time not going to schools.



Best regards,
Jing Qi Quah

Project 365: Day 26 Business is resumed

Sorry for the lack of updates since last week. I was quite busy for the funeral and don't have my usual luxury of 3G on the go. Sigh, roaming charges are just way too expensive. Need to get my phone unlocked so I can use a malaysian sim card the next time I go back. So I shall try to catch up as quickly as possible to this Project 365 with a bit of cheating. Don't really have pictures of most days but I'll try to dig.

This is a pic of the sky somewhere between london and KL. The flight back was empty considering the price I paid for the ticket. Joanne told me (she took singapore airlines A380 the following day) that her flight was empty as well. Considering the size and capacity of the 380, each passenger might as well have a bed each to lie on. Air asia X effect maybe?




Best regards,
Jing Qi Quah

Project 365: Day 24 Airport and bad trading day

Market rallied in the morning which meant I made a small fortune and went into profit for the first part of the day. I then made the worst decision yet trading, buying goldman shares. Estimated loss at end of day is 170 which is a lot. Problem is I don't even know why the shares tumbled so quickly, on a day AIG gained 80%, gosh. Oh well yet another lesson learnt. In hindsight, I think it has something to do with AIG's statement which contradicts goldman's earlier comment about no exposure to AIG. Sigh, should've figured it out sooner.

Anyway, I'm in the airport right now waiting to board the flight back to malaysia. Here's a shot of the duty-free shops in heathrow terminal 3.


Best regards,
Jing Qi Quah

Project 365: Day 23 Snow snow snow patrol and bad news

Got my haircut today and that sparked the first bad news of the day. For some reason the hair salon I go to usually in chinatown isn't making (enough?) money so the business owner is selling the business back to the shop owner but will remain as manager. They will increase the price from £15 to £19 starting april. Now I don't know about you but that's a whopping 35% increase in my books and I guess I'll have to look for new places now. Shame, I quite like that place.

Then I went for lunch with deno, raymond and jonathan at royal china on baker street. We were patiently waiting for more than 40 minutes when I got a phone call from Jo. Then came the worst news of the day, or even the year. Uncle kuat who is battling with cancer for some months now passed away sunday night in penang. I'm not too devastated since news so far have been bleak, but I was planning to go back hopefully in april to see him. Time is cruel. Making some last minute plans to go back now.

At night, we went to snow patrol's concert in o2. The show was much much better than I expected but most of the time I'm thinking more about my plan to fly back tomorrow. And I got my ticket right after the show. Will be flying back tomorrow night and coming back here the following monday arriving on tuesday. So hopefully will be able to come in for Metro's full year results and conference call.

This is a sad day.


p.s. might not be updating blog too often while I'm back in malaysia but will try.


Best regards,
Jing Qi Quah

Project 365: Day 22 Karaoke rulez

After the fun night at madame jojo's last night, the day started on a slower note. Cleaner came over to do up the house and yours dearly bought sashimi from atari-ya for lunch. Readying ourselves for the karaoke session at night, we just chilled out, made a tiramisu cake and watched American Idol at home. It's gonna be a tight battle between Danny and Adam this year me thinks. Deno and ying ling were down to London today as well. Ahh how I love to have crowds here, makes the house feel livelier.

Anyway, it's sin yi's bday karaoke session tonight and we went all out for the best part of the 4 hours at china city. I feel a sore throat coming tomorrow. Note to self, singing and "kam heong" is not a good combination, especially when you end up with chilli stuck in your throat. Scary? Ou yea. Well we had a fun night out again nonetheless. Bring on snow patrol tomorrow woooshhhh.

p.s. Pics are a bit dark, that's the bad thing about camera phones.


Best regards,
Jing Qi Quah

Project 365: Day 21 Fourth up day for Wall Street and Madame Jojo's

Spent the entire day in front of the screen monitoring market movements on a highly significant day for market sentiments. A fourth up day for the market means quite a bit to the psychology of investors everywhere. It gets people thinking whether we have reached the bottom or not, this is the first bear market rally for the year and true enough "bottoming" is the oft used word on bloomberg tv the whole day.



If you ask me, I'd still say the market's not bottomed out yet. It will bottom out once retailers start seeing less promotions needed to draw in customers I think. This is what we call consumer-led recovery from the recession. People keep saying that banks will lead the economy out of recession, at least from a stock market point of view. This is right from a sentiment perspective but wrong from a fundamental point of view.



Thinking is allowed and by any means I might be horribly wrong. Today I got myself a small fortune from the gains of next and tesco but no help from ahold yet. Gonna hold them as they still are undervalued. JPMorgan also bagged me some profits but went to the red later, same with GE and Citigroup. Key stock for me today is Microsoft, it took a battering and I love to buy on weakness. Will hold all these stocks through the weekend.



I went to madame jojo's at night for quite a fun night out with yours dearly and gabi. If you ask me about clubbing, funk and old school rock n roll is the bomb. So head over to madame jojo's in soho on friday night if you're in London and you want to get away from the usual RnB, you might just fall in love with it.





Best regards,

Jing Qi Quah

Project 365: Day 20 Day in the office

This entry is one day late again. Went into office today for 4 companies who were reporting in the morning. Carrefour, Delhaize, Morrisons and Home Retail Group. As usual Jimmy would've upgraded delhaize to buy had we have no cease coverage and were allowed to put out previews. I suspect that Carrefour should be a buy too on the back of the plans laid out yesterday by Lars. Both stocks were trading strongly from the start with delhaize up by double digits. Morrisons had a fantastic year and it remains to be seen whether they can keep the momentum up for the coming year against very tough comparables. Out of the 4, home has the least visible outlook and shares tanked as more unpleasant news were revealed during the conference call.



Well most of my bets for the day were not too bad as markets rallied for another day and I was at the right side of it. Still thinks that ahold and tesco are undervalued as they regain some of the earlier losses. But thanks to the rally in the US, which sparked a rally in the ftse, I was able to recoup most of my losses the day before. So net net I'm about £100 down instead of £200, not that bad for 3rd day trade.



Is it possible to get a pizza romana like the one from pizza express in malaysia? It's the one with the ultra flat base, absolutely yummy. Business idea? I think so.



Thought of the day: next time I had better reflect on my trading strategies day to day.

Best regards,

Jing Qi Quah

Project 365: Day 19 Why is stock picking so hard?

I've learnt that making a share price call or pick a stock is an easy thing to do.



Merely saying what number you think the index should be is also an easy thing to do.



Having the balls to press the button to commit yourself is hard.



Making a profit by betting the right direction is hard too.



Having the discipline to not touch something you committed not to touch is the hardest.



Tuition fees today: £150. Lesson still not learnt, freak......



Gain from the day: stocktwit.



Miss of the day: F**king Amazon.



Best regards,

Jing Qi Quah

Project 365: Day 18 Yet another unproductive and unprofitable day

This is another unproductive day after yesterday and I didn't even manage to go to the gym today. Spent the better part of the day configuring my reuters xtra3000 and setting up the spreadbetting account with igindex. My first trade was betting that the eurodollar will rise when it fell and fell. That was a good 35 quids tuition fees and what I learnt from it is not to touch currencies again. Better be discipline and stick to what I know, retail stocks. Thursday would be quite active with 4 companies reporting but I won't be home to see and trade on it so it's another miss opportunity. Hopefully I could get it all set up on my blackberry tomorrow so fingers crossed.

Alright, today's pic is of yours dearly eating chocolate while watching my beloved juve team lose to yet another of my fav team chelsea. Sigh...... Just my luck hahaha. Oh well will work harder tomorrow to identify more opportunities for money making hehehe. Pray for me.


Best regards,
Jing Qi Quah

Project 365: Day 17 Of stupidness of banks

What an unproductive day this has been. Got to the gym early only to find out that body conditioning class is filled with housewives (didn't join them in the end). Cycled to burn some calories but felt kinda low on energy. Did some weights but don't have the strength. Seriously something is wrong today.

I went over to my bank after gym trying to get some stamped printed statements and a reference letter to be sent to the home office. There I was, queuing up obediently before it was my turn at the counter. I put on my biggest smile and said in my politest tone, "can I have a printed statement from XXX to XXX, stamped in every page please?"

"NO we can't do that" she said. "We could print it out but we're not allowed to stamp it." I mean dude, then where the heck should I go to get a stamp for those statements? The market?

Ok so maybe it might still be alright if it wasn't stamped as long as there was the bank's logo on it. I then asked her if I could get a reference letter. "NO, we don't do that," she said. Crap, now what do banks do then? Imbeciles!!! Bastards!

Feeling crappy, I went for a walk at the nearby whiteleys and finally got a chance to see the newly opened cha cha moon here. At least that made up for the rest of my day. Bad news is, the menu (and prices) are exactly the same as the one in soho. Didn't eat there today but will be back.

Stupid banks......

Best regards,
Jing Qi Quah

Project 365: Day 16 Last day in Edinburgh

Trying to make our shadows look funny, taken on top of Calton Hill. Tasted a wonderful whiskey today up alongside my already favourite Glenfiddich 21 yrs, the Aberferdy 21 yrs. Next I wanna taste is some Dewar's whiskey, should not be hard to find......

Best regards,
Jing Qi Quah