The Northam All Suite Penang, Georgetown, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia

I stayed for 3 days 2 nights and so far it has been a pleasant and relaxing stay. I stayed in a junior suite at level 32, overlooking the sea. The room is a bit dim (not to my mum's liking), but it was spacious. The bathroom was spacious, with separate toilet and shower room. It also comes with two basins, so both me and my mum can wash our face and brush our teeth at the same time. And the jacuzzi was really wonderful. The pressure is just nice, however it seems to take forever for the tub to fill up. The suite comes with 2 toilets, one next to the entrance and the other in the main bathroom, so I needn't have to wait for my turn to use the toilet. The couch is not really comfy but we rarely sat on it. 
The controller for the air-cons and lightings are not really in good condition. Some of the buttons are faulty, hence if I want to switch on or off the lights, I've to go to the lamp itself to switch it off.
The front desk staffs are friendly and helpful, so does the housekeepers, who are attentive and efficient. The only downside is there's no elevator from the parking to the lobby. Me and my family have to carry our luggage down a flight of stairs to the lobby, which is so inconvenient especially when they are elderly. 
Gurney Drive is about 10 mins drive from the hotel and I consider the location is quite OK, but preferably if you drive on your own, instead of relying on public transport. 
I don't mind coming back here to stay but it will be lovely if the management could revamp the hotel a bit as I felt the place is pretty old and dull.

Seongsan Ilchulbong, Seogwipo, Jeju-do, South Korea

It was a surprise when I was here. I was not told that this is part of the itinerary, hence I was not properly dressed. I was wearing a long sleeve blouse and a pair of long jeans, but with a good walking shoes (Thank God!). Totally and absolutely a disaster. 
Although, the weather was a nice, warm yet windy weather when I was there, I'm soaked in sweat when I reached the peak and when I reached the foot of the base. The climb was easy and safe, really a good exercise. I saluted a few elderly people who have successfully climbed all the way to the peak. They really have the stamina. The stairs are wide enough for 3 people to walk to and fro so there's no issue if one of them stopped for a break. 
Along the way up, there're small gazebos with benches for people to rest and catch their breath. Whoever climbs up are always drenched with sweat, but when reached to the peak, the view was really breathtaking. It was worth the climb. 

Peak Physique

As time goes by, with new management ruling the centre, it seems the centre's performance has deteriorate immensely. Poor management conduct, poor schedule arrangement, poor PR skills and poor maintenance efforts.
Firstly, the new manager pressured the instructors that if they unable to meet the targeted head-count quota, their service will be terminated. How absurd and appalling. Even when the quota was met, one of the instructors still been terminated. What irony.
Secondly, there use to be 3 studios on the 8th floor. But due to expansion of one of the studio, the yoga studio was moved to the 7th floor. Hence, the yoga participants have to get dressed at the changing room in 8th Floor and adjourned to the 7th floor for their yoga class. Weird arrangement.
Thirdly, the Spinning Class Studio still maintain the size even though there's a big increase of members. Pity those members who has to come quickly and reserve their bikes before they rushed to changing room to change their clothes. Oh, and it's compulsory to register first before you can enter the class. So, literally, it's a first come first serve basis. I feel sorry for them.
Fourthly - OK, I'm speaking about female changing room, since I am a female. I don't know about male changing room - The day lockers it's poorly maintained. Some malfunctioned for God-knows-how-long and some are locked and unusable. The annoying part is when you already placed the things inside the locker then you realize that the locker cannot lock. And it's useless to tell the customer service rep because all they can answer is "I don't know", "we will investigate", "we let management know", and other hopeless excuses. Lastly, the person-in-charge of the class schedule really ineffective at arranging classes. We are happy with the timings of the schedule and the person-in-charge nicely and happily change the timings here and there without considering the members' interest. And when there're complaints posted on their FB wall, then they can turn around and said "Sorry, there's some technical error". I was like, WTF? Don't you guys read properly, see properly, do properly and check properly before posting or saying things on FB? Or even on Twitter? Or face-to-face with the members? This is indeed prove how ineffective and inefficient the management and the administration people are in Peak Physique.
I have joined many fitness centres in the past, however, I have never come across such poor administration and management that sometimes I wonder if they ever take any tertiary education. Perhaps they ought to go for self-improvement or professional training programs to improve their knowledge as well as soft skills before they try to improve the so-called high standards that they claim to have of Peak Physique.

Should I recommend you guys to join this centre? Well, enter at your own risk. I have another 7 more months to go. Whether I will be continuously been 'tortured mentally' by them till the end of my tenure or God bring some miracles and ease the 'pain' I'm going through. Overall, I'm still hanging on to this centre its because I really love the Zumba and KPop class, which I diligently and ardently attend. Therefore, I hereby leave my fate in God's hand.

Location: Kompleks SOGO, Level 8, 190 Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman, 50100 Kuala Lumpur
Business Hour: Monday-Friday 6:30AM - 11:00PM / Weekends & Public Holidays 9:30AM - 7:30PM
Website: http://peakphysique.com.my/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/peakphysique.fitness.KLSOGO?ref=profile

Kuche Roadshow at e@Curve

I have received an email from Maybank, followed by a postcard which invites me to increase my Maybankard credit limit and by doing so, I am entitle for a complimentary Kuche double-tiered stainless steel lunch box. I actually planned to increase my credit limit so that I can buy some electrical gadgets on installment basis during the annual Maybank Treats Fair 2014 which will be held on 19-22 June 2014 at Mid Valley Megamall. I bought a couple of electrical gadgets and last year during the fair and next month will be my last installment.
The roadshow was suppose to start at 10:30am, but when I got there at 10:35am, the place is still close. So I just walked around e@Curve (the last I came here, if I'm not mistaken was about 4 years ago where me and my bestie watched a movie at Cathay Cinema before she fly off to UK for her degree). At 10:50am, the place still not 'awaken' yet, but I already saw a couple of Maybank staffs (based on the T-shirt they're wearing) so I approached and showed my postcard. Surprisingly, the staffs were not aware of the promotion and were asking one another about the promotion. I was a bit taken aback but in the end, another staff came over and confirmed there's such promotion and assisted me by providing me the application forms and helped me to print out my EPF statement. Once done, the staff passed the postcard to a lady who works for Kuche and she then gave one of the Kuche double-tiered stainless steel lunch box. There actually have 4 colors (as shown on the box), but only pink color is available. So I just take it.
And my nightmare began.
I am not sure if the staffs there are so free or they're real chatterbox. As the lady was completing a form with my details, a guy came over and start chatting up. Then 15 mins later, he left and another guy came over and chatted non-stop, same goes with the lady. Then 15 mins later he left, I almost wanted to sigh a relief, but before I can do that, the lady wanted to introduce me to an Air Fryer by Kuche and wants to get some feedback. So graciously helped her (even without a single intention of buying the products because I never consider of buying any products that I hadn't heard before) and see what is this air fryer all about and 10 mins later return to the table and gave her my feedback and when she asked me if I have any comments about her performance, I was very close to say that she babbles a lot, but I just bite my tongue and said good service. Full stop. And that is an absolute wrong answer. Because she continues to babble on about Kuche and then the same colleague/friend came and introduce and pushed me to sign up for watsUp card. This time, I am really annoyed. I don't need any shitty card or shitty bullshits that those staffs wanna throw at my face, I just wanna get out. This marketing/selling scheme pisses me off. They don't seem to need to catch a breath but I desperately need to get out to save my ears. I don't care how good Sabah is and I don't see myself travelling there anytime soon especially with all the kidnapping and shooting cases there. And I don't care what this card will benefit me (this card is use for shopping and collect points and use it to redeem stuffs, similar like Bonuslink or AEON card, but this card was introduced and widely used in East Malaysia and recently just started out in Kuala Lumpur. And I am not gonna travel all the way to Sabah and Sarawak just to use this card). And in order to activate the card, the lady has to call the 'Boss' and when he wanted to speak to me and ask me if the staff explain what is watsUp card and if I know the benefit and how's the staff's performance (I seriously wanted to tell him she's a real chatterbox). After I passed the phone back to her, the 'Boss' offered that if I signed up I can buy Kuche products at 30%. Looking at her fake expression, my instinct tells me she's acting. And the guy sitting next to her also acted shocked and both of them pushed me to buy Kuche products that cost RM500 and above and encourage me to buy the air fryer that cost RM1,188 (or something like that). Fucking hell, do I look like I'm a money producer? This time, I sternly told them that I am running late for an appointment and told them that I'm not interested to buy the products no matter how superior the product is or how 'cheap' after the discount (gee, how shallow can they be?) Because of those chatterbox, I am late for my appointment.
Sometimes, a person cannot be too kind and helpful. I need to learn that, but I always tend to make the same mistake over again.
I can't believe in a span of 2 days, my mood is badly affected by 3 different people at 2 different location.

Alteration Service at Excella, Mid Valley

I was suppose to send my clothes for shortening at Za Altera, which I normally go to for alterations. But sadly, the branch at Mid Valley, which I usually go to was closed for renovation. I was quite disappointed, then I recalled there's another alteration service at Zone C, near AEON (formerly known as Jusco). I was quite skeptical whether to go or not because I have a couple of my friends who went to Excella (Pavilion and Mid Valley outlet respectively) were upset with the service as simple alterations like shortening or tightening could still be done badly. After some consideration, I decided to give it a shot, hoping and praying that I'm lucky enough to have my clothes altered nicely as it's just a simple alteration of shortening the hemline of my cardigan and 2 maxi dresses.
One thing I noted about the service is, the seamstress just pinned the hemline and did not measure it to ensure the accuracy of the length measurement and did not state the measurement figures on the bill, as what ZA Altera did. The assistant at ZA Altera will pinned the part that needs to be altered, then measure it to ensure that's the length the customer want and after removal of the clothes, the clothes were placed on the table and measure again to get second confirmation from the customer before writing the measurement down on the bill. That is the correct way to do it, unfortunately it was not practiced in Excella (well, different companies have different method of handling the work).
A week later (that is today), I went to collect my clothes as I was promised it'll be done by today. I went to try on my clothes just to make sure. I tried my cardigan and one of my maxi dresses and I'm satisfied with the workmanship. But as I tried on my second dress, I was upset to see that my dress is sewn badly. That dress is meant to be asymmetrical, whereby the back has a short train, which is a little too long for me as it is sweeping the floor. So I wanted the back hemline to be trimmed to about an inch or two. But instead of trimming, the seamstress shorten the dress to the same length as my front and it was sewn slanting to my right, which means the right hemline is longer than my left. The seamstress that attended to me earlier has not report to work yet as she's on noon shift. So her colleague who's at attending to me at that moment apologize and told me to wait for that seamstress to come in and sought explanation from her as it was her who sewn my dress. So I have to wait for another hour for her arrival and I already not in the mood to do anything else as I was upset about the outcome.
An hour later, I returned and she apologized for sewing badly and denied that she has shorten the back too much and claimed that if I removed my shoes (I was wearing my flat ballet pumps) it will be just nice. She argued that she did no wrong and she will only rectify the slanting hemline and straighten it to be the same length. I was upset and in a foul mood. I just kept quiet as there's no point arguing with her as she will continue to stand her point and to prove she is right and I am wrong. And both her colleague and herself got the cheek to tell me not to be angry. I mean, WHAT THE FUCK? Who's dress is she ruining? Hers or mine?! If this happens to her, will she be smiling and laughing?! Even if she's gonna refund me RM10, I fucking pay RM25 for this shitty service. I thanked God for granting me patience, otherwise I would have tore the place down. She told me to come back in half-hour time to collect my dress. I just left the place in a huff as I just couldn't stand to look at their faces. I have to pay additional RM1 for the parking and she fucking tell me not to be angry for ruining my dress.
Half-hour later, I went to collect my dress. I did try it on, and was disappointed that now my bottom hemline has hole marks on it, as the seamstress have to unpick the whole thread and re-sew it again properly and my dress is no longer asymmetrical. And both the staffs still tell me not to be angry and smile... I was like, WHAT THE FUCK is there for me to smile??!!
Seriously, I have learnt my lesson. Whatever my family, friends, colleagues or mutual acquaintances advise or said, I MUST HEED THEIR ADVICE. My first experience with Excella is my worst experience and definitely my last time stepping into that shop. No, I should say, I will boycott all Excella outlet.

New Year Resolution

It's the New Year again, and I'm gonna roll out my New Year resolution list. So far, I managed to achieve some things in 2013. Kudos to myself :P
Once again, for this New Year, I'm determine to fulfil my resolution. The following are my resolution list for both 2013 and 2014

2013 Resolution List:

1. Drop 1 clothes size, i.e. from L to M     I manage to drop to size M. Yayyy!!!
2. Buy an iPad Mini                                  Finally, I got my hands onto the fast-selling iPad Mini
3. Buy a new cell phone                            Got a new Samsung Galaxy S4 during Maybank Treats Fair
4. Own a car                                             Finally, owned my very own Proton Preve
5. Get a pay raise                                      Failed. Was laid off work due to an injury on my right hand :(
6. Holiday in Taiwan                                  Failed. Was laid off and I've spent all on my recovery
7. Find a partner                                        Still failed. No luck again :(
8. Learn to Cook                                       Learned to cook some western dishes and simple desserts :)

2014 Resolution List:

1. Drop 1 clothes size, i.e. from size M to S
2. Find and secure a new job
3. Go for an overall medical checkup
4. Donate to charity
5. Save money to repay debts
6. Find a partner
7. Holiday in Taiwan
8. Complete my studies with flying colours

So far, these are my wish list that I can think and sincerely hope I can fulfil it. The rest may sound pretty easy, but there are two of them (I'm sure you can figure that one out) can be tough, but I hope I'm able to persevere and strike it out. Looking forward for 2014. To those who have a resolution list, all the best and I hope you are able to fulfil them. God blessed!

Happy New Year!!!

Another year has passed and a new year has come. Time to slither out of the Year of the Snake and start galloping into the Year of the Horse.
Here's wishing all of you a blessed 2014. May the year brings you new hope, new challenges and new dreams as well as may you be blessed with good health, abundance wealth, sweet successes, peace, happiness and lots of love throughout the year 2014. Cheers!!!