Kuo Man Restaurant & Little Italy @ Kota Kinabalu, Sabah

Before we headed to Kota Kinabalu(KK) in January, my fren already obtained some info from her colleague regarding famous food around KK town. Pizza from Little Italy (located at hotel Capital) is one of the MUST Try food. According to the colleague, it serves the BEST pizza in Malaysia. @@ Another famous food is the fish paste from Kuo Man Restaurant (Kedai Restoran Kuo Man). It took us and Uncle David quite some time to search for this place.

This is the fish paste with vege & soup. We wanted to try fish slices too but was sold out. ><>

The restaurant was crowded with people, so I suppose local people do frequent that restaurant too. The fish paste is very fresh, but I'll say the taste is not as great as what other people say. But you can give it a try if u like minced fish. My fren who tried their homemade noodle said it's very tasty, too bad I was too full to puff in extra food into my mouth.

The famous homemade noodle is RM1.50. Many people go for their fish paste porridge too, but none of us try that.

The Little Italy Restaurant, a very comfortable place to dine in. The waiter will go to your table and ask for your opinion or comment, such as 'how's the pizza today?' etc.

We tried this pizza, I forgot the name. It's very crispy, cheesy and yummy. One obesed caucasian next to me actually finished one of this pizza by himself, and he told the waiter he had nothing to complain about the pizza, just too satisfying. @@ Besides pizza, we did try the spaghetti too and we couldn't stop loving it, so delicious!

43rd Annual General Meeting & Seminar: Updates in Paediatric Pharmacy 2010

Last wednesday I was being told by my boss to attend a seminar organized by malaysian pharmaceutical society (MPS) at Berjaya Times Square Hotel, KL. Initially I thought of rejecting her after knowing that it's held in the weekend, it'll waste my weekend leave... ~~ After much consideration, I accepted the offer. I could use the opportunity to meet up with my old frenz and gather some cpd points ( only have 4 point until 19 march, hahaha, poor pharmacist at pkd, lol).

The seminar was o...k, but the updates on paediatric pharmacy was quite minimal, not as much as I expected. Anyway, I'm very happy to meet up with many old frenz and coursemates, after not seeing each others for many years. ^^ One thing I'm not really happy is I didn't get my certificate, what's happening, em... MPS still owe me one certificate of poster presentation in 2008, faint.

There're a few exhibition booth with lots of goodies, I think I've 5 Roche black-colored zip bag so far, always got it during conference or seminar, don't know why they keep giving me that, haha.

Some notebook, memo pad, clips

Safety kit, can bring along during traveling, haha

Oh i like the lactacyd a lot since I'm using it now, this's the one with floral fragrance.

Some of the pen that I took

Pen with light, it'll be better if it's a pointer pen

Dinner @ Coconut Flower Seafoods Restaurant, Teluk Gong

Last saturday night we went to Teluk Gong Coconut Flower seafood restaurant to have dinner. I've heard about this place long time ago but until last weekend only I had my first dinner there. My friend told me the food there is much better than Pulau Carey, and I really have to agree with her.

Tom Yam prawn in coconut, really good!!! The tom yam taste is so yummy especially if you eat with the lala clams fried rice noodle. RM27

My favourite dish, fried squid (sotong goreng). Look at the golden brown color, very tempting huh? Very crispy, yum yum!!! RM 10

Almost forgot about our drink, coconut toddy & guinness stout. RM7 + RM7.9

Lala clams with fried rice noodle
RM10

Fried oyster, delicious! RM10

Table under the hut

The most ordinary dish- Fried vegetable. RM8

Kam Hiong Crab, slurrrrrrp. I always love crab although sometime I'm lazy to eat it. RM30

This meal cost us RM118.80 in total, including 5% government tax, tower, peanuts etc, really worthwhile!

Coconut Flower
Seafoods Restaurant
Tel: 0331341218

Sawdust Pudding- Macau Dessert

Few weeks ago, my younger sister saw a HK entertainment programme and all of a sudden she wanna try to make her own sawdust pudding. My first impression was sawdust? so funny??? Later only I realized sawdust is actually the crushed Marie biscuits, sounds yummy because I like Marie biscuits. I remember I ate one similar dessert in Macau back in year 2004, after a satisfying Portuguese meal. Since we had some leftover unfinished cocoa powder, Marie Biscuits and condensed milk at home, we only bought whipping cream and vanilla essence before we started the big project.

Everything seems alright until....... I realized I whipped the cream for too long, from light and fluffy to slight watery, the transition happened in just a few seconds!!! Nothing can be helped then, next time have to be more cautious.

Sawdust layered with the whipped cream, quite easy actually. If the cream is more fluffy and not watery, it'll look nicer and neat.

We topped it with cocoa powder, but it'll be better if we have strawberry or cherry, will look better, haha. We then stored it in the fridge and served chilled, the taste is not bad actually, a bit like cheese cake, haha.

Faster promotions for doctors, dentists and pharmacists

KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak on Tuesday announced a comprehensive career advancement plan for public doctors, dentists and pharmacists, which expedites their promotion to Grade 54 by between two and five years.

He said the initiative, which involved an additional annual expenditure of RM200mil, was aimed at improving career advancement by giving them the opportunity to move up to Grade 54 within a more reasonable time frame.

For example, a medical specialist can progress to Grade 54 in nine years compared with 11 years now, and a (clinical/ administrative) medical officer can move up in 12 years compared with 17 years now.
“Following this improvement in the career advancement plan, the Government hopes that doctors, dentists and pharmacists in the Health Ministry will continue to provide excellent service to the people,” he said in a statement.

Najib also said that the Public Service Department and the Health Ministry were working out the promotions of eligible Grade UD44 medical officers to Grade UD48, and the majority of them were expected to be enjoy the benefit before the end of this month.

Najib said the improvement was in recognition of the role and contribution of those providing healthcare to the people, and it was felt that this would enhance their commitment and determination to fulfill the desire to raise the level of service at government hospitals.

Elaborating, the prime minister said that on Dec 5, 2007, the Government agreed to promote directly to Grade UD44 all medical officers appointed from Jan 1, 2008 onwards, soon after completing their two-year housemanship and having registered with the Malaysian Medical Council.
To ensure that medical officers appointed prior to Jan 1, 2008 were unaffected by the decision, it was decided to promote these officers to Grade UD44, he said, adding that this involved promoting 9,871 medical officers in 2009.

The career advancement plan is as follows:

* Promotion to Grade 44 for dentists who have been on Grade 41 for two years, and for pharmacists after three years.

* Promotion to Grade 48 for doctors and dentists who have been on Grade 44 for three years or up to the date of gazetting as specialists, whichever is earlier; and for pharmacists who have been on Grade 44 for four years.

* Promotion to Grade 52 for (clinical/ administrative) doctors and dentists who have been on Grade 48 for four years or subject to availability of vacant positions, whichever is earlier; also for medical specialists and dental specialists who have been on Grade 48 for two years or subject to availability of vacant positions, whichever is earlier, and subject to recommendation of the Specialists Evaluation Panel of the Health Ministry, and pharmacists who have been on Grade 48 for four years or subject to availability of vacant positions, whichever is earlier.

* Promotion to Grade 54 for (clinical/ administrative) doctors and dentists who have been on Grade 52 for three years or subject to availability of vacant positions, whichever is earlier.
For medical specialists and dental specialists who have been on Grade 52 for two years or subject to availability of vacant positions, whichever is earlier, and subject to the recommendation of the Specialists Evaluation Panel.

For pharmacists who have been on Grade 52 for three years or subject to availability of vacant positions, whichever is earlier.

For medical specialists and dental specialists, the promotion from Grade 54 to Special Grade C and higher is subject to the recommendation of the ministry’s Specialists Evaluation Panel.

For medical officers (clinical/ administrative), dental officers (clinical/ administrative) and pharmacists, the promotion from Grade 54 to Special Grade C and higher is subjection to availability of vacant positions.
Najib said that based on the career advancement plan, the maximum period for doctors, dentists and pharmacists eligible to be promoted up to Grade 54 had been shortened.

The average period for promotion to Grade 54 is as follows:
* Medical officers (Specialist) -- nine years (now 11 years)
* Dental officers (Specialist) -- nine years (now 11 years)
* Medical officers (Clinical/Administrative) -- 12 years (now 17 years)
* Dental officers (Clinical/Administrative) -- 12 years (now 17 years)
* Pharmacists -- 14 years (now 17 years). -- Bernama

Source: http://thestar.com.my/



Ps: Means that I might get my promotion soon? But many seniors still at grade U41 now? Em........

Panasonic Lumix Ultra Slim FP3 Digital Camera

I've been using my current Nikon Coolpix P2 Digital Camera for 4 years, since 2006. Always think of buying a new one but I still love my Nikon DC, a good luck DC to me, haha. Today I was reading newspaper and saw an introduction of this new Panasonic Lumix FP series digital cameras, the design is very elegant with ultra slim body, really wish I've sufficient $$ to buy this new DC.


The Panasonic LUMIX FP3 has 14.1-megapixel with 3.0 inch touch screen LCD, sounds cool right? However, I do not really like the point that the lens cover also serves as the camera's power switch. I remember my friend who has olympus camera with this kind of power switch complaint of easily spoilt lens cover after she on-off it for many times, I hope the lumix FP3 doesn't have this problem.

If I were to buy one, I'll definitely go for the purple violet colour , my all time favourite colour, haha. My concern now is how much does this DC cost... Ermmmm...

Credits to:
http://www.photoxels.com/
http://blogs.panasonic.com.au/
http://www.panasonic.com.my/