li'l bytes of friday's luvly feelin'

Today's piece is for that special Friday's Child, wins at L'VE, they say, according to M&M.

Also, it's CHRISTmas in two days, so Desi hunts down some whol;esome titbits to put my EstemedReaders in a steamed mood for goodwill and luv and life. Jolly, holly. Good Golly, Miss Molly! Yeah, let's all have a ball.

For starters, where three of mGf all l've with abundance (and abandon2? in the poetsy sense...Sab knws what I mean...)dwell, comes somethin swell:
The Star: Wednesday December 21, 2005


Eat all you want at halal buffet for RM3.90 nett

PENANG: Despite the escalating cost of essential goods, one restaurant has defied the market trend and launched “The Cheapest Halal Buffet in Malaysia”.

For only RM3.90 nett, you can eat all you can from 11am to 2pm, and savour up to 26 varieties of local cuisine at Warung Sampan, along Anson Road (next to Garden Inn Hotel) here.

The restaurant has even named its range of curries after football teams – like Manchester United pajeri nenas, Arsenal sambal ayam, Liverpool prawn sambal, Chelsea masak cili api, Barcelona gulai nangka and Real Madrid rendang ayam.


CHEAP AND TASTY: Some customers trying out the food at Warung Sampan in Penang yesterday, which offers 26 varieties of local cuisine for RM3.90 nett.
The restaurant offers Nasi Kandar and Malay or Thai cuisine, with several types of curries like fish and chicken, as well as vegetable dishes.

Based on the concept of providing “kampung food”, the restaurant caters to government offices and colleges nearby, wooing up to 100-odd patrons daily.

Its managing director, Faaizul Hisham De, said the restaurant was banking on the eating habits of Penangites who always looked out for “cheap and delicious food”, adding that he started the restaurant in June.

“A lot of our customers are students, and we don't want to burn a hole in their pockets by making our food too expensive.

“We also decided to embark on this venture because there is no halal kampung-style buffet line around this area,” he said.

Faaizul Hisham said Warung Sampan was a favourite haunt for football fans as it had two projection television screens and four 49-inch TV sets featuring daily football matches on Astro.

DESI: Dear SH and Sharon, (Sab -- you are on a diet, hence excused -Thou shalt not submit to termptation...) when I visit on a return courtsey call, I'd definitely need your guidance to visit this "buffet" spread -- RM3.90? did they move a decimal point somewhere?

And from the not-too-far horizon, a Crouching Tiger and a Flying Dragon are quietly creeping up on us Malaysians and Singaporeans, and all Asean-ians, Desi found a piece of news worth our second thoughts (My 'regrets' to ori-sauce that in my rush I did not capture the source for attribution):

Tuesday, December 20, 2005

China and India

It is an interesting question - can you estimate the wealth of a country by the number of existing billionaires? I am not sure about that but I am sure that the Asian century is dawning when the number of billionaires in India and China is growing.

I actually don't care about the number, because probably, I won't be a billionaire in this lifetime. But it is interesting to see that magazine articles comment on the growth of billionaires in the two countries and take it as a measurement for which country is ahead.

In this sense, it is India. And there are as many as "27 billionaires, which is more than double (of) last year's count." And more: "Even more interesting is that the collective net worth of the 40 richest Indians outstrips that of Asian rivals China by as much as four times.

According to Forbes' data, the collective net worth of Indian billionaires stood at 106 billion dollars as against just 26 billion dollars of their Chinese counterparts."

Question is: Do you care?

DESI: I care. I know many likeminded Malaysians care.

WE care what actually is happening to the billions churned out from the nation's petroleum and other oil&gas resources?

We care if the NEP continues to churn out instant millionaires and instant billionaires.

We care if some 27-year-old bloke could borrow RM1.2billion with only his Daddy's nama and what else? And later the banks have to be "bailed out" to the billions using Our Money, Taxpayers blood, swaet and tears.

We care if 90% of Malaysia's wealth, riches and net worth -- supposedlty to be equitable distributed in a CARING SOCIETY -- go to only 10 per cent of the people -- those with political connections and blue blood heritage and maybe one more lucky bloke who getsthe main prize at Da Mai Cai...one every three weeks. (Sorry if Desi took a detour, as in abusing the blogger's privilege of DIGRESsin') from gifting thee cheery news only on a LuvLy Fridae...)

I've heard an estimate there are some 2,000 plus multi-millionaires in Koala Lumpur alone -- if the status was acqyuired by stink of hard work and creative juices, it's alright by Desi. Butt...I don't see the mooney being churned within the boundaries of dear Malaysia...NEGARA-KU. Likely in Olde England, the great United States of America, and Down Under ...oh, yeah I told Imran brother, in some neighbourhood SwissBakeryShoppe!
"God Save Us from ...
I: I
S: Say
A: ?

At the cineplex, around this time, it's always Harry Potter weaving his Magic.
LOTR has finished its triple jump, but Peter Jackson steals still the show with his Kong queen ... Li'l children and Adults who never grew up ensure these film gurus will continue to erarn their millions. Butt they earn it.... every sen in in every sense.

From Reuters

Potter More Magic Spell for Kids

LONDON: Boy wizard Harry Potter has already cast his spell on millions worldwide, but new research shows his magic has a hiterto unimagined effect. He has been shown to protect accident-prone children.
Researchers at John Ratcliffe Hospital in Oxford studied attendance records for children aged seven to 15 years at the hospital's emergency deaprtment over summer weekends between 2003 and this year.
They found that the number nearkly halved on the two weekends in June 2003 and July this year when Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince were published.
"We observed a significant fall in the numbers of attendees to the emergency department on the weekends that the two most recent Harry Potter books were released," they wrote in today's edition of the British Medical Journal.
They suggested that teams of writers could be recruited to produce similar books for the purpose of what they termed "distraction therapy" to prevent injuries.
But such therapies were not without their own risks in the age of the couch potato.
"Potential problems include an unpredictable increase in childhood obesity, rickets and loss of cardiovascular fitnesss." -- Reuters

DESI: Still working to cultivate carbohydrate and toxin free potatoes foe these couch potatoes. I've alreadyy invented the uncomrtable counch to deter their positions, but most parents and children then adjourn to yogasmic positions -- Imagine, watching TV with thy head inverted and the legs pointing at the ceiling. Even the Beatles could not master that technique after spending millions at that ashram in India.
Butt one Maharishi guru had become a multi-millionaire catering too these orgasmic seekers -- long train of Benz, Ferari, Kleensman, R&R (not Rock&Roll-lah, jest Rest&REcreation!) and, ah, Proton PegiSiniSana.

And lustily, some mGf like newly acquited JP our friendly neighbourly always asking for more, and cheaper, water:
here's the hint about the Counting of the Toes affair at Desi's Place-

Monday, December 19, 2005
Missing the trees for the toes! in England

LONDON (Reuters) - An outbreak of opportunistic mistletoe rustling is threatening a Christmas kissing crisis, British environmental experts said Wednesday.

The Wildlife Trusts said over-harvesting of the plant that only grows in the wild and is mainly found on old apple trees meant it was becoming increasingly rare.

'Mistletoe is being taken in increasingly large quantities from orchards, hedgerows and ancient trees to be sold at markets to Christmas shoppers,' said The Wildlife Trusts -- a partnership of 47 British wildlife organizations.

'There are cases of mistletoe rustling, and once the whole plant has been removed from its host tree it won't grow back.'

The parasitic green plant with white berries has been associated with fertility since the time of the ancient Druids and kissing under the mistletoe has long been a Christmas party tradition."


DESIDERATA: Can some good Samaritan -- or Santarina -- send o'er some mistle trees to Desi's Place? The lust time I looked, I steal have my toes, counted 'em 1 to 10.