Author Archives: chuletz

Water Booster Pump for home

13 Wednesday Mar 2013

Posted by in Gadgets, Home, Renovation, Shopping

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I was listening to BFM (Business FM) this morning interviewing the Managing Director (SEA) of  hansgrophe. It was a really interesting interview as I know I was quite fixated on good toilet fixture during our renovation. LOL.

At the end of the interview, the BFM team usually does a short wrap up and one of them mentioned that all these beautiful fixture would be useless unless you have a good water pressure. I concur.

Many Malaysian’s home do not have good water pressure especially on their 2nd floor onwards. It’s really frustrating to have a shower sometimes. There was once I turn off my water pump and forgotten to turn it back. It took me ages to rinse off. At the end, I think I spend more than double the amount of time but I still don’t feel refresh after the shower. le sigh… YES – I LOVE my rain shower ! And without the water booster, it’s more like a bad leaking tap. bleh.

So, before you ran out and spend a fortune buying all these beautiful fixtures, you must first think about the water pressure in your home. If it’s bad. FIX that first. The easiest way would be to install a water booster pump to pull water out from your water tank into your shower.

Hub and I spare no thought into getting a really good and solid one from Grundfos. We prefer the Uni-E type. Grundfos Uni-E Pump

There are several model and booster power. So, you really need to check with the sales person which is suitable for you.  Personally, I think for any normal size water tank, any of these 3 model below should be sufficient to do the job. Why do I say water tank and not the size of home? In my opinion, if you have one decent size water tank, it should be use to serve at most 3-4 frequent use bathrooms. IF you have more rooms, it would be better if you have a 2nd water tank anyway.

Grundfos Uni-E Pump Performance curve

Even if you have 4 showers and 4 taps, the Uni-E 5-5 should be sufficient. You probably rarely have all the fittings (4 showers + 4 taps) all turn on anyway. So, there’s no need to go overboard getting an over-powered booster. It is going to cost you more for the electricity.

Have fun hunting for a good water booster !

Fresh Pasta with my Atlas 150

25 Monday Feb 2013

Posted by in Gastronomy, Home Cook Food, Kitchen wares, Shopping

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Lesson one – DO NOT WASH your Atlas 150 !!! sob sob… being an OCD, I can’t help myself. I washed it… sigh. AND, I found some rusty bits on the cutter wheels. But, if you do get some rust, don’t worry. This is what me and my bro did to clean it up. We made a batch of dough with cheap flour and water only into very dry and hard dough. Using that, we ran it thru the cutter a few hundred times (me – exaggerating) and thank God the dough manages to pick up all these rusty bits… So, I’ve learned my lesson. Just use a slightly damp cloth to wipe everything and leave it at that.

I whipped up a batch of dough using 300gm of flour and 3 eggs with my trusty Kenwood Kmix. It’s my first time using my dough hook. It’s fun and so easy to use. After mixing everything into a ball, I let the machine knead it for about 2-3 mins before kneading it with my hand. Let the dough rest for about 30mins and it’s ready to be churn into pasta. Yippee… Dough PreparationLet me tell you – Pasta making is NOT a job for one person! You need at least 2 people. One to row the pasta and one to cradle it as it roll out. Thank God I had 3 other people helping. One to roll, one to cradle, one to lay them out to dry and mum for helping to wash up the mess we made. Lol. Hehehe…

Flattening the dough

The Atlas rolled out the pasta perfectly. It was really easy to use. First we rolled the dough using the ‘0’ setting a few times until we get the basic shape we want. Then, we start going up the dial. We made 2 batches, one up to ‘8’ and another to ‘9’. It’s too thin for fettuccini. Sigh. I think I would prefer it thicker. The next time, I’ll stop at ‘5’ or ‘6’. Dial on pasta maker

Very important to allow your pasta to dry sufficiently before throwing into the boiling water. I don’t have a drying rack… so we had to find a innovative solution. hehehe. Don’t worry, it’s clean. I glad-wrap the whole table surface. Drying Pasta

Fresh pasta cooks really fast. So, be very careful to test your pasta from time to time until you get the bite you want.

Tada… 2 flavours for the night.

Carbonara Fettuccini

Cabonara Fetucini

And Smoke Salmon and Saute Scallop Fettuccini

Pan Fry ScallopSalmon Scallop pasta

Can’t wait to try another batch…

One Utama power outage and on FIRE?!

25 Monday Feb 2013

Posted by in Everything else...

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My family and I were at One Utama shopping center last night (24th Feb 2013) for dinner when everything went pitch black around 8pm. At first, we thought it is just a power trip at the restaurant and should be fixed quite quickly. We continue eating and the restaurant started bringing out candle lights. That was when I got a little worried. I went out of the restaurant and was shocked to see the WHOLE old wing was in darkness.

The restaurant tried to calm us and say that it should be fixed quite fast and they are liaising with One Utama management on this matter. After 20 minutes, we decided that it’s not worth hanging around anymore. We paid for whatever we have eaten and made our way to another restaurant. (Thankfully, we manage to find one which have space for 20+ of us in such short notice and on the 15th day of CNY somemore!)

When we left the car park onto the main road, hubby saw smoke coming out from the shopping center! And this morning news confirmed it. There was a fire in One Utama last night!!!

I am shocked and disappointed at the same time. MY whole family could have been roast piggies last night ! sigh… AND, we have NO warning at ALL!!!

No fire alarm !

No proper evacuation plan!

No announcement / information!

No proper emergency lighting!

How can this building get fire safety certification in the first place without all these plans / procedure in place?

We were lucky that the restaurant was next to the One World hotel and we have lights emitting from there. Inside the restaurant was pitch dark. I was reading online that many areas was plunge into total darkness. It’s so dangerous considering there’s escalators, steps, railings everywhere in a shopping center. Not to mention, family with elderly folks, children and babies.

I’m very disappointed with One Utama… considering it’s suppose to be the world 4th largest mall, I think having a good fire safety plan is MUST.

Please upgrade your fire safety plan and facilities.