I'm dead serious about cycling again and you know what, my beloved 'GT Pantera' is up in 'Kuala Lumpur' in one piece!!! I managed to transport it up last weekend and now I'm in the process of cleaning it up... The first thing I did was to give her a new pair of shoes... The one she had were in terrible state!!! The rubber  had hardened and cracked can be found on it's sidewall...

The picture above is the original tyre that came with the bike when I bought it around 16 years ago!!! It was from 'WTB' a renowned company that produces awesome products for everything mountain biking... The name of the tyre is 'VelociRaptor'... The tyres had served me well all those years... It was a remarkable tyres... It just grip to whatever surface thrown at it... Sand, mud, clay, tar and etc without failing... The thread of the tyre is very unique because it is a front and rear specific tyre... Besides that, the thread is really chunky and the wear rate is really good... After all those years of cycling, the depth of the thread is almost the same as new!!! The only downside of this tyre is rolling resistance... When cycling on tar or road, you need to use up twice as much power to get it into speed!!! Really tiring if you ask me... But once you hit the dirt, it just transform into something else... Since there is a lot of rolling resistance, you can expect that this is not a quiet tyre... It is super duper noisy!!!

This is the new tyre that I've changed to... It's call 'Small Block Eight' from 'Kenda'... The thread pattern is not as aggressive compare to the 'VelociRaptor' but it more than make up for the lack of rolling resistance... This time round, I'm looking for a more road friendly tyre and this is what the shop recommended... After trying it out, I'm really happy with my purchase... The tyre is really quiet and not forgetting smooth and it makes my bike so much faster... Again thanks to the lack of rolling resistance!!! I'm not sure about the performance when it hits the dirt though but currently I'm more than happy about it...

Next stop will be changing all the cables and fine tuning the gearing system!!!

There was constant craving for sushi recently and finally I managed to cure the itch by going to 'Sushi Zanmai'... I've been there for a few times but if I'm not mistaken, I've never posted one before... If you ask me, I like 'Sushi Zanmai' more than the others budget sushi restaurant... It just taste better in my opinion... Judging by the queue, I'm very sure there are a lot of people agree to what I've just said!!!

RM0.20 for one of these wet tissue which I find it acceptable... You won't be charge if you're not using it...

Green tea... RM1.00 for either hot or cold... The good news was the green tea's refillable!!!

My favourite!!! 'Unadon'... Actually I only like the 'unagi'!!! Obviously, these pictures were taken before I started my strict no rice policy!!! RM16.80 for this... 

'Kaki Kimchi Naba'... It was basically a mini shabu-shabu with lots of vegetables in it... This set came with 5 raw oysters and it cost RM16.80 as well... Quite value for money if you ask me...

Raw oysters!!!

'Soft Shell Crab Maki'... Also one of my favourite... As both of us don't fancy raw food, so 'sashimi' is a BIG no-no in our menu... 

 This cost RM7.80...

'Tamago' which coincidentally also one of my favourite sushi!!! RM1.80 which was only a tad more expensive from those selling in 'Pasar Malam'!!!

 'Kappa Maki'... RM1.80 also...

 'Futomaki' which was selling at, you guess it... RM1.80 also...

'Chawanmushi' one of my darling's favourite... RM4.80 for this...

Overall we were really satisfied as 'Sushi Zanmai' managed to cure our cravings and the offering were nice and definitely value for money...


Overall Rating - 3.8/5

Sushi Zanmai
SK 9A, 2nd Floor, High Street,
1 Utama Shopping Centre.
03-7724 2030

I've started mountain biking during my teens and this is always one of my favourite hobby... After living in 'Kuala Lumpur' for so many years, my once favourite hobby became a really faint memory of mine... The reason I stopped biking was because of companion or rather the lack of it... Besides that, it is quite hard to find a decent place to ride unless you drive your bicycle there... Unlike those days where we can just cycled from our house and met up with my gang somewhere convenient for all of us... This is something hard to achieve in 'Kuala Lumpur' mainly because of the traffic and all the stupid one way road with divider in between... 

But recently, I really have the urge to start biking again after so many years... One of the main reason is to keep fit and hopefully manage to lose some weight while doing it (I'm really getting fatter and fatter nowadays!!! In fact, I stop consuming rice two weeks and I'm dead serious to lose weight this time!!!)... Thinking of resurrecting my old but trusty 'GT Pantera'... I got the bike since I'm in Form 4 if I'm not mistaken so you have some idea how old my bike is!!!

There are a lot of changes in the world of mountain biking and the biggest I've seen so far is the braking system... Everyone gone disc nowadays... Even entry level bike came equip with disc brake system... Another trend that I notice is the bikes are so much more flashy compare to last time... Lots of anodised aluminium with different colours for your own customization... In terms of frame design, there is not much changes I guess... 

Back to my bike!!! I'm thinking of pimping it up a bit and see how it perform... I believe lots of parts are not in working condition... Last checked I noticed that the tyres were bad and I definitely need a new set... The derailleurs were still in good condition though but definitely can't compete with system nowadays... My bike is still equip with an old school 8 speed system whereas 9 speed system is the norm and there is even 10 speed system now!!! I'm not afraid of all these as these are upgradeable... My only concern is the frame... Don't feel like changing to a new bike because I have very strong sentimental value for this bike... Will see how it goes when I transport it up to 'Kuala Lumpur'... Till then...

I've always wanted to try how good a 'PIAA' silicone wiper is... The main reason I hold my purchase till now is rather simple... If you compare 'PIAA' silicone wiper to other makes of silicone wiper, you will notice the huge price difference and this is the only thing that hold me back from buying it... 

Most cars uses two wiper but my 'FrankenBenz' only uses one!!! So basically my 'FrankenBenz' is the perfect platform for me to try out expensive wiper because I only need to buy one instead of a pair!!! I know I'm cheap and you can call me a cheapo!!! 

This is the wiper that I'm looking for but unfortunately, I couldn't get my hands on one... The design looks really nice and sleek... I got no choice but to buy those conventional looking one instead... But overall I'm really happy with the performance of the wiper... Much better compare to my previous 'Bosch' wiper... Now my windscreen always look squeaky clean and no more irritating sound emitting from the wiper!!! 

A word of caution for 'W124' users... The longest wiper you can get is a 22" and not a 24"... Looking from the chart, our 'W124' suppose to use a 24" but it is way too long for our car... A 22" fit just nice... 

Since it was a weekend yesterday, we decided to cook for dinner... Is been a long time since we cooked a proper meal at home due to work and laziness!!! I must confess, I love to cook but I hate cleaning up later... That's the part that puts me off from cooking... 

Yesterday was the second time I tried grilling steak... The way I marinated the beef was totally different this time round... No more barbecue sauce!!! I marinated the steak using dark and light soya sauce, pepper and salt... This is a recipe I learnt watching some cooking show!!! Taste wise, it tasted a bit bland as my darling complaints about the amount of salt I put last time... So I was really careful this time but I guessed I was being way too careful!!! Besides that, I overcooked the steak... It was a tad too hard for my liking... The steak was around 80% cooked!!! But frankly speaking, I really liked the way the steak looked... The colour was really nice in my opinion...

We don't have a lot of ingredients so we make do with all the available stuff we have to our disposal... Saute some cucumber, mushroom and deep fried hash brown for side and a bowl of wild mushroom soup to compliment it...

My darling and her brother decided to have chicken instead of beef... So their chicken were marinated the same way that I like... Rosemary, pepper and salt... Also way too bland this time and I believe I overcooked it as well... Will try harder next time and not forgetting getting a timer as well!!!