Mossies, I just hate em

Are you allergic or sensitive to mosquito bites? I suppose most of us are; I for one gets all itchy when I see a mossie – before it actually bites me.

So what do we do? Despite all the screening we install on windows and doors, these pesky critters seem to have the skills to penetrate almost anything. Short of armor-cladding our bodies in thick denim from top to toe, the only other alternative is to use repellents. A common type of repellent in the market is the plug in type. A small bottle of clear fluid is mated to a modular heater; the whole assembly is then plugged into a wall outlet – the heater draws the fluid up through a black wick and evaporates it. It is the evaporation and dispersion into the air of the active compound containing allethrin thats kills mossies. It certainly seems to work well, the fluid seemingly deadly to the bugs. Wonder if there is any long term harm to us humans. Avoid dengue and malaria; then come down with side effects of the chemical in the repellent. Oh well, you can't win them all.

One thing I noticed is that the repellent gets used up very fast. Whether listed as 60 or 90 day duration, it just doesn't last as long as touted – even when used less than 10 hours per night. You might use a timer to limit its action to say, 6 hours a night. However, the heater seems to pour out prodigious amounts of repellent via the black wick, probably more than necessary. I was mulling about this and finally hit upon an idea to slow it down. You need to work on the black wick that appears to be a wooden material. Just cut off the topmost 5mm of the wick – score along its circumference with a sharp blade cutter and snap it off cleanly. The logic of this is to reduce the heated part of the wick, the topmost part of the wick now reaches only half into the heater. Less heated portion of wick, less repellent is drawn up and evaporated.

Hey, waddaya know? It really works, the bottle of repellent seems to last longer now. The level of repellent remaining doesn't go down as fast as before. The device still keeps the mossies at bay. When I get to the next new bottle, I will be able to accurately gauge how much longer it lasts with this modification. Saves a little money and reduces the repellent residue we absorb – all for less than a minute's work.

Service with a smile or a scowl?

I recently bought cooked food items at a local hypermarket. The food concerned was quite tasty and reasonably priced.

As with a lot of good concepts, sometimes the potential is very much reduced by the attitudes of the staff who face the customers. I am referring to the staff who manned this food counter, especially the older Malay lady who cooked the food. Her attitude left much to be desired, in fact it bordered on the outright rude. On the first occasion when I enquired if the food were ready at around 11.30am, she brusquely replied 'lepas pukul dua belas!' - (after 12.00 pm!). Okay, so I was early – it wasn't my fault to ask. On the second occasion, I asked her if a particular dish was chicken or fish, she practically shouted “ikan!” (fish!) at me. I had to ask her as the dish was non-descript – I couldn't tell if it was chicken or fish. Was it too much to ask such a question? Was it her attitude that those who purchase such affordably priced food had no right or dignity to enquire?

I have always felt that if a person wasn't happy with the job or felt the work was beneath her, she could always quit and apply her talents elsewhere. I am sure she is not there by force. There are probably lots of people who would gladly fill her shoes and smile in the process too. So I wrote up a complaint note and prepared to email it off to the management of the hypermarket concerned. As fate would have it, my complaint couldn't get through their server – was it possible they purposely set it up to reject complaints? No complaints coming through means that everything was hunky-dory, right?

Anyway, I went there a third time, determined that it would be the last and final time I would go to that counter – the abuse wasn't worth it after all. Surprise, surprise – the same woman was at the counter, instead of glowering at me, she was actually smiling and struck up some small talk with me. I am sure she didn't get a talking to by her management as my complaint didn't get through their computer server. I came away feeling non-plussed with this about turn of attitude, even more confused about the moods of people in this world. At the same time too, I was glad my complaint didn't get through – God only knows how many dependents she has to support from this job. It wouldn't bear well with my conscience if she got sacked because of my complaint. Oh well, live and let live.

X-rated food???

How can food be x-rated? Do they resemble various parts of the human anatomy?

Ah, I've likened them to be x-rated due to abuses inflicted unto the hapless victims by their human captors. Two of these include the stingray (ikan pari) and the ubiquitious squid or sotong. There are probably more along the line.

An acquaintance of mine was a crew member of a fishing trawler during his teenage days. He swore that he saw his fellow crew members sexually abuse the ikan pari (female only) that they landed. From that day onward, he stopped eating ikan pari – whether as ikan bakar or in asam curry; no matter how delicious they looked.

Another friend of mine said she will not eat sotong or squid outside her own home. She will only buy sotong with their heads intact – ie. attached firmly to the thorax and cook them at home. This is because she heard some horror stories about fishermen tearing off the heads of suitably sized squid, extricate the innards and then performing unmentionable acts on the thorax pod. The said abused squids were then thrown back into the pile to be sold to wholesalers.

Ugghh! What vile acts of debauchery! It is bad enough abusing the poor creatures under the guise of catching them for food; what more passing them to unknowing buyers down the road after the disgusting perversions were done.

Buy local II

This is an expansion on the preceding post about shunning local products. I wrote this on Campbell Malaysia's online feedback form.:

I recently bought a can of Campbell's Tomato soup, proudly made in Malaysia by Campbell Cheong Chan's factory. It turned out to be a real let-down.

I have been consuming Campbell's condensed soups since childhood. In the good old days, they were all imported. And they were all of good quality, especially the chunky varieties.

When Campbell announced a few years ago that it was acquiring the Malaysian plant of Cheong Chan with the aim of making the canned soups locally. I told my friends - “I think we had better switch to Heinz soups or learn how to make our own blended soups.
I bet the quality sure suffers as is the case with all locally produced foodstuffs.'

Sure enough, I was right. The above can of Tomato soup is testimony of my assertion that locally made products are just not up to the mark. Where the Campbell Tomato soup I was used to was a creamy tomatoey colour and consistency, the locally made one looked like thin tomato ketchup in color and consistency. Please don't try to give me any ballyhoo about catering to local tastes, etc. Eating tomato soup is an acquired taste for Malaysians, nothing local about it - nice try though. The can of soup when made according to directions tasted just like what we can make from a bottle of tomato ketchup, and more cheaply at that.

I'll bet ol' Joe Campbell would turn in bis grave if he knew what you chaps are doing to his brand of soups.

Believe me, I am not ever buying any Campbell canned soups again. The quality and high costs make it an insult to my intelligence. Even my own version of Tomato soup made from fresh tomatoes tasted much better than your canned soup. I hate to be insulted and made to pay for shoddy quality. Campbell soup? Never again.


AND, THIS WAS THEIR REPLY :


Dear J.

Re: Feedback on Campbell's Tomato Soup

Thank you for your feedback regarding Campbell's Tomato Soup. We are sorry that you didn't enjoy our soup as much as you have hoped.

We work hard to make sure we meet our consumer expectations and provide them with the quality and taste they have come to expect of our products. For example, we continuously talk to consumers to seek their feedback on our existing product range, for opportunities to further improve our products and gather concepts for new ideas,. Hence, whilst we are disappointed that you dislike this product we very much appreciate your feedback.

Thank you again for taking the time to get in touch with us. Campbell's Soups values consumer feedback that enable us to continually grow.

Regards,
Campbell's Soup Customer Service



- There you have it.


Alright, where's the recipe book for those good old blended soups?

Buy local, be patriotic, blah, blah

Buy locally made products? Not likely!

It is all very well to exhort one and all to buy locally made products – ostensibly to save foreign exchange and support the local manufacturers. That may well be true but where does this leave the individual consumer?

Let me say this – he is left holding the short end of the stick; as usual. In short, he's being
conned again.

No need to look far and wide. A few examples are housing where we pay through our noses for mediocre quality houses that are grossly overpriced vis-a vis earnings capacity & potential. The national cars are overpriced which brings a cascading effect of inflating prices of foreign cars to a level where we pay some o9f the highest prices for cars in the world.

Well, we buy a house and a car once in a while but we need to eat everyday, don't we? Food, yes glorious food in all its forms. Local fare is blessed with a plethora of flavours and styles, enough to please all but the most fastidious of palates. It is the manufactured and packaged food that I am driving at here, be it biscuits, confectionery like chocs, noodles, etc.

Some of the sins of local manufacturers are :

1.Concocting names that are nothing but a jack-off of an imported brand. Imitation is not the best form of flattery here, it jusy shows that you are devoid of ideas amd inspiration.

2.Packaging and get-ups that brainlessly and shamelessly simulate that of established brands. I have always felt that the worst offence in this direction is the veritable ketchup and chilli sauce bottle. The guy who originally designed the narrow necked bottle is a heckuva dumbass – it is so difficult to pour from it. How do you expect people to consume more if they can't pour fast enough? A wide necked bottle should be used instead. Case of the blind leading the blind. Haven't they heard of Aji-no-moto's success in ramping up sales simply by making bigger holes in the bottle stopper that allowed more flavor enhancer to be dispensed each time?

3.Weights and volumes are so inconspicious as to be virtually invisible. The print is in such small size and non-contrasting colors that you need a magnifying glass to decipher it. The reason is make a would-be buyer unable to compare weight/volume against prices. Isn't it devious and despicable all at the same time? It is a phenomenon affecting local products only, look around you. Imported products have their weight and grammage conspicously located on the package, not hidden in some little nook as in the local item. The packaging of local stuff will most often than not be flamboyant and wasteful. It is only when you weigh it in your hand that you realise that you are being taken for a ride. Shortchanged, that's what it is. Quick, put it down and look for something else.

4.Quality and pricing that are not commensurate when compared to imported products. Imported products are not really that expensive considering their better quality, such examples as chocolates and noodles; the local versions are practically inedible – their only redeeming feature being 'cheaper' than corresponding foreign items; helped substantially by import tariffs. Look at the ingredient list and see the difference. Instead of modified palm fat and dried milk powder, read real cocoa butter and full cream milk in imported chocs. Similarly, see how what goes into flavouring packs of imported noodles- you see what I mean? Local noodles are just not worth the money, just a con job to make us part with our money. Even house brands of hypermarkets like Tesco (imported from UK) are better than locally made products, very often cheaper too. Which makes me suspect that local manufacturers are making super profits and duping the consumers at the same time. Time to stop being fools, eh?

5.Products that become worse when locally made. Case in point being Campbell's canned soups, now made in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia. Just as I predicted, quality deteriorated, I have sworn off Campbell soup forever. Insult to injury, they are actually much more expensive locally made even when you factored in increased costs and exchange rates. What happened? Are we really such pathetic suckers?

I am not being unpatriotic in urging against consuming local products. As consumers, we are only concerned with getting value for our money, with quality to boot. If imported products are worthwhile buying bearing in mind quality and costs, then so be it. Who cares if local manufacturers cannot compete and survive? We are not fools. Time to stop the duping, let's wise up. It is the only way local manufacturers will buck up and give us value for money. Good luck to them. Me? I will always give local products a miss and opt for the imported item. No snobbery involved, just plain common cents (pun intended). Too bad for the local manufacturers, but that's the way it is.

I m baaack!

I am back, sheesh- it sounds real corny! Laid off writing for quite some time. Now I am back to my old shenanigans. Let's see, what is there to grouse about.......................