i have been using a lot of broadband it seems

london 6.41pm 7.8C dry night tuesday 2018

i had been out and got back just now. it is a pleasant night out, dry and chilly but hardly any wind so quite pleasant really. i went to the age uk canteen in tavis house, to meet ian, and it was still light at 3pm, by the time we got out at about 5pm it was dark.

i received an email from talktalk saying i have for the second month, exceeded my broadband’s line capacity.  14x in the month i had exceeded the capacity of the wiring to handle the broadband it seems. presumably  so that it slows the wifi down though they did not spell out how it affect the viewing.  i asked simon if he noticed anything when he viewed it, but he said no.

talktalk suggests i pay an extra £5a month to go fibre which will give me 10x more, it seems and at speeds of 30 to 40Mb.  what they dont seem to realise is that i dont have fibre. it is copper wires coming into my flat. so what is the use of subscribing to fibre? fortunately they did say at the end of the email that there is no obligation to upgrade to fibre. 

luckily simon says he does not notice any slowing down of the service at present, so i shall ignore them and leave it be. if it ain’t broken there is no need to fix it.

i asked him how come we are using so much broadband, he said he downloads a lot of iplayer and catch up tv, and chose the HD option to see it…  and it seems HD(high definition) uses a lot of broadband. also he says he download a lot of stuff onto his laptop to watch later and delete afterward he has seen it.

in a way i am glad talktalk has kept to their promise of giving me unlimited broadband, and not complaining about that to me or terminating my contract. some providers place a limit on the unlimited broadband.

nowadays with so much stuff being played by iplayer and catch up tv, our use of broadband has really increase a lot. in the past i only used to use about 40Gb a month. 

talktalk dont tell me how much i actually used now,as they stopped measuring it so i dont know how much i have been using. 

 i got a notification from wordpress asking me to grade how much i would recommend wordpress to others. i said i would recommend it 100%, and it was only when i click that and sent it that i realised i am still using the old editor and have not tried the new one… i might change my mind about recommending it to anyone if i tried the new editor. haha. but i have a feeling i will continue to use wordpress really, and try to work round the new editor, because i think wordpress is the best there is amongst the  websites providing us bloggers with a platform.

 

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why are there so many thai restaurants in uk

london 10am 8.4C sunny tuesday 2018

i have noticed there are a lot of thai, korean, taiwanese eating places opening in london and i read in this article that it might be due to a deliberate policy by their govts to promote their cuisine and for trade of the ingredients .

the article ask why there are so many thai restaurants in usa. when thais only form a small % of the population. and come to think of it, there are a lot of thai restaurants here in london too. far more than the numbers of thais in london.

and recently i have myself noticed a lot of bulgogi and bibimpap mentioned with the opening of korean style restaurants. and also dumpling restaurants, taiwanese style, has opened in london … in covent garden, featuring their specialist dumpling, with soup inside it. perhaps that one is not sponsored by the taiwanese govt, but who knows. 

i know malaysia has tried to promote more malaysian restaurants , its good for tourism as well as trade. but i think that has been put on hold some time ago. malaysia now have to be more frugal now. 

but recently there has been a roti chanai place opened up in victoria , but that might be helped by  india govt.  in that article, they say the thai govt wants to be  big in halal trade as well, especially  eyeing the middle eastern countries. 

a japanese curry house,coco ichibana is opening in covent gdn, london tomorrow. its a really strange one that, just curry sauce and rice, top up with pork cutlet, or hamburger, or egg, or sausage etc. and they have built a whole chain just using that basic base. 

it follows Din Tai Fung, Jollibee, Taco Bell, Halal Guys, and HaiDiLao as notable international openings and/or announcements in the capital in the last six months. its interesting that so many of these international brands are starting to open a branch in london. at this rate, you could tout london as the place to eat the world’s cuisine without bothering to travel there.

violent demos in france, peaceful ones in uk

london 2.53pm 10.5C sunny (sunrise 7.53am sunset 3.51pm) sunday 2018

there is a brexit demo today in central london, so the buses are disrupted. luckily they told us about it on the notice board display at the bus stop, so i decided to take the tube instead to go to paddington library (which is not near paddington station at all, but nearer royal oak station) . but in the tube they were announcing the metropolitan line is experiencing delays, so i got off at paddington tube station and took a bus.

there are always demonstrations in london at the weekend. i get irked by them, but maybe i should be glad they are not out and out riots, like paris is having, and spreading to other big towns in europe too.

france in particular seem to indulge in violent demonstrations rather than peaceful ones. i wonder why is that? it seems to me very bad to take your anger against govt actions on the ordinary citizens by destroying their town and businesses. maybe the reason violent demos are so prevalent is because it works, their actions have forced the govt to stop the taxes that are supposedly to combat climate change. time and again it has been effective in stopping whatever they object to being implemented so it is no wonder they resort to violence and disruption.

maybe they should implement a policy whereby if there is violent demonstrations, than whatever the policy that the demonstrators object to will be implemented immediately. if the demonstrations are peaceful than there will be a rethink but no guarantees that it will be canceled. but it will be widely known that any violent demonstrations means an immediate implementation of that tax or whatever. 

 

tabasco sauce is doing a promotion in victoria today

london 7.55pm dry night friday 2018

i met steve and his wife at the victoria station free giveaway by tabasco sauce company to promote their sauce. they hired a street food company that makes sandwiches, this time it is muffins buns and pulled turkey with an egg. we were given half of it and lots of small tiny bottles of the tabasco sauce. the sandwich  was quite tasty actually ,there were bits of crunchy bacon in it too which i like. 

tabasco is trying to increase uses of the sauce, and getting people to buy it more by suggesting it is good for a after -clubbing drink or in food to overcome a hangover. its been quite a long time since i used tabasco.

i used one of their little bottles on a pork chop i cooked for dinner just now and i think it may find it hard to compete with the sweet chilli sauces that i am more used to. tabasco has more of a vinegarish taste than a sweet one. strangely, i dont find it very chilli hot. yet i had memories of it being chilli hot. i wonder if they had toned down the chilli. 

the chef came out of his van to do a photo shoot, using a sandwich, (more of a burger really) with lots of layers so that it was nothing like what they are giving us. haha. but i guess that is artistic license. they were only doing it for 3hrs or so. its a raining day too. one have to be keen to want to go out on a day like this.

after the free promotion, i took the train to clapham junction, thinking of doing some grocery shopping in lidl and asda there. it is a real quick train ride from victoria to clapham junction. i had at first thought of taking the bus, but it would have taken a long time. 

and i got caught in the rain when i came out of the clapham junction station. but it was quite close to the two supermarkets lidl and asda. 

i did not buy anything at lidl, just took a lidl leaflet showing their reductions next week, starting from 20dec. and saw they are reducing veg to 29p. 1kg carrots, 500mg parsnips, 1.5kg potatoes… they also got brussels sprouts , but  i wont be buying those haha. but the others ,its good to know that they will be reduced nearer christmas…i shall be buying them.  it would be just right for the big holiday period around christmas and would be perfect to accompany  the chicken or whatever meat people will be roasting for their christmas lunch. but if we all know that lidl will be selling them for 29p, i am sure no one will be buying at the other supermarkets if they dont reduce their prices too. 

and i got a nice reduced pork from asda. reduced from £9 to £5.50 , 2.2kg. it would be perfect for a roast, they even removed the rind from the fat, so that you can use it as pork chops. i divided it into 3 containers with a bit leftover for today’s dinner, and i freeze them for later, and it will last me at least a month. i wont be using it to roast over the christmas period; preferring to roast a chicken instead.

i wont bother to buy a turkey either. it is a large bird and is quite impossible for two people to eat it, without a lot of leftovers that will take days to finish. and it is pricey, because of its size really.  but also, there is a good chance of very cheap turkey after the holidays. and i can make a curry out of it if i can buy one reduced cheaply enough. 

people say they dont like grocery shopping, but i find it very enjoyable, because i can find bargains, and reductions and also anticipate the dishes i can make out of them and looking forward to eating the result. 

 

i renew my passport

london 12.46pm 13C cloudy wednesday 2018

i went today to the malaysian high commission to renew my passport. it is in belgrave square.

recently they have to move out temporarily, to get it renovated. but they are back now and i can see the place looks very nice, all new plaster and new paint, and the basement passport/visa area has been cleaned out and redesigned.

it is all very efficient now. you get a number from a small ticket machine in the outer waiting room, and when your number is called u go the booth and there everything is done without u needing to move.

in the past you have to go to a copying machine and get your own copy of the Identity card, (ID), and sometimes people forget to take the plastic cover off and have to re take the photostat copy wasting another 20p. not to mention if u dont have 20p coins you have to go round asking people to exchange .

now it is all done for you. there is no need even to fill in a form. i remember that form used to be in malay, and it was a bit of a panic trying to figure it all out, because my malay is non existent really.

even the photo is done by a camera at the side of the booth. you just swivel the chair u are sitting on to the right side and face the camera , take off your glasses and wait for the camera to blink a red light and it is done. however, if u want to look your best you might be out of luck. there are no mirrors or toilet for you to freshen up . i imagine it must be a bit off for the females, who might want to adjust their makeup and hair.

even the thumb print is done digitally, though they still require us to have a paper print of our right thumb, using black ink. so that messy bit  still have to be done.

and it all costs only £21.in the past we have to pay £5 for the photo, and all those 20p coins for the photostat of the ID, front and back sides. now we dont have to move elsewhere to get those done. i was asked if i have married or single. when i told her that i have got married to a man, she said it does not count, malaysia does not recognise it. well, i shrugged and said it does not matter, so she put me down as single. haha. i dont mind really. and it might have saved me having to come back with simon and all his documents and it will be a lot of bother. 

even the nasi lemak man who used to sit by a small room under the road have gone. when i asked about him, she said they are not allowing anyone to sell food now and told me of a roti place nearby.

the leaflet on the notice board tells me it is near victoria station. i have seen the entrance before, when i was at victoria…  but did not connect it to a eating centre inside that building. they dont advertise it at all, so that even me, who goes to victoria often did not know this place is opened. so when i got to victoria and the bus i was on stopped  there, i had mistaken the bus for the 36, when it is really the 38… i saw the entrance and went in to look.

the roti place is upstairs. it is all very pleasant like a food hall, with stalls lining the sides and eating and sitting places for all to share. 

added 7.12.18 friday. i found a article about it here

the food is pricey, the roti place’s cheapest food is about £7 for 2 roti chanai and curry . laksa is about £9. the other stalls cost about the same. there is a bao place, a kebab place, a udon place, taco place. i had hoped it would be about £5, but maybe nowadays £7 is the going rate for these street food. when u consider roti chanai is a cheap street food in malaysia, it takes a bit of getting used to it being like high end food here.

but wait why am i complaining of the cost. there is malaysia hall canteen where we malaysians can have all this for a fraction of the cost. all we have to show is our malaysian ID, to get in and eat allthose foods.

so really i was at first thinking that those who go to get their passport renewed will have to eat at this roti place, but hey for just one bus ride. in fact bus 36 will take them to porchester road, which is the nearest i think to malaysia hall, near queensway. there they can have allthe malaysian food they can eat for a fraction of the cost. it is a strange thing really but i dont go there often enough. even though it is the cheapest way for us to get malaysian foods. i must seriously question myself why i dont go more often..

added 5.20pm. i went back at about 3.30pm to collect the new passport and it was very quick to get it. no waiting for me. they only open 3-4pm for the passports issued today to be collected.

i got a receipt for Rm100, which was the £21 i paid. so the exchange rate was Rm4.76=£1. google says £1=Rm5.29 today. but of course the buying and selling rate are always either worse or better than that. so it seems if i were to go to malaysia , my £ would only get me Rm4.76.it is quite poor really. just as well i am not visiting malaysia. haha. 

added .6.41pm, i tried to go back my blog to see if i wrote anything when i renewed last time dec 2013, but strangely nothing came up. it is very strange, because i know i would have written something about it. i have to go back to 2008 , in a old website that i used before i used wordpress. and there i got reminded that i paid  £31 (Rm150) (Rm4.84=£1) and that was because it is a pensioner rate, if u are not over 60yrs old you will pay £62, and also it is for 32page passport. this one i got is 50pages. 

balance to pay brilliantenergy electricity bill

london 2.21pm tuesday 2018

this is just for my record. i got the final closing bill from my old energy company .

Fair Deal Electricity 2.0 (02 Sep 2018 – 12 Nov 2018)

02 Sep 2018 62431.8 Estimate
13 Nov 2018 62667.0 Closing Customer Read
Energy Used 235.2 kWh @ 11.65 p/kWh £27.40
Standing Charge (72 days @ 13.66 p/day) £9.84
Total Electricity Charges £37.24
Subtotal of charges before VAT £37.24
VAT @ 5% on £37.24 £1.86
Total Charges for this bill £39.10. so minus the amount i had allready paid by monthly direct debit £15.59, balance to pay £23.34. 

this was the tariff plan that i had with brilliant energy.

Tariff Name . . . . . . . Fair Deal Electricity 2.0
Product Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Fixed Rate
Payment Method . . . . . Variable Direct Debit
Unit Rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.65p/kWh
Standing Charge . 13.66p/day (£49.86/year)
Online Discount . . . . . . . £0.00/year per fuel
Tariff End Date . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Nov 2018
Price Guaranteed Until . . . . . . .12 Nov 2018
Early Exit Fee . . . . . £0.00 per fuel (inc VAT)
Estimated Annual Usage . . . . . . . 1,278kWh

my plan with the new energy company ebico will be much simpler to understand. it will be a flat rate of .205416p/kwh with no standing charge. and i will be paying a direct debit of £21.55 a month.

there is no doubt that the new company is charging me a lot more than the old one. from about 17p/kwh to 20.5p/kwh. it is about 22.5%increase, £45, in my annual bill. but i would not want all this to take too much importance , just because i record it. the bill is a small one really. 

i thought yesterday was rather a warm day and it seems it is. i saw this article saying the hyde park ice rink had melted yesterday. the ice machine could not cope with the 16C air temperature. and yet tomorrow early morning is forecast to be 1C in central london. today has been raining a lot too.

london 7.40pm 9C dry monday 2018

update 8am tuesday 4.12.18 5.1C cloudy . it seems the lowest it got is now. so it looks like the forecast got it wrong for central london again. i think central london is just warmer.though south london (new malden) is 1.2C now. 

the uk is right in the path of two conflicting weather systems. and the jet stream is the one influencing which one takes precedence. so depanding on how far north the jet stream swings , it pushes warm air up, or cold air down across the british isle. the jet stream is the border between these two fronts. i think they cannot predict what caused it to swing north or south. because if they can they would be able to make the weather  forecast  very accurate.

i managed to go shopping today. went to the tesco and bought lots of clementines, or so that is what i think they are.79p for 600mg. i think i know the difference between clementines and satsumas. clementines are larger. and i think i like the larger size ones. more fruit and more juice. tastewise they are all the same. they might have some difference in flavour, but  i dont notice it. google tells me clementines are the smallest mandarins on the market. so i wonder if i am wrong. tesco just labels it easy peelers, so i dont know what these ones i bought are called. but i dont think i mind what they are called, they are all the same as far as i am concerned.

added i found this article trying to show the difference, but i am no wiser after i look at it. maybe u can tell the difference.