Jackie Miao

Every now and again, I come across a beautiful soul, and Indie singer-songwriter Jonathan Tse is one such person.

While most pop music focuses on selling desperation, materialism and sex, Jonathan writes his music using a different set of values; one that is divinely inspired by faith, love and hope.

Last Saturday, the talented pop-jazzer from Labuan launched his second album entitled “I’m Alive” at City Mall, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia.

I only managed to catch the tail-end of the performance, enough to take a few pictures but not enough to report on the performance program. Nevertheless, I got there in time to buy a CD and t-shirt and have been enjoying the tunes all day.

Jonathan is and have always been incredibly supportive of locally-bred talents. In addition to the “My Story” showcase he organizes to give local musicians exposure, he uses his own media opportunities to let other musicians piggyback on the public exposure. For his album launch, he invited Atama and Alvin to perform with him.

WHY YOU SHOULD SUPPORT THE LOCAL MUSIC SCENE IN SABAH

Even though I’ve been blessed with global exposure, all my big dreams were nurtured right at home in Sabah. This is why I believe in supporting Sabahans doing great things! In spite of our humble roots, we can go much further when our own community supports us. Everybody wins when a Malaysian makes it to the International center stage and this is why you guys should buy Jonathan’s CD!

Moreover, Mia Palencia, better known as Malaysia’s Jazz crooning queen sings a duet with him on the last track of his album. You know it’s good stuff if Mia puts her name on a track!

WHERE TO GET THE ALBUM

The album can be purchased online from Amazon.com and iTunes. In Malaysia, it can be found at SPEEDY stores and most Christian bookstores in Kota Kinabalu.

THE I’M ALIVE MUSIC VIDEO
Check out the “I’m Alive” music video here!

For more information on Jonathan Tse, his upcoming shows, and to listen to sample tracks from his new album, visit jonathantse.com

Do you love the variety of things at ConsFood but can’t be bothered to deal with the parking problem in Damai? To all the foodies, bakers, housewives and expats of Kota Kinabalu, behold the spanking new ConsFood concept store at Jalan Tuaran!

Located just near the entrance to Taman Yakim Jaya (across the street from Tai Seng Supermarket, on the other side of Jalan Tuaran), the brand new 5-in-one ConsFood Concept Store features a Cold Storage, Baking Ingredients section, Chocolate and Patisseries section, Bread Bakery, and a Cafe that serves hot food.

I had a chat with the owner of the establishment two weeks ago and here’s an overview of what’s on offer.

Cold Storage
A selection of imported cheeses, cold cuts, milk, cream, nuts, dried fruits, a range of international condiments, fresh vegetables, imported frozen meats (Aussie beef and lamb), fresh poultry, frozen foods and more. This is a halal food market without pork.

Bakery Ingredients
Various types of flours, ingredients and cake decorations for commercial and domestic use just like the one in Damai.

Chocolate and Patisseries
The Chocolate and Patisseries section is a nice little place to escape from the scorching heat for some coffee and cakes. There’s wifi there, so it makes a great place for folks to have business meetings. You can get cakes to go and also order bespoke cakes for weddings and special occasions.

Bakery
The bread bakery section carries Asian-style breads, buns and European crusty breads that are baked fresh daily. I’ve yet to try their European breads, so the jury is still out on that one but it’s great for KK to have another alternative to the Hyatt bakery as far as Western breads go.

Cafe
At the corner, there’s a cafe that serves gourmet sandwiches, hot foods and ice cream. The owner mentioned that they will be serving their own brand of gourmet ice cream so keep an eye out for that.

ConsFood officially opened on 15th August 2010, so if you happen to pass by Mile 2 1/2 of Jalan Tuaran, do check them out. They are open from 9am to 9pm daily.

Are those USD$150 cycling jerseys breaking your bank? On my last trip to Melbourne, Australia, I found a homegrown brand called Netti, which carries a basic line of simple jerseys that are only a fraction of most retailing jerseys. The brand carries both men and women-specific cuttings so you don’t have to worry about excess fabric hanging if you’re a woman or risk looking like a drag-queen if you’re a man. Here are some pictures of my new gear and my thoughts on them!

The two solid-colored Netti Diva Breeze jerseys above cost AUD$40 on offer, while the one with the pink shoulder detail was AUD$60 from Goldcross Cycles at Chadstone Shopping Centre. They were made from high-quality sweat-wicking fabric, has rubber grip zippers, reflective detailing and also SPF 50+ sun protection. In my opinion, they’re just as good as the USD$100+ jerseys functionally-speaking and it’s great as long as you’re not intent on wearing pieces of art.

I really liked how well the ladies cutting fit me and the back pockets are fabulous; there’s lots of room for energy bars and other essentials!

As I’ve been surviving on one set of gear for the whole year since buying my bike, I was more than delighted to bring home 5 pieces of cycling clothing and not feel like I’ve been extravagant. I bought 3 Netti jerseys and a pair of shorts for less than AUD$190. Saying that however, I treated myself to the blue Fox jersey (AUD$80) because I knew I’d regret not getting it.

So if you find that you’re suffocating on those expensive cycling jerseys, remember to look for some Netti while you’re in Australia or try to find a retailer online that will ship to your country!

Just wanted to check in and let you guys know I’m at Google DevFest Kuala Lumpur 2010 and it’s been awesome, except for the terrible internet connection.

The room was packed coming in!

The morning began with Christine Songco, Program Manager for Developer Relations, giving an introduction on what the DevFest day would cover.

Daniels Lee, an Engineer who supports developers with Google Maps 3.0 API ran through several handy snippets of JavaScript code that easily taps into the the features of V3, which included options on map controls, overlays, customizable styles, directions and others.

What I found most exciting was the custom street view demo of Sydney, which has a marker that leads into the Google Sydney office.

How cool is that?

The second part of the morning featured Frenchman Patrick Chanezon, who covers cloud computing at Google San Francisco presented on the features of HTML5 using the Chrome browser.

So that sums up the morning. I’ll blog about the second part of the day soon!

Ladies, I stumbled upon this fantastic program to get you started working out if you are thinking of getting off the couch and doing something good for yourself. I’ve compiled all 6 parts for your convenience. For just in 30 minutes today, you’ll get a full body workout. Give it a try and enjoy taking the first step to having a fantastic life!