Peeleep's Corner

Well he's not Ian Thorpe because he's Asian so he should be Ian Thi Nguyen or something like that. As I was swimming leisurely, he jumped into pool and attempted to race me lap for lap! So when I started, he pushed off the walls at the same time! Weirdo. What's even more silly is the speed he swims at. I typically mix my speed with a few slow laps and a few sprints so it was no surprise Ian Nguyen would be as good as a mirror. He'd always try that little bit harder to beat me just.

 

Whilst mildly amusing what really sealed the deal was when he put on flippers and these hand paddles! I thought that if he spent 10 minutes putting his equipment on just to annoy me, I'll simply leave to the sauna leaving him competitor-less and made him waste his time putting the gear on. =D

 

After 10 minutes in the sauna, I returned into the pool with Mr Nguyen out of sight. Can you imagine him in the sauna? "I can outlast you Mr Phillip, for I, Ian Nguyen don't care if I become a sundried prune! WINNING IS EVERYTHING!!!"

 

If I ever meet you again, I will be ready. (except for the sauna challenge)

Dear Brain,

 

I've been good to you. I don't consume caffiene on weekends and I don't do drugs SO WHY WONT YOU LET ME SLEEP IN?

 

When everyone is sleeping in like a sloth why am I still waking up at 7.00am no matter how late I come home?

 

It's not like I sleep on the street where my pillow is a milk crate. You really haven't got much to complain about. Its not fair to make me yawn 36 times before resorting to a 10 minute "power-nap."

 

And because you're in my head, if I walk to the police station crying "why wont I sleep" I will be taken to the Nut House.

 

Please find attached a picture of someone having QUALITY sleep. I hope you can learn from it. Don't hesitate to let me know if a teddy bear is all it takes because I'm fairly compromising.

 

 

 

Give it a rest.

 

Warm regards,

Phil

For a long time, parents had little in terms of healthy choices for their kids meals. All too often, the mums and dads succumb to the kids nagging for a meal that has a cool toy. McDonald's new offering proposes a solution: a healthy meal + a toy = parents delight.

 

Being the kid I am, I decided to sample this and attempt to assess it as if I were a 8 year old boy. The pasta parcels looked plump and interesting in the picture but in reality its just like the burgers: flat and very limp looking. Bundled with the 10 pieces of pasta goodness was 'ZooGoo' which was not green, but a tomato-based pasta sauce packaged in similar fashion to McNugget sauces.

 

Now the marketing folk are clever enough to realise that kids will get annoyed at the forks having forgone the simplicity of a burger so they decided to include mini-tongs to pick and dip your pasta in the goo. I thought its not a bad idea but it does become annoying given the lack of bulk in the pasta making it somewhat a tedious task to scavenge for crappy pieces of pasta.

 

Now we move onto the pasta, which is the highlight of the meal but by far the worst as well. The pasta was poorly heated and it tastes like thick old chinese dumping skin made out of plastic without filling. Macca's claim vegatable puree goodness inside, but I have to say it was no where close to the puffed-up bags of joy in the picture. The sauce somehow makes it more edible but I predict the kids will be back on the burgers and nuggets in no time. I wonder if they even eat this stuff before it's marketed, it's really pathetic!

 

Not content with the pasta, I dug inside the box to uncover a fake tattoo of 'Shelldon the Turtle.' This did little to erase the sour memories of the poor pasta and it's interesting to note how they didn't use Grimace (the fat purple blob who was obese from cheeseburgers) or the ever happy Ronald (is he on drugs?). Perhaps they are trying to shed the old glory days of feeding fatty food to our kids? The boy's toy included was a mini Lego Bionicle which isn't bad but it doesn't do very much besides stand up and look always angry.

 

Probably the most novel part of the meal experience is the Zippah straw with plain milk. This is a straw with small flavour granules trapped inside so that sipping plain milk will dissolve the innards infusing the milk with either chocolate or strawberry flavour straight to your mouth. It's pretty good and it contains less sugar than soft drinks as well as the benefits of milk. It's a shame the milk serving is smaller than the tiny OJ's you get in breakfast meals. That thrist quenching Coke looks pretty good again...

 

Now here's a real problem: the price

 

The Pasta with Goo is $4.95! With the straw+milk and toy it's $5.95!

Put this against the regular Hamburger Happy Meal given the taste makes Pasta Goo a hard sell. Although many people will give it a go, feeding the kids rubber just doesn't cut it in the long run. If I were the kid, you can count 9 pieces of uneaten pasta, all the milk gone and the Shelldon tattoo in the bin.

 

Macca's should really stick to what they're good at: burgers. If parent's want to feed their kids pastas, thats what Italian restaurants are for. Macca's tries too hard to be healthy by imitating cafes and sandwich bars but it forgets why it became popular in the first place. KFC has got it right by marketing 'taste' when they know their product clogs arteries. Macca's ought to get back to their roots.

 

Here's the scores!

 

Food = 2/10

Fun factor = 5/10

Value = 3/10

 

OVERALL = 3.3/10 = 33.33% OR FAILURE GRADE HONOURS

In this era of mobile phone mania it puzzles me why there are many people using public pay phones at the most strangest hours. On many occassions driving very late (past midnight) you see people having a leisurely convo inside. Women also seem to be obilvious to danger talking in a lit booth in the middle of the night by themselves.

 

There are kids in primary schools with Nokia's so why are you so old school? Unless you are Superman what the hell do you people get up to?

 

Too much TeleCafe talk I suspect. I think next time I see a talker in a booth I'll run into glass wall like a pigeon hopefully converting them into using their home phone.

 

What a sad way to start 2007 with the passing of a true legend: the father of instant noodles.

 

Those of you who religiously eat Indo-Mie Mi Goreng should light up a few incense sticks before you chow down. I think I will buy a cup of noodles to commemorate.

 

I rank this 'innovation' up there with open heart surgery.