just minishorts.

By now many the blogosphere regulars would have had a through-the-bloggers'-eyes preview of the new M2U interface (Maybank2U site), or if not, here it is:

Obviously, this sleeker look is a huge graduated from the predecessor, currently still the welcome site for those who key in http://www.maybank2u.com/ or http://www.maybank2u.com.my/. The older site, shown below, has been a personal 'monthly must visit at least three times' site – I use M2U for most of my banking needs, and haven't physically visited a bank since two years ago. And with all honesty, the new version, while being sleeker, takes a lot of getting used to. After all, we're moving on to the sleek, clean version, from a very chaotic this:

Since most people have spoken on the new interface, I'll skip to what could have been missed by Erna, Suan, KY, davidlian (among many other bloggers) and get a little more personal on my opinions. To make it easier, I'll do a list of what I like, and what I really didn't like about the new interface.

Likes

• The new design deserves several thumbs-ups. It's sleeker, and CLEANER, definitely, so much easier on the eyes. Just see the older version which I've posted, and compare it to the new one.
• The speed – it seems to be faster, but then again that's probably because there are lesser people viewing it right now? On the first day when we all logged in at the same time, my m2u screen got stuck for a while, resulting in me not being able to do any banking at all other than viewing what it looked like.
• No ads. For now, I suppose its because they haven't added their advertisers on board yet, so everything looks neat and compact. I wonder how will the neat and sleek site turn out once it goes live with ads and promotions added in … some how having the MAS blue on that yellow-black-white thing doesn't quite cut it for me.
• I really like the colours mmkay… someone on some blog said that the yellow and black looks 'gay' , but I'd like to think it means 'gay' in the happy and busy way. I suppose the yellow and black relates to the maybank tiger mascot identity, but for some reason, the new M2U reminds me of a busy bee, which is great. After all Maybank, like any other gohmen related agency, suffers from the terrible identity and image crisis thanks to the nonchalant procrastinating inefficiency of our clever kerajaan Malaysia.  And speaking of bees, I'll get to what I didn't like about the new site.

Dislikes

• I have to concur with Suan, that agent M mascot thingy totally doesn't cut it, and to me that dislike level is kind of elevated to a 'wtf'?. Introducing M, the so M2U agent, who's supposed to everything as the following poster tells you. So, yah, lemme say that again. WTF is an M-agent?

• Now I'm the sort of person who really can't stand mascots, and for one, I'd like to imagine that people who use internet banking would be considerably familiar with the regular HELP section. I don't know about you, but most of my friends deactivate that paperclip mascot thingy that comes with word (bloody annoying thing, that one) so the Ironman look-alike M Agent, IMHO is a total waste of time. Like errr, why the hell do I wanna know where a fake person lives, and why the heck should I even bother having M as an MSN Live online buddy?
• Ok even if they wanted a mascot anyway, why the heck was M created to look like an Ironman lookalike with a cast-away body (wasn't one of the armours Ironman designed and casted away a gold and black coloured version? )  Whatever happened to something more Maybank, like the Tiger, for instance – oi, use lah some animal that's Maybank related… Even using a Bee would match the yellow and black colours, but heck they had to come up with Ironman.
• On to more serious matters, I thought it interesting that Maybank2U can still, only be accessed by keying in the full http://www.maybank2u.com or http://www.maybank2u.com.my URLs. Key in http://www.m2u.com or http://www.m2u.com.my gets you nothing — the domain isn't even owned by anyone yet. Now I find this kind of odd considering that we've been refering to Maybank2U as M2U, on the goodie bags 'M2U' is printed on sparkling fonts, and even M is noted as belonging to the M2U society. Maybe Maybank should do something about it, imagine accessing the online portal through just 'm2u.com' rather than the more tedious 'maybank2u.com'?

Anyway existing M2U users can expect to get invites to test this new version on their screens rather soon. When you do , haha, try adding that M Agent to your MSN Messenger, and tell me if the dude's friendly, yah? For now, I can't wait to be able to access the new version through the simple domains, but we'll just have to wait till the big launch, yah?
 
But in the meantime, have a look at my conversation with Mr 'Friendly' M, the M2U Agent.

About a month ago I agreed to sample the humongous buffet spread that is the Weekend Special Buffet at Coca Restaurant.

The extensive menu that is the Weekend Special Buffet. Click to go to my flickr to see it in large size.

For the initiated, the Coca chain of restaurants is a made-in-Thailand now available in several shopping centres, hugely associated with steamboat, but actually has a whole lot of other goodies chain of Thai-styled steamboat restaurant. We went to the one (that's currently under renovation) at Bangsar Shopping Centre (near my office-kan), a day before Valentine's Day.

On our arrival, the restaurant marketing manager came up to us and congratulated us on our engagement – fuiyoh the whole world knows we're engaged hah, can't cancel the wedding anymore, can we? , and then we were informed that instead of the Valentine's Day set they were going to have us try out their signature menu.

So this was the one. RM78++ for adults on weekends only, a (super super) wide spread of dishes that ranged from the steamboat eat all you can (really really eat all you can) to the cooked dishes.

Now this was where Eric and I were a little surprised, truth be told. All along I had assumed that Coca had only their steamboat (the last time I ate at the same restaurant was about 8 years ago before meeting Eric, and I recalled little about Coca serving cooked Thai dishes only. So Eric decided immediately, 'OK, errr… we will skip the steamboat set, my fiancee has tried that one before anyway, but I'm more interested to see what you can cook up.'

The restaurant decided to recommend several dishes (in total we had about 10 mains and anothre 3 desserts. I'm going to show you some of the more noteworthy ones so that you'll remember to order these if you choose to go there…

Thai-styled Shark's Fin soup. I must say I was very impressed to see them serving real fin — sorry to the animal activists here. The taste was rather unusual for those prefering the Chinese-styled drenched in XO liquor type, and it was also very different from the ones they serve in Bangkok's Chinatown. Coca-styled – I'll call this boleh-lah.

Scallops (Typhoon styled). According to the menu you can order the scallops cooked in any of these ways: Tamarind, Golden Fragant, Typhoon Style, Coca Special Sauce, Stir Fried with Basil Leaves. We took the different sounding one. Now if you're ever going to try this (and do order the scallops – they're HUGE), don't order Typhoon style. Get the Stir Fried with Basil Leaves. The broccoli tasted great, but the scallops did not manage to absorb the sauce.

Breaded Soft Shell Crab – so sinful. But so yummy. MUST MUST MUST TRY (if you love soft shell crab – Eric thought it was too rich for him so I finished both pieces. ^_^

Always order a Thai salad at a Thai restaurant. We took my favourite – the Mango Salad. Chunky peanuts and whole cashewnuts were a good sign and this dish delivered. You can order as many salads as you want, so hehe, order a few lah if you go…

Eric saw the words 'Fried Morning Glory' and we had a little argument over what they meant. "I'm telling you they really take the flowers and fry lah."

"No, they're Kangkung… in Thailand they call it morning glory nia…" I said.

"OK we order and see who wins."

NEVER FIGHT WITH A WOMAN IN A RESTAURANT. She always wins.

This was very very close to the way they fry it in Bangkok. I like!

The creme de la creme. The steam fillet of cod on a bed of oh-so-sumptious Steamed in Thai Style sauce (up in Kelantan we would call this the Khengsom Steam). It's a pity the buffet only allows a one-time-order only for Cod and Crabs. Otherwise we would have ordered this over, and over, and over again. THIS ONE DISH ALONE is worth the entire trip to Coca (even if you don't take the Weekend Buffet, ORDER THE COD! The manager told us that they fly in an entire cod on a weekly basis so you can be guaranteed of freshness. And the sauce is very very spicy yah (so children and people who can't take chillies, you've been warned).

The desserts were so so and the Biasa type you can find in all Thai Restaurants. Go for the Thai styled Cendol, cause the cempedak bits in them makes the taste very different from the Malaysian styled one…

Of course there are some not-so-sedap ones on the list. The stranger dishes which you might wanna miss if you go…:

Stuffed prawns, baked crabs (the fillings were the same, and tasted like fish paste! The black pepper giant prawns (a little wtf lah, the sauce tasted right out of a bottle!) and the pandan chicken (a little too oily). Wait. On second thought, the pandan chicken was ok…

***

OK. The Verdict: for RM78++ and the choices you get (the extensive list of cooked dishes, AND the steamboat set), it really is value for money. Its a pity that the normal human being can't take in too much (or rather, Eric and I aren't big eaters) so even though we only order the cooked dishes, we were stuffed by the end of it. Cooking time is rather slow (we had to wait around 25 minutes for the first dish to arrive), but the quality of the food is good. I'd prefer to take the steamboat though, after all, IT IS COCA, and you HAVE to order the steamboat when you're there – so if you ever order this buffet set, don't skip the steamboat. I would recommend ordering the following sets if I were you…

Steamboat buffet – take this one…
Cod Fish – Order the steamed in thai sauce set
Soft Shell Crabs – Order two plates if you love soft shell crabs and you don't really care about cholesterol
Morning Glory – Very nice
Mango Salad – I would order a whole plate for myself, if you love Phad Thai then do the same!

If I were you I'd also call the restaurant to reserve a table AND order the dishes of my liking first. That'll give them some time to cook!

Coca Restaurant outlets are at:

Open Hours :
[Weekdays] 11am – 10.30pm
[Weekends] 11am – 11pm

Dear Ms Claire,

Greetings from Coca Restaurant! We would like to invite you for a Valentine's Dinner for two on the 13th Feb 2008 at 7.30pm. This dinner is worth 240++.

In return, would appreciate that you can write a review about the food and your experience you have in Coca.

Happy Chinese New Year!

Wah this is pretty awesome yah. Photos to come tomorrow (shucks I have to go in office wear, I get off work too late to change)… and Eric's mumbling 'wtf' cos I've managed to get him something without having to pay for it. Heh!

A very, very blessed young lady won herself an LG DVD player a month back. That same week also, a slogan which she submitted to this website beat over 230 other entries to win her the coveted grand prize of an LG K800 Pink Chocolate phone, courtesy of LG Malaysia.

Photo courtesy of Albert from Glaring Notebook

So here it is. Congratulations real time, Erin, God really did answer your prayer in a grand way, didn't He?

Anyway, just three days off the rack and thanking the big guy up there for preserving my life, I'm here relishing in the opportunity to play Santa Claus post Christmas, in a big way too. So a big big thanks to everyone here, for the well-wishes, to LG Malaysia, for the phone and the opportunity, and the readers, for keeping me intact and giving me the reason to continue blogging. I'm off the accident, I'm praying the adjuster makes a fair judgement and allows me the claim-amount required for full repairs, and I'm hoping the rest of 2007 will be great and memorable to look-forward to.

Oops, it's February already!

Hi.

Just a note to inform the shortlisted entries from the LG Chocolate phone competition that Ms Lucky Winner, Erin, told me that she would be free on 3rd February 2007. That's next Saturday.

So I'm going to come along bearing gifts, among which is the ultra pink Chocolate phone that Erin has won for herself, and some chocolates of course. I've also discussed with local dentist Jolene, and since Wizard World on the 6th Flr of Sungei Wang Plaza just happens to have WiFi access as well, that's where Erin and I will be headed.

Just to list down the remaining lucky selected ones, and to inform you that i'll be giving you guys a chocolate bar each if you would join us at the Blogger's Meet:

sewjin says:
LG is a girl's best friend bcos chocolate is better than diamonds and just as good as sex.

Ngeow says:
LG is a girl's best friend bcos they make chocolates that won�t make you fat.

Lora says:
LG is a girl's best friend bcos it's multi functional, it makes you look great, while keeping you close to the people you love.

rijac says:
LG is a girl's best friend because UNLIKE men, its dependable and always there when you need it, it listens when you talk to it and if it annoys you you can just turn it off.

luzzio says:
LG is a girl's best friend because once I win it for her, I'll be her second best friend.

nileey says:
LG is a girl's best friend because it's uber trendy, an indulgence to the senses that's 100% fat free!

Stephanie Yong says:
LG is a girl's best friend b'cos it does not require you to cook and clean after it, does not demand for sex, makes you look beautiful whenever you hold it and is sexier than any man will ever be.

eRin says:
LG is a girl's best friend, coz it can't get any better with something that'�s smooth, suave, pink, user-friendly, obedient, lets you talk into it, and doesn�t talk back.

Elaine says:
LG is a girl's best friend b'cos it's sweet chic for the ultimate chick.

QT says:
LG is a girl's best friend becos it's chocolicious, chickalicious, divalicious, pinkalicious, sexilicious and simply delicious!

Melissa says:
LG is a girl's best friend b'cos it pays tribute to the modern woman – pretty tough on the outside & simply brilliant on the inside.

Min says:
LG's a girl's best friend b'cos it contacts, connects and cheers the best girlfriends.

yeeqin says:
LG's a girl's best friend b'cos. it's a link to life and a line to her heart.

—-

Just a small, small favour to ask of you, could you please indicate if you're coming (or not) so that I'd know how many bars to get? Thanks!