*New Flavour* Peanut Ice Cream coming your way!

Im letting the cat out of the bag even before the official release in our outlets and the official website. We are thinking of a more interesting name then just Peanut beacause although its Peanut Ice Cream we added strips of chocolate pieces inside and also roasted crushed peanuts.

For those peanut lovers out there, this could be your next favourite flavour. For me, it reminds me of eating a bar of Snickers, only without snickers sticking to the roof of my mouth and my teeth. There is the taste of smooth creamy peanut butter with pieces of chocolate bits and crunchy nuts to munch on. During the tasting I ate 2 scoops, more then it was required for the tasting. This new flavour should be out soon...

Also, because we get alot of customer requests to develop more local fruit flavours like Yam, Nangka, Chempedak and Papaya. All these flavours are also pending release and final approval =)

Maybe we should call the Peanut Ice Cream, Chunky Peanuts! Or... Nuts for Peanuts!Just a thought....

My Favourite Things (Part 1)

Inspired by Oprah's favourite things but with a little twist, my favourites just not limited to THINGS.


Stir Fried Mixed Mushrooms with Oyster Sauce and Chillies

Top 3 Fav food items:
1) Vedablu Premium Ice cream (naturally..HaHa)
2) Wo tiek (pan fried dumplings)
3) Mushroom (any kind of mushrooms, I love them cooked in anyway)



My favourite everyday watch

Top 3 Fav items (Things I never leave home every morning without):
1) My Lap Top
2) My Watch
3) My Cross Necklace




Wollongong Harbour, overlooking parts of the town

Top 3 Fav places:
1) Wollongong, Australia
2) My Apartment, Puchong
3) Any island with white sandy beaches and clear blue waters




Hiking along Waikato River, New Zealand

Top 3 Fav past times:
1) Reading
2) Computer Games (currently hooked on Texas Holdem Poker and The Sims 2)
3) Road trips, discovering new places

Petrol Kiosk Strike

At about 2:30pm today, I was returning to the office from KK town, I noticed a buildup of traffic. As I drove I realized that the jam was caused by the long queues to the petrol kiosks. Immediately I thought that this was due to a price hike in petrol again. However, I recalled reading a press release on the PM's website, saying that the government would not hike prices for year 2008 after considering the rakyat's response to the recent petrol price hike. RM1.90 to RM2.70 is bad enough, if the government persisted to increase the prices as first planned to RM4.00, I can't imagine what the people of Malaysia would do.

After hurdling the long queues that were about 1KM long which caused pretty bad jams even not at rush hour, I finally arrived my office. I received a call from my mum telling me to pump petrol because there was going to be a three day strike where all petrol kiosks will close for business. My colleagues then further explained that the petrol kiosks were losing money with every liter sold resulting is operating losses. I do not know how true these stories are because I have not checked the real reasons behind the strike. So is this strike a rumour or truth? We shall wait and see.

In the mean time, I received a sms from Maxis stating "(The Star) Officials from Shell Malaysia and Sabah Petroleum Dealers Association stressed that there is no truth to the rumours of petrol kiosks closing for 3 days". Then at 6 pm, someone forwarded me a sms from an angry driver (very angry I presume) saying "Petrol strike start 26th 8am till 4pm. Today is rumour. Pls forward bcoz many tailingong made the traffic jam". This sms really made me laugh. Sorry for the rudeness or inappropriateness of the translations of language. Translation of 'tailingong' directly from the hakka dialect to english is ‘big **** (male private part) crazy’. Roughly what they meant to say was 'foolish people'.

Although I do not like the idea of strikes or demonstrations I feel that it comes to a time when something more physically obvious (not like punching or hurting someone) should be done to show the government the people’s dissatisfaction. I think most people are angry that the government implemented the oil hikes without putting much thought about the long term. We see day in and day out the stories in our newspapers about the plight of lower income families. Trust me, there are families who are much worse off then those who shared their stories in the papers.

From business point of view, raw material costs has risen to an average of 40%. Business owners find it difficult to increase prices because then it will too expensive for the customers. On the other hand, there is pressure for salary increases. For instances, for sales people, without higher transportation allowances, how could they perform their jobs effectively? After adding the increase in raw material costs and other operation costs, nothing is left actually. The huge daily hurdle is now just to sustain and hope for the best because no business wants to run to see just losses month after month. Business closes down, there will be retrenchment, unemployment rate goes up, economy slows down as spending decreases, increase in non performing loans, etc.

I personally would like to see what strategies the government has in place to counter the many problems that the Malaysian economy will see in the next coming months. This is just the beginning of something more grave to come if nothing is done to rectify situation.

By the time I finished this blog entry, I got a call telling me that there is no more jam and no more strike. The issues behind the strike threat were discussed and resolved. Well… so much for all the hype. I just am thankful I did not line up for petrol for few hours this afternoon. I would have ended up wasting more petrol.

Lets Celebrate Harvest Festival with Tapai

Harvest Festival is coming up! We have something old and familiar to celebrate this Harvest Festival with you at Vedablu. Presenting... Tapai Ice Cream (Rice Wine Ice Cream) and Tapai Cake (Rice Wine Cake). We call this the Fiesta Delight.



We had this last year for Harvest Festival. Our brilliant Production Manager, Laura actually came up with the idea when we were thinking of what could we introduce in our outlets. We were brainstorming and when asked outloud what could we do for Harvest Festival, it was synonymous. "Tapai!" Some customers may like it and some customers may not. Tapai or Rice Wine is unique tasting and normally more loved by the locals. For the adventurous, alcohol lovers, and tapai lovers this is a must try. I don't like drinking Tapai but I love eating the Tapai cake, so I have been having these daily since Monday! The cold tapai ice cream mixed with the tapai cake is so yummy. Having one now infact...and took a picture of it few seconds ago so I can upload it here.

HAPPY HARVEST FESTIVAL IN ADVANCE!

A little of everything ! (ALOE)

I have been trying to recuperate for the past few days. Catching up on sleep, trying not to stress out at the same time, thinking, I can't sleep now 'coz I have lots of unsettled things to do. I keep listing them down in my daily planner. Sadly I never can finish them. Then I tell myself to breathe...

So many things happen in a day for me. I wish I could like state every little detail here so this blog will really be about my journey. Because I've missed many of my chances of writing the little 'beautiful' details that always happen. Would like to share some of the little joys that happen daily in my life.

Like this quick snapshot I took on my flight to Tawau several months back that I meant to post up but never did. Glorious clear sight of Mount Kinabalu. We were passing over the mountain so fast, barely had time to adjust the camera settings. I just snapped.

Then, in last few weeks back, I taught my staff to be more diligent in our ice cream pan display decorations. I believe we first feast with our eyes then our mouths. Although pan re-decorations can only be done during the not so busy times. On weekends,for the busier outlets, not practical to be doing re-decorations all the time, because staff are too busy serving customers to even have the time to re-decorate the ice cream pans. On one particular day I walked into the City Mall Vedablu outlet and was happy with what I saw. Beautiful ice cream pan decorations =)Little things like this make my day.

Today I dedicated my day to cleaning the clutter on my desk. The picture is only half the clutter I had on my desk. I think seeing the clutter on my desk and not having the time to clear them adds to the negative energy I am feeling. Seeing my desk clean and my room tidy now really does lower down my stress and anxiety levels. Haha. Psychology...


Another task which I have been trying to get done is to get online to purchase a new laptop, taking advantage of the 12 months 0% interest. Plus, after reluctantly having to pay extra income tax this year, I have given myself a justification to get myself a brand new lap top so that for YA2008 I can claim the extra RM3000 deduction. I think I have an emotional attachment to my current lap top. Its the very heavy 15.4" Travelmate 430. Bought it back in 2003. Its nearly 5 years old now. Didn't realize it was that old. Well its Pentium 4. Only that the graphics card can't play the latest games. I upgraded the Ram to 768MB. However, this laptop is falling to pieces slowly. Half of the letters on the keyboards are gone, the bluetooth receiver is kaput, the internal wifi receiver is spoilt (so I am using a wifi card inserted to the PCI bus), the batteries are dead (no more in production), and the direct receiver for the Network Cable is spoilt. The funny thing is that after a year not being able to connect to the internet from my my lap top in my home (because I don't have a wireless router) I remembered I had this external ethernet PCI card which had that network cable receiver. My old lap top before this one, had no network cable receiver and I have to purchase this external ethernet PCI card in Australia. So I ran up to my room, rummaged through my old box and found it! This really made my day. Now I can go online in my home without a wireless router!Amazing stuff... was sharing my excitement this story over MSN Messenger to a friend and he said I was so 'sot' or silly. Little things really make me happy. High time today anyways as I was not in a good mood today. Feel sick actually.

Anyway, I have thought alot of what lap top to get and after being a loyal user of Acer notebooks, I shall make my switch to the Dell XPS lap top. Wanted to get the one with the gaming specs but alas, pulling myself out of dream land and putting myself into the right frame of mine, I decided to go with what a lap top should be for me now at this point of time in my life. Lightweight and good performance.Wanted to get the XPS1530, and was reminded by my friend that will not be any different from my current lap top. It will still be heavy. So, I am settling for the XPS1330, with a processor speed upgrade and a graphic card upgrade. I must at least be able to play the games I wanna play on this new machine. Dell does not give option to upgrade the machine to a graphics card higher then the Nvidea GEForce 8400M for this model. Why...?? To solve the problem of playing my games (if I ever find the time to play) on a small screen, I will plug the new machine to a existing LCD screen. Sad thing was, Dell was having this RM300 rebate for purchases RM4000 above. I missed the boat! Darn... so today after contemplating, I will wait for another week to purchase this new machine. They have rebates every month or so. RM300... could buy me a spa package~~ Very kiasu but its not that I need the machine immediately.

Ok... I will continue part 2 of 'a little of everything'(ALOE) another day. Too long read for a blog entry if I post too many little things in one entry.

For now, good night!

Vedablu @ Tawau

Vedablu Tawau: Sitting area Outside


I touched down in Tawau last Saturday at 10am and went straight to the outlet. Alot of things to be done, local tawau staff to train, food materials to prepare, etc. There was only 3 days to the opening. On Monday morning, my team from KK arrived.That night we worked till 1:30am. The next morning we woke up at 6am, to go to the outlet for the opening. Opening was at 10am and customers started pouring in. It was non-stop from there till 11:30pm. We went home at 12:30am. I just collapsed on my bed out of exhaustion but it was worth every effort we put in. There was alot of good feedback although there were few hiccups. I guess as all openings are and staff are new. However, the product I can proudly say speaks for itself.


Nanie (Vedablu Pastry Chef) & George (Vedablu Outlet Supervisor)



Vedablu Tawau: Inside sofa sitting area, minutes before opening



Vedablu Tawau: Counter area and display freezer, minutes before opening



Vedablu Tawau: Up and running...full house


The outlet I must say was tastefully done. It was more beautiful because of the flowers that were sent to our franchisee. I couldn't resist taking some photos of them.


Vedablu Menu with Tulips and Roses in the background



Lilies and Roses. There were two huge flower arrangements like this and many other flower arrangements.



Vedablu Signage at the Front



Lee (owner operator of Vedablu Tawau) briefing me on the layout plans of the Vedablu outlet few months back.


On 20th May 2008, Vedablu has officially now opened in Tawau. Although tiring but seeing passion turn into reality is always fulfilling. Vedablu is thankful to have good partners, friends and commited staff like George and Nanie(who is still there working round the clock in Tawau as part of our commitment to help our franchisee start on the right foot).

More stories and adventures to follow. For now, thank you for the support to those that came (even from KK) and customers who are loyal fans of Vedablu ice cream and products.

Cheers!!

Spreading East of Sabah - Part 2

Opening a food and beverage outlet is no easy task.From the first drawings, to design & construction, ordering of cutleries and food equipments, food preparation training to serving training and opening doors to our customers. Alot of coordination is required between our staffs, suppliers, contractors, etc. The tawau outlet will be our sixth outlet and belongs to our first licensee/franchisee. The journey towards the opening 6th Vedablu Outlet has been an exciting one for me. Tiring but I know we have done well and delivered all we have promised. This being our first franchised outlet we work extra hard to ensure our partners will do as well and better still if they do better. There is no one side win in any successful business out there. It should always be a win win situation.

Vedablu Shop in Tawau, located along Jalan Chong Thien Vun, will have its soft opening on the 20th May 2008 (Tuesday). Those in Tawau please come and support us. In our KK outlets we have many Tawau customers, but now our Tawau customers can enjoy Vedablu in Tawau.

I will upload pictures of the opening and the outlet soon. In the mean time go to our official website to obtain more information on our products and promotions.

I will be in Tawau from the 17th to 22nd May 2008. See you there! ;)