Karl Ng

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Barsa Taberna

This time we tried something different for Karen’s birthday other than our regular routine Japanese or Chinese, Barsa Taberna – a Spanish restaurant with a little fusion twist, located right at St. Lawrence Market area in the heart of downtown Toronto.

All the dishes we had taste as good as they look, we found the food portion is a little small if you are sharing with 8 people LOL, another way of saying is, it’s more like a restaurant that if you are just looking to nibble 😛  Some dishes were a little too salty to my taste and some had too much herbs my friends said, service was very good, nice servers and a very cozy environment.  Overall, it is perfect for gatherings and to spend hours catching up with friends 🙂  2014 top 10 restaurants in Toronto, got to be good!!!

Sorry, I don’t have all the names of our orders, you might have to show these pictures to the server while you are there 😛

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COOKOO 2 connected watch

I had been wanting to have a device that would notify me when I receive a phone call or text messages, could be a smart watch or some sort.  Thought about getting something like a Samsung Galaxy Gear or Sony smart watch 3 but of course after some researches, I found one that fits my needs the most, a COOKOO 2 connected watch.  A watch that connects to my phone using bluetooth, gives me notifications/vibrate when I get a call, message and tons more features and I don’t don’t even need to charge it. You can even use it to find your phone or use it as a shutter button for yor phone camera.  It’s super light weight, many different colors to choose from and best of all, it supports both Android and iOS.  I say this is a very high recommended watch if you are not looking to do texting or calling from a watch, well, who wants that really, hehe.

COOKOO 2 connected watch

COOKOO 2 connected watch

 

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Sony XSP-N1BT (In-car smartphone cradle receiver)

I have had my Jeep Wrangler for 3 years now, one thing annoys me the most is my car stereo doesn’t have bluetooth connectivity and I talk on the phone a lot…  Tried using different bluetooth headsets and dongles, nothing works the way I wanted so I decided to get a new stereo so I can play music and talk using my Andriod phone without any problems.  After doing some research, I found that Sony just came out with a car stereo that was made for Xperia Z series phones (Z2 is what I have), but of course, it will work with other Android phones, you just don’t get to use the charging dock.  Sony XSP-N1BT, which allows me to use my phone as the control interface and comes with an external mic.  It was probably the best decision I had ever made, now I can listen to music, talk on the phone without any annoying background noise or echo to the people I am talking to, GPS, play movies or anything and much more!!!  The app is still a little buggy but I am sure Sony will fix the minor bugs soon 🙂

 

P.S. it works with your apple devices as well

 

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AUTOSHOW 2015 (Family Day)

You know, it has been a LONG while since my last AUTOSHOW visit and I can’t even remember when it was really…  Luckily, I got a free pass to the show so I figured why not spend a day there while everywhere was closed that day 😛   It has gotten a lot bigger than what I remembered, lot more cars and a hell lot more people for sure.  I love cars but I am only interested to see the ones that I can afford, unlike some people, dying to see those out of this world kind of cars.  It is also a perfect place to take pictures of my favorites but I found a few weird moments that I didn’t really understand at the show, anyways, here they are 🙂

Will I go again next year?  Probably not, I will wait for another 10 years maybe 😉

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Dominican Republic – La Romana

It was a perfect time to get away from this freezing cold weather for a week.  Another amazing vacation in the Caribbean area, Dominican Republic – La Romana, where there is only sunshine and beautiful beaches.  My flight was in the afternoon, after 4 hrs flight and 1.5 hrs bus ride, as expected, it was almost midnight when I arrived at the resort Luxury Bahia Principe Bouganville (5 stars).  The whole week was a semi cloudy but warm, the resort is as beautiful as what I saw on the internet, the water at the beach was kind of cold the first couple of days since there wasn’t much sun but I loved the pool so much that I spent most of the time there anyways 😛

A few thoughts about this resort tho

Things I found good
– great looks and view everywhere, especially the pools, umm that’s about it

Things I found bad
– flies every where (restaurants, the pools the beach etc.)
– crawling bugs indoor (especially on a table cloth in our room)
– beach is bad, water not even clear, tons of rocks in the deeper area
– poor service bartenders at the main lobby (took your order and went off serving others, then let me stand there for over 15mins…)
– leaks in the shower (by the time you are done, its wet everywhere outside the shower…)
– shows were cheesy, could get better ones in other way cheaper resorts
– most excursions are far, as in over 2 hrs of transportation…
– worse of all, we had to fight for a late check out because we had a very late flight back to Toronto, asked many times, the answer we got was “come back on the morning of check out, we would let you know…” They should have known the answer on the day we arrived because no one would walk in to the resort and make reservation last min. All we got was 3 hrs delay from the normal time 12pm

also a few people that we talked to, told us they got very sick (throwing up, diarrhea and etc.) luckily we didn’t 🙂 Don’t understand why people would rate this so high, anyways, that’s what we experienced 🙂

lesson learned, 1, never take a late flight to this resort because they will make you check out early, then you will have to use their courtesy room to take a shower which has a lonnnnngg wait time (we saw it with our own eyes when we passed by it, plus we talked to some other customers on the way back) 2, never book a resort just by looking at the pretty pictures, yes, the place looks super nice and what else?!?

Anyways, the whole trip was still very relaxing, I love taking beautify pictures as always, so here are some of the highlights!!

Tons more pictures on my facebook, enjoy 🙂

from my main camera – https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152999178215211.1073741844.689775210&type=1&l=61f180499b

from my phone – https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152999233900211.1073741845.689775210&type=1&l=843f84e391

panorama pictures – https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152999303585211.1073741846.689775210&type=1&l=86700849f2

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