Author: Nayar

Published on by Nayar

Making Veg Burger

I love meat. I love BBQs. I love burgers. But I want to reduce my meat consumption for animal welfare purposes. So I decided to wander a bit in the veggie section. Let’s try a veg burger this time!

Price:

At Rs 69 a pack of 4 patties, it is not cheap. Compared to chicken burger at Rs 63 for a set of 10 patties. But I guess demand for this product is much less hence the higher price required to make a profit.

 

 

Cooking

Easy peazy

Taste

It tastes really good. You do get the “feeling of full” after finishing it. I guess the MSGs doing their magic there. But yeah. Really nice alternative to meat ones. Will definitely do again 🙂

 

Published on by Nayar

When will we be ready for Linux phones?

I uninstalled the WordPress app on my Huawei Y9. The application would always bug now and then.

But then I thought why not open the browser and see if I can write from there. And it works. The admin panel is web responsive and the performance is very good.

Yeah, I can also watch YouTube while blogging in split screen mode.

I use Facebook via the browser too. It works great. Maybe I can’t do live videos from the browser. Twitter is perfectly fine to be used in the browser.

I think as more apps become web responsive and browser api such as location and notifications become more common, switching to a Linux phone will be easier.

Published on by Nayar

My Huawei Y9’s screen got cracked :(

 

I thought the screen was unbreakable but I was wrong. I owned this phone for more than 1.5 years. It fell multiple times: on the road, on the carpet, on the floor in my room. But it didn’t get a single scratch on the screen. I was impressed. And yeah, I didn’t put any screen protector nor a casing during this time.

However one day, the phone fell on the floor in the gym changing room. It was marble tiles and boom! The screen cracked 🙁

I am however able to use the phone like this, it is not presentable if you’re doing a demo in front of a client.

Mobile repair shops in Curepipe and Rose-hill are quoting me Rs 2500 – Rs 3200 to replace the screen while the official Huawei support centre for Mauritius told me it would cost around Rs 3200 to replace. However the will have to order the screen which will take 2 weeks.

Should I get a cheaper replacement screen in a shop or get the original one from the official repair centre? With the specs of the phone, it can easily be used 2 or even 3 years more. 4GB of RAM is quite good.

Published on by Nayar

Anyone else got shocked by Mauritius Telecom Bills? Rs 600 increase!!! (MyT)

How the hell did our MyT bill become so high all of a sudden? We used to pay around Rs 1,000 per month. But now, it has become around Rs 1600!

vs

We don’t have the “Smart Box” thing. How the hell did they start charging so much? Plus, on the website, the 4K package is at Rs 1200 per month. Where does Rs 1,316 come from? VAT is added before the total again.

The aim of this article is to raise awareness of such issues. Now we need to mentally prepare to go fight these people for our rights 🙁

Published on by Nayar

How much does your car really cost you per month in Mauritius?

I have had 2 cars till now: a Volkswagen Polo 1996 and a Honda Jazz 2008. Which one is cheaper to run and operate? I have logged every expense which I had to carry out on both of them on a Google Spreadsheet.

I bought my VW Polo at Rs 72,000 in November 2015 and I sold it for Rs 40,000 in February 2019. But, as you know, cars come with lots and lots of other expenses such as registration tax, road tax, insurance, repairs and maintenance. In all, the money to acquire and run the Polo for 39 Months was Rs 142,000 (excluding fuel). I drove 39,144km during this time. If we add fuel too, the total spent was Rs 275,000.

TCO per month for VW Polo:  Rs (142,000 – Rs 40,000)/39 month = Rs 2615

TCO per km for VW Polo: Rs (142,000 – Rs 40,000)/39,144 = Rs 2.61/km

Total cost per km for VW Polo: Rs (275k – 40k) / 39,114 = Rs 6.00/km

I bought my Honda at Rs 210,000. With all other costs taken into consideration, as of today 22 months later, the total money spent was Rs 257,000.  I estimate the resale value to be Rs 190k. I drove 24,280km with it till now. With the fuel added, it is Rs 331k

TCO per month for Honda Jazz: Rs (257k – 190k)/22 month = Rs 3053

TCO per km for Honda Jazz: Rs Rs (257k – 190k)/24,280 = Rs 2.77/km

Total cost per km for Honda Jazz: Rs (331k – 190k) / 39,114 = Rs 5.82/km

Summary

Cars cost a lot to buy and maintain. The more expensive and exotic, the cost can be drastically higher than mine.