Citric Acid to Clean Kettle

I followed a Japanese blogger lately. And she cleaned stainless steel items with Citric Acid, it looks so amazing. So I bought one bottle of Citric Acid powder. It's a 500g bottle. First thing first, initially I thought it will smell like vinegar, it is not, it's odourless. Well, a good material property. 

citric acid powder

instruction of usage

Previously, I cleaned my electric kettle by scrubbing. I only did that when I feel like it. I didn't clean my kettle for sometime, and the water stain is building up. So here comes the citric acid. 

stained electric kettle

I boiled full kettle of water and add 2 table spoons of the citric acid powder. There's no bubbles forming. The instruction mentions 30 minutes. After 20 minutes, i checked and noticed the kettle's bottom is already cleaned. So, I removed the water. 

Well, The result is positive. Although some stains still visible, overall it's much cleaner than before. Yes, Citric Acid is useful cleaning agent. 

after 20 minutes of soaking

Soaked Orange Peel Water

I have to admit, my socks are smelly. I tried to soak in vinegar before and it's not working. One fine day, after I have eaten an orange, I looked at the orange peel and think of a reddit post I read earlier, some redditors said that putting orange peel inside smelly shoes can help to tame the smell. 

So I put the orange peel inside a biscuit plastic liner and add water, in no way I will use my food containers to soak my socks. The biscuit plastic liner is going to be thrown away anyway.

orange peel soaked in water

The next day, when I looked back, the water have turned yellowish. However, the smell is not that pleasant, a bit citrusy and a bit of decaying smell. Anyway, my socks are not that pleasant either.

colour after ~24 hours of soaking

dirty smelly socks

I bravely placed the socks inside the "concoctions" and planned to soak until the next morning.

soaking

Well, I tried this so you all don't need to try this. It attracted insects! See the 2 black spots on the sock? It's some insects, the one that come if you didn't clean up your rubbish for few days. 

insects after soaking in orange peel water

Upon discovering the insects, I hurried poured the orange peel water away and cleaned the socks. The socks still smell the same and dirty spot also same. Anyway, good experiment, now I know it's not working!

Active Oxygen Descaling Tablets

Well, I was so into cleaning videos lately and came across this active oxygen thingy. So when I found this "Active Oxygen Descaling Bubble Water Cup Tea Scale Removal Kettle Scale Removal Cleaning Tea Set Tea Cup Cleaning Effervescent Tablets" in Lazada, I bought it, it's cheap (I think), it's around RM1 one box (10 tablets per box). So a tablet cost around 10 cents.

Well, on the packaging, there's printed sentence "high efficiency bubbling tablets". Well, when I opened it, only 1 tablet that still somehow maintain the tablet shape, others all became powder already. I read the ingredients list, it has baking soda 小苏打, citric acid 柠檬酸,  active oxygen agent 活氧因子, cleaning agent 去垢因子(not sure actual is what chemical, just literal translate). The list sounds not dangerous, so although it has becomes powdery, I used it nevertheless. 

active oxygen descaling bubbling happiness

only 1 left that somehow maintain the tablet shape

one month before expiry!

Anyway, I kept 3 coffee / tea stained cups and intended to use this tablets on my stained cups. Actually I could still clean it with good hard scrubbing, but if there's a easier way, why not? Right?

stainless steel cup

ceramic mug1

ceramic mug 2

Well, I used the water from vacuum flask, it was boiled like 3 hours prior. The recommended temperature is above 80 degree celcius. Only some bubbles are formed and visible on the stainless steel cup. Other 2 ceramic mugs looked calm, unlike the illustrations on the seller page, the pictures showed a lot of bubbles.

only minor bubbles on the water surface

After around 45 minutes (the instruction mentions 15 to 30 minutes), I  removed the water and slight scrubbed ceramic mug 2, which was the dirtiest. The wall of mug 2 is cleaned but the bottom still with some stains. Ok, so I waited for additional time for two other cups.

cleaned but not totally clean (ceramic mug 2)

For the stainless steel cup, I cleaned it after 2 hours. The stains are mostly gone. However, if I scrubbed it, the stains are quite easy to scrub off too. Ceramic mug is harder to clean. 

most of the stains are gone (stainless steel cup)

Lastly, after 4 hours, I cleaned the ceramic mug 1. Well, the coffee stains are mostly gone, even the bottom part. But the tiny black spots are still there. I read in reddit, many commented that it was metal particles from the spoon from too much stirrings. Well, as long as it's not mold, I am ok with it. 

stains are gone but there are still some black spots (mug 1)

Conclusion, for this active oxygen descaling tablets, it is kind of useful to remove coffee stains. However, one can use also the clorox to clean it and don't need to use hot water!

Horrible Histories: Vile Victorians by Terry Deary illustrated by Martin Brown

After spending so much money on books, I felt the need to read some of my books to justify the spending, although my hobby is book buying! To avoid loading myself with some serious topics that will take some time to read, I have chosen a very thin book about Victorians. It's history and so long ago. So it won't affect my minds too much. Nowadays, I bought less novels, more on other genres. 

Horrible Histories: Vile Victorians by Terry Deary illustrated by Martin Brown

I read this on one Saturday while waiting to see the doctor during my checkup. Well, I was the number 7 in line although I reached around 7am, people woke up so early! I only managed to see the doctor on around 11:30am. I got to read around 80% of the book while waiting and finished it after got home. 

This book is actually kind of sad. It started with some facts about Queen Victoria and then some stories on Victorians lives. The child mortality rate was very high, living space was scarce. The book provides an example, "I have note of a locality where 48 men, 73 women and 59 children are living in 34 rooms.". Then there were some issues like insufficient food, child labour in coal mines, chimney sweeping, ribbon making that caused death or mutilations, etc.  

short sentences with illustrations

Next, about the schools. I couldn't imagine it. Although in 1870 the education bill was passed and every child between 5 and 12 years old had to go to school, Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens was based on an infamous teacher that caused two of his students lost their sight. There were inequality back then too, in 1870, women teachers were paid 58 pounds a year, men were paid 94 pounds. That's a big differences. There were big classes too, around 70 or 80 students per class, well, I think it's still ok. When I was in primary school, my classes were around 40 pupils and there were 8 classes on my year. Nowadays, in the same school, I heard from my friend, there was only about 4 to 5 classes per year, and 1 class around 20 to 30 students. The birth rate is lower from year to year.

Then there are information on Victorians' games, literature, plays, transportation, sewage system (mmmm.......). Also there was also the bad working environment in the factory. Lifespan was short and for poor persons, often they had to share graves with multiple bodies. Two recipes were provided too, "candied carrots" and "half day pudding". Well, not a fan of Victorian food.

I thought Jack the Ripper was a character from novel, it is not. It is a killer from Victorian era. Another famous criminal was Mary Ann Cotton. She killed around 15 to 20 people (husbands, lover, children) and not get caught due to she changed name everytime she remarried and death was very common in that era. Sweeney Todd was really a character from the penny dreadful novel though.  

The author closed with quote from Charles Dickens "A tale of two cities". By the time the Queen died, there were electric lights and electric chairs, motor cars and crashes, very very rich and the very very poor. It was such the contrast. Actually the rick poor gap now is also there, and it's becoming worst. Ah.

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way."

2026 First Haul of Books from bookxcess

I once told a friend, my hobby is not reading, my hobby is buying books. I am so exited when I buy books. Actually nowadays, it is so difficult to finish a book. I read the most when I was in Japan where I commuted to work using train, I read a lot then. Now commuting to work by car took around 2 to 2.5 hours a day to and forth. It so demoralizing, so I had my retail therapy when I buy books. 

This is my biggest haul so far, not the most expensive, but definitely the most books from bookxcess. I bought 39 books in one order. When I received the order, it's so heavy that I have to open the box outside my house and carry some books inside first until I was able to lift it up. 

my book haul 2026

Below shows the books I bought on January 2026. Since I earned more now, I am more generous on this books buying "adventure". There are books that I wouldn't dare to buy 10 years ago, the coffee table books, anything above RM20, cookbooks, etc. Yeah, although I didn't cook, I bought cookbooks!  

all the books

Although I got the books fast, two books from the order didn't make it.

2 books were not sent

I bought biographies, Hans Christian Anderson (children's book author), Amy Tan (an American author, I knew her from The Joy Luck Club, read the book in my 20s in university) and Michael Faraday (have been tortured in the science lessons with Faraday's law). 

biographies

Next, expensive and not really useful for me, the cookbooks. There are other food related books. It's interesting to read about food items, I am just not interested to cook only.

cookbooks / food related

Then another batch of art related books. Initially I thought the magic of stainless steel is a material related books. It is not, it is a book about things built in stainless steel from one glance. Anyway, it doesn't talk about lattice structure for sure. I kind of like the steel related classes in Uni though. 

fun books

I bought also some science titles on biology, design and economy too.

various science subjects

I bought so many books on numbers. Total 7 from this order. LOL!!! I maybe not so good on numbers, I do like to read about them, although maybe I won't understand a word of it.

books about numbers

I also bought novels. Only 3 though. One which I thought is the classics, The Metamorphosis, it is not, it's a book from Raisa Gabrielli (reading her websites reveals she is a yoga instructor and a teacher in international school, and she also run a charity). Another is a Star Trek novel, I always prefer Star Trek to Star wars. And a novel named "The Honey Bus". I bought this book for the title, with honey!

novels

Lastly, I didn't know where to separate the genre in. A sticker book for nephew, a book on "What Women Want" and a history book on bronze age. 

sticker book for nephew, a history book and a economy book?

I guess I will control myself before another book buying exercise. And predict that I will read the novel first. 

Happy buying!