Month: March 2004

Denise – The Wine Shop

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denise wine shop

This is Denise, the wine shop in Kuching where there’s a relatively
large selection of wines and a nice ambient atmosphere for drinking. We
went there after the (mis)adventure on Saturday evening. Some other
friends joined us, and we sat there on Saturday night for a while
before going to Earthquake. Here’s a couple of shots of the wine
selection:

denise1

denise2

denise3

denise4

There are wines to suit every taste and budget, with premium selections as well.

denise interior

This is the interior where there are cigars, snacks and comfy seats
for people to sit around and enjoy their wine. We had some Italian
Cabernet Sauvignon which I promptly forgot the name of. The place is
nice, you can even reserve your seats, go out and have supper and then
come back again.

denise wine bucket

Here’s the wine bucket.

denise us

This is some of us, my apologies, I forgot to take photos of everyone.

I saw a table where there was a group of people openly displaying
and consuming Ecstasy pills with their wine before going clubbing:

denise ecstasy

The audacity! 😉 It distracts from the nice clientele this establishment wants to attract.

Hot springs! Hot spring? Hot tires!

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borneo hl

Our adventure to the only (?) hot springs in Kuching began at
approximately 15:30. It was an on the spot decision to go and off we
went to Borneo Highlands (which was the original destination).
Unfortunately, we were told that we needed tickets, which can only be
bought in Kuching town, which is 29 km or so away from where we are.

hotsprings

This was on Saturday afternoon, and I remember vaguely seeing
something about hot springs some 2 km away, so we decided to go for
that instead. With a lot of guesses, intuition, outright trial and
error and 15 mg of Xanax, alcohol and hydroponics produce, we managed
to get our asses pretty fucking lost.

indon link

We took a wrong turn that cost us 1 whole hour under less than
optimal road conditions (think steep inclines, mud and gravel single
lanes). We turned back and noticed that the Hot Spring sign was
pointing right instead of left. Duh. Off we went again, and this road
was way more complex then the last.

piling bridge

There was thrown together pilings as bridges (with one piling missing in the middle).

piling bridge right

piling bridge left

piling bridge far left

There were fucking rotten wood bridges. We didn’t know where we
ended up but we knew that the fuel was running low and according to my
calculations, we used up more gas coming here, so I was thinking we
wouldn’t be going back to Kuching tonight.

pitcher plants

I was actually looking forward to going to spend the night at a
longhouse and drink some tuak and all that. 🙂 There were no cellular
lines (we all carry different mobile operator SIM cards, there just
isn’t any coverage there) so we couldn’t very well attempt to call
friends for gas rescue.

wrong sign

Thus, at one last wrong turn, as it was getting dark, we decided to
leave, on account of the low fuel. I thought it would have been a real
adventure to spend the night in a longhouse with the locals, but alas,
we had plans for that night as well (next two posts will be about the
night part of Saturday night). Thus we tried to drive back (well
everyone except me, since all the three substances together does not a
good driver make).

muddy incline

I said tried. There was this steep incline and we were in a van and
we simply could not get the better of the hill. The wheels were caked
with mud. There was no friction. It kept stopping at some point near
the top of the incline. There were many, many attempts and all three of
us (including Miriam) had to push the van to give it more traction. No
go.

muddy clothes

Look at the tire burn on the rocks.

tire burn 1

tire burn 2

I imagine a lot of tire material was lost to this hill.

tire burn 3

There was even smoke coming out while revving the engine in order to try and fucking own this hill.

tire smoke

All seemed lost until we remembered something Ah Boon had said last
time. Same situation, they used a back weight to compensate for the
traction required to overcome such gnarly situations.

backweight trick

Here’s passing along the advice: Get everyone except the driver to
sit at the back, the back most part of the vehicle. Worked like a
charm. There were at least 10 aborted attempts to get past this
obstacle, but with this backweight (us three), we went over in the
first try and it was onwards, ho!

salam van ahoy

We drove back to the place with the piling bridge, and not satisfied
at not being able to play around in hot springs, we went for this cold
running water instead.

cold spring 1

cold spring 2

It was clean and used for drinking water at the village downstream.

drinking water

It felt cool, but it was dark (nightfall already, spent several hours on the road) so we headed home after a few minutes.

the adventurers

Thus ends our adventure.

We shall try again next Saturday. No hot springs will be the best of us, no sir!

My dear daughter Natalie

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This is the first photo I’ve ever shown of my daughter Natalie, aged
10. I’ve never admitted to having a daughter, but I have an urge to
inform you all about my wonderful daughter. I had a hormone fuelled
transgression when I was at the tender age of 13, and I feel obliged to
post about the consequences of the said transgression – my beautiful
daughter.

natalie ha
Like father, like daughter. Does she look like me?

Okay, so she’s not my daughter. 🙂 Now be honest, who actually fell
for it? Anyway, she’s Natalie Ha Siaw Ching of St. Theresa. She’s in
Primary 5 and is 10 going to 11 this year. She’s the daughter of one of
my coworkers, Lynette. Her mother brought her and her brother into the
office on Saturday morning because there was no one to babysit them.

I found out that she wants to be an author and one of the first
thing she did when she came in is to ask for a pencil and a piece of
paper to write an essay (!). How many 10 year olds have you met
like that? She likes reading too and is very intelligent, which reminds
me of myself when I was young.

This is the original copy of the essay that she wrote. She gave it
to me because she doesn’t keep her work. Here’s a scanned version of
Natalie Ha’s work, handwritten by the future author:

natalie essay

It would be noteworthy to mention that all the events she wrote
about are real. Her parents brought her up candidly, telling her
everything and being open about everything. My coworker (her mom) told
me about these events before I knew Natalie and it was touching and
nice to read her essay (which she completed in a couple of minutes). It
would do well to go back and re-read that piece now that you know
everything she wrote about is real.

Anyway, if you can’t read the scanned image, here’s the transcript:

Seafood at Petanak, Kuching

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petanak central market

This is Petanak Central Market. We went there for seafood last
night. Petanak is another option for Top Spot (?) in the city for
seafood. This place is more down to earth.

petanak 99

We sat at table 99. There was me, Ah Boon, Ah Lung, Miriam and Ah Ann joined us for a while.

poh fah seafood

We ate at Poh Fah Seafood. It had my surname on it. 😉 Stall 38.

petanak garlic

Here’s a must for every seafood meal. Raw garlic. Mmm…

petanak chicken

This is the first dish that came out. I think it’s chicken, comprised exclusively of drumsticks.

petanak fried rice

We all had fried rice (goes well with seafood) except Ah Boon (he had steamed rice).

petanak cockles

This is the next dish – cockles. It’s those shells that goes into halves once cooked. It was nice.

petanak us eating

Here is a blurry photo the proprietor took of us. Beer goes well with seafood too.

petanak seafood

This is some tofu dish. Tasted surprisingly nice when you have the munchies. I had two.

petanak oyster pancake

Here is the classic of all seafood meals here – oyster pancake. It’s
crunchy and nice, with oysters in the middle. Best dish of the meal
disregarding the chicken, which should be discarded since it’s not
seafood per se.

petanak cat

Here’s a skinny stray small cute kitten that I found. I swear I
wasn’t holding onto her by force. She liked me, and stayed under my
chair for the rest of the meal. I like her too, very cute and small and
furry.

Accident: Car fell into drain

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petanak accident

This is a photo I took of one of many accidents in Kuching last
night due to the less than optimal weather. It was raining cats and
dogs and I wasn’t sober as usual, so like I said, I’m the last choice
for the designated driver always. 😉 Ah Lung was driving and I was in
the car with him and Miriam when we saw this accident. He was kind
enough to turn back and let me get a snapshot of this. It’s a white car
going into a drain with a crane trying to extract the car from the mess
it got itself into. The front part was rather damaged. The photo
quality isn’t optimal due to lighting conditions (dark) and atmospheric
issues (heavy rain).

Bermain main dengan doktor

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main doktor

Hari in dalam Sejarah. Saya pergi ke doktor baru untuk cakap cakap
dan ambil dadah (medikasi). Kamu semua tahu saya biasa cakap apa lah.
Doktor ini cuba letak saya dalam terapi SSRI tapi saya sesungguhnya
bertaruh untuk nak benzodiazepine. Saya memang cakap baik baik lah,
macam kawan, saya cakap dengan doktor.

Ada satu benda sangat lucu. Doktor itu tengok saya dan cakap “Saya
dapat lihat kamu tidak akan main ubat ini jadi ok lah”. Hahaha! Saya
hampir ketawa hingga perut sakit. Tapi saya tahan. Saya tahan dan cakap
“Ya, saya tahu medikasi ini adalah restrikted, saya memang ambil untuk
mengawal kondisi saya sahaja”.

“Baik”, kata doktor itu. Hehehe! Lucu hingga saya hamper tertawa
keluar, tapi nasib baik tidak. Yang paling memuaskan adalah caj untuk
semua ini. Doktor ini pandai, tahu bagi 30 pill untuk 2 minggu (14
hari) jadi ada extra. 🙂 Saya dibagi (semua generic) 0.5 mg alprazolam
(Xanax) untuk dimakan pagi dan petang (1 mg sehari) dan 10 mg
nitrazepam (Mogadon) untuk dimakan malam (2 x 5 mg). Semua ini untuk RM
36 sahaja!!!

xanax relax
The doctor put “relax” on the alprazolam pack. I kid you not. I shall relax then. 😉

Ini adalah Main-main Dengan Doktor Edisi #6. Ini adalah edisi
terakhir kerana ini adalah skript tidak habis habis, jadi saya sudah
cukup benzodiazepines.

English version:

main doktor xanax
0.5 mg APO-ALPRAZOLAM (generic Xanax) pills

Today in History. I went to a new doctor to have a chat and to get
some drugs (medication). You all know what I always say. This doctor
tried to put me on SSRI therapy but I insisted for benzodiazepines.
Naturally, I spoke politely, like friends even, with the doctor.

There’s one thing that’s really funny. The doctor looked at me and
said “I can see that you’re not the type that would abuse these drugs,
so okay”. Hahaha! I nearly shit my pants laughing. But I managed to
control my mirth. I composed myself and said “Yeah, I know these
medications are restricted for a reason, so I always take it just to
control my condition”.

“Good”, said the doctor. Hehehe! OMG, that was so funny, I nearly
laughed out loud, good thing I didn’t. The best part about this is the
bill for the medication. This doctor is good, he gave me 30 pills for 2
weeks (14 days) so there’s extra. 🙂 I was given (all generics) 0.5 mg
alprazolam (Xanax) mornings and afternoons (1 mg daily) and 10 mg
nitrazepam (Mogadon) nights (2 x 5 mg). All this for only RM 36!!!

nitrazepam blister pack
5 mg Nitrapam (generic Nitrazepam) by MPI in blister packs

This is Playing Around With Doctors Issue #6 (Doctor Shopping
Kuching #6). This is the last (final) edition since I got a permanent
script off this doctor as well, so I have enough benzodiazepines to
self-medicate.

P/S – My apologies for the less than eloquent English translation. I
wrote this in Bahasa Malaysia first and I had to translate it from
there so there may be fragmented sentences, inaccuracies in grammer etc.

I, Insect

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i insect

Drenched with the blood of Christ
What is the meaning of life, the universe, everything?
Only darkness awaits.
One step at a time
Taking me closer to my death
Self destructive
One foot in the grave
I can see the end of the road…
I await the eternal cold
and I’ll embrace it when it happens.
Running around in circles,
Living a life of solitude.

Happy Boom – exploding packets!

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happy boom

Happy Boom. Do you remember the packets that you squeeze and it
explodes when you throw it away? I finally found them! I’ve been
looking for this for ages, I’ve only seen it during my primary school
days and now I’ve found it at a grocery shop in Tabuan Jaya. Basically,
what you do is give these packets a bit of a squeeze, throw it away,
and it expands and explodes.

happy boom front

The Happy Boom packs go for RM 0.40 each. I got a couple to play
with. I had to take the photos in the egg containers in the shop coz
the lighting goes better this way.

happy boom back

This is the back of the package. It contains Sodium Bicarbonate and
Citric Acid Monohydrate. I prepped my digicam, gave it a bit of a
squeeze and got ready to take pictures.

happy boom expand

This is the Happy Boom expanding. Once you squeeze the packet,
friction combines the two components (shown later) together and it
starts to expand. It will explode soon after that, leaving no visible
remnant.

happy boom explode

We were too close the first time and when it exploded, it got three
of us, except Ah Boon. The discharge was not unpleasant, just a quick
wipe and everything’s fine. It got on the digicam lenses too, but I
keep camera wipes in there (amongst other things *cough*) so that’s no
problem.

happy boom contents

The back of the packaging says “Peket ini tidak boleh dibuka” (This
packet cannot be opened) which basically has the effect of telling me
to open the packet, and so I opened one up to see what’s inside. This
is what it contains – a small packet of sealed liquid, which I presume
is the citric acid and some powder, which I presume is sodium
bicarbonate.

happy boom break

I broke open the liquid pack, and the liquid seems cool, it’s no
industrial grade acid, obviously, so don’t worry about it. One of my
friends mixed the powder into the water while I snapped a photo:

happy boom froth

This is what the reaction would be outside an enclosed package – it
just bubbles and froths. I imagine Happy Boom works by making the
package expand with the gases made by the reaction between the two
chemicals to the stress limit, which makes it explode.

Thus, I’ve compiled the events of last night. Miriam and Ah Ann came
over. We watched Ju On (the first one) for a while. I generously
self-medicated with benzodiazepines, alcohol and *cough*. We went out
to meet Ah Boon. Then this Happy Boom experiment happened. After that,
we went to eat. I overestimated my stomach capacity and ended up
throwing up. Whoa, like, everything is clear now. 😉 All hail digicams
for memory retrieval!

Japanese Pizza!

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ichiban teppanyaki

There is this wonderful Japanese Pizza available at either I-Chi-Ban
Teppanyaki or Economy Tepanyaki (depending on which sign you look at)
at Tabuan Jaya. I had this last night as well, and this eating
establishment scene preceded the teh c peng post chronologically.

chef jap pizza

This is the proprietor preparing my Japanese Pizza. Watch him shape the pizza into, er…a pizza.

japanese pizza

Now this, my friends, is the Japanese Pizza. It looks and tastes
wonderful. Those brown flaky things on top are cuttlefish! There is a
layer of pork floss between the topping and the pancake. Lovely! The
sauce is a mayonnaise – Thousand Island fusion topping, which goes
really well with the ingredients. There are some brown onion skins
which adds to the taste too.

japanese pizza closeup

Here’s a closer look at the pancake. This is the interior, which
shows raw onions, meat and some other stuff. It’s not authentic
Japanese cruisine, obviously, but this goes for RM 4, and the portion
is generous, which is a great bargain!

boon taiwan sausage

Ah Boon had a plate of chicken chop and this Taiwan sausage (shown
above) which I had as well. Ah Ann had some rice with beef and onions
and Miriam had the Japanese Pizza as well.

I will rewind the events of last night to the last post (which is
chronologically the second post after the initial post) in this series
which lead to me throwing up in the middle of the night in a dirty
longkang in Tabuan Jaya.

Three layer teh c peng

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three layer teh c peng

The photo above shows a beautifully made Teh C Peng with three
visible layers in the mug. Look at the pretty layers! I’ve never seen
anything like this before. This was taken at an eating establishment
somewhere in Tabuan Jaya before the throwing up incident. I remember
the four of us (Ah Boon joined us) sitting there and generally making a
ruckus. We had food too but I drank 5 or 6 cups of these wonderful
things. It was just too beautiful to resist. Three layers – the bottom
one is sugar water (dense), the middle one is evaporated milk, and the
top layer is the tea (least dense). Stir it up and it makes very pretty
colors…and it finally settles into the rich, creamy brown of teh c
peng.

I remember us making orders in an unacceptably loud volume and
inserting classics like “Mesti mahu kau, if not super kau, we won’t pay
for it”.

I will reconstruct the rest of the night prior to this based on my
digicam photo time dating. I think there was a collective sigh of
relief when we left. Oh, and 2 mg of clonazepam to a completely
non-benzodiazepine tolerant person produced exceedingly powerful
disinhibition, similar but stronger to that of alcohol (based on my
knowledge of that person’s experience with alcohol), and the shredding
of proper “social behavior”. It is an interesting observation that I
made, will keep that in my notes.

P/S – The abovementioned person took clonazepam on his own free will.

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