Year: 2008

Life in the fast lane

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sorting head

I have been living life as if I expect to kick the bucket in 10 years. It’s not a subconscious thing either, it’s pretty obvious from the self-destructive tendencies manifested in my behavior and attitude. I drive recklessly, as if I want to get into an accident. I drink excessively and with abandon. I get into ludicrous situations and generally make a mess out of every good thing that I have left. I have fucked up relationships and pretty much destroy all that is good in my life.

…and I’ve been wondering why I do that. Suicide by hedonism?

I know my renal and liver function isn’t exactly at it’s optimal level (due to an unfortunate overdose resulting in an emergency dialysis done about two years back) but still the doctor reckons it’s all the years of substance and alcohol (a)buse that caused all that damage instead of a single isolated incident.

My friend recognized my self destructive tendencies despite knowing only a part of my life and asked me what made me this way. I couldn’t answer him – either I don’t know, or it’s so deep rooted that I don’t want to know.

He gave me a really good analogy though. It’s like I’m driving down a potential dead end 15 km down the road and since I know it, I’m banging up my car by knocking into the cliffs and roadsides and not caring who I run down in the process.

…but what if it’s not a dead end? What if I could navigate through but due to all the damage I’ve done to my car, I couldn’t anymore since the car is too banged up to make it though?

He has a point there. I shouldn’t be living my life as if there’s no tomorrow.

I shouldn’t be living from day to daze.

Coffee Garden @ Garden Hotel review

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coffee garden

Coffee Garden is the anchor restaurant of Garden Hotel and is a successful F&B establishment in it’s own right. Although Coffee Garden doesn’t draw the local crowd to the extent of the wildly successful Peppers Cafe (Tanahmas Hotel), it does have its regulars and it’s a nice and (relatively) private place for lunch and dinner.

ambience

The interior of Coffee Garden has been given a major overhaul, with glass facades and mood lighting, creating a very pleasing ambiance. The post-modern architecture (actually, I don’t even know what post-modern architecture means, I just wrote it to make myself look more intelligent ;)) with reflective wall length mirrors looks amazing.

mirror

There are LCD screens placed strategically around the restaurant and an al fresco seating area outside for the nicotine brigade. Coffee Garden serves surprisingly good food, perhaps even better than Peppers Cafe. The measure of a successful hotel F&B outlet is the amount of locals patronizing the restaurant, and Coffee Garden has a loyal following.

garlic bread

The dinner menu at Garden Cafe is very comprehensive and covers Chinese and Western cuisine. There is complimentary garlic bread with every meal and the prices for most dishes are very reasonable.

seafood platter

This is the Seafood Gala (RM 16 ++) which is similar to the Manhattan Seafood Platter at Manhattan Fish Market. It consists of baked mussels, pan fried fish fillet, deep fried calamari rings and grilled shrimp served with garlic butter rice (Mmm…) and lemon butter sauce. The only thing missing is an MFM waitress going all Firebat on the platter (StarCraft reference here). 😉

mixed grill

The Garden Mixed Grill (RM 17 ++) has grilled lamb chop, grilled beef (otherwise known as steak), grilled chicken, sausages and beef bacon. There is a great portfolio of edible mammals represented in this dish and it’s perfect as a sample of everything they offer.

stout

Coffee Garden also serves a wide variety of beer and alcopops at hotel prices. Their Guinness Stout goes for RM 10 ++ per mug and RM 40 ++ for a jug but regular beers goes for RM 30 ++ per jug, which is pretty much the price you’ll expect to pay at other watering holes.

I have been going there regularly for lunch with Autumn to eat through their entire set lunch menu. The lunch menu is limited and priced at RM 8++ inclusive of a drink and soup.

chicken

Fried Chicken With Peanut Soup

first

Autumn had this during our first lunch date there. I’ve had it as well, it’s pretty good but a little on the bland side. It should be noted that some of the waiters and waitresses are not very good photographers so you may have to get them to take several shots. 😉

bbq

Fried Fish Fillet with BBQ Sauce

first lovebite

This was also on our first attempt to eat through the set lunch menu. This is the best dish in the set lunch menu in our opinion. It’s the BBQ sauce…it tastes great. Notice the similar office wear but please do not comment on the lovebite. 😉

squid

Fried Squid in Celery

second shared

I shared this dish with Autumn coz we were not both not really hungry that day. I think this was a couple of days after the first visit since I was wearing a tie to cover up the still visible hickey. The squid is probably the other dish I would eat, the others are pretty bland.

beef

Fried Beef with Garlic

third time

I had this during the third trip to Coffee Garden. It’s nothing to write home about. Astute readers will notice a new hickey on my neck. I swear, it’s not due to Autumn. I don’t know how it got there. 😉

duck

Fried Duck with Black Pepper

third

Autumn had the duck during the third trip. It’s alright, but again, Coffee Garden’s lunch menu isn’t really as good as the dinner menu.

chiew fong

It took us about two weeks to get through the five (5) set lunch menu coz you don’t want to eat the same food everyday. It’s still one of our regular hangouts though due to the privacy of the place.

coffee garden end

Coffee Garden is a great place for lunch and dinner. The set lunch menu is cheap considering the air-conditioned comfort and privacy of the establishment and it manages to attract quite a few of the lucrative 9-5 crowd during lunchtime. Their dinner menu is excellent – it’s much better than their set lunch menu, which is mass produced. I give Coffee Garden two thumbs up.

Neko

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neko

I saw a cat today at a grocery shop – it was very tame, sleeping on top of a plastic bin. I fondled, er, I mean caressed it and it didn’t flinch or even move but just gave a lazy meow. I love cats like these and it got me thinking about getting a cat. I have been deprived of feline company for too long.

I went to a pet shop and saw a Persian cat I really liked. I love her personality, she’s affectionate and playful, jumping at my fingers when I played with it and biting it (not seriously, just playfully). I love that cat and would have bought it home right away but it was going for RM 1,300 which is a little too high for my budget.

I’m still thinking about the cat right now. It’s very nice and her greatest asset is her playful and affectionate personality. She would make great lolcats posts. 🙂

I love cats and I want to get one to put in my room. I’ll give it a litter box and find a lint remover to get rid of the fur she’ll shed on my clothes and sleep with it. RM 1,300 is a bit steep though…so I’m thinking about other options.

I want a cat, it would make me less lonely. 🙂

A feline companion, so to speak. I hear it does wonders for depression and mood swings too. 😉

The evolution of Chinese names

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gf writing

This is my Chinese name as written by Melody. I don’t know how to write my own Chinese name except for the middle character (coz it has less strokes and thus, is easier to remember). The translation is “Fu Huai Bin” – pronounced “foo why bin” but it’s written as Poh Huai Bin officially coz that’s how the Heng Hua translate the Chinese character for “Fu”.

Poh (the first character) is my family name a.k.a last name. It’s inherited and does not have any significance to it. Someone told me a very interesting anecdote about family names though – he said that we don’t actually have family names. A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away (actually, just Ancient China) we only have one name e.g.

Bin

Those are feudal times, so the lesser ones amongst us went to work for the richer (land owning) ones. Let’s say that I was born in a very poor family and went to work for a landowner named Poh. Back then, it wouldn’t be a 9 – 5 job but some backbreaking Biblical toil and labor stuff.

chinese name 1

Now, there are probably a lot of Bins out there so I’ll be called Poh’s Bin – to avoid being confused with, say, Tiong’s Bin. Thus, my name will literally be “Poh Ah Bin” e.g. The Bin from The House of Tiong.

Once, I’ve made it big and have my own property, I will have my own plot of land and have slaves working under me e.g. Fong, Tang, Ching, Hong. Tang will be called Bin Ah Tang “Tang from The House of Bin“.

chinese name 2

Over the years, we evolved with the times and started getting customized names. However, the Chinese never dropped the surname (family name) so the ones that are in current circulation were the rich and land owning folks from the feudal times.

I don’t know how historically accurate the anecdote is, but it’s quite interesting nevertheless. Anyway back to my name, the Poh doesn’t actually mean anything – it’s the family name/last name so my name would be Huai Bin.

phb chinese

Huai means Caring
Bin is made up of two words – Wen (Scholar) and Wu (Warrior)

so my name is The Caring Scholar-Warrior from The House of Poh.

…but please, just call me Huai Bin. 😉

Rosanna

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rosanna

Rosanna means gracious rose and it’s a pretty unique name. I remembered it the first time I met her while playing Counter-Strike a good 8-9 years ago. I bumped into Rosanna at Delta Mall again and I’m pretty bad with names but I recalled her straight away due to the unusual moniker.

rosanna eyes

She is sporting a curious pair of contact lenses that makes her eyes look like ladybugs. It’s bright ruby red and has specks similar to that of the beetle (a ladybug is basically a beetle).

rosanna me

It was good to catch up with her again after such an extended absence. It turns out that she’s also working in Sibu now. 🙂

Note to self: Remove tongue piercing before public speaking engagement tomorrow so I don’t slur my words.

HDS:

2002:
Assignments galore!
I finally managed to update after assignment week.

Gedera
Sri Lanka cuisine in Melbourne. My first attempts at a food review. I was pretty bad at it, compared to the reviews I do now. Oh well, baby steps and all that.

2003:
Nestle Fitness Promotional Giveaway @ Kenanga International, KL
Nestle Fitness promotion at the place where I work. They were giving out free samples.

Photos of Jalan Sultan Ismail – Jalan P. Ramlee – Suria KLCC – Bangsar
I like this one – it’s a photographic journey of the route I used to take to work when I was in KL. I work in KL and lived at Damansara (opposite HELP Institute – the university for those who requires exactly what the name suggests ;)) so I had to take the bus, LRT, and walk. It’s a “peek in the daily life” post.

2004:
The Garden of Adem
Love is in the air? The title is a wordplay on the restaurant’s name and the Garden of Eden.

2005:
No one wants to see your fucking weekend night out photos!
Self-parody and satire at it’s finest. I coined the term. 😉

2006:
I was still in the hospital, so no updates. I was hospitalized a lot of times in 2006 – guess it wasn’t really my year. 😉

The Dumpling Teahouse

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the dumpling teahouse

The Dumpling Teahouse is an eating establishment specializing in beef noodles and dumplings. It’s located near Mitsu Shabu Shabu and the interior is not air-conditioned despite the split units visible from the exterior. I’ve been there twice and they never bothered to switch on the air-conditioning, probably due to a lack of customers.

the dumpling teahouse sign

The good thing about The Dumpling Teahouse (besides the cute name) is the relative privacy of the place. It just doesn’t draw a huge crowd although the beef noodles are pretty good. I’m not sure if it’s due to poor advertising or just plain bad feng shui, but the place never really took off. 😉

teahouse interior

Geomancy Sifu: Your walls not good. Bad for luck. Money all flow out like water in the river. You should turn on air con. The ceiling fan blow all your money away!

teahouse fan

Geomancy Sifu: OMFG! You got a big fan as a decoration some more! No wonder la. Money all fly away.

teahouse beef noodles

Geomancy Sifu: Nevermind, I eat your Beef Noodle (RM 5). Payment for services rendered.

teahouse beef

Geomancy Sifu: Your beef chunks very big. Soft and tender too. Soup very spicy. I like. Increase man’s vigor. Noodles also curly, flat type. Good for longevity.

teahouse dumpling fried

Geomancy Sifu: Bring some Chives and Pork Dumplings (RM 4.50) for the leng lui here. Can choose fried or steamed izzit? I want fried. Eh, wait, Chiew Fong (Autumn) doesn’t eat pork. Nevermind. I eat. Quite tasty.

teahouse dumpling steamed

Geomancy Sifu: She half vegetarian, so give her Mushroom Chicken Dumplings (RM 4.50). What la, you guys all pork and beef one. Steamed, not bad. Had better though.

teahouse chiew fong

Geomancy Sifu: Your beef noodles good but your dumplings so so only. I suggest you rename the place to The Beef Noodle Teahouse.

teahouse bulb

Geomancy Sifu: Hmm…your 9 mm (bulb) is like a guiding light in the night shining bright. Eh, sorry, I rap.

Credit cards – boon or bane?

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visa gold

I have just received another credit card – it’s a Petronas Visa Gold card from Maybank with no annual fees for life with no conditions. I didn’t apply for it since I’m not a big fan of filling in forms, but someone from the bank called me and told me I qualify for one and asked if I was interested. I told her I don’t like filling out forms (seriously, I hate doing that) but she can go ahead and fill in my particulars for me if she needs the quota, I’ll just make sure there is no High Risk Credit Card Processing wherever I decide to use it

Well, I got a call yesterday saying that the Petronas Visa Gold is ready to be picked up. I’m actually quite lazy to do stuff like that as well, I remember a HSBC credit card that I never picked up coz the place is too far away from where I work. My girlfriend wanted to go to the bank though, so I decided to pick this one up during lunch. I figured it’ll be useful for gas since I pump petrol at Petronas and it’ll soften the petrol price hike with the points for redeeming petrol vouchers.

dapple

However, I have noticed that I always tend to overspend, which is why I don’t carry credit cards in my wallet anymore. I used to have several cards from different banks and ran up a huge debt when I started working. I have to admit that I was never any good at budgeting and I always spend way beyond my means. The amount of money I have in the bank at the end of the month is always in the single digits. Seriously.

Nowadays, banks are overenthusiastic in giving out credit cards – cold calling and going to the extent of filling in all your details for you. It seems that Classic (Silver) cards are reserved for students and fresh graduates starting work since they don’t even offer those anymore. They are very keen on giving out Gold and Platinum cards with high credit limits with impunity, which is great for the bank, but bad for the holder. I can see the potential of overspending on this card already.

I was talking to my girlfriend last night about going on a trip this coming holiday. She likes the beach so I was thinking either Krabi, Bali or Macau. Macau was my choice since there are casinos there and I have this inappropriate romantic sentiment that I’ll beat the house odds and win the trip costs back. 😉 It’s seriously a bad idea though, coz no one ever beats the house.

girlfriend

Bali would cost around RM 2,500 for the plane tickets alone for the both of us ex-Sibu and I think the total trip would probably hit the RM 5,000 mark easily with hotels and food. I shouldn’t even be thinking about it considering I can’t afford 5k right now (since I don’t have that much disposable income in the bank, and thus will be flying on credit).

…but the fact that I’m even considering it seriously is a testament to the fact that credit cards with high credit limits causes people like me to overspend.

I should be dating an accountant, the last girlfriend I had would have knocked me upside the head (coz she’s good at budgeting and all that) for even considering going on the trip. Oh wait, my current girlfriend is technically an accountant too. 😉

Oh well, I’m thinking about Krabi, Thailand. It’ll be cheaper than Bali and I haven’t been there before.

Hmm…should I or should I not?

Anyway, I haven’t given my girlfriend an official sixthseal.com moniker yet – I’m thinking Dapple (20% related to her name) or Melody (near 100% translation of her Chinese name). The relationship will remain under wraps until further notice due to prevailing circumstances. 😉

Aho Mee Sapi Nasi Ayam Restauran

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aho restaurant

Aho Mee Sapi Nasi Ayam Restauran (Literally: Aho Beef Noodles Chicken Rice Restaurant) is one of the best places in town to have beef noodles. It’s a halal establishment operated by Malays and as the signboard suggests the two flagship dishes are the beef noodles and the chicken rice.

aho interior

The place tends to be a bit packed during lunchtime and parking can be a bit of a problem. I went with Autumn, who doesn’t eat beef (or pork for that matter). I’m not a big fan of chicken rice but I love beef noodles. Aho does a very good version of beef noodles, Malay style. I just love the chicken shaped menu for chicken rice and the cow shaped version for beef noodles. Heh!

aho beef noodles

I had the mixed beef noodles (RM 4) which can be ordered with the noodles in a separate bowl (dry) or mixed into the soup (wet). Soupy dishes during lunch isn’t really my thing, not just coz of potential Splash Damage (TM), but coz it increases the body temperature at the warmest time of the day.

aho noodles

Thus, I ordered the dry version with the noodles on the side. The noodles are mixed with Essence of Cow (TM) – it’s so full of mooing goodness, you can taste the beef in the noodles. It’s delicious!

aho beef soup

The soup is even better – you can opt to have certain parts of the cattle or a mixed bowl, which has everything except the genitalia (that part is reserved to make Sup Power). Aho does a very good beef noodle soup. It’s hearty and has that elusive umami taste to it.

aho chicken rice

Autumn had the other specialty of the house – fried chicken rice (RM 4). Aho serves fried chicken instead of the usual steamed or roasted chicken.

aho chicken

However, they do a very good version of fried chicken – it’s not over fried, so the skin comes out crispy but the inner parts are still tender and juicy.

aho us

Aho Mee Sapi Nasi Ayam Restauran is a great place for beef noodles and chicken rice. The restaurant name can a bit of a mouthful though (pun intended) so we just call it Aho. 😉

Moo…

Sarikei road trip with Autumn

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road trip

It’s the long Merdeka Day weekend and it was decided that a road trip is due to bring Autumn to check out the legendary Big Prawn Assam Noodles in Sarikei. She hasn’t tried it before and it’s a public holiday so down we went. We got some much needed rations for the one hour drive down – this is Autumn’s favorite vegetable crackers.

pumpkin

She was tempting me during the drive down…

cucumber

…with various different crackers

potato

…from a repertoire of herbivore food

carrot

…like carrots

long beans

…and long beans. It’s really hard to drive with someone feeding me random bits of vegetables. The long beans threw me off a little due to the phallic shape too. 😉

oat congee

We stopped at the intersection before Sarikei to have some food since it was already past lunchtime. This is mixed oat congee (from a can) which tastes better than it sounds. We’ve been eating this for lunch for quite a while now.

congee inside

It’s really good, comes with a folded plastic disposable spoon and is full of constipation solutions (otherwise known as “fiber”).

me eating

I’m not a big fan of Healthy Stuff (TM) but I have been having a host of health issues lately (not just ED, but constipation to boot :p) so I’m trying to get more fiber into my diet.

me autumn

Anyway, after the brunch inside my car, we weren’t really that hungry anymore so we walked around Sarikei town and did a bit of the tourist camwhoring thing. There’s not much to do in Sarikei except walk around the (only) supermarket – Ngiu Kee.

4114

After an hour or two of this, the QAG 4114 arrived at Glory Cafe and parked in its usual spot – right in front of a yellow fire hydrant. 😉 Oh, this is becoming something of a recurring joke.

noodles

Autumn was a bit apprehensive about the Big Prawn Assam Tom Yam Noodles, but after a sampling of the rich broth, she was sold.

antenna

It turns out that Autumn is really good at peeling the antenna of the big prawns as well. She claims it’s a trick she learned from eating prawns during her youth. I can’t do it myself…

peeled

…but she was kind enough to peel the antenna for me. Thanks Autumn! 🙂

us

I’ve never met anyone who didn’t like the great noodles over here. It’s really worth the drive down if there’s a long weekend or holiday and you haven’t got anything better to do. Cheers!

Cosa Nostra

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cosa nostra

“Our thing”

right hand man

Of course, being the Capo di tutti capi requires the obligatory female companion and a very strong right hand man. 😉

HDS:

2002: University life. This was when USB cell phone chargers were a bit of a novelty item. Old skool. 😉
2003: I moved into my place in KL – it’s a small bedroom costing RM 350 per month. It fits one bed (single) and one desk (small).
2004: Limited Edition Shell mineral water and a post about the new employees at work. I was dating one of them (there’s only one female) and this was the relationship that taught me it’s a Bad Idea (TM) to be dating someone in the same office.
2005: Witty (IMHO) post about oyster pancake.
2006: Project MISER. The start of the popular Project MISER series of posts where I attempt to survive on just RM 250 a month. There are three posts.

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