Month: February 2012

My girlfriend just moved in with me!

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rainie moving in

I know it’s a big step to be taking in the relationship – one of the major milestones. However, I feel that the time has come. A lot of people have told me it’s too early to be doing this but I’m not the type to let tradition or “relationship rules” dictate what I do.

…so I just went and did it.

I asked her to move in with me. 🙂

fixing

Well, for those of you who’ve been to my studio apartment, you’ll know that it’s a bit of a pigsty. Irene famously said that it can sustain its own ecosystem and probably has created new forms of life in its time. She’s seen my pad in Kuching and while the one in KL isn’t as bad as that, it’s still pretty nasty.

cleaning

I managed to get two cleaners to come for 4 hours and an electrician from https://www.electricianperth.net.au/industrial-electrician-perth/ to fix all the lights. There is only one light in the kitchen, the rest of my place has bulbs that have shorted out. Yes, I am living in darkness (in more ways than one).

leap of faith

I had to help the two cleaners do their work coz 4 hours wasn’t enough to clean my studio…which is just a little over 500 sq ft, so you can imagine the kind of messiness (understatement of the decade) that we’re talking about.

Two cleaners for 4 hours: RM 100
Cleaning accessories: RM 142.65
Replacing the 9 lights in my condo that has shorted out: RM 205
Getting groceries so the fridge and pantry will be stocked: RM 182.50
Living with my girlfriend: Priceless

clean studio

I’m really happy to be taking the relationship into a whole new level.

rainie moves in

I don’t know how things would go from here but what I do know for sure is that I’m fixing everything that’s wrong in my life for the one thing that is right. 🙂

Tom’s Too

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toms sibu

I returned to Tom’s Too for lunch a couple of days ago with a friend. She hasn’t been there before and I wanted her to try the food here. It’s just my second time eating here too and I was eager to check out more of their offerings.

charles

Tom’s Too has a range of Italian sodas and I asked Charles (one of the best waiters there – speaks good English and friendly) to show me what they were made of. It’s apparently just syrup from a wide range of flavors mixed with soda water.

butterscotch soda

I had the Butterscotch Italian Soda (RM 8.90) which came in a clear, sparkling liquid. It *did* indeed taste like butterscotch, and reminds me of the old flavored soda fountains of old. I’m kidding, I wasn’t even born when those were around. 😉

toms freeze

My friend has Tom’s Freeze (RM 9.90) – a house specialty concoction that features lychees as its main ingredient. She said it was good. I don’t know, I don’t like lychees. You know those old Chinese banquet dinners that serves lychees with peaches in ice as dessert? I only ate the peaches.

chicken cordon bleu

We both shared the recommendations for mains – she has the Chicken Cordon Bleu (RM 27.50) which was quite good. The chicken was done well and has a slice of ham inside and lots of oozing cheese.

chicken cordon blue

They used breast meat – Chicken Cordon Bleu is supposed to use boneless breast meat – not exactly my favorite cut from our favorite poultry but I rather enjoyed it. I’m pretty sure I ate more than my fair share.

lamb shanks

The other main we had was the Lamb Shank (RM 32.50). I’ve beard people telling me that it wasn’t so great – complains ranged from it being too tough to not having mashed potatoes to go with it but I found it delicious. The meat is tender on the inside and my only regret it…

lamb shank

…not ordering a side of mashed sweet potatoes. Arthur did that – it’s not on the menu but apparently you can ask for it from the chef. I shall endeavor to do that next time. The gravy is slightly sweet so I’m sure it’ll go very well with mashed sweet potatoes.

oreo cheesecake

Dessert was a slice of Oreo cheesecake (RM 11.90) from their counter deli. It’s pretty good for Sibu standards, but I wouldn’t write home about it, I’ve had better.

toms

A great meal nevertheless and we ended up talking (or I ended up talking) so much that it was nearly 3 pm when we were done. The meal cost about RM 100 and my friend insisted on picking up the bill. Thanks for lunch! 🙂

Lunch with suituapui at Ming Mei Shi

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ming mei shi

I had a glorious lunch of braised pork, four emperor vegetables, and buttered prawns with the famous suituapui a.k.a. Arthur a couple of days ago. He suggested either Ming Mei Shi – a Chinese restaurant I haven’t been to, or Payung Cafe and I went with the former. It’s relatively new and one of Arthur’s favorite places to eat so I wanted to check it out.

Ming Mei Shi is owned by the chef of the now defunct Blue Splendor (a famous restaurant in Sibu). Word is, the rent at Wisma Sanyan was raised to levels he found unacceptable, so he opened a new restaurant at a different location.

Four emperor vegetables

four emperor vegetable

This is a dish made with four different types of vegetables – brinjal (eggplant), lady’s finger (okra), baby corn and long beans. It tasted really good and I ate most of it, much to my surprise, since I’m not usually a huge fan of vegetables. It’s the mixture of sticky starchiness in the eggplant and okra combined with the sweetness of the baby corn and the crunchiness of the long beans that did it for me.

Homemade silk tofu

tofu mayo

Okay, I don’t actually know what this homemade recommendation is called. It was the special of their day and I wouldn’t call it tofu at all. I hate tofu and this is awesome stuff. It has tofu in it but also surimi (crab meat) and a plethora of other flavorful ingredients all mixed together before being quickly deep fried, creating a very fine and silky tofu medley piece that goes well with the mayonnaise served on the side.

We didn’t really know what it was so we only ordered one piece each. I wish I had ordered more as it was excellent!

Creamy butter prawns

butter prawn

Our version of butter prawns is not deep fried with butter but cooked in a sweet and creamy butter sauce. Ruby Restaurant does this really well but I love Ming Mei Shi’s version too. Arthur preferred Ruby’s but I was rather taken with the sweet butter prawns the cook dished out. Perfection!

Braised pork belly with man tou

braised pork belly

This is the signature dish of the place and it’s a huge chunk of artery clogging pork belly. The waitress cut the string binding the porcine goodness and used a pair of scissors to dissect it into manageable pieces. You’re supposed to eat it with the warm man tou (plain steamed buns) as a sandwich of sorts.

pork belly slices

It is tender and flavorful, with a thick starchy sauce that goes very well with your rice. I enjoyed this dish tremendously.

suituapui sibu

I polished off everything – there wasn’t a morsel left when I was done with lunch – a testament to Ming Mei Shi’s delicious culinary offerings. The bill came up to about RM 50 for all that, which is very reasonable for the dishes we ordered.

perfect pork

Just look at this fine specimen of perfectly cooked pork belly! I highly recommend every single dish that we had that day. 😀

Ming Mei Shi is located behind Rejang Medical Center in Sibu.

Supermarket trolley skating

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supermarket trolley skating

You can get up to all sorts of fun in a supermarket while doing your weekend grocery shopping. Supermarket trolley skating is one of them. It really makes getting around the large hypermarket a lot easier. The only problem is, it’s hard to get locomotion (unless you’re wearing stilts) and the security guards tend to tell you to stop. 😉

…but look at how fun it is!

push

You wait for an initial push (or you can do it yourself before climbing aboard)

shopping

Navigate the aisles for healthy nourishment (usually instant noodles for me) and then…

checkout

Slowly cruise to the checkout!

(Sword not included)

It got me thinking about how you can go supermarket trolley surfing without:

  • Getting stopped numerous times by the security guards
  • Having proper forward momentum
  • In a relatively safe environment (where you won’t break stuff and run into little kids)

meditation

…and after 3 seconds of meditation, I got the answer.

road curves inclines

I’ll use a Ford Ranger to tow the shopping cart. This would be done in a private cordoned off road which has curves and steep inclines – you can surf down *and* up fast with the towing capacity of more than 3 tonnes. There you go – all three problems solved! 🙂

shopping cart

The Malaysia Ranger Challenge is a simple contest where you can write, photograph or film a short entry about how you’ll put the All-New Ford Ranger to the ultimate test. A team of professionals will help you realize the challenge if you’re one of the finalists and you just might be one of the first in Malaysia to own one!

supermarket trolley surfing

Surf on over to The Malaysia Ranger Challenge to get more details. You can also find them on Twitter and Facebook. BTW, that really was my entry. 😀

Meluahkan perasaan dalam Facebook

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I don’t know…is love supposed to make you feel this bad? It’s a Friday night and my bros are out but I begged off saying that I have a touch of food poisoning.

…which is partially true but not entirely the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

I’m greatly troubled with my It’s Complicated (TM) relationship. I can’t seem to get her off my mind and there are…complications which makes me feel a rather strange and unusual emotion (!!!) – sadness, loss, pining, and all that romantic crap.

I guess I’m trying too hard, which is a mistake I should have learned by now. But I’m really into her and I want this to work out.

I don’t know, there’s a lot of issues that I’m not at liberty to say and I wish I could be like Barney and go “When I feel bad, I stop feeling bad and feel AWESOME instead“.

…but that doesn’t work in real life.

I’m probably 40% sick and 60% lovesick (probably the wrong term, it’s fear, uncertainty and doubt, very karma feelings which I never feel when it comes to girls) and it is a damn strange emotion for me I’m supposed to be this badass player and feelings like these are only experienced by sorry, self-pitying, pussy-whipped boys.

It’s karma, I tell you.

I’m supposed to go out partying with my bros and feel awesome.

…but instead I’m at home, thinking of her and feeling like crap.

P/S – My sister actually reads my Facebook feed quite religiously and starts every morning with a clumsy attempt at bonding by saying “Hey, I saw on your Facebook that (insert stuff that I posted)“.

Please do not do that Yih Jia. I do not wish to discuss this matter, least of all with you. It’s just going to make me very uncomfortable and it also ruins my “Huai Bin is invincible, an veritable emotional fucking cornerstone when it comes to girls” image. so I’ll appreciate it very much if you could pretend you didn’t read this. kthxbai

P/P/S – Seriously, don’t talk to me about it sis. It’ll be very awkward and I probably would deny I even wrote this.

bowmore enigma

That was a re-post of something I wrote on Friday night. I still feel less-than-awesome so I’m putting this up and heading to bed. It’s verbatim from the Facebook page so I’ll insert a photo in lieu of writing 1,000 words. That is a bottle of Bowmore Enigma, a 12-year-old single malt Scotch whiskey from Islay. I got it for about SGD 58 from duty free – the Enigma expression is a travel exclusive.

Back to the post:

Has anyone ever told you that you look like a star?
It seems like everybody’s got something I have not – a reason not to die.

– NOFX

Need more fries / alcohol milkshakes @ Tom’s Too / Maple Leaf

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fries

I’m not a huge fan of fries. I used to love them but somewhere along the line I stopped craving for it. However I had fries with a burger at Tom’s Too and it was surprisingly delicious! They salted the fries so much that it was saturated with sodium. *clicks on Like

toms too

Tom’s Too is the sister outlet of the renowned Tom’s in Jalan Padungan.

toms too sibu

I asked the waiter for a recommendation and he enthusiastically prescribed the Chicken Burger (RM 12.90). I thought they were well known for their beef ones and I said so but he was so adamant about the awesomeness of the chicken burger that I went with it.

chicken burger

It’s made with an entire chicken thigh and is deep fried with perfection. The chicken has a very smoky, burnt BBQ flavor which is actually quite good. If you like your food salty and packed full of sodium you’re going to love this.

maple leaf cafe

I also headed down to Maple Leaf Fusion Cafe last night to catch up with Francine. I’ve known her since 1998 and I had drinks with her at Tom’s Too, er…too. I didn’t know where Maple Leaf was at that time and she told me it’s…just around the corner. smirk

giant volcano lava

They’re apparently famous for their Giant Volcano Lava drinks, which is a huge 1 liter (or close enough) thick concoction. I had the Chocolate Lava (RM 11.90) which the waitress recommended.

midori milkshake

It just so happens that yesterday night was the introduction of their new line of Alcohol Milkshakes. They had Kahlua, Irish Cream and Midori. I went with the Midori Milk Shake (RM 26). We both assumed that its been on the menu for ages but the waitress told us it just debuted yesterday.

maple leaf

I didn’t think much of it though – it’s overpriced and there’s not enough alcohol in it – you can taste it, but you certainly can’t feel it. It’s paying cocktail prices for a milkshake. Granted, it was a very good milkshake, but as an alcohol milkshake, it needs a bit of price tweaking.

deep fried durian

The highlight of the night was the Fried Durian Cake (RM 12.90). Divine! It’s made with a crispy jala-like pastry that’s deep fried with a rich durian flesh filling.

durian cake

It’s a good thing Francine doesn’t like durian so I ate it all. There are six pieces and each bite was like a taste of heaven – it’s fluffy and light, with a creamy durian center that oozes out. It’s…perfection. 😀

My Valentine’s Day

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rainie lunch

I met this girl at TDH last Saturday morning. I was early (actually everyone else was late, I was late by 45 minutes myself) and I got there first. I saw this girl laughing while watching a movie on her iPad so I went over, said hello and ended up talking to her for an hour.

It turns out that her name is Rainie – I added her on Facebook and got her number. I said I’ll call and we’ll meet up for lunch or something next week…and today, that’s exactly what we did. There’s some epicness in the middle but for the sake of length, I’ll leave that out.

rainie

This afternoon, on the 14th of February, I went out for lunch with “the TDH girl” (as she will be affectionately known) and made plans for dinner.

It was very casual, the plan was no plan and we ended up having dinner at Wong Kok Char Chang Teng (of all places!) coz she was sick and wanted to eat porridge. There wasn’t any porridge so she made do with ramen and hot lemon honey juice.

vd dinner 2012

I think we spent 3 hours there talking until the movie started. She’s someone I can click with and there’s definitely something going on here.

She looks different every time I see her! It’s like she turns more attractive each time I meet her. It kinda scares me coz I don’t recognize her for a split second each time she waves at me!

I don’t know what comes next. I won’t pretend I do. We’ll see if this works out.

I’m just glad:

  • I went to TDH last Saturday at that particular time
  • I made it to lunch today
  • We spent 6 hours together on Valentine’s Day night despite work tomorrow

…a lot of things would have been different if any of those decisions were made differently.

rainie hb

I’m just glad things turned out the way they did. 🙂

KL hand sign

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kl lorraine

KL represent! This was inspired by a New York (NY) gesture that I saw a skater throw and I suddenly got an inspiration to do one for KL while we had drinks over the weekend. Lorraine (second from right) said that the L part of KL is terbalik (upside down) and she told me to invert it and took this photo on her BB:

KL handsign

Lorraine’s KL sign.

Which one do you think looks better? The first “inverted” one or the second one?

The story of the little gangster that could

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Betrayal 1

Betrayal
The story of the little gangster that could

Betrayal 2

Homo Ahbengus
Native to: Malaysia, Singapore
Mating habits: Often and indiscriminate
Social behavior: Hunts in packs
Sanctuaries: Sibu, Kuching, Miri, Klang, Cheras

Ultimate goal in life:

Betrayal 3

To own a semi-automatic handgun (preferably wrapped in newspapers, the classic but rather cliched method of concealment).

Job description:

Betrayal 4

Loan shark. Getting usurious money lending interests or gambling debts by property destruction, kidnapping, intimidation of the borrower, family and extended family (and pets if they have any).

Betrayal 5

One day, after getting a RM 3,600 interest from a borrower, his IQ 64 brain creaked and slowly came to the seeds of what he thought was an ingenious idea.

“I’ve got it!”, he exclaimed after 3 solid hours of hard thinking as the sun began to set in the horizon, still holding on to the wad of money.

Several startled birds flew off at his personal eureka and a couple who was doing the horizontal boogie in the abandoned car park furtively looked up and started quickly dressing.

He has worked long and hard to become the right hand man of the boss. General consensus was that he’s an asshole (which makes him Employee of the Month material in this line of work), just not very bright.

The latter was in fact the primary reason his boss trusted him with a handgun, though he did not know it.

Betrayal 6

Thus, when he concocted a cock and bull story about how one of his borrowers ran away to the freezing wastelands of Siberia and left only a RM 10 note, it was not altogether surprising that his boss looked at him in increasing incredulity and growing annoyance.

Betrayal 7

The boss expressed that annoyance in very reasonable discourse…using his fists.

Now, our protagonist did not think that was right. He has worked hard and risked his life (or so he would like to think, his victims were mostly degenerate gamblers who cringed when he raised his voice) and made his second intuitive leap of the day.

Betrayal 8

He thought it would be nice to be the boss for a change.

Betrayal 9

He slowly walked towards his boss as he slipped a very sharp knife out. He has a gun but unfortunately no bullets to go with it. His boss, being a little bit smarter, had only given him 3 bullets and he had used them all in a previous assignment. There was a gang war then and come to think of it, he didn’t think it was an accident that he walked into a room with four armed men and a gun with only three bullets.

Betrayal 10

He mulled on that piece of information as he stabbed, slashed and generally butchered his (now deceased) boss.

Betrayal 11

Then, he shook a cigarette out and smoked it ponderously as he thought about how wonderful it is to be the boss with a large gang beneath him. As I have previously mentioned, he is a bit slow.

Thus, when a random police patrol passed by two hours later, they saw a man sitting on top of a dead man, both of whom was very well known around these parts largely due to their criminal enterprises.

Betrayal 12

The man was covered with blood and appeared deep in thought.

________________________________________________________________________________

Notes: This was a photo shoot I did over two days during Chinese New Year. Willie of I-Concept Event Agency introduced me to Jason, who runs Jasongs Photography. I’ve known Willie for years (he’s Jeanie’s brother) and when he asked if I could do him a favor by being a model in a photo shoot, I was happy to help out.

Jason and Willie just got into a partnership and they do a lot of wedding photos and family shots. They wanted to do a high pass shoot – there was a lot of fake blood (which is permanent if it gets on your clothes), location scouting, multiple flash units to light everything up and early mornings. That is not a real gun – it’s a Beretta 92F replica. It was a lot of fun to do and we found this really cool abandoned house which would be great for photos.

I wrote this tongue-in-cheek post when I saw the photos just now. I agreed to help with the captions so I have an alternate post on Facebook with completely different text. It’s more serious and gritty, you can view and read the photo story here. Let me know which one you think is better. 🙂

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