People

On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me…

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cherie xmas me

…no, not a partridge in a pear tree. Cherie
(which means “Love” or “dear one”) gave me the black Stussy shirt that
I’m wearing here. I’m not sure what happened to my hair, but according
to witnesses, it was the Santa hat I was wearing previously that
tousled my hair.

cherie xmas me stoned

This is another one taken soon after that (with the hair malfunction
managed). I like this photo; it kinda captures what we are. I swear
that we are not stoned, it’s just how we look all the time. 😉

cherie xmas gift

Cherie also gave me two other T-shirts which is great – she knows
the limitations of my wardrobe coz I always turn up in the same
clothes. Thanks Cherie!

cherie xmas drinking

I celebrated Christmas Eve early, perhaps a bit too early from the look on our faces, but it’s all good. 🙂

cherie xmas turkey

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Sean’s birthday @ Mambo King, Travillion

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sean birthday mambo king

Sean was celebrating his birthday last night at Mambo King
– it’s a cafe with a liquor license in Travillion. I went there with
Cherie, Irene, Owen, Ee Fen (which despite my poor memory, I could
remember coz she’s doing Pharmacy at IMU and her name is a
concatenation of Ecstasy and the Chinese word for heroin ;)).

sean birthday interior

Mambo King was packed with people when we arrived there after having
a couple of drinks at Luconia. I recall hearing a passerby mentioning
that there’s a “St. Theresa gathering in there of some kind” which was
funny in hindsight. St. Theresa is one of the biggest all girls high
school in Kuching.

sean birthday food

There were finger food served on a table in the middle – there were
plates of calamari with dip, garlic bread, chicken wings, crinkle
fries. Liquor was on the house as well – beer and Johnnie Walker Black
Label was available. I think we started drinking at Luconia, then at Mambo King and ended up at Mojo, but it’s all good – we’re all having fun here, right? 😉

sean birthday joyce dru

I saw a couple of familiar faces in there too – Joyce and Dru were
there and there was a social faux pax when I mistook one for the other.
Jesus Christ, I think the binge drinking is taking a toll on my
cerebral faculties coz I keep on forgetting all sorts of other stuff as
well…but fuck it, we’re all having fun here right? That’s my mantra
anyway to hide my self-destructive behavior. 🙂

sean birthday us

L-R: Irene, Huai Bin (me), Cherie, Sean

sean birthday sean

Happy birthday, Sean! Cheers!

Flaming Lamborghini a.k.a. “I shouldn’t drink all through the night!”

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luconia drinks

Note: Videos are in .3gp format which means you need QuickTime.

sixthseal.com is doing a special on ethanol based drinks this week, coz apparently alcohol is legal.
In a similar vein, I’ve also heard that the sky is blue and that grass
is green, but I cannot confirm the veracity of those claims, unlike the
former.

hb cherie 3gp

Download: Huai Bin and Cherie [sixthseal.com]
This me and Cherie doing Flaming Lamborghinis in tandem. Jimmy and Ghana were mixing the drinks.

jo 3gp

Download: Jo [sixthseal.com]
This is Jo doing the Flaming Lamborghini

hb 3gp

Download: Huai Bin [sixthseal.com]
This is me doing the second flaming for the night (had three in quick succession)

cherie 3gp

Download: Cherie [sixthseal.com]
This is Cherie doing another one again (she also had three)

Personal drinks count:
2 x Gin and tonics
2 x beers
3 x glass of red wine
3 x Flaming Lamborghinis
1/4 bottle of Korean wine

Totally random and unrelated photos from the previous night:

me jo 1

This is Jo….from the previous night, or last night, or the night before, I can’t remember…

me jo 2

One piece of information which might or might not interest you – Jo
brought me to do my second tattoo on my first week in Melbourne.

me jo photos

“OMG, did we take that many photos?”

luconia me ericka

Ericka turned up at Luconia one day, but I forgot which one, coz my memory is like, totally fucked.

luconia drinking

“I drink to get fucked up”

santa me cherie

This is me with Cherie wearing matching Santa hats. It’s actually Luconia staff issue. 😉

More Santa hat pictures:

santa me
Huai Bin

santa irene
Irene

santa cherie
Cherie

I’m doing all this is the name of science – I’m on a personal
research mission to find out exactly how long the average human liver
can take a nightly barrage of alcohol before it shrivels up and dies. 😉

Irene, and God Bless Her Soul, managed to wake us up at 6:35 am as promised. She’s amazing, I think she’s superhuman.

Valerine’s birthday @ MC3

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val birthday me

Valerine + some guy with a Santa hat. Santa hat courtesy of Cherie from Luconia.

val birthday mc3

Her birthday was held at MC3 starting 10 pm – seats were reserved
and boxes of beer distributed. The one is the middle is Val’s sister,
who’s a really nice and friendly person, though I don’t think she was
amused by the non-alcoholic Substance Which Shall Not Be Named which I
supplied. 😉

val birthday flaming

This is Val drinking a flaming cocktail – composed of several liquors and a ring of licking flames…

val birthday drink

…and I don’t have a caption for this one coz I’m too scattered.

val birthday sister

Val with her sister – wanted to get a shot of them together.

val birthday wishes

Happy birthday, Val! 🙂

Meeting e from LA and fish_fish from Japan in Kuching

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I managed to meet up with e and fish_fish over the weekend, despite
the hectic schedule at work. I got around to meeting up with them
during a break at Da Lai near King Center. This is a photo of us in
16:9 aspect ratio:

e fish_fish me

L-R: e [cooknengr.com], who is strictly heterosexual, as he informs me ;), fish_fish [blogspot.com], with a policy of not revealing herself in photos (it’s true – check her blog), and me.

e stuff

e kindly gave me some stuff from LA – Everclear high proof grain
alcohol, a can of Coors Light and two types of smokeless tobacco.
Thanks! I shall review them individually.

ff stuff

ff also brought back some stuff from Japan for me – a giant Kobe
Wine flavored Pocky which is only available in that prefecture in
Japan, Ramune – the drink with that push down ball, 5 packs of
different Japanese cigarettes from a vending machine and candy. Cheers!
I’m going to enjoy reviewing these.

My apologies for the late posting, have a lot on my plate at work.
I’ll be flying to KL early tomorrow morning and will be staying in a
hotel there. It’s a business trip, so I probably will be busy, but if
anyone wants to hook up, you can always try 016 869 0110. See ya!

Joanne from Miri

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joanna fong 1

I’ve known Joanne and her bf Robin for quite a while, and since I
was in Miri today (just got back home), I called and made plans to meet
up…which proved to be quite a logistical challenge due to my
extremely tight schedule. It was straight to the presentation after the
plane touched down on Miri and I knew there were two other site surveys
to squeeze in, thus we decided to meet at 12:30 pm.

joanna fong 2

The problem is, I didn’t know where I would be at 12:30 pm and the
CFO that went to the Miri presentation with me had a friend who took us
out to lunch and I didn’t think it would be polite to ask, so I was on
the cell with Joanne while I was sitting in my CFO’s friend’s car at
the same time Joanne is driving down from Curtin, trying to coordinate
things, basically doing a running commentary on where to meet up:

Okay, I’m passing by Mega Hotel now.
I’m looking at this shopping center right now, its red…
Hang on, we’re turning…
Right, the car I’m on is back in Mega Hotel…
Turning into this…side road
I see a coffeeshop called Phua Chu Kang
Okay, we’ve stopped…we’re entering the one beside it
Miri Taiwan Restaurant…that’s where I’m now.

It was crazy…heh! Anyway, she said she’ll be there in 5 minutes
and I doing this “eating my noodles real slow” thing to stall for time,
and then Joanne sent me a message to tell me she was outside. Perfect
timing. It was so funny. 🙂

Anyway, I excused myself from the table and went out to talk to her.
She’s really nice, and my friend (whom I was surprised to find in Miri)
took this photo for us. Thanks for taking the time to come all this way
for a 5 minute meet up, Joanne! It was great to meet up with you. I
wish I could have met with Robin too, I would have loved to talk to him
too. Nice people, they’re a nice couple.

joanna fong 3

Anyway, I just came back from Miri, so I’m hitting the sack coz today has been a really long day…I’ll reply all the comments and write the full report about my trip to Miri tomorrow. The Sandman awaits me…

The night before Christmas…

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xmas eve04 cc

I was told about this event at Civic Center on Christmas Eve – I
wasn’t sure what it was (didn’t ask) but I thought, wtf, two of my
close friends from high school are going, and they will just be in
Kuching until Sunday.

xmas eve04 choir

Little did I know the horrors that will await me there…it…pains me…to recollect the torture I was forced to endure…

xmas eve04 noodles

I was so shaken by the nature of this event, this Church Christmas dinner
that Diana had to fill my plate while I was still recovering from the
terrifying choir-dressed-as-angels-complete-with-halo hymn assault. It
was not what I expected…either I was already tripping, or this is a
real Christian church organized dinner. I had a dreadful feeling it was
the latter.

xmas eve04 soup

My suspicions were confirmed when the pastor asked the congregation
to rise for a prayer. “I trust no alcohol is going to be served with
dinner?”, I whispered to Diana. Rhetorical question. “Sorry”, she said,
flashing a smile. Ting Chuan quipped, “I would have faked a stomachache
and stayed at home if I knew it was going to be like this” from my
other side. Amen, brother! 😉

xmas eve04 pork

The dishes kept coming out amidst choir refrains, a rendition of the
birth of the greatest politician the world has ever seen in more than
two millennia, and sermons. And lots of prayer sessions, naturally.

xmas eve04 mixed

I had to seek refuge from all this, so me and Loon went out to talk about stuff. I got to know him several years
ago and haven’t seen him since. I nearly couldn’t recognize him coz he
cropped his long hair short. I found out that during that time period,
it turns out that we now share the same interests. We found out that we
have mutual contacts too, it’s a wonder I didn’t bump into him before
since he also works in Kuching.

xmas eve04 chicken

This is the chicken dish. I know, the tablecloth does not look very
presentable at this point, but you should have seen it later during the
night, when Ting Chuan spilled my drink across the table and overturned
the chili saucer. Heh! That reminded me of the Winnie Ha jellyfish
incident, OMG that was so funny. Still remember that, mate? Always
cracks me up when I think about it. 🙂

xmas eve04 chicken close

My friends were kind enough to keep some food for me during the long sojourns to the toilets…

xmas eve04 fish

…and the last dish was served out.

xmas eve04 gift

…followed by a door gift. To be honest, it wasn’t that bad, since
our table is seated with mutual acquaintances of about the same age.
It’s great to meet up with everyone again. It’s been at least a year
since I last saw my friends.

xmas eve04 daph loon
This is Daphne and Loon. Daphne is Diana’s sister, which is how I got
to know her back in high school and Loon has been with Daphne for six
(!) years.

xmas eve04 photo
L-R: Ting Chuan, Huai Bin (me), Diana
Now, this is the three of us – much love, yo. They probably know more
about my *cough* indiscretions *cough* combined than any other people.
I probably should get them killed lest they blackmail me. 😉
Kidding…love you guys.

Ting Chuan is one of my best buddies…I’ve known him since primary school.
Diana is one of my ex gfs and probably my closest female friend. Thanks
for all the concern and support about my dependency. That goes out to
everyone out there!

Jesus, where is all this coming from? Could it be something I took? 😉

Shirley Wong

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shirley wong sibu

This is Shirley, who has an interesting relationship to me. She is:

my good friend’s cousin
the niece of one of my company’s management
the daughter of one of our clients (which of course I’m not at liberty to name)

She’s a nice girl and she has a really cute little sister who’s
about 2 or 3 years old and a younger brother which is probably 9 or 10.
I was apprehensive about putting up her photo due to the complex nature
of the relationship at first.

shirley wong me full
This is the full frame grab. We weren’t ready coz the speedlight takes several seconds to go off.

shirley wong me streets
This is the default attitude you see in Sibu while out and about.

I took a photo with her and she asked me to wait and she got her own
camera and wanted to take a photo with me as well. I told her about the
blog and asked her twice if she would mind me posting our picture up
and she said she didn’t mind at all. Thus, I have exercised due
diligence in this matter. 😉

shirley wong me smile
…and this is the last one which is a little blurry. The photos were all taken by her younger brother.

I think I’ll file this under People instead of that other category. 😉

Eden Inn

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eden inn

Eden Inn promises 7 virgins upon check in as part of their
hospitality service. This inn of milk and honey claims to be the first
in the industry to provide this kind of service.

eden inn interior

I’m kidding of course, they do nothing of that sort. I just noticed
that a new inn has sprouted in the building beside the Sacred Heart
Roman Catholic church and asked if they’re affiliated with the church.
It turns out that it was owned and operated by the church at
first but now it’s outsourced and the church only holds a 3% share in
the inn, the receptionist told me.

eden lawrence dunno

I was surprised when I felt a tap on my shoulder. It was Lawrence,
my girlfriend’s younger brother. He was there with his friend, who is
staying at Eden Inn. I was introduced to his friend, but I didn’t get
the name. Benzo memory.

eden me dunno

This is me and his friend. All I remember is that she’s from Miri
and working in the F&B sector there. She happens to be staying at
the inn, talk about a coincidence. I had to run coz of work though, so
I couldn’t stay to chat.

I did not follow them up to see if the rooms of the inn do indeed provide the said 7 virgins.

Kuching bloggers meet @ Hot Seat

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hot seat padungan

Fina organized a Kuching bloggers meet today at 7:30 PM at Hot Seat,
Jalan Padungan. I’m not the most sober person on the planet right now,
but I’ll try to do a write-up of what I remembered. She picked me up at
around 6:45 PM and we went to pick up Dee before heading to Hot Seat.
There were some bloggers there already, here’s the list of attendees:

Syarfina [syarfina.com]
Dee [blogspot.com]
Huai Bin (me)
Wena [mum-mum.info]
Joyce [livejournal.com]
Georgette (Tarlia) [xercix.com]
Aida [blogdrive.com]
Lisa [blogdrive.com]
Mac [blogspot.com]
and the two non-bloggers – Raya Aida and Melvin.
There’s a group shot at the end of this post.

hot seat interior

The interior of the place was nicely decorated with tapestries and one of those oil lights on every table.

hot seat oil lamp

Nice. I had three plates of food, though I didn’t eat the rice of
one of them due to it being bland (plain rice) compared to the other
dishes. I also had two glasses of 100 Plus and dessert – I was
pre-loading for the weekend warrior thing. 😉

aqua find nemo
Aqua Find Nemo
Deep fried dory with batter
Served with potato chips and coleslaw

aqua find nemo cut

It’s a generous piece of fish and I love the decorative fish made
with various sauces on the side. It seems to be a signature of this
eating establishment – most dishes come with this edible decoration.
It’s made with thousand island for the outlines and some mint based
sauce for the green bits and I believe the red bits are some sort of
sweet chili or some fruit preserve. Highly recommended!

gothika
Gothika
Sauteed with chicken, green veggie, shrimp, onion and chili paste
served with egg pan cake, deep fried chicken wing and crackers.

gothika cut

It’s one of their specialty rice dishes. I found it tasty, very much
so that the third main dish I ordered paled in comparison with its
plain rice.

hot seat satay
Satay chicken/beef/lamb served with steamed rice

hot seat rice

This is one of the off-menu items, recommended by Wena, the person
to ask if you want to know what’s good in Kuching. The satay was great,
the plain rice was…er, plain.

hot fried ice cream
Deep fried ice cream

hot fried ice cream cut

This is the deep fried ice cream I had for dessert, also recommended by Wena.

Mine came with yam ice cream, most of us ordered this, some came in different flavors of ice cream.

hot seat kid

We also got acquainted with one of the proprietors (?) son/daughter. 😉

I had a great time talking with all the Kuching bloggers, most of
which I’m not familiar with, with the exception of Wena, Dee, and
Joyce. Introductions were made and business cards were exchanged.
Unfortunately, I had to leave early at 9:30 PM to meet up with a friend
at Riverside for some brief but urgent issues, so I had to excuse
myself. It’s good to put a face to the people behind the blogs though.
It was fun, and I’m looking forward to the next Kuching blogger’s meet
– some people couldn’t make it today.

kch bloggers
KCH BLOGGERS!
L-R: Huai Bin (me), Dee, Aida, Lisa, Mac (holding the Kuching bloggers sign), Georgette (Tarlia), Joyce, Fina and Wena.
Not pictured: Raya Aida and Melvin.

Cheers everyone!

P/S – Please don’t disclose where I live. :p

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