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Farewell, Miriam! (and two videos for download)

April 2, 2004 by HB

miriam bye

Miriam Chieng, the girl you’ll have seen in the photos on
sixthseal.com has left for Sarikei (her hometown) yesterday at 12:45
PM. I have gotten to know her quite well in this short period of time,
with our near daily (and sometimes twice daily) lunches, dinners and
suppers, not to mention the road trips that we’ve gone to almost every
Sunday. She has now gone back to Sarikei for good. It has been a
pleasure to have known her (hey, no nudges and winks back there :p).

miriam empty room
Miriam and Ah Lung (her bf) in her vacated room.

Videos:
All videos are .zip files which extracts to a .mov file. Requires Apple Quicktime.
It is easier to view the movie files by choosing “Fill Screen” from the “Movie” drop down menu.

It’s really strange to hear your own voice playback, it never sounds
like what you’re used to hearing when you speak in real life.

Miriam’s room

miriam room video

Video:
Miriam’s room video [sixthseal.com]

Cast: Miriam, Ah Lung, Huai Bin (me).
Location: Miriam’s vacated room.

This was recorded on the night before she left. Yes, I realize I’m
slurring my words badly, it is widely known that sixthseal.com is only
sober during office hours. :p

Rough transcript:

Miriam: What?
Me: Miriam, look over here for a sec…
Miriam: Don’t want.
Me: Quick, quick. Look over here.
Miriam: (unintelligible words)
Me: You have to talk, say you’re heading home. Tell them who you are.
Miriam: What?
Me: This is for sixthseal.com, quick.
Miriam: No need to say anything lah. I’m just heading back for a while, it’s not like it’s forever.
Me: Okay, tell them you’re Miriam from Sarikei. Eh, there’s only 60 seconds, say something. Look over here.
Miriam: Don’t want.
Me: Hang on, there’s a backlight here, can’t pan over.
Miriam: No need…
Me: Smile for the camera…and say bye.
Miriam: Bye bye.
Me: Okay, let’s look at Ah Lung, we’ll see if he’s sad.
Ah Lung and Miriam has been in a relationship for 4 years
Me: Ah Lung, are you feeling sad?
Ah Lung: Nope.
Me: Say a few words for the camera. Not sad at all?
Ah Lung: No. I’m very happy.
Me: Okay, my turn. Hmm…I don’t think I can see anything like this.

Miriam’s hamster

miriam hamster video

Video:
Miriam’s hamster at play [sixthseal.com]

Cast: The hamster, Huai Bin (me, partial shot, voice), Miriam (partial shot, voice), Ah Lung (voice).
Location: My residence.

This was also filmed on the night before she left, chronologically after the first video. The hamster is really funny.

Rough transcript:

Miriam: (laughing) You’re giving the hamster candies?
Me: Yeah.
Miriam: You’re very bad.
Me: (sounds of amazement as the hamster consumes the whole
sweet). Hey, it’s really eating it whole! Lemme just give it another
sweet wrapper.
Miriam: (laughing) He’s just storing it inside his mouth, he’s
not actually eating it. (pointing at the bulging sac beside the
hamster’s mouth)
Me: Wah! Look at it go at the sweet wrapper! It’s eating the
whole thing! (multiple vocalizations of my amazement at this hamster’s
feat)
Miriam: He’s not actually eating it…
Me: This hamster is really something…
Miriam: (pointing at the hamster’s mouth) Look it’s bulging, it’s storing it there.
Me: Hey, this hamster just might eat all my pharmaceuticals and I wouldn’t even know.
Miriam: He’s hiding it inside his mouth, he’s not actually eating it.
Me: Look, it’s going at it again! It’s eating all my sweets.
Miriam: Don’t let him eat all those sweets, he might fall ill.
Me: Okay.

I’ve been given custody of this hamster:

It’s living inside one of my bedrooms. I live alone, because I value
privacy, and I don’t sleep in the bedrooms but in the living room. I
would like to experiment with it one day, establish the LD50 values for
certain substances in hamsters or observing whether hamsters will
self-administrate certain substances. Just kidding, I won’t do that.
Heh. It’s fun to have around, going back after work and letting it out
and feeding it is fun to watch.

Farewell, Miriam! You will be missed. 🙂

My dear daughter Natalie

March 9, 2004 by HB

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:

What the fuck happened last night?

March 3, 2004 by HB

ah ann mariam home

I remember Miriam telling me she was going to drop by and then Ah
Ann called and said he was coming. That is my spartan dig…I sleep on
a mattress in the living room (even though I have a double bed frame
and two sleeping rooms). I have only one chair so I always tell people
to just sit on my bed.

mariam home

This is Miriam. Photos are all blurry due to a lack of sobriety. I
am only sober during office hours, my apologies. I know we went out
after this.

Fast forward to six hours past this point.

tabuan throw up

I regurgitate in some drain in Tabuan Jaya.

Let me recollect my thoughts and reconstruct the missing scenes in between.

tabuan shennanigens

I think there were some food related shenanigans since that’s what my digicam shows, so we’ll work from there…

More Chinese New Year visitation photos

January 25, 2004 by HB

We went for another round of Chinese New Year visiting today. It’s
the 4th day of CNY (“chu shi”) today so this would probably be the
final Chinese New Year visitation photos since no one really goes
visiting on the 5th day (“chu wu”) unlike in the old days. I hear
people visit up till Chap Goh Meh (15th day) in the past. Anyway,
here’s the three houses we visited today:

hie yieng house
Hie Yieng’s house
L-R: Ting Chuan, Ah Ping, Huai Bin (me), Hie Yieng, Siew Fua.
I’m the one in black attire.

Hie Yieng is a friend from my college days in Sibu. I used to study
at MPI which was where I met Siew Fua too. I think we kept Hie Yieng
waiting from 10 am till 1:15 pm…she was planning to head out when we
wanted to visit. Oops. 🙂

winnie ha house
Winnie Ha’s house
Winnie is the one in blue.

I haven’t seen Winnie since she went to LA six years ago. We were
from the same primary school and went to the same high school as well.
It was great to catch up with her after all these years – found out
that she was in KL and also in Melbourne at the same time I was, albeit
the interlap was just a couple of days. She’s in Melbourne now. It’s
always good to catch up with old friends after a long time. 🙂

ming tze house
Ming Tze’s house
Ming Tze is the one in the middle.

Ming Tze is also another old friend from primary school and we were
in the same class in high school. I think the last time we met up and
talked was two years ago. She’s also based in Kuching and I’ll be
working there starting February so there’s a good opportunity to catch
up. 🙂

It’s been a great Chinese New Year! I’m glad I came back. 🙂

Visiting during Chinese New Year

January 24, 2004 by HB

We went for another round of Chinese New Year visiting today. I
didn’t sleep till 4 pm as planned…woke up at 9 am (alarm) and zoned
out till about 11 am. I was quite scattered from the previous night but
it’s all good, we headed out to visit a couple of people. The first
house we went to is Siew Fua’s.

siew fua house
Siew Fua’s house
L-R: Huai Bin (me), Siew Fua, Ting Chuan
I’m the one in the Monash University T-shirt.

We sat around and talked for a while before heading (unannounced) to
Datina’s place. It’s a good thing she was home and we spent more than
an hour catching up. Here’s a shot of us:

datina house
Datina’s house
Datina is the one in white.

It was about noon at that time so we were invited to have lunch with
their family. Great timing, we haven’t had lunch yet. 😉 I loved the
tea – it’s a fruit and herbal fusion that tastes great!

datina lunch

Next up is Vivien’s house, have been meaning to visit her since it’s
been a while since I’ve talked to her. We also met her sister (Hello Jennifer!) at her house.

vivien house
Vivien’s house

I somehow inherited some chai lei firecrackers here.

happy boom

It’s made by the same company as the original Chai Lai but this one
is called Happy Boom instead of the misleading Coloured Flowers. These
firecrackers seem to sound slightly louder than Coloured Flowers and
actually have a nice plume of sparks as the primer.

vivien hii
This is Vivien, who occasionally comments here as “vivi”. We’re all from the same high school.

Anyway, Vivien came along with us to visit Thien Na. Thien Na is one
of my classmates who was in Melbourne with me. I’ve since graduated,
but she’s planning to settle there. Here’s a shot of us:

thien na house
Thien Na’s house
Thien Na is the second one from left.

The final destination was Chiew Yieng’s house…er, mansion. We
spent the rest of the day there talking until about 7 pm. Here’s a
photo of us at her place.

chiew yieng house
Chiew Yieng’s house
She’s the one beside me, second from left.

The new Taman Selera

January 17, 2004 by HB

old taman selera
Taman Selera is dead. Long live Taman Selera.

It’s actually Taman Harmoni now…there was a popular place for
supper called Taman Selera in Sibu (we just call it “kampung tau”
though). However, sometime between the last time I was back and now,
the place has moved, as can be seen in the picture above. I was like
wtf? We had arranged to meet at kampung tau and the place seems to have
disappeared.

New Taman Selera (Taman Harmoni)

I was informed that there was a new one now, just right behind the
old place. This one is much larger (at least it seems that way) than
the old one, though the old Taman Selera retains a certain charm this
new sanitized and homogenous one does not radiate. It’s a semi circle
of stalls, with er…a decidedly hemogenous layout. Can’t say much more
than that really, even the store signboards are standardized.

nasi pataya
Interesting Nasi Goreng Pataya

Anyway, I had nasi goreng pattaya, and instead of the flat egg
wrapped rice I was expecting, this one came in the standard rice bowl
sized package! I was wondering how they managed to wrap the omelette
around this unorthodox rice dump. It came with chicken, salted fish,
cucumbers and sambal. It tasted pretty good.

harmoni photo

This is us at Taman Harmoni. Clockwise from left is me, Adrian, Hie
Ing (Adrian’s gf), er…sorry I forgot your name, Pheobe or Phoebe
(phew, remembered this one, if only for the easy to remember name), and
Christopher. I thought I had dropped the “two drinks each meal”
routine, but apparently not. Anyway, here’s a look at the washbasins of
Taman Harmoni (also standardized):

harmonious wash basins

There’s one for every size and shape. Harmonious wash basins. I liked this design.

Hartamas Square @ Sri Hartamas

January 3, 2004 by HB

Hartamas Square

I just came back from supper at Hartamas Square at Sri Hartamas. I
was there for supper with Richard, Alice and my gf. I was already
inebriated before coming due to liberal amounts of vodka and the
consumption of a certain number. *cough*

I thought about what to eat (besides beer) and decided on this
Taiwan Pizza outlet, since the concept sounded intriguing to me.
Seriously man, I was that blur…I looked at the “Taiwan Pizza” menu
long and hard and was wondering why the menu doesn’t seem all that
Taiwanese to me. I finally saw something that looks good – Dragon Pizza:

It looked good in real life too, nice shape. It also looked a bit large for me to finish, until I poked it with a fork:

It deflated to a reasonable size then. It had egg, mushrooms (the
non magical kind, the soft mushrooms that’s flat and semi transparent
and gooey and tastes nice, can’t remember the name now), ham and
probably some other stuff.

Several large TV (plasma? LCD?) screens there.

Anyway, I only realized that it wasn’t Taiwan Pizza but Italian
Pizza when I was asked what I ate and I said “Taiwan Pizza” and they
were like “huh?” and I siad “Taiwan Pizza, over there” and Alice said
“That’s Italian Pizza” and I was sure it said Taiwan and I asked my gf
to look and she said it was Italian Pizza and then I looked harder and
it still registered as Taiwan and then I looked even harder and
well…it was Italian Pizza after all. Duh. 🙂 I can’t believe I kept
on seeing Taiwan instead of Italian.

Harmatas Square is popular – packed with people.

I’m sleepy now, did more ah…numerical work when I got back, so here’s another shot of Hartamas Square:

Okay, I’m going into work tomorrow (willingly) so I’ll just finish
that bottle of vodka that’s been sitting in the fridge for…er,
several days and put another one in. Good night everyoine and have a
nice supper!

Goodbye Shirley!

November 7, 2003 by HB

This is a photo of Shirley Yu Qi Ji, taken this morning. She’s my
housemate and she’s finished her studies at HELP Institute so she’s
moving out today. The background is the empty room that was once
occupied by her, and another girl from China would be moving in soon to
take her place. I was surprised when she mentioned webpages after I
took the picture, I wasn’t aware that she knows I keep a blog.

However, it turns out that she doesn’t know about my blog, she’s
under the impression that everyone taking photos with a digicam puts
them up on the net. Anyway, she did not mind being posted and I agreed
to mail her a copy. I actually forgot that she was moving out today
until I got out of the shower, all dripping wet and saw her lugging
several large suitcases down the stairs so I helped.

Anyway, Shirley is an international student from China and we’ve
always been intrigued by this dish she cooks – she only makes one pot
of soup for dinner, but there’s all sorts of things inside the soup.
That’s the only dish…very interesting. Well, I’m still at the office
finishing up some stuff…I think I would have to come in either
Saturday or Sunday to complete it since I’m really tired from not
sleeping last night. I’ll update and reply the comments when I get home.

Goodbye Shirley! It’s been great living together.

Happy 22nd birthday, Louisa! :)

October 25, 2003 by HB

Haagen-Dazs @ bsc (bangsar shopping center)

It was my girlfriend’s birthday yesterday (24th October) and we
headed out in the afternoon to get some ice creams at the nearest
Haagen-Dazs outlet at bsc.

We got a three scoop sundae and a pint of Strawberry Cheesecake
flavored ice creams. The Strawberry Cheesecake one is sure to please
people with a sweet tooth – it was cloyingly sweet, in a nice way.

We hung around bsc for a while, basically just walking into every
shop and browsing. I saw that they have these Barbie dolls that appeal
to a different target audience now (or maybe the target market just
matured). There were ones with Giorgio Armani attire, some limited
edition ones which goes into the thousands and a more base level priced
Barbie, but with a make over – she’s now a consultant of some sort and
her attire has changed…her image is one of a trendy inner city
professional instead of the ones I’ve seen in my youth, which were more
domesticated, for the lack for a better term.

Anyway, we headed back after a while and people starting arriving and the mini BBQ grill was set up:

Food – Chicken wings, Taiwanese sausages, hot dogs, fish balls and stuff…

Drinks – Six packs of beer (others in the ice bucket), a bottle of Bacardi, and some miscellaneous drinks.

The cake says “Dear Nie Nie/We (heart shape) U”

No more photos were taken after that, because I proceeded straight
to the beers for the appetizer, did Bacardi double shots neat with the
guys, drank more beer in a hasty manner (fortified with rum,
naturally), downed some Coke + Bacardi, intercepted a Sprite + Bacardi
and yeah, I stopped counting at that point. 😉 There were around 13
people who came, about equal male to female ratio but only a few of us
really drank so there was plenty of alcohol to go around.

While we’re on the subject of statistics:
Number of T-shirt requests:
One
Time last person left:
4:30 am
Alcoholic beverages left over:
1 lonely can of beer
Non-alcoholic beverages left over:
3-4 1.5 litre bottles are in the fridge

This is Louisa (my gf) blowing out the candles on the cake while Richard (her brother) looks on.

Happy Birthday, Louisa! I love you! 🙂

Lyn’s birthday

October 21, 2003 by HB

The birthday cake

Lyn is one of my housemates, she lives upstairs at the master
bedroom with 3 other girls. Here’s a bit of a background about the
place I live in. Basically the configuration of our house is:
I live at the only room downstairs.
There is a girl from China studying at HELP Institute living on the
first bedroom upstairs. Her bf comes and stays over some days, but both
of them are away every weekend.
The second bedroom is taken by a couple who keeps to themselves and is
seldom seen outside their bedroom, but is friendly enough.
The master bedroom is taken by 4 girls who’re all from Sibu and I know
them from MPI, the college I went to for some odd months before going
to Melbourne.

Shim Lyn

Anyway, Lyn is having her birthday today (again, it’s technically
yesterday, I can’t sleep even after taking my prescription from my
taper doctor like a good boy) and the others decided to have dinner
together. I was recuperating *cough* and only woke up at 4 pm and went
to Pusat Bandar Damansara to pick up some fried chicken while someone
got a cake and the others cooked.

Blowing out the candles…

Cake cutting

There is this tradition where the person having the birthday has to
eat “chang shou mien” – basically “long life noodles” or just a really
long and sticky version of rice vermicelli. It’s usually eaten with
chicken soup and boiled eggs. There you have it, another one of my more
personal entries. Happy birthday Lyn!