Places

Fidelity Sound Division recording studio

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fidelity sound office

Fidelity Sound Division is an entertainment and
multimedia production house located at Jalan Abell in Kuching. I’ve
been hanging around the studio lately, and the place is amazing…the
first time I got to see the interior was sublime, for the lack of a
better adjective. I did not know that a place like this existed in
Kuching. FSD is located on the 1st Floor of Lot 97, Section 50. The
front of the place is non descript, so I never noticed it before until
recently.

fidelity lounge

Entering the recording studio reveals the lounge, which has a P/S 2
hooked up to a large TV and speakers and seats huddled and pedals with multiple effects around the
coffee table. There’s a post-production work area beside the lounge
with broadband net access as well. I’ll tell you one thing – this is a
great place to hang out and chill. It’s also less than a minute’s walk
from my office. 😉 The recording studio is always filled with the
label’s DJ’s as well as friends, there’s never a dull moment. It’s
seriously great…

fidelity mix room

There are rooms flanking the left of the studio, with specialized
functions for each. This is the mixing room. Fidelity Sound Division is
involved in Event Management/Support, Mobile DJ Solutions, Music
Training Centers, Multimedia Publication and Consultation Services. The
Fidelity Sound Division’s website is at www.fidelitysounddivision.com [fidelitysounddivision.com].

fidelity deck

The mixing decks look impressive to my untrained eye…there’s a lot
of sweet hardware in Fidelity Sound Division’s recording studio…

fidelity band room

The next room is equipped with everything a band needs to get up and
running. The room also functions as a recording room for bands and
Fidelity Sound Division provides the services to facilitate an album
release. Nifty.

fidelity conference

The third room is outfitted to be a conference room…

rizal godfather

…and this is Rizal Wahab, the man who owns the
place. The Il Padrino of the recording studio. I just managed to meet
him today, and he’s a great guy. He used to be from Australia too, so
that’s something we all have in common. The interesting thing I got to
know today is that the legendary annual Crown Plaza rave is also
organized by Fidelity Sound Division. Rizal is the Managing Director of
Fidelity Sound Division and he also plays as DJ Reeze. He’s a DJ and
had a residency back in Perth club.

reeze drums

His office is a sight to behold…there’s a plethora of collections
on display; the equipment in there must cost more than what I make in
10 years. Prime…

reeze office

There are seating arrangements to the side as well as a collection of flyers…

reeze cabinets

The cabinets lining the side is also filled with various collector items…it’s an interesting place.

reeze decks

There are also mix decks towards the back and the windows faces an
unlikely structure. Rizal showed me the view from the window – it looks
straight into the Padungan Police Station. Heh!

fidelity keyboard shirt

The side is filled with a keyboard and a framed autographed football jersey. Nice.

reeze work

I managed to catch last year’s rave on Rizal’s Mac – it was recorded
with surprising clarity (both video and audio). Rizal was the opening
act (DJ Reeze) that year. The Fidelity Sound Division recording studio
is also actively promoting their resident DJ’s. Thanks for showing me
around, man.

Fidelity Sound Division is like an oasis in the middle of the city.
The ambience is all good vibes, it’s the best place to hang out and
just chill in Kuching…

Sarawak Club business lunch

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sc club

Sarawak Club is one of those exclusive “members only” pretentious
clubs for the people who can afford the expensive membership fees. It’s
been around since the Brooke era (circa 1876) and only members can
invite guests to go into the club.

sc lounge

The place still has its Christmas decorations up…and there’s the
lounge where non-members are supposed wait to be invited in by a
Sarawak Club member.

sc hornbill

Hornbill Restaurant is the place that we went for the business lunch just now.

sc restaurant

The restaurant is decorated in typical Chinese restaurant settings,
with a little opulence thrown in. The restaurant only had two other
tables besides us – a Caucasian couple and a group of three Tai-Tai’s,
you know, typical club member types. 😉

sc table

It seems so prim and proper, right down to the “Sarawak Club”
wrapped chopsticks and all the linen and everything that one is afraid
to sneeze for fear of being impolite.

sc lunch

The food we had probably cost a lot but we didn’t pay for it – it
was a treat from another company. There was seafood soup, wonderful
herbed sweet and sour prawns, this amazing concoction of fresh, cold
tofu sliced like bread and topped with a sweet sauce and diced century
eggs under a bed of lettuce, beef slices with vegetables, loads of
steamed fish and dessert.

Why are the photos taken by my digicam? Why aren’t there more photos?

Coz it seems that taking photos during a serious business lunch is
grossly inappropriate. Heck, I had to tuck in my shirt before I went in
due to the strict dress policy. Pfftttt…

Planes (no trains) and automobiles

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Here’s a quick summary of today before I promptly fall asleep. I
shall do a proper post and reply all comments tomorrow, for I fear that
I’m too sedated to do that now.

kch checkin ld

I checked in at Kuching airport. The place was uncharacteristically full.

airport air mata kuching

I figured it would be appropriate to quench my thirst with a cup of Air Mata Kuching before boarding.

fokker 50

The plane was a Fokker 50. It’s one of them relics that do short
haul flights and pack you like sardines. It has been dubbed the Fucker
50 due to this unfortunate seating arrangements, though I don’t use
that term myself. It was related to me when I flew to Penang with some
other classmates and a teacher when I was 12 for a national quiz.

ld air shot

There were twisty artsy (fartsy) designs when the plane was in the
air. Nothing new, was just perfecting the shot to get an optimal one
depicting Rejang River and the outlet to the sea. Yes, I do this every
time I fly.

ld welcome sibu

I arrived at Sibu, picked up my gf, dropped in to check on my
pharmacy friend, acquired some lormetazepam (not lorazepam, this one is
different), ate some of them, drank beer and had dinner with gf, and
now I fear that the hypnotic properties of lormetazepam (Noctamid) has
been potentiated with some red wine from a Chinese New Year hamper I
found in the store (which automagically makes it mine, since I’m the
only drinker in the family and no one else would drink it anyway).

I’m afraid I shall have to continue this tomorrow. Good night, dear
readers, sleep tight, and don’t let the bed bugs bite. Oh, and roll to
your side, just to be safe.

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.

Ikano Power Center and Ikea

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ikano power center

Ikano Power Center is a newly opened shopping mall in Mutiara
Damansara, which I believe is in Petaling Jaya. It’s connected to the
only Ikea outlet in Malaysia (correct me if I’m wrong). I went there
with my gf the day before I flew to Kuching, and didn’t have time to
write it up before now.

ikano entrance

This is the entrance to Ikano Power Center. The interior is quite
architecturally impressive. The lifts (elevators) are the same as the
ones that’s installed in KLIA – the transparent ones with full workings
exposed. The escalators are also fairly novel, a straight incline to
the next floor:

ikano escalator

Here’s a shot of the interior as you enter it:

ikano interior

Anyway, I didn’t feel that there was a lot of places to go to
inside. There’s a Harvey Norman but I’ve been to this chain too many
times in Melbourne. However, we did find one place that we liked – The
Pet Safari! 🙂

pet safari

This is the entrance to the pet store. The interior is divided into
several sections like small animals, cats (not available when we
visited), dogs, fishes and so forth. I liked the interior layout.

pet safari interior

This is what you see when you step in. I like this photo that I took of these midget hamsters (?):

cute midget hamsters

Me and my gf was wondering why they always huddle around together
like that. There’s one inside a sea shell, does anyone know why these
cute little things exhibit this behavior? It’s like they need to have
snug contact with something all the time. I wanted to get some but my
gf didn’t let me.

ikano bins

I liked the way Ikano Power Center and Ikea have these recycling
bins for plastic, paper and “others” (which is the things that don’t
fit into the first two categories, obviously ;)). Anyway, after that we
went for lunch at…Rasa Fiesta!

rasa fiesta

Everyday is a fiesta at Rasa Fiesta. 🙂 The food court has avant
garde (okay, so I just wanted to see if I can insert this phrase into
the post) influenced walls at the back – it changes color ever so
frequently. Look at the back of this picture of the interior:

rasa fiesta interior

I like the wash basins too:

rasa fiesta basins

It’s like this circular structure with four water outlets. Nice.

ikano ikea

We went to Ikea after that. Ikano Power Center is connected to Ikea via the passage that you can see above.

ikea locker

These are the refundable 50 cent storage lockers that you put your
stuff. We spent a good hour walking around Ikea – I finally see the
appeal of Ikea. You can do anything you want – lie on the beds, sit on
the comfy sofas without anyone tailgating you. It’s nice to look at the
arrangements and plan how you want your future home to be too! 🙂 Now,
we’ll go to the final destination – the Swedish Specialty Shop! =D

svenskt brannvin

This is Svenskt Brannvin vodka. It retails for an amazingly
affordable RM 30 for a 700 ml bottle of 40% vodka. I wouldn’t say that
vodka has a “taste” per se, but it tastes slightly better than Absolut
vodka and it’s very drinkable even at room temperature. I don’t have a
fridge and I chug vodka straight from the bottle in order to sleep, and
this is perfect. Too bad there isn’t an Ikea in Kuching.

op anderson

This is another value buy and it’s what you want to go for if you
want to taste your drink. O.P. Anderson Fine Old Aquavit at RM 22.90
for a 500 ml bottle. It’s 40% as well, and it tastes REALLY good.
There’s an aniseed taste to it that makes it go down all too well. If
you like aniseed candies (eg the chocolate coated aniseed rings),
you’ll love this – aniseed is the dominating character of this aquavit.
Very drinkable even at room temperature and it’s chuggable too (only if
you like aniseed).

op anderson entry

There is this bound and laminated booklet at the shop with details
of the products they offer. This is the entry for OP ANDERSON. There
isn’t one for Svenskt Brannvin…I triple checked the entire book.
Anyway, I was photographing everything and this lead to a funny
incident with security. 🙂

If I had a bottle of vodka for every time security told me that
taking photos is not allowed inside Ikea, I’ll be sorted for months.
Heh. Anyway, there are “No Camera” signs, but if you want to, just take
them anyway (I own a Nikon 5700 – bulky and no one would call it
discreet) and when security says “Sorry sir, no photos allowed.”, say
“Oh, I see. Sorry.” and continue anyway. I didn’t say I was going to
STOP taking photos, I just said I understood the store policy. 😉

They won’t kick you out or anything like that – most of them were
resigned to the fact that I was going to take photos at the Swedish
Specialty Shop, like it or not. FWIW, they’re just there to tell you
that, and by informing you once in a while about the store policy
regarding photography, they have already fulfilled their obligation,
they won’t go the extra mile and report you to the store manager or
anything. 🙂

That’s our visit to Ikano Power Center and Ikea. Oh, and please
remember that I write my posts and resize my photos at home (where I
don’t have a net connection) and only post it when I get into the
office. This means I can only answer comments during breaks or lunch,
not directly after posting. Thanks for understanding. 🙂

ikea

Ikea!

Chap Goh Meh dinner

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da light chap goh meh

This is where I had my Chap Goh Meh dinner…Da-Light Food Court. I
think it literally means “big light” since I recognize the Chinese
character for big (this is entry level standard) and there’s another
Chinese word accompanying it, which I can’t read but logically it would
be “light”, so I think this is just what it’s called in Mandarin too.
🙂 This is at King Center. My Chap Goh Meh (15th night of the Chinese /
Lunar New Year – the final day) dinner consisted of a pancake and teh c
peng. What about yours?

More updates later, work now.

Feng tau Chinese New Year (a police raid and the great escape)

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This New Year is going to be very auspicious for me because we
narrowly avoided being raided by the police. =D It started when we went
to My Place for some good old feng tau action to celebrate the Chinese
New Year.

my place raid 1
1 1/2 Marquis dengan Mandelin biru, lima dan bir.

my place raid 2
Here’s another shot of us, didn’t get everyone in, unfortunately, our convoy of 13 people were scattered at the venue.

sixthseal.com’s My Place video clip [sixthseal.com]
(1.17 MB zip file, right click, save download as)
Extract from the zip file – it’s a .mov file (Requires QuickTime Player)

Click the movie above for a small video clip of the place.

Anyway, much fun was had until exactly 3 am when everyone started leaving in a hurried pace in droves.

Rule #1 – When people start leaving en masse, get off your ass and fucking cabut with them.

I managed to mobilize most of our group and we all headed out of the
place. Not a second too soon, there was a fucking group of police
walking determinedly towards the venue. Hell, the first wave was nearly
at the doorstep and we nonchalantly (as close to nonchalant as we could
manage anyway) took a sharp right. None of us could afford to
get hauled in if you catch my drift. I got into my car with my friend
and drove off, just in time. Close call…

Phone calls were made to ensure that everyone managed to get out
safely and we set a rendezvous point outside a nearby hotel. Bad news,
one person in our group didn’t get out. Last we saw, he was behind the
speakers. By that time, the place was swarming with police – there were
patrol cars, sapu vehicles (those trucks used to load people in for
drug tests) and personnel. I wanted to take a photo but that would be
an extremely stupid thing to do, so unfortunately there’s no raid
photos. We waited a while and turned back to search for our missing
friend.

Stroke of luck, he managed to get out as well. 🙂

Alls well that ends well, let me get some nitrazepam and alcohol into me and no one wake me till 4 pm. Party safe everyone.

Berbuka Puasa Bersama Kami di Nipah

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nipah_preview.jpg

XM and Zenith had the company buka puasa today at Nipah. They really
do have an impressive amount of dishes – I couldn’t try every single
one, I would be amazed if anyone out there can. However, I didn’t eat
for two (or three?) days before and had two packets of Indomie last
night with multivites, first meal after some days without solid food,
so yeah, I nearly threw up when I had three dishes today. I would have
too, if I wasn’t on the LRT trying to catch the last bus back home from
Bangsar and by the time I got home, stomach bloat factor has become
less of an issue.

Anyway, I just got home so I’ll post up the photos of the array of
food they have tomorrow, since I’m about to fall asleep right now. I
did sleep last night, but not as much as I wanted to, and I have to
wake up at 6:30 am tomorrow. Check back tomorrow night if you want to
see photos of the interesting platters of food Equatorial’s Nipah
Coffeeshop (no, not that kind – unfortunately, we don’t have those in
Malaysia). My favorite photo is the “Ulam ulam tempatan” section, very
nice. Stay tuned!

Oh, and if you don’t want to squint, here’s what the text in the promo above reads:

Delight in traditional “kampung” specialities, popular hawker
favourites, superb delicacies from various states and an unbelievable
array of desserts from our renowned “buka puasa” buffet – enough to
please even the most discerning diner.

Available nightly throught the month of Ramadhan from 6:30 pm to 10:30 pm.

Priced at RM 68.00+ per adult and RM 35.00+ per child.

For reservations please call 2161 7777 extn. 8555

I should be on their payroll for transcribing that. 😉

St John’s Cathedral and CU There Cafe @ Petaling Street area

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stjohn.jpg

It’s Sunday today and this is the first time in recent memory that
I’ve been to church. Granted, my eyes glazed over sometime during the
middle of mass, but anyway…:) I moved out of the hotel early this
morning and put my stuff at my gf’s place and now I’m updating at
Richard’s room. I’m bunking with him until the room vacancy at my gf’s
house opens up at the start of next month, about 7 odd days more.
Anyway, the mass was held at St. John Cathedral, somewhere around the
Kota Raya area as far as I could ascertain.

cucount.jpg

Well, I was with my gf, her brother (Richard) and her brother’s gf
(Alice). Mass was followed by lunch at CU There, somewhere near
Petaling Street. It was air conditioned and the interior and ambience
is interesting to say the least.

cuint.jpg

There is a wall filled with scribbles of love messages from couples
and the rest of the real estate is covered by posters of artists of all
sorts. There’s also a music area:

cumusic.jpg

and the toilets are covered with jokes…

cutoilet.jpg

I had the prawn steak (RM 7) because I was really interested in how they could come out with a prawn steak. This is the dish:

prawnsteak.jpg

Recombined prawn steak…that’s recombined prawn meat patties, my
friend. A steak produces expectations of a single piece of cut meat. 😉

Anyway, here’s a photo of us:

cuall.jpg

From left: Louisa (my gf), Richard (my gf’s brother and my room mate
for the next week), Alice (my gf’s brother’s gf) and Huai Bin (me).

Later, we went to Sunway Pyramid, where there was dance performances
and two highly doubious Malaysian Book of Records entries. I got
pictures of everything, but those would be up tomorrow because I’m very
tired, as can be seen by my terse sentences. 🙂 I’ll turn in early
tonight and wake up tomorrow for a whole new effort in sending out
resumes. Later.

sunwprev.jpg
This will be up tomorrow.

Oh yeah, just watched on Edisi Siasat about the Africans (Nigerians?
Afica is a continent…the reporters are no better than the people
saying Asians (a diverse classification which spans from India through
Hong Kong and down to Indonesia) is the source of trouble in a lot of
Caucasian countries) who started a bit of trouble at Jalan Alor at the
hawker food center…I’m not sure when that happened but me and my
digicam missed it. 🙁 Not that there’s anything newsworthy unless shots
were fired, but still, it would make a good update. I won’t go into the
racial vilification and distrust this produces, I’m against that of
course (the expose ends with “Be carefull of people of African
descent”), but sixthseal.com is just about personal stuff, drugs (by
veritas) and news that I happen to witness. :p

One last thing, sorry about the photos being dark…I didn’t realize
it on my monitor (with big ass gamma), only realized it here. Will take
that into consideration in the future. Here at sixthseal.com, we always
aim to please. or something. 😉 Nevermind me, I’m too relaxed right now.

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