A warning about Amsterdam Coffeeshops

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coffeeshop amsterdam

I didn’t sleep much on the flight to Amsterdam from London so one of the first things I did was to pop into a coffeeshop and grab an old fashioned cup of coffee. I reckon a mug of Joe would warm me up and give me the caffeine hit to see all the sights Amsterdam has to offer.

smoking room

The first sense that something wasn’t quite right was the wonderful smell wafting tantalizingly out of the coffeeshops. It smelled herbal but it’s not cigarettes. I didn’t think much of it – if people wanted to smoke cigars or whatever it was they smoked over in the Netherlands, they’re free to do so.

coffeeshop menu

I entered the coffeeshop and looked at the menu in confusion. Super Lemon Haze? White Widow? Amnesia Haze? Afgani Polm?

cannabis strains

The coffee beans in Amsterdam sure has some weird ass names. I figured it was a direct Dutch to English translation so I just pointed to one that won some kind of award in 2009 and the nice person behind the counter showed me the product.

amnesia haze

It looked more like tea than coffee but perhaps that’s what coffee looks like over here. It’s my first time here so what the hell. There is another type of coffee which looks more like coffee though so I ordered that instead.

weighing hash

It came as a huge shock to me when it came to my table. It’s called Nepal First Cream and it came in a sticky goo that you’re supposed to crumble it into a smoking device (which I later learned is called a bong) and light it up.

nepal first cream hash

I was horrified! The proverbial light bulb came on and I realized what I was being offered. Cannabis! Hash! The travesty of it all! I couldn’t believe it and stormed out of the coffeeshop with righteous anger and my head held high with the THC laden hashish left untouched on the table.

Imagine that! Hmph! What has the world come to? action

We will, we will, rock you!

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bath

I bumped into a group celebrating their hen’s night out at Bath, London a couple of days back. It was a short visit to Bath but I learned a lot about the Roman Baths and the architecture behind Bath.

I had a piece of news flashed to me while I was there. Mind you, I’ve seen Proton cars in London and it never ceases to amaze me what they’ve done.

china raft

However, this is not about that. The Proton team went to the Asia Pacific Rally Championship in China and it brought me back to my vacation on the trip before last to Guilin, China.

harrods shopping

The Proton Asia Pacific Rally Championship (APRC) win made me feel warm and fuzzy inside. It’s the feeling much like buying gifts for friends – you don’t get anything out of it but knowing that you’re thinking of your friends while on vacation and making them happy makes you happy. You know what I mean?

china rafts

Of course this is not the rally but it still has a lot of hallmarks of it. I went on one of the old skool rafts and we were navigating out of time (and space) to get back in time before the bus departs.

I can relate to how the Proton team at the China Rally feels like. The Satria Neo S2000 is one of the 24 out of 44 starters that finished the race.

Not only did they complete the course in Longyou city against much more established motorsports teams but they placed second in the race! w00t!

proton-s2000b

Alister McRae and Chris Atkinson were the drivers behind the China Rally manoeuvring the Satria Neo S2000. Proton has always been the underdog and I’m glad they have the same mentality as I do – to rise above all odds and challenge The Establishment (TM).

I’ve driven the consumer version of the Satria Neo and I’m not surprised that they managed to finish second. Proton also had 4 Gen2s that finished the gruelling 229.19 km rally.

china

I have to be honest. This is one of the things that makes me proud to say I’m a Malaysian when I’m on vacation. 🙂

Greetings from London!

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london

Hello! This is the obligatory “I iz here” post. I am where GMT is exactly that – zero! I’ve been up for quite a while, my body thinks it’s 8 pm when it’s actually only 12 pm. T_T

alex sharon

I didn’t manage to get much sleep last night too but you know the oft repeated phrase “Small world, huh?” Yup, I bumped into Alex and Sharon in London! I asked them about a bus route and later we bumped into each other while waiting for the coach and he asked if I was sixthseal.com coz my face looks familiar. See you both in Amsterdam!

Anyway, back to London, it looks old…er, I mean it has character at first glance. The skies are a little bit gloomy and it drizzled almost non-stop. >.<

kind local

I have a very good first impression of this city though. I got a little lost on my way to the hostel where I’m backpacking and asked a hurried looking woman on the street the way. I expected her to walk on saying she didn’t know but she stopped, rummaged around in her handbag for a book and patiently consulted it and told me where to go. She said that book/map is the only way she manages to find the way around the city. Good first encounter with the locals – willing to help despite being in a hurry.

I’m waiting to check into my hostel right now, having a pint of their fine local draft beers. Let me just give you a brief run through of what happened after I got here:

breakfast

Grabbed a full traditional English breakfast with two pints of the local ale. Where else can you have a pint at 9 am in the morning without having weird looks, nay, with other people doing the same thing! =D

milk

Went to the local and bought some essentials and this creamy milk – it’s unhomogenized fresh milk from Jersey cows and it tastes awesome!

I made a huge mistake by exchanging the bulk of my currency at the airport. I got a 5.8 exchange rate instead of a 5.1 exchange rate in KL, resulting in a loss of GBP 80 (around RM 400). I saw that the exchange rates are more favorable in town so it’s still okay to change your money here, just not at airports.

roulette

Anyway, I decided to take matters into my own hands and get back the GBP 80 by stepping into one of the many betting places over here. They operate kinda like the Aussie betting spots – horses etc with a couple of pokies machines thrown in. However this one offers Bacarrat!

roulette win

I inserted GBP 100 and bet GBP 40 on Red – and won! I bet another GBP 40 and lost, and the losing streak continued till I finished my GBP 100. I put in another GBP 200 (swearing that if I lost this, I’m going to go) and started betting consistantly GBP 100 (about RM 500) per spin. I kept on losing and winning and lost the GBP 200.

winning slip

I damn won’t give up lor and put in another GBP 200 (for total buy in of GBP 500). I bet GBP 100 each round again and kept on losing and winning and was about to give up and just write off the GBP 500 (RM 2,500) loss until I went on a winning streak.

It was a tough battle but in the end I managed to get GBP 600. w00t!

pound winnins

That’s a GBP 100 (RM 500) net profit after my GBP 500 buy in. I managed to cover the GBP 80 loss in exchange rate and have a nice breakfast and a couple of pints courtesy of the machine to boot. 😉

600 pounds me

God Bless the Queen! =D

pints

I’m heading down to Stonehenge and the Roman Baths tomorrow. Catch you on the flipside!

Posted: 1:11 pm London time

For whom the bell tolls

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I am going to start a new religion tentatively named “For Whom The Bell Tolls”.

for whom the bell tolls

Doctrine
We believe in the mortality of the human body and in accordance to that, our “communion” is to ring a huge ass bell 66 times to symbolize the average life span of a person.

The Bell (TM)
This bell shall not exceed 5,000 meters in diameter (although larger bells will be considered on a case to case basis and will likely be approved with a wink).
Said bell must have the acoustic capacity to wake everyone up within a minimum radius of 2 kms.

Our Creed
We believe in one true God. Monotheistic religions generally are tax exempt so I’m going to explain this exceedingly difficult to understand (but not as complex as 3-in-1 Father, Son, Holy Spirit, inseparable) concept.

Our one true God is called Substances.
There are many manifestations of substances e.g. ethanol (alcohol), MDMA, benzodiazepines, (insert your favorite).

This Man (or God) of Substance, as it is, is to be worshipped at exactly 3 am in the morning since it’s after party hours and you’ll have to go to bed after.

Every practitioner of For Whom The Bell Tolls is expected to reflect on what they did that day and how they could have helped themselves or their fellow man better.

Example:
I could have drank more so I won’t be dead sober now
I could have helped my friends be in a more cheery mood if we had more hydroponics

Upon said reflection, you’re expected to ring the bell 66 times, waking everyone up before showering (optional) and passing out.

We do not believe in donations. We do not believe in calls to prayers. We do not believe in evangelism.

However, we strongly believe that all true adepts in our religion should purchase their own bell to the specifications above. smirk

Banh cuon in Hanoi

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goi choon start

Banh cuon is a term used to describe rice flour rolls in Vietnam. I was wondering along the streets of Hanoi when I decided to pop into a street stall to try one of their offering. I don’t quite remember where this was as I was just walking along and taking in the culture but it was really good.

Goi Cuon stall

The Northern part of Vietnam (including Hanoi) has a slightly different varient of Banh cuon. It’s a “rolled cake” which contains pork, shrimp herbs and rice vermicelli wrapped in rice paper.

Goi Cuon woman

You can see them prepare it fresh right in front of you!

Goi Cuon plate

This version also has a healthy sprinkling of pork floss on top and it’s served with a dipping sauce which has lime, sugar and fish sauce called Nuoc cham.

Goi Cuon preparation

It costs VND 15,000 for a plate (about RM 2.40) for a plate of four rolls and unsweetened iced tea is on the house.

Goi Cuon dip

I love the yin and yang concept of Vietnamese cuisine – they always have raw vegetables and herbs to complement the dish.

Goi Cuon dish

The dipping sauce is something awesome too. I ate it without the dipping sauce first but with the nuoc cham it makes it all the more better. Street food FTW in Vietnam!

sixthseal.com is migrating!

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I’ll be migrating the site to WordPress at the end of this month. I’ve stayed with Movable Type for a long time coz it was the first CMS that came out specifically for blogging. I had a HTML manually updated blog before this coz I started in 2002.

However, MT has a higher server load and a lot of security vulnerabilities. The dry run on castitas.com (no it’s not the old castitas :p) seems to be working well without any broken links so I’m going to just go ahead and do it instead of waiting for a design.

I’m sure a lot of you have experienced problems with commenting and load time and I apologize for that. This will be fixed during the migration to WordPress.

Anyway, in unrelated technical news…

Sponsored Post:

The new Peugeot 207 looks mighty interesting. It has a lot of features that is usually the domain of high end cars which you have to pay through the nose for. The 207 has auto wipers and auto headlights as standard with climate control (no more old fashioned air conditioning dials). It also has a USB port and Bluetooth for your music needs. The Bluetooth can even pair with your phone to answer calls!

Peugeot is not a huge name in Malaysia but the car looks damn awesome in this video clip. There’s the sporty styling, dynamic looks and excellent suspension. Check out how they drift. I reckon they have pretty comfortable seats as well since I’ve been to a drifting class before and it’s not as easy as it looks. There are 2 airbags and Tiptronic shift where you can opt for manual control over the auto car when you want a more exhilarating experience.

Peugeot-207

All this in a sub 100k car – it even has front and back fog lights! The new 1.6 liter Peugeot 207 – a Peugeot for everyone!

Microdermal implants – my third nipple

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microdermal implant instruments

Microdermal implants uses surgical grade titanium to anchor an interchangeable stud under your skin. It’s done by creating a “pocket” under your skin and it’s a lot easier to heal than the previous surface bar piercing that I have. I shall do a quick n00b drawing to show how it works.

microdermal diagram

Basically, it needs to be anchored towards something, in this case, my ribcage. There is a long titanium anchor that goes up and a shorter one that goes down. The first time you do it, it’s best to have a flat stud so it won’t rub too much against your clothes.

microdermal implant draw

It’s a lot easier to get piercings in high school and university coz you don’t have to give considerations about work. However, now that I’m working, piercings (except for the usual orthodox ones) have to be concealable under office attire.

microdermal implant measuring

Michelle calls it my third nipple. smirk

Fresh says it looks like someone just hammered a nail in my heart but it’s actually straight in the middle of my body. Frankie of Zoo Body Piercing measured it so it would be right in the center of my body.

microdermal implant look

The procedure is fairly simple – a small gauge needle (which is a large needle – the higher the gauge, the thinner it is) is used to make 4 incisions under your skin. The top part of the anchor is pushed in followed by the bottom part.

microdermal implant done

I didn’t find it painful but then again your mileage may vary since everyone has different pain thresholds. I actually like pain so it was quite enjoyable for me.

Microdermal implants takes only 3 months to heal and costs RM 250. You have to really take care of it during the first few days though. However, my approach towards body modification is always LITHA (Leave It The Hell Alone) and it usually works for me.

microdermal implant us

Thanks to bff Lainey for the recommendation! Zoo Body Piercing also does branding – my next project! =D

Pizza Hut Extreme Cheesy 6 Pizza

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cheesie

Cheese – milk’s leap towards immortality – Clifton Fadiman

pizza hut extreme cheesy 6

A lot of people consider cheese to be an American invention due to the mass proliferation of heavily proceeded cheddar cheese slices. Others think cheese is of French origin coz they produce a lot of gourmet cheeses. However, the truth is cheese was discovered much longer than that. Think BC. Cheese was probably first made way before 2,000 BC.

pizza hut pbd

I love cheese. I used to be able to whip up a quick breakfast in minutes…with cheese of course. However, I just don’t have the time to cook right now so I jumped at the chance when Pizza Hut invited me to taste their new Extreme Cheesy 6 Pizza at Pusat Bandar Damansara last Friday. I love how they always come out with new pizzas – I was at their Fish King Pizza launch a couple of months back too.

me wei zhi

The Extreme Cheesy 6 as exactly six types of cheeses in their pizza. It goes well with my blog URL. smirk

The cheeses in question are:

say cheese

Cheddar
Classic delicate taste
Mozzarella
Creamy and soft
Parmesan
Flavorful and savory
Monterey Jack
Zesty and nutty
Provolone
Full-bodied and slightly tart
Romano
Hearty taste

pizza hut gm marketing

We watched the TVC after a short talk by Mr Law, the GM of Marketing.

aud tim nick

The Extreme Cheesy 6 Pizza can be ordered just like that (with cheese) or with your favorite topping. You can choose from Cheesy Hawaiian, Cheesy Pepperoni or Cheesy Chicken but my favorite was the pure cheese pizza.

pizza hut extreme cheesy 6 pizza hawaiian

I tried all four variants, which considerably tested my stomach capacity. They each have their own strengths; it’s just what type of topping you prefer.

pizza hut extreme cheesy 6 pizza pepperoni

Pizza Hut was too generous with their food – side orders of chicken wings…

chicken wings

…and pasta

pasta

…magically appeared and by the end of the session, I was totally stuffed, in a good way. =D

pizza hut extreme cheesy 6 pizza chicken

The Extreme Cheesy 6 Pizza retails for RM 21 (Regular) and RM 28.90 (Large). Toppings are available for RM 2 (Regular) and RM 3 (Large).

balloons

Sara Khoo! <3

sara khoo

She eats with a fork and spoon, which totally violates the dining etiquette of eating pizza. It’s heresy! Pizza is meant to be eaten with your hands!

power of cheese

There’s also a contest for all you bloggers out there. The Extreme Cheesy 6 Pizza Contest runs until 16 November and is open to all Nuffnang bloggers. Just write a creative and interesting post with the theme “Why You Love Pizza Hut’s 6 Cheese Extreme Pizza” and take lots of photos with the pizzas. You’ll also need to name all the cheeses (refer to above ;)) and end the blog post with “I’m crazy about Cheeeeeese!“.

6-Cheese-Poster

There’s exactly 6 (six, enam, liu) e’s in that last line. The top 5 winners get RM 2,000 cash which is pretty good so it might be time to get cracking. 🙂

thumbdrive

As usual, the hospitality from Pizza Hut was awesome! We all got thumb drives, notebooks and a voucher to dine with 6 (how apt) people for free! Thanks to Mr Low Kang Moon and Nor Aziani Azizan for having us! 🙂

group

It was a cheesy-licious dinner!

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