Leading the wild into the ways of the man…
This is Lucas and Jess from Zurich, Switzerland. Jess is from Kuching and met Lucas (a Swiss) in NZ and now they’re living in Switzerland together. I met them at Luconia – apparently Jess reads my blog and recognized me. It’s a pleasure meeting with the both of you. Have a safe flight back!
I will be going to KL tomorrow on a business trip. I will be free on Friday and Sunday, let’s go clubbing on Saturday night, FA!
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New Year’s Eve ’05 and the countdown to New Year ’06 was celebrated in an unconventional venue this year – Somerset Gateway, Kuching. Somerset Gateway is a serviced apartment located in the heart of the city and it’s managed by The Ascott Group. It’s one of the best places to chill out and crash in and you can hit the clubbing districts and make it your base to boot.
Anyway, a group of us (spearheaded by me and Cherie) booked a 2-bedroom serviced apartment for RM 380 per night. It is a reasonable rate coz the facilities are great; and the privacy and security, better. I think we checked in sometime around 8 pm with everything we needed to usher in the New Year with the insobriety that New Year celebrations demand. 😉
The apartment we were in was the last one available that night which is either due to the high influx of tourists and travelers or locals having a home session coz most of the clubs were raided during New Year’s Eve. Oh, and about the title, there were no sex, drugs and rock and roll…at least not all three – we listen to hard trance. 😉 That’s a joke, btw.
These are the first two fugitives – it looks like we’re on the run. I thought that was pretty funny.
Download: Somerset Gateway, Kuching video tour [sixthseal.com]
This is the kitchen / food preparation area of Somerset Gateway serviced apartments. They have a fridge, freezer, all the utensils and cooking implements you need (except scissors!), plates, glasses, and they even threw in a front loader washing machine and a dryer on the side. You get the idea…
This is the master bedroom…it’s just beside the guest bedroom (or the other bedroom) and it has a huge bed instead of two single beds like in the guest bedroom.
There is also a toilet / shower and bath area which is inside the master bedroom. There is a smaller shower and toilet outside.
There is also a chill out chair and the entire apartment provides a really great view of Kuching. It’s amazing to just suddenly drag open the blinds and let the amazing panorama of Kuching hit you, it’s nice. I usually just look out but I learnt that trick from Cherie.
Download: Somerset Gateway view [sixthseal.com]
It was close to 10 pm on the last day of 2005 when we turned down the lights and chilled out.
There were trip toys and party packs and glow sticks to play around with…
…and we totally missed the countdown coz we were pretty fucked up by 11 pm.
Cherie: When’s the countdown?
Huai Bin: I’m not sure but I think it’s coming soon.
Hope: What’s wrong with you guys? It’s already 3 am in the morning! You totally missed the countdown.
Cherie + Huai Bin: Okay.
(a few minutes pass)
Cherie: When’s the countdown again?
I think that went on for quite a while. 😉
Anyway, we crashed until 2 pm and went to chill at the pool on the 15th floor. There is a sauna and other facilities as well, including a couple of tanning chairs.
There were some other guests frolicking around in the wading pool and eating chicken wings.
The only thing we could eat (drink?) was bubble tea with lots of Chivas inside.
Coffee Master does room service in Somerset Gateway, Kuching so the four of us ordered a lot of juice (self-infused with more Chivas) and some untoasted club sandwiches for later when we have the munchies.
Before
(Soap dish)
After
(Ashtray)
But nah, we didn’t thrash the place.
I think we actually cleaned up pretty much everything for them…at least Cherie did.
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Lighting Reaction XTREME is the “Latest, greatest shock product” and comes with wonderfully hyperbolic taglines like Dueling for the 21st Century
and my personal favorite “red to green, get ready to scream”. Lightning
Reaction is basically a reflex based drinking game with an electric
shock delivered to the slower (or more intoxicated) players.
The Lightning Reaction XTREME contraption can accommodate up to four
(4) players with a minimum of two (2) players. It looks fairly benign
but with fresh batteries, it can deliver a rather pleasant shock. It
won’t kill you, and some of the more sado masochistic ones amongst us
just shock ourselves for fun. It seriously feels good – especially when
you hold more than one of the handles and let it shock you (it kinda
“sticks” to you while the electric shock is delivered, much like how a
real shock “grips” you).
Lightning Reaction XTREME has cords extending out to four handles
with a grip and a red “trigger” on each one. There are two variations
of the game – Lightning Reaction and Lightning Reaction XTREME.
The huge button in the middle is depressed to start the game and it
starts flashing red for a random number of seconds before turning
green. The fastest person to press the trigger on their respective
handles wins in Lightning Reaction XTREME and all the others gets a
shock (and has to drink) while only the slowest player to react gets
shocked and has to drink in Lightning Reaction Regular Mode.
There’s no way to cheat coz pressing the trigger prematurely (before
the flashing red light with accompanying sound effects turns green) is
a foul and that person gets shocked and has to drink.
It’s a great drinking game!
Download: Lightning Reaction XTREME [sixthseal.com]
The movie shows Cherie, Huai Bin (me), Shin and Hope playing the game with Jimmy bringing beer and stout for the drinking game. You just gotta love the horror movie suspense sound effects…
Lightning Reaction – If you snooze you looze!
Happy New Year 2006 everyone! Party hard and party safe!
Cheers,
sixthseal.com
Copial Tuak is an attempt at marketing tuak
(traditional Iban rice wine) towards the premium market. It retails at
a staggering RM 11.90 per bottle and is adorned with minimalist but
aesthetically pleasing design placements.
I saw Copial Tuak for sale in Demak Laut, Kuching (tuak is
a Sarawakian product) in a standard 330 ml long necked beer bottle
(similar to the alcopop bottle sizes) and it comes with the tagline
“The authentic rice wine”.
Copial Tuak is a sanitized and quality controlled product aimed at
disassociating it from the traditional Iban longhouse homebrew
production methods. Tuak is a rice wine served during the Dayak
festival of Gawai and it can be deceptively potent.
The Copial Tuak I got standardizes the alcohol content at 15% which
makes it higher than most wines and it comes in a 330 ml bottle. I have
no complains about the taste – it’s slightly sweet and it tastes like
genuine Iban tuak.
P/S – My apologies in advance pertaining to bouts of disturbing phallic imagery that any of the photos induce. 😉
McDonalds’s is having their inaugural promotional burger – the Prosperity Burger
to commemorate the Chinese New Year celebrations. The Prosperity Burger
is an elongated burger with a beef patty (chicken this year) saturated
with black pepper sauce and onions.
The Prosperity Burger 2006 now implements a chicken
patty instead of a beef patty, which makes sense from a marketing point
of view – a chicken burger would have a larger demographic compared to
a beef patty (missing out on the Hindu market).
Everyone eats chicken except vegetarians and vegans, but those
people shouldn’t be going to McDonald’s anyway. 😉 The recent years has
watched a shift in the Prosperity Burger set from just the burger
itself to the introduction of curly fries (first debut in ’94 as a side
order with the Sambal Burger, and yes I’m such a McDonald’s geek :p).
The past two years has also witnessed the introduction of the
tagline “Enjoy the Many Tastes of Prosperity” with the whole range of
the Prosperity Burger set as well as “Prosperity Desserts”. The Orange
McFizz (Sprite with Minute Maid OJ) comes standard with the meal and
there are orange themed desserts – the Peach Orange sundae and the
Peach Orange McFlurry with come under the banner of Prosperity Desserts.
Twister Fries replaces the standard fries in this
Prosperity Burger meal. It’s a twisty version of fries that seems like
it has been dunked into the deep fryer more than once, giving it a
crispy outer layer. It’s great, especially when you bite straight
through the spiral, spawning multiple mini Twister Fries. 🙂
This is the Orange McFizz – a relatively recent
introduction which sees the mixture of Minute Maid orange juice with
Sprite. It tastes surprisingly good (and it has Vitamin C) and it has
earned its place in McDonald’s permamenu. It’s now paired with the
Prosperity Burger meal to complete the orange themed spirit (Mandarin
oranges and orange = gold = wealth).
This is the Peach Orange sundae (RM 2.80) which
comes in an orange swirl of colors, with the abstract orange syrup
adorning the entire circumference of the sundae cup and with the
presentation topped off with Mandarin orange pieces and peach chunks.
The Peach Orange McFlurry (RM 4.50) is the McFlurry
version of the Peach Orange sundae. It tastes the same and also has the
orange and peach pieces blended into the concoction, giving it the
distinctive orange hue.
This is the main feature of the meal – the Prosperity Burger
(RM 9.88). It didn’t come in the Prosperity Burger wrapper coz it’s
probably too early on and I berated them for not having it yesterday
even though they were advertising it (partly due to the fact that I had
to search for a parking space and thus, I took it out on them ;)). The
burger didn’t look too good, and there must have been a mess up
somewhere coz I KNOW for a fact that Prosperity Burger has always had
onions – raw onions at that, that’s why I love them.
The Prosperity Burger didn’t have the thick slathering of black
pepper sauce that was in all the previous iterations of the Prosperity
Burger and the square cut chicken patty looks so familiar it evoked a
strong feeling of déjà vu…and then it clicked! It’s the EXACT same
patty used in the McDonald’s Grilled Chicken Foldover [sixthseal.com] that tanked! They’re reusing the exact same patty for the Prosperity Burger!
Dammit McDonald’s, you McSwindled me… :p
I was walking around the shopping centres in Sibu today when I noticed that a Levi’s store has opened up in Wisma Sanyan. I’m in Sibu now coz I have a work related project to attend to tomorrow morning.
I’m not usually inclined to go shopping and that wasn’t the agenda
when I drove out, but somehow, I ended up buying a whole lot of stuff.
I saw this Levi’s Red Tab Jacket that I liked instantly and it turned out to be a perfect fit so I got it.
There were Red Loop jeans but to be honest, I’m not
a big fan of Levi’s, preferring my denim to come from Quiksilver. The
jacket I got is made of a non-denim fabric that strikes the perfect
balance between insulating and comfort.
This is the Levi’s Red Tab Jacket (Lot # 71361) that I got for RM
270. I like the slight weight it generates when it’s worn. It’s a great
jacket.
…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.
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 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!
I celebrated Christmas Eve early, perhaps a bit too early from the look on our faces, but it’s all good. 🙂
Merry Christmas, everyone!
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 ;)).
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.
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? 😉
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. 🙂
L-R: Irene, Huai Bin (me), Cherie, Sean
Happy birthday, Sean! Cheers!
Tambun Biscuits originated from Penang, Malaysia
and I remember having them during my trips over there when I was young.
I haven’t had authentic Tambun Biscuits from Penang ever since and
Freddie was kind enough to show up at my workplace with a bag of Hoh Heong Tambun Biscuits from 100 Macalister Road, Penang.
There were two transparent packages of individually wrapped old
skool Tambun Biscuits in the bag. Freddie travels a lot and he dropped
by to pass these to my on his Kuching trip. Cheers mate! 🙂
The Tambun Biscuits are wrapped in slightly translucent cream
colored packaging with red script. The contents are listed as: Flour,
Sugar, Caramel (?), Onions, Salt, Oil, Molasses and “Lenga”, the last
of which totally stumped me. What is “Lenga”?
This is what the famous Penang Tambun Biscuit look
like – it’s covered in flaky pastry which will totally fall apart as
soon as you bite into it and get into the hardest to clean nooks at the
first opportunity like the keyboard. 😉
Tambun Biscuits have a sugar based center and it tastes like caramel
mixed with onions. It sounds like an odd combination but it really
tastes great! My coworkers who had the Tambun Biscuits pronounced it
“Good” as well.
…and now our office has pastry flakes all over the carpet.
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.
Download: Huai Bin and Cherie [sixthseal.com]
This me and Cherie doing Flaming Lamborghinis in tandem. Jimmy and Ghana were mixing the drinks.
Download: Jo [sixthseal.com]
This is Jo doing the Flaming Lamborghini
Download: Huai Bin [sixthseal.com]
This is me doing the second flaming for the night (had three in quick succession)
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:
This is Jo….from the previous night, or last night, or the night before, I can’t remember…
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.
“OMG, did we take that many photos?”
Ericka turned up at Luconia one day, but I forgot which one, coz my memory is like, totally fucked.
“I drink to get fucked up”
This is me with Cherie wearing matching Santa hats. It’s actually Luconia staff issue. 😉
More Santa hat pictures:
Huai Bin
Irene
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.
