Leading the wild into the ways of the man…
Exhibit A above shows various benzodiazepines (diazepam, lorazepam),
non-benzodiazepine hypnotics (zopiclone) and dihydrocodeine tartate. I
have been generously self-medicating with 510 mg of DHC per night and I
realize that I’m getting pains and aches all over, in between doses.
Pains and aches, my friends, pains and aches…
Crap…
These are the Chinese New Year visitation photos from this year. I
was supposed to go on another one today, but I can’t make it coz I
slept late last night. The photo above was the point house – Karen’s
place, where we met up at about 11 pm or so. The people grew and shrank
with every house due to personal obligations – Karen is the one in the
white dress.
This is us at Justina’s place – she’s the one in blue, middle. I’m
wearing a red shirt, and I’m on far left in this one. I noticed that a
lot of my ex-classmates who did medicine is now doing a final year
abroad, I’ve seen interesting photos from India, Scotland, etc.
We dropped by Siew Leng’s place after that, and she was doing
homework on the second day of Chinese New Year, which was quite
impressive. She’s the one in the middle, red stripes.
The next house was Thien Na’s house…and a lot of people congregated and left there – Lisa, Wendy, Collina, Jenny etc.
Here’s me and Thien Na coz we realized that that particular corner
of the house has been featured in the past few CNY photos so here’s one
from another angle.
We went to several houses before ending up at Catherine’s. She’s
wearing a muted red and standing in the approximate middle. It was good
to catch up with all of them, all my ex-classmates, and see where they
are now. That’s the best thing about these group visiting exercises,
though I usually go out with a smaller group of people. It was fun,
catching up.
The festivities of every Chinese New Year’s Eve demands firecrackers
and fireworks and this year did not disappoint…in addition to the
regularly scheduled display (otherwise known as The Usual Suspects),
there was also a new firecracker that debuted this year.
It’s a Skybound product and it comes in the standard 16 shot format
– it’s called Hackers Havoc firecrackers and it comes complete with a
pasted on display of some fried out dude bathing in the green cathode
ray of a monochrome monitor, with frequent appearances of “Legion of
Doom” and classics like that.
The fuse is on the top of the firecracker, and it does bear some surprises when we lit this one sometime after midnight…
The first few shots comprises of a smattering of “Colored Rain” –
bursts that disintegrate with a crackle into more pyrotechnics in the
air.
It then switches to the “single red glowing bulb” interim…
…before launching into two-tone standard issue reports with flare
mode and finishing with a tri-side-burst of white light that caught me
by surprise. It’s a good one, this Hackers Havoc – a product befitting
the name, a medley of fireworks, what one imagine would be the
byproduct if pyrotechnica was controlled by a hacker for a minute or
so…
This year’s firecracker and fireworks display, sponsored by The
Citizens of Sibu, was no less outstanding in turnout, if less so, in
duration.
It’s still a cause for celebration that the festive season is ushered in the traditional way, back here…
Oh, and Colored Flower/Chai Lei is being renamed Pop Pop again this year…
I just came back from the annual Chinese New Year reunion dinner and
I can’t help but dwell on a message that one commercial on TV had –
each New Year is different in character.
I’m reminded about how true that is, the families that merge and
drop off every new year, considering that we only go through an average
of 60 new years. 🙂
I have less than 24 hours before I go back to Sibu – time managed to
sneak up on me and it’s Friday evening, and I realize that I haven’t
cleaned my place here (take out the garbage at least, seriously, it’s a
dump over here ;)), neither have I done my laundry, heck, I haven’t
even banked in my paycheck for last month!
Shit, I can’t even go and see my doctor today, coz I’m
exhausted…and it’s very likely (90 percentile range) that I’ll get
involved in an accident. Fatigue kills, ya know. Speed kills too, so
there you go.
Well, my apologies for not updating much these days…I was busy
with work and with the forum. I’ll be going to Sibu tomorrow and I fear
I would not be able to wake up and I’ll miss the flight!
I’m being totally serious here.
I could very well sleep until the evening, it’s possible…
I saw this interestingly sized bottle of Carlo Rossi red wine on the
shelves – it’s between a long necked beer bottle and a 750 ml wine
bottle with normal dimensions, so the diminutive size is quite
noticeable. I also got the unusually smaller bottle to the right, but
haven’t sampled it yet.
Carlo Rossi is a well known local brand due to its competitive
pricing structure (a pretentious way of saying that its cheap ass wine
;)). I’ve had this particular label quite a number of times, and while
it’s nothing to write home about, I can’t argue with the value. Carlo
Rossi red wine comes in the normal bottles and larger 3 liter ones as
well.
This small bottle costs RM 11.65 and contains 187 ml of red wine. It
was dusty when I got it off the shelves…I wonder if it’s meant for
sale or rather as a free gift. Nevertheless, it was collecting dust on
the shelves of the local supermarket, so I decided to relieve it of its
pain. 😉
Carlo Rossi red wine contains 14% alcohol. That’s on the higher
range when it comes to wine (not counting port or brandy), so it comes
out as a pretty good value for the price range.
Download: Carlo Rossi 187 ml [sixthseal.com].
I drank the small bottle of Carlo Rossi red last night, and found that it was the perfect size for after work quaffing.
That’s right…you don’t sip Carlo Rossi…you quaff it. 😉
Nescafe Ice is the newest lineup in the canned drinks portfolio of
Nestle Nescafe brand of coffee products. Nescafe already has a canned
drink range, in the slimmer and taller canned and ready to drink form
factor, with a variety of flavors. Nescafe Ice is the new product that
conforms to the standard 330 ml canned format.
Nescafe Ice is the latest product in the Nescafe drinks line to jump
on the X Ice bandwagon. It is marketed as Nescafe coffee with a “deep
chill sensation”, which is a phrase for making “it contains mint” sound
better. 😉
Nescafe Ice has mint added to it like all the other X Ice products
out there. However, it is the first non-carbonated canned drink in
Malaysia to add mint and the “Ice” suffix to it. It does have a mint
aftertaste to it, which can be pleasant on a hot day, but still, coffee
is coffee. Nescafe Ice doesn’t offer anything new, but it’s a
refreshing drink…
Nescafe Ice is great for those who want the convenience of coffee in a
can. Personally, I drink a lot of coffee (not the euphemism, coffee
coffee) in a working day, and I like the mint aftertaste, so I consider
it a great addition to Nescafe’s canned drinks portfolio.
Italiano’s Pizza and Pasta is an authentic Italian eating
establishment located at Abell Road in Kuching. The place is owned by
an Italian and it’s been in operation for quite a while, and with a
reputation for authentic Italian food to boot (no pun intended).
The interior of the place is nicely done, there is a lot of wood
based furniture and a large replica of the outline of Italy strung
together with cloth with the colors of the Italian flag on the ceiling.
Italiano’s has a set lunch promotion going on for RM 9.90, with a
choice of four different main dishes. I went there for lunch just now
with my co-workers Penny and Mancy. We each ordered a different main so
we could try the different variations.
The person in charge of our table was friendly and attentive – the
service at Italiano’s Pizza and Pasta is great, and the waitress was
kind enough to accommodate unusual requests like customers asking to
take photos of her. 😉
The meal started with the soup of the day – it’s a tomato based
creamy soup, with mushrooms, onions, tomatoes, broccoli, cauliflower,
carrots and various other ingredients. It’s a hearty soup, nice and
filling.
This is one of the mains that we ordered. Pizza Margherita
is described as “pizza bread baked with tomato sauce and cheese”. It
has a thin base and is unlike the topping piled American style pizzas.
This is a more authentic Italian pizza with just tomato sauce, cheese
and herbs. It’s great – I give this two thumbs up!
The second main dish that we shared is Risotto Francheska
which the menu bills as “Italiano’s style tomato rice cooked with
tomato sauce and vegetables”. I liked this dish as well; the risotto is
rich and creamy, with a lingering aftertaste.
The last main that we ordered is Pene Arabiata,
which is “short tube pasta cooked with tomato, dry chilly, olives, and
garlic in tomato sauce”. This is a spicy dish, and that always scores
points with me. It tastes good and it’s always fun to stab penne rigate
with a fork. 😉
I wanted to order tiramisu, unfortunately Italiano’s were out, so
Mirela recommended another dessert. At least, that’s how I remember the
spelling as she enunciated it out for me. She’s not from Italy, as I
assumed, but is of Bosnian origin. She’s really friendly, and has this
fragile beauty about her…but I digress, we should be talking about
food.
This is the pudding type dessert that Mirela (pronounced MIER-la)
recommended. I don’t know what it’s made of, but it’s very creamy, with
a melt-in-your-mouth texture and a sweet aftertaste. It’s has cherry
sauce and chocolate drizzled over it, but it’s not cloyingly sweet, it
manages to allow the creamy taste to dominate the pudding. It’s
wonderful.
Italiano’s Pizza and Pasta comes highly recommended from me. The
food is good, the ambience is warm, and the service is great. You can’t
go wrong with Italiano’s if you’re looking for authentic Italian food
in Kuching.
Sobranie is a London based cigarette brand and Sobranie Mints is one
of their slim cigarette product lines. Sobranie Mints are not available
in Malaysia, as far as I know, but I managed to get a pack of these,
courtesy of Irene. Thanks!
This pack of Sobranie Mints is from Korea and the back of the pack
describes it as “A menthol cigarette of style and distinction from the
famous House of Sobranie”. These cigarettes are definitely different
from the first look – the pack is long and thin.
Sobranie Mints are marketed as specialty cigarettes and retails for
much higher than normal premium cigarette brands, from what I gather
from the prices on the Internet cigarette retailers. It certainly looks
nice, with the blue-green hued graphics…
This particular pack is made in the UK despite the Korean
characters. It’s an ultra light cigarette with 5 mg tar and 0.5 mg
nicotine.
Here’s a size comparison to give perspective to the dimensions of
the Sobranie Mints cigarette pack. It’s much longer and slimmer than
regular King Sized cigarettes.
The pack is lined with gold foil with “Sobranie” inscribed on it.
The Sobranie Mint cigarettes have a nice greenish blue hue on the
filters, which slowly tapers off as it reaches the end. The tip of the
filter has a gold band and letters spelling SOBRANIE, also in gold. The
cigarette body is inscribed with “Mints”, written in the same bluish
green color, in italics and underscored. This is one classy cigarette…
Here’s a closer look at the Sobranie Mints filter – notice the two arrays of airflow holes…
This is another side-by-side comparison to a regular cigarette.
Sobranie Mints are much longer and slimmer, with an equally generous
filter.
Sobranie Mints are fun to smoke. It feels strange to hold such a
slim and almost fragile cigarette instead of the regular sized ones.
Sobranie Mints smokes well too, with nice notes of mint dominating the
tobacco taste. It’s well made and burns nice and long, producing a very
satisfying smoke.
I finished the pack of Sobranie Mints before I knew it. It really is
that good. I wouldn’t say that it’ll replace your regular cigarettes,
but these things are so fun to smoke that you can’t help but smoke
every one of them…
I noticed this whimsical chocolate umbrella display in a grocery
shop just now. There are two different colored display umbrellas
housing arrays of smaller chocolate umbrellas underneath the canopy.
The chocolate umbrellas come in two flavors – strawberry cream and
orange cream. It retails for RM 1.50 each. These mini replica umbrellas
have a hooked handle and a tapering cone, making it look like an
unopened umbrella. It comes with a pretty ribbon to boot. 😉
Upon removing the wrapper, I found another paper-foil wrapped around
the chocolate umbrella. These things are called gizitas umbrella
chocolate & (orange or strawberry) cream.
The unwrapping of the second layer reveals a shiny cone of
chocolate, with a plastic base that acts as a handle and also doubles
as a decor.
The strawberry cream and orange cream chocolate umbrellas taste
pretty much the same to me. It’s an Indonesian product, and you know
what their chocolate tastes like, no offence. 😉 The chocolate umbrella
is made up of a cream center, followed by a layer of wafer, which is
filled with actual sugar granules (!), followed by another layer of
wafer, which is then coated with chocolate.
It’s nothing to write home about. I just thought the chocolate umbrella display was interesting. 🙂
