Wall’s Paddle Pop Hip Hop Jelly

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walls paddle pop hip hop jelly

Hip Hop Jelly is the latest variant of the Wall’s Paddle Pop series
of iced confectionary and it offers something unique – it’s not ice
cream.

paddlepop hip hop jelly

It goes for RM 1 each, in line with the Paddle Pop pricing structure, which has always targeted children as it’s primary market.

hip hop jelly wobble

The Paddle Pop Hip Hop Jelly is described as an apple and peach
flavored ice confection, but the thing that makes it stand out is
it’s…well, malleable nature.

hip hop jelly

Download: Hip Hop Jelly [sixthseal.com]

Look at Mr. Happy. 😉 In short, it’s very flexible. I imagine a lot
of fun can be derived from shaking said ice confectionary by its
primary target market. It doesn’t lose its structural integrity by
being shaken. That’s probably where the “hip hop” name comes from – it
wobbles instead…

hip hop jelly china

Hip Hop Jelly is made in China and seems to be made primarily from
jelly and a lot of air bubbles. The inside is made up of an unknown
substance which seems to be a cross between jello and ice.

hip hop jelly inside

The jelly tastes surprisingly good too…the apple and peach flavors
is very thirst quenching and I had five of the Paddle Pop Hip Hop
Jellies in a row. It’s a hot day, and these things are fun to eat.

Pizza Hut Ocean Treasure Tempura King Prawn

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tempura king prawn promo

The Tempura King Prawn platter is the latest addition to the Ocean Treasure series of Pizza Hut offerings. The tagline goes The king on the platter joins the ocean treasure and it’s a side dish for the Ocean Treasure pizza series.

ocean treasure pizza

The flagship of the Ocean Treasure series is the Ocean Treasure
Pizza, which has prawns, calamari, crab sticks and other seafood as the
topping of the pizza.

ocean treasure pizza slice

I’ve always liked the Ocean Treasure Pizza – there’s nothing like baked crab sticks…it just has this delicious texture to it.

tempura king prawn platter

The Tempura King Prawn platter is described as “a delicious bundle
of crispy golden bites made up of crunchy Tempura King Prawns,
irresistible Tempura Calamari Rings and tasty Criss Cut Fries with Cool
Lime Mayonnaise”.

It’s good – the tempura king prawns are great and the dip is nice
and creamy, but I found the fries to be the best thing on this side
dish.

At least it’s not crinkle fries. 😉

Pepsi Fire and Pepsi Ice

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pepsi fire pepsi ice

Pepsi came out with two new additions to their range of drinks. It comes in a pair – Pepsi Fire and Pepsi Ice. Pepsi Fire is billed as Cola on Fire
and images on the can depict a “hot” theme, with fiery red color
schemes and fonts. Pepsi Ice on the other hand goes with the “cold”
theme, and it’s billed as Ice Mint Cola, with crystals and such to contribute to a cool theme.

Pepsi Fire has an intense amber color and two
people commented that it has a warm note, much like drinking Chivas
Regal with coke. I didn’t notice that at first myself, but then again,
my taste buds aren’t all that pristine. I did notice a slight hint of
strange warmth as I drank it though, and it tastes like regular Pepsi
spiked with alcohol.

pepsi fire ice drink

Pepsi Ice on the other hand is artificially blue in
color. There are a lot of X Ice offerings out there e.g. 7-Up Ice,
Sprite Ice etc, just to name a few. Pepsi Ice differentiates itself
with hints of mint though – you can really taste the cooling mint
element in the drink. I prefer the color of Pepsi Fire though; X Ice
has been done to death…

pepsi fire ice mix

Now, the next test is to mix equal portions of Pepsi Fire and Pepsi
Ice to create a Pepsi Fire and Ice drink. 🙂 I had wanted to do that
ever since I saw the ads for the drinks a while ago – it seemed like
the natural thing to do.

pepsi fire ice violet

I first filled a glass with a quarter of Pepsi Fire and then put in
an equal amount of Pepsi Ice. The color changed from amber to purple
and settled to a slightly clear violet colored concoction. It tasted
like…well, Pepsi.

pepsi fire ice fire

Pepsi Fire and Ice could rejuvenate the sex industry – temperature
differential fellatio (or hot and cold blowjobs as experts refer to it)
where the working lady swaps in an ice cube could be replaced with a
can of Pepsi Fire and another of Pepsi Ice before administration in
sequence. 😉

pepsi fire

Pepsi Fire. Feel the burn!

CNY red underwear!

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cny red underwear shop

I was out with a couple of friends and we chanced upon these bright
red underwear for sale – it’s meant for Chinese New Year. It was quite
popular too, as quite a few people were looking at it. We were doing
that too, when a sales person came up and asked us what size I was. I
told her I didn’t know, and we discussed about the merits of having a
loose versus tight fit. 😉

cny red underwear

We all bought one box of the red underwears each. I didn’t have time
to have a detailed look at them last night. Besides, I can’t read
Chinese. Thus, I brought them to the office this morning and got them
translated.

cny red underwear 3

The Emilio Valentino 100% combed cotton briefs comes in a set of
three. I bought the L sized ones, while one of my friends went for the
M and the other had to go for XL.

cny red underwear chai

One of them has the Chinese character Chai meaning
Prosperity emblazoned in gold across the bright red underwear. This
interplay of color is supposed to be very auspicious – the red, a
traditional color of the Lunar New Year celebrations for the Chinese,
combined with gold, which symbolizes wealth, comes together to make on
hell of a prosperous brief.
You’ll want to be wearing these when you’re gambling.
Sure win one!

cny red underwear dragon

The other has an image of a dragon, presumably to symbolize the “dragon” that lies under the bulge when one is wearing it.

cny red underwear prosperity

The third and last one has the gold Chinese character for Fu,
which roughly translates to happiness, in the family context. It’s
probably wise to be donning these on during the Chinese New Year eve
reunion dinner to avoid unwanted questions and stop bickering relatives
(if any).

cny red underwear angpow

It also comes with ang pow (red packets)!

So there you go – the complete package for Chinese New Year.
Prosperity for gambling sessions, dragon for you-know-what sessions,
and happiness/unity for the reunion dinner. All bases covered.

cny red underwear wearing chai

Don’t forget to tell me in advance if you want to set up the
traditional Chinese New Year gambling session…I’ll be donning this Chai brief on the outside. I’ll be letting it all hang out. 😉

Denis Place cafe & restaurant review

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denis place

Denis Place cafe & restaurant is a well-hidden gem in the old
part of town. Nestled between rows of old shop houses, this charming
restaurant manages to work with the existing infrastructure and create
a luxuriously decorated interior at the same time.

denis place interior

The ambience of Denis Place once you step into it is palpable. The
lighting is dim and diffused, and there are racks of wine everywhere.

denis place stairs

There is also a staircase leading to the upper dining section and
sections which have ceramic bowls filled with water and fresh flower
petals, as well as candles everywhere.

denis_place_decor.jpg

I love the effort spent into creating a warm ambience here…

denis place flame

Denis Place is very big on candles and flames, as you can see.

denis place wine blueberry

I had a glass of house red wine (RM 12) and a Blueberry Coolest Shake
(RM 8), which is a blueberries and ice cream blended drink. It’s nice
and creamy. My dining companion opted for the more conservative freshly
squeezed carrot juice (RM 14).

denis place house steak

She had the House steak (RM 21) for the main dish.

denis place house steak f

It’s the signature dish of Denis Place, with 250 grams of well-done
prime Australian mince meat, grilled with melted cheese and served with
fries and chilli cheese sauce. It’s alright, once you find the steak.
It’s there somewhere under the other adornments. 😉

denis place house sandwich

I had the House sandwich (RM 15), another Denis Place signature dish. This sandwich is huge…it’s impossible to open wide enough to get a bite. Seriously, it’s that good.

denis place house sandwich f

It’s a generous triple deck of toasted bread with salad, chicken, a whole fried egg, and beef bacon, served with crinkle fries.

denis shared dessert

We shared a dessert billed as Chocolate made in heaven,
with chocolate ice cream decked with pure chocolate fudge and Oreos for
RM 9. I was amazed by the sheer portion of the ice cream serving when
it came out…

denis place choc made in heaven

Behold! The Chocolate made in heaven in
all of its glory! Just look at that sinful concoction of Oreos
slathered with chocolate fudge in a huge bed of chocolate ice cream…

Do you think it, do you like it, do you feel hot?

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Do you feel it?

It started out as a plan. I would make full use of the public
holiday and stay up to write a flurry of posts for the blog, which has
been somewhat neglected this week coz I had a lot of work to do. I had
come up with ideas, great ideas! (well, it sounded good at that time).

I would first give the readers a sampling of the more bizarre SMS’s
I’ve gotten (with the sender’s number taken off for privacy, of
course)….

…followed by a BK post, the Melbourne convocation series I never finished (!!!), and perhaps even a food review if I had the time.

There was going to be a planned avalanche of the written word. It would be post-o-mania!

large windows, not pupils

Hey, I look up too the task, don’t I? Hell, I was fucking set for 12 full hours of writing!

Just look at the size of my pupil, er…I mean, windows. Just look at the size of my windows.

Right. The windows on my place…it’s…hmm…quite…well…sturdy, yeah, that’s it, I meant to say that the windows are really quite sturdy, with grates across to boot! You know, gotta keep people out and all that…

I digress.

yay gprs nearing limit

Going back to the original thread, I could justify a push for the
maximum monthly RM 199 monthly Digi prepaid GPRS ceiling charges. I’m
already at RM 150 (got the RM 100 usage notice two days ago) point and
there’s still 10 days left in January. It’ll be good, since I just got
a RM 80 (eighty dollars – the highest I’ve ever received!) bonus credit
payout from the Oct-Dec 2004 reload period, so I can piggyback on that.

Oh wait…I think that means I spent RM 800 in that quarter…

Great, now you’ve got me thinking about how I reloaded an average of
RM 266 each month without realizing it. The Digi prepaid reload loyalty
program credits back 10% of the total value of credits purchased and
used in each quarter by the customer (me). It’s a great way to keep churn rates low, IMHO!

I, for one, welcome our new demon-worshipping,
blood-sucking, customer-behavior-pattern-model-analysis-exploiting
telecommunication overlords!

Hang on…that wasn’t me…

Nevermind.

Oh, I remember now…I’ll just extrapolate and from the past 24 hours…

I bought a RM 100 prepaid 016 (Digi) card and topped up my credit
yesterday afternoon. The credit balance seems to have been mysteriously
truncated into a single digit. I dare not let my thoughts dwell too
long on what manner of evil is capable of making two figures disappear a scant two days after I loaded another RM 100 reload card.

It simply wouldn’t bode well for my sanity if I deliberate even
further into the phone call I made a few hours ago to my friend who
owns a cell phone shop to get him to reload RM 30, RM 30, RM 50 and a
final RM 50 for a total of RM 160.

He didn’t have RM 100 denominations and I needed RM 150 to be safe,
so I asked for one RM 100 and one RM 50, but he only had the RM 50 and
RM 30 denominations, so we made do. One of the benefits of having a
friend who owns a cell phone shop – reloading is just a phone call away!

I didn’t even need to get off my ass, which, come to think of it,
feels rather numb. No worries, it’s probably due to the fact that I’ve
been sitting on this chair since early last night without much in the
way of movement. I guess you didn’t need to know that, but still, just
to put things in context…and er, where was I?

Okay, so I do run up high cell phone bills…15 cents per minute for
the friends and family package notwithstanding. Throw in the verbal
diarrhea that usually results from being tweaked and there’s a
dangerous combo for you. :p Well, that explains it then. There’s the
reason for the emergency call to reload…I let it run down to RM 60+.

Long story short, I talked a whole lot of nothing to a bunch of
people in different states (and one different country, to boot). I
can’t say I didn’t enjoy it, I did, and very much so. I like writing
and talking while tweaking. I usually opt for the former since its more
productive, but given distractions…well, you better hope I don’t call
you up in the middle of the night and attempt to hold a loud and
animated conversation, all the while goes off in tangents and assuming
that you’re enjoying it too. Pray that day does not come. 😉

Excuse me, I digress yet again…

Well, back on topic, in case you didn’t know, I don’t have a net
connection at home (long story), so I just use my SE K700 as a GPRS
modem. I was set! I took a few photos. I even had some choice ones from
this anonymous quack (in a well meaning way, I’m sure) who keeps
sending me “Words of wisdom” type SMS’s. I’m just going to switch
windows and make a brief update to my contacts list…

…and before I knew it, I found that the quick
single-address-book-entry detour I took turned into a full fledged
re-ordering, re-categorizing, re-entering, just plain fucking obsessive
reorganization, nay, overhaul of the entries until I got
everything into alphabetical order, grouped by state, and re-edited to
make sure all the entries have the same spacing between cell phone numbers…and I found out that 10 hours had passed.

Time flies when you’re speeding.

high high high

Not anymore. I was, but I blew it on the stupid address book. Now
I’m coming down hard and I have just written a single irrelevant post…

Oh well, at least I have a really organized contacts database now. :p

L&M promotional cigarettes packs

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lm collector pack

L&M came out with this limited run packaging for both the
menthol and full flavored variants last year. It’s nothing to write
home about, I imagine it’s marketed as a collector’s item.

lm collector pack slip

It has a pack of L&M cigarettes and a lighter for RM 9. I
remember L&M cigarettes were going for RM 4 before the price hike,
so that means the lighter is RM 5. That’s one hell of an expensive
lighter, considering it’s not refillable, like a Zippo.

lm collector pack naked

Here’s a closer look at the front of the pack, without the distracting translucent cover…

lm collector pack back

…and here’s the back of the pack.

lm open pack

The limited edition box features a slide-out, flip-open design –
revealing a recessed receptacle containing a pack of L&M cigarettes
and the L&M lighter.

lm open design

It’s quite well designed, though I can’t imagine the target market with the pricing…

lm lighter instruction

The interesting bit in this particular is the lighter, which also
came with an instruction booklet (!). I’m glad it did, God knows I
can’t operate a lighter without reading a manual first. 😉

lm lighter

This is a closer look at the lighter in question…

lm lighter light

…and the L&M lighter when it’s in action.

lm new promotion

L&M seems to have a fondness for designing clothes for its
cigarettes for they came out with another promotional pack recently.

lm new promotion pack ff

This is the full flavored packaging design. It features a male and
female model in what I presume is supposed to be a rugged, rough look.

lm new promotion pack menthol

The menthol version features what seem to be the same two models,
this time going for the hip and cool look. Is hip even a word nowadays
or did it get deprecated in the turn of the millennium?

lm push out

Anyway, the interesting part of these new promotional packs is the
price – it retails for RM 8! That’s two packs of L&M cigarettes,
together with the push-out packaging for the pre-price hike price of RM
4.

lm new promotion packs

It’s a great deal! L&M – Mellow, distinctly smooth… 😉

Zyprexa (olanzapine) experience report

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zyprexa

Zyprexa is an atypical anti-psychotic in the thienobenzodiazepine
class. Notice the -benzodiazepine part? I know olanzapine (the generic
name of Zyprexa) does not belong to the benzodiazepine class per se,
but it does have some characteristics (weak binding to the BZD and GABA
A receptor) of classic benzodiazepines. Besides, it’s chemical name
ends with 1,5(benzodiazepine). 😉

zypreza front

I have had experience with olanzapine before, but I wanted a second
time before I get around to writing a report. Zyprexa (olanzepine) is
hard to come by, coz the only people who prescribes it are
psychiatrists. I managed to get some off a friend who’s on it as part
of a prescription regiment for bipolar disorder (manic-depressive was
the old name for this condition).

olanzapine

I have to say that I was on about 400 mg of tramadol and probably
have a steady state of tramadol coz I use that on a daily basis to
boost my serotonin levels, with increasing doses towards the end of the
week. There are some records of possible serotonin syndrome due to the
unusual SSRI nature of tramadol when combined with olanzapine and
mirtazapine so be careful if you’re taking this particular combination.

olanzepine tablets

Back to olanzapine, I got two 5 mg tablets from the abovementioned
friend, split into two for 4 doses of 2.5 mg. The blister packs are
silver and unmarked on the top and have “Lilly Zyprexa 5 mg olanzapine”
at the back. The tablets are white coated, with a yellow center.
Olanzapine is used to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder and
binds primarily to the serotonin, dopamine, muscarinic, histamine and
adrenergic receptors.

olanzapine tablets

The front of the tablets is imprinted with “Lilly 4115”, some
internal coding scheme. I took 10 mg (two full tablets of the split 5
mg tabs) on an empty stomach and somnolence (people in the medical
profession prefers to call it “feelin’ damn drowsy”) was
uncharacteristically noticed at around T+ 4:00. I used
“uncharacteristically” coz I had not taken any benzodiazepines that day
and I’m on a very high daily regiment. Thus, I took 1 mg of lorazepam (just so not to have any seizures and all that) and went to sleep.

olanzapine tabs

I woke up about once every 6 hours with extremely vivid dreams. I
mean, those dreams are weird ass nightmare-dreams and they’re fucking lucid.
I can’t remember what exactly I dreamt, but it was all in a sequence
and so surreal…I easily slipped back into the warm folds of sleep
after waking up each time and finally decided to get up at noon the
next day (T+ 19:00). I was still very sleepy and would have loved to
get back to bed, but forced myself up anyway. This is one hell of a
long acting psychotropic…reminds me of phenobarbital.

I immediately noticed something when I started to move – my motor
coordination was way off the charts. I had to sober up and go for lunch
and I couldn’t even hold my eating implements without fumbling. I
couldn’t even squeeze a lime without twitching, for crying out loud!

The motor coordination problems (or rather the lack of it) started
to go away at T+ 21:00 and good riddance…it’s a little disconcerting
that you can’t do simple things like hold a pair of chopsticks without
fumbling and making your friends go “What are you on mate???” and
you’ll be mumbling “Nothing, nothing.”. Oh, and one more note about
olanzapine…it seems to affect speech coordination as well. I found it
very hard to express myself.

Olanzapine…is it recreational? Well, it’s not on the top of my “to
do” list, but I’m glad I tried it. I guess it depends on how you define
“recreational” (again). It puts you out for a long time, so it might be
useful for comedowns. It’s one of those “trying for the sake of trying”
drugs that veritas is so fond of… 😉

Carvery restaurant review

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carvery

Carvery restaurant is a charming little restaurant tucked away in
the middle of nowhere (if I don’t know how to drive there, it’s in the
middle of nowhere :p). Carvery gets its name from the way meat dishes
are served – its brought out right from the kitchen by the chef and
then carved onto your plate.

carvery inside

The interior of Carvery is very tastefully done up, with attentive
staff and subdued lighting. I went with Penny and Sufian yesterday for
the buffet lunch, an all-you-can-eat set meal which is priced at RM
29.90 – a very reasonable price, as you will see from the review.

carvery table

Carvery has clean, pressed table linen waiting for the lunch crowd.
There’s also two slabs of butter waiting on a plate, clean cutlery and
plates all laid out, and a wooden block in the middle.

carvery bread

I found out that the wooden block was meant for one of their
generous home-made bread – freshly baked from the oven. It tastes great
when slathered with butter and dipped into cream of mushroom soup.

carvery hot

Carvery has a hot dish area beside the large soup cauldron that has everything from baked potatoes to spaghetti.

carvery cold 1

The opposite side is flanked by cold cuts, deli meat, cold pasta…

carvery cold 2

…seafood salad, various dips and sauces, vegetable sticks and bread sticks.

carvery side plate

I filled half of my plate with salami, cold cuts, pasta, potato salad and a bread stick.

carvery start

The main meal is soon announced by the chef carrying out the first
of several meat skewers. The chef wields this large carving knife and
goes around to…well, carve servings of meat on the plates of the diners.

carvery carve

This is the leg of lamb, which I found delicious. The portions being
served can be specified, if you want more, or less. Just tell that to
the guy with the big knife. 😉

carvery chicken wings

A quick succession of their offerings soon came into circulation.
This is the chicken wings, which comes highly recommended. It’s good.

carvery meat

Before I knew it, I had lamb chops, BBQ chicken wings and smoked
beef on the other half of my plate. It’s a battle of dominance between
the diner and the parade of unholy skewers of various meats that comes
out quicker than you can eat.

carvery sauces

Carvery also served up home-made sauces to each table to complement the food.

carvery sausages

Just as I thought the infernal parade of meat was ending…it started again! This time there were sausages…

carvery smoked chicken

…smoked chicken

carvery chicken ham

…chicken wrapped with beef ham

carvery fish

I started to lose count before respite, in the form of fish with a wedge of lemon and a side of tartar sauce was served.

carvery steak

However, the Meat Parade (TM) must go on, and steaks of various
denominations started to come out – rib-eye steak, rump steak, before I
finally conceded and started eating smaller portions.

carvery last meat

In the end, man triumphed over meat, as I managed to finish the last
serving before the entire parade was started all over again for the
second round for those with more robust appetites. The meat dishes
cycles twice through the course of lunch. All of us were extremely full
when the meal at Carvery was finally over.

Carvery has a delicious meat based portfolio that would appeal to
all the carnivores out there. The ambience is great, with meat being
served on large skewers and personally carved on your table and served
on your plate. Highly recommended!

Bintulu trip report

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btu niah cafe

I went over to Bintulu, which is about a 50 minute flight from
Kuching, for a business trip. This time, the presentation was only due
late afternoon, so we had the whole morning to while away. We had the
option of eating at the Bintulu airport (which uses the same template
as KLIA) or going into town to find some place to eat.

btu seaview

We chose the latter. Sea View Restaurant (BTU) is supposed to be the
liveliest place for breakfast around town, due to its locality. It’s
situated right in front of the river, and the incoming cool breeze made
in clear why it’s said to be the most popular place for breakfast
around Bintulu. I had some fried kueh tiaw, which was mass produced (it
came out within a minute) but tasted good nevertheless.

btu riverfront

I took a walk down the riverfront (or wharf), which was quite
polluted due to Bintulu’s industries. It was a cloudy day in Bintulu,
but at least it wasn’t raining like Kuching. Bintulu is well known for
being an LPG gas processing town, but they do some sawmill work as well.

btu old town

The old part of Bintulu town flanks the waterfront. Bintulu isn’t as
big or well developed like some other Sarawak districts but it does
offer some measure of old town charm that’s lacking in the other more
developed parts.

btu wooden plank

Walking further along the river shows the quaint wooden planks that
serve as a bridge for some passenger boats. Bintulu town seems to be
divided into two parts – one on each side of the river. The other side
of Kemena River lies Kampung Jepak, the fisherman’s village, which we
also passed by on the winding trip from the airport.

btu esplanad

The riverfront centers on the Bintulu Esplanade, which is a commons
for the people and lies adjacent to the Bintulu Tamu and main market.

btu esplanad me

Here’s the obligatory “I was here” shot…and before you ask, yes, I only have one suit. :p

bintulu main bazaar

Bintulu town seems to center around the Main Bazaar and Pasar Tamu.

btu chinese temple

There is also a Chinese temple along that road which was thronging with people…

btu pasar utama

Pasar Utama Bintulu (Main Bintulu Market) is the central market
which sells various fresh produce like vegetables, meat, fish and so
forth. The “unique cone-shaped roof” is supposed to reflect Bintulu
Terendak (Bintulu headgear).

btu bananas

I know that there are a lot of bananas in there…

btu more bananas

Hell, it seems like Bintulu is Banana Town. 😉

btu bda hq

I supposed the BDA HQ conical shape is also supposed to represent
the headgear, I had been wondering about the seemingly high-maintenance
architecture.

btu coastline

The high vantage point of the Bintulu Development Authority (BDA)
headquarters (its up on a hill) also allows scenic views of the sea.
The coast at Bintulu is not as renowned as the ones in Miri, but it’s a
beach nevertheless.

btu bda inside

The inside is no less impressive, with several floors of ever narrowing spheres tapering off to a point.

btu city point

Bintulu’s largest shopping mall is City Point, with a staggering three (!!!) stories of retail space.

btu angel paper

The Christmas decorations still hasn’t been taken down – there is a paper mache angel hanging from the ceiling…

btu angel upskirt

…which disturbingly shows a blatant up-skirt shot of the angel when descending down the elevators…

Our flight back took about an hour to fly to Kuching from Bintulu
due to bad weather conditions, but before going to the airport, I just
had to stop and take a picture of this:

btu smallest barber shop

Behold! The smallest barber shop in the world!

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