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…

Dunhill 40th Anniversary Limited Edition Pack

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dunhill 40 pack

Dunhill is producing elegantly designed limited edition packs for
its 40th anniversary. The interesting twist about this is that it
retails for 50 cents less than the usual price. The limited edition “40
Years of Dunhill” packs goes for a special price for RM 6.00 instead of
the usual RM 6.50.

dunhill 40 pack 1

These limited run packs to commemorate Dunhill’s 40th year of
production in Malaysia features a well-designed and stylish pack, a
nice aesthetic change from the usual bland Dunhill packs. There is the
familiar Dunhill crest spanning part of the front of the pack…

dunhill 40 pack 2

…continuing through the side…

dunhill 40 pack 3

…and ending at the back of the Dunhill 40th anniversary back. It’s very artistically done.

dunhill 40 pack back

The back of the pack is also different from the usual Dunhill packs.

dunhill 40 pack sig

There is a script in the bottom left corner that inscribes the 40th anniversary of Dunhill text and the accompanying signature.

dunhill 40 pack top

The same “40 Years of Dunhill” celebratory message is also imprinted on the top…

dunhill 40 pack bottom

…and the bottom of the pack.

dunhill 40 pack open

I proceeded to take off the wrap (the flip-top box also has a 40 Years of Dunhill text) and was surprised to find…

dunhill 40 pack wow

…this beautiful foil which features and intricate design with the red and golf motif! I started to pull at the “foil”…

dunhill 40 pack revealed

…which disappointingly reveals that it’s a card insert.

dunhill 40 card front

The front of the card details this limited edition run as a “only
while stocks lasts” item to commemorate 40 years of causing cancer and
heart disease to Malaysians. 😉

dunhill 40 card back

The back of the card states the same thing in three different languages, just to rub it in.

dunhill 40 pack sticks

Unwrapping the normal foil reveals that the cigarettes are the same as the Dunhill ones, the changes are just aesthetic.

dunhill 40 pack norm

The cigarettes are no different from the usual ones but this 40th
anniversary limited edition Dunhill packs is going to sell fast for one
simple reason:

dunhill 40 pack end

It’s 50 cents cheaper to celebrate 40 years of causing cancer and
coronary problems to Malaysians. It goes for RM 6.00 instead of RM
6.50. Grab it while stocks last!

Dunhill – 40 years of providing cancer. 😉

The night before Christmas…

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xmas eve04 cc

I was told about this event at Civic Center on Christmas Eve – I
wasn’t sure what it was (didn’t ask) but I thought, wtf, two of my
close friends from high school are going, and they will just be in
Kuching until Sunday.

xmas eve04 choir

Little did I know the horrors that will await me there…it…pains me…to recollect the torture I was forced to endure…

xmas eve04 noodles

I was so shaken by the nature of this event, this Church Christmas dinner
that Diana had to fill my plate while I was still recovering from the
terrifying choir-dressed-as-angels-complete-with-halo hymn assault. It
was not what I expected…either I was already tripping, or this is a
real Christian church organized dinner. I had a dreadful feeling it was
the latter.

xmas eve04 soup

My suspicions were confirmed when the pastor asked the congregation
to rise for a prayer. “I trust no alcohol is going to be served with
dinner?”, I whispered to Diana. Rhetorical question. “Sorry”, she said,
flashing a smile. Ting Chuan quipped, “I would have faked a stomachache
and stayed at home if I knew it was going to be like this” from my
other side. Amen, brother! 😉

xmas eve04 pork

The dishes kept coming out amidst choir refrains, a rendition of the
birth of the greatest politician the world has ever seen in more than
two millennia, and sermons. And lots of prayer sessions, naturally.

xmas eve04 mixed

I had to seek refuge from all this, so me and Loon went out to talk about stuff. I got to know him several years
ago and haven’t seen him since. I nearly couldn’t recognize him coz he
cropped his long hair short. I found out that during that time period,
it turns out that we now share the same interests. We found out that we
have mutual contacts too, it’s a wonder I didn’t bump into him before
since he also works in Kuching.

xmas eve04 chicken

This is the chicken dish. I know, the tablecloth does not look very
presentable at this point, but you should have seen it later during the
night, when Ting Chuan spilled my drink across the table and overturned
the chili saucer. Heh! That reminded me of the Winnie Ha jellyfish
incident, OMG that was so funny. Still remember that, mate? Always
cracks me up when I think about it. 🙂

xmas eve04 chicken close

My friends were kind enough to keep some food for me during the long sojourns to the toilets…

xmas eve04 fish

…and the last dish was served out.

xmas eve04 gift

…followed by a door gift. To be honest, it wasn’t that bad, since
our table is seated with mutual acquaintances of about the same age.
It’s great to meet up with everyone again. It’s been at least a year
since I last saw my friends.

xmas eve04 daph loon
This is Daphne and Loon. Daphne is Diana’s sister, which is how I got
to know her back in high school and Loon has been with Daphne for six
(!) years.

xmas eve04 photo
L-R: Ting Chuan, Huai Bin (me), Diana
Now, this is the three of us – much love, yo. They probably know more
about my *cough* indiscretions *cough* combined than any other people.
I probably should get them killed lest they blackmail me. 😉
Kidding…love you guys.

Ting Chuan is one of my best buddies…I’ve known him since primary school.
Diana is one of my ex gfs and probably my closest female friend. Thanks
for all the concern and support about my dependency. That goes out to
everyone out there!

Jesus, where is all this coming from? Could it be something I took? 😉

Babaganoush restaurant review

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babagahoush

Babaganoush restaurant is a place that’s famous for serving Peranakan food, although its name is derived from Baba Ganoush,
a middle-eastern dish. It’s eggplant puree, basically. I’m puzzled as
to why this particular establishment chooses to call itself after a
middle-eastern dish, but I decided not to lose any sleep about it and
just get down to eating.

babagahoush interior

The interior of Babaganoush has a distinctive Baba and Nyonya (or
Peranakan, if you will) motif to it with the traditional Malay-Chinese
fusion of cultures…

babagahoush cabinet

There’s a nice period cabinet made of wood…

babagahoush washbasin

…and the best thing about this place is the wash basin area, which is decorated to look like a wooden hut. Nice!

babagahoush cincao drink

I ordered Baba Cincao Kalamansi (RM 2.00)
for the drink. It’s very unique, I haven’t had a cincao (black jelly)
drink served this way before. The drink has a tart and sour bite to it,
which is surprisingly refreshing.

babagahoush appetizer

The appetizer we ordered is Chicken Hgoh Hiang
(RM 4.50). It’s described as “minced chicken with mushroom wrap in bean
curd skin”. We also detected prawns and hints of chestnut in this dish.
I was told that it’s not usually served so decoratively, it’s
speculated that the chef saw me taking photos, so the presentation was
given a higher priority.

babagahoush oat chicken

The main dish that I had is the recommended Oat Chicken
(RM 5.50). The menu description says its “sliced chicken meat stir
fried with curry leaves, chili and oats”. It comes with rice.

babagahoush oat chicken close

I have to say that I was very impressed with this dish. The
oats were very generous and it provided a sweet and coarse texture to
the dish. The chili complimented everything well, lending a bite of
spiciness to it. The baked oats smells delicious and this is one dish
you don’t want to miss. Highly recommended!

Babaganoush does not seem like a pure Peranakan food establishment,
but they have unique fusion food on their menu. I would go for the Oat
Chicken again, it’s great!

Turkey, anyone? (or the great Christmas prank)

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There’s this thing about two of our office lines – one of them
apparently belonged to a pharmacy before and the other one to a
supermarket. Usually, we just tell them it’s the wrong number and that
is that.

Well, today one of them called to the line that used to belong to
the supermarket. Penny answered it the first time and said they had the
wrong number. It rang again two seconds later (the guy probably thought
he misdialed) and I decided to pick it up.

Now, the thing is, I didn’t know whether this was the previous guy
who thought he had the supermarket or a caller to our company. It was
50/50 either way. But I thought, what the heck, we’re in a holiday
mood, let’s have a bit of fun. 😉

I picked the phone up…and I said:

Me: Hello, (*beep*) Supermarket.
Caller: Hello. Is this the supermarket?
Me: Yes, it is. How can I be of service?

(My coworkers were all laughing in the front office)

Caller: I’m looking for a turkey, does your supermarket carry them.
Me: Yes, we carry 2 kg turkeys, all frozen.

(The laughter gets louder at this point, now this is just egging me on ;))

Caller: Hmm…2 kg is a little too small. Don’t you have any larger ones? Like 5 kg turkeys?
Me: Unfortunately, we only have 2 kg frozen turkeys at this time…but we can order a 5 kg frozen turkey for you by 12 o clock.
Caller: That’s a little late for a frozen turkey…
Me: Not to worry, we can thaw it out and have it ready by 12 o clock for you. Can you leave your name and number please?

(This is the coup de grace – everyone was laughing so hard and I’m barely able to suppress the laughter that’s bursting out from me at this point)

Caller: My name is Mr. Mo. My number is xxxxxx.
Me: Thank you for shopping with us. We’ll get your turkey ready by then Mr. Mo.

I quickly hanged up before I succumbed to all that pent up laughter…it was unbearable! 🙂

We need a 5 kg thawed turkey ready for Mr. Mo by 12 pm…except, he thought he ordered with the supermarket. Haha!

Mr. Mo! I’m sorry for the prank. I couldn’t help it. It was just too funny. Hahaha!

Merry Christmas everyone! 🙂

‘Tis the season…

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xmas louisa 05

I just received a Christmas card from my girlfriend.

xmas card 05

It’s one of the ones that plays a tune when the circuit is completed, er…I mean, when the card is opened. It flashes and muzak starts playing. Thanks Louisa!

xmas huygens 05

I also got a bundle from one of my coworkers. His girlfriend wrapped the intricate ribbon tied package.

xmas pack 05

It contains various sweets. Cheers Jordan!

I don’t really celebrate Christmas (unless you count partying as
celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ, Son of Man, King of Jews, etc
etc) though. I’m more looking forward to Chinese New Year, I just
booked my tickets today, on a waiting list for the 6th of February.

Husna Cafe review

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husna cafe

Husna Cafe is a Malay food eatery located at Tabuan Laru. We went
there for lunch. Half of my brain is not working today, so forgive the
starkness and general lack of descriptive qualities of today’s written
word. :p

husna interior

This is the interior.

husna rice

There are different options for rice.

husna options

Here’s the options for food.

husna options 2

Here’s more options for food.

husna my dish

This is what I ate.

husna clams bandung

We also shared a bowl of clams.

Jesus Fucking Christ, this has got to be the worst post I’ve made in this blog. 😉

Sony Ericsson K700i review – my new phone

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se k700i

I finally have a new cell phone after my old trusty; the Ericsson
T-28s finally kicked the bucket and went to cell phone heaven. I’ve
been waiting around for the right model to come out, going without
mobile phone service (the horror!) for days, before my tardiness was
rewarded. My girlfriend gave me a Sony Ericsson K700i as an early
Christmas gift!

se k700i box

I’ve used this cell phone for about a week now, to familiarize
myself with it for a review. The contents of the Sony Ericsson K700i
box consists of the charger, the hands free cum FM radio ear buds and
the mobile phone itself. There are also manuals, a CD and other
miscellaneous stuff at the bottom.

se k700i pc suite

The CD contains the PC Suite software (sync software) and several
other software like an Image Editor, MMS Home Studio, Sound Editor,
Mobile Networking Wizard (the K700i also functions as a modem) etc.

se k700i contents

Here’s a photo of the full contents of the Sony Ericsson K700i box.

se k700i phone

This is what the cell phone looks like. There’s a peel off scratch
guard on the screen that shows several features of the phone – 65K TFT
screen, VGA camera and video recorder, Bluetooth, 41 MB of inbuilt
memory, 4x digital zoom etc. I love how the Quickshare text on the
bottom of the phone changes the color hues as you turn it around.

se k700i back

The Sony Ericsson K700i is billed as a “dual front” phone – a
marketing buzzword that essentially means one side looks like a digital
camera and the other looks like a phone. This is the back of the cell
phone, the one that looks like a digital camera.

se k700i cam

Here’s a close up of the digital camera bit. It’s very nifty –
there’s the sleek lens module, a nice shiny mirror that’s used for
self-portraits, a bright LED light for night/dark conditions.

se k700i side buttons

There’s a quick start button on the left side of the cell phone to
go to the digicam/video recorder feature. There’s also up and down
toggles for various functions, depending on the context. It’s a zoom
in/zoom out feature in the camera, a volume control while on calls, and
an up/down button while text messaging (SMS).

se k700i online

The other side of the phone has an “Online” button which makes the
phone go into connectivity mode. It has various modes of communication
– GPRS, Bluetooth, IrDA, etc.

se k700i irda

The top of the phone contains the IrDA (Infrared) port, which I use to sync with my notebook. It works with a Palm as well.

se k700i keypad

Here’s the keypad of the K700i. It has nice, (relatively) large
buttons so there are no problems with using the keypad. There is also a
joystick which is not so easy to use…or maybe I’m just having trouble
getting used to it.

se k700i tft

The screen is a generous 176 x 220 pixel TFT display capable of 65K
colors. I was surprised by the richness of the screen when I first used
the cell phone. It has really rich and vibrant colors with a fast
refresh rate.

se k700i startup

The Sony Ericsson K700i boots up with the Sony Ericsson logo and the keypads also illuminates with a purple hue.

se k700i setup

It boots into a setup wizard the first time it’s on, which is easy to complete.

se k700i main

In no time at all, the cell phone is up and working. There are
several build in themes to choose from, all animated! The animated
display is very nifty…

se k700i glow

I switched to a futuristic design as my personalized main screen.
The light blocks flicks in a rhythmic manner and I’m keeping this one
for the sheer Nifty Factor (TM).

se k700i apps

The main menu shows all the applications that are on the Sony
Ericsson K700i…there are several features on this phone – MMS, EMS,
SMS (any S basically), MPEG-4 playback, MP3 playback, radio (FM), Java
applications etc.

se k700i card

Heck, there’s even a place to input business card details which I’ve
successfully beamed (using IR) to my Palm, since supports various
formats, including the Palm vCard specification.

se k700i light

The most nifty feature in the SE K700i is the light that comes on at the back of the camera. It’s very bright and allows photo taking in dark conditions.

Here is a photo taken with the Sony Ericsson K700i:

se k700i photo

It has been downsized from 640 x 480 to 400 x 300.
Click on the image for the original photo.

Download: Movie clip taken by K700i [sixthseal.com]

This is a short clip taken by the Sony Ericsson K700i. It’s in .3gp format and can be viewed with Quicktime.

I love the Sony Ericsson K700i. It has the right balance between features and size. Thanks Louisa! 🙂

The only problem is that people complain that I’m shouting at them
on the phone. I have to explain that my old cell phone has a really bad
mike so I had to talk really loudly. I’m still getting used to the much
more sensitive one on the SE K700i. I’m slowly learning not to “shout”.
😉

ABC Seafood @ Topspot Seafood, Kuching

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abc seafood

ABC Seafood (also known as Ah Seng Seafood) is arguably the most
popular seafood restaurant at Topspot Seafood, which is a whole level
dedicated to produce from the sea, located at the top of a car park.
ABC Seafood Restaurant is Stall #10, but you can’t miss it – it’s the
biggest stall in the place with garish neon lights that makes sure you can’t miss it. 😉

abc choices

There are a lot of choices to make the “main dish”, which would be
pickings from this large display of items. I usually head here first.

abc fish display

It has a large fish display, which we choose a fillet from. ABC
Seafood is popular due to their fresh seafood. There’s a large range of
fish on display, from small to big, whole to filleted.

abc lobster

There is also a wide range of large lobsters and prawns to choose from…

abc bamboo clams

Of course, bamboo clams are aplenty over here. You can’t miss out on
this if you’re visiting Kuching – it’s only available fresh from the
mudflats of Kuching.

abc pick

The best thing I like about eating here is the memorable ritual of
choosing what you want for the obligatory “vegetable” dish. There are
crab sticks, various fishballs, quail eggs (my favorite!), baby corn to
“sweeten up” the dish, peas in a pod, carrots and non-magical mushrooms.

abc pick mix

This is the dish that we had. You basically grab whatever you want
to eat and everyone does the same and piles it into the same dish. It
gets cooked by the cook and is the first one to be served. I remember
doing this even when I was little, while visiting Kuching. Nostalgic.

abc mixed dish

Here is what the mixed dish looks like after it’s cooked. There’s
quail eggs (of course), crab balls, crab sticks, sea cucumber, prawns,
pod peas, broccoli, baby corn etc. The restaurant always sprinkles
cashew nuts on top of the dish before it’s served. This imparts a nice
crunchy texture to the dish and a sweet aftertaste.

abc bamboo clam cooked

The second dish to be served is the acclaimed bamboo clam. Bamboo
clams tastes like mussels, and it’s usually cooked in curry powder.
This stuff is great, I tell you…

abc fish cooked

Next up, came the fish. We chose to have the fillet deep fried and cooked in sweet and sour sauce.

abc butter prawn

The butter prawns came next and I just love this stuff. ABC
Seafood’s butter prawns come with chilies, which adds a nice
spicy-sweet aftertaste. I must shake the hand of the person who thought
of deep frying prawns with butter. There’s this sweetness to the
“butter scrapings” that is just so memorable that I salivate just
thinking about dinner last night…

abc o chien

Of course, no seafood dinner is complete without “O-Chien” or oyster pancake.

abc giant fishhead

It’s a great meal, but I wish we had enough room for that gigantic
fish head. It looks radioactive blue and I bet it would be good in a
radioactive curry fish head dish…

I read…

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reading intensely

Staring intently into the pages of the book; reading with great intensity
Thirsty quest for knowledge; needing to know the meaning of life

reading blank slate

…and everywhere I look – blank pages; with nary a single word to be found.
Not even a Page 42.

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