The coffee shop with no name

coffeshop with no name

I went to this coffee shop for dinner tonight. It doesn’t have a
name. It’s just a couple of tables and chairs along the roadside at
Jalan Abell.

no name waitress

The waitress took our order. A little kid sat beside us watching.

no name stove

The order went to the little cooking place in the corner.

tong gua longan hai cha

I had two glasses of tong gua long yuen hai cha ping. It’s buah kundur (don’t know the English name for this), longan, and hai cha.

hai cha

I don’t know what hai cha is, but it looks like this.

no name taiwan noodles

I had a plate of Taiwan fried noodles. It was served with gravy and
the waitress told me it was spicy. This photo is out of focus.

no name belacan kueh tiaw

I had a plate of belacan fried kueh tiaw. It was served dry. Every
plate has two pieces of fried chicken fillets on it. This photo is not
out of focus.

no name lemon chicken

We shared a plate of lemon chicken.

I was ready to throw up after eating all that.

Item may have been delayed due to insufficient postage

brother card 23

I just got a birthday card from my sister…23 days after my birthday. How appropriate, considering I’m 23 this year. πŸ˜‰

nz insufficient postage

My sister, if you didn’t know, is practicing medicine in
Christchurch, New Zealand. No, that doesn’t mean I get the fringe
benefits of having a doctor for my sister. I wish you luck if you’re
planning to pull off doctor shopping techniques with her. She wouldn’t
even script her only brother, nay, her only sibling, benzodiazepines.

I have been trying to get her to give me some collectibles like pens
and notebooks, the sort of stuff pharmaceutical companies gives out
with names of recreational mediations on them, but I’ve never seen the
shadow of those. I have also been trying to get her to get some of
those “physician samples” of recreational pharms with neat packaging
but she won’t bring those back either. It’s just my luck that I get a
straight laced, law abiding sister.

If I had a sibling who appreciates recreational pharmaceuticals, I
would have taken the liberty of sending heaps of dextroamphetamine,
fentanyl lollipops, oxycodone and benzodiazepines with “Happy Birthday
– Enjoy! I know you will!” on it. I imagine that’s why I didn’t go into
medicine…I would have my license revoked very quickly, I suspect. πŸ˜‰

Deli, er…Darliefrance

darliefrance

Let me present to you Darlie’s new (at least I haven’t seen it on
the shelves before) toothpaste – Hydro Fresh Gel! It contains spring
water from France (or so it says on the packaging, I am unable to
independently verify these claims).

darlie hydro pack

I can tell you one thing though…this ain’t your grandma’s dental hygiene product.

darlie france water

It says that Darlie Hydro Fresh Gel is “the very first toothpaste
that contains spring water from France”. This gives us much pause as to
where the manufacturers of toothpaste in France get their water from.

darlie_hydrofreshgel.jpg

This is what the product looks like. I tested it and sure enough I
did feel a “pure fresh sensation” from the “HydroCool molecules”,
whatever they are.

darlie france paste

The toothpaste itself is translucent light blue with dark blue
specks. And if I close my eyes while brushing my teeth, for just a
second, I can actually feel that I’m in France…

Use Darlie Hydro Fresh Gel and drench yourself in spring water freshness that lasts and lasts!

sixthseal.com’s first video post – Episode I: Shadow People

This is the first full video blog. I am basically doing a monologue
about my day. In the grand tradition of sixthseal.com, we tend to do
things differently. While others strive to present only their most
aesthetically pleasing self to the readers, culling out all “ugly”
photos and only inserting the “good ones”…we, on the other hand,
present it like it is, just one take, and its uploaded. Thus, be
prepared to see a rather unflattering version of me in this pilot
episode. πŸ™‚

shadow people

Download: Episode I: Shadow People [sixthseal.com].
Requires Apple Quicktime. Going to the “Movie” drop down menu bar and choosing “Fill Screen” would be more optimal for viewing.

Yeah, that is what I look like after multiple day runs…strung out, scattered and definitely not pleasant company.

Indiscriminate…I’d rather be elite
I’ll choose my own shit scene
Unsubstantiated rumors flown are true
I’m here for me, not you

Nonconglomerate…I mean what I say
I’m not your fucking scape
Though, apparently I’ve alienated some
It seems my job’s half done
NOFX

So let me present to you, the first episode – Shadow People.

Transcript:
(coz I know I sound incoherent)
————————————————

Hey, you’re watching sixthseal.com and this is – a video post.

I’ve become too tired to write, and…this is how long my hair actually is now.

I keep it long on one side, probably the last time I’ll see such hair, because I have hereditary male pattern baldness.

I feel like shit, it’s been a couple of days without sleep…and I went to the doctor’s today, got some benzos, that’s good.

By the way, I’m just pretending to smoke, simulating things, you know. I’m not inhaling.
Honestly, I don’t smoke.

Anyway, we’ll just talk until this ends…ah, I’ve got one shaving cut today.
Somewhere anyway. Just a little cut.

————————————————

Dear readers, if you’re in the mood for some good old classic ultra
mundane posts with the blogger talking about things that you probably
don’t give two shits about, please, do not hesitate to download the
video post. I must urge people not to mistake this as some kind of
satirical production about the blogging community – that would be
giving me way too much credit. Heh.

Anyway, like I mentioned, I went to see one of my doctors today, I
don’t “officially” have a medical record for anxiety here, but he’s
always generous with the benzodiazepines whenever I go. He’s asks me
how many I want, instead of prescribing them himself, and I can pick
and choose here. πŸ™‚ I decided on 20 x 2 mg Rivotril (clonazepam) and 20
x 5 mg chlordiazepoxide (generic Librium, just for review purposes)
today. I suspect he knows quite a bit about my lifestyle even though I
never tell him. I’m quite certain he knows that I’m benzodiazepine
dependant but still doesn’t mind handing them out due to previous
consultations where I basically told him about my various problems and
he seems to feel that my situation justifies it.

highbp benzos

Anyway, I also asked to have my blood pressure read and it was
pretty good (for me). I registered a BP of 180/95 (same results, taken
twice) and a pulse rate of 135 at rest. The figures aren’t bad – it’s
the bit about sustaining what are probably higher figures than that for
hours, before judicious benzodiazepine self-administration reduced it
to the figure that was measured at the doctor’s that made me feel quite
uncomfortable. I must say that I wasn’t feeling too good earlier as
well, thought I was about to have a stroke. I have just about every
factor that puts me at a higher risk and I have had many incidences of
stroke symptoms manifesting during certain high risk activities.

There were a few that required medical attention (hypertensive
crisis) but most of them were resolved without medical care, off my
head, there was one a few months ago – extremely alarming rapid onset
of action, everything happened within seconds, or so it seems. I knew I
had gone too far and my body was protesting but I, er…drank another
cup of coffee, and suddenly felt an alarming feeling of pressure
insistently building up in my brain, followed by the lost capability to
move my left leg, which resulted in me tripping and as I laid there on
the ground, I couldn’t even think, it was all too confusing, and then
*whoosh*, came the extreme headache that I thought would push my brain
out of the skull and I passed out.

I woke up 3 hours later totally disoriented and confused and
couldn’t remember the events which precipitated it. It was worse than
the worst hangover I ever had. I was wondering what time it was, and
why I was lying on the floor. I thought I went to bed and fell off
it…until I saw the…ah, smashed coffee cup on the floor. It’s not a
very nice feeling to wake up in your own room and wonder why the lights
and computer was on (with several flashing IM messages to boot) and
you’re lying propped up against a laundry basket and there’s a smashed
*coffee* cup beside you. It took a while to regain my senses, and it’s
a testament that the first thing I did was to remove all incriminating
evidence (the coffee mugs which aren’t coffee mugs and coffee which
isn’t coffee) before my gf came in the next day. Granted, I was aghast
about the period of unconsciousness…it seemed to be too long and I
had the distinct feeling that a good portion of my brain was
compromised on that day.

Well, that’s what happens when you drink too much caffeine containing beverages like coffee
compulsively over a short period of time if you have condition(s) which
contraindicates those, but still do it anyway. I’ve never been the type
that learns from my mistakes, I’m the kind of person who jumps back on
the horse. I would be careful the next time though…from experience, I
noticed that for me, it’s the overt intracranial pressure point that
has “Last Exit” written on it, coz it can avalanche very quickly to the
point where you are unable to communicate with people and then pass
out. I noticed that I could never go on heroic runs after my first
incident. Two to three day ones feels punishing, while it wasn’t even a
problem before. The Shadow People are starting to turn up earlier and
earlier too….

Trip down the stairs into hell
Cathay de I miss your smell
A mixture of puke, beer, stale piss,
fuck, sweat, and fear

Adrenaline addicted, the
blood leak from my head,
kinda concerned my friends…

But at the time it felt so right
The music blaring on….
NOFX

Green kolo mee

green kolo mee

Have you ever had green kolo mee? I’ve never even heard of it
until today! The beauty about these noodles is – the green didn’t come
from food coloring…it came from vegetables! I had these at Chong Chon
at 3rd Mile Bazaar, Kuching. The stall is called Chong Chon Kolo Mee.

green orange noodles

This stall has some unusual offerings – noodles that add life to
plain kolo mee. The photo above shows that they have two choices of
noodles – either green vegetable noodles or orange carrot noodles. I
thought it was just food coloring, but it isn’t – the owner of the
stall told me the green ones are made with bits of vegetables inside
them and the orange ones are made with bits of real carrots inside them.

green noodles

How’s that to spice up the simple kolo mee? They add nice chunks of
relatively large bbq pieces instead of the usual char siew and there
are a lot of veggies in the dish. I have never seen anything like this
before, but it sure tastes good – you can actually tell that the
noodles are made with veggies inside!

I was told that the noodles here were good and I wasn’t
disappointed. My CTO brought me here to have lunch at 2:10 PM. My lunch
break is from 12 PM – 1:30 PM, but we had a meeting with the SUPP
(Sarawak United Peoples’ Party – part of BN) Batu Lintang
representative which was scheduled at 11:45 AM. It took till 2 PM to
finalize the details and he was about to drive back to the office when
he suddenly though “Oh, you haven’t have lunch right?” *slaps forehead*
Yeah, I was in the meeting with you, so of course I haven’t had any
lunch. Can’t blame him though, he has a lot on his mind and he’s a
really nice guy, even though I had to work 1 1/2 hours extra today. πŸ˜‰
Regarding the project, if you want my honest opinion – it’s is a crazy
and logistically challenging project. The “technical guy” (and I use
this term very loosely) in SUPP has…well, flawed understandings about
distributed networks (to call a spade a spade) and drew up this
unrealistic diagram. I don’t know the scale from the map yet, but if
it’s what I think it is, it’s going to be a real challenge to deliver
what he’s asking for. However, I, Huai Bin, is here to make 2 + 2 = 5,
so I’ll be damned if I don’t deploy this solution, by hook or by crook [pengsan.com].

Hello, ini Balai Polis, Jabatan Narkotik

narcotics joke

It has turned into a full fledged meme amongst our group of friends.
I was the first to propagate this one…I had gotten a new fixed line
which no one knew about, and I called up Ah L:

Me: (serious and harsh tone) Ini telefon (his name) kah?
Is this the number of (his name)?

Ah L: Ya, siapa ini?
Yes, who is this?

Me: Sini Balai Polis Kuching, Jabatan Narkotik. Saya dengar kamu sana ada ice. Betul kah tidak?
This is the Kuching Police Station, Narcotics Department. I hear you have methamphetamine in your possession. Is this true?

Ah L: Tak ada lah.
No, I don’t have any in my possession.
(He really doesn’t touch methamphetamine)

Me: Hahaha! It’s just me.

Ah L: %#@&!%#@#

I then called up Ah B:

Me: Hello, ini telefon (his full name) kah?
Hello, is this the number of (his full name)?

Ah B: Ya.
Yes.

Me: Ini Jabatan Narkotik Balai Polis Kuching. Saya ada maklumat kamu ada jual ice.
This is the Narcotics Division of the Kuching Police Station. I have information that you sell methamphetamine (ice).
(He really doesn’t use or sell methamphetamine)

Ah B: Betul kah?
Is that right?
(He recognized my voice at this point)

Me: Ya, kumpulan saya akan sapu kedai dan rumah kamu hingga kami cari ice.
Yes, our team will raid your business premises as well as your place of residence until we find methamphetamine.

Ah B: Tak payah lah, eh…saya ada satu kawan, dia sangat suka ice. Saya bagi kamu nombor dia lah.
There’s no need for that, hey, I have a friend who loves meth, I’ll just give you his information.
(He was referring to me, but only kidding coz he recognized my voice)

Me: &!*!@%!@#!

narkotik joke

Just today Ah T called me from an unknown cell phone number:

Ah T: Ini Jabatan Narkotik Kuching. Saya dengar kamu ada banyak ice di rumah kamu!
This is the Narcotics Department of Kuching. I have reason to believe you’re in possession of a lot of crystal methamphetamine!
(I did not recognize his voice at this point)

Me: (knows it’s a joke, but cautious nevertheless) Hah? Tak ada lah, saya tidak main dadah.
Huh? That’s totally inaccurate, I don’t touch drugs.

Ah T: It’s me lah.

Me: %!Q!&@!&!@

It’s a highly virulent meme and not funny at all, if you’re on the receiving end. πŸ˜‰

Arak Putih Rumah Panjai – longhouse liquor

arak putih rumah panjang

Arak Putih Rumah Panjang (or Rumah Panjai as it states on the label)
is a very affordable brand of distilled liquor at RM 4.40 for 620 ml of
around 60% proof alcohol. It’s one of the locally brewed spirits – the
picture above shows the grand tradition of these fine local offerings.
As you can see, local distilleries is very big on recycling and
environmental issues (haha!). The photo taken above shows the various
bottles that it comes in – there’s a white one which I suspect is a
recycled vinegar bottle, and the brown one beside it is a recycled
Carlsberg bottle and the one behind that is a Tiger beer bottle with
the bottles emptied, cleaned (I hope) and filled with their own product
and slapped with their brand.

arak putih rumah panjai

This one is from Hornbill Distillery at 4th Mile, Kuching. I got the
white bottle to show that the distilled spirit is white. Excuse me for
not being articulate and forgive any language semantics inconsistencies
in this post because I have already consumed 1/4 of the liquor on an
empty stomach.

rumah panjai

It’s known as longhouse liqueur because of the picture of a longhouse on it.

longhouse liquor

It certainly is packs a punch…I’ve chugged a third of the bottle
now, and the taste is surprisingly palatable, with none of the kerosene
taste these locally brewed liquors have. It’s good. Nice! Well, and I
am afraid I am unable to continue writing now. I’m starting to get
quite inebriated…

chug longhouse
Check yourself into AA, you fucking alcoholic!
The unglamorous face behind sixthseal.com. πŸ˜‰

Lainie [tabulas.com], if you ask me now, I’m feeling good. πŸ™‚

1314

1314. It came out on Magnum 4D Draw 048/04 just now. I hardly ever
buy lottery tickets. Yesterday afternoon, I was going to get a Foochow
big pau (RM 2) for lunch and I only had RM 50 denomination notes and
they didn’t have change. The memory of the last time I bought 4D from
the accident was still fresh and the Magnum 4D outlet was just a little
down from there, so I decided to get change there, and got a number
just for fun.

1374

1374. I figured it was an appropriate number because I was depressed
and thinking about the utter pointlessness of life. 1374 pronounces as
“once born, go die” (literal translation) in Mandarin – it fitted my
mindset because that’s what life’s about. We get born, we live through
our meaningless lease on earth, and death awaits us at the end. I was
hoping it would be sooner than later, due to my personal problems which
I would not like to talk about but you can all probably figure out
(it’s related to veritas).

Anyway, I went back with change and bought my big pau for lunch.
Walking past the outlet, I realized that there was an even better
number – 1314. It would translate as “one birth, one death” – a rather
Zen like approach to life…we live, we die. Until then, we take what
we can from the offerings of this world. I started to walk into the
Magnum 4D outlet with the full intention of buying that number, I shit
you not, I really stepped in with the FULL INTENT to get that number –
when I saw one of my coworkers walking past.

I did not want to be associated with these activities, since I do
not gamble. That is not my vice, my vice is drugs, so I immediately
walked out again to avoid being seen at this venue. Anyway, I was
posting today and remembered the 4D slip that I got and vaguely
remembered that the draw was opening at 7 PM today – it was the live
results draw on their website and I saw 1314 come out as the “Special
Prize” number, which nets RM 200.

1314
Results from Magnum 4D website [magnum4d.com].

I was elated! RM 200 would give me a free return ticket back to Sibu
during the long Labor Day holidays! RM 200 would get me a “stick”
(about 500 mg) of methamphetamine crystals, with RM 20 left to donate
to the nice auntie who explained the semantics of this game to me! The
possibilities! It’s a small amount, no doubt, but to win by just very
casual buying (I think this is the third time in 4 years?) would be
incredibly lucky and I jumped up in elation when that number came out.

I checked my slip…it was 1374. I forgot. I didn’t go in to get
1314 because I didn’t want to be associated with this (which is
strange, since I don’t mind being associated with drug use). Fuck! The
sheer elation…and then the letdown. The disappointment at what could
have been mine. Not could have, it’s WOULD HAVE. I had the full intent of getting that number. My girlfriend says it’s not meant to be.

I fully agree. I swear that I’ll never let Magnum 4D get RM 1.10 from my pockets again. Pffftttt…

I don’t care now though, I get over things very quickly. πŸ™‚

Lok lok

lok lok nasi lemak

I’m not sure where the etymology of the word “lok lok” comes from,
but it’s basically stuff skewed onto a stick (like a satay or kebab)
which you can pick and choose from the large selection on offer. There
are two different styles of lok lok – it’s either boiled (more common
here) or deep fried. This is Ming Corner in Kuching, it has become a
staple where me and my friends go for lok-lok and nasi lemak. It’s
along Jalan Padungan and you can’t miss the neon sign.

Here are photos of the many varieties of selectable items that can be found in places specializing in loklok:

loklok offerings
These are the more common offerings. There’s fishballs and meatballs of
all sorts and shapes and mystery meat made in the likeness of shapes
like fishes, barrels etc.

sausages cuttlefish
You’ll also notice that some of the lok lok sticks comes interspaced
with different items e.g. one sausage followed by half a meatball till
the stick is filled. There’s also more esoteric items like the mussel
(with shell intact) topped with a fish ball you can see beside the
sausages. The far end of the picture shows the items that are less in
demand like chicken stomachs.

crabclaws mussels
Here’s a picture of tofu, cuttlefish, shrimp and crab claw lok loks.

sotong vegies
There’s also vegetables strung onto a stick and sotong interspaced with vegetables.

quail eggs preserved
Now this is something I won’t miss out on every time we go for lok lok
– quail eggs! =D I love these things. The white ones are normal boiled
quail eggs and the dark ones are century quail eggs!
I’m surprised that century eggs comes in the quail egg size in addition
to the chicken egg size. I love them all! Quail eggs! Quail eggs! Quail
eggs!

clams lok lok
Last, but not least, is the staple of lok lok – clams. These are the
small clams you can find in Penang style char kueh tiaw. There are also
unshelled clams and whole fishes in addition to stingrays and whole
prawns.

Anyway, what you do is grab a plate from the stack and pick up the
sticks of lok lok you want. I had two plates, this is the first one:

jellyfish crabstick
It contains jellyfish, clams, squid, a crab claw and meatball combo, and a prawn ball and half fish ball combo.

loklok cooking

You pass your plate to the attendant when you’re done choosing from
the selection and she cooks it by dipping it into the small boiling pot
of broth. The time it takes for each item is different e.g. vegetables
are just dipped in for a second while squid will be simmering in the
pot for a while. Thus, each batch is cooked separately.

loklok sauces

In the meantime, you can take another plate and fill it up with the
sauce(s) of your choice. Personally, I mix all four together in
different ratios. My personal preference is – two portions of satay
sauce (peanut based sweet sauce), 2 portions of oyster sauce, one
portion of chili sauce (it dilutes the sauce mix and I like mine to
have a thick consistency) and one portion of this unknown salty tasting
sauce which is not soy sauce (just to make it salty).

serving prawns

Here’s a photo of the cooked plate, served to your table. This is
Plate #2 – it contains vegetables (yes, I do eat
veggies…occasionally), quail eggs, century (preserved) quail eggs
spaced with cuttlefish, prawns and clams.

nasi_lemak.jpg

Ming Corner (or just “the lok lok place”, as we call it due to the
prominent neon sign) serves a mean plate of nasi lemak as well – the
dish that makes the meal, since lok lok isn’t filling per se. Yes, I
realize how cheesy the adjective “mean” sounds when used in this
context. πŸ˜‰

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...