sibu

Playing firecrackers and fireworks with the neighborhood kids

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kids playing with firecrackers

I was playing with firecrackers the day before when some kids from down the street came over. They very unselfconsciously asked if they could watch and I said sure, but told them to stand back coz I was lighting some huge aerial salutes then.

One of them asked if they could play with my firecrackers and I let them fire off the the stash I brought out. I helped them light it and watched very closely as they did, telling them to be careful.

lighting firecrackers

The smallest one was probably around 7 years old or so – at that age I was playing with loud salutes like chai lei so when he asked if he could light one himself, I let him have the lighter and stood beside him while he lit the fuse.

I believe with proper supervision, kids can learn how to let firecrackers off safely, like how I did when I was their age. I even let the smallest one light one of the large Crazy Bang salutes. I had to hover over him while he did it and tell him not to touch the firecracker while lighting it though.

throwing firecrackers

It was very tiring having to babysit but the smiles on their faces and their glee from the unadulterated fun they had was worth it. All three of them were enthusiastically taking turns to let off the firecrackers. I like them – very polite kids, thanked me for the experience.

They came *running* back last night when they saw me playing with fireworks and together we finished up most of the stuff I got.

It was one of the most memorable Chinese New Year experiences I’ve had this year. 🙂

CNY gambling – stack of 100 x RM 1 notes

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blackjack

It has become a tradition that we have dinner at my grandma’s place on Chinese New Year eve before everyone play Judi Bola or situs poker online with rolet. Online poker real money got chance to win bonuses, best slots offers, progressive jackpots, free slots, payouts, customer support and much more. Of course, it also deals with the legal aspect of gambling on slot machines to ensure safe play and payment methods. We can also check  score 88 poker news and played casino at home. My uncles used to be the dealers when I was a kid but as that generation passed the dealer was me today. All my cousins come over to my grandma’s house to play and to spend some quality time together.

stack of money

It’s small stakes only, just to pass the time until about 11 pm before I get ready to let off the firecrackers and fireworks. Thus, I ended up with this stack of 100 x RM 1 bills. I exchanged RM 100 for this and it’s in mint condition and still has the band on it.

serial number

You can see the start of the serial number – ACJ7895101

rm1

…up to ACJ7895200 – exactly 100 pieces of RM 1 notes.

cny gambling

I also had a special jackpot giveaway where you can automatically win RM 20 from the dealer (that would be me) if you get “2012” e.g. three cards – two 2’s and a 10. It’s all for fun, just money changing hands.

I only realized I’m up by RM 13 when I went to exchange the notes for proper ones.

How to make firecrackers exciting

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shun lee hung firecrackers

It’s the most popular firecrackers around. Shun Lee Hung firecrackers. The yellow boxes of Chinese firecrackers that goes for RM 15 each. You can’t go wrong with these…but then again it’s helluva boring to wait for the tiny plinks and plonks while the 3,000 individual firecrackers go off.

…so how do we spice it up?

Just open the box, drag the first strip out as a “fuse” and keep the rest in the box.

Don’t hang it up.

LIGHT IT UP!

popular chinese firecrackers

Imagine the stacked firecrackers going off all at once. It’s fast. It’s furious. It’s fun.

I only let off Chinese firecrackers on:

  • Chinese New Year Eve before reunion dinner
  • Chinese New Year 12:00 midnight
  • Chinese New Year 1st day before you head out in the morning for family visitations

Of course, there are many times you can actually do that, those are just three personal *musts*.

The acrid smell just reminds me of childhood. It’s a connection to the past.

Yes, there is commentary from my extended family. This was taken at my grandma’s place. It’s part of Chinese New Year. 🙂

Optional: You can pick up the banner with *insert prosperous couplet* (that I can’t read) and hang it on your gate if you want.

Happy Chinese New Year 2012 everyone!

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10:30 am

firecrackers for chinese new year

Setting out the fireworks and firecrackers for tonight to dry out in the afternoon sun for the last time. Yes, this actually has a logical basis behind it. I’ll explain some other time. Heh.

3:00 pm

Went to see Ah Beng The Movie – a Malaysian production. It’s a Chinese New Year movie, wanted to catch one before the reunion dinner later. Anyway, the ticketing counter wrote Cineplex 2 on the stub and we waited until 3:10 pm and finally went to ask at the counter if the movie’s starting.

It turns out it was at Cineplex 3. The person made a mistake. I complained and the person at the counter gave us RM 7 tickets instead of RM 9 – got RM 2 each back and got the RM 7 “movie night” tickets instead. I was pissed off coz I hate missing the start of movies but that’s the best they could do. Oh well, that’s Sibu for you.

It’s CNY eve so it was good to catch a CNY movie. 🙂

5:45 pm

I’m about to head out for the extended family reunion dinner. I’m bringing some Chinese firecrackers along, it’s a tradition to let it off before the dinner. I can hear my neighbors already – the sound of firecrackers going off is almost unbroken, everyone starts burning the long Chinese fireworks before the CNY eve dinner.

My dad filmed me playing with this old skool traditional triangle shaped fireworks. It’s called Judas Belt in the Philippines when it’s in a long string, but we get single ones over here – the Chinese name translates to “triangle firecrackers”. I do not recommend you play with firecrackers like I do, I’m actually pretty blase about these things coz I’ve been letting them off for as long as I can remember.

The video is actually quite funny, you can hear my dad’s commentary. Heh.

6:30 pm

cny reunion 2012

The Chinese New Year eve reunion dinner! This is my grandma. I really like her. She’s one of those people that’s cheerful and jovial against all odds. Always love spending time with her when I’m back.

We’re Heng Huas and one cultural thing about the CNY eve dinner is that we don’t eat rice. We eat longevity noodles tossed with lard. It’s not the Foochow type where you eat it in soup – that’s actually totally not cool with Heng Huas coz eating soup during the reunion dinner is supposed to make it rain.

heng hua noodles

Heng Huas eat dry longevity noodles tossed with lard and some deep fried shallots for the reunion dinner. I love the stuff, it’s very flavorful and tastes good with the dishes. That’s one of my favorite on the plate – braised pork with fatt choy (it’s a type of bacteria, seriously).

I’ll keep on adding stuff until tonight!

Happy Chinese New Year everyone! 😀

Running around like a headless chicken

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running around like a headless chicken

This idiom is actually quite accurate. My aunt was slaughtering chickens yesterday and I thought it was pretty interesting so I wanted to try it out myself. However, when I slit the chicken’s throat, I did it rather enthusiastically and nearly took off my own thumb with it. -_-

how to kill a chicken

Basically, you’re supposed to dump the chicken into a bucket after you kill it coz it thrashes around quite violently. I didn’t manage to coz my hands were slick with blood and I accidentally let the chicken go. I swear, I didn’t do that just to see if it would run around like a headless chicken. smirk

plucking chickens

Anyway, the chicken sorta flapped around all over the place when I *unintentionally* let it go. It was messy. I damn near decapitated the chicken with a very eager hand behind the knife but it still lived. It lives! Well, kinda. I finally caught it and dropped it into the bucket where it was soaked in hot water and plucked of its feathers.

I didn’t do much after seeing if the idiom was true though.

My mom said: Stop clucking around – if you’re not going to help and you’re just going to make a mess, go away.

I went away. action

Glenfiddich Solera Reserve 15 year old

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glenfiddich solera reserve

Glenfiddich is one of the most common single malt Scotch whisky there is out there. I believe I read somewhere that every 1 in 3 bottles of single malt sold is a Glenfiddich. However, just because it’s popular doesn’t mean it automatically isn’t good.

I *struggled* to choke that sentence out. I’m a huge Macallan fan, quite loyal to it since it was my very first single malt Scotch and I had it at a very special time.

glenfiddich 15 solera reserve gift box

Glenfiddich Solera Reserve can be had for around RM 245 – 285. There’s this promotional gift box that comes with a 700 ml bottle, a 30 ml miniature and a tumbler. The 15 year old is generally accepted to be a benchmark of sorts and has one of the best price-performance ratios. I first had it in 2006 and wrote about the Glenfiddich Solera Reserve which I got to celebrate a pay raise.

whisky durian

Oh, I nearly forgot this photo.

trollface

Proof that eating durians with alcohol won’t kill you

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spinning deck

Okay, now this is an established fact. Anyone who believes otherwise is an:

1. Idiot
2. Superstitious idiot
3. Ignorant idiot

(Sorry grandma)

Anyway, I have eaten large quantities of durian and drank prodigous amounts of alcohol at the same time to no ill effects.

Except a hangover…but that’s to be expected.

durians

I was out during the weekend with my friends and but before that I helped my dad open a couple of durians and ate some.

pan2 eddy

We started drinking and playing pool at a lounge and then moved somewhere where they have a…

…livelier live band. smirk

I started drinking this beer called Zoror Beer (RM 20 per jug, can’t beat that) in earnest and I knew I drank quite a lot because I have stupid photos in my camera.

pan2 jo

Me and Jo. These are not my glasses. They are Eddy’s – he put them on when I asked him about this chick – thing is he doesn’t need them. Thus, I put it on and went out front to see if it would make the girls look hotter or whether its the beer goggles.

mahal kita

Jo giving me a cheat sheet on Tagalog. I keep forgetting and she keeps telling me and finally she just wrote it down.

pan2 pinoy chick

As the night goes on, the memory becomes rather hazy…

BUT

I remember eating three whole durians when I got back, drunkenly stuffing myself full of the King of Fruits before I went to sleep. After all that drinking.

…and I’m still alive.

truestory

Live for today, deal with it tomorrow!

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coin toss

I just got a pair of adidas Originals jeans right before I was about to fly back to Sibu for the Mid Autumn Festival and an epiphany just came to me – I’ll wear the jeans during the entire 5D/4N stay in Sibu.

The fact that I haven’t packed no doubt contributed to this decision. smirk

adidas originals denims

This pair of denims is a low crotch and slim leg selection from the adidas Originals Collection and is very aptly called the Mad Cab Skinny Fit jeans. It looks like a crazed genius designer cut apart two pairs of jeans and stitched them back together in segments, much like a caterpillar.

design

The effect comes off as extremely hip (no pun intended) – it has that edgy, urban look that I don’t have in my entire denim attire.

airport

Well, I’ve been told that I’ve been losing weight…in fact, almost EVERYONE who sees me says I’m skinnier right about now. Allow me to let you in on a little secret. I was just afraid that I won’t fit into the jeans so I started to eat less. I asked for a size 30 and to the best of my memory I haven’t worn a size 30 since college. Heh.

crash

Okay, I’m kidding, I didn’t go on a crash diet or anything, in fact, I don’t know why I’ve lost weight. Like Cindy says, perhaps the most apt word is that I “ter-lose weight”. That’s Manglish (and a newly coined word to boot) for losing weight without realizing it.

mad cab skinny fit

I know I can fit into a size 30 so thus begin my chronicles. I’m sure you don’t want to see me in various camwhore poses so I’ll focus on the jeans instead. 😉

mad cab fit

Mine comes in black and is very distinctive – there are little details all around the jeans that I really like.

plane

It’s very comfortable too. I didn’t sleep before my flight coz I had to finish everything before I came back to my hometown so I took a two hour nap on the plane. The ground staff that attended to me was kind enough to reserve the entire aisle for me. The conversation went a little like this:

Check-in counter: Would you like a window seat or an aisle seat, sir?
Me: Can I have both so I can sleep on the plane?
Check-in counter: Sure.

Trust me, I am just as surprised as you are. She put me in the middle seat and blocked off both seats at the side so I can recline completely on the Boeing. Bliss.

pool

You just can’t go wrong with a pair of jeans. I’ve worn it out to casual lunches and nights out and I’ve gotten interested comments about the unique design of the Mad Cab Fit.

mad cap fit design

Someone actually asked me where I got it when I was out for drinks. Heh.

lunch

Well, another great “feature” of the black pair of denims is that if you accidentally drop some food on it, you’ll just need to brush it off…

oops

…and it’s as good as new.

no stain

You won’t even see a stain. 🙂

me

I went EVERYWHERE wearing this. I also got my hair cut, washed and colored (it was an impromptu decision) and I think my old t-shirt from my university days living on campus in Melbourne sums it up.

live for today

Live for today, deal with it tomorrow – Roberts Hall 2000

adidas originals

That’s the spirit of the adidas Originals line of denims and this Mad Cab Fit is becoming a fast favorite of mine already. It’s comfortable and cool, which are two words you don’t usually see in the same sentence.

trick shot

…and yes, I really sunk this trick shot. 🙂

Tower Chocolate Double Cheesecake

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tower chocolate double cheesecake

Before Secret Recipe opened up a branch in Sibu, the place to get quality cakes for birthdays and other celebrations was at Tanahmas Hotel. They have pretty good cheesecakes in Peppers Cafe (the hotel’s cafe) and I revisited the place with Anthea right before flying back.

jelly pisang sibu

I was here a couple of days ago to explore the mythical Sibu Famous Jelly Pisang. I had the exact same thing this time around. Heh! I noticed that the entire bottom is made out of jelly – probably a good 1/3 of it, and I really liked how the entire shaved ice dessert goes.

anthea goh

This time around I also ordered one of the cakes that caught my eye from the glass display counter.

tower cake

This is the Tower Chocolate Double Cheese. It’s a tiny cake about the size of two stacked Tiffany boxes – half of it contains their famous cheesecake and it’s topped with a layer of chocolate mousse. The entire shebang is then drizzled with chocolate sauce, a piece of their kitchen-made chocolate and a maraschino cherry.

chocolate mousse

It’s really quite good and reminds me of why Peppers Cafe used to be the king of cakes – if you wanted one, that’s where you go in Sibu. 🙂

Ruby Restaurant, Sibu

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ruby

This is one of my favorite places to eat in Sibu. I guess you can call it a dai chow place but over here we just call it “choo chiak” which is literally Hokkien for “cooking food”. I met up with Arthur a couple of hours after we touched down and headed over to this restaurant for lunch.

ruby restaurant

Ruby Restaurant has a surprisingly rapid turnover for a weekday lunch. I remember eating rice with cooked dishes for lunch when I was working for a short stint in Sibu. You can actually do that, and in fact, a lot of people do. There was a huge group of all-females in office attire occupying a huge table when we were there.

ruby coffee

Anyway, when you go to Ruby’s (the Chinese characters for the restaurant apparently means “red ruby”) with Arthur, you’ll be remiss if you didn’t order their coffee. It is made to the exact specifications of Arthur, a bit of a regular here, and it’s really good, thick coffee.

ruby coffee black

You can actually watch it turn from milky brown to black as the coffee seeps up.

ruby midin

This is midin – a local fern. I can’t find it outside of Sarawak so it’s a must-have dish whenever I go back home. It actually grows in the wild and locals pick and sell it in the local market. It’s crunchy to the bite and very nice when you get it right. That means it should be in the wok for just a short amount of time.

ruby mani chai

The other vegetable dish that we ordered is what we called mani chai. This leafy vegetable is defoliated from its stalk before cooking – only the leaves are eaten. It’s usually fried with eggs and it’s one of the few vegetable dishes I would eat as a kid…mostly coz of the egg. 😉

ruby beef curry

Arthur also asked about specials and the chef informed us that they just cooked up a batch of beef curry so ordered that too. It came out in a bowl and the beef curry isn’t overflowing with thin gravy like most Chinese style curry dishes but sat in a thicker, clingy gravy like rendang. I loved it, the beef pieces were tender and the curry is flavorful. There’s even bits of potatoes inside, which goes very well with the curry.

ruby butter prawns

This is the butter cheese prawns and the main reason I like going to Ruby. It’s not dry with sprinkles of deep fried butter on top, but made with a creamy butter sauce that’s heavenly sweet. I have really missed this dish – no one does it better than Ruby, IMHO. The prawns are battered and deep fried before being cooked in butter, resulting in a sweet, rather than salty dish. *drools

ruby arthur

It was great to meet up with Arthur again – we had quite a long lunch before he had to go fix his car and it hardly felt more than 30 minutes. Time just flies when you’re catching up with old friends. Thanks for the lunch, Arthur! 🙂

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