Sunday, December 23, 2007

Oregano Kuching moved....

Last week, I met up with Hedo and Thongs for a drink at Oregano, and it was then when I was told that Oregano, the one located at Travillion has moved to Central Road, behind Soon Onn Furniture. It wasn't difficult to find, and actually I think the place, despite being a bit secluded, it is pretty much a nice quiet place to hang out, have a drink or a bite compared to the previous location.








On a separate occasion, I attended another wedding dinner last Saturday (15/12), and that was already the THIRD wedding dinner in 2 months time, before that was Bui Siong's and my cousin's weddings. Yesterday (Saturday (22/12) was Thongs's wedding, and that was the FORTH wedding, with another one coming on Christmas eve (24/12) being the FIFTH wedding, and probably the last wedding that I'm attending in 2007.

Phew!!!... now you know why I'm so broke for the past 2 months??

Monday, December 17, 2007

different cigarettes...

For the past few weeks, I've tried different cigarettes, ranging from some Chinese Double Happiness, the new Dunhill My Mixture (green box) to the ones below:


one of my favorite cigarettes from the Land of the Rising Sun - 峰, Feng. It's something that I'd always buy from the duty free shops whenever I go traveling, or ask whoever going for holidays (and in this case, Hedo) to get it for me. Like always, it burns ever so smoothly, and the taste is just nice.


I bought another version of the Dunhill Mixture series at a nearby Petronas Kiosk, and this time I got the orange/brown version for RM12.50, just so that I could keep the box. It tasted somewhat like the previous green version, and can't really tell the difference lorr. The best comparison on the taste would be like the typical Dunhil Red.


Then, at the Petronas Kiosk, I saw another 4 more new packaging of Dunhil ciggies, each selling for RM9.20. I chose this Dunhill Fine Cut Lights, and according to the detailing at the back, it mentioned that this Fine Cut version is cut beyond the ordinary standards, into 46 cuts per inch, enhancing its smoothness. True enough, it was pretty good, better than that of the normal Dunhil Lights, and also it's longer in length. I'd probably go buy & try out the other 3 versions,... yea, I'm a sucker for nice ciggie boxes, and I'm so keeping them. :)

Thursday, December 13, 2007

my weekend...


I was at Seattle Coffee & Tea after my appointment with the doctor to have an ice-cold milkshake with Alex and Hedo. After that, went over to LEA Center at Hopoh to check out the sales there, and ended up buying 2 Nike Polo Shirts for RM79.90. Alex bought himself 3 shirts (I think) while Hedo is the new owner of a pair of Adidas sneakers. Argghh.... spend money again!!!
Verdict: Sales is the root of all evil!!!


went for dinner at Koreana Restaurant with Jo in the evening. This time around, we only spent somewhat RM50 for the meal... pretty cheap considering we spent RM160+ on Japanese food last month...


Then, Piccadilly's we went as FEVER was having this crap looking live band thingy that didn't seem amusing. We sat outside of Piccadilly's comfy couches and had the usual beer/stout. Yea... I resume drinking already, but just one or two lah... :)


went for a late breakfast on the Sunday morning. both of us had Laksa, RM5 each as this one came with plenty of chicken thigh meat, skin and 3 huge prawns. worth it lahh....


In the evening after the usual swim, accompanied the taukeh-neo to her office as she needed to finish up some of her work reports. While she was busy working on her reports, I watched the movie - View From The Top by Gwyneth Paltrow using her new laptop. pretty good and romantic (in some sense) a movie, and after I was done, have to wait another half hour or so before we got to leave Pending area for a late dinner downtown.


and guess what I got for accompanying her to work on a Sunday evening?? a few notepads, some A4 size writing pads and pens from Servier... ''-____-

Monday, December 10, 2007

probably my one and only hens night out...

Due to the fact that there weren't enough girls showing up on thongs's hens night out last Friday, Alex and I was asked to join in the fun... so after they were done making thongs looked ridiculous with the outfit and stuff at Victoria Arms (ladies night), we met up at SOHO downtown...

the to-be-bride was asked to collect condoms from guys at SOHO and Ipanema, but surprisingly after more than 10 approaches, there were none collected!!! WTF??!
Verdict: Kuching guys do not practice safe sex... or they're just to shy and surprised when approached...

then, the girls went on to stick papers on her chest, butt & thigh, and got thongs to go ask guys to sign on the papers with well wishes & etc. THAT, she passed... apparently guys were pretty sporting that night...

halfway through... a police car drove by, and starting honking at those cars that were yellow parked in front of SOHO. we almost gotten her to go get some policeman signatures, and try get the policeman to NOT saman my car, as my car was somewhere parked upfront on the yellow line... but in the end we thought that might not be that wise an idea, so I moved my car to a parking space opposite...


one of the last stunts that thongs was asked to do was to hug the traffic light right in front of SOHO. Yeap, she did... and you'd probably won't be seeing her around that area on party nights anytime soon...

*note: I blanked out her face cos otherwise, I'd probably be murdered...*

Sunday, December 09, 2007

one of the best Kuch Chap in Kuching...

Jo suggested going for Kueh Chap after our swim on a Sunday a while a ago. went over to the Kenyalang old market, but it wasn't open for business... and then while deciding which area serves good Kueh Chap, the stall at Poh Kong Park, Greenroad popped up. Drove all the way over to Greenroad we did, and luckily this time it's open...

while waiting for the food to come, suddenly I realized that I have not been there for Kueh Chap for more than a year... how time flies...


very old school-style Kueh Chap stall... but I kid you not people... the taukeh sells one of the best-est Kueh Chap in town, whereby the soup is just so rich with flavour and has enough sweetness to it. you then pick whatever pig parts that you want - be it tougue, stomach, lean meat, three-layered meat, chicken feet, ear and etc.... and yeap, it's so good that I forgot to take a few pictures of it before plunging the spoon and chopsticks into the food.

Not cheap though... a decent portion (special) of Kueh Chap here is RM4.50, or you could just up the portion to RM5.00's worth, which by Kuching's Kueh Chap average of RM3.50 is abit to the high side, but seriously it's worth ever single cent...


Saturday, December 08, 2007

company annual dinner

It's the company's 5th annual dinner, held at the Holiday Inn Ballroom last week, which also means that I've been with the company for 4 years. Quite a long time already considering the fact that I lasted only 1 year in my previous job. It was a great night, as there were good food, plentiful of fun games as well as a hell of a party at Tribes after the dinner.


a gift from all the staffs to the management (our bosses)


a picture of all of us colleagues (photoshopped of course) with the company logo. dunno who suggested this, but it was truly something special and meaningful.


after all the good food, lucky draws and fun events, which I was too lazy to snap pictures of, we proceeded to Tribes for the after dinner party. I didn't stay too long though, but I was sure that everyone had a blast. the whole thing was definitely better than those of previous years.


as for me, I was somewhat lucky being the winner of a 1GD pen-drive during the lucky draw... just what I needed actually as my current pen-drive is only running at a lame 128MB. Our table was the luckiest of all as out of 9 people, 5 of us found ourselves receiving early Christmas gifts on the stage during the lucky draw. The prizes were 1 year newspaper subscription, 2 pen-drives (1GB), 1 portable hardisk (80GB) and a Sony MP3 player.

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

LEA Center year end sale again...

Christmas is just 3 weeks away, and most shopping centers are putting up their year end stock clearance sales adverts as early as the beginning of December, including LEA Center which announced its year end sales from December 1 till January 1, 2008 in all major newspapers. The last time I made some major purchases was during their mid year sale and the Hari Raya sale, so last Saturday, Alex and I dropped by both LEA Centers at Crown Plaza and Sarawak Plaza to check out the items on sale...


yea, I manage to get something even though there wasn't much of a discount...

It was a bit of a disappointment though as there aren't much items on major discount, and it looked more like a warm up sale for the nearing Christmas week. Alex did not manage to buy anything, and instead, yours truly bought something again, which was only on a 10% discount.


a Nike sports wear. after the discount, I paid about RM60 for it. not too bad lahh...

Monday, December 03, 2007

elder cousin's wedding...

It was about a month ago when both my aunty and uncle dropped by my house to pass the invitation card of their daughter's (my elder cousin) wedding dinner. Luckily, the date was 2 days after my parents got back from Taiwan, else I'd have to attend the wedding myself...

The dinner itself was actually more of a family event, as only close relatives were invited. A total of 4 tables were reserved at the restaurant, and the food served that night was simply awesome. However, I didn't take any pictures of the food as it wasn't polite to take photos after photos of the food in front of them adults, and interrupting them eating...


only this photo of me with the cousins were taken. the guy in the middle is the new cousin in-law. both the ones in front are my elder cousins. The guy is an accountant.. and the sweet lady there - a doctor... still single I think... :)

It was a great night as it was somewhat a wedding dinner @ family gathering, a big one since the passing away of grandma earlier this year. Hope that the family bond will stay together as long, and that there would be many more such family gatherings in the future to come.

Sunday, December 02, 2007

food stuff from Taiwan...

Apart from the Cafe Boheme that mum bought for me from her Taiwan trip, she too bought the authentic Taiwan sausages, which taste awesome as well as this amazing delicacy/dessert called 凤梨酥. The Taiwan sausages were quite expensive, and 2 packs cost around NT$500, which is about RM50...


had this during dinner yesterday... it's just different from the sausages/hotdogs sold locally,,, simply delicious!!! how I'd wish mum would have bought more...


this one is still in the fridge. these sausages are freshly packed, so it would only last for 1 month+, and we're recommended to chill it only rather than to store it in the freezer...


this is the thang people!!! looks plain and simple right?? well, looks can be deceiving... and I kid you not... the taste is TO-DIE-FOR!!!!

how much does it cost?? NT$20 per piece (RM2 each)... pretty expensive huh?? mum only bought 2 boxes back home... hemphh!!! If I were to be there, I'd have bought at least 10 boxes home... it's that good, and it's that worth it man... next time whoever is going to Taiwan, I'd definitely get them to buy this 凤梨酥 back for me...

Thursday, November 29, 2007

finally, the first claim arrived...

after submitting my first medication claim and waiting for any feedback from the insurance company for more than a month, the check was finally approved. As soon as I got the check (RM303), I banked it straight into my Maybank account, but still have to wait for another week for it to clear as it was an outstation check.


anyway, it's good that the follow up medication bill is re-reimbursed and that I would be having more spare cash. I'm now actually looking forward to getting the other 2 claims which total up to RM935. Christmas is coming, and looks like I could get myself better Christmas gifts after all...

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

another wedding attended...

I attended a secondary school buddy's wedding last week. It was sort of a last minute notice as we were all only given the invitation cards by another friend 1 week+ before the wedding as the newly weds are working in Singapore. Most of us knew the bride too because she is one of us friends' younger sister... heh...


I was one of the first to arrive at the wedding dinner, so I chose the best seat in the house, and waited for the other brothers to show up. There were 4 tables reserved only for friends, as shown in the picture above, and we secondary schoolmates took up 2 tables in the end.


waiting for the food to be served. The brochures shown were promotional packages for wedding dinners offered by the hotel... quite reasonably priced I should say...


yea, we acted like kids when we were all together again... so after we were done with the fish, the poor fish head was separated, and arranged nicely with 3 buns, decorated with some chillies, vege and other-dunno-what-stuff that we could find...


and when it came to the time to "YAM SENG" (translation: cheer) with the newly weds, one idiot asked the waiter to bring on the whole jug of beer used by the waiters to refill beers for the cheering session, and despite sharing it out amongst everyone, there were still some left...


and finally, a group photo of the whole gang with the newly weds before we all went up to their hotel room to crash their first night... :P

Last but not least: Congratulations to Bui Siong & Chiew Yien! Hope that the two of you will be happy always, and like the old Chinese saying: fast fast have a baby lah!! Cheers!!!

Monday, November 26, 2007

a pretty cool wedding gift to a friend who smokes...

got a few of these Double Happiness cigarettes from Jo, which she bought when going for holidays in Thailand a while ago. Seeing the logo on the pack, I thought that this would be somewhat a nice little gift to whoever who is getting married. You don't usually find this in Malaysia... so they'll surely like it, and remember you for it. Plus, they would probably not open it up, but put it on display nicely somewhere in their new place...


the logo of the cigarette pack displays is the usual word you'll see at all Chinese weddings...


the taste is typical of China ciggies, abit weird to my liking but still okay lah, a close comparison would be a downgraded Pall Mall... the cigarette smell is somewhat strong, and it stays with you for quite a while...

Saturday, November 24, 2007

it's the freshness of the food that counts...

went over to Rakutei Japanese Restaurant for an unplanned dinner. turned out to be a pretty expensive one... ''-___-
but seriously it's worth it though as the food served was as fresh as it could get...


Rakutei is located at Crown Square Kuching

We ordered quite a lot of stuff, and actually over-ordered as in the end I was the poor thing doing the clean ups while she sat there sipping her beer... ''-____-

let's see... ordered Salmon & Tuna, California rolls, softshell crab, garlic rice, and the one shown in the picture below: I didn't manage to take photos of the other food stuff as I was already busy feeding myself...


those raw prawns were super fresh!!

the bill came up to be slightly over RM160, but like I said, it's the freshness that counts... and the quality of the food served justifies the amount paid.

Friday, November 23, 2007

Dunhil "My Mixture" ciggie

was at FEVER again when this cigarette promo girl from Dunhill came over to promote this new range of "My Mixture" Dunhill... there're 3 types, so I cincai layan and bought the green coloured one for RM12.80. very expensive lah... I could get one underground Dunhill Menthol for just RM5...


nice and solid packing though...


the cigarette pack opens up like this, and the ciggies are longer than the normal Dunhil sold. The taste is just typical of Dunhill Reds, as I can't make out the lime taste that the promo girl mentioned...

Thursday, November 22, 2007

opened an Al Rajhi Bank current account...

After I got the engine oil and filter changed, I drove to downtown Kuching to the newly opened Al Rajhi Bank to open up an account so that I could get the ATM Debit Card-i for my Paypal withdrawals.

The spanking new office is seriously impressive, with futuristic designs yet being somewhat cosy. An array of flat screen monitors and other banking electronic gadget on the counters greets incoming customers on the other side, adding on the sophisticated impression. There are 2 huge sofa set areas for customers to sit at, with magazines and newspapers for casual readings while waiting to be served. There's even a 32' LCD TV used solely for displaying the queue numbers of waiting customers... abit melampau... ''-___-


I was second in the queue, and was promptly served. The lady at the counter was friendly, and when I said I wanted to open a savings account, told me that I could get a current account with the same deposit amount (RM500) as the bank is having this promotional thingy going on, and I'd also get the same ATM Debit Card-i, plus a cheque book. I said okay, and she did all the processing on the spot, with me only doing the routine of sign here and sign there...

Within 30 minutes, I walked out of the bank pretty much a happy person, as the customer service was friendly, and the process of setting up my current account and having the card done on the spot was just efficient and fast as compared to other local banks.


yea, they actually issued my cheque book, together with my name in-printed on the ATM Debit Card-i on that day. I wonder which other local bank issues cards with names in-printed on the spot... got ahh???

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

got the engine oil & filter changed...

After sending my parents to the airport last Friday, I noticed that the engine oil has done over 5,000 kms... so had lunch with the gay fart machine before I headed over to the usual garage to get the engine oil and the oil filter changed.


Nowadays, they don't drain out the used engine oil anymore. What they did was to insert a tube into the engine oil cover, and suck out the dirty oil straight from the engine block instead of having to go underneath the car to release the used oil.


how dirty (black) the engine oil was after 5,000+ kms of use.


I only trust this brand - Idemitsu Semi Synthetic... seriously good stuff. The total damage to wallet was RM115.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

I'm home alone...

yeaps... mum and dad, together with my sis, the boyfriend and his mum went off to Taiwan last Saturday. They're gonna be in Taiwan, then KL for a week+, which means I'm all home alone during that time... hehehehe... *nolah... no BBQ party in the house this time 'round...*


New Taiwan Dollar 100, or NT$100... about RM10

Mum actually asked me whether I wanted to join them, and even offered to fully sponsor the trip for me, but I'm just not that into joining tours for holidays. For me, if I were to go for holidays, I'd probably do my own research first, identify the places I'd want to go, and then get those local daily tours to bring us around, or just rent a car.

When I'm on holiday, I actually just want to relax, enjoy it, and travel at my own time, not following those busy scheduled bus tours that bring you to places that you might not like, or bring you to places that you might eventually like, but only give you 30 minutes to explore/hangout... sommore they wake you up with damn irritating morning calls, and ask you to get ready in 30 minutes time as the tour bus is leaving...
WTF?!!?


NT$1000... snapped the photos before driving mum & dad to the airport...

anyway, I just hope that they travel safe, enjoy their Taiwan holiday, and buy lotsa stuff/presents for me when they get back... hahahahaha...

Monday, November 19, 2007

it was my lucky day...

When your car rims and tires looked like this:


you know that the car seriously needs a car wash. The problem however was that it has been raining almost every evening here in Kuching, so it serves no purpose to get the car spanking clean for just a day or two, and then got ruined by the constant rains.


Then last week on a Thursday when I was driving Alex home, he spotted my car number on the "lucky number" board on one of the car wash centers, which means any cars with their numbers shown on the board would be given a free car wash + vacuum. It was my lucky day, and in we went for the FOC car wash.


After the wash, the rims and tires looked like this... much better huh?? However, it lasted only for a day because as I was out doing errands on Friday, it rained like no tomorrow in the afternoon and it's back to the dirty old look...

Thursday, November 15, 2007

more good food...

After going for a light swim on the Sunday evening (yea, the doctor say I could go swimming already, just don't over do it. badminton still cannot :( ...), went over to San Fransisco Grill again for some serious meat...


I ordered this: Rib-Eye (medium done).
The meat was tender & juicy... went well with tonnes of tabasco sauce. It was good... real good I tellya...

I dunno why, but that night there's only 2 of us in the restaurant the whole time. I think that's why the chef took his sweet time to get the things done, and also picked us huge sweet slices of meat.

Seriously, the picture didn't do the actual portion of the meat any justice. It's huge!! Maybe it's because of the 2 lumps of mash potatoes beside it that made the meat looked kindda less convincing...??

Friday, November 09, 2007

sweet new tablet PC...

nope, not mine though...

Jo bought this new tablet PC a few weeks back - a HP Pavillion. Showed (actually how-liened) it to me the other day when we're out having drinks, and I'd say that it's a pretty sweet gadget to have.


It's a touch screen, and you could twist the display 180 degrees. very functional, small and light. Perfect for those who are frequently on the move.


pretty cool huh?? Well, you gotta part ways with RM4000 for this toy... and I'm so tempted to get myself a new laptop too, but not a tablet PC lah. I'd rather pay the same amount for more computing muscle... heh...

Thursday, November 08, 2007

one of the most famous in Kuching...

It was lunch time on a Sunday, and Jo suggested to go makan at "Tua Pui So" (in Hokkien) downtown...
I was like: "huh?? have to wait at least an hour wor... so many people will be waiting there lahh..."
She said: "I got time wad..."
**and I thought you said you were hungry... ''-__-

So off we head over. getting my car parked was already difficult enough, and when we reached the shop... it was the usual full house crowd with many waiting to be seated. 45 minutes we waited before getting out butts seated... some more gotta share with another couple. I think this is probably the only place in Kuching that people come to eat, and are accustomed to sharing tables with others.


this place has been around like forever... and still going strong... even the famous Taiwan chef - Ah Hong came here, tried the Kolo Mee + Mix Soup and gave his thumbs up. It was featured in the local newspaper, and the taukeh framed up the article in the shop.


this is where all the good stuff are churned out every other minute...


this picture doesn't really justify how crowded the place was...


see the "C" rating for this shop?? who the hell cares as the legions of people flowing into the shop suggest that as long as it's good food, other things doesn't matter. While seated, we did a rough estimate of how much sales they are raking in per day, and RM2500 is a conservative figure... that mean around RM75,000 per month!! crap man... I'm so gonna go learn how to sell mee/noodles...


this was it!! looks pretty normal for a mix soup thingy from the outside, but the taste was just heavenly good. I didn't take a picture of the Kolo Mee as its more towards normal. The whole waiting and eating session at this old school kopitiam took almost 2 hours... imagine that, and when we left, there're still legions of food lovers waiting for their seats and food...

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RULE OF THUMB when you're eating here:

1. After sitting down, do not call out the taukeh and order your stuff... instead, just order your drinks from the guy taking drink orders. I once saw this newbie wanting to order straight from the taukeh after sitting down, and got scolded in Hokkien: "you wanna eat, then WAIT lah!!"
yea, their business is THAT good until they can afford to scold their customers...


2. Wait till the taukeh (there's only this one guy who takes food orders, and you won't miss him one lah) places the spoons, chopsticks and chillies w/ soya sause on your table, THEN you (are allowed to) order the things that you want.

3. Your drinks should be here by now, so just sit tight, and wait for another like 20 minutes or so before your food is served.
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