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...

==========
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.
==========

Wednesday, November 07, 2007

crap!!...damaged my car's front skirt...

I don't wanna go into too much details on how it happened... basically it's just my carelessness when turning a slow corner and hit the side curb after filling her up at the Petronas station... knn!!!

At first I thought the side skirt would have a huge crack or something like that... but after checking it out, it's what you see in the below photo.



the fiber glass area where it scrapped the side curb was damaged, and the paint chipped off quite badly... no major cracks though, and everything is still intact.

nope, I would probably not spend money to get it changed or re-sprayed... spent too much of money on the car already... sommore it's not that big a damage. I could actually get it fixed by double taping or clamping some metal thingy over the damaged area... hmm... lemme think first...

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

credit card annual fees

do you know that you do not have to pay for those credit card annual fees even after the initial first year or 2 years waiver??

I have been doing that for a few of my credit cards already, namely my HSBC credit cards, Citibank and most recently my Standard Chartered Mastercards. Rather than jotting down the dates to cancel the credit cards before the bank starts charging you the annual fees, just let them. When you see the charges appearing in your statement, call them up and request for them to waive it. They will normally approve of that, and will do a reversal of the charge, so you do not need to pay for the fees.

Disclosure Policy

This policy is valid from 25 October 2007

This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. For questions about this blog, please contact dreckker@gmail.com.

This blog accepts forms of cash advertising, sponsorship, paid insertions or other forms of compensation.

This blog abides by word of mouth marketing standards. We believe in honesty of relationship, opinion and identity. The compensation received may influence the advertising content, topics or posts made in this blog. That content, advertising space or post will be clearly identified as paid or sponsored content.

The owner(s) of this blog is compensated to provide opinion on products, services, websites and various other topics. Even though the owner(s) of this blog receives compensation for our posts or advertisements, we always give our honest opinions, findings, beliefs, or experiences on those topics or products. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the bloggers' own. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider or party in question.

This blog does not contain any content which might present a conflict of interest.

To get your own policy, go to http://www.disclosurepolicy.org



Monday, November 05, 2007

1408... got 2 endings one...

I just learnt from Hedo that there're actually two endings to 1408 this morning. I watched it at the cineplex while she watched the pirated DVD bought somewhere. We were talking about it when she said John Cusack died in the movie. I looked at her one kind and said: "ehhh... he where got die??!"

so~ after some online searching, confirm that there're two endings to the movie. Hedo watched the original ending, while the Malaysian cinema goers will be served the "less-depressing" ending, where John Cusack survived room 1408. I'm so gonna borrow Hedo's DVD and watch the original ending...

For those who wants to know more about the 2 endings, and don't mind reading about the storyline if you haven't watched the movie, go here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1408_(film)

Some pictures I took from Star Cineplex:

probably the most snapped scenery of Kuching...
took it after I bought the 1408 tickets...



Kuching South... the building under construction is the new Dewan Undangan Negeri of Sarawak (DUN).

Saturday, November 03, 2007

1408... 8/10 for me...

went to watch 1408 just this afternoon at around 3.30pm... managed to catch the start as we were busily buying snacks before reaching the cinema.

the build-up of the storyline is pretty good, with Samuel L. Jackson (the hotel manager) teeing up this freak room, and discouraging John Cusack (the horror story writer) to check into room 1408, including upgrading him to the penthouse suite. of course, he rejected... and so check into room 1408 he did.


it's based on Stephen King's 1408 bestseller... so die die must watch...

what happened in the room was freaky to say the least, but I'd say that the graphics and actings were the more outstanding points of the movie. the movie is overall pretty good as it actually relates to us, especially those who travel a lot and stay in hotels... actually half way through the movie, both Jo and I wanted to leave as it really freaks us out... not that it's all bloody and gory stuff... just that it makes you not wanting to continue watching... *which in a way a success for a horror movie... ...* (note: we finished watching the movie in the end okay...)

I wouldn't go to detail on the movie as I won't wanna to spoil it for those who haven't watched. Personally, I think it's a good watch, and seriously - if you do not have a 42" plasma and a home theatre system, go watch at the cinema...

Friday, November 02, 2007

new HSBC Visa

Without much of a notice, I've been using my HSBC Visa for the last 4 years. A few days back, I received a delivery from HSBC, and inside the envelope was my new replacement card as the current one expires in November 2007. I cut the old card in half, through the chip, and then signed on the new one. :)))


this has been in my wallet for the past 4 years, and was the card I pull out for payments almost every time... so I guess it's bye-bye for now...


da new card. expiry date extended to 2011...

Thursday, November 01, 2007

watched Brothers (兄弟)

I haven't been to the cinema for movies for almost a year. The last show I watched at theater was a lame budget horror crap movie called 'Beneath Still Water'. The horror/scary scenes were so stupid and lousy that it became somewhat funny...

anyway, decided to go watch this so-called HK blockbuster - Brothers (兄弟) last night, and since it was movie night (RM5 per person), I went over to get the tickets after work just in case it's fully seated later. Lucky I did, as the 915pm show was almost half full when I bought the tickets at 540pm.


nothing to shout about on the storyline as it's typical of those HK triad movies...kill here revenge there. however, the acting part of the big name actors were good, and I think most of the people watching would agree that the selling point of the movie was the starring of the few hotshot characters. the ending wasn't pleasant, as usual... :(


the ticket girl must have been blur as she gave me two different coloured tickets, one RM8 and one RM6... even though it's RM5 for Wednesday...