Hilton Premium Club

A college friend of mine referred me to the marketing people of Hilton, and I got a call from one of them Hilton marketing staffs offering me the Hilton Premium Club membership recently. After all the introduction and sales talk, the marketing guy managed to convince me to sign up for the membership for a year with an addition 2 months of extended membership thrown in. I was RM588 poorer after the phone call... yea I'm such a sucker for these kindda stuff at times...


I received the membership package, which has the membership card inside after about 5 working days. It's all good. I won't go into too much details on the benefits of having the card, but basically I get a free stay at any of the Hiltons in Asia Pacific (premium room), 50% discount on 6 stays at any Hiltons, 50% on food and beverages, executive floor upgrades, 10% discount on all published room rates at any one time and etc...


The membership card, along with the dozens of discount vouchers... I'd probably try to sell off the free stay as well as the 50% discounted room vouchers, and fully utilize the discounts for the F&B segment instead... so for the next 14 months ahead, the chances are high that you'll probably find me at the Waterfront Café, Steakhouse or Matang Terrace for the Japanese Buffet at Hilton Kuching...

Christmas Eve 2007...

it was about 9.30pm after the Christmas Eve wedding dinner, and everyone else, except me had got themselves pre-planned Christmas countdown events/parties to go to. I gave Jo a call, and to my surprise, she was pretty much free that night, and asked me to meet her up at FIRE, a new pub taking over the previous location of Oregano at Travillion as she was invited there by the owner@friend. I reached Travillion, and manage to find a car park in front of FIRE after what seemed like an eternity of queue up with so many cars wanting to get into that area.


The DJ area up on the wall in FIRE. The pub was entirely jam packed with party people, and it was pretty much difficult to move around. Music was too loud, and it was hard to even speak. The situation was made worst when it rained, and everyone tried squeezed in for shelter. We were there for about an hour plus before deciding to change to a quieter place for a drink as FIRE didn't seem to cut it. FEVER was another option, but then decided against it as when we drove pass Jalan Bukit Mata Kucing, the whole place was full of cars and it would be impossible to get parkings.


YN Cellar at Merdeka Palace was where we ended up at. good atmosphere, nice soft music, and most importantly, not much people there... only 2 table were occupied before we were seated.


ordered a bottle of wine...


RYMILL Coonawarra SHIRAZ was the name... and pretty good it was...


the wine was then poured into a decanter... it wasn't until almost 2am that we managed to finish it and headed back home. the rain was still pouring at that hour... but it didn't really deter them Kuching party goes as traffic was still pretty heavy downtown...

despite spending over RM200 for the wine (we shared the bill), I think it was money well spent rather than opening a bottle of *insert alcoholic drinks* at a noisy club/pub and got drunk in the end. All in all, it was a pretty memorable Christmas Eve nights out, especially with great company...

lame car show that I attended when I was on leave...

went over to this car show at RH Plaza, BDC when a friend after he told me that he read about it in the local newspaper. we were there after lunch, and it was somewhat a disappointment. there were only 2 rows of souped up super cars in two large canopies, and all were Japanese makes except for one...


an entire row of Subaru Imprezas...


the row of Imprezas shot from the other end...


a white Nissan Fairlady 350Z...


2 Skylines R34s, followed by 3 Lancer Evos and a Mini Cooper...

That's it... how pathetic I tell you, and it only took us less than 5 minutes to walk from one end and to the other end looking at them cars. Then we left for drinks elsewhere... sigh~~.... the organizers should try harder next time 'round...

two more weddings attended before 2007 ended...

I suppose it's the Christmas season lovey dovey mood that apparently led to a lot of couples deciding to tie the nod before 2008. The final two weddings that I attended to were of Thongs' on December 22 and Mok Vui & Patricia's on Christmas eve.


The biggest Christmas Tree in Kuching at The Travillion. Lotsa Kuchingites went there just to take photos of it...


thongs and the hubby exchanging their marriage vows on stage @ The Hilton Ballroom... glamor banyak...


Mok Vui & Patricia's wedding was held in this new *forgot name* restaurant at the Petanak area. the food served was seriously generous and good. It was sort of like a secondary school class reunion as we all get to sit together and update each other on things. Can u imagine I need to update 3 of their HP numbers in my phone database, and vice versa?? How time flies and things change...

anyway, more to come on the Christmas eve party, or should I say hangout...

tyre changed...

Just got back to work after taking 13 days off from December 20 till January 1. It has been one hell of a long break, which includes the Christmas eve and New Year eve celebrations.... *will blog about those soon*

Back to the topic:
After about 11 months of using the Michelin MXF Sports, I decided to get them changed as the two front ones are becoming botak, and that the rear right one has been giving out this strange noise due to the tyre surface becoming uneven.


off went the old set of Michelin MXF Sport... I'm so gonna miss those sexy treads...


up fitted the Dunlop Direzza DZ101 (tyre profile: 215/55/16). This set of 4 tyres are second hand ones, but still has about 70% tread left... the previous owner probably trade it in after upgrading his ride's rims and tyres. Cost me about RM400+ for all the tyres, which was pretty cheap because IF I were to get 4 new ones, it would cost me more than RM400 per piece - meaning I would be looking at a bill total of RM1600++ for the whole set. *gulp*

Then I went over to get the car alignment done. The total bill was an additional RM200+, inclusive of changing the chamber screws, rear (dunno what screws) as well as replacing some rubber stuffs to get the alignment at the front back to perfection.

Total damage to wallet: RM600+. However, I am very much satisfied after getting the tyres and the alignment finally fixed, despite some hiccups along the way, which I would blog separately.

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??

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. :)

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... ''-____-

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...*

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...

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.

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...

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.

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...

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...

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!!!

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...

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.