the usual drinking routine......

It's usually on a Friday or Saturday night, and we started out slow with beer.

Heineken draft anyone??

Later into the night, something like Glenfiddich, Glenmorangie or Jim Bean will pop up onto the table at times.

-_____-

Sometimes when there are birthday guys or girls around, cocktails like graveyard showed up in the scene.

Together with stuff with more kick...

and we'd always end up at one of those makan places that open early into the morning...

Some porridge, 猪肚汤 (pig stomach soup), 咸鱼猪肉 (fried pork with salted fish) and 猪肚炒辣椒 (fried pig intentine with dried chillies) after a night of drinking is not only satisfying, but help resume soberness. However, I always forget to take a snap of the food when they arrive...

  -_____-'

impulsive purchases II...

I went shopping during the pre-Hari Raya sale at Hopoh, and ended up with another impulsive purchase 3 months after the last one.

I saw this pair of Reebok sunglasses, liked it and bought it.

 -____-'

wicked ehh??

all the way from the UK...

Han was going for his brother's graduation in the UK a couple of months back... and being both Manchester United fans, Daniel & I got him to help us each buy the club's jerseys, and we got them at Damai Puri Resort during the Merdeka weekend escapade... :)

The Red Devils...

I don't know how long will the AIG logo stay on the Manchester United jerseys as the group is in deep financial crap lately and the most recently, I read about Sir Alex Ferguson becoming the spokesperson for Hublot, so there might be a chance that the world 'HUBLOT' would replace that of 'AIG'

I got "11" and "GIGGS" printed for an extra £12.

Daniel went for the short sleeves home jersey while mine has long sleeves.
so how do we looked in them??

All I could say is that this jersey is the most expensive garment that I've ever bought.

-_____-''

complimentary coffee from Starbucks...

I received this complimentary Starbucks birthday treat coupon from HSBC last week. I am entitled to one free 12oz freshly brewed coffee.    :)

Daniel and I went over to Mitsu Shabu Shabu again last Saturday. but this time, we didn't go for the shabu shabu. Instead, we ordered soup based stuff, where Dan ordered fish ball soup while mine was beef ball mee-hoon soup. Jo joined us later, and as usual, went for the heavier shabu shabu meal.

Dinner at Rakutei on my birthday.

One of my must order - softshell crabs.

I bought a new pair of Camel Active shoes during the Merdeka sale promotion at LEA Centre as the old pair is starting to fall apart.

And on top of that, I've just spent more than 1K on these two gadgets, and there will be another two more add-ons to come. 

(I will blog about it when the whole package is up and running)

I'm so dead broke now.

T____T

long overdue post on Kuching Festival

I didn't go to the Kuching Festival last year as places with too much crowd and too little parking space are no my cuppa. I went this year though with a bunch of old friends on the second last day of the event after being urged by one of them...

The crowd was overwhelming.

Getting our butts seated took more then 30 minutes of waiting as every table was occupied. We had to scout around, wait for those who seemed to be finishing their food and would be leaving soon.

To add to the agony, I had to wait in front of the stall for the aunties to get my oh-chien cooked for a another freaking 20 minutes.

  -_____-''

To be honest, I seriously think that the Kuching Festival, which is held once every year in August is overhyped, and has become a place where all the food stalls are painstakingly uping their price with more and more mediocore food quality served. 

NOT GOOD AT ALL

Merdeka Weekend @ Damai Puri Resort & SPA

A gathering at the newly renovated Damai Puri Resort & SPA was organized when Han, together with his girlfriend and band mates from Hong Kong came to Kuching for holiday during the independence day weekend.

I reached Damai Puri at dusk.


It was beautiful.


We brought 2 bottles of wine, 1 bottle of Baileys and a carton of Heineken, but in the end, it turned out that Daniel and I were the ones that drank most of it.

 -_____-''


And we did these kindda candid shots after getting our Manchester United jerserys from Han who bought them back for us from the UK. Quie expensive stuff I should say... *singing* - 'keep bleeding... keep, keep bleeding $$$...'


The stay that night cost RM400++ per room and we booked a total of 3 rooms.
Apart from the redesigned swimming pool and the addition of a SPA facility (which we didn't really utilize), the place is somewhat like the old Damai Lagoon Resort - nothing much to shout about, except for our wallets again singing - 'keep bleeding... keep, keep bleeding $$$....'

Overall, it was a pretty enjoying weekend. Being able to sit by the seaside, let the sea breeze caress and blow away the stress was just relaxing...

when the company you're working in does this -

1. block friendster

2. block facebook

3. block gmail (!!!!!!!!!)

4. block yahoo mail

5. block blogspot

6. late on the yearly reviews, E.V.E.R.Y. S.I.N.G.L.E. T.I.M.E.!!!

how would you feel???

sigh~~~ I feel so demotivated right now... -_____-

I seriously need to think this through - is it time??



PS: Does any of the company you're working in do such things until this sort of extent??

Mitsu Shabu Shabu

it was one of those Saturdays where I was working overtime when I got a call from Jo to go have lunch at this new eating place in town - Mitsu Shabu Shabu... so I took off early from work (yea, overtime is somewhat flexible on Saturdays)...


I'm not a fan of Shabu Shabu as I think it's somewhat overpriced, and the choice of food served is not to my liking... went there mainly to kill time, and also to take a break from work... -____-


wasn't too hungry that time, so I only ordered 2 plates of meat (1 lamb and 1 beef)... nothing much to complain about as the meat was fresh, evenly sliced out, and the soup that you dip those meat into was pretty good...

I forgot how much I paid for my share, but I still think that I could have spent the same amount of my moolahs on more worthy meals (something like rib-eyes, tenderloins or even the buffet at Hilton... get the drift?).

However, for those who are fond of having their food cooked in front of them, by themselves, and sweat it out while dipping the food into the boiling soup, then Mitsu Shabu Shabu is the place to go to - clean, roomy, and with indoor (air-conditioned) or outdoor tables (for smokers)...

Sabah trip [Part 3]

some of you might know already that we didn't go all the way up to the peak, which was somewhat of a disappointment... :(


the gate towards the peak after the back door of Gunting Lagadan Hut...

Jo caught a cold (fever) had altitude sickness as she felt dizzy & vomited a couple of times at Gunting Lagadan Hut while my legs were totally exhausted. told Januarius that we decided not to climb up to the summit, and will meet him up at Labuan Rata the next morning for breakfast and start our descend.


dawn at Gunting Lagadan... it's worth it being able to see this despite all the tiredness...


I was cold... and tired...


we left Labuan Rata at around 830am. going down was even more tiring than climbing up as our entire body weight was to be absorbed by the knees and ankles... plus being overweight didn't do me any good...


took us almost 6 hours to reach Timpohon Gate, got shuttled to the registration office, and went for a late lunch at the restaurant. after that we were driven over to Rose Cabin for the night... the woman skipped dinner because of a slight fever still while I joined a guy from the UK for dinner...



view of Mount Kinabalu from our room balcony...


tired people...


Augustine drove us to the Poring Hot Spring the next morning, and we spent half a day there before heading back to Kota Kinabalu...


a dip inside the jacuzzi with hot-spring water was definitely relaxing... too bad the pumps of the jacuzzi weren't strong enough... not very shiok... -____-'


checked back into the KK hotel in the evening, got back the un-used climbing stick of mine, and off we went for dinner at the waterfront... then we spent the next 2 hours getting massages there...


I was trying hard not to laugh as the guy massaged those dead legs...


head over to Gaya Street for some shopping before packing up and catch our flight back to Kuching in the evening...


a lot of souvenirs, t-shirts, handicrafts and etc on sale... pretty similar to our Kuching Sunday market...


it was crowded... with both locals and tourists...


bought a Mount Kinabalu t-shirt, a few key chains as well as some postcards...

it took me another week after I reach home to recover from those sore muscles... that's how unfit exhausted I was...

footnote: I think I'll attempt another climb to get to the peak in the near future, but in the mean time, I'd have to shed off more kilos, and train up those legs of mine...

Sabah trip [Part 2] - The Climb....

Our travel agent driver - Augustine arrived at the hotel at 7.30am to pick us up to the Kinabalu Park for the climb. of all things that I could forget, stupid me left my climbing stick, which I bought purposely for this trip, in the hotel room, despite Jo twice reminding me to stuff it into my backpack... -_____-'....

by the time I realized that, we were already halfway to Kinabalu Park... so I called the hotel and got the receptionist to safe keep my climbing stick until we check back in the hotel 2 days later... sigh~~~....


Augustine got us registered, and introduced us to our guide - Januarius


and for a fee of RM7 per kilo, we got Januarius to carry our two backpacks, which tipped the scale at a total 14 kgs...


hehehe... still can pose and smile before the climb... wait till you see my half-dead look later on...


we started off at 10.05am at the Timpohon Gate... bought a wooden walking stick for RM3 each... damn... the one that was left inside the hotel room cost like 15 times more wei... argghhh...!!!....


reached the KM1.0 mark in less than an hour... and I still felt pretty okay...


had lunch at the 3KM resting point, and the lady still got time to go feed them squirrels... surprisingly they were not afraid of people... probably because they charm most climbers for food with their cuteness...


my half-dead look at the KM3 pit stop... -____-
my legs were getting tired already... but the lady was still chirpy and stuff... wt...


my pace slowed down from being able to cover less than 1km per hour to a tortoise pace of 1km per 1.5 hour in the final 3km+ of the climb. plus, the fog/mist was getting heavier, and it also started raining, which made our climb even harder, with slippery rocks and muddy terrain... aduhh....


told Jo to go ahead and not wait for me as Januarius would be following my pace instead. she reached Labuan Rata in less than 7 hours, after wasted some time waiting for me at the 4th and 5th pit stops while I reached Labuan Rata at about 6pm, 5 minutes short of 8 freakin' hours... *faint*...


I literally could not feel my legs when I sat my butt down... stayed stationary for a good 30 minutes, enjoying the outside view through the glass panels and kept on drinking water before I proceeded with the buffet dinner...


dusk at Labuan Rata... simply indescribable...


after dinner, we headed towards our cabin in Gunting Lagadan Hut for the night's rest. That wasn't our first choice because there's no heater there... and it's gonna be cold during the night, but Labuan Rata was fully booked...

__to be continued__