Poverina's Blog

Orang Miskin Staple: Canned Sardine

2013-01-19T12:50:00.000+08:00

Remind self not adabi brand, my poor tongue is repulsed by the generous presence of ajinomoto.

How to Find the Tools Tab in Firefox - Explained Minus Jargons

2013-01-10T14:44:00.001+08:00

Updated version of firefox= lousy. Because, from here onwards, I cannot see the tools tab. I need the tools tab to work on my S3 organizer.

Steps to Make Tools Tab Appear under the Evil Windows 7 Reign

1. Open the newly updated to lousy form firefox.

2. Put fingers on F10 and Alt keys simultaneously.

3. Then use the other free hand to punch V key

4. Then T key,

5. Then M key...

6. And the Tools tab will appear with File ...Help Tabs on the top left corner.

Yu Kee@ Hilltop

2012-07-14T23:24:00.003+08:00

Breakfast - The fried rice is warm. The minced pork stuffing is home made unlike the ubiquitous disgusting commercial minced earthworm found in 99.0 % "economy" tofu. RM 2.00 for rice + tofu. Yu Kee is that shabby shop right next to Doctor Terry Huang's.

Lunch - The whole set is RM4.30. Except for the plain water soup which is lukewarm the other ingredients rice and dishes are cold. The salted mustard is well seasoned not over sourish like the universal acidic "salted" mustard. One part of the chicken was in the initial stage of decay. I think the cook dried the chicken carcass a bit long in the sun before frying. Overall, food here is cheap and fit for human consumption. One of the little oasis amidst "outside food hell" in this ugly city.

Acupuncturist's Side Income

2012-07-13T17:01:00.000+08:00

To my darlings in Noord-Nederland and Duitsland,

There's a few rough patches in life since last year. One of them is my honourable mother had such a bad fall in the bathroom, her legs don't function as they used to be. She tried many things under the sun. Yesterday, her impulse propelled her to a new acupuncturist shop.

The acupuncturist is a soft spoken local Chinese lady married to a Chinese doctor from Macau. Both look young like in their early thirties. He struggled to amuse their 7 month old baby while she attended to Mom.

She inserted seven long needles on and around mom's right knee cap, followed by one round of moxibustion. Then the needles would have to stay in the knee for twenty minutes. Mom told our sweet face acupunturist to ignore us while waiting for the needles to work their prickly magic. Her husband quietly ordered a plate of rice and they both had lunch at the other side of the partition.

We can see this young couple have to work very hard on their new business. The rental and expenses for the small shoplot alone is three thousand ringgit monthly. We were the only customers there for one whole hour. She has to take another part time job as a visiting doctor in another Chinese Medcine shop twice a week. We estimated another ten thousand ringgit by just looking at the modest stock of Chinese herbal and zoological paraphernalia. When I saw this...

That, five big Chinese characters means something like errr " Special Grade Big Gecko", priced at 15 Malaysian Ringgit for one pair. Seriously, I love chicken, pork, beef and even crocodile jerky. But a reptilian jerky of this level - the size of my palm - puts even me - off.

Traditional Chinese Medicine reference books would tell you this cousin of the geckos I see every night on my white ceiling is good for respiratory problems such as asthma. The Macau doctor happily waved the lizard lollipops to my face as he shared a herbal soup recipe for my asthmatic dad. Mom and I side-eyed the heads and claws. " Of course, you chop off these," he quickly divined our yucky thoughts, " What we want is the torso and most importantly, the tail."

Mom left the shop with some herbs that are supposed to complement her acupuncture treatment and I walked away with the gecko - photo only.

"There's no way they can convince the locals to take this, the local people would rather eat the local giant monitor lizards ( which feed only on decaying dead bodies ) than pay 15 ringgit for these," mom prophesied. A plate of decent rice here costs about 7 ringgit.

Maybe the Surinamese have some ideas of making geckos more appetizing?

Directory Review: Submit Health Links

2011-07-30T22:22:00.002+08:00

Directories have the security box to prevent automated submission. This directory's one is not easy to use because they didn't tell you the letters generated are case-sensitive. Had to try a few times before I made it. Since I can't give reciprocal, I paid USD 10 for "lifetime" regular links. However they rejected my application and some more my USD 10 cannot be refunded because they needed to be paid ten bucks for the time taken to review. "Jake" don't tell you why your site is rejected, you have to find out for yourself by reading their guideline. My verdict is: Submit Health Links is a money sucker directory. ( Draws an X, one down ) Nah, this is the link:

http://www.submithealthlinks.com/submit.php

Submit health links cheated ten bucks out of me.

Snacked in 1Borneo: Suxxxx

2011-07-10T12:22:00.003+08:00

Just wanted something light coz nothing on the heavy side menus can tempt me. Sushi King yeah I know it's meh. Ordered soft shell crab handroll sushi. They gave some nice crispy crispy crab LEGS LOL at least the cucumbers are crunchy. Also ordered clam soup, but da soup came only when I am chewing the last segment of the skinny crab leg. I was thinking it is unlikely to go wrong to make anything out of a dashi stock, but don't forget cooks in Kota Kinabalu are incredibly lazy. Two of the skinny clams are darn sandy. A lovely dashi stock with sand Ha! Then saw a fabulous photo of nyonya pie tee at THE CHICKEN RICE SHOP. So trylah. Let curiosity kill this kurap cat lah. Sure enough the eight ringgit plate with four tiny hats is filled with the ubiquitous KK lazy formula=jicama and carrots only. Real nyonyas will vomit blood for sure,LOL. The two days old leftovers in my fridge taste better than these. Thank you for joining poverina's mini snack tour in the grandest life style mall in Sabah.

Ais Kacang Hell

2011-06-28T04:16:00.002+08:00

Ais kacang Kota Kinabalu is hellstones or rather hailstones. Concept of shaving ice into fluffy flakes is virtually alien. The worst ais kacang is the one in Foh Sang. Neh the shop in the middle row. Biggest hailstones. ever. somemore seven ringgit. They say the one in bukit padang is the best. Never have the time to explore that. Must make that a future project. For now found the ais kacang at sugarbun at least fit for human consumption. Dunno why food sellers here so lazy one.

Oasis

2011-06-26T20:01:00.001+08:00

Kedai Kopi Yun Heng Baru Bornion Centre serves the most decent kuey teow and tofu fit for human consumption, also easy on orang miskin's wallet.

First Post With Iphone

2011-04-27T00:42:00.003+08:00

Stuck in Kuala Lumpur- land of happy crows. So have to borrow mom's iphone. Finally learnt how to switch on this electricity-hungry gadget, safari is the browser. Asked the Digi folks in Bangsar mall where to find the "space" button on the keyboard, took two guys ten minutes to figure out. The hardest part was to summon the appearance of the keyboard. Typing this post cost three per cent battery power. Now poverina is more high tech than people who think iphone could be edible.

Eyelashes

2010-12-19T22:27:00.004+08:00

Me eyes were getting dry as sandpaper. Family doc said it was infection so prescribed eye drops. After a week dripping the eye drops faithfully, the eyes became drier to the point of painful just blinking.

So no choice, had to smash piggy bank money to see Dr Kong & Co.

First obstacle is the electronically locked front door. Got to wave very friendly to the nurse to get the door opened then squeeze inside with a bunch of other anxious patients. Ushered to take photos of eyes by two don't know what machines. Incidentally an old chap next to me was screening for glaucoma. Darken my mood instantly.

Of course Dr Kong is forever not freelah, so have to see his partner. My honourable mother had to wait one year to see him. First thing is reading ABC and 123 eye test. That one we all know from Lau Fu Tze cartoon already.

Next, the eye doc zoomed into the photos taken earlier. He got the answer pretty quickly.

"See all these white stuff sticking on your eyelashes. These are dirt. They cause the infection. You need to clean your eyelashes first."

Oh, that was the first time I see my own eyelashes.

I am so darn ugly. One of my extreme ugliness is my ridiculously short eyelashes. So short until I myself hardly notice they exist. Since I can't even notice them, of course I wouldn't think of washing them, so they pile up dirt since my existence until full blown infection-lah.

Every time I need to see a doctor. I always make an effort to make myself extra clean so that the poor doctor won't feel yucky when he/she is obligated to touch me.

Now my eyelashes zoomed like 200 times until each dust is as big as a rock. The eye doc has a full, detailed and superbly clear picture of HOW DIRTY MY EYELASHES ARE. Man, this is as bad as a pap smear.

The bill was RM300++. I was broke as a church mouse so cannot visit this poor bloggie till now.

The Woad Is Not Enough

2010-05-30T21:32:00.003+08:00

When you drive a dilapidated Kancil like mine.

Two Boobs Crossed Path

2010-02-19T19:49:00.002+08:00

She : " Moobs."

He : " Kota Kinabalu International Airport Runway."

How Jerks Read Traffic Lights

2009-12-19T18:56:00.004+08:00

The uptown dandy flanked by a hot chick honking furiously from behind after waiting for 7 seconds.

Google for "road bullies" - top 20 results mostly from Malaysia. Still better than DUI in US and car jacking in South Africa, eh?

o_O

Two Disastrous Hook-ups in One Year

2009-12-12T23:48:00.002+08:00

We are not destined to be together...that's why I am still a poverina.

Da Missus' Golf Ball

2009-12-05T18:00:00.003+08:00

How to Create My Own Cartoon Characters

2009-10-22T12:04:00.004+08:00

Read something that touches a chord in my heart. This entry does.

Because it reminds me of my pathetic days working with nincompoops in the press. It brings up the evil in me, unleashing destructive forces of imagination...

Poverina's cartoon thief ~~~~ muaks.

Poverina's Cartoon Tooth

2009-10-05T00:40:00.004+08:00

cartoon tooth courtesy of bahasa-malaysia-simple-fun.com LOL

Distinctively Sabahan

2009-09-28T12:11:00.011+08:00

Made it to the Donggongon Tamu this week. Kept telling myself: " Just three items, not more than that, don't want to stuff the landlady's fridge to the point of explosion-again."

Ended up with 10 items.

It's petai season, so have to grab one bunch. It's also tarap season. They cut your throats at Lido - RM7 for one tarap. In Donggongon, it's just RM1.50 for the same size. How to resist?

It's typical of me ...always buying more than I should...always pile the barangs into the car, dash to work treadmill, can never find the time to take them out until...

two days later.

-------- four monkeys in my car ------------------------

" It smells," my kiddie passengers wrinkled their noses.

" Yeah, it's tarap"

That's the end of issue for them. They were not complaining. Just asking monkey questions for the sake of asking.

I, the big monkey though, wish I could put an orang putih in my car at this moment.

I mean, the type of orang putih totally alien from Mars, in my car, windows all up.

Bwah HA HA HA HA

---------------- disconnects evil tarap fantasies ------------------

Ahem!!!

It dawns upon me, a Sabahan has a penchant for:

1. Taraps. What pervasive ordour? We can live with it.

2. Tuhaus. It's a kind of wild ginger. A cross section reveals however, the likeness of a lemon grass minus the blade. I love it pickled, with fried fish. The ordour is as impressive as our dear Tarap.

3. Bambangan. Da bomb. It's the Mammy Apple or abricot in Martinique. It's a kind of mango almost the size of a bowling ball.

People who love durians may not like taraps, tuhaus and bambangan - especially bambangan. Once, I craved it raw. I bought the biggest bambangan I can find and brought it home.

The whole household turned against me instantly.

"What the heck is that?"

"It smells like hell!!! "

" Take it out!"

" I can't stand it!"

(Teary eyes)

You love my friend from Kampung Bambangan, but you don't love the fruit itself.

---------------My heart still bleeds at the tragedy --------------

What stinky food? These babies are legitimate VEGAN fresh from the jungle.

My Streamyx@ Cartoon Jokes

2009-09-23T21:31:00.001+08:00

Jerks Read Traffic Lights This Way

2009-09-22T23:26:00.006+08:00

Don't Want to be a Superwoman

2009-09-21T19:48:00.008+08:00

You expect me to know the answers to all the questions you ask. When I dig out books and search the world wide web and give 'em to you, you think it's as easy as a snap of the fingers for me.

When I cannot find the answers, you think I'm a failure. Coming to think of it, you don't even do the kind of research I have done.

( Likas Bay coastal highway is gorgeous. Those drivers zip zapping and forever ready to kiss me from the butt are annoying )

You gave me work of RM500 pay me only RM100, even then you always delay payment. For the same job you pay RM500 to another person who gives you a value of RM50. Yet, you expect me to be rich.

Whatever I do that is good, you never thank me. Yet when another guy performs the same deed, you set him on the pedestal.

Is there a paradise where people don't stigmatize me - because they expect me to be strong after year and years of emotional isolation, after me reaching out to them again and gain in vain?

( I see a glimpse of it on the left )

I am ready to be drowned here. Feed my brain to the monitor lizards so I don't have to solve your intellectual and emotional problems. This is where I can be stupid and carefree.

I want to have a reflection in the mirror. I would rather worry about not able to capture the spirals of winged creatures above the wetland with my dilapidated camera. I want to be mortal.

Funny Chickens!

2009-09-20T22:56:00.012+08:00

Funny, chickens have more right on the road than homo sapiens.

Run down a chicken in a kampung, you must pay $. Otherwise, the whole kampung comes after you.

Homo sapiens cannot poo on the road. Chickens can. Homo sapiens even collect chicken poos and sell for $. As for their own poos, homo sapiens pay a lot of $ to get rid of 'em.

Chickens converse with their owners, albeit it's only "pok pok pok". They "pok" at the right places, and even tilt their heads to match the mood - owners have sworn to me.

An owner who decides his rooster is never destined for the pot reported his feathery pet became so affectionate that it "pok pok pok" at him at bedtime - meaning it wants him to pick it up to its roosting place.

o___________________O Huh!

Coming to think of it, my old man always talks to his chickens in the mornings. They ended up most deliciously in the pot, I swear it's better than Hyatt Hotel Kota Kinabalu.

Going back to chicken poo. It has another function apart from being errr natural fertilizer. It dramatically magnifies explosive effects of a small fire-cracker.

Plant one stick of small fire-cracker on a pile of chicken poo, preferably fresh. Next, agility of stunt man required to ignite the fire cracker and immediately place an empty milk can over it.

PAK!!!!

funny chicken pictures courtesy of bm-simple-fun.com lol

Oh...funny...chickens are said to wake up folks in the mornings. They should really stop producing those stupid pictures of roosters crowing as the sun rises.

Anyone who keeps a rooster knows the darn thing always crows before the sun rises and siesta time. For goodness sake just tell the kids the rooster is not an alarm clock. Like all the male farm animals, it's a stud!

Die Want Face Wedding

2009-09-16T23:19:00.008+08:00

Symptoms:

1. The bride's father borrowed money from your family to pay his wife's hospitalization bill not long before the big day.

2. Looking at the couple's wedding attire even if rented, cost a a few hundred bucks.

3. Your family attended the wedding reception because they're worried that there will not be enough guests to give ang-pows to finance the dinner.

4. The dinner caterer is also the MC.

5. Lights off to commence dinner. Waiters filed in following the cue music - ear splitting "Star Wars". When the "spaceship" landed on the table, the banquet hall is lighted, and I realized it's cold appetizers around a pineapple.

6. The pineapple is as hollow as a Halloween pumpkin, holes punched in the right spots to form the tropical "Jack o lantern" face illuminated by a candle.

7. They serve abalone as part of the appetizers- fake abalone. They also served shark fin soup, few strands of shark fins buried under thick corn starch.

8. The new couple cut the cake and popped champagne. The guests are served a cake morsel 1 inch x 1 inch and boozed on Carlsberg.

9. Entertainment was those Halloween pineapples flying out like Star War spaceships in the dark, followed by full blast karaoke music.

10.Everyone left right after dessert.

11.The invitation wrote" so-and-so and family". They ended with 40 extra guests, mostly children. Good Luck with settling the bill, folks.

___________________________________________

Poverina couldn't help comparing to a wedding of her friends who were as broke as her. They invited guests for a simple ceremony and lunch at the Tanjung Aru Beach. Read carefully: just the beach, not the hotel. Most of the guests were sporting to dress up fit enough to attend an English High Tea - many ladies in tasteful floral dresses and wide brimmed hats. 15 years later, this couple are now parents of two hyperactive monkeys but the guests can never forget that romantic wedding at the beach.

Ufficio del Fisco nel Malaysia

2009-08-19T10:51:00.013+08:00

Veramente sta ufficio del fisco nel Kota Kinabalu e' il solo edificio sensato qua.

Ecco, la mia "casa da sogno." Vorrei la finestra alta, grande, che quasi raggiunge il soffitto. Mi piaci tantissimo luce del sole venendo dentro a fiotti. Una casa pieno di luce del sole. Odio le case con le finistre piccole come prigioni. Come quasi tutte case nel Kota Kinabalu , sono come prigioni caldi. Avevo fatto finta di descendere dalla scala a sedermi sotto uno di divano blu...

Veramente, non mi interessa riposare il mio sedere. In effetti, vedevo alcuni buchi sulla piattaforma ricoperto con un toppeto. Quindi, ero morendo dalla voglia di fare un video di tappeto cencioso nel edificio lussuoso del ufficio del fisco . Quando ero spingedo felicemente il pulsante di film, una guardia giurata mi salutava.

"Scusami, pero non potevi fare fotografia qua."

Cavolo! Rovinava il mio divertimento.

Allora, sono parsimoniosamente obbligata a pubblicando una foto dei miei piedi. Sono sicura sai dove cercare il toppeto blu sotto i miei piedi belle, communque. Strizzata d'occhio**

Kota KInabalu is Evil to Tourists Part 2

2009-08-02T23:18:00.012+08:00

I was overwhelmed by the obnoxiousness in me that I have to postpone this venom spewing to a second part:

3. Souvenirs from Sabah? Read my post on the local Filipino market. Sorry for not linking because blogger makes a big fuss about internal linking. When I was in Pasay, I wanted to buy everything. When I was in Amsterdam, I wanted to buy everything. When I am back in KK, I want to buy something for my friends but I hate everything until I lost desire to buy anything. Sometimes, I see some novel things for sale in Gaya street. Other than that, all the stalls look more or less the same: you copy me, I copy you. The hottest merchandise in town? - all the evil cheapo made in China stuffs.

4. Eateries display certain consistent traits. Most Malay and Indian food are served cold. Yes, cold even if it is a dish of coconut milk and ghee. The same Malay eatery can serve good food at one time and turn entirely awful the next time you return. Chinese food are served hot drenched in starch. They coat the veges with starch, they coat the gravy with starch, they thicken the soap into jelly with starch. Once when my family ordered a RM200 lobster, they starched it from top to bottom. Oh, they all share a universal trait: oily, oily, oily. I found out to my horror from the taste of my honourable father, KK folks absolutely love oily food. As to eateries catering for "authentic" ethnic dishes, ha! So far the more authentic one is a filipino shop in Api-api center. It's not that they didn't try, but the suakus here absolutely cannot accept authentic dishes. Once upon a time, someone was brave enough to open sell turkish food...It's safer to eat at McDonalds ( lackluster because McDonalds is not allowed to showcase its gorgeous bacon. ) or fast-food chains. Of course, there are some decent cooks around. For instance, that famous "Chu-Chap" noodles in Tanjung Aru very, very long queues. Ang's hotel dishes are better than average - enough to let the boss to tell his customers what to buy. They sell one rice + dishes in a set. If you don't want rice, they won't want your business. Customers have to beg like beggars for nice food.

5. No interest in creativity. Of course we should exclude chic outlets, they must be beautiful to attract rich customers. Other than that, most buildings exist as concrete blocks for human activities. Nothing much cultural. I wonder why. Our 'cultural' things are not necessarily expensive. Nobody bother to decorate their shops/office/stalls with sompoton, local drums, blowpipes, local straw hats or traditional toys. The Borough Market in London, the hawkers use chalks and blackboard to make the most creative wordings of signboards I have ever seen. Poor Filipino people here improvise on growing different humble plants using only empty rusty cans to brighten up their shacks. Everything's mass-production second rated plastic chairs, plates, chop sticks, posters, calendars, clocks and the most detested on my list - stiff plastic flowers. The aversion for beautiful life in the KK community is leading my beloved hometown to the destiny of Pampanga, a province in the Philipines stripped till it is barren.

After venting my spite for the ugliness of this city. I do appreciate the fact the main dangerous creatures we have to guard against while walking at night is rottweilers unleashed to roam around, and not muggers/perverts. KK is safer than Johannesburg. I do appreciate at least I can pay to poo, otherwise I have to watch out for human dungs for every step I take. In KK they spit for the sake of spitting, so I step on the slimiest phlegm ...well, it's still better than muck. KK is better than India. The bus service sucks. In Samoa, passengers usually crammed into already jammed buses and sit on the laps of other passengers. Phew, at least my lap is safe here.

Still, I am embarrassed by the ugliness of KK to recommend it to visitors.