“Hey dad, I know you have 2 iPads… if you aren’t using one of them, can you borrow me for few months?”

“You need it?”

“Yes Pa, I often need to check mail on-the-go, especially during critical period of setting up ZenQ Desserts.”

“What color do you want?”

“I want black, all my gadgets are black”

“How many GB?”

“Eh? both of yours is 16gb, no meh? why ask me?”

“Answer la”

“32GB is enough”

2 hours later.

“Come to my office. Your iPad2 is ready”

(Went to dad’s office)

Dad hands over a brand new iPad2.

“Walau, you buy new one for me ah!?”

“Yes. I bought 64gb. If you need this gadget for business purpose – I don’t mind buying it for you”

“WAH!! within 2 hours?! You buy already!?”

“How difficult to buy a gadget? I got “kaki” one mah, son”

WOOOHOOOOOO!!

Now I am proud owner of Apple iPad2, hehehe.

Immediately, I went online to search for iPad2 casing.

I had a casing in mind called “DODOcase”. I witness this company took off in a lean startup competition, and build huge customer base since then. I’ve been eyeing on their products for quite some time now.

DODOcase is also one of the top-notch product in iPad casings.

But, I decided to purchase leather casing from Pontenzo instead of DODOcase – they are direct competitors, and both have excellent reviews. The only thing that sets them apart is the packaging. Heh.

Below are the unbox photos for Pontenzo iPad2 case. Heard plenty of excellent reviews online.

On one unrelated note, if you’re Malaysian who uses Facebook or Twitter, here’s a short cut way to win MacBook Air.

Pontenzo leather casing is handmade in USA and takes est. 2 weeks of shipment time.

I hesitated for………… 3 minutes before pressing the “BUY NOW” button.

You know what?

I did not unbox my iPad2 until my Pontenzo arrives.

Do not attempt this if you do not have strong will power. It’ll crush you – spiritually and mentally.

“To open.. or wait… to open.. or wait… to open… grrr..”

It looks exactly like a leather note book. I didn’t have any worries leaving this case in car, or bringing it around, or simply leave it on table, because most of the people will think that this is a normal leather book.

After publishing this post, I cannot do this any more ^^;

On a sunny afternoon, one of the oldest tree in my neighbourhood fell.

Storm? nope.

Strong wind? nope.

Hit by a car? nope.

Bing sneezed at the tree.. nope.

Termite. Yes! Those tiny little creatures..

According to the neighbours, one old lady were flowering at the EXACT SPOT where the tree landed, 2 minutes before it happened.

Luckily no one was hurt. Sounded like Final Destination to me.

Phew!

If not, not only SESB and DBKK will be cleaning up the area. There will be extra team coming over.. You know what I mean?

The tree fell exactly on electric cables and the branches destroy a water pipe too. Only 4 unfortunate houses in the neighbourhood were affected. No electric supply and water supply until the next day. ONE OF THEM IS MY HOUSE.

Really WTF.

* * *
Our ZenQ restaurant is opening on Nov/Dec 2011. GIMME SOME LIKES BEBEH!!!!

The shop is under renovation. Equipments are on its way… we are coming, we are coming, we are coming WOOHOOOO

ChloeTiffany invited me to Le Safran for their grand opening.

“Eh? I thought they opened long long time ago?”. I’ve been to Le Safran for many times, but never ordered once. *ahem guhon cough cough*

“You’re invited as a food media, and you’re attending the VIP session”.

WOHHHH!! I AM VIP!! (moi kaw xiao)

Perhaps there’s another meaning for the VIP… Very into Promotion. Hahhahah.

Le Safran started their business in Suria Sabah, February of 2011.

The directors decided to do the grand opening after 8 months of operating. “This makes sure we are ready for challenges ahead” said one of the partners, Darren, during the opening speech.

Being the first French restaurant in Kota Kinabalu, the partners keep mentioning about how we lack of local talents due to low demands and low opportunity. So they insisted to use only local talents.

“But kan, I am from Sarawakian..” said Darren. Hahhaha, pengsan.

(Desserts of Le Safra – ohhh HUGE MACAROONS)

There were two food bloggers invited to the VIP session — besides me, another blogger is Hayden.

My first impression was, “OMG ZOMOK THIS GUY SO FIT ONEEEEEE”.

We immediately clicked because we are both so fit.

…… *silent*

HAHAHAHHAHAHHAHHAHA.

(Food are cantik cantik belaka. Uiseh my Malay bulih tahan)

No, seriously.

Hayden studies nutrient in University Malaysia Sabah (UMS), and he visits gym every day (I go to gym too! but monthly lah).

From our conversation, I know he follows a strict diet.. and somehow I am jealous of him. Why this fella has so much will power.

Gotta pick his brain some day. Oh! He was excited about my upcoming dessert restaurant too!

Go ZenQ!

Despite so many food were offered… I can’t stop eating keropok. Too addictive ^^;

There’s a mini exhibition inside the restaurant during grand opening. Here’s an interesting one.

The head chef introduced us the most canggih tools too cook/prepare the food.

Even the caviar can be coffee or milk tea taste. You want a fizzy coffee? Can! Just pump some nitrogen into it, and kaw-dim!

Even aquarium equipments were also used. Amazing.

Did I tell you I appeared as cover of Breeze Magazine?

Ladies approached me and say, “Hey, are you the guy that appeared in Breeze magazine?”

“Yes baby. You free tonight?”

Then, appeared from behind….

Crap! The fake SuChung appeared behind me and give us the pose-maut.

Now every one knows I am from Ahbing.com, not the Breeze magazine cover guy

SuChung owns a gallery called ProArt, and he is a printer. Damn talented guy.

(Yes, a guy who prints is also known as printer.. I verified from SuChung)

Louis Pang also set up his equipments in corner of the restaurant – aaaaamazing effort! If you don’t know who is Louis Pang, he is Asia’s Top 3 Wedding Photographer, a well known world class photographer. A fellow Sabahan!

/proud

Hayden asks, “Who is Louis Pang ah?”

We all look at Hayden like this… O.O

This is one of the photo Louis took for us

I am the “HAM” — sandwiched by SuChung and Hayden. Usually ham is the thinnest, but in this photo, I beg to differ.

Thanks Le Safran, Dinoza and ChloeTiff for inviting! Glad to meet Hayden and SuChung too!

Okay, this part habis.

* * *

After the grand opening, I immediately joined my partner to discuss the progress of our restaurant. /hint hint – this is the back design of our restaurant. Don’t want reveal too much firsttttttttttttt

I hang on like Spiderman.

Sitting inside a powerful 4WD truck. Been crossing rocky terrain for past hour.

“You’re so experienced in driving these rocky terrains” I said to the driver.

“The road becomes like shit, literally (brown and slippery) after rain. Not every day you see such beautiful roads. These roads are not accessible even after tiny rains.”

“You need to learn how to drive in these terrains” my dad told me, who sits back in the passenger seat.

He continues telling me stories of how his past experience in driving in these terrains.

You see, I am venturing into my dad’s site camp for the first time.. he is doing some forest cleaning.

“You will be working on this project closely with me and my team. Is about time I teach you these skills” my dad told me.

“Err dad.. but I am THE computer guy..”

“Listen to me and just do it. You can do your computer part time.”

T_T /sob

“So…… this is your land? Why so messy one?” I don’t know why I asked this stupid question also. But my dad calmly explains..

“I just started this project. Son, you will be staying here for one month so don’t complain now. Do the complaining later.”

“HA?! Cannot manage from office meh? Why need to stay here?!” (thoughts of living without electricity, clean water, mosquitoe bites at night, shower in river — overwhelms me)

“Then I meh have similar experience like you when you were young?” Remembering all the stories my dad told me when he was young.

“Exactly”

(Somehow I feel excited inside— having the chance to experience these. Next time I can tell stories to little Bing too, like my dad used to tell us)

“Are these logs yours, dad?”

“I wished.” he chuckled.

“Each log costs about RM9,000 in revenue.. and they are every where in this forest.”

“满地黄金” I thought.

(On secound thought — my computer projects memang sound like a 鼻屎 compare to these forestry projects, wtf.)

“You will be staying in one of these room for a month, my son.” dad says.

“Your computer will be useless here. hahahahahahhahaha”. he added.

Look at the building structures.. build of wood sticks only!

Not play play. Whole building might collapse any time if wind blows slightly stronger.

Well, at least there’s shelter and natural breeze the whole day.

Not too bad lahh.

“You can bring your friends here for few nights, it will be a great experience.” one of dad’s contractor told me.

*ting!* New business opportunity

Some day, I will learn how to drive these heavy machineries.

Imagine myself wearing long sleeves, wear sakkat hat, sun glasses, and spend hours under the sun driving these monsters.

Most importantly — TAKE A PHOTO!

OOOOOHHHhhhhhh I am going to look so cool. It’s soooo awesome

“After having experience in these machineries, your typical driving experience on road will be like kids’ play” they say.

Our main mission in this trip is to move the house of 土地公 (God who protects the land).

The project will be affecting the God’s house, so we moved him to a new spot.

(After getting God’s permission, which I exclude from blog cause that requires more explanation and I’m lazy to write that part ^^;)

This is the 土地公 that will look after his turf and dad’s site.

We usually request blessings for work safety and nothing dirty come kacau kacau.

In the other world, he is The BOSS.

Some times weird shit really happens, and there’s no explanation.

If got chance, I would love to share these experience in Ahbing.com.

You guys love ghost stories or not? (Ad: try Escape the Creeper)

Under the hot blazing sun, it’s a blessing to have a river nearby.

The river is crucial for daily activities, and supports the whole operation. It solves the most basic necessities like shower, food, and you know, you kaw-tim your businesses here too.

The river flows from top of the mountain, so the water is always breezing cold, no matter how hot is the weather.

Should have bring one pair of dai fu if I knew this earlier.

“There’s a water fall 15 minutes walk from here” said one of the kampung guy, who also works for my dad.

“Bah, let’s go have a look lah!”.. (this is how Sabahan speak)

“I want to take nice photos for blog also”.

And we started our little journey to the waterfall..

In order to reach the water fall, we had to walk along the river.

Jumped over logs, hopped over slippery rocks, had a few accidental slips, wet my running shoes — these are unavoidable.

I felt like Bear Grylls, from Man vs. Wilds.

“Hmm, I have a bad feeling about this”.. this thought came while I was taking these [last] few pictures.

And I was right.

I slipped and fell into the river.

The camera dipped into river like how Oreo cookies were dipped into milk

o.O”

“PUKIMAKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!” I shouted.

(shouted in my mind only lahhh…)

There goes my camera.

Luckily I didn’t bring my Blackberry and iPod, if not I have to get this BBM deal.

However, I don’t feel sad for the lost of the camera — I do felt more lost on the chance to take breath-taking scenary of the water fall.

Bulu also kembang when I witness the water fall scene.

One of the workers jumped into the waterfall and started taking bath, with soap some more -_- but that’s another story.

Tell you guys more stories when I visit the site again. That’s all for now.

“WHY SO DIRTY!? and why so many bruises?!” my mum asks when I reached home ^^;

“I fell into river — like a REAL MAN” I replied.

* * *

PS: Few days later I found camera still functioning

PPS: I don’t understand this Halloween commercial from Tiger Beer… I thought Halloween has just past? (disclaimer:ad)

During Ramadan, I was invited by Dinoza to buka puasa at his hotel, Imperial Hotel.

“Whoaaaa punya banyak orang!” when we arrived. All customers queue up to get get food, all were waiting for the exact “moment” to makan.

Despite the crowds, it’s great to see many other ethnics sit around same table, waiting together with fellow Muslims to buka puasa. It’s very heart warming.

I was busy looking for seats.. ahahaha.

This is my first buka puasa invitation in 2011, missed out another invitation to buka puasa buffet at Hyatt Hotel. I was there last year. Great food and great new friends too.. like John Wong and Angeline.. who you eat with, makes a big difference

This year, I get to meet Thanis, famous food blogger from Brunei.

Thanis is a university lecturer, but his real passion is in cooking. He told us the cooking equipments he own.. costs $20,000 in total and had multiple experience in cooking meals for 60+ people.

“People spend money on car modification, camera gadgets and etc… I invest in cooking utensils!”, with a big grin on his face.

I asked him soooooo many questions because I am planning to open a kitchen-related website in future (bet you didn’t expect that). Going to pay him a visit on my next trip to Brunei. Probably write a blog post specially on his cooking equipments

On the same table, I am fortunate to meet Jacquelin and Chris in person, like finally! Also on the same table — my food kaki, Hin Ching.

Went to Irish pub to have few glasses of cold beer. I’ve been spending too much on beers this month. Must cut down, lol.

(but… ice cold draught beer… hard to say no, close to impossible).

If you’re looking for a favor from me, ice cold draught beer is the best bribe, really.

One night of drinking with me, you’re brother forever.

* * *

Reached home at 10pm.. “Why am I home so early?!” I say to myself. So I pick up my phone and simply call a friend.

“Oi where are you? I want to eat Pizza from Party Play”

“Uiyoh why your timing so ngam one?! I am here with XXX, XXX, XXX, XXX and XXX”

“Help me order pizza, I’ll be there in 10 minutes”

(Lisa, your face is in my blog! BIGGEST face in Ahbing.com yet.. hahaha!)

OK NOW YOU SHOULD SCROLL BACK UP AND READ WHAT I TYPE.

I finished my own pizza, and their pizzas too.

So damn satisfied #hugegrin

When I reached home, I told my mum..

“I was invited by hotel owner to buka puasa, then had beer with a buddy, then pizza with awesome friends. You got or not?“

Last week, I bought the most expensive return ticket ever. The ticket was sold during Raya Peak Season.

Why so bak chi!? There is a business opportunity at Sunway Pyramid, me and my partner received the news on Friday, we flew the next day. That burns a freaking big hole in my bank account, hope it won’t happen often in future ^^;

The business is related with this..

That’s a big hint *cough*

If it’s a done deal, I will be busy next 3 months. Still in progress of negotiating.. can’t reveal more. And we are very excited ^^;

I am staying at hotel instead at relative’s place.. and this is my first time ever in 26 years to stay in hotel in West Malaysia ^^;

This is business trip so staying within walking distance is best choice.

I usually couchsurf relative and friend’s place whenever I came over. In this trip, I can’t even meet my own sister and grandparents due to time restraints

Good news is, my hotel room is next to a night club..

WOOOO!! Party time!!

… Ni gao tok la, party… I would love to do that if I have extra few more “0″ digits in my bank account.

Seriously for now, I AM VERY PUKKAIIIII.

If you don’t expect the pay the bills, don’t ask me out.

* * *

It is a different story for my partner.

He saw the newest Blackberry 9900.. (arrived market within days only)

“Uiyoh lin si! this Blackberry is better! I want one!”

(phone on left is mine, his old phone in middle while holding the new phone on right side)

It did not take much “brainwash” from me..

(p/s: I LOVE to convince my friends to buy new gadgets, then make them feel bad RIGHT AFTER they bought it. Bad habit, but it gives a sense of achievement )

That night and convince him that the phone is really REALLY awesome, he absolutely must own it.

Convincing him is like, wet wet water. Of course la, he already have the intention to buy it, I’m only giving him a push.

He bought the newest blackberry 9900 within 12 hours. Mission completed. He traded his old phone.

A happy partner = bigger chance in winning the negotiation. Right?

I have to keep reminding myself “Bing ahhh Bing ahhh, this is business trip, don’t spend unnecessary expenses”.

So far so good! I have to praise myself for controlling my expenses.

I only spend money on beer and sugar drinks every day. Of course, this is part of business. These are compulsory expenses

Also, my partner told me the difference between 1)用钱 2)花钱 3)浪费钱. Do you know the difference?

Besides air ticket and hotel fees, the rest of my expenses goes into…

FOOD.

Sit back and hold on tight…

Niama… my saliva.. I hate to read my own blog sometime (I am writing this post at 3am).

For students who studied around Sunway area.. how many food can you recognise?

My partner, “Haiii I grew up eating these food..” lol.

* * *

Had dinner with friends at Asia Cafe — this is like the heaven gate of food in Sunway area. Students flock to this place like the foods are FREE! Niama.. the food selections are amazing! Chinese Italy Japan Malaysia Korea Western cuisine.. makailin also you can find under one roof.

There’s even one stall that serves instant noodle. Pukk!!

But right, seriously la.. I freaking love this place. Why? Many siu-mui mui(s). All fresh grads… wa… syok o

These reminded me of how awesome was my student life! Hang out with friends, enjoy food, play games til morning, day trips, group sex, drink alcohol til pass out..

I must come KL to experience student life for at least 1 week semester next time!

Who’s with me?!

Jeng jeng jeng.

What a random intro.

So.. I got Ahbing.com redesigned again! 3rd time in 2011. I get bored with old design liao. Hopefully this design will lasts until 2012.

Design wise.

I decided to push the image to higher resolution, so all the photos you see are BIG BIG… like,

“OH MY GOD I NEED TO STAND FURTHER SO I CAN SEE WHOLE IMAGE!!”

Here’s the difference in size, before and after.

Before:

Now:
Image credit: Nicholas Low

Big images is always better, in my opinion. Also, I bumped up the font size and colors so it’s easier for the eyes. Lately many uncle-aunties started reading my blog.

Why bigger fonts?

I want to make sure next table also can read what I publish in my blog! More exposure ma

“Wah that person reads Ahbing.com! People who reads that blog is very cool” /ngek ngek.

I also simplified the sidebar.. so I can show my face BIG BIG. /ngek ngek ngek

Felt good to have the whole sidebar aligned together. Looks neat now, isn’t it?

I am also making good use of the “footer”, which is the bottom part of this site.. it will include the not-so important information. Didn’t want to clutter up the side bar. Looked more professional that way

Thanks to Hin Ching, he makes this design possible. My web design skills is probably level 20, while he is level 70ish. Also he lin si me,

“I am not redesigning your site, I am realigning only. /pfft”

Content wise.

I struggled whole year with the direction of Ahbing.com. Tried different types of posts, and I agak-agak gauge what my readers like to read (based on feedback and normal conversation)

The most common labels I get from readers are, “humor“,”food“, “big photo, little words“, “Kota Kinabalu“.

So be it! I will blog more about these topics more often then!

Ahbing.com has a audience which is not suited for business and entrepreneurship I guess (more inclined to write about those, actually).

But if I say, “I earned RM828.00 on July while doing legitimate work online.. ” I am sure you all will say,

“FASTER WRITE EHHHHH!!”

That’s next upcoming post. Follow me at Twitter to get updates!

Oh! one question! Do you like this design? (answer at comments section)

I laughed so hard at these headlights. Seriously.

Maybe I should install ear rings on side mirror, and put on a lipstick on the bumper..

My mum had a really good laugh, lol.

Respect to the car owner!

10:49pm, Coffee Bean, Brunei.

I’ve been fairly active on the internet. I might have missed out many great things in life, I also had… aiyohhhhh the lady beside my table is talking so loud that I cannot concentrate writing. She broke my chain of thought..

Anyway.

I managed to meet a lot of interesting personalities despite I spend majority of my time looking at computer screen, would not have meet these people if I am not blogging or exposing myself on the internet.

I took personality test (very accurate shit). Result: I am slightly introvert and I like to observe, and give consultation (a.k.a. senkalin)

Here are some friends that I’ve met so far. I hope they don’t mind I blog about them.. (I mentioned them in blog without their prior permission hhahha)

Here goes..

Flanegan

I can’t remember how we know each other virtually.. we met at Melbourne (I studied at Brisbane and he was at Melbourne). He introduces me the best souvlaki I’ve ever tasted in my life.

Flanegan majors in photography. From the first day I met him, he has remained the pro-est and true-est artist I ever known. His passion for photography has never diminish for a bit despite he faces many challanges and difficulties. Now he is planning for a Japan trip and hopes to a job there. Danny Choo2.0!

Andrew's son, not himself

Andrew is first friend I met at Brunei, at Coffee Bean to be exact (where I’m writing this post).

He is blog reader of mine and we exchanged email a few times. Father of 3 children and he still looks so young!

Andrew runs a few company and he is into Startup scenes, he is one of the influencer that make me realise how awesome is start ups, especially in tech field. If I had a big idea that’s worth pursuing – he is the first person I will approach.

He owns crazy amount of t-shirts from startups, lol.

Dinoza

This guy has bigger balls than me – he is Managing Director of Imperial Hotel and also the Creative Director of Breeze Magazine. Besides appearing in many high profile launches, Dinoza also plays at a local Frisbees club every weekend. He is probably the busiest person in KK because he is every where, really!

Great guy to know – I have much to learn from him. Can’t wait to yum cha with him.

John Wong

I met John at Hyatt Ramahdan Buffet – we both clicked straight away cause we’re interested in techie stuff. He is more into coding and programming and I am into marketing. John and Lim are Flexnode Solutions partners, who brought us one of the most popular KK Food website Ravejoint.com

Lim Tzyy Shyong

I haven’t met this guy yet.. but I can’t wait. By reading his blog and tweets, I know we are same type of people!

We read almost the same book and our thoughts are alike. Lim is like my virtual twins.. but I doubt he is as hairy as me la. (and I got metal balls muahaha).

Lim blogs at Clipsoflogic.com and is currently one of my favourite blog locally.

He also launched StartNOW.com.my not long ago – also my kinda website. It’s about launching a project publicly and keeping yourself credible. I think it’s awesome! I joined (free) and also shared some of my thoughts and experience.. if you’re excited about creating projects and startups, this website is for you.

My thoughts

It’s these chain of events that allows me to network beyond my circle of friends. Meeting new friends is greatest thing happened in my social life (and still is!).

There are still many online readers that says “hey let’s meet up / yum cha / makan” is on my waiting list. Rest assured I have not forgotten our promises.

There’s a one-liner I heard somewhere,

“It’s not about the things you do, but the people you know”

Make effort to reach out – even if it’s beyond your comfort zone. Stop complaining if you say “I don’t have friends” – you are not putting enough effort to reach out.

This photo never fails to make me salivate. Damn.

One durian alone costs me 40 Singapore dollar, but it’s worth every cent.

Ok enough writing about durian, I cannot tahan already.

Today, I want to tell you about a food guide written by another blogger.

My friend, Mark, recently completed his Thailand food guide. He sent me a review copy and all I can say is “this guide is fucking epic“.

I’ve just completed “43 food you must not missed in KK” and it took me 2 months to complete it, I know how much effort it took Mark to complete this 88 pages Thai Food Guide. It’s amazing.

The guide only costs $7. To be honest, I think that price is ridiculously cheap.. and Mark has made a mistake for pricing this it such low price.

However… his loss is your gain

Mark blogs at Migrationology.com and EatingThaiFood.com