dreckker's place

all the way from the UK...

noreply@blogger.com (dreckker) — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 06:57:00 +0000

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...

sigh... don't know how long will the AIG logo stay on the Manchester United jerseys as the group is in deep financial crap lately...

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...

noreply@blogger.com (dreckker) — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 02:37:00 +0000

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

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

dinner at Rakutei on my birthday...

one of my must order - softshell crabs... *slurpssss*

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... *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

noreply@blogger.com (dreckker) — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 03:22:00 +0000

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... wtf... Kuching no place to go liaw meh??

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

sommore, 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... wtf...

Merdeka Weekend @ Damai Puri Resort & SPA

noreply@blogger.com (dreckker) — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 05:59:00 +0000

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

I reached Damai Puri at dusk...

it was peaceful...

we brought 2 bottles of wine, 1 bottle of Baileys and a carton of Heineken... but turned out that Daniel and I drank most of it... -_____-''

and did these kindda candid shots after we got our Manchester United jerserys from Han who bought them back for us from the UK.... very expensive man... *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 -

noreply@blogger.com (dreckker) — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 06:51:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (dreckker) — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 05:43:00 +0000

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]

noreply@blogger.com (dreckker) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 03:20:00 +0000

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....

noreply@blogger.com (dreckker) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 05:33:00 +0000

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__

Sabah trip [Part 1]

noreply@blogger.com (dreckker) — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 06:50:00 +0000

we reached Kota Kinabalu in the evening, and after checking into the hotel, off we went for dinner at this seafood restaurant (forgot name) next to Promenade...

all seafood served at this restaurant is fresh from the aquarium located beside it, and the range of live sea creatures is huge...

ranging from the typical more eye-soothing huge-ass lobsters...

fresh oysters...

weird looking prawns (yea, I remember the waiter telling me that those were some prawn species)...

to one hell of an ugly fish, which according to the waiter, it's poisonous, but quite tasty... -___-

we ordered this belacan fried authentic Sabah vege... yummy stuff!

err... I forgot what were these called... you need to use toothpicks to dig out the meat inside, then dip it with some chili sauce...

fresh oysters... but it was a total let down... they were pathetically small and juice-less... I've had better ones even back here in Kuching...
apparently, for big fat juicy oysters, another seafood restaurant at the other end would be a better choice instead of this one...

abalone... now these were good stuff, and cheap too... only RM40...

after racking up a bill of about RM180, we headed over to the waterfront, ordered a couple of beers, sat there and enjoyed the cool sea breeze...

next post: the Mount Kinabalu climb... I almost died... -_____-

have been busy after the Sabah trip, and still am... - . -

noreply@blogger.com (dreckker) — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 03:10:00 +0000

I have wanted to post an entry on the Sabah trip since last week, but work has been taking up most of the time I have, both in and out of the office... I'm still, and will be busy on my reports until somewhere end of next week, with the overtime period stretching until end of August... wtf!... -____-'

Like what hedo mentioned in her rants, it has been from 9am until 7 or 8pm (work plus overtime), then I have to attend to my other commitments until around 10pm, which at an average drains another 2+ hours of my brain juice after leaving the office during weekdays. That translates to about 13 freakin' hours of work, and THAT is excluding working overtime on Saturdays... :(

yea I know... I have no life... and I need more S.L.E.E.P.

of course I could look at the $$$ side of the whole situation, but I'm tired man, physically & mentally... and I'm seriously thinking of taking a long break by the end of the year, and I don't mean going for a 2 weeks leave kindda thing... I meant something like a 3 - 4 months break OFF work... totally...

assorted snapshots III

noreply@blogger.com (dreckker) — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 03:28:00 +0000

just got back from Sabah... dead tired now... and while I compile the tonnes of photos taken, below are some assorted snapshots prior to the Sabah trip...

view from Mount Singai...

sunlight through the canopy...

went for lunch at this Red Dragon Cafe after the Mount Singai climb...

ordered this frog soup (田雞湯), which was surprisingly good... especially the thick soup...

squirrel meat cooked with soy sauce & dried chili... looked impressive but it was a total let down... we weren't even charged for this dish as it was really lousy...

this huge bowl of laksa cost RM6, but I tell ya, it's worth every penny paid...

salmon sushi, salmon sashimi and caviar... I like!!

assorted seafood @ the Hilton Mediterranean Buffet...

and I bought this Camel Active belt before going to Sabah as my old one is almost spoilt...

the Nuffnang cheque finally arrived...

noreply@blogger.com (dreckker) — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 06:00:00 +0000

got home last Thursday to find out that the Nuffnan g cheque had arrived... so it's somewhat abit of extra petrol money for the week... heh... Many Many Thanks to Nuffnang and Timothy!

RM2.70 per liter for RON97 means that I'm only getting a mere 18.52 liters for RM50 into the tank after the lau-yaa stiuupid G announced the new price increase... -____-

Sashimi Hana...

noreply@blogger.com (dreckker) — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 07:06:00 +0000

tried out this 3-piece Sashimi Hana set at Rakutei last night, and I'd say it's pretty worthy as each piece came wrapped with two huge slices of salmon sashimis...

the combination of sushi with salmon, tobiko and mayonnaise tasted brilliant...

by far the best I've tasted...

noreply@blogger.com (dreckker) — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 05:55:00 +0000

went to The Hilton Steak House for dinner a couple of days back, and I ordered the Steak Diane...

the dish was cooked at the table, with the chef playing these fire stunts to that piece of tenderloin... it was a trill to watch how the steak was being prepared...

presentation looked good eh?? the sauce was a mixture of mushroom, butter, wine and *I forgot*...

the taste was incredible... by far the best I've had there compared to the sirloin, rib-eye and t-bone steaks...
I asked for the meat to be medium done, and the texture of it was way tender and juicier compared with the rest I've mentioned before...
and I only paid RM29.50++ for it... :))

impulsive purchases...

noreply@blogger.com (dreckker) — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 05:49:00 +0000

it was initially more of a window shopping session, but I ended up with quite some purchases... damage to the wallet was pretty huge... and I'd probably have to work more overtime to heal the wallet...

this pair of Police shades is to replace the ZeroX, which has been around since late 2006...

and having 50% discount on Dockers Khakis is simply irresistible... so I left the shop 30 minutes later with 2 pairs of jeans and one pair of working khakis... -_______-"

Gawai Holiday Food & Drink Spree...

noreply@blogger.com (dreckker) — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 03:22:00 +0000

it was a long Gawai holiday (over the weekend till Tuesday) for us Sarawakians and Sabahans... and apart from going visiting (which I failed miserably on locating Niny's place despite being there before)... sleeping late, go swimming, eating out and having drinks at nights were pretty much the routine for the 4 days...

Suzuki Sashimi...

the Salmon Don I ordered... very generous amount of Salmon slices given...

ordered Nama Kani Karaage (soft shell crab), Yasai Salad as well as Komochi Shishamo (Grilled Smelt Fish), which I totally forgot to take a few snapshots of due to me busily digging into my Salmon Don... -_____-"

went to this place called MyHouse Steamboat & BBQ Seaffood along the road towards Pending on the weekend... the open garden concept was really soothing and relaxing... plus with the constant breeze... you won't even feel the heat from the steamboat...

waiting for the stuff to be cooked... and again I forgot to take a snapshot of the fried chicken wings served, which were seriously to-die-for...

opened up a Glenmorangie at Ipanema on Gawai night... and surprisingly, business was quite slow for the night, cos probably everyone got themselves hangovers on the Gawai Eve booze parties and having too much tuak during the day...

V-Card from Rakutei (楽亭)

noreply@blogger.com (dreckker) — Wed, 28 May 2008 06:32:00 +0000

we had a light dinner at Rakutei (楽亭), Crown Square the other night...

apart from ordering sushis, sashimis, makis and japanese salad, I added this generous piece of unagi to the lot...

raked up a bill of about RM90, and were given a V-Card each. the card allows the holder to enjoy 10% off the bill for future dinings, and according to the staff, there're gonna be Japanese Buffets offered soon, which the card holders will enjoy certain discounts when dining there...
hehehehe... we're so looking forward to it now...

new car in da house...

noreply@blogger.com (dreckker) — Mon, 26 May 2008 04:17:00 +0000

mum & dad decided to trade in the old Nissan and buy the Toyota Vios... took delivery of the new car last Friday. I test drove it with dad that night, and to me, it's a pretty okay buy lah... but for the same amount of money, I'd rather get myself a second hand Toyota Harrier or a Beemer E46...

but for them, they prefer new car... so what can I say??
-______-''

however, it's nice having a new drive in the house, not that I'm gonna go pestering for the keys as I prefer driving the Waja still...

and you think food served in pubs sucked...

noreply@blogger.com (dreckker) — Wed, 21 May 2008 07:41:00 +0000

was at Ipanema having beer with Daniel the other night when I felt like ordering some finger food because I didn't have dinner that night. ordered Lamb Bits and Mussels, and the dishes came out to be pretty impressive... especially the later...

chunks of deep-fried lamb... compliments well with the mayonnaise...

slightly cooked mussels with melted cheese... damn good stuff, add on more mayonnaise if you want to...

torrent for Under The Canopy of Love 《天幕下的戀人》

noreply@blogger.com (dreckker) — Fri, 16 May 2008 03:36:00 +0000

apparently Ashley left me a comment asking me for the torrent file of Under The Canopy of Love 《天幕下的戀人》. I've forgotten the URL where I downloaded the torrent, but I still keep the torrent file in the Document Folder. :)

For those who wish to download the series, do let me know of your email addresses so that I could attach the torrent file to you.

Note: the series is in RMVB. If you want, I could also burn you a DVD (4.3GB only) so you don't have to spend too much time waiting for the download.

It's FOC btw... cause good movies/series must share wad...
email me at dreckker@gmail.com and let me know how you want it to be... :)

never knew cheese+grapes could taste so damn good...

noreply@blogger.com (dreckker) — Tue, 13 May 2008 03:56:00 +0000

yea, went for another round of Japanese Buffet at Hilton again on the Saturday -______-'' , but this time, I was taught how to eat cheese mixed with fruits...

I'll spare you guys with all the typical japanese food shots we had, and just show the types of cheese made available that night...

Gouda Cheese, Camembert Cheese and Emmental Cheese...

apparently, the Camembert Cheese has the best of taste when mixed with fruits, especially grapes... you take a bite off the cheese first, let it somewhat melt in your mouth (the cheese tastes just normal... creamy and abit salty), then you pop in the grape... the taste after that, I assure you all, and I kid you not --- is H.E.A.V.E.N.L.Y....

fail @ gagal...

noreply@blogger.com (dreckker) — Fri, 09 May 2008 09:28:00 +0000

despite me stating in the previous post on wanting to cut down spending too much, especially on drinking... I failed miserably by opening up a bottle of Glenfiddich Single Malt with Jo last night at Piccadilly's...
-_____-"

pretty smooth stuff though... best mixed with soda or have it neat with ice... but we only drank about 20% of it, so the rest is kept for future nights... ;)