Chatter Of The Squirrel

Star Cruise Virgo

For serious lack of anything better to do, I went to lunch with Moses & Wendy, and went to Pulau Indah with them to catch a free tour of the Star Cruise Virgo.

Long queue.

Malaysian’s flock to freebies like horseflies to dogsh….

*Ahem*…

Anyways, long queue. Lots of queue-jumpers. Especially old aunties. Well, I should probably be more understanding. They’re nearly dead, so it doesn’t make much sense to waste what little time they have left just to assume a thin veneer of civility.

Third world country. Third world mentality.

The boat itself was no big deal. It’s just like Genting, but on a boat, and claustrophobic rooms.

There’s a casino. Mahjong room. ‘Library’. Cinema. Stage show. Restaurants. Bad shopping. Pool. Playground. Tabletennis. Swimming pool. Jacuzzi. Gym. Bar. Karaoke. Videogame arcade.

It’s no where near as large as Poseidon.

At least Moses got something out of this. The boat was so disappointing, that Wendy will stop nagging him about going.

ChanKinHup was in town from Kota Baru. Went out supper with him. And just as I was heading out, MunHoo called. I don’t think I’ve received a phone call from that guy in 3years or more. It just happened that he was in the area at that exact moment, and we all went together. Lots to catch up.

Supper was at Jalan Alor. KinHup had a craving for buffalo wings and porridge with frogs. Seriously not too bad.

Oh, and Happy Merdeka…

Skarre, Queen of the Broken Coast

Wahoo!….

Finally got the miniature sent to me.

This project is now priority. Let’s hope I can get the raw pewter to look something close to the picture above… soon…
BTW, this exquisite miniature is one of the latest in Privateer Press‘ line, from the upcoming Superiority expansion for WarMachine.

Must get it done fast. Before the next avalanche of distractions… Such as the new seasons of Lost and Battlestar Galactica later this month. And Neil Gaiman’s book next month. And Robin Hobb usually comes up with a book around this time every year…

Sibu Cuisine

One week of breakfast in Sibu…

Ah…..

Every breakfast, I had a plate of Kolo Mee + one bowl of Wan Tan soup.

Two servings, for breakfast. And it’s still cheaper than most breakfast in Klang valley.

Cousin also took us for other interesting stuff. Such as the Bee Hoon soup that has EVERYTHING good:

One uncle was just wishing with all his heart that I would be grossed out by the fallopian tube, so that he can grab it off me. But he was out of luck.

Used to love this fallopian tube dish back in this one dimsum restaurant in Brunei. Last I had any was more than 10years ago. I’ve never seen the dish since the chef left the restaurant.

And here’s an updated pic of Philipine trotters, the golden sin:

With the kind of food that Sibu-ians eat in such quantities… I think there’s a future demand here for cardiologists and endocrinologists.

But with all this fat, gyms and slimming spas haven’t picked up yet. People here are obese and they don’t care. A Reeboks franchise here will fold in three months.

To get these people health conscious, there are still a few hurdles to go through:

1. First the literacy.
2. Then bring in the glamour mags of anoerexic models.
3. Make everyone feel bad about their body
4. Then the slimming pills and dieting teas
5. Fad diets and grapefruits
6. Worthless exercise equipment
7. etc…

But there is great difficulty overcoming the first hurdle. Almost every household has both Astro, AND satellite TV.

This is my cousin’s Pao factory. He supplies a great many places of Sarawak. The name of his business is Ah Fat Meat Pao. The dude on the phone, sitting down, with a huge belly, is my cousin.
We celebrate our obesity in Sarawak.

It’ll be an uphill battle to promote cardiac health in this town.

To Sibu

Was supposed to fly back to KL today. Especially as I had a test on the Monday.

But grandma’s health was deteriorating. She was becoming delirious. And this may be my last chance to see her.

So, sod the RM200+ AirAsia tix. Sod the test.

Drove back to Sibu with dad and mom.

About 10hrs of driving. With some stops. And even helped a cousin ship a truck-load of stuff from Bintulu back to Sibu. (BTW, why do they call it a shipment when it goes by car, and cargo when it goes by ship?)

Stopped by grandma’s place first thing. She was coherant and could recognise me.

Seems as if my arrival had improved her spirits.
Well, I still have 4.5 days of leave remaining for this year. Blew all of it and stayed in Sibu for a week.

Brunei

Flew home to Brunei. Dad’s PC went bust.

The cause of the failure was this: bad capacitors.

This involved a Taiwan company. Corporate espionage. An incomplete formula for the capacitor electrolyte. And as a result, millions of electronic components out there are using cheap crappy capacitors that will pop and die in two or three years.

Found 6 capacitors on the motherboard with brown crud leaking out of it. Without these capacitors to smooth out the voltage from the powersupply, the CPU becomes unstable, and you’ll see frequent B.S.O.D.s (Blue Screen Of Death).

The damage can be repaired. If I can get some good Japanese made capacitors. And develop some soldering skills. Which I know I don’t. At least not a job to be attempted with the cheap RM20 soldering irons with no temperature regulation.

Anyway, replaced dad’s PC with my beloved AMD64 processor and motherboard.

*sob* *sob*