Sunday, November 15, 2009

Coconut @ Sin Leong Hua Canteen

We had a late night drink last week and headed to Sin Leong Hua Canteen at Lanang Road (just opposite the Sibu Catholic High School).

Some of my friends ordered coconut drink and we were surprised by its sheer size.

The coconut cost RM3 each and easily bigger than a human skull

A comparison of the coconut with my Nokia mobile phone.

The coconut has a thick husk. I reckon the content is about 20% more than an ordinary sized coconut.




Saturday, November 14, 2009

Dinner at Happy Hours Cafe, Sibu

Last week I had a dinner at Happy Hour Cafe, Rejang Park. I kind of frequent this place with my beer buddy.

One of the main attraction here is the cheap booze offered here. For RM10, one can get 3 bottles of 325ml beer of your choice. They offer a variety of brand namely Tiger, Carlsberg, Becks, Stella Artois and Royal Stout. Tsingtao and Anchor beer are also available in bigger bottle for RM6 and RM8 respectively (which is not worth it). Heinekan beer only available in can (RM10 for 3 cans)

That night, I was not with my beer buddy. It's just a simple dinner to bid farewell to one of my friend.

Thai style 3 layers of meat. I have no idea what it meant. I believe the main ingredient is pork and it tastes really good.

Cangkuk Manis. This vegetable probably can only found in Sarawak.

Milin cooked with belacan. It's a bit oily but still delicious.

Indonesian Chicken. I believe it was cooked in Indonesian style or something.

Tofu soup

The total damage was RM43 (beer not included). The food are just average but still a satisfying dinner.

Friday, November 13, 2009

Transformers Night

Last week I had a gathering with some of my ex school mates who also happened to be a Transformers collectors. We agreed to bring some of our collections out for review.

This belongs to one of my friend. This is the G1 Metroplex (with Scamper and Slammer). He is regarded as Autobots' last line of defense. I expect Metroplex toy to be huge but apparently he is about the same size as my Optimus Prime (Cybertron series).

Metroplex can transform to a mobile battle station

Most of the time, Metroplex can be seen in Autobot City mode in the cartoon series. Metroplex was created by the Autobot to counter his Decepticons counterpart, Trypticon.

I was also been told in city mode, Metroplex can be expanded by combining with other G1 combiner leaders such as Hot Spot (Protectobot which form Defensor) and Silverbolt (Aerialbot which form Superion).

Optimus Primal from the Beast Wars series. This unit belongs to my friend too

Everyone should be familiar with this one. It is the Optimus Prime from the movie ROTF.

The transformation of Optimus Prime from the ROTF version is not as easy as it looks. The transformation (one of my friend just purchased it and never transformed it before) took more than 1 hour by these 2 adults. This toy is definitely not for children.

The comparison of Optimus Prime from the Cybertron series and the ROTF. Which is cooler?

In the end, we parade our collections From left to right: Megatron (Energon), Metroplex (G1), Optimus Prime (Cybertron), Optimus Prime (ROTF), Excellion (Cybertron) and Brawl (Transformers movie).

Which one are mine? Megatron (Energon), Optimus Prime (Cybertron) and Excellion (Cybertron)

We also fool around with the toys which resulted in these pose. Are we just too old for this? He....He.... Maybe this could be the birth of Sibu Transformers Club

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Train Ride: Ipoh-KL

I decided to take a train from Ipoh-KL on my way back. I took a few KTM trains in the past and the rides had been satisfactory in the past. The estimated journey time from Ipoh to KL is about 3 hours. Travel between KL-Ipoh is much more convenient now as there are frequent train service between these 2 cities.

This is how the superior class (RM22) coach looks like. Quite comfortable with large overhead compartment for luggage.

Ipoh Railway Train Station has 2 platforms. The one departing for KL will leave at Platform 1 (In the direction of Batu Gajah)

The train been flagged of by the staff. Pretty punctual. Left Ipoh around 1325 as stipulated in the ticket.

Batu Gajah Train Station. I notice almost all the small towns train stations along the way had been upgraded with this type of architecture/design. There are hardly anything to differentiate them.

This could be the double track rail I heard about. Photo was taken after leaving Batu Gajah train station.

It's amazing how the landscape changed along the way. One of the advantages of taking a train rather than a bus is one can enjoy the scenery and get a feel of the small towns and villages the train passed by.

The toilets onboard are decently clean. One can always head to the loo anytime as compare to the bus ride.

I believe this is was taken at Kepong

The sight of Legend Hotel, Dynasty Hotel and the UMNO building are the indications that the train is approaching KL city centre. The train will make a brief stop at KL old railway station for passengers to disembark before terminating at KL Sentral Station.

Even though train ride do not suffer from traffic jam, we still arrived late than the estimated time of 1617. Somehow, the train kind of freeze just outside the KL Sentral Station for about 20-30 minutes

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Japanese Garden @ D.R. Park

There is a section within the D.R. Park which is dedicated as a Japanese Garden. The garden was created through the 1980s for the small community of Japanese expatriates who had since called Ipoh their home.

The history of the relationship between the city of Ipoh and the Japanese dated way back. The Japanese has pumped in billions of ringgit into Perak as a form of investment, mostly in the manufacturing industry.

The key design of the garden is to emphasize on Japanese ideas of space and harmony.

The lake occupied a large area of the Japanese Garden

Some of familiar features of the garden include koi pond, Japanese style bridge, bamboo fences, fern, lotus, water lily plants and bonsai trees.

Monday, November 9, 2009

D.R. Seenivasagam Park

D.R. Seenivasagam Park is the largest park in Ipoh City Centre and was built in 1960. This park used to be called Coronation Park before the name changed to D.R. Seenivagam Park to pay homage to a prominent lawyer who founded the Perak Progressive Party (PPP)

This park is much revered and beloved by the city dwellers and the locals call it D.R. Park for short.

There is a large football field here. It is such a beautiful place to play football with the limestone hill as the background.

There is a section of the park which is known as Japanese Park

Children playground. D.R. Park is also a favourite venue for shooting wedding photos. If you look closely, there is a couple dressed up to take their wedding photo here at the playground.

The Lions Monument was jointly built by the Perak State Government and the Lions Club. There is a millennium time capsule inside this monument which will be opened in 2100.

The old trees are left in their original states, creating a soothing ambience of greenery and calmness. I been told some of the last remaining Ipoh trees in the city centre can be found right here.

The traffic garden also encompass a large area of D.R. Park

Within the D.R. Park are these trees which bear fruits. I am not sure whether it is edible or not. It looks like some kind of pear or something.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Experimenting with Microsoft Security Essential

Recently I installed a new free anti virus from Microsoft called Microsoft Security Essential (MSE). MSE will only able to be installed if the OS is a genuine one (although I had seen MSE capable of been installed on a cracked pirated OS). Hence, for those using pirated version, they just have settled with other free anti virus from Avira, AVG and etc.

MSE can be downloaded from Microsoft's website.

Installation of MSE is a breeze without much issue. The interface is simple and neat. There are 4 tabs at the top (Home, Update, History, Setting). You don't need to be a tech geek to figure out how to operate it.

In Home tab, a quick and full scan can be performed. A quick scan is about 10 minutes and it only scan through my C drive only. A full scan on the other hand will scan the computer's entire files and will roughly take 50 minutes.

In Update tab, you can check whether the anti virus version is of updated version or not. After installing for the first time, it will auto update itself and could take around 20 minutes or so to complete. After that, it will update itself silently (every day) behind the scene when the computer is on without compromising the system speed.

I like this feature as I use Avira Anti Virus at home and whenever there is an update, an annoying pop up will appear (let alone its advertisement) to show the updating process.

History tab indicate the history of virus detection and etc during scanning process.

Setting tab is where you can scheduled (with the day and time of your convenience) a quick scan on the computer. A few other settings can also be adjusted here such as actions to be taken when a virus been detected.

MSE is the best anti virus I ever come across. It is light-weight and works effectively. It is reported MSE has a 97.8% overall detection rate.

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