: : Losing the excess baggage : :

Currently weight loss up till today is 8.71 kg. That's in a period of 3 months. Yeah, I know, it's slow. The 1st month, I cheated too much in Miri so weight loss wasn't that great. Too many family dinners!

But now, am back on track. I'm actually taking a meal supplement because it's harder now to lose weight with cutting down on meals and not getting enough nutrients. Yeah, it's tough work but on the bright side, I'm losing. Steadily.

And suddenly, reaching my ideal weight suddenly seems a lot faster. Phew!

One of the reasons why I decided to go on a diet program is that I have 2 mothers who are forever reminding me that I'm suppose to lose weight. Ok, now I am. :p Hee hee! It's also ironic that the roles are reverse now and I'm sometimes reminding them to lose weight as well. Haha! Putting on weight easily runs in the family.

: : Fear of Happiness and Contentment : :

I have just finish reading a piece of essay forwarded by a friend from KL. Apparently, this was the winning entry of the 15-18 year old category for the Commonwealth Essay Competition. It was written by a young Singaporean girl who wanted to "Through my story, I attempted to convey the unique East-versus-West struggles and generation gaps that I felt were characteristic of young people in my country".

It was a good story but with a terrible ending. It wasn't the fact that the daughter is neglecting her mother. The bigger picture was that as I grow up, I see the same repeated story theme over and over again. There's this big arguments between Eastern and Western values. If you remove the words "East" and "West", you start to notice that it's really not that different in other parts of the world. It's more of a generation gap than anything else. And frankly, I'm bored of these kind of story themes.

Sure, stories like this makes big bucks. Sells books. Gets a lot of sympathy. At the end of the day, this theme starts to wear off pretty quickly. I don't know about you lot out there but I have enough worries about living my own life that I don't need to be influence by stories of dysfunctional relationships.

I'm also a person who prefers happy endings as well as having to live a life with as less hassle as possible. And that means being more patient with my Granny, other grannies, parents and relatives. It's giving and taking but I do try not to think about it too much. If it's not too much to ask for, then I'm fine with it. If not, then it's time to reason with them.

Yes, it's an unpopular trend to be happy and to not be interested in dysfunctional-relationship-stories that I'm following. Heck, it's my own life and I'm enjoying it as much as I can.

Don't you think that a lot of people these days are more fearful of happiness and contentment because it involves being honest, truthful, patient and actually having to forgive someone?

Think about it.

: : Google Earth & Kuching : :

I'm always trying out new features to put on the web. This time is another experiment, similar to my Frappr one. Only this time, it get's a bit more interesting.

I've been playing around a bit with Google Earth so I'm testing it out at the moment. I'm still not sure how it works and it looks like it's manual updating of locations. Plus, you need to have Google Earth installed in your computer to view the locations. Check whether your PC requirements can handle it or not. A broadband connection is recommended because of the amount of data that passes through it.

Here are some downloads for you to view on your PC. Note that Google Earth needs to be installed first :

My Foodspot links. Only 2 at the moment while I'm still testing it out.
Kuching landmarks that are useful.

But, somehow, I get the feeling someone would put up a better one than I can. I get lazy after awhile or when the glamour has worn off. Ah well.

: : Fusion Cafe : :

After my massage session yesterday, I went with my cousin, Em, to a new place in town known as Fusion Cafe. We've been wanting to go there for awhile but didn't have the guts. There's just too many choices in Kuching that it's difficult to decided where does one want to go and have a bite of something.



The restaurant is located in Padungan. The interesting bit is that it's located on the 1st Floor of the building and the kitchen is located on the Ground Floor. If you know where Tao Restaurant is, it's just right next to it. Sorry, didn't take the main signboard because my SE W800i cannot take good pictures at night, especially when it's more than 20cm away from the camera. My LED isn't that strong.

The first problem we had was that the staff couldn't speak Hokkien and Em wasn't so well-versed in Mandarin. Me, I'm a hopeless Chinese that can't speak a work of any of the dialects, let alone Mandarin. Yeah yeah, I'm an embarassment to the community but it still doesn't stop me from doing food reviews. Haha!

Anyway, the only English speaking person turned out to be the proprietor, Grick Liew. So, we made our selections from the menu on the table. Similar to what I've seen in KL, orders are made by the customer by filling in Menu Forms that are on each table. The orders are made using a pencil. The menu selection actually looked pretty good and most of the cooking looks healthy.

Before we go on, here's a brief introduction about Chinese Herbal Cooking. It's not always bitter and it's not always nasty. It's similar to something that has been cooked at home and definitely, the selection has a lot of soups and stews. Deep fried stuff is kept to a minimum as well as very sweet sauces. The challenge is to make sure that the taste of the food ingredients is not camoflouged by all the sauces.

Sad to say that while I'm undergoing some massage treatment, I cannot eat spicey food or seafood. Strict instructions on dieting so as to improve my well-being. Well, to humour my masseur, I decided to abstain from those food and it helps since I'm also dieting at the same time.

Anyway, back to the food. Here are the photographs. Along with Granny's commentary after I spoke to her the next day about the food.



The drinks selection wasn't a lot but I suppose it's to go with the theme of healthy Chinese cooking. So, deciding to stick to the Chinese philosophy of not drinking cold drinks for better blood circulation, we ordered a pot of Chinese. Then again, this was the only hot drink that they had in the house. It either softdrinks or fresh juice which were apple, carrot, and other fruits.



While waiting for our food to arrive, we were served some peanuts coated with a sweet sauce. These are not the fried peanuts from a junk food packet but rather, boiled peanuts. Boiled peanuts are not as crunchy as the deep fried one but it was definitely different and one of my favourite ways of eating peanuts. Plus, it's also easier on the teeth. It's also wasn't too salty and not too sweet either.



This is the Ah Por Fan Shu leaves or Sweet Potato Leaves. I can only guess that it was cooked with a lot of garlic and a bit of oyster sauce as well. It was definitely a lot of stuff for a small portion of food.

Granny : I can also do this lah but I like to cook it with sambal. I like spicy food! Otherwise no shiok! Haha! But, look good lah.



This was the "Dong Buo" pork dish that we had. It was soft enough that we didn't need a knife to cut it and firm enough to still taste pretty good. I tried to Google Dong Buo but not much references pop up so presumably, the English translation of his name was not commonly used.

Granny : Dong Buo is old famous Chinese hero. He go another place to look after it. The village people very happy with him so they give him lot lot of pig meat. After that, he cook it and give back to them. First, pork fry and then steam to make soft. Usually cook with soy sauce and mushroom one.

That night, we didn't have any mushroom but I can say that the pork was tasty because we finish everything! The portions are served in the size shown in the picture for about RM6 (USD1.63).



This was the usual Chinese Chicken Herbal soup but instead of ginseng, the chef coconut juice and flesh was added in. What we could see inside were just the coconut flesh and some dates. Coconut milk is not used in here and hence, that's why it's not thick or creamy. The coconut juice is the coconut water from a coconut when it's first crack open. As for the flesh, it's the thin white layer that's inside the coconut. These coconut slices were sliced thinly and added into the soup. Plus, the soup was boiled a long time that the chicken inside was already very soft that it was starting to peel away from the bones. I actually prefer soup this way as the soup itself would already have most of the nutrients inside it. The thing about Chinese Herbal soup is that it's not the meat that needs to be eaten but the soup rich with nutrients from boiling it for so long.



And to cap off the meal, we had some dessert. We settled for Cold Longan and Tofu. The tofu here is not the tofu used in the normal main dish cookings but one that is specially for desserts. It's light and fluffy and this one was freshly made because of no preservatives. Very nice to eat but longan cannot be taken in great quantities as it's pretty heaty and will give you a sore throat.

That's my dinner yesterday with Em. Luckily, nobody mentioned all the fumes that I was giving out after my massage session. Although, my knees and legs were so shaky that I nearly couldn't walk down the stairstairs.

Well, all in all, it was a nice place to have a meal. Bear in mind those that it's not exactly cheap like in an open-air restaurant. However, it is a different kind of cooking and you do get to eat in an air-conditioned environment that is clean. Food is served from the Ground Floor to the 1st Floor via a dumb waiter. Our meal cost us RM58.80 (USD15.47) which is a little bit expensive than normal but the good thing is that the food wasn't too oily and that it tasted refreshingly different from the normal heavy eating at common Chinese restaurants. Plus, it was quiet compared to some of the places I've been.

The shop is still pretty new, having open 2 months ago. It's located along the same shoplot row as the Padungang Police Station but it's about 2 blocks down from it.

Contact Details

Fusion Cafe
Proprietor (??) : Grick Liew
Mobile : 012 910 3543 / 016 883 5485
177, Lot 38, Section 50,
Jalan Padungan,
93100 Kuching,
Sarawak, Malaysia.

I'd definitely go there again to try the other dishes and see how it tastes like.

: : Surviving 3rd massage session : :

Today was my 3rd session with the Chinese masseur and probably the most painful for my legs. For my upper back, it's alright already except for the joints where my shoulders met my arms. That could be due to problems in my lower back which is getting a lot better but still having problems.

But like I said, it's my legs that are the most painful. The most painful parts are where my hip bones and knee joints are located. He doesn't massage the joints but the tendon and, I suspect where the main bloodlines are running.

Although, things does look good, according to him. My legs are not so lumpy as the last week and he said that it looks thinner. Because I have poor blood circulation in my legs due to the fat layer, a lot of "air" are trapped in the fat layer and that is why my legs are big.

Actually, I'm going because after the massage and 2 days of rest, I feel more limber and relax than I've been in years. Of course, it gets painful and tiring there. I was shrieking and moaning a lot, especially when it was my left leg. I ended up panting a lot but nothing else is damage afterwards so that's alright.

My cousin, who accompanied me, had a good laugh at my screams. Hopefully, I haven't been scaring the customers in the hair salon next door. Haha! Anyway, we went to this eating joint known as Fusion Cafe and it was a good choice. Will post pictures up when I can. Feeling a bit tired at the moment.

: : American Cancer Society ~ Relay for Life West County 2006 : :

Helping a fellow blogger out. We both blog for a community MMO blogsite at Gamersinfo.net.

He will be there that night in a Stormtrooper Uniform with a bunch of other guys. They're all part of the Maryland Old Line Garrison : 501st Legion. Check out their website. Looks fun. And if I was a child, I know awed by people in costumes.

The funds are going to the American Cancer Society to help with their activities in counseling cancer patients and other activities. Even a few dollars would help.

Feel free to donate whatever amount you can. Click here to go to the donation page. And just because the donation target is met doesn't mean that they do not need donations.

: : Getting smaller : :

By the end of this month, I would have been on my Weight Loss programme for nearly 3 months. Up till today, I've lost 7.71 kg or 17 pounds, depending on which unit you prefer to use. My BMI has gone down but still far far away from my target value. I went from 40.30 to 37.21. Target is BMI 22 / 54 kg. Very far away still.

I've also gain a lot of stretch marks that needs to be dealt with. Urgh.

And yes, I know, pictures. Patience, patience. Pictures are coming.

When I have time. ^_^

: : Back Banging Day : :

I don't know why but today, a few people decided to give me a nice pat on the back. Unfortunately, due to my session with the Chinese Masseur, my back has been more sensitive.

Morning, at the entrance to work : A pat on the back by Miss E. For a small gal, she does pack a wallop.

Near noon : Another pat but this time on my lower back which was slightly coloured from some bruises. This time from Mdm. K. She wanted to see how much I've lost weight and so patted down my shirt. Wasn't prepared for it.

After work : Mdm. S gave me another pat but this time on my shoulder. Alamak!

Luckily, today wasn't as bad as Sunday. That was a lot worst. On a plus side, my back and legs are so relax that they're no longer as tense as they used to be before the massage. Phew!

: : Pollution & Google Earth : :

Was just checking Google Earth after Mr. Wong was mentioning it to me yesterday. Yeah, we're that geeky but isn't it the in-thing to be geeky? Haha! Anyway, we were having a discussion on how cool it was but also that the pictures are a few years old. Seems like quite a fair bit of pictures available are old.

I took a closer look at Miri and Kuching. Here is a snapshot of the Baram River at Kuala Baram.



Makes you wonder what all those black stuff are. *Shudder* The Miri Port is there as well as the heavy industries. There's definitely something not write about that water when you see that further upstream, the water is a very nice deep blue or pale blue.

No wonder the newspapers were having a field day a few years ago about how badly polluted the rivers are in Sarawak. Even the Kuching River is black but because the pictures are old, I can't tell whether the river is better now. It's still the old picture because there's still a lot of silt in the River but that should have changed with the new weir at Sungai Sarawak Kiri.

So, errm... parents, relatives, friends and readers, if you end up seeing my face in the papers, well, errm... They wouldn't shoot the messenger rite? O_o. Oh btw, Dad, you might want to try this program out. It's very nifty and you can find people's houses there. Haha!

: : My Restaurant, Sama Jaya, Kuching : :

Recently, I had a lovely, lovely meal at My Restaurant. It's located in Sama Jaya area, or rather just before Kampung Tabuan Jaya. The business is owned by Angela and Walter, with Walter being the previous Austrian chef at Cavary. They set up this restaurant since last year, specialising in pork. Yes, the oink-oink, piggy wiggy meal. Here are the some the dishes that they prepare.



For each table, home-made garlic bread is served. Bear in mind that this bread is literally dripping with oil from the butter. Believe me, it's a lot of butter in there. It tastes nice but the oil is a lot. Well, it's not oil, per se, just an overdose of butter.



I've always like Caesar Salad that is crispy and fresh and that is not swimming in salad sauce. At My Restaurant, they definitely do it better than some of the restaurants in the city. They serve it with a slice of bacon, rather than using bacon bits.



The picture here is the Grilled Porked Chop with Apple slices. If there's one thing good about pork, is that it goes very very well with fruit. The fruit is either fresh fruit, cooked fruit or some fruit sauce. Although, my Auntie Maria stays away from any fruit sauce as it reminds her of eating jam with meat. Haha! Anyway, the pork chop was done well and it's also a fairly thick slice. The grilled apple slices was a nice touch. Errm...and yes... errm... quite a fair bit of oil as well. So be forewarned.



Here is a mix set. I can't quite remember the name but it's made up of pork sausages, chicken, pork chop and bacon. This is dish that is for 2 people with all the meat and chips there. And ermm....definitely a lot of oil. I especially like the pork sausage because it wasn't a frankfuther/hot dog sausage but a real pork sausage. Yum.

Well, isn't oily stuff taste good? That's the problem with trying to keep one's weight down! Anyway, bear this in mind in case you're going to goto My Restaurant, for those who do not like oily stuff. It has other stuff to offer like chicken, beef and fish dishes but their specialty is definitely pork. One things for sure, nothing is rancid and everything is prepared fresh.

The restaurant details are as follows :

My Restaurant
Ground Floor, Lot 13186 & 13187,
Samajaya Commercial Center,
Jalan Setia Raja,
93350 Kuching.
Tel / Fax : 082 - 361588 (Speak to Angela for reservations)
Tues - Sat: 11 am - 2 pm (Lunch). 6 - 10 pm (Dinner)
Sun : 6 - 10 pm (Dinner only)
Mon : Closed

If anyone of you are going, please say hi to Angela. She's very friendly and will give you a good recommendation for your dinner.

Oh, another thing is that the kitchen is open to the whole restaurant so you get to smell and actually see Walter cooking. It's interesting to go up and see how your food is being cooked. However, I wouldn't recommend it if you're wearing your best clothes. As for the rest of the restaurant, don't worry about any oil stains. The kitchen seems to have very very good ventilation that you get the nice cooking smells that you really do get distracted during mealtimes.

Enjoy your trip there!

: : Food Hygiene : :

Food hygiene has always been a debate in every country. Some governments take stern action, others just issue warnings (like in China recently) and others, nothing.

I just got a note in my mailbox about Fecal Matter on top of meat box packings. Bad bad. Larry Stone is following the issue in Florida closely. Sounded awfully familiar from someone else I heard. Cats for rats/mice pest control. Geckos for flies pest control. Wonder how are roaches controlled naturally.

Then it got me thinking : cats are sometimes kept onboard ships to control rats/mice in the cargo haul. *shudder*

Well, if the meat packing industries are not HAACP certified, time to buy from someone else. Anyway, it's always a good idea to practice some recommended food hygiene practices, at least for one's health and well-being.

And I can safely say that I survive 1.5 years in one of Kuala Lumpur's worst hygienic suburbs. Yes, it was a daily game of Russian Roulette, food style that is.

: : New PC : :

I'm planning to get a new CPU during the IT fair at the end of the month.

Any recommendations?

: : Yippee! : :

My body fat went down from 53% to 49%! Definitely good news! Took awhile but it's definitely going down.

: : Dead meat : :

Now I understand why Aaron is hooked onto World of Warcraft.

With most people watching the FIFA matches late at night, the streamyx connection is blazing. Even this morning, it was quite a speedy connection. Got the WoW Trial download 2.7 GB by this Sunday morning from Fileplanet and updated and installed a few hours later.

I started out as a Night Elven Druid and ended up in a forest with music similar to Neverwinter Nights. It's uncannily identical, or nearly there. The songs and graphics are amazing. And even though the characters are cartoonish, it's still not too bad.

Plus, the game is abled to be played on my old heap of a PC and an old graphics card. Old as in a 32MB NVIDIA card. Well, the graphics aren't as smooth as it could have been but oh well. Still costs too much to upgrade this computer so I think I'll wait a bit longer.

BTW, PC fair in Kuching during end June. Ho Hum. ^_^

: : Fixing an old problem : :

Today, I went with Fish Fish to her masseur. Believe me, he was good but here's the following conversation.

S : Aiya! Your back is terrible! Here *poke!* and here *poke!*!! Too much air inside. Your shoulder is not the major problem. It's your back. Plus your legs.

Wena : *Panting from aches* Ah ok...can fix or not?

S : Can can. You come see me once a week for another 3-4 more weeks than we see how. A lot of blood not circulating well. Bad bad. You sit too long at night playing games?

Wena : *Gulp!* Errr...yeah?

S : That is no good! Bad circulation for the leg. You come next week and we do again.

Wena : Ok.

It went on with massaging problem areas and even though I was achy afterwards, the muscles were surprising relax. I also had occasional pins and needles but this was not painful, just ticklist. He mentioned that it was the blood circulating.

Wena : Wah! I feel good!

Fish Fish : Yeah but when he does his serious treatment, maybe cannot walk for awhile. My Mum couldn't walk for 2 days. After that, she could walk.

Wena : *Gulp*... OK.

So, I'm in for the long-run. Let's see how's the outcome. Massage is the traditional cure here for aches and pains. Plus, this chap may be young but he does know his stuff, being taught by a Master since he was 7 years old. Now that's a very long time to learn about massage.

Next week, let's see if I can walk. The nerves that are trapped from my prolapsed disc will be release and my blood circulation may improve.

: : Blog-free day : :

Well, not today but last Friday. It was so nice just not to take photos at all and write about something. When you've been doing it for so long (can't believe it's coming to 3 years), having a break is always a pleasure.

I met up with Fish Fish, Miracle8, Wilson and Kris for some food and we went traipsing all over Kuching for it. Here is Miracle8's posting about the meeting. The food is lovely.

Actually, I can't post anything up because I didn't take any pictures except for the Carrot-Green-Apple-Papaya juice drink at AHA Lounge. Ah well.

Oh, if you're wondering what's I've been doing, I've been busy blogging about two games over at Gamersinfo.net. I use a pseudonym known as Myremi and am currently playing two games. One is FlyFF (which I did mention about a month ago) and another one is ROSE Online. Note that for ROSE, there is a Phillipine, Korea and EU server. FlyFF also have the same, as well as a separate China and Taiwan servers. FlyFF is free to play but ROSE, you have to pay.

Both games are from Korea and ROSE is actually developed by the same company that did Ragnorak Online. Ok, so it's different from R.O. but I never got into R.O. Although, now I hear my younger cousins getting into Maple Story or GunBound.

: : Gawai Festival : :

Gawai is here already. To all the readers from Sabah and Sarawak who are celebrating this day,

Selamat Hari Gawai! Selamat Gayu Guru Gerai Nyamai!