Recently in Events Category

I went to the Mummy 3 press screening at GSC, Midvalley at the ungodly hour of 9:45 am with Timothy, Samantha and Cynthia on Tuesday. It was held a day before the premiere and two days before the official release date. I haven't been to a press screening before, cheers to Nuffnang for that coz I'm a huge fan of movies.



The interesting bit about press screenings is that you have to insert your cell phone and digicam into this envelope thing (with an attached ID) so no cell phones are allowed in the theater itself.



Anyway, we got a Mummy 3 press kit with a text insert containing the list of credits and other filming anecdotes as well as a CD Press Kit with goodies like photos, production notes and the trailer and other information. I found it quite interesting to read, it's not just the standard plot guidelines but experiences about the difficulties of filming in China and other behind the scenes stuff. The press screening also comes with a free drink and popcorn voucher.



I was looking forward to the Mummy 3 movie coz I've watched the first two and found the franchise highly entertaining. It's nice to be one of the first to watch the movie. Brandon Fraser is back and he's as good as ever even though he seems to be trying too hard to be funny in some of the scenes.

I loved the plot about The Dragon Emperor which is (very) loosely based on mythology behind the terracotta warrior statues in China. Unfortunately, I had a rather late night the previous night and the sleep deprivation compounded by the extremely cold air conditioning and dark atmosphere of the GSC cinema made me very sleepy (and I have a very strong suspicion that I actually had a couple of microsleeps ;)).

It's not due to the movie though, The Mummy 3 was great and it has a great plot twist in the beginning and ends well with the standard happy ending that the series is renowned for. It's a feel good popcorn (caramel, not salted) movie that makes for another great addition to the Mummy franchise.

Jet Li's character is great, and although he doesn't have a lot of dialog, his on screen presence fits the character well. He's menacing and in command. However, it was Isabella Leong's performance that steals the show. I felt that there was no on screen chemistry between Luke Ford and Isabella Leong but she just has the poise and grace for this particular character (with a slight peppering of melancholy).

Mummy 3 is now showing in cinemas nationwide.

I went to a hash run at 4 pm yesterday to get my mind off things and to do some Healthy Stuff (TM). The HHH (Hash House Harriers) are a group of hardcore runners who loves to go trailblazing based on the concept of a paper chase.



It's not the paper chase you're familiar with and definitely not what African American rappers mean when they say "outlaws on a paper chase, can you relate" or "Cash Rules Everything Around Me, CREAM, get the money, dollar dollar bills, yo". This is a traditional paper chase with a "hare" dropping shredded paper as a trail and the rest of us "harriers" following the trail.

To do this, you need:



Running shoes (or just trainers)



Sunblock (which I later found out was a Bad Idea (TM))



The trail goes through hilly terrain and some intimidating foliage. Steep inclines and sharp descents were not uncommon and I was told that this was one of the easier trails.



It wasn't sunny enough for the sunblock to be really necessary, and after a while, you realize why it's a Bad Idea (TM) - the sweat dripping from your brows gets mixed with the sunblock and starts stinging your eyes.



The group soon separated into a less orderly fashion and the paper trails was all that is left for the harriers. There were constant calls of "On On" - a HHH tradition and a sweeper at the back to collect the paper trail.



There were bamboo trees that looked like a scene from a Chinese wu xia (martial arts) movie...



...and even miniature pitcher plants!



Stunning vistas marked the end of the trail. It was indeed invigorating to go on the run. I managed to make pretty good time despite being relatively unfit.



I must admit that I was totally bushed when I got out though. Heh!



The Sibu HHH were experienced enough to bring a chiller with plenty of bottled water and isotonic drinks...



...and watermelon!



Nothing beats a cold, juice slice of watermelon after some exertion. Mmm...



Sandwiches were also available for those who want a bite to eat.

However, one question still bugs me though...



...what happened to "The drinking club with a running problem"?

Amber fluid, amber fluid, where art thou? ;)

The Borneo Cultural Festival 2008 has come and gone and the closing ceremony during the weekend was a grand affair, with fireworks and performances to mark the end of the BCF 2008. I have attended the festival for most days of the week and the turnout was great, with the festival being packed full of people despite the drizzle.



This is a performance by TUKU KAME featuring Jerry Kamit during the closing ceremony. They're also slated to perform at the Rainforest World Music Festival (RWMF) later this week in Kuching.



I haven't had dinner yet, and thus we went in search for food with Eddy, his nephew, Mary and Mr. Poh (not me). Last call for tuak and all that. ;)



We had pansoh ikan (fish cooked in bamboo)...



...and lemang (glutenous rice wrapped in pandan leaves).



I heard a haunting refrain of The Phantom of the Opera and went to film a video of the performance. You have to watch this - the vocal range of the female singer is amazing!



I also went to Simmy's booth while I was there and talked to her about photography and models in Sibu for an upcoming project I'm doing. She's a professional freelance photographer and she has a website with her photography portfolio.



The major hairstylists were out in force at the BCF 2008 with free haircutting sessions. I just got a haircut but went for it anyway just for fun.



She ended up butchering my hair a little, with one side longer than the other but people claim that it's not very noticeable anyway, having the chubby face that comes with my weight gain.



I'm not very sure what to think of that. Blessing in disguise? Or friendly hints that I need to lose some weight? Hmm... ;)



The BCF 2008 is also about having fun and the carnival games is a place where you can get fleeced into paying RM 100 for a Made in China stuffed toy that costs RM 0.20 and yet have fun while doing it. Fleeced for fun. ;)



There are a lot of different carnival games ranging from bingo...



...to ping pong ball based games.



I managed to get a turtle key chain for my efforts.



"May you have a prosperous and beautiful future". Wow, thanks turtle! =D



There is also a shooting game that I played in an inebriated state...



...doing the usual stuff people do when they're less than sober. I love the expression of the guy next to me. :)



I find that I'm a little bit annoying (even to myself) when I get past a certain state of sobriety though.



It's also not a good idea to be going for the dart games in an inebriated state. Look at how far the girl is dodging from my questionable aim. Hmm...I didn't notice that until now. She memang siam hui hui.



I managed to win RM 2 after spending RM 25...and I felt pleased. Jesus Christ...



I'm so childish sometimes, I amaze even myself...



Mary, rating higher on the sobriety scale than myself, managed to win two pillows. Hmph...



BCF 2008 is fun for all ages (and especially for the inner child in you). There are cultural shows, fashion shows, and games galore. You can drink yourself into a stupor and shoot less-than-straight photographs of the events (which is quite fun in it's own right). ;)

I'm not sure if you'll want to fly all the way here if you're not from Sarawak, but the timing is good - right before the RWMF 2008 kicks off in Kuching, so drop by if you're already here. Cheers from Sibu!

The BCF 2008 ended the Borneo Dayak Festival (BDF) with a tuak (local Iban rice wine) drinking competition, a finale highly (no pun intended) befitting the Dayak themed festival. The Dayak is a collective reference to a local ethnic group comprising of several subgroups of which the majority is Iban.



The Borneo Dayak Festival is centralized around a long row of food stalls bordering the BCF 2008 perimeter grounds. The food stalls offer a large variety of local delights including pansoh manok (bamboo cooked meat) and tuak.



There are also stalls showcasing the native art of the Dayaks with their knitted tribal designs being the most popular.



The shapely legs of the locals are also on display in certain stalls, though I suspect it's not for sale. ;)



There are also a lot of stalls catering to the thirst of the crowd with local mixed drinks like air bandong (a popular concoction of rose syrup and evaporated milk), air jagung (corn drink, tastes better than it sounds) and coconut juice.



I came across a stall selling fresh sugarcane juice. Fresh sugarcane is made by using a pressure roller machine to extract the negligible moisture content from a sugarcane plant. It takes a lot of plants to make a single cup of the juice.



The sugarcane is first peeled and then inserted into this medieval looking machine with a hose that directs the juice down into a filter.



Careful Pakcik! The rollers are not friendly to human fingers! ;)



I would be remiss if I didn't eat the pansoh manok (meat cooked in bamboo). It's a local Iban delicacy where the meat is stuffed inside hollow bamboo plants and then cooked slowly over a charcoal fire.



It is then unsealed by taking out the leaves stuffing one end and emptying the contents into a plate. There are plastic seating arrangements at the BCF 2008 for the food stalls.



Of course, a meal of pansoh manok would be incomplete without the obligatory tuak (Iban rice wine). Tuak is made from fermented rice and it's sold in 1.25 liter PET bottles that once contained 7Up or Coke for RM 10. ;)



We had the pork pansoh manok (RM 15). There are three different types of pansoh manok in this stall - pork, chicken and fish.



I was a little inebriated after drinking the 1.25 litre bottle of tuak. Tuak can contain anything from 9 - 14 % alcohol. There's really no control in the fermentation process and some tuak is "fortified" with cheap distilled liquor for more oomph...



In fact, I was more than a little inebriated from the tuak. I went and played some carnival games after that and a video was taken of me that projects me in a less than complimentary light. More on that carnival games tomorrow - I'm going again tonight. :)



Borneo Cultural Festival 2008 is a week long annual event at Swan City (Sibu).

I went to Velvet Ting's wedding reception last night. It was a shotgun wedding (not the type you're thinking) in a sense, her younger sister Amy Ting was also having a combined wedding with her. I know both of the Ting sisters from my high school days and in Australia.



The flower arrangements at their wedding dinner was simply amazing. The theme was roses and there were roses twined into the stairs and floral decorations on every table.



The main wedding table for both pairs of bride and groom and their immediate families was the centerpiece of the place. The three tiered wedding cake and champagne flutes are arranged at the center stage in the backdrop.



Most of the people at my table were my ex-classmates since Velvet used to be in our class. It's like our 11th reunion out of high school. I sat beside Ita Ting, I've known her since Form 1.



This is the arrival of Velvet and her groom hailed by confetti all around...



...followed by Amy and her groom.



The dinner started soon after that with the traditional Chinese banquet cold dish platter.



The cold dish is an appetizer which consists of a sampler of sorts - there's a small portion of quail, mussels, squid and mushrooms.



The next dish is traditionally the soup which is served into individual bowls by the waiter.



It's shark's fin soup, which I'm sure the animal welfare groups would have a bone, I mean, fin to pick with. ;)



The next item on the menu is steamed fish. Fish is a must-have at wedding feasts and Chinese banquets in general due to the association with prosperity.



It's kindly sliced into more manageable pieces by the waiter.



Chicken cooked in herbs and wrapped in foil is the next item on the banquet parade. It is still wrapped in the foil when brought to your table and the waiter opens it up, releasing the fragrance of the herbs and slices the chicken.



The chicken is actually very tender, with an almost melt-in-your-mouth quality, so not much slicing was actually required. The process just makes it more manageable to eat using chopsticks.



There was a much needed intermission while Velvet and Amy went on stage with their respective grooms to cut the wedding cake.



Champagne was also poured out into the flutes by the two newly weds.



This is the customary "yam seng" toast which the Chinese do. It's done in a very long refrain with the first syllable being vocalized for as long as you're able to (highly variable depending on lung capacity).



RM 135 bottles of Seifried red and white wine were served after that. It's free flow, they had more than even I could drink! I think I partook in the vinos a little too much, coz my brain wasn't functioning very well today. ;)



Here's a toast to Velvet Ting and her groom. Congratulations! =D



...and here's to Amy Ting and her groom. Cheers! :)



The Food Parade (TM) went on after that with bamboo shoots and mushrooms...



...bamboo clams (a local seafood) with mixed vegetables (at which point our table couldn't even touch the food anymore)



...deep fried king prawns



...before mercifully ending with an iced honeydew and sago dessert concoction.



This is a candid shot of me talking to Velvet. I must have been reminiscing about this drama that most of the people at our table participated in while we were 14 years old during the school play.



Congratulations Velvet! Now you've made me feel old and unwanted by marrying earlier than me. :p



There was another platter of fruits containing dragon fruit, pineapple, papaya and watermelon...



...as well as the mandatory piece of wedding cake you just have to eat out of courtesy despite having adjusted your belt buckle several times due to excessive gorging. ;)



The final dish is gift wrapped boxes that has a piece of fruitcake inside. It's supposed to be taken home as a souvenir of the wedding dinner. It's the custom over here and signifies the end of the dinner...



...and it's camwhoring time! ;) This is Datina Ting, another one of my ex-classmates in high school.



Hello Jeanie! I met Jeanie at the wedding reception when she approached me and told me she reads my blog. Thanks for reading! :)



There was also a camwhoring session with a girl I bummed a cigarette from who was helping out at the reception...



...as well as the rest of the reception girls.



Congratulations to Velvet Ting and Amy Ting on their respective weddings from the Class of '97. Cheers! :)

JCI Seduan organized a "Wet & Wild" pool party at Tanahmas poolside on Saturday at 5 pm. I went there dressed in little more than shorts and a T-shirt (the dress code was casual) with my trusty Speedos underneath. 

Our contingent (which were not from the JCI movement) arrived to disrupt the proceedings and behave in a generally rowdy manner. I'm kidding, we were invited to go there to boost up the attendance rates and liven up the pool party. ;)

The poolside at Tanahmas Hotel has a great view of Sibu and the evening sun was just right for a bit of swimming and pool games.

Some of the girls didn't want to get in the pool but ended up being chucked one way or the other into the water anyway. Participation is mandatory, resistance is futile. ;)

This is me and Eddy, who needs no further introduction. He's a really fun guy to be around. Our group staked claim to the pool for the rest of the evening. :)

I'm sure most of the people here needs no further introduction, being featured before in sixthseal.com and all that.

This is Mary Ngo who didn't want to get into the water...

...but somehow ended in there anyway. ;)

There were three (3) girls in bikinis that didn't seem to be from the JCI Seduan group so being, the nice host that I am (har har) I approached them and introduced myself to them.

It turns out that they really were gatecrashers but I got them into the pool anyway to join us for the games.

It's sixthseal.com lar, what did you expect. ;) Please do not focus on me sucking in my stomach when there's plenty of T&A for your viewing pleasure.

This is the other gatecrasher who took the previous photo for us.

Just to break up the excessive display of skin, here's a shot of me and Rali. He's my tai lou (Big Brother) in Christchurch, New Zealand when I was doing my high school there. Don't play play.

Anyway, we got a game of water polo (of sorts) going...

...and I sprained my ankle during a particularly enthusiastic block.

Water polo video

Next round was with the gatecrashers, who really could swim.

I hard such a hard time keeping the pace with the girls that I nearly drowned.

Sheesh...

Eddy asked them how they came to be such good swimmers and it turns out that they grew up near a river and swam all the time.

Dusk came soon and the pool was temporarily cleared while dinner was being served.

The platters were carted in from the restaurant below and put into the buffet warmers.

Dinner was prepared buffet style and contained:

Shark Fin Soup

Salad bar

Steamed rice

Fried rice vermicelli

Curry chicken

Beef rendang

Sweet and sour fish pieces

Mixed vegetables

Dessert of sliced fruits and cakes

I filled up my plate with an impressive amount of food...

...and a visibly less impressive amount of dessert. My stomach literally increased in size after that huge meal.

Night fell and rendered the pool into a nice shade of green. The dry games session started soon after that. Our contingent was represented with Joyce teaming up with Colin and Mary teaming up with me.

The game is about tying a balloon to the male partner's ankle while the female tries to burst all the other competitor's balloons.

The pairs must hold hands and the male must not lift up his feet (but shuffling and defensive gestures are allowed) at any time.

Mary and I did pretty well, with her bursting quite a few balloons and me defending myself from all the other females. I made a pact with our side (the 10 teams were in a circle) to go after the opposite team first but promptly broke that pact by getting Mary to attack our immediate neighbor. Alls fair in love and war. ;) We lost though, due to a certain someone surprising me from behind. :p

I teamed up with Shirley for the next game which involved a complicated dance around within a certain amount of tiles routine.

You're allowed to dance within the confines of the stated tiles but you must keep within the tiles or you're automatically disqualified.

The amount of tiles you're permitted to step on keeps getting smaller and smaller...

...until you end up sharing two tiles so you either have to lift your partner up or get her to stand on your feet.

Mary and Shirley singing karaoke

It was fun, despite the rain that came pouring in towards the end of the pool party. Cheers to JCI Seduan for a well organized event.

The Borneo Cultural Festival is held annually in Sibu and showcases our ethnic diversity. BCF 2008 has three themed areas - the Chinese, the Malay/Melanau and the Iban/Dayak cultural areas. This post is focusing on the Borneo Chinese Cultural Festival (BCCF) and the opening ceremony. I will visit on other nights to do the other writeups.



The Borneo Cultural Festival (BCF) 2008 opened up with a fireworks display. It lasted for a good 15 minutes and kicked off the festivities.



The highlight of BCF is always the food stalls.



The BCCF has ethnic food stalls operated by the respective clans.



The food stalls features the respective delicacies of the ethnicity of the clan. This is the Hainan clan, which is not very big in Sibu, which is predominantly Foochow.



The Hainan, who are known for their Hainan Chicken Rice, is also offering one of their other specialties - BBQ pork.



They also have a traditional dish which I can't remember the name of consisting of a starchy blend of meat and mushrooms.



You can actually eat your way through BCF 2008 without paying a single cent from the free samples of food, but that wouldn't be a very nice thing to do. ;)



The Foochow Association was well represented at BCF 2008. This is Mary posing in front of it. She's Foochow, although I can speak the dialect better than her. :)



There are makeshift seating arrangements on the footpath and inside certain stalls for people to enjoy their food on the spot.



There is a traditional Chinese group playing erhu and other classic Chinese musical instruments as part of the program.



Thus, naturally... ;) What did you expect, you're on sixthseal.com. :)



The Teochew group also made their presence felt at the Borneo Cultural Festival.



This is their portfolio of delicacies...



...and their pork offerings, which is rather impressive.



This is a variant of meat dumplings wrapped in square leaves instead of the triangular shape.



We compared the Hakka version (previous) to the Henghua version (above).



There was a traditional Chinese opera going on at the Chinese Cultural Festival.



I shot a video of it, it's pretty good and surprisingly entertaining for a dying art.



I would be remiss if I didn't take a photo at the Heng Hua booth, being a Heng Hua and all. Heng Hua Pride! =D



We stumbled upon a stall where we could enjoy our food within a booth. It serves alcohol which is always a plus point. RM 12 for three (3) cans of beer.



I was immediately asked to drink by the promoter. The beer kept flowing for free after that thanks to one of the kind association members.



The beer was poured into an authentic Chinese pitcher and then to bowls instead of cups for The Real China Experience.



I didn't even remember how much I drank, have to ask Mary for the figures. ;)



This is the comparison between the Hakka dumplings (RM 6) and the Heng Hua dumplings (RM 6.50).



The Hakka dumplings were wrapped in brown leaves and is completely white. There's no soy sauce in the glutenous rice, which is different from what we always get. It contains pork, mushrooms and peanuts.



The Heng Hua dumplings are the ones that I'm used to eating. It's dark from soy sauce and contains more generous and juicier chunks of pork, mushrooms and peanuts. We all concluded that the Heng Hua one tastes better, and I assure you, I didn't skew the results due to being of Heng Hua ethnicity. ;)



The amber fluid floweth throughout the night...



...and floweth



...and floweth



...and it seems like the cup (or bowl) almost overfloweth.



I think it was the rowdiest booth in the whole of BCF 2008.



Thanks to the association for giving us a good time (and free beer). ;)

I went to the Borneo Cultural Festival 2008 just now to catch the high school girl's basketball competition. The BCF is an annual week long event held to celebrate the diversity of cultures in Sibu and I went to the opening ceremony last night (full write up tomorrow, got a pool party to go to in an hour).



You may recognize the female in the gray sweatshirt from the previous XX Chromosome entry. I didn't want to take photos with minors for that particular category lest I get hauled off for 10 years of jail time and 10 strokes of the rotan (caning). ;)



She looks much better in person actually, and she's a teacher (albeit a very young one).



The girl's basketball competition was surprisingly entertaining (and not for the reasons you're thinking). I meant that in the most platonic manner.



There was a fair bit of competition going on, being a contact sport and all that. It turned me on...to sports. You didn't let me finish speaking. I meant I'm into basketball now after watching all that. ;)



It's my ball. No, it's my ball. The other girls weren't looking at me by the way. The referee was standing beside me and they were waiting for her to make a decision.



...and as we raise our hands in silent prayer,



We beseech thee to be our guiding light in times of duress.



I took too many photos to upload, so here's a video of the girl's basketball competition.



This is my favorite player (in a totally non-sexually connotative way). I just like her repertoire of expressions. :)

Envy Health & Beauty had their grand opening officiated by YB Vincent Goh on the 10th of May 2008. I was supposed to be at a conference that Saturday, but I sneaked out for an hour to support Joyce's and Mary's venture. :)



The interior of Envy has been added with some frills for the press since reporters were coming to cover the opening ceremony.



The people from my company chipped in to get flowers for Envy. Joyce works in my office (we're even on the same floor).



There were already a lot of people there when I arrived (fashionably late, not intentionally, but due to the seminar) and Joyce, Mary and Shirley were there to greet visitors and pass out a bottle of drinking water with a cute bag of potpourri attached to it.



The three girls were all wearing white uniforms which looks really professional.



This is Shirley, who is one of the partners with Joyce and Mary. I just met her that day. :)



I was rather curious about the little name tag located near Shirley's left...er, cardiac region, so I asked her permission to take a very close-up photo of her cleava...er, I mean tag. Thanks for being a sport about the unusual request, Shirley! :) (and please stop snickering guys)



High tea was provided as well, with a selection of local delights for people to indulge in after the opening ceremony.



The centerpiece is a huge blueberry cake with the word "Envy" scrivened - and yes, there really is such a word - on it.



The guest of honor arrived promptly at 10 am, which surprised me a little, since dignitaries usually bring the term "fashionably late" to new heights. ;)



There was an opening speech by YB Vincent Goh, who is the designated VIP of the event and then the ribbon cutting ceremony was held to launch Envy Health & Beauty.



The obligatory cake cutting ceremony was held after that.



The other obligatory event was the ribbon cutting to signify the opening of this new establishment.



The owners of Envy presented YB Vincent with a thank you gift to mark the end of the opening ceremony.



I also took the liberty of putting out a congratulatory ad in Borneo Post for Envy...with a rather prominent self-promoting URL of a certain blog, naturally. ;) It cost me RM 170 which is pretty reasonable for the size.



Heartiest congratulations from sixthseal.com to Joyce, Mary and Shirley. May Envy Health & Beauty be the envy of all other establishments. Okay, that was a rather lame bit of wordplay. :p

Envy Health & Beauty is located at No. 2, 1st Floor, Lorong Pahlawan 7E, Pusat Jaya Li Hua.

There is a previous post about Envy Health & Beauty on sixthseal.com here.