“Hey dad, I know you have 2 iPads… if you aren’t using one of them, can you borrow me for few months?”

“You need it?”

“Yes Pa, I often need to check mail on-the-go, especially during critical period of setting up ZenQ Desserts.”

“What color do you want?”

“I want black, all my gadgets are black”

“How many GB?”

“Eh? both of yours is 16gb, no meh? why ask me?”

“Answer la”

“32GB is enough”

2 hours later.

“Come to my office. Your iPad2 is ready”

(Went to dad’s office)

Dad hands over a brand new iPad2.

“Walau, you buy new one for me ah!?”

“Yes. I bought 64gb. If you need this gadget for business purpose – I don’t mind buying it for you”

“WAH!! within 2 hours?! You buy already!?”

“How difficult to buy a gadget? I got “kaki” one mah, son”

WOOOHOOOOOO!!

Now I am proud owner of Apple iPad2, hehehe.

Immediately, I went online to search for iPad2 casing.

I had a casing in mind called “DODOcase”. I witness this company took off in a lean startup competition, and build huge customer base since then. I’ve been eyeing on their products for quite some time now.

DODOcase is also one of the top-notch product in iPad casings.

But, I decided to purchase leather casing from Portenzo instead of DODOcase – they are direct competitors, and both have excellent reviews. The only thing that sets them apart is the packaging. Heh.

Below are the unbox photos for Portenzo iPad2 case. Heard plenty of excellent reviews online.

On one unrelated note, if you’re Malaysian who uses Facebook or Twitter, here’s a short cut way to win MacBook Air.

Portenzo leather casing is handmade in USA and takes est. 2 weeks of shipment time.

I hesitated for………… 3 minutes before pressing the “BUY NOW” button.

You know what?

I did not unbox my iPad2 until my Portenzo arrives.

Do not attempt this if you do not have strong will power. It’ll crush you – spiritually and mentally.

“To open.. or wait… to open.. or wait… to open… grrr..”

It looks exactly like a leather note book. I didn’t have any worries leaving this case in car, or bringing it around, or simply leave it on table, because most of the people will think that this is a normal leather book.

After publishing this post, I cannot do this any more ^^;

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On a sunny afternoon, one of the oldest tree in my neighbourhood fell.

Storm? nope.

Strong wind? nope.

Hit by a car? nope.

Bing sneezed at the tree.. nope.

Termite. Yes! Those tiny little creatures..

According to the neighbours, one old lady were flowering at the EXACT SPOT where the tree landed, 2 minutes before it happened.

Luckily no one was hurt. Sounded like Final Destination to me.

Phew!

If not, not only SESB and DBKK will be cleaning up the area. There will be extra team coming over.. You know what I mean?

The tree fell exactly on electric cables and the branches destroy a water pipe too. Only 4 unfortunate houses in the neighbourhood were affected. No electric supply and water supply until the next day. ONE OF THEM IS MY HOUSE.

Really WTF.

* * *
Our ZenQ restaurant is opening on Nov/Dec 2011. GIMME SOME LIKES BEBEH!!!!

The shop is under renovation. Equipments are on its way… we are coming, we are coming, we are coming :) WOOHOOOO

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ChloeTiffany invited me to Le Safran for their grand opening.

“Eh? I thought they opened long long time ago?”. I’ve been to Le Safran for many times, but never ordered once. *ahem guhon cough cough*

“You’re invited as a food media, and you’re attending the VIP session”.

WOHHHH!! I AM VIP!! (moi kaw xiao)

Perhaps there’s another meaning for the VIP… Very into Promotion. Hahhahah.

Le Safran started their business in Suria Sabah, February of 2011.

The directors decided to do the grand opening after 8 months of operating. “This makes sure we are ready for challenges ahead” said one of the partners, Darren, during the opening speech.

Being the first French restaurant in Kota Kinabalu, the partners keep mentioning about how we lack of local talents due to low demands and low opportunity. So they insisted to use only local talents.

“But kan, I am from Sarawakian..” said Darren. Hahhaha, pengsan.


(Desserts of Le Safra – ohhh HUGE MACAROONS)

There were two food bloggers invited to the VIP session — besides me, another blogger is Hayden.

My first impression was, “OMG ZOMOK THIS GUY SO FIT ONEEEEEE”.

We immediately clicked because we are both so fit.

…… *silent*

HAHAHAHHAHAHHAHHAHA.


(Food are cantik cantik belaka. Uiseh my Malay bulih tahan)

No, seriously.

Hayden studies nutrient in University Malaysia Sabah (UMS), and he visits gym every day (I go to gym too! but monthly lah).

From our conversation, I know he follows a strict diet.. and somehow I am jealous of him. Why this fella has so much will power.

Gotta pick his brain some day. Oh! He was excited about my upcoming dessert restaurant too!

Go ZenQ! :)

Despite so many food were offered… I can’t stop eating keropok. Too addictive ^^;

There’s a mini exhibition inside the restaurant during grand opening. Here’s an interesting one.

The head chef introduced us the most canggih tools too cook/prepare the food.

Even the caviar can be coffee or milk tea taste. You want a fizzy coffee? Can! Just pump some nitrogen into it, and kaw-dim!

Even aquarium equipments were also used. Amazing.

Did I tell you I appeared as cover of Breeze Magazine?

Ladies approached me and say, “Hey, are you the guy that appeared in Breeze magazine?”

“Yes baby. You free tonight?”

Then, appeared from behind….

Crap! The fake SuChung appeared behind me and give us the pose-maut.

Now every one knows I am from Ahbing.com, not the Breeze magazine cover guy :(

SuChung owns a gallery called ProArt, and he is a printer. Damn talented guy.

(Yes, a guy who prints is also known as printer.. I verified from SuChung)

Louis Pang also set up his equipments in corner of the restaurant – aaaaamazing effort! If you don’t know who is Louis Pang, he is Asia’s Top 3 Wedding Photographer, a well known world class photographer. A fellow Sabahan!

/proud

Hayden asks, “Who is Louis Pang ah?”

We all look at Hayden like this… O.O

This is one of the photo Louis took for us ;)

I am the “HAM” — sandwiched by SuChung and Hayden. Usually ham is the thinnest, but in this photo, I beg to differ.

Thanks Le Safran, Dinoza and ChloeTiff for inviting! Glad to meet Hayden and SuChung too!

Okay, this part habis.

* * *

After the grand opening, I immediately joined my partner to discuss the progress of our restaurant. /hint hint – this is the back design of our restaurant. Don’t want reveal too much firsttttttttttttt :P

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I hang on like Spiderman.

Sitting inside a powerful 4WD truck. Been crossing rocky terrain for past hour.

“You’re so experienced in driving these rocky terrains” I said to the driver.

“The road becomes like shit, literally (brown and slippery) after rain. Not every day you see such beautiful roads. These roads are not accessible even after tiny rains.”

“You need to learn how to drive in these terrains” my dad told me, who sits back in the passenger seat.

He continues telling me stories of how his past experience in driving in these terrains.

You see, I am venturing into my dad’s site camp for the first time.. he is doing some forest cleaning.

“You will be working on this project closely with me and my team. Is about time I teach you these skills” my dad told me.

“Err dad.. but I am THE computer guy..”

“Listen to me and just do it. You can do your computer part time.”

T_T /sob

“So…… this is your land? Why so messy one?” I don’t know why I asked this stupid question also. But my dad calmly explains..

“I just started this project. Son, you will be staying here for one month so don’t complain now. Do the complaining later.”

HA?! Cannot manage from office meh? Why need to stay here?!” (thoughts of living without electricity, clean water, mosquitoe bites at night, shower in river — overwhelms me)

“Then I meh have similar experience like you when you were young?” Remembering all the stories my dad told me when he was young.

Exactly

(Somehow I feel excited inside— having the chance to experience these. Next time I can tell stories to little Bing too, like my dad used to tell us)

“Are these logs yours, dad?”

“I wished.” he chuckled.

“Each log costs about RM9,000 in revenue.. and they are every where in this forest.”

“满地黄金” I thought.

(On secound thought — my computer projects memang sound like a 鼻屎 compare to these forestry projects, wtf.)

“You will be staying in one of these room for a month, my son.” dad says.

“Your computer will be useless here. hahahahahahhahaha”. he added.

Look at the building structures.. build of wood sticks only!

Not play play. Whole building might collapse any time if wind blows slightly stronger.

Well, at least there’s shelter and natural breeze the whole day.

Not too bad lahh.

“You can bring your friends here for few nights, it will be a great experience.” one of dad’s contractor told me.

*ting!* New business opportunity :)

Some day, I will learn how to drive these heavy machineries.

Imagine myself wearing long sleeves, wear sakkat hat, sun glasses, and spend hours under the sun driving these monsters.

Most importantly — TAKE A PHOTO!

OOOOOHHHhhhhhh I am going to look so cool. It’s soooo awesome :D

“After having experience in these machineries, your typical driving experience on road will be like kids’ play” they say.

Our main mission in this trip is to move the house of 土地公 (God who protects the land).

The project will be affecting the God’s house, so we moved him to a new spot.

(After getting God’s permission, which I exclude from blog cause that requires more explanation and I’m lazy to write that part ^^;)

This is the 土地公 that will look after his turf and dad’s site.

We usually request blessings for work safety and nothing dirty come kacau kacau.

In the other world, he is The BOSS.

Some times weird shit really happens, and there’s no explanation.

If got chance, I would love to share these experience in Ahbing.com.

You guys love ghost stories or not? (Ad: try Escape the Creeper)

Under the hot blazing sun, it’s a blessing to have a river nearby.

The river is crucial for daily activities, and supports the whole operation. It solves the most basic necessities like shower, food, and you know, you kaw-tim your businesses here too.

The river flows from top of the mountain, so the water is always breezing cold, no matter how hot is the weather.

Should have bring one pair of dai fu if I knew this earlier.

“There’s a water fall 15 minutes walk from here” said one of the kampung guy, who also works for my dad.

“Bah, let’s go have a look lah!”.. (this is how Sabahan speak) ;)

“I want to take nice photos for blog also”.

And we started our little journey to the waterfall..

In order to reach the water fall, we had to walk along the river.

Jumped over logs, hopped over slippery rocks, had a few accidental slips, wet my running shoes — these are unavoidable.

I felt like Bear Grylls, from Man vs. Wilds.

“Hmm, I have a bad feeling about this”.. this thought came while I was taking these [last] few pictures.

And I was right.

I slipped and fell into the river.

The camera dipped into river like how Oreo cookies were dipped into milk

o.O”

PUKIMAKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!” I shouted.

(shouted in my mind only lahhh…)

There goes my camera.

Luckily I didn’t bring my Blackberry and iPod, if not I have to get this BBM deal.

However, I don’t feel sad for the lost of the camera — I do felt more lost on the chance to take breath-taking scenary of the water fall.

Bulu also kembang when I witness the water fall scene.

One of the workers jumped into the waterfall and started taking bath, with soap some more -_- but that’s another story.

Tell you guys more stories when I visit the site again. That’s all for now.

“WHY SO DIRTY!? and why so many bruises?!” my mum asks when I reached home ^^;

I fell into river — like a REAL MAN” I replied.

* * *

PS: Few days later I found camera still functioning :)

PPS: I don’t understand this Halloween commercial from Tiger Beer… I thought Halloween has just past? (disclaimer:ad)

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During Ramadan, I was invited by Dinoza to buka puasa at his hotel, Imperial Hotel.

“Whoaaaa punya banyak orang!” when we arrived. All customers queue up to get get food, all were waiting for the exact “moment” to makan.

Despite the crowds, it’s great to see many other ethnics sit around same table, waiting together with fellow Muslims to buka puasa. It’s very heart warming.

I was busy looking for seats.. ahahaha.

This is my first buka puasa invitation in 2011, missed out another invitation to buka puasa buffet at Hyatt Hotel. I was there last year. Great food and great new friends too.. like John Wong and Angeline.. who you eat with, makes a big difference :)

This year, I get to meet Thanis, famous food blogger from Brunei.

Thanis is a university lecturer, but his real passion is in cooking. He told us the cooking equipments he own.. costs $20,000 in total and had multiple experience in cooking meals for 60+ people.

“People spend money on car modification, camera gadgets and etc… I invest in cooking utensils!”, with a big grin on his face.

I asked him soooooo many questions because I am planning to open a kitchen-related website in future (bet you didn’t expect that). Going to pay him a visit on my next trip to Brunei. Probably write a blog post specially on his cooking equipments ;)

On the same table, I am fortunate to meet Jacquelin and Chris in person, like finally! Also on the same table — my food kaki, Hin Ching.

Went to Irish pub to have few glasses of cold beer. I’ve been spending too much on beers this month. Must cut down, lol.

(but… ice cold draught beer… hard to say no, close to impossible).

If you’re looking for a favor from me, ice cold draught beer is the best bribe, really.

One night of drinking with me, you’re brother forever.

* * *

Reached home at 10pm.. “Why am I home so early?!” I say to myself. So I pick up my phone and simply call a friend.

“Oi where are you? I want to eat Pizza from Party Play

“Uiyoh why your timing so ngam one?! I am here with XXX, XXX, XXX, XXX and XXX”

“Help me order pizza, I’ll be there in 10 minutes”

(Lisa, your face is in my blog! BIGGEST face in Ahbing.com yet.. hahaha!)

OK NOW YOU SHOULD SCROLL BACK UP AND READ WHAT I TYPE.

I finished my own pizza, and their pizzas too.

So damn satisfied #hugegrin

When I reached home, I told my mum..

“I was invited by hotel owner to buka puasa, then had beer with a buddy, then pizza with awesome friends. You got or not?

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