Oyster Anyone?

All seven of us headed to Royal Adelphi Seremban last night for our annual Anti-Social Society's Year-End-Dinner, a tradition practised since the establishment of the society. It is also to highlight and celebrate the achievements of the society's members, to set goals for the year 2007, as well as to bond stronger brotherly ties.


Royal Adelphi Seremban is a 5-star hotel situated in the heart of Seremban town. Our buffet dinner was held at the Asiatique Restaurant.

Royal Adelphi Hotel, Seremban.

The highlight of the dinner, as with every other dinners we have had in the past years, was a competition! This year round, it was the "Great Orgasmic Oyster-Eating Competition" between me and Keng Tat (better known as Ah Tat).
Here's a picture of the succulent oysters served at Asiatique:

Click on image for a larger succulent view!

The oysters shown were sprinkled with Tabasco sauce, hence the orangish tinge. Ah Tat needed quite a number of lemon slices for the feat, as he later developed an intense phobia of the fresh oyster smell.

Click on image for larger view!

Ah Tat was very confident of himself in the beginning, thinking he could out-eat me in the "Great Orgasmic Oyster-Eating Competition". He even started to brag about his prowess in oyster-eating the night before our dinner. What he didn't knew, was that I was brought up eating oysters freshly harvested from the sea as my rudimentary food. LOL!

Click on image for a larger AhTat-in-action view!

Ah Tat, although lacking the substance, had the steadiness in accepting challenges and that was very commendable. Some of the members were as pussy as their name sounds. Initially I thought he had some kind of prior experience in oyster-dunking, but later I found out he was an oyster-noob! Needless to say, his bravery was overcame by the feeling of nausea induced by the oysters.

All in all, we dunk quite a number of oysters, with me walloping a total of 55 oysters. Ah Tat had to concede defeat at oyster No.32. The waiters needed to top-up the oysters and lemon slices every now and then to accommodate our competition.

This is the fate of Ah Tat's 33th oyster. Chewed, nauseated, and spewed out and left to rot.

Click here for more on this dinner.

Night of a New Start

Dec 29, 2006 marked the new start of ҜαίخόρЋЯзпїα™. Having noticed that I had been working on the new ҜαίخόρЋЯзпїα™ template the past few days (I still am), Royal Adelphi Seremban had requested that I perform on-stage for their staff Annual Dinner (LOL!). In return for my performance, I get to invite 6 friends for a free buffet dinner from 8-10pm on the same night, plus free advertising exclusively for
ҜαίخόρЋЯзпїα™ (LOL!).

I was of course elated and agreed to the invitation. I performed a rendition of solo drumming titled "Iron Monkey" performed originally by the now defunct Hong Kong Canto-rock band Beyond.


The whole performance was about 12 minutes and ended with thundering applause. Thank you thank you! I then adjourned to the Royal Adelphi's Asiatique restaurant with the guys for our buffet dinner. Free food!!! Yay! (I will dedicate a post on this later)

So, Auld Lang Syne to the 2006 ҜαίخόρЋЯзпїα™, and a big welcome to 2007, and beyond!

To the Dot Matrix template, with President Mao's face, you will always be remembered!

Taiwan Quake Halts the Net

Telephone and Internet services were disrupted across Asia yesterday morning after a powerful earthquake (7.1 Richter scale; Tuesday 1234 GMT) off Taiwan's southern tip damaged undersea cables used by phone customers and web surfers from Japan to South East Asia, and even the United States.


That explains the forever-crawling loading time in Bloggers!

The earthquake damaged submarine cables that form part of the region-wide Asia Pacific Cable Network 2 (APCN2), disrupting local access to Internet services and websites hosted overseas to a practical standstill.

APCN2 is a 19,000km long fibre-optic cable network linking Japan, South Korea, China, Malaysia, Singapore, the United States, Europe, and Australia. The network has been up and running since Oct 2002 and is jointly operated by 26 Asian telecommunications carriers, including TM Bhd.

TM Net said Malaysian Internet users would experience "bumper-to-bumper-crawl" in accessing contents and websites hosted overseas, especially in the United States, Japan, China, Taiwan, South Korea, and Europe. TM Net added it made no estimate of how long it would take to restore normal access, but other service providers in the region said the damaged cables could take several weeks to repair.

To the message posted by mad max, the slow-loading sidebar could be due to the widgets which scripts are hosted in overseas servers. If all goes well after the cables are repaired, and I sure hope it does, that must be the reason. Sigh... this is disrupting the refurbishing process of ҜαίخόρЋЯзпїα™.

Source: The Star Online

TFCC Injuries

It's been almost 4 weeks now since I injured my wrist, and after popping my 16th Celebrex (celecoxib) capsule today, there's still some dull pain even though I have regained my wrist's full range of motion. This triangular fibro-cartilage complex (TFCC) injury is disabling, and sure takes hell of a long time to heal completely!


The TFCC is a small piece of cartilage and ligaments on the little-finger side of the wrist, located just past the end of the forearm bone (ulna). Cartilage is a tough rubbery tissue that acts as a cushion for the joint. The ligaments are strong bands of tissue that attach the cartilage to bones in the wrist. The ligaments or cartilage can be torn during a wrist injury.


So how did I injure this little small piece of pain in the arse?
Answer: A violent twist to the wrist while handling that Yamaha Virago 500.

Of course, that's not the only way to have your TFCC torn. You could also achieve the same damage by falling on an outstretched hand (if you're lucky, you could break some bones in the process too!), a direct blow to the little finger side of the wrist or hand, or even when you're playing racquet games.

Once you've torn your TFCC, the symptoms are easy to spot. First, you will experience pain on the little-finger side (ulnar side) of the wrist. Secondly, there's a characteristic clicking sound or feeling of a catching sensation when moving the wrist. These 2 symptoms, coupled with a history of trauma, is enough to warrant you a course of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (ie. NSAIDs, eg. celecoxib, ibuprofen) for 3 weeks. But if you think that your surgeon is incompetent or has nothing much to do, you could ask for an X-ray, an arthrogram, or even an MRI just to be sure!

Here's how a TFCC injury looks like on a radiograph (that is, if you're good at interpreting one):


But it's just a small tear, why the long healing time? That's because only the peripheral 15-20% of the TFCC has a blood supply (Wheeless' Textbook of Orthopaedics - TFCC Anatomy). You may wanna read more on this at Wheeless' Textbook of Orthopaedics Online on TFCC, and TFCC examination.

To the guys who kept asking me "What the fuck happened to your wrist?" or "What the fuck happened to your biceps strength?" in the gym, that's what happened. And it's not in the biceps, fuck-heads!

Related post: The Diagnosis

Cobra on Federal Road

Cobra, cobra, on the road,
don't mistake me for a toad.

You read it right! I spotted this sohai cobra in the middle of a federal road in Cheras few days ago. Hello cobra, this is city area, the fuck you doing on a city road?! This little fella damn brave, it stared-cock at every vehicle that dared to pass it. It has this menacing stance which turn at each approaching vehicle and the stare glued on till the vehicle disappears in the distance.

I snapped a pic of our little friend while waiting the traffic in front of me to move. On my left is a Honda Accord which lane was obstructed by our menacing little cobra. The dork in the Honda blared its car alarm (which was damn loud and has multiple musical tunes) to my dismay. The cobra didn't budge an inch. Stupid idiot, can't you see a cobra doesn't have ear lobes like us human?!

So much for increasing the toll rates! Come on Pak Lah, make our road safe and clear up the cobras, pot holes, and flash floods. Then we talk money!

Toll Hikes!

Come January 1, 2007, seven new toll rates will kick into action! This list is released by the government, and the hike is freaking scary! And the first four tolls are the tolls I use frequently in KL!

LDP - RM1.60 (previously RM1)
KESAS - RM2.20 (previously RM1.50)
Cheras-Kajang, Batu 9 - RM 1.00 (previously 70 sen)
Cheras-Kajang, Batu 11, RM0.90 (previously 60 sen )
KL-Karak-Gombak - RM5.00
KL-Karak-Bentong - RM3.00 (previously RM2.50)
Guthrie Corridor - RM1.40 (previously RM1.00)

There are also rumours of an impending petrol price hike of more than RM2.00 per litre (currently RON97 RM1.92/L)!!!!!

WHAT THE FUCK MALAYSIAN GOVERNMENT!

It's time to plan forward and invest on the Ultimate Riding Machine, the BMW R1200GS which has a tank capacity of 33 litre and a full tank range of more than 700km! (there I go again!). Come on guys, think of it. The government is running out of land widening roads and highways, they are resorting to this lanjiao idea of driving us all to ride. Like what the Singapore government did to their kiasu people. I can smell the compulsory C.O.E. (cert. of entitlement) for cars being implemented real soon...

Jibai... I wanna ride!

L-licence

I collected my motorbike Learner's licence this morning, and it looked like this:



I was surprised. I applied for the Class B licence (500 c.c. and above), but on my L-licence there was an additional class, which is Class C ! This Class C is for motorcycles with 3 wheels! Having an additional Class C licence means I can ride trikes, like these:

and this...

Cool, I didn't know going for Class B automatically gets you a Class C in the process! Malaysian JPJ (Road & Transportation Dept.) system rocks!

Here's a comparison between the old and new Malaysian L-licence:

Shut up, that was an old photo from Secondary 4! I look much more charming now!

I'm required to do this act during my JPJ test, so currently I'm gonna practice with my 100 c.c. scoot. I'm excited!

RM 105,100.00!

A phone call to Auto Bavaria Malaysia sent my heart pumping with excitement! A brand new BMW R1200GS is priced at RM 105,100.00 OTR! They come in Yellows or Reds (I fancy the red version)!

Sadly, the Adventure version is not here yet on Malaysian shore, but what the heck I could always ride it down to Singapore to kit it out with Touratech!
Man, when is my L-licence gonna be ready?!

Sony NW-S203F

With my disabled wrist due to a TFCC injury, I couldn't even lift a 5kg dumbbell. That means upper body exercise and weight training is totally and absolutely out of question. That left me with my lower limbs - running!

But to me, running is a very boring activity especially if you're alone and needed to burn more than 400kcal in say a period of 30mins. I needed to act fast in order not to turn into a fat fcuk just because of an injured wrist! And so, I acquired the NW-S203F Sony Walkman (1.0 Gb) for RM499.00 in Jusco last nite:

NW-S203F out of de box!

Yeah, I could easily get an underwater 2.0 Gb version for RM400 on ebay, but it wouldn't come with the arm strap, nice ear-hugging earphones, nice shiny purplish box, manuals, original CDs, and most importantly I wouldn't have gotten it at 9pm sharp last night!

Stripping off my new NW-S203F slowly...

And I immediately loaded some 100 lock and loll songs into that small test-tube-like walkman, and after sending my nahning to work this morning, I utilised it's pedometer function and burned some 300+ kcals at the Lake Garden, to the tunes of lock and loll...

This piece a shit gizmo is easy to use and very intuitive. I just needed to read the basic operating functions and the rest was just exploring the menu and I was running in no time. Initially I had set my mind on the following two music players:


The latest Sony NW-S700F which comes with in-ear earphones and the new noice-cancelling technology, currently retails at RM599 for 1Gb, RM699 for 2Gb, and RM799 for the 4Gb version (not yet available on ebay M'sia). Another contender is the almighty, one-and-only, forever cool iPod Nano 2Gb similarly priced as the new Sony with the same capacity.

Sadly, Jusco in Seremban 2 is so "ulu" it haven't stock up on the latest Sony. And the new Sony has no pedometer function, and it's more expensive too! When you're running, you don't wanna cancel out all the ambient noice till you can't even tell you're gonna get butt-fucked by a lorry, do you? And hence, the haste decision. *(pls bear with me I'm just fcuking reasoning my brain out of feeling guilty for the money spent!)

The Diagnosis

I wished it was a simple case of a sprained wrist which would heal in a week or two. Turned out there were more to it than the naked eyes could see. While the pain on my right wrist had started to subside, I noticed some crackling noise on the ulnar side of my wrist in the past two days.

Concerned, I went to see two orthopaedic surgeons this morning and both concluded that I had a Triangular Fibrocartilage Complex (TFCC) injury.

This TFCC, also known as the 'wrist meniscus', functions very similarly to the knee meniscus. It provides a continuous gliding surface for the wrist's flexion, extension, and rotational movements, as well as cushioning the forces transmitted through the ulnocarpal axis, to name a few. Injuries to TFCC present with ulnar-sided wrist pain, often accompanied by clicking. Diagnosis clinched!

In my case, the cause of the injury was a distraction force applied to my right wrist when I attempted to stabilise the 500cc Yamaha Virago, with both my legs straight and astride the tractor-like bike. Moral of the story is, whenever you're gonna ride a low-seated cruiser bike, always place your arse on the seat before trying to lift it off the side stand. Simply because these bikes have lower seats and thus lower centre of gravity, making any pulling of stabilising them more difficult and injury-prone.

That said, I had to wallop these NSAID pills for 3 weeks. No weight-lifting for the next 1 month, I guess. Damn...

"Long Way Round"

Got this book titled "Long Way Round" today from Borders. It is a travel narrative featuring Ewan McGregor's and Charley Boorman's trip around the world on the BMW R1150GS Adventure. This paperback version cost me RM44.50, in contrast with the fully-inllustrated hardcover version which makes your wallet some RM120 lighter.

Long Way Round is a trip which spanned some 20,000 miles across increasingly tough terrain through Europe, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Russia, across the Pacific to Alaska, then down through Canada and America.

I heard there's a DVD version of the TV talk show available. Would definitely grab it after I'm done reading this book. And then, there's another book of the same genre titled "Two for the Road", which narrates a British couple's intercontinental journey which spanned 300-odd days on their BMW R1150GS Adventure.

BMW R1200GS Adventure

I can't get enough just staring at photos of R1200GS, so I decided to make the first step of acquiring one yesterday! Yes, it is indeed a big step and it burns quite a huge hole on my pocket. Yesterday morning, I woke up to a dream. An orgasmic dream. Click on the video icon below to view my dream:

Click here for my wet-dream video with R1200GS Adventure.

And the first step I mentioned was... to start getting my B motorcycle licence. It was not an uneventful procedure though. In my haste, or excitement you may call it, to ride on the 500cc Yamaha Virago learning bike, I underestimated its weight and tipped towards the right side. My reflex kicked in and my right arm held on tight to the handlebar and pulled the bike back to the upright position. That saved my face from the many small kiddos looking at me with morbid jealousy from their Modenas kapchai. What I did not know was, I fcuking sprained my right wrist! And the pain kicked in full power this morning.


It's ok, what's a sprained wrist compared to riding a BMW R1200GS Adventure and globetrotting around the world?! It is nothing compared to riding the GS and doing a cornering like that in a foreign land:


For now, I have to wait for another week for my Learner's licence to be issued. Just enough time for me to rest my wrist. By next week, that Yamaha Virago will be dead meat. I promised my right wrist I would open its throttle all the way to redline in the testing circuit! And probably do a cornering so low I could touch the tarmac with my ear lobes too, if the Lord permits.

Should you wanna read more on R1200GS and planning to be my globe-trotting partner, here are the links. Don't shy-shy ok.

• BMW R 1200 GS
• BMW R 1200 GS Adventure
• The R 1200 GS mainpage
• The R 1200 GS Adventure mainpage
  

My wrist... aaarrgghhh....

What's next?

I've recently summitted Mount Kinabalu (4095.2 m) and challenged a grade III river (Padas River white water rafting). So what's next? The adventure beast in me is aching for more.

Do you have the slightest idea what your purpose is in life? Knowing your purpose motivates your life. Purpose always produces passion. Nothing energizes like a clear purpose. On the other hand, passion dissipates when you lack a purpose. Having summitted Mount Kinabalu puts everythig into perspective... I'd discovered my purpose in life.

To set things into motion, I've set plans and goals to achieve:

Goal No. 1: Gunung Tahan, Pahang (2,187 m)

Gunung Tahan view

Why Gunung Tahan? Simply because it is the highest point in the Peninsula and the trekking up to summit and down takes 5-6 days, which is challenging.

Goal No. 2: Kala Patthar, Nepal (7,161 m)

Kala Patthar

Kala Patthar is a mountain in the Nepalese Himalaya. For many people, the main reason to summit Kala Patthar is that it provides the most accessible point to view the highest mountain in the world, Mount Everest. The ascent is relatively easy. I've planned this trip with someone and it's tentatively in year 2008, if the Lord permits!

Goal No. 3: BMW R1200GS

Dubbed the "Ultimate Long-Distance Motorcycle for Serious Globetrotters", BMW GS models are the most commonly chosen bike by adventure motorcyclists and travellers. R1200GS is a successor to the very famous R1150GS, currently still very much sought after. In 2004 the R1150GS Adventure was made more popular after being used by actors Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman in their journey The Long Way Round, which involved riding from London to New York by going east across Europe, central Asia, Alaska, Canada and the USA.

The R1200GS, packed with 100BHP, would bring me thousands of kilometres away from home. Getting to know distant countries, continents and cultures; and bragging "I rode all the way to China from K.L." is simply orgasmic. Whether asphalt, gravel or bumps - it is immaterial because it takes me everywhere completely comfortably and reliably. Heat, cold, drought, wind and rain - it all quickens the heartbeat, because it lets you know you are on the road. The BMW R1200GS defines the standards for the ultimate indestructible adventure motorcycle. It is a perfect synthesis of agility, touring suitability and off-road capability.

My virginal trip would be tentatively beyond 2008, and it would start from Singapore, crossing Peninsular Malaysia and Thailand, Myanmar, Bangladesh, India, and finally Nepal, and all the way back.

Goal No. 4: Mont Blanc, France (4,808 m)

Mont Blanc

Mont Blanc is the highest mountain in Western Europe, and summitting it would be an icy and snowy affair. This trip of course is costly, and I would take 2 months sampling wines all the way up the summit!