Drinking-while-driving and there’s no place to store your drink?

Yea, i know, it really sucks.

Sure, sometimes there’s someone next to u who can be a drink holder, but then the person might over-tax the drink n leave u with nutin. Besides, the hands always make the drink warm.

Now, a solution to all the world’s drink-driving problems.

Behold…… The Drink Holder!……

Ta daa!

The super-duper expandable drink holder from Daiso is here. This customizable mama latches onto your window and doesnt let go. Got a little 330ml can of beer? Just pull it out halfway, and stick d can safely in there. No more will u be fumbling around for the can and crash into a house.

That would spill the whole can dammit.

For da ride

Got a high 500ml bottle instead? No sweat, expand The Drink Holder to its max length, and the bottle hangs out snugly inside, with no spillage. It can be shortened to hold glasses too.

Stay!

Unlike those ring holders, this one’s much more stable, holds bottles, and the all-round wrap helps keep the drink insulated and cold. Its polypropylene, with a minimum temp of minus 20C and a max of 120C. Just stick the hook in between the window and the rubber edge.

Its another one of them very handy cold-retention gear that was reviewed here before, to add to d collection.

Sweet deal at 5 bucks a pop, and comes in grey & black. There used to be blue too. Got them at Daiso in the car accessory aisle.

Great gifts for alco frens. Go get em before i buy them all.

Anyway, will revert if am throwing any session.

Happy Independence day yall! Lets make this country much better.

Its at the back of an ol wooden bungalow, and the family has been supplying most of the toddy shacks in Banting for three generations.

D joint. Unmarked

Mix n match

The toddy is pretty good, and served chill. Since its kinda light, we added more intoxicants into d drink, mainly Guinness FES.

And the food is good. We dug into wild boar, turkey, monitor lizard, mutton and chicken. O yea, quail too.

The spot is located in a shaded area, with chickens and turkeys loitering.

Biawak - bony

Bantaaai!

Niga reacting to his first taste of lizard

Deep-fried mini-birds

In session

Cosy enough, compared to some of the shitholes i been to

Hours

The bar

Locating it is real easy if ur comin from the Kesas Highway. Its at Telok Datok on Route 5, just before Banting town. Gotta turn into a lil driveway that’s easy to miss (on your right if Klang is behind you. Gotta u-turn further up under a bridge and come back around). It looks deceivingly like any other family home. Located here.

Great way to spend a Sunday.

To cart away bodies

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Brain damage: 7.5/10

..the TTDI lok-lok truck. Great advise for everyone. Proof that good things happen at drunken lok-lok sessions, main one being d food.

I could live my life on this one. Some woman was talkin to her friend, another woman. Dont know what it was in relation to, but thats not important. (verbatim, but i added a line)

Speak your mind

Don’t hold grudges

Always move on

Live in the present

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Simple enough, no?

The sky was cloudy, and there was no heat. The weather was perfect. So got busy and started tasting all the beers available in a very organized manner. There were like 20+ to go thru.

Tried the new Jaz Fresh, which was launched two days prior at Bon Ton. Significantly better than the regular Jaz, so i had two rounds. The tasting portions were between a third and half cup, but some beer distributors were more generous.

Jaz Fresh is only served in two-liter kegs

Guests choosing their beers

A relatively new player called CDA has brought in beers like Fuller’s, which is a family-run brewery with a 150-year tradition, Birra Moretti, and Estrella Damm, which has been brewed in Barcelona since 1876.

An award-winning beer

I enjoyed the London Porter ale (5.4%), which is a traditional dark ale and very flavourful; almost coffee-like. Porter is centuries old, kinda like the origins of the stout. It was the drink of the masses in London long before lagers were conceived or modern ales were fashionable.

A major diff is that many porters are aged, usually in oak barrels, making it more complex.

Fuller's ESB and London Porter (UK), Birra Moretti (Italy), Estrella Damm (Spain) among the candidates

Guests enjoying trying chilled new beers

A major distributor with about a dozen beers on the day was Luen Heng. One of ‘em is Chimay (Blue) (ABV 9%, Belgium), an authentic trappist beer, ie a beer brewed by or under control of Trappist monks. It’s one of few beers that improve with age. Only seven such recognized monastery breweries exist, mostly in Belgium.

Monks eh?? Damn alcos.

Another fave

L-R: Chimay, Hoegaarden, Stella, Erdinger Weissbier, Erdinger Dunkel, cheeeks, Pure Blond, Budweiser, Savannah cider

Luen Heng is a distribution arm of Carlsberg Malaysia, and bring in the products pictured above, except the chicks.

An afternoon of good variety in a semi-outdoor setting

Kenny, organizer

Sengeting with fellow guzzler Joyce

Some guys managed to try my homemade strong cider too, Baad Apples™ (ABV 10%, Kuala Lumpur). Feedback was good – i cant keep up with the orders!

Then Vijen of bakita brought out more artillery – grass-infused vodka. Bak’s Bison Grass Vodka (ABV 41%, Poland). Superb. Extremely smooth, taken neat.

The grass that bison feed on is a herb that’s believed would – yield grand power, increase stature, and add youthfulness. Check, check, and check.

Green Dragon springs to mind, a grass-infused vodka a friend produced. But its a different type of grass.

Zubrowka - grass-infused

Left after 8pm. Goddam.

It was a good event, providing exposure for less-common but high-quality beers. Too bad Craft Brews and GAB did not take part this time.

Fortunately, Kenny and bakita plan to do the event again, possibly on a monthly basis and grow it from there. To stay posted about Thirsty Sunday, you can check back here or the COCKTALES group on FB.

Well done Thirsty Sunday! Its about time some initiative is taken to do such events in this country. (Note: Next Thirsty Sunday Sept 19)

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Brain damage: 7.5/10

Congrats Geoff.

Was there Friday afternoon for a pre-opening sneak preview n a coupla drinks.

Geoff setting-up. If ur pregnant & drunk u can deliver babies here

Looks nice n cosy.

Construction party

To celebrate the opening, its happy hour all day & all night until the end of September on ALL taps – Tiger, Guinness, Heineken, Kilkenny, Strongbow & Paulaner! Booya!

D bar

This where i rather be at -

Just throw in some bacon to me every coupla days

Pleasantly surprised with Beijing. It’s clean, very green, and organized. Pretty good for a city with 17 million people! I had heard before that its pretty messed-up place.

The Chinese have cleaned up their act, especially since the Olympics two years back.

Tried all sorts of food, bought all sorts of stuff. The tour didnt really include drinking, so did a lil on my own.

The common beers there are light in alcohol and taste, like Beijing Beer and Tianjin. Prices vary, average 5 to 10 bucks a large bottle, tho i did score a large cold Tianjin for $2.50 from a fruit stall! The ABV hovers around 3.8%. Good for brunch or as accompaniment with lunch.

Managed to tapau two bottles of iced rose wine, a plum wine, a cherry wine and some clear liquid that came in various bottles sizes, up to the five-liter cooking oil-style plastic ones. The percentages varied between 40 and 67%. I went for 42%. Will test & report, but it’s probably like Lao Lao and Langkau. But i think Chinese people dont drink very often. Sure lose to Malaysians.

Hit dis top house club there called The World of Suzie Wong. It’s styled like a big ol opium den for most parts, and a club on the second floor.

Have always been fascinated with the Great Wall, so it was a real trip being on it.

Well here are some of d pictures.

The exterior of Suzie Wong

Beijing Beer, a typical that Chinese prefer. Light & a lil creamy

A very efficient way of cleaning a huge-ass place like Tiananmen Square

Mao's always watching. Entrance to Forbidden City

Backdoor, Forbidden City

Trishaws that give you tours of Bar Street

The awesome lake by Bar Street. Yes, many bars here

An old Chinese mosque

Some street food i had - loaded with spinach leaves i think. The ones on the far side looked like chapatti

A common dish of the Xinjang people from up north, who are mostly Muslims. Everything has shitloads of capsicum in it

View of Great Wall, from Great Wall. Goes on forever. Well, about 3000km

View from d top

It gets pretty steep just to walk, dont even talk bout building it way back!

Damn tourists

Souvenirs. L-R: Rose wine, cherry (haw) wine (2002), moonshine

U get to relearn English

Brain damage: 1/10

The food is actually authentic Thai. With good selection of grills.

More on that later. Our first drink was a giant margarita. Like fuckin huge. U could lose your face in it.

As compared to a large pack of fags

This is the Funky Rita, with four layers of flavour & colours ($67.85 net). It will take u ages to go thru this frozen stuff! Maybe an hour. So its best to keep this as a side drink while u have your main drink. Its def d largest glass of cocktail i’ve ever attacked.

My fave part is d top, which is a strawberry mix. There are like nine frozen cocktails dat come in these gorilla glasses, like Mama Alexander (rum, Tia Maria, coconut cream)  and Peach Alexander (Cognac, Creme de Cacao, peach liquer).

Tripped out, as the outlet is inspired by Koh Phangan's full moon parties

Melon Colada shd make a decent dessert – rum, Midori, coconut cream, honeydew & vanilla ice-cream.

Totolly trrropikal marn.

Illusion - fruity

We also had some Illusion ($29.90) (Vodka, Malibu, Blue Curacau, Midori, OJ). Strong shit. But like any such cocktail, goes down quick.

I gotta say for a Thai joint, d place has quite a few drinks in its list.

D little food dat we had was great. One amazing dish from northern Thailand is the goddam Ra Hum On Jun. No shit.

Take me to your dealer

Like nothing i’ve had in my life. Basically boiled egg wrapped in fishcake ($15). Am not really a big fan of either one, but man. The eggs are boiled to i dunno 85% or sumtin, so its not totally hard yet, jelly-like, and combines with the spicy fishcake topped with sum salad to blow your mind outta yor skull.

For sharers

After recovery we dug into some platter. Tong Lo ($55.20). This one is kinda a good grill sampler of seafood, tenderloin, prawn cake, spring rolls and a mango salad. For a couple of alcos like me & Byron, we had a tough time finishing it coz our stomachs were full of margarita!But i gotta say, the outlet’s grilled food is excellent. A great accompaniment for drinks. There’re also loads of That tapas.

The menu is very extensive. Makin a choice could be a problem! There are six Thai chefs there.

So our food escapade ended right there, and we moved on to the Nutcracker, a cocktail of vodka, Irish Cream, Amaretto, hazelnut liqeuer and a lil vanilla ice-cream.

Yummy

The outlet is labelled as a Thai Grill & Wine Room. It does have outdoor BBQ, as well as some wines. There’re actually several sections to it – the dining area inside, the bar  area, the cushy lounge, the patio, and the newly-launched Balcony & Funky Villa.

Loungin

Barcony is a mezzanine floor, more like a balcony. A great spot for private parties or BBQs. I watched this fish (below) being BBQ-ed – lemongrass-stuffed, (thru d damn mouth) salt-baked sea bass, a northern delicacy. I tried a lil. Niice.

Pla Krapong Tod Sam Rod. Seriously.

The semi-outdoor Balcony

They got sum sweet lunch deals:

OK wat

Happy hours – noon till 6pm – $51.75 for two pints Hoegaarden, Stella or Connor’s. ($63.25 from 6pm-10pm). Carlsberg pitcher at $41.40 from noon till 10pm. Funky Villa opens till late.

Beware the crazy bird..

Yes.. beware

Well, no he wasnt a cop, obviously. Or i wouldn’t be writing about him.

He was a guy that improved my life, by creating Guinness.

Arthur’s dead, btw. He was killed heroically trying to save the secret recipe for brewing Guinness from enemy spies from a rival brewery.

However he managed to chew up & swallow the recipe, then quickly killed himself before they could make him talk.

Kidding. His real story is here.

As i posted about two months ago, looks like Arthur’s Day has now evolved into an annual event. This year it will happen in selected cities in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Europe, and North America.

L-R: Fuzz, Nina, Thaitanium, Timba, Shuvit

The launch took place last night at Live @ Sunway Pyramid. Was not planning to attend, so didnt have my camera on me. Anyway, the line-up was announced – Timbaland (US), Thaitanium (US/Thailand), Pop Shuvit (Msia), DJ Fuzz (Msia) and Mizz Nina (Msia).

Dont know why Timbaland named his ass after a shoe brand. He just spelt it wrong.

Anyway good amounts of Guinness variants – draft, Premium Lager and Foreign Extra Stout made d event festive. Funnily enough d door gift was a half-pint glass for Guinness, which i returned to them coz my kitchen’s really run outta space for anymore glasses!

Arthur’s Day is gonna happen on Friday, Sept 24 in Sunway Lagoon. Tickets (dont seem to be on sale yet) are between $98 – $350 from Axcess.

Given a choice, i’d rather not have a third party get ads for me coz:

1. U dont make much from the ads, so why clutter your site with them
2. Ads are usually unrelated to the content
3. I’d rather talk to the client direct to know exactly what they’re lookin to achieve

So if u’d like to advertise your outlet, brand or event on this site, u can talk to me direct: deep@spin.my / 019 382-4760. Am sure we can come to a very mutually-benefiting agreement, without the middleman. But not if ur in some irrelevant business like cement mixers.

One particular big client came to my agency (i run SPiN, a marketing & PR agency) after approaching one of the blog network companies to do an online campaign. Get some bloggers to write about them, tweet for them, and build and maintain their FB page. I quoted them about 50k for the 6-month timeline.

The blog company’s quote? $300,000.

Out of which, the bloggers get a small sum, while they keep the rest. The bloggers lose out, and more significantly the clients lose quite a bit.

Every blogger has e-mail. It doesnt take a brain surgeon to figure out how to contact them and discuss an arrangement. And by talking to friends and associates, its pretty easy these days to decide which blog you should use. And they are methods available to determine the impact of your ads or advertorials.

I think there are too many layers between clients and writers/bloggers. Client goes to their media agency. Media agency goes to nuffnang/advertlets/whoever. These people finally approach d writers.

By then, the cost has gone up like 5 times coz everyone wants their cut. Clients dont always get their money’s worth.

Well, maybe they got too much money to throw around. But I think small to medium companies should deal direct with the particular blogger. It’s easier than it seems.

Anyway for now, am on my own!

If things don work out, dont really matter. I wont starve. And companies like nuffnang and advertlets will always be around if I decide to rejoin.

Anyway what do u think bout these issues?