This is Sibu’s oldest billboard. And under the billboard, it’s an old Sibu-style kopitiam.

For your information, ladies and gentlemen. This kopitiam is Wi-Fi ready. Despite its out-of-style tables and chairs, post-war style lightings and fans, we could actually bring a wireless laptop here and blog!

This kopitiam is open until the early hours of the morning, so if you can’t sleep and need a supper, this is the place for you.

This is a good friend of mine, WongPK. We’ve been friends since the primary school and whenever we’re back in Sibu, we’ll come out and limteh here. He’s holding his Wireless-capable phone and surfing the net through DeConnexion. Thus I said it’s Wi-Fi ready. It’s not the cafe’s own connection. LMAO. Pardon the exaggeration at the beginning of the post.

While chillin’ out, we would ponder at the golden triangle nearby and discuss on the latest development of our beloved Sibu town. If I’m not mistaken, I remember that the local MPs had promised that Sibu will become a City by the year 2008. I’m sure every Siburian is anticipating that particular day.

Will it happen?

WongPK and I were both in Sibu and as we’re having our talk cock session in Tiong Hua road’s famous kompia stall, I thought of a rare visit to our secondary school nearby. The last time I visited the school, it was still under the Philip Chan administration, and everything was in a mess. That was like 6 years ago?

We arrived at the school gate and someone pulled the new alloy gate open. They’ve actually hired a kid to open and close the school gate. I’m not sure whether it’s their student or their employee but he looks like 12 years old to me.

After 6 years, I felt like I’m standing in a real school. Not trying to be sarcastic, but 6 years ago, I’ve to say this should be the worst school in Sibu in terms of discipline. Academic and sports performance were under-par than that of its glorious past.

The new school hall.

And then we have the old one.

We used to be “baked” in this “oven” during the afternoon, where the lack of classrooms meant that we’ve to wait inside this hall for the morning sessions to exit before we could enter their classrooms. Assemblies were held there too, where Mr. Roger Tie (a.k.a. Bruce Lee because of his resemblance of the late Star) was the disciplinarian-in-charge. He’s the one every samseng-kia fears, as he strolls around the hall with a cane in his hand looking for naughty students.

Why do they fear him? Because he’s like the punisher in a jail. Swiping his rattan cane over your butt and everyone else could feel the pain, too. Just make sure it’s not you who’re being canned, or else you could save the money for Valentine’s day coz the flower will be growing off your butt. (It literally means in Chinese as, break your butt. It’s that painful.) But that was more than 6 years ago. Last I’ve heard he’s been transferred and promoted to become a School Principal. My prayers go to the students of that school.

Anyway, back to the school, I felt really glad that it has a refreshed new look, plus all the new buildings. Students are mostly good kids, from the looks of it.

A healthy body equals a good mind and spirit. So they built these grounds for the students to exercise. To the right, they have a full-sized football field. During my time here, the best we could resort to is a muddy, patchy and uneven, ¾ sized football field. Period.

Hua Seng – KTS Centre. This pretty much means that KTS sponsored the cost of this hall. KTS is a famous trading company in Sibu dealing with construction materials, timber products, Gree Air-conditioners, construction equipments, marine products, STIHL products, and more. Hua Seng is their sawmill’s name.

The Dark alley. On the left is the new hall. I could imagine this alley to be samseng-kia’s favorite spot, if this was built 6 years ago. I couldn’t stop repeating it, can I? It’s just that bad during that period of the time when it feels like we’re in the dark ages. Now they even have a proper counseling room and a Anti-Drug group formed to fight drug abuse.

Overall, the whole school was renovated and beautified with additions of gardens. I’ve lost counts of their gardens with various different themes.

Chinese Style Garden

Angmoh Style Garden

Small Garden

Big Garden

SPBT Garden

Chinese New Year decors everywhere. Oi, who left the school bag there?

Feels like walking in Chinatown.

Before I wrap up this coverage, here’s a little wishes for my old school…

May your vision come true, Sacred Heart!

This is the first ever time I had been in a Blogger meet. Thanks to WongPK for the lead. It was a good chance to know the local blogger’s community, even though it’s only 6 of us, plus Suituapui, the super commenter, it was a great outing.

Ben Hui (representing BengBeng), Clare, Alex Jienster, Alex myself, WongPK. Suituapui is dealing with something else at the background.

This is where we had our meet.

This is what we had during the meet. Going clock-wise, starting from the left is Salad Fish fillet (Honestly I don’t understand why they’ve to call everything that has Mayonnaise in it as Salad.), Char Kueh Tiaw with sauce, “Mani” (a local vege, sometimes called the Lakian chai.) with egg.

Topics discussed tonight were about the local blogger’s recent activities, the worrying state of the current economy, blog income. We also mentioned Wuching, Lilian, Clement Wong, Sixthseal, Kennysia, Zewt, Kukuchew, Kukujiao, Neo, Rojaks, LinPeh, AhPek, MonkeyWong, and more.

BengBeng, as per requested, your photo is not shown. He’s a really friendly guy with unlimited topics for us to go around. Without him I think this meet would really be a dull one. LMAO. Thanks for sponsoring the night’s light dinner!

Clare, to be honest, I have yet to visit your blog until today when Jienster told me about it. Now that I’ve known, I’ll visit more.

Suituapui was my Form 4 & 5’s English teacher. He only appears in the blogosphere as a commenter and a guest blogger at Mylongkang.com. He’s enjoying his retirement life right now. Have fun dude!

Alex Jienster is a guy currently studying in Melbourne. Alex and I had to clarify ourselves multiple times as our name clashes and had misled bloggers of our actual identity in some comments section. For your information, all my comments will be named under “alexallied”, and he’ll be as “alex”.

I’ll be leaving for Miri this afternoon! See you guys!

Sushi (寿司) was introduced to Sibu about 3-4 years ago and there are now 3 sushi restaurants in town. Sushi is one of my favorite snacks/foods and I would be craving for it every time I got back to Sibu, cause here in Bintulu where I work, there’s no such thing as a sushi restaurant - although until recently there’s a fusion restaurant providing Japanese food.

This is Sushi Tie. Tie here, is not what we guys wear to a formal interview, or meeting, Tie here is actually the surname of the restaurant owner, meaning ‘pond’ in Chinese.

The shop ain’t big on the inside, but the way they arrange and sets their furniture makes it big enough to serve up to 50 hungry sushi-lovers at one time - approximately lah.

Yapunese-stail decorations, as Rojakz Wingz would call it.

The best thing about this restaurant is that, all the prices are very, very affordable, compared to Miri’s Shiki, and Sushi King’s, and other major sushi restaurant. Despite the low price, the quality of their food remains at par to those of major restaurant’s. That keeps me coming back.

Their menu. My favorite Unagi set is sold for only RM12.90. Where can you get a cheaper sushi mean than that? How much is that in Sushi King btw?

The Unagi set. Favorite to both my wife and I.

Next time when you visit Sibu, remember to pay this shop a visit. Worth a munch!

P/s: There’s even a forum thread in Sibu.org dedicated to Sushi Tie.