5th Mural - 70's Sibu Bus Station & The Green-White Bus

The 5th mural commissioned by Sibu Municipal Council (SMC) has been drawn on the wall at an alleyway at Blacksmith Road during December last year and this time it is titled an old-school bus.

Some may wonder the significance of an old-school bus at such venue? Those knew the history of Sibu should know the reason.

[Photo taken from the Internet showing the current Butterfly Garden which was the venue of Sibu bus station in 70s]

The green-white old school bus has significant meaning at this area as the current "Butterfly Garden" which is linked to Blacksmith Road through this alleyway was once the venue of Sibu bus station during 70s. At that time, these type of buses were one of the main public transport in town.

Butterfly Garden is the venue of current night market a.k.a. pasar malam and it is a parking space during day time.

This mural was drawn by a popular Sibu figure, Edmund Wong, who is a performer as well as a famous bestman for wedding.

There is an issue having mural at this alleyway as at day time, this place has become a motorcycles parking area which blocking the view of the mural.

If that's the case then there is no point of having mural which the main objective is to boost Sibu tourism especially for Sibu Visit Year 2017.

Visitors will not be able to snap a clean shot with the mural when there are other objects blocking the view which may cause great disappointment for the visitors.

Shell V-Power LEGO Model - Fiorano Shell Station

This is the 2nd week's release of Shell V-Power LEGO Model which is the Fiorano Shell Station.

This playset is modeled after the Shell station on Scuderia Ferrari’s private racetrack - Fiorano track in Fiorano Modenese, near Maranello, Itali and comes with a Shell Fuels Scientist LEGO Minifigure.

There are total of 79 LEGO bricks are used in this model. As the number of bricks are larger than the ordinary car models, thus the packaging is also relatively bigger in size.

There is a small separate package in the main package for smaller parts.

According to the instruction given, we 1st assemble the Shell Fuels Scientist LEGO Minifigure which is pretty easy and straightforward.

Assembling of the Fiorano Shell Station involves 2 major components. Firstly, we assemble the base of the station as follow:

After the base is done, we then assemble the roof part of the station:

Combine the 2 components - the base and the roof to form a complete Fiorano Shell Station model!

The right side view:

The fuel pump view which I particularly like it!!

As usual... there are few extra components as "spare parts"....

The Fiorano Shell Station and fuel scientist with Ferrari F138.

LEGO vs real life photo taken from the Internet:

Some real life photo on the Fiorano Shell Station at Fiorano track taken from the Internet:

Related posts:
1. Shell V-Power LEGO Model - Ferrari F138

Shell V-Power LEGO Model - Ferrari F138

Shell LEGO promotion is finally back to Malaysia and it is definitely a good news for the Shell-LEGO collectors. The last time Shell having the similar promotion is about 3 years ago where 6 car's models namely Ferrari 150° Italia, 458 Italia, 250 GT Berlinetta, FXX, F40, Scuderia Ferrari Truck and a pit crew minifigures set were made available for collection.

This time the promotion is started on 1st November 2015 until 31st January 2016 and what differ from the last promotion is that there will be only one new LEGO model released in weekly basis. There are total of 7 exclusive models to be collected featuring 4 iconic Ferrari cars, a Shell station modeled after the one at Fiorano circuit, Scuderia Ferrari’s private racetrack in Maranello, Italy, a Finish Line podium and a limited edition of Shell tanker.

The following is how you can qualify to purchase the Shell V-Power LEGO models:

• RM9.90 with the purchase of Shell V-Power 97 or Shell V-Power Racing 
• RM13.90 with the purchase of Shell Fuelsave 95, Shell Fuelsave Diesel or Shell Fuelsave Euro 5 
• RM9.90 with the purchase of one bottle of Shell Helix HX5, Shell Helix HX7 or Shell Helix Ultra engine oils

The 1st in the series which was made available on 1st November is Ferrari F138 which is a Ferrari Formula One's car. Ferrari F138 originally known as Ferrari F2013 is built by Scuderia Ferrari for use in the 2013 FIA Formula One World Championship™. Same with Ferrari 150° Italia, this racing car was driven by twice World Champion Fernando Alonso (in blue helmet) and his team mate Felipe Massa (in green helmet).

The name combines the year of production and the number of cylinders – the eighth and final year of the competition for the V8 engine.

42 LEGO bricks are used to build up this model.

 Here are how the model is assembled:

This time around, there is no driver number on the front sticker to choose between Alonso or Massa's car. However, the green cap is still available just in case some collectors may prefer to substitute the blue with the green.

As usual, there are some extra parts after the installation.

More views:

Here is the real Ferrari F138 in action:

Related posts:
1. Shell V-Power LEGO Model - Fiorano Shell Station

Childhood - 4th Offical Mural @ Sibu Central Market

Do you still remember how's your childhood is all about?? If not, the mural titled "Childhood" located at Sibu Central Market level 2 may help you recall some of your childhood memories especially those born in the pre digital age.

This is the 4th official wall arts initiated by Sibu Municipal Council and the 2nd within Sibu Central Market building compound. Before this we have wharf labourer at Jalan Khoo Peng Long, local delicacies series at Jalan Market and wrapped chicken and duck at Sibu Central Market facing Jalan Bengkel's direction.

The most recent mural is located on the wall at eatery section, near to the cloth stalls of Sibu Central Market 2nd floor. It lively illustrated the childhood life around 80's where Internet and digital devices were still absence in our life.

At that time children were playing with toys made of metal or rubber, enjoy the fun of folding paper plane and see whose can fly furthest. Tic-Tac-Toe game is not in digital form, one needs to get a paper, then draw the boxes in order to play the game or the easiest way will be tearing down mathematics exercise book where the boxes are ready drawn!

The wealthier families may allow their children to own a handheld gaming device where Nintendo's Game & Watch was among the most popular at the time. Electronic gaming was pretty primitive at that era where the the device screen is small, monochrome, simple "graphics", less responsive, static and unchangeable game's background as well as very limited movement of the character in the game, normally just 4-5 steps horizontally and the more advanced one may allow vertical movement. Owning one of such device will make the person an idol among their buddies.

One problem of this mural in my personal opinion is the location. As it is located at the eatery section, the tables placed at this area have blocked the view. Another thing is when the tables are occupied during eating peak hours, it may stop people or visitors from taking memorable photos with the mural and for that, the mural couldn't serve its purpose to the fullest.

There are more to explore on this wall painting about childhood life and I'll leave it to you all. I personally like this painting a lot... the best among the 4 murals by SMC Sibu, but I don't like the location.

Taro Bihun and Beef Noodles @ Sibu Central Market Stall No. 52

Sibu Central Market 1st floor has more than 100 food stalls and you may wonder which stall to hunt for good foods?

One of them is stall No.52 specialized in selling taro rice vermicelli a.k.a. bihun. The stall has no name on its signboard.

The cook has been reported in one of the local newspaper for this unique cuisine. The report also mentioned that he was once the apprentice under famous Taiwanese celebrity's chef named "Ah Ji Shi 阿基师".

I believe this is the only place you can find this cuisine in Sibu. The taro are nicely cooked, easily break apart and melt in mouth. They're hot on fresh serving so you may need to be careful when put them in mouth to prevent scald.

The broth is tasty with some mushrooms, celery and pork added, but if you are not favor of celery's smell, no worry... there is no celery's taste at all. RM 5 per bowl and it is quite big serving.

Another cuisine which you can try on this stall is the beef noodles a.k.a. mee sapi. There are 2 variants of beef noodles... the normal one and also mixed beef noodles. I have tried the mixed variant which actually added tripe and tendon to the noodles besides the beef. The tendons are soft and easily chewed.

The only thing I personally not as favor about is the use of yellow noodles in preparing this cuisine as the rounded yellow noodles are thick in size, so when the broth is thin or doesn't have extra flavoring, the boiled yellow noodles may appear tasteless. Anyhow, that's the type of noodles used in preparing beef noodles around the region.

The mixed beef noodles priced at RM 5 per bowl and the normal variant only RM 4.

There are other type of local delicacies served at this stall such as Foochow style cooked or fried noodles and so on. This is one of the stall at Sibu Central Market hawker food center which worth you a trial!