Dolphins In Swan City

Recently if you walked onto Sibu town, near Chamber Road or adjacent to Sibu Central Market you will notice a very eyes-catchy and shiny stainless steel dolphins sculpture being placed among the zen balls fountain.

This ain't a new thing for Sibu people as the sculpture already being here for almost a month now. For a town which is surrounded by swan sculptures (as Sibu is called Swan City by local politician), the existence of Dolphins certainly brought some attention as well as argument to Sibuian especially about the significance of the art work.

Me too had doubt about it at the first place. Why dolphins? Sibu isn't near to any beach I guess and is not the local council keep promoting Swan mascot to represent Sibu?

My doubt and perhaps most Sibuian's curiosity were answered on the day where the sculpture was officially opened on 20th November 2009 by 2nd State Finance Minister Wong Soon Koh. A memorial arch built adjacent to the art work explained everything.

This sculpture is actually owned by Sarawak Ho Kang Yu Clan Association which is a joint project between the association and Sibu Municipal Council as an effort to beautify Sibu town thus develop its tourism industry.

"The dolphin has universal appeal, symbolizing freedom, joy, grace and serenity as well as uplifting the spirit of many people." I think this sentence carved on the arch explained why dolphin is chosen.

To my understanding, I think the authorities concern wish to use dolphins to represent the friendliness of Sibu people. Well, in my opinion it not sounds too convincing but acceptable.

The mascot was positioned to face South-East as according to Feng Shui, this position signified harmony and prosperity. Hopefully by this, it will bring happiness and good luck to all the people in Sibu.

Well, as a whole, no matter you believe in Feng Shui or not, or you still conceptually doubtful about the mascot, one thing that we can't deny is that its existence definitely had added more color to the town of Swan.

Mini Motorbike Show @ Sibu Gateway (1)

This was an unexpected event I bumped into when I passed by Sibu Gateway this morning. If not mistaken it was organized by SeDidik Sdn. Bhd., a non-profit organization managing child and family development program for Sarawak Economic Development Corporation (SEDC).

It was a mini modified motorbike show participated by about 9 participants. It was an eyes-opening thing for me as I didn't expect local youngsters willing to spend so much money just for their beloved motorbike. Perhaps it is not too over if I said the bikes are their 2nd wife in life! ^^

I don't have long elaboration on each of the displayed motorbike, maybe you just take a look at the photos I shared and for those bikers, I believed you will be a good judge for them.

This Benson & Hedges decorated bike quite impressed me. For those who might not know, Benson & Hedges is an international tobacco company, which its cigarettes products were very well-known in our country once. However, I didn't notice much of its cigarettes anymore in our local market recently. I am not a smoker, so I maybe wrong for this. You are welcome to correct me if I made a false statement. ;)

Anyway, the gold and black combination of color which is the main colors for this branding were applied on this motorbike. Under the hot sun, the "golden bike" seems to be very outstanding thus it was one of the center of attention for this event.


Even its exhaust was very neatly decorated. I guess this is one of the dream for most of the motorbike lovers.

The following was another well-modified motorbike. I didn't know how to elaborate on it, but I think the modification had changed its original look entirely.


The disc brakes were impressive and the exhaust was hide under the seat.

Another modified bike on display...


A Sarawak patriotism modification with Sarawak's flag color yellow, red and black...


... and last but not least, the all black modification...



These are only part of the modified motorbikes I shared out for the time being. If you wish to see more impressive and attractive modification, please stay tune. I will reveal them in the coming posts and believe me, they are far more explosive than this!

Review Of Fleet Smash Power FT-555

Here is the replacement badminton racket for my Yonex B-2000 which cracked last week. This time, it is not Yonex anymore. I understand that Yonex is still one of the most favorite brand in badminton sport, but that's also the reason it's price is higher than other equivalent products.

So, this time around, the brand of my choice is Fleet. Maybe this brand is not as well-known as Yonex in badminton products range and it not yet be seen on international tournament, but recently I noticed the rise of this brand for being the major sponsor for various local badminton competitions.

As claimed, Fleet is a Taiwan brand using Japan technology. Japan technology sounds confident to me, but that's not the reason I bought this racket. It is the key features of the racket as well as the price that attracted me.

I am not sure the exact model of this racket, it should be Fleet Smash Power FT-555 (by combining the printed wording on the racket). I tried multi-time searching for information regarding this model, but just can't get the exact one. Perhaps it is a phased out model?

Anyway, who care? What I am more concern is its usability. The first thing impressed me at the very first sight is the weight. It is light and good to handle.

However as a player who prefer attacking style, a light weight racket doesn't bring advantage to me. Lighter racket will only mean the power of smash will depend more on my arm strength. Well, I am pretty confident of my arm strength, so I would like to give it a try. ^^

The price is pretty reasonable, affordable, and suits my budget. That's the main reason of my choice! RM150 with free string, grip, bag, wristband and a pair of Fleet stocking, I just couldn't find any reason to reject it. It is probably a promotion item.

The frame is made of Hi-Modulus Graphite while the shaft is made of Utility Titanium High Modulus Graphite. Sorry, I couldn't elaborate further on these technology terms, what I know is just they are some sort of latest technology material used to produce the racket. For an amateur badminton player, I guess that information is sufficient for me!


However if you look carefully on the shaft, you will notice it is flattened in the middle. This is a new technology in badminton racket evolution which give extra flexibility to the racket. A flexible shaft said to be better in defensive playing where you can flick the shuttle further and easier.

I found that it is quite true. I think it was the combination of light weight and flexible shaft that gave me the backhand hitting experience that I never had before. Backhand which require much wrist strength tends to be a weakness for me, but with this racket, I could perform it with less energy yet more accuracy.

Talking about the smashing power, well... with 23 lbs of string tension compare with 18 lbs on the old racket, I not dare to say the power was double up, but I am pretty sure that the smashing sound was pretty scary! My smash became sharper as the light weight of the racket allows me to bend my wrist easier.

However I still couldn't get use to the drop shots with this racket. With the used amount of energy applied to the drop shots, the shuttlecock tends to get too high or over powered. I think it is the matter of getting used to the racket. I am sure the situation will improve after more practice.

As a whole I conclude that I personally feel that Fleet Smash Power FT-555 is a nice badminton racket to have especially if you prefer a light weight racket with flexible shaft. It gave me a good experience of badminton playing and I am looking forward to the next badminton session!

Bye Bye To My First Badminton Racket

Badminton is the only sport I still engaged in currently. I got a very primitive badminton racket who had accompanied me for more than a decade. It is a Yonex B-2000 badminton racket which I owned it when I was in secondary school (but I forgot which year). It was the one and the only racket I ever have so far.

As badminton was not my favorite sport during schooling days plus my financial status at that time disallowed me to own a better one, this basic badminton racket became my choice. I forgot its exact price, but if not mistaken, it was RM69.90. Having such racket at that time was consider a luxury spent for me.

The racket had accompanied me to every badminton session since then. Even after I came out to society for works where badminton became the only sport to keep fit, I never felt of changing it. For me, badminton racket is just a tool. How well you can play a badminton game cannot fully depend on the racket, but is the skill that speaks.

However I won't deny that once you got the skill, then a better racket can push your performance to the highest. This is when the racket starts to play its role. Anyway, I not really care as I play badminton for exercise and not for competition. As long as I can serve well, smash well and play the game well with that racket, I will consider it as a "good racket". This is how I felt of my primitive Yonex B-2000 all these while.

Of course you can always argue with me that I was looking for tonnes of excuses to support my points above and hide my stinginess. I got no objection on that as this is a democratic country where everyone has the rights to express their own opinion. The most important thing is - there is no ISA applied on this argument!

Back to the topic about my first badminton racket, last week when I was playing as usual, I noticed some strange sound from the racket when the shuttlecock hitting the ring. Suppose it should be a solid sound, but it wasn't. I could sense it could be some cracking at some part of the frame.

After the game, when I examined the racket, I found the crack! It was quite a big crack near the bottom part of the racket head and it was severe! I guess it was caused by myself who love to throw the racket off my hand when I couldn't reach the shuttlecock while playing.

I think I got no choice, but is time to say goodbye to the racket that had brought me a lot of great games and accompanied me for more than a decade! I found its replacement already actually which I will reveal in the coming write up. I am not sure how fast I can get used to the new one, but I promise I will treat it as nice as the old one!

Thank you so much my Yonex B-2000! You are great!

Yamcha @ Payung Cafe

It is a rather "low profile" cafe in Sibu town. Located at a more "isolated" corner of Jalan Lanang, this cafe only available for dinner and supper. Perhaps not many Sibuians aware of its existence.

It is called "Payung Cafe". With the 2 classical look bamboo umbrellas topping the 2 dining tables in front of the cafe and its interior deco plus the soft lighting, this cafe left me with strong ASEAN-culture feel.

As its location is more marginalized from shop houses, the cafe offers a more quiet environment for those prefer a peaceful and quiet dining. Fresh orchids decorating each table with soft music accompanied slow the busy rhythm down and gave the customers a relaxing ambience while enjoying their meals.

It is not fair if I comment too much on the foods served at this cafe as I just went there for some tea time with a friend. Anyway, we were looking for some "light" foods to have something to bite on while chit chatting but the choices were quite limited.

After few round digesting the menu, we finally went for some milk shake drinks which cost RM5 per cup. The cup size was rather small compared with some of the cafes around the town. Anyway, the taste was great with strong milk fragrance. Both of us personally like the taste.

For food, we tried garlic bread with chicken sauce. With only 5 small pieces of garlic breads and some white chicken sauce, it costs RM6. Both the bread and sauce tasted good actually, just the portion is a bit small.

One more thing. You may become donor for the little blood sucking creatures while enjoying your time there. However the shop owner did take some precaution by applying mosquito repellent but that will not totally solve the problem.