After a year’s break, we went to see the annual Salim Restaurant 1-hour lion, unicorn and dragon dance show.

It’s usually held on the evening of the second day of CNY, which this year fell on the 24th of January.

The announced time was 9.45pm, the actual show started 10 minutes later.

We were very lucky to get a table next to the road where the show was held.

There were 2 unicorns, 3 lions, a “normal-sized” dragon and a giant dragon.

Highlights include Salim tossing roti canai in the air while the 3 lions attempt to catch them with their mouths.

Then Salim and family posing with the giant dragon after putting on it some kind of headgear.

Later, Salim himself took hold of the giant dragon’s head, then ran a few rounds chasing after the “sun”.

Updated 20 Jan 2012, based on The Star Online posted 5.38pm

The Star revealed that the winner is a retiree from Selangor in his 70s, who worked out the winning combination by “diligently studying all the numbers that had been drawn before to find out the trend, then creating number combinations to bet on.”

So there’s a tip for you there.

The paper also revealed that another Sabahan won big recently, RM7.1 million in the Toto 4D Jackpot on 15th January 2012.

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20 Jan 2012 – blogged on the evening of 19th, timed to be published 7.16am

The Supreme Toto 6/58 jackpot has finally been won in the 3644/12 draw on 18th January 2012 at an outlet with address: 6, Medan Hujan Rahmat, Taman Overseas Union, 58200 Kuala Lumpur.

The winning combination:

2 12 24 25 32 33

Apparently only one ticket was bought, so he/she has the RM57,180,496 all to him/herself, unless of course if the ticket was shared with others, which it likely was.

This must be the biggest ever lottery payout in Malaysia’s history. The previous record was RM47.97 million back in April 2011.

This must be the perfect Chinese New Year gift for him/her.

Apparently owned by a Chinese couple trader in Donggongon, Penampang, who are so poor that they can’t afford to repair the car, let alone buy a new one.

[Photo credit: WikiSabah]

[Photo credit: Rooney Biusing]

A few months ago, I mentioned a problem I’m having with birds pooping all over some of my window frames and windowsills.

In looking for a solution, for a while I seriously considered going for those expensive anti bird spikes.

But later on I stumbled upon a very cheap and very effective solution.

The Vinyl Crow costs only RM5 at Daiso.

Just blow some air into it and hang it near your windows. I’ve been using them for months and my windowsills are still spotless. Before that we had to clean them daily.

Now this calls for a celebration with Dutch Masters!

Spotted 14th December 2011 in Keningau.

I call the following letter the 3-in-1 letter because the person to whom it’s addressed resides in Kota Kinabalu, the address mentions “Bangunan MPT” which I think refers to the Town Council Building in Tawau, while the letter itself arrived in Keningau.

The following can be found on the back page of Daily Express (Sabah’s most popular daily) on 8th December 2011.

At first glance it could be misinterpreted as either Sabah not open to any visitors on that day, or everything’s closed on that day.

The Toyota Land Cruiser 80 series was introduced in late 1989, replacing the 70 Series (Land Cruiser II). I first saw it when I came back home for the summer holidays in mid 1990.

Everybody I knew in Sabah called it Ninja Turtle, reportedly due to:

(i) the popularity of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles then, of which comics and TV series made their debuts in 1984 and 1987 respectively;

(ii) its roundness makes it look like a turtle’s shell, and some say its headlights look like a Ninja Turtle’s eyes.

Even local newspapers started naming these vehicles Ninja Turtles in their reports.

When higher-end later models were announced, for example the Land Cruiser 100 series, which was also identified with other names like Lexus and Cygnus, people simply called them Ninja Kings.

In fact, I’ve heard people calling higher-end variations of other models as simply the model’s name plus “king”, example: Unser King.

More than 20 years later, this practice is alive and well in this part of the world, but it seems that it never caught on in other parts of Malaysia, let alone the rest of the world.

Some banknotes in my collection – I believe all of these are still available for purchase online at very reasonable prices.

Libya’s 1 dinar banknote, issued in the 1980s, with Muammar Gaddafi on the obverse. Apart from this, the other banknote featuring Gaddafi is the 50 dinar bill. After the 2011 revolution with overthrew him, Libya’s Central Bank Governor is redesigning new banknotes that will likely replace Gaddafi-emblazoned bills. On 20th October 2011, Gaddafi was captured alive, beaten and killed by NLA fighters:

Iraq’s 25 dinar banknote, issued in 1986, with Saddam Hussein on the obverse. Apart from this, there are many other banknotes featuring him. After the deposition of Saddam in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the Iraqi Governing Council and the Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance issued new notes, understandably none of which featured Saddam. He was captured in December 2003, and was hanged on 30th December 2006:

In one of the worst cases of hyperinflation the world has ever seen, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe introduced trillion-denominated notes on 16th January 2009, including the incredible Z$100 trillion banknote. In mid-January 2009, Z$1 trillion was equivalent to USD1. Forbes Magazine reportedly mentioned that by December 2008, inflation was estimated at 6.5 quindecillion novemdecillion percent (65 followed by 107 zeros):

North Korea’s 100 won banknote, issued in 1992, with Kim Il-Sung on the obverse. Apart from this, the other banknote featuring Kim is the 1,000 and 5,000 won bill:

Hungary went through the worst case of hyperinflation in history between the end of 1945 and July 1946. In 1944, the highest denomination was 1,000 pengo. By mid-1946 the highest denomination was 100,000,000,000,000,000,000 pengo. At its worst, prices doubled every 15 hours. In Zimbabwe’s hyperinflation, prices doubled every 24 hours. The banknote I have below is that of a 1 billion pengo (10 to the power of 9 pengo), issued in May 1946 and withdrawn a mere 2 months later. This is not the biggest ever Hungarian banknote of that period: that’s the 10 to the power of 20 and 21 b-pengos. I am still looking for reasonably priced banknotes of those: