Celebrating a coal free future for Sabah, the Power to the People Party taking place at First Beach in Tanjung Aru next weekend, promises power, and party, for the people!

It’s a serious intention by people who love Sabah to get down to party and celebrate the people’s victory over coal in the state.

The party will be epic, says the organisers, and you must be insane to miss it. They promise all sorts of chaos like an urban market place with absolutely everything.

There will be organic veggies, solar panels, cup cakes, art, all sorts of dancing, capoeira (what’s that? come find out!).

Also, Ultimate Frisbee, Zumba Latin-inspired dance fitness with Michelle Koh, local and wholesome organic food and drinks by Hinompuka Catering.

There’s more: displays with NGOs and Citizen Movements, Green Surf’s Green Energy Campaign celebration of the launch of Project XXX – an exciting new initiative for Sabah, Borneo and the Pacific Rim.

All this to slamming beats curtesy of DJ Fine China, Asian Duo, DJ Phat Brown and Papi Johntoy.

What does it cost? Nothing. It’s people power baby, so be at First Beach Tanjung Aru this 1 April from 17:30 onwards.

Here’s to the People’s Dubs Dubs Dubs!

SabahBah went to Bella Italia Pizzeria & Ristorante the other Monday to sample the all-you-can-eat Monday Pasta Madness promo. At RM30 it really is madness.

The Monday Pasta Madness deal is that you pay RM30 and you can order as much as you can eat from the special menu created for this promotion.

The catch is, you have to finish your plate before you can order the next dish. This is all good and well, but the drawback is that you have to wait a while for the next dish, which could take some time if the restaurant is busy.

Moving on, the Monday Pasta Madness menu is fairly concise with 3 choices each across 4 sections, which are Soups & Salads, Tomato Based Pastas, Dry Style Pastas and Cream Based Pastas.

A quick bit of math and you’ll notice you have a choice of 12 dishes in total.

In the time we were there, between 2 people, we managed to have a soup, a garden salad, and 3 pasta dishes.

The soup was Minestrone, which came out nice and hot and was quite tasty. We also had the Garden Salad, which was crisp and fresh, although the dressing was a tad too tangy for our palates.

A must-have pasta dish for SabahBah is always going to be the Aglio e Olio, which is a fairly basic pasta dish with lots of olive oil, garlic and chili. Bella Italia’s version didn’t disappoint, although they were careful with the chili, perhaps because a large portion of their clientele is westerners, who don’t always appreciate chili as much.

The 2nd pasta dish was the Marina; a pasta with mixed seafood & chili. Again the chili was light and the tomato was prominent, but overall not bad.

The final pasta dish, by which time we were already filling up, was chosen from the cream-based section. For the sake of a balanced review, you see? We chose the Salmone, a rich dish with homemade smoked Salmon and parsley. If you’re a fan of smoked Salmon, you’ll love this dish, but beware, it’s quite heavy, so perhaps not on a nearly-full stomach.

Between the laid back pace of us eating, and having to wait in between courses for the next, we actually filled up good, and positively struggled to finish the last dish.

Bella Italia’s Monday Pasta Madness is value for money and compliments their regular menu, which is well worth checking out.

Santa Clause and Santa’s Little Helpers, the Elves, will be scaling Mt. Kinabalu on 13 & 14 December.

But shhhhhh, don’t tell the kids, it’s actually a staff team from Raleigh Borneo raising funds for their Host Country Venturer Programme.

Raleigh Borneo is the local chapter of UK-based Raleigh, which has had a permanent base in Kota Kinabalu since 2002.

Over the years, Raleigh Borneo has facilitated over 3,000 volunteers from around the world to help rural Sabahan communities build basic necessities, such as gravity water feed systems, kindergartens and community halls, in nearly 100 projects.

The Host Country Venturer Programme

The Host Country Venturer Programme enables local youngsters to join Raleigh Borneo by subsiding the cost of their participation and enabling them to make a difference in their own communities.

“So far only RM 13,000 have been raised”, said Yolanda Graham, Raleigh Borneo’s Recruitment, Support & Media Coordinator (and one of the Elves climbing the mountain). “It will help fund just 2 Malaysians in 2011, but we’re hoping to raise enough funds to sponsor 10.”

Yolanda says the focus of Raleigh expeditions are to help youths discover their abilities and develop their confidence, benefitting communities and the environment as they go.

“In short”, she says, “our challenging and purposeful expeditions help make better citizens. And better citizens make a better country.”

More Donors Needed

Donors who have made contributions include Borneo Divers, Shangri-La Rasa Ria Resort, Popular Express and JR Pharmacy.

Sutera Sanctuary Lodges have offered lower accommodation fees for the climbers and Sabah Parks has waived entrance and permit fees.

“We are pleased with the encouragement so far. It shows that people are aware of our efforts and believe in our work. We hope more donors will come forward to support our youths and ultimately contribute to the good work throughout Sabah,” said Yolanda.

To make a contribution and donate to this worthy cause, contact Raleigh Borneo at raleighstreamyx.com or call +60 13 880 2134.

Not that anybody really needs a reason to drink beer, but Firefly Bar & Grill is giving you 1,000 good reasons to just that.

What you do with that shot in the allotted minute, shoot or sip, is up to you, as long as it’s finished by the time the next minute rolls around.

Firefly is taking this challenge to a slightly more competitive level by offering those who can successfully complete this challenge a RM1,000 cash bonus. Of course, you have to pay an entry fee, but at RM160 you can get over 600% return on your investment… if you complete the challenge.

The challenge is that in the 1 hour and 40 minutes duration of the game, you will consume 3 litres of beer, assuming that the shots are around 30ml each. According to WikiPedia, the average stomach can comfortably hold 1 litre of fluid, although it can expand up to 2 or 3 litres if pressed (and depending on the person).

The bladder, on the other hand, can hold between 300 – 500ml of fluid, but it depends on your size and varies between people. Physiologically this challenge is thus quite possible looking at what the body is capable of.

But external factors will determine how much you can hold, how quickly you have to go to the loo, and whether or not you will actually be sober enough to complete the challenge.

Firefly’s rules says if you pee or puke (in whatever form), you’re disqualified. Also, if you manage to not complete a shot with it’s minute, you’re out too.

The competition takes place every Monday and 1 November 7 people took part, of which 3 completed the challenge. If you want to take part, zip on over to the Firefly Century Challenge Events Page and see what you need to do.

May the hops be with you.

In recent years Growball Cinemax in Centrepoint neglected their facilities, equipment and customers. But competitor cinemas have forced Growball to take action.

Dropping the Ball

The start of 2010 was a low for Growball. Customers were complaining, new cinemas were popping up and Kota Kinabalu got its first 3D Cinema, courtesy of GSC.

After a series of particularly bad experiences, SabahBah, and many others, finally had enough and stopped going to Growball. Growball, more than likely, noticed the increase in complaints and the decrease in customers.

Getting Back on the Ball

Fast forward 8 months and we found ourselves back at Growball to watch a movie that only showed there.

Much to our surprise we noticed that Growball had undergone extensive renovations. For one, the stairwell leading up from the 6th to the 8th floor have been carpeted and padded, immediately lending a quality feel to Growball’s foyer.

So far we’ve watch movies in cinemas 5 and 7 and both cinemas are like new (others might also be, but we can’t confirm). The bare cement floors have been carpet, the walls have been neatly padded with acoustic materials, all the seats are newly upholstered, solid and comfortable, and the sound quality has significantly improved.

24 Oct 2010: SabahBah saw Buried in the notorious Cinema 3 and unfortunately no renovations have touched this cinema. Not sure if the sound has been fixed, but it was certainly not 100%, the floors are still bare cement and, because the movie was relatively quiet, the next-door karaoke was annoyingly audible through most of the movie.

Growball’s partial response to their customers have been noted, and in doing a little bit, have probably saved their business from certain demise. Growball can once again offer a wide selection of movies at the most competitive prices in Kota Kinabalu – and in quality in the cinemas that have been renovated.

3D Coming Too

The restaurant/function area opposite the entrance to cinema 8 has closed down and is currently being converted into a 3D cinema. With this edition Growball might actually give GSC a run for their money (assuming all theaters will be renovated).

We won’t be holding our breathe, but will keep a keen eye on Groball Cinemax in Centrepoint.