Tonight SabahBah happily received news from Guinness that Arthur’s Day celebrations will return to Kota Kinabalu this year, bigger and bolder than the years before.

To mark the 3rd time that Arthur’s Day is observed in not just Malaysia, but Kota Kinabalu, Sabah and Borneo as well, Guinness is bringing exciting parties, thumping music and – of course – fabulous Guinness promotions to us in the run-up to the big day on 23 September.

Across Malaysia, including Kota Kinabalu, there will be more than 50 Guinness parties to attend for lovers of the famous black stout and, until further notice, Thursdays will now be known as arThursdays and proper protocol for sharing Guinness with your friends it to raise your glass and say “To Arhtur!”.

The Shamrock Irish Pub, The Loft, Cock & Bull and Jarrod & Rawlins, fine nightlife outlets in Kota Kinabalu, will be the choice venues for this year’s Arthur’s Day Guinness consumption.

Arthur’s Day celebrations in Kota Kinabalu takes place on 23 September and will kick of at 17:59, which represents the year in which the creator of awesome stout, Arthur Guinness, signed the 9,000 year lease for the brewery that brought us Guinness.

The celebrations in Malaysia are considered the largest Guinness celebrations outside of Ireland, which is no small achievement as it is observed in over 40 other countries.

Let’s get together to celebrate Arthur’s Day in Kota Kinabalu on the 23rd of September, raise our hearty pints of Guinness and make a toast To Arthur!

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.

What’s the Borneo Headhunters Hat? I’m glad you asked. Come on in and I’ll tell you all about it.

But Ultimate players don’t use Frisbees, because that’s the trademarked name for a toy. Ultimate players don’t play with toys; they play with Ultimate discs, usually made by Discraft.

On a playing field, which is roughly the size of a football field, you have 2 teams with 7 players a side. Off the field teams can be as big us up to 30 players a side.

The field is divided into 3 parts. There’s the playing field proper which is a 64m long central playing area, and on each side of this area there’s an 18m end zone, which is where opposing teams score their points.

To score a point, a player of an opposing team has to catch the disc in the other team’s end zone. And that’s the basics. For more detail, read about Ultimate on sabahultimate.com.

Borneo Headhunters Hat

Back to the Borneo Headhunters Hat: it’s an Ultimate tournament, and the Borneo Headhunters Hat 2011 consists of 5 team of 15 players each.

It’s called a Hat, because traditionally individual players would put their name in a hat, which would then be drawn to form new, random teams with.

The principle remains the same, but we have to adjust the teams based on how players rated themselves to ensure a more even balance. It’s not perfect, but usually the teams come out reasonably balance, which makes for great play.

The Borneo Headhunters Hat 2011 takes place this year on 26 February and everybody is invited to come and watch this exciting game.

Check ou the event’s page for more details.

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.