Raya BBQ

collageRaya2008
Swiped from williamnyk.

Staleness Factor: 4/5 - I hope it's still the Syawal month... :P

An eventful Raya this year. Woke up at 7:00am to take my mum jogging at Taman Bukit Jalil. During the jog, mum ran into an old friend whom she has not seen for 8 years. Found out that his wife is losing her fight against cancer. Managed to visit her at the Chinese Maternity Hospital the day after. A fated meet up. After the jog, we had breakfast at Sri Petaling. Lunch was with SK, Ryan and Apollo at Duck King, Jaya One. Turns out that the kitchen ventilator went on Raya holiday, so more than half of the items on the menu were not available. The kitchen staff were sweating like pigs behind the glass and it nearly turned into a strip show back there. Managed to try their famous Golden Roast Duck (excellent), cha siew (good), Golden Sand Pao (interesting pao with hot, dripping filling of custard and egg yolk), Superior Soup Lala (above average), Loh Pak Kou (too salty) and Sweet and Sour Stewed Pork (too sweet for my taste). In addition to the usual chilly sauce and sour plum sauce, the roasted items also came with a mustard dipping sauce! The bill came to about MYR150. Quite steep. But the place was bustling with business anyway.

Post-lunch was at Theotorama Chocolate where we had a Souffle de Paris as a prelude celebration for my birthday. Great chocolate. Rich in cocoa and low in sugar-- my kind of chocolate. After that, I left for an office-arranged poolside BBQ at Pantai Hillpark. I merely contributed the beer for the party and promptly put on my trunks for a quick swim while the rest were doing other preparations. Pantai Hillpark Phase II has a beautiful pool with a bridge that doubles as a waterfall. Although I had minimal grilled food that night (the staple of chicken wings, sausages, ham, baked fish, etc), I still ended up with a sore throat the next day. :(. An enjoyable Raya nonetheless.

On Leave

Can you guys believe that I currently have 43.5 days of annual leave to my name? And the even more shocking news is that I need to clear 23.5 days by year end or it will go up in smoke. For years and years we are asked to fill up our deferred leave forms stating TIGHT PROJECT SCHEDULE, and now they come up with this. Time to go on a looooong holiday and forget about all this shit.

What is your Flavour

If you frequently club, you may know of a mamak stall off Jalan P. Ramlee that serves some pretty good fried noodles. In their drunken stupor and exhaustion, revellers may not notice their unique food preparation methods. But since I work near there, I get to see some pretty disturbing things. A lot of lime is used and prior to frying the noodles, I saw the chef squeeze around five limes into the wok with his hands. There is nothing wrong with that except that the juice is squeezed onto his other hand and he makes a motion like he is washing his fingers with a kendi. Appetizing aint it. The next step would be to wash under his fingernails. haha. But the food is really great. Really.

LRT Obervations 3

Note: LRT Observations 2 didn't quite turn out right. :P. But the comments are welcome anyway. Haha.

Using the Touch 'n Go has no benefit other than to slow down your passage through the turnstiles either due to faulty hardware or limited lanes.

Forget about a single card for all lines. You saw what the One Ring did to Frodo. Just buy individual stored value cards and you will enjoy better access and a even a bonus ride at the end. And you can also avoid the pain of frequent Touch n' Go reload downtimes.

Not being able to squeeze onto the Monorail during peak hours drive many to go further upstream before travelling downstream. Some people at Bukit Jalil LRT do it just to get seats.

I have not tried it personlly, but I guess one either spends the time waiting and praying or spending the time taking the more convoluted route. I guess it does make sense when 5 monorail cars can head down to KL Sentral for every car that heads to Titiwangsa. Always baffles.

More beautiful people and PLUs take the Ampang line in comparison to the Seri Petaling line based on my frequent observations at Masji Jamek and Hang Tuah station. But the Monorail beats STAR hands down. Must be the Bukit Bintang and Imbi stops.

I'm living at the wrong end of the city it seems.

Happy Commuting!

Error in Previous Post

So sorry that there is an error in the previous post, stupid coding. The connection having problem. Will repair it asap.

Sorry for the inconvenience caused.

LRT Observation 2

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IGNvbXBhcmlzb24gdG8gdGhlIFNlcmkgUGV0YWxpbmcgbGluZSBiYXNlZCBvbiBteSBmcmVx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--
Luv,
SheoKun

Hole

I lament.

There is a hole in my soul,

And I cry when it rains.

My shoe laments.

There is a hole in my sole,

And my socks aint dry when it rains.

Sigh. The shoes I bought from Singapore last year have disintegrated. Time to shop for a new pair while my trusty pair from since uni year 1 must come out of retirement. Looks like the Speedy Rhino trampled all over the Crocodile.

m2u

Maybank has launched their all new Maybank2u interface. A facelift and a few jabs of Botox. But it could really use some sheep placenta shots while they are at it. Looks pretty and classier too, but the screen real estate has shrunk considerably and the response time is atrocious. 3 minutes to load a confirmation screen. Goodness. Hope its just a slow recovery after the major surgery. I guess the system tweaking should be finished soon after all these initial performance hiccups for an improved banking experience. I depend on it a lot ever since Saturday banking was axed. In the meantime, I will have to get used to watching the progress icon spin and spin and spin and spin...

Bile

SK had her gall bladder removed on Monday and is now recuperating at a private hospital in Cheras. She is still not well enough to stand and still experiences pain, so she will be warded for a little while longer. However, she is already starting to take some semi solid food.

A word of Thanks to all the well wishers who have definitely made her hospital stay more bearable. But she is also not without entertainment from her 3 8 wardmates. I will give her the honour of blogging about that.

I pray that she will be well enough to be discharged tomorrow.

Tira-Miss-U

Finn Peters @ the Polish Club Birmingham, October 11th. 2008
Swiped from Garry Corbett.

Staleness Factor: 6/5. Before blogging about my own birthday, must get this out of the way first!

Celebrated Janvier's boyfriend's (Lam Lam) birthday at Alexis, Great Eastern Mall some Saturdays ago. Mum was off gallivanting in Johor, travelling around Bukit Tinggi, Kulai and Muar with her posse, so I had a little more freedom. Anyway, Lam Lam is a difficult person to shop for. I don't really know what he likes. Even contemplated buying him a buku latihan matematik! Had to resort to calling Janvier for some pointers. Finally settled on a bedsheet and an Esprit t. It was a surprise party that started an hour late due to logistics and traffic problems. But never mind, we started the reverie without the star anyway. Wine and cocktails were poured. It was fun seeing Alex getting all playful and loud, while even the most composed JL showed some interesting change after a Long Island Tea. I ordered a Bombay Alexis (Bombay Gin, lemon and lime-- blech) and SK a Manhattan (a whole lotta whiskey).

There was a cover charge of MYR25 that night because Finn Peters was playing there. Don't know who he is? Me neither. But the little brochure on the table said that he's UK's best Jazzist at the moment. I have no appreciation of the genre, so I can't really comment. Sounds decent enough. He mumbles like Jay Chou by the way. Must be from all those years on the sax and flute. Played a localized number, Tudung Periuk, but it didn't ring any bells. When Janvier and Lam Lam finally arrived, Lam Lam gave us his best "surprised" look. Keanu would have been proud. The birthday cake was a brandy-laced Tiramisu from a local foodie, but SK and I ordered a slice of Alexis' Tiramisu anyway. Sad to say, the accompanying berry sauce had lost it's alcohol content, but the cake's tecture was still good with loads of freshly-roasted nuts.

A round of Shiraz was poured, compliments of the birthday boy. More chatting. More laughs. More jazz. The night was still young, but I ain't. So, SK and I left a little after midnight.

P.S.: Had a chance to catch up with Des and catch a whiff of his Hugo Boss fragrance. :P (Joe would be so proud)

Eruption

The dreaded showdown between my General Manager and a Project Director did not materialize. If the Project Director turned up, it would have been a clash of titanic proportions. My GM was visibly agitated with all the accusations hurled at us. For all these years, I have never seen him raise his voice. Today, he was nearly shouting at the Project Manager and he seemed to have a wild look in his eyes. However, his thoughts were clear on the matter.

If we cannot work together and keep on arguing about ownership, then I will just walk out of the project. I have better things to deal with.

The truth of the matter is, the partner that we have been working with for so many long years are very uncooperative. A dinosaur that refuses to change but is adamant for others to fit their archaic ways. Musuh dalam selimut. Sigh.

It is not surprising that so far two vendors have failed to work with them. Walk away. Ah, what a prospect.

28

Yes folks, I will be turning 28 tomorrow. The chinese love this number because it sounds like EASY RICH. However, it can also mean EASY FAT. I hope it will be the former for me, NOT the latter. Unfortunately, my birthday coincides with a dark time in my working life. Not quite in the mood to celebrate it really, but celebrate it I will.

My wish list is not updated, so you can all just do me a funds transfer. Thanks. Muacks in advance.

Buka Puasa

DNA
Swiped from williamnyk.

Staleness Factor: 6/5 => A blast from the past!

Whenever KH comes back to KL, it is usually a juggling act of priorities. He has to plan time for me and his family. Ditto for me. Sometimes, scheduling is easy. At other times, clashes may happen and we have to accept the disappointment. Fortunately, his recent trip was very fruitful as I managed to occupy 50% of his time in KL. For 3 days in a row, we got to be together and it felt good (his mother grumbled, "Seeing HIM again ah?"). On Saturday, after work (I got an earful from my boss at 9:00am, but more of that in a dedicated post), SK and I went to pick him up at his home and sat down to lunch at Capri Dessert, Seri Petaling. Had an interesting meal of Claypot Rice with Stewed Ribs and Lotus Root. Also had their Fried Seawood Roll that actually looked like mini mussels after it was sliced. Dropped SK off at her home before proceeding to Amcorp Mall. I bought "A Thousand Pieces of Gold" by Adeline Yen Mah at Books Excess for just MYR17.90 (it sells for MYR42.90 at Kinokuniya!). It's a book about the origins of famous Chinese proverbs. KH even dug up a MYR2.90 gay novel. Haha. At around 6:00pm, we picked Apollo up and I subsequently sent KH home. Apollo and I on the other hand proceeded to a steamboat birthday party at SK's for a junior of mine from Kuantan. Had Ruby Red Absolut Vodka in Ribena. Delish! Jack was also there and little did I know, Apollo was eyeing him the whole night. Hehe.

On Sunday afternoon, I managed to spend some intimate time with KH. It had been more than a year since he had seen the inside of my room. Though the incident happened so long ago, we were both still a little hung up about it. But such concerns quickly took a backseat. Somehow, we found the energy to swim at his condo. Eye candy was a cute adolescent with a tanned and lean body. KH accused me of "purposely" bumping into him in the pool. Hehe. However, we cut short the swim as KH was sneezing in the pool. He blamed me for infecting him with my Post-Orgasmic Sniffle Sydrome (POSS). In the evening, I left for Puchong to attend YB Gobind Singh's Mid-Autumn Meet The Rakyat junket. Horrible organisers. Long queues at the buffet that even blocked the view of the stage. Poor lighting too-- a short circuit rained sparks on YB Loh Gwo Burne. The PA system was really bad and the performances (Indian dance, line dance, hip-hop, etc) were kinda sunk by that.

The main itinerary item on Monday was to visit Aquaria KLCC. I took a day off seeing that I have 28 days to clear by December. In the morning, I did some banking and visited the dermatologist. Then to kill time waiting for KH to arrive, I WIFI-ed at Starbucks Kotaraya. Mel joined KH and I for beef ball noodles at Restoran Shin Kee, Jalan Pudu. I love their broth and beef balls, but the tripe was a bit tasteless in my opinion. Can't say I can compare Aquaria to Singpore's Underwater World as that was too long ago. But it is definitely better than Langkawi Underwater World. Managed to catch the sand tiger shark feeding but it was kinda spoiled by the lousy commentators. The guy was reading off a script in horribly-broken English and it didn't help that the script read like an SPM essay. Skipping that halfway-through, we went back to see the fantastic Arapaimas and Lion Fish. Finishing Aquaria in just over an hour, we wanted to visit Galeri Petronas, but it was closed due to the revised opening hours during the fasting month. So I sent him home and gave him a peck on the cheek... until next time dear...

LRT Observations 1

Someone walks toward the turnstile. He stops halfway to fumble for his stored value ticket but does not find it.

People in that situation normally do not realise that they are obstructing traffic. Please move to one side.

Someone walks to the turnstile and inserts his ticket. It fails to turn. He backs up and steps on someone's toes.

We normally forget that someone is behind us. So please look first. And please don't tailgate.

This community service message is in no way sponsored by RapidKL.

FFK

For those of you of who are not familiar with the Cantonese dialect, FFK is an abbreviation of fong fei kei, that literally means to release an aeroplane. It sounds similar to another phrase that is close to my heart, ta fei kei. That means spank the aeroplane which corresponds to Englishs spank the monkey. But that is another topic for another time.

Back to our original story of FFK. This phrase means to not honour an appointment. To not come when you earlier agreed to. When it is a group thing, I really do not bother too much as less people equals more intimacy, but it is in bad taste to FFK if there are reservations involved. Worse still are people who organize the thing but FFK instead. I really do not know what to say at times. Another wondrous example are also people who do not inform you that they will FFK, but rather drop the bomb on you after you go looking for them.

This Syawal month, i take the opportunity to apologise to everyone that I had FFKed.

Look At Yourself

When peeing at the urinal, some people like to look away, stare at the ceiling or something. On the other hand, some like to take a better aim at actually keep their eyes trained on the "little fireman". So for those of us who like to look, all we can get is usually the bird's eye view. However, an alternative is available at Neway BTS. Along the row of urinals is a mirror right above it, running unhindered from one end to the other. You can look at yourself pee from a frontal view and more interestingly, minimal effort is required to look at the person beside you pee (or maybe even several people). Hehe.

 

I wonder what the real rationale for the mirror is....