will i am

Cramped & Crowded III(a): Egg Tart Thursday

2012-01-27T14:38:00.001+08:00

Port-Tarts, swiped from williamnyk on Flickr.

With so many days in HK for us, we decided to shave one day off and go to Macau for a day trip. So early Thursday morning (as early as it can get trying to drag everyone out of bed, especially the kid) we took the MTR to Central to catch the TurboJet to the land of casinos. At Central, we walked and walked and walked trying to look for the HK-Macau Ferry Terminal. By the time we had found it, we had noticed that we had walked right up to Sheung Wan. :S. Kinda wasted an hour there. Luckily my brother bought me a coffee from Pret A Manger to perk me up. At the terminal, we ended up buying tickets from a reseller called Beng Seng. They were very aggressive and assured us that their prices were cheaper than TurboJet. Having no energy to verify that fact, we bought from them anyway. At least they were genuine tickets as we were able to board the 11:00am vessel. The TurboJet's ship was super huge. Built kinda like an airplane with stewards and 'in-flight' magazines. The trip took about an hour and during that time, BIL endured the wonders of sea sickness. The Macau Ferry Terminal was quite large and clean. Upon arrival, we were already bombarded by offers of 3-hour city tours by tour operators. My sister had the bad luck of going for one of those some years back and was left with a bad taste in her mouth. Just point and see from the van. Another con job. Having secured a walking tour from JL, we decided to start our journey at the Ruins of St. Paul's. Took the bus from the ferry terminal and found that people in Macau are quite homegenous with those in HK in terms of attitude!

Moi: How much is the fare to St. Paul's?

Driver: (pointing to the sign)

Moi: How much for four adults, one senior and one child?

Driver: I don't do the math, I just take the money.

Errrr... I should have just gave him HKD1.00 since he doesn't know how to count. A nice lady assisted us and told us to dump in HKD16. The bus was quite and empty, and at every stop, and pre-recorded voice would let you know where you were. Reminded me of buses in Barcelona. The moment we hopped off the bus, we landed in Pastelaria Choi Heong Yuen, a rival of the famous Pastelaria Koi Kee. BIL started the ball rolling by eating Portugese egg tarts, while mum and I went almond biscuit shopping. Bak kwa in Macau come in such obscene sizes. So thick and large (wink wink). Full of porky goodness. From there on, we crossed from the Leal Senado Building on Avenida de Almeido Ribeiro to Senado Square with its beautifully paved floors (turns out that the government paved most of the areas near the tourist attractions, very much like in Barcelona) and gaudy Chinese New Year decorations. It was decked out in lanterns and humanoid lanterns. Flanking the square was the pristinely white Holy House of Mercy. Continued to walk towards the ruins, but we stopped midway to eat, eat and eat in the drizzle. BIL went around bringing back fried chicken and pork chop buns from Cafe E.S.KIMO, fried salted chicken popcorn, pepper meat pies and more Portugese egg tarts from Tea Plus!

Having had our fill, we continued on to Rua de S. Paulo, passing by all the flashy shopping in Senado Square. With all the commercial shops jostling for retail space, the food outlets look like just holes in wall. The road up to the Ruins of St. Paul's was a really a gauntlet of tourists, pastry shops, free food tastings and souvenirs. Shops let you eat to your heart's delight. Not stingy with the samples at all. And for good reason-- customers buy and buy and buy!

"Are you full yet? Not yet wor. Lets go another round!"

I did not have high hopes for the Ruins of St. Paul's because it is basically just the glorified facade of a church, but.... it was quite nice la. A nice place to take photographs. A nice location on top of a hill with long steps and flowers, quite scenic. Even climbed up the facade to have a view down the hill. Did not go down the crypt though. A few cuties roamed around the place, which I had faithfully documented for my readers. Enjoy!

Cramped & Crowded II: Time to Yum Cha!

2012-01-26T11:19:00.001+08:00

Fountain in the City, swiped from williamnyk on Flickr.

We started the day by taking the MTR from Wan Chai to Sheung Wan. Had my first taste of the MTR and doing it during morning rush hour can be quite stressful. The trains were fast and frequent and commuters behaved like a stampede. Our destination was Lin Heung, an old place for the yum cha experience. Took us some time to navigate the streets. My brother was our organic GPS. And knowing how accurate GPSs are, we took the scenic route to the restaurant. Food was on the second floor. Upon arrival, a very bengis old waiter barked at us:

"Find your own seats!"

Every table was taken. We had to circle the tables looking for an opening. Felt like vultures waiting for an antelope to keel over. In the end, we tumpang at a table with an old man and two women. The 'legacy' waiters quickly dumped bowls and cups on our table and asked what tea we wanted. Sensing trouble if we hesitated, I blurted out "Ti Kuan Yin"! A few more shouts later, the waiter scooted off to get our tea. Sitting down, I observed that the interior was very noisy. Waiters in white uniforms were dancing around the tables dispensing super hot water from kettles. On the ceilings, many empty birdcages were hung, perhaps used in years past. Group after group of waiters sat down at a table in the corner having giant bowls of white rice with plates of steamed pork. The key to dim sum esperience there lies in a long piece of order chit. Whatever food you get must be stamped on it. No order chit, no food. And so, when the trolley comes, people rush up to the cart with their order chits in hand and start grabbing. Don't expect the cart to ever reach your table if you're far from the kitchen. BIL just took whatever was available. No luxury to choose.

"Pau? What pau you want? Want so many pau for what!?"

The old man who sat with us explained that the restaurant was one of the better places with fresher ingredients. However, we weren't wow-ed by the food. Tried stuff like char siew cheong fun (quite good), beef balls (with dried orange peel inside ack!), kuih melayu, lotus seed paste pau (comes with salted egg yolk inside), char siew pau, duck feet pau (wrapped with beancurd skin with prawn and pork) and layered cake (many layers of beancurd skin alternated with egg and dried orange peel). Even when leaving, we were practically thrown out.

"Please don't linger here!"

From there, we took the MTR to Central, then walked a short distance uphill to the Peak Tram. The seven minute ride was quite interesting with an incline of forty five degrees. Initially, one could see buildings sprouting up on both sides, but as we climbed, it was all greenery. Arriving at Peak Tower, one couldn't shake off the feeling Genting Highlands. The shops selling souveniers and what nots were just too similar. Going further up, we reached the observation deck where one could get a wonderful view of HK over the harbour with all its skyscrapers. Visibility was quite good and it wasn't cold or windy at all. Didn't go into Madame Tussaud's. Good enough having seen Bruce Lee and Michelle Yeoh. On the way down, I stood because there weren't any more available seats. Could really feel how steep it was!

Next up was Mong Kok. Another place full of energy and teeming with people. Walked around a bit and grabbed a cooling mango drink from Hui Lau Shan. Ended up in Lui Yan Kai, looking very much like an orderly night market. Nothing uniqe as each stall was a copy of the next. Clothes, sequined-slutwear, a-string-of-pearls-to-cover-your-beaver underwear, smartphone accessories, soft toys, counterfeit bags and some food. Similar to Petaling Street, the stalls were usually manned by immigrants. The enforcement officers were very strict, making sure that every stall did not cross the designated red border. Drizzled and rained a bit, making the experience a bit troublesome.

For dinner, we ventured back to Wan Chai. Settled for a cher chai mien shop in a secluded alley. Basically just mix and match, but the order chit was completely in Chinese. I choose clear soup noodles with kuchai flowers, stewed pig's ear and roast pork neck. An excellent choice on a cold night. On the way back, saw a bunch of old ladies offering ta siew yan services underneath a flyover. For just HKD50, you get a full package of curses and hexes to throw at your enemies. In their arsenal are clogs wrapped with paper tigers, the White Tiger. The would smack a paper effigy of your enemy while muttering their magic. All over one can idols in makeshift altars of cardboard boxes and incense. Before going home, made a short stop at the markets to buy some groceries for breakfast the next day! Ended the night drinking a bottle of cheap wine with peanuts at home. Zzz...

Cramped & Crowded I: Sparse to Dense

2012-01-24T11:43:00.001+08:00

Divergence, swiped from williamnyk on Flickr.

My sister bought tickets to Hong Kong approximately one year ago. I wasn't too keen really, but what the heck, I've never been there. And it isn't mainland China, so I guess I shouldn't be phobic about it. A family trip with mum, bro, sis, BIL and little Cyan. On Tuesday, I woke up at 3:30am to prepare for the trip ahead. BIL's little brother sent us in an Avanza. Had to fit four at the back with all the luggage and all, so we had to do some 'hovering' for forty five minutes or so. An ass-numbing experience. Definitely not as enjoyable as having your ass plowed for the same amount of time. LCCT was actually quite busy even at that ungodly hour and I saw several cute twinks here and there. Perked me up better than a cup of kopi o. Our boarding gate was Y1, the infamous gate that is hidden at the domestic departure. Doesn't even have a toilet! So I went to the loo and was greeted by a PLU who was taking his sweet time powdering his nose. Hebat. The flight was quite pleasant. The in-flight fried rice was horrible. I think they over-dosed my meal with MSG. Definitely above the legal limit. Arrived at Chek Lap Kok Aiport twenty minutes ahead of schedule. Very large and the toilets were squeeky clean. Waited at the arrival hall for a Mr. Singh to pick us up, but there was no sight of him even after we had loitered around and settled our Octopus cards. Turns out that the arrival hall has two entrances! Really unexpected. He was waiting at the other side. He motioned us to follow him to the car park. He zoomed ahead at Warp Three, stopping a while to see if we were following. Mr Singh is a without a doubt a Hongkee. Hahaha. Rush. Rush. Rush. From the van, we had a great first glimpse of Hong Kong. Very scenic especially when we were crossing the bridge on the North Lantau Highway to the city.

In forty minutes or so, we reached Wan Chai, where our apartment was located. In my mind, I was thinking of a white building with a compound like we we have back home, but in reality, it's a nine-floor building with just an entrance from a busy sidewalk on Wan Chai Road. Getting down, I experienced firsthand the crampness and the crowds! Ugh. Felt like I was always in someone's way. And the surrounding buildings were really old, true to the wiki article that highlighted Wan Chai's urban decay as it's hallmark feature. Didn't know how to get into the apartment building (password required) as I had forgotten to print out the guide from the welcome kit. Luckily a resident let us in. At the lift lobby, we also hesitated on where to go as the lift controls looked very funny.

Caretaker: Where do you want to go?

Moi: Ninth floor.

Caretaker: Ninth floor!? Of course take the lift la, takkan take the stairs?!

After that little gift of Hong Kong sarcasm, the old man pressed a mysterious little button and the lif opened. We quickly rushed in. Up on the ninth floor, we were once again presented with many choices. Crap, the information didn't quite say which unit! Luckily the landlord's wife arrived not long after and opened the door just beside the elevator. They were still cleaning the place. Two rooms, two bathrooms and a kitchen. Fully-furnished. And there was a sofa bed in the living room. Paid cash to the landlord's wife to settle the six days of lodging and we left for lunch while they tidied the place up. Our first stop was actually Bowrington Road Market, one of the few open air wet markets left in Hong Kong. Bowrington Market is full of fresh fruits, vegetables (a beautiful green!), pork, waxed meat and live seafood (geoduck! scallops! jumping prawns! dancing fish!)! For some reason, poultry's rare. Bird flu? Very lively and colorful. Everything looked super fresh! Maybe it was the cold weather. Then we bumped into a hawker selling dried abalone.

Madam Abalone: Buy, buy, buy! This abalone is good and cheap! Only HKD160 per tael! Buy more, free more!

My mother gravitated towards her and was kinda sucked in by her marketing talk. At the table, there was also another woman choosing abalone. She had a big of abalone but wasn't quite done selecting. The seller encouraged my mum to buy six hundred grams of it, which translated to sixteen taels. That came to HKD2560. My mum did not quite gauge how much money that meant. I just told her that by buying so much, she would have zero spending money left for the whole trip and dragged her away. Further down the road, we saw another abalone seller. With also another woman at the table selecting abalone. Further observation revealed their modus operandi. They worked in pairs. The woman was a planted customer. We could see that they were muttering under their breathes and giving each other secret glances. And the 'customer' would be choosing and choosing and never ever finish. Ish. What a con job!

Lunch was at a place called Nam Kei. Had a sketch of a cute guy on the front, I was immediately sold. It was lunch time so it was very difficult to find a seat. Ordering was a also a challenge cause we did not know how it worked. Simply ordered some fishball-beancurd skin combination noodles and prayed that it was good. BIL paid at the counter and walked towards our table. Before he even had the chance to sit down, his number was called and our noodles were ready! HK efficiency is scary. But I suspect that they just want you to eat and leave as soon as possible. No dawdling! After filling our bellies, we went back to the apartment to rest. Later that night, we went out exploring Wan Chai again. Blindly walked up and down the streets until we settled on a dinner place that served roasted goose, roasted pork, vegetables and mapo tofu. The goose was quite a disappointment. Tasted just like duck (I was told it tastes the same, so what is the big deal?). The roasted pork wasn't good and the beancurd had a nauseating meat smell. Not a good meal at Hei. Tried a phut chai kou on the walk back, we weren't impressed. :P. Quite a mundane first day in HK right?

Meeting Cornelius

2012-01-21T16:03:00.001+08:00

Pork & Noodles, swiped from williamnyk on Flickr.

On sunday, mum went to New Era College for a charity sale, so I followed SK to English mass at 8:45am instead. A surprise guest presided over the eucharistic celebration-- Bishop Cornelius Sim. His name was so familiar. Then it hit me... I saw his name while I was researching for Catholic churches in Bandar Seri Begawan. According to Wiki, he is the current Vicar Apostolic of the Catholic Apostolic Vicaiate of Brunei. Should be correct cause he wore a skullcap and had a ring on his finger. The new assistant parish priest had the task of caring for this VIP. Mass with Bishop Cornelius wasn't a bed of roses as he had the habit of mumbling! Kinda like Jay Chou in thirty years time. The junior priest kept on pushing the mic closer and closer to his mouth, it was quite hilarious. However, his sermon was quite interesting. Related the story of the Magi with our lives-- they paid homage to Baby Jesus all the way from the east then went home by another way. Similarly, we should visit Jesus in the manger (let God into our lives) and having done so, lead our lives differently for the better. Breakfast was wantan noodles at Restoran 747. Fat, fat, fat! Not wanting to go home yet, SK and I went to the Gardens for some window shopping, but of course we ended up buying something. Quickly settled Janvier's birthday present (hope he likes Julius the monkey girding his loins) and SK bought some bedsheets. Made several cold calls hoping to catch someone for lunch, but we ended up chiak ka ki at Sushi Tei. Shared a sashimi moriawase and a seafood nabe. Decorations at Midvalley seem more low key this year. Can't help but feel that their budget got slashed. Cut paper lanterns to cut cost. Got home then rested a bit before receiving a call from Mei that she was coming over to visit. Talked with her a bit about her recent relationship issues and passed her an early birthday present. Mum came home not long after that and the Saturday just kinda rolled by...

For Rent

2012-01-19T15:48:00.001+08:00

for rent, swiped from hownowdesign on Flickr.

Seems like looking for a tenant is not easy at all. With the help of SK and my renovator, three agents were roped in. So far, two have proven to be unprofessional. Agent M found me three female tenants. They had requested for at least two water heaters to be installed but on the other hand were prepared to pay more for it. Agent M said:

"Aiyah, if you don't put heater hor, also can't stop the tenant for putting it themselves lo."

I was flabbergasted. Is the tenancy agreement just a piece of paper? What kind of tenants is she recommending to me le? Agent Y on the other hand found me a newly-wed Malay couple:

"I need to bring them see the house la wor. You gave the renovator the key ah? See how la, I find a way to go into the apartment."

Another nut case! Was he trying to break into my apartment?! Goodness. Between the Chinese girls and the Malay couple, I favour the Chinese. I just feel that the former have more paying power, although I am certain the Malay couple will take better care of the place. Hard to say also sometimes. Agent M assured me:

"The three girls have proper work! Don't worry!"

Proper work? Turns out they are beauticians. But that doesn't mean they won't have drunken orgies at home. Would be good if I can check CCRIS for potential tenants. :P. Anyway, Agen R still hasn't gotten back to me. And it seems that the three beauticians aren't too keen. Very thankful that SK just stays downstairs and helped me settle a lot of these problems. She's a God-send!

Anyone looking to rent an apartment?

A Whole Lot Of Balls!

2012-01-17T22:14:00.001+08:00

Crystal Ball / Hands / Person, swiped from ►CubaGallery on Flickr.

Master Six-Balls bought a Big Golden Ball for an obscene lump of money. Lets just say that for the amount he paid, he could play with one hundred set of flesh balls every day till the day he died and still have plenty left over for his Little Balls (his progeny). Ever since the Big Golden Ball enter the household of Master Six-Balls, every other ball in his house became inferior in comparison and had to pander to its every whim. Whereever Big Golden Ball went (and it went where ever it pleased), all the other balls had to pretend to be small and let Big Golden Ball to be center of attention. All the other balls were awed by this newcomer and wondered what magic it could do. So mysterious, so high and mighty. Then one day, Master Six-Balls brought Big Golden Ball out to meet his friend, Master Blood-Octopus. Master Six-Balls couldn't help but preen and praise his latest toy. Piqued, Master Blood-Octopus asked for a performance. He outlined several things that he would like to see and passed Master Six-Balls the list. Back at his manor, Master Six-Balls immediately instructed Big Golden Ball to go through the list. Unfortunately, half of the things could not be done... Master Six-Balls was crestfallen and bellowed for the other balls under his care to save his pride! And it came upon Orbit Ball to provide where Big Golden Ball couldn't deliver. Orbit Ball was taken aback. Previously, Orbit Ball was tasked to solve the Orient King's Water-Flow Puzzle. However, Orbit Ball was commanded to tell the Orient King that Big Golden Ball would solve it within three bounces. But now, Big Golden Ball was asking Orbit Ball to solve Master Blood-Octopus' Water-Flow on its behalf! WTF right!!!!

If you read through that drivel on top, I applaud you for your patience. If you managed to make sense of what I wrote, I would sing praises of your twisted mind. LOL. Don't mind that. Anyway, some of the big bosses have thrown around an idea of merging two teams together and my immediate boss was tasked to go over to the new company to spearhead this new endeavour. Since he can't do things alone, he also needs to bring people over to help him out. And of course I was asked. My GM seemed very pleased to see us go cause in the big scheme of things, my company had been transferring staff out to other companies. A good chance to reduce headcount with a plan that has the blessings of senior management. If I go, I would have to resign (just a formality), but my benefits and salary would remain the same. Just that at the administration side I would see some changes, and the people I am going to work with are quite famous for being difficult. However, the domain knowledge that I stand to gain would be quite valuable as they deal with international standards and operational know-how that is important for most banks. Still dunno how things will unfold and I dunno when this will happen. I just hope that I can survive this complete change in direction! Rumours are already flying around and people are getting jittery. Wish me luck!

My Whereabouts

2012-01-16T11:15:00.001+08:00

I just noticed that I forgot to notify my readers that I am currently away on holiday in Hong Kong. But fret not, I'm coming home tonight. Hopefully I will find the energy to organize my thoughts and post some filler posts before distilling my trip into blog posts. See you guys soon! Muacks!

Sent from my iNyk

The One In Twelve

2012-01-09T11:30:00.001+08:00

Bamboo, swiped from williamnyk on Flickr.

2012 didn't quite feel any different from 2011. Woke up and had breakfast with mum and SK. Skinny food of bihun in soup with fish paste. Just after breakfast, I followed SK to Damansara Uptown to help her with some of her part-time work. Since I was in PJ, I texted HornyBF to meet up. Just had a quick drink at Starbucks. HornyBF just had a cinnamon roll and a frappucino. Such a petite appetite. One would expect more from a foodie. Hahaha. On the other hand, I ordered a latte and was given a free drink voucher required me to complete an online survey. No wonder the barista made small talk with me, it was one of the survey questions. Just made small talk and discussed about some food options around Klang Valley. While we were busy yakking, SK was busy learning how to pick her office lock from the nearby locksmith! I have yet to ask her to teach me. Back home, I just did a whole lot of nothing. Trying to break the lull, I went running at Taman Bukit Jalil. Didn't feel much of an improvement, but at least I had a good sweat. From afar, so two guys that pinged my gaydar, but they ran too fast for me and I was already winded. Dang! This is another reason why I need to have a better fitness level! Before heading home, I went to SK's condo to meet Lifebook. He had been there the whole afternoon talking heart with SK. And she had been dutiously listening to his rants and feeding him with home-cooked goodies. Not losing out, I got to drink a big bowl of birds nest soup! Yay! At 8:00pm, we went to OUG to attend a BEC gathering. It was a combined function for Christmas and New Year's. Lots of people came because they like to carol and join in the fellowship and partake in the potluck! Also did some reminiscing where we viewed back the past year's photo slideshow and videos. We also reread the resolutions that we had written some six months back to check whether we had achieved what we had hoped for. I only managed to strike out half of the items. Took me some time to make out my beautiful doctor's handwriting. :P. It was a great start to the year...

The Day Before Tomorrow

2012-01-07T14:24:00.001+08:00

Fruits and Fish, swiped from williamnyk on Flickr.

On New Year's Eve, I did not go out to the market. I woke up at about 9:00am and went to have breakfast with mum at one of the nearby kopitiam. A simple breakfast of noodles and coffee. Chatted a bit in the cool morning air. Saw a little girl helping out her mum at the prawn noodles stall. Amazed by the deftness of her little hands in butterflying the blanched prawns. Her eyes did not even need to be on the blade. Every time the knife came close to her hand, I flinched. My awe turned to disgust a minute later when I saw her scratching her itchy scalp with her hands and then later groping through the contents of the bowl looking for unprocessed prawns. Oh la la. At about noon, mum went out to her society meeting while I stayed at home doing some work for my boss. Late Friday evening, I was tasked with coming up with a spurious document that contains phoney screens that proves that our system can provide phoney functionality. Lovely. Finish at about 2:30pm and I went out to eat chicken rice at a nearby shop. Continued lazing at home and watching "万凰之王" on my lappie. At 7:00pm, sis and BIL fetched us out for dinner. Didn't know what to eat, so we just wandered around Bandar Puteri Puchong. Cyan suggested V1 Concept, but we later abandoned that plan once we found out that no ala carte orders were available for the night, only their set dinner that costed MYR80 per person! An interesting restaurant with a sports car theme. The chairs were custom-made bucket seats, there was a sports car inside for decoration and even the waitresses dressed up like GT girls. Since we were rushing for time, we just walked next door to eat at Sin Hup Kee.

Business at the restaurant was quite brisk, so we dared to give it a try. Ordered their house specialties of stir-fried chicken (oily!), mango fish fillet (plenty of garoupa slices at just MYR24!), Yin Yang Kailan (the fried kailan was a bit disappointing) and homemade beancurd over steamed egg (was topped with braised peanuts and minced meat, but the meat had a nauseatingly strong aroma!). Overall, it was value for money and the service was fast. But not all of the dishes were good as you can see from my comments. Got home at just a few minutes shy of 9:00pm and mum and I had to prepare to go out again. This time to church. Bilingual mass started at 10:30pm, but due to kiasu-ness and a fear of a jam on LDP, we went out early. Turns out the roads were clear. Oh well. After mass, there was a countdown and a fireworks display. Oohh-ahh-ing until only the fumes remained. Hot drinks and pastries were also served, so we lingered for a while, joining in the fellowship. By the time we got home, it was already 1:00am. Very much wanted to kiss KH at the stroke of midnight, but I guess that would have to wait until we next meet...

A Sky Blue Lunch

2012-01-05T17:27:00.001+08:00

Lotus Root, swiped from williamnyk on Flickr.

On the last Friday of 2011, SK and I arranged lunch with HornyBF and Briyani Blue Sky. Both of them had appointments in the morning so their showing up was tentative. Being ever practical, SK and I did not wait for confirmations and just proceeded with our lunch plans at Restoran Kongsai, Taman Paramount. Just between the two of us, we ordered half a kampung chicken, lotus root soup, pepper stomach soup (I just ate two pieces!) and bitter gourd stir-fried with roasted pork. We finished everything on the table, knowing that HornyBF had cancelled and Briyani would arrive only after 1:00pm. Was quite suprised that he managed to speed all the way from Bangi, was as though I owed him money. :P. But don't get me wrong, was very happy that he made the effort to come join us. When he arrived, he really looked over-worked with a 2-day stubble growth on his face and he seemed more gaunt than the last I saw him. He ordered chicken rice and after finishing we walked over to the mamak shop beside Giant and continued our chat there. SK tried her best to persuade him to change jobs and dump his sadistic boss. When we passed by the entrace of Giant, his eyes lit up when he saw ice cream.

"Who wants ICE CREAM! Come, come, come!"

SK and I were dumbstruck. :P. Seeing that we had no interest, he abandoned the thought and tucked his tail between his legs. I'll buy you a cone a Jamocha Almond Fudge next time. Hehehehehe.

A Boxed Christmas

2012-01-04T14:36:00.001+08:00

Black Cod, swiped from williamnyk on Flickr.

Months back, Apollo and Ken scheduled a Boxing Day lunch at Westin Kuala Lumpur. Reason being that he has a Starwood privilege voucher that can only be used by a party of six pax or more. Achieving the quorom was quite a feat. The fifth guest had changed twice I think. By the time we ended up in Prego, it was TZ and Bong! Quite a surprise as they were my dinner mates the night before. Traffic was fantastic and SK and I easily found parking inside JW Marriott. Apollo and Ken were the first to arrive and all dressed to the nines (satin shirts and vests and all). We ordered our own mains and shared a Tacchino Affumicato (Jinjang translation: turkey pizza) and Beef Carpaccio. SK ordered the black cod for me and it was really tasty (but a bit salty due to the capers). The meat was sweet and wasn't too flaky. Lifebook took the beef lasagna and SK ordered the risotto. Didn't like the risotto as it was way too creamy for my liking (but don't get me wrong, this doesn't extent to nut cream, WAKAKAKA).

Hankered for coffee, so we paid the bill and walked over to Illy Espressamente to get a latte. As usual, it was very difficult to get a seat. While waiting, we spied Cheryl Samad and Shamser Sidhu (dunno if anyone still remembers him). To complement the bitterness of the coffee, SK ordered a pecan pie and Lifebook chose the Death by Chocolate. That slice of cake looked like sludge from the Exxon crude spill. At the end, Gratitude turned up as the surprise guest. By 4:00pm, SK and I left for Suria KLCC to visit the Citibank redemption counter. Exchanged my points for some discounted Thermos stainless steel pots for mum. While waiting for me, the ever shopaholic Lifebook manager buy a pair of shoes and a wristlet from Paul Smith. Ever the happy shopper. He was also looking for some work shoes, but nothing caught his eye. The theme at Suria KLCC was "Christmas Tree in a Box", so it was kinda apt that I went there on Boxing Day. Hahaha. Sekian...

P.S.: That day, I received a Christmas present from Apollo, a stainless steel chain from Bausch K. Thank you, I like it very much.

Meri Kurisumasu With Iron Chef Klang

2012-01-03T11:14:00.001+08:00

Served, swiped from williamnyk on Flickr.

According to the duty roster, it was my turn with hospitality ministry, so I was at church again on Christmas morning. But in actual fact, I had been helping out for the whole month due to higher absenteeism during the school holidays. Since mum had a hairdressing appointment at 2:00pm at IOI Mall, we had lunch there after church. Been ages since I ate at Esquire Kitchen. Business at that branch was quite brisk. We ordered the two-person value meal that consisted of chicken rice, sour vegetables and Foochow fishballs. I liked the fishballs. Wasn't too sweet and didn't have the over-powering aroma of sesame oil. But I couldn't same the same about the sour vegetables. Below par. No base broth and just sweetened with sugar. However, overall a good deal.

After settling mum down at the saloon, went to have milk tea with caramel pudding at Dong Cha with SK, CK and Apollo. Also did some shopping at Daiso. By 4:30pm, mum had completed her chemical treatment. SK sent Apollo home (he was supposed to join us for dinner but FFK at the last minute!) and mum and I went to do some grocery shopping at Jusco. Christmas dinner was arranged at SK's home. Among the guests were mum and I, TZ, Medie and most-importantly Gratitude aka Iron Chef Klang. He was the star of the night preparing an Italian two-course dinner. Bless his soul, he even went to the trouble of preparing an IBS-compliant version of everything for SK!

Even with just two hours of sleep, he managed to whip up mackerel ravioli with roasted pumpkin ragu and pork escalope in balsamic wine reduction with her potatoes, orange glazed carrots and roasted fennel. On the other hand, SK prepared fried fish and grilled chicken wings. Since it was a dinner for seven and SK had a limited supply of plates, we had to eat one dish, wash and clear before the second dish could be served! The plating process really reminded me of an episode Iron Chef! Honestly looked like a scene from Kitchen Stadium. Gratitude was a also a bit flustered that SK's home did not have any Christmas decorations and the table did not have a centerpiece. :P. Even the carols had to come from YouTube. LOL. We had our yum seng with a bottle or red wine from TZ. At the end of the night, we had gone through another bottle of white wine and a pitcher of Absolut vodka with mixer.

Our hostess even went to the extent of changing into a dinner dress halfway through. Huhuhu. My mother was quite impressed with Gratitude's cooking. And she noticed how dainty his hands and fingers were. Like a princess. :P. During our drinking session, we whacked a packet of Menglembu groundnuts and slices of French sausages. Cam-whored, cam-whored and cam-whored. A nice close to the night.

White Christmas Is Back With A Vengeance

2012-01-02T00:32:00.001+08:00

Hokkai Don, swiped from williamnyk on Flickr.

On Christmas eve, SK, mum and I went out to the Pavillion for shopping and a movie. Was quite productive for mum as she bought a couple of blouses and a pair of shoes. At 11:15pm, we watched "White Vengeance" at GSC. Kinda liked the movie. Always a sucker for Chinese period movies. Wuxia, historical, semua boleh. Nearly everyone fitted into their roles, perhaps with the exception of Jordan Chan and the annoying Crystal Liu as the beauty. Loved the costumes and the overall feel of the movie. And the Go battle between Zhang Liang and Fan Zeng was perfect, albeit cliched. And the part where Zhang Liang vomitted blood after losing... a must-have. LOL. Decided to go up to the sixth floor for lunch. Chose to dine at Tokyo Don after seeing a lanky fellow dressed as a Christmas tree inside, complete with baubles hooked on his T-shirt. The killer was the 2-foot high platform shoes. I salute him. Shared a Hokkai Don (salmon sashimi and ikura over rice), teriyaki beef over rice and one dobin mushi. Impressed with the quality of the salmon. With our tummies filled, we did more shopping. Before calling it a day, we stopped at Ying Ker Lou to take advantage of their tea time specials. Tried their Hakka noodles (mediocre, but the meat paste was quite good, full of salted fish aroma), sweet potato cheen tui and mui choi pau. At their prices, I think I'd rather eat at Dragon-i.

Back home, rested for just a bit before heading out again, this time for Christmas Eve mass. Factored in a possible jam, but the LDP was kind to us. Arrived an hour earlier! But we weren't the only kiasu ones. People were all dressed up. Made me feel a bit under-dressed. Kinda felt a bit like CNY. Should have worn more expensive underwear. :P. The cantata started at 8:00pm with just four voices this year. And the also found a good violinist. The caroling really put everyone in the Christmas mood. About fifteen minutes later the entrance hymn was played and the priest brought in Baby Jesus and put Him in the manger. Immediately, the star lit up and the mass was commenced. At the end, things got a bit chaotic with people wishing each other and the kiasu English-speaking parishioners began arriving, trying to jostle for good seats. Can't blame them really. Either you sit inside where the air-conditioning is or you sit outside where it kinda feels like you're not participating. At the end, a lean and twinky santa claus gave out sweets. Rushed home for dinner at SK's place. She cooked mee suah with fish slices. For dessert, it was -Alex-'s carrot cake. SK had no love for cinnamon, so he had to tweak his coconut milk icing with lemons, giving it a sourish twinge. Topped with strawberries, blueberries and dried apricot, it was quite tasty and perfect for the season. :).

Have a Ball!

2011-12-31T14:10:00.001+08:00

Winter Solstice: Cooked and Uncooked, swiped from williamnyk on Flickr.

It's new year's eve! The last of bit 2011. Squeeze every last drop of fun from it and embrace 2012!

Thursday was also a day off for me, so I brought mum to the market to shop for some Winter Solstice dinner ingredients. Dragged the kid along too. Never a morning person. Actually went to his house to carry him into the car (his pregnant mum tak larat carry that 16kg bundle of naughtiness). Slept all the way to the market. Even refused to change out of his pajamas. Had to give him my Medusa stare. The CNY atmosphere in the market had already began to pick up. Lanterns, decorations, biscuits and songs everywhere. But I have yet to see the illegal fireworks. Ate a simple breakfast of soup noodles and headed home. Mum boiled the tang yuan and made the ginger-gula melaka soup. Just ate a few for tradition's sake. Being his usual unadventurous self, Cyan just sniffed the glutionous rice balls and refused to eat them. Would rather scoop them up with his hands than put them in his mouth. :S. Lepak at home until lunch time, when mum announced that we would be eating out, to which Cyan responded:

"Poh Poh not cook lunch ah? so louyah de"

Kids these days. Brought him to Restoran Yoon Ping. Ordered their Hakka noodles and stewed soya sauce chicken rice. The noodles were OK, but the minced pork was horribly salty and the meat felt a bit reput. Ugh. I also hated the charsiu sauce. Not worthy to be their signature dish. The rice was much better. Washed it down with a cooling cup of lemon juice with sour plum. Back home I watched a few episodes of the new "Journey to the West", a mainland China production. Just needed to make sure the kid got out of my mother's hair while she prepared for the big dinner. Mum outdone herself again. We had lotus root soup with kudzu root and wai san, fried siakap with thai sauce, steamed kampung chicken, mixed vegetables, steamed cod fish and steamed prawns with rice wine. Actually managed to finish everything! Whoah. Also opened a bottle of red wine, but it wasn't very good. Sigh, another year older!

Brown is the New Black

2011-12-28T15:41:00.001+08:00

Mee Jawa, swiped from williamnyk on Flickr.

With three days of annual leave to clear, I took a day off to get my hair cut and dyed at A-Saloon, IOI Mall. Not my usual place really. Decided to try it since they had a cool deal on Groupon. Just MYR78 for cut, dye, wash and blow (you get to choose from a few cute stylists :P). Woke up quite early that day to have breakfast with Cyan and my sis at a nearby coffeeshop. Had mee jawa, a famous dish that the Javanese never knew they had. LOL. Not bad la, but a little too basic. Even simpler than mee rebus. Knowing that we would have to spend hours at the saloon, we had lunch at home first. Mum prepeared sweet potato porridge with a side dish of stewed mini sharks with leek. Super sweet! IOI Mall was quite crowded that day. Looked just like a weekend. Never thought their business was so bustling even on weekdays. The saloon looked spanking new and spacious. The senior stylist gave a brief consultation on hair style and colour. The conclusion was that I should leave my hair longish, especially at the sides and back. Her keen eyes managed to deduce that my hair tend to become unruly if cut too short at those areas. Ended up with a shade of brown. Not so in-your-face that it would cause eyebrows to be raised, but obvious enough that I paid good money to do something to my hair. LOL. The whole process took about three hours inclusive of scalp treatment (an add on in case the chemicals wreak havoc on my scalp). Hardly felt the time pass as each customer had a desktop to use for surfing the internet. And I also kept myself busy ogling at one cute and tall stylist that was attending to SK. There was also a "little white face" who was waiting for his friend. Very fair and looked gay. Beside SK was also a young, rich tai-tai who was dyeing her hair.

"I like red. Everything also must red le..."

I'm sure her husband likes her red G-string a lot. She kept her three year old toddler busy by buying her a manicure and pedicure. Goodness. I doubt the kid had any cuticles to remove. Before heading home, we had a quick snack plate at KFC and did some minor shopping at Daiso. Back at SK's apartment, she cooked up a plate of marmite pork ribs for dinner at my place. Before dinner, we made tang yuan. Cyan helped out. The kid got a bit lazy after several rounds and and at the end of it, I found several strays on the floor. Ish. Post-dinner, after everyone had left, mum and I started stripping the paint off the front door grill. It was bloody hard work. Some of it peeled off with ease, the rest of it needed heavy duty scraping. We only did a quarter at the are with the most rust. By the time we sandpapered it and painted on the base coat, it was already past 11:00pm! Pooped! Quickly showered and went to bed. But I discovered that paint fumes seem to be aphrodisiac, so there was some fun before calling it a night... zzz. The very next day, Cyan looked at me funny. Think he noticed the change in my hair colour. He picked up a paint catalogue, pointed at one of the brown squares with his pencil then tapped my head. Then he said:

"See, now kau fu's hair also brown colour liao..."

Hahaha. Smart kid.

LRT Celebrities: PADINI People?

2011-12-27T09:55:00.000+08:00

Been a long time since I posted LRT Celebrities, so here is a post-Christmas treat for those of you who miss the segment. The Kuwait Finance House hottie you see above is actually a MAS steward. This faux PADINI model was spotted by Ash on PUTRA LRT. Would you steal a kiss while he's sleeping?

I spotted this twink on PUTRA LRT as well. I really wonder what he's doing with a bow tie. As far as I know, this isn't the PADINI sales staff uniform at the moment. Haha. Perhaps he's going to a wedding. Feel like pinching his cheeks?

Siham Sunday

2011-12-25T01:14:00.001+08:00

Christmas Goodbye, swiped from williamnyk on Flickr.

MERRY CHRISTMAS to all my readers. Hope you've been naughty this year. Santa loves to punish naughty kids. And his elves help out too. XD. Now, rewind to one week ago. :P

Sunday was supposed to be movie day but that planned got scrapped for two reasons. Firstly, GSC Online decided to die on me. Couldn't buy tickets for "White Vengeance". Website tak jalan. iPhone app pun mampus. Secondly, my sis suddenly dumped Cyan into our laps because she had to work. Guess the technical glitch was a blessing in disguise, else I would have useless tickets on my hands. Brought the kid along to church with us. It was the outgoing assistant parish priest's final mass at my church, so it was kind of emotional for him. Think he wiped away some tears while talking at the altar. The youth even had a caroling cum farewell session for him outside the church. Four years. Didn't seem that long. How time flies. Stumped over what to eat for lunch, so just went to Ming Tien at SS24. Shared lui cha, mee kolok and curry noodles. Next up travelled to One Utama to look at the infamous siham Christmas decorations. Angels made from beaded scallop shells (imagine O&G's Shell turning gay). Novel right? Quickly turned into the One World Hotel parking to avoid the stupid jams. Worth the few extra ringgit. Crowded, it was! A whole bunch of kids were caroling at center court with orchestra accompaniment. At the end of the show, machines rained bubbles from above! Impressive. Shopped a bit and singgah-ed a while at CBTL for a Malibu Dream, Frutea Peach, cranberry scone and apple crumble. Got home some time near 5pm. We were delayed for a spell watching the Miss Tourism Malaysia pageant. Mum left the house to watch a Chinese folk dance performance, leaving SK and I to babysit Cyan.

Sis was running late at the office, so we brought him to dinner at Restoran Yoon Ping. A first time for us. Think we ordered too much food. But it was very satisfying. Haha. The portions were enormous. Dinner consisted of roasted chicken rice for the kid, Hakka fried pork rice (four big, fatty slices!), curry noodles (again! The gravy was quite good!), sour vegetables (tasted like my mum's!) and YTF. Amazing right? For just two adults and one toddler. Hehe. Cyan finished the whole plate of rice. At about 9:30 pm, my sister liberated me from the tyke. Ahhh... my peaceful evening finally began...

In The Mood

2011-12-22T16:40:00.001+08:00

Phantom Santa, swiped from williamnyk on Flickr.

I received three Christmas cards this year. One from SK, which she assembled herself from a DIY craft shop; one from Albin which was one of the most novel I've ever received-- a sheet of aluminium etched with the picture of a juggling reindeer; and last but not least a very religious card from Mel. In terms of presents, SK got me a delicate decorative item from Crystocraft-- a Swarovski crystal church. Beautiful. Love how it catches the light. Thanks all!

Christmas is just around the corner. Whether you've been naughty or nice, I wish that you're able to experience the joy and peace of this holy season with family and friends and those less fortunate. Counting down...

End The Year With "I Do"

2011-12-20T10:08:00.001+08:00

Patrick & Nicea's Wedding I, swiped from williamnyk on Flickr.

2011 is really the year to get married. Had to attend another wedding on Saturday. The matrimony mass was scheduled at 9:30am, so we gave marketing a miss. The previous two I attended were only a half masses because both of the brides were not Catholics. So the last wedding of the year ended quite nicely with a full mass as both were Catholics. Everything was quite standard really. Flowers, relatives, bla bla bla. But it was interesting to note that the bride kinda had a perpetual look of surprise on her face and her mum on the other hand looked glum. And the worst of all was sitting in front of her boisterous band of bridesmaids. Had no decency to shut up at all during the proceedings. While the priest did his thang up front, they were busy firing the mouths off in machine gun style yakking. By the time Gospel was read, my mum couldn't stand it any longer and shushed them. After the bouquet was thrown (why does this always seem fixed?) and the the photographs were taken, we proceeded to the cafeteria for some food. Typical catering fare. I gave 60% of the food a miss. Fried. Fried. Fried. The things I must do for my cholesterol levels! :(. Cyan was trying to break Kobayashi's hotdog eating world record, so I had nag him. Seeing how I fret over him, the teenager at my table actually thought that he was my son. Adoi...

Headed home for a short rest, and did some grocery shopping at Jusco. Later in the evening, mum and I attended the banquet at Pearl Point International Hotel. Not been there since my sister's wedding ages ago. The food wasn't impressive but it was decent la. The first combination platter came with mussels, really a first for me. The staff were mostly untrained Malay kids who did not know how to serve the food. The fellow didn't mix the sharks fin soup (go easy on the hate comments OK?) properly and he did not know what to with his left hand. He left it crooked in front of him like Dr. Frankenstein's assistant, Igor. The herbal chicken was melt-in-your-mouth (takkan give kampung chicken meh?) and marmite prawns were overdone, but I guess it's to be expected. The whole night I was bombarded by questions of my future wedding plans. Oh gawd. When is KH ever gonna propose! Luckily I had plenty of Merlot to drown my sorrows. :P.

P.S.: Magus, sorry had to give your Xmas gathering a miss! See you next time.

Meeting Nick

2011-12-18T19:05:00.001+08:00

Fish Form, swiped from williamnyk on Flickr.

Sunday was like all the past weeks with the exception that a newly-ordained priest had been appointed as the assistant parish priest. Funny to note that the parist priest, in-coming assistant and out-going assistant all share the same surname. And all of them have a receeding hairline. The new priest celebrated his virgin mass that day and glad to say that there were no obvious hiccups. Mum suggested that we go shopping at IKEA, so I decided to eat lunch at Soon Soon Pan Mee and Fish Head Noodles, Damansara Perdana, a favourite of Lifebook. I suspect he is a shareholder there. Ate fish paste and fish head noodles. Quite expensive really and the portions weren't fantastic. But I must say that the fish paste was quite good. The fish head was quite disappointing actually. One can taste better at Woo Pin or the coffee shop at Jalan Tun Mohd Fuad 2, TTDI. From there, I turned into The Curve with relative ease. Later learned that the usual access roads from the LDP were extremely congested. Did some walking around The Curve. Wasn't impressed with the Christmas decoration. At IKEA, mum bought some of the stuff that she wanted with little fuss. But the only problem was that I had to hand carry a plastic dish washer here and there. :(. At around 4:00pm, I received an SMS from Nicky telling me that I should meet him and Nick at IPC. Such a huge coincidence. Our stars had finally aligned. And so, I had the privilege the infamous camwhore extraordinaire, Nick. True to his admission, he did look a bit different than from his pics, but that does not make him any less attractive. But we just had five minute chat in Metrojaya. They were afraid that my mum would bite their heads off. So cute that they kept keeping an eye out.

Back home, I went for my jog at Taman Bukit Jalil and later negated it at Restoran Rishadh. Together with SK, we shared a dosai garing, nasi lemak and naan with Tandoori chicken. Satisfying as always. Rested early that night as I had a proof of concept session at a potential client's office on Monday. Preparations had been done more than month ago and somehow the whole marketing exercise was revived after a fortnight sabbatical. Hated having to dirty my hands with the technical set up and ending up having to do the talking as well. One man show. One leg kick. Blegh. Thank God the audience was quite demure and that my use cases went smoothly without much of a hitch. Was happy that one of the earlier presenter's enthuasism caused a one hour lateness in the schedule. As a result, the account manager told me to cut it short. Hahaha. Gladly. Over the next two days, I had to stick around in case there were any related queries regarding the system. Just sat around, chatted and ate the free food. Oh well. Hate all these marketing activities! Hopefully there won't be another anytime soon.

Mel & Co.

2011-12-15T09:43:00.000+08:00

Mel celebrated her 30th birthday (welcome to Club30!) on the 25th of November, but we only managed to meet up last Friday due to scheduling problems. I got off work a bit early and went to Bumbu Bali, Bandar Puteri Puchong with SK. Thought we could start a bit earlier, but Mel's baby Cameron made #2 in the baby seat after she broke a sweat dressing him up. So she had to repeat the whole cycle. A mother of an infant rarely gets things easy. While waiting, SK and I chilled in the restaurant with a jug of barley lime and a plate of sate lilit. That dish was quite a disappointment really. Giant lemongrass stalks were used, and as a result, the meat that was wrapped around it was just measly layer. Some time before 8:00pm, Mel finally arrived in a nice black number and with Cameron in tow. Her cute one-toothed Singh looked cute in his tiny buttoned shirt. Mel looked the part of the urban mother with her large, orange baby bag in one hand, and her Sembonia handbag in the other. After she settled down we ordered soto ayam, sup buntut and the grilled chicken. I totally loved the soto ayam! The chicken broth was good and the best part was it was piping hot unlike my ox tail soup. The grilled chicken was good too with just the right flavour and moistness. Bumbu Bali has really come a long way. Their prices can even make TGIF blush. Quite a big jump. I can't imagine what the prices are like at their upmarket sister restaurant, Ole Ole Bali.

While we ate, little Cameron also ate his porridge. Underneath his baby chair was a scene of chaos and destruction. The kid just loved to throw things on the floor. Poor me had to pick up his hanky three times and he nearly overturned a place mat and whatever was on it. Phewww! Distractions aside, it was great to catch up with Mel. The only thing missing was alcohol. Huhu. Had to give that a miss, so we had coffee at Station One instead. Cameron was a bit restless in his baby chair, so we hauled him up on the table. You know what? He started chewing on the packets of creamer and sugar. And one point he actually managed to get to the sweet surprise inside. Always check on your kid when he/she is suddenly very quiet or still. Haha. Imagine if I was straight and married. Or by some bizarre chance I managed to adopt a child. Mel with her own kid, and me with mine. Fussing over our kids, and trying to keep them civil, while actually trying to make some decent conversation and social interaction. Feels like such a remote possibility. A piece of fiction. Oh well. At the end, we camwhored some and called it a night.

The All Pork Banquet

2011-12-12T21:13:00.001+08:00

Pork, Prawns, Fish, swiped from williamnyk on Flickr.

Sunday was the usual routine with the exception that I dropped mum at a friend's place to help with cooking. On the other hand, I headed to the hardware store to get some padlocks for my apartment. When I got home, I barely rested for five minutes before heading out to SK's place. Went there to bum off her UNIFI to download "Orcs Must Die" from Steam. As a Thanksgiving gift, my brother gifted me that together with "The Witcher: Enhanced Edition". Yet to download the latter though. Haven't found the time to game proper. Just spent three minutes looking at the instructions and controls. Also met CK for a while before he headed home after lunch. He was in a dilemma over whether to leave the civil service. Kinda sad that he is naive enough to think that that government will send him for postgraduate studies overseas. Wishful thinking. At about six, we went out to Seri Petaling. By that time, the cooking was complete and we would be just in time for dinner. Hehe. It was a pig banquet that evening. My mum's friend had slaughtered a whole pig and that was translated into several dishes-- radish and pork bones soup, fried pork, stewed pork belly, stewed pork trotters, sweet and sour pork ribs and stewed intestines. I only allowed myself one piece from each plate. :(. Pork aside, there was sweet and sour prawn, deep-fried prawn sandwiches, chili squid, stir-fried clams with rice wine and fried threadfin. As you can see, nearly every dish was on my restricted list, so I mostly just drank the soup. Also made friends with the family dog, Jia Jia. The cute dog loved being petted and having its ears scratched. Didn't bark at all. Very well-mannered. Rubbed its body on my leg like a cat. Very manja. Her owner was a Japanese schoolgirl who has since returned to her home country due to depression. That ends my Sunday report.

Top or Bottom?

2011-12-10T15:02:00.001+08:00

Here's a picture of the new RapidKL LRT gate. As a new user, where would you choose to touch your token / Touch n' Go card / myRapid card? Position (A) or (B)? If you chose (B), you would be one of the many users who get stuck at the gate wondering why the gate isn't letting them through. Every day, people try again and again at the location, wondering why the gate gives out a funny noise. Perhaps we are too used to web pages, where "click here" literally means CLICK HERE. LOL. If you answered (A), good for you. You and RapidKL think alike. But I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. So, are you an (A) or a (B)? Or let me rephrase it, would you touch Top or Bottom? :)

Club30 Welcomes JY

2011-12-08T11:41:00.001+08:00

Rack o' Ribs, swiped from williamnyk on Flickr.

Woke up early on Saturday morning only to be greeted by a ladder and rag. Mum suddenly had an attack of spring cleaning and wanted me to clean the fans and windows. Guess it's good to reduce the levels of dust in my room. I'm sneezing less now. Nothing works up an appetite more than manual labour. Some time mid-morning, I went out for a bowl of fish paste noodles. Also stopped by the neighbourhood bakery to get some bread for mum. Saw how the pastry chef worked. Lovely long locks and a hair band with no hair net. I'd be no surprise to find his tresses in the finished products. Rushed home to shower as we had to attend a wedding mass at 11:30am. LDP was a tad jammed, nut luckily we made it on time. SK attended the ceremony while wearing a soft neck brace (she was involved in a car accident). I still think she should have accessorized it with a brooch or wrapped a faux fur stole around it. :P. One of the biggest turn outs a wedding mass I had ever seen. But I suspect that it was due to the fact that the newly-weds did not plan a dinner banquet, only a luncheon after the ceremony. The buffet spread was quite good, but I had to abstain from most of the food because they were mostly deep-fried stuff or high in cholesterol (damn you LDL!). Headed home after having our fill. Rested a while and showered before heading out to JY's birthday bash at Morganfield's, The Pavillion.

Upon arrival, we met up with Apollo at Onitsuka Tiger to help him resolve a life and death issue-- which pair of shoes to buy. After settling that, we headed to the dinner venue. On the way there, I bumped into P.O.M. He actually recognized my Suneo face. And luckily I identified him correctly too, else it would have been embarrassing. He rushed off to watch a movie, and I continued on. We were the first to arrive. A table for twenty pax was laid out. They arranged it like a medieval banquet table with no break in between. Ugh, I hate those orientations. By eight o' clock, the last of the guests had arrived. Lateness due to the heavy rains no doubt. SK, Apollo and I were so hungry that we started first with a B.L.T. salad and later followed through with a full rack of Jim Beam baby ribs. Not bad, but the meat didn't taste all that porky. For drinks we had long island iced teas. The liquor content was high, but the coponsition wasn't all that great. Sat in the vicinity of Carpe Diem, Legolas, DanielH, Adrienz and KennethC. Also met TJ who knows KH from nearly ten years ago on Fridae. Such a small world. By playing musical chairs, we got to talk to nearly everyone. Service wasn't bad, but it was marred with some ugly incidents of food mix ups and the fact that they don't even have a mop to clean up spills.

The birthday cake was Death by Chocolate from Just Heavenly. A very heaty cake! And it had a weird decoration. After removing the candles, the cake actually looked like a Nigerian version of Kon from the manga "Bleach". SK purposely ordered a coffee to go with it. Janvier was nice enough to pass me a belated birthday gift-- "Children of Dune", the missing book in my "Dune" series. Adrienz also finally passed SK the abstract sketch that he did for her. Had been sitting in his store room for years! At the end of the evening, we took a rare group photo and called it a night. Bloody took me half an hour to jam out from B3 to Jalan Raja Chulan. Ugh. By the time I reached home, it was already past midnight. Showered again and slept. A rarity for me to shower three times in a day. Haha.

How Do You Like Your Meat?

2011-12-06T23:55:00.001+08:00

Prime01, swiped from zylean on Flickr.

With barely days left on the 'borrowed' Starwood Privilege card, we hopped from Favola to Prime Steak Restaurant. Prime's predominatly a carnivore's heaven on earth. Beef, beef and more beef with little to offer in terms of other things. Seeing that a side of vegetables costs MYR30 there, we decided to forgo that and order scallops from the starters instead-- Seared Sea Scallops. Truth be told, I found the scallops in Favola much sweeter. Kinda tasted bland in the middle. Surprised to see it come with a poaced egg and parmesan potato salad in the middle of the platter. I liked the potato, just the right level of creaminess. For mains, we ordered the Blackmore Wagyu D Rump (220gms of award-winning meat with a marbling score of 9+) and Master Kobe oyster blade steak (another 220gms of luxury Wagyu). Both done medium. A trio of sauces were chosen, served in cute, mini saucepans-- wild mushroom, truffle and Argentinian chimichurri dressing (much better than the other two). The oyster blade was much more moist and tender than the blackmore. Although one can't see the fat, it was definitely in every bite. Half a serving was all that I could take (my cholesterol problems notwithstanding :P). I let SK finish the rest. The bread basket came with a spicy variety again, this time peppercorn bread. Came with rocket butter which I liked. Did not order dessert that time (already felt like vomiting), but we noticed that at Prime, one could request to haramkan certain desserts! If I had known, I would have asked for Sambuca liqour for our Tiramisu at Favola. Overall a great lunch and one thing to note, I don't think there was any Gemas Gold on the menu. Moooooooooooooo!

The Bride

2011-12-05T10:11:00.001+08:00

Chinese traditional wedding, swiped from 小抖 ♬♫♪♩Kido on Flickr.

Unlike SK, I rarely have super-vivid dreams. None of those Hollywood movie plots and IMAX theater effects. But the other day, I think I finally got a blockbuster playing during my REM sleep. Well, not an action movie, more of a romantic comedy? Something every little girl dreams of... getting married. I actually dreamt that I was goonna marry KH. Quite traditional really. The bride went to the groom's place. Not in a palanquin with a band of musicians, but actually a VIP bus with me, SK and one other wispy person inside. After arriving at KH's condo, I went up to his place. Upon arrival, the front door was open and all his relatives were standing around. The standard sam ku luk po. All of them were whispering to each other. Can't blame them, how often does one see a gay marriage in Malaysia? But perhaps it was also due to the fact that I was only dressed in a muscle T and a pair of shorts for my own wedding (one would be expecting a red qipao with intricate phoenix emroidery). Anyway, KH suddenly came out and took me by the hand and led me inside. A hush fell over the place and every eye was on us. Then the whispering resumed with gusto. I was led to kneel in front of KH's parents. Amazingly, my mother-in-law was smiling sweetly. I offered her tea and she drank it willingly. In return, she gave me three giant dragon and phoenix bangles. My mouth was agape... Poof! The dream was over.

I don't know what prompted me to have that dream really. Wet dreams, skanky dreams I can understand... but dreams about matrimony? I have never given it any serious thought. I wonder...

When You Orsi Too Much You Have To Take ORS

2011-12-03T16:31:00.001+08:00

Last Sunday morning, I woke up at 7:00am with a dull ache in my tummy. The pain prompted me to slip out of my Spongebon Squarepants trunks and sit on the porcelain throne. As expected, it was the runs. Didn't quite feel better after that first purge, but I went back to bed anyway. An hour later, I was awakened by the pain again. Went another round and this time I could distinctively feel some cramping in my abdominal region. Normally I would feel better after expelling the toxins, but this time, it was different. Even a generous rub of RuYi oil did not help. At about 9:00pm, I told my mum that I wasn't up for church. She suggested I see the doctor. So I pulled up a pair nylon shorts and went with my under shirt on. By that time, I was already nauseous. The doctor was a typical young, nerdy fellow with a karipap hairstyle. When he wanted to take my temperature, he said, "Sorry". Same when he asked me to pull up my shirt, he said, "Sorry". When he asked me to drop my pants, sorry again. LOL. The last bit was just a fantasy. Anyway, weird fella. He declared it food poisoning. Before heading home, mum packed some soup noodles for me. Upon reaching home, I rushed into the toilet again, and it was worse that time because I vomited as well. I forced myself to eat something because I needed to take my medication and oral rehydration salts (ORS). Just after a feel spoonful of bihun, my tummy miraculously settled down. I took more of it and even took a piece of bread. Thankfully, the breakfast kinda cured me. For lunch it was Teochew porridge with fried fish and dinner was stewed soya noodles. In between that, mum went out to perm her hair while I slept off a low-grade fever. And after dinner, mum started cooking curry chicken for a church gathering the next morning. Did some observation and hopefully I can duplicate the effort for KH when I get the chance to cook for him. He's a big fan of it. :). Such a cruel joke, me recuperating from the runs while my room was chock-full of the aroma of curry chicken wafting up from the kitchen. Aiyoh.....

Reconnecting

2011-12-01T12:55:00.001+08:00

yellow rope with knot, swiped from limonada on Flickr.

For two days I was sent off for training at Centerpoint, Bandar Utama. The topic was Microsoft's colud computing technology, Azure. Basically hands-on tutorials and a whole lot of marketing talk. Very hyped. Plenty of freebies. Turned into a bloody game show. And food was provided-- breakfast, lunch and tea. Not bad huh? On the last day, I arranged a meet-up with Pluboy since I was so near his workplace. We met up at Starbucks and he was nice enough to buy me a black tea latte. According to him, we had not met for three years. Didn't seem like that long to me. Kinda about the time when he and Jase went separate ways. To me, he still looked pretty much the same. Talked about everything under the sun. Practically a clarification session for most of the major items I read on his FB wall. It was to keep a conversation going for three hours when one has not met for more than a thousand days. LOL. Not breaking a stride in my long-lost reunion series, on Saturday afternoon I made a lunch date with Kenzon, a di of mine. The story's kind of similar too. Not met him since he broke up with Rich two years ago. It's so true that sometimes people act as linkages. And when that linkage is broken, we lose touch. The gathering was supposed to be with Nicky and Nick too, but Nicky FFK due to his assignment. Lunch was at Restoran Soon Heng opposite IOI Boulevard, but we had it separately because that di of mine came forty minutes late. After he had finished his lunch, we walked over to Chatime for more cosier surroundings. Although the air-conditioning was welcome, the interior wasn't really for chatting. A decibel nightmare. A whole lotta whirring and blending. We didn't talk a whole lot really but that's normal for his character. Any more dusty ties that I should refresh?

Shark Fin Soup Sucks

2011-11-29T23:08:00.001+08:00

Shark Fin Soup Sucks, swiped from PassionStitch@gmail.com on Flickr.

Here's an excerpt from an FB wall regarding sharks fin activism at its best. I enjoyed taking part. Happy reading!

VegeBoy
shark fin melon soup ready in another 40 minutes. I am sure it will turn out great!
Like · · Unfollow Post · Yesterday at 8:25pm ·
Mr. J likes this.
williamnyk For some reason, sharkfin melon makes me feel nauseous. It has since been banned from my dinner table. Prefer the common melon.
Yesterday at 8:32pm · Like

Activist1 Stop killing sharks!!
Yesterday at 8:34pm · Like · 1

VegeBoy haha, never heard people get allergy of that. I love it, it's sweeter for my liking. :)
Yesterday at 8:34pm · Like

VegeBoy ‎Activist1 I hope you are joking.......
Yesterday at 8:34pm · Like

Activist1 I am not.
Yesterday at 8:35pm · Like

VegeBoy have you finished reading my sentence carefully then?
Yesterday at 8:35pm · Like

Activist1 Not I haven't. Got so angry with people eating shark fin
Yesterday at 8:36pm · Like

Activist1 No**
Yesterday at 8:36pm · Like

VegeBoy it's shark fin MELON.
Yesterday at 8:47pm · Like

VegeBoy I am a vegetarian for 13 years for whatever's sake. :)
Yesterday at 8:48pm · Like · 1

Activist1 I know I know. The first couple of word triggered me
Yesterday at 8:48pm · Like
williamnyk Lol. Looks like sharkfin melon also menjadi mangsa. It's the sweetness that gets to me
Yesterday at 9:07pm · Like
williamnyk VegeBoy-- when will you say stop killing livestock?
Yesterday at 9:08pm · Like

VegeBoy ‎-_-" It's not funny!
Yesterday at 9:20pm · Like

Activist2 Tsk tsk. Vegetarians have shark's fin too? What do they use?
6 minutes ago · Like

VegeBoy MELON Activist2, MELON. It's a plant!
5 minutes ago · Like
williamnyk Alamak, faux sharks fin pun kena attack
4 minutes ago · Like

Activist2 Oh. I thought you mix shark's fin aka tofu with melon.
4 minutes ago · Like

VegeBoy google shark fin melon and you might know what it is.
about a minute ago · Like
williamnyk I eagerly await the third sharks fin activist
about a minute ago · Like

VegeBoy Will, you are watching the show huh? -_-"
a few seconds ago · Like
williamnyk Don't you find it amusing?
a few seconds ago · Like

Work in Progress

2011-11-28T21:32:00.001+08:00

Work in Progress, swiped from Kevan on Flickr.

"Everything that can go wrong, will go wrong" -- Sounds cynical? Pessimistic? Unfortunately it's kinda true. Renovations have started on my apartment and the problems had been many. Luckily I had SK to help me out! She's a life saver! First of all, the wiring in my living room was shot! The renovator wanted to charge me for fixing it, but SK talked him out of it. Amazing. She had introduced was too many customers to him to be easily ignored. Haha. Then three out of five of the Panasonic ceiling fans that were installed did not work. Have to wait for the Panasonic technician to visit. Ugh. There was some issue regarding the lights in the rooms. Seems that putting them on the ceiling would cast shadows as the fan spun due to the close proximity. So they put it on the walls instead. In addition to that, two of the three down lights had faulty bulbs. Ack. And now I have to replace the front door's knob. I tried to enter the premises the other day and my original key couldn't open the door. Goodness. Better change it before the door gets jammed. Hope there will be no more surprises!

Update: The idiot renovator actually wrongly installed the fans and got an earful from the technician. As for the door knob, I quickly had it replaced. And SK replaced the bulbs for me. By this week, the grill should be up!

Coat West Star I: Nagi

2011-11-27T18:52:00.001+08:00

Been getting a lot of hits lately regarding male porn stars, so I decided to do a little tribute to several of my regulars from Coat West, one of the more prominent GV production houses in Japan. The following excerpts were translated from "Mens Egg" magazine in 2009 (?). Swiped it off ssusita's blog post. Some of it doesn't make sense, but we're used to that. LOL. I've seen Nagi in many porn vids. He's not exactly my favourite, but I think he was pretty popular. From what I saw, he was usually the bottom. Nearly reed thin with long-ish hair, the perfect example of the Japanese dandy mixed with boy next door looks. From my impression, he's usually topped by Sho and Kazuki.

Nagi

Nickname: Grandpa, Princess Margaret (as long is too beautiful)
Age: April 2, 1984
Height: 180cm
Weight: 60kg
Place of Birth: Osaka Prefecture
Magazine: "フボーンイァイ" &12539; "Mens Egg" &12539; "へアカTatariロ¥ °" &12539; "Styler"
There girlfriend? : No girlfriend
How do girls like to call: not particularly like, and called nagi like a ~
Be loved or love: love
When would like to get married: 27 years old, (can not quite hear, ms nagi say they want in their own solid and strong when the marriage)
First Love: Primary 2 grade, a lovely girl
The beginning of H: In high school, though a bit scared, but he's great
The beginning of masturbation: Secondary
How long masturbation once again: once a week or so
Left hand, right?: Right-handed
Erogenous zone: lower body
Bath: First wash the upper body
Before going to bed what to do: listening to music
Often to do dream: horror
Childhood hero: TV inside
Phone to send? SMS to send?: SMS sending
Fat will not use SMS Yan text?: Yes
Ringtone: Bi-bi-bi-bi-bi-bi
Phone standby image: Mickey mouse
Favorite color: blue, white, black
Favorite sport: there is no
Love the food: Meat
Nasty food: soup
Favorite lunch: octopus balls
Favorite feedingだった( "- do not know what the Chinese is similar to the kind of lunch at school): Jam Bread
Favorite animals: Dogs
Spring: Do you like cherry blossoms, because it is beautiful
Summer: Do you like the sea
Fall: Do you like festivals
Winter: Do you like snow
Which really want to go the places in Japan: Hokkaido
Which really want to go abroad and see: New York
Most wanted: car
The most wanted (money can not buy in): Love
30-year-old when the nagi of what?: Married, my son a good father
Would like to eliminate the past: No, because they were all happy
Can not anyone say that the secret: No
Future aspirations: Arts hotshots

Recycled Reindeer

2011-11-26T16:46:00.001+08:00

Mr. Wonderland 2011, swiped from williamnyk on Flickr.

Every year end, mum and I like to go around looking at the Christmas decorations in malls. Last Sunday, we ventured out to The Pavillion after early mass to see if it lived up to expectation. Arrived there at 10:40am, but we immediately walked out to Fahrenheit 88 to have brunch. Was already starving because we did not eat anything before mass. Wanted to try Marutama Ramen because according to KH, it's a famous chain from Japan. We were a tad too early and had to wait about fifteen minutes for them to open shop. In the mean time, we just walked around a bit. Noticed that Santa's sleigh and his reindeers from The Pavillion were recycled and moved to Fahrenheit 88. Nothing goes to waste. Told the cute waiter that I wanted the ramen in chicken broth with pork belly, charsiu and seasoned egg (perfectly done!). A little bit of everything. With nothing much of interest at Fahrenheit 88, we walked back to The Pavillion after sharing that bowl of ramen. Brought mum to the shops that would most likely interest her and at the end of the five hours, she had bought a pair of super pink Reebok sneakers, a blouse, a bra and a wall decoration. I didn't buy anything. As expected, the Christmas trees were done on a grand scale. The whole scene was supplemented by a Hello Kitty carousel and a giant tiered cake. Santa's sleigh was redesigned with red lampu lip-lap, wicker basket style reindeers and Santa himself was represented by a giant Christmas tree bauble. While I was there, Mr. and Mrs. Wonderland was also prancing around in dandy-ish costumes giving out vouchers. Mr. Wonderland turned out to be the hunky model SK Low. Mum took a picture with him le. My eyes were immediately glued to his crotch due to the fact that his pants were very tight and I could tell that his dick was parked South-East! Quite a view! Santa has been kind to me!

Paid the MYR15 parking bill (ouch!) and went to Seri Petaling for a simple meal of steamed rice with ginger stewed duck. Once again, shared it with mum. By the time I got home, it was already 4:30pm. Rested a bit and SK picked me up at 6:15pm for dinner at Suria KLCC. A special occassion-- Ken's birthday. Being ever the fickle eater (worse than me by a factor of 10), Ken decided on the venue. My first time dining at Koryo-Won. Predominantly, we had beef-- barbequed and raw (with raw egg, sesame seeds, chopped pear and sauce). For other stuff, we had pancakes and the accompanying side dishes. And as expected, Ken ordered a small bottle of Jinro. Service was a bit slow on that day and they were a bit reluctant to refill our salad wrap, but otherwise good. On the matter of gifts, we got him a Swarovski cross and a red table lamp from IKEA. Suitable for "raising the red lantern" with Apollo we joked. :P. For post-dinner drinks we went to Starbucks. Ordered a green tea latte and found it way to creamy. Could very well had been sucking on an udder. And true to his nature, Lifebook did some last minute shopping at Paul Smith, racking up a pretty sum on his credit card. By the end of the night, my battery had been spent. But all in all, it was a wonderful day out.

Reno

2011-11-23T18:28:00.001+08:00

renovation, swiped from Luciphoto on Flickr.

On Friday night, horniness took the better of me and I kinda skanked past my bedtime. As a result, I only woke up at 8:45am, too late for the usual marketing. Fortunately, mum does buy groceries during weekdays so it wasn't critical to go to the OUG wet market. With Cyan in tow, we just went out for breakfast at Seri Petaling wet market. Ate a hearty bowl of fish paste noodles. The stalls were still open, so we went around a bit. Mum just bought fruits because the stalls there sold stuff at a more expensive price. At 1:00pm, I went to SK's apartment to meet the renovator. Needed to discuss the scope of work and iron out the details. Basically, I would be doing the following:

Install grill
Install air conditioner at the living room (35' of tubing)
Install fan and lights
Wiring for fan and light switches and extra power sockets
Plaster ceiling for walkway to cover ugly air conditioner tubing
Put up curtain rods

Total damage is MYR4,200 after SK haggled with him. The grill already took nearly 50% of the cost. :S. I think it shouldn't take long to complete seeing that all the works have no dependency on each other. Went to pay the renovation deposit at the management office and met the Queen of the JMB. She was quite nice and even belanja us makan karipap. Still need to iron out my maintenance fee statement though. They screwed it up! The next step would be for me to engage a real estate agent to canvas for some tenants. Horror stories abound, hopefully I can find a good agent who will eventually land me a good tenant! Time to get some rental income and reduce the burden of servicing the loan. With the apartment being partially-furnished and air-conditioning, hopefully I can fetch a slightly better price. Wish me luck!

Favola Friday

2011-11-22T17:19:00.001+08:00

Venetian Masks, swiped from williamnyk on Flickr.

Being ever resourceful, SK managed to commandeer at Starwood Privilege Card from a friend. The card entitles the holder to 50% off all food items in restaurants that belong to Le Meridien, Westin and Sheraton. So on Friday, SK and I decided to have lunch at Favola, Le Meridien, just a stone's throw from my workplace. The restaurant is located on the eight floor and the interior decoration was kinda nice. I was particularly drawn to whole lot of Venetian masks on the walls. The chairs were tall and comfy and the ceiling looked like the banquet halls of old. The menus were rolled up pieces of thick paper fastened by mini leather belts. In the end, we ordered a couple of chef's recommendations~ Risotto con Cappesante (with pan-seared XL scallops!), Conchiglioni Marinara al Cortoccio (baked in a paper parcel with seafood and Parmesan cheese) and closed with a Illy Coffee-inspired Tiramisu that was large enough for three (I could describe it as a tad under-sweet and the nut cookie topping on top was superb). Quite worth the money actually, especially when you compare it to restaurants outside that serve pastas for over MYR30 with sub-standard ingredients. Business was kinda good for a Friday afternoon. Ever the generous bestie, SK settled the bill-- MYR98 after discount. Not bad right? In the evening, SK and I had to attend a BEC meeting so our dinner was Restoran Kheong Kee, Taman Sri Manja. Just a simple meal of fried kuay teow and Jiangnan noodles. Although we tried our best to speed things along, the meeting dragged on till past 10:00pm. Interestingly, it was our most wired meeting to date with Unifi-powered WIFI, laptops, iPhones and iPads. The minutes of meetings were e-mailed to everyone before the closing prayer was made. That concludes my foodie Friday!

P.S.: I patiently await to be flamed for my food selection... but in my defence, I really just ate minimal seafood from the dishes... peace! :P

Raped!

2011-11-21T10:29:00.001+08:00

She asked me to relax.

Was told that I would feel some pain.

She poked me. It wasn't bad.

Stopped a while. And moved around a bit.

She asked me to change positions.

The angle was wrong it seemed.

My poor hands. The doctor was only able to draw blood from my left hand.

Hi guys and gals, this is a follow-up post from my cholesterol shocker the other day. Was very touched that many people were concerned with my health. I did go to see a GP to get some advice on the situation. As expected, the doctor did not trust the results from the pharmacy and ordered for another test. In two days, the nurse called and asked me to see the doctor again. It was confirmed, I have high cholesterol levels. The total cholesterol was a bit lower, but the LDL was still at an ugly level. I was given a piece of paper from the American Heart Association detailing the cholesterol levels of common foods items. And she told me to exercise and come back for check-up in three months. That was it. I was charged MYR20. Oh well. Hopefully I can increase my physical activity (someone suggested the horizantal tango and a protein shake after... but can someone tell me if cum is high in cholesterol?), but I don't really think I can make a major commitment in this area. As for food... I shall try my best! But does that translate to less food porn on my blog?

P.S.: The collage that you see is the after-effect of my rape by the hypodermic needle. :(

Poslaju Sucks

2011-11-18T23:56:00.001+08:00

Blackwell's parcel, swiped from ark on Flickr.

Went to the Poslaju Center at Brickfields to courier some legal documents to my brother to sign. Yes, the lawyer firm finally drew up the documents for the perfection of charge after months and months.

Months ago:

"Fail tu... dah lama kan... emmm... bukan saya in charge la..."

"Err... saya belum buat la. Sekarang saya kerja kat reception. Nanti la bulan depan saya call you semula..."

Pening right? So, I passed the heavy envelope to the woman at the Poslaju counter.

Moi: Ke Singapura.

Poslaju: RM30.

Moi: Er... lekat macam tu je? Tak letak dalam plastik ke?

Poslaju: Plastik tu takde stok.

Moi: Tak koyak ke nanti sampul tu?

Poslaju: Emmm... Insyallah tak koyak.

Moi: (ARGGHHH) Bagi saya celotape tu, saya nak tampal-tampal sikit.

So is it an act of God if my package actually arrives at the destination?

Sunday Eats & Exercise

2011-11-17T00:36:00.001+08:00

Assam Fish, swiped from williamnyk on Flickr.

Brisk business for my sister and BIL this year has them working round the clock, seven days a week. As a result, little Cyan is still sleeping over at my place. So on Sunday, he followed us out to church. The kid was well-behaved that day. He just moved around a lot, at least he did not make noise or speak loudly. Halfway through mass, he whacked half a blueberry bun and that kinda spoiled his appetite for lunch. Couldn't even coax him to eat more of his favourite nasi lemak at Heritage Village Cafe. The rice was quite standard. I should let my brother try it the next he is back. In addition to this, mum and I shared a set of steamed rice with assam fish (it was sitting in a mixture of oil and vinegar, but really tasty, they used threadfin, really worth the price), jiu hu char and lobak. After lunch, I went back to the hair products shop at Taman Megah to have the stylist look at my scalp. For some unknown reason, my scalp has been acting up recently causing lots of flaking. Not exactly dandruff, but more like a dry, sensitive scalp. I wonder if its eczema. There has been some improvement since I changed my shampoo, so she told me to give it more time to work. Then it was off to Giant Kelana Jaya again to get a replacement for my mum's Nokia 5220 body kit. The buttons suddenly just fell off. :S. So many problems with her phones these days. Since we were there, mum picked up some groceries.

On the way back, the kid fell asleep in the car. Poor fella was exhausted. At 5:45pm, we dragged him into the car and drove to Taman Bukit Jalil. During the journey, he refused to wake up. The moment my mum mentioned "fountain", he practically jumped up and looked around. He really has a thing for fountains. Brought him to see the fountain at the park and he was excited to see the catfish and tortoise feeding frenzies that happen on a daily basis there. While mum was watching him, I went to do some jogging. My stamina sucked as usual. And when mum's Praise Dance started, I took over the job of watching him. Made him walk another round with me (more fountain and waterfall) and I coaxed him to chase me for a bit. He seemed to have fun. By 7:00pm, he seemed tired, but he refused my offer to help him carry his cute kangaroo knapsack. Dinner was at a nearby food court. Mum decided to order steamed fish head. Unfortunately, the dish took about half an hour to arrive and little Cyan nearly fainted from starvation. He jumped around the table demanding to be fed! LOL. Must have been due to the exercise. The fish was quite tasty and liked the fact that the ginger and garlic was chopped instead of blended. Kinda like James Bond preferring his martini shaken, not stirred. :P. That's all folks.

Negarakuku

2011-11-15T11:07:00.001+08:00

CARS Chase Chick Hicks with piston cup, swiped from jadafiend on Flickr.

Here's how little Cyan sings the national anthem:

"Negaraku, rumah tumpahnya darahku..."

I have failed in my many attempts to correct him. LOL. From what I can tell, he sings Bahasa Melayu songs phonetically. Sometimes he combines several words together and mumble them out ala Jay Chou. But at least he sings "Rasa Sayang" very well. Cyan learned it in conjunction with his pre-school sports day. He proudly brought home a silver trophy (a kiddy telematch) which he affectionately calls the "Piston Cup". Watched too much "Cars" apparently. So cute, right?

Cholesterol Is Thicker Than Water

2011-11-14T00:14:00.001+08:00

Desktop Blood Test, swiped from juhansonin on Flickr.

In 2010, I did a yearly blood test at Pathlab and found that my total cholesterol had shot up from borderline high to 7.00 MMOL/L. The recommended range is for it to be lower than 5.20! From then on, I started taking rolled oats every morning and even tried plant sterols that supposedly compete with cholesterol absorption in the bloodstream. I was already very conscious about my diet (no chicken skin and lard) and mum never did believe in fried and oily foods. So, during my morning marketing, I took a simple test at the pharmacy. The results from the handheld device didn't show any improvement. According to it, my LDL had shot up to 5.15 from 4.80! The only good news was that my HDL was slightly higher at 1.56 and my triglycerides dropped from 1.40 to 0.75. The Total Cholesterol / HDL ratio was also slightly better at 4.50. KH consoled me by saying that at least things did not get worse. But truthfully, I expected to see at least some kind of improvement! I plan to go get some medical advice already. Heart disease runs in my family. The two patriarchs died of heart attacks. Should really do something about it. Goodbye egg yolks? Goodbye internal organs? Goodbye prawn heads? In short, no more good food? Gratitude will taunt me every day! Lets see how I can also increase my physical activity. It's gonna be a challenge. Wish me luck!

At noon, I went to my church's Parish Assembly to get to know the state of things. It's the same story each year really. Boring stuff. Luckily I had my iPhone to fiddle with this time round. At around 3:00pm, tea time was declared and SK and I loaded up on fried noodles, sausage buns, red bean kuih and coffee. While the rest were mingling, we made a run for it. Picked SK up from Bandar Puteri Puchong as she left her car there for a Groupon car waxing / polishing treatment (interesting to note that the shop owners pinged SK's gaydar). Next up, we went to buy spare parts for my kitchen faucet. Frustrated that the staff failed to get me a quote after two weeks, I decided to engage the boss instead. She made a call and I immediately left with the spare part in hand. Then we made a cheque drop at Citibank before proceeding to Giant for a quick grocery run. Had a quick drink of coconut water before making my way home. At about 6:15pm, I went out again to send SK to pick up her car. This time round, mum and Cyan tagged along. I revisited the kitchen and bathroom accessory shop AGAIN to pick up a missing piece and stopped at the nearby bakery for a spell. Dinner was a simple meal of soya sauce chicken and chicken soup at home with little Cyan. His parents were working late again due to increased demand for calendars and greeting cards during this final quarter. Signing off.

Collapsed

2011-11-11T23:21:00.001+08:00

During a What's App conversation, Nicky05 let loose that Bear was hospitalized for lung collapse! Sounded really serious so I SMS-ed Pikey for further details. Turns out that Bear was having bad health over the past month and he suddenly encountered breathing difficulties. With one day of holiday left, might as well make good use of it by visiting the poor Bear at Selayang Hospital. Reached there at about noon with little hassle on the road. Selayang Hospital is quite large with elevators (full of anti-Anwar Ibrahim graffiti) that wait for no one. And it has a peculiar fountain outside that practically sprays water on to the ground. I guess it doubles as a sprinkler. And the men's room had plenty of propositions for gay sex. The wards were quite large. As we walked in, saw pharmacists preparing medication for the wards. They looked VERY young. Form 3?! The medical assistants seemed gentle and patient, surpassing the standards at some private hospitals I had seen. By the time we got to Bear's bedside, he was already flanked by Pikey (he looks different now, been a long time!), his mum, his sister and relatives. A big audience. Bear was conscious but he looked weak. Took him some effort to speak but at least his breathing wasn't laboured. The catheter in his chest that drained the fluid out seemed to do the trick. He just needs to rest and get his strength up I suppose. It was good that Pikey was sent him to the hospital in time, all the way from Puchong. TV drama material and romantically heroic. But still, the reason for the whole problem is unknown. Spontaneously happened. Later on, Nicky05 (he traded his princess bangs for a spikier look, much better!) and Ichimaru also came.

At about 1:00pm, SK and I left. Went for lunch at a coffee shop in Kepong. MYR15 for a platter of three treasures + chicken liver and a plate of bean sprouts. Not bad at all. Back home, I baby-sitted little Cyan while mum went out to visit a friend who was convalescing at home after some complications from diabetes. Luckily the kid just slept and slept and slept. At 5:00pm, I woke him up, fed him some porridge and bathed him with no tantrums. By 5:30pm, mum was home and I got off my shift. Decided that I should hit the pool to keep up the semblance of a fitness plan. Cyan joined me too! At first he hesitated to step into the pool in his undies (he's a stickler for propriety), but he quickly overcame that. Had fun splashing around in the kiddy pool while my mum kept an eye out. Later on I carried him into the adult pool and the kid refused to show me his moves. Just struggled in the water and tried to climb out by himself. According to his mother, he only swims in the presence of his instructor. :S. My post-swim negation meal came in the form of stewed chicken rice. Mum whipped up a big batch as it was little Cyan's favourite meal-- he calls it "soya sauce rice / black rice". Nom nom nom! So much for my swim. :S.

P.S.: Still no feedback from Pikey and Bear regarding the efficacy of the PLU grapes that SK bought

The Angry Preacher

2011-11-10T10:07:00.001+08:00

The angry preacher !, swiped from Gísli Dúa on Flickr.

Last week's mass was quite interesting. Perhaps the Raya Haji holiday had threw a spannar in the gears. The hymns were wrong. The projectionist did not sync with the choir. The pianist could have very well been drunk. Amazingly, the priest did not have a cow. However, he did sound about something else. He was kinda pissed with the fact that every week, they fish out rubbish from the mass collection. Some parishioners or guests see fit to throw used tissues, money that is not of legal tender and receipts into the collection bag. Having worked with the hospitality ministry for so long, I had never noticed people dropping in anything other than money. I was quite shocked. Secondly, he complained about certain church-goers who park indiscrimanately just because their cars are more luxurious than others. Arguments often break out and tempers flare. Makes one wonder if "Love Thy Neighbour" flies out the window the second your feet steps out of church. He went to the point asking them to leave their cars at home and take the LRT to church! Lastly, my church is kinda notorious for causing traffic snarls on the LDP. Certain inconsiderate drivers directly exit to the LDP via the junction, which is actually a very dangerous thing to do. The priest lamented that the he was already quite tired of frequenting the traffic police headquarters to explain matters and ask for leniency. Opps. Quite a challenging role taking care of one's congregation when more often than not, the priest needs to take care of all these 'trivial' matters that should not happen in the first place. Every job has its shit!

For lunch, mum and I went to KH's favourite wantan mee at Aman Suria. We waited about forty minutes for the food to arrive. And when it did, there was no spring onion and no vegetables. Just noodles, charsiew and dumplings. Even the curry was sold out. Alamak. Thankfully the weather was cool and that definitely helped my patience. On the way home, we stopped at Giant Kelana Jaya to do some grocery shopping. Fernleaf was doing a free BMI consultation, so mum gave it a try. Their dietary consultant was really a hack.

"Erm... erm... your BMI is normal but continue to eat healthily following the food pyramid. As you can see here ah... eats lotsss of carbohydrates. White rice. Bread. Ah, also take more cheese ah... Take little meat..."

Is that the recipe for a slimmer you? Good grief. That night, mum went out for dinner with her friends, so I had to settle dinner. Earlier, KH called me and the horny fellow actually got off over the phone (he had been abstaining due to his exams). Hehe. To substitute for my lack of exercise, I promised KH that I would do lunges and squats at home and that definitely put me off the mood of walking out to hunt for dinner. So, I just cooked a packed of instant noodles. Put in an egg, some pak choy and shimeji mushrooms. The simple meal did the trick and the whole evening was just spent in front of the computer...

Landlord in the Making

2011-11-08T13:48:00.001+08:00

Lab 101, swiped from williamnyk on Flickr.

Deviating from the norm, I did not go marketing last Saturday as mum had a breakfast gathering with her friends. I slept in instead and followed SK to work at about 9:00am. She had a job order to produce six facial care products, so she offered me to tag along and see how it was done. before starting work, we had breakfast at Damansara Uptown. Restoran Bintang served up quite a decent plate of Hakka noodles. In just under two hours she whipped up a batch of the products with some leftovers to spare for our own use. Breezed through the whole process while briefly explaining what she was dosing into the beaker. There was a reason for each ingredient and for everything she did there was a trick to balance things out. After dumping everything in ala Chef Wan while making his rendang (everything was agak-agak), she would run the homogenizer. As the assistant, I would be fetching her glassware, filling water and cleaning up. Quite interesting to see. Demystified, it's really just like masak-masak. Before heading home, SK stopped for chu cheong fun at Taman United cause she was already hungry. Shared the plate and drank a bowl of white kidney bean with egg drop tong sui. Lunch proper was lui cha that my mum had packed from Ampang. Quite good, but the condiments were quite oily and the soup lacked oomph. Not enough mint and sweet basil I suspect. For MYR5, the portion was extra large.

A couple of hours later, SK fetched me out to buy lights for my apartment. Earlier on, I had already purchased the ceiling fans. I'm just getting the basics to make my apartment rent-ready. Had been nearly a year since I got vacant possession. Since I won't be moving in, might as well generate some income from it. Although I knew what lights I wanted, it still took me two hours to settle the transaction. All the checking and waiting. The shop is perpetually full of customers! At least in the meantime, I distracted myself with a couple of twinks working there. One revealed quite a treasure trail when he raised him arm to turn on the lights. Was so sad to discover that the light shop sold ceiling fans at a lower price. Damn. Temporarily dumped all the stuff at SK's apartment while waiting for the grill to be installed at my place. Still have to meet the contractor too. As expected, prices have all went up. T.T. Later that night, mum went out for a function at Thean Hou Temple, so it was my job to bring little Cyan out for dinner. He bawled when my mother left the house. Had to drag him in and later dump him in the car. Met up with his parents at Restoran BB Seafood, Kuchai Lama. The initial plan was to eat at Restoran TKS, but that shop closed down. Ate a little bit too much-- marmite chicken (quite well done), stir-fried kale, hot plate bean curd, steamed egg (Cyan commandeered the whole plate) and steamed tilapia.

For dessert, we went to Hong Kong Dessert at Entrepreneurs Park cause SK's granny loves the almond paste there. I ordered the Red Bean Cake with Coconut Water. Creamy, but a tad too sweet for me. Cyan shared a bowl of Durian and Purple Glutinous Rice with his mum. Surpisingly, the tyke liked it. In my opinion, a nice place for dessert, but the parking situation is horrible. Be prepared to double or triple park. I honked my horn for five minutes before the driver who blocked my car turned up. Lepas tu balik rumah lo...

Skulking at the Warehouse

2011-11-07T10:37:00.001+08:00

Lavazza, swiped from williamnyk on Flickr.

Lifebook gave us a heads up that Bata was having a warehouse sale at Viva Home, so we fired up the GPS and headed there in the morning. Believe it or not, Bata put up a giant billboard on the pedestrian bridge across Jalan Loke Yew just to promote the event. Everything was priced at MYR5 and MYR10. The shoes were new and all sizes were available. Never seen a more sincere and genuine warehouse sale in my life. Mum and SK bought more than ten pairs in total. Truly cheap. Even saw an imitation of the Betula that I was wearing. Ish. For lunch, we walked in Lavazza Cafe. The decor was quite unique with retro floral chairs at one end and Mad Hatter high-backed style in another. I ordered the Hawaiian-style pasta (imagine a carbonara with coconut milk) with roasted chicken and SK ordered the beef burger. The burger patty was impressive. I liked the taste and the texture. Left soon after lunch and headed on home. However, I took a wrong turn and headed towards MINES instead. Since I made that wrong turn, we visited another warehouse sale instead-- Ms. Read. I stopped the car at the MINES 2 car park to let little Cyan sleep, while mum went to shop for clothes from her favourite brand. Letting SK's granny watch the kid a while, I went down to the mall to pee and look around. Primarily dominated by telco shops and kiosks. Spied one guy who looked a bit like Wilbur Pan. Did not manage a point blank shot of his face. Sigh. Other than that, it was very empty. A lala KTV contest was also going on. After about one hour, SK gave me the green light to go pick them up. According to her, the shop was full of people and even the lack of changing rooms did not stop the women from taking off their clothes to try the items on! That concludes my whole day of warehouse sales... :S

Art Lovers

2011-11-05T17:22:00.001+08:00

Art Expo Malaysia 2011 I, swiped from williamnyk on Flickr.

Received a notification from SK that POD was in town on Thursday to attend Art Expo Malaysia 2011 at the MATRADE Building near Jalan Duta. He had VIP tickets so he asked us to tag along to the event. It was the official launching before it was open to the public, so we got the chance to rub shoulders with the who's who of the art scene. Sad right? That sentence actually fails to impress even myself because I don't even who is who in the art scene. LOL. The royal patrons was the royalty from Perlis and when the VIPs arrived, I did not recognize any of them. We thought they would be checking tickets, but apparently not. Just waltzed right in. By the time we arrived, POD had just came in by taxi from LCCT. Collected the one inch thick guide book from the information counter and proceeded to browse the art. Although the guide book listed a whole list of participating countries, I felt that the bulk of the booths were from Singapore, Malaysia and China. POD introduced us to several of his clients. Roving, my eyes caught sight of several upper class gay lous with preppy clothing and high hair. Most of the other visitors also looked rich and cultured, except when they were busy trying to snap photographs of all the art. Filled our tummies with some sandwiches, fruit tarts and red wine. Didn't take us long to cover all the ground. Gave our muah muah and left the venue.

Man On The Street: Watch Me

2011-11-04T15:58:00.000+08:00

SK needed to change her watch's battery, so I walked into a shop in OUG and found this cutie. Tall, fair, spiky hair and a nice build. This was my third attempt. Not too flattering an angle, methinks. Too bad I screwed up two chances to get his side profile. Maybe next time. Took him very little time to change the battery. I reluctantly paid the MYR12 and peeled my eyes away. I showed this photo to WZ and he actually managed to tell me where he was from! Seems that he had stalked this cutie long before me!

Food for the Soul

2011-11-02T13:42:00.001+08:00

Food Street, swiped from williamnyk on Flickr.

Travelled to Teluk Intan again for two reasons. One was for All Soul's Day (decided to do it early to avoid any Raya Haji madness) and the other was to settle some of mum's legal issues. Don't worry, not litigation, but conveyancing. In order to kill two birds with one stone, had take a day off and depart on a Friday. Woke up 4:30am that day to get ready. Goodness. However, my BIL did not turn up until 6:30am. Didn't really matter since we made good time on the road and arrived in town at about 9:00am. Had to switch drivers halfway after BIL realized that he did not bring his wallet! Luckily I managed to catch some forty winks during the early part of the journey. First things first, we went to the market for some breakfast. Some turf wars were going on between the hawker stalls so we split into two tables. BIL, sis and bro had yellow sticky rice, nasi lemak and economy fried noodles while mum and I went for curry noodles and the delicious lai fun. Lai fun is basically thick rice noodles. Looks like what you have in assam laksa, but the chewy version you eat nowadays is a fake version. We also bought plenty of Anson chu cheong fun. Yummy-licious stuff! So far all that I had tasted in KL were poor immitations. Next, we went shopping at Sin Joo Heong for their heong peng and vermicelli. Didn't buy any for myself, just for colleagues. Before visiting my dad's grave, we bought flowers and fruits. As usual, St. Anthony's Cemetery was well kept. Did not have to do much cleaning at all. Said our prayers, contemplated a while and quickly fled from the sun. Walked over to St. Anthony's Church to offer mass and did some chatting with the parish priest. So sad to hear that some petty thief broke in and carted away the money from the offering boxes and even the one at the grotto. Even small towns aren't so safe anymore.

Being a small town, the legal firm was just a stone throw's away too. Haha. Went up and met the lawyer. The whole deal took about an hour but luckily my mum would no longer need to come for any signing. Just need to wait for the cross-transfer to happen once the Menteri Besar's office OKs the application. All this could have been avoided if my late dad and uncle bought their homes in a straightforward manner. Never ever involve more than one party in all these things. And do write up a will! Doing things with a Letter of Authority is expensive and time-consuming. In all that time, little Cyan stayed in the car and even managed to take a shit in the Avanza. Then we went to visit my aunt who had just had her gall-bladder removed. And my fourth cousin was down with chicken pox, so had to shy away from my pregnant sister. Also met my third cousin who had just come home bringing his new girlfriend. For lunch, we ate at the nearby Restoran Man Chong. Five of use, giant portions of sweet and sour chicken, guiness stout pork ribs, claypot beancurd and vegetables-- the bill came to only MYR55. Practically had to glue my jaw back up. I drove back and halfway through I was sooooo sleepy. Reached home at about 4:00pm... Another trip to Hilir Perak settled.

What's In A Name?

2011-10-31T23:28:00.001+08:00

john constantine by Gabriel Hardman, swiped from giantsizegeek on Flickr.

In your circle of friends, which name is the gayest of them all?

For me, Jason takes the prize.

But someone recently remarked, "Isn't it Calvin?"

What is it for you?

"First rule of magic: Don't let anyone know your real name. Names have power."
-- John Constantine, Books of Magic

Have You Eaten Cane Before?

2011-10-30T09:35:00.001+08:00

Bamboo Groove, Kyoto, swiped from Yuki--chan on Flickr.

Little Cyan is already three years old and he is beginning to show his tiger stripes. The kid is quite a handful now and is difficult to manage. A stubborn streak is showing up where he refuses to listen to reason and will just throw a tantrum until he gets what he wants. Most of the time, we have to use reverse psychology. So far, his parents have still been sticking to the modern school of child upbringing and have not resorted to more 'manual' methods. In my opinion, the kid has already seen through the whole situation and knows that he will eventually get his way. As the evil uncle, my temper is already at near blowing point. But of course I will respect his parent's wishes. But I think there's really not much choice anymore. A rotan for Christmas!

Spare the rod and spoil the child?

Melentur buluh biarlah dari rebungnya?

What do you think?

C-O-C-O-T-E-I

2011-10-28T22:13:00.001+08:00

Pentagonal, swiped from williamnyk on Flickr.

Halfway through mass on Sunday, the power was cut off. No lights. No PA system. No projector. The poor deacon had to shout through his sermon. Fortunately, the air-conditioning was still running. At first, I thought it was a blown fuse or something, but it turned out that even the nearby shops were blacked out. Oh well. Lunch was at SK's place. Had been a long time since she cooked. She tried a few unconventional dishes that day-- steamed egg with fish (to please my nephew. Not really a good combination because the dish ended up quite fishy), steamed chicken wings with salted egg and Chinese parsley (an award-winning dish in Singapore in seems!), stir-fried choy yun, blanched lean pork and herbal soup. A little drama happened after lunch because Cyan got over-zealous in drinking his water that he vomitted all over my mum in the bathroom. Opps! Took us some time to clean up before heading home. Not long after getting home, we went out again to buy some stuff at Jusco. The little kid was hyper again running all over the place. Quite a handful. Finished ninety percent of the shopping list (most importantly replaced the SD card that had been stashed away by naughty Cyan!), just need to find a replacement keypad for my mum's Nokia. Sat down at Secret Recipe to have a piece of moist chocolate cake. The kid gobbled it up together with a Portugese egg tart from Baker's Cottage. Back home, I napped for about one hour before leaving for dinner at CoCo tei, Jalan Delima with SK, Apollo, Ken and Lifebook.

The place had a nice ambience and was predominantly decorated with tree trunks and wooden flotsam. We ordered a sashimi moriawase to share and to wash it down, we opened a bottle of Satsuma Mura shochu. The dinner special dinner sets arrived in elevated pentagonal woven trays that were quite special but definitely a space-hogger. I ordered the nigiri sushi set while SK took her favourite unagi. Ken sat beside me and was very diligent at keeping my shochu cup full! And he kept on asking me to bottoms up (partly due to the fact that Lifebook did not give me face and did not drink much :P). Was a bit high after all that, but the feeling passed quickly with the food and hot green tea. In my opinion, food wasn't that good for that price range. The sashimi was that worth it. Each piece of fish cost about MYR10! And the amaebi wasn't sweet at all. But the drink was good and the company was superb making it a wonderful dinner. Ended dinner with wasabi, black sesame and yuzu ice cream and mochi. As per tradition, I opened my present at the end of dinner. David and Ken got me pair of Paul Frank undies! Super cute prints! On top of that, the microfiber was soooooooo smooth and silky. We paid the bill (with raised eyebrows) and said our goodbyes... Think that should be the last of my birthday dinners for 2011.

P.S.: Also thanks to Potato Bill's Toot underwear that arrived in the mail. I like it very much! (the picture below is only an approximation, I couldn't find the exact model, and of course that ain't my body!)

Master Mei

2011-10-27T13:44:00.001+08:00

Lammeeya III, swiped from williamnyk on Flickr.

Last Sunday, SK and I attended English mass before heading off to Lammeeya, Damansara Uptown for breakfast. The reason for the change in routine was because KT's graduation was on that day. We wanted to congratulate her for obtaining her masters degree in educational psychology from UPM. Breakfast consisted of their trademark lam mee and one udon version. Shared between the three of us as the set also came with meatballs and fried beancurd skin. Truth be told, I love their meatballs althought I am not a fan of meatballs. The texture is good and it has the fragrance of dried cuttlefish. Yummy! Their lam mee is good, but every time I eat it, I tell myself that I have stay away for at least three months. Don't know why. We reached UPM at about 11:00am. The sun was relentless and the designated car park was quite far from the main hall. However, most people were too happy to notice that they were being grilled under their mortar boards. Took us some time to find KT in the sea of graduates and well-wishers. At that time, only her parents were with her. So we took some pictures and subsequently scurried away to more shaded areas. SK and I did not get her flowers, but gave her a red packet instead. Purple flowers that will never shrivel up and die. LOL. Met her junior whom she said was confused about his sexuality. That fella could wear a pair of skinny jeans and still have space left over!!! Don't think he is confused. SK's gaydar matched my results. Just stayed for an hour and excused ourselves. Walking back to the car, we were surprised to find a Catholic chapel in the UPM grounds. It was called St. Anne's Chapel and peculiarly, at the entrance was a prayer for expectant mothers. Some kind of trend?

Before dinner, I went for a swim at my apartment. It was a great workout, but when I arrived home, I realized that my underwear was missing! Yes, I freeballed home that's why I did not notice my red 2xist undies going AWOL. Couldn't find it, so sad! It was a gift from KH. :(. Hopefully it's not in the hands of some underwear thief! Later that night, sis and BIL brought me out for dinner at Mr. Ho's Bistro at Bandar Puteri Puchong. The owner was a very nice lady who gave her customers much attention. We ordered most of the dinner specials-- walnut salad (the balsamic vinegar dressing was very overpowering), mixed platter (chicken, pork sausage, pork chop, roast pork, pork ribs), pork chops, lamb shoulder and pasta with pan-seared salmon (generous portion of fish). Overall, the grilled items were good, but I did not quite like the marinara-based pork ribs. Drinks were an imported soft drink called Tango-- "orange soft drink with sugar and sweeteners. Contains no artificial colours or flavours (or any of those poncy ingredients like ginseng or elderflower)". Cracked me up. The restaurant had a play corner that occupied Cyan for most of the dinner. Everything looked new and well-maintained. Nice place for dinner really. And the prices are quite mid-range. That concludes my second birthday dinner.

MRT Celebrities: Phone Frenzy

2011-10-25T23:13:00.000+08:00

Hi guys and gals! I'm back with a long overdue entry on MRT cuties. It's been dry season on the LRT lately, so luckily KH has some goodies for all of you. Quite the norm these days for commuters to be looking at their smart phones for the whole journey. No more staring into space and digging our noses. Even I can't keep my iPhone in my pocket for more than two minutes. I would be thinking that there's some kind of notification or something. So most of the time, I'd be checking my inbox, looking at FB, playing Tiny Tower (a bit malas these days) and checking out photos on Instagram (read: looking for skanky pics). I rarely stuff my ears and listen to music. Has been ages since I updated my playlist too. Any recommendations for my "On the Go" playlist? Oh yeah, and one more thing. Just look at those two guys. They represent two categories of commuters. The guy on the left loves his bag more than his back, so he keeps it slung. The guy on the right doesn't feel that his bag is some 'blessed item' that would lose its powers if he put it down. I am the latter. Most of the time I would put my bag down on the floor, unless it was just a couple of stops. And remember, no bag deserves to have its own seat! But maybe TBoy would beg to differ. Until my next post...

Afternoon Tea

2011-10-24T09:53:00.001+08:00

Afternoon Tea, swiped from williamnyk on Flickr.

Grat asked me out for afternoon tea on Saturday (so ngam it was a Guan Yin feast day) at The Gardens Mall and just so happened Finnegan was in town again so I requested them to combine the meet. Luckily both of 'em were obliging (but I think they did not have a choice). Sorry to say I was late for half an hour that day, so by the time I arrived at Pastis, I saw Grat sipping Lavazzo coffee at one table and Finnegan just beside him reading a book. I should have described Finnegan to Grat so that perhaps they could have kept each other occupied before my arrival. According to Grat, he saw Finnegan earlier, wondering why an ang moh was pacing up and down. LOL. without wasting any time, I asked Finnegan to move over to our table and introduced him to Grat and SK. At the start of the conversation, we paid our full attention to the guest but as time went we couldn't help ourselves but to bith about local issues and at times lapse into Cantonese. Having lived in HK for a time, I suspect that Finnegan can understand bits and pieces of our banter. :P. Both Grat and Finnegan ordered pasta while SK and I shared the afternoon tea set. Our small table was almost overwhelmed by all the crockery and cutlery. Slowly nibbled on the sandwiches, mini quiches, cakes and desserts that were found on the tiered trays. By the time we had finished gossiping, I had gone through three pots vanilla sencha. Feeling a need to stretch our legs, we did a bit of walking around the mall. Not long after that, we said our goodbyes. Perhaps next time we can bring Finnegan to try some local foods rather than stick to mall or restaurant food.

Before I forget, here's a low down of the birthday presents I got so far:

Received a pair of black Calvin Klein briefs from ChatMate in the mail. From their Steel range. Cool microfiber. Great to the touch. Thanks!
In Melaka, mum gave me a red packet. Thanks mum!
Back in KL, SK's grandma also gave me a red packet! Thanks ah po!
JJ and Bunny bought me dinner at The Pork Place. Thanks guys!
A colleague of mine bought me a cup of crème brûlée cappucino from CBTL. TQ!
And last but not least, another book from Finnegan-- "Week-end Wodehouse". Thanks! Remember that I owe you two book reports! :S

Man in the Mirror

2011-10-22T00:44:00.000+08:00

Last Friday, Pooh made a visit to KL with his bf, ZaiZai. As usual, he asked me to organize a dinner party. A thankless job really. Since he was staying with Jo Tetek at Puchong Jaya, I decided to have it at The Geographer at IOI Boulevard. On arrival, SK and I found the place to be super crowded, maklumlah Friday is drinking night. On top of that, it was noisy and full of ciggie smoke, but I guess that is to be expected from a bar. Since everyone else had not arrived, we went scouting for an alternative. Upon seeing The Pork Place, we checked out the menu and decided that it was kosher for our purposes. :P. At first I thought it was only a party of serven, but at the last minute, Pooh told me to set a table for twelve. Goodness. And after everything was ready, he told me that there were actually two muslims coming. I was flabbergasted. Bah. I just waited for him to arrive and decide further upon it. Luckily, his friend did not mind it and found something pork-less to eat. That night, I finally met ZaiZai. We refer to each other as "myself" as he is a decade younger version of me existing at the same time as me and fucking another man. Quite a kinky thought. True to pics, he did look fifteen. Barely legal. Pooh likes that. Other attendees included Bunny, Jaded Jeremy, WZ (looks very much like Wen Zhang, a PRC actor who recently starred in "The Sorceror and the White Snake") and his boyfriend EC, Jo Tetek and his boyfriend AK, and several of Pooh's friends from his uni days. It was good that the cute supervisor put us in a private room at loft, else the other patrons would be choking on their bratwursts.

For food, I had the schwenk braten (pork shoulder) and SK ordered her favourite sausage platter. It was delicious. Hearty portions and lovely mustard. Conversation was lively. Had a great time chatting with WZ. Observing his interactions with EC was also quite absorbing. Banter. Sarcasm. Dialogue bordering on the snappish. The words were especially powerful coming from EC's hooded eyes and the ingrained KL sneer. Pooh's last guest, Ash arrived at the end of dinner. She was so happy to see him that she gave him a WWE bear hug. To the untrained eye, it was as though Pooh was being assaulted. Since she hadn't eaten, we brought her over to The Geographer. By that time, it was nearly full to the brim with customers and promoters. Pretty girls in all shapes and sizes peddling booze and fags. I couldn't stand the the ciggarette smoke and it was bloody difficult to have anyone take your order, so a small group of us went over to Chatime. As a virgin drink, I ordered the roasted tea with grass jelly, but SK's melon tea with grapefruit tasted better. Halfway through, a friend of WZ's joined us. From the way WZ described his friend, I think he has a crush on him. :P. Before I left for the night, SK and I went back over to The Geographer to say goodbye. Just after one drink, ZaiZai started getting very octopus-y with me! According to Pooh, it was heightened by the fact that I was in office wear. Pooh didn't mind, he was all for William-on-William action. =_=. And so we hugged and parted ways... until their next visit or perhaps I would go to Penang (Pooh and Zemien, don't laugh k?).

Out of Melaka

2011-10-19T23:39:00.001+08:00

Typical Breakfast, swiped from williamnyk on Flickr.

Early next morning, we packed up and got ready to check out. Before heading to mass, Sis brought us to breakfast at Restoran Weng Soh Siew that is famous for two things-- nasi lemak and yu kaw noodles. To me, yu kaw noodles is basically fishball and fishcake noodles done in the dry style. Doesn't sound very special right? But the hor fun was very good (reminiscent of a lighter chu cheong fun) and the chili gravy that come with the food was good. To me, the nasi lemak was just average. Typical Chinese version that is sweet-ish with kangkung. But little Cyan whacked it all anyway. We were supposed to celebrate mass at St. Francis Xavier Church in town, but having passed by St. Peter's Church first, we decided to go there instead. It's the oldes church in Melaka, built in 1710. It had been renovated with a wood-paneled ceiling but I guess most of the original architecture remained. The altar was also pre-dominantly wooden. The homily was very lively. I loved how the priest told his stories and mixed in Hokkien into English. Some things he said were also very bold and perhaps a bit reckless. But the subject was about the power of God and of course with God, everything goes! Here's an excerpt:

"It was just my first year as a priest and I was called to an exorcism! Liao! Before entering the house, I asked God to give the strength. Let them see your Power. Don't make me lak seh! I went in with my holy water and crucifix. And loudly proclaimed in the name of God that all devils should be cast out. Even annointed the child with oil blessed by the bishop. But the mother told me that I annointed the wrong child."

"Someone was dying in the ICU and I was told to perform an annointing of the sick. I was in my white cassock and I was stopped on the way to the ward. The person thought I was a doctor! I'm not a doctor I said, but a specialist. A specialist in prayer."

He even complained that his mother watches too much Astro, causing her to have difficulty concentrating in prayer. :S. Just as the mass ended, tourists streamed in to admire the heritage building. On the way to Jonker Street, we stopped at Tan Kim Hock to buy some food products. Seems a bit more run down and even the cendol section had closed. At Jonker, the sun beat down relentlessly on poor tourists like us. Did the usual rounds from Sam Shu Gong to Jonker 88. Unfortunately, Jonker 88 was too crowded, so we decided on the shop beside it, Jonker 86. Kinda like fishes feeding off the scraps from a shark's feeding frenzy. They basically live off customer run-off from next door. But then again, their food is decent. I liked the nyonya laksa, but the assam laksa was lukewarm. Hate that. I like things piping hot. The cendol was OK, but if you're looking for an overdose of palm sugar, definitely go to Jonker 88. After our lunch there, we immediately drove back to KL.

Napped a bit and upon waking up, had to freshen up and go for my birthday dinner! An ad-hoc choice. Went to Umai-Ya at IOI Boulevard. Food was average and the portions were kind of disappointing. The pictures in the menu were obviously taken through a magnifying glass! Ordered the kimchi maki, gindara mushi, chirashi don and a chicken teriyaki set. Post-dinner cake was a slice of almond cake from the nearby RT Bakery. Didn't light the candle that came with it nor was sung a birthday song. Just ate half of it and little Cyan whacked the rest of it the day after. Ah. Three. One.

Melaka Marriage

2011-10-17T23:40:00.001+08:00

Mille Crepe, swiped from williamnyk on Flickr.

My brother-in-law's little brother was getting married in Melaka, so we made a little trip down. The good thing was, he rented a big house in Taman Pertam Jaya, so lodging was free. Very spacious, fully-furnished and nicely-renovated for just MYR300 a night. Heard that many developers fail to sell their bumi lots, so they are forced rent them out or transform them into motels to recoup their losses. The journey took about two hours with SK testing the limits of her Viva. Arrived at Melaka a bit too early as the tea ceremony was still ongoing, so we decided to take a detour to Jasin to visit my uncle. His health seems to have deteriorated the last I saw him in Tangkak. Age is catching up and his chronic bone and joint problems don't seem to get any better. He brought us out to lunch nearby. Had a chicken rice that would be suitable for toothless people. No chewing was required to eat the rice and chicken. Arrived back in Melaka at around 2:00pm, but it was a hassle finding the rented place because SK's Garmin GPS was acting up again. Went round and round at an adjacent housing area. Just put down our luggage, rested a while and went out again to JJCM. It was just 3km to town.

Our first stop was Ming's Satay Hut. Skewers of porky goodness. The meat was crispy on the outside but moist on the inside. And the marinate was quite special, with a hint of black pepper. Also ate a small order of liver satay. Each piece of liver was interspersed with a think layer of fat to enhance the taste. Prepared well, not over-cooked. Walked a few shops down to Nadeje Pattiserrie. On our first pass, we missed it because their sign board was taken down for renovation. Just ordered one slice of Berry Berry Strawberry Mille Crepe and a pot of hibiscus-rose hip tea. Couldn't understand how all the patrons could stand sitting inside with the noisy renovations going on. Worst of all was the fact that the enclosed space was full of paint solvent fumes! Perhaps mille crepe does go very well with thinner. The sour hint of the strawberry did well to balance the cream in the mille crepe. I was happy with my choice. My first piece of birthday 'cake', sponsored by ChatMate. The tea came with a tea cosy, a funny sight considering the tropical heat of Malaysia. The tea was also sour but it reminded me too much of 'sour vegetables'. That was not the only funny thing~ our waiter was called "Bieber". ;S.

While eating, I received a call from my sister. Apparently, SK and her grandma was invited to the wedding. They actually tagged along just to take in the sights. So, SK and I went off to Hatten Square to do some shopping cause SK did not bring anything suitable to wear for the banquet. Just took her fifteen minutes to get a blouse. and in that time, we saw so many specimens of Melaka's gay lala twinks. Never expected the place to have such a high concentration. Back at the rented house, we rested and freshened up. Sis and BIL had left earlier to make some preparations at Equatorial Hotel, the dinner venue. Little Cyan threw a tantrum, wanting to follow his mum. Had to shut him up with games on my iPhone and he later fell asleep due to exhaustion. The kid slept in his slacks, long sleeve shirt and vest (his full kit had a bow tie and a coat). At about 7:00pm, we made our way to the hotel. Things were a bit chaotic because the Chief Minister was having his birthday celebration there as well.

The theme of the dinner was "Beach Party". The bride and the groom wore polo Ts and cropped pants with "Just Married" signs on their back. Went around barefoot even. The cocktail reception served coconut water and red wine. Inside, one corner was decorated with balloons, seashells, floats, beach balls, a swing and a beach backdrop. The kids really buat kecoh there. A very strange wedding. The bride and groom never changed into anything formal. There was no main table. And there was no toasting on stage, cutting of cake or pouring of champagne. Just a weird syok sendiri entrance sketch that was only viewable by a quarter of the guests. Food was kinda good. Better than most hotel fare. Drank lotsa wine and listened to a lot of oldies belted out by the entertainers. Luckily I wasn't too stuffed from dinner. The drive back was another challenge with the buggy Garmin GPS. Passed by Capitol and saw a long queue spanning two shop lots at 10:30pm. Goodness. Finally got home. Showered and jumped into bed... feeling the effects of the countless glasses of red wine...

P.S.: Also received my second birthday present that day, a red packet with an auspicious number of dollar bills from SK. She finally gave trying to figure out what to get me and gave me cold, hard cash!!!

Lets Get to the Bottom of Things

2011-10-16T14:22:00.000+08:00

An anonymous commenter concluded from my last post that I must be a bottom because I have such sensitive nipples. I don't know how true this analysis is as my experience with men is limited to KH. Can't really make an observation based on my limited data set! Haha. Well, at the start, KH never did appreciate any nipple play. But under my constant minstrations, he can now appreciate some of it. When I get through with him, I'll make sure that he gets a woodie on every tweak. :P. Back to the question:

Based on your experience, do bottoms have more sensitive nipples than tops?

Is Your Snake Green or White?

2011-10-13T11:56:00.001+08:00

Sushi Tei, swiped from williamnyk on Flickr.

Brought mum to Tropicana City Mall for a movie on Sunday after church. We weren't very hungry cause we ate free doughnuts distributed by the Society of St. Vincent De Paul in conjunction with their feast day. Therefore, we only had a light lunch at Sushi Tei before the movie. My first time there actually. Ordered a plate of salmon belly sushi and a plate of kaki mentai sushi (oyster mayo). Both were quite good. In addtition to that, shared a bowl of yosenabe. Walking out of the restaurant, I was diverted to the www.yuberactive.com booth to register my name for a lucky draw. When I handed over the piece of paper to the buxom promoter, she exclaimed:

"So lucky! Big Momma's Pajamas!!!!"

It was movie merchandise from the movie "Big Momma's Like Father Like Son"-- giant pink pajama with a pair of XXXXXL panties. My mum altered the top and its now wearable. At the center court, a junior rhythmic gymnastic tournament was ongoing. The kids were so young... Saw two types of coaches-- the bitter, over-the-hill type and the lithe, I-suck-nutrients-out-of-the-air variety. Most of the routines were pretty standard and repetitive. Basic stuff. Couldn't stand watching for long. Poor kids. We watched "The Sorceror and the White Snake". Quite nice, but Raymond Lam and Charlene Choi were quite annoying. Can really see how far Jet Li has aged. Can't really comment much about the story as I don't know the original. I do remember a bit of the version from Shaw Brothers. It was quite entertaining with loads of CGI.

Later that night, after my jog, met up HP and her husband for dinner at Iwate Ramen, Seri Petaling. Parking there was horrible. Saw a couple walking towards the side of the road... thought they were heading towards their car. But they suddenly disappeared. Turns out they were squatting by the drain burning offerings and pouring rice wine! Seems like a daily ritual for the night club opposite the road. The ramen had a springy feel and the soup was quite thick in flavour. The charsiew was well-roasted with a good aroma. However, the price was a tad expensive for an unknown shop in Seri Petaling. Also tried their otak-otak fried rice. Nice but oily. After dinner, we went to HP's new condo in Savanna 2. 1400sqft, newly-renovated with built-in cabinets and all the bells and whistles. But she paid a premium for it. Kinda reminds me of my apartment. I have yet to do the basic renovation. Should do it soon and rent it out to recoup some of my installement payments!

Blue-Gray Saturday

2011-10-11T23:16:00.001+08:00

Bak Zhang, swiped from williamnyk on Flickr.

Didn't do much marketing on Saturday. Just made a few quick stops in OUG and Taman United before heading home. For breakfast we had Woo Pin's fish head noodles. Shared a large bowl with mum. Although I often order the fresh belly meat, I still do feel that it goes the best with fried fish. Another favourite stall of mine is at TTDI, at the corner near Peek-a-boo. The fish meat is fried to a golden-brown with no unpleasant oil smell and it retains the moistness and sweetness of the fish. And it comes heavily-garnished with chinese celery and cooking wine. Yummy. Mum went out at around noon, so I was left to my own devices. Munched on a packet of steamed chickpeas. Really love the stuff. Used to buy it from the stalls at bus stations during my youth. Had a late lunch of bak zhang from OUG. For just MYR4, it was large and filled with half a salted egg yolk, mushroom, white kidney beans and fatty pork. Ate it while watching The Infidel on my laptop. A story about an East End Muslim who discovers that he's adopted - and Jewish. Good for some jokes on religion. Later that afternoon, had tea with mum. She chopped up some cucumbers and capsicums and brought out the jar of herring that we had been struggling to finish. Washed it all down with some hot Milo.

Later that night, SK and I sent mum to a wedding banquet at Bukit Jalil Golf Resort. For dinner, we met up Briyani Blue Sky at Restoran Choon Sum, off Old Klang Road. Arriving at 8:00pm, the place was already crawling with customers. Waited one hour for our food because there was only only chef-- the fat guy. Usually, the food arrives before their signature dish of Lotus Leaf Fish, but on that night it was the inverse. The wait was for naught because the food was terrible. No quality. Sub-standard. No heart. Simply done. The superior soup lala tasted all wrong and without rice wine. The kam heong chicken was too oily. The pork ribs were way too sweet. Only the vegetable was good. It was the worst dinner I had there and I must really apologize to Briyani Blue Sky. We left at around 10:00pm as our dinner guest was rushing home to watch "Gray's Anatomy". SK and I left for Restoran Madinah at Taman Esplanad for a hot drink while waiting for my mum. Another horrible experience. My teh tarik tasted of limau panas because they didn't wash their cups properly. Ugh. There you have it.

Spray On

2011-10-10T18:29:00.000+08:00

From my last skanky post about nipple licking I have noticed that many readers by the fact that I have EDT on my nipples. I don't know about you, but I spray my EDT on my body rather than on my clothes. A quick spritz on my chest and abdomen usually does the trick. Experts recommend applying fragrance at your pulse points because body heat intensifies the effect. Some people say that by spraying on your clothes, you risk staining them and clothes do not retain fragrance as well as your skin. But some people recommend walking through a mist of perfume in your clothes. Opinions differ. My choice of location is kinda odd when you consider that the usual places are the neck and wrists. Perhaps I shall try those places too. Hehe.

How do you wear your fragrance?

Wednesday with KH

2011-10-07T11:58:00.001+08:00

Sephora Spot, swiped from williamnyk on Flickr.

As we were discussing what breakfast to have and finally decided on pan mee at Jojo's Little Kitchen, KH suddenly had a change of heart and revealed his craving for nasi lemak. The only decent choice was Pappa Rich at Puchong Jaya. Then off we went to The Pavilion for some jalan-jalan. Also visited Sephora and Fahrenheit 88. Seeing how idle the staff at Snowflake were, we decided to give it a try. Got the bestseller, but ordered the variety. Think we should have gone with the cold. Also tried their pearl milk tea. I wasn't too impressed with both items. I only liked the peanuts in the dessert, was really large and fragrant. Tokyo Street was also a new addition that I had not seen. The concept's very much like what Singaporean malls had been practising for some time. The lunch crowd was a bit scary, so we shopped at Daiso first before lining up at Hokkaido Ramen: Santouka for a while. Business was very brisk for something quite expensive. Designer ramen. KH and I shared a large bowl of charsiu miso ramen with extra negi. Delicious, but the soup was kinda overpowering. It left a very strong aftertaste in my mouth. KH ordered another cup of roasted milk tea at Ochado. Still felt it lacked some oomph. Back home, it was skanky time once again. After four years of LDR, I finally feel that our sex act is now mostly in harmony. Easier to get things rolling. It's something that most couples take for granted, as they have more time and opportunities to get things right. But we still need to work on some points as I have not yet struck off some items from my sex wish list. :P. Was tired after sex and I napped on KH's chest. KH was scheduled to leave that night, so he packed and we headed out to dinner at Restoran Kheng Pang, Taman Universiti Indah. Ordered our favourite claypot tilapia, Mongolian pork ribs and stir-fried potato leaves. We only shared one plate of rice, but still left the table super full!

Drove to LCCT from there. Upon reaching, KH had some trouble scanning his 2D barcode at the kiosk. This goes to show that one should just print the boarding pass at home. The barcode scanner is only another point of possible failure. While waiting for his boarding time, we had a drink at Old Town Kopitiam. Sat beside a woman with lips that proves the existence of collage implant genes. At around 8:30pm, we walked KH to the departure gate. Hugged me and kissed me on my cheek. Watched him go up the escalator and waved him goodbye. Sigh. Don't know when will be next I see him... Love you baby.

Licked

2011-10-05T22:37:00.001+08:00

In the heat of our passion, KH kissed me hard on my lips. His hands would go roaming to my chest as he knows his touch would elicit an appreciative response from me. Not feeling satisfied with my moan, he unbuttoned my shirt and put his warm mouth to my right nipple. The feeling was electric. But it ended abruptly. He sat up and licked his lips. I opened my eyes and looked at him:

Moi: What's wrong dear?

KH: Is that perfume I taste in my mouth?

Moi: XD. Yup. Esprit Connect.

We continued where we left off. LOL.

Tuesday with KH

2011-10-04T16:20:00.001+08:00

Hot Soup, swiped from williamnyk on Flickr.

Our day started with breakfast at Restoran Rishadh, our favourite neighbourhood mamak shop. KH got his roti telur bawang fix. A light breakfast before our spa appointment at Desa Sri Hartamas. He forwarded me the promotion on Groupon, so we went to give it a try. Took us a while to find the place because we forgot to bring the address and phone number and had to dig it out from the e-mails. When we finally arrived, we rang the doorbell but nobody answered. Wanting to use the loo, I went back downstairs to pinjam tandas at the mamak shop. On the ground floor, a Korean woman spoke to me in Korean, and I just went "Huh?!". Realizing that I'm not Korean (not hard to figure out kan? Suneo is obviously Japanese), she asked me where the toilet was. I beckoned her to follow me to the mamak shop. LOL. By the time I went back up, the PIC had returned. Turned out to be a middle-aged PRC woman who looked suspiciously like a mama-san. They obviously had not warmed up their engine. Quite chaotic. After determining what package we wanted (30-minute body scrub followed by 90-minute full body massage at MYR88), more PRC girls started appearing. Got out the tea and hot foot soak. KH got a 21-year old China doll, while I got a 30+ woman. There were no rooms, everything was separated by curtains. We were told to strip, but we found nothing to change into. On KH's massage bed, there was G-string-like thing, but on mine there was nothing. So I asked my therapist. They got all kelam-kabut and started sourcing for some boxer shorts for us. At first, she gave me something XXL. I stared in disbelief and asked for something smaller. More alarm bells rang in my head.

And so, the scrub started. At KH's side, I heard the therapist ask him to strip everything off! Yikes. Luckily I got leave my shorts on. My therapist kept commenting on how smooth my skin was. And the lack of body hair really shocked her. She kept on telling KH's therapist what little hair I had on my body. =_=. Chit-chat-chit-chat. Definitely not a place to go for relaxation! When she reached my legs, she was practically in disbelief. "How can?!". The scrub was really good, she even gave my ass a good scrubbing. By the time she got to my lower lower abdomen, I'm sure she would have noticed that I at least have pubes. :S. The massage went pretty well. My first time trying the Chinese style. Her hands had much strength. Towards the final lap of the massage, I started chatting woth my therapist. About her hometown, life in China. Then it got quite weird when she started spending much time at my groin, massaging around near my balls at a my pubic area. When I'm in such 'public' situations, my dick stays inert. Perhaps she felt it weird that I did not give her a woodie and just kept on talking like nothing's amiss. Then finally she gives it a try-- she points at my dick and asks me whether I wanted to be 'serviced'. I just smiled and said no. She didn't pull a face or anything, just continued on with my legs, but with a little less enthusiasm I guess. And she even told me to recommend some friends. I would definitely pay for JY's handjob here.

Lunch was at Han Sung, a Korean joint nearby. Set lunches were MYR12 net. Ordered the soft tofu soup with three side dishes. I liked it. As we got into the car, SK noticed that the two more of her hubcaps were stolen. Seems like Viva hubcaps are very 'hot' in the market. Back home at SK's apartment, she gave us a couple of hours of privacy to skank while she went out to settle some chores. It was great reconnecting with KH. Our bodies had been denied for far too long. Time was short, so we did have time to nap... so we just snuggled and kept each other close. Restoran Stadium Negara was our dinner destination. In order to avoid any unnecessary jamming, we left a bit early and arrived there at about 6:00pm. We were among the first customers. The waiter stood outside and waited for us to park our car before asking us, "How many pax?". Ordered the favourites-- grilled crab, grilled cuttlefish, blanched prawns with rice wine and claypot tofu. It was very satisfying, especially since it was KH's treat for my birthday. Haha. Mirroring what we did for Lifebook's birthday, we headed to Suria KLCC. First stop was to visit Apollo to check KH's eyes. Since his power did not change, there was no need for him to spend unnecessary money. Then we went to Kino to wait for happy hour to start at Chinoz @ The Park. For drinks, we ordered Summer Pimms and Bliss at a buy one free one promotion. Before heading home, we stopped by at the newly-opened Isetan Food Market for a look. Bought some miso and spotted a super tall gweilo at Sun Moulin! That was the end of Day #1. Totally satisfying... gastronomically and sexually (nothing to do with the China doll, k!). :P.

Monday with KH

2011-10-03T11:28:00.001+08:00

Coach, swiped from williamnyk on Flickr.

Note: This happened last week yeah... jangan keliru :P

KH was recently in Hong Kong attending a wedding banquet of an ex-university mate. The fellow seems to have made it big. He had qualified as an actuary early in his career and married a rich Hongkee girl with a large bungalow in the New Territories. On the way back to Singapore, KH transited in KL and made a three-day stopover. Yay! Come monday afternoon, SK picked him up from the airport and we met for dinner at Taman Sri Manja. KH complained about all the good food that I had been blogging about, so he wanted me to bring him to as many as possible. Unlike me, he does not keep a list, so he had to scan my blog for the venues. Hehe. At the restaurant, we ordered the sizzling spicy seafood platter with fish, cuttlefish, prawns and vegetables. Delicious as usual. However, I think the price had increased quite tremendously since the last I was there. Was fun kissing him after dinner with tomyum breath. :P. We headed back to SK's apartment. Saw the pictures from the trip and he presented me with some souvenirs from HK. Got me some clothes from Esprit, delicious lou poh peng and an early birthday present. It was a Coach wallet! Thank you baby! And he kept his promise about the chocolate he forgot to buy the last time~ Royce's Name Chocolate Champagne flavour! Nice, but too milky for my liking. Prefer the dark chocolate variety. My boyfriend surely knows how to shop. He went to HK with an empty luggage and exited with it bursting at the seams. Before I left for home, he fed me a piece of white chocolate & tuile from Japan. Super sweet and rich. So excited, two full days of togetherness ahead of us!

Pep Talk

2011-10-02T00:26:00.001+08:00

Pep Talk, swiped from williamnyk on Flickr.

My typical Sunday at church took a turn when mum received an SMS from a friend at the DAP office in Kuchai Lama. The service center at Taman Sungai Besi was having a Hari Raya do (the president there is a Chinese muslim) and we were invited at the last minute. Just as I was about to turn into Tropicana city Mall, I made a U-turn and headed for the venue. According to the SMS, it was suppposed to start at 2:30pm. Mum suggested that we have lunch there. Common sense and experience taught me to fill my tummy first as these things are NEVER on time. Shared a bowl of pan mee at Face to Face, Bandar Park. Guessed how to get there as my mum is usually very confused about places. When we reach the place, she would say "AHA! I remember there's a mamak shop below it", but she can never tell you that piece of information before reaching the destination. :S. You know what? We were the first to arrive. Looking at the schedule, I was shocked to see that food would only be served at 4:30pm. Thank goodness I ate something beforehand. Things dragged on and yadda this, yadda that about new DAP members registration. The guest of honour was Teresa Kok and by the time she arrived I had seen their cheesy video montage thrice. But before that, it was interesting to watch some old videos about DAP outreach programmes to promote the third vote (local government). DBKL officers acting like hooligans grabbing balloons that DAP planned to release at Dataran Merdeka. Senior police personnel observing DAP MPs distributing brochures to constituents at a wet market. The police really have nothing better to do. But when it's BN, anything goes.

Teresa Kok looked haggard. Seems that she had been going from open house to open house, but she still had the fire to give a rousing speech about the importance of gaining more seats for the opposition. She also cautioned about Najib's abolishment of the ISA saying that it was yet to be seen whether it would be replaced by an even more draconian law. Forms were passed around for people to volunteer as transportation facilitators, polling agents and counting agents during the coming general election. Dunno whether I should help out this year. I wouldn't mind being a polling agent. Food was so-so. After waiting for so long, I wasn't really in the mood to eat. By the time we got home, it was already quite late, so we rushed off again for mum to catch the final half of her aerobics class at Taman Bukit Jalil. Definitely not Les Milles, but a little something called Praise Dance by the committed people from Full Gospel Assembly. I just ran for enough to work up a sweat. And that's a wrap.

Weekend Eats

2011-09-30T23:12:00.001+08:00

Picking The Best, swiped from williamnyk on Flickr.

After a long hiatus, SK rejoined mum and I on our Saturday morning sojourn. For the third week in a row, mum chose to go to NSK. For some reason, it wasn't very well-stocked that day, with lots of rotting produce put in the bargain bins. Breakfast was at one of the old coffeeshops at Taman Naga Emas, Salak South. Rivalry among the adjacent shops stopped me from trying pan mee from another stall, so I just stuck with our regular. Seeing some delicious Hainanese chicken, SK ordered a portion to be shared. The skin was super yellow and glistening, hinting at a delicious taste and an explosion of fat and cholesterol. But that was nothing compared to the side of chicken liver. Hehe. Scrumptious. The pan mee was great as usual. I like the torn variety because it's very thin, with zero flour aftertaste. And the soup was clear with little hint of flavour additives. For lunch, we headed out to Serdang for dishes at Leong Ngar. Cheap food but the YTF wasn't impressive. The fish paste didn't taste too fresh. Better bet at Serdang Sisters just a few shops away. On the way back, we saw the long queue at one nasi kukus stall in Taman Equine. Wanted to know what the fuss was about (with people willing to line up in the hot sun), so we tried one packet. Just MYR5.50 with a whole thigh of ayam goreng berempah! The owner even gave us a whole packet of curry chicken legs because she wanted to close shop. The fried chicken was crispy and moist. Not too salty. Definitely a good match for the steamed rice. However, the curry was a bit watery and lacked spices. Just tasted salty. Whacked the whole packet with a hot bowl of dessert from the Mat Tou Lou dessert truck. Later that night, we had a BEC gathering in Kuchai Lama with more makan-makan and fellowship. Chatted till nearly 11:00pm with the young-at-heart aunties. Amazing right? Start till end just stuffing my pie hole. LOL.

Salt and Pepper

2011-09-28T23:51:00.001+08:00

hitsugaya toushirou, swiped from unreqiuted Love sh31$#@%$#54 on Flickr.

SK discovered my first white hair during a BEC gathering in Kuchai Lama. At first she thought it was paint, then after further examination, we found it to be otherwise. =_=. Quickly, she pulled out the hair for me to see. The hair was partially-gray at the tip. Quite peculiar don't you think for the melanin to stop being produced at the start, then jump-started again at a later time. The engine is failing! Boo-hoo. Turns out that getting gray hair at the age of thirty is considered as premature graying! How can!? Sniff-sniff. Time to start eating black sesame tong sui in large amounts. Jom! But truth be told, my first gray hair actually sprouted up in my left nostril. Hehe. That was perhaps about a year ago. And guys... please don't talk about gray hair in the nether regions! Can't imagine... =_=

Siam!

2011-09-27T23:38:00.001+08:00

042/365 - Stand on the Right, swiped from armiller007 on Flickr.

If you take the LRT frequently, you would know that on the escalators, one should stand on the left to let those in a rush to go by. It's not exactly an unwritten rule because certain stations do have signs instructing commuters to do so. However, many non-KL natives descend on Kuala Lumpur every day and they might not be aware of this arrangement and the freshness of the whole situation may cause them to 'miss' the signs. They would stand on the right, zombified with their luggage or children causing those on the morning or evening rush hour to be stranded behind them. And the problem is worsened by the fact that we Malaysians are a shy lot. We wouldn't say anything, just fume at the back. Very rarely does one see a light tap to advise the 'road block' to move out of the way. People would rather shut up, be red in the face and tap their fingers impatiently. People in London are a different story altogether. I was too used to standing on the left, so I did that on the Tube. Unfortunately, I contradicted their rule. In London, one is supposed to stand on the right! The person behind me practically tried to bulldoze through me. That was quite rude really. A middle path needs to be found. Perhaps Malaysians need to carry around recordings of "Excuse me, please stand on the left" since they're so reluctant to chastise their fellow Malaysian. Useful right? I would set mine at maximum volume. :). As the Chinese like to say, "a good dog does not block your way"!

Preserving Petaling Street

2011-09-24T13:15:00.001+08:00

PetalingStreetLantern20111, swiped from williamnyk on Flickr.

Petaling Street isn't exactly my cup of the tea with its haphazard alleys and crowds, but I do admit that it's a photographer's treasure trove of heritage sights. Having read about the Petaling Street Communit Art Project in the Star Metro, I was tempted to go take a look. It was jointly organized by the Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall and the Lost Generation Space to preserve the historic value of Jalan Petaling and Jalan Sultan. It has become a priority with the MRT project casting a dark cloud of gloom over the area. Mum was also excited to go as it was ages since she was last there. SK picked us up at 5:00pm and we parked the car at Central Market before walking over to Gospel Hall Church (stopped to have air mata kucing first). The church was very generous to have borrowed out their whole compound as the focal point for the activites. Lanterns were everywhere-- Ultraman, Sailormoon and Angry Birds. Haha. According to reports, eighteen NGOs helped out to make things run smoothly. In Gospel Hall Church, a multimedia presentation was going on, crew were hand-stenciling T-shirts on the spot, asking people to sign petitions to save Jalan Sultan and giving out free lanterns and durian mochis. Activities were a little delayed to the rain and the organizers decided to move some of the performances to the stage inside the Yan Keng Benevolent Dramatic Association building. since the second floor was made out of wood flooring, only two hundred people were allowed upstairs to watch Cantonese operas and a choir of senior citizens. They were quite good.

By that time, the rain had let up a bit, but it was still drizzling. Still, everyone had to move out to the roadside to watch the next performance. Soprano Angela Chock amd tenor Lim Cheng Hock sang from the second floor window of the building opposite Yan Keng. It was a bit chaotic at first trying to make sure that the crowd didn't surge onto the busy road. Halfway through the singing, a pale, eerie gitl appeared at the third window, acting all sombre and reflective. Many in the audience felt that she looked like an apparition. :S. After the singing, there was an arty mime from the window. The artist was painted all white with a matching opera headdress complete with wedding veil. In the performance, she moved with jerky movements and exaggerated facial expressions accompanied with a jazzy French tune. Tersangat atas. Then a band of traditional Chinese percussionists from Confucian KL performed some numbers. From there, the crowd moved to the parking lot that used to be the Petaling Street chik sien tong. The stage was set at an old wall with images of old Kuala Lumpur projected on it. I loved the effect. First up was another soprano performance-- Chinese and Spanish numbers. The singer wore an evening gown, but held alof a traditional Chinese paper umbrella. Talk about contrast. To lighten the atmosphere, there was also a crosstalk performance by two guys. Very funny how they compared the economy of words for different Chinese dialects.

The highlight of the evening was a moon worshipping ceremony from a troupe of artists (led by Chong Keat Aun, an AIFM DJ) with half-painted faces, clad in batik and clogs. Started off with a guqin, flute and singing in multiple dialects. With things fired up, out came the traditional Chinese puppets for a song of worship accompanied by cool drumming and gongs. The drummer ended everything with a flourish and it was very cool watching him play. Wonderful vocals paired with projected images. After that, students from ASWARA performed the Minangkabau Randai dance with intermittent humourous sketches of the founding of Kuala Lumpur. The weird thing about the dance was that at certain intervals, the dancers would bend over and drum their hands on their sarongs. A rare sight. Haha. We watched up till a bunch of Confucian KL kids did a rendition of MJ's "Thriller" all dressed up as Chinese vampires and ghosts. But their dance had a twist with "Rasa Sayang", "Sorry, Sorry", "Nobody", "Jai Ho" and "The Moon Represents My Heart". The crowd was really worked up. Even after the performance, they lumbered off into the night. One of the ASWARA people shouted:

"Oi, jalanlah betul-betul. Jangan senget. Dah tamat la. Nanti betul-betul jadi baru tahu!"

On our way back to the car, we stopped for San Kao Yu beef noodles. Yummy stuff. Second on the list was Kim Lian Kee for their famous Hokkien mee. It was cooked with charcoal, but the chef was a migrant worker. The noodles were dry, but were too soft and lacked proper cooking time. Banned. While turning back, we turned into Jalan Hang Lekir and saw the famous mixed pork soup stall. I wanted to eat there years ago, but seeing how everything was exposed with the busses puffing out their diesel fumes, I chickened out. This time round, I gave it a try. They were already closing shop. Generous serving of pork, pig tongue, blood cake, silky beancurd, intestines and tripe in clear soup with preserved vegetables. Good stuff! That ends our night of gorging on culture and food! Save Petaling Street! If not for the culture and heritage, then for the FOOD!

A Stitch In Time

2011-09-22T00:03:00.001+08:00

fancy hem stitch, swiped from miriam.klaassen on Flickr.

My mother is a very panicky woman. The smallest of things can set her on edge. Looking for an entry in the phone book can make her tense and snap at you. So, the other day, while my mum was driving Cyan home from pre-school the other day, he created a scene. The kid screamed that he needed to pee pee. My mother being my mother, got all flustered and stopped by the side of the road. As she got out of the car and slammed the door, she actually flattened her index finger. OUCH! Did you feel your balls shrink after reading that? The skin at the top and bottom of her finger actually split open. She got four stitches at the nearby clinic. Quite an episode huh? She got her stitches removed today. Just the other day she was telling me that the doctor asked her not to move her finger so much. But my mum being my mum, she went on a cleaning spree, cleaning stuff that hardly get any attention during other times. I can only smile.

Flying the Flag

2011-09-19T10:22:00.001+08:00

Flying the Flag, swiped from williamnyk on Flickr.

Does this constitute flying the flag upside down? A quick check on the internet reveals that flying the flag upside down is considered a distress signal.

"...not a mark of disrespect, and in fact is considered by many to be the highest form of patriotism."

Ye ke? How about the fella who met Najib at his open house dressed in the Malaysian flag from head to toe? I thought the flag was not supposed to be made into clothing? And yet we see the fella with a big grin on his face shaking hands with our Primer Minister. And it's not supposed to be draped on your car bonnet unless you're driving a coffin. And even if you were driving a coffin, it's only allowed for state funerals. For more information, looks at this flag ethics guide.

Love your country. Love your flag. Don't mistake loving your country with loving the government of the day. :D

Mooned

2011-09-17T15:46:00.001+08:00

Jicama, swiped from williamnyk on Flickr.

Sis organized a Mid-Autumn Festival party at my place on Sunday night. A small affair with two of my sister's best friends from Kuantan, their kids, Mel and SK. Mel had actually arrived earlier to have a talk with me. It had been ages since we met up for a bitchin' session. Haha. For several times I had to cancel due to scheduling clashes. Sorry dear! But the best part was she brought her baby Cameron along. He's a splitting image of his mother. Cute with anime-like eyes. And such a restless little worm! Wriggling here and there non-stop! Quite impossible to sit still. Seems that motherhood really agrees with Mel. Later in the evening, I fetched them to SK's apartment. They had their girl talk while I went swimming downstairs. The whole pool was filled with dried bamboo leaves... it's so not a good idea to plant Japanese bamboo near the pool. On the way back to my place, we stopped by the neighbourhood Chinese medicine hall to do some milk formula shopping. Milk is not cheap! Few hundred gone in the blink of an eye.

The party was quite chaotic with three toddlers and a baby. Quite a challenge to sit down quietly to enjoy the curry noodles (with chicken, long beans, eggplant, fu chuk, dried tofu, fishballs and prawns), fried noodels and popiah. It's always fun wrapping your own popiah. Mum prepared stir-fried jicama, scrambled eggs, dried shrimp, bean sprouts, salad, french beans and carrot. SK also brought over the can of goose liver pate compliments of Grat and a baguette. And what's a party without alcohol? Poured a can of fruit cocktail into a pot, some ice cream soda, Bacardi Black and Bombay Sapphire. Mel and SK kept urging me to pour more liqour into the mix. One of the mums nearly poured it for her daughter to drink. Haha. Brownie with vanilla ice cream, jelly, fish crackers and pineapple were the finale. And of course there were the traditional items-- mooncakes, caltrops and mini yams. Cameron preferred the big boy foods rather than the milk and porridge that his mum fed him. Later on, the kids went out to play with the lanterns. I on the other hand lounged on the sofa with drink in hand and patted little Cameron to sleep. It was time for me to sleep too!

P.S.: Mel, your bottle of Merlot is still in the fridge awaiting a future wine and chocolate session. Hehe.

Wedding Bells

2011-09-15T10:59:00.001+08:00

Beta carotene & Capsaicin, swiped from williamnyk on Flickr.

My wet market excursion on Saturday took a modern twist. Instead of the traditional places, mum decided to shop at NSK, Kuchai Lama. That wholesale market feels just like a hypermarket with loads of fresh produce and other groceries. Open twenty four hours a day and hires loads of workers to man the counters and sort out the goods. Air-conditioned and clean with prices that are sometimes even lower than the pasar! Forklifts zip around near the parking lots and they even have Zamboni-like machines keeping the floors dry. After shopping, we had breakfast at the shops nearby. Rushed home to attend a 1:30pm wedding mass. Since the bride wasn't Catholic, it was a half mass and although the rite was predominantly in mandarin, the groom made his vows in English. It was the funniest wedding march I ever saw, with the bride walking slightly like a lurching zombie. During the ceremony, an old aunty asked me, "Do you have a girlfriend?". My mum just smiled. Ugh. Perfect setting to bring these issues up. Just after the priest officated their union, the bride headed out to throw her bouquet her band blue-clas bridesmaids. She threw the bouquet from the top of the stairs, and one desperate girl immediately zipped out to grab it, in the process destroying half of the flowers. And you know what? They haven't even taken photos yet. So much for that.

Had a very late lunch at 2:30pm. Ordered a very kesian-looking pork ribs rice at Restoran Ming Heong, Dataran Prima. MYR7.50 for a measly portion. Just a short walk from the restaurant, a Blook warehouse sale was going on, so mum went to have a look-see. It was just beside Keith Kee's boutique so I just hung around outside observing the dolled-up creatures that float in and out of his shop. Back home, I took a nap and at 7:00pm had to send mum out to a related wedding banquet at USJ19 City Mall. On the way out, I picked SK and CK up. While waiting for mum, we had a long dinner at Porntip Thai. Prices were quite fair and the portion wasn't too shabby. Ate seafood otak-otak (came in aluminium fool shaped into a rooster!), green curry, fried pucuk paku (so sweet that I felt I was eating palm sugar with every bite) and basil chicken. The waitress who intially took our order left the table abruptly after four failed attempts. She mumbled, "I don't understand!". O.o. We must have been speaking Thai. Post-dinner drinks were at Ka Fei Tian. Mum's dinner ended nearly at 11:00pm! Very slow. I saw the bride in her evening gown and I found it reminiscent of RTM1 backup dancer styles. :S. More weddings to come!

Minder

2011-09-13T14:50:00.001+08:00

Waiting, swiped from williamnyk on Flickr.

This kid is all alone waiting for his grandmother outside a shop in OUG. Guess what his grandmother was doing:

Buying groceries in the Chinese medicine hall
Smoking a ciggie
Taking a dump
Buying Magnum 4D
Playing mahjong
Getting her hair done
Gossiping with her gaggle of friends
Tapau-ing breakfast

Truth be told, kids shouldn't be left all alone. Some goldfish uncle could just come by and spirit the kid away. I have heard of horror stories in Disneyland HK where a parent lets her kid go into the loo alone. For a long time, the kid did not come out, so the mother went in to look. In her panic, she asked her other child to wait outside. When she came out empty handed, she found that her other kid had also disappeared... Never let kids out of your sight!

SkyHawk Lands!

2011-09-12T14:16:00.001+08:00

Hawk, swiped from BradWilke on Flickr.

Out of the blue SkyHawk messaged me and asked about some work-related matters. As quick as can be, he arranged a lunch meeting near my office. Very efficient and decisive. Recognized him immediately. Had an imposing stature (and a face that looks a bit like it was chiseled from stone), but luckily that was somewhat softened by his smile. Quickly ordered and went straight to business. With that out of the way, we talked about lighter matters of love and life. After sharing each other's stories, I find that we have much in common, especially the fact that our lives are very family-centric. Although our circumstances are different, we can actually draw parallels. We both have our commitments and leading a double life in pursuit of our personal happiness can be quite stressful at times. With quality time being a premium, it is sometimes very difficult to juggle things. Most people take for granted the fact that they have much freedom in what they want to do since they live away from home. Whenever KH mentions holiday plans, I would get a bit stressed out, because I would need to start planning ahead. A normal person would get very excited, but I would actually get mixed feelings. Luckily KH doesn't get too frustrated with my unconventional reaction because he understands what is going on in my mind. My bestie used to tell me, go live your life. Your boyfriend deserves all that you can give. But at the back of mind, family is important too and we don't have forever with them, especially in their twilight age. The right thing is always hard to do. But I keep trying to seek an equilibrium. Yes, life should be savoured but it doesn't mean we have to be selfish. :).

P.S.: SkyHawk, thanks again for lunch! And don't go telling people that you've met me ONLY once... at least not yet. Haha.

September 11th

2011-09-11T14:13:00.001+08:00

September 11th Shoes, swiped from eyes of disarray on Flickr.

Today marks the tenth anniversary of the suicide attacks on the World Trade Center Twin Towers in New York and three other coordinated attacks. That episode elevated the word "terrorism" into a household term and cranked up the paranoia against Islam. Ten years is a long time, but I remember I was home alone watching TV. My show was interrupted and footage of an airplane crashing into one of towers was shown. Vaguely remember having my jaw drop open and scooting closer to the TV set. When a second plane crashed into the tower, I was really stunned.

Do you remember what you were doing when disaster struck?

Snow Lotus

2011-09-10T11:51:00.001+08:00

Snow Lotus, swiped from williamnyk on Flickr.

Home-made enzymes are all the rage these days. Here's a documented effort at producing some snow lotus enzyme. My colleague gave me a box of those jelly-like bits as a starter kit. They're lighter than they look and will float. Smelled very much like those oils used by Chinese bone-setters. Most probably alcohol from the earlier fermentation. According to wikipedia, the snow lotus is a type of plant that is traditionally used to relieve inflammation. I don't see how the jelly corresponds to any part of the plant. To kickstart the process, one has to dilute five hundred grammes of brown sugar. Apparently, it only works with the usual brown sugar. Use any organic sugar and it fails. Too clean? Haha. Just dump the jelly into the diluted sugar with 1.5 litres of filtered water and leave it in a big glass jar for four days. Sounds simple right? NOT. My mother was complaining the whole time. The sugar is bloody hard to dilute in cold water. It's full of sediment and impurities. One has to filter the contents, wash the utensils, yadda, yadda, yadda. As the days pass, one can notice the jelly bits doubling in quantity with plenty of bubbling. By the end of the period, the water is filtered out to be drunk (microbe alert!) or used to wash dishes, mop the floor, and other cleaning chores. If you're adventurous, try it as an intimate hygiene wash or personal lubricant. XD. Apparently, it works well against oily stains and guards against insects. But the stuff is a bit sticky due to all the sugar. Ugh. One also ends up with two boxes of jelly. It will lie dormant for three months in the refrigerator. Anyone wanna give it a try?

Nyonya Sunday

2011-09-08T18:31:00.001+08:00

Old Dining, swiped from williamnyk on Flickr.

Right after mass on Sunday, I visited Cahaya Puri to help SK look for a statue of Christ the Redeemer for her altar. They only had one, and the design wasn't very nice. I think she would have to opt for the Sacred Heart instead because Christ the Redeemer isn't a very popular choice among the artisans. Or perhaps anyone here has any idea where I might source for one? Thanks in advance!

Every Sunday I make a random decision on where to eat lunch. My latest whim brought us to Kota Damansara for Nyonya food near The Strand. We were actually deciding between two shops, Kung Fu and The Wok. Both had very attractive interiors and business seemed brisk. Finally chose Nyonya over Chinese. The boss was telling us that his shop was among the first to have opened in the area three years ago and that his neighbour changed every five months or so. Supposedly the best Nyonya food in Petaling Jaya with authentic Penang taste. Lots of antiques were piled into the shop, with intricate wood paneling and screens. Every nook and cranny seemed to hold some knick-knack. Hovering over our table was the autographed boots of Phua Chu Kang and a large signature of Henry Thia (doesn't really help to work up an appetite). Mum and I ordered the Kapitan chicken (gravy was thick and had a strong taste of star anise) and sambal paku-pakis (came with cuttlefish and prawns). For drinks I ordered hot soya bean with gula melaka that was really hot and fragrant. The food came with a complimentary lo hon kor soup (so weird drinking that sweet and salty soup) and mak chuk. The clientele seemed predominantly u lui. Food was better than Precious Restaurant & Bar at Central Market I think. But the latter has more impressive antiques. Practically had a temple feel to it.

Next up, I drove mum around Kota Damansara to visit the little fashion boutiques scattered all over the place. In the end, we visited Sunway Giza, a much more successful version of NZX. Was quite surprised by their use of giant rotor blades as fans. Nothing much to see nor do there. Spent most of the time at Village Grocer looking at the expensive imported vegetables. MYR30 for a bunch of celery. MYR4 for one onion. MYR13 for a slice of pumpkin. You get the picture. Noticed the shop called "A Loft Of Things" that was recently mentioned in SimonLover's post, but I did not go up to check out their ZOD underwear and swimwear. Went jogging later in the evening. Didn't run much as my stamina was worse due to my flu. Back home, mum cooked some salmon head soup and mee kolok for dinner. The long holiday was officially over!!!

Eat, Swim, Eat

2011-09-07T17:55:00.001+08:00

Fresh Produce, swiped from williamnyk on Flickr.

On Saturday, my wet market schedule was back on track but luckily a chunk of the normal market-goers were still out of town so I got a choice parking spot with ease. The pace was easy and mum didn't buy much as well. Noted that "Angry Birds" have invaded the mid-autumn items. MYR8 for a battery-operated lantern. Even paper lanterns cost MYR2 each. I remember when it just cost MYR0.50 for a medium-sized lantern. Inflation! and mooncakes from the usual manufactures cost MYR15-17 this year. That's obscene pricing in my opinion. And to overcome it, discounts of up to 30% are offered even BEFORE the festival. For breakfast, mum and I had soup noodles at one of the side lanes. So ching right? But we couldn't resist ordering a pair of curry chicken ~~legs~~ feet to go with them. Haha. Back home, I mostly surfed the net, read and watched "Fringe". Feeling like a couch potato, I decided to go for a swim. Just as I wanted to go out, SK appeared at my doorstep with KFC and sushi. I just took a bite out of the chicken thigh and reluctantly tore my eyes from the rest of the food. =_=. The pool was devoid of swimmers, so I could do my laps easily and disturb the peace by practising my amateurish freestyle and backstroke. A slight improvement on my part.

SK had a hankering for Hokkien mee after hearing about a good place to eat it near Kuchai Lama. We practically had to guess where it was because the only hints we got from her beautician was-- "it's a place surrounded by a fence. There's a sign out front.". Like looking for a needle in a haystack. And yes, my boyfriend is a guy. But after scouring Google, we managed to come to the conclusion that the restaurant was 金绫记 at Old Klang Road, just before the Jalan Kuchai Lama junction. The Hokkien mee and wat tan hor we ordered were utterly rubbish. I had tasted much better at neighbourhood food courts. Both dishes somehow felt that something was missing. Like an arm or a leg. Don't bother. Also ordered large intestines with pineapple. Not bad. The only thing I was satisfied with was the pumpkin barley drink. Came piping hot and with the right consistency. Post-dinner was dessert at Jalan Kuchai Lama. Chose Dessert Go Go. Hard a hard time deciding what to eat. Finally settled for Mango with Noodles. The supposed noodles were actually milk pudding that was shaved into long strips. Good texture and not too chewy. The noodles were bland enough to go well with the mango puree. Do give it a try. And yeah, I negated my swim again. O_O.

Raya Ketiga: Laura Ajak Makan!

2011-09-06T12:22:00.001+08:00

putrajaya, swiped from gigibiru_kukuning the cats ♥♥♥♥ on Flickr.

In the evening, we left for Putrajaya to makan-makan at SK's friend's place. Let's call her Laura. She was SK's coursemate during university. Her parents were down for a month, so she invited us over for a simple open house. With the help of the GPS, it was quite easy to find her house. It was my first time visiting any residential area in the administrative capital. In her area, all the houses were unfenced and identical. Apparently the disallow any external renovations and even the colour of the paint must be standardized. A dictatorship! According to Laura, she even received several warning letters from Perbadanan Putrajaya for not cutting her grass. Haha. The design of the house was quite weird with the toilet right beside the front door. And in the kitchen, there's a small metal door that opens to the side of the house. Laura shrugged when I asked her about the use of the door. Her mother grilled some chicken thighs, whipped up some wonderful beef rendang, acar, ketupat, lemang and nasi briyani. Was so full. After dinner we chatted at the living room and ate again, sampling the cookies and cakes that Laura made. She actually made a layer cake that only had ONE layer. HAHAHAHA. She's the type who can go to work with unironed clothes. And her curtains were left unwashed for two years. She also talked about her years in the civil service. I wasn't surprised at all from her descriptions of her sloth and slug-like colleagues who have no sense of responsibility at all. It was a fun night out of makan-makan dan sembang-sembang!

Raya Kedua: Fur & Furniture

2011-09-04T22:49:00.001+08:00

Minions, swiped from noticiana on Flickr.

Breakfast was leftover ketupat and rendang. And as I opened the front door in the morning, I found two tenacious kittens outside dashing for the door. I immediately shoo-ed them! Had to close the door. Guess they were hungry seeing that all their usual benefactors were away for the long holidays. Fed them some bread. Was quite surprised to find that the kittens were quite blur. Had to practically lead them to the food. Later, SK fetched us to IKEA. So much parking available. Such a rare occurance. Mum and SK did most of the shopping, I just went with the flow. I was never very aroused by IKEA. Some steals due to old stock clearance. Put everything in the car and we continued shopping at IPC (it had been so long that I did not know that Ikano was rebranded) and The Curve. Did more shopping at Daiso and Metrojaya after lunch at Pho Hoa. Truth be told, that bowl of beef noodles was quite expensive, but it was really healthy. Could not detect a single drop of oil in the soup. Downed it with a generous heap of sweet basil. At The Curve, SK bumped into an old friend from university. Her father thought I was still in secondary school. Syioknya.... So elated. They invited us to a open house the next day. :P. Coincidentally, also ran into my younger BIL. He was out bringing his future in-laws around. Did a bit more of shopping at Burt's Bees before leaving for home. Back home, mum immediately cooked up a storm in the kitchen. I on the other hand watched "Despicable Me". Quite funny, especially with the comic relief minions. For dinner, we had kot choi soup with pig tail, fried egg with leek tips, steamed fish and stir-fried vegetables. I was surprised by the amount of rice that SK's granny can down! Thought about some alcohol after dinner. Did some research of Bacardi Black and found some very disappointing reviews. Seems that it's only good as coctail base. Will have to stock up on some mixers before giving it a try.

Raya Pertama: Lemang & Ketupat

2011-09-02T12:56:00.000+08:00

On the first day of Aidilfitri, we made a bee line for the Selangore State Government Open House at Bangunan Sultan Salahudin Abdul Aziz Shah, Shah Alam. At first, I had wanted to go the Agong's function at Istana Negara, but decided against it after pondering about parking and the short slot for the public. Arrived at the place before 11:00am and walked in through the kitchen area. Heavy duty food preparations were going on and truth be told, better not to be scrutinized before actually eating. Haha. Food was abundant-- nasi briyani, grilled mutton, lemang, beef rendang, rojak buah, fried noodles, fried bihun, CKT, cendol, satay and biscuits. Luckily, it wasn't too crowded and seating was ample. While eating, we were entertained by a group of musicians called "Balle Balle". Dressed in straw hats, tie-dyed clothes, sarong and clogs, they entertained the crowd with classic Raya songs thrown in with a middle-eastern song that really got the middle-eastern visitors all worked up. At the end, they wanted to sing a Teresa Teng number, but Ronnie Liu's Raya message cut in and ended their performance early. Was so full.

Even before my tummy had the chance to digest that sinful meal, my neighbour handed us seven ketupat's, chicken curry and beef rendang! Aiyoyo! And just the day before, my neighbour had given us four canisters of cookies, a box of chocolates, a packet of groundnuts and two green pau's!!! And they just moved in not more than six months ago. Quite surprised. Mum returned the favour by giving her some cakes and goodies from the local bakery. At about 6:00pm, we went out again. This time to the night market at Seri Petaling. It had been years since I walked the night market proper. Forgotten how it was like. So many new varieties of food these days. Dinner was asam laksa and mango tau fu fah. Was served by a twink with anime-ish hair that clung to his face. I don't see how one can work like that. Had forgotten that the night market was such a treasure of trove of twinks. Too bad it was mostly la-la's bringing their girlfriends out for a stroll.

The night market seems dominated by stalls and stalls of fried chicken. All sorts of varieties. Saw one popular stall that claims to use thirty six herbs and spices. Sounds familiar? Overheard:Mother: Wei! Got friend chicken there le! Aiyoh, so many people! How la? How la?!Other than that, I was surprised that apam balik now comes in a multitude of flavours and Taiwanese sausages seems to be everywhere. Curry fishballs seems to be a popular choice too. Weird stuff that look like Egg McMuffins also make an appearance. So much to eat and so many things to see. But still, I'm not part of that scene. To cool off, we walked into the nearby The Store before calling it a night.

Lifebook: Nearly To Another Chapter

2011-08-31T00:24:00.002+08:00

Seafood Stadium, swiped from williamnyk on Flickr.

For a change, I (almost) did not go to the market on Saturday morning. Why? Cause Cyan, Sis and BIL would be away for the whole week, so there's no real need to buy a lot of groceries. At about 9:00am, mum and I headed to the Salak South new village to have pan mee. Was expecting to eat the famous crystal pan mee (the old lady washes each piece in water before cooking, eliminating the flour taste and making it super thin), but it turned out that the woman had abandoned her stall. Fortunately, her replacement at Taman Naga Emas was quite good too! I had the tear variety and I must say it was quite thin and had no yucky flour taste. The soup was clear and the pork balls were nice. After that, I drove mum to Seri Petaling to buy 4D, and we ended up at the wet market there. Hahaha. Cannot really escape that routine. The market was quite big. Not bad at all. Striking that off our list, we headed to Hotel Seri Petaling to check out the never-ending and not-so-genuine warehouse sales there. Didn't buy a single thing. By the time we reached home, it was already noon. Was darn sleepy, but I didn't nap.

At 6:00pm, SK and ChatMate fetched a cranky me from home to head to Restoran Stadium Negara for Lifebook's birthday dinner. Arrived in just thirty minutes. While waiting for the rest to arrive, we put down the orders first-- BBQ Sri Lankan crabs (meaty and yummy!), grilled cuttlefish (done to perfection), BBQ chicken wings (so-so this time), claypot beancurd, drunken prawns (the prawns were good but I did not quite like how the rice wine tasted in the soup) and fried vegetables. Soon enough, Ken and Lifebook turned up and we instructed the kitchen to start cooking! Food came quickly and we were quite satisfied. Even ate a second order of cuttlefish. The conversation was mostly about Lifebook's new job and his breakfast appointment the next day. Breakfast in bed no doubt. Next up, we wat Lifebook to treat us drinks at Chinoz @ The Park, KLCC. KLCC was surprisinglly crowded. Last-minute luxury shopping for Raya? The economy isn't as bad as we think? At Chinoz, cocktails were buy one, free one so it was quite a deal. Ordered sazerac, summer Pimm's and some vodka cream-based concoction. For dessert, we had Tiramisu (mahal giler at MY18) and banana toffee cake. Had fun there, but the service was lousy.

Apollo told me that my Di, Silencer was in KLCC, so I What's App-ed him. Had to lure him to me by lying that Alex was with us. XD. Was nice to see him again after so long. Glad to see that his housemanship has not robbed him of his cute looks. Grilled him a bit about his work and love life. Find him even shier than I remembered. After work, Apollo also dropped by. And soon after Silencer left for his virgin date at MP. At 11:00pm, we parted ways. ChatMate would be going off somewhere on Tuesday, so it will also be sometime till I see him again. Zzz.

ChatMate: Revisited

2011-08-29T10:05:00.001+08:00

Naan, swiped from williamnyk on Flickr.

The reclusive ChatMate finally returned from his retreat in Kuching. As with the last time, he stayed with his cousin in Serdang, so it was easy arranging a meet up. On Wednesday night, SK and I brought him to the Restoran Kheng Heong, that's located just in his neighbourhood. Luckily he had never dined there before. Ordered their famous claypot tilapia, beancurd with gourd, fried sweet potato leaves and marmite ribs. He was all dressed up in his tight-fitting A&F t-shirt and shorts, complete with a cloud of EDT. Blocked though my nose was, I could still smell his fragrance. Hehe. He looked well. Definitely happy. I would be too if I had not been working for half a year, and have no visible money problems. :P. And he was so sweet to bring me raw mee kolok. :D. We grilled him about his activities in Kuching and about potential boyfriends. That guy definitely needs to be pushed! Also found out that his itinerary in KL was a bit sad, so we tried our best to make sure he made some social calls. Later on, we went to Equine Park to have dessert at Tong Pak Fu Tong Sui. Prices were fair and the shop was bright. My only complaint is that it smelled of curry. Kinda screwed up for a dessert shop. I ordered mung bean with lotus seed and barley. The portion was quite big and the tong sui was definitely boiled for long judging by the softness of the ingredients. At about 10:00pm, we called it a night and sent him home. I'm quite certain he went out again later that night to get laid. XD.

On Friday, we had dinner again. Since he was craving for decent Indian food, we brought him to Restoran Rishadh. He claimed that Kuching had lousy Indian food. SK did the ordering, so we had two servings of tandoori chicken, naan, crispy dosai and maggi goreng. That guy practically picked at his food. Even SK's granny wondered if he was on a diet. Luckily SK had the habit of heaping food on the guest's plate. Before calling it a night, we went to SK's apartment to chat. Both of us gave him a surprise birthday gift (a thumbdrive full of ~~porn~~ drama series), but too bad there was no cake. HPBDY, dear ChatMate!!!

P.S.: When I told KH I was meeting ChatMate several times in the week, he went, "Meeting him AGAIN?". ChatMate is kinda worried now that KH might bite his head off when they finally meet face to face. XD

Limp Wrist

2011-08-27T14:38:00.001+08:00

20091221-wrist-pre02, swiped from Cat Moloney on Flickr.

For a few days I had been experiencing a pain in my left wrist. Holding things a certain angle would bring about some loss of strength too. I thought it was a result of fiddling with my iPhone a little too much. But after talking to KH, I think I hurt it while masturbating the other day. Too challenging a position? XD

Overheard: Full House?

2011-08-25T10:07:00.001+08:00

Tealight Candles, swiped from David J. Gray on Flickr.

At a cafe in Bandar Seri Begawan. The cafe's boss was complaining that the waitress did not light the tealights on each table.

Boss: Maria! It's already 8:30pm and all the lights are not distributed. Gonna close shop already, better not light.

Maria: Sir, I was busy.

Boss: Busy? Busy doing what?

Maria: A lot of customers just now. Full house.

Boss: Wah... full house ar? Then good lo. A perfect excuse. heh.

The boss was very sarcastic and sceptical. Actually I also don't quite believe it. I have never seen that cafe with a decent crowd. The last I was there it took them forty five minutes to handle eight orders. :S. Such is the business turnover in Bandar Seri Begawan. Really wonder how they survive.

BruLife

2011-08-23T15:12:00.001+08:00

Ceremonial cannon, swiped from Safwan S. on Flickr.

Repeat for ten days
{
7:30am - Bangun pagi, gosok gigi

7:55am - Breakfast at the cafe

8:25am - Get ready for work

9:00am - Start Work

1:00pm - Lunch break

6:30om - A ceremonial cannon is fired marking the breaking of fast (!!!)

7:00pm - Dinner break

10:00pm - End work

10:05pm - Back at the hotel. Shower.

10:30pm - Astro. Online. (Rewatched TVB's "Journey To The West II" on Astro. Forgot how funny it was.)

12:00am - Zzz
}

Any time for TFK? XD

A Catholic In Brunei

2011-08-21T15:59:00.003+08:00

The Brunei Hotel, swiped from williamnyk on Flickr.

Life in Brunei was more positive with a new lodging arrangement at The Brunei Hotel. According to my Project Manager, it was recently refurbished, so everything was spick and span. However, there are rumours of spirits on the third floor as it's a very old building. Judging from the condition of the abandoned building at the opposite side, I can imagine. The room comes with free laundry service (four pieces a day), daily newspaper, free canned soft drinks (three a day), decent WiFI and free breakfast (MUCH better than the old hotel I stayed at). Other attractions include transvestite escorts (according to my colleagues, they look like a burly bunch) and the nearby Tamu Kianggeh, a market by the side of a river. It makes working from 09:00am till 10:00pm everyday a little bit more bearable. At least I can walk back to the hotel, without having to arrange for the driver. Another plus is the fact that the place is just a fifteen minute brisk walk from the city's Catholic church-- The Church Of Our Lady Of The Assumption. On Sunday morning, I woke up early to have breakfast with a couple of colleagues before starting to walk there.

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They were protestants who attended their Sunday service at St. Andrew's Church, an Anglican church just opposite the Catholic church. The church is of moderate size and air-coditioned. Outside, migrant workers from the Phillipines sell food items from their home country, kinda like a small market. At the altar was a giant image of the Divine Mercy. There's a second floor with limited seating as it mostly is dedicated to the choir and musicians. However, due to the angle and the use of glass banisters, women in short skirt are not encouraged to sit up there. But then again, they have no business wearing a short skirt in church! The 09:30am mass was mostly in Malay. Brunei has no problem with Catholics using "Allah" in their liturgy and hymns. Go figure.

"Yesus Domba Allah, Mulia Nama Mu!"

On the next day, I went again to attend mass celebrating the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In addition to The Ascension of the Lord, All Saints' Day and Christmas, they make up the four days of obligation for Catholics in Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei. The celebration was quite grand due to the fact that it was also the church's feast day. The back of the altar was covered up with a giant painting of Mother Mary, complete with 3D effect using cloth to accentuate Her robes. The Psalm was sung by a dimunitive Pinoy girl with a big voice. The Prayer of the Faithful was joined by many of the expatriates in the congregation. They wore their traditional clothes and spoke in their native language. Some local tribes, Pinoy, Chinese, several Indian dialects, Korean, African and some Caucasians. After mass, there was a procession of the status of Mother Mary followed by a whole bunch of flower girls. Fellowship ensued (read free food), but I rushed back to office instead. Had dinner of a decent beef kuay teow at Cafe Vito where I caught sight of two baklàs at the table beside mine. Not cute though, else I wouldn't have rushed off after my meal. ;).

On the night of the Hungry Ghost Festival (I know!), my colleagues and I went walking around town taking some pictures (the Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin Mosque is particularly beautiful at night). We only saw one spot with burnt offerings in an atmosphere that is completely oblivious to the opening of gates of Hell. And in the end spent some time at the nearby department store. Hardly any shopping going around though Raya is just around the corner. It would be such a different scene in KL's Sogo. This is how 'tranquil' Bandar Seri Begawan is.

MRT Celebrities: Guess, Guess, Guess

2011-08-20T00:37:00.001+08:00

Hi guys and gals! Instead of "LRT Celebrities", we have "MRT Celebrities" today. Why you may ask? Cause today's contributor is none other than KH! His skill also not bad hor? Look at the two guys in the collage. I prefer the twink on the left. Hidung mancung. Gotta love his arms too. Is it just me or do you find that both of 'em are giving out a gay vibe? But perhaps the guy on the left is just a bit confused like so many other Singaporean boys. So, what do you think? Are they gay? 1, 2, 3... Discuss!

P.S.: In just a few years (and if the project doesn't go under due to massive corruption), KL would have its own version of "MRT Celebrities"!

Kenapa Kelapa?

2011-08-17T23:27:00.001+08:00

Coconut water, swiped from soumit on Flickr.

At Restoran 83:

Moi: Ada jual kelapa ke?

Myanmarese Waiter: Takde. Coconut adalah.

Moi: =_="

Aku kena perli ke?

Memories of Petaling Street

2011-08-16T23:33:00.001+08:00

Petaling Street, swiped from cheeseong on Flickr.

Simonlover's recent post about Petaling Street prompted me to write a short post of my own. Truth be told, it was a favourite haunt of my besties during university days. They would drive down from UKM and we would make an excursion there. We would usually dine there, be it the old Kam Lun Tai with their cranky waitresses or the super tongue-numbing BBQ fish stall. It amazes me that when they tell you to come back after thirty minutes, there really would be a table open when you come back. After food, we would brave the Saturday night crowds. On Saturdays, stalls would be open in the middle of the road, making it very tight to navigate around. If someone in front of you stopped to haggle, you would have to squeeze by. In those days, the stalls were still manned by Chinese, not like today's Little Bangla feel. My bestie loved to purchase the counterfeit watches and jeans. Haggling was also like a pasttime for him. He had it down to an art. I always hated the process. Haha. Perhaps we would also stop at the famous air mata kucing stall (my friend got pick-pocketed there once) or stop at the corner Kwoong Woh Tong shop. Sometimes, if we were there in the mornings, we would watch the migrant workers walk up the down the cheap motels at the pre-war shophouses looking for release. Unlike Simonlover, I had never bought a single porn DVD from there or had any encounters with leng zai's. I would just ignore the porn peddlers. So gwai, hor? LOL. Lets not forget about the old bookstores and the flower sellers. And the whole feel of Petaling Street transforms during the run-up to CNY. The smell of pork fat would be in the air (over-powering the smell of chestnuts roasting) as dried meat vendors rush to increase production. Plenty of decorations for sale especially at the wholesalers where the lanterns seem to overflow from the shops.

Would Petaling Steet really be sacrificed? Is heritage and culture THAT cheap? The government should really consider the abandoned Plaza Rakyat site for the MRT plan. Might as well make use of that eyesore. Hopefully Petaling Street will survive this.

回家

2011-08-16T00:31:00.002+08:00

Comming home, swiped from joningic on Flickr.

Recently, JJ told me that he had a job offering for KH in Kuala Lumpur. He called KH and explained that his friend was looking for someone to help out in corporate planning at a certain insurance company. And so, KH started exploring the possibilty and made some inquiries. One night, during our phone conversation, he asked my opinion about it.

KH: Baby, what do you think about the job offer?

Moi: I'm quite surprised that you're interested. Thought you were only coming back next year?

KH: My timeline is flexible one ma...

Moi: Oh, that's news to me. Thought the earliest is 2012.

KH: Nolah. Can be earlier de. So what is your opinion?

Moi: In my mind, I set it to the worst case scenario-- end of 2012. You want to come back, ma come back lo.

The boyfriend wasn't happy with my response. Was I too blunt? Was I wrong for not wanting to say too much about his return plan? I probed him further about it as he felt that I was acting as though I was not excited at the prospect of him returning. We all know that that couldn't be farther from the truth! I just did not want to exert undue pressure on his plans. I did not know that he wanted to take advantage of Malaysia's anti-brain drain offer. By the mid of next year, it would be his sixth year, and he would qualify for the tax perks when he returned. To date, he had done a telephone interview and had an impromptu meet with a rep from the company. Looking at the scope of work, it's not something that's exactly his forte and he doesn't know about salary yet. The feeling I get is that chances seem quite slim. And he needs to concentrate on his coming exams. Must as well get that out of the way. Being qualified would enable him to command more clout in the job market. I was just feigning indifference as to not get my hopes up. But judging from his actions, he is serious about coming home. I am really forward to that day.

Brittle Health, Brittle Bones

2011-08-14T00:04:00.001+08:00

Anatomy of the Human Heart Embroidery Wall Decor, swiped from Spec-ta-cles on Flickr.

Early Saturday morning, mum told me she did not want to go to market. She wanted to do a medical checkup instead! She thought that something was wrong with her heart. Said it felt weak. Gulp! Hearing that at 7:30am really swept all the sleep from my eyes. So I brought her to Taman Desa Medical Center for a check-up. Met the MO and he asked me what was wrong. Explained the situation, and he ordered up an ECG. Thank goodness it was normal. Since mum mentioned increased heartrate, he ordered up a thyroid test. She did have the problem some 31 years ago. The blood test was normal too. Perhaps she was just feeling a little under the weather. With that cleared up, MY heart was definitely lighter and we went to the Anlene booth there to get a free bone scan. According to the test results, I'm at the borderline of the high risk group to develop osteoporosis! My results were worse than my mother's! What a shocker.

At about 10+, we went off to have breakfast at OUG. Had a bowl of curry noodles at Restoran Seaview. At MYR4.50, it came with three pieces of chicken, not bad at all. But it was just average-tasting. Did some minor shopping at the OUG wet market. Since it was late, we got to take advantage of the lower prices. Bought some cherries too at MYR50 a kilogram. Obscene price. The only downside is the fact that the sun would be blazing and most of the choice items gone. Mum wasn't hungry, so I just had a bak zhang for lunch. The leftover pork fat I fed to the neighbourhood cats. Hope they weren't Muslim cats. XD. At about 2:00pm, mum went out for her society meeting. Feeling bored, I watched "Prince of Persia" and "Schoolboy Crush" on my lappie. PoP wasn't exactly a very good movie, but watchable la. The Hassansins! Such a cheesy name. Better to remember it as the 2D side-scrolling game I played on my brother's 8088 PC. "Schoolboy Crush" is a gay Japanese movie set in a boarding school. Teenage angst, classroom politics, love triangles, broken families, suicide, sex for money and forbidden love. The usual. Haha. Lots of scenes in the shower room though. XD.

Towards evening, I was feeling bored, so I decided to take advantage of the good weather and went for a swim. In my rush, I forgot to bring my googles and I couldnt use SK's cause they were powered. Damn. So I tried swimming without 'em. Boy, did the chlorine sting. And the water was full of debris-- dead bamboo leaves and dead insects. Yikes. Having no choice, I made the best of things with my lousy backstroke and did the doggie paddle. As usual, no eye candy. Sigh. When are the cute guys gonna move in to my apartment building!? For dinner, mum bought nasi dagang, nasi kerabu and onde-onde from the bazaar near OKR. The nasi dagang was superb. The red rice was of good quality. My only complaint was that the kari ikan tongkol was not sour enough. The nasi kerabu wasn't bad, but the rice was a tad soggy. Spicy enough, but the stall didn't give us keropok to go with it. And thank goodness the onde-onde actually had gula melaka filling inside. It was half the price of the tang yuan onde-onde (practically zero filling!) that I bought at KLS. Guess I negated my swim once again. :).

One Way Street

2011-08-10T23:24:00.001+08:00

religion is an imperative statement., swiped from anna.marie.morgan on Flickr.

"I studied Malay literature and Islamic History in Form Six and went on to enrol in the Malay Letters Department of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia where Islamic Civilisation was a compulsory subject. Some non-Muslim students grumbled about this requirement, citing subtle conversion, but I took it in stride and felt proud as I got to understand and appreciate Islam better. I didn’t convert."

An excerpt taken from Wong Chun Wai's "On The Beat" column in The Star. Yes, he wasn't converted, but the crux of the matter lies in the fact that the inverse cannot be implemented for the fear of conversion! Try asking them to take it in stride. Hahahaha.

Correct Or Not?

2011-08-08T10:32:00.000+08:00

Not exactly a great entry for "Damn You Auto Correct!", but its passable I guess. For your information, Tampopo is a Japanese Restaurant in Singapore that serves one of the top ten best ramen in town. Also known for their tonkatsu and black pig varieties. Actually the most annoying this about iPhone's auto-correct is the fact that it will always turn my "muacks" into "muscle". And it never learns to accept "muacks". Ugh. So most of the time, we wish each other "muscle". Unfortunately it doesn't help me to gain any at all. :(. My arms are still spindly and my tummy happy. Oh well. So what's your most hated auto-correct word?

Oh yeah, I'll be flying off to Brunei again tomorrow. Will be there till the 19th of August. Hopefully I will have the time and energy to blog during that period. See you when I see you.

Viva Home

2011-08-06T13:02:00.000+08:00

On Sunday morning, I woke up a little bit earlier than usual to have breakfast with mum at a nearby coffee shop. After that, we went home to change and headed out to Viva Home at Jalan Loke Yew with SK and her granny. It's KL's latest home and lifestyle mall. The ikan masin that was UE3 (never been there) was renovated and given a new lease of life. Even the toilets had a Moroccon feel to it. Took us an hour to get there cause we had no idea how to cross to the other side of Jalan Loke Yew. And trust the Garmin GPS to have poor reception there. Garmin really sucks. The place was huge without much human traffic, but at least most of the shops were occupied. Just the night before, the had their grand opening with a few artists from Hong Kong and Malaysia. With all the specialty shops there, things do look promising. A good place to look for ideas. Hopefully business can be sustained. In addition to the usual furniture and interior design shops, there's plenty of food there too. Mostly cafes and small restaurants. And a bubble tea here, a bubble tea there, bubble tea everywhere! Talk about stiff competition. SK bought a painting and mum bought a dustpan. Not quite a big shopping spree, huh? Also saw where my sis bought the cute bed for Cyan. MYR2100! and the kid refuses to sleep on it. Go figure.

Had lunch at their food court, called Gurney Drive. Food was quite good really. Ordered asam laksa, YTF, bibimbap, popiah and bubur chacha. Left at 1:00pm to send mum to her friend's place. She needed to help out with some large scale cooking again. SK and I then went out Carrefour Subang to settle her curtains at Nagoya. Spent some time hunting for suitable blackout drapes. Competitive pricing. Bumped into HP and her hubby there. Stopped a while to have gui lin gao. Next stop was Empire Subang for some gift shopping. Settled for Bunny and Lifebook. Also bought a card for SK's ex-boss who had so generously donated her furniture to me after migrating to Australia. Headed back to Seri Petaling after that to see if my mother was done. Our timing was good, just in time for early dinner. There was BKT, steamed prawns, curry chicken, stewed duck, radish soup (heavenly with pork bones in chicken broth), chili crabs, stir-fried clams in hot bean paste and loh bak. Satisfied! Also met my mum's friend's newest pet, a dog named Jaja. A cute-sy and furry little thing that hardly barks. Her last owner was a moody Japanese school girl who had since returned to her home country. So much food was left over that we ta-pau-ed some back. And I did not exercise again! Two weeks in a row. Crap! Oh well.

P.S.: Just realized that I have to shop for Leggy and EarlGrey's birthday present too. -_-"

Ignatian

2011-08-03T18:04:00.001+08:00

St Ignatius of Loyola, swiped from Lawrence OP on Flickr.

My church recently celebrated its feast day-- the Feast of St. Ignatius of Loyola. The 31st of July marks the anniversary of his death. For three days, talks were arranged and on the last day, a carnival and a bilingual mass followed by fellowship. On this special occassion, mum and I skipped marketing and went to church instead. Spent about four hours at the carnival. Took us about an hour to get there because the LDP was all crazy due to the rain. The jam had started right from BK5! Not wanting to rot at the Sunway Toll, I took a U-turn and approached from Kerinchi Link instead. By the time we got to church, the rain had stopped. Whopee! Had $130 worth of coupons to spend cause SK's boss bought ten booklets. Breakfast was yam cake, chai kueh, nasi lemak and coffee. The rest of the coupons, we spent on some Johnson & Johnson Baby bath gel, corn and a bouquet of roses. Also tried my luck guessing the numbers of peanuts in a box. Other than food stalls, there were games, train rides, counters from the Carmalite Nuns and the Capuchin Brothers, arts and crafts, buskers, clowns, a Myanmar refugee counter, religious artifacts, Quantum Science and a whole giant inflated playground. Had basically covered everything, so I moved into the cafeteria to get myself off my feet. Chatted with my godfather while waiting for SK and her grandma to arrive.

When SK arrived (after braving another jam in Cheras), I went out for a second round with her. Prices had started to be slashed and I had some popiah. Did more chatting with my BEC President, talking about his daughter's tertiery education plans. SK finished up the last of the coupons with more nasi lemak, nasi kandar, porridge and plastic soft-boiled egg maker. SK also took a chance guessing the peanuts. She guessed 1,350. Things were already winding up, so we helped the stall owner to count the peanuts. The answer was 1,331 and you know what? SK won the 1HP Mitsubishi air conditioner! super lucky! We bagged the peanuts too in case a recount was called. LOL. Fishy having the winner count the peanuts kan? Left at about 2:00pm. By 3:00pm we were eating again and mum boiled up some chrysanthemum buds. I slept for about forty five minutes before going to church again for the bilingual sunset mass. It was presided over by Fr. John Lee, the Archbishop in Kota Kinabalu. Feisty at his age. I think no less than seventy. His sermon was about the basics of Christianity-- the parallels that were found between the Old and New Testament. Of the exodus from Egypt and our exodus from sin to the Kingdom of God. Of the Passover sacrifical lamb and the Lamb of God. Of manna and the Body of Christ. At the end of the eucharistic celebration, there was a fellowship of sorts. Read free food. Hehe. A simple meal of rice with vegetables, sweet and sour chicken, curry chicken and bananas. A truly packed feast day celebration. Penat!.

Bag It

2011-08-02T17:40:00.002+08:00

Siap Sedia, swiped from zamanizubir on Flickr.

I went to Brunei for a short trip of three days due to some office politics and screwed up resource allocation. As you can guess, it was a show-face kinda deal. Upon arrival at 09:30, a colleague picked me up from the airport and sent me to the office. However, I could not work on that Sunday morning because the Sultan's "Meet the People" session was being held at the parade grounds opposite my client's office. Why? It was done in conjunction with His Majesty's 65th birthday celebrations. Two snipers had went up the building to ensure His Majesty's safety. As a result, we had to loiter at a nearby restaurant to kill time. Bumped into an old uncle who stared at my colleague:

Uncle: Where are you from har? (eyes bulging)

Colleague: Malaysia.

Uncle: I hate Malaysians! They are all bad people! Humph!

He actually left his table for another that was further away. Wah. I suspect his ex-wife was Malaysian and had most probably cheated him of his money. :S. At about 1:00pm, we were finally allowed up. On Monday, I met my clients and on Tuesday, I flew back home. People raised their eyebrow at my VIP flight schedule. Unheard of. As long as my manager approves it. With AirAsia's luggage policy, one is allowed one cabin-sized luggage and one laptop bag. Before I entered the gate with my luggage and BBP Hybrid Hauler Laptop Bag, the staff stopped me. She commented that my laptop bag was larger than my cabin luggage and asked me to show her that there was actually a laptop inside. Haha. The bag IS huge, and that fact can be verified by ChatMate. Bought the unique bag from Cumulus in Singapore. The bag actually rests slightly above one's ass at the lumbar area and can be converted to a messenger bag. Very eye-catching with a weirdness factor of 7.5. I like it. XD

Keluar

2011-08-01T13:30:00.004+08:00

Keluar, swiped from Ron-Dorothy on Flickr.

Oops. A leftover post from my Europe trip. Something random about exit signs in the countries that I visited. Please take note that the photos are not my work. Click on them to visit the photographer's photostream on Flickr. This is just a post about my observations on public transport in Europe. :)

London - Underground - Way Out

Barcelona - TMB - Salida (Spanish) / Sortida (Catalan)

Cologne - DB - Ausgang

Paris - Metro - Sortie

P.S.: The most common road name in Cologne is "Einbahnstraße". Hahaha. "One Way Road".

Love God, Love Yourself, Love Others, Love The Earth

2011-07-30T23:08:00.001+08:00

2007 Tzu-Chi Youth Group Summer Camp Group Photo, swiped from Stev!e on Flickr.

On Saturday, mum and I went for the sunset mass on Saturday because I had to leave for Brunei on a 06:45 am flight on Sunday. Was supposed to go home for dinner, but a talk on recycling by the Tzu Chi Merit Society caught mum's eye. My church's RCIA group had invited them over to share their experience about their extensive recycling campaigns. Up at their booth, a very nice-looking lady approached us to explain things. She spoke very politely in Mandarin and English. She was extolling five simple steps to reducing one's carbon footprint:

Go vegetarian
Reduce the use of air-conditioning
Reduce the use food packaging
Carpool or use public transport
Save water

Simple enough? Next she showed us some instant rice and noodles that they manufacture for international relief efforts. Through DA.AI Technology, they managed to recycle PET bottles into clothing and blankets which are also used to provide warmth for those stricken by disasters. Light and surprisingly soft. Immediate relief as they would call it-- firstly a full belly and secondly, warm clothes. They also use their own food containers and chopsticks to reduce the proliferation of rubbish. These men and women diligently spend their time supporting these green initiatives by having weekly recyclables sorting and collecting activities. Extremely impressive. That night, they showed up in full force, but unfortunately, the audience was very small! Mum and I were like the VIPs there as they kept on taking pictures. Not many other subjects. LOL. Less than thirty I think. It was quite a failure, but they carried on with enthusiasm. Too bad we could not stay till the end as we were super hungry already. On the way out, they even had a small exit interview asking us our opinions on whether it was informative and whether we felt it was weird that a Buddhist society was doing a talk in church. Truth be told, it matters not as we are all extolling the same thing... love and compassion. Love for our fellow man, and of course, the earth.

As a parting gift, one of the women asked me to randomly open a mini book of Buddhist sayings and read the words of wisdom it contained. I do not remember the exact words, but the general meaning was for one not to project our own negative karma on others. :)

Tentacle Porn

2011-07-28T11:05:00.001+08:00

Pixelated poinciana, swiped from judith511 on Flickr.

Taken from JapanProbe.com.

"Censorship is enough to completely turn off most Americans to Japanese porn. They are so used to seeing hardcore penetration shots that the fact that they can’t actually see the genitals make the porn useless to them. It’s a shame, since some out there think that Japanese pornography is often far superior to American adult videos. Japanese porn doesn’t focus on the penetration shot, instead using a variety of direction styles to create a sex scene. Without censorship, most Japanese directors would be as lazy as their American counterparts, who rely heavily on close-ups of penetration. It is possible that Japan’s wacky and innovative porn is a partial response to censorship."

I for one am a fan of Japanese porn. The cencorship doesn't really bother me. I'm OK with pixelated dicks. I can put things into perspective by cranking up my imagination. It doesn't take much. But some porn can be a tad too heavy-handed and that I admit is a turn off. The above quote mentions "wacky" and "innovative". After so many years of Japanese porn, I've really come across some quirky stuff but I think after so long, they have become normal for me:

The use of weird masks - keropi masks, goggles, leather masks
Fascination with toys and apparatus - dildos, vibrators, anal beads, chains, leather straps, red Japanese rope, leather accessories
The use of lube in huge packings that I can only describe as "industrial"
bukkake - the ultimate cumshot extravaganza
"another version" - literally straight gay porn. Such an oxymoron.
The love of masturbating straight guys while showing them look at straight porn on a portable DVD player
Rape scenes are also quite popular but I can do without some girlish squeeling
Sex in toilets, buses and trains are not uncommon
Some porn show some fun and games between the actors, shopping excursions, a walk in the park or a trip to the amusement park. It's like going on a date with 'em!
I have also seen some first person porn, shot from the other party's perspective
Any other things you guys can think of?

Most of the time, the Japanese porn actors are twinky and lean, with the typical J-Pop hair and slight tan. Definitely my type. And their selection of underwear is always sexy and colourful... *coos*. But still, I know J-Porn has its fair share of detractors. One man's meat, is another man's poison!