will i am's delayed diary

Technically, our pilgrimage only started on the 13th. Got our morning call at 6:30 AM, but on and off I was awake because I could hear my mother rummaging through her luggage whole night. Breakfast was not half bad with a good selection of local breads and buns, eggs and breakfast meats. Coffee was mild though. While waiting for the group to assemble at the lobby, I realized that I was quick becoming the de facto IT support guy for the group of old aunties ( average age was 65 ). They come to me for all sorts of problems-- How to log in to the wifi? Why won't my phone charge? How do I use the travel power adapter? How do I What's App this picture to my daughter? Why can't I switch on my phone? Quite a serious situation because one lady actually was trying to plug in the travel adapter to her phone sans the power cable! On that day, we had a local tour guide who brought us around the grounds. Dominating the grounds is the Sanctuary of Fatima with a tall central bell

Being the only Catholic in the family besides mum, I really could only say "yes" when my mum asked me to join her on a tri-country pilgrimage in Europe with emphasis on the sites of Marian apparitions. A rare chance to go on a long holiday with mum. At the same time, KH asked me to go on a Hokkaido road trip with him, but I'll talk about that later. Since the trip was organised by a Kuching-based tour agency, 80% of the participants were from East Malaysia and were heavy duty Hakka and Foochow speakers. I didn't start packing until a few days before departure due to a shitty work schedule. My CEO was pursuing a deal with a local bank and was going all out to spin his proposal. So I guess it was lucky that I could escape it for two weeks. Will think about the shit after I get back. My flight was on Monday evening but we had to arrive at the airport pretty early to meet up with the main group. Mum fried some noodles and I ate that at 5:00 PM. At 6:00 PM, I had so

Deciding on Sunday lunch keeps getting more challenging. I made the random choice of Sushi Kame at Atria Shopping Gallery. When we walked in, it was kinda deserted. The reason dawned on me after I went through the menu. I would give it a rating of $$$. Since I was there, might as well order something more premium to gauge the quality of its food. From the picture, the Ladies Set didn't look like much. It was actually served in a course. For MYR55, one got an appetizer, salad, chawanmushi , sashimi , grilled gindara , chirashi don , stewed pork and a bowl of  udon . Add that to my oyako don ( MYR28 ) and you get two very full customers. As usual, there was a function going on at centre atrium and mum sat down for it. Gintell had an opening ceremony for their new shop and it was officiated by their brand ambassadors, Amber Chia and Datuk Jalaluddin Hassan. The ceremony included a lion dance with eight lions. Sitting there for hours wasn't a total loss as mum got a heart

My last visit to Doiffee , Taman Desa was in August 2014. After more than a year, they have diversified their menu as KH and I discovered. Under their signatures items, I chose a cup of Classic Cham, cafe culture meets kopitiam chic. Truth be told, I wasn't impressed with that drink. Not worth the money. Also tried one of their waffles-- Gorilla Cravings. Why the name? Bananas. In the evening, KH organized a big dinner with my family, Apollo, Apollo's mum and QueerRanter-D. The dinner was at Hai Tian , Equine Park. Apollo's group was early by half an hour while my group was thirty minutes late. The poor fellas had more than hour to look at the menu. But it worked out because there was a line for walk-in customers by 7:30 PM. The braised long ribs looked more like Dong Po meat than ribs, but it was yummy. Little Monster nearly baham -ed all the mantou s! BIL's favourite was the salted egg bitter gourd. And as usual, KH brought wine to celebrate. Asked the kid