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Showing posts from May, 2007

Precious

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collagePrecious Swiped from williamnyk . Most of the time, when people go out to eat, they look for good food. However, at times, that isn't good enough. Some people look for ambience. Others demand excellent service. Of course, a place with all three would be ideal, but at end of the day, you get what you're paying for. But then, sometimes you don't get what you're paying for. We sometimes pay top dollar for diva-esque waiters, crappy food and lousy eating conditions. Getting to the point, I recently visited a quaint little restaurant in Central Market, by the name of Precious . It is like the restaurant equivalent of a boutique hotel. The interior is filled to the brim with antiques. The feel is predominantly oriental, very woody with an eclectic mix teak furniture and buddhist pieces. They serve Baba and Nyonya cuisine and the price is just slightly above average. A word of warning though, the kitchen is quite slow, even when preparing set lunches. The taste

Neither Here Nor There

When Someone treats you to meal, you tend not to order too much, out of politeness. But sincere and gracious hosts would order on your behalf to avoid any awkwardness. But sometimes, this is not so. I just left such a dinner and I must say that I left a little annoyed and more than a little hungry. Oh well, I am grateful anyway. But it does not mean I cannot be a little pissed. Company tab also like this. Sigh. Reached gullet, but not quite the lungs. Neither here nor there. Got to cook some mamee now.

In the Dark

I am posting from my phone again. I am sitting in the dark, with candles all around me and the doors thrown open. No, I am not sitting naked on the floor with a pentagram around me, smearing chicken blood on my imaginary pecs. I am just sulking in the dark, waiting for the power to come back on. Some idiotic electrician doing renovations a few houses away caused a major disruption to the power supply. Must have learned his trade out of a kemahiran hidup text book. Anyway, the TNB people are now here and are doing their job. A quick check with my neighbours reveal that most of their large electrical appliances had shorted. Fans spinning faster. Bulbs burning brighter. Like a scene from Poltergeist. Give me light. Give me electricity. Before I start stripping off... hehe.

Reclaim my Weekends

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Unruly hair Swiped from tanakawho . Saturdays have started to be a very sienz affair for me. Perhaps right up till August, I will have to be in the office on Saturdays. Just too see things through. To stare at a resource-hungry Gantt chart that cannot be fulfilled in the current timeline. I already have my people working on concurrent tasks. And the delivery dates are ridiculous. It's not like people can have Core 2 Duo CPUs to move things along. And yet my Project Managers keep on asking about the percentage completed. Just quote any number you like la... I couldn't be bothered. Whenever I work on weekends, I try to get into the office as early as possible ( sacrificing some sleep in time ) so as to be able to clock my minimum of 5 hours and leave. Last Satuday was not different. After my boss treated me lunch at Old Town Kopitiam , Central Market, I cabut . I had a couple of hours to kill before my appointment with my hairstylist, so I dashed off to Suria KLCC for some shopp

Apocalypto

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Apocalypto Swiped from williamnyk . You fear me So you should... all of you who are vile Would you like to know how you will die! The sacred time is near Beware the blackness of day Beware the man who brings the jaguar Behold him reborn from mud and earth For the are he takes you to will cancel the sky And scratch out the earth Scratch you out and end your world He's with us now... The above prophecy was brought to you by the freaky plague-ravaged girl from Mel Gibson's Apocalypto . For some reason, I was drawn to this scene. Maybe it was her crazy eyes. Maybe it was the spooky way she spoke. Maybe it was the message of death of death and destruction. Maybe it was just the idea of prophecy. As interesting as the devil speaking through the puked-out Regan from The Exorcist . I won't be doing a full-fledged movie review today. Just wanted to share this small snippet from the film. It's just a whole lotta running around and dying in horrible ways. But don't ge

A Friend In Need Is A Friend Indeed

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chain links Swiped from KatColorado . That saying was once splashed on the side of my school block. I never gave it much thought. Friends came and went. Never bothered to keep in touch. They just faded into the background. No sense of loss. No sense of longing. Tells you much about the definition of friends. Or rather, it means I never had many to begin with. Friends normally disappear when things don't go well. When it's not convenient anymore. But sometimes, people do surprise us. My father had just passed on. No more riding pillion on his motorcycle to school. A simple offer from a classmate, "Do you want to follow my car to school?". I burst out in tears. So far, I have only a few friends I can truly count as genuine friends. I can count them on one hand, with fingers to spare. My first, JM. We knew each other since Secondary 1. We were inseparable. We had our squabbles. We had our secrets. But still, we had each other. He cared more than I could have imagined. Mo

The Devil Wears Yohji Yamamoto

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YohjiYamamoto Swiped from redem . Sometimes we blog-hop all over the place that we forget how we come to end up at certain blogs in the first place. Links are usually overlapping and more often than not, we tend to forget about the point of entry. Anyway, through the wondrously chaotic and random ways of blog-hopping, I came to know a DanielH, who's really a very nice and down-to-earth person ( although his blog usually showcases his bitchy side and he assures me that he is usually bitchy ). When I first stumbled across his blog, he had just came back from his stint in Tokyo and I was mesmerised by his taste for all things branded and his seemingly Mariana Trench-like pockets. Since then, I had frequently visited his blog and before you know it we exchanged a few e-mails and sms-es. Me, ever being the food critic who is never short of people lining up to treat him to meals ( not voluntarily ), made DanielH decide to bring me to try a wickedly-good beef soup at Starhill Gallery. He

Silent Treatment

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Silent Treatment Swiped from sazliner . Mum's at it again. The silent treatment. The best weapon in her arsenal. No banging of doors. No dumping of plates. No stomping. Just silence. She only speaks a word. "Yes". "No". Or if she likes, some stinging comment. "Do whatever you want". It's so tiring. I try to go on like nothing's wrong. I try to talk to her. But it seems futile. I sleep. In the morning, I ask her what's wrong, and she answers, "You should know what's wrong. I don't want to say". Well, so much for that. The war rages on.

Something I Don't Ming, But Want to Na

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Onyx Swiped from williamnyk . It's amazing. The stars must be out of sync. The apocalypse must be coming. Believe or not, I'm doing another movie post. My last movie at the cinema was Ghost Rider , a pitiful story with a pitiful storyline. Bad hair. Killer cleavage. I agreed to watch the movie just to entertain my colleague who's going away to Dubai for a working stint. Anyway, this time round, my trip to the cinema was really unplanned. After having dinner with my Di , my Mei and several other close bloggers at Restoran Mak Koh , Bangsar, we kinda just decided on a whim to catch a movie at MV ( or perhaps to stalk some people who had plans there as well, :P ). Before I continue, do allow me to turn this into a mini food post. The food at Mak Koh is nothing to shout about, but the service is quick. We ordered steamed siakap , fu yu yau mak , stewed pork with preserved vegetables, Ma Poh beancurd and fried calamari. However, the price is a little steep. But then, this is B

Scarlet Dreams

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stair rays Swiped from ♫ marc_l'esperance . Note: My skankiest post to date. Caution advised. Take with a pinch of salt. For the past few days, I have not been getting the sleep my body deserves. Stress at work. Late nights. Naughty hands. All have led to my sleep-deprived state. In normal cases, the amount of sleep I can squeeze out of those few hours are usually not quality sleep with good REM time. However, during on of those nights, I did have a very vivid dream. I don't know if it'd due to sexual frustration ( perhaps I've gotten sick of the twins ) or a libido overdrive ( unlikely since the testosterone levels only go downhill from here ), but I had quite a skanky dream. In the dream, I was climbing a narrow metal ladder ( like the kind you see in Dr Evils's lair ) in a semi-naked state ( nothing was hanging loose, in case you're wondering ). At one point, there was a small landing. And on that tight space was a semi-cute ( why isn't there per

What's For Lunch?

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Lunchtime! Swiped from Triple-Y . Every single day, my colleagues and I play a game called "Where Shall We Eat Today". Although there is an abundance of eateries in a 2-mile radius of our current site, we seem to find it very difficult to decide where to eat. There's Chinese, Indian, Malay, Middle-Eastern, Western and Punjabi food in settings ranging from hawkers, fast food joints, food courts, coffeeshops to posh restaurants. And yet we ask the question- when we are at our desks, while waiting for the lift, at the building lobby and sometimes worse, when we actually walk out aimlessly in the merciless noon day sun. I look at you, you look at me. A pathetic game. So when somebody actually comes up with a suggestion, we take as a divine command and quickly head there for fear of objections, which can range from: 1) Yerr, too far la... 2) Aiyoh, so hot... go nearby la... 3) I ban that place ler... so salty. 4) Nothing to eat one there. 5) So late where got place to

Stale Bread

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Stale Bread Swiped from mekuno . Warning: This is a REALLY stale post. Immune-suppressed individuals should take extreme caution and consult your healthcare professional. I'm really scraping the bottom of the barrel here. I though this too late to post ages ago, so I left it in my archives. However, I'm feeling a little nostalgic.... ( and desperate ) about the old days, of how it used to be... so here. When two thirds of the Unholy Trinity get together with the Orginiser for dinner, one would expect an overwhelming reponse. However, it seems that the magic doesn't work that way. Perhaps we're missing David's magic touch. Alex's exclusive appearance failed to reel in the crowds of adoring peers in, or perhaps we went wrong somewhere. With just the three of us, it kinda ended up as a committee meeting. All was not lost as it turned out to be quite the "fancy and quiet" affair that Alex was looking for. Of course , our kind of "fancy"

Eye on Mum

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collage xenri Swiped from williamnyk . In the past, Mother's Day has always been a simple affair, because my mother's birthday is always celebrated about a week before it. So we kind of kill two birds with one stone. And we get to avoid the crowds because past experiences have not been pretty. Overcrowding in restaurants. Mixed up orders. 5 course dinners ending up as 2 course dinners because the remaining 3 dishes somehow fail to show up before all the food is wiped off the table by overly-hungry and irate diners. Rude waitresses ( Don't know why so many people!? No need money ar?! ). However, this year, we actually celebrated Mother's Day since my brother couldn't make it to her birthday celebration due to weddings and full moon celebrations in Singapore. Although earlier deciding not go Japanese again this year ( sis and bro-in-law really not keen because basically, sashimi, wasabi, miso and sushi rice do not agree with them, so what else is left? ), we

Art of War

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Art of War Swiped from Emerging Birder . For those of you who know me personally ( for those of you who have a glimpse of my personal life through my cryptic posts, I salute thee for sensing the problems that I'm in, or if you don't get what write at times, that's cool too as ignorance is bliss. We have enough of our own shit. ), you would know that these past couple couple of weeks have been a bit tumultuous for me and my mum in terms of our relationship. Our disagreement on the way I live one part of my life is a bone of contentment between us. And the problem is not made easier by the fact that we live under the same roof. Be it as it may, we have reached a stalemate for the time being. But I like to see it as the calm before the storm. As Leggie asked the other day: Leggie: So, how's the war going? Me: What war? Leggie: The War of the Worlds. Me: Oh. THAT. I'm still placing my troops. And she's doing the same. It's not like I have to portray my

Shampoo Down Under

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Dove 3 Day Swiped from williamnyk . Note: I'm running out of ammo... so you get this cheapo filler post. :) Behold the Dove Moisturethrapy Cream Shampoo sample pack. It features a limp tulip being brought back to life in just 3 days by soaking it in Dove Moisturethrapy Cream Shampoo. It's supposedly formulated with 1/4 intensive milk emmolients to repair dry and damaged hair. As far as I know, I banned Dove longed ago because it doesn't work for me. But that's not what I want to talk about. I just want to comment about the ad. Somehow, it just looks like their peddling some phyto-viagra that'll perk up your 'plants' in 3 days. Whatcha waiting for? Shampoo the nether regions for a 'bouncier' and 'fuller' effect with Dove Moisturetherapy Cream.

Kor

I am not very close to my brother. He left home to study at boarding school when he was 12 and only returned 5 years later to take his STPM. After that, he left home again to further his studies in Singapore. Upon graduating he worked in the Lion City because he had a bond to fulfill and even after he had no more obligations to the Singapore Government, he staued on, because he had grown to like the place. The brother I knew was quite transformed from all his years there, turning into what Mel described as "salsa-dancing and wine-guzzling". Everytime he comes back, he will supply me with music, comic books, novels and stuff. Although we do not talk much about feelings, hopes, dreams and ambitions, we chat well about more trivial matters. Still, he plays his role as my big brother and takes care of me, even plies me with SGD ( yes! ). Well, yesterday, I felt closer to my brother more than ever. I actually opened up to him and told him something that I had been carrying with me

Not so Izzi

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Izzi Swiped from williamnyk . Some time back, Jase and I had dinner at Izzi Pizza , Bukit Bintang. Believe it or not, their headquarters is in Jakarta and I have been to their branch in Bursa Efek Jakarta ( the equivalent to Bursa Saham Malaysia ). That was around 3 years ago and I must say that the only thing I remembered about it was thin crust pizzas with excellent pepperoni. Anyway, the reason we went there was because of the rumoured 50% discount. However, the promotion is only valid for orders above $100 and payment must be via Citibank or Standard Chartered credit cards. Well, our bill came around to $50 and I stupidly just paid even after the waitress told us about the promotion details. We could have ordered another $50 worth of food and would not have paid an extra cent ( well, perhaps a bit ). Stupido. Stupido. Stupido. Baga. Baga. Baga. With that experience under my belt, I went there again last Saturday to celebrate my mum's birthday. This time round, I had a better lo

BKK Detour 2: Blue Cherry & ATMs

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Blue Cherry Swiped from williamnyk . This photo was taken at Partunam City Complex . It's basically one of the many malls that are filled to the brim with clothing wholesalers. It caught my eye because of it's motto. You can't see it clearly due to the light, so I'll type it out here: Blue Cherry: We make you come first Oh, yes please! The next photo was taken at one of the side entrances of Indra Square . It's quite weird in my opinion because the modems and the uninterrupted power supply for the ATM machine is out in the open. The former sitting on top of the machine, the latter at the back, all within easy reach. It's so weird, any kid can just come along and take it out of commission. Talk about banking security.

Inclined

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Gohatto Swiped from comics0923 . Unlike some people I know ( ok la, Cynikeel, :P ), I have not posted a movie post in ages. As Bunny would testify, my forte is food posts. However, I've decided to try my hand at movie posts again. I did not go to the cinema ( lama aku tak pergi, sapo nak belanja ni? ), but I recently bought a DVD that is quite noteworthy to share here. The title is Gohatto . I just picked it up on a whim and since it was on sale at $5 ( not pirated, but got it at a shop at Summit USJ that's clearing old stock ), it was quite a no-brainer. As you would have guessed, it's Japanese. But most importantly, it has Beat Takashi in it. I can add it to my collection of Izo , Zatoichi and Battle Royale. As with all Jap movies, it's always a bit weird. Pace-wise. Storyline-wise. But therein lies the attraction for me. I had no expectations for it whatsoever. I asked my mum to read me the summary on the back of the DVD ( banana, tak tahu baca cina ) and s

Comfort

The throes of anguish which visit us in the dark of the night are often symptoms of a struggle for change that has already begun. --- The Comfort Book. Wise, Robert L. I think it has already begun. I think I can feel it. Slowly, but surely, it has begun. And it feels good.

Thinking of You

Sensing my despair, KH employed the help of a mutual friend to pass me a card. A simple card, yet full of meaning for me. He understands me. I cling to the hand he offers me. He eases my pain. I feel his strength in me. He wipes away each bitter tear. He lends me his a sympathetic ear. He thinks of me in these trying times. And I think of him. His words give me comfort in this storm I am going through. And I am glad he feels my love for him and in return, he showers me with his love tenfold. I can only hope that what we have will last, but I will work hard to keep the flame burning. I will not so easily give up. I want to see this through. We want to see this throug.

Kiros

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closet door Swiped from surlygrrrl . Kiros. God's time. You can ask for whatever you want from God, tell him all your needs, demand that you get a sign... but God will just keep quiet. The world will go on, life will go on... you will still toil and wait for your deliverance. But when the time comes, and we are not ready, we get swept along in the torrent of chaos and order. As much as we plan things, as much we design, things don't always go our way. But we can always hope. Some things we keep close to our hearts. Our deepest darkest secret. Our hopes and fears. Forever waiting and waiting to release it. We rehearse it. We build up the courage to say. But we falter. We stumble. We sputter. We stammer. But sometimes, when we least expect it, the contents of our hearts are tumbled out without warning. We are caught unaware. We stare in disbelief. But realization comes, and we catch this wave of honesty, we steel ourselves, our courage returns. The truth shall set you fr