The Saviour Was Born But My Lappie Died

Pan Mee Breakfast, swiped from williamnyk on Flickr.

On Sunday night: fired up my laptop > chose my Jap porn du jour > spanked the monkey > cleaned up > went downstairs for a drink of water > came back up and found that my lappie was dark! Tried some troubleshooting by removing the battery and etc, but it still wouldn't start up. Just blinked a bit and went silent. I'm pretty sure I didn't shower the lappie with my jizz causing it to shortcircuit and die! Oh well. The next morning, went out early with SK to get it looked at. Stopped at TTDI's Restoran Kuan Lee to have pan mee. The uncle's finally out of the hospital and back in business. Parked at KPMG Tower and went looking for the service centre. Think the place was quite new. Never noticed it there before. Didn't even have a signboard. Manned by a bitchy looking support staff (she earlier barked at an IBM employee, telling him that the in-house support's on the 18th floor). She asked me to deposit my laptop on the counter and she started punching in the serial number. And she declared that my warranty was void. She explained to me that I needed to pay MYR162 for labour and diagnosis charges. I reasoned with her that I suspect it's just a battery problem. She said that even if it was, it would take weeks just to order a battery. Fantastic. Anyway, I managed to convince her to do a quick diagnosis for me and she obliged. After five minutes, she returned with a fake smile and told me that my motherboard was dead. Cost of replacement? > MYR1000. Better to throw it into the dustbin she said. Opps.



Not sure what to do next, I just decided to extract my HDD first. Drove to Tech Hypermart Puchong Jaya to get it settled for MYR35. The technicians there seemed so eager to help. Like a pit stop, the screwdrivers were on the back panel even before I explained the situation. They also offered to fix my motherboard for MYR380 in 3 days. Sounded tempting but I declined. Needed to wait for approval. Arranged a lunch date with KH at The Pavilion. Walked from end to end on the sixth floor looking for a suitable place to eat. Finally decided on Kyo-ei Ramen because I was enticed by the strong aroma of chicken broth wafting from their kitchens. However, I was disappointed by their ramen. It's the sliced variety. Not very good. But their shio soup base was really good. Also some bad news-- En Ginza Cafe is no more. So if you didn't catch the Japanese barista, your chance is gone.



Reached home at 3:00pm. Spent my time at my sister's place looking after the rug rat. At around 6:00pm we went to church to attend Christmas Eve Mass. Had to be a bit kiasu to get a good seat and avoid the jams. The cantata started at 7:30pm and boy was it weird. Did it in the dark, with each ministry singing a carol one after another. The performers were illuminated by spotlights. The momentum was quite slow. Failed to set the stage for an explosive "Gloria In Excelcis Deo" finale. Failed to get the crowd to join in. Helped out in the hospitality ministry that day. Even had to do two collections. A rarity. This year, the priest brought in Baby Jesus in the dark and an altar boy illuminated Him with a torchlight. When the lights were switched on, the fake palm trees and strings of angels (look more like Casper the Friendly Ghost in an angel costume) were lit up. As usual, the English congregation was much more kiasu. They rushed in the minute Mandarin mass ended. Wanted to eat BKT at Yi Xin Ge, but they were closed. Ended up at Kuchai Lama Food Court instead. Only my second time there. Ate at the famous stall Golden Bun that specializes in sweet and sour crab served with fried man tou. Their grilled stingray was also very yummy. A very good way to welcome the birth of Christ!