Anno Ayam I: PJ to Pavilion to Uptown

Every year, we celebrate the first day of the Lunar Chinese New Year at church. The Year of the Rooster was no exception. To get the best seats, we arrived an hour earlier. The other benefit of arriving before the throng is that it is much easier to take photos. The interior of the church was decked out in red, with a couplet flanking the crucifix above the altar-- something about the abundance of God's grace. The red carpet from Christmas still ran across the middle of the church, but it was now matched with red lanterns. The nativity scene was replaced with a set of oriental table and chairs, red cloth, and cherry blossoms. Outside was more cherry blossoms but there was something extra-- giant golden eggs. The whole morning I was on my feet running around, helping out the Hospitality Ministry with the mandarin oranges distribution and ushering parishioners to the pews. Felt like a record turnout this year. The lion dance was kinda short this year because by the time that we had finished cam-whoring after mass, they had gone. Once again, I met my kindergarten principal. Outwardly she looked fine, but I was told that she had cancer. Hope she will get better.





Like most KL-ites, we spent CNY at the mall. Didn't take long to get to The Pavilion with the super light traffic conditions. I had worries that there wouldn't be many shops open, but on the contrary, 90% of the shops were in business. Brought my brother to have lunch at Quivo. Mediterranean food is his favourite and I was looking for a change from the usual Chinese food. We shared a salad, pizza, and a crab meat pasta. Surprisingly, my brother ordered a mojito too.



The decorations at The Pavilion were nice, but we couldn't take a closer look because the center atrium was packed due to the lion dance performance. But of course we could see the giant phoenix in the air. It was nicely done with flowing tail feathers in mid-flight. We had to walk up several floors to find a place to watch the lion dance performance. Had to peek over shoulders, or between someone's legs. The performance had a very rocky start. The first lion fell off the poles three times! The crowd cheered them on, but I think they were too shaken to continue. The second lion was obviously more practiced.









Every time my brother is in KL, he would look for Malay food. He wanted Nasi Dagang so I had to think and think and think...

Moi: Let's try Hayaki at Damansara Uptown. Might be open since its a 24 hour joint. 

Bro: Har, Japanese restaurant pun ada Nasi Dagang?



LOL. Damansara Uptown was not itself. Devoid of traffic, so many empty parking lots! Most importantly, Hayaki was open. The Nasi Dagang Kelantan passed the test and the Nasi Kerabu was good too.





Since we were in there neighbourhood, we stepped into The Starling, Damansara Uptown's neighbourhood mall. Can you believe that the developer actually built an underpass from the shop lots to the mall? Just a three lane road and not like they have the pedestrian traffic like at Orchard Road. Very optimistic about the future. As you can guess from the name, the mall has a bird theme. Each pillar is disguised as a tree trunk with birds perched on the branches. Even the information counter is a big metal nest. At the center atrium, a huge flock of bird are suspended beneath the sky light. Like a whole bunch of marionette robotic birds. Retail variety there doesn't seem very good, but at least they have a Jaya Grocer in the basement.





Later in the evening, KH paid me a visit. Really wanted to put my feet up with him inside me as I was on my feet the whole day....