will i am's delayed diary

Work has been taking me places these days. Brunei has not even closed a chapter, and I'm now told to buy a ticket to Colombo! I wasn't aware that Malaysians need a visa to visit Sri Lanka, but thankfully there's no need to visit the embassy as they an e-visa channel. My flight was on Sunday night, 10:00 PM. I was quite surprised that the flight had it's fair share of Chinese passengers. Mostly were from China, but there were some Hong Kees too. Beside me were a PRC couple. The guy kept nudging into my hands although I let him have the arm rest, and his girlfriend really loved to lecture him. Probably because of them I could not sleep on the flight although I was so tired. Ended up watching "Colossal" to pass the time. Truly a quirky movie. Although we flew for nearly four hours, we arrived in Colombo at 11:00 PM, a 2.5 hour time difference. Bandaranike Airport looked pretty retro. While the immigration officer processed my arrival, half of his attention w...

Once in a while, KH and I go on weekday date nights. KH was getting a Spanish vibe that night, so we ate at Mercat Barcelone Gastrobar in Bangsar. Not many tables were occupied on that Wednesday night, but still we did not experience their so-called 'attentive' service that many past customers raved about. But we did notice that each table had several orders of their famous gin and tonic. The gin du jour was actually MYR80+ for a double shot which was served in a balloon glass. Expensive right? But we ordered it anyway. Quite a strong drink... no wonder it's so popular. Our dinner was a few tapas and an order of grilled pork ribs. We had the  Bouquerones en Vinagre , which is cured anchovies with roasted peppers. And no tapas dinner is complete without Patatas bravas , KH's favourite potato dish. Both tapas had excellent food presentation and innovative form factor, like dim sum on granite serving slabs. We also had a bowl of Chorizo al vino , chorizo served wi...

First world problems: What to have for lunch after church? Some times I would just drive with no destination in mind, and I would suddenly get inspiration. Mum and I ended up at Uroko , which was quite a good choice because it's near my church, and I always wanted to give it a revisit to try the raw seafood on their menu. The sashimi moriawase was definitely worth it. The menu states 16 pieces, but I think we got 20 pieces. Other than that, we ordered grilled mentai prawn, grilled beef, and soft-shell crab salad. There were big, big chunks of crab in the salad... so meaty! Lunch was with mum, so dinner was with KH. Made a radical choice for dinner-- native East Malaysian cuisine, a taste of Borneo. Thirty seven years as a Malaysian, and I never once tried this variety of food although I had tasted food from faraway countries! When we entered Javian Kitchen at Taman Equine, it was pretty quiet. Both of us did not have any experience with this type of cooking, so we just...

At the very last minute, mum received a call from her friend, looking for kakis to attend a charity lunch. Her friend had bought a whole table at MYR1,000. Managed to get SK, KH, and the Tribe to go. Since it was on a Sunday, we attended morning mass and killed some time at One Utama. The venue was at Palm Springs, Kota Damansara, so we didn't need to rush over. The event was organized by Persatuan Penganut Guang Shou Jin She , Kepong, a Buddhist organization in Kepong. In my opinion, the whole event wasn't very well-organized as the audience seemed quite disjointed with what was happening on stage. Basically, they were raising funds for a construction project, so they were selling biscuits and tea, and even had an auction of 'genuine' Qing dynasty pottery. A tea cup went to the highest bidder for MYR20,888. In between all that, there was some singing and a drumming performance by a school troupe. The kids weren't that good. The energy wasn't there and th...

Been flying around a lot lately so it didn't escape me that my passport was expiring in six months. KH told me that there is an online renewal, but I wasn't confident with the photo submission. I didn't want to be rejected due to some technicality on that and end up needing to turn up at the immigration office anyway. Since I only had the weekends free, my only choice was UTC. Read some online reviews and finally decided on UTC Sentul. I woke up at 6:00 AM and left the house thirty minutes later. Still took me forty minutes to get there in the early morning traffic. The downside of UTC Sentul is the lack of parking. The basement parking is the domain of the government servants and the wet market operators. So, I had to make a few turns around the block to find available parking. And since I was so early, many lots were taken up by people who lived above the shop lots or at the nearby low cost housing. But lucky for me, I found a spot on my second try. Fearing that there...

Every now and then, I find mum a new place have lunch after Sunday mass. On the fourth Sunday of July ( gosh, I'm really lagging behind ), we went to Botanica + Co. at Bangsar South.  Mum liked the interior. Taking into consideration mum's ketogenic diet, we just shared a pan of baked eggs. It was quite good really. Didn't expect to see my ex-law lecturer having brunch there with a couple of friends. Love the fact that he ordered red wine tanpa segan-silu although he's a Malay muslim. On the way home, we pumped petrol at Shell Bukit Jalil. Mum pointed out that the place had an uncharacteristically carnival-like atmosphere. Weird! The petrol station staff invited us to have some free nasi lemak and bihun goreng . They even had freebies at a dart-throwing station. The poor staff also had to serenade customers with an outdoor KTV. Surprised that petrol stations actually have Hari Raya open house sessions. Later that afternoon, SK came over with some nasi dagang...

Slept a bit late due to the MH debacle the night before, but I still managed to wake up early to accompany mum to the OUG morning market. KH was also there in his skanky pants. Caught hold of him so that I could recount my misadventure. At noon, I dropped mum off at her meeting and headed home. Lebuhraya Bukit Jalil was such a mess due to the road works. The contractor had missed their deadline twice and the final deadline was the SEA Games. If not for the fact that the Federal Territories Minister was to officiate the opening of the new highway expansion, I'm sure they would continue to take their sweet time. When the ramps open, hopefully the traffic be as smooth as a fist through a Crisco cave. In the evening, I left the house to meet KH for dinner. Not 3 minutes after I drove out my missing luggage from the night before had arrived at my doorstep by the services of a taxi driver. So I turned back in and out again to meet KH at Jo's Fish Market . The experience there ...

Air travel is a complex system dependent on many complex things that go wrong. People, schedules, planes, and weather, just to name a few. Technical problems are the scariest of all. When your car breaks down, you just stop it by the side of the road. When your breaks down, you might have 38,000 feet before you hit the ground or sea! Not very good chances at all. Thankfully, my flight back to KL from Bandar Seri Begawan ( MH731 ) encountered technical problems before the flight. It arrived on time, but they announced a delay for our boarding. After one hour had passed, the delay turned into an outright cancellation. Wah, never encountered that before! The ground staff announced that we would be sent to a hotel and provided with meals. As if on cue, a senior flight attendant pushed a cart of in-flight meals to the gate. One guy with a constipated face ( Mr. Sembelit ) immediately rushed to the counter and protested. "I don't want your hotel and I don't want your food....

During a work trip in Brunei, both my GM and CEO were both in the country. However, my GM left a day earlier, leaving me to entertain my CEO. His Friday was pretty much occupied with meetings with my client's MD, but I had to bring him out to dinner. By his choice, dinner was at Tamu Selera that night. Really a place for the locals where you get rickety wooden furniture covered with sticky vinyl covers. At first, it was kind of awkward. We didn't know what to say to each other. As we started tucking into the ayam penyet , he suddenly found that he could talk about his family with me. Just between us, we polished off three ayam penyet and one pecel lele , with three small bowls of fiery sambal . No wonder the grumpy lady forced me to buy a huge bottle iced lemon tea-- we really drank it till the last drop. When we stood up, we could really feel the oily, deep-fried stuff weighing heavily in our tummies. My CEO immediately informed the driver that we would be walking back...

Traffic warden duty at church is really no walk in the park. Parishioners are all angelic when they enter the church, but when they get behind the wheel, whatever "faith, hope, and charity" is thrown into the river at the back of the church. The church management does its best to arrange for smooth traffic flow and maximizing of parking space ( no choice but to allow double parking and tandem parking ). Not an easy feat when you have two big masses on Sunday mornings, with parents hanging around due to Sunday school and other activities. Everyone wants to have things their way, and to their convenience. Everyone else is a stumbling block and an idiot there to thwart their plans. The traffic wardens just work according to the plan and try to ease things so that traffic goes smoothly. But every week, there would bound to be someone whose car is blocked or do not want to follow instructions, and would start throwing tantrums. In addition to putting up announcements in the chur...

I'm lucky that KH elects to fetch me from the airport as a kind of 'drive-through' date. He comes all the way from work to brave the Friday traffic to see me for a couple of hours, which is very sweet. Right after collecting my luggage on that Friday, I made a call to KH which made him miss a turning. My poor dear had to make a 30-minute detour because of that. To kill the time, I walked into Jaya Grocer. I was expecting the price of groceries there to be higher, but I was wrong. So, I happily filled a basket with vegetables. A first for me, grocery shopping at the airport. By 8:00 PM, I was already quite hungry, so I bought a ham chim peng from I Love Yoo! . Right after scarfing it down, KH arrived. I offered to drive since my darling couldn't feel his ass anymore. Lol. Back home, we shared dinner that mum cooked. The next morning was spent at the market as usual. Had YTF again. Mum reheated roast goose that SK packed from Hong Kong. The aroma of the goose oil w...

Saturday was spent at the market as usual. Normalcy had returned with the passing of the peak of Raya celebrations. People were getting back to work and the market saw a glut of fresh produce, bringing the prices down. The face of the OUG morning market is constantly in flux. The latest addition is a food truck selling cakes. The truck was decorated in such a way that it would look perfect in a carnival. Lets see if it will survive. My breakfast was a plate of wantan noodles from Daniel's stall. Mum just ate a couple of hard-boiled eggs and knicked some charsiew off my plate. Mum had a more proper meal during lunch. With the ingredients she bought at the market, she whipped up two hot bowls of YTF topped with chicken and hard-boiled egg-- one clear soup, and one curry. A very satisfying meal. Been wanting to try Uroko , so I brought my mum there. Never noticed those shops, must be new. Few years back, I used to take that route from Section 17 to bypass the toll when h...