will i am's delayed diary

If you're ever in Eko Cheras Mall, give Xin Dau Ji a try. The mother restaurant in Hong Kong is a One-Michelin Star establishment. However, finding the restaurant from inside the mall can be quite a challenge. The corridor is narrow and hidden. Felt like I was finding my way in the Mines of Moria. If you ever find it, I recommend that you try their egg tart and lotus rice. Exquisite. Not as expensive as Oriental Treasure, but the portions are a tad smaller. Eko Cheras wasn't enough to satisfy mum's shopping needs. She wanted to go to Jalan Jalan Japan. Brought her to the 1Shamelin branch to see if its any different compared to Subang Sky Park. 1Shamelin is truly a run down place. Kinda like Cheras Sentral Mall, with hardly any business activities in the upper floors. Even the escalators aren't working. A disappointing shopping trip.

Mum and I venture to Happy Mansion on a super hot afternoon after Sunday mass. Many of the food and beverage outlets there were at full capacity, some with a queue outside. By the time we reached Food Foundry , we were beaten by the sun. No more looking around. Immediately got ourselves a table there to escape the weather. We shared a grilled seabass and a bowl of soup. Right next to it was Xiao by Crustz , so why not have dessert? We shared the "Coconut", a pretty creation of coconut mousse with a tart filling, covered with a thin chocolate crust. Good combination of flavours and textures. Very dainty, with an above average price. SK joined us for dinner that night. Had a great meal at Restoran Fung V , Equine Park. We were very lucky to get a table. Amazingly, SK's appetite was not satiated. Ended up at Day 9 Kitchen for bagels and coffee. Craazzzzy. Near the cafe was a furniture and home decor shop called Jack Creatus, selling mostly wooden products....

Whenever I eat at 3Damansara's Sushi Tei , it must be Ban's birthday. I wasn't particularly hungry, so I just ordered a nabe . Not a big group, just a few of us, namely, JJ ( the organizer ), Janvier, The Chief, and Lex. Hot topic was Ban's activism, and how his peers react to the existence of JJ. Should be a non-issue. Also good to hear that Janvier is recovering well after his procedure. As usual, we would have coffee at the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf . The highlight of the night was a guy and his 'girlfriend'. While rounding the corner, the guy lead girl into spin, like they were Angksapuri backup dancers. But the funniest thing about that bizarre was : Our gaydars were pinging like crazy. While he did the turn, he locked eyes Lex, and it had a very high hamsap index. In front of Uniqlo, the girl went into the store, while guy sat down for a coffee. The girl tried on clothes and modeled for him from inside the store while he just sat there and gave...

Babysitting duty fell to mum and I again because Sis and BIL were busy with an exhibition at PWTC. On Saturday morning, mum and I did a quick run at the OUG morning market. Fell in love with an apam balik stall. The snacks had a 5-star appearance, and the texture was good. Normally, apam balik turn rubbery when cold, but not this one. Some kind of secret ingredient in the batter. My only complaint is that the peanut filling was not as chunky as I would like it. We packed breakfast for the kids and headed home only to find that the kids already ate wantan noodles for breakfast. At noon, Big Monster had his weekend class at Bandar Baru Sri Petaling, so we spent ninety minutes there waiting for him to finish. Little Monster took a look around and finally settled on Villa Ju Bakery , exclaiming that there's where he normally 'chills'. He even knew exactly what he wanted~ an egg toast. For such a huge floor space, the bakery was quite empty. According to the kids, they...

On the train, it's rare to see anyone not hunched over their smartphone(s). But here is Twinky Tim staring wistfully out of the moving coach. Very simple OOTD but it works for him ( when you're young and cute, most looks work :P ). Though SimonLover probably would prefer tinier shorts on him. P.S. : Maybe his smartphone ran out of battery. :P

Out of the blue, The Tribe appeared at the vicinity of my church during lunch time. Since the timing was fortuitous, we had lunch together at Strangers at Forty Seven . Business was brisk as usual. While I was poring through the menu, a member of the service crew dropped off a glass of orange juice on the table. I thought that The Tribe ordered it. Then Sis realized that they hadn't even ordered anything. Told the waitress about it and she took the drink away. In a flash, she returned with the juice and declared that its on the house. We were cool with that. Remembering that the portion of dessert crepes were small, I kiasu ordered four savoury crepes~ Nasi Lemak , Buttermilk Chicken, Eggcited Over Cheese, and Uncle Salmon. Three came with the exception of the salmon. After checking with the waitress, she confirmed that they bungled up the order, which was fine by us. Already too full. Suddenly, we got a free slice of cake as compensation. The people there can get my order w...

Mum did her usual marketing at OUG morning market, and was the second week in a row that I bumped into MIL. We were eating at Kopitiam Eng Huat when she suddenly walked in with FIL. She immediately came over to say hi to us. Also some sharing about her favourite stalls at the place. Before noon, mum went out for her massage and facial session. SK was in town that weekend, so we went out for lunch. Finally tried the food at LT Fang Cafe . Nothing magical about the pork chop in terms of taste, but there was something special about it because it came out so much quicker than the roast pork fried rice ( don't expect to see recognizable pieces of roast pork ). Big portion though, surely enough for 'rice bins'. Our coffee session was just a short walk away at Day 9 Kitchen . The weather was so hot that I opted for a cold coffee instead of my usual hot flat white. Told the waitress that I wanted a MoMo Ice and she went "huh?". Pointed her to the menu which descr...

For four days, I skipped work and went to The Gardens Boulevard for training~ "AWS Tech Essentials" and "Architecting on AWS". Covered hundreds of slides and a dozen hands-on lab work.  And of course, there was no lack of food. The training went pretty well, and picked up the necessary understanding to work in the cloud. But nothing interesting about my training really. I was just extremely surprised that it made more sense ( read: sens ) for my HR to send my Singapore colleagues to Malaysia for the same training. Training cost in Malaysia + flight tickets + 4 nights of hotel + airport transfer + per diem  costs less than Training cost in Singapore? Biar betul ni!

Laundry day be like this.

As the Minister of Primary Industries, YB Teresa Kok has been eating palm oil and sleeping palm oil every single day. Look at her Hari Raya Open House at Sri Petaling~ Looks more like a palm oil industry junket. Selamat Hari Sawit y'all!

My mood was kind of off on Saturday due to AirBnB woes. Customer service is definitely no fun especially when it's related to home maintenance problems at midnight. The problem was discovered one booking ago when I did a quick spot check, but I had no time to fix the problem. At that time, I was already pissed off with the cleaner for not notifying us that the wash basin stopped was stuck! And the problem continued to the next booking. Once again, the cleaner was silent. I have no idea how she does the cleaning and not complain about it. And with 4 people on the job, we can still fail to get these important things sorted out. To placate the guest, I promised her that I would try to solve the problem the next day. Found a DIY solution on YouTube that involves using a suction cup to raise the stopper. Looks simple enough. Turned my morning market trip into a treasure hunt for a suitable suction cup. Went from stall to stall and couldn't find it. Adhesives are more popular no...