will i am's delayed diary

SimonLover organized a Korean dinner at Nak Won , Taman Desa with KH, Khatijah, and ForIHaveSinned. According to the gang, it was the first social outing for ForIHaveSinned in months since the CMCO. It was good for him to finally get out of the house. One might go crazy without social interaction. In addition to mingling, it was also an underwear exchange party. Not used underwear swapping la... Our usual postage sharing for underwear purchases.  After dinner, we went to Jemi Cafe for coffee. The nice people there put us in a glass room with excellent sound-proofing. Strong enough to cancel out Khatijah's trademark cackling. Perfect for epic gossiping and bitching sessions.  P.S. : Thanks SimonLover for the wonderful Egde Pride bikini brief! Damn sexy.

On the night that I poisoned my hubby , mum actually had an accident at home. She slipped at the top of the parquet stairs after showering. That caused her to miss several steps, and she landed on her buttocks. The fall was painful, but luckily she could still walk. Such a scare! Falls can be devastating for the elderly. Prompted me to immediately get anti-slip strips for the stairs, and change the floor cleaning solution.  A bit later, I even added motion-sensor lights on the stairs in case mum gets out at night, or if there's a power outage. 

Took some time, but KH finally managed to arrange KV to meet his 'sir' from college days. The reunion was held at Jack & Steve Grill , a midpoint for all involved. 'Sir' did remember KV and they hit it off pretty quickly. Always fun reminiscing about the old days. Names and events long forgotten. KH and I let them do their thing while we focused more on the food. Funny to note that Jack & Steve Grill now has a special wild boar menu. I was quite impressed with the wild boar ribs aglio-olio. Halfway through dinner, KH complained of a headache. But it was quite bad that he eventually asked for painkillers. I remember that he has an allergy, but BOTH of us couldn't remember what he could take. So we took a gamble. I ran over to the nearby pharmacy and got him something. He took one tablet, and we paid the bill. Our next stop was Mykori for some dessert. Before I managed to order, KH started showing signs of allergy. I noticed some inflammation around his eye l...

These days, my first choice for dim sum is at Oriental Treasure , The Sphere. Price-wise, it isn't much more expensive than Jin Xuan or Foo Hing. In terms of quality, it trumps those places. And restaurant is much more comfortable with no messy crowds. On Halloween, SK organized a lunch there with Lifebook.  Our coffee stop was at The Farm Foodcraft which is really a unique experience. The server brought us to a section called "The Greenhouse" which was located behind a heavy curtain. Our table was surrounded by greenery, and ferns drooped above our heads. Our table also gave us a view of their bar. Starting at MYR40, the cocktails were painstakingly mixed. First time I saw a bartender use infused finishing sprays. Like EDT for your drink.  Back at Bukit Jalil, mum and I went to the plant nursery to shop for a houseplant for SK's new condo ( MaisonSK 2.0 ) We chose a Monstera deliciosa which was all the rage with its unique perforated leaves. Paired it with a white...

Do you know how to read the age of your tyres? Look out for the 4 digit code located at the side. The format is : WWYY. where WW is the week, and YY is the year of manufacture. So if you look the photo, "0616" means that the tyre was 'born' on the 6th week of 2016. SK's tyres were due for a change, so we sent her car in, and waited patiently at a Day 9 Kitchen . The staff wasn't happy that I smuggled in a youtiao  from I Love Yoo, and 'berated' KH for pulling a chair from another table, moaning that they would have to sanitize it later. Alamak . As expected, the tyre shop called a few times, alerting us to spend more money on the car. Haha. But it was fair. The spark plugs were due for change as well. In the end, the bill came up to MYR1,400.     By the time everything was settled, it was time for dinner. We headed over to Restoran Keng Pang at Taman Universiti for claypot fish. Been a really long time since we had that. Glad that it was still good.

The pandemic practically killed my Starbucks habit. If not for my free birthday cake reward, I wouldn't be ordering a ristretto bianco. Haha. The new normal had changed some Starbucks SOPs. The tumbler discount is still there, but they no longer take the cover. And for the first time ever, when I collected my drink, there was decent latte art on it! Perhaps its just the barista at IOI City Mall. Lucky I reckon.  HaiDiLao had a more drastic change. No more long waiting lists to dine there. Lost its luster. Their staff actually don a sash, wear cute-sy hairbands, and venture out with flashing light sticks and hunt for customers in packs. Wonder if they will survive in Malaysia. 

A second crab dinner was arranged with my ex-form six classmate, Kit. He recommended a restaurant near his house called Fung Lai . I had never ventured to that part of Puchong. Deep-in and looked to be surrounded by a light industrial area. We had sweet and sour crab with deep-fried mantou , Hunan-style calamri, and steamed tiger grouper. The fish and calamari was much better than the crab.  Dinner was followed by drinks. When we asked him what options were available, he actually wanted to bring us to his favourite kopitiam . Whenever he is in KL, he eats at that place seven days a week. I would go nuts. On the same row was a flashy cafe with lots of lights outside. Us: Can we go to Seven Cafe instead? Kit: I've never tried it. Us: Try it TODAY. Straight guys. Outside the cafe were several pirate Mickey Mouse statues. The interior was a mash up of different themes. The owner incorporated a lot of retro metal grills, and other old school items with decorative items. Wouldn't be ...

Ever since I found out that black coffee has 0 calories, I had been opting for long blacks and americanos at cafes. But at home, I mostly drink 2-in-1 coffee premix. The non-dairy creamer ain't good for you, so I decided to brew my own coffee. Got myself a subscription from Perk Coffee that came with a free drip starter kit. What I got was : Hario V60 coffee drip Hario filter paper Measuring spoon 250 grams of freshly-ground coffee I was sorely mistaken when I thought that I could use any old kettle to brew my coffee. It was practically impossible to control the flow of hot water. Because of that, I had to spend a little more money to get a gooseneck kettle. After going through some YouTube channels, I was able to make my own delicious cuppa. So far, my favourite is the Brazil Cerrado. 

KH introduced me to his new friend KV over dinner. The dinner place was called Ah Tan Kitchen over in Connaught. KV works in the food and beverage industry as a supplier, an interestingly he does tattooing on the side. While we were having the butter chicken, soggy abacus seeds, and fried pork, he described his journey into inking the human skin. From the sound of it, there really is no accredited place to learn. His beginners class was months of sketching on paper. During the next stage, they practiced with synthetic skin. According to him, many advanced courses were con jobs. Guess in this kind of trade, its important to apprentice with masters. But anyway, being an amateur tattoo artist is no way to make a living, hence the day job.  Then we went to Beans and Yogurt on the other side of the main road. The "Beans" refers to coffee beans, not soya beans. I ordered a long black to make up for the lousy white coffee I had during dinner. And we shared a slice of chempedak cak...

For my 40th birthday, I had a craving for crab. Took me quite a while to decide on a venue for it. A balance between quality and price. Finally decided on Crab Meet at Taman Bukit Mayang Emas. Apollo, Lifebook, SK, and KH were there to memeriahkan majlis . For maximum satisfaction, we ordered the so-called XXL crabs, but they weren't that big la. A decent size. The star dish was the salted egg crabs that came stacked like a pile of Jenga. It came with crispy yam sticks which made it even yummier. Actually, my favourite is sweet and sour crabs, but their version was disappointing. Too sour.  Apollo recommended Beans Depot for after-dinner drinks. It was located in a very quiet area of Ara Damansara. Dark and deserted after office hours. But it was great because there was a good selection of single origins coffee with various brewing methods. That night alone the barista brought out the syphon, V60 dripper, and nitro cold brew keg. The affogato was good too. Another interesting thi...

The year 2020 is memorable because: Pandemic. Underwhelming Wawasan 2020. Turning forty. On the eve of my birthday, my family celebrated with a HaiDiLao steamboat dinner. SK got me a four unicorn cake from Foret Blanc. On my birthday, I took the day off. First thing in the morning, I got my birthday bang, and then KH brought me out to lunch at Kingstreet Cafe . Weird that this cafe is located in a quiet location in Seputeh, attached to a furniture gallery.  Loved the Guiness beef bowl though I couldn't detect any hint of Guiness.  Didn't have our coffee there. Ventured to Kenny Hills Bakers instead. The whole place was a chaotic construction site with little parking. We parked our car further down the road and walked over. When we arrived at the bakery, the line had already snaked outside. And the interior looked mighty cramped to me. Snapped a few photos and left. KH drove us to 163 Retail Park, a new place for me. The place looks like any other shopping mall, but the differe...

KH invited me to join a mid-autumn festival gathering organized by his sharing group. In case you're wondering, the sharing group is a group of gay guys who have monthly gatherings to discuss on different topics. Every month, a sharer will choose a topic to talk about, and they will have a discussion about it. It was my first time joining them for any activity. The party was hosted at a part of Sentul that both of us had never ventured to. The host operates art classes out of his house, so its a patchwork many artistic works ( male nudes in the master bedroom ). When I first arrived, I was greeted by many new faces. Most of them sat cross-legged on the living room floor with a long line of low tables arranged across the middle. I got myself a drink, found myself a seat, and smiled awkwardly while making some introductions and small talk. After waiting a short while for the late comers, the emcee made a speech, and we had a small ice-breaker. As it was a potluck, everyone brought a ...

Back in Kuantan, mum bought a second-hand white Iswara Aeroback. From Kuantan, the car was transferred to Kuala Lumpur where we used it for years. Although not the easiest car to drive with its manual transmission, and lack of power steering, that car was my baptism of fire in the Klang Valley's more challenging traffic. That car served us well for many years. An ex-colleague of mine even gave it a nickname-- Iswara Skyline. However, due to old age ( the make is 1996 ), the car got harder and harder to maintain. Until one point, the car could no longer withstand the city's traffic jams without overheating. And the car's rubber seals had all dried up causing it to turn into a swimming pool every time it rained! The pandemic caused the car to fall into disuse because I had stopped driving it to get to the LRT station. In a few short months, the battery died. Since the situation wasn't going to improve anytime soon, I decided not to change the battery. A few months later, ...