will i am's delayed diary

January is the month is that KH and I started our relationship some fourteen years ago. In the run up to our anniversary, I dug up the old cards that he sent me during the early days. They were safely kept in my underwear drawer for years. Each card brought a smile to my face. I had forgotten how mushy he could be reading those old correspondences. Yuk ma factor of 7.0 out of 10.0, and he often wrote things to reassure me during our LDR.  Perhaps we should start sending each other cards again. Or maybe I can leave some skanky notes in his car. LOL. 

What to do on the first day of 2021? Go eat dim sum of course! Nearly half of the people of Kuala Lumpur had the same brilliant thought. Mum and I arrived at Oriental Treasure , The Sphere at a little before noon. The situation was out of the ordinary because there was a long queue at the door. Opps. Many had made called earlier and were checking their reservations. Although mum and I were walk-ins, it was easy for us to secure a table because we were only two. From our table we could see more and more people arriving by the minute. By noon, we put in our order. Our appetizer of wasabi jellyfish came pretty quickly. The wu kok took much longer than expected. The staff were running up and down. They were obviously understaffed. Then we saw a very peculiar scene. One of the large tables close to us had asked for the bill. There was only tea on the table. At about a quarter before one, the staff started turning people away at the door: "We have run out of dim sum!" Oh! I never...

Mum and I marked the end of 2020 by doing a full body checkup at a clinic at Equine Park. A good thing really as I was overdue for check on my blood lipid profile. My colleague recommended me to the clinic because the package it offered was dirt cheap. For MYR195: Blood test with 77 parameters (inclusive of H. pylori, tumour markers, and PSA) Urine test Abdominal ultrasound Resting ECG And the pathology report is from Gribbles, not some little known lab. And the good things is that the clinic opens at 8 AM, so one does not need to go hungry for too long. Haha. Got everything sorted out in about an hour. While changing, I discovered love bites on my chest. When did KH do that? Oh wait, it was the ECG electrodes! Got my results back a few days later. Thank goodness everything was within parameters. Total cholesterol was borderline, so I guess I should exercise more? :D.

During the final week of December, I was still clearing my annual leave. There were less problems to attend to because a lot of the customers and resellers were also clearing their annual leave. On one such peaceful day, KH and I had a nice afternoon delight. Once we were done basking in the afterglow of sex, we headed out to The Sherry for a spot of coffee. Ever since this cafe popped up ( rather quickly might I add ) on that quiet residential corner, it had been a hub of activity. At any given time, you can spot customers roaming around the front posing for photos. It's kinda nice, but NOT THAT nice. The owners have a thing for using dried plants for decorations. Better feng shui than the previous Chinese restaurant.  Although it was a weekday afternoon, the place was full. We took the last table for two. The long black was decent, but the flourless chocolate cake was too sweet for me.  While I was there, I ordered GrabFood dinner. Most of my Grab rewards vouchers were exp...

On the Sunday of the Christmas weekend, KH and I went on a date. He came over to my house with a packed lunch of chicken rice. We ate together, and went out to Alamanda Putrajaya to catch a movie. For a mall that's supposedly in a predominantly Malay area, the Christmas decorations were pretty nice. But I was a tad disappointed that I didn't get a wild boar sighting. After months of cased operations, GSC finally reopened their doors. KH bought tickets to "Wonder Woman 1984" from a friend who works for the cinema. The ticket was MYR20, but it came with a half off voucher for your next ticket. Roughly twenty people in the hall. Social distancing enforced, with the staff making rounds to ensure that the SOP is adhered to. My one and only cinema experience for the year 2020 ( holding hands across an empty seat ). WW1984 isn't a must-watch. The plot is very magical and I found some of the themes and parts of the script to be very cringy.     The date continued at Ta...

Boxing Day brought mum and I to the specialist clinic. Mum's appointment was due, and we spent quite some time there waiting for the doctor. Business was brisk. Many MCO pregnancies. Huhu. As usual, we had our favourite Teochew fishball noodles at You Noodle House . And because it was too late to go to the OUG morning market, we went to the nearby Puteri Mart instead. The concept is pretty good, everything under one roof. Basically a mini morning market with all the additional requisites-- pharmacy, prayer paraphernalia, clothes, household items, etc. A good selection of vegetable and butcher stalls inside. Fruits seem a tad limited.  Two appointments that day. Danny invited KH, Ivan, and /I to his house for a mala hotpot lunch. In my opinion, it's such a waste that good pork bone broth was used as a base for mala soup. Can't drink any of it. Sad. He kept feeding us big prawns and Sakura rolls. While stuffing our faces, it was also a money talk about investment opportunitie...

Covid-19 really did throw a damper on Christmas. No joyful caroling. No Christmas Vigil mass where the Baby Jesus is placed into the manger. No Christmas morning mass. Be that as it may, we didn't forgo the Christmas tradition of opening gifts on Christmas morning. Still managed to pile the gifts high this year, and generate a whole lot of waste paper from the wrapping. Recycled and reclaimed whatever we could. Although we couldn't physically be at church, there were still online masses, and the church compiled a video of Christmas caroling and greetings, contributed by the various church ministries and groups.   The Tribe stayed on till lunch. Deciding on a lunch venue is never easy. Sis would look at me. And I would look back at her. But I suddenly remembered Super Ramen , a ramen restaurant in Sri Petaling that KH recently mentioned. When we arrived, they had no tables for us. No problem, we loitered at the nearby huge-ass Family Mart. Unlike the usual Family Marts, this br...

Year after year, I have difficulty clearing my vacation days. Even worse in the year of the pandemic, when vacations aren't even possible. Good enough to take the day off and do nothing at all. KH suggested that I tag along his busy day. Any day is automatically made brighter with a morning skank session. The breakfast of champions. The first appointment of the day was lunch with KH's ex-colleague. The original plan was to eat at Pelita, Jalan Ampang, but we couldn't get a parking space, so we shifted our lunch venue to Menara Hap Seng instead. Been a while since I ate lunch there. The old shops like Trattoria Il Porcellino and Starbucks had both closed down. The building is now connected to the adjacent office blocks. On the upper floor, there's a SugarBun - Asia Borneo Food ,   a new addition. Many Sarawakians grew up with this fast food chain. KH's colleague recommended that we try the Sarawak Laksa. In addition, KH ordered Sabah giant garoupa fried rice. Also no...

Every year during the pre-Covid days, the Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Chinese Chamber of Commerce's  (KLSCAH) Women's Chapter would organize a cultural event during the Winter Solstice. This year, we didn't have to make pots and pots of tang yuan , and there was no need to join the competition for best stall decoration. Must admit that it was tiring, but it was fun. With all activities shelved, winter solstice becomes a family-only affair. On Sunday night, mum kneaded the glutinous rice flour. Did the original white and also some other varieties with added Clitoria flower extract, Screwpine leaf extract, and purple sweet potato. The steamed and mashed sweet potato results in a dough that's less chewy, and actually easier to eat. According to mum, it's better to roll up the tang yuan and let it sit overnight before boiling as the texture will be better. On Monday morning, she boiled the tang yuan ( once it floats, it means its ready to eat ), and put them in a sweet g...

The coming Monday was the winter solstice, so many stalls at the OUG morning market sold tang yuan desserts, or tang yuan  dough ( which is actually just kneaded glutinous rice flour with colouring ). Mum bought neither as she would be making it from scratch on Sunday. After we got home from the market, I took mum to Midvalley Megamall for some last minute Christmas shopping and to get a look at the Christmas decorations. I did most of my Christmas shopping online, but mum didn't have the chance to get anything with the constant babysitting due to my sister and BIL's busy period at the office.   Before starting the presents hunt, we had lunch at Eatz @ Hong Kong , the first restaurant we saw upon entering the mall. When it's a late lunch, one should never be too picky. Liked their stir-fried seafood pasta, and ice bath yinyong . A tad expensive though. Mum did manage to get gifts for nearly everyone on her list. Never an easy task. Many had the same goal judging by how l...

In mid-December, Cutiepie ( she managed to ditch her kids lol ) and I ( brought hubby along too ) had a long overdue birthday gathering at Midvalley Megamall. My birthday was in October ( you guys remember right? ) and her birthday was in November. Our debut into the 4th decade. We had lunch at Pho Vietz , a meal of bun cha and steamed rice rolls. At the restaurant, we exchanged gifts-- belated birthday presents, and Christmas presents.   The choice of Midvalley Megamall really brings back a lot of memories for us. It was one of our de facto venues for loitering during our undergraduate days. Sometimes we had hours to kill because we would have a lecture at 8 AM, and maybe another at 6 PM. Did some shopping and camwhoring before stopping at Jamaica Blue for coffee and lemon curd cake. A chance to rest our legs, and reply a work e-mail that I was being chased for. Someone forgot to factor in a monthly recurring cost of HKD10,000 into the proposal that we had submitted earlier...

"I shall have Japanese for dinner tonight", I thought. Drove out to Shin Zushi at Jalil Link only to find that the queue had spanned easily two shop lots. OK, change of plans. Something more expensive then. Went all the way to Koyaku at Taman Desa. The service staff were running back and forth like headless chickens. When I managed to catch the eye of the head waitress, so just shook her head. Didn't even bother asking me if wanted to wait. Whattttt. At least I was still within my parking grace period. Tried my luck at the nearby  Eatomo . Plenty of tables. Ordered a plate of salmon sashimi and a grilled ox-tongue aglio-olio spaghetti. This is what happens when you die, die want Japanese. Haha. 

There's this legendary shop at the corner of Jalan Awan Besar and Jalan Hujan Emas 4, opposite the BHP petrol station in OUG. When I first moved to KL, it was a kopitiam for many years. Out of sudden, it transformed into a fruits shop. Not long after that, it reinvented itself into a mixed rice shop. It was very famous for charging Michelin Star economy rice prices. In it's latest reincarnation, the place is now Yi Feng , a Hainanese cafe with amazing business. Mum and I rarely ever go to that side of the morning market, so I was surprised when mum suggested we eat breakfast there. Although it was a full house with a queue at the front, we secured a table in about 15 minutes. Curry wantan noodles is one of the signature items ( we had been eating curry noodles nearly every week ). For best impact, I ordered the 'Three Treasures' version with siew yuk , char siew , and poached chicken. Not bad, but not a must-have.  In the evening, we went to CEO Kitchen and Bar at Ser...

Received sad news that The Chief's mother had passed away. Took half the day off to attend the wake at Gui Yuan Crematorium and Funeral Hall. Before we went to the wake, met up Gratitude at Pokok KL Cafe for brunch first. My first time going into MAHSA College actually. SK and I entered through some service entrance located near the restrooms, and it turned out that we bypassed all the Covid checkpoints. LOL. Had to backtrack. Pokok KL is really like a greenhouse. Lots of natural light. We shared a nasi lemak , Caesar salad, and baked eggs. Decent food, but it can get really crowded, so go early. Surveyed the place a little, and found that in general, MAHSA College is very Instagram-able. Every strategic corner is designed for a photo-op with decorations and props. In the upper floors, one can find a nail salon, a soap boutique, a florist, a cafe, and some misc. shops.   When we arrived at the wake, the first day of Buddhist ceremony was ongoing. During the break, we had the ...

Once in a while, KH takes me to the most uncommon places for a date. This time it was a Kazakh restaurant at Endah Promenade. The place is called Astana , which is the capital of Kazakhstan between 1998 and 2019. Since then it has been renamed as Nur-Sultan. The most outstanding thing on the menu is horse meat. Both of  us were really keen to try it, but unfortunately, they didn't have it in stock. CMCO made it difficult for them to import it according to the waitress. In the end, we settled for shorpa which is a hearty clear lamb soup with vegetables. And we had a plate of hand-cut noodles called lagman . And manty is a large beef dumpling that is eaten with sour cream-like sauce. All of the dishes were quite compatible to the Malaysian palate in my opinion. In the chiller, they had medovik , which I had tried before at Torte by Linda at Bandar Kinrara 5. Suddenly I remembered that the proprietress telling me she had lived in Kazakhstan for many years.    Well, we didn...

Covideepavali continued the next day with lunch at Khan's which boasts of delicious ( $$$ ) Indian cuisine. The lunch was joined by SK and Drew. Started of with the chaat platter, which is a whole bunch of crispy stuff doused with rich sauces. Haha. The menu described it as a platter of samosa, aloo chaat , papadi chaat , and golgappa . Golgappa ( or panipuri or fuchka ) is a famous street food in India, and I just love watching YouTube videos of people preparing and serving it. Very 'hand-oriented'. For mains, we had the lamb briyani, methi chicken masala, and cheese naan. All were scrumptious.  After lunch, we went our separate ways. SK and Drew went to Midvalley, while mum and I went for coffee at Klesis , Taman OUG. Halfway through our 3-layer chocolate cake, it had started to rain heavily. More reason to lepak longer at the cafe. GrabKH provided dinner, an order of CKT and Hokkien noodles. 

On Deepavali, KH came over to chill at my house. But the heat convinced us that we should get out of the house! KH suggested that we go to Queen Beans Cafe at Taman Cheras-- a cafe by bears for bears... and of course non-bears la. The owner realized that mum's MySejahtera app was showing "High Risk", and they refused entry. Turns out that when setting up her account, she was missing some health declarations. Funny that the app didn't make it mandatory. After some fiddling, her app finally showed "Low Risk". Learned something that day. Queen Beans offers an eclectic range of cakes. The selection changes weekly. We ordered one of their signature fruit tea coolers, a strong cup of Americano, a Philadelphia cheesecake topped with fruits, and a Golden Misu which is actually chempedak x Tiramisu. An interesting combination.  Didn't stay long at the cafe as KH had an appointment. Mum and I decided to venture to the nearby Eko Cheras Mall before dinner. The mal...

Nicky is often difficult to catch due to his hectic work and elusive character. But KH somehow managed to lure him out for brunch at Kopenhagen Coffee at Mont Kiara. Maybe he was more motivated to come because we told him a lengzai ( HappyLeaf, someone I met at the mid-autumn party ) would be joining. A very unique location, at some shop lots located at Vista Kiara Condo, and directly opposite Garden International School. The moment we arrived, my eyes were greeted by an interesting scene. A man-spreading angmoh was sitting outside and the shorts he was wearing had a huge 'ventilation port' near his crotch. Must be a new fashion statement. I like it. The nice people at Kopenhagen put us in a glass room, but it was kinda hot because of the slash of sunlight. One good thing was that it was great for food photography. We shared a customizable all-day breakfast that was quite interesting. Went for the Bavarian spelt bread. Spelt is actually the primitive relative of modern wheat...