will i am's delayed diary

Early the next morning, Mei followed KH and I to Church of St. Henry ( St. Henry the Exuberant, Holy Roman Emperor ) for 9:00 AM mass. Her last visit to the Catholic church was during her godmother's funeral. Many years had passed in between. The architecture of the church is really quite unique, with a bell tower rising in the middle. Frankly, reminds me of a surau. The congregation was small and very friendly. Coincidentally, the parish priest was celebrating his 60th birthday, and we were invited to join in the fellowship. As we had plans to eat with Mei's parents, we politely declined. Breakfast was at Sin Tian Tee Food Court , but Mei also bought a packet from dry duck noodles from Restoran Ledang for us to try. Super spicy, and I don't have any recollection on the taste of the famous braised duck.   Our tour of Batu Pahat continued with the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, a grand historical building in the middle of town. All white with beautiful balconies and balustrad...

Mum's pilgrimage buddies from East Malaysia planned a trip to Cameron Highlands, and she joined them. KH and I took the opportunity to go on a little road trip of our own. Batu Pahat was our choice I had never been there ( KH went there with some guy years ago ), and it was a great opportunity to visit Mei and MiniMei. Before leaving KL, we had breakfast at Cotta , Bukit Damansara. Perhaps you can guess that their specialty is ricotta cheese. The owner's morning energy was a little painful for me to watch, even with a long black in hand.   The drive to Batu Pahat was pretty smooth, but we were a bit spooked by a route that Google Maps chose for us-- a single lane road with palm oil trees all around. Our timing was pretty good because her class had just ended when we arrived at her doorstep. She gave us a short tour, and she drove us out to lunch at Kampung Segenting, a fishing village nearby. Parked outside, and walked in. The main attraction here is the Lover's Bridge, whi...

Sensing my mood from my recent work troubles, KH brought me out for a night out at Rivercity, Jalan Ipoh. We were a tad early for dinner, so we stopped at Curio Coffee Roasters first. A very small cafe located atop some spiral stairs. Saw a very familiar face. See if you can recognize this cutie from social media. Google Photos definitely did a very good job for me. Managed to match him from sexy screenshots from donkey years ago. The wonders of technology. Curio closes at 6PM, so we had no choice but to head over to Artisan's Playground . From what I gather, its a food court for restaurants, but the vibe was amazing. There's an option to order from a McD-esque kiosk, but I don't know why people use it when there's a online ordering option. The waiters are all robots, but they still have flesh and blood waiters on standby in case things go wrong. We had a wagyu burger, and apam with mutton curry. And I caved when I saw the cute Yoda cocktail.  Started the date with mat...

The old man with the cute corgi whom I visited a month earlier passed away peacefully at his home. Mum and I attended the funeral mass. When we arrived at church on Saturday morning, a pair of newly-weds had just finished their wedding mass. Before they cleared off completely, the casket was already being pushed into the church. Life and death, side by side. Mum followed the family members to Xiao En Memorial Park for the cremation, but I didn't join. Lunch boxes were compliments of the earlier wedding since there were lots of leftovers.   Joined KH to meet his boi boi friend at  Hide and Seek Coffee . The cafe is unmarked, and you need to be buzzed in. Pretty much an art space with coffee and cake. Neither do they have a proper menu, nor a cash register. The boi boi had just finished his internship and was job hunting. A regular at Chin Woo swimming pool, he has a lot of interesting locker room stories.  JJ invited us to to Bunny's birthday dinner, but we had a cou...

At the new financial year's kick-off meeting, my group CEO declared increments and a small bonus for the whole group. Come bonus payout time, my subsidiary did not receive anything. The issue was escalated up to HR, and they diverted us to our subsidiary's CEO. Even the managers were left in the dark. Rumors started flying like crazy. In the end, a special full-day physical townhall was called, and the funny thing was, they asked the other subsidiaries on our floor to work from home! That set even more tongues wagging. In the townhall, my CEO declared the subsidiary was detaching itself from the group, and a downsizing exercise will be performed. My peer who had just joined for 6 months was first to go. He slammed his MacBook shut, yanked the power socket, and left without saying a word. I was also axed, together with a few others. Felt really bad for the junior who I convinced to stay just a couple of weeks back. Only the engineering team was safe. I had always felt that the t...

Ever since TNB came to replace the electrical meter at my condo, I have been receiving complaints from the tenant. At night, the downlights flicker with a ghostly glow, and the power sockets light up regardless switched on or off. I made a complaint to TNB, and they sent their technicians to take a look. TNB declared that it wasn't their problem. Subsequently, I made a complaint to the management office. The chargeman took a look and declared it wasn't their problem either. Stopping short of hiring a psychic, I called my electrician to take a look. He found that the live and neutral wires were swapped at the distribution board! Amazingly, the problem wasn't obvious until TNB changed the meter. Once again I contacted the management office to sort out the problem. Of course they blamed the developer and labeled it a legacy problem. I went in person to talk to the chargeman, and it was my first time meeting my Nigerian tenant. It was a good chance to take a look at the unit af...

Mum was off on a trip, so KH and I went on a staycation in the heart of KL Tried our luck for early check-in at Stripes Hotel but our room wasn't ready. Ok lo, so we went for lunch at Kwong Cheung Loong Kopitiam , a pet-friendly kopitiam / cafe / bar. The lines are so blurred here that the guy next to us was having nasi lemak with his Golden Retriever at his feet, sipping a cold beer. Halfway through lunch, the front desk called to inform us that our room was ready.  The room was pretty nice, but the view was obstructed by the red brick facade that gives the hotel its distinctive look. The pool is located at the roof top and provides a view of KL Tower. Managed to squeeze in a swim. Our dinner venue was back at Heritage Row-- Kappo Takebayashi . Actually, we spotted the Japanese chef during lunch while he was walking his Shiba Inu. His cute doggo was staring longingly into Kwong Cheung Loong, hoping to join the other canines in there. Uncommon items on the menu like sea eel, but th...

Trekking and hiking is more up KH's alley. The timing of his trips are usually not compatible with my schedule because it would clash with Saturday market and Sunday mass. Finally he found something that fit both my timing and fitness level. The place is called Mars Hill, and is located in a palm oil plantation in Sepang. It was organized by a bunch of millennials, and were just tagging along. The meeting point was at a dragon fruit orchard ( so many of them along the way, no wonder the market is flooded with draginfruits! ) in Sepang. Unfortunately, the bunch of kids could not be punctual. The stragglers delayed the trip from 4:30PM to 5:30PM, wasting precious daylight. Lots of girls on the trip. Those who took the time to put on makeup, and bra tops were given a rude shock by how unforgiving the late afternoon sun was. On the hand, I came prepared with umbrellas and arm sleeves.  The terrain was mostly flat, with lots of cow pies scattered on the paths. Our guide for the day prov...

Underwear collectors always have this concern when shopping online~ shipping cost. Free shipping is the target, and more often that not one person can't hit the minimum order quantity. This is when other underwear collectors come to the rescue. Different people would act as aggregators for different brands, at different times. And when items arrive, an underwear exchange ( sounds more like exchanging used underwear hor? ) meet-up would occur to swap or distribute the loot. Earlier in the month, there was a CIN2 sale which I ignored, but Andy managed to tempt me. Our exchange happened at Foliage Coffee , a cafe smack dab in the middle of flower nursery. He helped me get GRIP tights. Very nice quality really. Not like I wear them to workout, but more like fetish wear for me. And I passed him the Teamm8 underwear that he tumpang on my order. The second exchange was with SimonLover, and ForIHaveSinned at Good Blue Men  at Happy Mansion. Always up to date with the fashion trends, Simon...

When the second booster was made available, the uptake was very slow. The nearest vaccination center in my neighbourhood was at Pavilion Bukit Jalil, and according to reports, the staff there just sit around all day. At first, my mum adamantly told me that she didn't want the second booster. Then all of a sudden, she wanted it. By that time, the vaccination was swamped no doubt due to rising infections, and the fact that the center was nearing the end of its stint. We went to the vaccination center on the Monday following Hari Raya Haji ( gratitude to the people who were working that day ). Since it was a holiday, I wasn't surprised by the long queue. Thankfully there was a separate line for senior citizens. Actually, there was no official announcement on the offering of second boosters to those below age 60, but there they were lining up for it. Nobody cares I guess, since the government might as well utilize the vaccines before they expire. After mum got her shot ( I didn...

Not long after my run-in with COVID-19, KH organized a trip to his friend's durian orchard in Melaka. Both our mothers joined us, so it was an interesting bonding session. Located at Durian Tunggal, the orchard was pretty easy to get to as it wasn't far from the highway exit. The durian trees are planted sporadically, interspersed with other fruits like rambutan. More a retirement project than a commercial undertaking, there's plenty of flowers on the grounds too. Also spotted some bee houses, probably to aid in pollination. Freshly-gathered durians were collected at a shed, and we made our picks there. Well to be exact THEIR picks, I was just there to watch.  Another interesting thing about the orchard was the three-storey homestay that was built on crest of the hill to tap into the ecotourism market. The top floor provided a great view of the surrounding terrain. Got a few lunch recommendations from the host, and we left for Melaka town. Once we had cleared the hundreds o...

COVID-19 quarantine wasn't too bad for me. Thankfully, the symptoms were mild. One day of sore throat followed by several days of intermittent low-grade fevers. And my sense of smell wasn't affected. Most of the day, mum would be away at my sister's place. I would drive over to pick up lunch, and she would pack dinner for me in the evening. Good thing was that mum was spared the infection. Can you imagine, I didn't take a single day off. Still worked from home. Could still function, just that getting out of bed in the morning was more difficult than usual.   Caring neighbours boiled TCM soups for me, and I received a pint of ice cream from Gratitude via GrabFood. Within a few days, the second line faded. Everything went back to normal except for a slight nagging cough that went on for a month.