will i am's delayed diary

Christmas is not complete without a pair of sexy underwear. Once again Guru B  posted me a Christmas gift from halfway around the world. This time, it was a PUMP jockstrap. I've never bought this Montreal brand before and I must say I'm impressed with the quality and the design. On the packaging it says "Perfect For Selfies". Gotta believe that. Thanks so much! Got a bag of coffee beans from my office gift exchange. Not good for selfies, but definitely something that I appreciate. 

'Twas a short trip, we check out on Boxing Day. We picked up mum as well, as The Tribe was not done with their travels. First activity of the day was breakfast at the famous Cecil Street Market . Many stalls were not open, and it was a Sunday. Does not compute. We found a table near the entrance, and went hunting for food. I queued for Lum Lai Duck Meat Koay Teow Th’ng , while KH joined the queue for Chulia Street Curry Noodles. My queue cleared pretty quickly, and I managed to carry the hot bowl of soup noodles back to the table with my shaky hands. KH didn't enjoy my success, and gave up because his line didn't move. He returned with Hokkien Mee instead. Many of the market's kuih stalls were near our table, so we had an easy time to make a selection. I made another round, and randomly bought a packet of nasi lemak from a grumpy old lady. I didn't quite get the price, so I just gave her RM50, and I got a balance of RM47.50 back. The price shocked me because it came...

Bright and early the next morning, we ventured to Kafe Ping Hooi for breakfast with The Tribe. The place is home to Tiger Char Kway Teow, KH's top pick for his Penang CKT fix. The place is definitely maintains an old school vibe with wooden booths and vintage mosaic flooring. The Loh Bak is also quite amazing. Cutiepie's parents had invited us to a Christmas lunch at their house, so we had find a place to kill some time. Queensbay Mall was pretty close to Paya Terubong, so that was our pick. Their creative director's choice of fire-red Christmas trees is really out of this world. Wonder if the decision is related to the fact that CNY is hot on the heels of Christmas. Did some aimless shopping, and later ended up at Coffee Bean for our daily allowance of caffeine.  It was nice to visit Cutiepie's childhood home, and see how a traditional Catholic household celebrates Christmas. Glad to see her parents, and I got to meet her sister too. The hot day was remedied with cold...

Bright and early the next day, KH and I had hand-drip coffee and pastries, before starting our road trip. Didn't make any proper stops until we reached Bidor. Explored the morning market a bit, and shared a bowl of noodles.  Roamed around the thoroughfare on foot, admiring the old shop lots. Even took a brief look at the tacky Petai Lane, and a giant fruits monument ( something that small town councils like to do ). Based on a recommendation in Google Maps, we had our second Bidor breakfast at Restoran Mee Wah . The wantan noodles were supposedly good, but it was NASTY! Generic kopitiam wantan noodles in KL taste much better. I couldn't touch the noodles after one bite. Horrid lye water after taste. And the meat can't be described as charsiew . Made a run for it after the old man at the goldsmith wasn't too happy that I took a photo of his shopfront. Perhaps he thought I might be scoping out the place for a robbery!  Continued our journey towards the limestone hills of ...

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...

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...

Boxing day was kinda boring, so SK suggested that we have a nice coffee session at Day Nine Kitchen , Taman Equine. One thing I like is that they often have seasonal specials. For Christmas, they had spiced cake, and spiked coffee! Not surprising that the cake wasn't to SK's liking due to the cinnamon, but she definitely approved of the whisky in the coffee. A great way to while the afternoon away...

KH single-handedly planned a Christmas party, which I think was his first. I was very surprised. He event set a theme~ White! The venue was at The Narra , and everyone had to bring a gift. Guests came in three phases. The first were mum, SK, JJ and his hubby, Ban. Next came Mei and MiniMei ( her daughter Jaq ) who drove in from Batu Pahat. Last of the lot was Cikgu J and King, who were in very much of a hurry because they had a train back to Ipoh to catch ! Although things didn't run like clockwork, we still managed to have a decent dinner, complete the gift exchange, blow out a birthday cake ( December babies ), have a quiz with giveaways ( Nu Skin Korea facial masks! ) and camwhore ( raided the stage for props )! I would say that that KH's party was a success. P.S.: Ban was lucky enough to get MiniMei's first canvas painting titled "Nemo and Jellyfish". P.P.S.: MiniMei loved the Japanese style hair accessories that mum got for her.

Christmas eve Mandarin cantata. Baby Jesus preparing to make His big entrance into the church's nativity scene. Thai food at Pim's and the RAMA after mass. Yummy grilled pork neck with Kronenbourg Blanc. This year's stash of Christmas presents. Unopened, awaiting the return of the Monsters. Korean lunch after Christmas mass. Been a long time since we visited Restoran Seoul Korea . Still as good. Beef ribs soup. I prefer spicy tofu soup. Grilled pork shoulder. Order two mains to maximize the variety of banchan ! A hot, hot Christmas.... ice cream to the rescue! Tutti-Frutti ice cream with bananas, popcorn, and strawberries.

Following The Tribe's Christmas tradition, they would open their presents at my house on Christmas morning. The amount of presents that they brought over did not lessen compared to last year. Could stack it all up to make a nice little fort in the living room. The discarded wrapping paper could easily fill a large laundry basket. The kids got loads of toys, mostly Nerf guns. When opening gifts from mum and I, Big Monster exclaimed, "It's clothes right? You always get us clothes.". LOL. The Monsters got me a reindeer plush toy with an inflated head that is filled with activated carbon. Cuter than it sounds. LOL. BIL gave me a power bank. Quickly cleaned up the mess and headed to church for Christmas morning mass. Baby Jesus made his annual appearance at the nativity scene. Went to Paradigm Mall after church. Discovered that Purple Cane Tea Restaurant had been replaced by Chef Hong Kitchen . Might as well give it a try. Mum and I shared their True-Blue Favourite...