will i am's delayed diary

The festivities for my birthday came to a close with an omakase dinner organized by SK. Red was the theme for the night, so I turned up in my Christmas pants.  Hisho is located in one of the deadest malls in town, DC Mall. Apollo knows the owners of the restaurant, so there was some special treatment. Frankly, it was one of the biggest omakase meals I had ever envountered. The first course was like a personal "Five Happiness" platter, and I was already half full after that. Portions were large, but truth be told, didn't taste very premium. Most importantly everyone had a great time. Until B43.  P.S.: The pastries in the first photo was from The Bread Shop . Made a stop there before dinner because we got out of the house pretty early.

JJ sent a shout-out in our BFF What's App to check who could make it for a night out to celebrate his birthday. Gone are the days of organizing large gatherings that require a few hundred e-mails or messages just to decide on a venue. With age comes a no-nonsense approach to most things.  "Kimpachi. 2 May. 6:30 PM. Who can make it?" Dinner reservations were made for six ( birthday boy, Bunny, AzzuroHyperion, SimonLover, KH, and myself ). Just nice for a private room. A small, and intimate group, the way JJ likes it. Easier to talk. Been a long time since the name AzzuroHyperion appeared in my blog. Maybe it was easier to catch him with gyms closed. JJ treated us to hanpen , a light and spongy surimi product that I had never tried before. I liked it. Our second round continued downstairs, a new soy place called Huang Soy Bar . The market for specialty soy shops has grown of late. In the past, we got our soy drinks from a roadside stall providing ikat tepi take-away, or so...

The second Wednesday of March was KH's 40th birthday. I took a day off to spend time with him on his special day. Started the day off with some fooling around at home. He was turned on by my choice of a STUD jockstrap. Turning 40 didn't dampen his libido as well. After that rare jockstrap sex session, we went to Aurora Place to collect my multi-focals. Handed over my spectacles to the optician and waited for him to switch the lenses. Fifteen minutes later, he came out with bad news. He had cut the lenses, and fitted the left lens. While trying to complete the job, the right side cracked! Ack. He scrambled to find a similar frame and thank goodness that the first pair he picked out was a perfect fit, and I actually liked the design. Phew! The frame was complimentary. By the time everything was settled, it was already time for late lunch.  My hubby is a big Penang Char Kway Teow junkie, so didn't mind going somewhere far for a good plate of it. We drove all the way to Sungai ...

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...

"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. 

Once a year, my BEC organizes an outing. In the pre-pandemic days, we would usually have a day trip. In the past, we had ventured as far as Melaka. In such restrictive times, we settled for a small gathering at the Bukit Jalil Recreational Park. Bright and early, we had a socially-distanced warm up session on a grassy field. Then some of us went for a jog, while the rest opted for a Taichi session. At the end of the gathering, we had a breakfast potluck. For the first time ever, I had mooncakes for breakfast.   At night, we had a Japanese dinner at Zakuro , Bukit Jalil. Food there was pretty good, and the owner was very friendly. Then KH went to buy a whole burnt cheesecake from Say Cheese Cafe . After that, we had a short grocery shopping trip to Super Seven. Stopped at Nyonya Platter for a yumcha session. Their sets were so attractive we abandoned the idea of just ordering drinks. Ended up with teh tarik , sirap ros , asam laksa, and kaya butter toast. As though we weren'...

Revisited Xenri at Old Klang Road after a long hiatus. Still as expensive as I remember it. Haha. Perhaps that's why I stopped going. KH had an appointment at All Thai which was located at Jalan Awan Hijau, not far from my dinner venue. He recommended that I try a new cafe located above it, called 6Yi Cafe . It was pretty interesting place with a semi-retro feel, and a feature wall that looked like it was decorated by The Hulk. One big hole in the middle of the cafe. And the cafe has a resident cat that lazes around, behaving like it owns the place. I kinda liked the Black & White, a fizzy coffee drink. Their cakes are in limited supply, you might or might not be able to try their Rum & Raisin Chocolate Cake. Think the share the same cake supplier as Morrow at Jalan Hujan. I left mum a while, and made a quick dash downstairs to join KH and his friend, who worked as a part-time private investigator. Never had I met anyone who was in that line of work. That was about it, ju...

  Every year it's the same : goodbye CNY, hello Ching Ming . The morning market's prayer item merchants start stocking up on all sorts of Taoist paper offerings. Amidst all the 'traditional necessities' like Hell notes, and gold bars, new products do pop-up to match the times. This time round  I spied a premium Japanese sushi and sashimi platter on the shelves. And then I saw a lacy bra set complete with bling-bling. It got me thinking about the gei lou market. Someone needs to produce some chi chat jockstraps, harnesses, latex suits, and ... you get the picture. My afternoon was spent at KLSCAH, attending an event entitled "Spring Gathering and International Mother Language Day 2020". Pak Samad made an appearance, and even recited poetry. Several Chinese associations also showcased their dialects through songs, drama, and speech. A bunch of Rohingya children also sang a Malay song about their oppression at the hands of Burmese military and Buddhist extremi...

I was very flattered when JJ and Ban invited KH and I for their tenth anniversary celebration. Why you may ask ? All came from a random suggestion from KH and I that JJ and Ban might be right for each other. And coincidentally, they clicked after we suggested that JJ get a piece of rose quartz to enhance his love luck. Till today, JJ still carries around a red pouch that contains that cherished crystal mystical knot. He showed it to me over dinner at Kinpachi , SS17. The lovely couple paid for my Kinpachi Bento, which contained a little of everything. A good place to start since I had never dined there before. With only the three of us ( KH tak dapat join ), we didn't go for round two. Sincerely wish that they will continue to pour love and effort to keep their relationship strong. Please invite is to the next milestone celebration ( tapi kalau dah tua kerepot kenot go Kinpachi cause have to climb the stairs( )!

Due to an inexplicable reason, I had been avoiding Pho Vietz at Atria Shopping Gallery. But after I had exhausted all the choices there, I relented. Mum and I shared a bowl of 4 beef pho. The Vietnamese equivalent of the 4 cheese pizza? It was a huge bowl of noodles, and came with premium Australian beef slices. beef balls, brisket, and the more common cuts. The soup noodles didn't "Wow" me, but the steamed rice rolls did. Texture-wise, it's like a cousin of HK CCF. Loved the taste. A great snack. More often that not, Atria had some event going on at the ground floor. That week we were lucky enough to catch the Atria Japan Festival 2019. The children's cosplay competition kept us mesmerized for hours. Among the best was a girl who dressed up as Edea Kramer from Final Fantasy VII. Got goosebumps when she came on stage with "FITHOS LUSEC WECOS VINOSEC" playing in the background. Really brought back memories. Her mother must be a fan girl. She must h...

As it got closer to the Lunar New Year, more interesting things popped up in the morning market at OUG. Some new and innovative product releases for 2019. On top of the usual peach-shaped buns for the altar, I saw technicolour huat kueh this year, stacked up into mutant Christmas trees. And being the most popular foreign pig in China, Peppa also joins in the festivities. Spotted plushies of Peppa wearing traditional Chinese costumes, and also Peppa Pig CNY T-shirts. In the afternoon, I went to get my hair cut, while mum spent some time with her buddies at the DAP Seputeh service center. My stylist put some white gooey stuff in my hair (nothing remotely related to "There's Something About Mary") that turned it temporarily ash grey. Kinda cool. That night mum organized a Japanese dinner Jyuraku , SS15. She invited SK, LifeBook and Bless. The house salad was an excellent choice for a faux lou sang . SK did most of the ordering because she's a regular. Good food...

Believe it or not, Mickey Mouse is already 90 years old! Pavilion Kuala Lumpur marked his birthday with a 1,000 mini Mickey Mouse figurine Christmas tree. On top of that, there's the 100 Go-Local Mickey Mouse showcase, an exhibition of Mickey Mouse re-imagined by Malaysian creatives. The crowd was crazy. One could hardly get a decent photo, and the throng was hardly conducive for anyone to admire the exhibits. Aori Ramen is the latest ramen joint in Pavilion. The earlier hype made it quick impossible to secure a table. Now that the 'new toilet' syndrome has passed, we could finally check it out. Aori Ramen can't decide on their service model, so they a hybrid model. Sit at the tables for normal table service, and if you're alone, head to the Ichiran-style counters ( but it's post-paid instead of Ichiran's pre-paid ). Ordering instructions are found at each cubicle, but there's an obvious problem with it. The instructional board has a picture o...