will i am's delayed diary

With less than a month to go, the travel agency finally arranged a briefing for mum and I's upcoming pilgrimage to the Holy Land. It was held at Griffon House, Assumption Church, an area with a perpetual parking deficit due to the close proximity to the hospital. I parked right at the bus stop on Jalan Gasing and was lucky enough not to be fined. Guide books, travel advisories, travel insurance cards, travel adapters, and tags were distributed to each participants. Our spiritual director, Father L was also there. The briefing wasn't really very informational but it was more of a session to ensure that everyone was aware of the departure schedule and turn up at the correct airport. Thankfully, I ain't the youngest person on the trip ( second youngest la ). The briefing lasted a little over an hour, and right after that we went hunting for lunch. Thought of going to Ban Huat Cheng, Happy Mansion to try the famous chicken rice there, but it was closed. Brought mum to K. Inta...

In 2017, Christmas Eve fell on a Sunday. Normally, mum and I would attend Christmas vigil mass, but by doing that, we couldn't fulfill the regular Sunday mass obligation. For Catholics, attending the sunset mass is equivalent to attending the mass for the following day. So on Christmas eve, we attended our usual Mandarin mass at 11:15 AM, and would attend the same slot on Christmas morning to fulfill Christmas obligation. Technicalities, technicalities. Ventured to One Utama after church and boy, getting parking was quite a huge challenge. Ended up parking at an open air car park. Even that was difficult to navigate because the roads were so narrow due to inconsiderate parking. We found parking at the far end... Since it was Christmas, I decided on a Western lunch at ANTE . Mum and I shared a huge pork shoulder and a polenta. Nearly overdosed. The shopping mall's creative team came up with a Christmas in the clouds theme complete with a giant crescent moon, which in my ...

Celebrated Cutiepie's birthday at Morganfield's, IOI City Mall on Prophet Muhammad's Birthday. Makes sense to celebrate a belated birthday on a birthday, right? She was supposed to ditch her kids, but her husband won out in the end. Doesn't matter since I brought mum and Little Monster as well. KH and SK also joined in. Arrived late because we were caught in an unexpected traffic snarl. Some smart ass decide to close 3 out of 2 lanes for resurfacing. When we saw Cutiepie, she was a little disheveled. She told us that we just missed a shouting match between her children that quickly spiraled into a wrestling bout at the center court. Gasp. We quickly got seated at Morganfield's , but the fighting didn't stop. Very spirited siblings. Her youngest daughter is really feisty and cute. Haha. We ordered some ribs, sausages, fried pork, and salad. Service at the restaurant was a little icky as I think the service staff don't have a good grasp of the English la...

For the longest time, mum and I had not visited Paradigm Mall after Sunday mass. Not wanting to hurt its feelings, we made a trip there on the second Sunday of November. Wanted to have something light, so we went to Sushi Zanmai , which I must admit was a mistake. Sad that their standards had dropped so much. I ordered a plate of hamachi nigiri sushi , and when it came, it looked like someone just took randomly slice piece of fish and dumped it on sushi rice! And I was even lucky enough to have an add-on of ebiko on the fish. The contract between Paradigm Mall and AirAsia BIG has also ended, so one can no longer collect BIG points from expenses at the mall. In the evening, MaisonSK hosted dinner again, with the usual faces-- Apollo and QueerRanter-D. But we had a special guest that evening, Gratitude who had come all the way from Klang. Dinner was followed by a platter of cured sausages with figs, apples, and cheese. I also took the opportunity to organize a Nu Skin ageLoc spa p...

It always amazes me what SK decides to bring back from her trips. During a recent Bangkok trip, she actually bought a packet of kway teow . She stir-fried it with chicken fillet and kale, and brought it over for breakfast. Later in the morning, we headed out to Midvalley Megamall as SK needed to get her luggage repaired. In our haste, we arrived even before the shutters were raised. Once she got her luggage sent in, we did some shopping. Always great to move around before the crowds set in. Mum and SK even did a free oxygen therapy from Elizabeth Arden. Too bad they couldn't squeeze a sale out of us. Lunch was at Define:food , a new restaurant opposite the now-defunct Tim Ho Wan. A word of warning, the place ain't very disabled friendly. Ascended a long flight of stairs with no bannister to access the air-conditioned area. Grabbed two things from the menu-- crab cakes and duck confit. The crab cakes were small, but bursting with crab meat. The pair of cakes were topped with a...

Nearly every year, I will be at SJK(C) Chung Kwo for a CNY charity event organized by a Chinese-speaking Christian organization. Invitations were sent out charities dealing with the disabled, single mother's, and the marginalized. Basically, it was a big lunch event with performances, goodie bags, lou sang , and red packets. Later that night, I had dinner at MaisonSK. In a freak coincidence, the exact same thing happened in 2014 , where I had alcohol and cheese after a visit to Chung Kwo during the day. Life is getting repetitive. Haha.

It's that time of the year again when the monsters spend more time with mum and I because my sister would be busy making calendars for the coming year. That Sunday, Little Monster followed us to church while his brother was at Science class. Such arrangements are usually better because without their partner in crime they much calmer. When Little Monster got fidgety, mum just pop a Fererro Rocher into his mouth. One mass, four chocolates. Yikes. Once we were done, we had to go pick the big one up from Sri Petaling. We reached there at 1:00 PM, but he wasn't done till 2:00 PM. Really a horrible time slot. Neither here nor there. Little Monster fell asleep in the car, else he would be wailing for lunch. Just waited in the car. With all that free time, I scoured Foursquare for a place to lunch. The Shotlist was pretty close where we were, but I decided to be a fan boy and go for The Shire Cafe instead. As you can guess from the name, the place has an LOTR-esque theme to it. ...

I celebrated my 36th birthday on Sunday, the 9th of October. Went to church as usual and lunched nearby. A new café offering East coast delicacies had popped up at Sunwaymas, so we decided to give it a try. The name of the place was Cafe Kesom , but they had not put up their main signboard. I kept seeing Blook Warehouse. Like Capital Nasi Dagang in Damansara Uptown, this place has a Chinese proprietor and serves Kelantanese food. Kesom uses a self-service approach where you are given a tray and you cherry pick whatever add-ons you desire. Unfortunately, the counter is too short and the checkout too slow for such an implementation. To gauge the authenticity of the place, we ordered the two classic dishes-- Nasi Dagang and Nasi Kerabu . One bite of the Nasi Dagang and my taste buds could not detect a single percentage of Nasi Dagang in it. Tasted all wrong. Couldn't detect the taste of fenugreek. To make matters worse, the rice was soft. The basic Nasi Dagang also doesn...