will i am's delayed diary

The government announced the Langkawi Travel Bubble to kick-off the reopening of the local tourism sector. The Tribe pounced on the chance to travel further. For several Sundays they had been going to points of interests within Selangor, e.g. Pantai Morib, and Hulu Langat. On Tuesday night, my BIL managed to secure a police permit to travel by land to Langkawi. It was a five-day trip, so it fell to mum and I to babysit the latest member of their family-- Henry, a pudgy Syrian hamster. My sister brought him over in a small cage, and Little Monster handed me his hamster food, and chew snacks.  During the night, Henry is very active and would be running up and down. And he would even hang from the top of the cage like he was playing on monkey bars. One morning we woke to find that he had dismantled his hamster wheel. It had fallen down blocked his access to his water bottle. Once we moved it away, he went for a lonngggg drink. Not only that, he even managed to dislodge the water bottl...

Babysitting duty fell to mum and I again because Sis and BIL were busy with an exhibition at PWTC. On Saturday morning, mum and I did a quick run at the OUG morning market. Fell in love with an apam balik stall. The snacks had a 5-star appearance, and the texture was good. Normally, apam balik turn rubbery when cold, but not this one. Some kind of secret ingredient in the batter. My only complaint is that the peanut filling was not as chunky as I would like it. We packed breakfast for the kids and headed home only to find that the kids already ate wantan noodles for breakfast. At noon, Big Monster had his weekend class at Bandar Baru Sri Petaling, so we spent ninety minutes there waiting for him to finish. Little Monster took a look around and finally settled on Villa Ju Bakery , exclaiming that there's where he normally 'chills'. He even knew exactly what he wanted~ an egg toast. For such a huge floor space, the bakery was quite empty. According to the kids, they...

Babysitting duty continued on Saturday. Fed the kids a big breakfast of nasi lemak and mango sticky rice. Later at noon sent Big Monster to his Saturday class at Sri Petaling. Normally we would loiter at a cafe for one and a half hours. Went to 5.1 Coffee Gallery , a cafe on the second floor, with a wood theme. Interesting choice of design, but horribly uncomfortable furniture. Little Monster promised me that he would do a few pages of his mathematics workbook, but changed his mind. When my order of Bacon Shashuka came, his eyes brightened. Managed to bribe him with food in exchange for one and half pages of mathematics. Wouldn't do a page more. In the evening, we left the kids with an alternate babysitter ( my sister's friend ) and we headed off to church for Easter Vigil Mass. Due to Hospitality Ministry duty, I didn't witness the lighting of the Paschal Candle outside the church. Spent three hours on my feet manning the doors. This year, KH made a surprise ap...

The kids were still with us after the All Soul's Day trip. My brother was still in KL, so we all went out to Pavilion Kuala Lumpur. The kids complained that I chose Japanese food for lunch, but I made some selections that were more aligned to their palette, e.g. cheesy grilled chicken, and sliced pork soup. Still in time to catch the Deepavali decorations at the mall. With the help of a private college, Pavilion decorated the concourse with a huge kolam that's supposed to be the train of a giant peacock! Very impressive. At the end of our shopping session, we went to the food court for coffee. Got Little Monster a Milo Dinosaur. It was a first for him, and he loved the messy process of drinking that. Personally, I dislike coagulated Milo powder.

Babysitting continued on Sunday, where we brought the Monsters to mass. Then it was lunch at Ben's , The Gardens Mall. Never did I expect such an impressive interior. One section was dominated by fluffy pillows and tall wing-back sofas that looked like thrones. 'Marble' surfboards was the theme for side section, and there was large part with a tropical theme. Deep inside the cafe was a kid's zone complete with playground and kitchen area. I was surprised that the kids actually killed the time with the activity cards on the table. Little Monster especially liked their macadamia cheese cake. Ended our day out with a caramel macchiato. Back in 2010, I met Jerry in Klang. Eight years later we reconnected again and arranged a dinner at Linda Vietnam Cafe , Equine Park. Should be pretty new since I never noticed it there. Food was decent but the service was kinda sucky. I ordered hot tea but the waitress brought me iced tea. When I corrected, she was flippant and said ...

Once in a blue moon, I would order wat tan hor for breakfast. Something that really sends my 'Uncle Meter' skyrocketing. Once in a blue moon, I get to see Paris Fashion Week at the OUG morning market. That was a babysitting Saturday for mum and I. After dropping The Monsters for their swimming lessons, we went over to Mokka Cafe , Jalil Link 2 to chill. Their signature cappuccino reminded me of a creme brulee, and their Pangkor Asam Laksa was kinda interesting.  Light in colour and had squid. Brought the monsters out for sushi at Washoku , BK5 later that night. Bad idea to let them sit next to the kaiten . Ravenous appetite! Luckily it was only RM1.70 a plate.

Sis and BIL were still hard at work clearing their orders before the end of the year. so the Monsters were with me. Brought them out to the wet market on Saturday morning. To make things easier, mum went to do her thing, while took care of the kids. First thing I did was buy a couple of thick apam balik , then brought them to the stone benches at the entrance of Marketplace OUG. No point dragging them around as they would only whine and complain. Fed them the sweet pancakes while waiting for mum to finish. During the wait, I realized that Little Monster kept singing B.E.R.'s "The Night Begins to Shine", a song that he picked up from "Teen Titans". How bizarre. Once mum was done, we went to have breakfast noodles at our favourite noodle stall at the alley. Back at home, mum didn't want the Little Monsters on his tablet all day, so she armed him with a brush and got him brushing the metal grills of the sliding door. Nothing builds character like child la...

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...

Babysitting continued: Big Monster's activities continued on till Saturday. At 9:00 AM, he had replacement home tuition for two hours. Once that ended, we had to rush him to Sri Petaling for his science class. Then it was breakfast for Little Monster at Jojo Little Kitchen for his favourite pork ball pan mee . We had an hour to kill, so we hopped from shop to shop. Sri Petaling suddenly gave birth to several specialty grocery stores, exclusively selling snacks and drinks from Thailand, Taiwan, China, Japan, and Korea. Once we got tired of walking, we sat down at Inside Scoop for ice cream. Got the small one a scoop of strawberry yoghurt in a chocolate cone. When the one hour was up, we picked up the big one and brought him to lunch at Jojo Little Kitchen AGAIN. These kids need more variety. At 4:00 PM, the kids had swimming lessons. Due to some misunderstanding, I thought that they would be picked up from home, but turned out that I was supposed to send them to KM1 East. So, ...

Out of the blue, my sister and BIL went on a trip to Bangkok, and left the kids with mum and I. The amount of activities the kids have on the weekends are really astounding. On Fridays morning ( Awal Muharram ), we woke up at 7:00 AM to get Big Monster ready for his drama class. Once we dropped him at school, we dragged Little Monster to the wet market. He was kinda attracted to the sights and sounds, but he quickly complained that he had walked too much. I asked mum what she wanted for breakfast, and she suggested Cha Wala at Pearl Point. We parked at Pearl Shopping Gallery, thinking that we could use the link bridge, but it was way too early. Since the shutters were still down, we had to trudge back down and cross Jalan Sepadu. Found the stall at the food court, but it wasn't open for some reason. Ack. Dragged ourselves back to Pearl Shopping Gallery and ate at the only place that was open for business-- Take Eat Easy ( their kitchen opens at 8:30 AM ). We had the cafe all...

Unexpectedly, my sister turned up at our doorstep on the morning of Christmas eve. Naturally, the kids were thrilled to see her. We had a day out in Bukit Bintang ahead of us. First stop was Pavilion Kuala Lumpur to look at the Christmas decorations. Like past years, there was a huge tree out front. The only difference was that they had a train that traveled around the tree. In my opinion, its quite a nuisance to have that when so many people mill at the entrance. Swarovski returned as the main sponsors for the center atrium's Christmas decorations, but I wasn't very impressed by it. This time round, the center atrium is dominated by a castle and a crystal carousel. In the overall theme, it's not very attention-grabbing. Mum shopped while I kept the kids in check. The typical running around, and crawling in and out of clothes racks. Difficult to shop in peace with kids around. All that running around helped the kids build up an appetite. By noon, they were asking for foo...

In order to make it to English mass at SIC, we had to get up at 7:00 AM. After getting ready, one still needs to fuss over the sleepy kids. At church, we bundled them into the soundproof family room and hoped that they would not be too rowdy. Big Monster asked me a legit question: Big Monster: Is Jesus dead? Moi: Yes, but he resurrected after three days. Big Monster: Oh, someone threw him a Potion of Regeneration. In case you were wondering, he was talking about something from Minecraft! Obsessed with that game, they are. We ate breakfast at Mian then headed home. Mum needed to prepare for her event in the afternoon. She boiled the tang yuan and packed loads of pots and ladles. There was even a portable stove in the heap of stuff. Sent her out to Happy Garden where she would carpool to Brickfields with her friends. It's daunting to handle the two monsters alone so I employed the help of KH. Picked him up and went for a late lunch at Secret Loc Cafe , Kuchai Lama....