will i am's delayed diary

Ever since the church gotong-royong fiasco several years back, I shunned the activity for fear of a repeat. This year, due to lack of response from the other members of my BEC (quiter than a grave when looking for volunteers), I registered. Mum didn't join as she had her hands full with the monsters. At 7:30 AM, we were treated to a simple breakfast of nasi lemak bungkus and hot beverages. An elderly man in front of me took a sip of the tea and declared, "longkang water". Lol. With a pail and a rag in hand, we started work. Work was segregated by ministries. My group was tasked with cleaning the many wall fans situated in and around the church. Once that was done, we moved on to cleaning chairs, and de-mossing the drains. Towards the end, we cleaned the adhesive stains from the front steps. We were so lacking of the proper tools that we went out to buy Clorox and Jiff, or those that lived nearby just went home to get it. Finished up everything slightly after noon. Cle

Whenever Tater is in town, KH and I make it a point to meet up with him. He was staying at Westin Hotel again ( I suspect its due to the cute guys they employ for the check-in counter ), so KH and I gathered there before dinner. Finally passed him the acrylic medal holder to celebrate his induction into the 7 Continents Marathon Club. It had been sitting under my bed for a long time! After a short chat, we headed out to Wizards at Tribeca for dinner. Took us ages to cross Jalan Imbi just to get there. The traffic police just kept the traffic going with no priority for the pedestrians. A very pretty place, but the dinner menu is also pretty expensive unlike their lunch options. We shared two main and a salad. Truth be told, when I exited the restaurant, I was as hungry as when I was walking in. Went back to Pavilion for ice cream and coffee at Stone Cold Creamery ( brings back memories of when Tater was based in Bugis ) and Starbucks . Back at Westin Hotel, the staff were bu

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

Here's some of the latest shots from my usual Saturday PasarPride routine: A new vendor selling fermented black beans, fermented black beans, hot bean paste, and some varieties of nuts. The black beans were really fragrant, great for dishes like bitter gourd chicken. Fermented olives used to be real popular go-together for porridge. When I was little, 'sea chicken' used to be common dish on my dinner table. Mum would batter the weird-looking fish, fry it, and serve it with some sauteed onion rings. Doesn't really taste like chicken, and the fish has a natural stone-like ballast that is quite unique. Today, the fish is no longer cheap. A new stall popped up selling healthy breakfast options. The sandwich with purple and yellow sweet potato paste was really eye-catching. However, the pasar veterans still preferred the deep-fried sweet potato balls, and  ham chim peng ! SimonLover arranged dinner that night with TummyFull. Wasn't easy coming up with

My Sunday lunch was a simple meal at Ha Ha Pan Mee and Little Thai Cuisine at Aman Suria. Recently developed a liking for Loh Pan Mee . A word of warning, this shop doesn't make a very good loh . Went to Pavilion after that for a bit of shopping. Didn't buy much of anything. Stopped at Dean and Deluca to rest our legs. Malaysia's first branch and it's pretty basic. Limited menu, simple store design, and no products on sale. Apple crumble' and flat white is pretty decent. From Pavilion, we went to Tung Shin Hospital to visit my uncle from Sungai Burung who had been warded due to a stroke. More alert now, but he had his hands and legs restrained because he kept trying to pull out his feeding tube and get out of bed. The acupuncture treatments had begun but still no noticeable improvement. Later in the evening, we fetched our cousin out to dinner at Jalan Tun HS Lee. He loves the pork soup there. Pork is not something that he eats often in the fishing v

After three nights in Biei, we checked out of the AirBnB. Started bright and early because we had a four-hour drive ahead of us to Lake Toya . Our first toilet and kōhī break was at Sungawa Highway Oasis, one of the few big ones along the way. Somehow, we were lured into the souvenir shop, and that cost us nearly an hour and nearly JPY5,000. LOL. Bro got a Kaonashi soft toy and that became a regular feature in our photos. Continued our journey without getting waylaid, and we arrived at noon. Parked our car at one of the free public car parks, and walked to the touristy lake area. Grabbed a simple lunch at a Seicomart-- just a couple of sandwiches. Our first photo craze was a bunch of wisterias and azaleas behind The Lake View Toya Nonokaze Resort. A bad case of flower deprivation since Biei. Once we had gotten that out of our system, we headed to the Nakanoshima Cruise Pier to catch the TOYAKOKISEN cruise to Nakajima Island , which is in the middle of Lake Toya. Print out a co