will i am's delayed diary

One of my colleagues was born and bread in Batu Gajah. Her alma mater was SMK St. Bernadette's Convent located just beside a Chinese cemetery. Imagine all the stories. Anyway, I buzzed her while I was at the chapati shop, asking her about things to do in Batu Gajah. Strangely, her recommendation was for me to go to Pusing ( just 5 KM away la ) for some delicious kuih . Wing, an ex-colleague of mine, was nice enough to volunteer as my official Pusing guide. Picked him up from his aunt's home, and he directed us to the stall. The famous stall wasn't open, so the competitor stall was enjoying brisk business. All sorts of kuih were sold, and of course fried stuff. KH was also on a road trip of his own, and he met us there. Can't believe we actually loitered by the roadside, chatting, munching on kuih , and sipping cold soy milk. Moving on, Wing brought us to Papan, a small town that looks like it's on it's last legs. Papan is a historic tin mining town, o

Surprisingly, mum decided that she would not be visiting relatives on the second day of Chinese New Year. Instead, she wanted to go on a road trip, and have fun. Worked for me. The only challenge was to decide where to go and what to do. The general idea was to drive north. Our first stop was Kellie's Castle located near Batu Gajah. Arrived there an hour past high noon. As one can guess, it was hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk. For a small fee, we entered into the compound to admire the beautiful mansion built by the Scottsman William Kellie-Smith. Located beside the Raya River, the mansion looks imposing, as it is on higher ground. The architecture is also unique, employing the use of much marble and red bricks in a mash up of Scottish, Moorish, and Tamilvanan Indian influence. Although it was very hot outside, one could find refuge inside the vacant mansion. The interior was surprisingly cool. Kellie started with Kellas House, and started building a grand extensio

Note : Let's revisit CNY! As usual, before mum started work on the reunion dinner, we would make a trip to AEON Equine Park for some fresh ingredients. She started cooking at 3 PM, serving up dish after dish : Pak cham kai Fried threadfin Pork stew with mushrooms, fish maw, and tendon Lotus root soup Salmon sashimi salad Pan-fried soy sauce prawns Pan-fried scallops Braised duck Just a little bit of everything and we were full! So lazy to move after that, but had to wash the car and floors before CNY! Tok-tok-chiang !

People had started turning up in hordes at the morning market during the final weekend before the lunar Chinese new year. New products continued to make an appearance at the last minute. A new store also popped up selling ikan belah belakang with sambal filling. Trust the Chinese to charge RM12 per fish, where you can get it for at most RM5 at a Malay mixed rice stall. Breakfast was YTF at Ker Yuen Kitchen instead of my usual breakfast noodles. Family Mart had just opened near Equine Park, so we went to give it a try. The sofuto I can understand, but I was a bit skeptical about the tomyum oden . Got a starter bowl and randomly selected a few stuff. I was sold on the first bite. The Tribe jio-ed us to have dinner at Say Cheese , The Link 2. Big Monster ordered their signature pork chop, so we were treated to dinner display with a butane torch right at our table. Alexander the Gay was in town, so I went to meet him at The Augmented Cafe , a Cina-Muslim cafe

On the first day of 2019, I woke up at 1:30 PM! Been a LONG, LONG, LONG time since I slept in that late. I would have slept longer if mum didn't knock on my door! Typical question from KH, "Why piggy so much?". Haha. Freshened up and went out to AEON Equine for brunch at  Old Town White Coffee . A simple meal of tuna sandwich and white coffee. Business was brisk. Dinner was with The Tribe at  Fika Fika Cafe . We ordered so much food! And in the end, we had a giant Christmas meat platter! Overdose! A amazing way to kick-start the Year of the Pig.

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

Received a notice from my developer that the condo I had invested in with my sister and co. was ready for vacant possession. I was surprised that buyers needed to make an appointment for that. Each session accommodated about ten buyers or so in a small room at the club house that was equipped with a projector. While waiting for the rest to arrive, I helped myself to the refreshments ( cakes and a coffee machine ). The briefing started at around noon. The customer service representative explained the welcome kit which was a folder containing all the keys and access cards. Other topics discussed included the electronic door lock, community mobile app, and the defect and renovation procedures. Once we got all the boring stuff out of the way, they escorted us to our units for the initial inspection. A boring process of counting the electrical points and fixtures. Discovered that they missed out the toilet roll holder in the master bedroom. I had no other complaints about the unit. Th

Sapporo was just a short drive from Otaru, under an hour. Like most of the cities in Japan, very block-ish in design, hence contains a barrage of traffic lights and cross-junctions. Parked our car at one of many public parking spots ( the one we parked at had a clamp at the bottom that only released after paying the bill ) and went on foot. Spent most of our time there shopping really. So many drug stores with Chinese-speaking staff. However, with the Payke app, you can get most English product information just by scanning the barcode. In addition to drug stores, we also went treasure hunting at Donki ( amazing selection of sex toys ), Daiso, Book-off, etc. We had our lunch at Ginza Lion beer hall. Great place for Western food. At around 3:00 PM, we left Sapporo for Chitose. Dropped mum and Sis off at the AirBnB, while Bro and I went to pump petrol and return the rental. FYI, some petrol stations in Japan have the service and self-service pumps. Unknowingly, I stopped at the sel