will i am's delayed diary

At the very last minute, mum received a call from her friend, looking for kakis to attend a charity lunch. Her friend had bought a whole table at MYR1,000. Managed to get SK, KH, and the Tribe to go. Since it was on a Sunday, we attended morning mass and killed some time at One Utama. The venue was at Palm Springs, Kota Damansara, so we didn't need to rush over. The event was organized by Persatuan Penganut Guang Shou Jin She , Kepong, a Buddhist organization in Kepong. In my opinion, the whole event wasn't very well-organized as the audience seemed quite disjointed with what was happening on stage. Basically, they were raising funds for a construction project, so they were selling biscuits and tea, and even had an auction of 'genuine' Qing dynasty pottery. A tea cup went to the highest bidder for MYR20,888. In between all that, there was some singing and a drumming performance by a school troupe. The kids weren't that good. The energy wasn't there and th

Saturday was spent at the market as usual. Normalcy had returned with the passing of the peak of Raya celebrations. People were getting back to work and the market saw a glut of fresh produce, bringing the prices down. The face of the OUG morning market is constantly in flux. The latest addition is a food truck selling cakes. The truck was decorated in such a way that it would look perfect in a carnival. Lets see if it will survive. My breakfast was a plate of wantan noodles from Daniel's stall. Mum just ate a couple of hard-boiled eggs and knicked some charsiew off my plate. Mum had a more proper meal during lunch. With the ingredients she bought at the market, she whipped up two hot bowls of YTF topped with chicken and hard-boiled egg-- one clear soup, and one curry. A very satisfying meal. Been wanting to try Uroko , so I brought my mum there. Never noticed those shops, must be new. Few years back, I used to take that route from Section 17 to bypass the toll when h

On the second day of Raya, mum and I went out to breakfast at Restoran Yoong Seng . I had pork ball noodles, while she only ate the sam gan chong pork balls. In the afternoon, we had to get to Old Klang Road to check out our very first AirBnB guests. It was a joint effort between my sister, BIL, BIL's siblings, and myself. My sister did most of the interior design, and even made some of the furniture and decorative items from scratch. I just helped in setting up the listing. When mum and I got there, we found that the guests were a group of young adults from Penang. I thought they were students. Collected the keys and access cards from them, and sent them on their way. They left the place very tidy and even left the used towels in a neat, folded stack on the floor. Made our work easier, but it still ain't easy being the 'housekeeper'. We put the towels into the washer, changed all the linens, and washed the bathrooms. The most hated task would be making the beds

With mum on a strict no-carbs diet, Raya ain't what it used to be. Plus, we had no inclination to go to any government open houses, so we just spent it at a local mall. Statistically, Sunway Pyramid is one the malls that we often ignore although its quite near to my place. The horrendous traffic and parking are the key reasons. So with most KL-ites out of town for Raya, we made our way there. The roads were clear and we found parking in a jiffy. For the first day of Raya, everything seemed business-as-usual. Only a few shops were closed. And since it was our first visit after a long time, many of the shops were fresh in our eyes. In my opinion, the Raya decorations were lacklustre. The focal point was the frame of a Malay village house, all in white. Event the silhouettes of coconut trees were white. Ever heard of a White Raya? Doesn't photograph well too. Our lunch was at Sho Kushiage , a pork katsu joint. Mum was felt adventurous and ordered the premium katsu with chees

Genebin and Zo  in Kuchai Lama is no more. In place of that cafe is a Japanese fusion restaurant that goes by the name PapaSan Canteen . One Saturday afternoon, KH and I had our lunch paktor session there. The owners implemented a 'forced' daap 3   toi 4+2 concept with the use of long tables. Very much like school canteens. All this to encourage diners to talk to strangers sitting beside them. In my opinion, there are two possible scenarios: Hey, that looks good. What is that? Oh God, don't order this. It tastes like crap.  The food's quite good really. Firstly, we had the signature Papasan Roll. Supposedly contains foie gras, but I couldn't detect it through all the garlic mayo. Served on log slice. Very Instagrammable. Next was something the waiter recommended-- G.M.C., short for Garlic Mayo Chicken. Big chuncks of chicken that are crispy on the outside and moist on the inside. And of course smothered with garlic mayo. See the pattern? Chef Jimmy loves g

During the Mother's Day weekend, the priest presiding over the mass called all mothers to the altar for a blessing. More than half of the pews were emptied. Felt close to 65%. Amazing. After mass, mum and I ventured to MyTown, having gotten sick of Paradigm Mall. It was quite a challenge for me to get there because my GPS was basically shot. Infuriating. But I was quite lucky because my instinct of following the jam brought me to where I wanted to go. MyTown is really quite huge. Walking up and down the length of the mall made me hit my step counter goal pretty quickly. Mum and I had a free lunch at Nando's . Redeemed my Pervilege Full Chicken, and they even threw in a free soda drink for Mother's Day. Tried our best to finish the meal, but we could only finish 3 quarters. The mall isn't running at full tenancy with around 40% of the lots still unoccupied. But IKEA was open and boy, it was brimming with people. Had not visited IKEA in years really. Outside is a &#

Nothing much of interest happened at the end of April. The only notable thing was mum's decision to start her no-carbs diet. So whenever we ate out, there was always special food considerations. SK's ex-coursemate invited us to her daughter's Upacara Mencukur Rambut , basically a traditional Malay baby shower of sorts. The baby's hair is cut in a ceremony that is observed by family and community members. Anyway, I missed that part. We arrived just in time to eat. Mum ignore the rice and went straight for the fried chicken and roast lamb. Haha. While dining at Kakatoo in IOI City Mall, mum just ate the chicken chop, and left the mash untouched. Their mainstay is actually Nyonya food, but the price range is really a little on the high side. Wonder if they will survive for long. Even when we had cendol at Teochew Chendul , mum could actually resist. At our post-mass lunch the next day, we ate a Purple Cane where we just ordered dishes without rice. An interesti

On Easter Sunday, mum and I attended mass, and left church with some free Easter eggs from church. Lunch was at ThirdWave , Nexus Bangsar South. Mum loved the food there. She thought that it was different and quite novel, although she's usually not a fan of Western fare. We had two mains-- the Retro Scotch Egg, and Golden Salmon Bell. Both were deep-fried, an oopsie on my side. The Scotch egg was kinda interesting as its egg wrapped in a shell of minced chicken and sitting on a bed of mashed cauliflower. Delicious! However, I wasn't crazy about the fritto misto of beetroot as the batter was way too sweet. The Salmon bell was another great dish. Deep-fried Salmon flakes on a bed of sour quinoa salad. We really enjoyed the combination. Wanted to let mum try ThirdWave's wonderful desserts too, but we were way too stuffed. Before going home, we scoured a small Doraemon merchandise sale on the ground floor. Old stuff from the 100 Doraemon Secret Gadgets exhibition in 2014.