will i am's delayed diary

Two months passed and it was time for my second dose of Astra Zeneca. Such a long wait when one compares it to those who got Pfizer and Sinovac. KH drove me to WTC and took it as a chance to paktor . How the definition of paktor has changed. Haha. As expected, it was a smooth drive to WTC on a Sunday afternoon. Some weeks prior, vaccination appointments were screwed up the city center was locked down to thwart a political protest against the newly-minted prime minister. He was so insecure that he even shutdown the rail service. KH dropped me off at the entrance of WTC, and went to park at Sunway Putra Mall. Experience taught me to update my "COVID-19 Status" in the MySejahtera app and refresh my profile before approaching the crew at the first check point. Compared to my first appointment in July, there was noticeably less people, and there was no wait. Just kept walking from point to point. No longer needed to get to Dewan Merdeka on fourth floor. Did a quick registration,

KH wanted to try the ramen at Kanbe , 163 Retail Park, so we had a lunch date there. We arrived at 2 PM, and the queue spanned more than two shop lots. Patiently, we joined the queue. Thankfully, I had something to eat before I came out, else I would have been hangry! Took us about half and hour to snake into the restaurant. In that time, we had decided on our orders. KH chose the Shiro ramen, their signature broth that "makes you want to come back". Pure pork bone. Not wanting something similar, my choice was on the other side of the spectrum~ kohaku tsukemen . The kohaku is combination of pork bone broth and fish stock, and it was served in a hot stone bowl. Since it was used for dipping, the broth was thick to the point of semi-coagulation. Could really taste the dried bonito, mackerel, and sardines. At the start, the waitress sent the wrong bowl of ramen to us. After we had finished taking photos, it was returned to its rightful owner, the lady at the adjacent table. She

Before the pandemic, my church gave out red packets to parishioners who attended the CNY mass. At the end of mass, everyone would get two Mandarin oranges, a bible verse, and MYR2. The pandemic dashed those usual plans, but my church still went ahead with the preparation of red packets. A whole bunch were distributed to BEC leaders for internal distribution. This year, the red packet was extra large because instead of money, it contained a CNY-themed surgical mask! I was part of the team, so I distributed to families in Puncak Jalil and Bukit Serdang. It was a great chance to catch up with each other after a long absence. Became a mini CNY visitation of sorts. Haha. Talked so much that I was a bit late for my romantic dinner with KH!  Rushed home to shower and change, then zoomed over to Sri Petaling for dinner. My bad for being ten minutes late to our belated Valentine's Day and 14th Anniversary dinner at  Passione Ristorante Italiano . Before it became an Italian restaurant, it w

On the Sunday of the Christmas weekend, KH and I went on a date. He came over to my house with a packed lunch of chicken rice. We ate together, and went out to Alamanda Putrajaya to catch a movie. For a mall that's supposedly in a predominantly Malay area, the Christmas decorations were pretty nice. But I was a tad disappointed that I didn't get a wild boar sighting. After months of cased operations, GSC finally reopened their doors. KH bought tickets to "Wonder Woman 1984" from a friend who works for the cinema. The ticket was MYR20, but it came with a half off voucher for your next ticket. Roughly twenty people in the hall. Social distancing enforced, with the staff making rounds to ensure that the SOP is adhered to. My one and only cinema experience for the year 2020 ( holding hands across an empty seat ). WW1984 isn't a must-watch. The plot is very magical and I found some of the themes and parts of the script to be very cringy.     The date continued at Ta

Year after year, I have difficulty clearing my vacation days. Even worse in the year of the pandemic, when vacations aren't even possible. Good enough to take the day off and do nothing at all. KH suggested that I tag along his busy day. Any day is automatically made brighter with a morning skank session. The breakfast of champions. The first appointment of the day was lunch with KH's ex-colleague. The original plan was to eat at Pelita, Jalan Ampang, but we couldn't get a parking space, so we shifted our lunch venue to Menara Hap Seng instead. Been a while since I ate lunch there. The old shops like Trattoria Il Porcellino and Starbucks had both closed down. The building is now connected to the adjacent office blocks. On the upper floor, there's a SugarBun - Asia Borneo Food ,   a new addition. Many Sarawakians grew up with this fast food chain. KH's colleague recommended that we try the Sarawak Laksa. In addition, KH ordered Sabah giant garoupa fried rice. Also no

Once in a while, KH takes me to the most uncommon places for a date. This time it was a Kazakh restaurant at Endah Promenade. The place is called Astana , which is the capital of Kazakhstan between 1998 and 2019. Since then it has been renamed as Nur-Sultan. The most outstanding thing on the menu is horse meat. Both of  us were really keen to try it, but unfortunately, they didn't have it in stock. CMCO made it difficult for them to import it according to the waitress. In the end, we settled for shorpa which is a hearty clear lamb soup with vegetables. And we had a plate of hand-cut noodles called lagman . And manty is a large beef dumpling that is eaten with sour cream-like sauce. All of the dishes were quite compatible to the Malaysian palate in my opinion. In the chiller, they had medovik , which I had tried before at Torte by Linda at Bandar Kinrara 5. Suddenly I remembered that the proprietress telling me she had lived in Kazakhstan for many years.    Well, we didn't hav

The year 2020 is memorable because: Pandemic. Underwhelming Wawasan 2020. Turning forty. On the eve of my birthday, my family celebrated with a HaiDiLao steamboat dinner. SK got me a four unicorn cake from Foret Blanc. On my birthday, I took the day off. First thing in the morning, I got my birthday bang, and then KH brought me out to lunch at Kingstreet Cafe . Weird that this cafe is located in a quiet location in Seputeh, attached to a furniture gallery.  Loved the Guiness beef bowl though I couldn't detect any hint of Guiness.  Didn't have our coffee there. Ventured to Kenny Hills Bakers instead. The whole place was a chaotic construction site with little parking. We parked our car further down the road and walked over. When we arrived at the bakery, the line had already snaked outside. And the interior looked mighty cramped to me. Snapped a few photos and left. KH drove us to 163 Retail Park, a new place for me. The place looks like any other shopping mall, but the differen

KH asked me to meet him at Teddy Cafe at Zenith Corporate Park. Bloody had to make two u-turns on LDP because I kept missing the junction and there was only one access road to the place. He was there because of his mum's dental appointment. Cooled down with a cute bear-y affogato. I melted its face off with a shot of espresso. Loitered there as long as we could before heading off to our next appointment. Once in a while, SimonLover invites a bunch of friends over to his condo for a dinner. When we arrive, he always looks stressed while preparing the food. He would be fretting in the kitchen in his short shorts.  Surely we offer a helping hand, but he usually shoo-es us out of the kitchen. He would rather we wait in the living room and watch Netflix ( have to get the parental lock code from him.... whatttttt.... ).  That night, we had our usual guests-- Khatijah, ForIHaveSinned, JJ, Bunny, KH, and KH's  anak  Mic. Traditionally, the main dish was BKT. He had one pot with lean m

Once in a while, KH and I have a paktor session. For convenience's sake, we met up at Bukit Jalil City, the commercial area adjacent to Pavilion 2. Our dinner was at Viola Flower Cafe . Not quite a flower-themed cafe. Just a bunch of flowers on the ceiling and at the entrance. The cheesy churros turned out to be a chicken chop sandwiched by two spiral churros, and then topped with melted cheese. The lousy waiter botched it, and let the cheese overflow onto the table! Didn't bother to apologize. Truth be told, the venue wasn't ideal for a paktor session because the place was crawling with little girls having a birthday party.      Quickly left after eating to find a quieter place. Bawangchaji  sounded like a fried chicken shop to me, but it's actually a tea joint franchise from China. When I walked in, I was pretty surprised that they had a classy, pine-based interior. The place was quiet, and the air-conditioning was at full blast. Good place to talk heart while shari

When we first visited the orthopaedic surgeon at the end of 2019, he did suggest that my mum try ultrasound therapy for her bursitis. We dilly-dallied for more than half a year trying medication, gels, and medicated plasters. By the time mum got frustrated enough to try the physiotherapy, the referral letter had expired. Lucky for us, the process of getting it renewed didn't require us to get another appointment with the specialist. With the new letter issued, we could proceed with the therapy. It was just fifteen minutes of running an ultrasound wand over mum's heel. She didn't feel a thing. At the end of the session, the physiotherapist showed her some stretches, and showed her how she should ice her heel. That session cost MYR50 with no waiting time required.  Didn't know where to have breakfast, but we somehow ended up having curry noodles at Restoran New Lian Hin . I had a lunch date with KH, but we didn't know what to eat either. The universe led us to Yamatat

What's the best indication that the Covid situation was getting better? The opening of 4D outlets. The aunties and uncles were definitely not fazed by the new SOP. Plenty of money saved up during the MCO. Mum and I  SK bought a new Joyoung pressure cooker from China. She organized a pepper pig stomach soup with black garlic party that was cooked with her new kitchen appliance. Black garlic's colour comes from the  Maillard reaction . Pretty mild in flavour. In my opinion, the soup wasn't great. Felt that the pepper corns didn't meld with the pig stomach. In the evening, KH and I went out paktor -ing at Equine Park. We had our dinner at Jack & Steve Grill . Shared a plate of pork chops and some barbeque wings.  Then we had coffee and cake at Day 9 Kitchen . The hojicha burn cheesecake was an eye-catching item on their seasonal menu, but it wasn't well-executed. 

  Before the Tabligh Covid-19 cluster exploded into the media in March, not many people knew what Tabligh was about. For years, I had been seen their members take the LRT to Bukit Jalil station, but I never knew what group they belonged to. Often see in long white robes and turbans, the members were mostly from out of town judging from the bags they carried. When the news came out, mum was actually curious about Masjid Jamek Sri Petaling, the headquarters of the Malaysian Tabligh chapter. From Kuchai Avenue, we drove to Bandar Baru Sri Petaling to take a look ( after my last haircut before the commencement of the MCO ). The usually busy Jalan Radin was actually quiet, and no cars were parked along it. When we turned into the commercial area, the roads were also abnormally clear. We actually parked to go buy egg tarts at Tong Kee . After we had done our shopping, we spotted a Tabligh member heading in our general direction.  Jumped into the car as fast as we could. Haha.  Also had the

Once again, I was at Bandar Rimbayu for a party with SK's ex-colleagues. The potluck luncheon was to celebrate Chap Goh Mei, marking the end of CNY, and to fete the February babies. The host prepared some delicious dishes like kam heong prawns, vinegar pork trotters ( with black beans ), steamed pomfret, and a luxurious dish of abalone and scallops in brown sauce. SK brought a dish rice wine chicken, while another guest came with osmanthus-goji konnyaku jelly. For dessert, we had birthday cake with kopi o .  Come evening, KH brought mum and I to Dong Zhen Temple in Jenjarom. It was his second visit in the span of the week. He had just visited with his mum. Before admiring the lights at the Buddhist temple, we had dinner at Ban Siew Keng, a Taoist temple along the main road. The plaza in front of the temple was transformed into a Taiwanese night market complete with food stalls and carnival games. At the side were permanent structures that housed various food vendors. We chose to e

KH and I had been together for 13 years. So many things had happened in between that I would definitely have many "Oh yeah!" moments if I reread my old blog posts. Recently, KH was spring cleaning his external hard drive that he came across love notes and messages that I used to send to KH while he was working in Singapore. Completely forgot about those. To mark our 13 years together, KH arranged a nice dinner in the heart of KL. FOOK is a contemporary Asian fusion restaurant located along Jalan Sultan Ismail, right before the now defunct Wisma KFC. We were actually earlier than valet attendant. Left the car out front, and climbed the long flight of stairs up to the restaurant which squats atop a small wooded hill. The bar area is large, with the counter dominated by large red lanterns. The dining area is mainly composed of wood and glass themes, and lots of paintings. The waitress showed us to our table which was located in one of the semi-private niches overlooking Jalan