will i am's delayed diary

A month before, received a wedding invitation from a cousin from my mother's side. My mother was amused that when he came, he didn't bother to call up whether we were home. When we picked up the invitation card from the letter box, mum was amused for a second time because she was addressed directly by her name. Rules, rules, rules. Anyway, the wedding was on a Sunday night, so we planned to go after church, and return on the night itself. SK tagged along. It was good to have another driver on such a journey. Before the long drive, we had lunch at Nyiru Cafe , the new name for Cafe Kesom. Food seemed similar. Nasi Kerabu was as good as I remembered it, but the Nasi Dagang sucks. We made good time, and arrived at Teluk Intan during tea time. Made a stop at Alex Tea House , a random choice. The exterior was made to look like an old village house, with the entrance flanked by a pair of mulberry trees. The interior was very dark, and every time the door opened, a slash of s...

CNY fever had been initiated at the OUG morning market. Rats and mice take center stage. Was a bit surprised when Vince told me that one couldn't find apam balik at the Bangsar morning market, so I went around showing him how easy it was to get the traditional snack at OUG. He was excited by the big pan variety. Personally, I prefer the smaller apam balik . Later, mum and I went to settle some stuff at the Airbnb. We were there till late, so ate lunch at Top Chef Food Court . The vision is to have collection of "up-and-coming Superstar Chefs" all under one roof. Pretentious names never work lo. Business was lukewarm, and the food not superstar standard. But the interior is not like your run-of-the-mill food court, but instead use a lot of mismatched furniture, up-cycled wooden planks, and even sports cast-iron chandeliers. Mum and I weren't impressed by the Ipoh shredded chicken hor fun . The kopi had some oomph though. Post-lunch, we met up with SK and CK...

Mum has a quarterly appointment with her O and G specialist at Puchong, so we skipped our usual morning marketing at OUG. But that doesn't mean we can't do our marketing elsewhere. Right after the appointment, I made a stop at the Taman Wawasan morning market. The stalls are arranged around a food court. When we arrived, the sun was already out, and the unfamiliar layout made it an unproductive visit. But its interesting to note that pork is openly sold in the open over there. In the evening, KH and I attended a wedding at Hai Tian . One if his colleagues at Nu Skin were getting married. Little did I know that it would be the last time I ate at Hai Tian. Just a few days later, the signboard was changed. Quite a landmark Chinese restaurant for the Taman Equine area. In the afternoon, mum deep-fried some nian gao wraps. Crispy on the outside, and chewy on the inside. Brought a bunch to the banquet so that we could nibble on it while waiting for all the fashionably late gue...

Out of the blue, Lifebook booked me for lunch after my Sunday mass. Why? Bless was in town! A short breather from his toils in Kulai, Johor. The little ones were with me, so we let them choose the lunch venue. They voted for Nando's . We shared an Everyone's Platter and I added on my free Peri-vilege chicken. Perfect. Next, we went for coffee at Starbucks as Coffee Bean didn't have a big table for us. Both of them had just returned from a holiday in Tokyo, so they passed me snacks and sex toys gifts. Bless was doing fine, except for the hand injury ( gym, gym, gym ) and work politics. Lifebook on the other hand has some family issues,  but nothing he can't handle. Little Monster was very cheeky that day, doing all sorts of funny antics for Bless. Good training for him since he's not as good with kids as Brian . By 2:00 PM, they were off as Bless had a flight to catch. We stayed at Paradigm Mall to take a look around. The theme for 2017 is "Train Ride to C...

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, ...

After attending the bride's side of the wedding, it was time to go for the groom's side. At 10:00 AM, mum, Little Monster and I made our way to my cousin's house in Semenyih. The forty minute drive brought me to an unfamiliar part of town. Paid three tolls. When I exited the last toll, we were greeted with palm oil plantations and the new township of Eco Hills. I was wondering if there was a petrol station there as I was running empty. But Waze told me that I had not arrived at my destination. Went deeper in to a place near Rinching. It was an older township. Had to make a detour because there were two roads with the same name in the area. WTF. Even the caterer got lost. The happy couple was estimated to arrive at about 1:00 PM from Karak, so I had two hours to kill. Spent most of the time making small talk with some of mum's relatives and fiddling on my phone. Mobile coverage there was spotty so we asked for the WiFi password. The password was made up of both the bri...

Recently ( in the context of this blog ), my maternal cousin tied the knot with a lass from Karak. Since mum us closest with this uncle of mine, we were invited to both wedding banquets. The bride's function was a week before the groom's and was held at Bentong, a twenty minute drive from Karak. In the morning, I went to tidy up my unruly hair and mum got her's washed and styled. By the time we finished lunching at Nam Heong and got home, we only had a short time to get ready and drive to Bentong. My stylist who is a Bentong boy warned me that wedding banquets there start on the dot. Our drive there took ninety minutes and lots of highway tolls. Arrived with fifteen minutes to spare, but sad to say, the dinner started ninety minutes late. Guess the KL virus got to them. The venue was Grand Court Restaurant and was obviously pretty new. It had it is own compound and the interior decoration was pretty posh. Interestingly, the groom was warded at the Bentong Hospital for d...

Note: A bit of a rewind. I seem to have gotten all my posts mixed up. Ugh. The last quarter of 2015 was really the peak season for weddings. My paternal uncle's youngest son got married on the first week of November. He is the same age as me. The wedding banquet was on the 7th, so we postponed our All Soul's Day visit to that weekend. The whole family traveled north in my sister's Serena. Reached Teluk Intan around noon and checked into the home stay that I booked on AirBnB. A new house with loads of rooms and beds, but lacking in cable TV and WIFI. However, the kids were thrilled and wasted no time in sprinting upstairs to have dibs on the rooms. Had a quick lunch at Ah Chai Bak Kut Teh , a famous BKT shop in the area. The owner has a Nissan FairLady parked out front and a picture of him receiving a P.M.P. from the Sultan of Perak. Not exactly a common sight. Regardless how famous the shop is, I didn't like the BKT. The soup was not to my liking, but the other dish...

It was a wedding weekend for me, with no visit to the wet market. The mass was at my parish at 11:30 AM. Because the bride and the groom were Catholics, it was a full mass. However, the percentage of Catholics in the pews was quite small. The bride happens to be the daughter of a church member and the groom comes from a loaded family. The parking lot was full of Mercedes and Audis. A rich hubby, the best kind. Mum and I arrived a little late due to the wonderful Saturday traffic. At least we didn't miss the readings. Lunch was not provided at the church, but we were invited to the groom's house in PJ instead. A huge three-storey detached house that seriously looked more like a show house. The living room had crystal displays like it was a boutique and the upstairs toilets were so large that two sets of bathroom fixtures were installed together with skylights. A friend of my mum remarked that the toilet was as large as her whole low cost flat! Electrical contractors sure earn...

Swiped from NinjaHelloKitty/Ivan @ Flickr Note: Not sure how many people will send me hate mail after reading this, but the first person to roll his eyes would be KH. He doesn't eat sharks fin soup! The last time I attended a wedding lunch was in USJ City Mall for my lawyer's marriage. This time round it was my ex-colleague. At Noble Banquet . Quite a difficult timing for a Sunday. Had to attend English mass in order to make it, but still the timing was neither here nor there. Killed some time at Scott Garden. Got my caffeine fix at Starbucks since I was groggy from interrupted sleep ( damn power keeps tripping in the middle of the night ). After finishing a latte and a pastry, mum and I went to Tesco. As luck would have it, she found a kiosk doing dead skin removal for feet. Immediately sat down and did the 45 minute treatment. Nasty business, but mum was happy with the results. By the time it was done, it was already 12:15 pm. Just about right. Dropped mum off at the ...

Duck Kuay Teow Th'ng , swiped from williamnyk on Flickr. Noticed that mum was behaving a bit weirdly on Sunday morning. And while driving to church, I found out why. She cracked and and started venting her anger. From what I heard, she was angry at my sister for something she said, or more accurately, something she did not say. After weeks and weeks of taking of her grandkids day in and day out, my mother suddenly decided not to be taken for granted anymore. Ugh, the drama. Had to placate her to the best of my abilities. The Eucharist probably succeeded where I failed. Drove to Bandar Puteri Puchong to look for eats. Saw a shop with good business called Penang One so I guess it was a safe bet. It was actually a collection of 'famous' hawker fare from Penang and I just came back from Penang. LOL. Never mind. One can never have enough time and stomach capacity to try everything anyway. The food is supposedly imported fresh from Penang daily. Tried the assam laksa since I d...

Madonna & Child , swiped from williamnyk on Flickr. Attended a wedding mass on Saturday afternoon at SFX. This followed a buffet dinner the night before at the bride's house. A fantastic spread with most of the major meats-- two types of chicken, lamb, prawn, calamari and fish. Back to the mass. The bride's family is Catholic but the husband ain't. So it was a short affair. And when it came Holy Communion, less than ten people came up. As usual, sis was working, so the kids were with mum and I. Big Monster was behaving horribly. He wouldn't keep his trap shut and was being a pain so I had to separate the kids. Dragged him to sit at the back pew so that the proceedings won't be disturbed. He truly tested my patience that day. They had a little tea party after mass with proper teacups and plates, and yet I found myself using the disposable stuff. LOL. That's what you do when eating with kids. Later that night, I joined an impromptu dinner with Jay and Khatija...