will i am's delayed diary

collagePenang2008 Swiped from williamnyk . Almost half of three centuries had passed since I last set foot on Penang Island. My last visit there was with a rombongan sekolah for World Children's Day. I was also supposed to visit during Mel's sister's wedding but that plan somehow fell through. Normally, my CNY is spent cooped up at home. This year is an exception to the norm-- my sister invited the family to a food appreciation trip there. Never passing up a chance for a family trip, mum, bro and I signed on for it. 138 smackeroos per head. We left for Penang on CNY2 and also managed to cram in a pit stop at Taiping to visit an old friend of mum's. Traffic conditions were good, except at the Penang Bridge. Now I understand why I keep hearing the same traffic reports everyday. Bountiful toll booths, but they all eventually converge into a measley two lanes. Lunch was at a random food court as not many places were open. Ordered chicken rice, Char Kuey Teow and Yong Tau

Leave Swiped from ·BigGolf· . With phase II of my development in full swing, my resource pool has taken another hit. A colleague has decided to resign after 6 years with the company. Didn't even bother to wait for the increment that was to be in one or two months time. Can't really blame her. Promises are made, but they are never kept. You either wait or you leave. Sigh. But I must say that it's really bad timing. The requirements are pouring in and other projects are starting too and this constantly puts a strain on my small kingdom. The Emperor will sooner or later raise troops for the looming war ahead, and sad to say, my holdings will be commandeered. Good troops are hard to come by and replacements slow to be found. The Emperor plays a dangerous game of balance. Shifting his troops here and there. Too little butter spread over too big a piece of bread. "So when is it your turn to leave? Are you still learning anything from your work? Too comfortable alrea

Princess XX Swiped from williamnyk . The newest addition to my STAR LRT celebrity member is Princess XX. Aptly named so because she is the epitome of femininity. The XX sex chromosome. She is the Puteri Lilin of legend. The damsel in distress. A fragile flower petal. The moment she enters the train, she will glide to the handrail and cling to it-- barely. As if the lightest of secret farts from nearby passengers can dislodge her from her place. She rests her weight on one foot. She lightly bends her leg and cocks her head to one side, letting her curls dangle. She looks up with hooded eyes, bedroom eyes. She pouts. Ever in the most feminine of dresses ( perhaps she buys XXL at "Little Princess" outlets? ). Strappy dresses ( often the bellpepper variety! ) with a cardigan over. Sometimes a giant bow on her bosom. Her dainty feet are always in shoes fit for a ballerina. Crystal bracelets crawl up both her forearms. I wonder if she stirs interest in the men who share t

collage1CNY2008Home Swiped from williamnyk . No Yasmin Ahmad CNY ad for Petronas this year. Read in the papers that the "Go home for reunion dinner, if you can" ad was visualised by a young hotshot from some gweilo firm. Thinking about it, reunion dinner is getting to be a smaller and smaller affair with each passing year. When I was a kid, my whole family would travel from Kuantan to Teluk Intan ( a 7-8 hours trunk road drive ) to have dinner with my grandma, uncle and cousins. As the years passed, nearly all my cousins started their own family and it was quite a challenge getting everyone together in one place anymore. Later, dad passed on, my grandma passed away and even my uncle called it a day. Eventually, we had reunion dinner in KL and my lengthy CNY trip eventually became a day trip to see my aunt and cousins. With my sister married, reunion dinner is just me, my mum and bro. A quiet affair, but still mum outdoes herself every year though she complains that

collageGrandMillennium Swiped from williamnyk . "Sir, would you like to do a balance transfer? 0%..." "Sir, the holiday season is coming, interested to take a cash advance for a well-deserved vacation?" "Congratulations, you've been given a free check-up with the Heart, Stroke and Cancer Center..." "Hello Sir, we are offering you a free-for-life platinum credit card..." "Just for a small membership fee, you get to enjoy our dining benefits and you get a complimentary night's stay..." I said no to all of them, but I kinda caved in to the last telemarketer. Benefits and privileges. You actually pay for them. The whole year I was holding the card, I just used their free buffet voucher and treated my sister and bro-in-law to a 50%-off high tea. Since the complimentary stay I had was already expiring, I decided to use it on FT Day lor. When I purchased the membership, the hotel was called "The Regent", now it is ca

Neway Swiped from williamnyk . Note: I'm back! Some stale posts for y'all! Enjoy... Was at Neway Karaoke, Bandar Puchong Jaya a couple of weekends back with SK, HP and BeiBei for a kind of pre-CNY crooning. It was my first time at that outlet and I must say that the floor space was pretty impressive. Everything was shiny and new. Our room was tastefully decorated unlike RedBox's gaudy wallpaper. My only complaint is the English song selection. Really pathethic. They don't even have Rihanna's "Umbrella" ( I can imagine KH heaving a sigh of relief )! My song list was as follows: Theresa Teng's "Don't Pick The Roadside Wild Flowers" Madonna's "Vogue" Siti Nurhaliza's "Bukan Cinta Biasa" Ella's "Gemilang" The Carpenter's "Goodbye To Love" Spice Girls' "Two Become One" Hoobastank's "TheReason" The Cranberrie's "Dreams" ???'s "Lov

Hi readers. Just a short post from my phone. Hope everyone is enjoying this Mickey Mouse Year holidays. I am currently in Sg Petani and will be making my way back to KL on Sunday. Major food post in the pipeline! Keep an eye out! Ciao! p.s.: Dear KH, sorry that I couldn't spend as much time with you as I wanted. Hugs. I'll make it up to you. :)

QN07: Bears in Cart Swiped from williamnyk . KH and I celebrated our one year anniversary on Monday. How time flies when you're having fun. It is a big milestone for us as it is the longest relationship that either of us has ever had. Looking back, I have seen much growth in our relationship and much change. I have changed. KH has changed. Even our attitude towards each other has changed. We talk of different things. We communicate differently too. And I actually asked KH about it one night: "Dear, I noticed that we don't do (this and this and this) anymore." "Has anything changed?" "Of course they have. It is inevitable. We can't be in the honeymoon phase forever, right?" KH told me so matter-of-factly that I was rather taken aback at that time. But I also eventually found much wisdom in that. I cannot expect things to stay stagnant. Things will change and we must also change to keep things moving. Each of us work hard to keep the lov

Lou Sang Swiped from Gerald Goh . With the impending CNY celebrations, I have stopped going into the office on Saturdays ( my deadlines seem ridiculous, so I'll ignore them for now ). But this not mean I'm not working. There's still work to be done.... at home. Yes folks, the dreaded Spring Cleaning . As wrong as it sounds, I wish I was at the office. So far, I've straightened ( not that kind of straight ) out my room, removed the pesky cobwebs clinging to the ceilings, wiped the dust of the ceiling fans, ferreted out the dustbunnies from most of the nook and crannies and wiped the windows clean. The grills at the front of the house have been painted and boy, that left me with seriously sore thighs. Forget about The Thigh Master, come help me with the rest of the house! With that out of the way, off I went to Takashi's pre-birthday party. Met some of the people who attended Jase's party some time back ( so sad that I didn't get the chance to meet Fl

For non-Catholics out there, The Herald is a religious weekly publication meant for internal distribution ( of course ) at parishes in Malaysia. The content is predominantly about the Roman Catholic faith and revolves around news from around ( usually matters regarding The Pope ) the world and happenings in the Malaysian dioceses. Each issue made up of sections in English, Chinese, Tamil and Bahasa Indonesia ( gotta love the terms "uskup agung" and "roh kudus" ). If anyone noticed, The Herald was in the news recently. The permit was expiring and the publishers brought up the issue of using a certain "word" in print. Initially, the relevant ministry allowed it and subsequently, our political leader was praised as being liberal and wise in a newspaper editorial. However, just a few days after that, the order was rescinded as the "word" was said to be "proprietary" for some and might cause "confusion" mong the populace. So, shou

collage300 Swiped from williamnyk . Unlike my significant other, KH, I watch on average 2 movies at the cinema each year. Last year, the only movies I watched were "Paprika", "The Golden Compass". Quite pathetic by normal standards. People normally flock to the big screen upon the release of big budget action movies like "Transformers" and the rest, but I normally choose the path of the DVD. And since I utterly detest pirated copies filmed from cinemas, I usually watch originals ( thanks to Jason Jr. for starting my legitimate collection ) or wait for months for the good quality bootleg. So, after months since its release ( the spoof is out even ), I have finally watched "300" and I must say that I quite like it. Very stylized ( so very "Sin City" ) and filmed MTV style. Kewl. I shall not speak of the semi-naked Spartans and their digitally-enhanced abs, but shall instead speak of Xerxes. Gotta love his bling-bling. Accessories-galore.

collageNewEra Swiped from williamnyk . Seems like ages since I did any volunteer work and so when Spring Single Mother's Society requested help, SK and I said "Yes". Like the past years, it was at New Era College's Convocation Festival . Every year, they invite organisations to set up shop so that funds can be raised for New Era and the organisations. This time round, we were selling footwear, bread, body lotion and beaded handicraft. It was quite a a failure as most people just scoffed at the bread, lotion and handicraft. Luckily, the shoes caught the eyes of most female visitors. Same as last year, it was bloody hot. We were practically baking under the merciless sun. To me, it seemed that the number of visitors had dwindled. And so, "business" was affected. So much sweat for peanuts. One girl was so adversely affected by the merciless sun that she kinda passed out. However, it was not the roaming St John's Ambulance people that treated her,

Janvier Swiped from williamnyk . I had my hair cut on Saturday and due to the impending Chinese New Year, the salon was busier than usual. I had to wait for more than forty minutes to be attended to. And due to the rush, my stylist KK cut my hair before washing it. Horror! Oh, ok, it's not THAT devastating. But he did use the more expensive shampoo at no extra charge. Not to apologize for the wait, but for bringing him 2 other customers that day whose combined bills I think rang up to MYR500. And I got MYR5. Thank you very much. Straight after that, Cheryl and I sped off to The Curve for Janvier's birthday ( on the way also picked up Apollo and QueerR ). It was raining cats and dogs and The Street was quite water-logged. They gotta consider building a SMART tunnel somewhere. By the time we arrived at Itallianie's, a whole bunch of bloggers and friends were already occupying a large table in the cheese-choked interior. Since no space was available, we sat at another

Anak Pontianak noniswara zarina an julie atie af1.jpg Swiped from www.mystarhill.com . Not many Malay dramas had caught my eye since last last year's Seputeh Cinta Qaseh , although TV3 practically airs twoseries a night and it changes every other night. We get crap like "Puteri" ( Louisa Chong is really freaky in that one ) and "Ai' di Beijing" ( I guess it means Love in Beijing ) and the sometimes amusing "Dunia Baru" ( I watch merely to see the ultra-religious maternal figure, Umi -- kap ba ro kap alif ta nun ). Amidst all the dramas of tears, love, bad business ethics and bitchy, buxom women, we get one series with a supernatural theme, "Anak Pontianak". I must say that that the acting is not particularly good ( the protagonist, Mia can only do two expressions-- human grunt and pontianak grunt ) and the story not exactly coherent ( way lots of kidnapping scenes just to show off some pontianak powers ), but still it's a fr

Persian Carpets/ tribal works Swiped from HORIZON . "The best persian rugs are the product of the deft hands of masters who can weave intricate patterns of hundreds of knots per square inch..." I am a bit ashamed to admit that I've become quite the habitual liar these days. My ability to spin tales has been honed these past months. The intricacies of telling half-truths, timing, the gauging of mood. Even SK is surprised. I do not blink. I do not avert my eyes. I look the person in the eye. I speak with confidence. My heart does not thump. I spin my tales and I find myself getting tangled deeper and deeper. I do it to live my life, to be my true self and yet I must blanket myself with lies again. Isn't it ironic? Do I have a choice? Of course I do. But I am still hiding. I am still running. It has been swept under the rug. And I continue to weave that rug...

IMG_7730 Swiped from williamnyk . Celebrated my mei's birthday on Saturday together with QueerR, Apollo and Cheryl. She brought us to Dragon Hut Restaurant , Taman Desa Waterpark for a nice dinner. It was my first time there and I was a bit skeptical about the place at first since it was secluded ( no business! ) and had lots of buses parked outside ( tourist trap! ). But it proved itself to be quite good in terms of food quality and price. My mei seemed to think that it had great ambience too: "Isn't it romantic dining by the lake?" "Erm.. it's an abandoned mining lake..." We ordered quite a variety of food in small portions in order to enjoy as many tastes as possible. Foregoing rice, we ordered wat tan hor ( recommended! ) and Hokkien noodles ( too salty! ). The accompanying dishes were fried aubergines with salted egg yolks ( weird but quite interesting ), marmite pork ribs ( pales in comparison to Leong Nga, Serdang ), sweet and spicy crab

LRT Hillbilly Swiped from williamnyk . More and more interesting people on the LRT these days. The newest addition to my catalogue of STAR LRT celebrities-- The LRT Hillbillies . Had the pleasure of sharing a train with them twice. The family consists of a loud-mouthed mother pushing a baby pram. The kid in the pram seems harmless enough. Two boys, most probably in primary school and one adolescent daughter. Whatever peace and quiet one can enjoy during the train ride is shattered when they walk through the door. They would be shouting and yelling at each other in shrill voices. The boys would be going on and on, annoying the mother and daughter. And they would ocassionally start a shouting match. At times, they would be figthing over stuff, and even the little tyke participates! Peace returns once they alight, and one can see the trail of chaos they had left behind-- a whole mess of kacang parang shells and 4D results slips on the floor. -_-".

collageNZX Swiped from williamnyk . Ah Zon and I met randomly ( pardon the Lingua Facebook ) on the blogosphere and he has since become like a little brother. Nearly everyday we would chat and at times, he would share his problems and I would share mine. A very songsang kind of relationship. I am the older one who wants to look younger and he is the younger one who wants to look older. So far I've only met him twice in person, and the last time we met was at Crystal Jade La Mian , Lot 10. Had lunch with SK, Apollo and QueerR. My first time there. I ordered sliced noodles with stewed beef. The noodles are actually sliced from a piece of dough and the slashes are apparent. However, it was too firm and the gravy a little too thick, but the meat was tender though. Also ordered some xiao long bao and Kenz enlightened us on the finer points of handling and enjoying the little soup-filled pork dumplings ( didn't know he was a food expert AND a picky eater ). It was quite n

collageMuji1 Swiped from williamnyk . "Warm Greetings from Chilly Tokyo!" , reads the note I got from a parcel dispatched from Tokyo, Japan. It was computer-printed on a piece of Japanese paper ( coz apparently it came from Japanese trees, :P ), but initialed by the sender, Shigeki. He ran a Christmas gift giveaway for his readers some time back and I registered. Finally it arrived. I was worried that it might have been lost in the mail like KH's card ( along with a romantic poem which I will never see now, :( ). The detailed contents are described in his post and I will just post the pictures here. The cookies were the first to go, so no photo! Thanks for the gift Shigeki! Hope you have a fantabulous 2008!

BzzzzzzzzzzzBzzz Swiped from jwlphotography . I'm being terrorized by a bee. In the sanctity of my own home. When I use the bathroom in the morning, there will be an ominous buzz outside the window. There is no mistaking it. The annoying bee would dart in and cause me perform evasive manoeuevers. It attacks when I'm brushing my teeth; when I'm sitting on the crapper; when I'm washing my face or hands. When I leave, it leaves. When I try to resume my activities, it intrudes. I duck, I cover. I'm afraid that one day it's stinger will find its mark. So far, I've retaliated once with a copious amount of Ridsect. And I recently found one dead on the floor. But each time, a lone bee would be waiting, to disrupt my peace and quiet. They train replacements it seems. The scheming little buggers. Perhaps it's time I move against the hive......