will i am's delayed diary

On my first night in Singapore, Tater booked me for dinner. Unfortunately, I was running a bit late that evening because a client was asking for documentation and it had to do with my part. Blegh. Told Tater that I might be late. He told me no problem and would only pop the chicken into the oven when I told him I was leaving office. Only then did I know he was cooking! Turns out it was for a special occasion-- my anniversary with KH! Gosh, so nice of him. When I arrived, he was busy in the kitchen whipping up some corn ( no, he wasn't dressed in an apron and underwear only LOL ). The cream sauce chicken was in the oven. He 'riced up' the chicken by using Tsao Tsing wine instead of cooking Sherry. For carbs, he boiled some brown rice. The meal was Tater-licious. Normally my room had a copy of the Holy Bible placed by the Gideons. This time round, I had The Teaching of Buddha. A first for me. On Thursday evening, the highlight of my trip arrived at Changi Airport, i.e.

Sunday mass as usual with me wondering where to go KL for lunch. Mum suggested Ipoh Road YTF but I couldn't remember how to get to the OKR branch. Gave up on that and went to Ishin instead. Quite an extreme alternative in terms of cuisine and price. Mum had not been there before so that was OK. Love the fact that they have free valet parking but I really dislike their iPad menu. Always better to flip through a physical menu. Easier to decide and make an order especially when it's not linked to an order taking system. Took me a while to decide on Tuna Tataki Salad, grilled Sanma and nigiri sushi . Was impressed by the salad in terms of quality and value for money. And it was interesting to note that the Sanma was grilled without first gutting it. Seems that it's quite the norm. Never quite noticed that. In the evening, I had dinner at MaisonSK. The usual gang was invited including KH. The star of the night was Brian's ajitama which he made following a video he

Just after five days, I was back in KL. In the morning, went to the market with mum. Things were a little busier in the market but not quite the last minute frenzy yet. But those who sold clothes brought in tents as makeshift changing rooms to meet the demand. Had a simple breakfast of pan mee and was a bit surprised when the seller didn't leave after I gave him a MYR5 note. He was waiting for another 50 sen. Inflation. Pre-GST adjustment. Ouch. Back at home, I cleansed the house of roaches. While I was mopping upstairs, mum started boiling some porridge. Halfway through cleaning the rooms, I smelled something burning. I ran down to find that the porridge had turned into a black rice cake. Took the pot off the flame and switched on the cooker hood at full blast. Found mum sleeping on the sofa. Opps. I continued spritzing all the nooks and crannies with lemongrass oil. When mum woke up, she started cooking replacement mee suah . What better to do on a Saturday afternoon

It was the final week of the "1600 Pandas" in Malaysia. So after Sunday mass, mum and I headed to Publika. Met up SK, KH and QueerRanter-D at Journal by Plan B for lunch. Nothing on the menu spoke to me. Just had an average-tasting Pho Bo. The queue circling the Pandas was a bit crazy, so we just circled on the outside looking for lulls in the crowd. Found some good photo opportunities. The long corridor design of Publika made it a wonderful choice to exhibit the pandas. And the overhead walkways gave the perfect POV. Truth be told, the Pandas were just Pandas. The merchandise was quite obscenely priced. Selfie sticks at 120 a pop. Umbrellas went for MYR80 while T shirts were just ten ringgit cheaper. The plush toy was an amazing MYR100. Caught sight of a cute kid manning the Grabit kiosk. Coincidentally, KH had the app and went to redeem a free magnum mini. Cute to have the Japanese kid explain things to us. Sweet smile. The bad coverage there made the interac

The electrical problems at my house had reached its peak with the main fuse unwilling to budge. And the electrician that my sister engaged was so busy that he couldn't come on short notice. So when I landed at KLIA2, I directly took a cab to my sister's place. Went back home to pack a few things after I ate dinner. Not a pleasant experience rummaging in the dark. Lucky I had a large LED lantern to be my Light of Elendil. The kids had new toys to play with. A stray cat had delivered a few kittens in the store room much to my sister's chagrin. The maid had to hose down the baby stroller where the mother cat had decided to give birth. The mother cat wasn't very attentive, so my sister stepped in to feed them her breast milk! With a syringe of course. The kids had fun with the kittens, but were kinda rough. Little Monster picked them up by their heads. Yikes. In the end, only one survived and the mother cat finally picked up the lone kitten and left. On Saturday a

While lining up outside Sushi Zanmai , Paradigm Mall, I had the chance to eavesdrop on the conversation between Gardenia Gary and his girlfriends. He was lamenting about how hard it is for him to gain weight ( Boo-hoo! Wait till you hit 30 Gary! ). According to his research he needs x kilojoules to begin to initiate weight gain. By his calculations, that meant 7 loaves of Gardenia bread every day! Yikes. He'd sooner turn into Marshmallow Man before turning into a hunk! Good enough to stay a Snow White twink. But a hunk did turn up later, which I will reveal in my next segment of Mall Celebrities. Stay tuned.

Been a while since I attended mass at St Joseph's. Noticed that the altar was now draped with four depicts of the Doctors of the Church. It used to be plain construction plastic sheets. And Sir Dr Peter Low the Choir master was missing, but the choir didn't breakdown. Glad to see that the choir of the Risen Christ has backup people in leadership positions. The priest talked about Catholic parents who didn't baptise their children or send them to Sunday school but instead let them choose their religion after their majority. He likened it to not sending children to school and letting them choose what education they wanted when they turn 18. At the end of it, he yelled, "Stupid!". Haha. Right after church I went to Tater's place. I had booked him for brunch that day. Early birthday brunch. He chose the venue, a place called Five & Dime Eatery at River Valley Road. Actually, the taxi driver had dropped us very close to the place but we got confused and

The end of the January marked my 8th year with KH, so I was determined to get him something special. Woke up bright and early, had my breakfast and headed out to Orchard for some inspiration. I walked from ION to Isetan to Takashimaya to Robinsons to Sommerset 313. No luck. Didn't see anything that fit into wonderful and affordable. Lol. Shopping in Orchard is not for the faint-hearted. Looked for lunch at Taka's Food Village. Saw 1A Currypuffs and immediately went for it. Chose an uncommon variety-- chilli crab. Find the skin so much better than Old Chang Kee. Supplemented with char siew bao and a pan-fried meat bao from one of the seasonal stalls and that was it. Sat at one of the benches and read "Strange Tales from China" while I munched away on the hot snacks. Before I left, there was another must-eat that I had to revisit-- Rive Gauche Patisserie . Years ago, KH bought me a slice of Guanaja from there. But my eyes caught sight of a more beautiful option-- P

Note: Believe it or not, there are no food pics in this post because all the photos were so bad! On my first day in Singapore for 2015, I arranged a dinner date with Finnegan. Such a coincidence that he was in town for some business. He asked me about food options but I kinda drew a blank. In the end, I remembered a recommendation from my brother about a messy burger at Orchid Hotel, so I looked it up. The joint was called Two Blur Guys . Perfect location cause my office was in the vicinity and Finnegan was hoped up nearby. Met up at Tanjung Pagar MRT and found the place with little fuss. Finnegan looked well, but a little bit thinner from the last I saw him before Christmas season. He assured me that he was well, but just worrying a bit more. When an investor worries ( I'm guessing it's about money! ) I guess 2015 will not be such a smooth year. The signature dish at that burger joint is the pulled pork burger which unfortunately was sold out by dinner time. Picked an altern

Asked mum whether she was up for marketing on Saturday morning and she said yes. However, the next morning I had to knock on the door to check on her. Turned out she wasn't feeling feeling well. Body aches. Her cough had dragged on for three weeks and guess an infection had flared up. Despite her condition, we went to the market anyway. A short trip cause there basically wasn't much vegetables to buy due to the rainy season. CNY shopping was gaining momentum. One could hear the songs, see the red clothes, seasonal biscuits and decorative items for sale. Mum didn't seem very into it. Had our favourite breakfast noodles then went over to the GP's. According to him, her respiratory tract was infected and so prescribed some antibiotics. In the evening, met up KH at 103 Workshop Cafe at Seri Petaling. Not ventured to that part of the woods on a while due to the jams and chaotic parking. I have upgraded it to the status of Cheras, i.e. that ghost place Good thing is

I thought of going to work on the 2nd of January but that idea got scrapped when I found out that none of my colleagues were going. All of them took replacement leave for Prophet Muhammad's Birthday on Saturday. Thought that since I was considered based in Singapore now, I wasn't eligible. But since my boss approved it, what the heck. Brought mum out for breakfast at Restoran New Seaview at Taman Damai Utama. For some reason, kopitiam seem to favour that name. With that many seas out there, the Klang Valley would be underwater by now. But at least this shop actually painted blue skies on the ceiling. Went to do some chores too. Cut my unruly hair and did some banking. Not a pretty sight at the branches. It was the start of the month and the the previous day was a public holiday. To top it off, a whole bunch of people turned up to withdraw their ASB dividends. Chaos. I just wanted to update my phone number so that I could get a stupid security pin to register for internet ba

What does one do on the first day of the year? Something meaningful to kick-start 2015? Of course I did nothing of the sort. Lol. First order of the day-- breakfast with mum, then brunch with the gang. Drove out all the way to Solaris Dutamas to eat at Whimsical . KH was working that day, but the year end closing could wait till he ate and saw his cute BF. Hehe. Was not impressed with the food at Whimsical. Mum and I just shared a Whimsical Pancakes cause we were still full from the wantan noodles . Nothing special except for the use of Cielo Dolci Gelato. And KH's cotton candy Affogato was just that, Affogato topped with cotton candy. Not necessary at all. Jalan-Jalan at Publika after that. They got some artists together to make their own interpretation of a Christmas tree. The paddy pyramid was downright ugly while I liked the one made of white metal bird cut-outs. Matched my T shirt prints! Didn't walk for long. Ended up on our butts again at Coffee Stain . Apollo was pis