will i am's delayed diary

As a follow up to the Brunei trip in April, I'm back there to begin some detailed work. Turns out that the client was convinced with my MD's goreng-goreng . Oh, great. By default, Bandar Seri Begawan is already quite laid back, but to visit during the fasting month is to experience things at a few notches lower. Best of all, Brunei's hudud -ness and Syariah -compliance has increased drastically in recent years with very obvious effects. During the fasting month, nobody is allowed to eat or drink in public, by law. It applies to Bruneians and visitors, regardless of religion. If you're caught, you could be fined up to a few thousand dollars, but it's usually around BND300. Food and beverage outlets are allowed to operate, but you just can't eat on premises. Feel free to pack your food and eat in some hidden location. At the hotel, my complimentary breakfast was served in a meeting room instead of the usual cafe. Not only that, a partition was placed at the ent

Apollo's mum invited us over to her place to celebrate the DuanWu festival. Among the guests were surprise guests, Mei and her cute daughter. Been a long time since I saw both of them. A huge lunch was prepared for all of us, including dessert. In addition to all that food, we also had two cakes for Apollo's birthday. When we were done with the food, we adjourned to the living room where we chatted and played with Mei's daughter. Played a game of Penguin Trap , where two players take turns using an ice pick to hack off hexagonal pieces of 'ice'. The loser is the who lets the plastic penguin fall off the ice shelf. SK brought some Milo Cubes that she had ordered off 11Street. Basically, it's exactly what it sounds like, Milo powder compacted into cubes. If the Transformers ever consumed Milo, it would be in that form, similar to Energon cubes. Anyway, Mei's daughter loved that stuff. But I teased her by putting all of them on the Penguin Trap ice shelf

Friday paktor sessions sometimes get very interesting with KH. He brought me to APW Bangsar , an old printing press that houses a hipster food scene. According to its website, APW stands for Art Printing Works, historically one of Kuala Lumpur's major printers. In 2013, it was re-imagined as a creative industrial space. These days, all things retro are coveted and it's charm used to draw in customers. We ate at Kaiju Company , a Thai-Japanese fusion restaurant that has an origami dragon circling overhead. When the sun goes down, the dragon lights up. Cool, right? Many interesting choices there, but not all scored high marks. The Yoyoki Tuna Tataki with papaya salad was pretty good to start with. And the deep-fried chicken soft bone was a great beer snack that came served in a sake box. However, KH's choice of alcohol for the night wasn't to my liking. It was a sake-based cocktail that was paired with asamboi and chili. Can't get any more Thai-Japanese fu

The Sanyo refrigerator at my home has been around nearly as long as I. Mum finally decided to let it go due to its constant leaking. Other than that, it works perfectly fine really. Manufacturers don't make things so sturdy anymore. On a fine Saturday morning, SK, mum, and I made a trip to Sri Petaling to shop for a refrigerator. We ate at Poppo Kanteen before heading to D'Legend , our favourite neighbourhood electricals store. After much deliberation, we decided on a Hitachi . Although its more expensive, the reputation and quality is better. As much as the salesman praised Hitachi, I bought an extended warranty anyway. Better be safe than sorry with today's appliances. Right after that, we stopped at Minamotonoya Cafe for a cup of coffee. Never noticed the place really. According to the staff, its been there for years. Do give their Tofu Cheesecake a try if you're a fan of cheese and tofu. SK suggested that we meet up with KH in the afternoon for another s

Every year, my cousin would extend us an invitation to his father's birthday party at Bagan Sungai Burong. As it was a Friday, I took a day off to drive down with mum and SK. The venue was changed back to Restoran Yao Kee this year, maybe due to the smaller number of guests. We were lucky to be given a table in the air conditioned room, but the downside was that it was shared with a table of VIPs who were puffing away like a chimneys. My uncle was pretty happy to see us. The more relatives, the merrier. The seafood wasn't all that great this time round, but it did have the yummy fish that SK liked. Once the birthday song was sung and the cake was cut, we adjourned back to the house. More chit-chat while batting away thick clouds of mozzies. As usual, we would leave the village with a huge box of fish that my cousin caught. He kept apologizing for the small size of the fishes because he had not been out at sea.Recently too busy with duties at the village Mazu temple. To us,

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 &#

Spent Saturday afternoon with KH after my usual marketing session in the morning. We tried out the brand new food menu at Little People , Avantas. In addition to a seafood pasta, KH ordered polenta again, just a few days after having that at Drift Dining. Truth be told, it did taste better than the one we had a couple of nights ago. Although the food was promising, the star of the afternoon was Polenta Pete , a cutie who occupied the table beside us. Decide for yourself if you want to order him off the menu. After lunch, KH chilled at my house for a while. As usual, he liked to fool around on the couch. Perhaps the risk of discovery turns him on! Mum served up clams for dinner. She bought a really fresh batch from the morning market. And Sis made roast pork! Yummy!

Some time in May, The Australian High Commission organized a food fair called the "Australian Food Trail" involving several restaurants in the Klang Valley. That brought us to eat at Drift Dining again for our Friday paktor session. The waitress recommended that we try the raw oysters, which we did to our regret. They were so small, so malnourished. Just gulped it down with our cocktails. Polenta was next, something that KH was craving for. We ordered two mains-- Crispy Skin Barramundi, and Australian Lamb Shank. The fish was better. The lamb shank was just that, lamb shank. Not as lackluster as Secret Recipe's version, but ain't more magical either. So much for the Australian Food Trail. Perhaps next time I'll just go for an Australian Treasure Trail .

When I was a little boy, Wesak was the time to go to the Kuantan Buddhist Association to bathe the statue of Baby Buddha with water that was full of flower petals. Mum would then take a few packets of that water to use at home. Before leaving, we would also line up for the free vegetarian food. Every year, it would be the same delicious fried noodles topped with vegetable curry, and faux roast goose. Fast forward 2017, I'm sitting at Foo Hing Dim Sum House having stuff that would never qualify as vegetarian. As expected, it was very difficult to get a table a Foo Hing, but we were lucky that the crowd overlooked a table right at the back of the place. In my opinion, dim sum there is quite decent. According to my colleague, they are pretty famous for the their big pao, but its sold out pretty quickly. Perhaps next time.