KL Weekend Break (Again!!) from 19th Sept ~ 21st Sept, '08

As quick as i had returned to Labuan, I was back in KL again from the 19th Sept until the 21st Sept. At first I thought it would be fun to return to good ol' KL so soon after the long merdeka break and escape my daily monotony of work. But sadly, it was not to be as the workload was piling up faster than me with a toiletbowl and some bad chilies form yesterday's dinner. The few days before my flight back was superly stressed and was so rushing, I actually brought back that rushing feeling back to KL. Throughout the KL weekend I was so tense, I just couldn't relax. My mind could not get out of work even if I wanted to. I was replying my office emails at home at 12am, imagine that. And when I did manage to forget about work, some office idiot calls, spoiling my relaxing mood. Even my boss SMSed me if I could attend to some work. I replied back to him that I have "limited access to internet connectivity" (even though we are bathed in Wi-Fi nowadays). He didn't reply me after that. Sorry boss!!!

And with that stressy feeling, I still had to try and enjoy what I paid for to AirAsia (RM150 Labuan to KL, round-trip. It's a good deal trust me). Here's what unfolded in those tensed-up days in KL:

Friday, 19th September 2008.

Meet up with Bryan at KLCC and got to know him through MSN a while ago. He has this high-pitched laugh I can never forget. He says he sings fantastically well at the karaoke, and I was Sooooooo tempted to let him prove my doubts right. But sadly, he said he "has a slight cough now" and could not sing properly. Coincidence or an excuse??!! My ISA-senses are tingling, and I'm on to you Bryan!!! Anyway, we had a super late lunch at 'Kim Gary Beyond' at Avenue K (ate at 3:30pm 'cause I was late from a jam. My fault la, sorry la!!) But before we can order, some sales girl came over and introduced the 'Kim Gary' membership card to us. I was not interested at all but Bryan was so easily fooled. Idiot!!! But it provided good vouchers when signing up for the card. For example, 50% off on total bill on your birthday (max 4 person i think? Can't remember), RM5 voucher that can be used anytime, some free burger and drinks vouchers and also 10% off on everything and anytime when you eat at Kim Gary. The cost for the card? RM15 only. A good deal if you love 'Kim Gary'...

We just chitchatted and hang around KLCC (tried on shirts and stuff at 'Esprit' even though we have no money to buy haha) and did some stuff until 6pm. He had an appointment with another friend, and me too with SL. We went to the 'Isetan Member's Day' sale, and the crowd was super mad. It's limited to members only but the crowd was so huge, security people was all over Isetan (and it was still during working hours!!!). I was so tempted to buy a 'Seed' shirt (the design had a black strip at the middle and was all the way from top to bottom, looked like a tie) but I really wanted to buy jeans so I passed on it. In the end, I only bought 'Haagen Dazs' ice-cream (buy 2 tubs at RM30 and free 1 tub). All in all, clothing and grocery stuff was pretty cheap.

Later went for dinner and went back to SL's place to mess about with the computer. SL just got a brand spankin' new computer from HP, 'Intel Core 2 Duo' and all that heavy-duty PC stuff inside. But what I was super-duper-freakinliciously jealous was it's 24-inch HP LCD monitor!!! IT'S BLARDY HUGE AND SUPER CLEAR!!!! AAARRRGHHHHH!!! I WANT, I WANT!!!! Siiiiiiiiiiiiiigh. But we couldn't really test the monitor cause the movies we downloaded (shhhhh!! Illegal leh) can't play. Oh well, luckily I did copy a few movies when I was in Labuan so I can bring it over the next day lah...

Saturday, 20th September 2008.

The movies I copied for SL worked perfectly fine on the 24 inch LCD monitor and damn, the movies do look mighty perfect. Sighhhhhhhhhhh. It's like a cinema right at hooome. Its better than cinema I think coz the images on the LCD is super clear and bright. "Soooooooo lucky" i.e. 'Toyota Vios' advertisement haha. Later we went to Pavillion to continue my jeans hunting session and FINALLY found one that I like in 'Pull and Bear'. But at that time when I tried it on, the size didn't fit so I didn't buy =.= Saaaaaaad.....I'm doomed to failure with my jeans hunting mission.

Hungry and dissappointed, we went for lunch and ended up at 'Dain Ti Hill' on the top floor, next to 'TGI Friday's'. From the outside the place looks very impressive with its fusion of traditional chinese and western decor. But the food...oh God, the food is not good at all. This is another case of the 'The Apartment' at The Curve whereby its all about the looks and no substance on the food. Even the menu is limited in variety that serves plain chinese dishes (sweet and sour chicken, kailan, those stuff lah). We had to search for a full 10 minutes before we decided on what to order. SL had the 'Beef Rice' which was superly bad (too dry and tasteless) and I went adventurusly for the 'Emperor's Roll' that had baked rice with prawns, mango, cheese and mayo. Maybe I was overly adventurerous as the dish sucked big time. The rice is rolled into a style that is exactly like a sushi roll, but tastes totally not like sushi. It was just horrendous. It was served in 2 rolls, but even with my empty stomach that is commonly described as a 'trash can' because anything also can go in one, I only managed to eat 1 roll. It was that bad. And the drink didn't help either. I had the 'Honey Vinegar' (yes, vineger. SL forced me) for my drink and it really didn't help. For those 3 items, it was RM70, can you believe it??!! Luckily I think 'Citibank' was having a promo and I got 50% knocked off from my bill. But even at RM35, I still found it very expensive and not worth anything AT ALL. Definately NOT recommeneded. Here's the stuff to AVOID:

Emperor's Roll: Baked Rice Roll Topped with Mango: Looks like sushi, but not sushi. After eating this, I still don't know what t his is. A freaky creation. Terrible.

Beef Rice: Too dry and tasteless. Economy rice at any coffee shop tastes better than this.

Honey Vinegar Drink: Thank God for the Honey, honey.

Not satisfied with the food for the day, we ventured to other places around Pavillion (while shopping for jeans, I tried everything from 'Guess' to 'Levi''s' to 'Calvin Klein' and still no luck as I still like Pull and Bear). We ended up in a dimsim place at the top floor called 'Lijin Chinese Fusion Cuisine'. It had 30% off for all dimsum after 2pm, so what the heck, dimsum it was. And after ordering the 'Shanghai Siew Long Pao', the 'Har Gao', 'Siew Mai' and many more, I have to say it was YUMMY. I think this place is good, we can even see customers walking in and placing orders to 'tapau' and arranging those big chinese dinners for important occasions. So something must be right here. In the end, for the amount of food we ordered, we paid RM50 for dimsum that could have cost the same amount at those outside streetside places. A good deal and a good meal, that's super thumbs up in my book anyday!!!

Dinner time, we headed to Desa Sri Hartamas (I couldn't stop eating!!! Maybe because of the stress?? Haha) to celebrate Prasad's belated birthday. Big old Prasad is a married man now (and his wifey and friends treated him a 30-minute plane flying lesson at Subang Airport by an instructor. What a super cool present!!) We went to an Indian place called 'Saffron' (next to Aunty Nat) and the it serves very delicious Indian cuisine. Very yummy even though I don't like Indian food much. The interior of the place looks very very simple, but if you see properly at the patrons that eat there, there's a good blend of locals of all ethnic origin, foreigners and datuks/datins with bug cars parks outside the restaurant. In fact, 'Saffron' was voted the best restaurant a few times by some major newspaper before. So, soemthing must be right, correct? It's worth a try even though you might not fancy Indian cuisine and it's also good place to introduce yourself to the spicy side of food!!!

As Prasad was not a clubbing kaki or anything like that, we went into his car and ronda-ronda Sri Hartamas area to look for things to do. First thing came to mind was to play pool at 'Breakers', but we were so sure it was full to the max so we headed off to Bangsar to look for a place that serves "the best alchoholic coffee in town", as according to V. I forgot the name but it was unfortunately closed so we ended up at 'The Social" at Bangsar and had a few drinks there. Drank and talked-cock until TK came over. But by then, our hands were itchy with pool table sickness (Bangsar's pool places were full) so we headed back to 'Breakers' at Sri Hartamas haha. Got a table and my ass was properly whipped by Prasad and TK. I'm sooooooo out of touch with pool sigghhhh...Ever since I went over to Labuan...ever since then....my silky touch of the que is now gine. Sighhhhh....


Sunday, 21st September 2008.

Woke up late and had lunch with SL & TK at 'Kar Heong Chicken Rice'. This place is so delicious I just have to eat it eveytime I come back home to KL haha. It's like I've signed an invisible contract that stipulates that I must eat at this place or else my ass will be properly sued by Karpal Singh. A new branch opened in Kota Damansara and I heard the boss went over there already to manage the place. So to all those Kota Damansara folks, do try out this place, it's chicken rice that is closest to Ipoh's chicken rice that I've ever tasted. Honestly.

As the day was a slow and rainy one, we then headed off to 'Beans' at SS15 for some 'tong sui'. Not the best palce for 'tong sui' but at least there's a place that serves it whenever we feel like having it. We chit-chatted about stuff and mainly on the Langkawi trip (which I have a funny feeling is doomed to failure. Sighhh).

It was getting late and I wanted to go to 1 Utama's 'Pull and Bear' store to look at the jeans I saw yesterday and see if there's my size available...and there was none. But when I tried the same size I tried yesterday, it FITTED!!! It's abit loose at the waist but with a belt, it actually fitted very nicely. Wowwww. I can't believe it. I've gained so much weight in 1 day?? But it fitted and that's all I wanted to know haha so I finally bought my jeans after so many months of searching!!! Yaaaaayyyy!!! The cost? RM250. Okla for jeans, 'Levi's' also around that price but I'm soooo bored with Levi's. Furthermore we change jeans after many years right...? So RM250 is considered a long-term investment then ;P

Finally felt satisfied after so many days of tension and stress, we headed back to Sunway Pyramid's 'TGI Friday's' to celebate Majidah's birthday. I have to admit, there was no planning for this event whatsoever (sorry Maj hahahaha). I was just throwing around ideas on where to eat for the past few days with Ah Nei and all (it was down to either 'Delicious' at Bangsar, 'Wendy's Bristro' at Sunway or 'TGI Fridays'. In the end it was Fridays cause everyone will be familiar with Pyramid). I tried calling to make reservations because for sure it will be super-duper-packed due to the buka puasa session, but when I called some guy said "we don't do reservations at this peak time, however if you walk-in I'm sure there will be a place". Fine, I didn't want to argue with him so I planned on walking-in, and when I walked-in it was super-packed. Thank you Mr. Anonymous TGI Fridays man. There was a waiting list and we were 4th on the list. And that forced Maj to buka puasa somewhere else. Oooopppps, thousand apologies ya. But she came back to join me, SL, Ah Nei, and Paul. I noticed that this branch in Pyramid is abit too serious as the waiters were all too cool and non-communicating. Other 'TGI Fridays' branches have this fun and jovial mood to them (especially at The Curve) but this one is just...cold. Even though I still noticed the staff did sing the usual birthday songs to the guests (and also force the birthday boy/girl to STAND ON A CHAIR. Talking about asking for attention), it was not all right at Sunway's branch with the staff. But it's not all doom and gloom: it had this huge & super-cool Bruce Lee action figure right next to our table and the food was not bad either, check it out:

Haiyaaaaa!!!! Abs that will kick @SS!!!

Mac & Chez as appetizer: If you like cheese and fried stuff, you're gonna LOVE this!!!

JD Burger: A thick chuck of beef with generous slices of bacon and a dash of TGI's signature JD sauce on the side. With chips of course. Absolutely perfect for burger lovers.

JD Chicken: El Classico. Chicken with the distinctively tasty JD sauce with a plop of whipped potatoes. Lovely. If you don't know what to order at TGI's, you can start off with this.

Sizzling Chicken & Shrimp: Garlic-marinated chicken breast and plump shrimp tossed with zesty roma tomato-basil salsa. Served with onions and peppers and our cheddar cheese mashed potatoes on a sizzling platter of melted Colby and Jack cheeses. Quoted from TGI Friday's website. Ha!!! Unfortunately, this dish was not served sizzling, which was a down-side.

Diablo Pasta: Tender, seasoned chicken and shrimp sautéed in olive oil, then blended in a fiery tomato Diablo sauce with wine. Served on linguine pasta with freshly-grated Parmesan cheese. Not sure how it tasted like as Ah Nei Nei ordered this. Any comments Nei Nei?

After the dinner it was already getting late and Pyramid was closing. So we all headed over to SS15's 'Canai & Such' to finally have a proper discussing on our Langkawi trip in December. Paul even brought with him a lappy for research and make bookings if need to. But the lappy ran out of power mid way through =.= Nice one Pauuuuuuul. At the same time I also handed over to Ah Nei her 2 cartons of 'Marlboro Reds' ciggies that she asked me to buy in Labuan (RM65 for 1 carton. Cheap? Not really, last month it was just RM55. Too bad Nei Nei. Oh and btw, don't come find me if you die from the ciggies ya, you asked me to buy one!!!). Oh, that night it was also super cold and with the wind blowing, it was like drinking 'Coffee Bean' at Genting. So cool haha. Anyway, around 12am plus plus we adjourned home. But already we got to know the rough price of Langkawi, a booking is imminent (and at the time of posting this blog, 4 peeps made bookings already which are me, TK, Paul and Maj. Nei Nei and Theva is also on the way I heard). So, I think this Langkawi trip might just be a blast after all...until then, finger's crossed.

So my trips are piling up already. Oct will be in 'Kota Kinabalu', Dec will be 'Langkawi', and Feb will be the 'Hong Kong/HK Disneyland (hopefully)/Shenzen/Macau' trip. And that's not all. 'Penang' is also target (althought still early stages of planning) and with my family will be 'Guilin' in China. And is 'Kuching' for the World Music Festival really on...? God help my pockets, God bless my wallet....

Merdeka Break in KL, 29th August ~ 2nd Sept '08, Part 2

Monday, 1st September 2008

This is one day I wouldn’t forget in a quite a while. In fact, some friends and I had been planning to do this for quite sometime now and we finally dug up the courage to actually do it. This is the day I went for my first ‘Fish Spa Session’ hahahaah. In fact this is no big deal la, I wanted to do it for a looong time liao but didn’t get the right people to go with. I actually tried calling a few people to join in but some chickened out (especially SL. Hmmmpphh!!) and some had other things to do. In the end, only TK and I offered our precious legs to be devoured by hundreds of hunger-induced fishes of various sizes, ranging from tiny to goddamn big. The thing is, the task looks simple. Dig in your feet, relax, and enjoy the ambiance of a spa environment right? WRONG. My first experience was SUPER geli, so tingling and ticklish until me and TK just can’t stop laughing, I actually had stomach cramps from the laughing. I think it was only after 15 minutes or half way through the spa session that we finally got used to the ticklish sensation. Here are some photos (WARNING: contains graphic images of HAIRY LEGS. Be warned!!):

ARRGGHHHH!!!! Actually there's no pain, only ticklish, like big gigantic ants crawling all over your legsss!!!

Just imagine these fishes had teeth. Now THAT would be scaryyyy!!!

Just look at the size of that bugger!!!!

Just me and the fishes. Okla, i'm a camwhore. Bite me.

It’s an experience that I’ll really never forget. But here’s the down part. I was told by a friend that the fish we experienced was NOT the proper fish that is supposed to give us those healing and cleaning properties. In other words, those fishes you saw in my photos above are PIRATED fishes. Yes, pirated. Even fishes get copied. Okla, not cloned but the spa we went to provided us the wrong type of fish. The proper fish is supposed to be the ‘Garra Rufa’ fish that are tiny, blackish in color and non-aggressive. Other names they have are “nibble fish” or the “reddish log sucker” (important word here: sucker, not biter). They originated from Turkey where they primarily consume on the dead areas of the skin, thus allowing the opportunity for new, healthier skin to replace the dead ones.

The ones we experienced were probably cheap replacements. A quick check online and I found out that there are indeed a different version called the ‘Chin Chin fish’ originated from China. Now I’m not saying this China version is dangerous or does not do the job of cleaning your feet. The ones we experienced were probably of the China variety and I’ve noticed that they did NOT bite or were NOT aggressive. But here’s the problem with these China variety: these fishes are however were pretty big in size and therefore had pretty big mouths. Fish being fish, they could have bitten more than they could chew and once they bite through skin, our skin could bleed and bacteria from the dirty aquarium water could have entered our body and God knows what diseases we could have suffered. And if you think I’m exaggerating here, this situation was actually brought to my attention from a family friend working as a Doctor in an established hospital. So there you go, if you really want to do a fish spa, be careful of the type of fish they are offering, don’t mess with your life are a measly 30 minutes of fun and laughter (watch Jim Carrey movies instead!!).

So the fish spa that we went to is called ‘Foot Master’ located at 1st Floor Subang Parade (also in Sunway Pyramid). With the many fish spa mushrooming all over Malaysia, it's best that everyone be careful and choose the right type of fish just in case!!!

Anyway, the results after our spa session? No bleeding or anything of that sort. In fact, my legs felt a bit smoother. And I noticed my leg was less hairy…I guess the fishes will have some indigestion issues to attend to….

After the spa, it was dinner time and I had to treat my family with a nice dinner for all the ‘Mother’s Day’, ‘Father’s Day’, birthdays, etc etc etc that I’ve missed because I was in Labuan. SL joined in, and we suggested a nice restaurant in KL but it was getting late and I bet they didn’t like jams so we headed off to ‘Wendy’s Bistro’ in Sunway Mentari (highly recommended place for its ribs and stuff. Yummy!!) but unfortunately it was closed. So we ended up in ‘Eden Restaurant’ in Subang Parade instead (back to Parade haha). They had this ‘Executive Set’ promo and it looks pretty good so all of us whacked it. For RM34.90 per person it had loads of dishes to choose from, but here’s what I ordered for the set:

Soup/Appetizer: French Onion Soup. You can never go wrong with Onion Soup!!! Yum yumm!!

Main Course: ‘BLT Steak on Olio Pasta’. A slice of juicy steak topped onto ribbons of Olio Pasta that had hints of spiciness and cheese. A rather delicious combo actually!!

Dessert: ‘Bread & Butter Pudding with Vanilla Sauce’. Not my usual choice of dessert but I felt abit brave that day and chose this over the usual ‘Tiramisu’ and all that. Abit too sweet but interesting dessert nonetheless!!!

Coffee or Tea: Coffee, Tea…or me? Hahaha

Tuesday, 2nd September 2008.

It’s the day for my return to Labuan. But my flight was 6:00pm so there is still a small window of opportunity to enjoy further. So we headed off to Mid Valley early in the morning, at around 10am haha (I’m constantly ending up in either MV or Parade in this trip. I wonder why…?) SL really wanted to see ‘Wall*E’ so we did just that, and again I have to say that ‘Wall*E’ is the CUTEST thing in 3-D form ever (doggies are still the cutest thing EVER). We got the ‘early-bird’ promo at RM7 a ticket (nice) but the cinema was quite empty and it was SUPER cold (*ahem*)….

After the movie it was lunch time and SL always loved Vietnamese noodles so we headed off to ‘Little Vietnam’ and stuffed ourselves silly. We had noodles but for me, the highlight of any Vietnamese restaurant visits is not the food, but the COFFEE. I don’t know about you guys, but if you like coffee you just have to try out their style of coffee. Vietnamese coffee or ‘Ca phe sua da’ is brewed with a small metal drip filter (with Vietnamese coffee powder in it) and is placed on top of a cup containing condensed milk. Hot water is poured into the filter and just let it drip down to the cup and viola!!! Stir it and drink the best coffee that you will ever taste in your life. Okla, I’m exaggerating but it’s a very excellent substitute to the usual bore of ‘Starbucks’ and ‘Coffee Bean’.

And with that sip of coffee heaven, we headed back to my place and duly headed off for the airport for my plane ride back to Labuan. That’s it for the Merdeka break holiday which consisted of sushi, Baskin Robbins, Fireman BBQ, Merdeka fireworks, a very bad Vin Diesel movie, shopping, a TK beef burger overindulgence, yamcha, a fish spa session, Eden steaks and Vietnamese coffee. Satisfied? Definitely.

See you all again in KL on this 19th September people!!!!!!!

Merdeka Break in KL, 29th August ~ 2nd Sept '08, Part 1

Went back to KL for the long Merdeka weekend from 29th August until the 2nd September, and as always it was an enjoyable trip with friends and family. It wasn't spectacular but fun nonetheless. Here’s what unfolded within those 5 days:


Friday, 29th August 2008.

As most of my friends were rushing to complete their work before the long Merdeka holidays, I spent the day with my family. Having not seen them for more than 4 months (in the last trip back to KL, they were having fun in Bali. Again. They tend to go to the best holidays when I’m not around. Sigh. I wonder why??!!! What have I done to deserve this, mummy??!! WHAT??!! Sigh) I spent the time having lunch with them (my treat lah of course) at ‘Kar Heong’ chicken rice (still the best chicken rice shop in the Klang Valley. Honestly) and chitchat with them at home while having tea and durians. Not the ideal combination for conversations but it was good to have played catch-up with their lives and shared neighborly gossips once again (gossip highlight of the trip: our neighbor had an affair with their indo maid, had a huge argument, homely items started to fly and became UFOs and the police were even called in. Damn, wish I could have seen it!!!).

Lazing around the house until 4pm, I finally adjourned out to the outside world and drove to Mid Valley for a hair cut. I didn’t drive all the way there for a hair cut lah of course; I made plans to meet up K after his working hours. I went to look for my regular hair stylist but he wasn’t there. Has he left the saloon? No idea, so I have to try out a new stylist. I hate trying out new stylists because more often than not, they will screw up the cut and I’ll end up looking like a cina-beng. Not saying I’m not one now, but with a screwed-up haircut I look so cina-beng, I can march right through Chinese airport customs and the officials will not even check my passport. Long live China, Beijing here I come.

In the end, the haircut was bloody awful. I hate it. It was too short. It made my head look so huge. I look like a walking lollipop. Dammit. And the stylist cut off my fringe even though I said NOT to. She said it will “complete the look”. Yeah, complete my cina-beng look, right? If I wanted that “complete” look I would have gone to an Indian barbershop instead (or a Chinese barbershop. Got anot ah?). It would have saved me a heck a lot of money as well. And she even had the nerve to ask me for more business by suggesting I highlight my hair bright blonde. More of her “complete look” perhaps. Perhaps NOT dear stylist, good BYE.

After waking around Mid Valley (really fast to avoid any weird stares), K arrived moments later and we headed off to ‘Sushi Zenmai’ at The Gardens for our dinner. It turns out K had his hair cut too. Damn short as well. But it looked good on him. While mine…SIGH. Anyway, I had the usual ‘Unagi Roll’ and ‘Hourai’ set (I think that is what it’s called) and yes, it was damn delicious. Maybe because I didn’t have sushi for such a long time!! We chitchatted until it was going to close at around 11pm, but it was so early we decided to chat some more at ‘Starbucks’. I treated K coz he treated me the Sushi. Good deal in my book bbwwahahahhahahhah!!! Chitchatted until 1am plus (but ‘Starbucks’ was still crowded. Amazing) and headed back home after that.


Saturday, 30th August 2008.

Woke up early to have breakfast with mum and dad again, but before going home we stopped by Subang Parade. Why? To buy ‘Baskin Robbins’ of course!! But it’s not 31st yet…But no matter, they brought forward the promotion early!!! And the best part is, there was no queue ‘cause maybe not many people knew of the early promo and also because it was only 11am when I started queuing. Yayyy!!! I bought a quart with a mix of 2 flavors namely ‘Chocolate Orange Chunk’ (chocolate with tangy orange sherbet loaded with choco chips and ribbons of liquid chocolate) & ‘World Class Chocolate’ (chocolate that is…world class lah). Actually ‘Baskin Robbins’ is not my favorite, ever tried ‘Ben & Jerry’s’? It’s HEAVENLY.

SL was finally free. As I already had lunch with mum and dad at 'Little Penang', I accompanied SL to ‘Old Taste Kopitiam’ in Taipan for lunch while I had my cup of warm Hazelnut White Coffee. It’s so0000oo good, it is simply luscious with elegant aromas of coffee with hints of fine Hazelnuts. Okla, it wasn’t that fabulous but still delicious nonetheless haha. I wanted to go to The Curve for a movie at 3pm but SL had to collect a mail package at ‘Poslaju’ nearby KL Central. I had a very bad feeling about it as these 2 words sent cold shivers down my spine: Poslaju = “Bos, lambat” and KL Central = KL jam. Well, I can’t complain coz I’m down in KL for a KL trip aren’t I? And with that thought, we headed down to KL Central…

…and was caught in jam for more than 2 hours. And by the time we reached The Curve, the car journey clocked at a very impressive 3 hours plus. I could have reached Ipoh already for some really delicious chicken rice. Oh well, oh KL. Once reach there, movie tickets were all sold out for most of the movies. Not surprising. So we decided to just ronda-ronda Curvy area until dinner time with TK and Ah Nei. I tried calling a few more people but they were either busy with their own plans or are afraid to go out coz the jams might bite big time.

Dinner time, we wandered around for a place to eat and ended up in a new place called ‘Fireman BBQ’. It may sound familiar to some; this is because it is not the 1st branch in Malaysia. There’s another one in Jaya 1 (which I heard has an actual semi-naked-fire-breathing-fireman-cum-waiter serving you food. So while you are BBQ-ing your meat, this guy will come over and blow fire over your meat to give you that extra crispiness. Okla, I made up that cripiness part but the fireman is true I was told. Anyone can rectify this?) As for the food, we went for the ‘Fireman Parade’ set (I’m still pondering why it’s a parade. Seafood can’t parade. Hmmm) that consisted of pork meat and seafood while for drinks we went for that extra healthy option and chose this herbal-tea-with-‘lin gao’. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, don’t worry, I dunno what I’m talking either. Just go the pictures why don’t you:

Generous slices of pork to wet any meat lover's appetite!!! Notice that piece of paper that reads '20'? That's a coupon to rebate RM20 for every RM50 spent. It's not bad a deal!!!!

Too meaty for you? Don't worry, there's seafood and noodles to provide you with that 'balanced healthy diet'...

Before: clean and clear. Notice those chunks of stuffs on top? It's actually piggy fatty to glaze the top of the BBQ set so that your food don't stick. Also provides you that what added 'ummpphh' in taste. Definately non-halal....

In-progress: soup is boiling hot and all sorts of stuff gets BBQ-ed. Marinate your meat with the chillie/BBQ sauces and garlic provided and the food will taste surprisingly goooood....

After: Cripsy burnt and greasy. All in a day's work for the hungry meat-eating "firemen".

And this is the 'healthy-herbal-tea-with-lin-gao' I was talking about. THAT's lin gao lah...


Feeling fired up from dinner (pardon the pun), Ah Nei left for another party while me, TK and SL loitered around The Curve at the ‘The Tarik Place’ (damn packed) until countdown and we ventured out onto the street (in between The Curve and IKEA one) and watched the countdown. As usual, the foam sprayers were all over the place and we suffered minor collateral damage. The big shots in the Government said this year the celebrations will be low-key, and my God it really felt low-key. That gay (but I’m sure a nice person) Farhad was on stage doing his best to pump up the atmosphere, but honestly, everyone was just waiting for some fireworks and then go home. And when the fireworks came, it was so ‘spectacular’, Beijing would have been proud. No really, it was ok la, it lasted only a few minutes with one big bang at the end. We can’t blame them for effort, I guess the right excuse here is that Beijing used up all the fireworks supplies in the world for the Olympics. And this is what’s left. Happy Merdeka everyone.


Sunday, 31st August 2008.

Woke up early for breakfast. But not just any breakfast, it’s a ‘Bak Kut Teh’ breakfast all the way in Klang. I call this the breakfast of champions. I mean, wake up early in the morning to devour chunks of fatty meat for breakfast? Not everyone's cup (or bowl) of tea. Except if you are living in the Klang area. They devour chunks of meat for breakfast, lunch, dinner and supper. They drink the soup as medicine too. Amazing. We went for the shop called ‘Yeoh’s Bak Kut Teh’ located right behind the Hokkien Association. Yup, some of you already know where I’m talking about. This place is good. It is so good, it even has its own website (http://www.bakkutteh.com/... I think). One sip of the soup and your mouth will burst into a celebration of taste, and when you add that with some juicy succulent pork meat, it is a marriage of flavor made in heaven.

In the afternoon, me and SL met up with TK, Ah Nei, Paul and Maj (my old school buddies) for shopping and movie at Sunway Pyramid. The jams were horrendous so we parked outside. We bought some shirt stuff and headed for the ‘Babylon A.D’ movie starring Vin Diesel. On the outside, this movie looks promising (set in the post apocalyptic future, with fancy futuristic guns and stuff, perfect as a pop-corn movie). But…I guess even Hollywood actors can get caught in the rising oil prices as Vin Diesel ran out of diesel from moment this movie started. This movie was so bad, the coolest thing in this movie was a map. Yup, a super cool square map that allows the user to scroll the map with your fingers to areas that can’t be seen in the map. Basically like the iPod phone where you can scroll left or right to view your photos with your touch screen pad. See, when you pay 10 bucks and feel that the most impressive thing about the movie was a CGI map, you know you are in big trouble. And the sad thing is, this movie was my recommendation to my buddies. Crap. Maj was all over me with dirt after the movie. My Vin-dication is that the poster rocked. I shall not put my trust in Diesel-run Hollywood actors anymore. Go Hybrid cars, go go go!!!

After the movie, we continued shopping (last days of sales!!!) and all I got was a normal looking t-shirt from ‘Padini’. My jeans acquiring mission failed. Oh well. Went to ‘Wendy’s’ for dinner and while everyone was conservative with the food, TK went super ballistic and ordered the ‘¾ Pound Beef Burger’. It’s a triple decker with cheese. And it’s a set. With fries. And a super large drink. And he had one ‘Bread Papa’ right before dinner. He’s Gandhi right after the hunger strike ended. But unlike Gandhi, I think TK kinda regretted his decision to go gung-ho on his beef. His reaction? :

Severe indigestion of Wendy's beef burger can cause massive heatiness in the body. In extreme cases, heads tend to explode in a great ball of fire known as 'spontaneous human head combustion'.

We lingered around, discussed about our plans for the new year (Camerons or Langkawi? Or more bolder like Bali or Phuket? Decisions decisions). Ah Nei, Maj and Paul left Pyramid while me, SL and TK went to a nearby mamak place in Dataran Sunway (I think that is what it’s called). This mamak place is special. Why? Because this is the place where TK and I usually watch our EPL football matches, and since I left for Labuan, we hardly come down here anymore. Sad sad. Those were the old times but good times. Simple yet memorable. Anyway, it was Chelsea Vs. Spurs and both teams drew. A good result for the Lilywhites, while the Blues wished they could have had Robinho mesmerizing the opponent’s defenses. Too bad. Money do speak louder than words nowadays in football.

To be continued in Part 2 !!!