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....