Posts

SAFRApore I: Tok Haji Taxi, Pokemon Paradise & Owl Cafe

Image
Normally, when I had to get to the airport, I would make a call to my regular taxi driver. But he has since moved on to the frozen seafood business, I had to look for alternatives. Not wanting to pay RM100 for his MPV airport limo buddies, I decided to try out kliataxilimo.com , whose ad appeared at the top of the list. Wasn't too sure about their service so I tried doing some research on the Low Yat forums. Found nothing. Risking it, I did the booking anyway via the website. Received a confirmation email but no booking number. They were supposed to call me, but they never did. In the back of mind, I had Uber as a plan B. To my surprise, I was only contacted at 3:00 AM on Friday (nearly 7 hours before my booking time) via What's App and e-mail, two days after I made the booking. Once I confirmed, a taxi driver called me at 9:00 AM. Ad hoc arrangements. My taxi driver arrived at my front door some 10 minutes late. Did not expect him to be the jubah - serban -beard-manliner

Wet Market After Hours

Image
Sunday's lunch was a continuation of Saturday's dinner. A DAP stalwart had invited the bunch of us over to her food stall at the Old Klang Road wet market ( 3 1/2 mile ). At that time of day, the hustle and bustle of the market had died down and stalls were being shuttered. It was only us and the cleaners. The nice lady bid us to sit while she doled out dish after dish of goodies. We digged in to fried glass noodles, fried yellow noodles, Singapore style kway teow , sambal petai, Teochew porridge and stir-fried clams. After the food had been polished off, mangosteens and duku were served. If not for the stuffy conditions, the lunch party would have lasted longer. In the evening, went out to Taman Bukit Jalil with the tribe. Little Monster was quick to show off the pair blue Adidas sports shoes that his mother had just bought for him that afternoon ( the kid has fat feet, so its hard to find a suitable pair ). Judging by how much he ran, the shoes were a good fit. On

Sweaty Salmon and Lotsa Lees

Image
Woke up on Saturday morning with a huge fog in my head. My first muddled thought was that I was late for work. The night before, I had been dreaming about being harassed by marauding Pokemon. I was running up and down. Damn tiring. I have no idea why I was subjected to such a dream because I didn't even install the game! Went to the market in that blur sotong mode as mum didn't want to miss a third week of marketing. In the afternoon, had a lunch appointment with Gratitude at Jyu Raku , SS15. Our original plan was to eat at Mitasu, but they were fully-booked. Hoped for last minute cancellations but there were none. Drove there with SK in my Iswara Skyline which felt like a moving sauna. The air-conditioning had been on the blink for months but it was never a concern because I only drive it early in the morning and late in the evening for my work commute. When we arrived at the restaurant, I was ready for a wet T-shirt contest! The food at Jyu Raku was quite good. SK

Brokeback Badminton

Image
Did you catch the Lee Chong Wei vs Lin Dan semi-final match? A nail-biting affair that ended in victory for Malaysia. Right after clinching the match, LCW and LD both removed their jerseys ( revealing their lean physique, of course LD looked better ), embraced and exchanged sweat-drenched jerseys. I really wonder what the players do with those jerseys. Several scenarios came to mind: LCW hands LD's jersey to his coach who picks it up with thongs and gingerly drops it into a zip lock bag. The bagged jersey is then put into a metal briefcase and locked.  LCW folds LD's jersey and rolls it up. With the jersey poised over his open mouth, he gives a mighty wring... One month later, LD carefully removes LCW's unwashed jersey from his wardrobe and places it on his bed. He then climbs up onto the mattress and slowly hugs the jersey, taking in the heady scent... LCW and LD's jersey appear on TaoBao with several hundred other listings claiming to be genuine. In the foll

LRT Celebrities: Hello Howard

Image
Several of my readers were disappointed that I couldn't get a spy pic of Sorry Sean . My apologies. Hope this post will make up for it. As you can see, this spy pic of Hello Howard was taken before the LRT upgrade ( its still the old coach ). It's not that Hello Howard is exceptionally cute, but I just can't resist biceps. Some might say that there are bigger guns out there, but its good enough for me. And check out those thick lips on him-- high sex drive? :P.

Kidz in KL

Image
Kidz was in KL for his CLP exams so we managed to find the time to meet up for dinner. If not mistaken, the last we met was in Singapore when I down there for a short placement. That was in January 2014. The last he posted in his blog was in July 2014. Two long years. How time flies. KH and I brought him to dinner at Restoran Hong Ngek at Jalan Tun HS Lee. A simple dinner of fried pak ko , Thai-style tofu and deep-fried salted chicken. The staff were waiting for us to finish. Lee Chong Wei was competing in the badminton singles semi-finals that evening, so they wanted to close up early to watch the match! Poor us. Had to find cafe for drinks. Quite impossible to find any cafes open during time, so we had to settle for a session at the mamak shop. From what we heard, he seems happy with his job in the legal profession. Quite a jump from IT to law. And for those who are interested, he isn't seeing anyone at the moment ya... :P

Sorry Sean

Image
It was a usual church Sunday that was followed by an excursion to Empire Shopping Gallery. Felt like having Japanese that day, so went to Rakuzen . For some reason, could never get a table there, always ended up at the counter. I had an interesting ordering experience with a twinky waiter, Sean: Moi: The Rokkaku bento please. Sean: The bento has a choice of unagi, saba or salmon. Moi: Saba please. Sean: Teriyaki or Shioyaki? Moi: Shio. Sean: Very good. (1 minute later) Sean: Sorry sir, I made a mistake. The bento comes with Gindara. Shio? Moi: Yes. (1 minute later) Sean: Sorry sir, I made a mistake again. It's actually Salmon. Moi: OK. But make it teriyaki. In normal circumstances, I would have slapped him, but he was so adorable that I just smiled. Made a visit to Taman Bukit Jalil with the kids in the evening. So cute to see Little Monster run. His face was so flushed. When he got tired, he ran in a zig-zag fashion, like a drunken fly.

Science for Peace: Day Two

Image
On the second and last hazy day of the conference, there was no need for a coat nor a tie, so it was much better. More boring panels sessions that seem more and more fuddled with no clear relationship between science and peace. The final two sessions focused on: Forging peace through economics, poverty alleviation and inclusivity. Building awareness and consensus through conventions. policies, education and communication. Both sessions had panelists from the Philippines, hence touched a lot on the Bangsamoro issues. Hottie of the day was Mr. Kal Joffress  ( director of Tandemic ) who talked about an interesting way to track human movement between porous borders using telcos. Lunch was another buffet spread and I started to observe some really classic behaviour among some of our local academicians. At first, I didn't pay much attention to the weird Chinese uncle sitting at the adjacent table. Then he started coming back with plates heaped with food. I finally gave a good sta

Science for Peace: Day One

Image
Note: Mistakenly deleted this post yesterday while trying to amend it. Every once in a while, you get paid for doing something very unrelated to work. Late one Friday, I received an e-mail at 5:25 PM regarding a scientific conference titled Science for Peace 2016 and organized by the Academy of Sciences Malaysia (ASM). My General Manager wanted me to attend and asked my reporting manager whether I had any critical tasks on the 15th and 16th. Five minutes later, I received another e-mail from him declaring that I had nothing important on hand and would be attending. Oh-kayyyyyyy. For some reason, my company was given two seats for the two-day conference and based on the e-mail thread I could see that many of the bosses found it a waste of time and declined to attend. In the end, it ended up on my lap. After my name was officially registered (together with another manager), I received a follow-up e-mail from ASM notifying me that the conference will be officiated by His Royal Highne