will i am's delayed diary

Out of the blue, my church organized a lay leaders' retreat at Fraser's Hill. Due to the fact that it had been many years since we had such an event, I felt compelled to attend the 3-day, 2-night event. Carpooled up with several BEC members and church's assistant parish priest. Thankfully, I wasn't behind the wheel because we basically traveled from Seri Kembangan to Sungai Besi to Bandar Puteri Puchong to Kelana Jaya. At 11:00 AM, we were still in KL having lunch! At 1:30 PM, we made a short comfort stop at the sleepy town of Kuala Kubu Baru to buy some snacks. The cramped grocery store that we stopped at really rekindled memories from my childhood. Even the smell was familiar. Even the KFC was located in a pre-war shophouse. Could smell the aroma of fried chicken from across the road. Been a long time since I experienced that.  At nearly 3:00 PM, we arrived at The Pines Resort , a very old resort built into the side of a hill. And because my unit was on the highest fl

Tried my level best to catch up. Finally I'm blogging about 2023, although its 2024 in just a couple of days. No parties, no raves for New Year's Eve. Typical for me to spend it at church although in recent years, there's no fireworks or fellowship. Just the mandatory mass, and "Year in Review" video.  In the first week of 2023, there was already a wake service for a fellow BEC member. The death statistics have been higher than usual. On a happier note, the year started with a gathering at Apollo's house. His mum cooked up a storm again, and we had good bitching session. In terms of the Lunar Chinese New Year, preparations were heating up everywhere. The morning market was flooded with new year goodies, and students peddling calligraphy. Along with it, the signature traffic gridlock. At church, decorations were also in full swing with help from various Mandarin BECs. All sorts of design ideas were thrown around, and combined with a mash of whatever we could fi

Christmas 2022 was memorable in the sense that there was a water cut on the 24th. Many a Christian housewife nust have been pissed with SYABAS. Christmas morning mass at church experienced a windfall turnout, no doubt bolstered by the seasonal CEO ( Christmas & Easter Only ) parishioners. Met up with the Tribe for a meh lunch of quinoa nasi lemak La Juiceria Superfoods . Then it was a 40-minute wait at Oomph Bukit Jalil, for a crazy noisy dessert session. Frankly, the lack of noise dampening at the place really annoys me. The kids were much more interested with the opening of the Christmas presents back home.   Later that night, I pulled on my red jockstrap, and  red Tartan pants to attend Terrance and Phillip's Christmas potluck. Lots of food ( KH decided to bring pizza much to my chagrin ), fun, drinks, and coffee. For some reason, the party is always segregated into the dining table gang, and the living room gang. And among the guests, there will be a midnight gang, and a

Gosh, was voted as a chief coordinator for a church ministry. Mandarin pulak tu . Two-year term. 

When your hotel is just beside Taiping Lake Gardens , there is no excuse for not waking up early and having a nice walk around it. The historical park offers beautiful landscaping, and wonderfully fresh air. The old raintrees ( some so bowed down that the town council support them with steel crutches ) really give a distinct character to the place. Most people go jogging around it, some pull out a book to read, sitting on one of the many benches overlooking the lake. While others have a picnic on the grass with their family, and the select few dress up their cats in dresses and let them roam around ( not sure if pets are allowed actually ). After a round of strolling and camwhoring with the aunties, it was starting to get sunny. Retreated back to Medan Selera Tai Hu for breakfast. Breakfast there was even more disappointing than dinner.  Checked out from the hotel and headed to the Church of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart , which was actually under extensive renovations. They let us in

Covid put a two-year damper on my BEC outing plans. On Malaysia Day 2022, we were finally able to organize a short 2 day-1 night trip to Kuala Sepetang, Kuala Sangga, and Taiping. Surprisingly, two of my neighbours joined because they were intrigued by the itinerary. It didn't take long for our registration drive to fill up one express bus. On the morning of the 16th, we left KL a little late due to some stragglers, and encountered some congestion on the highway. An expected situation considering it was a long weekend. Lucky for us ( some would disagree ), our tour guide was a chatty fellow, so he could really talk and talk and talk. When the tour guide wasn't talking, we had onboard rosary prayers and KTV.   Arrived at Kuala Sepetang at 1 PM, so the bus directly dropped us at Xin Seafood Restaurant . Strategically located on the banks of Sungai Sepetang, we got to a great view to go with our seafood lunch. Once we had our fill of fish, cockles, prawns, calamari, crabs, and cla

For the first time ever, a Merdeka mass was celebrated at St. Ignatius Church. Parishioners were encouraged to dress up in traditional costumes. Mum dug out her baju kurung , while I went with a red top I bought for CNY. The East Malaysian parishioners were the most impressive. The church was decorated with the Jalur Gemilang , and mini flags were distributed to everyone ( surprisingly provided by the town council ). Before mass began, there was flag raising ceremony with everyone singing the national anthem.   Was supposed to have a double date with Terrance and Phillip at Palilos , but Phillip caught a stomach bug, and FFK-ed us. Already our second time there, don't think will be going back again. Expensive, slow, and hard to book. Not very satisfied with dinner, we made a stop at Super Boring Club just a few doors away. The 3-for-2 cocktail offer called to us ( not like we didn't have sake earlier ), and we had a plate of grilled kimchi octopus, and Korean garlic fried chic

Early the next morning, Mei followed KH and I to Church of St. Henry ( St. Henry the Exuberant, Holy Roman Emperor ) for 9:00 AM mass. Her last visit to the Catholic church was during her godmother's funeral. Many years had passed in between. The architecture of the church is really quite unique, with a bell tower rising in the middle. Frankly, reminds me of a surau. The congregation was small and very friendly. Coincidentally, the parish priest was celebrating his 60th birthday, and we were invited to join in the fellowship. As we had plans to eat with Mei's parents, we politely declined. Breakfast was at Sin Tian Tee Food Court , but Mei also bought a packet from dry duck noodles from Restoran Ledang for us to try. Super spicy, and I don't have any recollection on the taste of the famous braised duck.   Our tour of Batu Pahat continued with the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, a grand historical building in the middle of town. All white with beautiful balconies and balustrad

The old man with the cute corgi whom I visited a month earlier passed away peacefully at his home. Mum and I attended the funeral mass. When we arrived at church on Saturday morning, a pair of newly-weds had just finished their wedding mass. Before they cleared off completely, the casket was already being pushed into the church. Life and death, side by side. Mum followed the family members to Xiao En Memorial Park for the cremation, but I didn't join. Lunch boxes were compliments of the earlier wedding since there were lots of leftovers.   Joined KH to meet his boi boi friend at  Hide and Seek Coffee . The cafe is unmarked, and you need to be buzzed in. Pretty much an art space with coffee and cake. Neither do they have a proper menu, nor a cash register. The boi boi had just finished his internship and was job hunting. A regular at Chin Woo swimming pool, he has a lot of interesting locker room stories.  JJ invited us to to Bunny's birthday dinner, but we had a couple of hour

One of Kenji's many food cravings was Klang BKT. KH recommended Links , a weird name for a BKT restaurant. A family-operated place with limited servings. Much of everything that we wanted was sold out. Argh. Garlic pun takde . Cannot brain. Just took whatever they had. Then it was shaved ice desserts at Queen of Spades , a random choice. Left Klang with some takeout-- mui choi bao from Klang Food Center , and Angcle Peoh 's assam laksa .  KH was nursing a sore throat and he still went for heaty BKT, and ice desserts. He had already complained about a scratchy throat during our Friday dinner date. Other than that, he seemed OK. On Sunday, mum and I attended a Corpus Christi procession on the church grounds. The last procession we had was before the pandemic, and the route involved public roads and the adjacent housing estates.  On Monday, I too had a bit of a scratchy throat. Didn't think much about it, and met up with Tater and Ray for dinner at JJJ Ya . The ice-cold Suntor

Made a visit to a church friend who lived nearby. His father was a Parkinson's patient whose condition was deteriorating. Once he returned home from a stint in the hospital, we decided to pay his father a visit. His dad looked frail, but was still able to get up and about for short periods of time. Things were kept lively in the house by their cute pet Corgi, who seems to understand Hakka. Drools all over the place as his tongue seems permanently lolled to the side. And he goes crazy over tissue. Literally, crazy.   In the evening, it was date night KH. Hubby made reservations at Palilos , a Spanish fusion yakitori restaurant. The place is so popular that one needs to book months in advance. To avoid any traffic weekend traffic snarls during the weekend, we arrived a little earlier. Went to Elephant Republic for an iced coconut latte. Another IG-worthy cafe, but I can do without coconut milk in my lattes.  Palilos is one those places that you avoid if you're hangry. Great amb

Chinese New Year Mass was reinstated in the Year of the Tiger, after a pause caused by the pandemic. The liturgy was pretty much the same, except for the limited seating, and SOPs. The seat registration ran out faster than a BTS concert. Thankfully, I was part of the Hospitality Ministry, so I was guaranteed a place. Not so hectic like years past as some things were scaled down, with the exception for the decorations. Someone sponsored a few hundred outdoor electric lanterns, and the CNY centerpiece that the BECs set up outside the church entrance had to be redone because a freak storm mad a mess of things. For the first time, the Archbishop of Kuala Lumpur celebrated the CNY mass at my church.  Just like the CNY mass, Apollo's CNY lunch was also brought back. However, Apollo's mum did a hotpot version instead of her usual dishes. There were some special ingredients like her homemade century egg dumplings, and  yu fu.  Lovely to be able to gather for CNY again. Missed the physi

'Twas a short trip, we check out on Boxing Day. We picked up mum as well, as The Tribe was not done with their travels. First activity of the day was breakfast at the famous Cecil Street Market . Many stalls were not open, and it was a Sunday. Does not compute. We found a table near the entrance, and went hunting for food. I queued for Lum Lai Duck Meat Koay Teow Th’ng , while KH joined the queue for Chulia Street Curry Noodles. My queue cleared pretty quickly, and I managed to carry the hot bowl of soup noodles back to the table with my shaky hands. KH didn't enjoy my success, and gave up because his line didn't move. He returned with Hokkien Mee instead. Many of the market's kuih stalls were near our table, so we had an easy time to make a selection. I made another round, and randomly bought a packet of nasi lemak from a grumpy old lady. I didn't quite get the price, so I just gave her RM50, and I got a balance of RM47.50 back. The price shocked me because it came