Breakfast @ Mandarin Oriental and a police escort

mo fruit platter

Seasonal fruits with berries with a papaya smoothie.

mo bread

Basket of croissants, Danish pastries, lemon poppy seed muffins, breakfast rolls served with preserves, honey and butter.

pamela anderson bagels

Creamy scrambled eggs on toasted bagel with chicken ham, scallion cream cheese and grilled asparagus. This is also known (unofficially) as Pamela Anderson bagels. πŸ˜‰

bmw breakfast

I had breakfast at MO last weekend before driving down to Damansara. We had vouchers to spend for drinks and snacks and I got Xpax reloads instead coz I wanted the XXL bonus. Heh!

However, the best part is driving with a police escort (something you REALLY have to experience). The police stopped all traffic and even created a third lane out of a two lane road so we can speed through the middle.

I think this is the first and last time I’ll ever feel like a VIP. Now that I know what royalty feels like, I can die in peace.

Jaya One

jaya one start

Jaya One is synonymous for great food outlets. It’s what people do when they’re heading down – eat, drink and be merry. I’m not very familiar with the other side of Jaya One (the part where Cold Storage is) until Imm Ai brought us on a tour of the lesser known section of the place.

sri kulai me

I went there with no expectations whatsoever but I was mighty pleased coz I managed to get a lot of stuff done!

jaya one seafood

First off, there is a money changer at the place. I grabbed the Korean Won from my old place and wanted to head to CIMB to change it to RM coz I was running short of cash. However, a massive traffic jam gave me a premonition I would probably have to do it another day (and miss cooking since my credit card is maxed out) so I just drove straight to Jaya One.

jaya one currency

Well, guess what? They have a licensed money changer there! Hot damn!

This was TOTALLY UNPLANNED. It’s real one, not cheat one, and I even have the receipts to prove it. Heh! I got a little less than RM 1,000 for my Korean Won which was enough for me to shop for groceries for my Turkey stew with quail eggs, Portobello mushrooms and apples.

jaya one me

This, my friends, is killing two birds with one stone.

a slice of heaven

Anyway, we were made to feel like VIPs thanks to Imm Ai, Lorraine and Vivian who arranged the entire thing. Iza was there as well.

a slice of heaven offerings

A Slice of Heaven gave us cupcakes and was very hospitable to us.

sri kulai offerings

The shop opposite it – Sri Kulai, specializes in microwavable Malaysian halal food and we had a complete tasting of their menu.

sri kulai

My only regret is stuffing myself before I went there. I was surprised that microwave food tastes so good. It’s very convenient for people like me who works an average of 12 hours a day.

sri kulai microwave

It’s not like you can cook every single day (that is my hobby, I do it weekends) so this affords a level of convenience for reasonably tasty food.

sri kulai izza

I particularly enjoyed the sambal prawns and the chicken rice.

montage

Heading up, there are cosmetic outlets, pewter jewelers, florists, gift shops, tech stores and more!

stress

Daily Books gave me a tome called Less Stress. I needed that. T_T

a chic store

There is also a boutique called A Chic Store which kindly furnished me with a new piece of garment to wear. I have a notoriously limited wardrobe so that was nice.

a chic store us

=D

carpet

However, the best schwag of the day goes to Crown Furniture and Carpets.

Check out the carpet they gave us! It’s damn awesome okay. It’s as long as I am tall (which makes it around 171 cm or so) and it’s just perfect for my studio.

crown carpet me

It’s currently nesting at the lounge of my studio apartment.

cold storage

The anchor tenant is Cold Storage. As previously mentioned I wanted to go there anyway since I had to get supplies for my stew project. I like Cold Storage coz of the variety of stuff you can get there. Deli meat, fresh and frozen seafood, pasta, it’s heaven for someone who loves cooking. That’s why I prefer Cold Storage and other import specialty hypermarkets.

cold storage montage

I am not ashamed to admit that I’m one of the people who DON’T buy Malaysia. I’ll buy Malaysian goods when it’s up to international standards coz once you’ve seen the best, you won’t go back. πŸ™‚

jaya one contest

Oh, and they have this Christmas contest until 13th December where you can stand a chance to win a RM 1,000 gift voucher if you spend RM 50 and above on a single receipt. I can only do two submissions though coz I ran up a RM 156.20 bill on food and a RM 135.00 slip for non-halal food and alcohol. I should have separated it. T_T

jaya one specialty

Nevertheless, it was a good outing. I got my foreign currency changed, visited a lot of specialty stores and managed to get my grocery shopping done.

jaya one cart

Jaya One – it’s not just for food. You’ll be surprised at the variety of enterprises operating there. You get free parking too if you go to Cold Storage to get your weekly stipend of groceries.

jaya one end

I <3 coz it’s convenient and I managed to get all my stuff done in a single day at a single place.

The journey is half the fun!

klia lcct travel

When I was a little kid our family used to go for vacations every year. It was something I really looked forward to. We would spend the earlier part of the year planning on the destination and I would research (in books, the Internet in its current form didn’t exist then) the place thoroughly before we went.

family

Our annual family vacations went on hiatus when I went to New Zealand for my high school when I was 15 but I still remember them fondly. One of the things I miss the most was the anticipation. The journey was almost as good as the actual trip itself. I would get all excited the night before and during the ride to the airport I’ll be so into it I’ll think I was already there.

nz

I remember telling my mom not to litter when we were having breakfast in Sibu before going to Singapore. Heh!

klia lcct erl

Anyway, I had a chance to relive this journey a couple of weekends ago. I took a train down to the airport, armed with a digicam and pretended I was going on a trip.

klia lcct

Did you know that KLIA Transit has a service that brings you to LCCT? I didn’t! It was TOTALLY new to me.

klia lcct train

I am aware of the usual players plying the bus service, which is quite competitive. You know what I mean from the in-your-face touts in KL Sentral.

klia lcct feeder bus

I went there last Sunday to see how the service was…it’s your usual KLIA Transit train with a feeder bus (complete with a driver prospecting for auditory gold) but it gets you there.

klia lcct news

Look! You can even update yourself on the latest news while you’re at it. Heh!

klia lcct me

It felt good – I almost feel like I’m going on a vacation when I stepped into the threshold of the train. I went to LCCT, grabbed a bite to eat and then came back to real life. πŸ™

klia lcct food

This ERL service to LCCT it makes it possible for regular folks to get from KL Sentral to LCCT in less than an hour.

I timed it.

klia lcct timing

I reckon it’s good to have a bit of competition over here. The buses are cheap, no doubt, but sometimes (I speak from experience) it can get crowded and they don’t depart regularly during odd hours.

klia lcct kl

The ERL service to LCCT is already running, you can check out the details on the KLIA Ekspres website. Go Green, Go LO-CO2!

klia lcct tourists

I thought it was fun just to pop down to the airport and watch the people waiting for real flights to their vacation destinations. *sigh*

A letter from the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

Wanted: Masked men

heineken festive mask 2009

Have you seen these masks around?

It seems that a gang of villainous environmentally friendly people have been going around PLANTING VIRTUAL TREES!

These virtual trees in turn had been matched by a certain corporation into a freaking FOREST of endangered species of trees. REAL TREES!

Hmph! As an advocate for pollution and general destruction of the third rock from the sun, we will not stand (or sit) for this…TRAVESTY.

*steeples fingers Mr. Burns style*

Their last know locations:
Havana, off Changkat Bukit Bintang
Laundry Bar, The Curve
Terrace Bar, Zouk Club KL
WIP, Bangsar Shopping Centre 

heineken festive mask me

If you see these tree hugging a-holes anywhere, please do not hesitate to give us a buzz and we will reward you by…er, hastening the destruction of the world.

Co-signed,
War, Famine, Pestilence, Death 

heineken festive mask

No, those are not V for Vendetta promos. There are no gunpowder plots or Guy Fawkes anywhere in this post (although the mask kinda looks like the dude right?).

Anyway, I was at Laundry @ Curve to do an save-the-environment video. Oi, you back there, don’t look at me like that. 

Heineken blogger video shoot

I can do green too k?

*cough*

Excuse me.

Heineken KOL video shoot 

It was a fun experience – chilling at the bar while having a cold one and doing the Heineken Festive Shout Out! videos .

You can do your part to save the environment too! I don’t think my video is out yet so here’s the Unofficial Version (TM):

It’s just simple things like turning off your air conditioning when you go out that helps keep the CO2 levels low. If everyone does their part, the world would be a much better place!

You can also contribute towards the Heineken Festive Forest Project by getting the masks at the outlets listed above and surfing over to their Facebook page to Plant a Tree!

There is a unique code at the back which you can enter at the FB site to plant your very own virtual tree and watch it grow. Heineken is partnering with Wild Asia to plant a small real forest (as in the kind that has barks, leaves and roots) in this Facebook application. This will be planted in Pahang in April 2010 in conjunction with Earth Day. 

heineken festive mask tree

There are also details on Heineken Star parties on the fan site so go green with Heineken this festive season! Have a cold one and do your part to save the environment while you’re celebrating the Christmas and ushering in the New Year.

Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind ?
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and old lang syne ?
For auld lang syne, my dear,
for auld lang syne,
we’ll take a cup of kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

Got beef?

got beef

Do you have beef against our friendly neighborhood broadband provider Streamyx? I’ve been hearing a lot of complaints about it but what’s interesting is that I hear EVEN MORE from the people who switched to other less established ISPs. I’m quite happy with my connection – it’s not expensive compared to some other players and the best thing about it is that it’s available nationwide. No restrictions on where you can use it. Not limited to Klang Valley and all that.

Sounds damn hard sell? Not if you look at my history, I’ve always been on Streamyx (except during the dark ages when all I had was dial up T_T). It’s fast and it’s reliable. I think the reason a lot of people diss it is coz it’s the incumbent and everyone likes to talk shit about the existing provider and praise the new players.

It’s like politics…let’s see how you feel about The Opposition (TM) when they finally come into power. Say hello to the new boss, same as the old boss (only less reliable and prone to throwing tantrums). πŸ˜‰

ISDN, Sat connections and ADSL

tmpoint

I just moved from Kelana Jaya to the Bangsar area and switched my Streamyx broadband to the place over here. I’ve had a lot of questions about why I did that. I don’t know why but a lot of people think Streamyx is passΓ© now with all the new nifty players on the market.

However, for me (and others) it is still the most reliable broadband provider. I’m not just saying that coz this is an advertorial – this was one I accepted coz it really reflects my feelings. I started out with TM dialup (1515 anyone?) coz I’m old (skool) and as soon as Streamyx was available, I just jumped on it.

I was even considering stuff like satellite connections coz it hasn’t rolled out in Sibu back then. I was a real geek back in the days (probably still am, just in a different arena) and thought  it would be worth it to get a sat connection (great downlink, but uplink is slow coz it runs on dialup). ISDN was also an option but PROHIBITIVELY expensive back in the days.

It was something of a godsend when Streamyx came into the scene. It’s why I’m still using it…and will continue to use it. I’m just loyal like that ya. πŸ˜‰

Kampong Chicken Eating House

kampong chicken eating house

What exactly is kampong chicken? Translated literally it would “rural chicken” but it actually means free range chicken. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think it’s a different species (at least, a different kind of chicken) since it’s much smaller and leaner than the usual poultry offerings.

kampong chicken stall

I went to Kampong Chicken Eating House in Singapore right before we were slated to come home. The bus was about to leave so we decided to head down here for some nourishment before we departed.

kampong chicken rice

This is a photo of a bowl of plain steamed chicken rice. Mundane? It looks that way but it didn’t TASTE that way (which was what compelled me to snap someone’s bowl after I partook of mine). The individual grains of rice is soft, fluffy and infused with the essence of chicken goodness!

kampong chicken liver

I have a huge appetite (which explains my current weight) so I ordered a chicken drumstick with some chopped liver and an egg…

kampong chicken rice meal

…and a quarter of chicken (thigh and drum) to complement the order and make it into a belly rubbing, over eating experience. πŸ˜‰

kampong chicken us

It tasted good to me and everyone else on the table agreed that it was better than most chicken rice outlets. Good company, good food – it’s twice the fun just like the Xpax XXL double bonus. I particularly enjoyed the tender and moist chicken.

kampong chicken

I finished everything so that’s gotta say something right?

(or not)

Lotteria Shrimp and Bulgogi Burger

lotteria order

Lotteria is one of the largest fast food chains in Korea. It’s an offshoot of the Lotte Korean conglomerate. I was there a couple of months ago for a business trip and decided to sample the local cuisine junk food.

lotteria

They had this 30th anniversary promotional burger going on – it’s a half-and-half of shrimp and bulgogi beef. I have been a HUGE fan of bulgogi after going to Korea – done right, it’s the delicious! I’ve been to a proper bulgogi place as well as the McDonald’s bulgogi burger *drool* and I love it to bits!

lotteria promo

Naturally, I went for this one, half bulgogi and half shrimp in a sub, you can’t really ask for more!

lotteria burger

We had it to go coz it was really late at night and all of us were pretty tired.

lotteria bulgogi shrimp burger

I know why Lotteria is doing so well in Korea (kinda rhymes right?) though. Their burgers are orgasmic! Imagine half of a shrimp burger and half of a bulgogi burger in a single sub – it’s an XXL sized portion of belly patting goodness in a single bun.

Speed eating video

speed eating

I’ve always waxed lyrical about this particular chap fan place in Kelana Jaya. It is hands down the best place for lunch and I’ve missed eating there ever since I moved. Anyway, I decided it was high time to head back and do a video of myself eating a huge plate of nostalgia so I drove back yesterday afternoon.

I videoed myself eating it – this really is how fast I usually eat the stuff. It took me ages to upload this coz I’m not on Streamyx right now. I’m waiting for my account to get transferred over here so I can get proper broadband. I finished the entire plate of rice but I’m not too pleased at my own pace so I’m going to have to do it again.

No la, that’s just an excuse for me to head back. I really love their offerings but you have to be there around 9 am coz the good dishes sell out really fast.

Shooting an apple off your head

apple-karen

There was this game last night which we kinda butchered. You’re supposed to shoot a slingshot (medieval style, yo) at a target but somehow or other we got an apple. Thus it turned into the classic shoot-the-apple-off-the-head stunt.

Karen really used the slingshot (which was why I was covering my face) and the most amazing thing is, she actually HIT the apple.

apple-me

The reason I let her do it was coz I trusted her to aim in that general direction (instead of down south where the family jewels are – only son k). It’s also why I use Streamyx broadband…cross my heart and hope to die, I have really been using exclusively that since I got of dial up. I guess it’s just one of those things – you believe in the service.

Just like I trusted Karen not to aim down there. >.<

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