Asia Game Zone - GameCon 1.5

Normally our weekends are meant for the body to slow down, relax and take it easy. Last week our weekend was spent rather busily so much so that it didn't seem like a weekend to us. This Sat *may* be another busy day, as we'd unwisely hastily opened our mouths and volunteered to help out the boardgamers at the Asia Game Zone in KLCC.

Anyways, no backing out now. While the AGZ is actually suppose to be a PC Gamers event, Eurogames Evangelist macedwin managed to get space to set up booths for boardgame demos. It's going to be GameCon 1.5, as it's not big enough to be GameCon 2 (GameCon 1 was...eh, sometime 2005 near the year end, at MidValley).

So there'll be, as far as we recall, a Settlers of Catan and Carcassonne tournament qualifiers plus Blokus and Memoir 44 nationals as well. Other open demos for play are Marvel Heroes, the World Of Warcraft Board Game and Card Game & Iliad for moderate games and Villa Paletti and Hamster Rolle for the lighter party games.

Checking our schedule we're volunteering for Saturday afternoon shift, which means from 4pm - 8/9pm, which isn't too bad as we get to sleep in first. However, it seems that our name is now 'aychee'. Gah, wonder if the exhibitor tag has names on. Hopefully not, or else if anyone needs us all they have to do is sneeze. It's aycee, no capitalization, no 'h'!

We're still considering our transport situation - parking somewhere around KLCC not only involves a hefty sum in terms of parking, but it's so tempting to actually end up hovering towards Sultan Ismail or nearby for some liquid (hem) after hours. Damn it, why must we feel the thirst? Plus being at KLCC during the sale period? Not safe. Sooooo not safe on our poor wallet. Already eyeing some Zara linens, hopefully they've something in our size.

Libera Chorus Angelorum

We admit to being one of them heavy Canon In D fans - our early collections stem from picking up the occasional classical compilation CD just for the Canon In D track they have, so long as it is a variation from what we already have (yes, we picks up albums just for one song sometimes). Mind you, it's variations that we're after, not the same piece by different orchestras only.

We do remember downloading one Canon variation - a 'techno' version that we found funny at first, because such a version did exist. Cynic just said, "Desecration." Then we got tired of it after a while, so it was Shift+Del. After all, the Canon isn't suppose to be a disco song.

Highlight for us came in the form of this CD:

The only CD that's comprised of 8 variations of the Canon In D, no other pieces, no Gigue In D.

Then we were introduced to high-speed internet connections in Glasgow, and ICQ Shared Folders as well. We've gotten (to date) the best two variations for the Canon In D here as well: one conducted by Raymond Leppard and the English Chamber Orchestra and a choral variation from a batchmate's ICQ Shared Folders (no knowing where she got it).

Now, it's the same song, by the same composer...best way to name this would be by the different conductors or orchestras, yes?

But there weren't any details for the choral variation. A bit of searching here and there didn't prove fruitful, and we were wondering if it was the Choir of King's College, Cambridge or the Vienna Boys' Choir wot sung it. Otherwise we thought it was composer Marvin Hamslich who'd did it for Ordinary People, but as we haven't any way to check it out we couldn't know for sure.

Searching via the lyrics proved impossible as we were more likely to come up with the lyrics to some requiem or mass instead.

So happens that we've finally found it, some 4 years later. Hurrah! Turns out they're the Libera Boys' Choir. Access to the lyrics confirmed that this song be theirs. And it's only found on one album - Libera. Soooo difficult to track down. You can follow the Wikipedia links or just go gaily forward here for it while it's still up for grabs now.

And here's our favvie Christmas e-card (which, of course, is Canon-related, only sometimes we wish there wasn't the other half of the song). Oh, and here's a blog paying tribute to videos that pay tribute to the Canon In D.

Anyways, gotta rename that track now.

Sanctus
Sanctus
Sanctus

Benedictus, benedictus
Qui venit in nomine benedictus
In nomine
Domine

Sanctus
Benedictus, benedictus
Qui venit in nomine benedictus
In nomine
Domine

Sanctus Dominus Deus Sabaoth
Pleni sunt coeli et terra gloria
Sanctus Dominus Deus Sabaoth
Pleni sunt coeli gloria

Sanctus
Sanctus
Sanctus

Benedictus, benedictus
Qui venit in nomine benedictus
In nomine
Domine

Sanctus
Benedictus, benedictus
Qui venit in nomine benedictus
In nomine
Domine

Sanctus Dominus Deus Sabaoth / Benedictus, benedictus
Pleni sunt coeli et terra gloria / Qui venit in nomine benedictus
Sanctus Dominus Deus Sabaoth / In nomine
Pleni sunt coeli et terra gloria / Domine

Sanctus Dominus Deus Sabaoth
Pleni sunt coeli et terra gloria
Sanctus Dominus Deus Sabaoth
Pleni sunt coeli gloria

Sanctus
Sanctus

Looking For Light?

We've been listening to the BTMV hymnal and the P&W songs back recently, probably brought on by fact that we haven't listened to them in quite a while as well as BWei's sudden invitation to her church when we paid her a visit.

We'll admit, it's been a long while since we've last been to church - and we've no feelings of guilt. Loss, maybe. But we're not too sure what is it we may have lost. As it is, we feel like a complete stranger when in church - whether it be because we don't have the conviction anymore, or because we've lost contact with most of the church folks that we were never too close to begin with, even our peer group.

Honestly, the few times we ever end up in church (because we've to fetch mum there) we try to avoid the rest of the congregation after service - by hiding in some corner while everyone else mingle in fellowship over tea, coffee and biscuits. We gets mighty uncomfortable with any peers we meet in church that we would be quite comfortable with if we'd known them outside church. And we're not talking zealous attitudes or such, it's your regular Joe really.

Antisocialism? Sociophobia? Self-outcasting? Or is our faith faltering then?

All we like sheep, have gone astray indeed. We have definitely strayed off the path a long time ago, even when we were still in church then. And we don't think we are able to go back to church yet, not till we've come to terms with ourselves. If we were to go back, we need a good reaffirmation of the faith - something we probably never had in the first place.

Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art.
Thou my best Thought, by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.

Be Thou my Wisdom, and Thou my true Word;
I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord;
Thou my great Father, I Thy true son;
Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.

Be Thou my battle Shield, Sword for the fight;
Be Thou my Dignity, Thou my Delight;
Thou my soul’s Shelter, Thou my high Tower:
Raise Thou me heavenward, O Power of my power.

Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise,
Thou mine Inheritance, now and always:
Thou and Thou only, first in my heart,
High King of Heaven, my Treasure Thou art.

High King of Heaven, my victory won,
May I reach Heaven’s joys, O bright Heaven’s Sun!
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all.

Till we see God in everything.

We've Been Sold!

And not long back there was this article (in the In Tech?) on Death Threat Spams coming through the emails...

Just received a call not too long ago from some Private No. Turns out to be a lass who speaks Chinese as her first language (judging by the way she addressed our first name and by how she structured her sentences), but valiantly communicated to us that she was calling from Guinness with regards to our joining some contest.

Question mark.

So this Chinese lass, Nicole, asks us if we are interested in taking part in a short survey via phone. As we were curious to find out how we got into this we agreed. Really simple questions: ethinicity, age group, drink frequency (oh dear...)...then came the clincher.

"For this survey we will also need to update your contact details, yah."
"Okay."
"Your full name?"
"[aycee]"
"Your address is [address]?"
"Correct."
"Email address is [email]?"
"Yeah."
"And your IC number is...?"
"...-silence-..."

Then she goes to string some digits that weren't our IC number at all. She stops after 4-5 digits, realizing she's made a mistake (we think she was telling us our home number probably) and then starts over...with the wrong IC number again.

Warning lights.

We turn the tables at this point, firing questions back regarding from where she's calling from, what contest are we supposed to have entered, is the data on us in hardcopy or softcopy, yahdahyahdah.

And we also asked her to repeat the name she first called us when she called. Turns out it wasn't crappy reception or lousy pronunciation, it was 'Amin'.

So...Amin has entered a Guinness contest found in some men's magazine or other. And has gotten quite a bit of our info correct?

Warning klaxons.

Enough. We told her that she's probably been given the information by some third party. We'll not be consenting to this survey nor any others, thankyougoodbyehangsup.

Retrospect: Given our handwriting, it could be that it was correct but misread after all (hah still was a good thing we only told her our first name and surname and not our full name!). But we definitely haven't been buying magazines for a long time now.

Food Hopping To Penang

During our trip up to Penang, a question that ran through the group was, "So, what's the itinerary?" Group trips tend to be more fun, especially when it comes to eating and when you have tau yus guides to show you to the popular food joints.

Consisting of otousan (as driver), Germ, njapf (the nongenuine Ipoh gurl), Lingo (the KeiDakKu) and us, on the road by 7am, thinking about food before we all flop back to sleep.
"Stop by Ipoh for dim sum."
"And MMS lad!"
"Then have ice-cream soda?"
"And MMS lad!"
"Can buy chicken biscuits-ar?"
"Salted chicken!"
"Lunch how?"
"Penang char kuey teow!"
"And MMS lad!"
"Want to try the Penang ice kacang or not?"
"Can! And MMS lad!"

...yes, lad initially was suppose to join us for the wedding as well, but had to cancel. Although there was a time when he considered driving along with us up to Ipoh for the food. Well, so that he didn't miss out we thought we'd MMS him instead bwahahaha.

Yeah, that is evil. But then again we knows he's still using our SE T68i and he didn't set up MMS for that so no matter how many MMSes we send him he'll not be able to view it unless he does it online. Plan slightly foiled.

So anyways njapf brought us to Fuh San for breakfast (note: it seems that Ipohans are now veering more to Ming Court instead), and brought back memories of how we all had to hover by different people's tables that look like they're about to finish during our last trip. Once seated we were greeted by a lady selling Chinese DVDs :s

And the shopping began.

Food was good but we avoided heavy heavy stuff like the char siew pau and a yam cake thingy. Wethinks we missed out on the loh mai kai by accident tho'. After breakfast the lure of the ice-cream soda proved rather strong - as it turns out to be a 'happy drink' for Lingo :D So next time Lingo needs a boost from feeling down she'll drive down to Ipoh for her euphoria boost. In the end our 'less than 1 hour pit stop' went into overtime.

But even all that energy-providing food could not prevent the lot of us from falling asleep once back in the car. Until we reached Penang.

After saying hello to 3SM and getting the necessaries, it was off to the island for lunch. And this time we had a navigator to direct us to the popular spots! First stop, Lebuh Keng Kwee for cendol and ais kacang (surprisingly no one ordered ais kacang). We loves our cendol.

Sitting inside the kopitiam instead of hanging about outside (because we wanted to eat as well) was like taking a step back in time. Teresa Teng was playing, the feel that you're some small kid again sitting on some marble-top table...of course, the vision was a bit skewed when yours truly (and another table) started snapping pictures.

We played musical dishes by ordering the laksa, prawn mee and char kuey teow and passing it about. And Germ had cendol without cendol.

After Lebuh Keng Kwee (the char kuey teow did not stand out, prolly due to the melange of food) we'd continued on to Lorong Selamat for the 'proper' char kuey teow. The girls were out of commision leaving otousan and us to judge a plate of char kuey teow - it won hands down. During this char kuey teow session we realise that our eating capabilities may be, after all, due to worms :S

Anyways - the usual suspects all full and happy - before the wedding.

Onwards To The Next Phase

Yesterday it hit us: our batch of friends are getting married. Just because this is the first time we're helping out (if only just a bit) with the wedding. So instead of just appreciating a usual wedding dinner from the audience's POV (dine, wine, the yamseng, and leaving after dessert), participating in the machinations of tradition, custom and religion made us a bit more aware that it's no longer our elder siblings/relatives who're getting married, but it's friends around our level who're tying the knot.

Don't know if we're making our point clear here. It's just that we're all moving into the next phase in life where marriage is no longer a joshing subject but a viable option. And oh, the options: simple registration, no dinner? Whatever will both parents think? Small ceremony with just close family and friends? Who's invited? Mixed religion, what kind of wedding ceremony will be held? The full traditional monty, or pick the bits that you like?

Already today when the gang of zhi muis (with Snoopy giving rather wicked ideas) were planning on questions, tasks and foodstuffs the groom and his heng tai has to go through before he gets to meet the bride in her room, the mindstorming already had us repeatedly telling the girls, "I'm never getting married!"

To which we gets the reply, "Elope-lah!" Hmmm. We'll have to know the correct places first, if it ever comes to that.

Of course, we're not saying that we find the whole process too much. After all, if the groom can't get through the tasks (which the zhi muis do make sure that is certainly doable and nothing that has never been done during the college/uni years) then the bride ought to think twice, no? Eloping doesn't mean we wouldn't experience this as a member of the heng tai posse as well.

Yeah, marraige - big step.

Anyways, congrats to 3SM and hubby. You've already started, so onwards with the next great big adventure together. Late congratulations ya.

We Are Going On A...Wedding Holiday

Not ours lah. Ms 3-Second Memory. We, the bachelor-for-life, get married? Hah, we've gotten the retorts, "Say stay bachelor for life, sure first to get married one!" but we'll outlast the lot of them. Anyways.

Otousan is gonna be picking us up in an 2 and a half hours' time, and here we are blogging. Just how wonderful, the way we arrange our priorities. At least we aren't driving.

Oh, we still haven't packed.

And need to charge the camera!

Dammit, checklist!

Camera to camwhore
Phones: Nok7390 for use, Nok7710 for desperate measures to get online
Book (side memo: RoB recommends Guns Germs and Steel, keep a lookout)
iPod
Flash shirt and flashy coat courtesy of Philosophy (and slightly blind taste)
Conservative shirt in case we chicken out of flashy attire
Casuals, Crocs and leathers
Daily disposables and glasses
Toiletry bag
DS to finish off the Brain Age Sudokus (85% complete!)

Um. Wonder what else we left out. Takkan semacam our last Penang trip.

We'll be back on Sunday anyhoo. Needn't pack much *crosses fingers*.

They Should, Should They?

Look better, that is. The sketches were done some three weeks back now (we thinks) but we hadn't the time to make the actual templates.

The sketches done at Mage Cafe, mostly in the midst of gaming.

Funny thing is they look better as the sketches then when we were done templating them. Probably because we think they look better in a different medium rather than in the Stabilo ink pens. Maybe when we're in the mood we'll try redoing them in pencil or pen sketches, who knows.

The watermark may be blocking this one a wee bit too much.

This one less so, as the ink is darker.

As usual, if the names (so far yes, it's all names) can't be made out then considered fail.

RoB told us, "Now you should start working on girls' names."

Um, yeah. Like we told him, "When inspiration hits." True what, except for 'Rob' and 'Steven' we didn't purposely figure out an ambigram for someone.

Stay Puff

Started off with mum asking us to check out Damansara Uptown for a new curry puff store she came across in the Star Metro. At that time we weren't too sure what kind of store we were suppose to look out for, nor were we sure of the name and the only clue we had was that it was located at the old Fajar store. It's supposed to be a curry puff store that's found so far only in Takashimaya Singapore or summat. Mum preferred their curry puffs over Old Chang Kee 'cos she got bored of OCK.

Needless to say, we didn't find the store then. Mum, with the Star Metro as her guide, found it on Sunday. We only got to try the Black Pepper Curry Puff then, which wasn't too bad as we heart black pepper.

When we were talking to SuperCel the curry puff store came up - and he did a good job getting us obsessing on the Durian Puff.

SuperCel: have you tried the durian puff?
SuperCel: OMG
SuperCel: it's FANTASTIC
Janvier: haven't tried the durian yet
Janvier: shall hunt for it one day
SuperCel: it's so good
SuperCel: it just melts
SuperCel: MELTS i tell you
Janvier: ok - i'm dying now
Janvier: goodness i'm salivating
Janvier: !slump
SuperCel: it's practically durian flesh wrapped in curry puff skin!
Janvier: *must be strong*

We was totally obsessed over the idea of Durian Puffs by now we tell you.

During the start of this week we passed by and found the store (finally!) only to find that we arrived too late - the store has already closed. So yesterday after our tour about Putrajaya we detoured off to Uptown to finally snag the Durian Puffs.

Gotcha. Opposite Affin Bank, same block as Guardian (so yeah, not at Fajar but near it).

Oh yes. The aroma may remind you of the durian-flavoured ais krim potong but one bite and you literally melt along with it...

We couldn't resist licking the Ginsu knife after slicing this, reckless us.

Surprisingly we didn't find the urge to continue whacking a second one straight after finishing the first. But that's good, considering that one costs RM2.60. So we had it for supper yesterday instead :D

Checklist:
Savoury - Crispy Curry Puff / egg, Crispy Sardine Puff, Crispy Black Pepper Chicken Puff, Crispy Otah Puff, Crispy Crab Chilli Chicken Puff, Crispy Veggie Puff.
Sweet - Crispy Yam Paste Puff, Crispy Sweet Corn Puff, Crispy Durian Puff.

Hmmm. Prolly 'cos it's rather sweet we didn't wolf the entire lot at once. We thinks we'll target the Otah and Crab Chilli Chicken Puffs only.

And wait till they come up with the Crispy Hershey's Puff.

Touring Conflux Putrajaya

We happened to head down to Conflux Putrajaya today for something, and for the first time we had the opportunity to actually go about the place once we'd time (last couple of times we'd been down there, we travelled with colleagues so no chance of making detours). Time to be a tourist in our own country.

Dammit, everytime we think about Putrajaya, we picture the Conflux town from Heroes of Might and Magic III. Both came about around the same time.

Anyways, given that we'd manage to complete our stuff and there was a bit of time for us to go about, we'd decided to take a quick cruise about Putrajaya, as we'd never been about really before. Honestly, don't think we're missing much after today.

Asides from that Conflux Capitol, all other buildings have their own architectural of some modern metal or summat - but it's just pretty on the outside, nothing on the inside (nothing for us to do that is). But at least there's Taman Putra Perdana and Taman Wetlands.

First thing we thought of was that it reminded us of Greenwich (and later George Square), the park below was full of people. Picnics to frisbee to sunbathing...

If the weather wasn't overcast we wouldn't have bothered taking a walk. While the stress level has already plummeted leading to zero snow, having finished the necessary paperwork and washing it off our hands, a little more 'time-out' for ourselves wouldn't go amiss. And it was nice, full of greenery etc etc.

We did cuss a bit. Couple of occasions already, we'd not have our digicam with us when it was more appropriate compared to the phonecam. But phonecam stood up pretty well, thankfully the phone battery's been fully charged too.

We came across this monument-thingy in the middle of the park (which isn't that big anyways). A thought we had was that if Dan Browne never made mention about it (via Langdon the symbologist), how many people would associate these kinda monuments with phallic symbols? Took it for something decorative until we read the plaque:

Oh. A time capsule! That's nice...oh wait, it only holds Putrajaya's birth certificates.

Walking on towards the general direction of Shangri-La Hotel was this walkway, you get this. It's nice, fountains going all the way up, it's wheelchair-friendly too. Some aren't working, but then again no one's here to enjoy it really. Gazebos line both side of the fountains.

By now we've been sweating already in spite of it still being overcast, so we decided it's time to head back to the car. This is why the option 'have a picnic / go lepak in the park' is never one we will ever choose, at least not in tropical places. Which is a shame, we don't get enough sun as it is. Back in Glasgow we wouldn't mind bumming about George Square with a book from Borders and our MD player, watching peeps feed birds, sunbathers with their tops off, taking in a bit of sun without ever breaking into a sweat.

Onwards out of Taman Putra Perdana things went downhill - Taman Botanik required payment and didn't seem to be open, the Wetlands entry was blocked off and Putrajaya Sentral was an out-of-the-way bus station. Look, there're people staying in Putrajaya as well, so where's the shopping mall (oh goodness we're such a city boy)???

Oh well, no great loss but at least we've now done Putrajaya.

It's Snowing Again

So says our MSN Messenger once in a while. And only sis understands what we mean. Not that we hate snow - both sis and us are fond of cold weather actually.

When it snows for us, it's a rather local effect: just from the scalp to the shoulders. Sounds flakey? It is.

Thankfully the snowing is seasonal, usually brought on by a sudden surge of stress. This time it started snowing around Sunday if we're not wrong, and has been going on till now (although it looks as if clear skies are breaking through already).

And we can guess why - chasing a dateline that causes us to stay back at work, to missing the launch classes (oh our priorities are rather screwed up!) or worse, to leaving late and raging through the traffic hoping to reach the gym before class ends. Now that the dateline's almost due and the paperwork is done, plus we've finally got our 'Jam fix today (just the second half but that's the important bit) means we'll probably not snow much longer.

We also have the bad habit of being unable to leave the scalp alone when the season strikes - like itchy hands that reach out to shake a snow globe, our left hand will be stuck on the head subconsciously riffling through the hair. Semacam a t-shirt decal that's already been peeling after one wash to many, where itchy fingers cannot - simply cannot - stand but to start peeling at it till it all comes out.

After a while, we'll look over our left shoulder and start making it snow again.

Occasionally when we're aware and stop the left hand from rising past neck level, the right hand takes over :s

Probably to even things out.

Quick aside - for gamers who're 'recreational' pharmacologically inclined, have a look at Jolly Joker's articles on Drug Abuse in Erathia, found on Celestial Heavens. There's snow there too!
Drug Abuse in Erathia Part 1!
Drug Abuse in Erathia Part 2!

Quick aside aside - psike found us this site just after we'd finished rereading Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, a scientific study on the using of wands wangs in the wizarding community. Yikes.

Withdrawing From The Jam

Eh, is it possible to actually get addicted, or suffer withdrawal symptoms from 'Jam??? For we're actually all a-fidgety today.

As we had some work that we knew was going to keep us back in the office today, we'd used the weekend to catch the Miracle '07 Launch at Cineleisure just last Saturday. We didn't find it worthwhile to pay to join just for the 'Jam launch - and we couldn't join the 'Combat launch earlier on because we were in the office (on a Saturday! Something that we hadn't done in quite a while). Yeah, Miracle is a charity event where instead of participating in the usual Les Milles quarterly launches for free, you get to pay (for charity, of course) to be seen Bodybopping at The Curve (last year) / Cineleisure (this year).

But we still made our way to watch the Launch as we wanted to see how the new moves are as well as check out the music. The club block songs are great. The moves are simple. So far, we like the second half (it always is with BodyJam...either first half or second half only, exception being BodyJam 37, where we like the first third and the second third but hey, last third had ...weird song choices).

Oh! And there's also the Tribes Teams to watch! Regular gung-ho members team up with an instructor to do a track for Attack/Combat/Jam! That was also worth a watch :D And you'd get to vote for your favourite team, either by ballot or you could even donate cash into each teams' boxes! We didn't vote/donate :P but we were impressed that Ken's BodyJam team garnered RM1000+ in terms of donations!

Respect.

So, today. Not only our head's been filled with 'Jam tracks without the help of our iPod, we've also been hearing the phrases, "Single, single, double, single, single, double," and "Slow, quick quick slow, slow, back step." The legs have their own thing going on by either doing step touches, or sashays or the new tracks but thankfully no salsas.

Plus as it got closer to 5.30pm we were already griping about wanting to go for 'Jam, don't care even if we go late. Darn screwed up, our priorities. When we had the whole office to ourselves late evening we were going through the moves for first block and second block in between the job. And hoping that we can get our fix tomorrow.

Question to self: What happen to that passion for 'Combat?

Not Too Happy A Day

Yeah, we're not to happy with how Father's Day this year turned out really, at least, for the actual day - today - itself.

2 weeks' back mum mentioned that dad's briefcase was broken (the handle snapped or summat) and so she was suggesting that we get him a new briefcase before he gets back from work overseas. So dad got his Father's Day present in advance, and we thought, "There, Father's Day settled."

Except that we kept having this niggling feeling in the back of our head that something wasn't done yet for Father's Day. It wasn't until Friday that we realised, "Oh yeah...Father's Day dinner not yet settled. Shit, not yet plan. Die."

Texted mum while at work on Saturday to ask her about Father's Day dinner:

Father's Day dinner how?
Don't know.
Okay I book Jake's.
Tonight?
Tomorrow.

Jake's Charbroil Steaks at Medan Damansara is the family's usual spot for family dinners during special occasions (Mum's Day, Dad's Day, birthdays etc) if there isn't any request for other places, or like in this case, when it's a last-minute dinner reservation (as we don't have much restaurant numbers stored on the phone).

So come today we heads off for Jake's - and the three of us were seated at a couple's seat that was tucked away in a corner.

Hello?

You put an extra table for us is fine...it's just that now the parents are sandwiched between the table and the wall and can't get out, unless we push out the table onto the corridor. That place really isn't meant for more than 2 people!

And after dinner, the valet returns dad's car...with oil droplets trailing down the left side of the car.

And no one apologizes when this was pointed out to them too.

Oi!

Not happy at all.

Even if it's a busy occasion we could expect better. No complaints about the food tho'.

At least while we weren't too happy about dinner affairs, dad didn't complain. Better still when calling for the bill:

"She's paying. Today Father's Day, father not paying."

So waitress passes bill to mum. Mum opens purse, drops dad's supplementary credit card onto the tray.

-_-'

"Comes back to me paying right?" laughs dad.

Might as well we pay lah, except that mum would harangue us for using our credit card (not dad's supplementary!).

Note-to-self: Shall think of San Francisco Steakhouse for next family dinner then.

Good Morning!

Got an early MSN message from l'agneau orange yesterday morning, which went summat...

l'agneau orange: we gots it we gots it!!!!
Janvier: Your tickets
l'agneau orange: no
l'agneau orange: tats old news
l'agneau orange: GINGY :D
l'agneau orange: his legs be broken n reattached with icing haha'
Janvier: oooo
Janvier: great, now we're hungry.
Janvier: brb

Happy meal with baby grilled burger, fries with seaweed seasoning, ice milo, green drink with pineapple chunks, and Gingy!

Admittedly we too like Gingy. And we couldn't really make out what he was saying. We'd left him inside his plastic wrapping, eating breakfast at our desk. The fries and the seaweed seasoning was something like Mamee snacks nowadays, you pour the seasoning into the bag of fries and shake it about. 'Tisn't as salty as Mamee is tho', but nothing spectacular. Once we'd finished the lot, drinks and all, we'd wrapped up the lot and decided to dump it in the rubbish bin outside the office rather than in the pantry bin.

Somewhere after lunch l'agneau orange asks us if we made out what Gingy was saying. We turns to the spot where we last left Gingy - or so we thought. He wasn't there.

Flashback.

Rubbish bin outside office.

AAAAARGH!

Now not only did we dump our stuff earlier on when the bin was empty, after lunch everyone else have contributed their bit too, filling the bin to the brim. Our half-hearted prodding proved that we're not gonna be able to find our bag unless we dig deep. And we so do not want to be caught by the boss nor by anyone else digging in the bin for Ginny.

We could have come up with some excuse, like we'd dropped our Tiffany's ring (like we have one like that) in there or that Gingy's for someone else really...but no. If we said it was some valuable trinket then upon reclaimation of Gingy we've got some more explaining to do. And at the time we weren't capable of any fast talk if necessary.

Shit.

Goodbye Gingy :(

Worse yet, we're not too sure why we want Gingy - it's gonna end up being a forgotten decorative item somewhere (we thinks l'agneau orange's Gingy will end up sharing the dashboard with backflip Yoda from Burger King). It's just that we just get ours and lost it. So we're feeling rather bo kam wan and want another.

Yeeesh. And we know Gingy's rather popular, we're gonna cross our fingers there's still stock today.

The AA

Hullo, our name be Janvier. We're alcoholic. Not proud of it really but can't say we're feeling any guilty for being one. We drink only in social situations (who doesn't really?), not when we're alone. The only detrimental effects we've ever experienced are: ending up sleeping in the porch only to be discovered by the parents, throwing up onto the exterior of a friends car, and (most importantly) the serious dent it causes on our pockets whenever we start.

This is one good reason why we seldom go clubbing anymore. We don't really have fun but end up by the bar ordering drink after drink after drink. However, we're happy that our tolerance is good enough that we don't make a bloody fool of ourselves after the first or second cup or end up learning we've been doing all sorts of stuff to the entertainment of others that we have no memory of.

But given the opportunity to start - hell, who are we to decline? And once we start, it's hard to stop. We loves our daiquiry. We're okay with most beers. We have something steady going on with wine. Just maybe given them occasions where hard liquor is mixed with soft drinks in the hands of bartenders-from-hell that we'll throw all rationale out the door and say, "Goodbye Mr Brain."

Still.

We find ourselves back in the office at 1am in the morning. Not because we heart job. But some things needed delivering and we couldn't leave them in the car, they needed to be stored in the fridge the sooner the better. We'd picked it up in the evening only to face peak traffic hours heading back to the office, so we instead decided to have dinner first with psike and lad at Tony Roma's The Curve, only to find ourselves at Laundry Bar soon after pushing ourselves to inebriation. Because one is never enough, and that last drink tasted horrible, and we needed our daiquiry (oh the excuses).

It's such a wrong day to start the intoxication - we'll only end up with the Friday Blues, a variation of the Monday Blues (ie. "Shyte Monday's coming and it's back to work!"). Dammit. It's only Thursday and we're boozing? Tomorrow still got to work lah!

Just hope we don't end up sleeping in the office - we needs a bathe and change and there's no air-conditioning after work hours here. Best head off homeward bound now - except that we're feeling a wee bit peckish. Let's check out McDonalds on the way home. McChicken sounds good after two months' abstinence.

Oh, was this suppose to be a support group to stop alcoholism? Sorry, wrong group. We're still looking for that next sticky, sweet drink with a straw and fruits stuck on the glass.

Fantastic Summer

It's ironic - whatwith getting three albums to help usher the summer movies in, the one that ends up top of the list is the one that we didn't buy (ahem, hush hush): Mika's Life in Cartoon Motion. We've been listening to this album for a couple of weeks now, abandoning the rest of our playlists and new albums because this one of the few albums where every single song is good. The album should have been titled 'Life in Yo-Yo Motion' or 'Life in Bipolar Motion', because that's how the songs go - a couple of boppy songs to get you uplifted and then one that goes, "I'm dumping you," then everthing's happy again until the end of Relax (Take It Easy):

"Same day I wear the dress for wedding, same day while I want married, what happen, he's go married another girl. When he's married another girl, I am very very sad... ...After one months, I am stand up in balcony, some bomb come for my eyes. My eyes go. My eyes gone and bomb now I have only one eyes, I am sad until now I no married any man after."

First thing we said when we heard that line was, "Wha-fuh?"

Then a slightly depressing song.

'Cos it's all in the hands of a bitter, bitter man
Say goodbye to the world you thought you lived in
Take a bow, play the part of a lonely lonely heart
Say goodbye to the world you thought you lived in

The strings in that song was nice though. Then back to his happy mood with Billy Brown. Made us laugh with the first stanza:

Oh Billy Brown had lived an ordinary life
Two kids, a dog, and a cautionary wife
While it was all going according to plan
Then Billy Brown fell in love with another man

Bwahaha. Very light-hearted song. Then it all starts going all depressing towards the last couple of tracks.

But honestly enough, we really enjoy all the tracks! Whether because it's very cheery upbeat or because the musics good. We try not to pay too much attention to the lyrics, tho' - when you got stuff like this:

Sucking to hard on your lollipop
Oh, love's gonna get you down

Erm. Anyways...Will look into buying this album once we find a copy that doesn't say 'Special Malaysia Edition' - somehow we don't fully trust those.

Then bringing on this week:

28 Weeks Later Shrek The Third Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World's End Mon Petit Doigt M'a Dit Hors de Prix Fauteuils d'Orchestre Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer Transformers The Simpsons Movie Evan Almighty

Right. Fantastic Four turns out like the first one - it's all there but doesn't really excite you storywise. Of course, that means you can pay attention to the more important parts of the show :) Still can't do anything but stop and stare (even when we knew what to expect already!).

*Sigh*

Thumbs up for the visuals - the Destroyer looks really, really good. Oh, stay back after during credits again but you won't miss much.

Verdict: Get the DVD for this one (same goes for the first one) so you can make good use of the pause/rewind buttons. And we're wondering who performed the Canon in D during the wedding scene in Manhattan. Thought it was the St-Martin-In-The-Fields version by Neville Marriner but just checked back, it doesn't seem so - movie version has more trills played. Nevertheless, another variation to hunt down if possible :)

*Sigh*

We Used To...

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No Simple Tasks

Today our to-do list was supposed to be rather simple:

• Continue taking our antibiotics.
• Go home early after work and laze recuperate.
• But stop by Big Apple Donuts & Coffee for more donuts first.
• Pick up wrapping paper for mum.
• Get a quick trim from Peekaboo while they still have that 'student cut' for RM5.

Turns out things weren't gonna be so easy.

Forgot our antibiotics. Yeah, we're suppose to remind people about the importance of compliance and we ourselves forget the most important meds that require compliance. Probably that's why our constitution seems to be on a low this year.

It was the plan this morning to actually come home after work and not go Bodyjam. But around 5pm onwards there was this bit in our brain that started niggling us with restless thoughts:

Stay at home do what?
Doesn't feel right coming home so early after all these time coming back late.
It's Tracy's class!
Bodyjam single tracks are gonna be phased out, leaving only 'blocks'. Better get all you can now.

In the end we just gave up. Packed our stuff and headed off, hoping that the low health doesn't cause us to suffer later.

Oh we did get our donuts :) This one thankfully didn't get waylaid. Picked up another 3 donuts again. We feel it's a bit 'neither here nor there' because it's RM2 a piece and we could get 6 for RM9.50, but one donut won't be enough and 6 is a bit too much for supper. Yes, we could keep it in the fridge but here's why we love their donuts - it's so frickin' light.

Forget Dunkin Donuts or even Starbuck's RM4-something Sugared Donut. The pastry there fills you up. Big Apple's Donuts makes you feel like you're biting some fluffy cloud. 'Course, the choice of flavours probably are important too - yesterday's Californian Almond was an instant winner. Even the simple Glazier was good. The Choco Ring didn't stand out so much, but was still light. So anyways, otousan's review was either *way* out, or his taste buds cannot trust. Personally we thinks that he couldn't really compare (and was expecting an epiphany like kennysia when he bit into his Krispy Kreme) while we had Dunkins for lunch not long back.

Tonight's choices: Snowy, Iceberg and Witnut(?). Trust our bad memory that we've to refer to the receipt for the names, what the heck is Witnut already?

So anyways given that we're eating something so fluffly why would we want to go and put it in the fridge??? It'll just harden it up.

The only places we can find some decent cheap wrapping paper in the Curve would either be in MPH or Borders. So into Borders we go, knowing we might not leave unscathed anyways...

Picked up Dracula. Greenbacks in Borders were going for 4 for 3! So sad that there wasn't any more titles that we were interested in getting. Still, better just get one that we'd read rather than 3 more that we won't.

Also ended up pre-ordering Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (was attracted by the 20% offer, it's a ringgit better than MPH). *Sigh* From RM1.50 for wrapping paper to RM40 for paper and book. And they were out of the 'free owl' that came with the Potter book too. Oh well, considering that our Potter collection from Goblet of Fire onwards are in Bloomsbury children's cover hardback, might as well keep to it.

Didn't get our haircut too - by the time we left The Curve it was 10pm. Shall try Thursday.

A Do-Nut Nut Nut A Do-Nut Nut

Really. We blame kennysia's post for this sudden craving for doughnuts donuts (heck with the long spelling we're lazy sick). So happens that instead of going for our porridge for lunch today we had to step out and head home to pick up something we'd left behind, and by the time we were heading back to the office there wasn't much time to get a proper lunch without being rather late.

So happens that on the way we get to stop by a Dunkin Donuts drive-thru :) Got ourselves 6 donuts for RM10. Gave one to our colleague, leaving us with 5 assorted donuts for lunch (far as we can remember, a strawberry-filled, a lemon-filled, a banana-filled, a peanut butter and jelly and hell we can't remember the last one).

Then there was the (new) ritual of Monday BodyJam-BodyCombat - as we aren't well we thought of just doing Jam and prolly half the Combat class. Darn Calvin instead plays the sympathy card and entreating us to stay, it's only half an hour more and he's sick too (at least he didn't ask for us to do the shouting today, the class has more shouty people now) and yes, we know, the actual truth is that we don't know how to say no. So ended up staying for the entire class, although not really koyaked because we cheated and didn't go all out as we normally do in his classes.

It's just that instead of getting home early and getting some good bedtime, we ended up talking about donuts and kennysia's post with otousan - and about Curve's donut shop, Big Apple Donuts & Coffee. It's been open for a couple of weeks or so now and we still haven't paid it a visit yet. That was finally remedied today.

A Californian Almond, a Choco Ring and a Glazier Donut. Yum.

The presentation of the store is much better than Dunkin Donuts, in our opinion. And the variety's so much more different from Dunkin Donuts, but as we'd already had our funky flavours we thought of trying something new - thus the Glazier and the Californian Almond (almond slices on white chocolate).

Hello supper.

Otousan texted not too long ago - he wasn't happy with his choices (so ngam that his chose different donuts from us!):

Not nice one the donuts!! Dunkinn taste better!!! Biasa only!! Grrr!!

We guess expectations ran high after reading about Krispy Kremes in the first place. We'll only be eating ours later.

Now only one item's left on the food craving to experiment - the Soda Susu (condensed milk + soda water), although we wonder if it can live up to the First Love (Ribena + 7-Up + lychees) we get at Mage.

Porridge For The Soul Sick

We learned that some of our friends dislike porridge :s

This surprised us, mainly because some of them were, like us, lap sap tongs (Cantonese for rubbish bins - indiscriminate eaters with a bottomless stomach) when it comes to food. And then to hear them go "E-yer, porridge ar? Yucks!" and such made us wonder why. Initial summation proved correct:

They eat porridge only when they're sick.

Okay. So there's the slightly misconstrued idea that porridge is for sick people only (or, who knows, porridge makes you sick). Thankfully porridge never affected us that way. If we were to think of anything that we'd associate with being sick - it used to be KFC's Zinger Burger.

Sometime after our operation yonks back in Form 2, we'd to go for radiotherapy to finish up whatever bits the op couldn't do safely. So Day 1 of radiotherapy saw us stepping into Pantai Hospital for our appointment, allowing the radiologists to mark the spot in some red marker and then lying on our front while some machine made noises behind our back.

We weren't afraid of the process - as we didn't know what to expect of course, but we were pleasantly surprised that the actual process took under half an hour. On our way back home mum had to stop by Klang town to get something done, and left us to wait in the car with lunch - the KFC Zinger Burger.

Spew.

Thankfully not in the car.

But that really put us off the idea of lunch (or eating any time after radiotherapy), not to mention KFC. We'd inadvertedly become an anorexic. It also didn't help that our radiotherapy appointments were always around lunchtime. Even eating before the sessions didn't help - out it comes some half-hour after therapy. Like chemotherapy, radiotherapy also caused nausea and vomitting. No hair loss nor were we required to shave as radiotherapy was targetted on back.

Quick aside: WHY didn't anyone tell us about Kytril nor Maxalon then??? If we'd known there would probably have been less misery. Or perhaps it's thought that the nausea we experienced didn't have such a great impact on quality of life (in retrospect, not much thankfully).

It's rather tiresome to have to eat knowing you'd throw it up sometime later. But thankfully that's all in the past now.

Back to porridge. Porridge has never scared us, in fact, we do enjoy porridge - especially when it's loaded with salted egg slices, century egg slices, anchovies, chicken slices and a bit of soy sauce, smelling delightfully of MSG and pepper. Technically it's rice congee that we eat here - porridge doesn't have to be made from rice. We remembers reading one of Enid Blyton's Faraway Tree series and it puzzled us to no end that Moon-Face offered the children milk and treacle to go with their porridge. We'd have asked for Bovril and the pepper shaker ourselves. 'Course, we know now.

But we too don't eat porridge unless we're sick :) Simply because, it's not filling. We'll only be hungry in a couple of hours after a bowl. However, when we're sick it becomes a viable option as the appetite isn't roaring to be satiated all the time, making way for the demands of sleep and rest.

Musn't forget our meds and concoctions now.

Overwhelmed Access

Whoa. A sudden surge in being 'pointed' and receiving messages prompted us to question what? why? how? who? and the usual suspects. Disregarding the instant-delete line of 'Hi want be fren?' it's still a sudden influx of attention, and we're not used to this. It's not that we're sociophobic (nonsocial yes, most of the time in fact), but we are feeling rather overwhelmed. And we're not adding sudden 'MSN acquaintances', for fact that we know how simple and shallow we are in real life there won't be much to talk about (and flooding our contact lists) :s

And the numbers aren't much actually. Introversion just magnifies things extraverts take in stride.

Not that it isn't nice to suddenly find yourself on the front page (moment of giddy-headed blonde glee) but given how we projected ourselves we weren't expecting much (if any) reception - it was just another place for us to rant at times when ranting was required (makes us wonder why we didn't start an Anonymously Alliterative blog in the first place). Anyways we don't think we can take going back there until tomorrow.

He Want, Want He?

Okay, title sounds just downright silly. But it does tell what to expect, doesn't it? Anyway given that our friends have seen how the tablet counter works, another Puerto Rico owner wanted our MkI. Nooo...it's our MkI.

We can make you a MkII like RoB's though, ambigram included. And so we did. Let's leave names out of it and see how well it comes out with the ambigrams first though.

The initial sketch. Done sometime last Friday in Mage Cafe. Surprised at doing so because we were busy playing Condottiere at the time.

This ambigram took the longest time to template, as it had the most measurements - we'd to take a couple of breaks just to ease our aching back from all that hunching over our table. And the best bit? We weren't satisfied with it totally. Still, it was something. And we shuddered to think that we had to do it again on the tablet counter X(

Then the day before just as we were waiting at the traffic lights on our way home an idea hit. And while we were scrabbling for our pencil and paper in the car the lights turned green. Managed to scrawl the necessary bit and left it at that. Thankfully it was enough for us to sketch and draft out the new one in far less time than it took to create the first one (although it isn't as symmetrical but we'll shut one eye).

It's simpler and cleaner than the first one. We were far happier with this one and we almost lost it in the book casualty yesterday.

Finally, made the tablet counter out of bright yellow mounting board (that's the actual term for the board we use!), used blue ink so that it'll turn green (on purpose) and traced the new ambigram on another piece of paper before transferring it.

Now, how much are we gonna charge him for this? We knows: he's holding our Canon in D Variations CD hostage for far too long now. He says its buried somewhere at home here and he's got no time to find it as he's working outstation. Also he owes us money. And must remember he has our Mario vs Donkey Kong 2 and our Sailormoon Super S DVDs. Dammit, must make list of things he's borrowed from us! Gotta make sure he returns back at least 2 items first.

Oh, and he can buy us a drink of our choice to cover expenses and service charge. RoB did.

Book Casualty

Great. Had popped into the car for a nap after lunch, the sinus demanded proper rest if it was to leave us alone the rest of the afternoon. Little did we know the sacrifice was to be far, far greater.

We'd to park in a puddle-filled lot today - not a small pool but one that was enough to immerse our Frankenstein greenback totally - so make that 1cm deep. This has *just* been proven :'(

The moment the book took the plunge all thoughts of hygeine went out of our head, overwritten by the Primary Command 'SAVE BOOK SAVE BOOK SAVE BOOK!!!'. Not only because we loves our books but because our ambigrams, our receipts and other whatnots that ends up being bookmarks were also stuffed in said book.

Doesn't help that our ambigrams were drawn using the Stabilo ink pens - thankfully no casualties with the ambigrams although there is slight smearing. While all completed ambigrams have already been scanned we still loves the originals, and they're actual proof that it's our handiwork. Ryan's a bit wet, so's ryhen, but thankfully Henry sketch 1 and Steven sketch 2 (which we just only did this morning!) is untouched, just slightly wet at the sides. Thank goodness not all our ambigram eggs have been kept in this basket.

Now we have a tissue-paper sandwich on our shelves drying the 'bookmarks' while the book may take over a day to dry up. It might just achieve that olde parchment look then, or just be as deformed as Frankenstein's Monster.

Recipe to achieving paper parchment look? Oh the pain at looking at the puir boke...

Bedding Down

We find that we fall asleep faster on the hall couch at night compared to our bed. Of course, this only applies to the late hours when we're alone in the hall - there's no way we'll sleep there during the daytime when mum will have the telly on, and where leather and hot weather becomes your worse napping partners.

Given our occasional late suppers, VCDs/DVDs to watch or even for a bit of quiet cave time with a book, we'll head downstairs, make a cuppa and drape ourselves on the 2-seater. The 2-seater is just perfect for most things: it's facing the telly, the coffee table is just in front and within reach, our head is propped up on one end and the feet on the other.

It's so peaceful that we'll just drop off only to wake up between 4am - 6am, wash up our cup, turn off the lights and head back to our bedroom that's been kept cool by the running A/C to snooze for another couple of hours. How unfortunate that, while it's easy to drop off on the couch, it doesn't feel as if we've gotten much rest sleeping there.

Maybe that's why we tend to sleep for 12 hours during the weekends...

Judging By The Sound Of It

Leggie's posting of a mandarin song reminded us that we were supposed to hunt down a song from a long time past: the song that's played at the end of a Justice Bao episode.

Yes. Justice Bao. The very first ones in Mandarin where a story arc finished within the week rather than drag on for ages. When MetroVision first showed up we'd a bit of a hassle as the telly antenna wasn't able to receive the channel clearly - s'either RTM and TV3 were on VHF while MetroVision was on UHF or the other way 'round. So we lived on hopes that reception was good, since MetroVision brought many new series during prime time. It was MetroVision wot brought Justice Bao, Picket Fences and Sailormoon into our life.

Only Justice Bao suffered in terms of reception because we hadn't gotten a reception booster then - but that didn't stop us from tuning in glued to the seats, going all panicky when static and grey crept in at odd times and rainy days. The family heart the early Justice Bao :) It was such a change from the other Cantonese serials. Instead of a long-drawn drama of goodness knows how many episodes in all, there were simple story arcs of some 5-10 episodes, each getting slightly longer (if we remembers the first case/story arc only took one week).

Fun watching Justice Bao shouting 'Execute' and throwing the wooden piece, or his attendants banging their staves on the floor whilst murmuring 'Silence/Seriousness' (something like that). And following the cases, wondering if the story arc will end with that episode or continue...and then there's the teaser scenes that play during the end credits :D

OK. Back to the end credits song first. As we can't read Chinese and don't understand Mandarin (yes, banana, go go banana!) we have noooo idea what the song's about nor able to make out if the song is listed somewhere in the credits. But during those times the family collection of cassette tapes proved providential - Richard Clayderman's 'Flower Heart' album has the song, titled 'New Dream Of The Lovers'.

Maybe one day we'll find it.

So anyways, how did we get our brain latched back onto something like Justice Bao in the first place? Sometime after Chinese New Year this year - sis asked us to look for a certain chinese series title (heck it surprised us that she still watches chinese serials) so we decided to try Speedy 1 Utama. While that proved fruitless we spotted some eye candy that caused us to brake and examine the nearby shelves :)

And saw this.

Now RM3 per VCD for something that we could appreciate wasn't anything to sniff at. We can't remember why we didn't pick up any then - probably because there were too many and we didn't know what episode we were picking (we would preferably get a story arc where we've watched before, or has been translated in those bilingual chinese novels) - but we didn't get any. Maybe we were afraid then that we would just buy every single one then.

So when Leggie posted the mandarin song the itch in the brain to go pick up any box of Justice Bao VCDs flared. Of course, there was the chance that the VCDs won't be selling for RM3 anymore, but we wouldn't know until we try. And then we also came across this:

Justice Bao DVD!

Flustered with choice we finally picked up a box of 4 VCDs - goodness knows what the story's about as there's no English translation of the title but we thought what the heck, so few VCDs surely short story arc, should be early episodes one lar. Mana tahu when we dropped by Mage just now Wong nicely informs us that its only half the story arc. Fuggggg! It was around then that it dawned on us, "Ya-hor, VCD can only hold 1 hour's worth, which is one episode."

-_-'

It's been a long time back when we switched to DVDs. Maybe getting the DVD next would be a better idea, it'll cost the same. Anyways, another bag of chips tonight while we find out what story arc this is. Probably wouldn't understand anyways, can't hear can't read.

Nighttime Hungers

...for supper. During our uni days dad will pick us up on Fridays to spend the weekend back home in Klang then. And Klang's choice of supper around midnight consists of the various mamaks around or Ramlee burgers (this is some 6 years back mind you, we aren't sure if there's more variety now). We don't mind the burgers (daging double/triple special, bawang saja...yum) but we don't fancy eating at the mamak alone. And some nights we had a strong urge for kopitiam food, like your kuey teow theng and char kuey teow or prawn mee or even lobak...and the only place we knew of that served such even after midnight was in SS2.

Nothing as authentic as a Ramlee burger from a store right outside 7-Eleven.

It was a bad, horrible mistake to pick up such a habit before going to UK. There's only so much fish and chips you can take before your arteries go clang at the suggestion of them for supper. Thank goodness ymlau shared our need for supper and experimented at making the perfect Maggi Mee Goreng (in our opinion the best one was when he finally added a bit o' MSG and loads of paprika) for countless nights.

Nowadays however we don't head out for supper that often - indeed we've gotten lazier (even though SS2 is even nearer) but also because our hunger pangs or itchy mouth syndrome (IMS) strikes much, much later - sometimes past 3am. And at such hours we rather just scavenge the house for food.

The kitchen, while not deprived of food, doesn't really have much snacks at the ready. Occasionally there's fruits and/or biscuits (of the Lexus kind or its ilk) but those unfortunately cannot do justice to our hunger. And since it's mum's kitchen we don't normally potter around as we don't look forward to hearing about it if anything goes wrong. Most we'll do if we need to is feed on instant noodles, as it's the most filling. But with IMS instant noodles might be a bit too much - and that's where Tesco's finally good for something.

Really! Tesco Malaysia turned out to be a bit of a disappointment, following the hypermarket concept rather than the minimart/supermarket concept that we were so used to in the UK (well, that concept probably wouldn't have survived here we guess). We don't like browsing the aisles in a hypermarket. Anyways, with Tesco, we've learned our lesson a long time back not to fully trust the home brand stuff (at least, not their peanut butter nor their Earl Grey tea). But their potato chips, now that deserves a thumbs-up.

We're not sure how we even started munching on their potato chips in the first place. Probably because Tesco UK had the range of Tesco Temptations that rivalled Walker's Sensations range (thankiu Jacz for bringing back some last time we met!). But anyways we'd ended up trying the chips that the Tesco here had, and by gods it was good (or rather, tasty)! The only ones we never tried were the green coloured chips, that one scares us. Asides from that, they also costs 95 sen a bag!

We normally pick up 10 bags at a time. This time we've learnt to use the basket, after the last time where our arms were loaded full, and then one toppled off. Thank goodness there was a kind staff member who'd helped pick it up for us. Yeah, we get stares from everyone when we have to walk from the snacks aisle all the way to the other end to the express lane counters, buying nothing but junk.

If we're careful, this will last 10 days.

Scribble Scribble Scribble

Henry draft done, awaiting touchup.
Paul sketch done, awaiting drafting.
Steven sketch in progress, awaiting touchup.
Rob reworking on waiting list.
Alvin reworking on waiting list.
Aaron reworking on waiting list.
Andrew concept on waiting list.

And a couple of others that we haven't figured out the fit yet. Arg. Our book is getting filled with loads of papers of sketches.

First Meetup @ Old Town Kopitiam Cheras

So happens to be the forum title for us to discuss our ongoing meetup sessions in BoardgameCafe.net. Just that it isn't the first meetup anymore :) But that doesn't matter, fact is the group has been having regular meetups there, not only to have dinner and drinks while going heads on playing whatever game that's been brought, but also as a way to 'increase awareness' (heh) of Euro-boardgames (the general term for this genre of games).

ayheng, jack208 and aanemesis on Caylus.

What goes on at the meetup can be found at ayheng's blog at times when he gets to blogging about it, like last week's meetup (we'd even brought our shepherd's crook along but don't think anyone took any pictures of that - quite the LoA we understands but like we tells people, the stick needed walking).

Interesting enough, a friend used the meetup to score some brownie points with his date by bringing her to meet the rest of the gang:

• She gets to see how he spends 'the night out with the guys' - not wasting himself drinking or gambling or womanizing.
• Instead he plays boardgames, so must be quite smart one.
• It paints us in a bad light that the rest of us are hardcore gamers meeting every week while he would have other activities to take up his time too.
• The rest of the gang also unknowingly pushed his stock up with compliments during dinner.

-_-'

However, there are a few things that stop us from making this meetup a weekly affair for us.

We've to make our way from Taman Tun to Cheras. Yeah, this is a bit of a flimsy excuse considering ayheng has to come all the way from Klang. And we actually have the alternative of leaving straight from the office on the dot and heading up the Federal, thus while we'll still be crawling in the jam at least we would be there early. But no...we rather head home first, take a shower, prolly grab a quick bite before making our way via Jln Damansara - Jln Parlimen - Jln Tun Perak - Jln Raja Chulan - Changkat Bukit Bintang - Jln Bukit Bintang - Jln Pudu then onwards to Cheras. We're aware of the other alternatives, we've either gotten lost on them or ended up in a gridlock.

Oh, doesn't help that by passing KL we're tempted to forget about Cheras and stop by for drinks at Changkat BB instead :D

Our BGC meetups goes from 8pm - 6am. Heh. It's basically split into Round 1 and Round 2 - Round 1 being in OTK with the 'lighter' games (games that take anywhere 30min - 90 min) while Round 2 we'll all move on to BoardgameCafe down the road and bring out the heavies (which goes from midnight till morning). While it gives us ample time to play a heavy game - it screws our personal circadian cycle. We'll make it home by 7am and just sleep through the entire Satuday, only opening our eyes when the clock strikes 4pm or later.

Oh, minor gripe - OTK food is NEVER filling! Take last weeks' total consumption: noodles (can't remember what tho), assorted fried platter (bloody small), butter and kaya thick toast, garlic butter thick toast. And since it's a 'modern' kopitiam hangout, the concept of chips/onion rings/wedges doesn't exist.

But if you're ever at OTK on a Friday night on the upper floor, well now you know what our table does.

Retail Therapy Yet Again

Well you can't deny that retail therapy helps distract one from other matters. But it's a temporary measure, till the next slump or till the bills come. The best retail therapy we find however, is the impulsive kind (like our unfortunate motto, 'Don't Think, Just Buy!'). Impulsive purchases have a way of making one happier, second only to purchasing something that you've been saving up for a long time.

So happens that yesterday our plan was to just stop by Baskin Robbins at The Curve to pick up a pint o' ice cream (31% off on the 31st!) - as we felt McD's Choc Sundae wasn't doing the trick we'd had a pint o' Chocolate Brownie and Almond Fudge mix.

But we made a detour first into Giordano to pick up the pair of off-white linen pants that we...we...we...caved in and bought. And felt better for it. Thank goodness they haven't any linen tops, we made a mistake assuming they did. But we're sure to find something in our closet. Had to have it altered though, the length was a wee bit too long for us (still fitting into a W:28 :s).

Would have been so tempting to walk into MPH or Borders but thankfully there wasn't time, we'd to rush to get the ice-cream before the crowd descends on BR, then head back and dump it in the freezer, then head to GSC for Fauteuils d'Orchestre before heading back to The Curve to collect our pants.

Quick Aside:
Fauteuils d'Orchestre turned out better than Mon Petit Doigt M'a Dit in our opinion. Probably because we were left feeling disappointed that there wasn't much deduction but more of just events taking place. Well, it was based on a Tommy and Tuppence book and not a Poirot or Ms Marple. But we felt disappointed nevertheless. With Fauteuils d'Orchestre however, it's a light-hearted comedy looking into how different people are connected (think, Babel and Crash but not so serious).

Still haven't done Hors de Prix. Want to do Hors de Prix.