Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Zouk's 5th Birthday (Weekly roundup #3)

Yes, another weekly roundup because I've been too busy to update as regularly as I would love to.

After the plumber last week, guess what... time to fork out money again for my parking fines!! First up was MBPJ (formerly MPPJ, for those not in the know)... R kindly offered to go for me since his office is in the MBPJ tower anyway. He got it down to RM30! Whoopee! That's less than a movie for two at GSC Signature, by the way.

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Jaunty Josh had put our names down on the VIP guestlist for Zouk's 5th anniversary bash, so R and I headed there... 2 hours after we were supposed to (one's gotta be fashionably late, doesn't one? Okay, to be honest, it's actually, one's gotta have dinner, doesn't one?). We lined up at the Media and VIP invites booth looking very important and glad not to be queueing up with the commoners.

And then...

The woman there couldn't find our names! Grrr... she kept asking are you on the members' guestlist? And I kept saying, no, we should be on the VIP guestlist... and still she kept looking IN THE SAME LIST. It finally registered in her thick skull that we were on another list, and she picked up another piece of paper and found our names immediately. Phew. And a what the...?! How annoying of you to keep us VIPs standing there searching for our names? And then... she picks up the blue bands and sticks them on our wrists. Hey... it's the red bands that say VIP, I wanted to tell her. But I'm not that arrogant heehee. As long as I get in, and get to see what's happening in there, that's all that matters.

So we walk in and bump straight into Jaunty Josh with the customary hot blogger chick on his arm. Sometimes there are two. That night there were three. So he obviously had no time to chat to us. Just made some introductions all round, and we left him to check the rooms out.

The mainroom was pounding, really good music there. Got a drink, took a while as they usually do... bopped our heads a bit and watched people dancing. Then went exploring at Barsonic - which was completely empty! What a huge difference from when we were last there for that Japanese dude, whatsisname... oh yeah, Shinichi Osawa. Wasn't feeling any vibe up there so we moved to Phuture, which should always be packed since this is KL, after all. It was decently filled with a before midnight crowd, so we ordered a drink at the bar. Bumped into Giggsy Tan there too.

After about an hour we decided to give Barsonic another try, since it's our favourite room in the club. And yikes, it was another disappointment! Even after midnight, it was just as empty as before. Did see someone interesting though... one of my ex-crushes was there, taking me by surprise, but I was glad to realise that I had absolutely no feelings for him anymore. I just wanna find out what the bloody heck his problem was last December. Pfft... doesn't matter though. We just exchanged waves and then practised ignorance.

Finally went back down to Zouk and woohoo! Lapsap were there producing customary Barsonic sounds in Zouk mainroom. A little unbalancing, but awesome all the same! Ended the night enjoying their mixes... just had a whole lot of fun. Thanks Jaunty Josh!

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On Friday I had scheduled myself to pay the DBKL fine. Had to go into town to the main office in order to get my fine lowered to RM30, so I made the trip. It was a real experience for R! We thought the counter was at the lobby (as was told by the guy at the drive-in counter), but instead, R had to run up 22 floors (lifts were rosak, of course) in order to get the ticket stamped to reduce it to RM30, then run back down to pay at the lobby counter. Hmm... I had to make it up to him of course, which I surely did, with a yummy meal at Dome after that.

Didn't have much time after Dome before we had to get ready and leave again for Always Wasted Yassir's birthday party at Poppy. Ridiculously expensive parking there though... we shoulda just parked at 7atenine since we ended up having one last drink there after Poppy anyway. While there, we both got picked up by a drunken Scot. And then abused by a drunken Englishman. And consequently made peace with two Italians.

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Next up will be some miscellaneous photos from my birthday party (the official album is on Facebook) and some other randoms. Check back soon (hopefully)!

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

My toilet's sucking me dry

My toilet's done me in again!

The pipe below my sink, which holds it up (it's a wall-attached sink), came loose a few days ago and started leaking water out. Got it temporarily fixed with tape (Mr Tape is one of my favourite people in history) and called the plumber in this morning. I only had RM250 in my purse, but figured a bit of fixing up shouldn't cost too much, even if he has to buy another pipe.

Well, of course he had to buy a new pipe because, hey, this is me, and this is my birthday month... I seem to fork out a lot of money around this time of year. By the way, I didn't mention that I got another fine, this time by MBPJ. Same RM100 shit.

Anyway, he calls me from the shop to say he's found the matching pipe, and do I want to confirm his services for RM280? My eyes popped out of their sockets. Luckily I was wearing my specs then, so managed to catch them before they rolled away. Okay, that was a little gross and gory.

Obviously, I had to have it changed, so I said alright, for RM250.

So my purse is now as light as the Samsonite® Aeroline (a little advertising there, I dunno why). Just a couple months ago, I had to spend RM600 on unclogging my toilet bowl. Which didn't even really help, because in the end, they found out that the original plumbers had installed the wrong size toilet bowl for me, and I couldn't change my whole toilet bowl, it being only a couple years old.

Grrrrrr......... well, hopefully the dinner and movie tonight will lift my spirits a little :P

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Just ruined my week.

I'd thought this week was my lucky week, being my birthday week - first, I found out that it's also school holidays, which means that I have no art classes to prepare for! Not only that, I don't have to wake up freaking early on Saturday, so I can party nicely on Friday (my birthday) itself!

Then, I decided to spend all week celebrating, well, pre-celebrating for the coming of my 26th birthday... not sure what's up yet, but it'll surely be fun! My birthday itself on Friday will be spent with close friends, with lots (and lots) of wine and talking nonsense all night... what could be better than that? :P The next day, I'll be celebrating with collegemates, another fun bunch of guys who talk even more nonsense. Here's hoping Dan The Drinker honours us with more yoga poses this year.

So all in all, I'm in a rather good mood this week. Work is not exceedingly stressful, life is great! And then...

I received a summons.

From DBKL (City Council), no less. Whose summonses are worse than the police's.

I was only gone a measly half an hour!!

And I have to pay RM100 for a spot that WAS NOT EVEN BLOCKING ANYONE.

I always find this happening - a driver gets fined for going 10km/h above speed limit, when the ones going 60km/h over... don't. I, who parked in a residential neighbourhood, far from any traffic, at 11am, get fined a whopping RM100, when the damn cars on Jalan Telawi (post office row), who hold up traffic and force two lanes into one... don't.

So I parked where I shouldn't have. But at least be fair and fine EVERYONE instead of the people who are easy to fine, ie. the people driving insignificant cars (meaning they're not lawyers, politicians, or children of lawyers, politicians).

Friday, March 13, 2009

PHOTOS: Penang CNY 2009

Yeah yeah I know CNY was several weeks ago, but I've been putting off displaying pics cuz there are just too many. Anyway these pics should be of some interest, cuz they're actually pics of when the whole family took a free shuttle bus (one of the new government's attempts to improve the island, yay!) around central Penang. I just snapped some interesting sights from my phone. Nice for those who've never been to Penang :)


Our starting point, the CAT (Central Area Transit) signpost at Komtar. It was really difficult to find actually.


View inside the shuttle bus. Pretty comfy.
Below are various scenes along the route. I put them all together cuz there were too many to display individually.




At the end of the route, waiting for the next shuttle bus to take us back :) Note the CNY redness hehe. And I dunno why Arya's (the little girl in front) face is like that...


Really nice architecture on this old building.


Old houses/buildings. Penang is full of 'em. How quaint.


Sorry, can't remember the name of this road.


Money changer street.


Gem and jewel street.


Colonial building. Penang has a few of these too, especially mansions.


This is near the ferries which cross back to the mainland. They have a few mini Big Bens on the island :)


The area behind my grandma's apartment has been transformed into some sort of park with interesting walkways... we explored one of them. Kids love walking around these 'secret gardens'.

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Finally done!!

And I'm rather excited about the coming weekend. Tonight, jazz at Souled Out, tomorrow... we'll see what happens!

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

PHOTOS: Really random

Need to clear my desktop up, so I'm uploading these two random photos.


Doesn't everyone just love receiving parcels? And this is a huge one too... lovely!! Inside was my excellent Eiffel Tower wall decal that I put on my Christmas 2008 Wish List. Thanks to G for making the effort to send this over - twice :) Once I finally get round to putting it up on my wall, photos will be here.


This is one very big reason I love living where I live. Not only in KL, urban jungle, but in this lovely home of mine. I just love the city lights! I could really just pull up a chair and watch this view for hours. Honestly.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Weekly round-up #2

It's Tuesday and I can't focus on work. That's the thing about having Mondays off (public holiday)... when you do get back to work, it's suddenly Tuesday and you've lost your Monday. I know that sounds strange, but that's how I feel today. What happened to all the things I have to do on Monday?

Having Monday off did allow for a super fun, albeit tiring and confusing Sunday.

Anyway, first things first... as I haven't been writing for a few days now, I should do another weekly round-up!

Thursday was Mumsy Bumsy's birthday, so Yelleh Belleh and I made dinner - experimental Aglio Olio. It was a fun and nice night.


Mumsy Bumsy at work while her two girls potter about the kitchen.


The dinner table setup.




Yelleh Belleh working the garlic.


Draining the water from the pasta.


Lovely view out the window when any of us cooks. That's what makes me love living in the city.




Happy birthday!!

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Friday was some Chivas launch party at Euphoria, MOS. Heard it was free flow so obviously put my name on the guestlist haha! The other attraction is that the venue is smoke-free woohoo! It was lovely getting home after and having normal smelling hair.


Only took 2 photos from my phone cuz I didn't wanna look too cheesy haha. This was one of the first acts, DJ Blink at the console, playing with live guitarist, bongo player and violinist. Very cool indeed.



Needless to say, I got kinda hammered. Awesome night indeed.

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Saturday went to watch Sarah Brightman in concert, on her Symphony tour. It wasn't as good as when she came a few years back, cuz this wasn't a real performance. She just stood around waving her skirt, singing. When I saw her a few years ago, she did the proper stage dancing, flying about stage with costumes, props and the whole caboodle.

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Sunday, Tequila Lin wanted to take advantage of the Monday holiday so we went to Sky Bar, along with a number of her other friends. Had really good wine, one of the only times I actually manage to select a good one. Think it was Green Point Shiraz, Yarra Valley.

Had a reeeaaalllly long night of it... adjourned to a guy's house after closing to continue the merriment. Tequila Lin was falling asleep towards the end, so we decided to leave soon after. Got freaking lost on the way back cuz this guy stays in Bukit Antarabangsa, and I found myself on the road to Genting and Zoo Negara... I think it took me an hour or so to get back to a familiar place!

Still a fun and very interesting night... ;)

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Just found these old photos of Schrobbenmaster Rik and I having dinner at an English pub, The George and Dragon in BSC. The food is actually really good!

Thank goodness this English pub had chilli sauce.


Pretty authentic looking.


My fish and chips. It was yummy!


His bangers 'n' mash. Smelt yummy!


He's really killing the bangers over there.

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Got a work meeting in a bit, so I'm off now.

Tuesday, March 03, 2009

Birthday Wish List 2009

Just over 2 weeks more to my birthday, so here's my list up again because the first one is waaaaaay down below, and I know no one can be bothered to scroll down in these times of extreme laziness.


  • *NEW! A shower FM radio
  • *NEW! Artsy/designer/vintage tableware (plates, cups, cutlery)
  • *NEW! Any perfume in a beautiful bottle (btw, my Coco Mademoiselle by Chanel is finished)
  • Wine glasses (at least ONE matching pair)
  • Comfy, soft, thick bathroom rugs (the larger the better)
  • A short break to Bangkok, Thailand
  • 3 months in Paris, France
  • La Senza shopping vouchers (a gal can't have too much lingerie)
  • Vodka or whisky (as stock for my next party - which the giver will most definitely be invited to)
  • A large living room rug, preferably dark (black/brown/grey) and furry/hairy
  • All-white plain/textured (NO patterns) tissue box covers
  • Big white artificial flowers (roses/lilies/etc) - 20 of them would be lovely :P

Puteri Gunung Ledang

I watched Puteri Gunung Ledang two weekends ago. It was the last show of the season and very well done. I really appreciated the subtitles at the side of the stage, because I could hardly understand anything they were saying! Flowery Malay language and Bahasa Indonesia can be really difficult to follow.

Tiara Jacquelina was amazing, with a really beautiful voice... can't say the same for Stephen Hughes, unfortunately, who showed more personality and charisma in the last 20 seconds of the show when he was bowing and showing some breakdance moves to the thunderous applause than in his whole performance as Hang Tuah. But the person who truly stood out for me was AC Mizal as Gusti Adipati. I'd always thought he was some silly idiot on his AC Di Sini TV show and commercials, but watching this show, within the first few seconds of his appearance onstage, I was thinking, "Wow, who's this guy? He's really brilliant!" And he had oodles and oodles of charisma even from where I was sitting (which was the length of two football fields away).

Anyway, the music was really good, singing was brilliant... only thing was that the love scenes tended to drag on for too long, making me feel a little bored. Cuz obviously we know you're in love, could you please stop singing so many five minute songs to show it?

Next season is a must-watch for those who haven't seen it. I don't know who's taking over Tiara's place as Gusti Puteri, but I'm sure she'll be just as brilliantly cast.

Monday, March 02, 2009

Last week round-up

So anyway, the police came and got my formal report. They were really nice... I believe they're from Internal Affairs. And they haven't contacted me for further information, so I guess that episode is over. What a relief! It was a good experience, though. I suggest to anyone else out there, if you're unhappy with any of the police services, just go ahead and make a report. We should be able to feel safe in the presence of our police force here, so people, do your part and give back to this country!

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What else is new?

I've started teaching an art class for kids at my ballet school (which is actually a performing arts school, teaching music, drama, art and dance). I've been teaching about 3 weeks already, and it's getting better. At first, the kids were a nightmare! But I think they're getting used to me being there and being in charge. I've been taking some photos of their finished artwork, so I might put them up here some time in the future (when I'm not feeling so lazy).

Have I mentioned that I've taken up jazz dance classes? If not, then yeah, I have. Two weeks going now, and it's been really great to be able to dance something else other than ballet. It gives more freedom than ballet and I think it just helps me get used to moving around the dancefloor and express myself through the movement.

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And onto the usual stuff...

Last Saturday was a big night at Zouk. The place was heaving! Everyone was trying to get into Phuture and Barsonic. We wanted to enter Barsonic, but they'd blocked entry for a while as it was too packed inside. We eventually did get in, though, and omg was it hot and sweaty in there! Thankfully, tall Schrobbenmaster Rik spotted a section which had less people, so we moved in there and enjoyed a reprieve from the hot and sweaty breaths of the Barsonicers.

It was Shinichi Osawa up there, which A was really hyped up about. I'd never heard of him, but he seems to be hot stuff, and his DJing was great. Had so much fun there!

After it all, we went back outside and I found all my friends friendly and tipsy from their night at Phuture. It was quite funny really. Then bumped into another old acquaintance at the exit, almost didn't recognise him! All in all, a great night and worth the lack of sleep it entailed.