Adidas Warehouse 'Siao'

It's Friday morning and I went to work as usual without realizing that it was the first day of the Adidas Warehouse Sale at Atria Shopping Centre near my office. When I reached the office area, it was around 10:15am. The traffic volume was unusually high and there were cars coming from all direction out of nowhere. I started to look for parking as I am using the MBPJ monthly pass which allows me to park at any parking bay under MBPJ.

As I made rounds looking for parking, the traffic was at a standstill on and off and I was stuck in the stupid jam on and off too. Some cars had even started to 'tripple parked' on the 1-way lane around the shops surrounding the Atria Shopping Centre building or illegally along the roadside. To make the condition worse, there were some idiots who drove against the way on the 1-way lane, almost causing deadlock to the jam. It was horrendous!

Having sore throat and empty stomach, hungry and thirsty, I was so pissed off and frustrated and kept cursing in my car. Don't these people need to work or they purposely took leave for the warehouse sale?! Please leave if there's already no parking and don't contribute to worsening the jam!

Boss was on leave, I got to be in the office in case there's any urgent matter that needed to be attended to. I left my notebook charger in the office and the battery of my notebook had already gone flat. Else I would have chosen to get the hell of of this place and go back to work from home.

I continued searching for parking but still to no avail and it's almost 12pm!!! I left for SS2 for lunch. When I came back, I finally managed to find 1 bloody parking around 1:25pm after making rounds and rounds!

This is insane! I spent more than 2 hours looking for parking to get to my office! Half of my day was gone and wasted just like that! I could have reached Ipoh already with the amount of time spent!

Who said the economy is no good? Hordes of people came out from the sale with big bags and small bags in their hands as if they didn't need to pay for what they bought. These people willingly got stuck in the jam, parked their cars illegally and haphazardly, queued up for hours to get in to the sale venue and queued up for hours again to pay. A friend even went twice to this Adidas Warehouse Sale. He gave up the absurdly long queue in his fisrt attempt and returned about 2 hours later only to find out that the sale was 'nothing much' in his second attempt. Well, you can never imagine how 'siao'(crazy) some people can be when it comes to warehouse sale!

What a Friday day thanks to this Adidas Warehouse 'Siao'(Sale)!

A Day Less Spicy

I am down with sore thoat. Ouch!

I have quite high endurance on physical pain. The real pain I am experiencing now is not so much on the soreness of the throat but the pain of not being able to eat spicy food in order to avoid aggravating and prolonging my sore throat condition.

When it comes to eating, having something spicy is almost a daily affair, be it sambal belacan, chili padi or at least something spicy.

I was supposed to go to see doctor this morning before going in to the office. Unfortunately, I realised that my wallet was just left with RM3 which is not even enough to pay the RM5 co-payment at the panel clinic. To save the hassle of making a big detour to withdraw money before heading to the clinic, I changed my plan to only visit the doctor during lunch or after work.

When I reached the office, I had a cup of plain Milo 'kao' with a few pieces of biscotti from La Manila for breakfast. Breakfast was safe, spice free. Hehe...

A friend was coming over to look for me for an impromptu lunch. Considering my throat condition, obviously I had to eat something not spicy and indirectly it would normally equal to something plain which would not satisfy my taste bud. Friend asked what I wanted to eat. I told him I am having sore throat and threw him back the question. I was cracking my head on what to eat and the seafood noodle from 潮州铭 (Chiu Chow Ming in Cantonese) at SS2, which is famous for its seafood porridge and noodle crossed my mind! Yes, this is me, won't forget about good food though having sore throat. LOL!

Off we went, heading to the shop. Friend had Shark Fin Seafood Meesua (1 of the famous dishes there) and I had my Mixed Seafood Clear Soup Meehoon. We ordered another plate of Mango Kerabu for sharing. My seafood soup was rich and tasted heavenly with fresh seafood and ingredients such as prawn, squid, fish, fishball, minced pork, seaweed, veggie, and crunchy fried garlic as topping. Yummy! Too bad, no food pic this round. I was too busy eating and too lazy to take pic though I had my camera with me... and now I regret. LOL! Guess what, I just couldn't resist and took a little bit of Sambal Belacan. Yes, A LITTLE BIT ONLY, probably 1/3 of the pathetically half filled small saucer. This is really nothing compared to my normal consumption. Conclusion - Lunch with a little bit of Sambal Belacan, super low intake to satisfy the craving for it and to feel bad less. Eat Sambal first, see doctor later! LOL!

I went to see doctor after lunch before heading back to office.

It's dinner time, I had Kai Lan fried with Roast Pork (Kan Lai Chow Siew Yook). It was so delicious! I was so tempted to add in some Chili Padi but I managed to resist doing so. Phew! Dinner was safe from anything spicy!

Not bad, I have survived a 'less spicy' day, but my throat is still sore. Hope I can have '0' spicy food intake tomorrow. I hope so... :P

How Are Ya?

It's been a long long hiatus since I last blogged. What have I been up to? Well, long story cut short, life goes on and I am back. :)

Received a message from a friend in FB. The message ended with "How are ya?". I pondered for a long while on how to answer this question. It's supposed to be a very simple question, isn't it? what took me so long to answer such a simple question? Well, as we grow older, this very simple question is not that simple to answer anymore...

Very often, when we are asked this question, to be polite, we tend to answer it with the programmed set of standard answers such as 'I am good', 'I am fine' or 'I am OK' in a very surface manner, when the people asking are not so close to us. Are we really that good, fine or OK? Sometimes, what we answer might not be the true answer.

On the contrary, when I am asked this question by people closer to me, I would be more honest. It really makes me think: Where to begin, what should I tell and how should I answer...

I wonder if you feel the same when you are asked the same question. Or, is it just me who is thinking too much and making thing complicated? I wonder...

Food Overdosed, So So Full!

Today is Chap Goh Meh, the 15th and the last day of Chinese New Year. Am glad that CNY has finally come to an end.

Never thought that I would be eating excessively during this CNY. In fact, I had been eating moderately during the first 7 days of CNY back in hometown to avoid feeling disgusted eating the same CNY dishes almost everyday. No, I don't have any weight issue and neither do I need to control my eating to avoid gaining some extra weight. I was born to be skinny and it's something in the gene. :)

Somehow, when I was back to work, I had a round of office Lou Sang ala Thai at Kinarree, a Thai restaurant located at Jaya One, Section 13, Petaling Jaya. The food was not bad generally but not to be rated as excellent. I am not really a fan of Yu Sang, but I must say that their Salmon Yu Sang, comprising mainly veggie and fruit (pomelo, find it quite special) without any coloured ingredients was good. I love the dish.


After the Lou Sang session, I thought that's it and there would be no more CNY gluttony. Well, thing didn't seem to be the way I expected it to be when some unplanned and impromptu dinners with friends came up.

Went to Jaya One again with 2 friends on Saturday for dinner. After walking around, exploring the food options available there, we settled for Fire BBQ Steamboat buffet since they was promotion. It's buffet style, I quite enjoyed the first round of food and we ordered another round of it.

As we continued eating, we started to feel full and were struggling hard to stuff ourselves with the food in order to finish it. Fortunately, there were fire performances by a macho tattoed guy at intervals and we took a break to peep at the performances as we were sitting quite a distance from the stage.

We struggled really hard and we finally managed to finish the food. I don't take beef, hence the 2 guys had no choice but to finish the excessive beef balls while I handled the pork balls. I was full till dropped and kept burping. It's an eating session with meat balls overloaded till our faces also looked a bit like meat balls! LOL! Think I am probably not gonna have any meat ball for the next 3-6 months! We then adjourned to have coffee to get rid of of the meat ball taste lingering in our mouths. Haha :D

I was so full and felt very bloated till I couldn't really sleep that night. Aftermath was I had constipation the next day as a result of eating too much and too full!

It was Sunday afternoon, I initially planned to just rest at home but another dinner appointment just got set via MSN with an ex-colleague whom I have not met for quite some time. We decided to have dinner at Sushi Zaimai at The Gardens, Mid Valley.

There were only 2 of us but we actually ordered and ate quite a lot. Pictures below are only showing some of the food we ate. We had Tofu and Chawamushi too. I was feeling so so full again on Sunday night!



What a weekend of excessive gluttony! I was so so so full, 2 nights in a row!

Prayer Of The Night

Doreme (name altered) is a Filipino SAP professional that I had placed in a consulting firm in Malaysia back in end 2004. Leaving his family and friends back home, he took up the opportunity and came to Malaysia to work.

Time really flies, 4 years have passed and it's coming to the 5th year for him working abroad, away from family and friends.

Had a short chat with him in YM this evening while I was still in the office. Below is part of the conversations.

Doreme: hi, happy new year!
Me: hi, happy new year to u too!
Doreme: how are u?
Me: am good.
Me: so are things getting better after xxx bought over yyy? another one to follow soon, right? your contract renewed?
Doreme: yes, things are better. am in US now.
Me: great.
Me: which part of US?
Derome: east coast
Me: r u gonna be based there for long?
Doreme: got visa for 3 years.
Me: so u spent your x'mas in US?
Doreme: nope, i was back to the philippines. i fly back every 6 weeks.
Me: time really flies. how old are your kids now?
Doreme: 4 & 6. my son is diagnosed with ASD, have to work hard to send him for theraphy...

Knowing ASD as a disease name but not entirely sure what it is, I politely asked further.

Me: Sorry to hear this. Mind me asking what is the full term for ASD?
Doreme: Autism Spectrum Disorder

The medical term of Autism Spectrum Disorder is something new to me. I quickly checked it out at www.answers.com.

Me: I am so sorry to hear this...
Doreme: pray for me... if you do... add my son in...
Me: ok

Lost for words for a moment... I could deeply feel his pain as a father and his love for his son. He's been working abroad for the betterment of his family (I assume) apart from gaining overseas working exposure and he has to now continue working hard abroad (for the money) for this new reason. Thank god for what he is having is quite a niche skill with demand and quite some overseas opportunities with rather good pay. Knowing that I got to respond or at least say something positive, I continued.

Me: stay strong.
Doreme: thanks. am staying strong.
Me: may the force be with you and your son...

So, I took it as a promise to pray for Doreme tonight. I am a free thinker and I do not know what's the best to pray for and the best way to word my prayer but I am trying my best here to fulfill my promise.

Tonight, I sincerely pray that:
1. Doreme's son will recover asap
2. Things will be fine and may the force be with Doreme, his son and his family
3. Doreme's prayer will be answered

I hope my prayer will be heard.