I thought of doing a '2007 in review' post to end the year, but then I don't want to celebrate things I don't believe in, like New Year celebrations, Mother's Day, Wear Everything Backwards Day and others. A new year is nothing more than a time to change the calendar [that's what it means to me, anyway], so I am just going to write about the things I saw / did / attended / experienced in the month of December.
Buildings and architecture.
A new building is fast a-rising at the corner of Jalan Esfahan and Jalan Raja Laut. It's CIMB's [a local bank] new building, possibly going to be its HQ. How do you find the criss-crossing frame? Does it serve a purpose, to hold the entire structure together like a massive scaffolding, or is it just to hold fluorescent lamp tubes so that it will outstand DBKL building's light display at night?
I was having a leisure walk in the old parts of KL, from Masjid Jamek to Jalan Gereja to Central Market when I saw this old-school kopitiam at a row of pre-war shophouses nearby Medan Pasar called Sekawan Kopichop. I've never eaten Siamese Lemak Laksa and Mee Jawa in my life, so I might consider this place if I were to be hungry when I am in the area [and also if it conforms to my eating standards].
I was about to head back to PJ the other day using the Dataran Merdeka - Padang Merbok route. Just behind Bank Rakyat's Modernist-looking building, there is a street called Jalan Tangsi, where Wisma Ekran is located. I see this Art Deco building each time I go through this route, but only now have I the chance to check it out.
I am very glad to see such architecture still standing in KL. No need to destroy old buildings to build skyscrapers when we've got so much land! But then... we'd have to clear out forests and all, so...
A leap away from Wisma Ekran is Galeri Tangsi, an art gallery that's a hit among the intellects and PAM-heads [to be explained in the next paragraph]. Check out the elaborateness of this one.
Galeri Tangsi is connected to Pertubuhan Akitek Malaysia's [PAM] office. It was closed for the day, but what I saw from the window is a pretty airwell in the middle of the building, with some posters of projects PAM has done.
Culinary adventures.
I've written a bit about this restaurant in TTDI called Wak Chai, which serves Johorean cuisine and free WiFi to MacBook Pro users. I was there with my mother to enjoy a plate of Mee Siam, which is a favourite of Loloq, a very famous local composer [who was there to enjoy Mee Siam, too].
For some peculiar reason, Mee Siam is very popular in [and might be from] Singapore. It's rice noodles served with sourish gravy filled with Tau Choo.
And since that I am well-known for my Mac fangirl tendencies, I approached this man [named Hafiz, I believe] to congratulate him for using a MacBook Pro.
On a different day, my mother and I had a lunch of Laksa Johor at the same restaurant. The portion was huge, which is good enough for two people. My mother commented that it would be perfect if there weren't any excess oil.
This will be the third time I am posting a picture of Capital Cafe's Meehoon Hailam. This is probably my Food of the Year [though, Mee Bandung comes close]. There is nothing extraordinary about it, but only Capital Cafe can give you the lovely 'dining' experience [sharing tables with strangers, the multi-racial crowd, the smoke from the satay grill].
Luncheon with my mother at Sentidos Tapas, Starhill Gallery, which we think, has the best Tapas in KL [we don't agree with La Bodega]. A wonderful meal of oxtail, prawns, stuffed potato and grilled button mushrooms. Layer them on top of an olive oil-drenched bread and chew slowly. It will put a smile on your face.
One night, my mother made a su'un soup with potato and beef, and cereal-covered butter prawns to eat while watching Friday night TV shows.
Spending [more like wasting] loads of valuable time at Pavilion makes me hungry. My favourite stall in the food court Food Republic is Toast Box, a stall that grills their bread the old-school way. My favourite item on their menu is Nasi Lemak special, which has some meat floss-looking thingies and a piece of fish cake, alongside sambal, anchovies, cucumbers and a tiny piece of omelette. Though, the amazing-looking thing at this stall is the butter mountain, which goes onto your roti bakar that you will dip in a tasty cup of kopi.
The next post will be about the events I have attended, and some special sights I have shot during my long long KL walks.
People and where they spend their time at.
The first half of December was mostly spent on shooting people for my very important magazine assignment. I walked through Jalan TAR, Chow Kit area, boring malls, concerts and gigs, and a club night in search of fashion victims, gila glamours, conversationalist uncles and whatever else. Here are some of the places I have visited.
My Chemical Romance at Stadium Merdeka - 09.12.07
I was immediately enchanted by the presence of teenagers, some who were celebrating the end of secondary school, mostly in black. Some were with their schoolmates, some were with their parents, some were with their rombongan all the way from another state. All of them looked happy in their own emo way.
I hope all of them had fun.
There was a night when I decided to check out this 'be your own DJ' night at Palate Palette. It works by bringing your own music to be played on a PowerBook. But all I heard were blah tunes that are significant to Twilight Actiongirl. The event was swarmed by the after office hours and loose kids who have made it into every issue of JUICE.
I have been digging on Taman Aman, the park I have written about several posts back. Here is a picture of some joggers emerging from a slope underneath an LRT track.
Somewhere near Jalan Masjid India is a push-cart selling delicious bubur [of the cha cha, jagung and kacang hijau variety] on a cloudy weekday afternoon. I will join them if I happen to be there on a cloudy weekday afternoon.
And just to annoy myself, here are some people who were spotted with a DSLR at a particular skate event near Bukit Kiara.
And a guy who was wearing a funny t-shirt.
Some pictures from a not-so-inspiring 'art stall' event at CM Annexe called Kurasa Something. For half of the time I was there, I chatted with Ben from Defy.
Rare sightings.
Anyone interested in old Malay songs and recordings of the holy Quran recitals? I saw these at the Masjid India Bazaar.
Several minutes spent at a back-issue magazine store and here's what I found.
The title sounds so serious that it makes me think if it's just a joke.
A visit to KLue magazine's office to talk about my first article for the January 2008 issue. For the interns, they have blah-looking non-Macs, and for the old-timers, they use Macs.
A very sad-looking Christmas tree was found at Kamdar in SS2. It's just a frame draped with fabric, netting and a stream of tassles.
Full moon promises a brighter sky, and a better picture. I have discovered one more advantage to my camera's adjustable lens.
Expect more of my night landscape pictures to look like this.
Not too long ago, my mother and I went to Jalan TAR. She wanted to get a rug and some fabric for curtains and cushions. We parked the car at Semua House and walked to the oldest Indian Muslim restaurant in KL, Bilal.
There we ate some roti and chicken korma. Now recharged, we crossed the road to get to several carpet shops. My mother wants a medium-sized circular rug, but nothing pleased her.
Most of the stock were expensive Persian carpets, soft Belgian runners and rectangular abstract print rugs.
Nearby was SSF Home Deco Mart, a hit among middle-class Malay families who enjoy watching Casa Impian. 5 stories of pure fancy, frilly, contemporary home furnishings.
This shop is spectacular. Everything you need to decorate, upgrade, makeover or transform your house is here. From the redundant [spongy bread decorations] to dust-catchers [fake lily and chrysanthemum] to taste-enhancers [porcelain naked bodies], and many more, can be bought here. Let's check some stuff out.
Crockery and tableware, candles, mobiles, lamps, buckets, teddy bears, wrought iron lawn furniture, posters, vases and all that can make a housewife go crazy. The top floor is where you can find wedding supplies like ribbons, baskets, netting and the like, and suddenly my mood change.
From faintly-glowing chandeliers to bright fluorescent lights. Not too surprising to find the most crowd on this floor.
After more than an hour of scouting around, my mother bought some jars, fake flowers and other accessories. This shop is so fancy that they wrap glassware in printed wrapping paper. I mean, Robinsons use grease paper for wrapping!
A walk down the road and we saw a young man stepping out of a bus with a trolley full of snacks. This young entrepreneur sold us some cekodok pisang and buah melaka. The cekodok was rubbery, but the buah melaka makes up for it, thanks to its wonderful lemak-y dough and pure brown palm sugar. It's an instant hit for me.
Back to the main purpose of this shopping - find fabric. My mother wanted to check out this new fabric superstore called Jakel [you might have heard of it while listening to ads on Hot FM].
Look at how elaborate the store is. It was having a school holiday sale, and families, mainly the ladies, went ballistic over the choice of chiffon, Korean silk, jacquard and even pricey cloths by labels like Valentino, costing RM 300+ per metre.
My mother was running here and there to find a match for this striped orange organza which she had just ordered the sales assistant to give her a swatch. I was eyeing on several brocade fabric that were perfect for making into a skirt, but my sewing skills are limited to re-attaching buttons.
In the end, the only thing we bought were patchwork bedspreads that were a bargain price of RM 89! Other shops will sell these for double the price, or more.
My mother didn't even buy any fabric, which was what this outing was supposed to be all about, because she hasn't made up her mind yet...
Several days earlier, we were shopping for kitchenware at an improvised warehouse in Kelana Jaya, very near to Kompleks Tabung Haji called Super Rubber.
Like how SSF had everything you need to fancy up your home, Super Rubber has everything a kitchen should have. Brooms, plasticware, food preparation utensils, pots, craters and woks, glassware, baskets for your dirty laundry, stools for you to sit on as you manually do your laundry, stoves and clothes hanger..... it just goes on.
This is the real deal, IKEA's for sell outs. Now that I've got myself thinking about the last time I went to IKEA... haven't been there for months! I hope by now my ex-co-workers have forgotten how I looked.
The year is going to end in hours, so expect three more posts being published in less than 24 hours.
A visit to Bangsar Baru on the twenty-second where a fashion bazaar, known as 'Fashionistas Secret Meeting' was held at a shop which I have featured before...
The shop was filled with trendy shoes and accessories, old clothes [some would call them 'vintage'], new clothes that were made to look like they are old clothes, one-off shirts and dresses from brands that are not available here [like Roberto Cavalli and H&M], and stock clearance.
Many of the stuff that are on sale were very cheap; if you're smart enough, you'll get an outfit for less than RM 100. Although there were some nice things, it wasn't my kind of scene because my fashion tendencies lean towards high street stuff, whereas what you may find at this bazaar were folk-thrift store-DIY things.
Of course, for events like this, half the fun comes from the people who showed up. And just like every place hipsters are found, electronic-indie music and cigarette smoke will be there, too.
One of the main people behind this shop is Ethan, seen giving away tiny cream icing-laden cupcakes [probably sponsored by a certain graphic design firm] to everyone present.
My former classmate during my days in cenfad, Bee, was there to shop some stuff. He is very into DIY and street clothing, and was infamous for wearing a ridiculously-expensive hat with two naked girls kissing each other. Nowadays, his Japanese LED wristwatch becomes the priciest item he wears [which you won't get to see].
A few cupcakes later I was seen shooting more people, before the place evolved into a Lapsap night at Palate Palette. Many online celebrities dropped by to show face, but left quickly probably because there was no free booze.
The only thing I bought was a Libertine for Target shirt.
Fast forward to 9 p.m. Somewhere near Subang airport is a popular seafood restaurant called South Sea Seafood.
My mother had a wonderful idea to tell my father to bring the whole family out on a dinner. This was the first time in a decade [or more; I seriously can't remember the last time we had dinner when all of us were present]. We all sat at a big round table, in a sea of dining families of all races. We took one dish for each seafood - butter prawns, sweet & sour crabs, lala special, steamed siakap fish and venison cooked with peppery sauce.
While waiting for the food to arrive, I checked out other tables and the aquariums.
See the photo frames hung on the structure? They were photographs of celebrities and VIPs who have patronised the restaurant.
You can't miss their shark's fin collection which disgusted me out. Were they for display only, or is that the way they store their supply?
I found a tank full of Mantis prawns. They look unbelievably scary, like cockroaches, complete with antennae, segmented abdomen, needly legs and furry wing-like thingies hanging from their mouth. Argh!
The water the animals live in magnifies the details on their scales... even worse when some of them are already belly-up. Jikes!
I have discovered seafood to be very freaky. Luckily they live in the sea, and not in places like my attic, or creeping up my neck while I am driving in the car.
A lobster was trying to terrorise me as it cautiously creep up from its tank. Go away, lobster!
Ah, back to the safety of the dining table. Time to eat!
I avoided the crabs because I don't want to get my hands messy and be hitting around with a meat-tenderising hammer. While waiting for others to finish their meals, I took out my first Kam Raslan book, purchased in Bangsar earlier, called 'Confessions of an Old Boy'. On the way back to our houses, my mother told me that he knows Kam [or Karim] way back, and that got me excited, asking if he's married. Then my mother gave me a disappointing answer. Haha! But the book is easy to read, and it tells me some stuff that I wish to be a part of [like living in Kenny Hills, for example].
I think that's enough story for this post. I will cover two more outings in the next post. I must make sure to have ten posts by the end of this month!
Hej. I've been eating more than usual for the past few days, thanks to my mother who feeds me too much. One of the things she cooked was my Food Of The Year-worthy Mee Bandung. I've had probably 15 plates of Mee Bandung this year, and I added three more before last weekend. On the 19th of December, my mother and I headed to Pasar Besar TTDI to grab some groceries. This was our first ever visit to this market; we've seen it from the main road since forever but never got to check it out.
Luck was on our side when I spotted a parking space quite near to the entrance's steps. And quite close to the pork stalls...
Not to worry, the pig meat stalls are on the basement; what we were aiming for is the first floor [or ground floor, if you live in Malaysia].
My mother was surprised. She wore her black shoes because she expected to be crossing fishy puddles, but the market's floor was dry all over. She immediately announced that she likes this market. It's very hard not to like a market that has a Christmas tree and working escalators [which you can't find in other markets that I know of, in this country]. Good news for those who get 'semput' after climbing a flight of stairs.
We first arrived at the flower stall. Flowers here are quite expensive, if you compare to prices in Petaling Street. But I don't need to worry about buying them because... I don't buy flowers.
Next, we headed to the beef stall. My mother chose some cow muscles and asked the boy to slice it thinly [all for my Mee Bandung]. I wasn't into all the innards and blood clots lying about so my mother told me to walk around.
I don't think grocery-shopping is an easy task. Even though I enjoy it immensely when I get to pick this box and that bottle off the shelves in an expat-flooded supermarket, grocery-shopping in a market requires a whole lot of skill. Like knowing what you're supposed to buy. I don't eat vegetables most of the time, so I am definitely the last person to be asked to buy vegetables. You'd also have to have the skill of picking the good ones from the bad ones, by paying attention to details. Many straight men [that I know of] can't do that, therefore fail at grocery-shopping.
I like knowing that some ladies dress up to go marketing. This one was wearing a party dress as she picks out the good carrots and brinjals.
Seafood is very important in my diet. Especially the cholesterol-laden prawns which I take with not just my Mee Bandung, but also my with butter prawns, tempura prawns, sambal prawns, prawn mee, curry prawn set and others. My mother didn't buy any here, because we are heading to this little grocer near Pucuk Paku restaurant that sells fresh medium-sized prawns, after we are done shopping at this market.
Chicken is the country's most wanted meat. Chicken can become chicken rice, chicken soup, soy sauce chicken, chicken chop, fried chicken, shredded chicken, chicken rendang and everything under the sun. But after reading about how pathetic chickens are bred nowadays, I have started to eat less of it.
Malaysian cuisine is nothing without its spices. This particular stall has ready-milled spice pastes which you can buy by the grammes, or kilos, whichever you prefer.
Don't forget the anchovies, dried cuttlefish, pickles, tau choo, beans, dried herbs, seasonings and noodles.
Fruits! How can anybody miss them. Bananas, melons, mangoes, pineapples! Buy locally-grown fruit and feel refreshed as you eat them, knowing that you've done something good for the environment and economy.
OK, I am done with the first floor. Now let's check out what the upper floor has in store.
Hm, a little food court selling lunch.
Several tailors, stalls selling kitchenware... and not much else. Many of them are closed for the Hari Raya Haji holidays.
Back to the first floor, where clothes stalls are just beside a pile of fish. There wide main corridor has several festive stalls selling dodol [my mother bought some, which was the softest dodol I've ever eaten, and tasty, too], ketupat, rendang, lemang and serunding - typical Hari Raya stuff. My mother bought RM 8 worth of rendang tok from this stall [just a measly 300 grammes or so] and some ketupat segitiga.
Their rendang tok is worth every penny, though.
All that shopping naturally made an impression on our stomachs. We need food. One more stop to buy the prawns, somewhere at Jalan Wan Kadir, or something.
We got to the aforementioned grocer and found out that they are out of medium-sized prawns, so we left with several Golden Ladies [the PM's favourite fruit, apparently]. My mother wanted to eat at Wak Chai [a restaurant specialises in Johorean cuisine, which also has free WiFi, which is used by people who own MacBook Pros (I will write about it in future entries)]. But it was closed! Harhar, so we returned to the market to buy whatever that is left of the prawns.
My mother pointed out a rojak stall under a tree, at the parking lot. We agreed to have our lunch there. It's the well-known Sayang Super Cendol TTDI. The stall is managed by a husband and wife team, and the rojak gravy is a Northern recipe.
While waiting for our prawn rojak to arrive, my mother and I each had a bowl of cendol. It was so nice to share the table with other customers, under the tree in breezy weather. The only thing that's missing is the beach.
I am sorry for myself for not photographing the rojak when it came. We were too hungry to bother. And it was delicious.
Later that night, my family sans father went out for my so-called birthday dinner at this restaurant in Bangsar called Saffron. It was the only thing I can think of because for some reason, we can't dine in KL. I think it was a bad choice, because the food was expensive, and wasn't all that good. But whatever, it could have been worse. Oh, may I add that our former Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir also shares the same birthdate with me, but that's the 'commercialised' date [his real birthdate is not well-known; definitely not on the 20th December].
Fast forward to the twentieth, the day I am officially half-way to reaching 40 years old. My mother has been cooking the Mee Bandung broth until three in the morning. I got up and got ready, and we both waited for my father and brothers to join in for a small Hari Raya feast.
Here is the Mee Bandung I've been waiting for all my life.
I agreed with my mother on how the broth wasn't thick enough. When the whole family get-together was over, my mother and I headed to her brother's house and had soto with their family. Yum yum.
Later, we headed to Bangsar Village to collect something, and bought some Mee Bandung paste to fix the diluted dish we had earlier. Note that the picture above was taken after it had gone through a little thickening.
Ah! I forgot to include fruitcake - it was one of the cakes we had that day. Nice fruit cakes! [I am also waiting for Kek Kukus baked by Mak Uda, that is coming to my fridge anytime soon]
OK, that's all I have to report on grocery-shopping. Next post should be about... shops and restaurants.
Hurrah. I am back from a trip to see my grandmother, relatives, Singapore and my relatives who live in it, and the city of Johore Bahru.
I took the 2211 train to JB from KL Sentral on the 14.12.07, but it was delayed for almost two hours. While waiting, some of us in the waiting 'hall' watched Anugerah Skrin on some LG screens.
Just before midnight, the gates were open, and naturally, all of us rushed down to find our coaches. Mine's quite near to the front, where the engines are. Everyone's settled down, and by 0000, we were already leaving KL Sentral.
Some torturous 1.5 hours I had to go through to fall asleep. It was frustrating to be awake by the kling klang and wobble the train is making, when I've been sleepy while waiting for the train earlier. I look around me; some were 100% wrapped in blankets, some are already snoring, and behind me were 2 Belgian-accented men who passed out by the time the train reached Kajang.
After getting bored of adjusting myself here and there, I finally fell asleep and the next thing I know, I have reached Kempas Baru, which was just a stop away from Johore Bahru. I couldn't remember dreaming of any dream, probably because the train shook the brain cells out of me. Might as well freeze them, too, as it was insanely cold in the train.
Oho yes, those are my new Viktor & Rolf glasses. When I first got them, I thought of writing an entire post about them but... maybe not.
The time was 7 a.m. I received an SMS from Fiqa, one of my cousins who will escort me from the station, that they will be doing their shopping at the Pasar Tani first before fetching me. Waaahhhh!! The Saturday Pasar Tani near the stadium in Larkin Garden is JB's most important attraction on Saturday morning [other than the causeway checkpoint, of course]. If the train wasn't delayed, I could have been happily shopping for veggies, meat and breakfast!
But anyway, after getting scooped by my cousins, I was brought to the Pasar Tani because they have one more thing to buy - tetel. Tetel is the cow's mostly fatty meat part, when the butcher separates the muscle from the fat. My grandmother is going to cook Mee Rebus, I heard. I could show you a picture of how tetel looks like, but, I don't want my vegan readers to run away.
Here are some scenes from the Pasar Tani, though.
We had these fried mushrooms for breakfast.
I also bought a Johorean delicacy, which is Roti Naik [buttery circular bread loaf] from this stall that also sells carrot bread [though, the correct Malay word for carrot is 'lobak'].
Returning to a little house just meters away from the Pasar Tani, all of us had a nice meal of lontong and nasi lemak. Outside the house were people repairing the termite-infested, 50-year-old roof.
Well, the termites are long gone but the wood had gone rotten. One old thing about this house, too, are the switches that have been there ever since my grandparents bought the house.
And for lunch, we had some steamed tapioca, dried fish and a very spicy sambal ikan bilis.
At around one in the afternoon, after I refreshed myself, I went to the Larkin Bus Terminal [just next to the market] to catch a bus to Singapore. The fare was RM 1.3, and it will take me to Queen Street [Rochor Road]. I got on and soon, I was at the Woodlands checkpoint, queueing up at the immigration for probably an hour [the queue I was in was problematic]. Luckily, the mak cik I met at the bus terminal was there to guide me through the process.
After that, I got down to board the bus. But I was separated from the mak cik so I was a little freaked out if the bus I am on was the right one or not. It stopped at the Kranji MRT station. I thought, "OK, maybe I should check out how the suburbans commute in this country" so I got off the bus and took a looooooong train ride to Harbour Front. To be precise, 16 stops away.
The weather was gloomy, and almost immediately, it started to rain heavily. The whole island is showering. I thought about what to expect at Harbour Front. There was a young boy seated next to his mother, going "Kranji is like the biscuit when you eat it, it is like kranji kranji". Funny boy who thought that 'crunchy' is spelled that way! When 'kranji' is actually a... well, sort of fruit. You know how the pantun goes... 'Sorong papan tarik papan, buah keranji dalam perahu'.
Anyway, after that tiring train ride, I finally reached Harbour Front. Destination : St. James Power Station. Why, that's where the FashBash event is held!
But with all the rain, how am I going to shoot people? And there was something funny about the place; it's covered all the way from Vivocity, but it has a 10-meter open gap from the entrance. I had to rush through the rain to get in. Then, there was another open space which I had to run through and up the stairs to get into the place where the stalls are. I was a little drenched, but I went on to browse the stalls.
As you can see, it was a very dark place to do your shopping. It turns into a club at night. I find it difficult to look through the vintage dresses, designers clearance, DIY accessories and the crowd. What a let-down.
After an hour of hovering about, I returned to Vivocity to get a snack in a form of Mee Siam. Other than that, I was delighted to find Apple displays and keyboard being used as the mall's directory.
I took the train to Orchard Road to check out the Christmas decorations but sadly, I had to stay mostly indoors because it was still raining. I finally made up my mind to head back to JB. I dropped by graniph at Bugis Junction to buy some tees, then headed to the bus terminal in Rochor Road, paid some S$ 3 and was brought back to the Larkin Bus Terminal. From there I took a cab back to the house.
My cousins then returned from AEON Tebrau with dinner, along with Mak Uda from Kulai. We ate Mee Kari, Nasi Ayam, Mee Rebus [Fiqa's favourite] and others. Just before midnight, I passed out.
The next day, Sunday the sixteenth, we were visited by Ija and her family, Mak Kintan, Uncle Romi etc. to have a 'convoy' to a wedding somewhere in Yishun, Singapore. This is lovely. After breakfast, we headed off in our own Unser and Kompressor to the Causeway and did a little queue to leave Johore for Singapore.
OK, just for comparison purposes, I shot a block of flats on the way to the Causeway. So that you can look at it, then look at how the flats are in Singapore, and laugh sneakily.
After about an hour of queueing, we finally made it to the... um, PIE? BKE? One of the expressways, nonetheless. Our lovely driver decided to miss the Yishun exit and announced that "we are having a leisure round in Singapore". To tell you the truth, we were a little lost. But after a U-Turn, we got back on the right road and came across a little township.
Heheh, you can start comparing.
After a few rounds of block-searching, we finally arrived at the correct block and were greeted by our relatives. Soon after that, we were shown the buffet.
I normally dislike the idea of putting up pictures of my relatives or family, because I fear that they might run after me, but, well, hmm, there's nothing wrong with it, right?
So this is what we had. Nasi Beryani and some chicken and mutton dishes, and pale fried meehoon, which is how they do it here in Singapore.
After some eating, the groom, all dressed in... er, a traditional Malay suit [probably heading to the bride's house], is escorted by a couple of Kuda Kepang dancers and kompang players.
The featured wedding singers were singing Hindi songs non-stop, which made some wonder if it's really a Malay wedding.
My relatives and I were invited to the groom's family's flat. We checked out the hantaran, or gifts, that the bride's family has sent. A basket of Marks & Spencer products, some meringues and cupcakes that have been eaten and others...
My cousins and I got bored, so we ventured out to see what a typical Singaporean HDB is like.
That fell down from up there.
I bought a S$ 0.8 can of soda from a sundry shop. Hm, it is no wonder that many Singaporeans like to do their grocery-shopping in JB.
We returned to the block we were at, when a group of bikers came rushing in, like Mat Rempits at Dataran Merdeka on a Saturday night. But in Singapore, they don't do kap chais, but donut-looking-tyred high-performance motorcycles.
Haha, turns out that the groom is a Mat Motor! So he brought his gang over to celebrate the arrival of the bride, complete with an exhaust orchestra [seriously, these Mat Motors were prrreeennngggg-ing in harmony].
After the pair had settled upon the... erm, 'pelamin', his Mat Motor friends took turns to display a dramatic silat performance.
And the crowd looks on...
The newlyweds gave a short speech, and posed for photographs with their parents after that.
A little while after all of that, my relatives and I got back into the car and began our city roam. We left Yishun at about four p.m. and took the highway to the city centre and admired nice buildings along the way. Some of the things we talked about during the journey were people who are going crazy after they learned that there's gold in the rocky beaches in Mersing, the HINDRAF rallies and how they have 'connections' with powerful force from the Western world, how cheap it was to buy tins of lychees in Woodlands back in the day [some would even cross the causeway on foot, carry a dozen tins], me teaching how to pronounce 'Takashimaya' the right way and how those tattoo-laden, bleached-haired Mat Motors were able to perform the silat.
Yeah, it was a cloudy day, but it didn't rain, unlike the day before.
Soon we were back in Woodlands. We decided to drop by Woodlands Centre to spend the remaining currency we had.
I only bought a hairband, then decided to chance back my S$ to RM. About 45 minutes of roaming around, we got back to the car and headed to the checkpoint.
When we reached the house, I immediately passed out on the couch for an hour. Then I took a shower and slept after watching Asian Idol.
On Monday, my cousins and I sent Mak Uda to a bus stand on Jalan Skudai. After that, the rest of us headed to Plaza Angsana and roamed about. I might go depressed if I were to work in a shop at this mall. Nothing here excites me.
Luckily there is one bookstore that sells old-school books, translated by Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka [DBP].
I particularly enjoyed the pictorial encyclopedias that looks like it's from the 1980s.
Too bad that we had to leave right away because our lovely cousin / driver has been waiting for us in the car. We drove around the small roads near Lido Beach, the ones that lead to posh low-rise apartments, hotels, old-school schools and some graveyards. I managed to photograph this tombstone mason [I hope I used the correct term] at work.
It hss been raining since morning, so we couldn't get out of the car to enjoy the outdoors. It's also difficult to photograph when the raindrop-covered windows are up. But there are some pictures that are nice enough to put up on here.
We wanted to go to The Zon, a duty-free complex, but the parking lot was not covered, so it discouraged us to go there because we weren't into walking in the rain. But I am the crazy one, so I asked one of my cousins to shoot me going ballistic in the rain, with the Straits of Tebrau and the Senoko power plant as my background.
We had enough of brooding in the car, so we headed to Holiday Plaza, once known as the longest mall in Asia [back in the 1980s]. They have a lot of funny things, like, fake designer stuff, cheap fashions, handphone shops and not much else. We were all hungry, and the only appealing place to eat there was Pizza Hut. This outlet is probably the last outlet in the country to keep their old-school logo.
Anyway, after makan-makan and borak-borak, we headed to Kampung Melayu Majidee to buy pisang goreng with my favourite chilli soy sauce, but it was too late. Instead, we checked out the pasar malam. Still raining.
One thing that's rare in KL, but common in JB is Nasi Ambeng. It's white rice with little portions of meat, veggies and fried noodles.
We bought some dishes to eat with the rice and noodles we had back at the house. After the dinner, I had my last sleep in JB.
The next morning on the 18th, I was sent to the JB train station to board my 0934 [naturally delayed by a few minutes] train to KL.
First time travelling on a train during the day enabled me to enjoy the scenery. Scenery like...
The train stopped for a while at Kluang station. To be precise, a minute. So I didn't get to enjoy its old-schoolness and just shot several pictures of the station and its nation-famous coffee shop. Note that I have wrote about this several months back, during Ramadan.
Back in the train, there's nothing to do but to sit still, read Mastika, watch a documentary on ginkgo trees and look out the window.
Here are some of the stuff I have recorded in my little notebook during the trip.
- So far I have seen a lot of projek terbengkalai [unfinished projects] buildings and houses. Now I am in Kulai. There is a KFC drive-thru and a food court. I've beeing seeing loads of shops called LionMas. The Giant supermarket is known as Kulai Utama.
- An old man from Scotland is going to Gemas. He used to work in Gemas railway station. He's going there to see how things have changed.
- Many stations like Batu Anam and Chamek are abandoned. They are now just graffiti-ed old huts. Some areas are flooded.
- It's odd to see the Visit Malaysia Year 2007 poster at the JB station saying 'celebrating 50 years of nationhood' when Singapore is younger and they are way more advanced [you really can't run away from comparing things when you're in Singapore].
- People I saw along the tracks were flying kites, herding buffalos, laidback-living people.
I reached KL at about five p.m. and immediately took a cab back home, where my puffy pillow waits for my embrace.
Thank you very much to Mak Tok for allowing me to stay at her house, Kak Ayu for taking us around JB, and my cousins who have been so nice to me.
Hello there. I was reminded by Shermen, a man I know, about this art event by Rantai that's going on from now until Sunday. Heard that many young artists, performers and photographers will be there to showcase their works and share their emotions on mixed media with all of us. I was there on the first day, at around dusk, after taking the rapidKL bus which moved very slowly in traffic jam.
What can you find at this red-painted house? Here are some pictures I have captured, just to give you a 'sneak preview'.
I don't know which art belongs to who, but you can refer to Rantai's site for a fuller description. As you can see, it's all about sketches, both raw and finished, lomographs, installations, and not to mention, DSLR-equipped people.
The house is double-storey, and on ground floor, you can check out these people
enjoying the sounds coming from didgeridoos being blowed at the front hall.
No shoes were allowed inside the house, so if you wish, you can play 'count the amount of Chuck Taylors' game and be amazed on how it's such a hit with the crowd.
I don't know if I can really dig on the stuff on display, because I'm not so much of an illustration person. The part of graphic design which I dig are mostly on print, such as posters, magazine layouts, or anything that provides relative information where text accompanies image. I am not so into drawings of robots, monsters, couples holding hands, furry mammals, or puffy clouds with a rainbow sticking out of it, therefore I didn't get much inspiration from these walls.
The fact that everyone who were present all came from the same race wasn't too comforting. And everywhere you turn, you are bound to see someone hoarding a DSLR. Even the flyer features a DSLR [it made me giggle a little]! Which made me wonder why they have a lot of money to spend on RM 4 000+ cameras, but not invest in a good computer, such as a Mac. All the laptops that were used were Acers and Compaqs. I frowned a little.
I guess one thing I admire about the ones who go to these art events is their support for their friends and other young, local artists, some who are hoping to make a name in the industry.
But remember. You can't miss flashes coming from their DSLRs...
If you have nothing to do this weekend, why don't you occupy yourself by visiting this art event, because there will be performances by your favourite indie bands. And it's free!
Enjoy your weekend. I'll be in a city somewhere in the southern state of Johore for a holiday this weekend.
I hate shopping but I love shops. Inspecting interiors, products on shelves and thinking of how it may be useful to me beats spending money on materialistic wants. But sometimes, I end up buying what I don't need. It can happen in any of these newly-discovered shops...
Chloé is so in right now. I always see their clothes in magazines like TeenVogue [what I read] and NYLON [what I don't read]. They've got a lot of designs that are 'in' without being flashy or trendy [like how drainpipes are 'in' right now, whereas architectural pleats aren't, but a favourite among fashion designers at the moment]. What I spotted at the boutique were dry leather handbags, exposed zippers on dresses and vinyl-like details on blouses. If only I earn RM 20 000 per month...
Another new shop in Pavilion is the Spanish label Pull and Bear. The name makes me think of what Ted Baker would be competing against, but it's actually a youth brand by Grupo Inditex [largest clothing company in the world, or something like that]. Nice colourful hoodies, denim for everyone's liking and trendy accessories with an affordable price tag. Though, I might think twice on buying clothes from here, because it would be embarrassing to bump into another mall rat wearing the same shirt as I am.
Speaking of mall rats, you can get away from them by going to Bangsar. To be precise, the Jalan Telawis in Bangsar Baru. If you're already bored with Cat's Whiskers predictable collection of graphic wrap dresses or Mooie's unfriendly staff, please visit Seven Days, located at 20-2, Jalan Telawi 3.
Check out the Hedi Slimane art posters behind Rozanna, which I suspect, are from the October 2007 issue of Wallpaper* [but it doesn't have the name 'Wallpaper* on it, so I could be wrong]. Not to mention, her usage of an iBook.
Those might be scans from surface or Tank magazine. How easy it is to decorate an empty wall!
And this is just a slice of what Seven Days have in stock. I'd like to make that bright teal dress mine.
Just across the street is Show Pink, once stationed in Sungei Wang's sixth floor last year. If you're a fan of Bird, you'd dig Show Pink's one-of-a-kind fashion.
Enough of clothes. Would you like to shop at PJ's latest supermarket?
Yes, it's the week-old Jaya Grocer at Jaya 33. Nothing outrageous about this supermarket, but how it is different from the neighbouring Cold Storage at Jaya Supermarket is the organic food range, more international brands and a MBG fruit stall, selling naturally-derived Vitamin C products from plants, both local and foreign.
In The Gardens, you may find a delightful shop called Art Friend. I think this is the same art supply shop that's in Takashimaya in Singapore. Please get excited by the range of paints, glues, papers, markers, easels, stencils, portfolio cases and stuffing they carry.
To make use of the stationery and tools you have just splurged on, take a look at Borders next door for some guidance. Every other designer and artist's favourite book store, Basheer, is here [the other half usually prefer Page One].
There is a leetle shop near Bukit Damansara called Hock Lee's Mini Market. It was closed when I first came across it during one of my leisure afternoon drives, so I didn't get to check out the stuff they sell.
Check out the typeface; it looks like it came straight from the 1960s. They also have a cute mascot in a form of a twirly-moustached man dressed in a blue suit, holding a walking cane and puffing on a cigar.
I'll come back another day to see what this shop sells.
I went to KLCC to shoot some people for my very important magazine assignment on Saturday, 01.12.07. School holiday is on, and some are spending their winter vacation here, so naturally it was very crowded. At some point, JK and I met up to check out the brand new furniture shop called XTRA. They moved from City Square [a dead mall that wasn't, back in the 1990s where Malaysians shopped for their Versace and Christian Dior] to Avenue K [a mall that has always been dead].
Unfortunately there are no pictures for you to see from that visit, because JK did all the photography, so the pictures are not with me. We chatted with the CEO [I think?] of XTRA, and that earned us an invitation to their official opening some time in February 2008.
The real action started when we took a bus to Kotaraya. The roads were jammed with other vehicles, so we decided to alight near... um, not sure where, but there were many Nepalese and Burmese restaurants housed within pre-war shophouses. Then we reached a lot where the Junk book store was located. Apparently, some people think that it's the best bookstore ever, but I didn't get a chance to check it out because it was closed. In front of the shop were seating for hawker stall food-eating action.
JK and I walked on for some more and reached some steamboat / noodle stalls, just a leap away from Petaling Street.
Looks pretty appetising, and you're dining alfresco, but due to my strict eating standards, I had to give it a miss. We settled down and JK ordered a bowl of prawn noodles.
I bought a bottle of Vanilla Coke at a nearby store and watched this guy eating his curry mee, and encountering a tissue-selling lady who insists he must buy her tissues now when he said "next time", then getting a very pessimistic response of "next time I'll be dead". Anyway, let's check out how the prawn mee is being prepared.
Soon we were on our way to Central Market Annexe for some instrumental music action. Along the way, we spotted some graffiti...
Discovering that we were still early for the eight pm show, we had a leetle snack at Old Town Kopitiam to have some coffee and french toast with a layer of peanut butter between it. And a jar of honey. Sehr fattening.
Kopitiams make people chatter and gossip a lot, so we took about a half hour to be done with our meal. Remember the picture of the radical restroom system I have shown you several posts back? We gave the 50 sen-per-entry toilet and decided that it was TOTALLY NOT WORTH IT. The floor was wet, and there was no toilet paper, and the locking mechanism of the cubicles were, according to JK, "aiming for style over substance".
So back to Central Market Annexe. It was already eight, but we were told that the musical instruments were still being set, so we wandered around for a bit and got amused by this large piece of cloth serving as a screen for an idle projector. Harhar.
Just behind the screen was a man who was meddling around with a... slab of tuning machinery that produced some woooooopppp yeeeeeepppp sounds. Look at him go!
We waited and waited for the gig to start, and as time went by, we felt sorry for this lady who was trying to sell CDs that I have never heard of, while being hungover from a party the day before. We offered our CD-selling talents, half-seriously.
After an hour of nothingness, a man called Pang [creative director for CM Annexe, or something like it] offered us an art show that's going on at the hall where we played with our shadows earlier. "Come lah, while waiting for that show to start... it's really interesting," urged Pang.
The art show is divided into three parts. First one is held at a black curtained enclosure at the side of the hall. There were about 4 other people who were with us, and we were all told by Pang that the first show is about discovering the fourth dimension - time.
So OK, we all wandered into the dark space and settled down.
Then, a soundtrack was played, and a light coming from a projector caught my attention.
Creaks and rattles came about. It was still dark. How enchanting.
Then the wall was starting to show something from the projector. I can't make out what it is, until I saw that a kaleidoscope was being turned about in front of the projector.
Hazy images. Suddenly a short script off an old Malay film was being played [sounded like it]. Together with a voice speaking in Mandarin from mainland China. Intriguing.
Seventeen minutes of depression, the lights off piles of grass in front of us lit up. "The films are all hand-made, and it's for sale for a negotiable price," explained Pang. We took a quick view, and then was taken out to the hall and soon, the second piece started.
It was Pang reading out SMSs [text messages] off his cell phone. Some of the messages I recall went a bit like this: "My anus still hurts. I went to the doctor. He wouldn't even touch me. I think I want to live as a monk. I love you."
That all went on for a good ten minutes. We were thoroughly entertained.
The next piece was by a man whose name sounded a bit like Lee Kuan Yew. He let us heard some noises he recorded at a park in Stuttgart, back when he was a resident artist there.
Ruffling sounds, bird chirping, white noise, wind blowing. JK and I have had enough uninspiring ridiculousness moments, so we decided to leave in mid-show. How unappreciative of us.
Pang was outside, ready to receive donations. We didn't contribute much, because it wasn't entertaining enough, but at the same time, we felt sorry for these struggling artists who [generally] live on our generosity.
So back to the top floor, where the instrumental gig was supposed to go on. But we didn't see no music-playing action, just unhealthy acts by smokers who just had to do it in an air-conditioned space.
JK wasn't digging it, so we went down to the Ricecooker shop downstairs, where I chatted with the It boy of CM Annexe, who else but Aiman.
Around 11 pm, JK and I headed back up and found out that the show has begun. We payed about RM 24 and was entertained by... well, a bunch of bass plucks, random drum beats, poetic wailings and didgeridoo hums. Let's check out who's behind all of this.
The sound did not tickle our fancy at all. JK had a flat face throughout the show, and so did I. Our friend Fairuz, however, was getting his groove on with a MacBook Pro, which is probably the only great thing that existed in that room at that time.
An hour into the show and the crowd was getting very restless. Some got out to have a smoke, some got up to try out some 'experimental food' that was served. Mmm... check out this guy who's indulging in a meal of blue pasta, mixed food kebab and a green buah melaka-looking ball.
I took a nibble of tuna-topped wholewheat bread with a jujube. There was one piece of food that got me very nauseous... it was black and it had a cube of cheese on top of it. Luckily I still had my Vanilla Coke to wash it all down.
Right after that, we decided to leave. Maklumlah, anak dara tak baik merayap tengah-tengah malam. It was nearly midnight. The show probably ended at one am. If it started on time, which was at eight, everybody can go home by eleven. And I'd get to shoot some people for I Got Shot! But then... this is what you call 'Malaysian Time'.
Well, goodnight to these CD-selling people.
JK and I had to walk through a very dark and dodgy lane to reach the LRT station. Just in front of Central Market was a ROTTW mini-concert, which had a 'rock kapak' band singing to a mostly-metal fan crowd.
I think we managed to take the very last train back to Taman Paramount. While in the train, we talked about how the night went. According to myself, experimental music should be like what an experiment is. You identify what you want to experiment with, know the objective and come up with a hypothesis, gather facts and do your research, and only then it's nice to share the results with other people. We want results without getting involved in the process! According to JK, however, he thinks we can do a better show with our own mouths.
I arrived my house before one am, after sending JK to his quarters. Tiring Saturday it was, both physically and mentally.
To wrap up the eleventh month of the year, I am showing you my first encounters with certain products, situations and views, all from the same month. Let's look at what I find hilarious / interesting / beautiful / etc.
Quiksilver-wearing, 3G cellphone-owning young boys trotting around The Curve. I initially wanted to include them in I Got Shot, but two-thirds of the group fled, leaving these two to-be adolescents posing for my camera. Then I thought, what's so fashionable about these boys? So I decided not to put them on I Got Shot, but on here instead. [trivia: when the rest of the group return to those two boys, they were called "pondan" (meaning : transvestites) for not being 'man enough' to pose for my camera]
Oh no! What happened to the Unilever factory on Jalan Bangsar? Flattened to make way for development, of course.
Gasp! Tough luck for the Kg. Abdullah Hukum dwellers - their houses are now in pieces. Why? It won't be a nice view from Gardens [MidValley City's newest mall] if the squatter houses are still around.
So... is it a fish or a chicken? 'Ikan' is fish and 'Ayam' is chicken, in Malay. I think the bags under their mouth are inflatable, and the skin has a rubbery texture.
Wallpaper* City Guides are now five Ringgit more expensive that last year's. I CAN'T WAIT to read what they have to say in their Kuala Lumpur guide, due March 2008!
Some of the food my mother and I ate at Island Bistro at Tangs, Pavilion. They serve Singaporean cuisine, which is, when you think about it, kind of rare in the city. We were there on the Sunday when I collected my Viktor & Rolf glasses [which will be introduced to this Notebook soon].
Full moon upon Bukit Kiara. On the left side of the picture, you may find the dome of Pusat Sains Negara. On the right, however, are two of the most prominent skyscrapers in Kuala Lumpur.
On one boring weekday afternoon, I visited a restaurant on the eastern side of KL, that claims to serve Johorean cuisine. I ordered a plate of Mee Bandung, when this plate of what-the-hell came.
Dengan cauliflowernya, dengan carrotnya, dengan kobisnya, dengan tomatonya, dengan kacang panjangnya... OMGF. This is mee bandung at its worst. It's more like a paprik dish rather than a noodle dish. Oh, it also had crushed peanuts. I mean.... WTF? I am out of words to describe how this restaurant has insulted the existence of mee bandung. I seriously can't want for my mother to cook mee bandung on my birthday later next month.
Nearby the disastrous restaurant was a mini market that sells some excess stock of badly-named washing detergent.
Also, I found some rat glue. Look at the poor vermin struggling to free its sticky tail =(
