4 posts tagged “borders”

I know that a sizeable percentage of my microscopic pool of readers are wondering whatever happened to myself. You can say that I have been lazy, or busy, or ran out of ideas, or becoming a boring person, or others. Work [a word not to be taken literally] has taken most of my time and attention, until I had to forget about everything else. Receiving a MacBook Pro out of the blue and not having an internet connection in my room made things worse.

But I love my MBP. I still have not decided what to name it. It won't be talked about in this post; it'll go into a 'My MacBook Pro' special.

How about a review of April 2008?

On the eleventh, my father took my brother and me to a supper buffet at Hotel Equatorial. This hotel can be considered as my family's number one hangout back in the 1990s, for Saturday night dinners. This night was the last night for the Scandinavian cuisine promotion, happening at Etoile Bistro. The sight of Scandinavian country flags make everything almost better.

Nothing much was to be seen, because the Swedish chef has packed up everything. So we headed to the coffee house downstairs and ate several dishes from curry mee to samosas to nasi beryani to baguettes.

Just a few days after I received my MBP, my brother came back from Frankfurt with an issue of Fantastic Man. Sadly to say, HE magazine was nowhere to be found. And since that I will be gifting Fantastic Man to JK, I made a copy for myself at the photocopy shop.

... and had a Photo Booth-aided shoot.

There was one day when I had to bring my mother to Sooka Sentral to meet someone, and while they had their discussion, I toured the complex to find food outlets, appealing young Caucasian office workers and a brand-new but incomplete fitness centre called Synar, which has a rock-climbing wall.

And on the seventeenth, I went to UiTM Shah Alam to see my mother giving a speech to graduate design students. It was a very hot day. There is something about this corridor that reminded me of a retro movie called Ali Setan.

On the twenty-forth, I hung out at Borders at The Gardens to make use of Starbucks' free WiFi. The speed was perfect to hold a video IM with one of my e-friends. Now my iSight is truly devirginised.

Oh, on the same day, I was having lunch with my mother at Nyonya Colors. I took pictures of the cafe when this guy [said to be a police officer] went ballistic over me and grabbed my camera away. I thought he was going to crush it as he explained how paranoid he was to have his picture taken. Luckily my mother was there to defend me.

Haha, on the 27th I participated in a creative writing workshop guided by Kam Raslan, the It author of the season. I expected a group of young secondary school kids but in reality, it was mostly people from the aged group, the kind who frequents Silverfish and thebookaholic.

Kam was very selamba in his speech. He was telling us about the techniques of... writing well [I don't have his notes right now]. After the free sandwiches, tea and coffee, I asked Kam to sign my journal. He chirped, "Oooh! A Moleskine!" [the way he said it was 'mowl-less-keen']. I said, "I thought it was pronounced as 'mo-luss-kee-na'". Then Kam made his trademark ambivalent face. It followed quickly by a photo session. I did an array of facial expressions, which confused him a little. Though in this picture, I'm the one who's looking confused.

A mystery was solved. Kam Raslan is NOT Karim Raslan. So for the past few months, I have been admiring two different men whom I thought was the same person. Remember, Kam writes stories, while Karim writes political stuff [meaning that that guy I saw at The Star election forum was NOT Kam].

Um, I guess that is it for April.

And a very good last week of May 2007 to all of you. What an interesting weekend I just had... Saturday was boring, Sunday was wealthy and Monday was funny. Here's the description:

Samstag 26.05.07

I was without a car for the day. Walking and talking public transportation to have an outing in the city sounded like a cool idea, so I did just that. Luckily the weather was shady went I walked out at around 4.30 p.m.

Soon I reached the LRT station and took off for KL Sentral. From there, I waited for the RapidKL city bus for a miserable 20 minutes. It took me to the old-school parts of KL, near Medan Pasar, as it heads to Bukit Bintang.

I decided to alight in front of Hotel Istana and walked down Jalan Nagasari, passing by Palate Palette and then on to Changkat Bukit Bintang. I spotted this new restaurant, which isn't officially opened yet, called Twenty One.

The first level was the dining area, and the upper level had a DJ deck, bar and an indoor / outdoor lounge. I thought of saying hello to the people who owns the restaurant, which I suspected was this white guy, but he was acting really douchey and not acknowledging me, so I talked to one of the chefs. Not for long, though. Just wanted to get their card.

I walked up the road to reach BB Plaza and roamed around Sungei Wang for a bit. I think I'm quite sick of this place; there's really nothing to look at anymore. So by seven thirty, I was waiting for the bus to go to KL Sentral at the bus stop near.... er, the one opposite of Izzi.

Again, I had to wait for a long time and was harassed by this freak who was asking where I lived. Just one of the things I have to face in order to save the planet by taking public transportation.

So I arrived at KL Sentral by 8.30 p.m. and walked along the cheapo stalls and discovered something incredible.

Before, this lane used to be a nightmare whenever there's a storm, and there'd be puddles everywhere. I hope it stays this way, or might as well connect the Monorail station to KL Sentral itself.

Sonntag 27.05.07

What a lazy Sunday mid-day it was. Then I was alarmed by a phone call from my father. He wants to take me out for a 3.30 p.m. movie at Cineleisure. I reluctantly got up [I really felt like I was a part of the bed] and got ready. We reached Cineleisure past 3.30 p.m. because, well, if you decide to go to Mutiara Damansara after noon on a Sunday, have fun getting caught in the traffic jam.

The movie was Pirates of the Caribbean 3. I thought the story was bollocks... it's like half a PIXAR movie. It had good special effects, but without a strong storyline. It went on for quite a long time, too.

After the movie, I thought of buying some books at Borders, but along the way we came to MNG, where I spotted the coolest drainpipes I've ever seen [from MNG, that is]. It came in light pink, Astroturf green and banana yellow. If only they had one in cobalt blue. Well, I grabbed the green and yellow one... when you put it together, it kind of looks like the Brazillian flag or a packet of Twisties Chickenator. Now, let's hope no one else finds it cool, but it's never cool to come across another auntie wearing the same MNG outfit.

After that wonderful purchase, we headed to Borders, where I dwelled for awhile at the magazines section. Nothing interesting. But I would like to notify that you can now buy ReadyMade magazine here [thought I doubt anyone cares], within the home furnishings section.

After that I scouted for a book called Waiting For Godot by Samuel Beckett. I heard of this book from my mother, who studied this book in her literature class back in secondary school. And just to fill up my hands, I took it off the shelf, then headed to the Children's corner upstairs. I lurked around the little kids who wear sitting on the floor and making a mess with books piled up on their sides. Ah, how wonderful it is to be a kid. I picked up a book by Dr. Seuss, just because it was on offer, and a volume of the Hardy Boys, because they are just so cool. As I lurked along, I spotted this wonderful cook book.

It has really funky recipes inspired by Dr. Seuss' nonsense names and phrases. I think I can work out most of the recipes, since that it's made for kids.

On the way down, I passed by the music section and saw this book...

... though, I am not a fan of those kind of '... before you die' books. But it's a surprise to see Kraftwerk on the cover. Yes! Everyone should listen to Kraftwerk before they die! And perhaps, see Kraftwerk before they themselves die!

In the end, I handed the books to the cashier to allow my father to purchase it. I think to get 3 books under RM 100 is a good deal.

Naturally, we felt hungry after that. My father suggested that we should eat at Marché. Marché is this really cool concept restaurant / food market, where you choose your desired ingredients that will be prepared by the cooks, and have your little card stamped [you pay your bill before you exit the restaurant; they'll calculate the price of your stamps]. There are SO MANY foods to choose from! Here's a glimpse of the action:

There were also pizzas, grills and other Swiss-related foods. What I had was a Rösti with a chicken cheese sausage. It was very much like... those breakfast meals you get in delis. One thing you should get is the garlic bread from the pizza stall. Really, really tasty.

And just as a note, there's a new doughnut shop nearby Eden restaurant called Big Apple. It makes nothing but doughnuts that attract a calorie-embracing crowd. I find this quite disappointing. I like doughnuts, but as a treat. Not really something I would queue for. It's just a fad, I tell you! Like how it was with Roti Boy.

Anyway, I think this was the best Sunday I've had this year...

Montag 28.05.07

I woke up early at 7 in the morning to attend a seminar about Swedish design and innovations at SIRIM in Shah Alam. I went with ShaB and drove along the jammy and wet Federal Highway. We arrived early, at about 9.30 a.m. The seminar starts at 10 a.m. and while we wait, I had my picture taken as I stood beside the Swedish ambassador's car, which has a little Swedish flag. To show my support for Sweden, I wore a blue and yellow outfit [very fangirl, I know].

Soon we headed into the hall and had the Swedish Ambassador Helena Sångeland giving a little welcome speech, preceeded by the..... er, an important man from SIRIM.

It didn't last for more than 15 minutes when we had a break. It was unlike the break we had back at the CS3 launch last month [where we were served only coffee / tea, cookies and marshmallow]. We came to a room where a buffet spread of dry Mee Hoon, savoury cakes and a very odd but tasty popiah, which were all very filling. For drinks, we were served sweet teh tarik. If I knew there was a 'banquet', I shouldn't have eaten breakfast!

After a little snack, we loitered around the corridor, when I spotted this photographer who's with the Swedish embassy. Being a Swede fanatic I always am, I asked him for a picture.

Oh, those yellow trousers are one of the two one I got from MNG the day before. How 'patriotic' of me...

I had a peek at the VIP room, where the press had an interview with the SIRIM guy, as the Swedish designers looked on.

After that, we all headed back into the hall to see our honoured guest, Mr. Henrik Otto, top designer from the Electrolux group, do a presentation about his company and described what Scandinavian design really is.

Forget about IKEA, it's all about letting the material speak for itself. Notice how Scandinavian designs lack ornamentation, how it is honest, in a way that you can be sure of how it functions right when you set your eyes upon it.

It was a really informative presentation, though it's different from the kind of presentations done by Americans, because Swedes are not really into making up jokes, then laughing at them [just an example].

After that, we had an open-mic session, when I quickly composed a good question to aim at Mr. Henrik Otto [and not embarrass myself, like how I did when I faced British architect Ken Shuttleworth, two years ago].

Reply after reply, the seminar came to an end and I had a chat with Mr. Niklas from the Swedish embassy, whom ShaB has met before [she was a volunteer at the Swedish Design : Improving Life exhibition at IKANO several months ago]. I told him that I'm a Sweden fanatic, and wore this outfit as a show of support, and he laughed and said "I'm very honoured!". After obtaining his card [which sadly escaped from my pocket =(] and a picture, I went up to Mr. Henrik Otto for a picture.

I might as well become a Swedish citizen!

ShaB and I went back to the car, where she told me that she was hungry. We headed to the TESCO nearby to get some nosh. I just had kiwi juice because the Mee Hoon and popiah was quite filling.

Shah Alam is so interesting. I have always considered that it's like Putrajaya - remote and nothing much to do for fun. So to be among these Shah Alamians felt a little different from how it is if I'm in Kuala Lumpur.

OK, that's it for my weekend in review. Have a cool Tuesday!

Yes, the tenth and final post for April is up! And yes, I know it's already May, and yes, I'm supposed to have fifteen posts. But things will be different from now on. I'll be having only ten posts per month, for as long as I am in college. You see, with all the figure drawing and photographing and dancing classes, it's doesn't let me venture out and wander around like I have no homework to do or classes to attend.

So on this post, I am going to document on my leetle weekend excursion with JK [who else?], which happened on Saturday, 29.04.07. We decided to tour around the Chow Kit area. This is because we have heard that there are good bundle [second-hand clothing] shops there. Also, if you didn't know, it turns into a really seedy place at night, because it's a red light district [Chow Kit is a medium-sized area; we didn't tour that part].

Anyway, thanks to the bus service which made JK late to reach KL Sentral, I roamed around the building and saw these booths being set up for the road safety awareness campaign, which had pictures of accident victims where they were found under lorry's tyres, intestines and kidneys spilling out and limbs thrown all over the road. You might find it all so familiar if you have visited the pameran-pameran, back in local schools.

Soon JK arrived and we immediately got on the Monorail. We travelled across the city centre to reach Chow Kit, which is nearly on the end of the line.

As you can see, the sun was shining very brightly, and as you can't feel, it was really, really hot.

Without delay we headed to the area which resembles a market the most. We went through a very,very dodgy pedestrian bridge and ended up at a busy wet market.

You can find typical market stuff here, like fruits, poultry, seafood, vegetables and several exotic fruits here and there. There was a cake stall which had two trucks full of cakes, and they were all on sale at a ridiculous price - RM 10 for three cakes. That's less than 3 USD.

Also, there were stalls selling snacks such as curry puffs, samosas and other fried items, and the lovely Apam Balik, which JK bought to be eaten by us.

We walked for some more, which led us out of the market area. There were shophouses lining the street that was packed with slow-moving vehicles. It really doesn't look like KL at all.

We turned around to get back into the market area to find a good place to eat, but every food stall we saw were in disappointing conditions. Eating at Chow Kit is not recommended to people who are into hygiene.

We then reached the wet market area where the floors are all murky and wet. With dried fish here and cow's innards there and slaughtered chicken here and spices there, you might be able to imagine how that kind of scent will knock someone out in no time.

After enough of trailing through the middle of the market, we went to the side alley, where it's brighter and more ventilated. We found shops selling kitchen utensils and cheap plastic crockery.

And opposite this shop was a chicken stall. I don't know how these chickens were made to end up looking yellow and a little scalded like that.

Beside the chicken stall was a vegetable stall. You might want to think twice if you want to get your  greens here, because stray cats use them as pillows.

Another picture of a plastic shop stood along the alley. No such thing as 'organisation' here.

After enough walking, we got out of the market area and walked along this main road which connects Chow Kit to Kampung Baru. The sun was really killing us.  Along the way, we rested at a junk food stall and bought a little carton of the coveted Teh Botol, from Indonesia. Though, there was no Teh Botol bottles in sight [I suspect this is because it's heavy to transport them here].

After that we continued to walk until we reached a proper restaurant called Maju Garuda, which is famous for its Nasi Padang. We decided to have our lunch there and ate some rice, self-serviced, Nasi Campur-style.

Since that this was an open-air restaurant, we could see everything that was going on outside, in this case, a 'silent generator'.

After our meal, we walked back to Chow Kit to find what we were supposed to hunt for - bundle shops. We saw one, which had racks of faded blue jeans, tea dresses, boring sport t-shirts and jackets. Nothing really interesting.

It was two in the afternoon when we got back on the Monorail, and headed back to KL Sentral. I felt like I didn't have enough fun, so I suggested that we should head to Mutiara Damansara for some more roaming.

As we drove, we passed by Bangsar. We remembered of this radical glass house sitting opposite of Bangsar Shopping Centre and decided to check it out. This little house is known as Tarah et Bo, and it sells [insert caption of picture below here].

The house would be a very, very nice place to live in. We asked the guy at the reception for its architect, but he's pathetically unknowledgable. JK decided to guess whether the furniture used in the shop are original reproductions or fake Pudu types. The worst thing about the shop was that it had Michael Bolton played through the PA system. Very, very sad.

Here's the look of the house from the outside.

After that we drove ourselves to The Curve and had a little walk along the 'flea market' area before checking out Cineleisure. We thought of having a little snack so we walked to IKEA's cafe, where I had a yummy slice of Daim cake. Then, we headed to the Marketplace to check out the new products. I searched for a oil can called REFUG, but it was out of stock. JK wanted to buy some storage boxes. As we walked through the crowd, I had an awkward moment with one of the salesperson, whom I suspect had a 'liking' towards me. It's odd that back when I worked there, we never talked, but when I quit, he was all friendly towards me. I didn't really bother, though.

Soon we got ourselves to the check-outs, which had a long queue on each of its 25+ lanes. We took a random lane and as we waited, we annoyed several people around us by talking about very weird things. After we paid for our GLIS boxes and BASTIS lint roller, we headed to Borders to see if there's anything worthy to buy. JK bought two books by.... er, Haruki Marukami / Hakiru Makumari / Hukari Makimari. The only book I have in mind is this little book by Penguin, which is about global warming and environmental awareness and tips on how to save energy, entitled 'i[something]'. Yes, I can only remember the first letter in the title. Unfortunately, Borders don't sell it. Do you know its full title?

After enough roaming, I decided to drive JK back to his neighbourhood in Subang Jaya. But before that, we had a little trip to Sunway Pyramid to check out the depressing state of the people who shop there. Terribly uninspiring. Not a fun place to people-watch. I did a fashion purchase which is a pair of jeans from TOPSHOP, which were priced at £ 45, reduced to RM 39. In other words, it's 70 % off.

After a dinner at McD [I seriously should stop eating fast food], I sent JK home and drove back to my house, and at the same time learned not to get on the KESAS highway to access the LDP highway [which costed me RM 2.2 + RM 1.6].

Alright. That's the end of it. I hope May will be a better blogging month for me. See you next time!

Greetings people. I haven't done a regular 'week in review' post for some time... so here it goes.

Sonntag 18.02.07

I went to check out a new mall called Bangsar Village II, which is an extension of Bangsar Village. It opened less than a month ago and has cool new shops that are the first in the country. Shops like Ted Baker, Massimo Dutti, Mumbai Sé and several other which are not my kind of scene. But one that caught my eye was this shoe shop called Novo. It sells these cute jelly shoes by Melissa, a brand from Brazil. I had my heart on this particular velvet-ish red peeptoe flats. But I had no Ringgit with me so I left the desire to buy those shoes for some other day.

I also saw other new shops that looked quite cool, like this shoe boutique [forgot its name] and a cafe / boutique called Marmalade. But they were all closed for the Chinese New Year Holidays, same with most shops, so I left Bangsar and headed to MidValley. Like how it was in Bangsar, parking was no problem, which was abnormal. The people I saw at MidValley are Malay couples who are making the longest queue in the world at the cinemas and other boring people who are spending their long weekend with their same-raced friends. It turned me off to see such uninteresting crowds so I went back home.

Montag 19.02.07

I went to KLCC because it has been quite a while since I visited that place. And wowie. So many people! Argh! Even though a quarter of the shops are closed, the food court was flooded with happy non-Chinese families and individuals. After I ate my beef bowl, I went up to Kinokuniya to check out the new books. No. No new books that interested me. Though, I spotted this happy young family nestled near the window in the children's books section. My heart immediately felt warm.

Have you ever seen a family out on a casual day, wearing pink tops and blue bottoms looking so... blissful? I am sure they get along quite well. Sigh.

Dienstag 20.02.07

I didn't go anywhere today. The most I did was probably feeding the alley cats at the back of my house.

Mittwoch 21.02.07

I went to Bangsar Village II again to get my dream Melissa shoes. They cost me RM 79.9 which, I think, is a good buy.