Here's My Story

This chicken rice stall is within the shop Restoran Yat Yeh Hing, which is at the corner of the row of shophouses opposite St. Ignatius Church, off LDP. Ban's mum had recommended this to me but there wasn't opportunity to try it previously because it doesn't open for dinner. Mon - Sat lunch is at the chap fan shop whereas Sunday lunch is usually at the Curve after yoga class. However, the chance came when for a reason already forgotten, I skipped yoga class. So Ban and I headed over to this shop. We were lucky because it was already quite late (nearly 1.30pm) and so it wasn't very crowded (managed to get the table on the outer edge) and yet there was still food. Otherwise, normally it's crowded and oftentimes you'll need to wait a little while to get a table. The chicken rice turned out to be mediocre. For its price (think it was like RM6), I rather eat at New Ipoh Chicken Rice Restaurant @Damansara Jaya and Ban would be happy just to have the roasted c...

Dad: Can you check Air Asia ticket on Jan 7, 8 and 9? Look for flight from 10am onward and tell me the cheapest one. Me: Okie. (Later, I texted him, saying that the cheapest ticket is on Jan 8, 11.05am, costing RM39. He texted me back asking me to get it. Yet, later he called...) Dad: You got my sms? Me: Yes, to go ahead and get the Jan 8 ticket. Dad: Yes, the RM39 one. How about Jan 7? Is it cheaper? Me: You asked me to check Jan 7, 8 and 9 and for flight from 10am onward. Then choose the cheapest, right? Jan 8, 11.05am is the cheapest. Dad: Is Jan 7 cheaper? Me: Huh? Jan 8 is the cheapest. It's RM77 on Jan 7. You want it? Dad: Oh, no no. Get Jan 8. Me: @@

Food is generally much cheaper in Butterworth when compared to KL, PJ or even Seremban. So let's look at this example: This chap fan cost RM6.40. It has fish, fish that is stingray, curry dish (from my experience, curry dish is a premium dish), two pieces of the fish I rarely choose fish for chap fan and so I can't tell for sure whether this is cheap, normal or expensive. What do you think? Incidentally, the fish is dry. What a waste of stingray. I wouldn't have it again at that shop.

Cracked me up when I saw this on my recent trip to Singapore:

"I'm sorry," I said. Regret.  "I didn't mean to offend you." "Don't show me humility unless you mean it," she said, still looking me over with narrow eyes. "Even when you make your face a mask, your eyes are like glittering windows." "I am sorry," I said earnestly. Apology . "I'd hope to make a good first impression." "Why?" she asked. "I would rather you thought well of me." "I would rather have reason to think well of you." Conversation between Kvothe and Vashet in "The Wise Man's Fear" by Patrick Rothfuss

It's been an unsual past one week or so. This is mainly due to my mum being hospitalised. She was scheduled for a normal surgery to treat her sinus but the surgery ended with complication. Something about blood flowing backward and so she couldn't breathe. Scary. Much later, it was also revealed that her throat was inflamed and so that didn't helping with her breathing either. She was admitted to ICU for nearly a week before being transferred to normal ward for a few days. That period was frightening as there were a couple of episodes of non-breathing, which later traced to her biting the oxygen tube. During those incidents, I observed that she appeared to be having nightmare (she was asleep most of the times during the initial stay in the ICU) and clenching her teeth (and thus biting the tube). The nurses then inserted something to prevent that. From then onward, it was progress. Phew. As for work, a year-end valuation project will start very soon. The bad news is th...

It seems that this shop is famous for its soya sauce chicken rice/noodle but for me it's always the place to have the best dumpling noodle since I was introduced to this shop about 10 years ago. Please note that there are 3 shops with the same name: 2 of them (one airconditioned, one not) are side by side and are at the beginning/start of the row of shophouses whereas the 3rd one is a few doors away i.e. somewhere in the middle of the row. I only go to the former. Since the the hotel we stayed  was in the same row, I made a point to have lunch there before we left Singapore. Ban didn't come as food there were definitely not to his liking. The dumpling noodle still cost the same all these years i.e. SGD 3. Amazing. There were 7 or 8 pieces of dumpling (sorry, can't remember now), which was either the same or one less than it used to. However, I suspect they were smaller. Not sure. The taste was about the same, with distinctive taste of waterchestnut within it. ...

For my recent Singapore trip with Ban, we decided to stay at a hotel as we couldn't really find accommodation at friends' place. As a result, we didn't stay as long as I would like to. After much research (chiefly over Agoda and TripAdvisor), we decided on Bliss Hotel for 3 main reasons: clean room (from guests' review), free wifi connection (paramount importance for Ban) and easy access to MRT station (just across Chinatown MRT station). It cost SGD87.45 per person, after discount and including taxes. The hotel was less than a year old and looked modern. The decoration was simple but tastefully done in a modern way. Room could be considered a little small by some but we didn't care about the size. I just wanted comfortable bed, shower and electrical items that work, and clean room. Ban just wanted a wifi :P All these were there. What a relief. There were a few tv channels, the wifi was fast, 2 bottles of mineral water and sachet o...

I love this song. It's refreshing. Its music is 'clean' in a sea of rather noisy songs nowadays. Almost "a capella".