April Snow


Just when you think winter is over and summer is almost here, April can really catch out the unwary.


Received a message from Angie (from London) narrated that they awoke to a blanket of snow, on 6th April 2008! Also, Teresa posted some pics of her building snowman at her backyard in Slough, Hertfordshire. In the news, Brits were struggling to cope following Sunday's blizzards across Southern England. It was the heaviest snowfall for nearly 20 years. The temperature dropped to a chilling minus 6 deg Celsius in some places.


Yes, April, the month of extremes, very unpredictable. April is traditionally notorious for showers, but this time round the precipitation had grown out of hand and so it was replaced by hail and sleet. If you ask any meteorologist which month cause them greatest forecasting headaches, it bounds to be April. I recall the Met man always going on about the high pressure over Siberia leaking and forcing its way to the British Isles and blowing the chilled wind from Arctic. Oh, whatever that is, he can continue to blind us with science, the fact is that the Brits will have more wintry conditions ahead.

Remembering the last bad April snowfall in Britain was back in 1989. Yes, they are right, nearly 20 years ago.


When it is snowing and hours immediately after that, is a picturesque scene, breathtaking! Once the snow starting to melt, it turns into a dirty palette. Worst still if the temperature starting to rise again, the melting snow will turn into icy sleet, very slippery and you will find pedestrian wobbling their way through or turned topsy-turvy.

Some snaps taken during the cold snap (courtesy of others).






Notice the Buckingham Palace in the background?

Irish Cream Frappelicious

After a light 'retail therapy' (shopping-lah) in 1 Utama, decided to have a coffee break in this new coffee speciality joint, Pick n Brew. It is a bit out of the way, near the One World Hotel.

Customers are allowed to select and pick coffee from different regions and have them freshly grinded and brewed in the special Moka pot. Besides the usual Brazilian, Kenyan and Columbian, they have exotic Indonesian, Sumatran coffee as well.



the unique Moka pot


Simple deco but cozy



Round table for private functions behind the stringy drapes


Iced Latte



Irish Cream Frappelicious, yummilicious!



Muffins with chunks of walnut



Not real railings behind me, mere manisfestation



Nice relaxing afternoon

Lazy Saturday

When I retrieved my emails this morning, I came across a forwarded mail about LGE. Being apolitical, I normally am not remotely interested in any political write-ups. Since I haven't much to do, I decided to read the message.



To my surprise, it was a heart-wrenching untold story unveiled by his lawyer. I digested the whole message in one breath, sending bits of desolation flying everywhere. I saluted LGE, with great respect. Amidst cries of injustice, humiliation that he had faced behind bars, he had his heart purely for the people. Now that he has been vindicated by the people's power, hopes are on him to shower mercy to the people. Justice has to be seen to be done.



As we didn't have breakfast this morning, we decided to go and find some place to replenish our tummies. My girl is crazy about Fish Head Noodles, so she suggested the coffee shop in Damansara Heights.





We had our usual order whereas my boy opted for Wanton noodles. Chunks of deep-fried fish head, tomatoes and preserved vegetables, not forgetting the vermicelli, in a thick milk-infused broth. My girl simply loves the soup, but gave me some of the fish head as she claimed that they were full of bones. Slurp! Slurp! Slurp! you could almost see the bottom of the bowl .





Having not enough dosage of wanton, my boy was longing for more. So, for dinner, I made Shui Jiao. This time round, I altered the recipe a bit, omitted the black fungus but added in chopped sengkuang and dried squid.






Mission Accomplished

Done! Just put the final touch to my claim submission. I have managed to finish this claim in three weeks time. Hooray! Yet another bites the dust!

Really feel buoyant with relief!

It has been one hell of a hectic three weeks. I am in a lethagic state now.

I am heading home to my comfy bed. Hang up the "Do Not Disturb" sign. Sorry kids, dinner will not be served tonight. zzzzzzzzzzz

Quality Moments

[Yesterday]
The engine of my automobile has been giving out a whizzing sound for the past few days. It got worst this morning. Even with the stereo blasting aloud, I could still hear the flipping sound. It was incalculably embarrassing!

Decided to take the car straight to the service centre after offloaded my kids to school. Managed to convince the guy to squeeze me in for a servicing as well, despite not having an appointment. Oops, my usual tricks! Knowing that it would be a whole day affair, I went back to the office, courtesy of my partner's chaffeuring.

By 3pm, still no call from the service centre, eventually sweet talked my partner to give me a lift to pick up my girl from school and drop us at the service centre.

We had no choice but to wait at the 'waiting lounge'. Sofa, Astro, mags, coffee machine, WiFi available. No grounds for complaint, huh? Well, surely I have. The sofa was too straight, too uncomfortable to slump backwards; the air-con was too cold as it was raining; the Astro has got no Wah Lai Toi or other Chinese channels; the mags were ancient. My girl seemed intrigued by the coffee machine. I certainly need my usual dose of caffein.

This gave my girl a chance to pour her feelings out to me. We chatted at length, from best friends to peer pressure, from Additional Maths to Biology, from the new PM teacher to Orlando Bloom (Umm... what's the connection here?), from Accountancy to Quantity Surveying(Mind you, I was just trying to discourage her, QSing would be the last thing she should consider), from blog skins to HTML.

She used to be adamant whenever I gave negative comments, but today, I could feel my words began to impinge on her mind gradually. Her visage gave indications that she was getting into the right frame of mind. I improvised judiciously and expressed my concern about her studies and priorities, as I told her ultimately it is all for her own good, is her own life that she is leading.

The car was ready by 6.30pm, a whole three-hour waiting. To my horror, the bill came to a whooping RM1,350.00. All the belts (fan belts, tensioner belt, belt polygrooved. Wait, wait, chotto matte kudasai, aren't they the same thing?) assembly came to almost RM800. I am fully aware that my car is equipped with a Mercedes CDi engine and also aware that Ssangyong has since come under the wings of Mercedes Benz, does that mean they can now charge me the Merz price?

That fella went, "Errr, Ma'am, we have given you a discount on the parts already and here is your free gift."





Trying to sweeten me up with two bloody tumblers?

PATHETIC!!!

Turned around, my girl was flaunting a smile. I felt incredibly contented and uplifted. I truly treasured the intimate talk that we just had.



The Silk & Frazier Re-union

Received an email from my ex-colleague in London, John H. He is organizing a Silk & Frazier (my former employer) gathering in summer and asked whether I will be joining them.

Sadly to say, I have given up my British PR and I am no longer compelled to return to UK every two years.

Forking out RM3K+ just to fly to London for a re-union booze-up? That is utterly insensible. Morever, I have no excuse to get on a shopping spree there as most British/European brands are available here in KL. I can even get my favourite Vivienne Westwood or H&M in Hong Kong.

To be honest, I do miss my pals. Missed their Biritish humour, their farcical ideas, their attitudes, their supercilious selves, their verbal ammunition ... etc. Emm, I wonder what they remember about me ...

Leslie Cheung - Legend Forever



Today, 1st April 2008, marked the fifth memorial of Leslie Cheung.




Love continues to grow in remembrance of our dear Leslie ...



Leslie will live in our hearts forever,



We will always remember his smile,



his sensual voice



his elegance, with refined nobility



his perfection in Art



and every move he made




He still burn like a flame

in our heart

Salute to - The Ultimate Legend