32 years of Grandeur

I happen to think that everyday is a celebration of life.

So when it comes to having a birthday party each year, I astound even myself and how small and simple I prefer that celebration to be. I suppose as you get older, you learn to appreciate what you have, even in the smallest way, as life can teach us, that anything can be lost on any day.

Anyways, as a token of appreciation for all the good things in life, I hereby present to you some of my favorite and most celebrated things(disclaimer:next birthday, the list may change):

1.    RT Pastry House

This cake house has been in existence for a couple of years now, having branches mushrooming across the klang valley. Their cakes are light, flavorful and very reasonably priced. So I was pretty happy when I got tricked(quite subtlely by the Y) into going to the E-Club(a.k.a pantry) at the office and finding the Pekster and Deviljoe hidden behind the partition with a Black Sesame cake for me. Lovely, ladies. Lovely

 

PY and Mua

Black Sesame cake

2.       Crepe Cakes 

Ok so maybe I have been a little too forthcoming with the things that I like(just look at this article for an example!). And most of the geng knows how much I like cake. I have asking around about the crepe cake made famous by a bakery in Melaka and also the Food Foundry in PJ. I tried the cake once in Seri Kembangan but it wasn’t fresh and the layers just stuck together instead of having the ‘melting effect’. So the Y decided to get me 2 pieces of crepe cake from a bakery in Kajang and Mei Mei and Amanda got me 2 from another bakery. 4 slices of crepe cake, maybe too much of something is not a good thing, but the cakes were wonderful. Hey it was my birthday, give me a cake-break.

3.       Coffee Joint

Starbucks and Coffee Bean are overrated(This my personal opinion and means to offence to anyone- especially Starbucks no 1 fan, Deviljoe). I have always preferred Gloria Jeans  and Domes, but the best coffee bars are the smaller ones, like Whisk(Subang Parade and OneUtama). So it was with great pleasure that I had the company of Sir Kakapipit to enjoy the coffee at the latest coffee bar in Cyberjaya, The Daily Grind.

4.    House Parties

Mom,Pop,little spiderman-dinosaur, Hema, Chiffon and of course the Diplodocus. What more do I need to ask for to have the best time? Do wish the Japa was around though, as I get a one day free pass to annoy the crap out of my little brother on my birthday. Maybe I could get a raincheck? Hmm

Mom went on a cooking spree

5.    The Shell Geng

These are some of my most favourite people on earth. The Pekster decided to have a small dinner at Hucks Café in Bangsar. And being one who is only too happy to meet new people and try new places, I was very excited to meet Konrad from Bavaria and see Ms C-bg try to flirt with him. Though it rained cats and dogs when I got the Yoda and made everyone late, it was definitely worth it to try this place.

                        http://grub-odssey.blogspot.com/2013/04/hucks-cafebangsar.html

6. Movie and shopping time

As we did last year, the Y and I got free movie passes for our birthdays, which is only 3 days apart, and this year we got to watch The Croods and after the show, we did what we love best, and got ourselves new shoes.

A hAppY

 7. Red Velvet Cupcake

Need I say more?

Thank you to all you guys who made my getting-wiser birthday more meaningful.

Cheers and Godbless you freaks.

A little help, Mr Watson?

"This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us."
Western Union telegraph company memo, 1877.

I read this interesting piece of article the other day. It said that people today would prefer to have all their communications done in the form of messages, either emails, sms, whats app, viber, chatz and what-have-you applications on their smartphones, instead on picking up their phones and dialing someone for a voice conversation

Apparently, in todays world, having someone call you can be deemed as intrusive. With many people leading very busy lives these days, they do not have the time nor space to have a chat.

I remember being a teenager and wishing that I had a phone in my room like some of the girls on Nickelodeon. It seemed like the coolest thing to have your girlfriends call you at every hour of the day and for us to discuss on how cute our new PE teacher was. Or which boy was the cutest and giggle like some mad cow disease induced teenagers. But I guess that’s all changed now, with technology being so advanced that teenagers can just LOL, IDK, SYL, BSB, NKOTB, ETC each other at any time.

I admit, yes, maybe sometimes at work, I too do not answer every call I get. But I will always try my best to call back the non-intrusive friend and can only hope that my return call does not intrude her/his time.

Imagine a world in 20 years. You would not even know how your child sounds like. Or your mom. Or even your boss if we all decide that we can just work from homes and save costs on offices.

So much for centuries of civilization and technological evolution. Thank you, Mr AG Bell

The end for Social Graces?

The dictionary defines gracious as; "being pleasantly kind, benevolent and courteous."

I suppose in today’s world, it is not easy to define what being gracious actually mean.  Over time I have heard and read about so many Malaysians ungraciousness on the roads, in malls and even in public toilets and what is more amazing is that like in some third world countries, we are becoming a race that accepts the faults in society  and as is the miracle of human nature, at some point, adapt to it.

An experience I faced last Saturday was a definite prove of this. The Diplodocus and I decided to head to the famous mall, Mid Valley Megamall, and if it was not for our brother’s birthday the very next day, I would never have agreed to head there on a weekend. A trip down Zombie Ville would have been more pleasing.

After an excruciating wait, we finally spotted an Indian (national) and his family loading up their fairly new Nissan Sylphy. As cars were parked on both sides of the driveway, the sylphy had not much space to reverse to get out of his parking lot. Hence he did what any other one of his country man would do. He got his very excited wife to ‘watch the back’ and then went bottom-long into the car that was parked at the rear of his. The excited wife did the only thing she could do,  jumping a couple of feet in the air and trying to push the sylphy forward, unsuccessfully of course, and after a while,  realizing her effort was in vain, jumped into the passenger side and the company drove off, without a note of an apology to the owner of the Injured car.

But that’s not my only story here.

As the Sylphy was loading, we noticed a young, pleasant looking woman with the highest heels and tightest of jeans standing next to the Indian family.  The minute the car drove away, madam long legs decided to ‘book’ the parking lot for her boyfriend. In no mood for any more bad manners, we honked and managed to coax her out of the way for us to park. But after couple of meters of walking to the mall’s doors, the boyfriend decides to drive by and start shouting at the Diplodocus and me for having stolen his parking spot.

Now correct me if I am wrong, but since when do Malaysians actually practice ‘parking-via-human-standing-booking’? As a society, if we allow people to actually act this way, can one imagine the chaos it could create if all of us decided to act in the same manner?

Have a little social grace folks, it can go a long way.

Peace out.