Grow some balls

I was in Labuan for work from Sunday till Tuesday recently. It's a duty free island and you know what that means, cheap booze. I had unhealthy portions of chocolate as well. And the seafood is always fresh, firm and succulent!

The boss and I had lunch at Mawilla Yatch Club by the sea after touchdown on Sunday. I called for salted egg prawns, kangkung belacan and ikan kerapu tiga rasa.

I only managed to get a picture of the prawns. They add sweet corn to the dish here in Labuan which is new to me and it didn't do much good because it masked the salted egg flavor.  But I must say the prawns are as fresh as they get.  Firm and juicy.  Crunch and Squirt! (The next day we ordered calamari with salted egg which was superb; less corny too.  Must order!)

The fish was fried too crispy, leaving no freshness to be enjoyed.  Too much air and fluff due to deep frying till the bone, literally. My boss didn't like the gravy because it was simply not 'tiga rasa'. The water spinnach with fermented shrimp paste or belacan was standard issue though. 

The view is always nice here.  If only it wasn't too hot in the afternoon.  The pilot informed us that the temperature was 34 degrees C upon landing at about 11.30am that Sunday.

One thing I didn't get though. The place is called Mawilla Yatch Club but the napkin says Growball Cinemax Restaurant & Lounge.

And there's no yatch in sight.

Robin Hood, Rocking Good!

My friend asked if I was game for Robin Hood last night and I quickly said yes because I had no plans for the evening. I shot to KL right after work in Damansara and was delighted to reach Pavilion within an hour. The traffic was ok since I was heading in the opposite direction most of the times and just a few minor grid locks that only lasted several minutes.

I browsed the Food Republic food court to check out what is new since I last came here many months ago. Not much has changed.

While waiting for my friend I went to the counter to buy our tickets. There was hardly a queue and the seat availability indicator was green, which meant that there were many seats left. No rush.

“Robin hood, 9pm for two please”

“Please choose your seat sir, only the four front rows available” said the lady behind the counter.

I was shocked.

There I was thinking I had good seating options, as requested by my friend when I was told to buy the tickets first.

The indicator was green damn it! And there’s hardly any queue… I don’t want to come out of the cinema with a stiffer neck as it already is a pain these few days. I should have known that it was a Wednesday and people usually buy tickets in advance because most movies are on discounted price.  I should have rushed like everyone else, no matter how short the queue looks and how green the seating availability status is.

So I hurriedly looked for available seats in the middle section, hoping she’d overlooked or simply lied. There was one row, right in the middle of the hall. There were two available seats albeit several seats apart.

“This and this” I told her and paid for the two tickets.

A pair of friends going to a movie seated thirteen seats apart. How weird does it get? I guess we’d have to sacrifice proximity for comfort. No exchanging funny remarks or approval of nice scenes. No ‘yeah!’ nor ‘awesome!’ for when it matters most.

I guess it’s okay. It’s not like we’re lovers or anything. There's no need to be so close, no holding hands. We’re just two dudes; friends watching a good movie, separated but together no less.

Sunday's school catch up at Sunway Pyramid

Hey! That almost rhymes!

Anyway, last sunday I had a pleasant time catching up with old friends from high school.  Some I've not seen for about 11 years!  How bout that!  Facebook rocks!

It's good to reconnect.  And the kids were just adorable.  Enjoy!