Toasty Breakfast

Finally I had a morning date Anita now that our maid is back. We felt like having something French hence the quick drive to Bangsar for the much-delayed return trip to Yeast.

And it was a heavenly one.

We had the usual but with the weather outside being so sunny, we could've just hang around it was time for lunch, just having a chat and having more coffee and bread.

But alas, we had to get on with the day. After our Egg Florentine was gobbled, it was time to bit au revoir. I had to drive across town to pick up my Mum after this. She's heading to Sungai Petani on a train with my Aunt. I will be sending her off at KL Sentral.

So, off to Bukit Antarabangsa and lunch!

Laman Standard Chartered

Coordinate 3.156266,101.710465

That would probably the best way to describe where the place it. I discovered it during the recent 500px photowalk, located right next to Suria KLCC near the Mandarin Oriental entrance.

What was there? A piece of greenery with plenty of trees right in the middle of town, shielded from the stress of the streets nearby. Only a 5 minutes stroll to Suria, but it appeared miles away. More secluded than the often crowded KLCC Park, and the trees provided a nice shade from the sun while allowing the cool breeze to pass by. There were a few benches there as well as some set of stairs for you to take a breather while having some latte maybe.

A quick internet search did not shed any light into the place. There was a small Facebook page but with not much detail. I read that there may have been some art event taken place there, but again, not much was learned. Maybe somebody wanted to keep it hidden and tranquil. But I was glad that I found it ...

The 500px Route

The instructions were given. The group photos were posed. Breakfast was done. So, it was time to get on with the walk. So, how was the route?

Put it this way, if I was the one organising the walk, I would've picked this particular one. To put it mildly, it was uninspiring. It was basically one round loop, with clear instructions to only venture off once we met up at the end of the formal walk. I could have finished the route in 30 minutes, and we had close to 4 hours before the designated rendezvous. Too much time to kill.

So, I explored MaTIC itself for a start. Neat colonial building and this early in the morning, there was hardly anything happening there.

I then took a left along Jalan Ampang to the Jalan Sultan Ismail turn opposite Renaissance Hotel. A bit of street work, building site and architecture. The Bukit Nanas Monorel Station had a bit of colour.

Next up, we walked along Jalan Sultan Ismail, passing by Hard Rock Cafe and did an anti-clockwise turn joining Jalan P Ramlee walking towards KLCC passing by a few more buildings.

The whole group then congregated by Laman Standard Chartered, a nice little piece of greenary smack in the middle of town next to KLCC. First time discovering this place, it was actually quite nice and tranquil.

We then noticed that the air quality dropped and the haze started coming in. I escaped towards Suria KLCC, with the plan to have a quick cup of coffee. I walked towards the famous fountain at KLCC Park and the visibility had dropped considerably by then.

Since I parked the car there, I decided to split and drove home. Might as well spend the rest of the morning with the family. There would be another photowalk coming next weekend, so I might as well just safe my energy for that one ...

The combination of uninspired route, poor air quality and too big a crowd put me off in the end, but it didn't mean that it was the fault of the organiser. I was sure that they did their best. I route around Bukit Bintang, Chow Kit, Masjid India or Kampung Baharu would have been better I guessed. Looking at the snaps, it wasn't that bad. And photography was all about creativity. The real talent was making a scene appeared inspired. After all, anybody could pick up a camera and press the shutter!

Stylist House Call

Since they were little, the boys had always been fond of a single hair stylist when it came to haircut. And this "Uncle Truno", happened to be an ex-schoolmate of one of our buddies. Over the years, he had moved on from one saloon to another, and at the moment, he was in between jobs and he had just quit one before Xmas.

I found out that he had left when I called into the last place he was working at after Xmas and was told that he was no longer there. The school term was around the corner and the boys absolutely refused to let anybody else touch their hair. So, we had to call their "Uncle Truno".

He answered and he was more than happy to come over to the apartment to give the boys a nice trim.

I just had my cut at the mamak last week, so I was fine. Anita wanted a quick fringe and Truno just sorted out all three. He even arranged his own taxi to get in and out our apartment! It was definitely worth it!

Hopefully he would get a place to work soon as to be honest, he is a great stylist. He used to work in the US for close to 10 years before deciding to return home for family reasons.

Day Off

The original plan was to travel out of town. But it was changed at the last minute since our maid missed her flight. So, I was assigned to babysitting duty instead with Anita sorting our the boys books for school next week.

She had been gone since way morning since the queue at the school had been long for the bookstore. And our maid would only arrive later in the afternoon. Until then, there's would be me and the boys at the apartment. And yet had yet to wake up. Therefore, some peace and quiet until then.

I could do with a date with Anita though .... Of only somebody could hang around with my boys .....