Free Morning

Monday and Wednesday mornings were supposed to be my free morning, when I only have clinics in the afternoon. Still, it was not often that I had some time to myself. This morning was an exception and it was such a bliss. I had the choice of either the Oscars, or a bit of a me time.

Me time every time.

Armed with my iPad and a Moleskine, I headed to Bangsar to get some errands done and spent the late morning at my favourite Starbucks. In the last month, that spot is only a five minutes drive from my apartment. And set out to plan the rest of the months.

I then realised that I needed to sort out my budgeting. Moving to the new house, and the coming trip to Kora Bharu is not going to be cheap I'm afraid. Even at the beginning of the month, I was now officially broke .....

Need to work harder I supposed ....

Bad Experience at Ben's

We finally had the chance to sit down for lunch at Ben's General Food Store. I was meaning to do this after the visit when I accompanied Idlan for some pizza. Today, I sampled some food, and the service there first hand.

On the previous visit, the restaurant was only half full, and I commented on how good the staffs were. It was packed today, with queue outside, and the service definitely eroded. Not only that some of our orders were messed, the waiters had the cheeks to come over and explained what we did wrong. Apparently, since we ordered mains which included salad, the starter salad we ordered would come together. But the problem was, the orders for starters and accompanying salad were completely different, and still the waiter insisted that we ordered wrong.

Playing spot the foreigners ....The food preparation area ....Anita was hungry at the time, and was rather mad at the waiter, and we had to explain again what we ordered and how we insisted our orders to be prepared. It was finally rectified when the shift manager came to speak to us.

The pizza for Irfan was fine, but apparently, we had to pay for the the extra parmesan - something we did not have to do three weeks ago. Hmm! Odd. Maybe in three weeks time, we should be forewarned to bring along an oxygen tank just in case we would be charged for the air we breath. You never know!

Irfan went hyper after all the fizzy drinks ...The pizza has arrived ....Told you I was not into green peas .....I think, the problem was not so much the food, but the "we know best" attitude of the staffs there. Anita thought it was more to do with the fact the majority of the patron that afternoon were foreigners, and hence we were treated as second-rate customers. To be honest, I kind of agree with her. Unfortunately, this was still true in many of the more affluent areas and hotels in the capital. I guess, all of us have the urge to please the foreigners more than our own people ……

As a result, I had to reduce the rating for this outlet, and warn that it may be best not to visit it during busy hours ….. unless that you are a foreigner ….

Ben's General Food Store, Bangsar Village

Coming straight off his Lego camp, Idlan was understandably hungry. He did not have lunch earlier, although he had a late breakfast. Straight away, he told us he wanted pizza. We were settled at The Loaf earlier, but since it did not offer pizza, Dina, our guest, suggested we head across to Bangsar Village and try Ben's.

Again, it was quite a find. We went there a couple of months ago, but could not get a seat, and had to settle for an alternative place. Now, we understood why the place was packed during lunch.

I did not have the chance to peruse through the menu, but they mainly offer Italian and fusion food. We went straight for pizza and milkshake. It was a ten inch, thin crust pizza, and Idlan finished them all on his own - with the help of sprinkling of parmesan of course.

I did managed to sample half a slice. It was very nice. Nice crisp base, tangy tomato topping and nice smooth mix of mozzarella and cheddar. Served piping hot, in a nice little place and a personal roll cutter.

Idlan and Anita did some groceries while I was with Idlan. Irfan joined us later and we ordered another pizza for take-out.

The pizza has arrivedIdlan working on themOne more to go

Since it was a quick stop, we would definitely be returning. It must be the Raya spirit, as I was kind to both restaurants - The Loaf being the other - I entered this afternoon.

The restaurant was located on the Ground Floor of Bangsar Village, right by the main foyer, directly opposite Village Grocers. I have to warn you that the place tended to be packed during weekends, especially lunchtime ….

P/S - we had a slightly different experience the next time we came here.

Coming to an End

Ramadhan was coming to an end. No more Tarawikh. No more Pasar Ramadhan and as usual, the city dwellers left for their kampung. And KL was practically empty. Traffic was going to be a breeze.

But I was sure the Raya break would also turn KL into another atmosphere all together. Where else could you get to visit Dhaka, Jakarta and Yangon within a space of a few minutes? Come to central KL during the holiday period and you would get to see that!

Selamat Hari Raya.

Tale of the Cranes

During my stop at Bangsar Village earlier, I found out a bit more about the paper cranes I have been fretting about recently. It was in memory of a celebrated girl, Sadako Sasaki, who died 10 years after the Hiroshima atom bomb, due to the effect of radiation. She died of leukemia. Before she died, she hoped to make 1000 origami paper cranes, motivated by an ancient belief that it would grant her her wish.

Her wish was to live, but unfortunately, at the time she died, she was a few hundred short, and her friends came along to help out and she was buried with the thousand cranes that she wished for. The problem then was not lack of time, but lack of papers.

The desk for origamiSo, in memory of the recent Japan tsunami victims, a charity drive was launched. Along with the paper cranes, came monetary donation. By May, visitors to Bangsar Village managed to origami - is that a verb? - together more than 6000 paper cranes, and donated over RM90,000 for the fund. The cranes were on display all around the shopping center, both, Bangsar Village and Village II, suspended from the ceiling on pieces of string.

An interesting read, and the story was told in a book, Sadako and the Thousand Paper Crane written by Eleanor Coerr. That being written in 1977 meant that no audiobook version were available for me to listen to. I would fancy a copy though. Maybe I'd be lucky at Kinokuniya.