Boots for Somewhere Colder

Please click the photo above to play the daily videoSunday began with the morning round, as Sundays tend to, but the sky had clearly decided to make it up to me. It was gorgeous sunshine, the clear, generous kind that makes the city look freshly washed. After the week’s floods and grey afternoons, it felt like an apology from the weather. I accepted it.

Then off to KLCC, because Anita wanted to see the new Ugg store. I’ll admit I went along expecting to be a patient companion rather than an enthusiastic one. Shops built around a single product rarely surprise me. This one did. It didn’t disappoint, and I say that as someone who walked in with low expectations and walked out carrying a bag. There’s something faintly comic about shopping for sheepskin boots in a city where the temperature rarely drops below twenty-five. But that, of course, was the point.

We bought one pair each, for the London trip. The trip isn’t here yet, but it’s close enough now that the shopping has started to make sense. It’s a pleasant kind of shopping, buying for somewhere else, for a colder version of yourself who’ll be grateful to the warmer one who planned ahead. The boots will sit in the cupboard for a while, faintly ridiculous in this climate, waiting for their moment.

Lunch was at Maria’s, with a view worth slowing down for: the park spread out below, the towers rising above, the whole city looking rather pleased with itself in the sunshine. The spot used to be the Harrods Café, and there’s a small, wistful pleasure in sitting somewhere that remembers being something else. Places change hands and names and menus, but a good view stays a good view. It felt fitting, too, to be eating in a former piece of London while shopping for London. Not planned, but neat.

Then off to Bukit Antarabangsa to collect Mak after her night away. Picking someone up always feels nicer than dropping them off. The drive there has purpose, and the drive back has company. The house had been a little quieter without her, and it was good to have her home again.

Home, as it turned out, wasn’t quiet for long. Idlan had friends over for band practice, and the apartment briefly became a rehearsal space: instruments tuning, songs starting and stopping, the earnest, determined sound of young musicians working something out. It’s not always polished. It’s not meant to be. There’s a joy in it that polished music sometimes loses, and I’d rather hear that through the wall than silence.

Otherwise, an early night for the rest of us, the kind a good Sunday earns. Sunshine, new boots, lunch with a view, Mak home, and music in the next room. A gentle way to close the weekend.

London is getting closer. At least our feet will be ready.

A Holiday, Rerouted

Please click the photo above to play the daily videoA public holiday has a particular texture to it — Maulidur Rasul meant the day arrived already excused from its usual obligations, which is a fine way for any Tuesday to introduce itself. Even the ward round agreed to the mood, starting later than usual, unhurried, the sort of pace that suggests the day itself knows it's off duty even if a few small duties remain. Nothing wrong with a slow start on a day built for one.

From there, lunch at the Shangri-La, which does the thing it does well without needing to announce it — good room, good food, the sort of meal that settles a person rather than merely feeding them. No fuss required when the setting's already doing half the work. Suitably fortified, the plan turned toward KLCC, with genuine intentions of seeing what Ombak, the new mall that's gone up across the way, actually looks like on the inside rather than from the road.

That plan lasted about as long as plans made before actually arriving somewhere tend to. The air outside had that hazy, slightly apologetic quality that passes for "not great" on the air quality index, and Ombak, being new and shiny and much discussed, had drawn exactly the crowd you'd expect a new and shiny and much-discussed thing to draw on a holiday. Between the two — bad air, worse queues — the appeal thinned out fairly quickly. Some places are worth fighting a crowd for. A first look at a mall, on a hazy day, is not one of them.

So, sensibly, a detour: Kinokuniya instead, which never seems to mind being the second choice, possibly because it knows it'll usually win you over anyway. There's a particular calm to wandering shelves with no fixed target, the sort of browsing that isn't really about buying anything so much as being somewhere quiet and full of other people's finished thoughts. A proper antidote to a crowded mall, as it turns out — trade the crush for the stacks and somehow come out more relaxed than you went in.

The day rounded itself off nicely with ice chocolate at Ralph Lauren's new café, which is a slightly improbable sentence to type but a genuinely pleasant way to spend twenty minutes — the sort of spot that's clearly designed to be photographed, and manages to be worth sitting in anyway, which isn't always guaranteed. A good drink, a good sit-down, and by then the day had more or less made its point.

Home early after that, no argument from anyone. A holiday spent half as planned and half improvised, which if you think about it is roughly the correct ratio — the improvised bits nearly always turn out to be the better half. Ombak will still be there once the air's cleared and the crowds have thinned to something reasonable. No rush. That's rather the point of a day like this.

F1?

There used to be events here on F1 weekThe Malay word would be "hambar". And with the Sepang circuit only contracted with the FIA until 2018, we might not see another F1 race after that. Compared to the festivities in Singapore a couple of weekends back, we definitely lack behind.

And the F1 being all about glamour, there was no reason for the contract to be extended after 2018 unless more money were poured into the coffers of F1. Judging from the state of our economy, it would be prudent just to let it go. We haven't capitalised enough from the exposure we got from the F1 races thus far.

And without F1 coming to Sepang every year, I suspect the circuit will also soon die a slow death...

People were waiting for Lewis Hamilton and Rico Rosberg to make an appearanceThey were not on time and the crowd had to wait ... in the end it wasn't much of a crowd ....Guess who they were supporting?It was supposed to be the F1 week this week. The whole city should be buzzing with motorsport related events.

So long F1 Malaysian GP, 1999-2018.

Back to Uncle Truno

Last month’s haircut was a disastrous one. Truno was away, in between job. We went to one of his old place and had a cut by one of the resident stylist.

To cut a long story short, Irfan was in tears after the cut. It was bad!

Truno was back and yesterday he cut our hair. It was completely different story. Idlan even agreed to have a wash, something he rarely agreed to ….

Equilibrium had been restored ….

The Week After

A lot of people was asking me about the dinner I had with Anita on our Anniversary. It wasn't much about what we did, but more on the venue which got plenty of people excited.

The view was not bad ...Getting to our tableThe venue was Thirty8 at Grand Hyatt, a restaurant at the top of the hotel, overlooking the Petronas Twin Towers. The view was spectacular and the fact that we started the dinner at 6.30 meant that we were able to enjoy the whole sunset.

Getting there was straight forward and that being a Sunday meant that traffic was light. We reached the car park at the basement, took a lift to the ground floor before getting into another which took us straight to another lobby on the top floor. You would then take another set of stairs up to the restaurant who also served as the breakfast venue and the bar.

Looking down towards the Pokemon Go players at KLCC ParkLooking down towards the lobby which was a floor belowThe starters are hereAnd one of the sous chef came along to complete the presentation We were treated very well indeed and the food was fusion of Western and Chinese. After some salad, I had some steak while Anita had some roast chicken. I must say that the food was great. The chef was a French gentleman and one of his assistant actually came to my table asking me how the wagyu beef were to be cooked. And lastly came the dessert which topped the evening out for us.

Since I mentioned that it was to be our Anniversary Dinner during the booking, the table was specially prepared and hence the great view that we had.

And the sun was coming down ...The gorgeous chunk of wagyu beef for the mainsSome asparagus on the side for meAnd the dessert to share to finish things off ...I would definitely recommend the place for those interested. Yes, it was on the costly side but it was not excessively so.