Green Tea Gone Colour Blind!

I ordered Honey with Green Tea (hot) at Pak Li's in Giant, Kemuning Utama today, and I go this instead! I asked the waiter what it was, and he said it's green tea... Well, it doesn't look, smell or taste like GREEN TEA!!! So either I'm colour blind or my taste buds have confused the taste of green tea with teh-O or I'm an ignorant fool? OR they're just too dumb to know what GREEN tea is or they're just a bunch of compulsive liars which claim to have on their menus something that they DO NOT HAVE.

Dudes, if you can't get a green tea supplier (for some reason), why don't you just strike that item off the menus?

Watching Gruff Rhys Live

Yesterday I skipped BTC's sports club pilates class to go watch Gruff Rhys live at MAPS @ Publika in Solaris Dutamas. Getting there was a trial. We made a few wrong turns trying to get onto the right direction of Jalan Kuching and in the end ended up at the place where mum and I had gotten lost at last year while trying to find Solaris, Hartamas. Anyway what matters is that we ARRIVED and had time enough to grab a bite at Old Town Kopitiam (which charged us extra for food we didn't get! and not to mention the SLOW service).

So happens that we chose a table diagonally situated to where Gruff Rhys was eating with a bunch of other people. Kharlal and Nisha were trying so hard not to stare! LOL! (I was facing the other way, so if I turned to look, it would be so obvious! haha). Well, at least we were being discrete. Unlike another group who came a little later and sat at the table next to us - the ladies actually arranged their chair so that they were facing the headliner of the night! *double LOL!*

When we went in, I was a little taken aback as the place was pretty small and everyone seemed to be sitting on the floor. Kharlal and I were in our heels - to compensate (as much as possible) for the disadvantage of height in a crowded situation - and in the end we didn't need them.

There were two opening acts - Free Deserters and Couple. Maybe it's just me, but I didn't really enjoy Free Deserters. My comments would include:

• The lead guitarist is shredding when there isn't a need to - it disrupts the audience from hearing the song itself
• I never knew a Gibson Les Paul could sound that bad! (this was the second guitar after the lead guitarist snapped a string from his first)
• At times, the lead singer faced his back to the audience (hmmm...???)

On the brighter side, I think their last song was more radio-friendly, hence more palatable to the greater majority of listeners out there. (Sorry, no idea of what the title was)

I would say Couple was better overall. Their set was more of the Indonesian pop rock genre, which of course many would find easy to listen and sing along to. We did not stay for their whole set, but from the little we managed to catch, their songs were catchy and their leader had stage presence. And their female guitarist had either a sunburst Gibson ES-335 or an Epiphone Sheraton (my eyes are not that trained to distinguish these two apart yet).

And then it was the headliner of the night - one man band Gruff Rhys! (or like the Malaysian style: Gruff Rhys of Super Furry Animals!) What a breath of fresh air! He had a table full of "equipments" which were things like an old-school metronome (named "Trevor", if I remember correctly), a turntable, analogue synthesizers and some electronic children's musical toys we used to play with in the late 1970s or 80s and that sampling module that does repeats (I think Roland/Boss has one of those in their product line).

Admittedly I didn't have time to do my research before attending this event, however the songs that I knew were Shark Ridden Waters and Vitamin K. It's amazing that he could sing flawlessly and play his "modified" guitar 'upside down' (he said because no one told him the right way to do it lol!) with just one or two of his gadgets as supporting background sound/music and sound incredibly COMPLETE. And I didn't know that that 'fading echo singing' ending some verses were actually done lock, stock and barrel by him - without any vocal special effects etc.!

Gruff Rhys and his table of wonders

Rhys did a couple of songs with just this ancient wave synth tuned to a certain key (according to the respective songs) and it created this noise which made it sound NOT like a one-man band! He also had this small toy keyboard (with about 2 octaves or so worth of keys) which had keys that would light up when you pressed them... And this pair of sticks with wires at their ends which made electric lightning bolt sounds, and some bright red and blue plastic gun-looking thing that produced a pre-recorded tune when triggered... he used all these with the sampler.

Gruff Rhys with his "thunder bolt sticks thingy"

Another shot with the sticks lighted up at the ends

I know, I know, I should be talking about the songs he played... but it was just so interesting to see his "theatricks", poker-faced jokes and his multitasking abilities! Ooh, and he performed some Welsh songs, which we all couldn't understand a word of, but sounded so serene and peaceful...

All in all, I had a good time. It's not everyday that one can see musicians stripping down their act to the bare basics and using 'items that we throw out' as musical instruments. This just shows that "Old is [indeed] Gold!"

My ticket and the chop on the hand all of us received!

My New Job

I've been a month in my new job and so far, it's been great! Perhaps I'm easy to please. As long as I don't fall asleep on the job, I'm happy. Although it's been a lot of drafting minutes, internal memos, circular resolutions, letters and filing, I've learned a lot, especially about the biotechnology industry in Malaysia. I never knew that most of the companies I used to liaise with during my undergraduate research project to order materials and reagents are actually BioNexus status companies.

Fabric Frenzy

Last month, I caved in to another fabric frenzy buying. And this time, I ventured into the territories of real e-commerce - US fabric vendors.

It started with Pink Chalk Fabrics. They had a sale and there were so many beautiful cotton designs (although by the time I clicked half of them, they'd been sold out!). This is what I bought, which included some laminated cotton. The package arrived about two weeks after my online purchase was made. I must say that I was satisfied with what I bought.

Designer cotton designs

Seventh Sewing Project: Polka Dots and Roses Wristlet

I figured that I would be needing a wristlet or a small pouch, that would hold my wallet and cellphone, for when I go for lunch. So I decided to try out this tutorial I found online.

Although mine didn't come out as nice as I would've liked it to be, but the important part to remember is that this is my first time and that it is usable! :)

The turquoise satin lining was from a whole lump of extra kindergarten concert material I found at home. And the grosgrain ribbon that serves as the wristlet handle is from a skirt I bought many years ago (I've thrown away the skirt months ago!

I just loved the cotton print when I saw it in the cloth store! And funnily, it looks pretty similar in colour scheme to the pouch in the tutorial.

Sixth Sewing Project: Polka Dot Pleated Skirt

It's pretty embarrassing to admit this, but I accidentally printed the PDF pattern out in the wrong scale and ended up having to modify the pleats to make more space so that I could fit into the skirt! Anyhow, it ended up wearable - that's the important part, I guess.

My polka dot pleated skirt

A Day in the Park

I am on my "Survey on Transport to KL" quest. The objective: to find the best transport option I have before I start my new job on Jalan Ampang.

I started out late at 7am, however after enduring the gruelling KTM Komuter train ride from Shah Alam to KL Sentral (where the only place my eyes could comfortably settle were on people's butts!), and then switching to LRT all the way to KLCC, I reached my destination at 8.20am.

With my survey done, I had nothing to do but walk around KLCC. But it was too early for the shops to be open, so I took a walk around KLCC park (for the first time ever! and alone!). To cut the story short, here's some shots I took (looking like a tourist, nonetheless).

A track for joggers in KLCC park

The Rape of Sarawak's Forest

Admittedly I have not been keeping up-to-date with the latest local news. I know that Sarawak is having their general elections next week and that the current chief minister just married a young Middle Eastern wife, in a somewhat hush-hush manner, while his son is being sued by an ex-wife for hundreds of millions (Ringgit).

And then I read this today. At first I thought it was just an exaggeration of facts by foreign media, but when I Googled for the actual satellite images and found them, I was really upset at the lies this politician has weaved for us. Imagine the indigenous people who do not have Internet to check all these information for themselves and are continually duped by this evil man and proceed to vote for him and his party of liars! This just makes me sick! Sometimes I really wonder when will these people taste retribution? It is grossly unfair that they pull on a sympathetic face in front of the people (voters) and behind our backs, they are sucking us dry like a two-faced viper.

If our politicians don't even have conscience, then they are not humans and don't deserve to be treated like one!

This Google satellite map image is just one example where anyone with a functioning eye can see what stark difference our Sarawakian rainforest and that of Brunei's are! The capillary-like things are logging roads (and the CM claims 70% of Sarawak's forest cover is intact)

Satan Fabric?

Today is my last day at work. And amidst preparing the weekend news, I was Googling on how to pre-wash Jersey fabric - my next sewing project, tentatively. (Awaiting my fabric shipment from Fabric.com - which includes 2 yards of Jersey to make a dress I found on Burdastyle!)

Anyway... this is what I found:

Satan fabric! LOL (literally did that right in the middle of office)

Clicking into the link, there was some dude who posted a long comment about Satan not being evil and that he would lead us to enlightenment (I mean seriously!?! Does he even know that it was purely a typo error? gee... from sewing to satan worshipping!) hahaha Sooooo many types of people in the world, huh?

Another comment wrote: "you know, i always THOUGHT that polyester was the fabric choice of satan…" LOL!!! Ah, some people really have a good sense of humour!

What a good morning laugh! :)

Super Full Moon Tonight!

Yesterday I chanced upon this CNN news about the perigee moon that we are experiencing tonight - the moon at its biggest and brightest in nearly 20 years! This is due to the moon orbiting closest to Earth (its orbit is elliptical), at a distance of 356,577 kilometers.

I'd totally forgot about this until someone posted on Facebook that the moon made him trip and fall. Hahaha I know it's sadistic of me to be reminded this way.

Here are a few better shots I got with my redeemed gift Nikon point and shoot.

View from my gate (no zoom) - I know, if I didn't mention about the perigee moon above, no one would have thought this an extraordinary moon