The Odyssey

NGL, I wasn't sure if I wanted to watch this (I'm not a Nolan completist - I've not seen Interstellar and Dunkirk), mostly because of the run time (almost 3 hours) and it's yet another movie about Matt Damon trying to get home, and I can't say I'm a fan of Matt Damon to begin with..

If I was gonna watch this, I need to watch it someplace with flat rate parking. Only went with Pavilion Damansara Heights cos got flat rate weekend parking, AND the newly opened TGV. I don't think I've been in a newer/refurbished TGV, it was a nice change being in a spacious and brightly light cineplex. It wasn't too hard to get a ticket because I not nuts enough to spend the money for the IMAX experience, and apparently the halls are PACKED. Cheapskate me went with the regular/deluxe hall la. Maybe if people belanja, someday I'll watch another IMAX movie. 

• The cast in Nolan movies always stacked like shit one - either Oscar winners lah, nominees lah.. 
• Had no idea this was Matt Damon's THIRD Nolan movie he's been a part of
• Also had no idea Leguizamo was gonna be in this
• It's been awhile since I last saw Elliot Page in a Nolan movie since erm, Inception
• Eh, that's JJ's (late) husband!
• Eh, it's that dude... and that dude... oklah, if you watch a lot of TV, there's some recognisable faces lah
• Wasn't expecting zombies (?) LOL IYKYK 
• Was not expecting so much running from Matt Damon and gang in his recollection to Calypso
• How is it for (half) sisters, one is named Clytemnestra, and the other is just... Helen? 
• NGL, I laughed every time Zendaya showed up (very few and far in between; apparently girl was busy shooting Euphoria and Dune at the same time, so...), but good that she and Charlize got special billing
• I thought there was gonna be more Matt Damon, but I think it's more 60:40 Matt Damon to everyone else, so... 

I thought it was okay, but like Oppenheimer, I don't think I'd watch it again lah. Unless it's on a hotel TV years in the future... 

By the time I got out of this, it was already 2.30 p.m., and only had lunch at 3 p.m. 

Week 28, 2026

After much sturm and drang over the last week or two, SOCSO is now like, "ok, ok, we'll make it optional, but you have to sign a release for opting out". Only good thing is that opting out is DIY, so if you want out, kena sendiri buat la.

• Inside Scoop had a RM6.70 (instead of the usual RM7) promo on Monday. Only good thing out of the 6 7 phenomenon. 
• Tuesday - Spent more time driving to Klang and back than the actual errand we were there for - Dad wanting to change tyres. Also had a late bak kut teh lunch (past 2 p.m.) at a place that wasn't already sold out by then.
• Still no idea if I want to watch The Odyssey... 
• Met up with some college mates on Friday night
• Rode the new LRT 3 line round trip, end to end (70 mins one way), which took a little over 2 hours, on Saturday. Had no reason to get off at any station lah. 
• Finally did the AIA Vitality check up portion of the membership... or rather, the blood and pee sample collection on Saturday morning. Results TBD. 

Week 27, 2026

• Went to Paradigm twice this week: first to collect my Uniqlo online order, second occasion was to (mostly) get another Nitori cooling mattress pad, with the RM10 mall voucher before it expires on the 6th. I know I don't NEED it..
• I guess my HSBC Live+ card really got lifetime AF waiver - only got the RM25 SST charge so far... 
• Dad's more excited that my cousin's in-laws are in town this week than everyone else is. (They were all supposed to travel here together I think, but the cousin, husband, and kids had to change their tickets, get out of school early, etc to make last week's wedding)
• Brought cousin and her fam to the second home to get their shopping on on Saturday. At least they liked Rich Kopitiam.
• Apparently a bunch of parking apps got hacked, and people couldn't pay their street parking this week.
• This week is the start of the free rides along the LRT3 line.
• Can't wait to see what they got lined up for Michael Weatherly on next season's NCIS... 

Week 26, 2026

• Found out a couple of former classmates have lost their dads a few days apart this week. Only managed to make it to one wake.
• Must be nice for people to not have to know about the extra SOCSO deduction which started this month. But joke's on them when they saw the lower take-home pay and started asking me why. If don't like, take it up with SOCSO and gahmen la, don't take it up with me. Also no tax relief for this as of yet, so... could be worse
• Saw Douglas Lim's latest show on Thursday night
• Got a free Sealy pillow, heh heh heh
• Surrendered to the FOMO and got the glow in the dark Kaweco Sport fountain pen at the DIY weekend event at Stickerrific on Sunday (they apparently sold out not long afterwards). Only got the medium nib cos I already have others in both broad and double broad nibs (apparently their broad nibs already sold out the day before).
• Cousin wedding on Saturday

Wedding dinner at Ti Chen, Saujana Hotel KL

Got a relatively short notice for a family wedding a few months ago, via WhatsApp. It's been awhile since a first cousin wedding, so ok lor, not like I had anything else going on. It's also pretty local in that it's in Saujana and technically not too far from most of us. 

After almost 6 years of no weddings to 2 in the same month... yeah, there's a reason why I only have a one (friend) wedding a year quota. Lucky I don't have to foot the angpau for this one personally. 

Had to cut my own day short, so that I had time to "rest" (ha, only had a kopi) and get ready to go cos apparently the tea ceremony was gonna start at 5.30 p.m.. So I had to shower, get dressed, and put some make up on pretty early. 

IIRC, I might have been to the hotel (under past management) before, but not the restaurant in question. Had no idea that I did not have to take such a scenic route through the lobby to get to the restaurant, but there was a easier walking path to there that I only heard about later. Oh wells.

But NGL, the restaurant itself is picturesque in the Chinoiserie kinda way. I could see why they picked the place.

Fake plastic cake - even tapped on it for my grandma 
for laughs

The tea ceremony portion took awhile cos apparently new cousin-in-law also has a huge extended family, and some of those people who were supposed to take part were late (to be fair, there were stragglers on our side too). At one point, I was put in charge of attendance and ang pau collection, which was awkward AF cos I dunno everyone else, and you don't want to thrust someone with brain fog with that kind of responsibility. That, and people were busy taking pics in and outside of the restaurant before dinner, while the light is still good - both videographer and photographer were kept pretty busy. To be fair, it was pretty picturesque, so I don't blame anyone. 

Was sat at a table with some of Mum's first cousins (except for one, who was apparently still overseas?) and their families, and a couple of own first cousins who's rest of the fam couldn't make it. 

Took me way too long to recognise my cousin's other grandma (her mum's mum), who recognised me, but I had brain-farted on (I've not seen her in at least 20 years by this point lah, give me a break). It was only when that hit me, I told Mum about it (she also brain-farted, or thought I was referring to someone else's grandma or something), then she went over to catch up... 

Food's pretty good for pork-free menu. There was free flow red wine, beer, whiskey, soft drinks, as well as tea and water. People were also busy with the photo sticker printer and were busy trying to print pictures LOL 

The wedding slideshow was adorable - I recognise some of her childhood pics that my uncle took back then. 

Dressed up beggar's chicken, I think?

Glass was stuck to the plate with wax. Hope the servers
didn't break anything since some were definitely dislodged
by nosy MF-ers like myself

Only got back 11-ish, by then which I only had the energy to clean myself up and go to bed. One uncle had to hitch a ride back with us, which was fine. 

Douglas Lim - Vital Stats

First big (as in, nice-ish venue) comedy show this year. 

When this show was announced, it took me awhile to decide when to go. I was really pushing it; I didn't pull the trigger until there were literal single seats left. I think I only went with Thursday night because I think the weekend shows were gone first? And the seat I ended up with was not too bad. The last time I was at The Platform was also for another Douglas Lim show, so it had been almost 3 years lah. 

Took me way too long to realise that everyone in this is all
Douglas; had to see it in gigantic form to notice LOL

Left a little early for parking. Parked so far (but still walkable) that I might as well have parked at 1U across the busy LDP. But still got street parking, so cannot complain about expensive parking. 

Speaking of expensive parking, this was the outdoor parking next to Menara KEN. 

wtfbbq

At least this time I looked up the F&B options at Menara KEN, and the easiest was Jan's Gelato & Bakes. Had a scoop of Earl Grey, and bungkus a slice of cake and a bun.

Walked in to find the photo taking with Douglas already started - I'm guessing he went out to meet the crowd before the show, and things just happened? Even though I had the aisle seat and got in pretty late, there were still freaking stragglers. Ish. But if nothing else, the uncle in front of me had a better night lah, the way he was laughing so hard, he slunked down his seat and all. 

He had two opening acts: Russell Curtis and Riezman Radzlan. Of all the comics, I definitely wasn't expecting Russell Curtis to have perimenopause jokes in his set, which needed more tweaking (as in, not just pakai AI for research), but that's just me. Riezman's set was kind of his go-to at this point, which is fine. Other people might not have heard it before mah.

Douglas started his set by intently staring at the audience for this bit that you can also find on YouTube that he did at the Melbourne Comedy Festival (iykyk). He talked about using the Australian immigration app. His wife (who was also there) and how they met. Current events (his bread and butter) took up the bulk of it, which I won't go into. The Netflix phenom that was KPop Demon Hunters. Health issues. He threw in some random (not vital) stats in his set. 

His song this year was a song from, you guessed it, KPop Demon Hunters. And no, it's not Golden, because even I would recognise that one. So don't ask me which one it was, unless you don't mind me just randomly guessing. 

At least he took a few minutes to also plug Jason's and Jenhan's upcoming shows at the end. 

It was 10-ish when it ended, but it took me so long to get back to the car it was almost 11 by the time I got home LOL.

Everyone taking their bows

Week 25, 2026

4 day work week cos Wednesday was Awal Muharram.

• Had to find a plumber to fix what turned out to be a busted valve in the office water tank, causing the water bill to skyrocket 3 - 4x the usual amount on Tuesday.
• Used the midweek holiday to go watch Disclosure Day at IOI Damansara's GSC, where I'd not been before.
• I dunno whether to laugh or cry that they're no longer gonna charge the RM1 interbank ATM withdrawal fee starting next month. Maybe they realise that people are not really reliant on cash transactions anymore? To be fair, I haven't had a reason to withdraw money from other bank ATMs cos Maybank ATMs are almost everywhere, and I can usually wait until I get to one, so.. 
• Had poke for both lunch and dinner cos there was a B1F1 on Saturday
• Saw The Death of Robin Hood on Saturday morning at Midvalley
• Almost died on Thursday driving Dad's old car back to PJ - the petrol hose got bitten by rat(s), so it was leaking the whole time I was driving it and the fumes got into the cabin. Lucky I had cracked the windows open cos the AC wasn't working too. I could've passed out, crashed the car or worse. I also found out that petrol fume inhalation is also dangerous. 
• Had some major-ish repair work done on own car on Thursday and Friday. Lucky the car was ready before end of business on Friday... 
• Dragon Boat Festival on Friday