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

The Death of Robin Hood

It was me and a bunch of other aunties and uncles who also found the same morning screening of this at the Midvalley GSC. It was the most packed room I've been in since The Mandalorian and Grogu, minus the smol chewren. It has been years since I was last there, certainly since before they renovated. Most of the near-ish options were  afternoon screenings, and ain't no one got time for that. 

Was tickled to find out that the GSC in Midvalley has softserve ice cream. The chocolate flavour was not bad, but I'm not sure if it's worth RM5, though... McD ice cream still cheaper la. 

Another A24 movie. 

Grappling with his past after a life of crime and murder, Robin Hood finds himself gravely injured after a battle he thought would be his last. In the hands of a mysterious woman, he is offered a chance at salvation.

• First act was violent as heck lor. If you're like me who tends to look away watching the John Wick franchise and violence of its ilk, you'll be looking away a lot here. 
• I imagine Bill Skarsgard did not spend a lot of time on his scenes as Little John... 
• I wonder if that's all his own hair and beard or not...?
• OMG, what is it with people getting an arrow out the eye lah?!
• NGL, I wasn't expecting such a long cold open for this movie.
• If I had spent a lifetime killing people and their entire bloodlines (cos everyone wants to avenge their family member's death and all), I would be very tired too. 
• Is she....? Yep. 
• Finding out that that cave is where the prioress goes to erm, flick her bean was like... hokay then. But him watching her was kinda pervy?
• Yeah, not sure if I wanted a violent, battle-filled third act after the first... 

What I remember of the Robin Hood story, I read the abridged version of when I was a kid, so I vaguely remembered that he was bled to death by the prioress and all. 

It's basically like 1247 A.D. Logan - old man who wants to die, spends the whole movie finding a way to do so, with a little girl in the mix.

Disclosure Day

This movie has been marketed to death at this point. Since today was a public holiday, I figured I might as well watch this.

Decided on watching this at the GSC in IOI Damansara, which I've not been to before, only because driving there is kind of a PITA. I wasn't sure if I was that late, or they actually started the movie on time, but I definitely missed the beginning of the movie, I'm just not sure how much.

• Laughed so hard every time I see the CG animals show up 
• NGL, I was distracted by how much purple Colin Firth was wearing in this... 
• "Inn-Di-Ana" Motel LOL 
• Props to Spielberg for ending the movie on a black screen? 

I guess for how much I wasn't (really) looking forward to watch this (just wanted to kill a few hours, so that it did), it was pretty engaging. 

Wedding dinner at 好想吃 (HXC) United Point, KL

First friend wedding dinner this decade since pre-pandemic times. 

As usual, mostly said yes cos it would be nice to catch up with whoever else was gonna be there, but also to check out the venue. Bumped into a fellow guest (won't say who) a couple days before, who would've forgotten had we not bumped into each other and reminded them about it.

Drove there in the rain, got there before 7-ish; so not early enough to help out, but not so late that it would be frowned upon. I would say it was an adventure for most of us, as we've never been to United Point Mall (or even Segambut, really) before; even getting to the parking lot took a little bit. But ngl, the restaurant (5th floor) ballroom was pretty impressive for all intents and purposes - no pillars, spacious, etc. 

Company wasn't so bad - it was nice to see everyone who was there again. It was just loud; we were shouting just to be heard, some of us might have sore throats after this or whatever. 

Tbh, I wasn't paying too much attention to what's going on behind me (literally back to the stage). The emcee was speaking too fast Chinese for me, and there was A LOT going on - there was musical performances by family members, several slide shows, some speeches... I kinda lost track. But it was definitely the bride's show, so... 

Not sure how I would've survived the night had I not taken a nap beforehand. Probably would been drinking Coke to survive the night? 

Dinner was oklah - there was shark's fin soup, Iberico ribs, etc, some of it was individually portioned, like the lotus leaf glutinous rice and soup. The servers were busy piling people with booze (but not the water and tea, didn't even get to partake in the soft drinks); I had three glasses of red wine myself before I stopped, saving a little left for the yamseng. Some of us really went all out on the red wine (again, won't say who). 

Something about the ceiling reminded me of papadom

If they weren't clearly labelled, you'd swear these were condoms

It was an interesting time driving a friend back to their mum's current place in Mont Kiara, using only back roads on Waze (but at least wasn't paying toll by then), before making it home myself before midnight.