I’m down in melbourne for the week for a workshop. Always love coming down here. So far this week I’ve discovered an awesome steak restaurant, been entertained by SA at the usual “La camera” breakfasts and managed to reconnect with an old high school friend.

My “butcher’s grill” angus rib-eye was cooked to perfection, nicely charred and accompanied by a light Chilean merlot… easily the best steak I’ve ever had (not counting wagyu). We stumbled on he place via my wonderful Android app urbanspoon, the slot machine of restaurants.

Tonight I visited V who has recently moved down to Melbourne. He insisted on cooking okonomiyaki and it wasn’t half bad! It was good to see that he hadn’t changed, always been an ideas man jumping from project to project… just like my bro. We filled each other in on the past few years and he showed me people and places he’d been.. it reminded me resourceful and savvy he was…

I somewhat envy the whimsical life that he leads, full of interesting people and impulse. I think he somewhat envies the stability of my life and the fixed income…

the grass always seems greener in Melbourne!

I haven’t written about it before, but I started doing training with a trainer that comes by at work.  I’ve probably been about 10 times on and off. Its not quite what I’m expected or am used to.. so many different exercises compacted into an hour… exercises keep changing every session so i don’t feel like i get the chance to improve on last time.

today we did about 10 stations of various exercises by about halfway I’m out of breath and strength. I don’t really feel like i’m improving nor can I see many results, but I exercising in a group helps motivation, so I will keep it up for a while longer…

I miss Kung Fu ~ that was intense and fun ~ would go back if it started later… I’m gonna go try a dragon sweep now =)

Friday was spent unpacking, sleeping and catching up with BB.

Saturday we made lunch, visited new baby Amy and decided to have Sizzler. Congratulations to L&T for another beautiful little girl. I had a craving for cheese toast so we went to sizzler, having not been there for years it did not live up to my memories. The cheese toast tasted a little soggy and the steak was thick and chewy, the garlic sauce was tasteless, bolognaise and nachos was too sweet with not enough meat.. anyway we felt disgusting afterwards and WILL NOT be going to any buffets for a long time!

Today, I did some tidying up and finished off the last season of 24. The original series was so good. The grand finale puts the outcome of a world peace treaty in the balance. I’ll admit after 8 seasons most of the story lines seem like deja vu but its still been great value to watch for the suspense and action though. I will miss it.

Also, an old friend has returned to town recently. He has been out of sight, out of mind but his return has stirred up thoughts of all the past friends and acquaintances that have passed through my life. I’ve not been great at keeping to connected to people, but I feel that I should stop using the excuse of being too busy…

Not much to tell about my SG stopover, quick one for work. Managed to go get pepper crab and some more chicken wings at the hawker centre near east coast…also tried Ba Kuh Teh for the first time..  no shopping or anything else.

Its been a long few weeks, looking forward to getting home. Will be flying on A380 tonight for first time. I hear is quiet and a little roomier so here’s hoping for a good nights sleep. See you in the morning sydney, and my new baby.

I tried to get on the sky bridge at Petronis towers, but by the time I got there all the free tix were gone. Oh well, a reason to come back =)

Did a little more shopping (hope BB likes her Bvlgari) and then decided to get out of the heat by checking out the aquarium at KLCC. It was ok, a bit expensive for non-locals. They had a really long underwater tunnel where you look up at the sea life – that was the highlight. I still recommend the Osaka aquarium – best one I’ve ever been too.

Spend the rest of the day wandering around people watching and shopping, I did have a great chicken rice lunch – restaurant idea: Open a chain of specialty chicken rice shops in AU. Its healthy and tasty with nice clean flavours, so make it taste good, keep it simple and the people will come!

Felt really tired and tight tonight, so after a few drinks, I decided to splurge on an expensive hotel massage. Masseur (Ani) had a cute face, that was all. Massage was so so, wouldn’t go back. I prefer my BB. Also tried a little  malaysian coke tonight.. interesting.

Smooth start to the trip with some Hainam breakfast at an old Kopitiam close to my hotel. I can’t believe the SP and KJ – they just cracked 2 runny eggs and drank up! not like singapore where they at least dip toast in it.

It was a long drive to Cameron, we passed lots of green and endless fields of palm trees and eventually came to a long windy road – thanks to the long weekend traffic was a crawl and we were all frustrated. The driver’s here a crazy, even SP kept overtaking on the other side of the road  even on winding bends!! But no, that’s not the scary moment.

Cameron highlands is sort of like going to Kangaroo Valley, there was nothing specifically special to see , just a lot of little things ~ its just a nice way to get out of the hustle and bustle of KL and also the heat, it was much nicer up there which is why the British developed it during their rule (as I learned). Anyway, we stopped at a few towns in the highlands, ate, visited a waterfall, a time tunnel (museum), a wet market, a tea plantation. Nothing overly exciting.

On the way back, it started to pour down. The highlands became misty and the windy roads became treacherous! SP was driving like a maniac (its not like she had an audi or anything =p)  and at one of the curves, she missed the edge of the road and the rear back wheel went into mud and lost traction. The whole incident lasted a couple of seconds but felt like it was happening in slow motion. Immediately, I felt the loss of traction, realised that we could flip and plumeting off the side of the hill into the trees, thought to myself reach for the handbrake! and then realised that we were stopping, and that no cars were around to hit. Phew!!

Anyway, the day ended ok with some Kandar food. This is the type with the thin roti that I like! My past attempts at getting roti here have resulted in Indian style roti… Need to order specifically Roti Canai.

Caught the train and stumbled around eventually finding chinatown and Jalor Petalang where all the fake stuff is. There were some cops around but they didn’t seem to care, 1 eye open 1 eye closed ;-|. Next stop Sentral Market which was a much more santised evenvironment, good place to buy useless souvenirs, which I managed to refrain from doing. A brief stop at the national mosque for photo or 2 and then off Times Square.

Times Square was actually pretty good, decent deals and quality fakes, not like crappy chinatown and the upmarket Pavillion. The place is huge 10 levels each side with an indoor amusement park with rollercoaster and all! Also it was so bit I only realised there were 2 sides to it as I was leaving. Did manage to pick up a few small items.

Also today, change in plans, will be extending my stay for a couple days before going to help out in SG for another 2. Suits me fine, means that I don’t have to pick up any accomodation bills for extra weekend I stayed. Got a pretty good so far in MY 5 days work with 5 days off with the long weekend here.

So far I’ve got mixed feelings about KL, the variety of food is good, but the heat and the general cleanliness aren’t enjoyable. Also because of the heat, size and all the windy freeways running around – its not the best place to be exploring of foot which I love to do. Tomorrow I will be taking a day trip out of the city.. lets see how it goes.

• I came across Avatar: The Last Air Bender in chinatown and decided to check it out, as recommended by D. It actually met my expectations; based on lots of eastern martial arts and mythology but not as childish or weird typical manga. Probably one of the best animated series that I’ve seen for its story ~ sort of like journey to the west meets the never ending story.
• Tried my first squid ink pasta ~ tastes better than it smells, I guess I would have it again.
• 2nd best buffet ever – Sheraton, KL. Very high quality and tasty deserts. Had the best Carrot Cake, it was moist and not too sweet with a dollop of dark chocolate on top. And cheese flavoured icecream!!! yuk u might say.. but it was actually really nice.
• And finally, tonight after a long drawn out change SP and KJ took me out to Jalan Alor for some hawker food. Some interesting hokkien noodles and great pippies but I never expected the scrumptious BBQ chicken wings – double bbq’d on a rotisserie so that its nicely browned and crispy all round. So finger licking good I’d throw out a bucket of KFC.

Luckily for me, tomorrow is a public holiday here in KL I’ll be wondering around checking out the different historical buildings and central station area.