Retreat

hello people.

I have written about places to eat, hang out and lounge and i know i'll run out of places to write soon cause i haven't tried any new places for a very very long time. so this time round, i'm going to write about one of my getaways.
one thing weird about me is that i like to go on trips alone. i've gone to gold coast, brisbane, paris and penang alone. not to say i prefer it that way, but there is always a factor which somehow or rather would make me go for a trip alone. but lets not talk about this now. we'll save it for another scratching.
Lets talk about my penang retreat. i term it retreat for a reason. for me retreat is not about running here and running there, visiting all the places of interest and shop till you drop kinda thing, for me that is called a holiday. A retreat for me is where i go somewhere and just not be bothered about anything else. no concerns about not being able to visit this and that place or shop for souveniors. I just go there and do my own thing whether it be lying in the sun, walking about aimlessly or sleep the whole day.
Well my penang retreat was just that. I left on a friday morning from my place in subang and took a slow drive to penang. i did not target to arrive at so and so hours i just drove. the drive itself was uneventful except for catching myself asleep a couple of times at the wheel.
arrived in penang and took this hotel by feringghi beach. it was right at the end of the feringghi beach stretch. checked in got to my room and snoozed! heh...
got up late in the afternoon and dressed in surfer shorts and beach slippers and went to the beach. i walked and walked from one end of the beach to the other before snoozing at the other end of the beach. then caught the sunset which was not all that great partly because the sun wasn't setting all that great!! heh and partly because sunsets will always bring back memories.
got back to the room, spoke on the phone for a couple of hours and slept.
this was my routine the whole time i was in penang. i did not leave the hotel at all. Never got into my car, never drove, never went to town, never explored and never went out to eat. my routine was basically sleep, wake up, shower, beach, lunch, snooze, beach, snooze, sunset, shower dinner, phone slept. heh...heaven.
I needed the retreat for a few reasons, one was due to the stress at work and another was because i was going thru a bad patch in my personal life. it worked. i felt rejuvenated and fresh. came back on top of the world and looking for challenges...heh...i was an arrogant bastard again!
anyways, i would suggest to everyone to go for a retreat to recuperate and to rejuvenate. it does wonders. i'm getting stale a bit now eventho i just got back from a tournament in taiwan. so i'm really really looking forward to my trip to thailand for a retreat cum tournament thingy.

food!!

Hi again...

i'm bored and at the same time busy. weird combination ain't it. ok, back to my fav topic, food and hanging out places.
I mentioned earlier about bodega, alexis and 2 mamak shops, now i'm going to talk about places which have been lost in time or either changed so much or have already shut down. i loved these places.
First place that comes to mind has got to be the sobranie classic cinema. it showed classic and independant films. I remembered watching bullit and a few french films there. it seated about 50 people comfortably. Very nice place, very private cause there were times there were only maybe about 4 or 5 people in the cinema. We were frequent enough visitors to an extent we were allowed to bring in coffee and watch the show, coffee was on the house by the way. The placed also housed a french fine dining restaurant with a pianist playing some soulful tune plus an art gallery. the place at night was lighted by blue lights, not those blue neon light but light which gave the place a surreal feeling. I remembered sitting outside on a chair whilst waiting for the movie to start, i could hear the pianist playing something and watching the smoke from my cigaratte. amazing feeling. Sadly, the place shut down a few years back, i guess it never got a following. i have yet to find a place where i can watch independant films where everything was so laid back and the people so inviting. this was a dream place to hang out at nite with the light effect and the music.
Another place would be the top hat restaurant, its still around but a couple of years back, it was a lonely place surrounded by tall trees and lush greenery. This was all before the tall buildings opposite it rose. Damn those buildings. remembered eating by the balcony with candlelight with an almost empty restaurant with the soothing sounds of jazz in the background. then having a walk in the garden with the full moon and the twin tower lights in the background, could hear crickets i think it was or some other kind of insect making noises, kind of romantic. but sadly, the place is not by a main road and in front of it are huge buildings, totally dwarfing the place and limiting the sky line view.
One place which had fond memories for me was central market. this was back in 92 & 93. i was studying in mrsm quantan but often came back. then the place to hang out for me was cm. i used to hang out on the first floor near the palm reading area. i had a birds eye view of everyone walking on the ground floor. i loved to people watch and this place was great. all kinds of people walked through those passages/corridors. people in ofice attire, kids in school uniform, rastafarians in their colourful hats and artists of all shapes and sizes. when i say artist, i meant painters those people with skilled hands and a creative noggin. not actors or singers. bleurgh! i loved the banter going on amongst the artist when doing their sketches or paintings or the guy who mans the t shirt printing stall right underneath me. we had a quiet recognition with a nod and a smile everytime i hang out there. i loved the smell of the incense from all those quirky shops selling these weird handicrafts and scary masks or listening to the palm reading telling fortunes. i have not gone to this place for more than 10 years and i bet, if i were to vsit the place, i can still expect the old chinese guy reading palms or the strange smelling incense floating about.
hahah....i can go on and on and on...but i'll save it for next time...
ciao...

What do i write about?

Hello...

its been ages since i lasted posted anything here, anyways, not sure whether anyone reads whatever i write anyways since i dun actually advertise it, i think less than 5 people actually have my blog address....its not that i want to advertise to my friends or anything like that, but i'm just plain lazy!
anyways, whilst thinking of what to write, i just realised that my one hobby or passion has been neglected for quite a while. What is it, well, i used to love trying out new places to eat, to lounge about or to just hang out, and honestly, i just haven't had the time or money to do these kinda stuff anymore.
anyways, i'll list down a few which i am sure is almost on everybody's list...
A fav hangout, especially on a lazy sunday has got to be the bodega in bangsar, not the one at jln tengkat tung shin mind you. i love going there after waking up late on a sunday, usually around two, in my surfer shorts and loafers with a magazine and paper and ordering the all day breakfast! hahaha...it comes with juice and tea i think?? with hash brown, 2 eggs, sausage, beef bacon, bread and mushrooms, well, actually thats what i normally would choose as they give you a selection to choose from. I'd sit there by the window eating and reading and afterwards walk around the night market looking at all the funny stuff they have there...i bought my thumb ring for about RM15 i think...man, i miss those days, anyways, i might be going there this sunday, i finally have a sunday free after a hectic paintball season!
Another hangout would be Alexis at Great Eastern Mall! Normally i'd go there either on a friday or a saturday nite to catch the live performances...mostly jazz and R&B. It's a simple place with minimalist decor and a great ambiance, for me at least. the place is not too crowded and the crowd not too rowdy, just about nice. the live performances are my taste since i'm into these kinda music anyways. love the pizzas there. if you want to have a good place to watch the band play, then you have to book early and get a table somewhere in the middle, not too far back near the main entrance or too near the stage. small tables with candles and a good drink. thats what i'm talking!
Food!! almost forgot about that! well, i'm into soups now...nothing fancy but just something simple but very filling...there are two places i'd go....one would be at this mamak stall at jalan doraisamy opposite kompleks wilayah...try the soup campur/antarabangsa there...not too spicy and thick, it had chicken, beef, lamb, perut, lidah, tulang and the famous torpedo! (bulls dick!). this soup is not for picky eaters. you honestly would not know what you are actually eating. Just pray to God and hope it taste nice! heheh....another place would be this mamak place also, its kinda famous amongst kl-ites for a late nite snack...its the mamak place near klcc..opposite avenue k. 2 stories in an old bungalow lot. The soup campur here is just fantastic. its a thick and spicy broth. u have a choice of either big or small. go for the big one and ask for the chicken, tulang and perut!!! and ask for extra bawang goreng!!!! then get the bread, its those home made bread, the thick ones that is normally sold by those guys driving around on motorbikes, to mop up the soup. simply sinful!!!
ok enough about food and blogging. i gotta work.
bye for now.