Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Mother's Day...

This year's Mothers Day for me will go down as the most remembered of all..primarily because we didnt celebrate it on Mothers Day but instead on the Saturday before..but from that experience will be the last time I eat at Tasek Brasserie at Sheraton. Why? Because it wasn't worth it. Although it was BBQ Seafood Night, but compared to our Airport Restaurant, this can't ever hold a candle to that..speaking of which..a lot of people eat there though.

But hey, experiences count and we learn from our mistakes..like the poor BBQ chef :

Looking out of the window to the poolside from our gloriously cool a/c'ed table, I notice the BBQ chef walk in..here I am thinking, its been 15 minutes since my order of BBQ'ed half dozen mussels, where are you going? Oh he's talking to someone who looks important.
*Attacks the remainder of my BBQ'ed prawns*

Well, sad affair that is, although the marinade is unique, something like garlic w butter marinade. Looks up towards the BBQ to check on my food, uhm...why is there a raging flame consuming the BBQ pit and why is that lady silly enough to reach over the flame with her long sleeved baju kurung...looks back at the chef in the dining area still talking to the VIP..hmm...
Trying to get the attention of the chef, I make eye contact with him, making discreet finger jabbing motions towards the poolside.. so he gives me a surprised, eye-raising look when he slowly looks over, and my oh my you should have seen the look on his face as he ran out, dousing the flames and looking at his 'food'..anyway such is luck..haha

Sunday, May 13, 2007

New 'old' car

Its interesting. You get emotions and feel joy when you get your new car, from the salesman. The wait, finally over, you sit in the car and smell the new car smell. Look at the mileage:
"Eh, why is it 20kms?"
Salesman (lady) replies "Oh that's cause they have to drive it from the port to inspection to get your license plate bla bla bla."

Understandable, believable. Considering the distance from the LTD and the car yard really is 20kms give or take 5. But this is what I witnessed the other day. On the way to Kiulap on the highway, at around 90kph I was merging into the access lane and notice a car coming up in the mirror..hmm thats a new car with trade plates, and its coming quite fast..zooms past me at my estimate of 120kph with the trade plate battering against the rear bumper due to wind turbulence. Hmm..if i remember correctly, the instruction manual for said car says to take it easy with gentle driving for the first 1000kms..keeping the speed below 80kph. I know, because I spent a month and a half on the highway at 60-80kph while breaking in my own car. (Do you even know how frustrating that is??) But thats not the point..the car is obviously not sold yet because the trade plates are still on..most probably on the way to LTD for the new owners license plates. Lucky him or her. I wonder if he/she will ever realise..the severity of the first 20kms usage.

And if you think thats bad, try this one: We were on the way back home from KB yesterday on the highway..now a certain road show was going on in the Belait district, Im on the right lane at 140kph reasonable right? Suddenly I get highlights, foglights blinding in the rear view mirror and pull over only to see two new luxury cars zoom past at my estimate of 160kph..what??? So much for new car and gentle break-in periods..I wonder...I think at this rate, any car from any showroom can be considered second hand already...No doubt those are allocated demon-strator models for everyone to test and all that..but eventually those cars will be sold to customers as discounted demonstrator models..but hey..160kph??? What about long term reliability? Then again its not my car so I think I'll just leave the topic.