Chatter Of The Squirrel

Bandar Tasik Puteri Hash

Skipped church today.

Bike hash. All the way at Bandar Tasik Puteri, somewhere almost to Ijok. I managed to find an alternative toll-free road there, going through Sg Buloh, Kundang, miscellaneous kampungs, and drove past at least 3 golf courses.

Bandar Tasik Puteri seems like an interesting development. Boasting twice the size of Subang Jaya. Has its own golf course (like Tropicana) but boasting 27 holes (50% more than Tropicana). Even a guardpost-archway resembling that going into Tropicana. They even proudly boasted “Toll Free Access to Sg Buloh”.

That’s so laughable. Anyone living there going to KL has to drive a distance to the Rawang Toll, go use the NS highway to head southwards. To use this “Toll Free Access”, you’ll have to follow the route I took, a narrow windy 2-lane road, with sharp 90 degree turns, going thru kampungs etc for 30+km to get to the tail end of Sg Buloh.

Nevertheless, it’s a very nice neighbourhood. Clean. Quiet. Bright open skies. Two new schools. And a decent cat population. Any neighbourhood with companionable stray cats is a nice neighbourhood in my book. I almost adopted a skinny white kitten with blue eyes which attempted to devour me. But reason won out in the end.

Anyway, back to the hash…

When I signed up, I was rider #108. It’s a big crowd. And as far as I could see, I had the suckiest bike there.

I was riding my dear old blue Scott YZ4. Moses was strongly hinting how he’s running out of storage, so I took the bike back from his place. My red Haro still has a flat, and I’ve begun to find it ridiculously heavy. I also wanted to see how things would be with a lighter bike.

Once again, I have no confidence in the shape I’m in, so I signed up for the scenic route. The one for the little kiddies. Mind you, these kiddies have better bikes than me too. Some probably paid more for their bike than I did for my car.

The ride was incredible.

Nice open roads. No mosquitoes. Great views. Even rode by a lake.

Some of the downhills were bumpy. And that’s where I began to miss the rear suspension on my red bike. The resulting nuts-to-saddle interaction was probably enough to get me arrested.

Survived the day without mishap. There were a couple of close calls. Should learn to put more faith in the bike and learn to adapt to the flow instead of panic braking at mildly threatening terrain.

When the end was in sight, it was a thrill to crank as hard as I could, bumping and bouncing all the way. To BE the bike, and resist gravity together as one.

There’s even free nasi lemak at the end.

Sg Pening Pening revisited

Went to this hash site 1.5 yrs ago. Had enjoyed it immensely then.

Thought I could go and revisit the oil palm plantation again with Moses.

Parked my car at Moses’ house and we went in one car. Less getting lost. More conversation. Less toll & petrol.

There were a shit load of cars going to Semenyih. On a Saturday morning. It’s inexplicable?? Why are there so many people going there?? The jam was there at 9am when we went, and still unresolved at 12pm when we left. What a nightmare.

I managed to find the place where the hash started. But somehow I couldn’t find the way INTO the trail going up into the oil palm plantation. It was too long ago I guess… No choice, we just went exploring the other roads around the kampong. Followed the road past a huge quarry until it joined back onto the main road, and we doubled back.

Didn’t have a lot of energy this morning. Out of shape, and sleepy. The problem when you don’t go INTO the trails, is that the temptation to just double back and go back to the car is all too strong to resist.

We only clocked in 12km before we called it quits. Pathetic, I know…

Gastronomic urges overpowered our masochistic impulses.

So I broke out the GPS to look for interesting food. Out of randomness, I saw a place named Gafan Restaurant. The name is so humorous I had to see what they sold. Someone gave the claypot mutton strong recommendations. So we thought we could take a leisurely drive to Cheras and try this place out.

How wrong we were… Unfortunately my GPS device acted oddly and didn’t take the most direct way there. I’m not sure what parameters it used to plot our route… but we ended up hitting the jam at Jelok, Hulu Langat & Kajang on the way there. It was an exhausting journey.

Fortunately the place was still open when we got there.

It’s a clean restaurant which had been featured in a number of newspaper reviews already.

There weren’t a lot of patrons though. Maybe it’s the nature of the dish. Claypots take quite a while to cook, and most people don’t like waiting for their food.

We ordered the claypot mutton and the drunken chicken.

Food wasn’t bad. But I probably won’t eat there again.

I liked the food well enough, and if it were 20km closer to my house, I’ld go there 10x  more often, bringing different friends each time to try it. But the shop being where it is, a terminally jammed area,  the food isn’t worth the  astronomical effort to get there…

Movie: Feast Of Love

Morgan Freeman in a movie about love and heartbreak.

Meh~~

But one scene really stood out…

A man buys a dog for his wife, but leaves it with his sister first, so he can plan the surprise.

Wife leaves the man for a lesbian.

Man is heart-broken. But at least he still has his dog. He has this last desperate emotional anchor to tide him through this difficult time.

He goes to get his dog back.

Sister says no.

“I’m really sorry, Bradley, but you can’t have the dog back. We’re going to keep him.”
“Agatha, that’s my dog.”
“Not anymore. He’s bonded with us. His name is Gumbo now.”
“Wait, wait, wait. We had a deal.”
“Well, that was then and this is now. I’m so sorry, Bradley, but Billy loves the dog and we love the dog.”
“Don’t talk to me about love, okay? My wife left me.”
“I know.”
“Okay? For another woman. I’m alone, okay. I want a dog. I need that dog!”
“My heart goes out to you, sweetie. I think Kathyrn is a selfish bitch. I think what you should do is go straight to the pound and pick yourself out another dog.”
“We had a deal!”
“I know. Well, I have to take it back. It’s null and void.”
“Aggie, I need that dog, okay? Please. I… This is not a joke. I’m talking about my stability here.”
“I know. I’m really sorry, Bradley, but as Billy’s mother, my responsibility is to him first, okay? Good luck!”

This scene just chilled me to the bone.

Movie: El Orfanato

A new movie produced by Guillermo del Toro. The Orphanage.

An orphan returns to an old house that used to be her orphanage.  Her son starts seeing invisible friends.

Plenty of creepiness like The Others.

The story plods along at a slumberous pace… But gets there eventually.

Enjoyed the ending.

The story isn’t much of a horror. More a fantasy like Pan’s Labyrinth.

Movie: Jumper

Again, fantastic trailer! And it’s got Samuel L. Jackson!!

Anything with S.J. lends a strong element of hardcore-ness to the movie! If you want to be entertained by an action film, you won’t go wrong with a Samuel Jackson movie.

My sis and I were late at the cinema. We left the house practically at the last minute. It was Wednesday afternoon, who could possibly be at the cinema in the middle of the day in the middle of the week?

The 10 min queue at the cinema proved me wrong… Who were those people? Don’t they have school or a job to go to??

Anyway, the movie…

Good premise. Boy with X-Men power can teleport anywhere he wants.

The conflict. Samuel L Jackson is his usual Bad-Ass self, and hunts down ‘Jumpers’ with his tazer. How freaking bad-ass is that? These jumpers can blink halfway across the world at will, and somehow this old man with a stick can catch them!!

The whole thing makes for an incredible showdown! Like the Superman vs Batman fight in Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns.

But how does the story develop?

With a damsel in distress…

And the damsel was even an after thought! Only after he’s gotten in trouble, did he go to all the effort to bring the damsel into the picture. Then he went to all the effort to get the damsel OUT of the picture. But the damsel is stuck in the picture already, and is in distress, and he has to uncover the depths of his true strength to do the impossible and save the day…

Great premise. Great characters. Great special effects. Weak, WEAK glue!! Is there NO OTHER way to pull these wonderful story elements together without introducing a pair of breasts in danger?! GET RID OF THE GIRL!! Why does Hollywood still like to subscribe to that lame cliche that women and love is the source of all great powers… DISNEY IS DEAD!! GET OVER IT!! MOVE ON!!

Let’s not forget that even Matrix pulled the same Sleeping Beauty bullshit! But at least Trinity was a strong and integral character to the story. Jumper wasted an entire act on guy picking up girl just so that the movie can climax like Jason Biggs + Shannon Elizabeth.