We had our first gathering at Shogun Japanese buffet restaurant. Honestly, it wasn’t my suggestion. In fact, I strongly disagreed after reading the many reviews and feedback from various blogs which wrote how they sucked.

I suggested Lemon Grass cafe at Shangri La, KL initially but Raymond said everyone was having a tight budget and said Shogun Japanese buffet restaurant was the best choice as it was cheap.

J : “Why would I want to pay for the food that I already know it is going to suck?”
Raymond : “You should find out yourself rather than reading what other people has to say.”
J : “No. It is against my will to go Shogun.”

However, with many of us budgeting (Not me, them!), we had no choice but went ahead.

It sure looks like a nice place to dine in, with all the warm lighting and atmosphere. Tables are placed with enough space between each other and to bump into the guest’s chair of the opposite table is not quite likely to happen. The food tables / sections are conveniently placed right in the middle / center of the L-shaped restaurant and everyone has similar distance to the tables.

Plain old tasteless green tea was served upon seated.

Not long after you sit down, they will serve you a plate of cheese baked giant (maybe not so fresh) oyster. Each patron is entitled to one only. To me, it didn’t taste that nice as the cheese and mayonnaise totally overpowered the taste of fresh oysters.

As for the rest of the food, they tasted just average and nothing to shout about. Even the unagis didn’t look that tempting to an unagi lover like me. Their sushi was worse than Sushi King’s, totally not fresh and cold. There were only a handful of dishes that I managed to identify that tasted good.

Overall, it was a disappointing one and I don’t think I will visit them again.

Raymond : “Man… The food really sucks.”
Jason : “Didn’t I tell you so?”

This was the front page of The Star on July 23.

Can you see what I saw that made me decided to blog about it?

How about me cropping the picture so that you get the very visible hint?

Yes, the “Amber’s Autobiography” news is mine and appeared on the national section, but that’s not the important point because I have a number of news that appeared in national section before.

What made it so special was that, technically speaking, my picture was used on the front page of The Star!

The story was published on page N19.

Considering the fact that I don’t write for the news / crimes desk and am not a photographer for crimes / news, this is the closest front page picture I will ever get. Haha! So, yes, I am proud and I can now strike off another to-do item on my list.

Hmm, I wonder when I can see my byline on the front page… That’s a little far fetched, if you ask me. Haha!

P/S : By the way, can vote for April Yim at here?

Continuing from Part I, the gang proceeded to Bangsar to meet up with some friends whom we hung out together with. The cyberjaya campus members, Abdul, Wahzir and Sanjev’s girl friend, Kim.

Funny how most of us can drink beers and liquors, all of us were in Bangsar, probably one of the best clubbing scene in KL and yet we were at McDonald’s eating hamburgers and drinking soft drinks.

Our birthday boy, Sanjev and his girl friend.

It was almost 1am when we all bade farewell, looking forward to the next gathering.

Barely 24 hours later, I was already back in Malacca. It was a short trip, with lousy food but great companions, and that’s matter the most. University life has been great because of these people.

Rumah Bahagia was the name given to our house when we first moved in into 641D, Jalan Delima, Taman Bukit Melaka. Initially, there were seven members and over the years, only five members had stayed throughout their study years in MMU Malacca campus.

The five members were Raymond, Gabriel, Sanjev, Vincent and myself.

Of course, the gang has its subsidiary members, Alexander, Chi Ho and Jeremy that also joined in every now and then.

It was our first official gathering since everyone bid farewell to each other and started their working life almost a year ago. It was rather an impromptu gathering as everyone was informed five to six days before the actual date for the gathering.

Due to my excellent planning, everyone arrived just on time for the 7pm reservation. Surprisingly, we have a 100% attendance record, even those who are working in Singapore, off-shores and Malacca took their time off to meet up at 1 Utama for a buffet at Shogun Japanese buffet restaurant.

It was also Sanjev’s birthday and the guys got him a bottle of liquor, which something I believe Sanjev would appreciate it greatly.

I shall dwell into the food at another post.

We entered the restaurant at 7pm sharp, with a table not too far from the food reserved for us. Quickly, everyone started to help themselves with the food and catch up with each other over stupid jokes, teases and more stupid jokes.

Group pictures inside the restaurant.

It was almost 90 minutes later when everyone had enough and decided to call it off and leave the restaurant; that followed by almost 20 minutes of crapping right outside the restaurant.

Introducing the Rumah Bahagia members and the gang.

That was only our first half of the gathering which we then continued at Bangsar, with a few more friends joining us. However, that will be another post for another day.

Denzuko and friends were in town. As usual, being the *coughs* unofficial *coughs* tour guide for most bloggers out there, I brought them around. It was pretty much the same but this time, I decided to board the Menara Taming Sari.

Well, thanks to our beloved Malacca chief minister who wanted to make Malacca into another Kuala Lumpur by “replicating” Mid Valley Megamall with Dataran Pahlawan Melaka Megamall, Eye on Malaysia with Eye on Malacca, we now have our own version of KL Tower, the Menara Taming Sari. Soon, we might even have our own version of KLCC.

It’s first proposed location was a stone throw away from the Malacca Clock Tower, which later resulted into the findings of the remaining or part of the A Famosa Fort / Porta De Santiago. It was then moved to the current location, which is next to Dataran Pahlawan Melaka Megamall.

Standing tall at 110m, you are going to have a bird eye’s view of Bandar Hilir, Malacca Old Town and Plaza Mahkota.

There are 66 seats inside the “container” (What’s the proper word for it?) and is fully air conditioned. Lets hope they will service the air conditioners from time to time, else its going to be really stuffy inside. It is powered by some big ass machines and motors that don’t look cool or high tech at all.

One minute to go up, another five minutes to spin at the top and another one minute to descend. How much are you going to pay for that boring seven minutes ride? RM10 if you have your MyKad with you. If you don’t, it’s freaking RM20! What a ripoff!

The view? Totally bleargh.