Sunday, September 16, 2007

KayEll Kapers

You learn some details when it comes to organizing a karaoke outing - compulsory tidbit charges, reservations, ghost singers, the ever-changing rates for different branches, and well, a plus in understanding Cantonese. However, somebody's gotta do it, and that somebody ironically is us, with little experience in all matters karaoke except for the singing. It was just that them who frequented karaokes more often were unfortunately swamped with work.

Janvier: I'll like to make a reservation for this Saturday.
Receptionist: Ok. Nei ge meng hai? (Ok. Your name is?)
Janvier: [Janvier].
Receptionist: Nei ge teen war? (Your phone number?)
Janvier: Er, 01x-xxx xxxx.
Receptionist: Yao kei tor yan? (How many people?)
Janvier: There should be about...15?

And so forth. At one point we did give in and gave the poor bloke a break because he couldn't understand us at the speed we were talking in English, but it didn't fare any better when we switched to Cantonese because being the pure banana we are our vocabulary was horrendous. Settled on what makes us Malaysian really...rojaked English/Cantonese.

Luckily, there weren't many Pilots in the end (a couple of understandable cases really) releasing airplanes at the last minute and things got off without a hitch.

A particular conundrum, of course, was the matter of parking in KL. It's no problem getting into KL on a late Saturday morning , but the question arises: "Where are we going to park? How long are we staying here?" It was likely that once you're in KL, you're gonna just stay in KL for the rest of the day's activities - why waste time heading to another place if there's nothing planned?

Being the lazy bugger we were, open air parking in the heart of KL meant walking a bit, tisn't far but we were trying to keep sweating at a minimum. So we opted to just throw them questions to the wind and instead focused on another question, "Just how much can parking in Low Yat for the day cost?"

Let's see. 10 hours = RM19. Worth it though, although it's something we won't be soon repeating (hopefully).

Karaoke was cheap, really, for singing anything and everything possible in 4 hours and even BodyJamming to JT (Dang quite the malu we forgot the choreo! Us! Forgot choreo! Where can we hide our face?) in a spacious room with it's own toilet, plus set lunch thrown in, it all came up to RM17 per person.

This was then followed by the arcades at BTS - and the shocking amount of people dressed in pure la-la-ness. If ever we have kids and they start dressing up thus (a bit of an impossibility because we would have to buy the clothes for them in the first place), they shall be grounded until some sense gets into their head. But as it is with arcades, we normally seek out certain fighting games and whether there's anybody playing them. The fun is, of course, when you fight against other players - and see who trashes who. :)

Oh and there's them dancing machines. There's an EZ2Dancer! Just that the songs are English instead of the Korean ones that we grew up on, so part of the nostalgic fun is gone. And we got freaked out watching Sporty Shaun on the Para-Para when the feller followed the choreography right down pat - you could give the BodyJam class a go next time, heh.

Dinner at a queerly-named place that looked more like a family gathering really. Meeting up with Trooper 'Tater (or 'Tater Tom?). Learned a new way to spell a favourite dish of ours - Goong Bow Chicken Rice. And the mystery of the Credit Card Suck-and-Blow was finally revealed. Ezra also shared his identity crisis with the rest of us.

We had to head back to feed the Wee Wog as all members of the family were out. Also Minnen Ratta lovers wanted to meet (although the way they express their love for that Ikea stuffed toy differed). It's picking the right time that's problematic here - because heading into KL come nighttime means dealing with the jam. Heading out took only 15 minutes. Heading back in at 9.30pm took us 45 minutes. Parking wasn't a headache this time because Sg Wang charges RM4 per entry after 6pm.

Ending the day with beer pretending to be wine in wine glasses, a couple of us hunting for the Kiblat sticker in the hotel, seeing who gets stuck in the toilet, presenting the award of Most Ticklish Victim to Amiable Aix, finding out that a Suck-and-Blow version of 'Chicken/Kitchen aka Big Fish/Small Fish' won't really take off, and watching Angels Fly in the silent moments.

25 comments:

adrien said...

eh! i deserve credit for introducing you guys to suck-and-blow! voted best game ever ok!!! cis.

anyway, tips from the pro: it's the consistency of the suck, not the power. :p

savante said...

Juk juk juk. Dirty games.... :P

Medie007 said...

suck and blow?? hmmmmmm

adrien said...

ah bong seems interested. wanna learn? hehe

hrugaar said...

Credit Card Suck-and-Blow? The mind wobbles ...

Jason said...

Aiyah. Missed the first tickling session. :(

J.L said...

That day have to leave early. Sigh. Cant see para para.

Ganymede said...

Sea food platter in BTS arcade! :P

Alex said...

Dammit!

Next time we put you all in charge of event organization... :P

Thanks for arranging it all...

Janvier said...

Adrien: Right. You are indeed the best sucker and blower of the night.

Savante: It did have everyone's attention, and nearly everyone tried!

Ah-Bong: Interested? Adrien can teach. Private lesson probably.

Hrugaar: Let imagination reign free. You'll get your chance!

Jason: You did get your bit.

Chester: Tsk tsk tsk. And you didn't sing too.

QR: Something for everyone.

Alex: You had us wondering why the cuss for a moment. :)

These things so far never did organizing, plans and suggestions seem to happen don't they?

Anonymous said...

Suck and blow was ffun like fhell. :D

Thanks for organizing the trip BTW! *hugs*

Aren't I supposed to be Strapping Shane elsewhere?

Cyclohelix said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Cyclohelix said...

lol, and i happened to be on the other side of the karaoke extravaganza :)

hrugaar said...

Right now I'm imagining strip Carcassone, heheh. ;oP

Janvier said...

Sporty Shaun: *Hugs back* It was just a shoutout for a singsong before everything else happened on their own. Welcome to the world of fidentity crisis! :D

Cyclohelix: Very much on the other side of things. Surely you'll be heading to this side sometime?

Hrugaar: You want to explain how we score? :D

hrugaar said...

Everybody starts with the same number of items of clothing, no cheating. When you complete a road or city of your own (not someone else's) you remove one item of clothing; for a cloister you take off two items of clothing. That's the price you pay for success, heh.

Janvier said...

Hmmm. How about for shared cities/roads? And farmlands? One item for each adjacent city scored? There goes our farmer strategy...

hrugaar said...

Shared cities and roads,hmm - I think only the person who places the completing tile (if he's one of the owning players). Fields, probably one item of clothing if you own the field at the end of the game, or two items if you have a pig in the field ... that is if you still have any clothing left on by that stage of the game la. ;oP Maybe there should be other forfeits when all clothing is gone. Hee.

Janvier said...

Awww. We only have the base set and didn't invest in the Carcassone Big Box. We can see you're already enjoying the new rules. :P Don't bully newbies!

Anonymous said...

sporty shaun now pulak. identity crisis' everywhere! lol

hrugaar said...

Carcassonne base set is still the best I think ... well, with just the river expansion tiles for starting. So cool to find someone else who plays (or has even heard of the game) we must play when I next visit.

I don't bully newbies, though. Kindness is my middle name. In fact in some cases I might even offer 'extra tuition' with hands on experience, hee. ;oP

Will said...

I <3 Suck-and-Blow. Even though I suck at it. So to speak.

Janvier said...

Ezra: Yes. Who's who? :D

Hrugaar: Thank God for friends who'd introduced Eurogaming to us then. :D But using the normal set of rules only. :P Don't think they'll appreciate the new rules bwahaha!

You know the climate here's rather hot, don't dress so much when we play. Tuition classes! Help us improve our game!

And you'll get to try Credit Card Suck-and-Blow too!

Will: Hello you! And you get to introduce Suck-and-Blow to others now! Who knows how proficient you may be next time you drop by... :D

hrugaar said...

Yes, I know about the climate and dress code. Maybe we should just call it naked Carcassonne then, hee. But I'm told you're an excellent gamer already. ;oP

Janvier said...

Nekkid Carcassone sorts of defeats the purpose of them rules already now. :P

No no we assure you we're not that good at games, we've been trashed loads of times already. And you've probably played Carcassone for far longer than we have.