Restaurant Review: Four Seasons London

I haven't done a restaurant review in a very long time. But what better way than to revive it with a review of the famous Four Season restaurant.

Four Seasons London is a restaurant located in Bayswater, London. it is famous for its roast duck. Reviews online has been good and I have heard that this restaurant is a must go place if i ever do stop by in London. So famous is this place that I've heard about it from several friends.

My friend introduced me to the this branch in Empire SHopping Gallery in Subang.
I was very excited at this discovery, as it's about time I sank my teeth into its famous roast duck!


The fried rice was good! Very flavourful and had good 'wok hei'


Next, we had the mixed roasted meat combo, and in this picture, you see the siew yuk and char siew.

Both are decent, but wont blow your mind away.



And finally, it was the roast duck.
Four Seasons Bayswater roast duck!!!! OMG!!!
O.O

Well it was good lah, but not as awesome as I expected. Maybe because i've heard so much stories from my friends about how good it is and etc, and I may have placed it in a pedestal way too to achieve.

But its good lah...

Anyways, food here wasnt too expensive. Me and a friend spent about a total of RM50 for the food above plus wantan noodles.

I should be back here again soon to give this place another try.


Boodyboy, out!!!

KL - Singapore Express Buses

I Like Singapore, its a great place for a quick getaway, out of my own country. If their currency wasnt so strong, I would love to be there more often than I do now. When I want to go Singapore, I always have to choose the method of getting there. Should I drive, fly or take a bus?
Well, today I'll be discussing on the Express bus option.

With the skies open ing up for budget airlines like Tiger Airways, Jetstar, Airasia and Firefly, one might wonder why is there a need for us to take a bus to Singapore?

After all, a flight would take at most an hour, checking in at a maximum of 1 hour before departure time. All in all, 2 hours max, and you are already in Singapore.

I've not taken the flight to Singapore before but I've taken the express bus to Singapore a few times already. My reason for taking the bus is that, it is too costly to get a cab to the airport. From my place, it takes about 40 minutes to an hour to reach KLIA / LCCT / Subang. That., coupled with checking in 1 hour before departure time and an hours flight. The cost savings would be negated for me. Unless of course I have some1 who is willing to send me and pick me up from the airport.

I also kinda dislike taking the KL Sentral - LCCT bus option, cause I still need to get to KL Sentral on my own 1st, which is a hassle. If I could find a person to send me to KL Sentral...

Oh wait, this shall not be a rant post. The purpose of this post is to introduce the options a person has when deciding to take a bus to Singapore (and vice versa)

There are of course many express bus operators in Malaysia, but I'll only be covering the few with the VIP/Executive option, meaning about 30 seats per bus. LInks to the respective bus companies are provided =)

1st up, Aeroline. I've taken this bus many years ago when they first started. being a kid back then, it was such an excitement to sit on a "VIP" express bus. I've also taken this bus to Singapore last year as well. As far as I'm concerned its a pretty comfy ride. They have a few places where you can catch them. KL City Centre, Sunway Pyramid, 1 Utama, Mines Shopping Centre are the few I can think of. Prices vary due to seasonality and location. The one from Mines (which is pretty near my home) starts as low as RM50 1 way.

Five Star Coach is next up. They have one of the most impressive buses ever seen on this route. They have an 18 seater bus! Never tried them before, but it looks pretty damn impressive. Do check them out.

First Coach is a simple, no frills VIP Express bus to Singapore. You must be wondering how does a VIP bus be no frills? Well what it means is just that they are more spacious e.g. about 30 seats. No frills meaning other than a bottle of mineral water and a bun, you get nothing else. They depart from 3 places in KL: Bangsar LRT, Subang and One Utama. I've taken their bus before its it isnt too shabby at all. Comfy seats... I dont need the extra drinks and others since i sleep most of the time anyway.

NiCE Executive coaches are also an option. They depart from the KTMB building in KL and have frequent trips down South. They also have the same service for up North: Ipoh, Kuantan and Penang.

Last but not least, there is Airebus. They depart from Midvalley (somewhere around the Garden's Entrance) and arrive near the Genting Resort in Singapore. Price wise not too expensive but I've not seen the inside of te bus. But heck, its an Executive bus anyway.

Well this is all I can think of at the moment people. There could be a few more operators plying this route, but I may not know of them. DO inform me about them, and also your experiences with any of these firms.

With that said, Happy travelling to Singapore / Welcome to Malaysia!


Boodyboy, out!!!

The week that was - Week 3, March 2010

Last week was an interesting week. With nothing much to look forward to, I was only left with entertaining myself with my own hopes and dreams.

Then out of the blue, I received an email from Mix.fm informing me that I am one of the winners for their Comedy Club giveaway. My prize? A pair of tickets to catch the season finale of Comedy Club on Thursday night.



I was excited to win as I've never watched stand up comedy live before. The closest I've ever got to was watching them over Youtube ;-p

I invited SM, my ex-skoolmate cum newfound friend to catch the show with me.



Dinner was at Full House cafe, located in Yap Kwan Seng. Prices are very reasonable and the taste is alright. Liked the place because it felt very laidback especially since it was located smack in the middle of the city.

Some ppl might be wondering how stand up comedy in KL is gonna fare. All I can say is LOL!
Yeah, the show was pretty good. 4 comedians, and 3 hours of good laughs. I found Andrew Netto, the local stand up pretty good, and that is partly because he infuses a lot of our local scenes into his jokes, and hence is very relatable to us. Esp specially when he made fun of the people of Punjabi Chinese descent.

The other 3 acts were also good, and without knowing, 3 hours just flew by. It never felt too long, not at all.

A night of great company and great laughs!

Earlier in the day, I headed out to Putrajaya with my sis and her friend to catch the Hot Air Balloon Fiesta. Since it was a Thursday, there weren't many people.

The bad thing was, when we arrived most of the balloons were already up in the air (It also reminded me of my fave movie last year, UP). However, we were in time for the tethered hot air balloon rides as the line just opened when we arrived.

The ride, was a bit disappointing as we expected to get higher off the ground, but i think we were only about rose to about 3-4 storeys high. Oh well, it still a once in a lifetime experience for me.

Later, since we had plenty of time to kill, we decided to have a photoshoot around Precinct 2. My sister and her friend Zorb-ed, and came back with injuries ;-p

And the above picutre, is one of my favourite of the lot! We took many more pictures, and they are tagged to my FB page. do take if look if you are interested.

Well, I hope this week will become another good and memorable week for me and for you too!

Boodyboy, out!!

Moocake Festival Photo Shooting @ Semenyih Dam

Went on a shoot last sunday night. Almost didnt workout as I didnt have any1 to go with me. Plus its about 40 mins ride from my place into pitch darkness. Thank goodness Eyang and my sister decided to tag along!

The pictures below are pretty much what we got for a 2.5 hour photo outing.



This is what we came for. Unfortunately the moon was blocked by the clouds that night. Still bright pictures as we used about 30 seconds shutter speed.

Can you imagine a better picture if the full moon was out that night? The water will be bathed with the moonlight!!

The left picture is just a picture of the cars passing by my car at night. Can see the reflection on the roof of my car! On the right, its some random light drawing i did after I accidentally pressed the shutter button when i had set it to 15 seconds... Was surprised the result turned out to be so artsy fartsy, LOL!

These are actually my fave pics of the night.Long shutter speed with the cars just driving past the emergency triangle. Its actually pitch dark that night! Woots!!

Thats my name. The right picture has the reflection of the writing on the roof of my car. We had 3 cameras and 2 tripods. Figure it out!

Names of the 2 accomplices that went with me. Kristine and Eyang

Doing the "GHOST" picture. Not as romantic shooting this as the Patrick Swayze version. In the left picture, a car drove past while we were in the middle of the shooting while Eyang was busy looking at his pictures in the next pic

Now you know how they make those ghost pictures you regularly receive from your forwarded emails ;-p

More "ghostly effects". The fun part after shooting the dam. =)

Different focus point of the same view. Taken From lookout point

The view of the KL Skyline from Lookout Point

Fellow Kakis trying to capture the KL skyline at Lookout Point

I Feel like going back there again the next time the full moon comes back on a cloudless night. Its sure gonna be magical pictures. If you wanna join me on the next photo outing, drop me a msg.

Boodyboy, out!!

Standard Chartered KL Marathon 2009 - my 5Km worth of observations

Yes ladies and gentleman,

Yours truly registered for the 5km Fun Run (although I really wanted to join the 10km).
Lucky I didn't register for the 10km this year as I was tired after the 5km run. Maybe next year, or maybe not. Maybe not this event after this not-so-pleasant experience.

I managed to drag my lazy ass out of bed at 5.30am this morning (poor me, those 42km runners flagged of at 5am). It was raining heavily at my place, which led me to think if they might cancel the run. (Yes, that lazy-shit thinking kept creeping up, since i wanted to sleep in). Decided no chance in hell I'll not do the run.

Woke my sister up as well as she going there as a photographer. And we left to pick up her friend FO at 6.15am. Since most of the roads around KL has been closed since 5am for the 42km run, we decided to park at KL Sentral and take the train to Masjid Jamek.

Arrived and waited for the rest of my team to arrive. Yes, I registered a team for the 5km Fun Run (I can safely say its no fun ;-p). There were a total of 6 people in this team. And the team name is (drum roll please)..... Boody's Boys and Babes!!! ;-p




Yup, this is us, the motley crew of wannabe runners, hahaha!!!
We met up at Masjid Jamek before heading to Dataran Merdeka where the race was to begin. At about 7.45 we gathered around the Start/Finish line for some warm up before at 8am sharp, we were flagged off.

I had some problems at the start of the race as I had drank too much water just before and I really needed to take a leak somewhere. After running up a hill behind the National Mosque, I passed by a DBKL public toilet. I ran to it only to find that I required 20 cents for entry. I asked the man in charge if I could use it for free as I didn't bring any cash with me. He was kind enough to me to say yes and I promptly did my business and thanked him profusely. I then continued the run as we raced towards the dataran merdeka once againheading back to the Start/Finish line.

This is where the problem began, instead of passing the Start/Finish line, we were redirected onto the field where all the other participants were getting their drinks after the race. Most of the runners for the 5km category were puzzled. Did the race finish already? How come we did not get to pass the Finish line? Most decided that it was the end of the route and started getting their refreshments and as well as resting from the run. I, however, decided to go across the field, behind the Royal Selangor Clubhouse. Thats when i caught sight of a few people of my 5km category who decided to walk further to see if there was more to the route. I joined them aswe asked each other if we were on the right track.

I knew it was not 5km when we got back to the field as I'm sure 5km course is not that short. So with a few ppl of my category in sight, we walked towards Bank Negara and up Jalan Parlimen. However, the longer we walked, the more nervous we became as we didnt see any1 else walking in the same direction as us. Here, I chatted with a little girl who was also running the 5km. She seemed all alone walking with us so I decided I should stick with her, just in case( U know lah, KL crime rate very high). Then we could see other 5km runners as well as some 10 km runners running in the opposite direction, going towards Bank Negara. I ran across theroad to ask them if we were on the right track, they said yeah, just walk all the way up to the Lake Gardens/ Tugu Negara traffice and make a U-turn to join the rest of the ppl. So thats what we did.

I was relieved when we joined back the rest of the crowd, though the were mostly from the 10km category. We ran back to Bank Negara before heading towards Sogo. There we turned back into Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman for the final straight into the Start/Finish Line. As I raced towards the Finish Line, I noticed some of my team mates were already resting by the roadside. They were waving me on. And I was thinking to myself, there's no chance in hell these guys overtook me. THey must have stopped at the padang the first time around. Once I completed the run, I found out it took me a little under and hour to finish the 5km.



Thats me!! Running towards the Finish Line.



Now this is the Picture of me running with the little girl I was talking about. She's trying to overtake me!! And that's me going, "WTF?!?!?"



And this is me thinking," WHere's the competition?"

Why was I so slow? Cause I walked about looking at where I should continue after being led towards the padang earlier. In the end, after coming back and looking at the map, this is the route I took:



We were led to run the route Marked in RED. Then most of the people stopped at the Pink area as they thought the 5km was over. I then continued with a few others after the Pink arrow all the way up to the Tugu Negara traffic light in which I managed to join back the main crowd. I then followed back the original 5km route marked in ORANGE.

All I can say is that I think I definitely did more than 5km, but the thrill was lost as I think about 70% of the people stopped at the padang, hence not many of my fellow 5km runners finish the enitre route.

There was no signs for the runners to show where they were heading. Nobody guided us and told us where to run to. Route management was poor in my opinion. I just followed the crowd and we all ran the wrong way. All my team mates stopped at the Pink arrow which i have made out on the map. It was sad because a lot of people felt short changed.

That was the least of the marathon's problems. Looking at the complaints on the websites, there weremore serious problems like running out of water at water stations for the 42 and 20km runners. Some ppl had to resort to running into 7-11 to buy water!! There are also more issues but I guess this has been highlighted to the organisers on the Facebook page. Hopefully the organisers will seriously buck up or else, this might spell the end of this race in Malaysia.

Anyways, I enjoyed the run as I was motivated to do some serious workout today and I got it. Super duper achy now, but thats alright. Makes me wonder if I can really do the 10km run next year. I was already very tired doing the 5km, as did my friends (who only did half of what I did ;-p). Maybe I shall start running more on treadmill. Maybe...


Boodyboy, out!!