The Heart of Damansara Jaya

Atria had been closed and knocked to the ground. That small mall had been a part of my childhood where I'd spend most of my time during my primary school years. Now it has been rebuilt and soon to be open and I am there, weekly. Why? I'm setting up the new Hamley's outlet there.

Yeah, I returned to Hamley's and had been doing what I like to do, storeroom work and stock transfers and now, with the new outlet opening, I went to lend a hand at what I'm good at. I didn't know what to expect the first morning at Atria, looking from the outside I could tell that the shopping gallery (that's what it's called now) isn't completed but going inside, it was far more incomplete that I thought. The opening to the mall (I'm lazy to type 'shopping gallery') had been postponed by a whole month since February and from the looks of it, it seemed as if the owners or whatever people who own this project haven't been paying their workers because almost everything isn't done yet. Shops are all still boarded up, the floors are still covered in boards, the escalators were still undergoing tests. It's no wonder that when Steven asked me to help with the setting up, he said that I will suffer because everything here is dusty like an abandoned mansion. The people who were there to do the opening were Steven, his friend Alex and Kai Yin, who's from the Hamley's outlet in Quill City Mall.

The first week I was working there, Nadine and her friend, Shazlan were there to help out. They did displaying while I had to help Say Nee do stock count for the stocks that were forced to be delivered from the Subang Parade fair to Atria instead of 1Utama. It took me four days to do the stock count because I also had to do, "on-the-spot stock transfers" because of the relocation of the stocks from Subang Parade. On Friday after Nadine and Shaz had stopped helping out because of college projects, Lydia joined us, the outlet setup team is reassembled! It seems as if we're gonna be done with our part. I'll stop working at Hamley's again once the setting up here is done, I guess the same goes with Lydia.

I look forward to the new Atria Shopping Gallery.

I ate grape from a plate

If time could just stop, that would just be great.
If I saw you a few times today, I would simply call that fate.
If life gave you spoiled lemons, there is no point to hate.
If I could tell you how I feel, things might change for the better,

heck, I bet it would be, great.

31 at Midnight

It's been quite some time already since Lydia last made me owe her ice cream, Baskin Robbins ice cream on top of that. I've never bought BR before and the last time I had a taste of BR's was when I was 10. Reason being that it has always appear to me as expensive ice cream, which to me is still, expensive ice cream. It has always been on my mind and I've been looking for the right time to get her that. A few times already had I asked her if she wanted to claim her free scoop of ice cream but on those occasions she was either not feeling well or wanted to lose some weight.

So last Tuesday, on the 31st of March, the day before GST is applied in Malaysia, the day Baskin Robbins have a 31% discount on their goodies, I went to purchase a quart of ice cream for Lydia (and also a quart for my family). Earlier in the afternoon Denise was blabbing as usual and she suggested that I give Lydia ice cream because she's so busy with assignments and that it would be pretty sweet to give her ice cream. Sure, I really do wanna give her ice cream but I needed a reason. I've always needed a reason because of my low self-esteem. Denise said that I should just go to her house and give it to her at night, that sounded like an idea that I had in the back of my head which I had dumped because it sounds so fictional and annoying to the receiving party but hearing that from another person pushed my determination to do so. Denise then asked Chloe and Hannah about their opinions on this course of action and they said it would be pretty sweet as well. So that sparked the flame in me and after work, I went to buy Lydia her ice cream. It was my first time buying from Baskin Robbins and it felt like an accomplishment.

Later that night, I lied to my parents that I was gonna surprise a friend with the ice cream and took the car down. After building up some more courage, I got out of my car, walked in the park in front of her house and called her. It took her a while to come out after hanging up and she was surprised. I told her pretty honestly that "I just felt like it" when she asked why I got her the ice cream, and also that I still owed her ice cream. We talked for a bit in the middle of the road, about what's going on, how's it at the store, upcoming plans and the sort. I confessed that I wanted to ask her out but because she's going for a trip I couldn't ask her. She in turn then said that we should arrange on another time but because she's so busy with her assignments she can't make any promises. I'm fine with that because I know too well the workload she's going through.

I'm glad I actually did drive to her place just to give her ice cream, it was her favorite flavor too. I hope she liked it. Uh. I feel so childish.

Shorter Showers Save Water

On the 22nd of March, Lydia, Kayla, Ryan and I got together to participate in the Thirsty Runner event. It's a charity run event to raise awareness for the conservation of water and other stuff that I'm not concerned about (or I got all that wrong because I only know it's a run for something to do with water). The run was located at Taman Jaya so I had to take the LRT from Kelana Jaya because I don't know the roads to Taman Jaya.

Early in the morning, I woke up and got ready and I was just right on schedule. I decided to eat at the mamak near SMKDJ and so I went there. There wasn't a lot of people since it was so early in the morning, the main reason I went there was for the hot milk they serve but because I was half awake when I got there, I ordered an Indo mee goreng double ayam, which I actually just wanted an Indo mee goreng ayam. The plate of noodles was so big and I was suppose to have only fifteen minutes to eat and head to the LRT station. So I quickly downed my breakfast and made my way to the LRT station, quickly parked my car outside 7-11 and pace walked to the platforms.

It didn't take long for a train to arrive and I quickly got on but our train was delayed because of a commotion that went happened between a man a police officer. From what I heard from their conversation, the policeman wanted to see the tall guy's IC but he said he left it at home which was very strange ominous. After about 4 minutes of trying to get the guy off the train, just as Lydia texted me asking about my location, the policeman gave up and let the train proceed as he called for backup. I was very sure that everyone on the train besides the guy felt fearful and worried because of what happened. Turned out the guy was mad, he was talking to himself and saying strange things into his hand like talking into a phone. Of all places on the train he chose to stand near me because I was sitting at the front of the train and pretty much shooed me away because he wanted to see the front of the train too. I quickly took a seat in front of an obviously disturbed guy who's expression was full of worry and distraught because of the madman. Over the short period of stations to Taman Jaya felt like a long time. More and more unaware passengers entered the train not knowing of what had happened earlier. The madman at one point warned a passenger who sat near him about holes that appear suddenly and people crawling into them, he also frequently brings his hands to his ear to 'communicate' with his 'operator'. When the train reached Taman Jaya I was so relieved that to get away from him. I know it's mean but this is one of the homo sapiens instincts of survival, get away from things deemed dangerous.

Lydia called me a second time as I was walking out of the station to the roads. She informed me that they were going ahead to put their bags at the bag collection counter and that I should hurry up. I quickly made my way to the park and changed into my sport shorts, dropped off my bag and searched for the group, which in turn, found me instead because I'm so short and I can't spot them in the sea of people taller than me.

After a Zumba dance exercise, the 7km runners get to go first, which was us. We joined the crowd and headed towards the starting point. After a short while, the run started and we jogged our way. Before the run started, we were informed that the organizers had only prepared 750 trophies so only the first seven hundred and fifty finishers get to have them on the day itself, the finishers after seven hundred and fifty will have theirs sent by mail on another day. Lydia and I then decided to challenge ourselves to be one of the seven hundred and fifty. As we were jogging, I started doing the math (completely bullshit, everything was based on 100% estimation) and when I counted that more than five hundred people had passed me, I started running. Lydia, Kayla and Ryan were running by the sides but before I knew it, I had lost everyone. Well, the trophy was on my mind and I wanted to impress Lydia so I pushed on while wondering whether the others had went ahead of were behind me.

The running path went through some highways and hills and into housing areas, there were a lot of slopes so this run had proven difficult especially going uphill. With my terrible stamina, I kept making walks with short bursts of dashes through this run, eventually the people around me in the run were always the same few I'd recognise from the the clothes they're wearing, the gadgets they're carrying or their hair or booty, uh, I mean body frame and fitness. There was a long bend at one point and as I was running past, Ryan and Kayla suddenly called out to me from the opposite lane, they were behind me. Lydia however was not in sight, I had a feeling she was somewhere behind me so I pushed myself harder to keep a distance just in case.

I eventually made it to the finishing line, and by the side was this huge timer to show the time. I didn't know what it was at first but I saw the numbers 53.46 (I forgot the decimal units actually, roughly recalling it) which meant that I finished the run in fifty three minutes, that wasn't bad for me who's got bad stamina and doesn't train for runs. After getting the goody bag and a banana from the staff from the organizers of the run, I went to get myself a cup of 100plus and then collect my bag because I wanted to take pictures of the others coming through the finishing line. While I was waiting, Lydia suddenly called me and the moment I answered it, I saw Ryan and Kayla coming so I quickly blared a bunch of words about taking a picture of them and hanged up, snapped two pictures and turned around to see Lydia waving to us from behind. I quickly went to join her and the two of us waited for Ryan and Kayla to come out from the queue to leave their details because they were late to get the trophies. Lydia was ecstatic! She kept smiling from ear to ear and gave me so many high fives. Turned out the trophy was this cute little wooden water bucket in the goody bag. I thought it was just some cute wooden water bucket but it was actually a cute wooden water bucket trophy.

After meeting up together again, we hanged around for a bit taking photos and checking out the booths on location. After the event was officially closed, we went our ways home. Kayla's parents fetched her from the park while Lydia, Ryan and I took the LRT. Lydia got off at Asia Jaya but I actually wanted to offer to drop her home but I was still kind hungover from getting to see Lydia again and also from the joy of getting the trophy with Lydia (I was also feeling shy because I haven't seen her in a while). I had offered to drop Ryan at 1U earlier so Ryan followed me.

After dropping Ryan at 1U, I dropped by Hamley's for a while before going back home. Coming up next would be the Glow Run. Oh boy.