Life 25 | I am Danny Foo

Sprained thumb

So there I was, rebounding the basketball from under the basket which my teammate fired but hit the rim. Launching myself into the air while my opponent boxed me out, I reached for the ball and tapped it back out. With my teammate passing the leather ball back to me, swiftly avoiding opponents while dribbling, I took the shot and scored.

With the game restarted, I wasn’t so lucky this round. Once the rebound was out of my hands, the loose ball on the group bounced to the tip of my thumb and straight away I felt the sharp pain – thank goodness it wasn’t broken.

With this injury, I can’t put strain on my thumb and the muscles nearby. Whenever I do, it shoots a tingling and later painful feeling. And with it, I’ve found certain tasks difficult to complete:

Squeezing my sports bottle to drink water.
Carrying a cup firmly by the handle.
Carrying an overweight plate.
Switching on my shaver in the morning.
Holding my tooth brush firmly.
Washing my ears and back thoroughly.
Turning the tight doorknobs.
Stretching elastic apparel.

Basically, any strenuous activity which involves using my thumb muscles is out of the question right now. However, luckily I still can type on the keyboard and give a thumbs up. 😛

Just hope this swelling goes away by the weekend. Not sure how I’ll fair holding the golf club later.

10 years of Hari Raya Video Advertisements

Dedicated to all my Muslim friends. It’s the season where your tolerance is paid off with the smiles of your family members and friends in the reunions. May you have a joyous celebration and make sure to return with all 5 fingers if you’re going to be exploding those cannons in your kampungs. 🙂

2001 Hari Raya Petronas Commercial

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zLyzhCepTI]

Pray and pray and pray – your prayers shall be answered.

2002 HARI RAYA PETRONAS COMMERCIAL

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8G6PUslOBIw]

Just noticed how this commercial didn’t really have a happy ending. Maybe it’s just part 1 of the story – I guess.

2003 Hari Raya Petronas Commercial

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_3zXsbER-k]

Apa nak jadi~ LOL! I couldn’t help but laugh whenever the tune came out.

2005 Hari Raya Petronas Commercial

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CS1RUxzJt8A]

Life lessons to care for your parents without expecting anything in return.

2006 Hari Raya Petronas Commercial

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwQLFGKMt7E]

Our children grow up to be who they want to be following who they are with – us.

2007 Hari Raya Perodua Commercial

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkaCy36rAT8]

One of the simpler messages communicated by a brand wishing everyone Hari Raya.

2008 Hari raya TV9 COMMERCIAL

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-X_jqrz05EA]

Balik kampung~ oh ho ho balik kampung.

2009 Hari Raya Telekom Malaysia commercial

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-6qNYbXTZs]

If there was a Hari Raya video to represent my true meaning of 1Malaysia, this would be one of them.

Balik kampung. Oh ho ho ho…balik kampung.

2010 Hari raya Maxis Commercial

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_Dw9C2qkBQ]

The story of a widow who returns to her husband’s family to celebrate Hari Raya in remembrance of his love and support. It’s one of the sadder tales to bring out the meaning of Hari Raya.

2011 Hari Raya F&N Music Video come Commercial

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCs4hxF6cOU]

Okay. Seriously, I would’ve never thought of F&N to come up with this. And I hope they continue on this path because music is always in the heart of Malaysians. The song has a Western style but its contents and lyrics are all in Bahasa Malaysia. Kudos F&N.

You may have noticed 2004 is missing. I was looking for a 2004 commercial but couldn’t spot any. In replacement of it, here’s a commercial from 1999.

1999 Hari Raya Petronas COMMERCIAL

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uPdW035wrQ]

One Youtube user who published a similar video said that the moral of this advertisement was the essence of it – I totally agree. And it’s sad thinking how children now are not being raised to understand the real prices of life.

Most of the video commercials are from Petronas because it was difficult finding other Malaysian companies who took the effort to upload their commercials. In addition, Petronas has been consistently churning out really great festival commercials.

Hope you enjoyed the blast from the past. Maaf zahir dan batin – Forgive my physical and emotional (wrongdoings).

Cool Ikea parents

We made a trip to Ikea today because we’ve been always thinking of getting a full-length mirror for our room but never got to do so. Thanks to one of my BNI members in real estate, I had this chance to use the gift card awarded to me – save money too. 🙂

Funny moment while we were there having lunch. Family’s kid sitting beside us came to the table, telling his Dad, some rude kid touched his butt. ROFL! I kid you not. He then was telling the parents how gay was the kid, while his parents were joking with him on how attractive his butt may have been. Lol! Kudos to the parents for being really cool.

When night came, we had a family dinner to celebrate my Dad’s coming birthday at Jake’s Charbroil Grill. They were having a steak promotion for US Kobe beef, Wagyu and Black Angus. I’ve never had a Black Angus so I decided to give it a taste – wasn’t too bad but think it was a little tough cause the thickness wasn’t ideal.

black angus steak — If it was only 1 inch thick

Though Jake’s charbroil in Bangsar isn’t an ideal restaurant for family photography, I managed to squeeze this much of creativity out.

The balloon was given to the birthday boy (my Dad, not me) including a mug. As much as I really appreciate the restaurants celebrating the joyous occasion with them singing, but do they have to be that out of tune?!

Restaurants who’d like to perform this act should consider tuning themselves, or at least, keep it simple and fun like what TGIF does. That way, it’ll be harder to be out of tune and it’ll still keep it fun.

Anyway, happy birthday Dad, and I’m looking to many many many more with you. 🙂

Ber-dating at Opus Bistro

I was suppose to meet up with my collegemates for dinner at Opus Bistro in Bangsar. Because of the creative industry we’re mostly in, supervisors and clients tend to demand our attention – especially when festive seasons is around the corner.

We’re in the WRONG industry, damnit!

But not letting the reservation go to waste, me and Ariel decided to go ber-dating ourselves. This was a place Hawk mentioned to us and commended on their fluffy bread, and good carbonara.

The place is on Foursquare but whoever added the location added it as Spanish food – dei, it’s suppose to be Italian. So anyway, we got to nom on the fluffy bread and we both still preferred the bread served at Italiannies – forgot what it’s called.

italian food — Fluffy bread, signature pasta, risotto balls and chocolate desire

I had their signature seafood pasta and it was, outstandingly fresh. The seafood tasted really awesome and it had to be the best thing of that serving – well done. And on the other side of the table, Ariel found the pasta alright but ended up feeling ‘jelat’ towards the end.

For dessert, we tried their chocolate desire which takes 15-20 minutes to prepare. It’s a chocolate lovers must order but as much as I love chocolate, there was a little too much to stomach for me. Maybe my prawns, mussels, cockles and calamari disagreed with it.

To get to Opus Bistro, we ventured into Bangsar’s housing area to get to Jalan Bangkung to a short row of shops with lots of restaurants. Bangar-ians are so lucky to have all the nice food around. Damn you!

By the way, budget spent eating there for starters, main and dessert was about 70-75 bucks per person. Only thing I felt missing that night was a nice glass of chilled wine to take the load off. 🙂

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Italian food at Trattoria Cucina Italiana

One of the hidden gems in Kuala Lumpur beneath a corporate tower is Trattoria Cucina Italiana, which of course means they’re an Italian restaurant. It’s a cozy place which serves some authentic Italian pasta, pizza along with other Italian food on your mind.

Me and some friends visited this Italian restaurant awhile back – missed posting this, because some of them bought the coupon wanting to tryout the food. And being Malaysian as a Malaysian can be, we had to go makan-lah. 😛

The road to the restaurant wasn’t exactly straight-forward because it’s found on the ground floor of the Perkasa Tower, nearby Beach Club thereabout. Parking in the building tells you its either old (narrow ramps) or maybe everyone were driving old minis previously. *shrug*

Authentic styles normally are consistently good – taste wise. We started with some bruschetta and I think, risotta balls. Our main meals were pasta – wasn’t runny nor too thick, and it made sure we had space in our stomachs for pizza and even some dessert.

All of us agreed the food was satisfying and we wouldn’t mind returning for another meal in the future. I can’t recall how much I paid for two (me and Ariel didn’t get the coupon) but I think our meal was around RM65-75 per person.

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