I went to Ikano Power Center and got myself a 10-minute RM12 haircut. Except that I had to wait 20 minutes, and so I hogged my hairstylist for 17 minutes. 🙂 I asked that I not look like a schoolboy again, but I didn’t want a mere reduction in hair size. What was the secret to fast haircuts? Clips to hold up hair as they cut layers, and a vacuum cleaner to suck the loose hairs after the haircut. Oh, and no wash/rinse/dry process; everything was dry except when they sprayed water at the very end. They gave a complimentary long, grey comb, and you could take their brochure that had 2 bandages inside. I wonder why.

With my new hairstyle, still very much in the veins of Taiwanese boyband F4, I decided this:

I shall learn a new language to pick up chicks. Chinese.

I then went to Popular Bookstore and got myself 3 Rubik’s Cubes. Yessir. I am that intent on replacing the broken ones. One large one for home, an a large and regular-sized cube for the office.

I took a cab to One Utama, for my virginal step into One Utama 2. It was wide, much like Ikano! The Fear Factor challenge was on, and I was supposedly on duty. Of course, I’d have to follow the flow and bump into an Incubus-headbang-mate and Seng Yip. Headbang-mate was a mate of Aznin and we went around jakuning, entering the huge new MPH, where she greeted all her ex-colleagues from the old branch.

My boss treated an ex-colleague for her birthday, and so I paid the handsome price for accompanying duties at Dave’s Deli. 🙁 As I walked back, headbang-mate, Syefri, Aznin and the-cool-dude-who-gave-me-free-Milo-at-Xgames-2004 went to A&W. Funky place that was, with outdoor seating. The Penang-bridge-like walkway was in sight, but it was raining so we did not get to cross it for fun.

Well diddlydoo Jimmy was in the area, and Syefri and I walked back. He wasn’t there just yet. 🙁 MW finally arrived, and she dragged me (or rather, nudged me from behind constantly) to jakun at MPH’s guitar books. Jimmy was in a rush, and he tapped me from behind at MPH. His gauze-like eyebrow bandage was a testament to his near-death experience! The tall fella rushed off, forgoing an offer to teach him how to finish the Rubik’s Cube in 5 minutes! Ah well. I sent MW off.

I wasn’t even sure of the last Fear Factor challenge but here they are in order:

1) the guy being blindfolded with the girl piggyback-riding him, and he had to run across a landmine of mousetraps as fast as possible with the least amount of traps set off. (The guys did not have to take off their shoes!)
2) the guy sticking out his right leg as the girl waxes it in 30 seconds.
3) both of them on the tightrope, collecting flags.
4) transferring as many worms from one container to another.

Yep, there had to be a guy and a girl in each team, unlike the previous year’s, where Davina the funkmeistress (and past Fear Factor runner-up!) was at the booth. She was on her insane sugar high as usual. I wonder what she puts in her vegetarian diet. She inadvertedly dragged Shaz and William along to Ice Stein. I told the thespian to act along, like:

Cashier: What would you like?
She: A Gold Rush for me, please.
Cashier: How about you sir?
Me: Er… (looks at menu)
She: So… how now?
Me: Brown Cow!

Unfortunately the aforementioned thespian didn’t do it well the first take. “So how?” My brilliance was wasted!

Shaz finished his Brown Cow, and William finished whatever it was he was drinking. The Gold Rush was mango with passion fruit. It tasted like one of my favorite medicine syrups!

My Brown Cow however was a totally different story. It was super thick. It was like iced liquid chocolate. Davina took a sip and stoned. It was good sht, she declared, after probably a minute of letting the flavor linger.

After drinking what felt like a cup, I noticed I was only done with one third! After reaching two-thirds, we walked up to Factory Outlet Store where she felt like getting tops. As I waited outside the dressing room, she asked if I was still there. “Shy lah want to show you this one, it shows my belly!” That would be ironic, since you’d have to wear clothes in public eventually. 😛

I also felt queasy when I finished the cup while waiting. Not like it was yucky; it was just too much chocolate in one go.

When I realized that I was late for Dragon Red‘s performance (the reason I stayed past 8pm) I rushed back to headbang to their last two songs, which wasn’t as fun with such… unmoving, undynamic, shorter hair.

After having evaded duty, I called it a day and took a cab home.

I went to Sunway Pyramid, paying RM5.60 for a taxi using meter (a rarity for Subang cabbies!) from Subang Parade.

I met up with the Katie-Holmes-lookalike Pei Wen at Giordano, where I finally acquired myself a new pair of jeans. (My mom got my sister and I each one pair last time, and my sister wanted the lighter one. She then changed her mind and exchanged with me. One day my mom told me that my sister was going to cut my jeans off at the knees so she could use it fashionably. No, that was not anybody asking for permission.)

I held back getting a pair for ages, because I never knew what to get to accentuate my er, legs. What would be right for my shape?

Fortunately Giordano made the decision painlessly easy for guys. There was only one type of cut (loose fit) and only one price. The only difference was in material, and I picked the lightest one.

As I was testing it, the shop assistant asked “sir can I measure ah?” I put on my old cargo pants and came out, puzzled. What was he going to measure? Was I going to be measured ala Joey Tribiani of FRIENDS?

Turns out he had a lot to cut off at the bottom. Eep. (At least people say I have athletic looking legs though all I do is walk around town a lot.)

He said to come back at 8pm, and we went to try out Roti Plaster. Turns out it was just a fried egg plastered on top of a Roti Kosong! There was no hole to plaster even.

We went back to collect it, and followed the flow until we reached the bowling alley.

It was a championship!

The first bowler to catch our attention was this Adrian guy, having cleared all his shots (lacking of a better term?) before that. He got a score 242 at the end of the round. We gaped.

The Kuwaitians Strike

We walked up and down the lanes till we found this superhero Khalid Al Emad. He was big, with thick, hairy forearms, and with a goatee from his ears down. He had 7 strikes from the beginning of the round!

In between each strike, he would stand behind a chair, with his right leg over the chair’s back and his right shoe planted on the chair’s seat. His hands would rest on the seats. That, my friends, was his power stance. What other secrets did he have up his sleeve? When his teammates congratulated him, he did not slap their palms quickly. His hand barely moved during the greet. He also did not wear gloves!

Before throwing, he would hold out the ball towards the lane, as if offering it to the gods of bowling.

The announcer was quick to point out his 7 strike streak. He didn’t get a strike after that! Perhaps the announcer disrupted his energy. At least he got 259!

We later returned to the local Adrian and found he got 256, with probably a 5 strike streak, again marred by the joyous announcer.

The competitors with “Al” as their middle names were from Kuwait (as noted on their shirts.) All of them were good, and they looked somewhat the same, although their last names were different. Were they cousins? There was also a dude from Qatar, but he wasn’t as good. What, in all those deserts and oil slicks, would you find bowling alleys in the United Arab Emirates?

It was late, and I took a metered(!) cab to Kelana Jaya LRT for RM5.40. I then took the LRT to Masjid Jamek and took a cab home, for RM6.10! Now what was surprising was that the cabbie showed a 4-day old new route, and the distance the last cab travelled should be a lot more (and yet did not cost that much!)