Koike Teppei is back with an album. Never been a fan of Teppei, I bet this album has not much difference from his previous single “Kimi ni Okuru Uta” or “Brand New Way”. His style never runs, so simply I wasn’t expecting any new from him.

The title of the album amuses me: Jack in the Box. It reminded me a lot of a bozo springing out of a box when you open it. So is this album supposed to make me scream in horror or in delight when I start playing the songs?

The album opens with Aishitemo. Surprisingly, it’s refreshing new because the song background has other string instruments other than his boring acoustic guitar. His singing on the hand is lively, thus making the song overall listenable but forgettable. But this marks some huge improvement in his songs. Another song that marked this is AIR STYLE; it has backup singers. Oooh…

Scrolling down the list, the songs pace are getting slower with Teppei strumming his acoustic guitar returning to his old and original style.

I cannot help agreeing to myself that the song list somehow retains the listeners’ interest by placing an upbeat song at the beginning and then followed by slower pace songs, and before listeners got bored we get to hear another upbeat tune and then back to slower pace.

Overall, I would say this album is an innovation effort put up by Teppei. But, there’s still so much more Teppei could have done to improve on his music pieces. The team behind him should help him to create more songs like Asihitemo and Smile to suit his age of 23. They should also do something to plain unattractive cover.

Worthy tracks: Aishitemo & Smile

Rating: 1/5

Comment! (0) | Recommend! | Categories: Japanese Music [t] [t]

Oh. I'm still not ok. I just had another of crying last night.

My bus driver asked me yesterday why a young girl like me has been sighing for the past few weeks. Then I just blurted out my unhappiness at work. My closing sentence was "You see! Everyone wants a piece of me! My boss, the lecturers, 102 students, the 6 committee members of the program I'm in and 30 bodies of organisations. My boss and the committee members want me to do all their work share... they keep on pushing their workload on me. They also complain to me. Then who the hell listen to my problems?!" We both became quiet and laughed a little. "Yea, you dengar ho" (Yea, you are listening right? << a mixture of Malay and Cantonese). "Yealo, saya dengar lo!" (Yea, I'm listening!) replied the bus driver. We laughed.

Yes, my boss is crazy. He is very ambitious. He wants to do everything but he doesn't know how to do so he pushes all the job to me to do. So I'm running a one man show for the event. I practically do everything. You name it.

I'm so stress.

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My depression is further deepened by my father's return from Vietnam because he lose his job once again. I cried after my mum informing me he was gonna reach the home in 30 minutes. My hands were shaky. My voice started to shake. And I just screamed in pain in the absence of my sister and mother. (Thankfully.) Because I know I'm having depression and having psychological problem, and I needed help and yet I got none. I have been crying throughout the whole night. I spoke out loud that I would not like to stay with my father in the house and my mother and sister never show any empathy. They just kept quiet. I can bet that they are mentally laughing over my weakness for crying. Why not? My eyes are the proof not only because I was crying but also from spending almost 2 hours to remove the eye makeup from my birthday makeover this afternoon. They just kept quiet. I have had enough of this family.

My depression from my mother's doing is not over yet, and yet I have another problem to face. And I thought I would be able to have a nice birth day next Friday. Unfortunately, God wants me to really confront my problem. And I felt so sad that my only way of confroning is to cry; to cry my whole heart out, to cry till there is no more tears flowing; to cry until the world ends; to cry until someone can bail me out; to cry until everyone knows about my sadness.

Don't worry, folks. I never thought of committing suicide. I just thought how nice if I could just walk out of this house now, this minute with a security net behind me.

I was screaming at God just now for not hearing my cries and pleas. I think that was partially the reason I cried - trust me I could cry for more than 8 hours. My record was 12 hours a day. And later, I realised God did answer my cries in many ways: my stupid company is most likely going to solve my employment by next week and I finally made my first sale on my online shop.

Though the action is something small but it is enough to make me feel how bless I am. But still I'm producing sad tears.

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I have noticed this restaurant sitting quietly in the row of old shoplots, wondering why would a restaurant established in this kind of area, not mentionning the road in front of it is dark and lonely when the night arrives, though surprisingly, it is just behind the buzzing and sort of wedged by shopping malls: Lot 10 and KL Plaza in Bukit Bintang. And this observation has been way too old for me to mention; it is 10 years old. Yes, absolutely correct. I have known this restaurant for over 10 years but I never once stepped into it though the signboard attracted me a lot.

And only after 10 years or so, I finally had my chance to dine into this restaurant tucked away in its own way amidst the bustling shopping malls. It is called Moussandra. It serves Mediterranean and Tapas. It was an accidental visit. I was around Pavilion shopping mall finishing my work and was heading to the monoral station. I was using the non-traditional road or you could call the dark alley (only during the night) and this restaurant is located somewhere along my journey. I stood in front of the restaurant and contemplate whether to enter or not because the road and the shops look so deserted!!!!



I saw someone drinking at the balcony and I managed to gather my courage and climbed the stairs. Not bad ... I could see lots of review been done on this restaurant which boosted my confidence. And ... the door cracked. No customers at all!! I looked around for that spotted customer and realised it was the chef, not any customer! What to do? I have already stepped in so I meekly asked for the menu. Nothing grand on the menu but those food list surely brings back memories of my work in a Turkish restaurant. Though simple, the menu suits my taste.

I looked at the set lunch price and jumped up! It was RM20 and it is worth of my 6 days of lunches. Argh!! I want to eat but the price... I eventually gave in to my tastebud, thinking this would be an early birthday lunch for myself. I deserve it since I was in a depression mode and I had not eaten any good food since I started working on my new job. So I sat at the corner and looked at every detail of the restaurant's decoration.




I didn't do any reading like I always do whenever I dine alone. I just sat and drank the sun light coming onto my table area. In the middle of my gaze, the waitress brought water. Thumbs up for the service! And I returned to my gaze....

The waitress walked pretty quietly and the next minute I saw a Spanish omelet in front of me. It looked too cute to be eaten. And I wonder how many of eggs did the chef use to create such height. It must be very high cholestrol for me. But I still digged in!




The presentation looks alluring. I carefully poked into one of the eggs and bit . The texture is firm and yet spongy. I don't mind the blandness though. The texture is good to be eaten without any flavouring whatsoever. But I could spot some potatoes in the omelet.

I went back to my gaze shortly after the omelet. This time I waited a little longer for my Pizza de Setas. It was worth waiting.



I like the presentation. Not too exaggerated and yet looked mouth watering. I sank the first slice into my mouth. I could feel the tomato puree, oyster mushroom, sauteed shitake and basil leaves blended nicely in my mouth. Without realising, I was already on the second slice. The crispy crust could also be the other reason for my speed eating. The base is light and crispy as though you are eating some freshly baked thinly slice of biscotti. The pizza is so afresh from the conventional pizza.

The dessert arrived before I finished my pizza. Argh!! Don't steal my moment with the pizza!!



It was Creme Brulee. I kept asking the waitress if this is an alcoholic dessert because I read 'Brulee' and she kept on saying no. Haha... I had a choice between homemade vanilla ice cream and Creme Brulee. And I thought I should have chosen the former because I forgotten I don't really like caramel. The caramel was perfectly burned and it was not too sweet. The caramel went well with the smooth pudding. Though I am not a big fan of caramel, I found myself wanting more when I reached the last scoop.

I approached the counter slowly as I looked around the restaurant for the final time. I thought to myself how quaint the restaurant is and yet it gives me peace and comfort. Could be because I was the only customer during lunch hours! I walked down the stairs and glad I left my footprint. I guess I will be leaving more prints there very soon....



Food: 8/10
Service: 8/10
Ambience/ Setting: 8/10
Value: 7/10

Moussandra
Sub Lot B-8, Mezzanine Floor, KL Plaza
179, Jalan Bukit Bintang
55100 Kuala Lumpur

Tel:03-2144 0775

Website: http://www.moussandra.com/index.php

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To be frank, I think I'm having a quite serious depression. How many times have I blogged about myself being depressed? And though it has gone up the barometer of happiness, depression never really went away. It's like a small circle in a huge circle; the small circle is my happiness and the huge circle is my depression. My happiness was temporary. I'm so sick and tired of temp happiness. I seriously want permanent happiness.

The final blow that made me realised that I have depression was last Friday after a hurtful throw by my mother. I don't know how much of litre of tears I have cried over the weekend, which has finally taken toll on my health. I'm experiencing muscle spasms in my chest and headache from all the exertion I put into my crying. I was sucking air, not breathing while crying.

I don't understand how can those people picked an opportunity in a crisis moment. How and what did they spot which I didn't? I have heard so many success stories where people had a breakthrough during their darkest moment. How come I was not able to see a breakthroughin mine? Im frustrated.

I was watching the movie 21 over the weekend. Lawrence Fishburne was telling the smart Mathematic boy "You are smart. You can figure it out" when he wanted the chips for his studies. I'm smart. How come I don't see any opportunities like those successful people did?

I know I have no time to spend on crying but not being able to figure out just makes me cry a river.

I'm lying if I were to say I'm ok. I'm not OK. Alright. But I'm trying my best not to spurt any tears because I'm fed up of crying. I'm fed up to see myself being hurt over and over again and I'm being so helpless.

Thank god, I still could sleep like a baby at night, but it's not going to be for long. I will try my best to blog about non-depressing stuff.

Sweet dreams.

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