Anime Review: ケロロ軍曹, Keroro Gunsō

I recently fell in love with a frog-like character...Keroro is a Jap anime following the attempts of a platoon of frog-like alien invaders to conquer Earth in their quest for universal domination. The loveable character Sergeant Keroro is the leader of the platoon.

The anime focus on the steadily deteriorating ordeal of the Keroro Platoon, who try miserably to conquer the world and sell useless merchandise to the citizens of Japan. Its leader, Sergeant Keroro is easily distracted, and would rather spend his time making Gundam models and surfing the Internet than burning the world's surface three times over, much to the chagrin of their corporal, Giroro. Aside from Keroro's laziness, what stands in the way of their mission is the Hinata Family, a trio of rather benign humans who keep Keroro busy with ridiculous demands.

The characters have cutesy names like Keroro, Giroro, Tamama, Dororo, Kururu...the funniest & my personal fav is Keroro. He reminds of of my Kopi; innocent & blur!

Highly recommended. This is not only for the 'otokos' & nerds!

Rating: 4/5 ****

5-7 Feb: KL

Monday

Took the 8am coach with Elv @ Golden Mile. Five Stars coach was pretty ok, although i must comment that the duration is very looooong. i reached Royal Bintang Hotel around 245pm! The driver gave us an unofficial tour by going round & round Bukit Bintang area before he dropped us off.

Called & confirmed my meetings before we went window shopping. Was supposed to meet Ge Ping for dinner, but he was filming until past midnight & couldn't get away. Anyways it rained, so Elv & I grabbed quick lunch at Lot 10 foodcourt before heading back to the hotel. I had tom yum noodles & my lips felt swollen after that. Very spicy!

Tuesday

Met up with M'sia partner before meeting up with the President of the anti aging association in M'sia. Meeting was great, & we all went to Shangri-La buffet lunch to celebrate. All I could remember when we had our company Christmas dinner @ Shangri La The Line buffet last year, was a few of the girls were on diet...kanna bitch at by us after that. KL Shangri La wasn't bad either. Lunch spread seemed smaller, but the food was fresh. I really enjoyed the lunch, because all of us can really eat! Sashimi was very fresh; salmon, tuna belly, oysters, crab & abalone. The soup was also nice, except its too oily; bamboo clam with oriental herbs. Judith tried the salmon with cream sauce & steak with mint & brown sauce. Meat was well seasoned & tender. Then there is the regular Chinese spread (dim sum) & Indian spread (naan, tandoori chicken). & the desserts. oh my goodness the desserts! I think we literally tried ALL the different types of desserts there is available! Elv & Judith are not dessert eaters, but Meiting & I sampled all of it. My fav was a petite-sized choco cake with a layer of melting choco on top with berries....yum....

Elv & I went for spa @ the hotel before we retire that night. I opted for the "Herbal something" package, which includes a steam, seaweed wrap, massage & eye treatment. ok. i must tell you the whole procedure, because this is the 1st time I did a full-fledge spa, & it felt weird....

90 minutes of SPA treatment...

1st, we were asked to shower and steam. I think it's also sauna. After the steamed process, they lay us down & covered us with seaweed. lots & lots of seaweed. & it smelt...very seaweedy, like a fish market. it really stink big time. then they wrapped us up in giant "glad wrap" & turned on the electric heater. At that point, i felt like a sea otter...then after a horrendous few minutes of enduring the smell, they put an eye pillow on my eyes. That was my favourite. The eye pillow was filled aromatic herbs (lavender & some other herbs i couldnt identify) and nice cool beads. The smell calmed my nerves & I don't feel like a sea otter anymore....they finally unwrapped us for a good rinse. Then came the massage. It was.....ok lor. Nothing very fantastic. Give my the eye pillow anytime! Actually, I find the massage quite painful to endure, & the lady massaging me has got pretty strong hands. Finished the massage without too much screaming & finally it was over. I slept really well that night, but I noticed that I still smell like a sea otter....

The spa experience reminds me of cooking. To cook great tasting meat, we need to marinate & make sure the flavour will enter the meat (sauna). Then wrap it with sauce to ensure the taster & sauce gets penetrated into the meat for a duration (seaweed wrap). If necessary, tenderise the meat (massage). Then you either fry, bake, steam or bbq...maybe I'll bring GR to try it in April...

Overall, I think the trip was great...almost a make-up reward for the stress i experienced in Jakarta!

Jakarta 31 Jan - 2 Feb

Day 1
Reached Jakarta around 1130. Went for a yummilicious lunch with business partner at a Chinese-Indo restaurant. I had crabs for lunch. So sinful…expanded all my remaining energy from the crabs & sustained through a 6 hour grueling meeting. Wanna faint…we drove to a 5 star hotel for a dinner meeting with a doctor. The hotel facilities were amazing! They had an Olympic sized swimming pool, 2 huge outdoor tennis court, squash court, football field & a running track! Wow….of course that’s not the hotel I stayed at lah….only there for the food….had Italian for dinner. I must say the food is absolutely fantastic. I ordered the simplest dish on the menu; spaghetti aglio olio & finished with tirumisu. Checked in Hotel Alila at around 11pm. Great boutique hotel with ‘minimalist’ concept. The room is simple & clean; just the way I like my room to be.

Day 2
Woke up pretty early, so I went down for a cup of coffee. Tried the chocolate croissant & it was better than Delifrance. Met another Indo partner, ‘N’ in town. They sent a driver to fetch me from the hotel. It was raining pretty heavily & some areas were jammed. I was in the car for about 2 hours…finally reached the mall. Quite impressed with the way they displayed VRP products. Staff was also very courteous & polite. That is another thing I really like about Indonesians. They are so warm & helpful. Before she sent me back to my hotel for my next meeting, N loaded me with 2 kue lapis (my Ram likes his lapis & the other is for GC) & sarongs for my mom. It took me another 3 hours to get back & I was late for 2 hours for my meeting with a doctor. It was a horrifying experience for me. I was never ever that late before! Finally around 7.30, I had my last meeting. They took me for dinner at a unique restaurant that tries to create the Java-Dutch feel from the 40s. I felt like I was dining in a piece of art. All the dishes were created so beautifully & the ambience was just perfect. We had soft-shell crab served with pomelo, beef stewed soup with lime & herbs, some weird looking vegetables, thinly sliced beef that was marinated & fried till it was crunchy & crispy, & fried rice with different types of sausages. I washed down my meal with chamomile tea & desserts. We had durian crème brulee & tape with ginger & cheese. It was almost 12 when I was back to the hotel. Started packing my luggage & I can’t wait to go home…

Day 3
Had an early morning meeting scheduled so I woke up pretty early. Was on the phone with GC for almost an hour immediately after I woke up. I wondered if he noticed my voice sounded different…I was almost done with my packing when I received a call to say that the meeting was cancelled. It was flooded everywhere in Jakarta. Schools were cancelled & roads were jammed. My partners were trapped in their own houses because of the flood. I started to panic big time. They were supposed to drive me to the airport after the meeting, so now I have to take a cab. Got the concierge to book a cab for me, only to find that all the good reputable cabs were fully booked. I am on the wait list & according to him, it may take at least an hour. I decided to take the ‘not-so-reputable’ cab since the wait time is only 30 mins. After 30 mins, I was informed that no cabs can take the route to the airport as the water level on the highway was too high.

Whoa biang I almost fainted. I haven’t charged my phone for 3 days & it decided to die on me today. Every call I made from the hotel to the local people, I was charged S$1 per call. & guess what….I couldn’t get through to any of them. At that point I almost broke down. Then I remembered the words “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can & the wisdom to know the difference.” I decided then that nothing is going to happen today that HE & I cannot handle together. I called one of the partners again & got through to him. Ever so helpful, he immediately sent his staff to drive the biggest car & pick me up from the hotel to the airport. After 20 minutes, I was in the car & on my way to the airport. Caught in the jam for almost 3 hours. By the time I reached the airport, I missed my flight. Together with over 50 passengers who missed their flights because of the flood, we were on standby with batted breath for the next flight. The guys from SQ informed us not to place too much hope, cos ALL flights were fully booked that day. Looks like I have to spend my night at the airport.

Feeling utterly miserable and defeated, my mobile battery died & I did not have any food till about 5pm. When the next flight took off, only 2 of the standby passengers got on. I went to grab a quick bite & rushed back to the SQ waiting area. I refused to believe that I crossed so many obstacles & reached the airport only to be stranded there for the night. 3 other guys in front of me went ahead & purchased biz-class tics from Lufthansa. I decided that if I didn’t get on the next flight (SQ163), I will do the same….announcement came sooner than expected, & I was among those who got on the next flight home. Almost knelt down & cried….so thankful to be going home!

Morale of the story is, I’ve learnt my lesson. Never ever try squeezing so many meetings in one day! I was so harassed and stressed because of the tight timing that I didn’t even get to shop, sight-see & go for massage L I’ll know better next time. For now, I’m just grateful to be home. Heard the flood went as high as 4 meters the following day.