Ain did not venture into Pandan Indah the last time we were here. So, this time, we thought we would take a look. Specifically, we drove by the restaurants we used to frequent when we lived here. The entire suburb was busier than ever. But as you can see some of old regular restaurants are still there. Except for Restoran Lima Bintang. RIP Lima Bintang.
Continue readingMonthly Archives: January 2019
A Two-Day KL Reconnoitre
After the visit to the Translation Institute, Bazli and I split up. He would return north later that evening after the benchmarking, while I had more than a week left to my vacation. First thing the next day, we headed back to Nia’s place from Aiman’s place. Since we were early, we explored the area near their house and chanced upon something called MesaMall. However, it was not built upon a mesa. When Nia returned from daycare, Irfan and I introduced her to the Lion King. She was saying Simba’s name in no time. The next day, we had breakfast and then later headed to a newly-opened 99 Speedmart along the Salak Tinggi highway. Nia tried driving but she gave up as could not reach weapon and shield consoles. One thing I noticed about Nia was that she liked to perform acrobatics on my back like Irfan once liked to […]
Continue reading
Return to the Institute
Three years ago or so I was sent to the Translation Institute as a student. Now I return to it with my colleague Bazli to carry out a benchmarking mission for our translation unit at the Centre. Here are some photos from our away mission.
Continue reading
Coriolis RPG: Dark Flowers
Yesterday, I was reunited with the old GOKL crew for a one-shot RPG session of Coriolis – The Third Horizon RPG. Coriolis is a game published by Modiphius Entertainment and uses the same system as Mutant: Year Zero and Tales from the Loop role-playing games. Humanity has reached a star cluster known as the Third Horizon via a portal. But a Portal war has long isolated them from the rest of humanity. The Portal Builders are long gone and appear to be an ancient and powerful species. The space station Coriolis orbits the planet Kua, the hub of the Third Horizon. Also of note is that the civilisation of the setting takes on the trappings of the Middle East. The system is pretty elegant in its simplicity. Roll a pool of dice equalling your character’s Attributes plus Skills. Any dice turn up 6 is a success. Multiple sixes on certain […]
Continue reading
Chicken Stalking During Lunch
Upon our arrival in the Klang Valley for vacation, we headed for Nia’s house. We thought we would spend the night there as my work appointment in KL would not be until Monday. The night we arrived, a belated birthday party was held for the three sisters whose birthdays were close to each other’s. Meanwhile, the cousins quickly started playing together again. The next day, we went exploring at the nearby new mall that was opened a couple of weeks earlier. The Chinese New Year music were piped and decorations had been raised. I was sad that there were no good bookstores there. For some reason, my lower back also began to hurt. It was moderately painful when I shifted balance from one foot to the other. After the mall-walking, we went to the café along the country road towards Nia’s house, which had excellent nasi ayam. “Nasi ayam kukus […]
Continue reading
Not Ain’s Food Truck
En route to Kuala Lumpur for a benchmarking assignment at ITBM, we stopped at the Ulu Bernam highway R&R stop where Ain discovered another eatery (closed, as it was already dark) with her name on it! As an aside, earlier in the day when we had stopped at the Gurun R&R for lunch, I discovered something unfortunate. I had forgotten to bring my wallet. So with Ain driving, we headed back home. It was three hours later when we passed the Gurun stop once again. What a waste of time. Oh, well…
Continue reading
Ain’s Birthday Nasi Lemak
Earlier in the day, I had an idea and exclaimed, “Tonight, let’s celebrate your birthday somewhere amazing!” She asked, “Where?” I said with pleasure and pride, “The same place we had dinner yesterday!” So this year we celebrated Ain’s birthday at a nasi lemak stall in Kangar. We had dinner here yesterday. Ain had a nasi lemak paru but Irfan and I had roti telur. The sambal that came with the nasi lemak was excellent. Perhaps, it was too much on the sweet side. The moment went up to the stall to order a long line of patrons formed behind us. I was thankful we got there early. Soon it was over, because it was just a simple nasi lemak vendor which cost us RM13 including drinks. We will return to have more food there. Maybe tomorrow night. Maybe not. Happy birthday, my wife. You will always be nothing less […]
Continue reading
Corellian Starline
It has been a while since my last Star Wars artwork. In fact my illustration output for 2018 was pretty abysmal. Last month, James Spahn requested an art commission from me. The colour sketch would be of the player characters of his Edge of the Empire RPG group, known as “Corellian Starline”. It took me longer than it should because of exam grading, translation work and a host of other matters, but it is finally done. On the left is Arctis Pash. Is he related to Hondo Pash? Maybe some day we will find out. The K-series droid who wields a riot gun is K1-LRY a.k.a Killroy. The Wookiee is Chirffu and the orange astromech droid is his. We wish these four space heroes a long life, less than total-party-kills and more Triumphs than Despair.
Continue reading
The Laundry: An Unbelievably Wooden Dialogue
Episode 2 An Unbelievably Wooden Dialogue Previously, the agents that comprised Team Bunga Tahi Ayam and their de facto field supervisor Puan Izani travelled to Ulu Yam to investigate the disappearance of Team Bunga Kemboja Capital Laundry Services (Malaysia). Their investigations led them to a kedai runcit owner named Sabri Mat Hassan and an ancient occult book written in arcane Jawi titled Kitab Serba Serbi Budi Bicara Alam. Also, they were attacked by undead gunmen. The mission continued… Dramatis Personae Azizah a.k.a. Jijah (Yuzi) – a Fifth Form student who is also an experienced spy from Pulau Langkawi. Badrul (Bazli) – a 65 year-old antiquarian from Ipoh, Perak. Lucy Abdullah (Farah) – a “plumber” from Tangkak, Johor. Rayha a.k.a Ray (Noriha) – a linguist from Batu Pahat, Johor. Talhah Abdullah (Rizal) – a computer hacker from Segamat, Johor. Chapter 1 A KAMPUNG HOUSE STANDS ALONE The team decided to travel […]
Continue reading
New Glasses Pick Up
For the last year or so, Irfan was walking around with a pair of badly scratched glasses. Finally we had some money to blow on a new pair for him. We had decided to come to the neighbouring public university in the neighbouring state because I once spotted an optician’s office at the Varsity Mall there. It would appear we came to the right place as the cost of glasses here is less than half of what it cost in Kangar. Finally it was time to pick up the glasses. Unlike his old glasses, his new pair has ultraviolet filters. The shopkeeper even showed the filter working with a UV light source. Then we had dinner. It was not as crowded as when we were here before, presumably because it was examination season and a lot of students who completed them have headed back home. Then we headed home.
Continue reading
A Long Way Since Year One
The new year begins with a new form for Irfan. The fifth form! Irfan has come a long way since his first day of Primary School, nay, from the first day of kindergarten! He has been through ups and downs. He has had many unforgettable experiences in school, both in Kuala Lumpur and here in Perlis. I pray for nothing but the best of futures for Irfan. May he have sufficient foresight and wisdom to weather the times ahead!
Continue reading