Hishgraphics

There Were Trees, Fruits Grew Off Them

The previous weekend, we were all at Pasir Mas where Irfan's cousin's kenduri transpired.

However the kenduri photos are still in Cik Emma's camera so we have instead for this post photos of a bunch of folks (namely Irfan's Tok Bah, Abang Kie, Emma, Ain and I) invading Tok Bah's orchard. The invasion would end in the acquiring of several large baskets full of dokong and manggis! The English name for manggis is well-documented and known to us since we were young. However, I can't for the life of me find out what dokong (also spelled dukung) is in English.

So, what could Ain be looking up at? Anyone? Anyone?

Could it be she's looking up at Tok Bah?

Under Water And On Ground

Last week, Atuk and Opah Irfan came a-visiting to spend some time with their favourite grandkid. (No competition... he's their only grandkid for now. Right, fellow Hishgraphics blog writer? For now, right?) I took the following picture to show them the camera capability of the phone, including the Bluetooth transfer of the image to the laptop. I love the Bluetooth function. Makes life much easier. Though I have to check whether it also turns my teeth blue once in a while.

Here's the Irfan and Grandparents photo!

Pacific Northwest: Part VIII (Addendum: Artsy Seattle)

Now that my little spate of patriotism is over, and it's September (Happy Labor Day Weekend everyone! And YAAAAY to Monday being a holiday!), a little addendum to day we spent walking around Seattle. Aside from the cleanliness, as has been remarked upon by several people, there was a lot of artwork displayed in and around the city. They've also architected the city to be sort of artsy and functional at the same time. I took a bunch of random snapshots and decided to group them together in this entry.

Just look at this cool fountain:

Pacific Northwest: Part VII (Walking Around Seattle)

After the Space Needle, the first thing we did was get ourselves an early lunch at the Bite of Seattle. It's a big food fair where tons of local restaurants manned little booths and we got to taste a bunch of different foods pretty cheaply. It was a smorgasbord of delights. I ended up eating fresh shrimp rolls, pad thai, and a bunch of other little snacks. However, it turns out, I was so busy looking through all the booths and foods that I didn't actually take that many pictures! None of the stalls! Just this one of Vincent and Lil while Lil ate her lunch:

Pacific Northwest: Part VI (Seattle and the Space Needle)

I meant to blog more over the weekend but I got distracted with other stuff (don't even ask me what because I can't seem to account for too much of the time, except I did watch 2 movies at home on Saturday night). But excuses aside, here's the next part about our travels in the Pacific Northwest. We picked Lil up at the train station, and then turned in for the night. The next morning, we had breakfast and went off to see Seattle!

But on the way there, we saw a semi truck that was on fire (did Starscream manage to score a direct hit on Optimus Prime?). The EMTs were there and firemen were putting out the fire. I whipped out my handy dandy camera and got a quick shot of it but after the last of the flames were put out:

Dog Days of Summer

August has been a gruelling month in Southwestern Ohio. We might have seen a lot of rain in the Pacific Northwest when we visited, but from when we got home to this past Monday, we had not seen one drop of rain at our house! Grass is turning brown. Record high temperatures have been seen. Today's high, for instance, is 99 F (34 C) and yesterday's was 101 F (35 C). Humid like Malaysia. It did rain on Monday, and wasn't too crazy hot on Tuesday, but we're back to the heat now.

So yeah it has been HOT!

This is the kind of heat that makes up the "dog days of summer". Defined as the period of time between July and September (roughly) when Sirius (the dog star) rises and sets with the sun. It also corresponds to the hottest days of the year in the northern hemisphere. And boy, it's been seriously dog days around here. Just look at poor Lily:

I don't think cats like the dog days.

Pacific Northwest: Part V (Lavender Farm and Back to Seattle)

So many things to blog about, so little time to actually do it! Picking up the travel from the Dungeness Spit, we drove east to Kingston to catch the ferry back to Seattle. On the way there though, we kept seeing signs for lavender farms so we took a quick detour:

Sneak Attack Irfan

Here we have in the living room a pile of pillows of various shapes and sizes. You might think it's harmless and drop your guard as you unwittingly walk by this scene in the house.

But from its natural hiding space, a predator launches itself out from under the pile, illustrating how dangerous the wilds of the living room can be for the unsuspecting visitor.

Pacific Northwest: Part IV (Dungeness Spit)

After our disappointing Hurricane Ridge outing, we had to recover so we opted for an early lunch. We were planning to have a big sushi-buffet feast for dinner, so if I recall correctly, my lunch consisted of clam chowder, a few of Vin's fries, and a slice of chocolate cake. A highly nutritional meal, no? But, lo and behold, after lunch, as we drove onwards, the sun came back out. We decided to risk stopping at Dungeness Spit.

Pacific Northwest: Part III (Hurricane Ridge)

The next day dawned rainy (as evil Mr Weatherman had forecasted). We drove back east towards Seattle, and decided to try Hurricane Ridge to see if the rain would hold off. On the way up the Ridge, this is what we saw:

Pacific Northwest: Part II (Rialto Beach)

After the wet Rainforest adventure, we relaxed and napped in our room before going out to dinner. Vincent recommended the Smokehouse, a little outside of downtown Forks. This guy welcomed us:

It served excellent local seafood and we had a lovely meal. We were too full to try the pie though.

Pacific Northwest: Part I (Hoh Rainforest)

Last month, we packed our bags and took a flight to Seattle, WA for an almost week-long Pacific Northwest extravaganza. We met up with our friend Vincent (a citizen of Gloomville), who went to good old ACS way back when, and who is an Admin at the Unofficial ACS Alumni Forum, and he had thoughtfully planned an itinerary for us. We arrived in the evening and Vincent took us out to a lovely dinner (but we didn't take any pictures because we were so out of it from the flight that I forgot to take pictures). We checked in to our hotel and Vincent said goodbye, but he would be back early the next morning for the first thing on our Pacific Northwest itinerary was to go to the Olympic Peninsula for a couple of days.

This means an early morning ferry ride on a weekday (to escape the huge summer crowds). Thanks to Vincent's excellent planning, we didn't even have to wait to get on!

Family Reunion in Belle River - Addendum

Check it out! Whooooosh!

And please note that at the end of the day, there were reports that the slide was starting to fall apart. We (and I include me in this) did enjoy going down that slide!

Family Reunion in Belle River

July has been a pretty eventful month for Vin and me, I have all kinds of things to blog about. But it has also been a pretty busy work month, so it hasn't been too conducive to blogging. But before we finish out the month of July, I wanted to reflect back on our trip up to Belle River, Ontario earlier in the month. A family reunion was held at Vin's cousin Liz's house. This is the maternal side of Vin's family - Vin's Auntie Vera settled in Canada and we were happy to be included in the gathering. This was my first time meeting everyone other than Joanne, so forgive me if I make any mistakes naming all the family members! On the day itself, luckily we had name tags.

Irfan's First First Cousin

Today begins a new era in Irfan's life.

He is now officially a first cousin to another human, in this case the less-than-a-day-old, yet nameless newborn son of Kak Nor & Abg Kie.

He's a pretty handsome, but quiet and sleepy dude. Which is better than the poor girl in the cot beside him, who seemed to be having a nightmare. What nightmares can a 3-hour old baby have anyway?

We'll go and visit Irfan's new cousin again tomorrow and see if we can get better photos. The nurse gave Cik Emma a hard time today for taking pictures in the ward.

The sleepy one:

The sleepy one turns the other way:

Irfan decides to join his cousin in the dreamlands:

Hawaii Day 10 - Last Day and Home to Lily

I know, it's been two months since the trip and I'm finally getting around to putting up the final installment of the Hawaii pictures. But, in my defense, I am slow. Just a few days ago I finally emptied my suitcase of stuff from the trip. Yes, just my stuff since Vin unpacked his suitcase almost immediately while I stalled and stalled. That's me. Procrastinator all the way. :)

So to remind you, in Day 9, remember we met with some interesting cats wishing us goodnight at the Volcano Inn?

Hawaii Day 9 - Finishing our trip around the Big Island

Another beautiful morning in Hawaii. We woke up to this gorgeous view:

But it was our final morning on the sunny side of the Big Island. We were driving back to Hilo via the Volcano this afternoon.

Irfan's One Utama Walkabout

One fine day, Irfan Shafiq went a-walking about the hallways of the mall known as One Utama.

Movie Carnival 2007 weekend was just around the corner. So there were plenty of well-known characters loitering about the concourse of the new wing of the mall. One of the most remarkable things there would be this here thing in the following photo. A Transformers movie Optimus Prime! It's not on sale yet for another two more days. Apparently the guy bought it off eBay.

A stellar looking toy!

Hawaii Day 8 - Hotel Hopping and Sunset

We requested late checkout so we could enjoy ourselves on our final morning at the Hilton Waikoloa Village. It was a beautiful sunny morning, and we wanted to go snorkeling in the lagoon.

Look at the difference in the pictures between yesterday and today, due to the sun:

So until 2 PM Hawaiian time, we enjoyed ourselves to the fullest, starting with a bout of putt-putt golf (my first time and it was rather embarrassing, so no pictures OK?).

Hawaii Day 7 - Lazy Day at the hotel

Day 7 dawned beautiful and sunny. We decided to have ourselves a lazy day. I believe there was some post-breakfast napping, some reading on the lanai (balcony). We can see this statue from the lanai: