It’s May 1st. Some might say it’s Labor Dabor Day. Others would say it’s the first day of the general release of Spider-Man 3, beginning 2007’s run of monumental summer movies which will eventually bring us At Worlds End, Shrek the Third, Order of the Phoenix, Rise of the Silver Surfer and Transformers. We just got back from Sitiawan after spending 3 days with Irfan’s grandparents there (and having the sotong celup tepung as well). Irfan made a new friend in the form of Opah Irfan’s friend’s grandson – one Amir from Melaka who was also on vacation in Sitiawan. Today, we got home, grabbed Ain’s two aunts and headed right for Berjaya Times Square where we would be watching the IMAX presentation of Spider-Man 3. There was another reason for the excursion to Berjaya Times Square, and that was Irfan’s Cik Su’s birthday. Labour Day for her is literally […]
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On top of spaghetti all covered with cheese
A list of our family’s adventures through this simulated universe. Strangely, this is represented by several methods. Firstly, my thoughts in words and then a host of two-dimensional images configured for the human visible spectrum. Finally the blog itself as a medium of information. Also, sometimes there is cake.
Hawaii Day 3 – Hanauma Bay and an Old Friend
The morning of our third day in Hawaii was bright and sunny. We enjoyed yet another marvelous buffet breakfast at the Rainbow Lanai, then we packed our stuff and headed out. We wanted to make sure that we would be able to park the car and spend some time snorkeling and swimming at Hanauma Bay! We got there around 9 AM, and this was what was waiting for us: [[image:hi23.jpg:Hanauma Bay:center:0]] It was a gorgeous day – and the parking lot was pretty empty when we got there. Plenty of space for us! And just look at it! We could look down at it from the parking lot, and what a view. We both had to get our pictures taken: [[image:hi24.jpg:Vin with the Bay in the background:center:0]] [[image:hi25.jpg:Don’t pay attention to the girl marring the view:center:0]] We paid our entrance fee (free to Hawaiian residents) and watched a 10 minute […]
Continue readingIrfan’s Political Affiliation….
[[popup:voteofnathan01.jpg:(thumbnail)::left:1]]… is not really known from this photo of him, because we really have no idea which party Nathan Petrelli belongs to. But hey if you want a good quality in a congressman, why not settle one with the ability of flight, no? Not to mention a brother who can absorb and retain powers of other supers.
Continue readingHawaii Day 2 – Lazy Day in Waikiki
After a refreshing night’s sleep, we both woke up early local time (around 12:00 noon Eastern time) and went to have a big buffet breakfast (we LOVE the buffet at the Hilton Hawaiian Village!). It was nice and relaxing, sitting at the Rainbow Lanai. The day promised to be beautiful and sunny. Already, we were feeling holiday-ey and summery, and laaaazy! Check out this hibiscus (bunga raya), the state flower of Hawaii (of course, the hibiscus is also the Malaysian National flower!) [[image:hi22.jpg:Yellow Bunga Raya:center:0]] After breakfast, we walked around the hotel and saw a bunch of different animals right in the hotel area. There’s a lot of open air areas, ponds, and vegetation all around: [[image:hi06.jpg:Shy flamingo:center:0]] [[image:hi07.jpg:Blue Macaw:center:0]] [[image:hi08.jpg:Red and Blue Macaw:center:0]] [[image:hi09.jpg:Green Macaw:center:0]] [[image:hi10.jpg:Penguins and Turtles:center:0]] [[image:hi11.jpg:Molting Penguin:center:0]] [[image:hi12.jpg:Big turtle and little turtles:center:0]] [[image:hi13.jpg:Green lichen turtle:center:0]] [[image:hi14.jpg:Cicak with funky red sac that inflated – or maybe funky […]
Continue readingHawaii Day 1 – Arrival
So, on April 12th, we said good bye to Lily (who was staying home with daily visits from Carey, the pet-sitter – more on this at a later post), packed our bags, and lit out from one of the worst March/April I’ve ever experienced in this country to head to warmer climes: Hawaii! It had been raining and at times flurrying (that’s snow!) for days prior to our departure, not to mention temperatures were below zero (in April in Southern Ohio!!!), so we were glad we’d scheduled this trip to Hawaii when we did. However it did take a long time to get there. We flew out of Dayton, first to Atlanta (2-hour flight) and then from Atlanta to Honolulu (10-hour flight). Not as long as the flight home to Malaysia, but still, a very long way away. Plus the fact that we first flew east to Atlanta increased our […]
Continue readingSpring Flowers
Spring is springing!! Even though it’s a high of 40F (5C) today, and there looks to be little granules of snow falling from the sky (no accumulation so far tonight) and the low tonight will be well below freezing, it’s Spring! Witness the crocuses: [[image:flower01.jpg:Crocuses:center:0]] They say crocuses are the heralds of spring. They bloomed early, and now they’re gone. But they were gorgeous while they lasted: [[image:flower04.jpg:Little crocuses in a row:center:0]] [[image:flower02.jpg:Very comel, no?:center:0]] [[image:flower03.jpg:Lagi crocuses:center:0]] Then we saw these purple flowers blooming from the middle of this plant (last year I don’t think they bloomed – they look quite new. The plant grew, but didn’t flower last year): [[image:flower05.jpg:Dunno the name of the flower:center:0]] [[image:flower06.jpg:But it’s a pretty purple!:center:0]] What this flower is called? No idea. But in a few days, it went from the pretty little purple little balls above to this kembang: [[image:flower07.jpg:Mystery Flower fully blooming:center:0]] […]
Continue readingIrfan’s Conflagration of Grandparents
For the first time in a long time, all four of Irfan’s grandparents were at the same place and time. All the way from Sitiawan, Atok & Opah Irfan travelled to Pasir Mas to spend a couple of days there at Tok Bah & Tok Ma’s house at Lubok Tapah. They came to attend Ain’s cousin’s wedding in Kota Bharu. Which turned out to be great vacation in the end. Soon after their arrival, we went to the wedding kenduri where photos were taken and food was consumed. After the function, we left Tok Bah & Tok Ma to help with the cleanup as we out-of-town tourists went a-visiting beaches like Pantai Seri Tujuh, and Pantai Cahaya Bulan the next day where Irfan played with a kite. There is no picture of the kite being played, but we do have these photos instead: [[image:kb_wedding00.jpg:Newlyweds surrounded by the family wimmenfolk:center:0]]Newlyweds Zulham […]
Continue readingNot Really The Eye of Sauron
The Eye on Malaysia is its name and we went for a trip to Taman Tasik Titiwangsa for a look and for a ride. Well, Everyone else took the ride. Ain & I did not because Irfan didn’t want to take a ride on it. We thought we might go later and at night to see the city skyline after dark, which might be beautiful. Unless there’s a citywide blackout. In which case, the lack of a pretty landscape might be the least of our problems. Here’s the Eye on Malaysia, which seem to conceptually rip off the Millennium Wheel (or the London Eye). Welcome to Malaysia. Leave your originality at the door, thank you very much.[[image:eye01.jpg:It’s plainly labeled:center:0]] You can hardly contain the excitement of riding the giant, vertical metal merry-go-round. I’ve never heard anyone referring to it as a Ferris wheel at all which saddened me.[[image:eye02.jpg:The Expeditionary Force:center:0]] […]
Continue readingStunt KitKat
Since the arrival of Tiger Lily Belle (Lily, to those closest to her), Vin and I have hardly been able to take our eyes off of this little cutie. She sleeps on the bed with us sometimes, but normally on Vin’s side. We play with her and pet her, and enjoy her loving company. She’s an amazing little creature! She rarely meows, unless she wants something. So she’s not a chatty katty (which makes doing conference calls from home really easy). She’s really careful with her claws and hasn’t so far preyed on the furniture (knock wood), she likes to come and curl up with us, she sleeps with such abandon that she can comfortably lie in the weirdest positions as long as parts of her are on one of us. Vin and I are both crazy about her! Plus she is a sucker for the bunny on the string. […]
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Alternate Universe Irfan’s School Friends
If Schrödinger’s cat meowed in a totally opposite way once upon a time, Irfan would have had totally different school friends from the ones he has now. So, I’ve tried taking photos by tripping the light fantastic (after a fashion) and using quantum visual camera with the Heisenberg compensators at level two. What I got was a series of photos of Irfan playing at friends’ house as if I’d never choose to leave my old job and move to Kuala Lumpur. Very interesting.
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Irfan Goes To Cherating
For the Thaipusam / Federal Territory Day holidays, we went for a free night’s stay (plus one extra night of paid stay) at a resort at Cherating in Pahang. It was not realy in Cherating, but further up north towards Chukai, in the seaside hamlet of Chendor. (Don’t ask about all the ‘Ch’ names at the towns there, I don’t get it either.) It was a resort by the sea, pretty clean, homey and had a relaxing atmosphere. I’m gonna let the pictures tell the stories and I’ll be over there listening to MP3s if anyone needs me. By the way, the free night stay was an belated anniversary and birthday present to us from Cik Emma. Many thanks to her for booting us out of the house so we can enjoy some fresh air outside the city. Irfan loved the bedsheets. After discovering the superb swimming pool, we had […]
Continue readingBirthday Surprise
As Hisham so kindly posted, my birthday was just last Monday, January 29th. It was a really good day, not to mention I began celebrating on Saturday with a small dinner party with friends. I just wanted to do a quick recap, because as part of the birthday fun, something happened which will change Vin’s and my life! We begin first with cake. I made Orange Chocolate Chunk cake on Saturday (I was in the mood for chocolate and citrus). The cake is filled with semi sweet chocolate chunks and orange zest. Here’s the cake when it first came out of the oven: [[image:janbday01.jpg:Fresh from the oven:center:0]] Then spoon over some orange syrup while the cake is still hot: [[image:janbday02.jpg:Shiny syrupy cake:center:0]] When the cake is cooled, cover it with a chocolate ganache: [[image:janbday03.jpg:Ganache:center:0]] I also wanted to take the time here to thank everyone for their phone calls, emails, […]
Continue readingTok & Opah Irfan Comes A-visiting
Last Saturday, my parents (also known as Irfan’s Grandparents) came to spend several days with us. It was the first time, they saw Irfan all dressed up ready to go to school with his memory bag prepared for battle. It was also fun for them to be seeing Irfan spelling out words, writing the alphabet and reciting bedtime and mealtime doas. His claim that W was an inverted M is quite amusing.[[image:zippy01.jpg:Watching TV:center:0]] Sunday morning, Ain, Irfan and I took Tok & Opah Irfan for a visit at Sungai Congkak. Irfan as usual loved the river and liked seeing leaves go over the rocks in the river. I also showed him beautiful blue dragonflies, water skimmers and vibrant, green algae growing out of roots of the tall trees at the riverbank. Tok Irfan took some great photos.[[image:zippy03.jpg:Irfan on the rocks:center:0]][[image:zippy02.jpg:Good luck getting me out of the water:center:0]] Irfan also had […]
Continue readingTennis
A little bit of retrospective blogging: back to Mak and Abah’s visit here. Even though it was early November, we had a nice warm-ish day, so we decided to head out to Miami University Middletown (MUM) tennis courts for a little exercise. Abah, of course, has been playing tennis (and playing it well) for 40 years. Hisham and I both learned to play when we were little, and I know I was never very good at it. But I do love going outside, going to the courts, and getting some exercise (trying to beat Vin which I have never done yet – give me time!). So the four of us packed into the car, and took the short drive to MUM. We couldn’t drive right up to the tennis courts (they closed the gate to the access road) so we parked the car in the car park a short walk […]
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Yesterday’s Birthday Cake
Yesterday was Ain’s birthday. I thought I could have the money to buy a present for Ain this year. But we spent way over our regular budget this month getting Irfan prepared for kindergarten. So, maybe next year. Anyway, there was cake as can be seen in the photograph below. And apparently Irfan ain’t partial to yoghurt cheese cakes. Which is good news, cause there’s more for me! 😀 Happy birthday, my wife and my companion through adventure and hardship.
Continue readingBread for Abah and Mak
A quick review back to Mak and Abah’s visit here last year. After all this while of looking at the breads I’ve been baking, I finally got a chance to have them taste my home made breads. Here’s Abah and Mak’s introduction to one of Vin’s favorite breads, Raisin Orange Bread. While I was making this bread, Abah was running around wondering when he would get to eat it! After all, with bread baking you have to knead the dough, let it rise, then shape the loaf and let it rise again (that’s about the average way to bake bread, with 2 risings). Without the rising, the yeast won’t make the bread nice and fluffy! Then after all this, the bread has to go in the oven to bake. Abah was just about ready to give up on the bread when it finally got out of the oven. [[image:us346.jpg:Abah and […]
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