TIme to head home

Year’s End Vacation 6: Heading Home

The next morning after breakfast, we packed up and said goodbye to the hotel apartment. The strawberries needed to be finished off as it was getting mushy. I can still remember the smell and the taste of the berries. We headed off with both vehicles in a convoy, but we stopped at the Kea Valley Farm complex where fresh produce […]

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They tasted sweet

Year’s End Vacation 4: Strawberry Picking

Immediately after the tea plantation foray, we headed out towards another type of farm. There were many strawberry farms here. We selected one on the phone map but the horrible traffic jam pushed us towards another direction. The farm we stumbled across while navigating the twisting roads on the hillside was quite an impressive one. More than a strawberry farm, […]

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It's us

Year’s End Vacation 3: Tea Farm

The next day after breakfast at the hotel, we set out for one of the nearby tea plantations. Following the phone map, we headed south. Ain wanted to see the Boh plantation, but we shall see. Atok and Opah holed up at the visitors’ building of the plantation where there was a cafe while Irfan, Ain and I headed down […]

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Looking for a late lunch in front of our apartment

Year’s End Vacation 2: Arrival

It was two days after we arrived at my hometown… The next day Atok lead the way towards Simpang Pulai with his car. After that, I took the lead en route to Cameron Highlands. Our handheld maps informed us that although it was only about 75 klicks from there to Brinchang, it would take us over three hours to get […]

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Lunch panhandler

Year’s End Vacation 1: Sitiawan

After a couple of weeks planning for it and applying for leave, it was time to execute the end-of-year vacation plans. We exited the highway near Selama and proceeded towards Taiping using the Federal roads. There was a convenient new road from Taiping to Changkat Jering. We stopped for lunch at the food court at that town. There was a […]

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At the return table

Last Day of Secondary School Ever

It felt as if it was yesterday when Ain and I were looking for a preschool to send Irfan for his early education. Today, it would be the last day of Irfan in secondary school. While I was at work, Irfan taking his last SPM paper which was Science. After the examination, he returned his text books back to the […]

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The electric candles are kind of adorable

19th Anniversary Dinner

It has been 19 years since Ain and I were wed. Unlike last year when we had to go see a doctor during our anniversary, this year was fairly uneventful. However, it was the first time we celebrated our anniversary at a Middle Eastern restaurant. I had always wanted to fine in a such a restaurant with the family back […]

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All done

The Parliament of Dreams

Once upon a time, I sent Irfan to school for the first time. It was more than a decade ago and hundreds of kilometres away from here. He had had two years of kindergarten experience beforehand. How trivial that day seem to be now. He is now a young man with his own interests and opinions. After years in both […]

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Final artwork

Painting Exercise

Irfan asked me for some training in watercolours and poster colours. He had already pencilled the artwork in school and he wanted to see me paint it with poster colours. I showed him how to block the colours and he tried it out himself, starting with the sky. Then, I did some more and he did some more. I told […]

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The birthday man

A Seventeen-Year-Old Irfan

Many years have passed since we were blessed with Irfan. He came into our lives and made it much better than it could have been. He still gifts us with this. Today, this young man turned 17. Although we had an earlier birthday celebration with his grandparents the previous week, we had our own little commemoration at a restaurant nearby. […]

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Godzilla on the shoulder

Early Irfan Birthday Dinner

Atok and Opah came a week before Irfan’s 17th birthday to celebrate it early. For that purpose, we visited their favourite Thai restaurant in Padang Besar. As usual, Godzilla and the Rubik’s cube came along for the ride. Here are Irfan with his grandparents reviewing the menu beforehand. Here are Ain and I posing for a photo. This former infant […]

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Photo op by the stream

Exploring Lata Seri Perigi

After watching Angel Has Fallen at our usual cinema, we headed down south from Alor Setar. I looked up interesting picnic spots on the internet and discovered Lata Seri Perigi, which translates to Beautiful Well Waterfalls. We were not geared for any picnic, so this was just a scouting mission. Someday we will return with picnic gear. Here are some […]

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Second day lunch

Meals for a Party Divided

And so it came to pass when Ain had to travel to KL to tend to Cikma’s surgery and recovery. (Spoilers: The surgery went well and she is recovering nicely.) Irfan and I were unable to come with her as we had work to do that we were unable to put off. Irfan had tuition classes to attend while he […]

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Irfan takes a hike

Photos from Irfan’s MFLS Week

Irfan was chosen to go to Malaysian Future Leaders School, a 10-day programme that was not unlike my own Outward Bound School programme back when I was his age. There were team-building events, kayaking (at Timah Tasoh), hillwalking (which is basically hiking through the jungle for a day up a hill), abseiling at the Kangar fire and rescue station (no […]

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