I know I’ve been quiet. I don’t know why but somehow I sort of slipped into a bit of a hibernation period. I haven’t really done very much, haven’t swept the floors either (that’s next on the list). I really have to get started on sharing the pictures from our awesome 4-week trip (3 weeks in Malaysia, 1 week in Australia). So here it is, the beginning of the sequence. These are the pictures that I took the first few days we got home. I admit it – I was pretty exhausted and didn’t take as many pictures as perhaps I should have, plus then the camera battery conked out and all kinds of excuses. We were only in Malaysia for 2 and a half days before we had to set off for Perth. So we stayed on the 10th floor (enjoying the view) with Hisham and the rest of […]
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ACS Kids at Aidilfitri
At Aidilfitri Irfan met and played with a whole bunch of kids of his generation whose parent(s) were former students of ACS Sitiawan. Here are some pics of Irfan and friends. Too bad we didn’t get photos of children of Lan, Dila and Gnana. Here’s Chris C’s (the other Chris C) daughter Aleyxia whom Irfan invited to play with the hamsters brought back from Kuala Lumpur by Irfan’s Opah Ngah. The small dark on is called Ciki and the big orange one is called Oren. Irfan loved to go upstairs and feed the little guys seeds and carrots, loudly and spiritedly commently on everything they do. Then, Irfan tries to escape the camera, to no avail Awi and Hanim came with young Aisyah. She found Tok Irfan’s fish pond and Irfan’s plastic toy car very intriguing. She was also very friendly with Ain, trying to get Ain to help her […]
Continue readingPacific Northwest: Part IX (Journey to Vancouver)
I know, it’s been a long time and I haven’t finished posting our Pacific Northwest story. Here’s the next installation. Just a quick recap to remind everyone where we were: we had said goodbye to Vincent and been handed off to Lilian, who we would drive back up to Vancouver. Here’s Lil, as we drive by Boeing on our way north: [[image:pacnw115.jpg:Bye bye Boeing:center:0]] The day was still gloomy though: [[image:pacnw116.jpg:Cloudy skies:center:0]] Here we are at the border. The Peace Arch park: [[image:pacnw117.jpg:Peace Arch Park:center:0]] [[image:pacnw118.jpg:Bye bye USA:center:0]] [[image:pacnw119.jpg:Big tree by the border:center:0]] Our first glimpse of Vancouver: [[image:pacnw120.jpg:Vancouver!:center:0]] We ate lunch with Lil, but then it started to rain. We dropped her off at her place and met David and Miriam. [[image:pacnw122.jpg:Bye bye Lil:center:0]] [[image:pacnw121.jpg:Looking upwards:center:0]] Then we headed to our hotel. No point going sightseeing when it’s so foggy and rainy and ugh. Some pictures at the hotel […]
Continue readingPacific 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: [[image:pacnw85.jpg:Fountain where we had lunch:center:0]] Please hover over the images for the captions. [[image:pacnw84.jpg:More Lavender:center:0]] [[image:pacnw83.jpg:The Pacific Science Center:center:0]] [[image:pacnw88.jpg:Monorail coming into the station:center:0]] [[image:pacnw90.jpg:Sculpture and building:center:0]] [[image:pacnw91.jpg:Water sculpture – there’s a walkway through the waterfall, so cool:center:0]] [[image:pacnw97.jpg:Taking pictures of pig sculptures:center:0]] [[image:pacnw98.jpg:Arrr Matey – Vin and Vincent and the Pirate Pig:center:0]] [[image:pacnw101.jpg:Reminds […]
Continue readingPacific 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: [[image:pacnw86.jpg:Vincent and Lil by a funky fountain:center:0]] It took a while for us to decide what we wanted, but since it wasn’t even noon yet, it wasn’t too crowded so we didn’t have to queue up for too long to purchase our food. We […]
Continue readingPacific 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: [[image:pacnw74.jpg:Fire’s out:center:0]] Then, our first glimpse […]
Continue readingPacific 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: [[image:pacnw61.jpg:Lavender Farm:center:0]] So we stopped for some pictures: [[image:pacnw64.jpg:Vincent photographing the lavender:center:0]] [[image:pacnw62.jpg:Fragrant and pretty:center:0]] [[image:pacnw63.jpg:Lavender!:center:0]] [[image:pacnw65.jpg:Vin in a field of lavender:center:0]] There was a little gazebo in the middle of the field, with lavender lemonade. Except the lavender lemonade didn’t really taste like lavender, just like lemonade… But nice and cool to quench our thirst. Plus it was free, so who’s complaining, right? [[image:pacnw67.jpg:Vincent in the gazebo:center:0]] [[image:pacnw66.jpg:Lavender Kings:center:0]] After we bought some lavender products (lavender caramels which again, did not taste like lavender, lavender sachets, etc.), off we went to the ferry terminal. Unlike our trip to […]
Continue readingPacific 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. [[image:pacnw51.jpg:Dungeness Signboard:center:0]] Before you ask what this is, and if we expected expectorating when we were there, it’s basically a long, narrow strip of land that sticks out the coastline in the shape of somebody hocking a loogie. It was pretty foggy though. Pretty much the best picture I could get of the Spit is this one, taken from the overlook by the parking lot. [[image:pacnw52.jpg:Dungeness Spit:center:0]] [[image:pacnw50.jpg:Vin and Vincent at […]
Continue readingPacific 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: [[image:pacnw30.jpg:Is this what Eric Cartman looks like grown up? Pie!!!:center:0]] It served excellent local seafood and we had a lovely meal. We were too full to try the pie though. 😉 When we left the restaurant, wonder of wonders, the sun was shining! We decided to take advantage of the break in the rain and headed down to Rialto Beach for a little post-dinner beach sight-seeing. Here’s Vincent at the entrance to the beach: [[image:pacnw31.jpg:Vincent at Rialto Beach:center:0]] Views of the beach looking left and right: [[image:pacnw33.jpg:Looking left:center:0]] [[image:pacnw34.jpg:Looking right:center:0]] See those big tree trunks lying on the beach? They’re driftwood. Yes. Driftwood. The biggest blinking driftwood I’ve ever seen! See this giant formation of driftwood – I see […]
Continue readingPacific 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 […]
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A Time of Reunion
We don’t get together that much these days, but when we do the survivors of the ACS Sitiawan, SPM 1990 batch, create one hell of a ruckus when we sit around the table talking about… well, anything that comes to mind. Earlier tonight, a bunch of them fell upon the Tenth Floor for a gathering and of course, to eat. There was also talk about peeing or hocking a loogie onto passers-by or the swimming pool below from the window and/or balcony. However, some sort of decorum was maintained since there were kids in the room. Apart from our household, the roll call included: Teik Sing (with Michelle and Baby Ashley-Joan), Shahar, Tern Lik, Nguk Lui, Alvin and family, Hudson and Kok Soon. Ain cooked two variations of bihun goreng, both of which were tasty. Teik Sing bought appetizers and desert, Shahar bought some kuih, Hudson brought chips and Kok […]
Continue readingHawaii 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 […]
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Best Text Message I Got Today
Not 2 minutes ago I received the best text message today. Heck, it even might be the best text message for the last couple of weeks. It conveyed a sense of joy. I can’t stop smiling now. The message was from Teik Sing and it read: Baby Ashley-Joan was born @ 3.54am, 2.89kg, 49cm. Congrats to Teik Sing and Michelle. Now the fun (as well as the barf and poo cleanup) begins. We’re both almost at a full circle, man.
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Lunch With Nanda
Nandakumar has been a good friend of mine since I was 14. Form 2 was when this newcomer to Sitiawan traipsed into our classroom and sat close to me along with the usual suspects, Teik Sing, Khoots, Warren, et. at. Despite being good friends, we rarely see each other these days. Life positioned us where it was difficult to meet, and inundated us with many other issues to deal with that meeting Nanda wasn’t the foremost on my mind. The last time we met was during Laskmanan’s wedding before Irfan was born. Until today. Ain and I met up with him at SS20’s roadside restaurant. (It was my idea to eat there, I hoped he liked the food.) He has to get back to work on shift at the oil rig next week. There were plenty to talk about and not enough time to talk about everything. We talked about […]
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Early Morning Raid at the PC Fair
Well, to be honest it wasn’t that early in the morning. It was about 10AM. And it wasn’t a raid as it was us moving slowly through the computer exhibition picking out stuff to buy after we, for the first time ever, have the budget to buy computer-related thingamajigs at one of these PC Fairs. There were no tablet PCs sold as far as I can see. Before the PC Fair opened we had a picnic at the KLCC park with the takeaway nasi lemak which we bought at the LRT Corner outdoors restaurant near the Tenth Floor Headquarters. Irfan had little to eat – just some curry puffys and teh ais. He didn’t seem to mind hunger when the super duper playground was within striking (and spitting) distance. And here’s Irfan’s favourite playground in the world, as well as a few other worlds. He calls slides the “Wheeee!” for […]
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First There Was Lunch, Then It Rained
Today, Teik Sing, Ahbau & I went out for lunch, just because. We had nasi lemak ayam madu and talked some. The restaurant is situated near the Glenmarie industrial park’s Petronas gas station. Across the street was the Federal Highway. On the other side of that was the Batu Tiga train station. I thought the nasi lemak was delicious. Then it rained.
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