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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My colleagues have been expressing a long time desire to sample Ain’s bihun goreng tom yam. They loved it when we offered packets of the food to be sold at my workplace. It has been a couple of years since stopped doing so. Recently, Ain invited the ones who has been asking her about her bihun goreng tom yam the […]
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One other thing that occurred over the weekend was the success of our household in apprehending a rat. We heard it scritch-scratching once in a while in the attic and Ain set up a trap as usual. Saturday evening we took it out to a deserted spot by a main road and let it loose into the wild. On our […]
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Irfan it appears has become the ad hoc leader for a Gunpla Builders club at his school. Sometimes they would descend upon our house to assemble their plastic models. I wish the group the best in their hobby. Also, I hope they would make it an official thing, like registering it as a club at their school, so they would […]
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We have been talking to Ayah Cik Vin, Cik Dik, Yaya and Adik the Younger on Skype more these days. Irfan’s cousins are smart and loquacious young dudes and I enjoy talking to them. Yaya is a formidable artist and craftsperson for her age and Adik has a talent for music and languages. My niece and nephew will grow into […]
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I am now 45 years old. For the first time ever my family threw me a small birthday celebration. It began with Yaya and Adik’s family calling from the other side of the planet. We had a good talk. Yaya and Adik had plenty to tell us after they sang me the birthday song. When I got home from work […]
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It was an evening of something quite unexpected. True, I did hear about the coming of the “Super Blue Blood Moon” which was talked about all throughout social media. Bu I never thought it would look breathtakingly spectacular. Ain alerted me to the start of the lunar eclipse during the full moon. It was a clear night. The stars were […]
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Last weekend, we went for a drive. This weekend, it was time for the farmer’s market. There were a bunch of fresh produce Ain wanted to pick up at the market. She knew of cheaper locations to purchase some of the things here, but it has been a while since we visited this market. Lots of green grown were sold […]
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Nia spent several days with us. Her sense of fun and humour kept us amused for the whole time. She played with Ain. She watched movies (well, just the one, mostly) with Irfan. Soon it was time for the Seri Kembangan crew to leave. Ayah Cik Farid, Cik Ma, Cik Su and Nia Nia packed up and prepared to […]
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In a blink of an eye, Irfan is now 15 years of age. He is more or less an adult, as I myself do not remember 15 being any different than 25 besides more experience by dint of being the latter. Even when he was much younger, I tried listening and talking to him as though he was an older […]
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Irfan’s fourteenth birthday came and went. So did Irfan’s grandparents from Perak. It would be easy to say “I can’t believe how tall and how far he’d come” but the truth is that I am not surprised. With the opportunities and facilities available to him here – as opposed to the Klang Valley where he would have to fight with […]
Continue readingOne Saturday, our driveway became an apam balik station. Many visitors came to obtain free apam balik as dessert to go with their meal. [[image file=”2016-09/apam-balik-driveway01.jpg” alt=”Free food in our driveway?!” title=”Free food in our driveway?!” ]] The driveway had been converted because of the wedding feast held by our neighbour to commemorate the wedding between his son and daughter-in-law, […]
Continue readingAfter eighteen months of sitting on the floor watching television, we finally got enough cash this month to purchase a sofa set! Atok and Opah were visiting, so we thought it was great that they could have something soft to sit on in the living room. [[image file=”2016-06/2016-05-atok-opah-01.jpg” alt=”There’s even a coffee table!” title=”There’s even a coffee table!” ]] There’s […]
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Once upon a time, I marvelled at Irfan’s then-newfound abilities to reach a light switch. These days he’s repairing the bicycle Atok bought for him last year all on his own. Here we see him attempting to remove his bike’s forward and rear lights which he had purchased and installed himself during the weekend. He even bought and installed the […]
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Last December we moved 500 hundred kilometres to new house. This week a year later, we moved again but this time it was only about 2 klicks down the road. It was gratifying that we did not need to cross state lines for the move. Thanks to some friends, before I went to my course in Kuala Lumpur we secured […]
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Once upon a time, earlier today, Irfan came up with the idea of setting up a mat out in the yard so he and other neighbourhood kids can play board games outdoors. Later, there were even sandwiches and apple juice! Here’s hoping the boardgaming will help Irfan and the other children to improve their social and language skills as they […]
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