It was the last day of Alya, Vin and Sila’s vacation in Malaysia. It was a sad day for everyone. It was sad. Thankfully, the cousins did not feel a smidgen of sadness. They both rocked all day from the breakfast at the mamak restaurant, to the final minutes at KLIA. You know, I think I’ll just leave the photos here mostly without any commentary, funny or otherwise, because I honestly have no idea what to pad out the entry with. Bon voyage, the Renstroms. See you whenever we see you next!
Continue readingTag Archives: Family Outings
Lunch with Mak Lan
It has been a while since we last saw Mak Lan – she is Vin’s “foster mother” and our long-time neighbor and friend in Sitiawan. She and her late husband have been my parents friends longer than Hisham and I have been alive, and Mak Lan and Abah Lan played the part of the groom’s family at my wedding, even preparing hantarans (traditional wedding gifts) and playing the part of Vin’s family to menghantar (send) Vin to our place at our wedding. However these past few years, Mak Lan has been living in KL. So we arranged to have lunch at Mak Lan’s place in KL on the last day we’re in Malaysia. It has been too too long, and so good to see Mak Lan again! Mak Lan had prepared nasi beriani, ayam masak merah, jelatah and other yumminess. We spent the time just hanging out, talking and catching […]
Continue readingSix Degrees of Separation of Old Friends
After years of not being together again, Zarin, Ida and I finally managed a meet up. Last time I saw Ida was at my wedding (that’s over 5 years ago!). And look, Ida’s about to have a baby! Apparently 3 different doctors independently of each other confirmed it will be a girl. The only person missing from this picture is Restu. The four of us Animalies have not been on the same continent together since, probably, 1998. Ah well! One day! 🙂 [[image:2010-sept-friends01.jpg:Me, Ida & Zarin:center:0]] If you want to know what “animaly” means, well, you had to be there in 1993 *arf!*. * Mouse over the pictures for more captions After adjourning from the Nando’s at Alamanda, we then went to a donut place for dessert (I forgot the name lah.. Zarin remind me again?), and to kill time until Hisham and his family could take us to Eliza’s […]
Continue reading
Allie’s 26th Month Birthday – Zoopocalypse Now!
In case you haven’t notice, it’s Hisham writing this birthday entry for Alya instead of Sila, because Alya was at the Tenth Floor when she turned 2 years and 2 months, and Sila thought I should write a word or two about my awesome little niece. From the first time we met her, she was a darling. She was warm, funny (sometimes hilariously) and loved interacting with everyone. I was ecstatic that she got a long with her cousin Irfan great. They played together, read books together, and she always had something to say about anything, albeit her language skills were still that of a two-year-old. Sometimes, she’d get me to draw animals, like bears and cats and bearcats, like I just did in the photo below, where her hair was going every direction under the sun and Atok tried to fix it. The photo was taken in the morning […]
Continue reading
Pool Time with the Cousins
It wouldn’t be a visit to our place without a dip in the building’s swimming pool. Irfan practically learnt to swim by himself here. Sila and Vin had been training Yaya the same way. She was totally unafraid of the water. Everything about splashing around in the pool just screamed “unabashed fun” to her. That of course meant we had to accompany her every step of the way because she was oblivious to the dangers of jumping off the deep end before learning to swim. In any case, as the photo above illustrates, she had lots of fun. Irfan swam all over the pool, showing off his skills to his aunt and uncle, spinning as he propelled himself through the water. Here he balanced himself on one leg as Atok took a photo. Alya couldn’t really play with her cousin in the pool itself because she has yet to develop […]
Continue reading
Journey to Taiping and Ipoh
The journey began on the morning of the 12th of September. The planned route would have taken us from Sitiawan, up north toward Taiping to two houses, Opah Teh and Tok Teh’s in Matang and Pak Unggai and Mak Unggai’s in Taiping. Then, we’d drive south-east using the North-South Highway toward state capital of Ipoh, to Wan Cu’s new abode. Just three houses to visit for the day. By normal reckoning, it would take us an hour to get to Taiping, then another hour to get to Ipoh, and finally another hour to get back to Sitiawan. If we spent 30 minutes per house visit, we would be back before it was late afternoon. Little did we know… Before we began our journey, we stopped for supplies at the local Giant hypermarket. It’s still weird to think of having a Giant hypermarket in little Sitiwan. Of course, Sitiawan is no […]
Continue reading
Breaking of Fast With Atok and Opah
Most of our breaking of fast at sundown during Ramadhan – known as iftar – were done at home at the dinner table. But once in a while we do go out to dinner, but only after Maghrib. Last weekend, Irfan’s grandparents were also in town a-visiting, so Sunday night we decided to eat out. We tried out Pak Ya’s place at Taman Cempaka, which is to the north of and right next to Pandan Indah. When the food arrived, we came to two conclusions. One, we have to take photos of our orders. Two, we will have to take Ayah Cik, Cik Dik and Yaya to dinner here when they next visit. We didn’t take photos of all the dishes, unfortunately.
Continue readingAllie’s 24 Month (aka Second) Birthday
It happened! Allie’s big day arrived – she turned 2 (years!!) on July 22nd! We were home from Maryland by then. Here she is, the birthday girl! [[image:allie690a.jpg:Hello! It’s my birthday today!:center:0]] * Mouse over the pictures for captions Another month and more developments! She now has eleven teeth (about as many teeth as a one year old!) but this is apparently normal for kids in Vin’s family (slow to teeth). Cousin Max (from the Maryland party) is 13 months old and does not have any teeth yet. Everyone’s been saying that she looks tall for her age but since we haven’t yet had her 24-month appointment, we don’t know yet. She went around saying “Hi Baby” for a while but has recently stopped saying that. She is definitely telling us long and convoluted stories (not using any words) and mostly getting her message across. She understands fairly complex sentences […]
Continue readingThe one with the surprise birthday cake
We had a crazy busy month of July! I know it is way into August now, and I haven’t even done any entries on Allie’s big day. That’s because we have been running around like crazy people! First we had an active 4th of July weekend in La Porte (Vin’s hometown) and then to Becky’s at Elkhart. And then off to New Jersey for work for a week. Then back home, and Vin’s sister Jo came to visit! Yaya got to meet her Auntie Jo for the first time! It was the funnest time! So we hung out at home for a few days before driving everyone out to the Baltimore area for a family gathering. Unbeknownst to us, Vin’s Aunt Joan and his cousins had organized a surprise early birthday party for Allie. So on Sunday July 18th, we went to cousin Kathy’s place for a cookout and had […]
Continue reading
Rainy Day at the Mines
The day after the bird park visit, there was another thing that Irfan wanted to do with his grandparents – which was to bowl. Actually the previous day we did attempt to travel to the bowling alley at Midvalley but the arcology was jam-packed with cars, so we instead went birdwatching. However, on this day we decided to see if the bowling alley at the mall known as the Mines Shopping Fair was good for a game. It was, so there we bowled. Only Irfan, Ain, Irfan’s Atok and I played, though Irfan’s Opah had a go during one of Ain’s round. One stand-out characteristic of the Mines Shopping Fair is the canal that runs through the mall itself. There are boats with which a visitor could be brought out to the lakes, either to the north or the south of the mall. Only Irfan and his granddad took a […]
Continue reading
An Exploration of the Aviary
Atok and Opah came a-visiting for the school holidays, and one of the places Irfan wanted to go with them was the Kuala Lumpur Bird Park. It was quite huge and housed many species of birds, most of which are free to fly about under the park’s netting enclosure. Sure, there were a number of cages which housed lots of the wilder birds, but the amount of birds walking, flying, perching and eating among the visitors were just astounding. Because it rained earlier in the morning, Irfan wore his Atok’s hat just in case it rained again. The hat stood by constantly in Atok’s car for emergency usage. Irfan later became a perch for a couple of colourful birds. He was happy the birds didn’t poop on him. Ain tried to fend off a bloodthirsty pack of crowned pigeons. Will the fence hold if the ostrich attacks? Irfan thought nervously. […]
Continue reading
Subang Airport Pickup
After 10 days back in Pasir Mas, Irfan’s Cik Ma returned to KL by way of the old Subang Airport, which is now the new “Subang Skypark”. It seemed to have transformed from a musty warehouse airport into a 21st century shopping mall airport. Doors opened automatically for us and stuff! There were two banks in the building accessible from the inside! (Not that we had any cash in them.) One of those new-fangled Starbucks coffee shop too, which probably has coffee! Irfan posed before the Skypark’s big screen computer display of the inbound and outbound flights. His Cik Ma’s flight is on there, speeding closer to the airport. Also, someone has a new digital wristwatch. See? Wristwatch. Also, someone met his cousin Aiman who also came to the Skypark to see Cik Ma. Finally, the cousins rode on their Cik Ma’s trolley. Why? Because it’s cool, that’s why. I […]
Continue readingAllie’s 22 Month Birthday
So Allie turned 22 months old on the 22nd (yesterday)! Since it fell on a Saturday and I didn’t have to work, Vin and I had a fun day planned out for the girl. And I apologize way in advance for the sheer number of pictures in this entry. [[image:allie626a.jpg:Hey look, I’m in my entertainment center!:center:0]] (Allie wanted to try her old entertainment center again – she was much too tall for it but she had fun pretending to be half her age!) * Mouse over the pictures for captions So in the past month, Allie seems to have gone through a bit of a growth spurt. She’s outgrown her shoes and a bunch of her clothes so Vin and I have outfitted her for the summer with 24-month clothes. She definitely is very chatty and says a lot of things (none of them actual words), and her animal noise […]
Continue readingIrfan Takes To The Alleys
The bowling alley, to be precise. Thanks to Irfan’s Cik Emma, we all went for a round of bowling last Sunday. Irfan was at first hesitant to pick up a bowling ball, but soon found himself having fun throwing the ball at the pins. The pins, I hoped, had fun being knocked down by us. [[image:bowling-01-01.jpg:Irfan the bowler:center:0]] Because we were assigned the rightmost lane, there’s space for us to take photos by the side of the alley.[[image:bowling-01-02.jpg:The gang?:center:0]] Irfan again, the moment before he pulled back and swung forward. He managed to hit a majority of the pins in one of his tries.[[image:bowling-01-03.jpg:Attempt to knock down pins:center:0]] He began to enjoy the game more and more.[[image:bowling-01-04.jpg:Running in victory:center:0]] Irfan’s Ummi lets loose a bowling ball. Because we recently saw the movie, she chuckled when I told her we needed a Donny so we can tell him to shut up.[[image:bowling-01-05.jpg:Rolling […]
Continue reading
Yet Another Gathering of Old Schoolmates
And old school, we were. The school being ACS Sitiawan. The location being the pool level of Mei Lin’s apartment building. Thanks for hosting the little gathering, Mei. ‘Twas fun times.
Continue readingSatay Kajang with Jen and Mike
After 10 years of being friends with Sila – and working with her even now – Jen Laaback visits Malaysia for the first time after vacationing for almost two weeks on a boat up in Thailand. Upon arriving at Kuala Lumpur, Jen, Mike and the rest of the company were accosted by Hisham and family who shanghaied them into having dinner at Samuri’s Satay Kajang which was located in Kajang, away from the throngs of other vacationeers and tourists, foreign and domestic. [[image:satay-with-jen-mike01.jpg:The gang at Samuri’s satay place:center:0]] Three points: They loved the load of tripe that was served, so more tripeloads next time; Irfan was shy and spoke little though he played with his Ultraman and dragon toy with the gang; and Jen figured out the old family joke with the signposts that begin with “Sila”, like “Sila beratur!” and “Sila diam!” [[image:satay-with-jen-mike02.jpg:Mike took this picture:center:0]] We hope you […]
Continue reading