Irfan’s cousin Aiman’s celebrated his first birthday last Sunday. So they gladly played together after the birthday meal. Here’s Irfan allowing Aiman to maul him on the floor.
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Dinner With Irfan’s Tok and Opah Unggai
Irfan’s grandparents are here from Sitiawan and have been spending several days with us. Tonight they will be heading for Middletown where they will spend the next two months with Vin, Sila and their upcoming child. On Saturday, Irfan’s great-uncle and great-aunt, designated Tok Unggai and Opah Unggai arrived all the way from Taiping to spend the night at the Tenth Floor. We were soon joined by their daughter and son-in-law, designated Cik Da and Pak Long Fadzil. Opah Unggai recently had a promotion and had decided to treat us for dinner. Ain and I thought the Thai restaurant in the Pandan Indah sprawl close by would be great for the dinner. Night fell and we headed for the restaurant where we had sweet and sour siakap, steamed siakap, kailan ikan masin, kerabu mangga, tom yam campur and telur bungkus. [[image:opah_unggai_belanja01.jpg:The ones belanja-ing in the foreground:center:0]] [[image:opah_unggai_belanja02.jpg:Ain uses a holographic […]
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Aerocarnival 2008
As I spent three full days over the weekend (plus Friday) manning the booth at Aerocarnival 2008 which was held at UniKL-MIAT, Ain, Irfan, Cik Emma and Cik Su went about the fair outdoors, taking photos among the static displays. There were lots of kids looking for jobs in the aviation industry, wearing the wrong clothes for it and with bad haircuts. Needless to say I was a crazy old man with a shotgun yelling at the kids to get off the lawn.
Continue readingThe Smell of Blood, Finally Realised
Long have I read in books where the author describes of the scent of fresh blood, especially in crime novels where a gruesome murder had taken place, or a horror novel where some unfortunate soul gets his or her skin flayed for whatever reason. Long have I also thought (each time I read such thins) that I know not the scent of fresh blood. Perhaps it was because I rarely visit places where gruesome murders, or supernatural flayings, or accidents in blood banks occur. Recently, during Aidiladha (Happy belated Aidiladha everyone) we went back to Pasir Mas where as it was normal during the celebration, many bulls and cows were slaughtered for food to be given to family, friends and the less fortunate. So there I was at the yard of Ain’s uncle’s home in the neighbouring village of Lati. We were there a couple of hours late, so we […]
Continue readingIrfan, Uncles and Anti-Gravity
Irfan went swimming this morning at the building’s swimming pool. With him went his Opah Cu and his uncles, Pak Ngah and Pak Cu. Thanks to exotic technology that manipulates gravitons, Irfan, Pak Ngah and Pak Cu were floating about on the water using anti-gravity. Atuk Irfan was there to take pictures of the amazing event with his camera. Here are several images of the wire-fu hijinks. [[image:jumpwater01.jpg:We’ve lost artificial gravity!!!!:center:0]] [[image:jumpwater02.jpg:I know kung fu:center:0]] [[image:jumpwater03.jpg:Repair that damaged gravity! Yes sir!:center:0]] [[image:jumpwater04.jpg:Buddies in a road trip… into the water:center:0]] [[image:jumpwater05.jpg:Nathan Petrelli? He’s got nothing on these guys.:center:0]] Suddenly, the gravity comes back on…. and then, splash! [[image:jumpwater06.jpg:Impact!:center:0]]
Continue readingIrfan Gets a Diploma
There was a ceremony today. It was organised by the owners of the kindergartens, one of which was Irfan’s. So today Irfan got a diploma. Before that, though, there were a couple of speeches and performances by 5- and 6-year-olds. Irfan’s class performed a little dance. The music went along the lines of “going to the zoo”. Some kids were the zoo animals. Some were trees. Irfan was the middle ‘O’ of the word ‘ZOO’ and was in the middle of the back row probably because of his height. No surprise, cause that’s where I was usually placed in old school photos as well. [[image:letter_o_01.jpg:O RLY?:center:0]] [[image:letter_o_02.jpg:The march to the stage:center:0]] [[image:letter_o_03.jpg:He loves his white gloves:center:0]] [[image:letter_o_04.jpg:Assembly onstage.:center:0]] [[image:letter_o_05.jpg:Performance is over:center:0]] Then, the camera batteries died, and I had to switch to my phonecam for the diploma-giving. [[image:convo01.jpg:Getting ready to get onstage:center:0]] [[image:convo02.jpg:Irfan and friends get their diploma:center:0]] [[image:convo03.jpg:Irfan and […]
Continue readingEid Mubarak From Sitiawan
[[popup:aidilfitri2007.jpg:(thumbnail):Everone but Sila & Vin:left:1]]Click on the thumbnail on the left for a photo of everyone present for Aidilfitri this morning. Although it wasn’t perfectly done, the different families are colour coded for ease of identification. 🙂 Although you can’t see them, Sila and Vin were also present by way of Skype video call and were privy to the regular Raya ruckus. Ain’t information technology grand? Their actual presence are missed by us all and we’re looking forward to them able to make it for Hari Raya in the coming years.
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There Were Trees, Fruits Grew Off Them
The previous weekend, we were all at Pasir Mas where Irfan’s cousin’s kenduri transpired. However the kenduri photos are still in Cik Emma’s camera so we have instead for this post photos of a bunch of folks (namely Irfan’s Tok Bah, Abang Kie, Emma, Ain and I) invading Tok Bah’s orchard. The invasion would end in the acquiring of several large baskets full of dokong and manggis! The English name for manggis is well-documented and known to us since we were young. However, I can’t for the life of me find out what dokong (also spelled dukung) is in English. So, what could Ain be looking up at? Anyone? Anyone? If you look real hard you can see a plastic bucket among the leaves. Tok Bah is filling it up with the dark purple shells of manggis filled with sweet, juicy white flesh within. Next tree over, bunches of dokong […]
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Under Water And On Ground
Last week, Atuk and Opah Irfan came a-visiting to spend some time with their favourite grandkid. (No competition… he’s their only grandkid for now. Right, fellow Hishgraphics blog writer? For now, right?) I took the following picture to show them the camera capability of the phone, including the Bluetooth transfer of the image to the laptop. I love the Bluetooth function. Makes life much easier. Though I have to check whether it also turns my teeth blue once in a while. Then, Atuk took Irfan to the field to play football, also exclusively known as “soccer” to the humans of the United States. It seems like Irfan has the style down pat. Irfan proceeded to display his aptitude for travelling in water to Atuk and Opah. I can’t believe he’s now able to paddle and float his way across the deep end of the pool. His head is submerged most […]
Continue readingFamily Reunion in Belle River – Addendum
Check it out! Whooooosh! [[image:poolslider.jpg:Vin goes splash:center:0]] And please note that at the end of the day, there were reports that the slide was starting to fall apart. We (and I include me in this) did enjoy going down that slide! 🙂
Continue readingFamily Reunion in Belle River
July has been a pretty eventful month for Vin and me, I have all kinds of things to blog about. But it has also been a pretty busy work month, so it hasn’t been too conducive to blogging. But before we finish out the month of July, I wanted to reflect back on our trip up to Belle River, Ontario earlier in the month. A family reunion was held at Vin’s cousin Liz’s house. This is the maternal side of Vin’s family – Vin’s Auntie Vera settled in Canada and we were happy to be included in the gathering. This was my first time meeting everyone other than Joanne, so forgive me if I make any mistakes naming all the family members! On the day itself, luckily we had name tags. 🙂 [[image:bru01.jpg:Auntie Vera on the left, cousin Pam on the right:center:0]] We had a lovely time at Liz’s place […]
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Irfan’s First First Cousin
Today begins a new era in Irfan’s life. He is now officially a first cousin to another human, in this case the less-than-a-day-old, yet nameless newborn son of Kak Nor & Abg Kie. He’s a pretty handsome, but quiet and sleepy dude. Which is better than the poor girl in the cot beside him, who seemed to be having a nightmare. What nightmares can a 3-hour old baby have anyway? We’ll go and visit Irfan’s new cousin again tomorrow and see if we can get better photos. The nurse gave Cik Emma a hard time today for taking pictures in the ward. The sleepy one: The sleepy one turns the other way: Irfan decides to join his cousin in the dreamlands:
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 readingA Couple of Checks and He’s Seaworthy
No fear of taking a leap into the deep end of the swimming pool: check No fear of submerging his entire body and head underwater with eyes open: check Ability to stay afloat without using any flotation gear: check Moving on and in the water under his own power: check No problems breathing while all of the above are occurring: check It’s official. Irfan is now ready to explore the undersea realm. (Well, not really seaworthy yet… but he really can swim.)
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]] […]
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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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