Once upon a time, Irfan learned how to walk. It was an evening at the 10th floor many centuries ago. He had been trying to stand and walk, I guess, in the interim. Suddenly, he was able to ambulate in what later became his own room, on the brown parquet floor. Some minutes later, he was racing around the round dinner table in the dining area between the hall and the kitchen. Ain was cooking. I was also pacing Irfan though across the table from him. I then stopped at the kitchen threshold and said, “Hi, Ummi!” to Ain, then bolted to continue my orbit. Right on cue Irfan, who was barely able to speak then, also mimicked me. He halted at the kitchen threshold and also called, “Hi, Ummi”. Then we took turns circling the table and calling, “Hi Ummi” to Ain for some time, laughing and giggling. Here […]
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Irfan on the new desktop
When this blog was founded, Irfan was not yet three years old.
He is now an adult with many more leagues to travel.
BM Course at LEAD
There are a number of courses that I had to take upon being appointed as permanent staff at the university. And I had three years to take them all. This week I was scheduled to take a Bahasa Melayu course. It was a great course as we talked about things I loved, like sociolinguistics, language drift, history of the language and such. The lecturers who would deliver the course were my colleagues, Zaki, Jannah, and Noriha – who once played Rayha the Linguist. The BM course was to be held at LEAD. And I seem to recall knowing an intern who works there. Click on the images below for a larger view:
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Interning at LEAD
It seemed as if it was only five years ago that we were stressing out finding a kindergarten for young Irfan. We were in our car, scouting all the pre-schools in Pandan Indah with the questions, Would we be able to afford it? Is it safe? Will he pick up bad habits from other human younglings? A blink of an eye later, here he is doing internship at the Centre for Sustainable Academic Leadership Development (LEAD) at UniMAP. His first foray into the working world, after some years studying across the highway from the university with three of his cohorts.
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Cousins Passing Through
And so it came to pass that cousin Razlyn informed us that she was dropping by for a day stop. Her daughters Shahidah and Nabilah (Irfan’s cousins), Siraj – a boardgaming fan, and her were travelling down from Thailand. They were there for a quick vacation by train. Earlier today, they arrived from the train station by the rideshare service Grab. There was a period of reintroduction for Irfan and conversation, then we set a course for Nipah Klasik for lunch. We had more fun conversations about education and family stories and such. After that Ain and I drove Razlyn around to check out Kuala Perlis, Arau, the main UniMAP campus, then headed north to see our old school in Beseri where we both had spent two years there. After that we headed home for drinks and solat. Soon it was late afternoon and it was time for them to […]
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A Melaka 2023 Postscript
Previously… Day Three Postscript: Port Dickson Before heading up to KL, we took photos at the A Famosa fort (from a distance), the submarine museum (just the exterior), and stopped for some keria which were super delicious when still warm. Especially in the rain-cooled air. As we headed north for Kuala Lumpur, we passed the Melaka Zoo! That was a delightful surprise. However, we did not stop. When Irfan took the wheel once more, I fell asleep when we entered the PLUS Highway. Apparently I was asleep for almost an hour. When I woke up we were back on the Federal road somewhere in the sticks in the state of Negeri Sembilan. Ain and Irfan were navigating their way towards Port Dickson. It was touch and go because we were running out of fuel. Suddenly a Shell station revealed itself, which we found to be located at the southern end […]
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Work Excursion to Melaka
Previously… I was invited by the English Department of Pay Fong Middle School in Melaka to run RPGs and give a talk during their English Week programme. With my RPG gear in tow and Ain and Irfan as my support team, I was ready to for the events in the next few days on behalf of UniMAP. Day One: Year Zero Mini (2023-07-27) Because we were due be at the school after lunch, it allowed us time to recuperate from the drive the previous day. The storefronts along the beachfront road were closed except for one Indian Muslim restaurant, so we had lunch there. After Zuhur/Asar jama’ prayers, we headed there to meet with my contact there, the English teacher Kelvin. Thankfully, school traffic was not as jammed as the previous day. We easily found a parking spot. Then we went to the school’s language lab, where I ran Year […]
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Build-Up To Melaka Work Excursion
Before the Storm The last weekend we made an officially sanctioned work excursion to Melaka. Gray of KakiTabletop initiated a communication with Pay Fong Middle School in Melaka. From there the school sent me a formal invitation via the workplace. I had been invited to run some TTRPG sessions for the secondary school students for their English Language Week. And Saturday Morning, I was slated to give a talk about the benefits of TTRPGs in language education. Melaka is even further south than Kuala Lumpur, which gave me pause. After a quick discussion with the home team, we figured that we could pull it off. Plus it would be a new experience for me. The last time I ran games for secondary school students was back in the 1990s. However, because of personal reasons Gray was not able to make it with me, so it would just be Irfan, Ain […]
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Hari Raya Haji 1444H
For Aidiladha, we returned to Sitiawan where Ain made nasi minyak and ayam masak biryani. Here are some photos of the first day of Raya in Sitiawan. Click on them to expand. After taking photos, we went for a drive to Lumut. For the first time in a long while we pulled over and walked at the promenade (See photos). It was peculiar. Vacation season, but not a lot of humans at the pier as it usually is. Because of a medical emergency, we could not go visit the folks I wanted to visit this time around. We spent the second day of Raya at the Manjung Hospital. It was physically and mentally exhausting. In any case, we got to speak to the Middletown team via Discord early on the second day – which also wears away at my somewhat weary soul. So long since we were able to meet […]
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Hari Raya Puasa 1444H
We departed home evening two days before Raya, and travelled our usual route over the mountains. We stopped for dinner at the Gurun rest stop. The food was not bad. Then Irfan pointed the car east and headed towards the mountains. We took our time. Irfan carefully manoeuvred us around a traffic accident site near Baling, then we stopped for a shut eye for at least over an hour at the Gerik junction rest stop. After sleeping I got some coffee and roti telur and took over from Irfan at around 3 am. We ignored the Panglima Bayu junction and headed for Tanah Merah. It was almost dawn, so we pulled over after the new elevated road for sahur. After that, Ain drove us all the way to Pondok Lubok Tapah. Then Raya happened – among other things.
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Rania Pre-Aidilfitri Visit
It is the day before Hari Raya. Based on our annual Eid schedule, we will be spending Aidilfitri in Pasir Mas. On the eve of our journey, we received visitors from Rania and family who will be spending their Aidilfitri Day One here up north with Farid’s family. It was great that Nia and Irfan had some fun together. Next day, we will depart for Pasir Mas in the evening, passing over the mountains overnight and hopefully arrive in Pasir Mas before Subuh.
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First Visitors of 2023
Our first visitors for the year were Teik Sing, Michelle, Ashley, Emma and Ezra. Day One As mentioned before, Teik Sing and I have been best friends since we were 7 years old at ACS Sitiawan. Here we are decades later – with homes timezones apart – still being friends, talking about ideas and stories, old and new. I wish I had the resources to someday visit his home and talk shop there. Because Ain had to take care of her parents who had been visiting since last month, Irfan and I went to their hotel to greet them. Coincidentally we were using similar models of cars. First of all, we went to have some lok chin along the Kuala Perlis shoreline. We talked and the kids got to know each other some more. En route back to Kangar, we stopped at Kota Kayang Museum, but it was about to […]
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Anya in Alor Setar
It’s not every day Anya headed up north. So it was great to hang out with them when they came up north for the wedding of Ayah Cik Farid’s cousin. The wedding was held at Hotel Seri Malaysia in the middle of the city. Because Tok Bah and Tok Ma were staying with us, we all went for a jaunt to Alor Setar for the day. Here are some photos of the excursion:
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Two Decades of Irfan
It seems incredible. Our son is twenty years of age today. Where did the time go? Oh, I forgot. Time was sucked in and consumed by the singularity known as the Covid-19 quarantine, also known as the plague year. In any case, our mic testing, Vietnam roll making, galactic smuggler offspring has been alive in this space-time continuum for two whole decades. In any case, here are some photos of the celebrations tonight.
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Kangar Jaya After Dark
Tonight we went to scout the new township of Kangar Jaya at Seriab. We stopped for some ice cream at Mokti’s Signature, located beside Lepak King. Sometimes (well most of the time) there are no messages behind my posts, just pictures which I thought are pretty enough to be posted.
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More Aidiladha in Selangor Tales
After the MAHSA visit, it was time to take it easy. The penultimate day of our visit we scouted Kuala Lumpur, checking out Pandan Indah though there were no photos taken there. We did have lunch at Burger King at the Petronas near Lotus Ampang (formerly Tesco). We also checked out the new (relatively new for us) KL East Mall where Irfan bought shoes and got some books. One of them was a gift for Anya. Then we visited cousin Razlyn’s house. We had not seen her for years. We expressed our condolences for the passing of her father and my uncle, whom we called Anjang. When I travelled to KL after SPM for various interviews and such, I stayed a lot with them. Anjang was nothing but kind to me. At home, I gave the book to Anya and that night we had a family dinner out in Nilai. […]
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Nipah Klasik
We discovered this really neat restaurant recently. The eatery is nestled among a thick grove of nipah plants growing out of a swamp slightly south of Simpang Empat. Besides having food that we found delicious, the actual restaurant was built on stilts over the swamp. Visitors can sit at tables over the water. The water beneath is clean and clear. No bugs bothered us. Though there were some spider webs that Irfan kept his eye on as we had lunch there. Check out the video below for a walk-through of the restaurant over the swamp.
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