Episode 4 A Night At The Opera Last time (a year and 4 days ago in real time), despite being badly injured and walking on crutches, Detective DJ Stark (played by Irfan) succeeded in thwarting the scheme of the Cult of the Pale Nurses in their bid to summon the extradimensional being Sharakh-Kheth from crossing over into our universe and utterly demolishing the Saint Agatha Medical Centre in Brisbane, San Francisco. (Yesterday afternoon we continued the Call of Cthulhu RPG campaign to see how Detective Stark was faring. Polyhedrals and paperminis deployed, Irfan wondered what Lovecraftian creatures and machinations he would encounter in this session. It was six weeks later in game time…) Stark had been back to work at his precinct for two weeks, getting quickly bored by a desk job. His phone rang. A familiar elderly voice could be heard. “Mr. Chao,” said Stark. “I take it my […]
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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.
Boy Spells Words
Irfan told informed us that he was invited by a teacher to attend some spelling bee. Later he told us the event was to be held at a local hotel: the biggest hotel in town. He didn’t even tell is it was this prestigious contest: You can read about the contest here. We arrived and I took some photos before Irfan joined his school contingent for registration. There were 150 attendees from his school. After registration, the teacher in charge briefed his contingent. It looks like there were representatives from every Form. Irfan and the other First Formers take a photo together. He was the only one from his class. This appeared to be the qualifying round. There was only a preliminary written test for the attendees. If Irfan makes it past the preliminaries, the next event would be the State Challenge which according to the website would be held […]
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A Return To the Tenth Floor
It’s the Labour Day/Wesak Day long weekend. We were unsure if we were able to travel 500 klicks plus change to the old house back on the Tenth Floor in Kuala Lumpur. We had planned on departing at 3AM, but because we were exhausted we awoke at six, and after gearing up were only able to push off from Kangar at seven. Twitter warned us of slow traffic on the highway ahead of us, which forced us off and into the state roads near Selama toward Taiping. Soon we decided to stop at Atok and Opah’s in Sitiawan for a brief rest and Friday prayers. We resumed our journey at 3PM and reached Kuala Lumpur by nightfall. It was a strange feeling, returning there after five months away from the city. I don’t believe we were ever away from the city anywhere near this amount of time. The strangeness was […]
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A Return to Burger Republik
Because we sent some freelance proofreading work in the direction of the proprietor of Burger Republik, they invited us over for dinner on the house. I had the chicken kebab which was perfect and juicy. Especially the onions. Because onions! Ain had ordered a new item on their menu, the salmon. I thought the bean sprouts gave the fish a great taste and texture. Although I loved my kebab, I quickly wished I had ordered the salmon instead. But all is good, because we all share our food with each other anyway. Irfan had a “Broadway Burger”. But there was no photo of it, just this photo of Irfan devouring said burger. Because we found the selection of Burger Republik’s menu quite appetising, we shall return there!
Continue readingAtok and Opah’s April Visit
Atok and Opah visited us in Perlis once more, this time to help ensure all went well during the my last ever semester final examinations. If I make it through this, then I would have a Bachelor of English Studies degree. And in a position to do something with it. [[image:2015-atok-opah-april01.jpg::center:0]] We planned for a picnic at Gua Kelam, but rainfall overnight caused a change in plans so we went to Tasik Melati which appeared to be overrun by ants and water lettuce, although the lily pads were pretty neat. [[image:2015-atok-opah-april02.jpg::center:0]] However, after breakfast at Tasik Melati we found ourselves at Gua Kelam anyway because we travelled quite a bit past Sungai Batu Pahat northbound toward Kaki Bukit. [[image:2015-atok-opah-april03.jpg::center:0]] We enjoyed the greenery at the Gua Kelam Secret Garden on the other side of the cave tunnel where we finished off the leftover of our Tasik Melati breakfast. [[image:2015-atok-opah-april04.jpg::center:0]] There […]
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EOTE Tabletop Day Episode: Together Again For The First Time
Edged by the Empire Episode 10 Together Again For The First Time Previously on Edged by the Empire… It was International Tabletop Day again, and like last year we played Star Wars Edge of the Empire again. However we played not on a table, but on the floor. With the 15 XP carried over from the previous session, Irfan bought the Grit talent for his smuggler character Hondo Pash, increasing his Strain. The finale for the campaign that started on January 2013 with Escape from Mos Shuuta begins… One Man Revolution Radiation and stellar gases swamped the Shadda-Bi-Boran system from its primary star. A squadron of five Star Destroyers aided by numerous smaller corvettes and tenders manoeuvred themselves to surround a three-klick wide asteroid that sheltered a secret Imperial base that belonged to Admiral Keargan Kanu. As the cordon closed in on the flat lump of rock, Admiral Kanu was […]
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Brief Lives
When Irfan signed up for school here in a new state, I had no idea how he would adapt. Would there be older, wiser example students there? Will there be anyone in school that would inspire him? Back in Pandan Indah, the answer would be a solid no. Less than a week into the school year, Irfan had already found a close friend. Soon after we were all acquainted with his friend’s family. They live closer to school, in a housing area that we thought we would move in. His friend had an elder brother – a humble, smart, intelligent and witty teenager who received good grades at school with ample knowledge about computers and guitar-playing. He and Irfan’s classmate came over to the house and helped me try installing Linux Mint onto the new laptop. Needless to say, I was very impressed with this boy. However, after a two-year […]
Continue readingFinally TIme for a Breather and a Kitty
I have not been posting much because life in the last month or so has been very hectic. [[image:bettycat-arrives05.jpg:Betty loves Google+:center:0]] First, I was commissioned to proofread a doctorate student’s thesis from a neighbouring university. The work has – to put it simply – given me the desire to take a Master’s Degree once I’m done with this Bachelor’s Degree in English Studies, and perhaps if the opportunity opens up even a Doctor of Philosophy Degree eventually. What in? I have no idea just yet, but I am looking into Applied Linguistics. Perhaps I could integrate tabletop gaming into it somehow. Secondly, I began writing the assignment papers for this semester, which should be my final semester in this Bachelor of English Studies programme. I spent all weekends reading and writing for these assignments. Although some of them are freeform writing requiring no reading, most of them required me to […]
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An Unexpected Guest: The Wet Sprocket
Upon returning home from Pasir Mas to pay our last respects to Irfan’s Nyang, we discovered that the house had an unexpected guest. It was a big katak puru that took refuge among the old laundry causing Ain to scream out loud when it jumped after being startled. Ain and the local fauna appear to love to startle each other at the same time. It attempted to flee deeper into where the glassware was stored, but Irfan and I boxed it in, literally. Soon, the toad was released out to the recently-harvested bendang. Where I assume he lived happily ever after.
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Ya Seen For Nyang
Last Monday, Irfan’s only living great grandmother passed away. She was 91 and only after her death did we learn that both Irfan and his Nyang shared a birthday. We departed for Pasir Mas to pay our last respects to Nyang. Because of financial reasons we had never balik kampung to Pasir Mas in the entire year of 2014. For a moment we had to cancel the trip which saddened Irfan a great deal as he was looking forward to meet his cousin Aiman who he had not seen since we left Kuala Lumpur. Then a cheque cleared at the bank. Irfan read Ya Seen at Nyang’s graveyard with Aiman at his side. Tok Bah and Tok Ma also read Ya Seen for Nyang’s departed husband who Irfan never met. Earlier, Irfan and Aiman also taught (or attempted to, as time was short) their second cousins to play Uno. Needless […]
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A Legendary Card Game with Marvellous Heroes
Before we left the city, the GOKL guys gifted to us Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game. We tried to play it when they brought it over the last time they visited, but it was too late for a game, we only managed one round before they had to leave. Now, after I’ve located which of the dozens of moving boxes the game was hiding in, Irfan and I finally started playing it. The concept of the game is simple: the city is in peril from a Scheme of one super-powered criminal Mastermind, aided and abetted by other super-villains and henchmen. You purchase and play a number of heroes (with their abilities) to stop this scheme from coming to fruition. Every round, you flip a card from the Villain Deck which start to occupy city locations. Newer villain cards push older cards further into the city. After being pushed five […]
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Irfan Gets a Dendrobium
Atok and Opah came to visit for a better part of the week to see Irfan’s first official day in school. They also spent some time with Irfan, visiting some sights in the area. Opah took Irfan to an orchid nursery where she bought for him a white Dendrobium, which I believe is the RX-78GP03 third development model of the Gundam. Now he has a plant to take care of every day and we will learn how green Irfan’s thumb is.
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First Weekend of the Year
Our first weekend of the year was an eventful one. Irfan registered at his new secondary school, which was not far from the house. He would be able to ride a bicycle to it, once we buy one for him. He might be the tallest one in his class, but I might yet be surprised. He was not the only tall one in his class last year, and neither was I at his age, despite both our above average heights at our respective ages. Here, Irfan and his Ummi pose for a photo before we all drive out to school. The is quite nice. It looks very well kept. We shall soon discover how he would fare in this school. After the registration, we all went upstairs to get exercise books, badges, ties, school t-shirts and other such items. After trying out the tie for the first time which I […]
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EOTE: Adversity of the Unexpected
Edged by the Empire Episode 09 Adversity of the Unexpected Previously on Edged by the Empire… Ticket to Ride A pair of grey Aratech 74-Z speeder bikes – modified to have no flight ceiling – flew westward from the city of Shoribus, the capital city of Kabal in the Mayagil Sector, on a personal mission. Smuggler Hondo Pash‘s sister Yuzy and mother Doro were abducted by his father, whom he recently learned was an Imperial Admiral named Keargan Kanu. To retrieve them, he would have to find Admiral Kanu. The only clue as to where Kanu might be is his secret weapon cache located upon the vast Skolaris Cliff. As they passed over thick swamps with winding rivers and the occasional gargantuan trees that towered over everything else, Giin Lawquane, the armored mercenary and security officer in the other speeder spoke via his helmet comlink, “Bothth. What if Yuzy doethn’t […]
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EOTE: On the Trail of Dad
Edged by the Empire Episode 08 On The Trail of Dad Previously on Edged by the Empire… Irfan had 35 XPs, so he blew it on a couple of more Talents, namely a second Skilled Jockey, a second Galaxy Mapper and Improved Dead to Rights. He was free of any Obligations for this episode after rolling an 81. (His Obligation: Family is 30 and Giin’s Obligation: Bounty is 20). Finally the Destiny pool was 2 light side and one dark side. On his homeworld of Blue Nirvada, the young smuggler Hondo Pash, the captain of the Lava Jaeger has discovered that both his parents, long thought to be dead, were still alive and appeared to be mortal enemies. His mother was Doro Pash and his father, the Imperial Admiral Keargan Kanu. Upon Hondo and his armoured mercenary guard Giin Lawquane rescuing his aunt Zosy Pash from Imperial agents, Zosy revealed […]
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First Entry From The North
Here we are at the northernmost part of the country, over a hundred klicks away from the nearest population centre which could be called a “city”. We live in a kampung, although not in a kampung house. There is a mango orchard less than fifty metres away. Beyond the mango orchard is a rice field. Between that rice field and another one a hundred times bigger than it is a canal with plenty of fish. A far cry from the city. I love the sound of insects at night, the patter of rain on the roof and on leaves of nearby flora, the immediate friendliness of neighbours. I don’t miss city traffic one bit. More to come.
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