So I arrived at Kuala Lumpur International Airport from Bangalore by way of Chennai (which I was told used to be called Madras, by the way) at around 1540 hours this morning. I was early enough to jama’ qasar my Isha’ with my Maghrib before Subuh began. Tonight while putting him to bed, Ain & I came to the conclusion that Irfan (like most kids his age) are 2/7th (or 0.28571429) of the Seven Dwarves (as told by what is now known as the Disney Company). Why? Cause he’s both Grumpy and Sleepy at the same time when fighting his lethargy.
Continue readingTag Archives: Irfan
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.
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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Irfan Goes To Cherating
For the Thaipusam / Federal Territory Day holidays, we went for a free night’s stay (plus one extra night of paid stay) at a resort at Cherating in Pahang. It was not realy in Cherating, but further up north towards Chukai, in the seaside hamlet of Chendor. (Don’t ask about all the ‘Ch’ names at the towns there, I don’t get it either.) It was a resort by the sea, pretty clean, homey and had a relaxing atmosphere. I’m gonna let the pictures tell the stories and I’ll be over there listening to MP3s if anyone needs me. By the way, the free night stay was an belated anniversary and birthday present to us from Cik Emma. Many thanks to her for booting us out of the house so we can enjoy some fresh air outside the city. Irfan loved the bedsheets. After discovering the superb swimming pool, we had […]
Continue readingTok & Opah Irfan Comes A-visiting
Last Saturday, my parents (also known as Irfan’s Grandparents) came to spend several days with us. It was the first time, they saw Irfan all dressed up ready to go to school with his memory bag prepared for battle. It was also fun for them to be seeing Irfan spelling out words, writing the alphabet and reciting bedtime and mealtime doas. His claim that W was an inverted M is quite amusing.[[image:zippy01.jpg:Watching TV:center:0]] Sunday morning, Ain, Irfan and I took Tok & Opah Irfan for a visit at Sungai Congkak. Irfan as usual loved the river and liked seeing leaves go over the rocks in the river. I also showed him beautiful blue dragonflies, water skimmers and vibrant, green algae growing out of roots of the tall trees at the riverbank. Tok Irfan took some great photos.[[image:zippy03.jpg:Irfan on the rocks:center:0]][[image:zippy02.jpg:Good luck getting me out of the water:center:0]] Irfan also had […]
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Irfan Goes To Kindergarten
Today was Irfan’s first day at school. He was awakened an hour earlier than usual and was thrust under a shower much to his displeasure. But after a warm bottle of milk, he was all psyched up at the notion of going to school and meeting new friends. Among the shadows in the back, Irfan’s dad was hoping he’d learn about how to handle the darker side of humanity, such as jealousy, vengeance, rage and other disagreeable traits stemming from fear and the inability to deal with one’s emotions. And certainly a bunch of 4-6 year olds will teach him how to deal with those. Yes, they will. But getting back to getting ready for school, Irfan really loved his socks and shoes. He couldn’t wait to get into them and fly out the door. Here is Irfan showing off his new uniform and his Spider-Man backpack which I bought […]
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Irfan Breaks Teluk Batik Surf
Tuesday morning Tok Irfan took us all to Teluk Batik, my old beach stomping ground, for a picnic. Naturally like all my old stomping grounds it doesn’t look a bit like what it used to when the old crew combed the beach for nothing in particular, swimming among the jellyfish spawn and getting painfully sunburned. No more easy access with the car to the edge of the sand. No more wide grassy area just short of the beach. No more walks through the wilderness to the neighbouring Teluk Rubiah (now a golf course instead of a desolate beach). Upon holing up, Irfan immediately went for the water with me in tow, although he was reluctant to jump in immediately. But I held his hand and he waded in cautiously, giggling each time the waves hit him. He didn’t complain at all when I took him out where his legs couldn’t […]
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A Snappy New Year To All
Another Gregorian year is over. There were numerous message replies to it over text messaging, such as the fairly regular “Yep! Happy New Year!” to “I propose a moratorium on New Years for another 50 years”, and the reply to my paraphrasing Agnes Skinner‘s “My bones are half dust” over how the years are treating us all, “You’re lucky. Mine’s part of someone’s grandma’s favourite Sunday dinner china…” You know who you are, regular blog readers. Because of the unsynchronised lunar and solar calendar, this time around Aidiladha was within a day of the New Year. Which usually cause our brood to form up and take group photos in front of Tok & Opah Irfan’s house right by the koi pond. This year’s photo, I wore a songkok on my head about two thousand sizes too small for no particular reason. Irfan fidgeted a lot for the pull of his […]
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Irfan Gets Wet at Ulu Langat
Sometime after noon and after Ain made mi goreng, we took a drive to the back end of Ampang, went over the hill and headed for Ulu Langat for a picnic. It would be a perfect day if not for the quadrillions of other visitors clogging up the roads, streets and paths with people and cars. I tried cursing them to transform them into frogs and such, but then I remembered that only worked in story books. After that it took us about 45 minutes to get through about 5 kilometres of road for the trip back. Traffic jams suck. Especially at narrow kampung roads. So without further adieu here are the pictures of the more fun part of the trip. We found a relatively empty spot by the river, Sungai Congkak, where we had to cross a wooden bridge to reach a clear picnic spot. There were a couple […]
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Irfan Goes To School – After A Fashion
Irfan is now registered as a Standard 1 student at Sekolah Kebangsaan Pandan Indah. He is in fact the 32nd student to be registered at the school for the 2009 intake. There were a few observations that we made about the school when we registered him there today. The school staff seem to prefer Waja as their vehicle of choice. Note to self: Find out why their preference seem to be similar. Is it because of something sinister like a Nyarlathotep cult-like thing that permeates the school? Or is Proton trying very hard to market their cars to teachers? School administration offices appear to look exactly the same anywhere in the country. Same old front desk counter, clerk tables, sofa for visitors and even the cluster of potted plants, which all looks eerily familiar for both Ain and I after twenty years. Apart from the flat screen computer monitors, I […]
Continue readingAfter That We Took Some Pictures
A belated Eid Mubarak from Ain’s kampung at Pondok Lubok Tapah, Pasir Mas. We spent a week here, and had plenty of good food to eat. The morning of Aidilfitri, Tok Ma made Nasi Dagang – Terengganu Style – but there are no pictures of that. The second day, Ain made Laksa Johor and there are no pictures of that either. For most of the rest of the week we didn’t travel out much because of the horrific traffic jams which were practically everywere. We didn’t even go to Kota Bharu, which didn’t mean we didn’t try. After the Aidilfitri prayers that morning we took some photos. Irfan put on his best action hero intense look. [[image:eid_pmas01.jpg:Intense Look of an Action Hero:center:0]] More family photos: [[image:eid_pmas02.jpg:Irfan with Tok Bah:center:0]] [[image:eid_pmas03.jpg:Family:center:0]] [[image:eid_pmas04.jpg:Irfan’s maternal family:center:0]] Later Irfan and I took a walk outside in the yard and the sun gave ample opportunity […]
Continue readingOn To The Far Side Of The Planet
Tok and Opah Irfan boarded the flight that would take them to Singapore, then hopskip to Tokyo, Chicago and finally Cincinnati where Ayah Cik and Cik Dik would be waiting to bring them to their house in Middletown, OH for a month at the United States. This would be their second time in the US. To prevent being late for the flight because of breaking of fast, we left after 6 PM from the Tenth Floor, headed for Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) which is strangely enough a million light years away from KL, but maybe that’s a subject for another entry. We broke sawm driving through Putrajaya and ate dinner after Mahgrib prayers at the Dengkil R&R on the PLUS Highway. And no, I didn’t need to pick my teeth en route. Anyway… pictures, as they say, are worth a thousand words: [[image:kliasendoff01.jpg:Irfan recharging for his high energy expenditure […]
Continue readingIrfan at Centrepoint
Centrepoint Bandar Utama, that is. While waiting for his mother to finish work, Irfan took the time doing his usual thing, running about amongst the greenery and going up and down the escalators. I thought I’d put the camera phone to good use. One thing I’ll say for Centrepoint’s garden is it’s really well kept. Shame about the crap people throw into the koi pond, though. [[image:cpoint01.jpg:Going down:center:0]] [[image:cpoint02.jpg:Coming up:center:0]] [[image:cpoint03.jpg:Running up the ramp from the basement car park:center:0]] [[image:cpoint04.jpg:Sitting still long enough for a camera shot:center:0]] [[image:cpoint05.jpg:Playing on the rocks in the garden:center:0]] [[image:cpoint06.jpg:Jumping rock to rock on the artificial waterway:center:0]]
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Exactly Four Years Ago Today…
… Irfan Shafiq was born just before 5 p.m. in the maternity ward at Kuala Lumpur Hospital. He caused his mother to be stuck at the hospital for almost 12 hours before finally decided it was time to pop out. I was right there with Ain when he popped out. When the nurse handed him to me he gave me his best “Hey… can you tell me what the heck’s going on around here” look. Atok and Opah arrived from Sitiawan today to celebrate the occasion with Irfan, after which Opah made nasi ayam for dinner. There was cake with candles (a hit with Irfan for some reason) and the photos were taken by Atok. We had dinner when Mak Long and Ayah Long came a-calling. I noticed that Irfan was sleepy by 8pm but he fought his drooping eyes until it was after 11pm, because of the occasion. I […]
Continue readingKachow!
After months of using other vehicles as substitute of Lightning McQueen from his favourite movie when playing with his toys, Irfan will finally get the real deal thanks to his Atok & Opah. Atok took these pictures and emailed them to us and Irfan was really excited looking at them. (So I’m told, cause I was wiped out before 9 pm thanks to the fever I was wracked with last night.) He’s already got Mater and Snot Rod Rip Stick Racer toys in his collection. I guess Irfan can’t wait to go to Sitiawan and get his hands on it. [[image:kachow1.jpg:Lightning McQueen:center:0]] [[image:kachow2.jpg:Lightning McQueen:center:0]] This is the 300th entry for this weblog, by the way.
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Abang Long’s Wedding
Last weekend we were back in Sitiawan where Abang Long, the second cousin of Sila and I, had his wedding in Kampung Permatang. The bunga manggar above marks the occasion of a wedding at the house. The pelamin in Wan Alang’s living room, where the bride and groom will sit. Later when they were sitting there I was unable to see anything or take any pictures because of the crowd. The grand meal set up for the groom, the bride and the bride’s family. Some tasty stuff there. The official photographer and his assistant stands by for the occasion. The guests flood in and Abang Long’s younger brother Abang Ngah greets them and directs them to the dining tents behind him where the buffet was served. Irfan and his Pak Cu Hazwan await in the shade. For some reason on three separate occasions, people thought Hazwan was my son. Suddenly, […]
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Irfan Gets a Haircut
Today I acquired the means to extract the photos in my cell phone, which have been percolating in its memory for almost two months. Some time last month, we took Irfan for a haircut at the barber’s. It was the third time for him at the place, if I remember right. He never goes first. I have to have my hair cut before him. But when he sits in the chair, he’s one docile kid, peering intently at his own reflection in the mirror as his locks come off.
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