Anya with Wonder Garden

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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Where Irfan and I had lunch sometimes after school

Where We Used To Eat

Ain did not venture into Pandan Indah the last time we were here. So, this time, we thought we would take a look. Specifically, we drove by the restaurants we used to frequent when we lived here. The entire suburb was busier than ever. But as you can see some of old regular restaurants are still there. Except for Restoran Lima Bintang. RIP Lima Bintang.

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Before departing Pandan Jaya

A Two-Day KL Reconnoitre

After the visit to the Translation Institute, Bazli and I split up. He would return north later that evening after the benchmarking, while I had more than a week left to my vacation. First thing the next day, we headed back to Nia’s place from Aiman’s place. Since we were early, we explored the area near their house and chanced upon something called MesaMall. However, it was not built upon a mesa. When Nia returned from daycare, Irfan and I introduced her to the Lion King. She was saying Simba’s name in no time. The next day, we had breakfast and then later headed to a newly-opened 99 Speedmart along the Salak Tinggi highway. Nia tried driving but she gave up as could not reach weapon and shield consoles. One thing I noticed about Nia was that she liked to perform acrobatics on my back like Irfan once liked to […]

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Ilham Bestari

The Place Where He Grew Up

The day after Aidiladha we thought we would head into the city to check out the borough of Pandan Indah where Irfan grew up. It would literally be a balik kampung for him even though the kampung was Kuala Lumpur. Born less than 10 klicks away as the crow flies in Kuala Lumpur Hospital, he knew no other home other than Pandan Indah before we moved to Perlis nearly four years ago. From Nia’s house all the way south, we travelled up north via the MEX and inserted ourselves into the MRR2. We thought we would visit Wan Cik who took care of Irfan from when he was 1 year old until he enrolled in pre-school. It was Nia’s first time at Wan Cik’s house too. Wan Cik had expanded her house since the last time we were there. Irfan caught up with Afzan who is actually his uncle. Soon […]

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The Botanical Garden Expedition

We had to balik kampung this Aidiladha holidays. The kampung we returned to was neither Ain’s nor mine. It was Irfan’s.

On Saturday, after my Research Method class and my colleague Anis’ sister’s wedding, we drove from Perlis all the way to Nia’s house. Nia was happy that we came. We also met Aiman, Zara and family there.

The plan was that the next day, Sunday, we would all rendezvous at the Botanical Gardens at Shah Alam. Ain and I have not been there since before we were married. This was the children’s first time visiting it.

There were flowers. There was a rope bridge. There was archery. There was even a troupe of monkeys.

Irfan and his cousins entered the bunny farm where Nia became superlatively elated. According to Irfan, she even fearlessly fed a large goat by hand. There were no photos of the goat, but we do have other photos.

I posted on Twitter videos of Irfan shooting arrows at orcs a bullseye:

We were having lots of fun and it was only the second day in the Klang Valley.

Ania and Ayah Ngah

A Solo Return to KL

I got a call from Shide with whom I had several work adventures with years ago who needed me to return to Kuala Lumpur for some minor business. He graciously footed the travel bill for me, so after we decided on a flight ticket. So yay! I get to ride on one of these new-fangled flying machines again. The ride was rough enough through storm clouds that some passengers exclaimed loudly. At the airport, Nia came to pick me up. (Aided by Cik Ma and Cik Su of course.) Being the month of Ramadhan, we all went to buka puasa at a Middle Eastern restaurant in Cyberjaya. I kind of like this stuff. I rarely get to sample such food. A post-meal photo was taken. Thankfully I was able to do jama’ ta’khir prayers because of travel considerations. The next morning I drew stuff for Nia while waiting for Shide […]

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V is for Vengeance

Year End KL Trip Part Three

Previously: Moving Day Day 5 The next day was the housewarming. Guests came, there were prayers and then food. And the kids of course played everywhere. Later that day, I went to rendezvous with Ivan and Phil to talk about nerdy stuff. Also, role-playing games. That night Irfan and Aiman watched Ayah Cik Farid put the TV in its proper place at the new house. Irfan used our media external hard disk drive that we named Promethium to test playing videos and music. Day 6 It was the last day of our trip to Kuala Lumpur. Ayah Cik and Cik Ma took the entire family to breakfast at a nearby restaurant. After breakfast, we headed back to pack up our gear. Before we left we took more family photos. The drive back was not too bad. There were a lot of cars, but no real jams. Not even at Pulau […]

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Nia's suggestion has been tabled

Year End KL Trip Part Two

Previously: Arrival at KL After we reached Nia Nia’s house with Aiman, it was time for the littlest cousin to join the fray. She was happy that her Abang Irfan and Abang Aiman came visiting. Grandparents Tok Bah and Tok Ma as well as the cousins’ uncle Ayah G had been there for a day before we arrived. Together we were to help Nia’s Team move from this house to their new house further down south. It was a Friday so we all went for Friday prayers at a nearby masjid. Before the television was boxed up, Nia continued to watch her favourite videos. Earlier, Irfan watched Bright on Netflix. Nia celebrated her birthday days before our arrival, so we got to taste a bit of her birthday cake. Nia overlooked the boxing operations to prepart for the move. I also got to meet up with Shide. We went out […]

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Texas Chicken

Year End KL Trip Part One

The last time I was back in Kuala Lumpur was November 2015, more than two years ago. I have not been back there since because, let’s face it: it takes a lot of resources for us to travel there. One of the reasons we were able to go back the last time was because of a paper miniature art commission that required an extraordinarily high number of designs. Without any sudden increase in art commissions we would not have the money to travel down south that far. Thankfully, I had extra teaching commission for an extra programme at work that would sustain us for the month. DAY 1 We have scheduled this trip this time because it was known that Nia Nia was moving house and we volunteered to help. We began our drive at daybreak. I had the wheel until breakfast just south of Changkat Jering after which Ain […]

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His new hoodie

Ain and Irfan Go To KL

It came to pass that Ain and Irfan went for vacation back in KL but I was not able to join them because of work. A side effect of given a new position at work after one has planned one’s year end vacation and bought travel tickets. So while I held the fort during exam season, the anak beranak spent their time with Ayah Cik, Cikma, Ciksu and Little Rania. Here are some of the photos of what happened during their away mission. Mouseover the images to read the captions. They had a fun time there, visiting some folks including Zara and Aiman, and Irfan’s former uztazah, our old neighbour back at the tenth floor. Hopefully I would be better at planning vacations next year after I have acclimatised better to my work schedule as a teacher.

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Fare thee well

Lost in Translation

We had two weeks to spend in Kuala Lumpur because of my course. Let’s get the unpleasantness out of the way first: I had the flu for two days in the first week, then three in the second. It was unpleasant not just because I felt like a popsicle all day but also because it was expensive, but I did not miss a day of class. During the weekend that marked the midpoint of our adventure in KL, we spend the night at Kak Nor’s house where Irfan played to his heart’s content with his cousins! On Sunday, I went to continue the Modesty Blazing Star Wars Edge of the Empire campaign, picking up where we left off 14 months ago when I still lived in the city. Ain and Irfan bought a Corellian VCX-100 freighter which I put to good use during the game earlier. So the intensive translation […]

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Only posing

Set Course For The City

And so it was that the workplace booked me on a two week course. The course was to be held back in Kuala Lumpur. You know the city: Irfan’s kampung. We drove southbound and spent the night in Sitiawan before continuing on to Kuala Lumpur after a breakfast with Irfan’s Atok and Opah. We stopped at Sekinchan at a restaurant where lunch was to be had on what appeared to be a kotatsu. A novel thing, and it helped that the food was delicious. We arrived in the city and headed for Cikma’s place where we rendezvoused with every sibling of Ain (and their family) where Irfan was reunited with his cousin Aiman once more. Then after, we headed for the building where the course was held way across town from Cikma’s place. Ain had discovered that the place had accommodations for course attendees and they were affordable. Because of […]

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Jalan Duta murk

Murky Depths of the Haze

It’s been some time since I mentioned the haze on this blog. The last time I did it was 10 years ago. In any case, the haze has returned as it is wont to do year upon year upon year. This time it returned with even more of a vengeance than the last. It’s been weeks and the haze does not seem to be going away soon. It cast a murky shade of gray upon everything in Kuala Lumpur during the graduation weekend. The environs of The Mall near the PWTC – now upgraded and renamed Sunway Putra Mall – is thick with the stuff, like heavy mist except for the strong omnipresent smell and taste of smoke. Maybe I should have just gotten the university to send me my degree by mail. The day we headed back to Sitiawan, the haze seemed to be even worse. The view below […]

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Needs even moar people that matter in this picture

A Bit Higher Than College Age

It is nearly impossible for me to form the words to explain and describe the experience of graduating from college with a Bachelor Degree in English Studies at age 42, on top of the multitude of experiences positive and negative I underwent in the last 25 years or so. I know I prefer to harp on the negative, but on the whole it has been gratifying. After all is said and done, I guess here and now having the family, friends and tools that I possess is where I am actually supposed to be. A big thanks to everyone that pushed me in this direction.

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I will miss this view from the tenth floor, though

Final Entry from the Tenth Floor

The blog is not headed anywhere. But the subtitle “View from the Tenth Floor” will be changed starting today as we will no longer be living on the tenth floor. The last two months has been a whirlwind of activity. I have accepted a job offer in Kangar and we’ll be moving there – five hundred klicks away – shortly. This has been a blessing, as we have been wanting to leave Kuala Lumpur for many, many years but there was nowhere to go, not without a job there to ground us and provide us security there. Now there is an opportunity for us to leave the city. A new job beckoned us. The visit to the Cave of Dramatic Lighting was the only hint of the upcoming change, during our prospecting trip to visit the new employer and workplace. We will be leaving behind the Tenth Floor with a […]

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