Sabine was here!

Star Wars Rebels Experience

Mid Valley Megamall held a Star Wars Rebels Experience exhibition last Sunday, commemorating the debut of the series on local TV. I didn’t think I was going to make the exhibition because college assignments had to be submitted by midnight. I had one more to complete and submit. But when it was announced that the deadline was pushed back 2 days, we headed for Mid Valley at Point Five beyond lightspeed. I saw the big helmet at the South Court all the way from the Centre Court. Irfan posed before it for posterity’s sake. The Five-Oh-First was on site to ensure no rebel agents disrupt the proceedings. The Pau’an Inquisitor was also around being all Lucius Malfoy-ish. He has quite a nice profile, but he’s no Inquisitor Tremayne. I hope Tremayne shows up in the series at some point and they both go out for coffee or something. Inquisitors first […]

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KLCC Aidiladha 03 2014

Aidiladha at KLCC

Monday was a carry over holiday for Raya Haji which fell on a clear sunny Sunday. A trip into town would be nice, we thought. It was too far for the car to reach the Bandar Utama region, so we drove somewhere closer: Kuala Lumpur City Centre which was not too far away by car, via the AKLEH elevated highway. It even has a dedicated exit into its underground car park. Despite it being situated relatively close, we do not visit the Suria KLCC mall all that often. Things appeared as they usually do in the mall. Irfan mapped out the door infrared sensor area at the department store. Who knows it might be useful some day. Our lunch were takeaway boxes from Cold Storage. Ain had the nasi goreng. Irfan and I had a slice of pizza each. We ate in the shadow of the towers. Meanwhile, the new […]

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Visitors

Aidiladha at the Tenth Floor

Another year, another Aidiladha spent in Kuala Lumpur. There was no balik kampung because of insufficient resources. So yesterday we tried to make the best of it. In the morning, we went for Solat Aidiladha at the Pandan Indah mosque. This morning, for some reason the khatib was not firing all engines. Perhaps he was exhausted. Then it was time for salam hari raya between ourselves. First, Irfan salam and kissed Ain. Followed by the same with me, after which, Ain started cooking some nasi lemak in anticipation of impending visitors. In the afternoon, Irfan’s school friend Fikree and his family, as well as his cousins Aiman and Zara, came a-visiting. Apart from savouring the nasi lemak, Irfan, Fikree and Aiman played some Tsuro while Star Wars Rebels was playing on television. Even young Zara was intrigued by the game. Since boardgaming was pretty fun, the crew moved on to […]

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Irfan loves his burger

Iftar at Some Place Fancy

We rarely ate out for iftar this year. So we thought we’d go to the Kluang Station restaurant before Ramadhan was over. The Kluang Station restaurant was nearby and not in Kluang; though I’ve been to the Kluang Station restaurant in Kluang. Ain headed there after work to get some groceries. Irfan and I rendezvoused with her there after Maghrib for dinner after breaking our fast first. It took a while for the special iftar buffet to end before we could order ala carte. I got some seafood broth and Ain had nasi lemak. Irfan had a burger. Irfan loved that burger.

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Relaxing

Picnic at Sungai Gabai

It had been awhile since we went for a picnic at the waterfalls of Ulu Langat. So last Sunday, we went for a morning drive out to the country and headed for the Sungai Gabai picnic area near the small town of Sungai Lui. Ain had made mee goreng the previous night for the picnic. I was worried that there would be excessive traffic because of the three-day Malaysia Day holiday weekend, but because it was early in the morning the roads were clear and parking was relaively easy. However, there were a lot of visitors already there at the picnic site. We have been at Sungai Gabai once before, but I could barely remember the earlier visit. We would remember this visit as we got wet in the river and had mee goreng there. Also, because we took photos and there’s a blog post about this visit. So yeah, […]

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Bye Tim 02

Bye Tim

Tim the Turtle had grown too big to reside in its tank. And there is no surplus space in the house for a bigger tank. Which meant it was time to say goodbye to Tim. Thankfully we had the foresight to scout for release locations in the city beforehand and had already decided on the lake at Ampang Hilir Park. The lake was large for a body of water mere kilometres away from the Kuala Lumpur City Centre. It shot to the top of the list of release locations because it was big and had a sizeable population of red-eared sliders (and assorted fish) within its waters. We also hoped Tim would find a girlfriend some day. Or a boyfriend. We never really determined if Tim was a male or a female. If Tim was female, its name would have been a contraction of “Timah”. When we opened up Tim’s […]

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Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges

Irfan Treks to an Exhibition

Irfan went to the National Science Centre. Star Trek the Exhibition was being housed there for the time being. Shane managed to go to Star Wars Identities which looked better, but I takes what I gets. They didn’t beam us aboard, we had to walk up the steps and push the door open. Thankfully, this procedure did not need the use of a Heisenberg compensator. There’s a reason why most of these photos aren’t in the exhibition hall. Taking of pictures are not allowed inside. We’ve never been to the science centre before, and we’ve discovered reasons to return in the future when we can. There are a lot of great interactive science exhibitions that are child-friendly. I’d bet Yaya would love to explore the science exhibits. Them’s fighting words below! Did I say photography was not allowed? I managed to sneak a couple of shots. I couldn’t pass an […]

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Sol behind the clouds

Another Day Another Sunset

All of a sudden another year ends. I can’t believe we’ve lived here for more than a decade now. I can tell you how the skyline has changed over the years; and where on the landscape we were once able to make out traffic on the MRR2 highway. Through the changes in how the city looks, there are a few things that never seem to change: chief among it is the attitude of many drivers here. I could go on about that but I wont. I’d like to say here’s to a better 2013, but I think I’m just going to say if I do not deserve any better than perhaps I should not get it. But it gets better, I’d be grateful. Click on the thumbnail for a wider look.

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Jogging at a Park

I have no idea why they named this park Taman Pudu Ulu when Pudu proper is some leagues in that direction. Anything so close to Jalan Loke Yew should not be known as “Ulu”. The Deepavali morning was cool and sunny, perfect for a run. The park has multi-jogging tracks built allowing one to run along winding paths around trees, hillocks, fountains and exercise machines, which are thankfully still mostly serviceable. City Hall maintains a small forest on the southern side of the park. When I say forest, I mean a mini-tropical jungle which you wouldn’t want to go exploring in without a machete. Finally, there are eateries easily accessed from both ends of the park. Which means teh tarik time after the exercise.

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There's a platybelodon in here. I should say hi or something

Irfan Goes To Petrosains

We all went for a trip to Petrosains Discovery Centre located at the fourth level of Suria KLCC today for the first time. It was quite an informative and entertaining jaunt with a lot of interactive scientific experiments that children can participate in. There was even a Science Show where kids (well, one kid from the audience) participated in. There was even a short 3D film in a small theatre they had. It was quite an elaborate set-up and it took us three hours and forty minutes to complete the entire circuit. I tweeted bits and pieces of our visit to Petrosains with photos. You could sift through the timestamped tweets here to the posts in question. But I thought this blog post would be a great way to consolidate all the posts (with photos) and insert untweeted photos as well. We started off in a ride through a dark […]

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Nooo!!! Not another Gamera attack!! There goes Sunday morning!

Gamera Moves Into Town!

And there goes the neighbourhood in Pandan Indah. Well, not really. Recently, I had Irfan’s Gamera toy with me in the car, so wherever I drive and I find a photo opportunity, I’d take an impromptu photo of the toy in forced perspective with the surrounding buildings in view. So, here’s what I’ve managed to come up with so far. The image captions are text from the original tweets when I posted them live.

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Irfan at Putrajaya

Visit to Putrajaya

A few weeks ago before the school break ended, Irfan followed his tuition centre group on a visit to Putrajaya where they visited the botanical gardens, among other places. This was the first time he went on a trip with the group. Although he came back tired, he said he had fun. Irfan recently obtained the photos they took during the excursion. One of the first thing I thought of telling Irfan was that I played in the rubber plantations which was ubiquitous in Sitiawan when I grew up there. Then, I remembered that they’ve all been mostly replaced by houses, rows of shophouses or palm oil instead. Guess I have to show him photos of it instead.

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Atok bowls

Rainy Day at the Mines

The day after the bird park visit, there was another thing that Irfan wanted to do with his grandparents – which was to bowl. Actually the previous day we did attempt to travel to the bowling alley at Midvalley but the arcology was jam-packed with cars, so we instead went birdwatching. However, on this day we decided to see if the bowling alley at the mall known as the Mines Shopping Fair was good for a game. It was, so there we bowled. Only Irfan, Ain, Irfan’s Atok and I played, though Irfan’s Opah had a go during one of Ain’s round. One stand-out characteristic of the Mines Shopping Fair is the canal that runs through the mall itself. There are boats with which a visitor could be brought out to the lakes, either to the north or the south of the mall. Only Irfan and his granddad took a […]

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An unforgettable experience

An Exploration of the Aviary

Atok and Opah came a-visiting for the school holidays, and one of the places Irfan wanted to go with them was the Kuala Lumpur Bird Park. It was quite huge and housed many species of birds, most of which are free to fly about under the park’s netting enclosure. Sure, there were a number of cages which housed lots of the wilder birds, but the amount of birds walking, flying, perching and eating among the visitors were just astounding. Because it rained earlier in the morning, Irfan wore his Atok’s hat just in case it rained again. The hat stood by constantly in Atok’s car for emergency usage. Irfan later became a perch for a couple of colourful birds. He was happy the birds didn’t poop on him. Ain tried to fend off a bloodthirsty pack of crowned pigeons. Will the fence hold if the ostrich attacks? Irfan thought nervously. […]

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Irfan and Aiman

Subang Airport Pickup

After 10 days back in Pasir Mas, Irfan’s Cik Ma returned to KL by way of the old Subang Airport, which is now the new “Subang Skypark”. It seemed to have transformed from a musty warehouse airport into a 21st century shopping mall airport. Doors opened automatically for us and stuff! There were two banks in the building accessible from the inside! (Not that we had any cash in them.) One of those new-fangled Starbucks coffee shop too, which probably has coffee! Irfan posed before the Skypark’s big screen computer display of the inbound and outbound flights. His Cik Ma’s flight is on there, speeding closer to the airport. Also, someone has a new digital wristwatch. See? Wristwatch. Also, someone met his cousin Aiman who also came to the Skypark to see Cik Ma. Finally, the cousins rode on their Cik Ma’s trolley. Why? Because it’s cool, that’s why. I […]

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Sure it's flooded, but let's eat!

Wrath Of Diabolical Water Elementals!

While picking up Irfan from school in the very late afternoon, we were hit by a great, big thunderstorm the size of a big thunderstorm. There was a point where there was no delay between lightning and thunder. Driving to school, the windshield, which thankfully did its job keeping the wind out failed to ensure the rain slid off fast enough so we can see through it. Even the wipers were useless. On the way back, we had to cross Pandan Indah central to get from the school on the south side to our house on the north side. We discovered that we couldn’t because of flash floods. All the primary, secondary and the secret routes had a foot or so of water.So, we drove went to a mamak restaurant for some roti canai and warm drinks. Below, we can see some water on this side of the main road […]

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