It has been pretty hazy and smoggy this past week, except when we headed back to Kelantan in the weekend. It might have contributed to me coughing up a storm to the point of even laughing pains me. Earlier today, it seemed like it was going to be the same old evil, soul-sucking grayness blanketing everything as far as the eye can see. I took the day off today to rest because of the coughs and perhaps I wasn’t getting enough sleep this past few days. Yesterday was the worst. It felt like I was barely conscious the entire day and would collapse at any time. This afternoon, I woke up from a nap (between reading Paradise X issues) and discovered that the haze (not too mention my lethargy and need to cough uncontrollably) was completely gone. [[image:viewfrom10.jpg:All clear view from the tenth floor:center:0]] And it made my day.
Continue readingTag Archives: Kuala Lumpur
Exsanguination Day at the Mall
Because Irfan’s Cik Emma missed having her blood drained out of her body, we took a drive to nearby Cheras Leisure Mall where a blood donation drive was under way last Saturday. Cik Su F, a-visiting from MIAT, was along for the ride. There was a great number of people in line signing up for the blood donation. As Cik Su F covered Emma’s six, Irfan, Ain and I traipsed around the mall window shopping. Irfan, Ain and her sisters by the car at the Leisure Mall car park. Leaving the lower levels of the car park, Irfan climbed the stairs looking for the way into the mall. Ain & Irfan at the covered bridge connecting the two wings of the Leisure Mall, where F-16s could fly beneath for a dramatic, shock and awe impact. The interior of the mall, at the top floor, close to the blood donation drive […]
Continue readingIrfan’s Cycling Saturday
Thanks to Irfan’s Tok and Opah, he now has a brand new bicycle with which he would rule the world. Or at the very least the play area at the KLCC park. Quite eager to try out his new vehicle in the morning, we took a drive to KLCC last Saturday morning. As usual, the queue into the parking lot is atrociously long for the simple reason that the coin machine at the entrance gate sucks majorly. It costs a ringgit to enter the parking lot. It took me a brazillion tries pushing in the 50 cent coins into the slot until they finally dropped in, raising the barricade arm. To KLCC: Get a new gate system. The current one sucks. Or have someone there weekend mornings to receive money with one hand and the gate lever in the other. Additionally, a pox on the testicles on each of the […]
Continue readingIrfan Goes To The Zoo
Last Sunday, Irfan (along with a bunch of family members) went to the zoo! Here’s a series of photos that came out of our little zoo trip. [[image:zoo01.jpg:Immediately after insertion into zoo:center:0]]The crew lead by Irfan walks by the elephant paddock, away from it because he was spooked by the big pachyderms. [[image:zoo02.jpg:Stork lake:center:0]]Irfan and his Aunt Emma with some storks in the background. There’s one bird in flight in the background immediately behind them if you look carefully. [[image:zoo03.jpg:Pony ride:center:0]]Again, Irfan is spooked and refuses to approach a pony, RM2.00 a pop. He preferred to be elsewhere, like… [[image:zoo04.jpg:The jejawi tree:center:0]]…this ficus microcarpa a.k.a. the Malay Banyan a.k.a the jejawi tree. Oh hey, another group photo. [[image:zoo05.jpg:Emus:center:0]]Everyone referred to these as ostriches until we came to the plaque that says that they were emus. The ostriches, we discovered later, were in the the savanna open paddock along with the […]
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What Happened on Independence Day 2005?
What happened was that a bunch of my old classmates and I (with some of our family) met at 1 Utama mall in Bandar Utama. We then proceeded to the open air Rainforest location of the new wing of 1 Utama, cobbled together 4 of the little round tables (and 1 square table) Burger King had scattered in their area and ordered some Burger King value meals for lunch, except for Teik Sing who had a heavy brunch, yo. Here follows a photographic account of the events that transpired today. I should have taken more pictures, but I was chasing Irfan all over the play area and out of the drizzle. Laksh’s daughter Priya and Irfan getting their Uncle Teik Sing to play Hot Wheels with them, while Chiew Kian looks on amused. Laksh, Yu Hoe, Wendy & Ah Bau. In the foreground is Chiew Kian’s cute daughter. Group photo […]
Continue readingA Fantastic Tale of Old
I realise that since this blog went online, there hasn’t been any entry that features some sort of fantastic anecdote that happens to me during the day. Like being at the zoo and a herd of rampaging rhinos escape their pen, or my needing to jump from one rooftop to an adjacent rooftop to save my life, or a meteorite that crashes and irradiates me, ultimately endowing me with super powers… One of the reasons is because I’m working full-time to get my e-book website online, I don’t go outdoors as I much as I used to anymore. The good old days were when I was working 5 days on, 5 days off in Terengganu on the east coast. 5 days off time and being aimless gave me a lot of opportunities to get into adventures. And when I worked in marketing at the advertising company in 2000, I was […]
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Haze: Returning With a Vengeance
One of the things I hate most about living here is the periodic invasion of unhealthy particulates that floods (and I mean floods) the entire region, known in local jargon as haze. Once I thought why not call it smog cause that’s what it essentially is, but know I know that such an evil, soul-sucking phenomenon should have its own unique name. Now, I’ve reported this before back in February but that old thing was nothing compared to what we’re experiencing now. This haze should have been declared a major disaster, starting early this week. The haze and I go a long way back. The last major haze activity occurred in 1997, but that was caused by burning in Borneo to the east. West-blowing winds smogged up the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia, which bore the brunt of the onslaught. Of course I had to be working there at the […]
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Excursion to KLCC
Today we went to KLCC for a picnic. Irfan, as usual, went straight for the extensive playground they have there, running up and sliding down the play structures. Later, I got to do what I haven’t done in a long time: spend an hour at Kinokuniya browsing and reading the first few chapters of several books, including Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash. Even read through the Marvel Spider-Man Encyclopedia. As usual I took a some photos, and here are some views of Irfan playing outside, and some view inside Suria KLCC. Inside Suria KLCC Mall
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A Stay At The Hilton: Another Photojournal
For the last year or so, after sending Irfan to day care, we drive to work together. After the construction of Hilton KL Sentral, we drive past it every morning. Sometimes we wonder if we would ever get a chance to spend a night at the newest and state-of-the-art hotel in Kuala Lumpur. Then suddenly last week, newly-weds Sila and Vin booked us on what would be a 2 night stay there. After their honeymoon in Redang we were to rendezvous with them at KL Sentral. Soon after, we were enjoying the air-conditioned, luxurious rooms of the hotel. Here are pictures from our awesome stay at the Hilton. Here we are settling down into the hotel room. Irfan warmed up to the bathtub immediately. He had to have his Ayah Cik Vin around for him to fill up the tub with tepid water, before he takes a dip in it […]
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Prelude To A Wedding, Part 2
So on Tuesday Vin had to be at PERKIM for a crash course at 10 am. At the same time, Sila’s Marriage Course cert has to be retrieved. With Ain at work, we sent Irfan to day care at his Opah Cik Timah’s. The remaining members of the squad split up. I drove Vin & Sila to PERKIM while Emma went to get the certificate. At PERKIM, we met Arab-born, Indian educated Brother Sayid, whom Sila & I thought would have made a better Islamic studies teacher than most of the ustaz we had in secondary school, and especially boarding school. Return to Sitiawan: First Sortie Ain & I were considering the idea of me driving Vin & Sila back to Sitiawan Tuesday afternoon to help with the transporting of their bags, which would be inconvenient for them to bring back on a bus. So, we decided that I should […]
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Prelude To A Wedding, Part 1
The last seven days have been a great experience. Sila and Vin were in Kuala Lumpur manoeuvring through some red tape and purchasing wedding items. Both were of course ably aided by Irfan, his Aunt Emma, Ain and I. We were like a squad of soldiers moving through military manoeuvres timing each other, splitting up at some points to cover more ground. Thus we were kept busy and on our toes at all times. Irfan helped too? Well, he’s mostly in the entertainment department, cracking us up with his antics, including Vin. We tried to teach him to call him Ayah Cik to no avail for quite a few days. But he did like to lie down beside him with his balloon, and spend some time in the pool with him. Meeting Darth Vader Saturday afternoon the whole bunch of us, excluding Sila went to MPH Mid Valley Megamall. We […]
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Ain’s Graduation Aug 2003
In August 2003, a thousand families flocked to Universiti Malaya to see a family member graduate. Ours were there to see Ain graduate (with a 11-month old Irfan in tow), finally getting her bachelor’s degree in Economics. What I didn’t know was graduation events can have some pretty exciting moments too. Like the time the university guards blocked the road to let the graduates travel from their staging ground at the Bangunan Peperiksaan to the where they were supposed to receive their scroll at Dewan Tunku Canselor. Out of the dozens of vehicles blocked, a single biker tried to run the blockade, right before the thousands of people there. So the guards grabbed hold of the perpetrator and pulled him right off his bike as he passed them. Other guards dragged his bike. They forcibly returned him to where he was with the rest of the waiting bikes and cars. […]
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Haze of February 2005
Kuala Lumpur, and most of Malaysia in fact, were wreaked by this local regular event known as the haze. Caused by rampant jungle blazes from local and / or neighbourly sources, these sudden drop in visibility and sudden rise in respiratory problems can be somewhat infuriating. The dark skies over on the left side of the second image was a tell-tale sign of rainfall. But that was what it turned out to be: just a sign. It drizzled a bit about ten klicks away in PJ. Blech.
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