Sunset aft

Cloudscape in the Wing Mirror

I headed home from class as the red-orange glow of dusk slowly crept across the land. I headed west. The sun was behind me. There was a traffic light stop. Quickly, I took a photo of the view I saw in the car’s wing mirror. I was impressed that the photo turned out almost as spectacular as the real thing. The traffic lights turned green, and I continued home.

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Happy birthday, beloved bini

Ain’s Birthday Nasi Lemak

Earlier in the day, I had an idea and exclaimed, “Tonight, let’s celebrate your birthday somewhere amazing!” She asked, “Where?” I said with pleasure and pride, “The same place we had dinner yesterday!” So this year we celebrated Ain’s birthday at a nasi lemak stall in Kangar. We had dinner here yesterday. Ain had a nasi lemak paru but Irfan and I had roti telur. The sambal that came with the nasi lemak was excellent. Perhaps, it was too much on the sweet side. The moment went up to the stall to order a long line of patrons formed behind us. I was thankful we got there early. Soon it was over, because it was just a simple nasi lemak vendor which cost us RM13 including drinks. We will return to have more food there. Maybe tomorrow night. Maybe not. Happy birthday, my wife. You will always be nothing less […]

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Wooden keris hilts

Historical Melee Weapons Galore

There are a number of traditional melee weapons that originate from the historic kingdoms of South East Asia. Here are some of them displayed at the Kota Kayang Museum near Kuala Perlis. When Atok and Opah came for a visit we took them to the museum to look at the exhibits. There are more than just weapons on display, but this post will be about the traditional weapons available there. Here is a classic weapon from the South East Asian region: the keris. The keris has a wavy blade. Each crest of the wave is called a luk. A keris can be classified by the number of luks it possesses. Some keris, like the centrepiece at the Pasir Salak Historical Tunnel museum keris section, can be as long as a man is tall. (No images of it because we were not allowed to take photographs there.) The pamor (metal patterns) […]

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The sky's on fire

Campus Sunset

One of the most rewarding things about having to teach from 5 to 7 in the evening is the view. Sometimes the sky just lights up on fire. Yesterday, the following view was what I beheld when I was heading home. I tweeted the photo immediately. No brightness or saturation modification was done on the image.

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Cake cutting time

Irfan is Sixteen

Once again, the arbitrary day based on an arbitrary timing system returns after a long cycle known as a year. Because we appear to honour the system, it was time just like last year to celebrate Irfan’s birthday. He turned 16 today. Atok and Opah visited from Perak to celebrate their grandson’s birthday with him. Irfan’s birthday cake was an ice cream cake with lychees, peaches and cherries on top. The thing about the cake during his birthday was that Irfan also shared it with other patrons of our eatery. He would have shared it with the local cat if cats ate cake. We went to a restaurant whose name could be translated as “The Cafe Beside Our House”. This was our second time at this restaurant. Earlier, we tried going to the pizza parlour that we celebrated Irfan’s 14th birthday at, but it appeared to be closed or undergoing […]

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Post-rat disposal sunset

Rat Disposal Weekend

One other thing that occurred over the weekend was the success of our household in apprehending a rat. We heard it scritch-scratching once in a while in the attic and Ain set up a trap as usual. Saturday evening we took it out to a deserted spot by a main road and let it loose into the wild. On our way back to the house, the sky displayed quite a spectacular wash of bright, lively colours. (Click on both images above to expand them.)

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The waterfall in the back

Weekend Before Classes Begin

It was the long weekend, which started on a Friday. We thought of filling up the weekend with some activities before my semester with a new batch of students begin next week. First, we headed toward Taman Sakura on the way to Kuala Perlis. (Click on all the images to expand them.)   At first, a stream. Then WHEEEE! pic.twitter.com/ap0WdDcHD7 — Khairul Hisham (@hishgraphics) September 2, 2018  

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A Bookstore Then The Next Day Home

Later that night… The night before we had to return home, Cik Su took us to the new BookXcess book store nearby, at a mall which looked pretty impressive but appear to be incomplete. The only other outlet we visited before was at Amcorp Mall. The books there were cheaper than standard retail value because these were old stock copies which were to be pulped. Irfan bought a couple of young adult adventure novels. Irfan also signed up for a store membership card which he hopes to use some day. Perhaps, he offered, he would be able to use the card to order books online at a discounted price. I found a Star Wars Millennium Falcon: Owner’s Workshop Manual for less than half its retail price, but I thought I should save. I bought a much cheaper China Miéville This store turned up the pop culture references level to eleven. […]

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Please do not leave the hall with the question booklet

Last Exam of the Semester

It is the last final exam I have to invigilate in; the last activity with students I have this semester. I will miss this batch of students. Although none of the exams tonight were English language course papers, there were a number of my English students for the semester taking them. Somehow, exam invigilation feels like a blast with these guys around although I myself am feeling under the weather what with the coughing and all.

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Time to go home for Maghrib

A New Place to Eat

We are always looking out for an affordable restaurant with delicious food. Luckily, there are still many places that surprise us in a good way in Perlis. South of Kangar towards the highway, while looking for a nasi mandi restaurant, we came across this good Thai restaurant for iftar. We parked by the fields which had been prepped for sowing. It would not be long before a more lively field of green would grow and cover up the brown mud. We discovered that the nasi goreng Thai here was delicious. It has a side of soup and sambal. The nasi mandi restaurant was right across the road. We might return to it later. Here is Irfan posing with the multicoloured lights that marked the restaurant’s location and illuminated the its signage.

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Afternoon view

The View To Work Today

Today on the way to work, I pulled over and took a picture of the rice fields beside the road because it looked spectacular. Unfortunately I could not linger as long as I would like to as I had a meeting to attend in half an hour. One meeting and one class later, I headed the opposite direction to attend another class. Again, I decided to take a picture of another rice field along the road. The rice plants had yet to fill up the landscape with green and instead became a beautiful mirror of the sky. That is all.

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Us

Breakfast at Gua Cenderawasih

Sundays can be a great time for picnics. There is no lack of picnic spots here in Perlis if you knew where to look, and we have looked at many over the last three years or so. We decided to visit Cenderawasih Cave Park. It was close to Kangar so it was not out of the beaten path. Cenderawasih translates to “bird-of-paradise”. Sadly there were none present at the park this morning. Here are some photos. Later, he sat on a boulder because it was a cool thing to do.

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Hishgraphics H

Multicultural Night

With Ain away at Pasir Mas to take care of some things there, it was just Irfan and I at home for the weekend. After spending most of the weekend binging on The Terror, an excellent show by the way, we would have nothing else to do until the weekday rebooted itself. Thankfully, I had bought a couple of tickets for the Multicultural Night 2018 at the university great hall. After dark, we both drove there not just to check out the event, but also to hunt for dinner. What awaited us there was something that blew me away. Here are some Twitter posts, videos included. It’s the university’s Multicultural Night 2018. pic.twitter.com/zpzSGIsByq — Khairul Hisham (@hishgraphics) April 29, 2018 Who choreographed these students? It’s pretty awesome. pic.twitter.com/95oIn0uJI8 — Khairul Hisham (@hishgraphics) April 29, 2018 The Somalians have the stage! pic.twitter.com/LgpcbmyJlp — Khairul Hisham (@hishgraphics) April 29, 2018 The Indians […]

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