This morning Irfan, Ain and I went for one of our rare morning walks. We took the path through the kampung and circled back to our house through the countryside. I will let the photos do all the describing.
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Nice green pool
We have been living in the northern state of Perlis since the end of 2014. Here are some entries featuring the state.
Sunset Dinner by the Sea
After I returned home from the academic workshop we decided to have dinner at the beach. So we took a trip west towards the sea. Before exiting the car, we had a video chat with Nia Nia on the phone. Then we enjoyed the sun which was dropping fast onto Langkawi Island, from our point of view. The last time I had some seafood here, by the way, I had a really bad gout attack. So, no seafood for me. So with seafood out of the way, I only had “food” to deal with. This one is quite… gravy-ish. The colours splashed onto the sky and sea this evening was unique, not like any sunset I have seen before. Click on the above pic to expand the photo of the non-binary sunset. Click on the pic above to expand the silhouette of Irfan in the fading light of dusk.
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Further Gastronomical Adventures with Atok and Opah
More photos from Irfan’s grandparents’ visit chronicled two further sojourn to sample food at eateries nearby. I should think it was a collective celebration not just of their anniversary but also of Sila’s birthday which as you know falls on the same day. Additionally, my birthday would raise its head several days later. First we would treat them. Then they treated us. Bottom line, though, I am still astounded that we are able to afford these types of food these days. Granted they are cheaper than similar food in Kuala Lumpur, but we would not be able to afford these prices back then neither. Enjoy the photos. First we went to Kangar for these dishes. Then we went to Arau for these ones. The next day, Atok and Opah headed back to the hometown.
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Celebrating an Anniversary
Irfan’s Atok and Opah came for a visit this week. And their anniversary will be up in three days! On this fine Friday, and you can tell it’s a Friday because Irfan and I are in Baju Melayu, we went to the food court at Kuala Perlis for an early celebration of their anniversary! Here are some of the selection of food we ordered. Also, Irfan was explaining something and gesturing with his arms when I took the following picture:
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Not the Tire Again
It was early in the morning when we sent Irfan to school as usual. I took the following photo of the sky in front of his school upon dropping him there. Click on it to expand. We then took the long way round back to the house. In hindsight we should have just made a u-turn and headed home the way we came. Only when the mechanic removed the tyre from the hub could we see this screwdriver shank. It had pierced the tread complete and had been rattling inside the tyre as air was escaped. Bye bye, Republic credits.
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Another January Weekend
Last weekend, we went for a drive. This weekend, it was time for the farmer’s market. There were a bunch of fresh produce Ain wanted to pick up at the market. She knew of cheaper locations to purchase some of the things here, but it has been a while since we visited this market. Lots of green grown were sold here that we could consume to keep our biological avatars running without any errors. Ain pokes a papaya. All this fish gives me an idea for an epic RPG campaign. (No it does not.) There were also flower growers selling their wares at the market. After acquiring the items that needed to be acquired, we headed home where Ain began to cast her sorcery in the kitchen. She used some sort of cosmic powered transmogrifying spell to turn some eggs, greens and mayonnaise into cole slaw. The cole slaw was […]
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One January Weekend
We decided to take a drive on Sunday. Headed north, we then stopped at the restaurant overlooking the dam for lunch. But first, a photo to preserve the moment since we have no access to the quantum informational layer of the universe. It is weird that we need to absorb and grok the information using spectral patterns of a certain frequence of electromagnetic radiation reflected off the menu and into our occular organs before we could figure out what to order. Can you imagine the sheer amount of quantum information that was formed and being formed, while interacting with each other in this photograph? I wish I can see the Casimir effect occuring between Ain’s sagu madu and its bowl. A billion years ago a star exploded. Today the potassium and phosphorus ejected into space during that celestial event contained in the French fries would be eaten by Irfan. I […]
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Arau Dinner with Atok and Opah
Before Atok and Opah headed back to the hometown, we thought we would take them out to dinner in Arau at a roadside eatery knows as Big Tas’Tea. We had nasi ayam chicken chop and pizza and yogurt drinks and a bunch of other neat consumables. Who knows maybe we will be able to take them there again in the future.
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17th Anniversary Dinner
It is now our seventeenth year together, Ain and I. So many hardships along the way and against hostile odds here we are still together, still in love; and with Irfan still in tow although he is not as little as he used to be. We thought we would try out the BIG Tas’TEA restaurant by the roadside at Arau. We have always wanted to stop by, but we had to have extra change in our pockets before we could splurge on the more expensive Western food and smoothies and such. We made sure in advance that we had the cash to visit BIG tas’TEA on our anniversary. Sure the cholesterol level might be through the roof, but the chicken in this meal tasted fantastic. We ordered Pepperoni Chicken and the Ultimate Cheese pizzas! I thought we should quickly get a photo of us together before my ailing, physically broken […]
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Nia and the Beach Cats
We went for an early dinner at Kuala Perlis with Ayah Cik, Cik Ma, Cik Su and young Nia Nia. The restaurant was by the promenade, right by the sea. Irfan knew exactly what would float Nia’s boat: Cats. So he introduced her to a stray cat by the beach. At first Nia more fascinated by the giant stone balls scattered all over the promenade. Then it struck her: Perhaps this can will not merely be a bystander or a passer-by. Perhaps she could make friends with this cat. She became even more excited when the number of cats who showed up increased to more than one. This cat knows where it’s at. The cat decided to move, turn and booped Nia on the nose with a fuzzy tail. Needless to say, Nia was beside herself with joy at being booped on the nose by a fuzzy tail. After dinner, […]
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A Nasal Epilogue
After last week’s surgery, I had splint and padding up my nose to hold things together as the parts within healed. The doctors gave me little bottles of saline solution and a syringe to douche my nasal cavity to cleanse it of blood, snot and other assorted blood-covered snot. On Saturday, after my regular nose douche and a shower I felt something shift uncomfortably up my nose. The string taped to my nose which connected to the splint was slack. Something sharp and stinging had moved down my right nostril. More blood than usual was dripping down my nose. We went to a clinic to get it looked at, but the doctor there referred us to the ER at the hospital. There was a referral letter and all. The ER doctor who attended me called up the ENT physician on call. The ENT doctor (who correctly guessed who I was […]
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New Sandwich Place
I have been wanting to visit this new sandwich place in town. We finally got extra cash for the week so we went for some sandwiches. However to save money, we only bought two – takeaway – and no drinks. The restaurant was cozy and had a nice ambience, found on one corner of Capitol Square. The smell of freshly baked bread wafted from the door. Also, there was freshly-pressed coffee. We might be back for a proper dining experience here later. We ordered the cheesy beef salami and the garlic chicken sandwiches. When we got home we divided them into three parts each, so Irfan, Ain and I were able to sample equal measure of each sandwich. I believe there were more cheese in the garlic chicken than the cheesy beef salami, and I have no complaints about that. Maybe I will try the Thai mayo chicken next.
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Suddenly, The Emergency Room
… but upon my return home from my three-day hospital stay, I discovered that Opah Irfan had a high fever and could not sit up. She was extremely weak from illness. So, we took her to the Klinik Kesihatan downtown before it closed, leaving Irfan alone at home to do his homework. When we arrived, Ain and Atok Irfan got a wheelchair for Opah. After a blood test, the medical personnel there discovered that Opah’s blood sugar, blood pressure and body temperature were sky high. The nurses there had to inject some insulin into her system. Then, they called an ambulance to transport her to the Emergency Room of the hospital next door – escorted by Ain – while Atok & I returned home to get her medical records. What followed was a six-hour wait at the ER for the lab to return a new blood test to see if […]
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Finally, A Surgery
Atok and Opah Irfan came to visit last Saturday for a medical reason. The photo of them above along with Irfan was taken the day they left for Sitiawan on the 12th. Several days earlier, on Monday the 7th, I was hospitalised and surgery was scheduled for the next day. There I was, once more unto the breach. This was my fourth attempt at surgery. A FESS to remove what was left of a couple of polyps and a septoplasty to fix my right air hole which was apparently too small. The first attempt back in early 2016 was postponed because of high blood pressure. The second was postponed on account of getting sick while under observation in the hospital ward, and I missed a work excursion to Terengganu in vain because of it. I was unable to go for surgery the third time earlier this year because of a […]
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Symposium Gift Artwork
At the language symposium last week, besides the two assignments I wrote about I also had a third task: Which was to sketch some artwork to be printed and presented as gifts to the special guests of the event. The common theme for each drawing was Perlis. I drew them all in Krita separately. Photographic references, of course, were used. Originally I had composed them all in a single artwork. Ultimately, the committee decided to frame them as separate images.The artwork was printed and framed in groups of fives and threes. Here is one of the group-of-three frames given to the speaker after the teaching workshop in the afternoon. Click here to view the artwork on ArtStation. Click on the expand icon on each image to expand them.
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An Old School Buddy Visits
Once upon a more innocent time I went to school, the result of which was I met many other school-age little humans many of which became my friend. I was 10 years old when I first met Iskandar. We were in the same class for a couple of years. But after school we rarely see one another until the Age of Digital Social Media. Recently, Iskandar and his family came to stay at our place for a weekend. Here are some of the photos of the visit. Last year we had an Aidilfitri pot luck at his folks’ house in Sitiawan. Come back soon, Is.
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