Playing together

Alternate Universe Irfan’s School Friends

If Schrödinger’s cat meowed in a totally opposite way once upon a time, Irfan would have had totally different school friends from the ones he has now. So, I’ve tried taking photos by tripping the light fantastic (after a fashion) and using quantum visual camera with the Heisenberg compensators at level two. What I got was a series of photos of Irfan playing at friends’ house as if I’d never choose to leave my old job and move to Kuala Lumpur. Very interesting.  

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Checking out the pool

Irfan Goes To Cherating

For the Thaipusam / Federal Territory Day holidays, we went for a free night’s stay (plus one extra night of paid stay) at a resort at Cherating in Pahang. It was not realy in Cherating, but further up north towards Chukai, in the seaside hamlet of Chendor. (Don’t ask about all the ‘Ch’ names at the towns there, I don’t get it either.) It was a resort by the sea, pretty clean, homey and had a relaxing atmosphere. I’m gonna let the pictures tell the stories and I’ll be over there listening to MP3s if anyone needs me. By the way, the free night stay was an belated anniversary and birthday present to us from Cik Emma. Many thanks to her for booting us out of the house so we can enjoy some fresh air outside the city. Irfan loved the bedsheets. After discovering the superb swimming pool, we had […]

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Tennis

A little bit of retrospective blogging: back to Mak and Abah’s visit here. Even though it was early November, we had a nice warm-ish day, so we decided to head out to Miami University Middletown (MUM) tennis courts for a little exercise. Abah, of course, has been playing tennis (and playing it well) for 40 years. Hisham and I both learned to play when we were little, and I know I was never very good at it. But I do love going outside, going to the courts, and getting some exercise (trying to beat Vin which I have never done yet – give me time!). So the four of us packed into the car, and took the short drive to MUM. We couldn’t drive right up to the tennis courts (they closed the gate to the access road) so we parked the car in the car park a short walk […]

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Bread for Abah and Mak

A quick review back to Mak and Abah’s visit here last year. After all this while of looking at the breads I’ve been baking, I finally got a chance to have them taste my home made breads. Here’s Abah and Mak’s introduction to one of Vin’s favorite breads, Raisin Orange Bread. While I was making this bread, Abah was running around wondering when he would get to eat it! After all, with bread baking you have to knead the dough, let it rise, then shape the loaf and let it rise again (that’s about the average way to bake bread, with 2 risings). Without the rising, the yeast won’t make the bread nice and fluffy! Then after all this, the bread has to go in the oven to bake. Abah was just about ready to give up on the bread when it finally got out of the oven. [[image:us346.jpg:Abah and […]

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Bahamian Break

Christmas is a time for us to take a break. Get away from real life. Leave work behind and relax. Last year, we flew out to San Francisco and took a road trip up the coast north of San Francisco. This year, since we’d just done the road trip through the South West (it was 2030 driving miles total) so we decided we wanted to just go someplace warm and veg out. So we went to the Bahamas! Wheeeeee! We were away for 8 days, staying at the Paradise Island Harbor Resort [[image:bahama14.jpg:Harbor Resort:center:0]] We arrived in Nassau and took a bus to the Harbor Resort on Paradise Island. The Bahamas is made up of hundreds of islands and Nassau is on New Providence. The bus took us across a bridge to Paradise Island. Here are some pictures of the Harbor Resort on Paradise Island: [[image:bahama11.jpg:Vin catching some rays on […]

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In a galaxy far, far away… Southwestern Road Trip Day 8

After a long hiatus, here’s the final part of the Southwestern Road Trip. Finally! I know! Forgot already. But here’s the last part of the story. Our final morning in Flagstaff dawned bright and early. We were packed up and ready to hit the road to head south to Phoenix. We were planning to be in Phoenix by lunch time to meet up with Vin’s cousin Becky, and the drive would take about 2 hours total. So we decided to meander down to Phoenix by way of Sedona. We ended up hanging out at Red Rock State Park, visited Cathedral Rock (which Becky, Vin and I climbed in a previous visit), and then drove on to Phoenix. [[image:us345.jpg:Flagstaff-Sedona-Phoenix:center:0]] While I was speaking with the manager of the Embassy Suites (they fixed our hot water, but Vin’s and my room never got above 60 F the whole time we were there […]

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In a galaxy far, far away… Southwestern Road Trip Day 7

After our Grand Canyon outing, we returned to the Embassy Suites hotel in Flagstaff. I forgot to say that not only was Vin’s and my room freezing (the heater was on the fritz), but there was absolutely no hot water. I had taken a VERRRRY cold shower that morning. Luckily the hot water was fixed when we got back, and the heater was sort of working (meaning instead of the room temperature being equal to the freezer temperature, it was about a very cold refrigerator temperature, which coupled with the 20 F night time temperatures (-5 C) did not sit well with us. But at least we didn’t have to wear our winter coats inside our room. Anyway, after good night’s sleep, we got ready for another day of sightseeing. We had breakfast at the complimentary hot breakfast (yayyy scrambled eggs and hash brown potatoes!) before setting off. Basically, we […]

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In a galaxy far, far away… Southwestern Road Trip Day 6

Apologies for the long delay, and finally the continuation of our Southwestern Road Trip. On Day 6, after a cold evening at the Embassy Suites in Flagstaff (Mak and Abah’s room was ok, but our room was freeeeeeezing cold), we went for a day long trip to the Grand Canyon. The Embassy Suites complimentary breakfast was, however, one of the better breakfasts we’d had during our trip! Fresh, made-to-order scrambled eggs, omelets, french toast, etc. What’s not to like? At any rate, the South Rim of the Grand Canyon was about an hour north of Flagstaff, so we set off after breakfast for our Grand Canyon outing. [[image:us252.jpg:Route from Flagstaff to Grand Canyon:center:0]] We got pretty excited when we saw signs and we got closer to the Grand Canyon. [[image:us242.jpg:Grand Canyon in IMAX:center:0]] The North Rim of the Grand Canyon was already closed to tourists for the winter, and because […]

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In a galaxy far, far away… Southwestern Road Trip Day 5

We spent the night at the Hampton Inn in Kayenta, Arizona, a very small town that boasted 3 hotels and as many restaurants. Seriously – we thought Sitiawan was small when we were growing up? Kayenta takes the cake. What we in Malaysia used to call a “cowboy town”. The reason that they even had 3 hotels in town was because of their proximity to Monument Valley Tribal Park. Which was our first destination of Day 5! So after the complimentary breakfast, we checked out of the hotel and headed off north towards Monument Valley. [[image:us200.jpg:22 miles from Kayenta to Monument Valley:center:0]] As we drove north to the border (Monument Valley itself is in both Utah and Arizona), we saw interesting rock formations: [[image:us197.jpg:Rock formations:center:0]] [[image:us196.jpg:Red rock formations:center:0]] If you are sitting there thinking “Monument Valley…what’s the big deal?” here’s the big deal. Aside from being a gorgeous geological wonder, […]

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In a galaxy far, far away… Southwestern Road Trip Day 4

After a good night’s sleep at the Hampton Inn in Durango and the complimentary breakfast, we headed west from Durango towards Cortez, CO on the US-160. Just 35 miles west of Durango is Mesa Verde National Park, the site of ancient cliff dwellings (back to the Ancestral Puebloans). We would spend half the day at Mesa Verde and head towards Kayenta, Arizona where we planned to spend our next night. [[image:us195.jpg:Route from Durango, Colorado to Kayenta, Arizona – note the meeting of 4 states in the middle of the map:center:0]] Mesa Verde, here we come! I wasn’t sure what to expect but cliff dwellings sounded very interesting. We saw some tepees on the road, inviting us to go into Native American crafts stores along the road: [[image:us155.jpg:Tepees and giant Arrows:center:0]] We saw this huge mesa from far away. Turns out, we had to drive off the main road for about […]

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In a galaxy far, far away… Southwestern Road Trip Day 3

After getting to Taos, New Mexico after dark, we were pretty exhausted from our excessive sight-seeing. We were really glad to find the Hampton Inn in Taos. We spent a quiet night in Taos and bright and early in the morning of Day 3, we headed to Taos Pueblo. Taos Pueblo is a thousand-year-old, still lived in traditional pueblo. Unlike Acoma, it was right by Taos, the city, and we didn’t have to go searching for it for long. We paid our entrance fee into the pueblo, and paid a mere $5 per camera to take pictures of the pueblo. After Acoma Sky City’s $10 per camera, it felt like such a better deal! And they charged a group fee for the 4 of us that was cheaper than the advertized $10 per person rate. Already, I warmed up to Taos Pueblo. 🙂 The day was bright and sunny, clear […]

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In a galaxy far, far away… Southwestern Road Trip Day 2 (Acoma Sky City)

So, after we left El Morro, we went east on the NM 63 until we hit the Interstate I-40 again. And we went on for a short way, and decided we would visit Acoma Pueblo, and then look for some lunch. For your convenience, here’s another look at the map of New Mexico. [[image:us63.jpg:Review Map of New Mexico:center:0]] The plan for the second half of the day was after Acoma Pueblo, we would drive to our next hotel in Taos, New Mexico. So, we got off the I-40 by Acoma and took the road into the pueblo. Acoma Pueblo is also known as Acoma Sky City because this thousand-year-old still lived-in traditional pueblo is situated on the top of a mesa. So the people who lived in the pueblo were able to defend themselves from invaders, from other native american tribes to the Spanish conquistadores. They lived on top of […]

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In a galaxy far, far away… Southwestern Road Trip Day 2 (El Morro)

After a relaxing evening at the Hampton Inn in Gallup (Mak and Abah ate their tar paued mexican food, and Vin and I went out briefly for a quick bite), we had a good night’s sleep and hit the road at 8:00 AM again. Gallup is a lot colder than Phoenix so everybody was bundled up for the 40+ Fahrenheit (about 5 C) weather. [[image:us63.jpg:Map of New Mexico:center:0]] On our itinerary for the day, from Gallup, we would get off the I-40 and head south on the NM 602 then east on NM 53 a little ways to see El Morro National Monument. After El Morro, we would take the NM 53 north east to the I-40 and then stop at Acoma Pueblo. We took so many cool pictures I’ll divide Day 2 into first El Morro, then Acoma Sky City. The weather was a little overcast and cloudy. Here’s […]

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In a galaxy far, far away… Southwestern Road Trip Day 1

So on October 27th, the four of us flew from Dayton to Phoenix where we planned to embark on an ambitious tour of the Southwestern USA. We arrived in Phoenix and rented a car. Armed with our guidebook and a roadmap of the United States, we thought we were ready for everything. We had a half-planned itinerary, and some hotel reservations along the way. The rest we would make up as we went along. We arrived in Phoenix late in the evening of Friday October 27th, so we got our rental car and drove straight to our first hotel in Phoenix. We planned to spend the night and in the morning we would hit the road. [[image:us32.jpg:Map of Arizona:center:0]] From Phoenix, we planned to drive north on the I-17 and at Flagstaff, head east on the I-40. We had reservations at a hotel in Gallup, New Mexico (just east of […]

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In a galaxy far, far away… Part I

After Yope, Yong, Emma, Irfan, Wan Ngah and Aji sent Abah and Mak to KLIA, they embarked on a long, arduous journey where finally they landed in the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Airport. Unfortunately, they arrived on a rainy night and due to traffic issues in the rain, Vin and I did not arrive at the airport right on time. Abah and Mak were waiting outside the terminal, and Abah was cold, so after a quick salam and kiss kiss, everyone piled into the car and we came home for dinner. [[image:us02.jpg:Mak is helping to stir the stir fried veggies:center:0]] [[image:us03.jpg:Hanging out in our kitchen – note the rosemary focaccia:center:0]] [[image:us01.jpg:Abah showing off his chicken, Mak has a piece of focaccia:center:0]] [[image:us04.jpg:First dinner at home with Abah and Mak:center:0]] Some pictures that were taken in our house: [[image:us05.jpg:Vin watering the plants in the library:center:0]] [[image:us06.jpg:Picture of the house taken from the street:center:0]] […]

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On To The Far Side Of The Planet

Tok and Opah Irfan boarded the flight that would take them to Singapore, then hopskip to Tokyo, Chicago and finally Cincinnati where Ayah Cik and Cik Dik would be waiting to bring them to their house in Middletown, OH for a month at the United States. This would be their second time in the US. To prevent being late for the flight because of breaking of fast, we left after 6 PM from the Tenth Floor, headed for Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) which is strangely enough a million light years away from KL, but maybe that’s a subject for another entry. We broke sawm driving through Putrajaya and ate dinner after Mahgrib prayers at the Dengkil R&R on the PLUS Highway. And no, I didn’t need to pick my teeth en route. Anyway… pictures, as they say, are worth a thousand words: [[image:kliasendoff01.jpg:Irfan recharging for his high energy expenditure […]

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