A visit from fellow Lancastrians

 

Today Haslinda and her family visited us at our home. They just came back from the UK a couple of weeks ago. Ilyas has not seen his former classmate Danial and his older brother, Imran for more than a year. We had plenty to talk about and after three hours there are still more things to talk about. We promised to them that we will visit their house when it is ready.

World Cup visitor

This evening my friend, Amir dropped by to our house and we invited him for a dinner. At the same time Manchester United were playing Bolton so he joined me to watch the game. He gave me two souvenirs that he bought in South Africa during the World Cup, a vuvuzuela and a South African supporters shirt. Maisarah is very fond of the horn and keep blowing it non-stop. I'm still trying to figure out how to blow it.

Visit from friends

Today we received a lot of visitors to our house to celebrate Hari Raya. Majority are my old friends as some have been friends with me for more than 22 years. Even my current students came to visit and they got a surprise in form of duit raya just like other children. It's good to keep in touch with them and I hope I will be able to see them again from time to time.

Old Friends from Oman

I received a message from Dr. Ali Al-Bulushi from Oman in the Facebook. He mentioned to me that he is coming to Malaysia for a holiday with his family. I was away attending a course at that time but I managed to invite him for a dinner in my mother-in-law's house in KL few days before he left home. Huzaini and his family joined us as well. We had a chat and watched the World Cup match on television. After that we bid him and his family farewell and maybe our next meeting will be in his hometown in Oman.

A Visit by Shima

Shima, Jo's old uni friend, came over to our house for a visit. Since today is workday, we don't have anything in the kitchen so we took her to have dinner at the PappaRich restaurant. Afterwards she spent some time in our house with Jo while I went out to play futsal. When I came back Jo told me that Shima bought some of our garage sale items. I hope she will be happy with the stuff that she bought.

Visitors from Pusing

We had visitors today from Perak. Teena, our old schoolmate, and her family called Jo this morning if they can come to our house. We immediately said yes and the next hour we cleaned up our house from top to the bottom. What a really great motivation for us to tidy up the house!

Another nice surprise

This evening I received a call from Mama Tok informing me that a distant relatives of ours are coming over to visit my house. Kak Yah and her family is very close to Ilyas because she is the one who took care of him when he was a baby until before we went to the UK.

A nice surprise

Tonight I received a call from Yu, my uncle. Apparently he was nearby our house and he is wondering if he can drop by for a visit. When he arrived I was delighted to see that he came with my other uncles and aunties who came all the way from Kelantan. In addition to that, I found out that two of my cousins support Manchester United, so I gave them souvenirs from the Old Trafford. Unfortunately Yu and my other uncle supported Arsenal and Liverpool respectively. Of course, no family is perfect.

Old Friends Visit

Today we invited Khairul and his family for dinner at our house. His wife, Rose is a lawyer and I just engaged her to help me refinancing the housing loan. She needs to have Jo's signature on several legal documents so we took this opportunity to have them in our house. The main dishes are satay, keropok lekor and pasta. One is bought, one is given and another is cooked by my wife.

Open House in Mutiara Condominium

Ilyas and Maisarah showing to Haziq their new pets

Putri, G and myself

Watching Arsenal trashed Blackburn 6-2

Four ladies that will be left alone at home every Saturday evening

Today is the most hectic day for us as many people decided to take the opportunity on Sunday weekend to invite or visit friends and relatives for Hari Raya open house. We started our day by inviting Huzaini and his family to our mother-in-law's house in Ampang for breakfast Raya. Ilyas and Maisarah are very excited because they can play together with Haziq. They even spent the whole morning swimming in the condominium's pool. I received four invitations to attend open house in the afternoon but since each of them are quite distant from each others, I can only managed to fulfill one of them, which was my uncle's house in Dengkil.

After that we had to rush back to Ampang because I have invited the most important people in my football team, ANSARA Taiping for the dinner. Shazli, or better known as G, is our utility player as he can play in any position in the team. He came first with his wife and his one and a half years old son, Irfan. Then Syarizan, or Jose as he would prefer others to call him, came next. He used to be ANSARA PDRM's manager but I managed to persuade him and several of his top players to join our team. He is our most consistent striker. The person to come last is Shahril, or Madun the manager. He is the one who took care of our team when I had to go to the UK for my PhD study. Under his management, ANSARA Taiping had won several trophies and now in the 1st division in Liga Alumni Malaysia. Throughout the night we talked and discussed our team in preparation for the upcoming semi final match in Piala ANSARA. Madun is going to organise a couple of friendly matches before the actual match and I am really looking forward for that. By the way, I have appointed myself as a director of football for ANSARA Taiping, much like Sven-Goran Eriksson at Notts County.

Aisyah's Birthday Party

Today we are visited by two families from Lancaster, Jasmin's and Tun's. It was a lovely day so we decided to hold a birthday party for Aisyah, Jasmin's second daughter, at the back garden. She is now seven years old. Some of the neighbours' children were joining us as well. Ilyas and Maisarah are really happy to have so many friends coming over to their house.

Visitors from Ireland

Today we received a visit from Nina and her daughter, Aisyah. They came from Ireland for a one day visit only. Jo and Maisarah did not waste time and took them immediately to city centre for shopping (what else!). In the evening, Maisarah had a little picnic with Aisyah together with all her soft toys. When they say goodbye at the airport, Maisarah cried because she wanted to follow them back to Ireland.

Visitors from Lancaster

We met Zul and his family at the car boot sale in Lydiate. Afterwards they came to our house since they never visited our house in Liverpool before. Ilyas and Maisarah were very happy especially Maisarah since she got to play with two 'kakak's. They play football together and then had a little picnic under the big umbrella. All the grownups were inside the house but we can hear them chatting loudly outside. Maybe they are discussing current issues?

Three visitors in a day

Yesterday we received visits from three families. Mukhriz and his family (including his parents from Malaysia) came to stop by our house on the way back to Lancaster after visiting Devon. Afterwards in the evening, my former schoolmate Anis and her family came to stay overnight before going back home at Dundee on Sunday morning. They just came back from Norwich but managed to stopped by at Birmingham to visit another schoolmate of ours. Our last visitors are also from Lancaster. Iqmal and his family spent a day sightseeing and shopping in the Liverpool shopping centre.

Ilyas and Maisarah truly enjoyed the evening because there are lots of children for them to play together with.

Visitors from Lancaster and Malaysia

Today we received a visit from Arlinah and her family. Arlinah is a Phd student in the Lancaster University and her family came from Malaysia for a holiday. They just came back from Manchester and decided to drop by in Liverpool before going back to Lancaster.

Fun in the Sun

Ilyas and Ryne trading Match Attaxx football cards

Ryne and Ilyas trying to tackle Awa

Is it a goal?

Today Ajim and his family stopped by our house after spending half day shopping at Cheshire Oaks. The weather was nice so we spent most of our time outside in the garden. Ilyas and Ryne love to play football with each other. The old boys joined them too for a game or two. Ilyas is becoming more like Paul Scholes rather than Cristiano Ronaldo with his heavy tacklings. When we play rugby, I got a sense that Ilyas is probably more suited to this game because he is not scared of bringing a player down, although maybe he needs to improve on his passing skill. The girls however are more content playing bubbles and having a little picnic by themselves.