Playing in the Park

Watching over the lake

Ilyas looks scared!

Tok Wan and Mak Tuk are here...

Daring Maisarah

Reaching for the top

History of Kajang

I just came back from the symposium and noticed that Ilyas and Maisarah look quite bored in the house. So I took them to Taman Tasik Cempaka in Bandar Baru Bangi to play in the playground. Tok Wan and Mak Tuk came later to drop Kakak Eela and we stayed there until near 7pm.

I've Been Stoodled!

I was busy the whole day today and only got a chance to go to my Facebook page quite late in the evening. To my delight the first news feed that I saw was a stoodle based on my Facebook status. For those who is new to the word and the world of stoodle, do visit their website at http://stoodle.wordpress.com/ It was an honour to be stoodled by them. Thanks to Idlan for noticing my final hours of completing the dissertation and credit to Mimi who managed to accurately draw picture of myself (I am really that thin! please believe me!)

Old Town White Coffee

Old Town Nasi Lemak Special

French Toast

Hainanese Chicken Chop with Flavoured Rice, accompanied by hot Honey and Lemon juice

Tonight Mama Tok wanted to eat dinner outside so Tina suggested that we try the meals at the Old Town White Coffee in Bandar Baru Bangi. It is the largest kopitiam restaurant chain in Malaysia. I ordered Hainanese Chicken Chop with Flavoured Rice but the chicken is a bit too oily for my likings, however I still managed to clean the plate. Jo ordered Nasi Lemak and Tina had French Toast. I forgot what others were ordering as I was too busy eating.

Jamuan Raya Fakulti Ekonomi dan Pengurusan, UPM

Kuih-kuih raya

Wedding cake of Puan Narimah and Encik Khalid

The food stall

Main tables for UPM top management

Bunga telur from the pengantin

Today my faculty organised a Hari Raya open house for all its staff and also a wedding reception for one of the staff, Puan Narimah who recently got married. I managed to catch up with some of my colleagues, whom I haven't seen for the past four years. Most of them were quite surprised to see that I have changed a bit, especially my cheeks, becoming chubbier. I'm also quite surprised to see some of them, some became 'healthy' like me and there are others who lost weight and look lovely. I managed to have a chat with the UPM VC and found out that he supports Liverpool FC, poor fellow. The faculty also served durians taken from the UPM's farm and I had to resist the temptation to eat the whole fruit.

Ilyas and Maisarah First Day at New School

Today is Ilyas and Maisarah first day at their new nursery school in Malaysia. Their nursery is called Little Caliphs and their medium for teaching is English. Maisarah is quite excited and she is very happy with her new uniform because it has a butterfly picture on it. Ilyas is a bit shy and does not want to be in the picture. The class starts around 8am and finish by 11.30am. We have the option of extending the session until 6pm but decided to have the morning session first. By the end of the first day, Ilyas managed to make friends with two boys and know how to do the ablution. Maisarah told me that there is another girl with the same name as hers, but she is smaller than her.

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.

Eating Out at Tony Roma's

Since Awa will be here in Malaysia for a short while, we decided to have a family dinner. Tina suggested that we try the Tony Roma's restaurant at Mid Valley Mall. This restaurant is famous for its ribs and steaks so we decided to give it a go. I forgot to take note the name of the dishes but their ribs are definitely delicious! The meat is so soft and tear easily from the bone. I will definitely go back to the restaurant provided that Tok Ayah  tag along with us to pay for the bill, hehe.

Swimming at Tok's house

New Pets for Ilyas and Maisarah

Donald and Daisy, but don't ask me which one is which

Mickey and Minnie, or maybe the other way around

Today Tina drove us to Kajang to have drinks at the Starbucks Cafe. Whilst we were there, Ilyas and Maisarah noticed a small stall selling pets such as rabbits, hamsters, turtles, sea angels and hermit crabs. Ilyas really loves to have turtles and Maisarah simply adores the hamsters. They are willing for us to use their 'duit raya' to buy those animals together with the cages and foods. That's a good news for me as I don't have to fork out money from my own pocket. I hope they will be treating the animals gently and making sure they are fed and taken care of in responsible manners.

RIP Fernleaf (2000 - 2009)

Fernleaf (this picture was taken on the 18th September 2009)

Necklace and Fernleaf

Today is a sad day for us in Taman Sahabat. One of our beloved cat family has died early this morning. Fernleaf was one of the grandchildren of Jenny (named after Jenny McCarthy of MTV). Jenny is no longer around with us for quite a long time. But Fernleaf and one of Jenny's daughter, Necklace (her neck has a little ring of black fur around it) remain in the house for many years and he was Lalan's favourite cat. During the recent years Fernleaf has become obese and weighed around 6.3kg. With that kind of weight came several illness which proved fatal for him. We went to the Veterinary Hospital in Kuala Lumpur yesterday and he had little surgery but his condition is getting worse by last night.

Goodbye Fernleaf, all of us will miss you greatly.

Who is The Stig?

Shopping at IKEA and eating out at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.

This signboard is used to call the waitress

Just flip it over to call them!

"Onion Rings" - A tower of Onion Rings served with Chipotle Ranch and BBQ Dippin' Sauces

"Shrimper's Heaven" - Coconut Shrimp, Chilly Shrimp, Fried Shrimp, Tempura Shrimp, Fries and Dippin' Sauces

"...Of Course We Have Scampi!" - Tender Shrimp sauteed with Capers in Lemon-Garlic Butter, served over a bed of Linguini

Alabama Mud Pie for the dessert, it's a cool layers of chocolate and vanilla ice cream with chunks of Snickers are separated with a ribbon of Caramel and topped with streams of chocolate syrup, whipped cream and crunchy peanuts

Too tired after a day long of playing, shopping and eating!

Today we went to IKEA at Damansara to start planning for our new house. We went there with Tina and Enol as our tour guides. After filling up our car to the max, we walked straight into The Curve to have our lunch. Specifically, we had our meal at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. which was inspired by the 1994 film 'Forrest Gump'. Everything about the restaurant is based on the film, they even sell souvenirs related to the film and there are several screens showing the film. The food was nice and we finished most of them except the dessert because the bottom part of it tastes funny. We then went straight back to Kajang because Ilyas and Maisarah are already tired and getting sleepy.