Breakfast Picnic

It has been a while since we last went to a park for a picnic. It has been a while too since we talked about taking Omar to a park so he could enjoy the green and the sun.

Finally, last Saturday we did it. Afi cooked nasi lemak and we—along with Mak and Abah—went to the nearby Kepong Metropolitan Park for a short picnic. We had breakfast under a tree, and Omar had a great time running around playing with his ball and making Atuk chase after him.

We definitely must do this more often.

Yearbook

Our 2011 yearbook arrived earlier than expected last Wednesday. It was waiting by the door when we arrived home. YAY!

Having expected the pictures to come out of print darker I adjusted most of them to make them lighter, but I still find the print a bit dark. Then, Afi found that I made one spelling mistake, AAARGH! I cannot believe I missed it; I went through each and every page before submitting them to print. It is just a small mistake, but a mistake nonetheless.

Still, overall we are very happy with the result.

Earlier in the day, we went out to town to try the scones at the Vaults & Garden Café. Someone recently told us that the scones there are better than the ones at The Rose, which in our opinion are the best in Oxford. The Vaults & Garden Café is located inside the University Church of St Mary the Virgin, which means that technically I have now visited the university church. I still hope to one day climb the tower, though. Back to scones, we still think that The Rose’s are number one. Next, before we leave for home we hope to drop by the Old Parsonage hotel to try the scones there too.

After that, we went to the Oxford University Press Bookshop on High Street. There was a 3-for-2 offer for select books, so Afi bought three picture books for Omar. She then asked me to pick three titles from the Very Short Introduction series. I wish we can buy the whole series, but for now I have three more books added to my reading pile.

Still Here

My Dell notebook charger died. I think one of the wires shorted. For a while, the notebook had had an intermittent problem detecting the power cable until it failed to detect it completely recently. I thought that there was a lose wire or something and was fiddling with the charger cable when suddenly there was a spark followed by smoke. Thankfully at the time I had already disconnected the cable from the notebook.

An original replacement from Dell was expensive, so I ordered a not-so-original one from Amazon instead. So far it is working just fine.

Anyway...

April Walks

Due to a multitude of reasons we don’t get to travel out of town much, which we don’t mind at all, as we’re not here for travelling and sightseeing. However, whenever time allows we do go out and take short walks around town. Sometimes, we also take pictures.

Snow

Today we had our heaviest snowfall yet this season and we were out! There were many cars stranded on the road. Thank God we were in an SUV.

There and Back Again

This is long overdue.

It’s so cold that I just want to crawl under the duvet and not come out—hibernate—till at least March. Outside the temperature is practically freezing, and the last few days were foggy. In true Malaysian fashion, Afi looked out the window on Sunday morning, saw the fog and said, “Ah, jerebu.” And now that it’s fall, the day is short; it’s already dark by 1700. Going out every morning I cannot help remembering my Form Five English teacher’s description of England as a “wet, dark and depressing place.”

Thankfully, the weather was a little kinder when Abang was here and we drove out to see the funny ‘hanging stones’ at Wiltshire. They were in the middle of nowhere, despite the GPS. There was a slight drizzle when we arrived, but the sun did come before we left.

Earlier in October, we had a quick trip home for Kakak’s 10/10 wedding. We were in Malaysia for less than five days. It was a short and very tiring trip, but it’s always good to be home. The wedding went smoothly. But we didn’t even get to get over the jet lag from the journey to KL before jetting off back to the UK, that we both fell asleep before the plane lifted off the runway at KLIA. We then slept for two more days when we arrived at the apartment.

Chicken

YUMMY!

We play badminton on Sundays.

Last Sunday, we went to Nando’s after badminton for lunch. Afi had a coupon that got us one whole chicken for free! So we paid only for the chips and drink. As can be seen in the picture collage above, Afi enjoyed the chicken very much. She says that the Nando’s here tastes better than in Malaysia. I really cannot tell the difference. :P

A Brazilian man at the table next to us asked me if the chicken was spicy. He said that he often ordered stuff “medium hot” at restaurants but found them to be (too) hot. I told him that in that case I really couldn’t say. We had a “hot” peri-peri chicken, and I didn’t think it was hot (pedas) at all. Spicy, yes, but not hot.

Later yesterday, while preparing dinner I cut a bit of nail off my left index finger. OUCH! That should remind me to be extra careful with the knife in the future.

[EWWW-PICTURE WARNING. PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK. ;)]
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Selamat Hari Raya

Sempena Hari yang mulia ini
kami memohon keampunan dan kemaafan
dari hujung rambut hingga hujung kaki
biarpun jauh di seberang lautan
minta kami jangan dilupakan.

Our first Raya together, and we got to spend it with just the two of us.

We thought about ordering personalized greeting cards from PhotoBox to send, even got the design all done, but decided in the end that they were expensive. :P

Syawal 1431/September 2010.
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COLLAGE: An afternoon at the Botanic Garden.

Woodstock, Part II

The love of my life in action! ;)

Woodstock

We went to Blenheim Palace last week, because Afi was worried that I haven’t done much sightseeing and touring since I got here, and took a lot of pictures! :D

Museum Saturday

I still haven’t made it to the national zoo after two years since I thought about it. Soon, I hope.

But I went to the Islamic Arts Museum with my brother on Saturday. We went to take my car for its third scheduled service in the morning, and decided that the day was too beautiful to just go straight home after that. After considering our options, we decided on the Islamic Arts Museum.

There is a special exhibition themed Faith & Power: Women in Islam running till July 4. My mother said that it’s all over the television, but I knew about it from curator Lucien de Guise’s article in the NST. Anyway, it wasn’t the reason we went on Saturday. I’ve always thought about going to the museum, just like I’ve always thought about going to the zoo. I’d like to say that I generally like museums, or at least the idea of museums, although I haven’t been to any of the local museums since primary school. Relatively recently, I went to the Museum of Fine Arts, Museum of Science (twice), John F Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, and USS Constitution Museum in Boston; the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, and the Imperial War Museum in London.

I really liked what I saw at the Islamic Arts Museum. It seems to be very well managed and maintained, unlike the state of the state-run museums I remember (they could be different now, however; I’ll have to check them out). Apart from the exhibits, there are beautiful, intricately designed domes inside the museum building. Cameras are not allowed in the exhibition galleries, but I really wished that I had my camera with me. The museum also has an excellent shop I’ll definitely remember whenever the next time I need to buy someone a gift.

The RM12 entrance fee was definitely worth it. There weren't many visitors when we were there apart from some foreign tourists and a noisy group of school children. I really recommend everyone to visit the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur.

Trip to Nowhere

On Sunday, Ami asked if I would like to tag along him doing some property valuation. Well, between that and spending the day doing nothing but staring at my navel, I said yes, and off we went. Born and bred, and know working in the Klang Valley, I’ve always found smaller towns interesting in that there aren’t as many cars and people around. Wouldn’t it be cheap to buy a house in, say Banting or Bentong, far away from the city? Of course, it doesn’t make much sense unless I’m willing to find another job.

Our targets for the day were four properties in the Kuala Langat and Sepang districts, all set to be auctioned by the bank, hence the need for them to be valued. The first two were in Teluk Panglima Garang (Fierce General Bay?) – love the name of the place. Neither of us were familiar with the area, so we stopped by the local police station and asked for directions. Unlike most people I actually kinda like the police force despite all their failings, but my brother did all the asking – it was his job anyway – while I stayed in the car and played with the camera. It was blazing hot.

We couldn’t find the first property. The address listed a lot number but the place was a residential estate. We found the second property after asking directions from a young Indian man. That wrapped up Teluk Panglima Garang.

The third property really took us on an adventure of epic proportion; I only wish that it was an exaggeration. It was fourth floor condominium unit at “Taman Murni, Bukit Changgang, Banting”. We only saw one high rise building in the Banting area, a new condominium complex with a Tesco outlet on the ground floor – not it. A police officer at the Banting police station told us to drive towards the KLIA direction. A property sales agent at the previous condominium complex then told us to keep on driving for another five kilometers. More than five kilometers later, we were already in Dengkil and met a seemingly clueless shopkeeper who suggested we turn towards Kampung Selangor Dredging. Turned out he was indeed clueless. An elderly security guard at a deserted PLKN camp, however, was not so clueless, and gave us our first concrete direction towards Salak Tinggi. Along the way we stopped for more direction from a kid manning a car wash joint, before finally arriving at our destination, a housing complex quite literally in the middle of nowhere.

It took us two-and-a-half hours. And it was not exactly called Taman Murni. :P

You live here?

The last hunt took us to two police stations; first the Sepang district police headquarters and then the Dengkil police station, before finding the place right behind the station.

Calling it a day, we took a detour towards Putrajaya to pray, but was turned off by the volume of tourists. Instead, we ended up praying and having dinner at Shah Alam before heading home. After a scorching hot full day, it finally rained as we headed to Shah Alam with the setting sun.