Just Landed

It wasn't the smoothest of flight although I must say the food on the flight was surprisingly good. Maybe I was starving.

Landed in Brisbane about an hour ago, and is now en route to the hotel. There was a long wait for other delegates and I was able to grab one of the local prepaid SIM - which came with 10GB data! Crazy!

So, it looks like I wouldn't be off line after all. The program starting from tomorrow afternoon would be packed. At least I will have tomorrow morning off. It would be events and meetings one after the other right after - including dinner on both Friday and Saturday evening.

And a nice cosy bedAnd then I would be leaving on Sunday late afternoon. No rest after that.

Best to enjoy some free time later, catch on a bit of a rest, shower and ironing. But dinner first!

Homework Afternoon

We spent the earlier part of the afternoon in Bangi, supporting our high school MRSM Terendak at the Ansara Games. Unfortunately with the boys on tow, I had to do the babysitting at the car park. Anita get to see the games with another friend of ours, and she had a lovely time.

I didn't even have the chance to snap any photos while we were there.

Fuelling up with some cheesy pizzaOn his final leg ....But reality soon returned as we had to catch up on the homework for the weekend. Idlan had a couple of essays to write while Irfan got a project. We started early and hopefully everything should be done by dinner.

More Photos

I just realised that I took tons of photos during the party. I used combination of three cameras, the main one being the Sony Alpha 7R mk II with the Zeiss 24-70 lens with a flash. The other two were the wide angle Leica Q and the X-pro 1 coupled with the 35mm f1.4.

You can never have too many balloons ...The boys helping out with the preparationsMaking sure that the game consoles working just fine ...Yes, the mask fitsAll lined up ...The combination worked a treat and as I only had the flash for a couple of days, it worked much better than expected. I would be employing the setup for the upcoming MSH meeting in late April as I would be tasked with taking the photos again.

The drinks are readyThe mini pizza was a hit ....... and so were the sausages ...The labels were up ...The robot was on-lineSo, in the end I must have taken more than 200 shots ...

That Padwan Cake

Mama Min had delivered again. We first found out about her almost 10 years ago while celebrating Idlan's first birthday. She prepared a barnyard cake through our party planner and since then she had been our go to person for birthday party.

Her creation had been constantly amazing, not just to look at. They tasted great too - it was Oreo chocolate this time. Over the years, we had a "Little Einstein Cake" for Irfan and "R2-D2" for Idlan.

This time around, Irfan wanted a Star Wars-themed event for his classmate party. And Mama Min came out with the best one yet. The cake was topped with Irfan in a Padwan suit, complete with his blue-framed glasses. And it looked so much like him!

Idlan had already been planning for his 12th birthday in May. It would be just before Ramadan, and best to start panning nning from now. It looked like Mama Kim's service might be called for again! Best to finalise the theme first.

Driving Home

It was hard to say goodbye to Smokehouse when we were finally done. The boys were relieved obviously now that they were heading back to civilisation, but my in-laws would have preferred to stay an extra day. The combination of cool weather, nice room and great service made them wanted to room again and there were already talks about our next stay before we departed.

We left just after noon, deciding against staying for lunch since we had a heavy breakfast. We would later stop at Kuala Kubu Baru for a quick stop, and we did just that. I used the Hulu Yam route again, bypassing Rawang and Serendah, cutting the journey by about 30 km. We reached Gombak by 3.15, and then continued on to the apartment via Great Eastern Mall to do a bit of groceries and take-out for dinner.

We were worried that our MPV would play up, but luckily everything went smoothly. I might take a few days off in early January after the Xmas and New Year break, just before the school reopened for the boys. Maybe it would be to PD.