The Mask

I was wondering what Idlan was doing with balloons at the apartment last. It turned out that it was part of his assignment from school. What was it? To build a mask.

First, you glue the balloon with paperThe glue concoctionIndustrial strengthFirst, he inflated a balloon, pasted some papers at half the surface. This would form the curvature of a face. He then left the paper and glue to dry solid overnight.

And then the colouring partAlmost doneBut not without the mess ...Then came the colouring plus some bits for the nose and mouth. Walla!

Qurban

Unlike last year, Qurban and Aidil Adha this year was a low key one. We all stayed in KL. Even my parents didn't travel as my Mum's brother passed away last Ramadhan and her sister is in Mecca at the moment. My sister didn't go back to Melaka either.

The first day was a busy one for my parents as my Dad was in charge of the Qurban at his surau. Mum was also busy with cooking. I went to the surau with my boys although Idlan freaked out when he saw blood from the slaughter. That put the end of the visit.

It was almost done by the time we arrivedEvery last bitReady for distributionThe chopping boardWe went to visit my parents on the second day, having lunch there. We spent the rest of the Raya weekend at the apartment this time, more or less to ourselves.

The boys were occupied with homework, assignment and of course the PS4. I spent the weekend just doing some reading and watching TV. A lazy one actually.

My Dad was in charge of the distribution part

Idlan trying to convince everybody that it was time to go ....

They were back to school today, and I was busy with some reading in preparation for a visit by inspector at a firm I consult for. Although I technically had Tuesday off in between reading and paperwork.

Free Mornings

Not used to having a morning off. My day off usually included a quick trip to the hospital to do my ward round. But yesterday morning was free, apart from a couple of calls I had to answer.

I was tasked for sorting out the breakfast. And that was exactly what I did. A quick drive to Happy Garden to buy some roti canai and everybody was happy.

I spent the morning updating my blog actually. Finally gotten around to finish up my Penang entries. Quite a lot of photos there actually. Then after the boys were up, we packed up to leave the apartment and head to my Mum's place at Bukit Antarabangsa for lunch. Chilled there for a few hours before returning to Gombak.

Had to settle in quick as the boys had school on Tuesday even though I had canceled my Tuesday morning clinic and didn't have to rush to Subang - which what I was doing doing now doing this entry.

I have some business matter to take care of in the next couple of days, hence no clinic. I would still be going there to do my rounds and other things. But at least not at 7 at usual.

Breakfast with Puan Anita next.

Broken SquareSpace

I have been using SquareSpace for more than 5 years and with innovation, there was bound to be issued. And that certainly what happened to the iOS app for the blogging platform.

The app now no longer support Square space version 5 which my blog still used - because that was the most advanced version back in 2009.

SquareSpace released version 6 of the program back in 2011 and I was one of the beta tester for the new update. I used it for close to 6 months before the version matured and went out of beta. Over the years, development of version 5 were put in the back burners. And the main problem was, those two versions were not compatible. Upgrading from 5 to 6 did take plenty of work.

I decided against updating this blog and now I found myself having to either use the Android version of the SquareSpace app, which I was also a beta tester, or updating it manually on the web. The app were no longer available for download from iTunes, so I my have to update my iPhone manually from the Mac to get the old app back.

It was a pain. What would happen when version 7 come along? There would be another app update and those using the older version may suffer the same problem as I did.

It looked like I may just have to do the. Prating the old fashion way with the new phone.

Update on Thursday, October 9, 2014 at 6:48AM by Haris Abdul Rahman

Problem solved by manually uploading the Squarepace App from my iTunes backup onto my new iPhone. End of the World everted!

Lembah Bujang Archeological Museum

Idlan had always been keen on museum. So, I thought on our way to visit my Aunt in Sungai Petani, we should take a detour to Merbok and visit Lembah Bujang. Idlan learned about the place in his History lessons in school. He was naturally curious.

Getting to the place was quite straight forward with the help of Waze. Signage was otherwise poor as expected, but the road was pretty straight forward coming off the PLUS highway in Sungai Petani and driving towards Merbok. Initially we didn't know what to expect as there were not much written about the museum in blogs and the interwebs.

Just a small sign at the frontThese are ancient ....How the whole area looked like in 3DWhen we reached there, we were very pleasantly surprised. The place was clean and the facilities were good. The whole compound comprised of a museum building - one of two as the other one was closed. They had a waterfall with picnic area, which unfortunately during this dry season did not have much in the way of streaming water. There was also a few archeology sites just up the hill from the museum with decently built walkways and steps.

Parking space was ample and well organised. They had toilets and surau next to the car park, shades and chairs to sit on and chill. If you're adventurous, there was a trail leading up to the top of Gunung Jerai from here. I might one day just do that ...

The museum was actually more spacious than it looked on the outsideEach items tell a story and the whole exhibit was well-curatedIs that a cat?The actual museum was air conditioned, and much better than I expected. And the entrance was free. It was opened every day except for Hari Raya. Not many people was there though and Sunday being a working day in Kedah, that was not a surprise. The care taker was really friendly and talked about the museum to me and Idlan.

The artifacts were well laid out and lit. Everything had a label both in Malay and English. Very professionally done. After half an hour in the museum, we then ventured up the hill to some of the temples. Nice green fields, helped by the overcast weather made for a pleasant walk.

Time to venture outsideReaching the topHave to compliment their visitor's facilitiesI must say that I was more than impressed and would recommend a visit to everyone who was interested. Getting there might be tricky due to poor signage, so, it was best to use Waze, or if you were lost, look for Pekan Merbok. If was just up the path from there, around 2 km in. This place would be a site for a quick family picnic, or even the base for a walk up Gunung Jerai. That would be a different kind of adventure and I would be doing a bit more reading before venturing so.

More entries on this trip can be seen here.