Homework Time

Sri Utama did not follow the standard time table, hence they were open this week while the rest of the schools were closed. Both Idlan and Irfan also had tons of assignment to hand in before next weekend. But what infuriate us was the amount of daily homework that Idlan especially was getting. Personally they were both excessive and unnecessary.

We had pointed this out to the teacher during the last meeting but it seemed that nothing had really changed. Idlan still had to stay up almost every night doing his homework. Then Anita would be doing his and Irfan's assignments and projects in the meantime. It was getting ridiculous. Even the other parents were seething.

Unfortunately the assignments carried a substantial percentage of the exam marks for the end of term. We don't really have a choice. As a long term plan, we were looking at alternative school and maybe giving up on the national stream, taking O and A levels instead.

But, better get the assignments and homework out of the way first. The arrangements can't go on much longer.

Saying Goodbye

We got up very early for our breakfast. We were among the first to arrive there. Quick check out, followed by a short drive avoiding the traffic jam back to TH Hotel to say goodbye to my Aunt and Uncle. We were lucky that we managed to spend another hour with them before an announcement was made asking them to return to their rooms.

Again, the process was really straight forward, although it rained early that morning causing a bit of an issue with the open car park. The meeting area floors were also wet, but those were really minor gripes.

My Uncle had never flew in an airplane before - my Aunt visited me in Manchester before - so, he was rather apprehensive and nervous - especially with the couple of incidents earlier in the year affecting MAS. Once they were finally in - their flight would be later in the afternoon - we set off back to Sungai Petani to pick up one of my cousins who would be following us to KL.

I decided to take a quick nap before Friday Prayers, and finally we left for KL at around 4 pm, reaching KL just after 9. Tiring couple of days indeed, but well worth the effort ....

While driving back, I had switched Flightradar24 on, tracking their flight. It around 5pm that the flight took off, and by the time I went to bed that evening, it was just about entering Saudi Arabia airspace.

Overnight at Equatorial

Located right at the top of Bukit Jambul, I heard of the hotel before, but never actually stayed there. Looked like one of those classic 80s hotels, it was much classier than I thought. And a lot bigger.

The hotel had a unique design. It was four wings spreading from a central roofed hollow area creating an atrium feel, nine story high. My room was at the end of one of the winged corridor, a nice little suite which I shared with my Mum. My Dad was planned to come along but decided against traveling at the last minute since he had a cold. I ordered an extra bed, sleeping at the living area.

The inner layout of the hotel was pretty unit, with a central hollow design.Looking down onto the main lobbyI could see the second bridge from the room's balconyAll we did there was sleep and had shower, plus the breakfast the next morning. I did not have the chance to sample any of the facilities, or room services.

The room was nice and comfortable. It felt new, which I was sure due to a recent upgrade. It had a balcony, which was not cleaned. It had no seating - which I thought could have been made into a feature. It came with free broadband - which I did not bother to sample as the LTE signal was pretty good in the room.

The room with my extra bed at the living area

It had all the sports and movie channels, plus 24 hour room service should you need some food. The gym and pool was located on the ground floor, and the hotel had a total of seven restaurant, including the famous Kampachi Japanese restaurant.

The breakfast the next morning was not included for standard room, which was part of the reason that I went for the suite. It was a pretty standard fare. Could have been better.

Would definitely call in again should I need a room near the airport area. Otherwise, Eastern and Oriental would still be our favourite ....

Taking the Plunge

So, the iOS 8 had just been released to the masses this morning. The internet connection at Gombak House had been pretty sluggish, so I had to do the updating from the apartment. Luckily, this being a Thursday, I had some me time.

After I got my patients sorted out, had my breakfast, it was time to take the plunge. Off to the apartment.

The file size for the download was 1.1Gb for the iPhone and 1.3Gb for the iPad. On top of that, you would need around 6Gb of free space n the device for the upgrade. That meant that I had to delete some apps, as well as some unused files, podcasts and audiobooks. Easily done.

The download took less than 10 minutes, but the local parsing of the files on the device took around 20 minutes. Then the download was verified and you were asked if you wanted to update the device then. Of course the answer was yes. Another 15 minutes and I was greeted with the opening screen of the new OS.

Any noticeable difference? Not really. Everything looked very similar to the iOS7. I was bracing myself for some crashes, but hopefully new patches would be provided by the app developers to cope with the new upgrade ….

Sunday Afternoon

After a hectic week, Sunday could not come much sooner, and surprisingly, I had some time to enjoy for myself. I had been a chauffeur for Anita earlier in the day, driving her for her college meet-up in Cheras. Had lunch there after doing my ward round, and by 3pm, things were already sorted for the day.

So, Anita and I went to Bukit Bintang, and more specifically Pavilion.

There were a couple of arts event happening in KL last weekend. One was at KLPAC, The Inaugural Sime Darby Arts Festival. I wanted to go there but the combination of bad weather and bad timing just made that trip difficult. So, I went to the alternative - KakiSeni Arts Festival held at Pavilion. The Kakiseni event ran until Malaysia Day, so I could've catch up with that later in the week. Shame that the KLPAC event only lasted the weekend. That actually looked much more interesting to be quite honest.

But, able to go to one was better than nothing. I couldn't hang around for too long though as my in-laws would be out for dinner and somebody needed to stay home with the boys. I preferred an early night as well since United was playing later that night and I would be on call the next day.

So, I managed to catch a couple of performance. The problem was space at Pavilion was a premium. Getting one spot to another could be a pain since Pavilion was essentially a shopping mall. The outside terraces got crowded very quickly once an event start.

Hopefully there would be similar events organised for next year. And hopefully it was on separate weekends ....