Muar and Back

It went according to plan. My parents joined me at the apartment before we drive down to Muar in glorious sunshine to attend my cousin's wedding. But unfortunately I couldn't make it any earlier and by the time we reached Kesang Laut, one of the famous ritual was done. It was called the toll.

Basically, when the party from the groom arrived at the bride's house, they had to pass trough a series of toll, members of the bride's family would actually stop then from passing through unless some amount of money - or gift - were passed. They may also have to sing or reply verses of pantun, and only then they were allowed to proceed.

And usually there was never a single toll. Yesterday, there four of them. Done in good spirit, it was a sight to behold. A real tongue twister at times, perfected into an art.

We missed all that though.

The other thing I noticed about weddings in Johor, was this lot loved their singing. There was always live bands. And oh boy, they really could carry a tune.

We could stay for too long due to the combination of having to return to KL before its dark and my nieces were getting restless. My boys and Anita didn't come along as they were attending a wedding and a birthday party in KL. Not to mention that they had their swimming lessons as well that afternoon.

We left Muar just before 4, a quick stop for Solat and reached KL by 6.30. The traffic was light as clearly the balik kampung crowd were still chilling back home. The road was empty and the weather was great. I then joined Anita and the boys at the Club, taking them to dinner before home. A nice productive day indeed.

P1 Connection Disription

My P1 connection at home had been playing up for the last week. They were nice enough to SMS me on the first day that they had issues and would be rectifying it soon. By little that I realises that it would took them the best part of a week.

It seemed to be only disrupting the connection on the widget unit. The main P1 node we placed at the main hall seemed to getting normal service. So, to get our normal surfing fix, we had to gather at the living room. No signal in the bedroom I was afraid. That also meant that no app updates for the iPad unless we went upstairs. I also had problem with updating my podcast since the iMac in the study uses the widget for its Internet connection.

This morning when I woke up, everything seemed to be fixed though. And I also heard the news that finally P1 was launched in Kuching. I therefore suspected that the engineers who were supposed to fix he connection in KL had been posted in Kuching instead ....

Olympic Centennial Park

One of the things I knew about Atlanta before my trip there was the fact that it was the host for the Centennial Olympics back in 1996. Personally, the game should have been held in Athens, to mark the 100 years since the first modern games were held, but Atlanta managed to pip through on the last bid. Being a sentimental, it should have been in Greece, but hey, I do not make the rules.

So, I was looking forward to some legacy of the games, but all I got was the Centennial Park, which to be honest was a lot smaller than I imagined it would be. It was also the site for the Olympic bombing which killed two people during the games.

It was a nice grass field with a few monuments surrounding it, but in itself, it was nothing special. But the tiles which made up the footway caught my eye. They all have names of donors written on them, which were mainly people of the city. They must have lent their money to the project and had their names immortalised in the park.

There was also a small fountain made up of the five rings of the Olympics located in the centre of the park. I walked by this every morning from my hotel to the Congress Center.

In the evening, the park was transformed somewhat with the lightings wing erected, celebrating winter and Christmas. Unfortunately they don't get much snow in this part of the US, but the brown leaf from the tree contrasted well with the clear blue sky. It was quite a vista actually with the cool breeze that we had during my stay there. Since the weather is in the mild side, a skating rink was erected at the part of the park near the Georgia Aquarium.

More about my Atlanta trip here.

Glorious Morning

It was one of those smooth morning when the traffic was light and I was bathed in glorious sunshine. I arrived at the clinic early after sorting out the ward - managed to discharge most of my admission from the recent call.

And again, the sun was glorious. Made me sad that I had to work ….. but at least I got next week to look forward to when I had a trip planned for the boys and Anita down south ….

Three Calls

I was definitely showing my age. But to do three calls within a week and a half upon returning from the US was certainly tiring. The first call went OK since I was still riding on the adrenaline of the trip to Atlanta. But the fatigue hit me hard on the day right after my second day on call.

By the time I recovered, it was already time for another call. So, here I was, on Xmas day on a post call day attending a cousin's wedding. I then babysat my boys at my Mum's place at Bukit Antarabangsa while Anita had a couple of hours of shopping time with my sister, Julia. I was really feeling tired now .... But at least, the three calls were the ones due for me this month. My next on call day would be in more than two weeks time.

So, I was looking forward to a couple days of light clinics and rounds. I would be traveling down to Muar for another wedding after my Saturday morning clinic later this week. I really could do with some down time just with Anita and the kids. Let's drink to that then ....... And for some extra time to update my blogs.

More on my Atlanta trip here.