Mid Valley Gardens Decor

Gardens at Mid Valley has always portrayed itself as an upmarket outlet. When it comes to decorations for festivities, they were always classy and understated. For this year's Raya, they concentrated more on details, and left the more elaborate decor to its sister mall next door, the Mid Valley Megamall.

The central gallery, where the main boutique outlets were located, were filled with small decorations and there were also some lightings hanging down, with more Aidilfitri motifs. One thing I have noticed, they have taken away some of the seatings at the main walkways, which make stopping for a breather especially while fasting a bit of a nag.

I was glad that the walkways and foyers were left empty rather than filled up by tacky stalls selling clothes and cookies. They obviously remained consistent in concentrating on the small things.

1Utama Decorations

After picking up Irfan from school this afternoon - Idlan was absent today, even though the fever was now gone - we headed out to 1Utama shopping complex as Anita wanted to get some presents for a friend's birthday. I took the opportunity to look at the decorations they had there.

I only had the time to venture around the lobby at the new wing. Being Ramadhan, we decided not to be too adventurous. The main foyer was transformed into one big stage. Themewise? Hmm … on the flowery side. I can imagine it being a blossom, with the petals forming a canopy for the little stalls they had there.

The main stage

Apart from that, there were nothing spectacular - like the winter wonderland from two Christmasses ago, or the famous sawah padi in the middle of the foyer, which was a big hit last Raya. I guessed things were pretty subdued everywhere …..

For those who are curious, this is the link to last year's sawah. And the video as well.

Hexbug

Yes, not only he caught the flu bug, Idlan caught the Hexbug as well. It was basically a smart toy, mimicking an insect wiggling through their habitat. I bought them from Toys'r'us yesterday, and we couldn't stop staring at them. I was pretty sure we would be running out of batteries soon.

After we changed the habitat layoutThe habitat could be customised by adding on accessories. They were not exactly cheap. It came with a couple of bugs - which were coded, and apparently unique. We bought the smallest unit, called the Nano. Spent the afternoon having a look at more information about them from the Net. Rather interesting ….

You can watch the video here.

Duit Raya Time

It was one week before Raya. All responsible adults with kids would know exactly what their responsibilities were. And that was to go to the bank, queue up, to get change for duit Raya.

For the past few years, all my nieces and nephews would insist on plastic money as minimum - that was the RM5 bank notes. Did my queuing today, and it was not cool. The branch opened a counter specifically for patrons to get small change, and they only opened at 10.30 am until lunch. The queue was rather long, to say the least. And that was at a relatively quiet branch. I couldn't imagine how it would be like at a bigger branch …..

Home to Spurs

The three nil scoreline in the end did justice to the dominance United shown during the game against Spurs. It was worth me getting up at 3 am to catch the game. And with Astro already fixed in my study, I did not have to go upstairs to the main living room waking everybody up.

United looked mobile, and Spurs looked anything but. Bale did a few mazy runs on the left, while Lennon tried on the opposite end. However, both Evra and Smalling soon sussed the situation up, keeping them occupied with the runs of Nani and Young. We could have broken the deadlock in the first half, but chances went begging.

The second half started with Spurs on the front foot, but it was clear that when their forwards had the ball, there were no runners from midfield to offer support. The options were limited, and Jones read the game well and intercepted on numerous occasion. He not only nicked the ball, he launched a couple of attacks as well.

By the hour mark, Cleverley took the initiative and planted a great cross from the right, taken with aplomb by Wellbeck. One nil United. The next 15 minutes were rather tense as Spurs tried to salvage the situation. A deep cross caught by De Gea, who released Rooney, picking up the ball in his own half. A neat pass to Anderson at the edge of the box, who then set a through ball to Wellbeck. Occupying a defender, he neatly backheeled a return pass into the path of onrushing Anderson, who sidefooted past Friedel. Two nil.

The third was the icing on the cake, with Giggsy, on for Young lobbed onto Rooney's forehead. Despite missing a few earlier chances, he took it well and buried it into the far corner. If it was not for Friedel's heroics, it could have been more.

De Gea still had issues with high balls and direct play. He got a kick on his hands for his trouble from Jermain Defoe. He was not pleased. Still plenty to improve, but his distribution and ability with the ball on his feet was very good. A clean sheet in his first home game would definitely build his confidence up.

Wellbeck as man of the match? Not quite. He was sluggish before his goal. That accolade should go to Phil Jones. A future United and England Captain. Neat and tidy. Read the game very well. Great ability with the ball on his feet, and able start things off from defense rather than hoofing it. He was proving to be an astute signing by Sir Alex.