Plans for Today

Breakfast was done. I went down first with my parents and Anita went down separately later as the boys were still asleep. It was almost 1 in the morning when they finally calmed down and fell to sleep. It looked like we probably had to order room service breakfast for them for tomorrow. I'm still not sure what time they would be up.

Plans for today? The wearer was rather gloomy. The plan to walk out with my camera had to be delayed. Depending on what time the boys getting up, we would decide them. Driving around to Batu Feringghi still felt like a great idea.

As for now, I had to content myself with watching morning talk shows on RTM. Keeping that up, I might start to puke. Why must everything start with the letter 1? 1Malaysia, 1Sekolah ...... Zzzzzzz

End of Day 1

It was midnight and my boys were still wide awake. Both were excited with the trip to Penang and the size of the suite. They just couldn't stop themselves from running from one end to the other.

Earlier tonight, we managed to have dinner at Padang Kota before visiting my grandmother. She appears very frail and had lost a lot of weight. Her appetite was down and this was not helped by the fact that she has had new dentures fitted in. And I don't think that they were fitted well.

After a long chat, we finally headed back to hotel and reached here at around 11. Time to hit the sack soon. We may be heading to Teluk Bahang tomorrow with the camera on the ready.

The Journey Up

After stopping over at AL-Manar to pick up Idlan’s report card and at Bukit Antarabangsa to pick up my Mum, we were off as planned to Penang. We stopped at a couple of spots - Tapah to fill up our tummy and Bukit Merah to empty Idlan’s bladder. But on the whole, the journey was very smooth. We got to Penang in time for some nasi kandar lunch, but checking into the hotel was a bit of a pain. As expected, our booking was messed up and the room they initially put us in did not have a connecting door.

After a couple of phonecalls and calling out the on-duty manager, we got what we ordered for, an apartment suite for us, connected to a deluxe room for my parents. It worked out great in the end.

Waiting for the main room to be cleanedIdlan filling the time doing some construction workFinally, we got ourselves unpacked. The weather was a bit on the gloomy side. Hopefully it won’t rain as we were planning to have dinner by the esplanade later tonight. I wanted my fix of laksa and ‘kangkong sotong’. Time permitting, we might drop by my Grandmother’s place as well to check on her.

We would see how things go out overnight. We might be traveling around the island - butterfly park maybe?

Haematology Update

For the first time, we successfully organised an update program for Haematology at UMMC. In the end, we just grit on and organised one. For the longest time, we were contemplating doing one. One Monday afternoon, Sangkar came up with the idea, and I just got the ball rolling.

We really did not know what to expect. As it would be held on the last weekend before Ramadhan, so we were not sure how motivated the attendees might be. We also decided to advertise the event locally, and also on facebook. We ended up in the end with 80 attendees when in the original plan, we would be happy with just under 50.

We also managed to get excellent speakers in, one of them from Kota Kinabalu. We also managed to get sponsorship from a Pharmaceutical company for food and drinks. We did the logistics and invitations ourselves in the end. I was glad that it worked out fine, although I wished that we got a bigger hall and one with lighter air conditioning - it was Dewan Pulasari at RUKA. It was way too cold!

We would definitely be holding something similar in the future. The topics would be more focused as well I hoped. Maybe twice yearly? Anything more than that might be difficult with other meetings going on. After the meeting, I must say I was quite knackered, ending up taking a long nap later that afternoon!

T Forty Two

After the Haematology forum was done, I caught up with Anita and the boys at Bangsar Village II. Idlan had just finished his Lego class, and had not had lunch yet. Even though I had already had some nasi briyani for lunch after the forum, I wouldn’t mind having something light. We wanted to go to Citrus, but halfway, we came across ’T four two’ on the first floor - not the Upper Ground floor with the bridge from Village II to the old Bangsar Village - and gave it a go. It has a nice serene garden ambiance, and the main attraction was of course tea …. and the teapots.

There were many variety of teas on display, and we as usual would either have chamomile or English Breakfast. We ordered a pot to share around - I had some mocha to stay awake after being up since four that morning. For food, I ordered crabmeat nicouse salad, and Anita ordered steak to share with the boys. My salad was not too bad. The crabmeat was succulent but they used to much vinaigrette for the dressing, and I had to use lemon to neutralise the taste. Anita’s steak was too raw despite ordering medium well. We had to cut this slices of the edges to share with the boys. It did came with French Fries but not gravy. The steak ended up being too dry.

The tea was something else, with variety to choose from, and the tacky teapots.

The nice ambianceThe colourful teapotsMy crabmeat saladThe ever-too-dry steak

I guess the place made for a nice spot to have either light lunch or afternoon tea, to share with friends. The spot we picked was basically a garden bench, which was nice and comfortable. The lightings were both bright and subdued, very cosy indeed. We did not order dessert, but from what I saw, they looked yummy. They also offer tea for two package for around RM60, which included drinks, sandwiches and dessert. Maybe one could go for that for value.

But for heavy meal, I suggest maybe you ought to go somewhere else - Delicious at the Ground Floor may be. The place was also not really cheap. They also have another outlet at Empire Gallery, Subang. For contacts - Bangsar Village II (Bistro), Bangsar Village II, 1F-28 & 1F-K2 First Floor, No. 1 Jalan Telawi Satu, Bangsar Baru,, 59100 Kuala Lumpur, Tel:+ 6 03 2287 6566. The Facebook page is here.