School is Back

So, the boys were back to school today. We managed to get them to bed by 9 pm last night and when they woke up, both of them were super eager. Idlan was more eager than Adik though. He was singing in the minivan all the way to school.

Today would be the first day in the new school year for the International stream. Idlan being in the UPSR stream started his final term now. Most of his friends just came back from their holidays, so they were trading stories when we arrived. Adik's good friend, Fatima just returned from Nigeria after a month break.

The assembly today was extra long since the new International students were given a brief introduction. New classes were also assigned and it looked like Idlan may be changing class for the final term.

Idlan was eager while Irfan was more subduedI noticed plenty of parents were around as well, mainly for the new intakes. Mostly foreigners, with apprehensive children, and Dad all smiles carrying their dSLR and shooting away :) Mum obviously asking the teachers a thousand and one questions.

The assembly went on and onWhile the new parents listenedAnita was still with Idlan's class teacher at the moment I was drafting this while Irfan was busy running around with his classmates. Look like both were OK since during the holidays, they tended to go to bed well past midnight sometimes. Happy Schooling!

More Strawberries

There were just too many photos to post in the main entry, so I thought I create another one. This would just be photos, hopefully .....

This was actually outside the main gift store, just after the boys had their fries. This led to the mushroom and fresh flower stalls.

Idlan was squeamish when he saw bees on the television monitor.Irfan and my LX-3. He does take a mean photo, and he were to keep this up, I might have to get him his own flickr account!The gift shop. Very important.Taking a breatherIdlan needed some fuelExploringMore stalls to be seenFresh corn. Apparently from Cameron Highlands. Not Genting.Don't really know what this was, but nice none the less.Then, there were pot of flowersPlenty of themThat was one huge pumpkin!I snapped plenty more, and you can see them in my PhotoBlog here.

Quick Trip to Muar

Last night, before the football match ended, I received a phone call from my Dad. One of our relatives passed away within the last couple of hours and he asked if I could drive him and Mum to Muar to attend the funeral the next day. So, this morning after Subuh prayers, we set off southbound.

It took us about 3 hours to reach the place as I have never been there before. We were lucky that my trusty old iPhone with PaPaGo worked like a treat. We reached there before the prayers, and most of the local folks were already gathered at the house, preparing the body for burial.

After prayers, the rest of the relatives set off for the cemetery, located about 10 km away. We decided to stay at the house, greeting the rest of the relatives who were left behind.

The elderly relative who passed away was recently diagnosed with lung cancer. Being in his 80s, he was just given symptomatic treatment, and was at home surrounded by his loves ones when he drew his last breath. One of my cousin who was working in Sibu did not manage to get home in time - she arrived just 10 minutes too late unfortunately.

It was customary to give tokens to those attending the funeral Prayers. Here, the family distributed sarongs.Alfatihah.

Done with Strawberries

Just arrived from the downhill drive from Gohtong. Had a nice time over there, and managed to get the stock of fireworks as well - they stock plenty of them high quality hand thrown 'pop-pop' poppers that were my boys favorite, and my maids' scourge since they were the ones needing to do the sweeping after! We virtually cleared the stock from the stall!

All together, we managed to collect something like 400 grams of strawberries. Mainly it was Irfan's effort as Idlan was too picky - pun intended. After stopping for lunch - the boys had some nice hot spicy fries and unfortunately I couldn't join them being Ramadhan - we headed to buy some fresh vegetables and flowers within the compound of the farm. They were certainly fresh and since we arrived in the morning, the produce had only just arrived. The corn cobs certainly looked great.

Irfan also picked up photography with my LX-3 and was happy snapping away. At least from now on, I would get my photos taken. Not just me taking photos of others. On the way down, Anita stopped to buy some fish-head curry for iftar. Sadly, I was never into fish-head, unless it was prepared in a broth, Japanese style!

Now that I was home, it was time to get the photos sorted. I took something like 200 snaps. I could have taken more, but the place was getting too crowded by the time we were about to leave. More details of the farm can be read on my previous visits here and here. The farm website can be surfed here. More photo of the trip can be seen here as well at my photoblog.

Charity Shield!

I thought that we were going to lose the plot in the second half, but to the players' credit, they dug in, and was rewarded with the win. Scoring in injury time was just rubbing it in, but as the penalty shoot-out neared, that seemed almost inevitable. United was just relentless.

I knew, it was only the Charity Shield, but the match was played at high tempo, and it was the most competitive Charity Shield match I have seen in years. Galvanised by the fact that it was essentially a derby - between a true champion and an upstart!

We were down by a couple of goals. Our new young keeper should have done better on those goals. So, what did Alex do during the break? Replace the first-choice centerback partnership with a new young combination. I thought Claverley and Jones impressed in the game. We already knew what Ashley Young can do, and he did not disappoint.

On the whole, I thought that it was a good results, especially judging from the level of fitness of the players. They were clearly fitter than the Citeh player by the end, and the mistake that Kompany made I was sure was down to fatigue and loss of concentration. He was otherwise a consistently sound defender. All of this clearly bode well for the new season.