Back to Work

First day back after a long weekend was always hard. Not because it was such a pain to get up to go to work - I have been going to the wards every morning during the 4-day weekend either to see patients or to take my Mum for her eye check-up, but the backlog of work waiting for me when the clinic reopened.

Started the day arranging my Mum's appointment at the eye clinic. Then, ward round and Day Care clinic. After lunch, I had a meeting across the campus, taking the whole afternoon. Finally, when I reached home, I was in need of a power nap. The fact that I woke up for the second half of the Chelsea-Liverpool last night did not help. I was happy that Liverpool won for a change, after United slipped up at Wolverhampton the other night. That preserved our 10 points lead over Chelsea in the league.

For this evening, Puan Anita made a special treat for us. She cooked me my favourite, Chicken Vindaloo. Nice! Went well with pappadom and some mango chutney that did. I might have to call for an early night an wake up early tomorrow morning to dinky off the paperwork I had for the meeting yesterday.

CNY at Pavilion

For the current Chinese New Year festivities, I did not have much chance to take my camera out for a spin. The only chance I had was on the Federal Territory day when I managed a 30 minutes walk-about around Pavilion.

True to the rabbit theme, there were rabbits everywhere as well as the obligatory tanglungs. The main foyer was well decked out, reds lantern everywhere. There was also drums which visitors were free to try at the main entrance. No dragon dance that day unfortunately.

Return to Strawberry Park

We returned to Goh Tong last Tuesday, a public holiday for the Federal Territories. Luckily, due to what I thought was a miscalculation, UMMC was labelled as Kuala Lumpur even though it was Selangor right across the street. Until a few years back, Selangor had more holidays than KL - including Thaipusam which used to be a Selangor-only affair. Now, it was almost even, and Tuesday was one of those days when my Facebook updates were greeted with dismay by my Selangor friends. As the boys were on a week long holidays for the Chinese New Year, we decided that some strawberry picking might be in order. So off we went.

The traffic up was smooth and we took my Mum-in-law along. We got there before lunchtime and the boys excitedly jumped out of the van and began picking the strawberries, armed with a pair of scissors and a cute little plastic basket.

As I mentioned in the previous entries, the Genting Strawberry Leisure Farm is a nice little place in Gohtong, halfway up Genting. Children can freely walk the row of hydrophonically planted strawberries and pluck them from the stalks. It was a novelty in Malaysia due to our warm clime, and previously one can only enjoy strawberry picking in Cameron Highlands. Since the Omar was only 39 minutes from our house, I wondered why we did not come her more often. Once picked, the basket weighed and the price for the pickings was RM6 per 100g. Trust me, it was easy to end up with 500g.

The boys picked ip a basket each. The rows of strawberry plants were just nicely planted at a height where the boys can just cut the stall with their scissors. Self-restrain was redivided needed. I ended up in the end paying close to RM70 for all the strawberries. But judging form how excited the boys were, it was worth it. They then had some ice-cream - Irfan went for a strawberry ice-cream, while my Mum walked around at the mushroom farm just next door.

We had lunch at the local Seri Malaysia Hotel right across the street from the farm. There was also a chocolate factory there but we were too hungry for lunch to bother stopping. The strawberry feast continued later in the day when we reached home, with double-cream this time. Unfortunately, the pickings were already starting to soften by the time we reach home. Apparently, the strawberry needed eating within 24 hours of picking, otherwise they can go off. We did not have a problem with that whatsoever!

The strawberry farm is only 45 minutes from central KL, via the Karak Highway off Gombak. Just follow the signpost to Genting Highlands and turn off at Gohtong Jaya town. The farm will be right at the of the street, opposite the Gohtong Sports Complex. There were many signpost to direct you to it. Parking can be a problem during peak season, but the setup was children friendly and certainly, it was easy to maneuver prams ad trolleys around there. Apart from the strawberry and mushroom farms, there were also a small orchid, cactus and vegetable nurseries, as well as nice cafe and restaurants. There were also stalls selling memorabilias and tidbits. Clean restroom and toilets were also available. Definitely a nice outing for the family!

Happy Lunar New Year

Happy Lunar New Year. Of all people, I bumped into my boss and her family when we were at Bangsar Village II earlier, and that was what I wished her when she was handing over some ang pow to my boys. Of all people.

I started the day with taking my Mum to see the Opthalmologist on call at UMMC. She has been been having eye pain for the last week, initially thought to be due to infection she got from Imran, my nephew. A few months back, she had an injury to the eye. While gardening, one of the leaves whipped into her eye causing a small abrasion. Since then, she had always been feeling some discomfort there. I brought her in on Monday and one of my friend confirmed that the abrasion was back. The infection made it worst. In the last couple of days, there was a layer forming on the eye causing the infection to stay. For the last couple of days, the Opthalmologist had to remove the layers by waging the eye. She will need another wash tomorrow.

Is it Ben 10 .... or Ben 10?Daddy wants this

After I was done with Mum, we went out for lunch in Bangsar. That was where I bumped into my boss. After lunch at La Bodega, we went for a walk at Bangsar Village, and then Mid Valley Gardens. What was apparent was the mall was empty. Driving back home only took 15 minutes across town. There were hardly any traffic. Parking was easy. I wish that it was like this everyday. But that would not be fun wouldn't it. KL minus the traffic will never be the same!

Quick Day Trip

A long day it was with a return trip to Penang. Although the traffic was light, weather was not great. It was gloomy on the way up and it poured all the way on the drive home. Treacherous driving conditions meant I had to take extra time to get home, and I finally got back to Gombak just after 11.

Since I was watching the football match until 3 in the morning, I decided to delay my start. I only left KL around 8.30, and after a couple of toilet stops, I arrived in Sungai Petani just after 1. In time for a nice lunch at my aunts. Next on the agenda, the engagement.

The reason I drove up was to attend one of my cousin, Atiqah's engagement. It was meant to start at 3, but for some reason, the fiancé side arrive an hour and a half early. They cracked on with the event and when I reached the venue, all was done. Sigh! The fiancé were from KL, and as they plan to drive home the same day, they wanted to crack on early.

The engagement went fine otherwise with my Uncle acting as the spokeperson for the family. The wedding was scheduled around July, just before Ramadhan. My cousin just finished her studies and was currently looking for work. Typical of Penang engagement was the 'sugar feeding' ceremony, where the fiancée was fed sugar using a spoon by the female member of the fiancé's family. Anita had the ceremony done to her as well when we got engaged.

Take out timeSome kangkongand sotongAfter some tea, we headed across the pond to Penang Island to visit my grandmother. Since it may tire her to bring her across to Seberang for the engagement, we went across to meet her. She put on weight since we last saw her, which was a good thing. After about half an hour there, we left for Padang Kota to bring home to KL some laksa. The journey home was pretty smooth although it rained most of the ways. we made a stop in Tapah for dinner and prayers, and finally reaching KL after 11.