Harimau Malaya Reflection

It has almost been a week since the nation was hit by the Harimau Malaya fever. A very potent strain this, and no antibiotics can keep the heat down. TwitterJaya was abuzz, the mass media was in full swing, and of course, the politicians put their own spin on things. I was in PD during the first leg, and couldn’t believe it when we scored the third. All the fuss then was about the laser-gate! With the return leg in Senayan coming just three nights after, one can expect retribution from the Indonesian. Everybody was anxious on how things would play out.

Yes, it was a great night for the nation. So much so that the power that be thought that the nation deserved a day off. That reminded me of the time in school, when the headmaster in his closing speech during the annual Sports Day, would announce that the day after would be a holiday. And everyone rejoiced!

I had different take though on things. Well, a couple of things. The first being the underestimated togetherness amongst Bangsa Malaysia. Or at least on twitter. The majority of the players were Malay. Despite this, most of the buzz on TwitterJaya were coming from my non-Malay friends. How I wished that this phenomenon can be studied and formulated into a plan to garner in the new era in Bangsa Malaysia. Should Najib wanted to take credit for it, I would be sure he will name it Bangsa 1Malaysia, but that was irrelevant.

Similar spirit was observed when we were playing at the Thomas Cup. Imagine if we were to beat China and got into the Finals - another public holiday I was sure. But I was sure, members of the fairer sex would complain, as should Chong Wei won the match, they would denied the sight of Lin Dan doing the half-naked dance in the middle of the court!

Malaysians love their sports, and when it come to sports, everyone forget if they were Malay, Chinese, Indian, Punjabi, Iban etc. We all become one Bangsa.

Another thing I observed was how sporting the Indonesian were. Some of them even saluted our players and stayed behind during the prize-giving ceremony. Would we have reciprocated? Instead, all the news were about some Indonesian supporters camping outside the Malaysian hotel, interrupting their planned training session. Even during the games, at certain point it could have turned nasty, but all the players seemed to manage to put their emotions in check. Considering the stakes, the game as played with great sportsmanship. I think the Indonesian deserve some credit for this.

Well, that’s my two sen. All this got me thinking about what would happened should we made it into the World Cup Finals. Will it be a whole month holiday?

Penang Village, Hartamas

As mentioned in my main post today that we had lunch at the Bangsar Village branch at Hartamas Shopping Center. Clearly undeterred from the bad experience we had at the branch in Great Eastern Mall, we decided to give the franchise another chance. At least now we found out that the chain is consistent. Consistently bad.

Despite the neat interior and nice cosy space, the food there left a lot to be desired. Being a Penang boy, there were not much Penang-ness on offer here. The menu looked appetising enough when we went through it. So let’s start with the positives.

They had a dedicated kid’s menu. Irfan had nasi goreng with fries on the side and it came free with drinks. We had some sirap bandung for him, all for a very reasonable price. Idlan wanted some chicken chop, and it was pretty OK. Irfan’s nasi goreng was also nice, but the portion I must say was a wee bit small. We sat by the entrance, with plenty of space for the restless boys and the ambiance inside was welcoming. The washing area was very good and clean. We had a small insect in Irfan’s drinks, and after pointing it out to the waiter, we got it changed, no question asked.

My iced mocha came with a scoop of vanilla ice-creamIrfan's nasi gorengThe service was in general very good. Food came within reasonable time, and the waiters got all the orders correctly.

Idlan's chicken chop

Now came the not-so-good part. The waiters were mostly foreigners. I have nothing against that, but the problem against that, but the problem was they were not able to speak Malay or English at all well. We ended up having to show the items from the menu. Luckily, the manager for the day communicated very well and cleared up all our queries. He was also the one who got Irfan’s drink changed. Irfan’s food was OK, and so was Idlan’s chicken chop. Both Anita and I decided to have some rice with three orders. They were steamed fish - we had assam steamed garoupa, salad - mango with soft-shell crab, and fried calamari. The fish cost us nearly RM70, and it was awful. The mango salad was the best. The calamari was overcooked, and almost tasteless.

The oh-so-expensive garoupaThe mango saladFried calamariDespite the food being well-presented, there was not much to shout about. We decided to skip the dessert, and later had some tea elsewhere.

Maybe the joint was better at noodles and nasi goreng, but not traditional Malay dishes. But to be honest, we won’t be going there any time soon. If I had to endure the place again, maybe I pick a mee goreng or something similar. The restaurant was located at the ground floor of the shopping complex should you hazard a try - Lot G8B & 9, Ground Floor, Jalan Sri Hartamas 1, Sri Hartamas, 50480 Kuala Lumpur, Tel - 03 6201 9816 

Plaza Damas

Spent the afternoon at Hartamas Shopping Center today. Mum-in-law travelled back to Kuala Kangsar for an overnight stay, leaving us lot to stay with Dad. He went to a kenduri for lunch, so the afternoon meal was sorted out.

The festive decorations were still upAnita was still bothered about not getting a new set of swimming gear for the boys, so she had to go out looking for them. Since we were due to get new Wii games for them, we decided to head here.

Where we had lunch

For lunch, we stopped at the branch of Penang Village here and oh boy, it was disappointing. I will write an entry about that when I get home, but suffice to say, we would probably avoid the place in the future.

Picking up some chicken pie for teaWhile waiting for Anita to finish up her shopping, we hung around at the Kidz Zone play area. The boys needed to burn off some energy. We had to get them to bed early tonight as school will start in a couple of days. Good luck to us.

Jonker Time

In 2010 alone, I was in Melaka twice, but the trip I missed was with the KLickr gang during Ramadhan. I was not free on the day and from what I heard, the group really painted Jonker Street that evening. The couple of times I visited Jonker Street this year was always during the day, on the trishaw. I never experienced the fames evening market and all the eateries, plus the photos to be had. Maybe I will try again next year.

However during the reason trip, I snapped away while on the trishaw and I now understand what the place was about. It was filled with vibrant colours and subjects to be photographed. And that was during the day, when the place was not too busy. Imagine the mayhem at night …… 

Happy 2011

Happy New Year everybody. Certainly the new year is the time to start everything afresh while formulating your fantasy about what you want to achieve in the coming year. For me, I wish for good health, better people to run my beloved Malaysia and of course, better public toilet.

For the first day of the year, we decided to make an early start so as not to get caught in the expected heavy traffic jam around Lembah Kelang. We set out for breakfast at The Curve as Anita wanted to do some shopping for our newly renovated bedroom. While she was doing that, I took Idlan and Irfan to the playground. The seemed to be having a blast.

They have another couple of days if holidays before going back to school. The seven weeks really flew by. Idlan however is looking forward to enter Year One in school, although he will be missing some of his good friends who have left to a different school. At least they will still meet up during Sekolah Agama.

Here is to a great 2011. Happy new year every one!