To IKEA we went

It was fast becoming a ritual now. Going out on Friday evenings. Friday tends to be a long day for me. Long clinic in the morning, well into the time to get ready for Solat. Occasionally I might have to return to clinic after that, tussling with the Neurologist who have since taken over my room for their clinic in the afternoon. Luckily, with the increased number of Medical Officers in the Unit, this was becoming less frequent.

After clinic, it was tutorial. Then some paperwork before signing off. I'll be doing the weekend round tomorrow morning, so I made sure that things were in order before leaving. The boys were screaming for me to take them out when I reached home, so after a quick discussion with Puan Anita, IKEA was the destination tonight.

The buzzing cafetariaSince I missed lunch, I had an early dinner upon arrival at IKANO. The IKEA cafe seemed very popular, even though it was just after 7 pm, it was already full. Luckily, the staffs there were very efficient and those who stopped there were eager to get on with their shopping. We got our food very quickly and got settled in. There were mainly seafood on the menu. I had some poached salmon. It was overcooked and dry, but not too bad. The boys had some nuggets and chips. They were already full after having tea at home before we came out, so they weren't that fussy. Puan Anita wanted to get a new blackboard for the boys, and that's what we got, plus some toys for good measure.

Now you see it ....It was going .....Now, it was half gone .....After putting the stuffs into the car, we then went for a stroll. It wasn't long before we all felt tired. We stopped for a quick coffee at Dome before calling it a night. Arriving home, I went through the story of the day so far. The Chilean miners. ManYoo preparing for the weekend's game. But the story of the day was definitely the announcement of the 100 floor skyscraper near Stadium Merdeka. I wonder where the money came from. Maybe it was from the thousands I have in my Amanah Saham ......

The reason why we went out in the first place .....

Paya Serai

So, after the long wall in the showroom with the boys already getting grumpy, we needed to stop for lunch. Happy after booking her new Peugeot, my mum-in-law wanted to have lunch at PH Hilton, a once of the and I might argue still, the best hotel in PJ. The Japanese outlet serves a grand lunch buffet during weekends, and for today, we decided to try out its main cafe, Paya Serai.

The buffet was over. Even the chocolate fountain has been switched off.We were rather too late to join the buffet lunch. Going a la carte wasn't that bad either. They had nice selection there on the menu. I had some salad followed by chicken tikka masala for the mains. The boys ordered some fried rice and chicken nugget. What compelled me to write this entry was the great service I enjoyed there. The waiters - all local - made us welcomed, sat the boys down, dealt with all our quirks. They got our order attended to straight away despite being busy clearly out the afternoon buffet. When Idlan's order came a bit late, they got the boys some ice-cream on the house, without us even needed to day anything. They came over to talk to the boys and were generally great company. I can tell that they enjoyed serving there, a rare trait.

The table setting .... elegant Avocado and buffalo mozzarella saladMy main, chicken tikka masalaNow lets talk about the food. They were nice. Nothing extra special but not too shabby either. I can't comment about the buffet though. I have to confess that Latest Recipe at Le Meridien may be a touch better but you don't get the personal attention as you do here except maybe if you were a foreigner. That's Malaysia for you. My tikka masala was rather 'pasty' - reminding me of the pre-prepared sauce I used to use to cook chicken with when I was in the UK. The salad was great though. The fried rice that Idlan had was good as well, but nothing out of the ordinary here. Will I recommend this joint to others? Of course I will but it may be a touch expensive for casual dining. For a special occasion, maybe. For me, I still prefer the Japanese buffet for lunch .....

MPV Hunting

It has been a productive day. We started off by sending the boys to school and then enjoyed breakfast at a kopitiam nearby. The morning passed slowly. Next, we headed to K Klub in Melawati, a social club I was meant to survey. The main office was closed during the weekend. To get more info on the place, we thought we dropped by on a working day instead.

The K Klub poolThe main foyer at the clubBreakfast at the kopitiamAfter a quick chat at the office, we made up our minds. The club offers swimming lessons for kids during weekends, the food outlet was pretty decent - the Chinese restaurant on ye first floor was excellent. Been three a couple of times. The have nice pools, a separate children pool with a life guard. The clubs closes at 10.30 in the evening. They also has facilities for paintball, futsal and tennis. Soon, they will also offer tenpin bowling. All that for around RM2400 for the whole family, good for 2 years.

We then headed for the bank and were already at home by 9.30. Now, that's efficiency! We went out to pick the kids up at around 11.30 and with my parents-in-law we headed straight to PJ to visit Naza World. It was MPV shopping time. I have been interested in Estima for a while, but found that the ones at the showroom have such small legalese for the third row. The next one up was Alphard ad the problem with that was, although there were ample space, it can only seat 7 max with practically no boot space! Unbelievable! The cars we all for reconditioning an the selection they had there were not much. The units will all be sold as it was, majority without additional extras such as GPS or extra LCD screens. There were no sunroof on most of them. And they do not deal with new units. To be perfectly honest, I wasn't that impressed. Not to mention some of the units have cigarette burns on the seats. Puan Anita went to another showroom last week to look at some Alphards and the selection there were more exclusive. We will be heading there during the weekend.

Mum-in-law's new PeugeotIn the meantime, my mum-in-law had a look at the latest Peugeot and put a down-payment form it. It looks like I will change my Kelisa to her current Suzuki Swift - which is not half bad although it was in bad need of a tune-up and service.

After almost an hour and half, the boys got grumpy and we had to find a place for lunch. My mum-in-law suggested PJ Hilton. More on that in the next entry.

Rest Day Ahoy

Looking forward to a day off tomorrow after a couple of stressful day organising an exam. Went to Bangsar earlier this evening with Puan Anita to browse a few things brut unfortunately was too late to have dinner outside.

The main stop was Czip Lee where I wanted to have a look at their Moleskine stock. Must say that Tango Mango won it hands down! Will write more tomorrow. Already getting tired and needed to catch up on some zzzzz.

Non-typical Sunday

It wasn't a typical Sunday in a sense that I had meetings to attend to, followed by a sumptuous buffet lunch at an eatery that is was fast becoming my favourite, Latest Recipe at Le Meridien, KL Sentral. Following the meeting and paperwork, I had the time to bring my boys out to the park. Oh boy! Did they enjoy that. So much so that the were fast asleep in the car on the way home, and went reached home just before 6.30 pm!

I remember the park at KLCC used to be full during weekends. It was almost empty today. Maybe it was the overcast weather threatening to rain. Which ever way, it was not the first Sunday it was like this. A couple of months ago, before Ramadhan, I had the same feeling. In fact, web the parents and children I saw were mainly Indonesian. I kid you not. It seems that KLCC and the park is turning into foreign worker's land during Saturday and Sunday. I better stop here for fear of getting my site spammed by our friendly neighbours.

After the run around the park, jumping and skipping, it was time to take an early dinner. It seemed like the most convenient stop would be Chinoz by The Park. Mind you, it has been a while seen we stopped after an unsavory incident with a waiter gave us second-rate service because we were Malaysian - they prefer the Mat Salleh there of course, but what would I know. The boys had their pizza and I decided to order some Japanese. The miso the was gorgeous, although a bit expensive. Seeing my temaki, Idlan wanted to try one as well. My God, that was messy.

As I mentioned, the boys were fast asleep on the drive home. Idlan has since woken up but it wouldn't be long before he heads for the bed again while Irfan was still sleeping. I was hoping that he will sleep through to the morning. Fingers crossed!