Suraiya's Birthday

Suraiya's birthday party really went well today, although a few people couldn't make it at the last minute. The boys enjoyed themselves. Chicky, the mascot was there of course. Of course both Idlan and Irfan had their moments - with their tantrums of course. Idlan planning on sabotaging the birthday cake.

It was always a good idea to have birthday party at a venue rather than at home. You can rest assured that the caterer will not be late, plenty of food will be available. Decor will always be provided, with a party organiser usually. But the beat thing of all, you don't have to do the cleaning up. I have been to some well-organised venue party in the past. McDonald's and KFC were very good at these usually. We, of course had Idlan's at the Bird Park, and although we spent quite a bit of money, I thought it was well worth the price.

Chess anyone?Next stop was Wangsa Walk Mall to get a new pair of school shoes for Irfan. He was certainly growing up fast indeed. I reckon that he will need a couple of pairs of new one for the next school year. There was a giant chess competition in the middle of the Walk which was quite interesting.

Irfan's new shoesLet's kick the AndroidUnfortunately I had to do a bit of work in the afternoon. Right after that, I went to Sg Wang to sort my credit cards and had a quick tea there. There was no new DVD out from the looks of things. I headed over to Low Yat next. There were showing off the new Android tablet by CSL. I ha a quick look. They were running 2.1 and was a bit buggy still from the looks of things. They were certainly smaller than the iPad. Will I invest on them? Not yet at least.

Octoberfest at The Curve

Yesterday started off with a short drive to Serdang where I was invited to participate in a campaign they had there at the hospital. It was essentially an update on thrombosis. I was to talk about new anticoagulations. The talk went well. Having finished that, I had to rush straight back to UMMC to finish off the morning clinic.

The clinic was almost done when I got back. I sorted out the ward issues in the afternoon before getting off, and took the troupe out for dinner and jalan-jalan at The Curve. We all had our haircut, took dinner at Marche and bought Suraiya her birthday present. Her birthday party will be on Saturday morning.

Haircut timeCatching up on Ironman at one of the video shopsWhile waiting for Mum choosing presents for Suraiya

The foyer between the Curve and E has been transformed into a beer garden it seemed for the Octoberfest, complete with a brass band in tight leather trousers - they appeared British though rather than German - singing away merry songs. The waitress were clad in dresses and skirts serving pitches of beer, skipping away to the beat. My boys were wondering what was actually going on. Puan Anita explained to them that it was a German tradition kind of thing. Getting drunk on beer in October every year. They still appeared confused after that. But true enough, it was for Octoberfest. Even Marche played in into the celebration with sausage promotions and what have you. With the brass band, singing, lights an all, it would have been an experience for the boys but it was kinda hard to explain to them about the beer and everything. They started to ask one too many question.

Moleskine mania at Tango MangoAfter getting Suraiya's present, we took it to be wrapped up at Tango Mango, a nice little gift shop on the first floor of The Curve, right above Marche. Oh boy! They had a very good selection of Moleskine there, and I obliged to buy a couple of pads - for work of course. Moleskine were just addictive.

Tandoori

I wasn't joking when I tweeter about making a crazily early start this morning. I was too tired to work on the slides for a tutorial for today and decided to retire early. I then woke up a little after 4 am to start working on them, took my shower around 5.30 and spent the time after that finishing things off.

I got them all done in the end but oh boy, was I tired? I will need to retire early again tonight I guess, probably making another early start again tomorrow. I got tons of stuff to do.

After a long morning, followed by MRCP meeting, I headed for my tutorial jut outside the campus. The tutorial ended until after 6 and I only reached home after 7.30, really starving. Luckily Puan Anita prepared some tandoori chicken for dinner. Love her!

Return to Padang Kota

After Carnivall, Julia decided to travel to Penang to visit our Grandmother, and we brought the whole troupe round. We reached there just before the traffic jam and had a quick stop at Pahang Road. Before Maghrib, we went to Padang Kota for a spot of laksa.

For some reason, the laksa was rather poor that evening. Maybe we ordered at the wrong stall. Even the pasembor was a bit off. But with all their cousins around, my boys were rather occupied with playing and never complained. A lot have changed at Padang Kota. It used to be a more open and happening place with food stalls lining up the streets. With Penang status as a Unicef Heritage City, there had to ‘clean their act’ so to speak and off went the hawkers. Instead, they were placed in purpose-built eatery, with the non-halal stalls occupying the front and prime end. A few years back, there were pickets going on, but it was quickly squashed by the politicians. The Malay politicians were busy filling up their own coffers I’m afraid rather than looking after the locals. Sad to say in it? I guess it was down to the pressure of getting more tourists in. The Mat Salleh of course like their drink.

However, the place has been much cleaner than I remembered although a lot more could have been done. A new pavement, more parking slots, cleaner toilets for a start I supposed. The boys spent the time at the playground until they were tired. It was not bad going considering they had been at the water park all day earlier.

New Case?

Puan Anita had a morning off today and she went to catch Magika with an old schoolmate of hours. Apparently it was so hood, she was harping on it all afternoon. After her return, we headed out to KLCC. I wanted to get a Moleskine pad - the last one ran out of pages, and if you're interested, Kinokuniya was doing 20% discounts for October. I also wanted to browse for a case for my iPhone.

After about 10 minutes at the Machines - an Apple retailer - I went for a case by Mophie with an extra battery. It made the phone slightly bulkier but not by much. Minimal weight increase but double the juice. Unfortunately the case charges but failed to transfer the juice to my phone. I suspected one of the switches was faulty. Will gave to take it back to the shop tomorrow after work I guess.

We had dinner at Harrods. There was a crowd building outside the Philharmonic entrance when we left. They were waiting for the Sheila Majid concert. I'm sure it was a great one. Shame we can't go and see.

Update on Sunday, October 3, 2010 at 10:47PM by Haris Abdul Rahman

The Morphie case is now working perfectly! Woot!