MaTIC. Have you heard about it?

The Tuanku Abdul Rahman Hall - the main building for the centerAnita was really eager to fill up the boys time during this school holidays. She was determine to start early. Therefore we went out yesterday afternoon to inject some 'culture' into the boys. Idlan was not interested. He has been grumpy all morning. Therefore, we left him at home and brought Irfan along. First stop, MaTIC - the Malaysian Tourism Information Center - for the KL Sunday 1 Malaysia Family Fair ......

The colourful rows of stals greeting usEntrance to the Cocoa BoutiqueHmm! Sounded a mouthful? It was either that or having a look at the Dukethon. Unfortunately, we woke up rather late. Apparently there are hot air balloon and stuffs over there. But it was scheduled to finish by midday. That's done then.

MaTIC is a renovated colonial building built in 1975. It was converted in 1988 and the main building was renamed the Tuanku Abdul Rahman Hall. It was beautifully maintained, and the Saloma Restaurant was right next door. The building is along Jalan Ampang, opposite the Renaissance Hotel, right next door to Zouk. We heard about it from surfing the net. Thought that it was intriguing since we planned to go on holiday at some point and we prefer to spend money at home rather than abroad. We wanted to see if there were informations and good holiday packages on offer. The Fair itself was held at the Center's car park. There were ample space. There were activities for children mainly, karaoke, facepainting, bouncy castles and clowns. I counted there were about 20 families and around 40 stalls.

The stores mainly sells local wares and food. There were also sections on local holiday offers which we went to have a look at. There were mainly homestays. The offer were pretty nice and reasonable. We were eyeing for a few in Kedah, but with the flooding at the moment, maybe we will look at it for some time next year. Since it was past midday when we arrived there, there were more retailers than visitors. We found out about the place through the Net. I am not sure if there were other publicity about the Fair. Maybe it was more crowded in the morning.

We then visited a chocolate shop next to the main hall called the Cocoa Boutique. It was a shop selling locally produced chocolate. There is a small exhibition center in it with chocolate-making demonstration. There were about 4 buses with tourists from India arriving at the place when we entered. We ended up not buying anything since the queue was so long. If only there is a nice cafe around there for us to grab a quick lunch. It started to drizzle by then. So we had to split. We headed to KLCC for lunch.

Lunch at KLCCLate afternoon tea at Tapper's Cafe, CapsquareQuick stroll before heading homeThe next destination was Capital Square, or Capsquare. Been there a couple of times before but it was only the first for Anita. It was surprisingly quite for a Sunday. Most of the shops were closed while the rest were unoccupied. A sorry sight really. There were a few bars which looked to be opened at night. As for yesterday, a few restaurants were opened and we had some tea at Tapper's Cafe at the ground floor. It was a typical kopitiam but the food were reasonable. The main attraction seemed to be the cinema on the top floor.

Trip to Kuala Selangor

Nope! He's not reading the map. It was a Toys'r'Us magazine.Irfan's Pingu class today was cancelled. One of the kindergarten that his teacher is teaching at had their school concert today. The whole family plus my in-laws went to Kuala Selangor for a spot of proper seafood. We planned to leave early, but knowing the boys, things got delayed. We only managed to leave Gombak by 11.

Stopping over near Ijok for some rambutanWe took the MRR II via Sungai Buloh, driving on route 54 passing Ijok on the way to Kuala Selangor town. It was only around 65km away. I can imagine, if the weather is right, minus the screaming kids in the CRV, it could have been a cool drive. We had to stop a couple of times for toilet and rambutan break. A small stretch of the road was still narrow and windy. I can see parallel to the route that there are new, wider roads being built Not sure it that was part of the coastal highway being constructed, from Kelang, via the coast up to Lumut.

The weather was cloudy. It was drizzling a wee bit when we join the Kelang-Tanjung Karang main trunk road. The road widened a fair bit by then. To our surprise, there was a big Tesco already open just before the Kuala Selangor town. The last time I went there was early last year mind. We drove past the town towards Tanjung Karang, over a small bridge, then took the first left off a traffic light after the bridge into a small kampung. This is where the good restaurants are.

Sweet and sour crab ... Yums!And the aftermath!We quickly settled to order our food. We had steamed fish and sweet and sour crab among other things. It was gorgeous. The boys were rather cranky since they had had plenty of junk food on the way in. I made it worst by splashing some sauce onto Idlan's face while cracking the crab claws with my hammer. He was livid. We finally left for home by 2. It was always surprising that the journey home felt much faster than going out. Both of the boys, plus their mum were asleep as soon as we left the town. The drive back was much more pleasant.

Update on Wednesday, November 25, 2009 at 9:09AM by Haris Abdul Rahman

Since there were many queries, I have attached a Google map of the restaurant;

Arrow indicates the location of the restaurant

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4photos for today

Irfan tenderly pouring the soysauce for me .... Bless!

Managed to arrive home early after sorting out all the formal stuff. Decided to take the boys out. Craving for some sushi. The boys like the miso with all the MSG goodness of course. We headed out to Pavilion since we had to pick some other stuffs out from there. After lingering around for a bit, we had to rush back to meet Idlan's music teacher. Unfortunately due to the rain and bad traffic, we missed it.

Gone hyper after the miso!We were hence left with the conundrum since Idlan is not keen to go back and join the crowded class after what happened the last few sessions. So far, he missed 3 lessons and that was quite a lot to catch up on. We have to meet the teacher next week and see if she is willing to take up personal lessons.

Today was also the last day of school. Earlier in the day, Idlan had his class concert. It was a rather slow key affair. After the concert was done, Anita went on to register Irfan. He will be joining Seri Utama as well from January. The problem is getting the school uniform for him. He is rather small for his age and he started the kindergarten effectively a couple of years early. When Idlan started last year, we had to order his uniform up front as it was smaller the the smallest standard size.

After the concert, Anita went out to get some school shoes for the boys. She was worried that there will be a rush once the holiday started. While there, she spotted a couple of these cuties - Upin and Ipin! I'm really proud of these guys. It was a real local production. The stories were really good and relatable. Animation could be better, and I am sure will improve. The characters were very well developed. It is something that Malaysians should be proud of. I hear that they are now being featured in the Disney Channel! Good for them!

4 pictures a day keeps the doctor away!

After the rush from ward the ward round, we managed to reach Hospital Ampang just after 10. Habibah was during the driving and I was manning the GPS. Unfortunately I keyed in HUKM rather than Ampang. Luckily the distance between the two was not that far. A bit of adjustment and we were there. But arriving at 10 does mean one thing ... no parking. I got out of the car and politely told the Pak Guard that we were a couple of lecturers from UM, coming over to give a talk .... ditto! A quick squark of the walkie-talkie and we have a spot right in fron tof the main entrance. The 'KHAS' sign does mean something here! VIP time!

Unfortunately, things operate in Malaysian time zone. Which means that we were still early. When we arrived, there were the two of us, Dr Jameela and the visitor, Scott Dunkley. Scott is a Hemostasiologist from Sydney and was in Malaysia for a workshop on the weekend. We were here in Ampang to discuss some cases and sit down for a meeting in the afternoon for a national guideline. Unfortunately as I hitched a ride off Habibah, I have to escape after lunch. The discussion went well, with plenty of interesting cases. But while waiting for the crowd to arrive, Scott was taken on a tour of the wards, so we decided to have some teh tarik instead at the cafeteria.

The organiser of the event was Jay Suriar. Seen hear manning the hotline, appropriately shaped as lips! It was pink as well! We did not prepare any cases from UM however, but the cases presented were very interesting indeed. We finally broke down for lunch just after 12.30. After a quick bite, we drove back to UMMC, and again I was ace with the Google Maps on my E71. We took a couple of turns too many and ended up on the wrong side of the highway. Got back to UM in one piece however, no thanks to my navigational skill. Habibah was rather funny while driving however. She told me the joke of how her Dad described her driving - my daughter drives like lightning, she hits poles and trees!

We caught the back end of Jasmin's talk when we arrived at the talk. She was speaking on Thrombotic Thromcytopenic Purpura. Quite a long discussion. We were also treated with pizza courtesy of Suhaida who just completed her Masters Program.

Jam at the DUKE. Like how?

I was stuck on my way in. Was a bit late. Found out that there was a car stalled on the left lane. There you go!

Managed to reach work in time to continue the ward round though. Then I realised that the meting I was planning to attend in Hospital Ampang was actually in the morning rather than the afternoon. Quick ward round, then a quick getout!

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