Lat at KLCC

Lat at KLCC, originally uploaded by Haris Abdul Rahman. Taken on my Nokia E71 mobile.

It has been a long week for me personally, with Anita's birthday, on calls, work and all. Unfortunately, I still have to do the rounds tomorrow morning. I thought, I'd better get it over and done with and look forward for my Hari Raya break. I will be off work from next Wednesday. We will be traveling to Penang on the second day of Raya and will be staying there for three nights.

Since the children has been asleep during the day, we decided to eat out tonight. We went to KLCC to do some shopping as well. The central foyer this year was very well decorated I thought. There is a model of Malay kampung with caricatures from the Malaysian famous cartoonist, Dato' Lat. Malaysia is not really liberal in the sense that, nobody really dare to make fun of the politicians without the fear of getting a knock on the door from the powers that be

Lat however is somebody unique. He lampoons Dr Mahathir on a regular basis and gets away with it. Why? Because you can tell the innocence and the truth of his thoughts in his drawings. They are often funny, but at the same time hits home. When I was growing up, my Dad has collection of his comic in our living room and I often browse through hem I guess I learned much about Malaysian politics through his work, something that the current crop of young leaders could do with as well. If you have the time, be sure to give a Suria KLCC a visit. It will be worth your time should you be able to tolerate the crowd. By the way, I didn't see that many people wearing masks there tonight either.

Happy Birthday Anita

Anita's Birthday 1, originally uploaded by Haris Abdul Rahman.

090909 marks Anita's birthday and being a good hubby, I organised a few things for her. However, since it was a normal working day, we only celebrated in the afternoon. Being Ramadhan we decided to have our iftar outside after she enjoyed her prezzies and flowers.

Shot of the Colonial-themed interiorI let Anita picked which restaurant she wanted to go to. She picked a new restaurant at Great Eastern Mall, a branch of Penang Village. The actual restaurant was as mentioned, newly opened. All the furnitures and trimmings were nice. The concept appeared to be English Colonial, which is understandable as Penang was one of the former English Straits settlement. And unfortunately, that was where the niceties end. It was meant to be a buffet, but the spread was rather pathetic for one. A price tag of RM45++? You got to be joking me. Put it this way, the food selection were spread along two tables, and that was it. Yeah, that would be OK for a private party, but to charge patron for that amount of money .... I thought it was ..... inadequate - being diplomatic here.

Anita enjoying her foodAnd how about the food? One thing that will always win buffet over for me is diversity. People coming to take on a buffet expects that there will be selections. Here, there was some sweets - mainly jelly or Malay kueh, a small selection for appetiser and salad - like 4 plates to choose from, the main course, being either white rice or 'tom yum' fried rice with about 7 dishes. If you don't fancy rice, there was either spaghetti or 'kuey teow'. The food were best described with the typical Manglish expression of 'so-so la' - reminding me of Idlan's music school where he had to sing out the notes - fa-so-la. To sum things out, I went for a take away right after the RM250 dinner ...... My mum-in-law in her typically acidic one-liner quipped - "better to eat at home".

Since we arrived there early and fed the boys there, they became restless by the time we finished our meals. Irfan especially was going hyper and I had to take him out for a walk in between my courses. It was not an altogether bad evening. Anita was happy with her gifts and well-wishes from her friends. When I updated my facebook status about 'my wife celebrating her brthday', one of my old collegemate replied that she wishes my wife a happy birthday and said sorry that she did not no her personally. When I told her who Anita is, she then realised that they used to share the same dorm while in college - Anita is my childhood sweetheart and we went to the same school before.

We came home relatively early with some take away of course. That was then I had my dinner. Will I recommend Penang Village to anyone? No for a buffet. It was simply a lame excuse for one. Maybe the ala cart menu is better. I suspect that that was how they usually do their business. The interior settings however was nice. There were big wndows with good view of the outside. I bet it would be nice during lunch.

Raya Shopping Time

090906 - The Curve 1, originally uploaded by Haris Abdul Rahman.

Yes, it's something I had to do. Even though most of the clothes and other things has already been sorted, we had to shop for some shoes among other things. My wife also have some book to order, so we headed for The Curve in Damansara. Since we did not sleep after sahur, W fed the boys early and was out of the house by 10.

The decor at IKANO Power CenterAt The Curve, the shops were just being opened. At the center of the main foyer, there are stalls being erected selling mainly clothes and accessories. There is also a stage presumably for fashion shows later. After picking up a few things we then stumbled across a pet shop at IKANO. We wanted to get some food for Peter and Jane, but turned out expanding the collection. We came across some hermit crab similar to the original Peter that we found in PD the other day. We picked it up plus a couple others.

Cupcake anyone?We reached home at lunchtime and the boys are already hungry. My mother-in-law asked if we were able to take her to Great Eastern Mall as she wanted to buy some tableware. No problem.

After lunch at the Chicken Rice Shop, we went to get some clothes for Julia's daughter, Nana. It's her birthday tomorrow. We also got some toys for the boys. Rather than heading straight back home, we stopped over at the Pasar Ramadhan at Ukay Perdana and Melawati. I finally made it home at 5.30. It's 8.30 now after dinner. I am just too tired to go for Terawikh. I'll pray at home instead.

The pets are all fed, the boys are already calling to put them to bed. Have to log off.

Contructions behind our house

Contructions behind our house, originally uploaded by Haris Abdul Rahman.

It has been a long day of updating my websites. It seems that Idlan's website has been updated and should be up and running now. I will be putting the finishing touches on my main photoblog later tonight and hopefully everything should be ready after a couple for hours. What is left is to decide on the domain name. I will keep everybody updated with that. It's however time for berbuka puasa.

PD - Final Day

PD 2-5, originally uploaded by Haris Abdul Rahman.

We only stayed in PD until Merdeka Day. Since we did not hit the beach on the second day, the boys demanded that we go down before we leave for KL. The morning was rather windy and overcast, so we made our trail at around 10am.

Thistle main lobbyAs usual, they were playing in the sands. Since the tide was low, some of the sands that they dug contained shells and crabs. That got them really excited. Idlan then took up a crabshell and his pet and named him Peter. We spent a good hour at the beach until the clouds open up and the day became too hot. I got some sunburn on my back since I took off my shirt when I went for a dip. It is still smarting now and I think the skin is going to start peeling soon.

We then took Peter and some live shells up to our apartment. Idlan wasnted to bring the crabshell home. However, I was not sure if we can look after it in KL, so I had to let it back to the see. On the way back to KL, Idlan kept on crying. He was still asking about Peter when he woke up the next day. That's when we decided to get him a pet. That's why we got the current Peter and Jane for him.

Ping Pong anyone?We got back to KL at around 4. The traffic was heavy around Seremban, but it got better right after. All together, it was a nice weekend. I just cannot believe how cheap the food was over there compared to here in KL. A Ramadhan buffet at a 5-star facility for under RM40? That will just not happen in KL.