Jane RIP

Peter, originally uploaded by Haris Abdul Rahman.

After berbuka, we headed out to Great Eastern Mall to get the replacement for Jane. The traffic was very light on the way in which is a change. It was an all together pleasant ride.

The interior of the Malay Kampung House at the lobbyWe initially stopped at the main lobby. There was a mock house built as part of the Eid celebration, and the decor inside the house was authentic Malay Kampung style. The lobby was filled with stalls selling containers and porcelains for 'kuih raya'. After a quick browse we then head straight for business. We picked up a replacement for Jane and told the salesgirl what had happened. She was rather vague actually. Hopefully Peter and the new Jane will not end up like the original Jane.

Yummy SashimiVisiting Great Eastern Mall gave me the opportunity to visit Express Sushi again at the LG floor. We got our usual fix and brought home some handroll and sashimi. The food was nice as usual. The owner Michael was in, so we had a quick check. He gave me a new handroll to try on the house, and I was obliged to post some picture of it. No! Not because they are free, but because they are damn nice! Do check them out if you are around GE Mall.

Construction at work

Construction at work, originally uploaded by Haris Abdul Rahman.

First day back at work and it hit me like a ton of brick. After the long morning ward round, it was Day Care. I then attended a meeting at the Faculty that took a chunk of the time in the afternoon. Back to department after that to pick up the letters in my pigeonhole. It's nearly Shawal and it was filled with cards as well as letters requesting for donation. After a few letters, I then realised that it was time to leave.

While at the Faculty, I realised that there are many construction taking place at the moment. There is the student area being build in the green quadrangle walking towards Dewan Jemerlang. The seems to have flatted the area and filled them with land. I wonder what building they are constructing.

Understandably, security has been tightened as many of the construction workers were Indonesian migrants and they actually live on site. I may be painting it with a broad brush here but there will be security issues here. Not just properties but the hall of residence sits right next door to the faculty. These foreign workers will also able to access the are in and around the campus. Another unexpected problem is parking spaces as some of the kerb are now closed. My MOs had to walk sometime half a mile to get to work. It doesn't only waste energy but also work. An unnecessary hassle in my book.

The meanest air asam boi in town!The area where Emima cafe used to be has been cordoned off and the construction of the new staff restaurant will start soon. It used to be my main joint for breakfast before the kitchen caught fire and it has to be closed as it was deemed to be unsafe. Fair enough!

When I arrived home, I was greeted by the news that Jane was dead! This morning when Anita was about to clean the tank, she was found motionless. Nope! She did not perform CPR nor administer mouth-to-mouth. No sock was given either. It seems that after berbuka tonight, we will be heading back to the pet shop to ask about what to feed Peter. We might have to buy a new mate for him as well. I wonder what we should call her?

Rock and Roll Baby!

Rock and Roll Baby!, originally uploaded by Haris Abdul Rahman.

Will be back to work tomorrow but at least I get to enjoy today off still. Had to send my wife's car to the garage. A few weeks back, while driving along MRR2, a small stone came out of nowhere and hit the windshield causing a small chip and a crack. Since the insurance will be taking care of it, we might as well get the whole thing sorted.

Did the usual school run. In the afternoon after doing some chores, we went out again to our usual joint for murtabak and stuffs for iftar. This time around however, Anita was taking a keen interest. And boy, did she shop? Initially, due to her fears about H1N1, she did not even want to eat the stuffs I bought from the stalls. It seemed the other way around now. We spent about an hour walking around, and I had to make a couple of trips to the car to send the shopping off.

Nasi kerabu, as requested by my mother-in-lawA few of the stores caught my eyes and I thought I would include the pics in my upcoming photoblog. I am just compiling the material now and it should be up and running by the weekend. I have yet to purchase the domain name however, as I was toying with a few at the minute. It will unfortunately be flash heavy. That means that it will not run on the iPhone and will take time to load up. I have already completed the infrastructure, so the slides will basically upload itself from my flickr pages, via smugmug.

I discovered this Rock and Roll Grill store right at the end of my round. I wonder what they offer, but will likely visit them again on a later date. I don't have space in my stomach for everything.

Woot! Another picture used in an article!

Yes! I've gone green and started tree-hugging! One of my picture from back in 2003 was used in one of their article, with permission of course. It was taken when I wen strawberry picking with my parents and aunty just before I left UK for good. Over there, they just give you a basket, you pay the entrance fee, eat all the strawberries you want - cream not included of course. If you want to take some home, they weigh it at the exit and you pay for them. As simple as that! The article appears in treehugger.com via this link.

Full fat, full throtle

Pasar Ramadhan 5, originally uploaded by Haris Abdul Rahman.

Since I am off today, everyone reading my facebook update was green with envy with my updates. Started off with the usual school run. It was raining very heavily however, and I heard that traffic across town was pretty bad. We got to Pingu School quite late as well and Irfan had to cut short his class today since we had to rush back to fetch Idlan.

The Eid decor at Great Eastern MallAfter all is done, we went to Great Eastern Mall for the boys to have lunch. Idlan then did some artwork at the art class, while we did some groceries. Since yesterday, Idlan have been talking about his Peter the shellcrab. He found it when we were at the beach yesterday and has grown attached to it ever since. Unfortunately since we didn't have the tools to look after Peter, we had to set him free. Idlan actually cried. When he woke up this morning, he kept asking how is Peter.

Therefore, we went to a pet shop at the mall, and we picked up a couple of crabs. Idlan then named them Peter and Jane. Irfan on the other hand wanted the clownfish. We didn't even have an aquarium, let alone ones that can take on salt-water fish. We got a couple of guppies for him instead, and he names them Nemo and Ike - Ike short for Ikan!

We then spend the afternoon setting up the tank, fed the pets etc. Then it was time for pasar Ramadhan. We initially went to a shop in Ukay Perdana that we went yesterday. The murtabak there was pretty good, even if it cost RM4. We then headed for Melawati for other stuffs, including some fireworks for the boys. As you can see, Anita was attracted to fat. There was this stall that sell every known part - edible of course - of a cow. She loved the tongue and picked them up. As you can see in the pics, they were instant artery cloggers! Eat them at your peril! Preferably with a local friendly Cardiologist around. I've already booked Imran.

This shop sell a mean Murtabak. Click on the pics and look at the map for the location.The rest of the day I spent clearing up a couple of websites including Idlan's. I wanted to install the smugmug flash slideshow in them realising that they can take ages to load. I'm also setting up a separate photoblog, just telling stories in pictures, no doubt inspired by the Ramadhan website I read the other day.