KLickers in Melaka

From the sound of it, the KLickers had a great time in Melaka yesterday. It was a roadtrip over there organised by the 'management'. Unfortunately I was on call yesterday and wold be a pain to leave Lembah Kelang in case anything happens at the hospital Looking through the photograph, I wished that I was there.

Courtesy of ArupImage courtesy of Magnus Caleb, featuring Michael if I can see clearlyJaav, courtesy of Magbus CalebJaav's take on the Eye of Malaysia - is that what it is still called now?

Construction completed

Construction completed, originally uploaded by Haris Abdul Rahman.

What a football it was last night, and I finally got to bed just after 2, having to wake up after a couple fo hours for Sahur. United played Spurs and as I was settling down for some noodle and titbits, Spurs scored after 50 seconds. Oh dear!

But United actually passed their way back into the match superbly and were crafting chances. After a few misses, finally Giggsy stroked in the equaliser from a freekick. Before halftime, we were were leading with Anderson hitting the onion bag. The match took a turn when good old Scholesy ... did a Scholesy and was sent off. We held on though, and it was clear that Spurs will not win if they did not score within 5 minutes of the sending off allowing United to regroup. Rooney scored another later in the match with United the deserved victor. It was a good night all around.

Woke up this morning pretty early with one thing in my mind. I wanted to upgrade my photoblog and get it up and running. I purchased a new theme last night which I thought was appropriate for it, and I must say I was pretty pleased. Setting and lining the site up took some doing however but I think it ws well worth the time. Please visit it at harisphotoblog.com and see what you think. No, I have not yet had the time to go out shooting for a themed slideshow yet. Maybe I will do that in the coming holidays.

And talking about holidays, we will be heading to Sungai Petani for the second day of Hari Raya. We have already booked a couple of rooms at Kelab Cinta Sayang, and will probably be staying there for three nights. Should be a good break. Will be bringing the Wii of course. Will definitely be visiting the family in Penang as well.

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.