Birthday Do at Victoria Station

Today happens to be my brother-in-law's 47th birthday. We decided to have dinner at Mum-in-law's favourite place, the Victoria Station at Jalan Ampang. My brother being a trained cook, knows the manager there but unfortunately there were a few complains.

The food was good as usual. I had my usual shrimp cocktail, chili spare ribs and starfruit juice. I noticed straight away that the quantity is smaller. Not only that, the garnish for the baked potato is also different and the dressings wasn't that plentiful. I thought I was imagining things, but then my father-in-law started complaining about the size of his steak. The manager argued that it has always been the same size but he got no answer when my dad pointed out that it is now queen's cut rather than king's, whatever that meant. The manager seemed surprised.

Irfan sampling some cake

The two boys had spaghetti and bread. Anita had some fish. The next thing I needed to point out is the service. The waiters used to be a mixture of local and Philipinos. They speak very good English and communication have never been an issue. Now, there are replaced with Bangladeshis, or at least for that shift. They were slow, rude and difficult to communicate with. I given up asking for water after calling twice. They need to improve. Even the Mamak stall workers treat customers better than them.

Idlan cannot be bothered and continue on with his Snoot Blaster!

Next came the biggest shock. I took Irfan to the toilet to clean up his mess. He was covered with spaghetti literally. Oh my God! The toilet was bad. I never knew the restaurant to be this bad. The urinals were dirty and it smells! Victoria Station used to be better than this, or have I missed the toilet all these years I frequented them?

I don't think anybody related to the joint read all this but if they do, something needs to be done. There used to be big businessman and VIP, not to mention Johnny Foreigners from around the Ampang Hilir area coming through this place. Imagine the business they are going to lose if they keep this up? Good luck to them! Please email me if the manager happen to read this blog, and I am expecting free lunch at the very least!

Month 1 Report

A few of my friends did warn me that blogging can be addictive. Since I am heading for my sabbatical and quite keen to start one, I took the plunge on Friday the 13th of March. 183 blogposts later, the novelty has not worn out just yet. In fact the post are keeping on coming.

As it stands today, I have a week's worth of content lined up in advance. The blog structure is also evolving, first I ditched up the Malay posts, then created a different journal stream called 'Themed Post', mainly a weekly timetable of planned content. I realised that too rigid a plan is no fun. I have therefore created a third journal thread 'Impulse Links', basically posting whatever of interest I come across on the day. From the constructive feedback from readers, I have also put a separate picture gallery to supplement the blogs. Should you be following my blog, please subscribe to all three RSS feeds.

As far as statistics goes, the March numbers looks good. I had just under 2500 hits in the months. Since the site is new, I have attracted new viewer, as in new IPs. Looking at the exact numbers per day, the site has been visited by easily 100 surfers. I have also included a small Google ads. It would be nice if you can click on it from time to time if they are relevant to your liking of course. Another new addition is the archive page, although it looked rather disorganised at the moment.

So again, thank you very much. Please feel free to comment, and please also drop me a line if you want me to mention your blog as a fellow.

Haris

Pingu School for Irfan

Entrance to the School

I'm on leave today. First thing's first. Have to go through the checklist. Amongst the things needing sorting out is getting Irfan and Idlan to see their Paediatrician in Pantai Hospital. At least Irfan did not freak out this time and that took skill!

One of the classroom

Next up, pre-school for Irfan. Destination - Jalan Telawi, Bangsar. Venue - Pingu School. Toot! Toot! Oh My God! They couldn't stop running. The school was empty at the time. While we were chatting with the teacher, both of them were of course watching Pingu.

The boys naturally was watching Pingu

The school is next to the familiar Madam Kwan's restaurant opposite Bangsar Village II. It was right at the top floor. The program were divided into three stages according to age and reading ability, from three onwards. We have to start from the basic for Irfan. 

Pingu saying Goodbye

The class is opened from Monday to Saturday and classes last for an hour, three times a week. Our main concern is leaving Irfan alone at the school. We are sure there will be drama. We enrolled him for a month starting in May. We will then see how things goes. The school days are still not planned since it pretty much depends on how many students joined up.

As for me. Need to rush to get a pair of gym shoes. Playing badminton tonight with the ex-Terendakians.

A Relief, and Some Bad News

I am still high from last night's football match. United does not deserve to win, but a sign of a Champion is being able to win ugly if necessary. I spent the whole morning looking at my student's thesis data. She is in the final haul now of writing them up. I think it will be fine. Some of the data came up really well.

I then caught up with the weeks news and reading other blog post when I got the news that my neighbour's wife has just suffered a miscarriage. All was well until yesterday and she is due for term birth within the next couple of weeks. This will be her first baby. Last night she noticed that the baby stopped kicking and she was promptly brought to the hospital. Unfortunately the baby's heart has already stopped.

They are now inducing her for delivery. This is agony since she still have to go through the whole of process of labour and delivery, which likely going to last overnight. I don't think I can go through all that. I am grateful for the two boys we had, Irfan and Idlan. Even if they got to our nerves at times!

Update on Monday, April 13, 2009 at 5:51PM by Haris Abdul Rahman

My neighbour has finally given birth earlier today. The baby son has just been buried. Mother is still recuperating at the hospital.

A Long Day in Putrajaya

The main Lobby area

Saturday. Nice weather outside. That can only mean one thing. Roadtrip. We decided to check out a new hotel in Putrajaya, the Pullman.

The sitting area at the Jasmine building, built to Indian motif

Located in Precinct 5, after the usual drive around due to lack of signage, we finally arrive at the establishment just after 3. The was no real drive through lobby. Instead, we drove straight into the underground carpark, and took the lift straight up. The place was only opened last month, and they are running a promotion. A night's stay will only cost you just over RM200 with tax.

Hmm! Ice cream!

The hotel compound is divided into 4 areas with a different motif, each themed to the major Malaysian races. I can't remember the 4th though. The main check-in area is in the Oriental building, while the biggest building, in which the bistro was located has a Malay theme. The buildings were nestled next to a lake, with a pavilion. There are nice views of Putrajaya in the surrounding are, with the PICC forming the backdrop.

The concept is rather nice. Each area have their own sitting area, kind of similar to a usual lobby. The rooms are located in the peripheries, with a central open space, a park or a water feature. Everything is open and soothing. One thing I noticed, there are many sitting areas with comfy cushions. In every floor and every open areas, there are cushions and settees. The bistro is also had plenty of open space with verandah. Unfortunately, there was thunderstorm outside and we had to have our tea in. 

The deco on the ceiling of the B bistro, where we had tea

The Oriental theme garden

There were still construction taking place, new facilities are just being furnished. The creche area is already opened. There were also bicycles available for rent and other indoor sports theme. Unfortunately we did not have a chance to see any of the rooms. There is also a restaurant at the jetty area that is opened at night for dinner. It was almost 6 when we left. Everything is pretty quiet by then.

 In the creche

When we reached home Anita was saying that maybe we should bring our Mum there for a respite. I may be able to write a bit more about the place then.

Update on Sunday, April 12, 2009 at 2:13PM by Haris Abdul Rahman

PUTRAJAYA: A ward on the third-floor of Putrajaya Hospital caught fire yesterday, believed to be struck by lightning during the heavy rain.

Putrajaya Fire and Rescue spokesman said the department was alerted at about 4.16pm and immediately despatched two fire engines to the scene.

I wasn't lying when I said there were thunderstorm there yesterday.