The State of The Smokehouse

This entry was drafted in Septeber 2016

2009, 2012, 2015 and now 2016. Those were the times we made the trips up Frasers Hill and stayed at Smokehouse. And over the years the place had suffered a steady decline.

Last December was the worse in terms of the facilities. At least now after some renovations were made, a few more rooms were opened and the place felt to buzzing again. But other things especially good had suffered.

Not only that you get less portion - a decline in quantity - the quality had also been really poor this time. I wasn't talking about breakfast, even the once-famous afternoon tea with scones - their flagship meal - had lost their shines.

Gone were the complimentary hot chocolate for nightcap in a small pot, where you enjoy a chat at the main common room in front of the TV or during the cold season, some fire. We only got a mug, and it wasn't fantastic.

It was a great shame since they had done a good job renovating the place. And looking at the stream of people coming over the couple of days, they shouldn't have much problem filling up the place especially during afternoon tea. If the scones continue to decline, they might just lose their business.

The rooms remains cosy and Parameswari, the housekeeper of almost 30 years was still there greeting us, remembered us from our previous stay. The nights were still cool and the beds were still warm. The hot shower in the morning still reminded me of my student days in England. The common room was still inviting and terraces and the dining tables were still inviting. The charm were still there but the glow was missing.

Such a beautiful establishment deserved a better group of people running them ...

Temporary Quarters

We had gotten used to the current arrangements and with the lights up at the main hall, we could at least see what was going on. And even with limited amount of lights, we could see what the decorator had in mind as far as the lights were concerned. The main hall was certainly transformed.

In fact, the lighting was much brighter than I expected.

Once the halls and rooms were done, Anita told me it would be the kitchen, store and the maid's room. I was sure the maid would be happy. The store would also be transformed into an ironing room. The curtains were still down though, so privacy was still a tad of a problem.

For that, we would have to keep the lights low ....

Family Outing

It was a full day today. Anita wasn’t very pleased when she learned that I had to make a quick trip to the ward despite being on leave. She decided however to. Follow me for breakfast. This was followed by a quick trip to Sunway Pyramid, where she managed to get some shopping done.

We then went back to fetch the boys for lunch, and we went to Burger and Sushi before learning that Nana was having a cough and needed nebulisers. Enough excuse to head over to Kajang.

We started with a sushi lunchWhile I murdered some steakThe boys helping with some groceriesThat went on until dinner when my parents joined us as well. We had some really nice Thai food in Kajang town. Nana was better and would be travelling back to Kedah tomorrow back to her hostel. It was close to midnight when we finally settled back home. At least I could look forward to the prospect of not having to do the Weekly Sunday Morning Ward Round (tm)!

Happy Sunday Morning

That rare Sunday morning when I was forced not to do the ward round, I was treated to a glorious sunrise.

In fact I just sat there staring away for a good 10 minutes listening to the sound of nature. Cool breeze from my room balcony, I thought I should do it more often. Maybe I should delay starting my Sunday rounds early. Enjoy the morning a bit ....

Now, should I go to the gym or look for breakfast .....

The Replacement

So, it was finally here! The new MacBook Pro to replace my 5 year-old MacBook Pro. And the new unit will also be replacing my MacBook Air which was almost equally as old. The old MacBook Pro was still working and now it would be occupying the space on Idlan’s desk. A kind of a hand-me-down scheme!

The main drawback would be to get the dongles and connectors for the new laptop. That would be during the weekend after I decide on which connectors were needed. I already bought a mini-hub for starters. I would in the future need another charger for the office, one which connects to the projector for my presentations. I may also get myself a small mouse but at the moment it was kinda difficult to get a USB-C ones. A trip to Low Yat might just solve that!

The keyboard was actually better than I hoped. Reading from the reviews I thought it would be a major drawback. In fact, I thought I could type faster with it. It was kinda noisy though.

Enough for the early impressions. Time to take it for some proper test in the coming week ....