Early Birthday Present

As mentioned, Irfan's birthday would be round the corner. He would be turning 8 next month.

After his exams last November, I asked him what he wanted for the holidays. He told me that he wanted to buy a game on his Xbox. He wanted to buy Minecraft.

Off I went searching high and low for it, but to no avail. I went everywhere, my usual dealer and a few more. No luck.

I had to put an order in in the end.

So, this afternoon, I received and SMS from the vendor at Plaza Damas. The game was finally in. Didn't waste much time. I went to collect the order and since this afternoon, both Idlan and Irfan had been in front on the TV in their room playing with not. Luckily, they had a two players mode and we had a cpuple.of controllers.

I really couldn't figure out what the craze was, but all their classmates were playing it. They would talking about it until the Chinese New Year I was sure.

Pool Party

Last Xmas, we attended a birthday party at Melawati. A nice idea since it was at a pool and Idlan especially didn't wait long to get into the pool and forget about food and his parents.

The venue was K Klub, a private club at Taman Melawati. The main attraction there was a nice big swimming pool. We were close to sending Idlan for lessons there but decided otherwise. There was also a Chinese restaurant there before, but closes a couple of years ago.

Irfan didn't go into the poolIdlan did. But I must have a word with him a bout that pink balloon!Back to the party, we arrived there right after the cake and the singing. The pool was definitely children friendly. The area where the party was held was separate from the main pool, for privacy.

The place was cordoned off for the partyThe birthday cake was already half eaten ....The cupcakes were baked by the birthday girl's MumUnfortunately, most of the people who attended were family members of the birthday girl. We just kept ourselves occupied until it was time to go. But the pool party idea was definitely a good one.

Barbey!!

Great barbecue. Juicy lamb ribs. Need I elaborate? But the revelation of the day was this Korean salad which one of my friend, Amin prepared. It was simple but hardly plain simple. Strip of beef with some marinated sauce taken on a leaf of lettuce. Not exactly my idea of a snack, but it worked.

The ready of the barbecue was excellent as usual. Syahril was in top form. The marinated lamb ribs was heavenly.

Hey! The cakes almost gone!

We had a good long chat afterwards. Catching up really. A nice break from my busy work schedule lately. It ended with a spot of football with the kids, but my boys were hardly interested. Wuss!

Now, I need to find a way to burn all those calories...

Open House at Sister's

It was a Raya, birthday, housewarming, doa selamat and Merdeka rolled into one. A do at Julia's new place in Kajang, first time she organised it there. And it was a big one.

It started off in late morning with doa selamat. Anita and the boys got there early as I had to do my morning rounds still. The highlight food-wise was roast lamb and satay. They were fresh, but unfortunately I was not a lamb person. The lamb was a big hit.

After my first round of food, it started to rain. Congregating indoors, I fell asleep in front if the TV. I wad then woken up by calls from the hospital, and in the end had to leave for Subang in the middle of the rain.

Anita stayed for a few more hours, but the traffic was too heavy for me to turn back.

Before leaving, we had the sing-along and cake-cutting for Nana, my niece's birthday. Anita, who bought the cake forgotten to bring along some candles. That cut down the risk of saliva contamination on the Red Velvet ...... And that could only be a good thing.

All in all, it was a great day. I wished that I could've stayed intil the evening, but I had to go to the hospital, and then another do in Melawati. That was what the schedule was like this weekends following Raya. Slideshow from the event here.

The Durian Cake

After iftar, the cake was finally unveiled. It was a sponge cake with pure durian topping. I like durian in its pure form. I only eat them from the fruit. I don't like them in curry or other form. Not even in pancake or my wife's favourite tempoyak.

So when I found out that this was the cake that Puan Anita bought for us tonight, I was feeling dreadful initially. But I changed my mind after having a bite.

One each, to avoid any tussle between me and DadBut the honour went to IdlanIt taste surprisingly like the real thing. Not too sweet, and it smelt the same too. The texture was a bit sift and I ended up just beating the durian bit, not the cake. Not roo bad at all.

I won't go around recommending it since I felt full after just a slice, but it certainly was something new. Puan Anita got it from Secret Recipe but one would have to order them in advance.