Muar and Back

It went according to plan. My parents joined me at the apartment before we drive down to Muar in glorious sunshine to attend my cousin's wedding. But unfortunately I couldn't make it any earlier and by the time we reached Kesang Laut, one of the famous ritual was done. It was called the toll.

Basically, when the party from the groom arrived at the bride's house, they had to pass trough a series of toll, members of the bride's family would actually stop then from passing through unless some amount of money - or gift - were passed. They may also have to sing or reply verses of pantun, and only then they were allowed to proceed.

And usually there was never a single toll. Yesterday, there four of them. Done in good spirit, it was a sight to behold. A real tongue twister at times, perfected into an art.

We missed all that though.

The other thing I noticed about weddings in Johor, was this lot loved their singing. There was always live bands. And oh boy, they really could carry a tune.

We could stay for too long due to the combination of having to return to KL before its dark and my nieces were getting restless. My boys and Anita didn't come along as they were attending a wedding and a birthday party in KL. Not to mention that they had their swimming lessons as well that afternoon.

We left Muar just before 4, a quick stop for Solat and reached KL by 6.30. The traffic was light as clearly the balik kampung crowd were still chilling back home. The road was empty and the weather was great. I then joined Anita and the boys at the Club, taking them to dinner before home. A nice productive day indeed.

Wedding at Wardieburn

This particular aunt of mine finally received a daughter-in-law. A fee years back, his eldest son was engaged, but then wedding was called off at the last minute. His son had since got engaged again and InsyaAllah would be receiving another daughter-in-law some time next year.

Today, it was his younger son's wedding - well it was the reception today as the wedding proper was held a couple of weeks back. Understandably everybody was relieved and it was a happy occasion. My Mum especially got to meet her old friends and relatives after a number of years.

The wedding was held at Wardieburn Camp, not far from our Gombak place. It had lately becoming a popular venue for wedding despite the hall located inside a military base. It was kind of surreal since I was born into a military family, I always remembered the camps to be heavily guarded. I just couldn't get used to the sight of the guards on duty waving cars in without inspection. Time has certainly changed.

The ceremony was very well attended and by the time we left, there were still throngs of people parking their cars and queuing to get into the hall. With the restless children - NY two boys plus Julia's two girls - we had to leave rather early. But not before catching up with our relatives.

Post-call were never good days for me, but meeting my relatives and even teachers from my primary school in Kepala Batas soon certainly took the fatigue away. But now, I could do with some sleep ......

Xmas Dinner

I was about to leave the hospital to get back to the apartment for a quick shower and microwave dinner when I found out that Anita and the boys would be out with my in-laws for dinner. The boys wanted Chinese, so we went to my Dad's favourite at Corus Hotel.

Anita had just arrived at the restaurant when I called her. And since I was already in the car, I decided to head to the hotel as well. Luckily the traffic wasn't too bad, although it was a crawl in front of Sunway Pyramid.

The hotel was packed with people having their Christmas dinner at the main cafe, full of singing and drinking. There were live bands playing, and people mingling about. The Chinese restaurant - Ming Palace - was a lot more sedate. And we were able to have the dinner in peace. The food was already served when I arrived, and being hungry from work, I went straight for the food. Much better than the microwave dinner I would have otherwise in store.

By the time I was done with dinner, I already had a couple of patients waiting for me at the hospital. I went straight in, and was back the apartment by midnight. Shower only came after that ....

Enter Sandman

So, what did then boys wanted to watch? Not Wreck-it Ralph. Definitely not them vampire movies. For the last couple of months, they had been talking about Rise of the Guardians. It was towards the end of its run, so getting the tickets was not a problem. The only issue was not that many cinema was still showing it. We were lucky that eCurve was still doing it although the show started later than I hooked for - at 6pm.

My worry was that the boys may be to on tired after the bowling and the afternoon tea. But it turned out OK.

And the movie? It was better than I expected. It started at a fast pace, but dwindled in the middle. I actually fell asleep, before waking up towards the end when the story again picked up. Irfan especially was laughing at the jokes. And the jokes were quite funny. The animation was also quite spectacular. Great fun.

The storyline was also straight forward enough for the boys to understand. Very funny at times although could be quite heavy. Definitely worth the entry fee. Something which I would recommend as a Sunday matinee.

Awal Muharram Outing

After the series of public holidays and weekends spoilt by having to be on call, Awal Muharram couldn't come early enough for me. As soon as I finished my morning rounds, I had an early lunch and took an afternoon nap until around three. Form the last four days, I hardly had any uninterrupted sleep due ton phone calls and emergency.

As soon as I woke up, I got the boys packed up, and we headed out to Tasik Perdana for a walk in the park. Boy, how much I needed that!

First stop was the Lake Garden itself. Got then car parked, and we strolled ton the playground, running on the grass before again, it got dark! Afternoon rain again in KL. The heaven held for another 20 minutes or so, enough for the boys to burn some sugar.

When it finally rained, we were already inside then car, headed to Hornbill Restaurant - at Bird Park - where both Idlan and Irfan had their birthday parties before. We had some tea there while waiting for the rain to pass by. It was just around 5.30 when we left the restaurant and bought the ticket to enter the park.

We didn't venture far, but spent most of the time feeding the birds and fishes. A couple of years ago, part of the park was closed for renovation. They were building a pavilion with a koi pond in the middle of it. I was there before but, minus the boys, so they were excited when they had the chance to feed the fishes. It helped that it was late on the afternoon and there were hardly that many people inside the park at the time. No need to jostle to buy the animal feed and to stroll around.

By the time we were done, it was almost closing time. The animal food were sold on vending machines but that day, none of the machine were in order. This was mainly due to the coin slot getting stuck with small change. Luckily, there were kiosk selling the food instead, but certainly for a premier park, they should look into the maintenance side a bit more closely. Not to mention that bit cost a bomb to get in, especially for foreigners. Luckily, we did not bring our maid along. Her entrance fee might be more than the four of us combined!

Great day out I thought. By then time we left Task Perdana, we were starving and had to look around for food. Luckily we were staying at the apartment, and there were plenty of eatery around Bangsar.