Aidilfitri

Woken up by Anita this morning to get ready. As usual, I would be the designated driver for the Aidilfitri Prayers. It was not that far away, but still quite a walk for my Dad-in-law.

The mosque was packed. And I was sure at least 10 to 15% of the crowd were Somali. They had a huge population over around Gombak. Most of them being UIA students. Allegedly. But it seemed that they had their extended family along with the as well.

After prayers, it was time for the family. With the new clothes and all ..... Can't blog much. I got food to eat!

The photos from the day was uploaded here.

Royal Penang Hotel

All in all, the stay at Royal Penang Hotel during our Penang trip was a pleasant one. This was the second time we been to the place, the first some three years back, when the hotel was known as Dorsett Penang. It was not a bad hotel back then, when my sister Julia and her family also came along during the stay, and Irfan was dipped under water during one of the swim. He was traumatised then and for the following year and a half, refused to enter a swimming pool. He was only two then. He got over it now.

Same as the last time, we had the apartment suite, which was huge. And we also had the partition door to the next room opened, for our maid to stay. This time around, my parents used the next room. And my sister was not with us for this trip. The suite consisted of three separate areas, the living room with a lounge and dining area, plus a small kitchenette with sink, a microwave oven and a full size refrigerator. The second area, the biggest was the bedroom, with a king-sized bed, sofa, another TV and a small study table. The last was the dressing area, with a walk-in closet and the bathroom. There was also a balcony there but the door was locked for security reason. Basically, the room was huge. And with the next room was also opened up, the boys kept running from one end to another.

The main bedroomThe whole length of the room, going into my parents room next door. Irfan was running from one end to the next.The main living area, with a dining table to seat four, and the main lounge.The balcony from the dressing areaWe were there for a three nights. Certainly, room-wise, there was nothing to complain about. Very comfortable and spacious. The only problem we had was the cleaners were a bit slow to clean our room. In fact, we had to call housekeeping on our second day to get the cleaners in. Another issue was the limited parking space that they provide. Although it was free and covered, I counted that there were at most 40 slots. In a 20-storey hotel, I thought that they should provide more.

Food was just average. Breakfast was just OK, nothing special to mention. It was enough for us, although they charged Idlan at children's rate. Apparently, the suite only comes with a couple of breakfast vouchers.

The cute kitchenette with the fridge and microwave oven.And Irfan was still at it .....the pool on the fourth floorNext, the swimming pool. It was pretty basic. There was no life-guard and no drinks served by the pool. The gym located on the same floor was closed for renovation. Surprisingly, there was no spa at the hotel.

The hotel offered discount for government servants, an all it took was for me to show my UM identification card. We got something like 20% off, which made a lot of difference. We hardly sampled any of the hotel meals as this being Penang, there were plenty of food everywhere, not to mention a KFC outlet located right across the street from the hotel. The hotel also has a connecting bridge to Penang Plaza right next door for food and shopping. The TV offered all the terrestrial channels plus Disney, one movie and one sports channel. Our suite had a DVD player should we fancy watching something.

The strategic location of the hotel, being right smack in the middle of Georgetown made it definitely worth considering again when we come back. Our usual place to stay was along Gurney Drive, but this time around, with the change of management, we decided to give this place another go. Compared to when it used to be called Dorsett, there had been hardly any change. Should you want to find out more about the hotel, please click here. And more stories about this trip here.

Quick Trip to Muar

Last night, before the football match ended, I received a phone call from my Dad. One of our relatives passed away within the last couple of hours and he asked if I could drive him and Mum to Muar to attend the funeral the next day. So, this morning after Subuh prayers, we set off southbound.

It took us about 3 hours to reach the place as I have never been there before. We were lucky that my trusty old iPhone with PaPaGo worked like a treat. We reached there before the prayers, and most of the local folks were already gathered at the house, preparing the body for burial.

After prayers, the rest of the relatives set off for the cemetery, located about 10 km away. We decided to stay at the house, greeting the rest of the relatives who were left behind.

The elderly relative who passed away was recently diagnosed with lung cancer. Being in his 80s, he was just given symptomatic treatment, and was at home surrounded by his loves ones when he drew his last breath. One of my cousin who was working in Sibu did not manage to get home in time - she arrived just 10 minutes too late unfortunately.

It was customary to give tokens to those attending the funeral Prayers. Here, the family distributed sarongs.Alfatihah.

Done with Strawberries

Just arrived from the downhill drive from Gohtong. Had a nice time over there, and managed to get the stock of fireworks as well - they stock plenty of them high quality hand thrown 'pop-pop' poppers that were my boys favorite, and my maids' scourge since they were the ones needing to do the sweeping after! We virtually cleared the stock from the stall!

All together, we managed to collect something like 400 grams of strawberries. Mainly it was Irfan's effort as Idlan was too picky - pun intended. After stopping for lunch - the boys had some nice hot spicy fries and unfortunately I couldn't join them being Ramadhan - we headed to buy some fresh vegetables and flowers within the compound of the farm. They were certainly fresh and since we arrived in the morning, the produce had only just arrived. The corn cobs certainly looked great.

Irfan also picked up photography with my LX-3 and was happy snapping away. At least from now on, I would get my photos taken. Not just me taking photos of others. On the way down, Anita stopped to buy some fish-head curry for iftar. Sadly, I was never into fish-head, unless it was prepared in a broth, Japanese style!

Now that I was home, it was time to get the photos sorted. I took something like 200 snaps. I could have taken more, but the place was getting too crowded by the time we were about to leave. More details of the farm can be read on my previous visits here and here. The farm website can be surfed here. More photo of the trip can be seen here as well at my photoblog.

Impromptu Birthday Cake

Thanks to my sister Julia, I had a birthday cake this year. Believe it or not, I did not get one for my birthday, with the kenduri and all. The initial plan was to take my parents out for lunch. Julia and her family was on their way back from Melaka, and they joined us at Pavilion as they arrived in KL. We had our lunch at Madam Kwan’s, in a nice little table, tucked away at the back room.

She prefers children plastic plates. I don't really know why ....Then it was durian time ....BurpAll havoc broke loose when the children started playing with their iPads and iPhone. Even if they had one each, they would still like to fight. We had a good lunch, with all the singing and cake blowing. After lunch, we settled back at my parent’s house at Bukit Antarabangsa. Julia brought back plenty of durian from Melaka. Please don’t smell my breath tonight …….