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 ...

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)!

Foggy Morning

This entry was originally written in September 2016

I planned to do an early morning around the town after waking up very early. Unfortunately the cool mountain air produce a fog which have yet to lift. It threaten to rain as well, hence I decided against taking off.

But the fog did create some serenity. Combined with the cool fresh air, it was really a sight to behold.

I ended up sitting around enjoying the view instead until not was time to have some breakfast back at Smokehouse...

Flying Over the Smokehouse

The entry was originally written in September 2016

So far, all my droning was done around KL and Putrajaya. And come to think of it, we haven't really travelled much since the Langkawi trip. I never really had the chance to take the drone out of KL.

Understandably, I was quite excited to do some flying during the trip to Frasers Hill.

Luckily the weather was OK after the drizzle when we first arrived. And flying there was a joy despite the lack of sunshine.

Rather too windy for comfort but the drone handled it well. There were hardly any shakes in the footage.

I only managed to do a couple of flights. The first was around the Smokehouse on our first afternoon. The second was the next day during lunch time in the town center, fulfilling my wish to fly around the famous clock tower.

I shot the flyover in 4K before realizing that I did not bring with me an extra memory card - you can't get a new one in these neck of the woods. By the time in was midway on the second flight, I ran out of space.

So, for the first one I did a few passes above the Smokehouse, with the visitors giving a wave when they heard the buzzing. It was really green and tranquil around there.

I should've brought an extra memory card for the drone...

Today's Lessons

Idlan was back to school and all evening he was talking about the changes in his classroom. There were 3 new classmates he said and they were all girls.

There were projects being lined up already and he was going through some of the things to be covered this term. Science would have plenty of Chemistry for this few months, and he would be doing some Statistics in Maths. For Design, he would be building speakers and was going through what he learned about circuit boards today! I expected some explosion ...

He was still struggling with Flash animations at the moment and it looked like I would have to learn it as well to help him. I promised to drive him to school at least once a week so that I could take him to see his teachers if he has problem. Since Sri Utama, he had been terrified of teachers, and it would take him some time to change ....

The main thing is he was enjoying school. That was the main thing ...