Low Key Birthday

Idlan turned 11 yesterday and this time we didn't prepare any real party for him. He wasn't really. Keen although he did ask for a cake when he woke up yesterday.

Luckily, a quick call to my sister sorted that out and in the afternoon, we set off to Kajang for dinner and of course the cakes, celebrating it with his cousins.

Nothing fancy. He already got his birthday present the evening before. Maybe we would have lunch with his grandparents later on Sunday...

As for the rest of the day, we didn't do much especially with the rain outside. He also preferred to stay in and play with his cousins.

Idlan Is 10

Idlan was born 10 years ago this weekend. It was the same weekend that Michael Schumacher won the Monaco, and Cristiano Ronaldo scored in the FA Cup final against Millwall to secure the last FA Cup win for United until today. All that happened while Anita was in labour.

Ten years on, Idlan celebrated his birthday with a party at his class, which coincided with Teacher's Day activity at his school. Anita organised the cakes and other titbits, cooked macaroni and cheese for the party and Irfan joined his brother when they had the cake-cutting during class break.

As usual, Anita went all out on the goodie bags which she prepared herself. She must've stayed up all night to sort those out looking at the elaborate preparation she did ....

I asked Idlan about his party after school. He said the party was brilliant. Well, it was all worth it ...

Idlan is Nine

Idlan is Nine today but Daddy had to be on call. Although the grand plan was to spend the long weekend at the apartment and basically chill out. I took Idlan out for dinner last night, asking him where would he like to go. Of course the answer was pretty straightforward.

We left after Maghrib and as soon as the roast beef arrived, the boys duly devoured them quite literally.

So, my baby boy is now nine but for the both of us, he's still our baby. In actually fact, he is more manja than Irfan. Still couldn't go to sleep without us around.

Happy Birthday Idlan. Sorry that Daddy couldn't be there when the cake arrived later. Daddy got to earn a living :)

Ming Palace

This was a favorite Chinese restaurant of Anita's family since she was young. As far as she can remember, this has been the spot. Anita's father was an army officer and they as a family used to live at MinDef nearby. The restaurant users to be the flagship of Ming Court Hotel. For the past 10 years or so, the hotel was taken over by the Corus Group and has been renamed accordingly. However, they still retained a couple of famous eatery there - The Ming Palace where we ate last night, and Kimuro, a Japanese restaurant who served a mean tappenyaki - shamed that I did not like tappenyaki, even thought I love Japanese food in general. I just probably prefer them raw maybe.

Last Monday was Idlan's seventh birthday, while Thursday was Mum-in-laws. It was her idea to have Chinese and the choice was obvious. Ming Palace it was.

The food there has been consistent for the last few years. The Peking Duck was excellent although we did not have it last night. The steam cod was heavenly, although expensive. The buttered prawn was not too bad either. In fact, the food were reasonable across the menu. We had soup to start things off, and for the last 10 years, I have been against shark fin soup, so I had some corn and crabmeat soup, which was a firm favourite. We ordered seven items amongst us last night, a variety of beef, chicken, prawns, vegetables and fish. The Kung pow beef was excellent, a new find for us.. Lemon chicken was good as well. The disappointment was the vegetables. The asparagus was rather overcooked. I did not taste the fish as we ordered steamed Latin last night, and I got this thing with fresh-water fish!

We had an excellent time. My brother-in-law was also present. We we're really too full to order any desserts. From what I know, the main attraction of the place was the excellent din sum lunch they offer. I have sampled them on a couple of occasions and the service was quick and friendly. In fact, the waiters and waitresses the knew Irfan and Idlan by now. In fact a few of them watched them grew up over the years, and remembered how t prepare their favourite Chinese Fried Rice.

I must confess that it was not the cheapest joint in town. In fact, do be careful if you were ordering for fish and you may be caught staring at the bill ........ Certainly for the business types, the private rooms offered privacy.

Corus Hotel is located along Jalan Ampang, opposite KLCC and right next to the now oh-so-quiet Avenue K. Ming Palace was located on the first floor of the hotel. The parking can be a pain as they charge you RM 10 per entry!

Party preparations

It turned out that preparation for Idlan's party at school this Friday turned out to be more complicated than usual. Initially we wanted to do just a close family affair. Unfortunately, after getting a couple of presents on Monday from his classmates, he went all excited and told his teacher than there would be a class party this Friday! So, we had to conjure up something for it.

This morning, Anita spent a few hours in Bangsar sorting out the cakes and party packs. The pizza were already confirmed from the other night, and all that was left were some drinks and tidbits. Anita was confident everything would be doted for the day, although I had to come home early today to help here pick the cakes up.

After that, it should be Kung Fu Panda on Saturday morning, provided that the weekend ward rounds were sorted out, of course!