Some bad news

My God invigilating was boring. Today was my second day here and I spent last night in my hotel room watching a marathon of Fringe. I completed five episodes before feeling sleepy. Did not manage to edit any more chapters of my the Haem UMMC website. Was not in the mood I guess.

The exam this morning was over 3 hours. Then I have to do some paperwork before driving back to UMMC with some documents. Back at work tomorrow. I also recieved some bad news from Sarawak last night. One of my patient who unfortunately relapsed following stem cell transplant drew her last breath. She had a good Christmas and at the end decided against any further chemotherapy when she learned that her disease was back. I think it was a very good decision on her part. Some felt that that was a defeatist attitude but it was always better to fight battles you were likely to win. With that decision, she survived an extra 3 months, spent it with good quality of life doing all the things she always wanted and died surrounded by friends and family rather than tubes and needles. Rest in peace Dear!

Invigilating - Day 1

Spent the morning invigilating the Final MBBS Exam at Perak Medical College. Similar to what I did last year. It turned out that one of the chap I was invigilating with last year was currently the Deputy Dean. So I spent some time this morning in his office before being introduce to the Dean. Proper stuff!

The exam darted without a hitch. There was not to be any major corrections, all the paper work were in order, the students all turned up on time. I was still not getting used to how different the academic building look here compared to UM. But I supposed the UM building were from a different era.

Examinations finishing soon. Have to figure out what to do for the afternoon.

By the way, Park Ji-Sung scored our winner just after I wrote the entry last night. And then Chelsea only drew with Blackburn. Game on!

Drive up to Ipoh

It was raining all the way up to Ipoh. It started the moment I enter DUKE. Got worst by Sungai Buloh, but then really pouring by the time I reached Kuala Kubu. There were three accidents by the time I reached Tapah, all I was sure due to people driving too fast in the rain.

At my usual haircut joint in Taman MelatiI left Gombak at around 4.30 after a quick haircut, finally reaching Ipoh at around 7.30. Luckily despite the heavy rain, there were hardly any traffic. The rain eased off by the time I arrived at Simpang Pulai, but poured down I again by the time I planned to go out in search of dinner. Decided to stay at the hotel and have the buffet instead. And I wasn't disappointed.

It's grill night tonight, the carvery was pretty decent. Even the dessert was pretty nice and I went bak up to the room after some coffee in time for the big kick-off. It's just past halftime now and the score was still even at one apiece. The game wasceryainly hotting up with United trying to up the tempo. Watching while biting my nails!

The weekend just passed

At section 7, Shah AlamIt is almost an unwritten rule that the subsequent weekends following Hari Raya is filled with Open Houses amongst city dwellers like me. It is also a rule that people, the Malays mainly tie the knot. The weekend passed summerised it well.

The Rawang highway stop. Very well maintainedOn Saturday, the whole troop converged on Ipoh to celebrate the wedding of one of our best friend's sister, Itul. As usual, we were worried that the boys may become restless. Well, they did, but I thought it was going to be worst. The wedding itself was pure class. It was a full Perak affair. There was live band of course. Food was nice. No complains really. We wished that the boys were not as cranky so that we can spend some extra time with the the friends. Itul is only back for a couple of weeks. She just started a new post in Yorkshire. Maybe she has some free time this week for us to visit. Syahril is planning an open house for friends this coming weekend as well. Maybe we can spend some more time then.

On Sunday, we attended a few more open houses hosted by Anita's cousins. The problem that day was finding the address. One was in Rawang, right in the middle of nowhere. The other one was in Shah Alam, but getting there was rather confusing. We made it there alright but it was pretty tiring. Once the boys met up with their cousins, they were very happy and did not want to go home.

The Lost World of Tambun

Irfan on the pirate ship a Explorabay

After the formal stuff was done, the boys got fretful and wanted to go out. A quick web search and we thought we give the 'Lost World of Tambun' a look. We actually were looking for a place to have lunch initially. The theme park is located about 20 minutes away from Casuarina in the lunchtime traffic - which is no where near as hectic as KL. Typical of Malaysia, if not for my GPS, we would have gotten lost. The signage was next to pathetic. The have enough in terms of quantity, but they were well hidden from important turns. Quality tak dak!

You drive out of town towards the PLUS highway but through it. It is in a new township, built around the old Tambun town. There were plenty of new housing project around, plus of course a Sunway College as the whole area were developed by the Sunway Group.

A quick snack at the cafe

We reached there just after 1.30. A quick lunch at a burger bar. The boys were getting restless for a swim. There were 3 main pool areas, the Waterfall Beach Garden, complete with sand and man-made waves. The second being the Kid's Explorabay, with pirate ships and slides suitable for kids like Irfan and Idlan. The water here was only 50 cm deep max. The last pool area was unfortunately closed for cleaning. It is called Tambun Hot Spring. Apparently it is fed from a natural spring nearby and a big hit around here, with good lighting at night.

We spend a couple of hours at the Explorabay and a further 30 minutes at the beach. Luckily it is the week after the school break. There were not many people around. A few of the attractions and stalls were only opened at night. There were a couple of restaurants open and getting food is really easy. Changing room was a surprise for Anita as both the changing area and toilet were open air. The roof is open with only partitions for the cubicles.

After a long day, Irfan deserved a rest. Here trying to sleep with his Doraemon

Should you guys want to cuti-cuti Malaysia, you should give this place a go. There are plenty to explore with kayaking, animal feedings, camping and team-building facilities. There were also plenty of accommodation nearby. But most importantly, Giant is next door for a quick shopping. Well worth the RM25 entrance fee! Check out the website. Careful, the gate is closed on Tuesdays except during school breaks.

*pics of my boys were intentionally desaturated, sorry!