Cuti Raya Day 3

MidValley Raya Decor 2, originally uploaded by Haris Abdul Rahman.

Hey! Nice tree!It was raining when I got up, which is a pain since I have to go to UMMC this morning, taking my Uncle to see my Urologist colleague. The appointment was at 9.30 and since there were some issues about his scans and what not, we only managed to get everything sorted by 11.30. There will be follow-up after Raya and it is more than likely that he will have to undergo an operation.

On the way back, I decided to drop by at MidValley after hearing a alot about their Raya decor. I arrived there just after mid day and the crowd has already started building up. Apparently it was worst yesterday. A lot of the crowd has already left for their balik kampong ritual. I look forward to an empty KL in the next few days.

More Malay Kampong touchesThe decor was as sweet as what was described. It cartoon replica of a traditional Malay kampung, made of wood. And they are actually functional. Some of the decors were used as stalls where you can buy cookies and other Raya goodies. There is also a big stage in the middle, presumably for music and fashion shows I must say that compared to Lat's work in KLCC, this was on a smaller scale. They are also a lot more predictable, with elements of Malay kampong. I found it lack 'character' and spirit. If you were to ask school children to design a set around the theme of kampong, I am sure they will come up with something similar to this. It lacks originality and innovation. I found it to be too functional.

Lat's work in KLCC is more colourful. You can relate to it a lot more with characters from his Kampong Boy repertoire. You can tell that the designer actually comes from a kampong. It did not try to hit it over our heads that this is what a kampong should look like. It was more involved and evolved. At least that was what my take was.

I reached my home just in time for Jumaat Solat. After Solat, felt tired and decided to take a power nap. It was fine until the power nap actually took a good 3 hours! I was really knocked out. When I woke up, at least my sore throat was gone. I was more than likely carrying a virus, hence the reason for the lethargy. We therefore had to skip Idlan's music class.

From aboveI had to run a few errands after berbuka and drove past Alpha Angle. Can't help but to smile when I saw the queue into the car park. Plenty of people were out to do last minute shopping. I went by to buy some Tandoori, and now back home. Drizzling outside. Maybe it's time for another power nap.

Spent the day looking through my flickr feed

090627 Urbanscapes 9 - Yes .... smoking is bad for you!, originally uploaded by Haris Abdul Rahman.

I can't believe my eyes when at 10am, when my push email kicks in, there were 20 plus messages. Mind you, it is Sunday. A lot of people were giving comments on my Urbanscapes picture page on flickr and they are being pushed straight through. Fun stuff! Currently my stats were looking really good.

After doing some chores, I took the family out to Gardens for lunch. I didn't realise that it was the KL Marathon going on this morning. A few of my friends, Sargunan and Rafidah to name a few actually participated. My wife asked me why didn't I? ..... Note to self, to kick-start my mid-life crisis, do the marathon next year ....

The trip to Gardens was pleasant enough. We had lunch at Alexis. The boys enjoyed the Pizza as usual. They then headed for the Transformers stalls over at Robinson and start picking them up .... Bad news!

Spent the rest of the afternoon going through some research papers, then off to have dinner at the in-laws. My brother -in-law, Razak is off to Turkmenistan tomorrow for a couple of weeks. We may have to stay with the in-laws during that time to keep them company. Idlan also needed some practice with the piano as he has a concert this coming Friday.