Plans for Today

Breakfast was done. I went down first with my parents and Anita went down separately later as the boys were still asleep. It was almost 1 in the morning when they finally calmed down and fell to sleep. It looked like we probably had to order room service breakfast for them for tomorrow. I'm still not sure what time they would be up.

Plans for today? The wearer was rather gloomy. The plan to walk out with my camera had to be delayed. Depending on what time the boys getting up, we would decide them. Driving around to Batu Feringghi still felt like a great idea.

As for now, I had to content myself with watching morning talk shows on RTM. Keeping that up, I might start to puke. Why must everything start with the letter 1? 1Malaysia, 1Sekolah ...... Zzzzzzz

End of Day 1

It was midnight and my boys were still wide awake. Both were excited with the trip to Penang and the size of the suite. They just couldn't stop themselves from running from one end to the other.

Earlier tonight, we managed to have dinner at Padang Kota before visiting my grandmother. She appears very frail and had lost a lot of weight. Her appetite was down and this was not helped by the fact that she has had new dentures fitted in. And I don't think that they were fitted well.

After a long chat, we finally headed back to hotel and reached here at around 11. Time to hit the sack soon. We may be heading to Teluk Bahang tomorrow with the camera on the ready.

The Journey Up

After stopping over at AL-Manar to pick up Idlan’s report card and at Bukit Antarabangsa to pick up my Mum, we were off as planned to Penang. We stopped at a couple of spots - Tapah to fill up our tummy and Bukit Merah to empty Idlan’s bladder. But on the whole, the journey was very smooth. We got to Penang in time for some nasi kandar lunch, but checking into the hotel was a bit of a pain. As expected, our booking was messed up and the room they initially put us in did not have a connecting door.

After a couple of phonecalls and calling out the on-duty manager, we got what we ordered for, an apartment suite for us, connected to a deluxe room for my parents. It worked out great in the end.

Waiting for the main room to be cleanedIdlan filling the time doing some construction workFinally, we got ourselves unpacked. The weather was a bit on the gloomy side. Hopefully it won’t rain as we were planning to have dinner by the esplanade later tonight. I wanted my fix of laksa and ‘kangkong sotong’. Time permitting, we might drop by my Grandmother’s place as well to check on her.

We would see how things go out overnight. We might be traveling around the island - butterfly park maybe?

Quick Day Trip

A long day it was with a return trip to Penang. Although the traffic was light, weather was not great. It was gloomy on the way up and it poured all the way on the drive home. Treacherous driving conditions meant I had to take extra time to get home, and I finally got back to Gombak just after 11.

Since I was watching the football match until 3 in the morning, I decided to delay my start. I only left KL around 8.30, and after a couple of toilet stops, I arrived in Sungai Petani just after 1. In time for a nice lunch at my aunts. Next on the agenda, the engagement.

The reason I drove up was to attend one of my cousin, Atiqah's engagement. It was meant to start at 3, but for some reason, the fiancé side arrive an hour and a half early. They cracked on with the event and when I reached the venue, all was done. Sigh! The fiancé were from KL, and as they plan to drive home the same day, they wanted to crack on early.

The engagement went fine otherwise with my Uncle acting as the spokeperson for the family. The wedding was scheduled around July, just before Ramadhan. My cousin just finished her studies and was currently looking for work. Typical of Penang engagement was the 'sugar feeding' ceremony, where the fiancée was fed sugar using a spoon by the female member of the fiancé's family. Anita had the ceremony done to her as well when we got engaged.

Take out timeSome kangkongand sotongAfter some tea, we headed across the pond to Penang Island to visit my grandmother. Since it may tire her to bring her across to Seberang for the engagement, we went across to meet her. She put on weight since we last saw her, which was a good thing. After about half an hour there, we left for Padang Kota to bring home to KL some laksa. The journey home was pretty smooth although it rained most of the ways. we made a stop in Tapah for dinner and prayers, and finally reaching KL after 11.

Return to Padang Kota

After Carnivall, Julia decided to travel to Penang to visit our Grandmother, and we brought the whole troupe round. We reached there just before the traffic jam and had a quick stop at Pahang Road. Before Maghrib, we went to Padang Kota for a spot of laksa.

For some reason, the laksa was rather poor that evening. Maybe we ordered at the wrong stall. Even the pasembor was a bit off. But with all their cousins around, my boys were rather occupied with playing and never complained. A lot have changed at Padang Kota. It used to be a more open and happening place with food stalls lining up the streets. With Penang status as a Unicef Heritage City, there had to ‘clean their act’ so to speak and off went the hawkers. Instead, they were placed in purpose-built eatery, with the non-halal stalls occupying the front and prime end. A few years back, there were pickets going on, but it was quickly squashed by the politicians. The Malay politicians were busy filling up their own coffers I’m afraid rather than looking after the locals. Sad to say in it? I guess it was down to the pressure of getting more tourists in. The Mat Salleh of course like their drink.

However, the place has been much cleaner than I remembered although a lot more could have been done. A new pavement, more parking slots, cleaner toilets for a start I supposed. The boys spent the time at the playground until they were tired. It was not bad going considering they had been at the water park all day earlier.