Last Day with Teacher Kumari

With Teacher Kumari - while Idlan keen to go for lunch. Hungry apparently.Since attending Pingu School, Irfan has been fond of Teacher Kumari. Unfortunately it turned out that today will be his last session with her. Teacher Kumari planned to return to India by the end of the month. She might return in the future but we were uncertain if she will return to teach at Pingu again. The sad thing was, Irfan was not in the mood to attend school. He stayed outside while Idlan spent an our there.

Irfan with his shopping basket at Czip Lee earlier

A nice lunch at the Smokehouse, Telawi, Bangsar

Irfan is starting off his new series of classes at Pingu's English. There are 3 levels of classes, and each modules are divided into units, the first level being 8 units if I am not mistaken, taken over a period of about 6 months, depending on the number of hours spent. He finished his level 1 classes last month, and at the end we were not sure whether we should enroll him for level 2 or not. He is due to start at Sri Utama next January to join Idlan. As he really liked his teacher - Teacher Kumari - we decided to start him on a weekly program, basically just some reading lessons. The first class was today, every Saturday at noon.

The decors are up at Bangsar Village

While waiting for his class to finish, Anita planned to use the time to shop for groceries and others at the nearby Bangsar Village. For today, my in-laws decided to tag along. We got there in plenty of time. After sending Irfan off, we headed straight for groceries. The Xmas decor is just being readied. After all it is some 6 weeks away. There was a huge Xmas tree in the middle of the main lobby. After mingling around for a bit, the in-laws wanted to look for a spot for lunch. We went for the Smokehouse, next to Madam Kwan opposite the Bangsar Village II.

We have been eyeing the place for some time but never had the opportunity to try it. Today was the day. When we entered, we were presented with the menu and made our selection while seated in the cosy ground floor area, themed alike an authentic English living room. A fireplace would not appear out of place here, nice with plush sofa and magazines. After we made our orders we were ushered upstairs to take our seats. We were quite welcomed to have some drinks downstairs prior if we want since the chef will need some time to prepare the meals, but since Idlan was already restless by then, we went straight up.

All the meals here we prepared on site in the kitchen. There were no such thing as microwaved frozen food here. Everything from the salad to the whipped potatoes and chips were freshly prepared. There were 2 kinds of meal, prepared from a menu devised by two chefs. One is purely English, pudding, roast and the lot. The other is Thai. They were both delectable.

My delectable chicken pie

Anita had some fried mee hoon and tom yam soup. They were both very good. Idlan had some fried chicken cobs, plus chips with mushroom sauce. Very nice! Mum-in-law had roast chicken while my dad-in-law and me had chicken pie ..... Gorgeous! Everything was freshly prepared as I mentioned. The staffs were very friendly. However, since there were plenty of competitions for food in the area, there were hardly any customers at the time we dined. What do you expect when Madam Kwan is right next door. We were too full by the end when the asked if we wanted deserts.

Full fat, full throtle

Pasar Ramadhan 5, originally uploaded by Haris Abdul Rahman.

Since I am off today, everyone reading my facebook update was green with envy with my updates. Started off with the usual school run. It was raining very heavily however, and I heard that traffic across town was pretty bad. We got to Pingu School quite late as well and Irfan had to cut short his class today since we had to rush back to fetch Idlan.

The Eid decor at Great Eastern MallAfter all is done, we went to Great Eastern Mall for the boys to have lunch. Idlan then did some artwork at the art class, while we did some groceries. Since yesterday, Idlan have been talking about his Peter the shellcrab. He found it when we were at the beach yesterday and has grown attached to it ever since. Unfortunately since we didn't have the tools to look after Peter, we had to set him free. Idlan actually cried. When he woke up this morning, he kept asking how is Peter.

Therefore, we went to a pet shop at the mall, and we picked up a couple of crabs. Idlan then named them Peter and Jane. Irfan on the other hand wanted the clownfish. We didn't even have an aquarium, let alone ones that can take on salt-water fish. We got a couple of guppies for him instead, and he names them Nemo and Ike - Ike short for Ikan!

We then spend the afternoon setting up the tank, fed the pets etc. Then it was time for pasar Ramadhan. We initially went to a shop in Ukay Perdana that we went yesterday. The murtabak there was pretty good, even if it cost RM4. We then headed for Melawati for other stuffs, including some fireworks for the boys. As you can see, Anita was attracted to fat. There was this stall that sell every known part - edible of course - of a cow. She loved the tongue and picked them up. As you can see in the pics, they were instant artery cloggers! Eat them at your peril! Preferably with a local friendly Cardiologist around. I've already booked Imran.

This shop sell a mean Murtabak. Click on the pics and look at the map for the location.The rest of the day I spent clearing up a couple of websites including Idlan's. I wanted to install the smugmug flash slideshow in them realising that they can take ages to load. I'm also setting up a separate photoblog, just telling stories in pictures, no doubt inspired by the Ramadhan website I read the other day.

Irfan's First Proper School Day

Finally Anita got her wish. She always dreamt that one day, her kids will be attending school and she will have the day all to herself. Today is a step in the right direction. Irfan attended her first proper pre-school day.

The day obviously started early. We sent Idlan to school first just before eight. Got Irfan ready, and off we went to Bangsar. Irfan attended the Pingu's English class, just opposite Bangsar Village II, a strategic place for Anita to indulge should she be able to in the future after dropping Irfan off.

We were rather nervous at the beginning, not sure if he will cause a ruckus. In the first 20 minutes or so Irfan was rather quiet. The principal and owner of the centre, Puan Sarah was there. They were expecting another child but he/she did not turn up. While Irfan was getting introduced to the place - and watching a couple of episodes of Pingu of course - Anita was chatting with the principal. She is the sister of the founder of Krista Kindergarten and she herself owns a couple of franchises in Setiawangsa and Melawati. The idea of the Pingu's English school in Malaysia has always been her idea for a while now, but due to certain circumstances it was only launched last year.

She appears to have vast experience. She studied initially as a fashion designer in Melbourne before going into education. She did pre-school training in London and has been involved in schools and kindergarten to a certain extend for at least the last 10 years. She certainly was very approachable. Looking at her we realised that she has been in a few magazines and newspaper articles before.

Currently there a around a dozen of students. Since the classes were scattered, we have not met any of Irfan's fellows. He will be attending the classes three times a week, lasting an hour each. So the school run will be rather interesting. As soon as Irfan finished his class, Anita will have to rush to fetch Idlan.

However today, Irfan did not want to go home at 11. I had to fetch Idlan by myself and then took him to Bangsar. The first day went well. No tantrum. He enjoyed his colouring and plasticine work. Looking forward for tomorrow's class.

 

After class we had lunch at Bangsar Village, then went to Kiz gym for the kids. Anita was checking out Fit for 2 next door. Quite interesting. A keep fit thing for mum and baby. The shop was empty though but the food looked nice. We drove home around 3, and the two boys were fast asleep in the car and did not move a beat when we took them into their bed. Hopefully Irfan still have the same enthusiasm for Pingu tomorrow.

Pingu School for Irfan

Entrance to the School

I'm on leave today. First thing's first. Have to go through the checklist. Amongst the things needing sorting out is getting Irfan and Idlan to see their Paediatrician in Pantai Hospital. At least Irfan did not freak out this time and that took skill!

One of the classroom

Next up, pre-school for Irfan. Destination - Jalan Telawi, Bangsar. Venue - Pingu School. Toot! Toot! Oh My God! They couldn't stop running. The school was empty at the time. While we were chatting with the teacher, both of them were of course watching Pingu.

The boys naturally was watching Pingu

The school is next to the familiar Madam Kwan's restaurant opposite Bangsar Village II. It was right at the top floor. The program were divided into three stages according to age and reading ability, from three onwards. We have to start from the basic for Irfan. 

Pingu saying Goodbye

The class is opened from Monday to Saturday and classes last for an hour, three times a week. Our main concern is leaving Irfan alone at the school. We are sure there will be drama. We enrolled him for a month starting in May. We will then see how things goes. The school days are still not planned since it pretty much depends on how many students joined up.

As for me. Need to rush to get a pair of gym shoes. Playing badminton tonight with the ex-Terendakians.