Goodbye Ampang Park

It looks like the time was almost up. The tenants and shop owners of Ampang Park had exhausted all legal challenge to stop the closure of the first and oldest shopping mall in KL. They were all given their final notices and had been making plans to move their businesses elsewhere.

Even the famed "Cozy Corner" was moving after Raya.

I was there with Anita looking for clothes for Raya. The selection were as good as ever and she got what she wanted. The irony was we took the LRT from KLCC to get there and the future plans for the lot was to built a new MRT station.

I was sure there were enough reasons to demolish such an icon and hopefully in the future, this plot of land would be put in good use ... But for now, thanks for the memories ...

That Yearly Event

Every Ramadan, the Cellsafe Group would have a Berbuka with the staff and this year it was right at the end of Ramadan. This year it was at InterContinental, a hotel used to be known as Niko before.

In fact this was the only time Anita and I had the berbuka at a hotel, something that we loathe to do. But being the end of Ramadan, it was not as crowded as before. There was no real jostling for food and there was plenty to go about in the end.

The selection was OK, but I remembered that it was a better spot during the Niko days when the tables were lined up up to the main lobby.

None the less, it was great company and nice food. But it didn’t change my mind about having Berbuka at a hotel just yet. It was just too much hassle still ....

Starting Early

KL was rather quiet on the First of Ramadan. It was a Saturday and the start of a couple of weeks long school holidays, giving the opportunity for most of the city dwellers to head for their kampung to celebrate the beginning of the fasting month.

After sorting out my ward round, Anita asked if I could take her to Pavilion since she had to make some alterations to her clothes there. The drive there was straight forward, but the shopping mall was relatively packed. The decorations were starting to be erected and I was sure the place would look a lot different come next week.

Ketupat outside Pavilion entranceSalam AidilfitriMaybe the car was there for "kereta Raya" promotion

I took some time walking around there with my camera just observing around. Quite a spectacle.

Heavy Downpour

This is the stuff of nightmare during Ramadan. Late afternoon rain and flash flooding. That was what exactly we had this afternoon.

Anita was stuck at Bangsar Village buying groceries and food for berbuka. She was not able to get into the car and had to wait in the mall. When the rain finally let, the traffic were building up. It took her half an hour to get back to the apartment which was only less than a couple of kilometres away. Such was how bad the traffic was.

I was lucky since I was able to get out of the hospital early although I got stuck in heavy rain along the highway. It could have been worse ...

Third Ramadan

First day back to work during Ramadan and to be honest, I was feeling rather tired. Luckily I didn’t have many inpatients and my clinic was only in the afternoon. A long list though, and added to that a meeting which would run until after berbuka once it was done.

I had some time in the morning to sort out some reading and go through some emails. Hopefully the rest of the day would be too taxing as well. Idlan is on his midterm and was still enjoying his sleep.

Happy Monday!