What I've been up to …

We’ve visited this place a few times. I blogged about it the first successful  time and then another time.

Laast Saturday (24th July 2010), after the visit to Mae’s school (to collect his mid-year results), we decided to stop by at Leman Dawi Cendol again.

We saw some RTM people shooting some kids’ program, with a young girl interviewing Mr Leman Dawi himself:

We just went on to enjoy our cendols.

Being a jovial person, Mr Leman Dawi continued to greet his patrons once the shooting was over. He even came to talk to us:

While filling up the brown sugar container, he kept on telling us about the country, the area of a particular state, etc, etc.. What caught my attention was how Johor got the name. In almost ONE breathe, he said that the word Johor came from the Arabic word Johar, which means jewel!

Mr Leman even came closer to Aina to show her his books and notes that he always keeps in the pockets of his apron. He even showed some facts from his little notbook:

while Nafis looked on:

Sometimes Mr Leman can be too loud, but his command of the Malay language is really good, especially when he recites the pantun and sajak,

After having at least additional helpings on top of the 5 bowls we ordered (1 bowl for each of us), we finally said goodbye to Mr Leman and continued our journey down south to Muar. There were other new arrivals who were more than happy to see us emptying the table .

Mae will still be  in that school until the end of this year, so I guess I’ll get to have one or 2 more cendol visits here in the future.

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I’ve been driving the faithful 13-yr old Mitsubishi Spacewagon for almost 13 years now (I’ll get a pic later). I have no complaint and am happy with it. It’s just that sometimes I feel awkward driving the 7-seater car empty, hence came the urge to get a new car . It didn’t take me long to decide on Mazda2 .

Yesterday just before sunset, we finally collected my new car. When we arrived the car was being polished. DH managed to get the first look when it was finally parked outside the Mazda building:

DH started the check on the car, with the helpful and friendly Shahroul (Mazda guy):

Side view:

After the checking, etc, when I finally drove it out of the Mazda outlet, stopped at the nearby Caltex, filled up the tank with RM50 worth of petrol, the car had traveled only 60 km:

When the car arrived home, it was nicely parked next to DH’s:

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It was 20th June 2010, our final day there.

We started the day by exploring the subway. I have to say exploring, because, after we entered the “Nanjing East” station we had to do a lot of reading/exploring to find out how to purchase the tickets. Luckily the ticket vending machines have the option for “English”.

Turning the medium to English is one thing. The next thing is to identify the stations on the subway map with the map that we had with us. We finally figured out the destination (can’t remember exactly the station name) but we were going to the Shanghai Expo 2010 grounds.

The tickets were 4 yuan one way each. We also had to change trains at one of the stations. After trying the subways in Korea & Tokyo (where we could hardly read the language/signs), I think the Shanghai subway system is pretty modern. One of the lines has new coaches, and it was indicated on the LED screen where we were, with blinking lights!

We decided not to enter the Expo ground because we didn’t have enough time. We also figured out that we came to Shanghai to get to know Shanghai and not to visit booths of other countries, many of which we have visited. We were also informed that the booths/pavilions are so congested that visitors had to queue up for long hours just to enter each of them. If I have 1 whole week in Shanghai, I think I’d come to the expo ground daily and take my own sweet time to savour visit each pavillion/booth.

Here are some pix of me at the Expo grounds.

By the way, did I tell you that they have direct access from the subway station to the expo grounds?

With flags of the participating countries/organisations:

With the Chinese Pavillion as the background:

It looks like my headgear here:

One striking (coloured) billboard:

We came back to the hotel in time to check out, and then we took the subway again to Shanghai South Railway Station.

Shanghai South Railway Station certainly fascinated me! It’s like a huge umbrella. At first look, it could easily be mistaken for an airport!

We thought it might be sensitive to take pictures, so we discretely took a couple pix using our handphones. We however saw some groups actually took their pix, with flash too!

Anyway, here’s me:

The station has a few levels (for departures and arrivals). Even the different types of express trains (I know of T, and D, D being the fastest) have different levels for boarding! Let’s see the tickets again for both types of espress trains:

The centre of departure level, with people going to their respective platforms (which are on a lower level and could not be seen):

It was only a normal Sunday evening. Can you imagine how crowded it would be during the rush for the Chinese?Lunar New Year holidays?

After loitering for a couple of hours, we eventually figured out that our departure was not even on this level. WE had to take the escalator down, and enter the platform form the lower level. Once in the train, it was much more comfy that the train ride 2 days earlier. I politely obliged for a final photo shoot :

Less than 2 hours later we arrived at the Hangzhou Station. We took a cab to the airport, and waited for out 11.20pm flight back to LCCT. We arrived in LCCT 5 hours later!

You may want to read my blog on The day before if  you’ve not done so.

THE END.

to be continued…

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It was Sunday, 20th June 2010. It was our only full day in Shanghai.

First was to get our tickets for the following day’s return trip to Hangzhou. We were lucky that we got the fast D train trip.

We then walked on the opposite direction towards the Bund again (we were there the night before).

It was hazy and hot too, but some people, just like us,  were not deterred:

I tried to read the map, to identify the buildings along the street (not in the picture), like this one:

We then decided to walk towards the ferry jetty.

and found the ticket counter:

It was for the ferry service plying between both sides of the river. We decided not to take up any of the touristic cruises (which normally are packaged together with meal/lunch/dinner which are mostly non-halal anyway) and try this local ferry.

It costs 2 yuans per trip, and here’s our ferry:

Inside the ferry:

We arrived at the other side of the river, bought our return tickets and took the same ferry back to where we were initially!

After the ferry ride, we did a bit more walking, until the heat was just too unbearable that we decided to go back to our hotel.

We only came out again in the evening for another stroll along the famous East Nanjing Street Mall.

It was a very very busy place, being a Sunday evening:

We were looking for the halal restaurant:

Instead we came across a saxophonist who played from one of the balconies facing the mall, while some others danced to his tune:

We did spot the halal restaurant, but since it was still quite early for dinner, we decided to walk further to People’s Park:

I took a quick rest, before walking back to the mall, and headed to the halal restaurant which was on the 10th floor of a building.

A friendly waiter greeted us, and whispered to us that the chicken and ducks are not halal, but mutton and beef are.

So we ordered our dishes, but since it was peak hours, and the restaurant was 3/4 full (I counted the tables, and concluded that it could easily accommodate 30 pax at any time!

When we almost gave up, our dish finally arrived:

After dinner, we walked back to the Bund, and spent some time there before we decided to go back to our hotel.

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That’s exactly the title of the gathering.

Date: 22nd – 23rd May 2010

Venue: Sg Klah Hot Springs, aka Felda Residence.

It was a gathering of my former students (of Sek Men Teknik, Persiaran Brash, Ipoh) who sat for their SPM in 1987. They are due to turn 40 years old this year, hence the title “Grand” reunion.

I certainly had a great time.

I arrived at the resort at about 3pm on 22nd May (Saturday). I went with DH, Nafis & Aina. It was a long awaited meet with my fellow students. When I was given the key to the room, I passed it to DH, and decided to stay on with the registration team, to greet others who came later.

It was really nice to see my former students. Some I remember their faces, some were quite difficult to recall their faces. However after a while, the faces became familiar again…

In the afternoon, we (yes me too!) changed into the uniform t-shirts for the group photo session. I like the t-shirt very much, especially its front:

The first official group photo:

(photo by Faizul)

A more relaxed version here:

The photos above do not reflect the number of attendees because many more arrived later. In total 75 former students came for the dinner that night! There was 2 other group photos. I’ll upload later once I got them from the cameramen.

After the photo session (above), they had several telematch games for both the attendees and their families. I spent most of the time catching up with those we were not participating in the game at any one time.

Here’s a pic of me with some of the “girls”:

(Photo by Rozita)

Later in the evening, a few others arrived.

We then had another round of group photo:

Here’s the group photo taken before the dinner:

Another version:

That night we had dinner together. I was given the honour (I certainly feel very honoured) to give a speech. I tried my best to keep my speech within the given 5 mins (thanks to training by Dale Carnegie I think I kept to the given time). There were some gift exchange, lucky draws and  karaoke.

I was taken by surprise when the MC invited me to accept a gift from them!

It’s a bonsai – to reflect resilience and longevity!

Oh, did I mention karaoke? Most of those who sang, sang songs of 1980s, i.e. their school days era. Towards the end of the session (it was past midnight!), some of them were brave enough to attempt to sing “Fantasia Bulan Madu”! All the pitches were off and went to the sea!! Hahaha!

When the resort people finally  closed the cafe, it was almost 1am. We then adjourned our gathering to the nearby park, occupying some of the tables in the park. We continued talking, and some of us had a sing-along session with two of them taking turns playing the guitar!

We actually called the night (should I say dawn?) off at 3am…

My heartmost thank you goes to the  almni of SMTI 1986-1987 for inviting me to join them. I had a swell time with them. I hope the feeling is mutual…

Finally, I’d extend my thanks to Rozita, Faizul and Kamal for letting me use their photos in this blog entry.

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I came across the phrase RT (retail Therapy) from some of my “Mak Cik Blogger” (blogging aunties) friends, esp Kay.

Two office mates and I booked our Jakarta tickets some time ago, and last Saturday (15th May 2010) was the departure day.

We were really aiming to shop till we drop and nobody brought a camera! Why would we need a camera, we were not playing tourists, hahaha!! We however had our phones (though mine doesn’t have roaming facility) that have built-in cameras. Hence all the pix here were taken using my phone camera.

Day 1

Armed with a few millions rupiah (yeah, we were millionaires that day!), we arrived at LCCT at 6am (having checked in online the day before). It was a fast move to the departure lounge because we were not carrying any check-in luggae (hence skipped the baggage drop).

Our plane left at 7am, and arrived at Soekarno Hatta Airport 2 hours later, at 8am local time. By 9am we were already at Tanah Abang!!

Oh, by the way, I met Tini of Snazzy and Such on the plane. She was accompanying her friend for some shopping too!  Our path crossed again at the food court in  Tanah Abang!

First stop was at the textile shops for bargain on cotton fabrics. I managed to take these pix:

It looked so much similar to the shop that I blogged (about wanting to visit).

The shop not so cheap, but we found others that offer better prices. One of them was this one:

My friend looking at some of the cotton:

while I looked at those outside the shop:

After this second shop, I totally forgot to take any other pic, and just engrossed myself in the RT .

We had our lunch of nasi padang  at the food court in the (Tanah Abang) shopping complex. It was simple but delicious. I also had one of the best cendols I’ve tasted so far too.

After lunch, when our initially almost empty hand-carried bags were full, and we had just too many plastic bags to carry, we took a cab to our abode for our stay there, the Traveller’s Hotel.

We took a rest until it was time to have dinner. We asked the reception for some suggestions of places to go. The guy suggested “Mall of Indonesia”. We didn’t hear it right, and when we tried to tell the cab driver, he (the driver) asked us back “Grand Indonesia?”. Clueless, we said yes. Little did we know we were heading to downtown Jakarta, and it was Saturday night! We ended up spending quite some time in the traffic jam before we eventually reached the place.

Grand Indonesia is too grand for our purses, so we only had dinner, bought some foodstuff and headed back to our hotel. The dinner was pricey but nice and tasty. I took some pix but somehow I could not find them in my phone, I wonder why…

Day 2

Well rested the night before, we excitedly had our breakfast early, because the destination for that morning was Pasar Pagi (Morning Market) at Mangga 2. As the name suggests, we thought the place would open early, but when we asked the concierge to get us a cab to the place, he smiled at us and told us that the place started business at 10am!

Argh…. Disappointed, we went back to our room and watched tv instead (we caught an episode of Upin & Ipin!).

At  9am we however agreed to take a gamble and headed for the market. We agreed that if we arrived early, we’d just wait at the entrance to the shopping complex. We had a pleasant surprise – there were quite a number of shops open and bustling with transactions!! One of the first things we did was to get ourselves a check-in bag each! We needed these bags to put in the goods that we’d bought and were going to buy . I also managed to buy a Simpati prepaid call card and called Yudi (an Indonesian friend who was my coursemate during my training in Tokyo in 2004)  and Norita (a Malaysian friend who lives in Jakarta).

To cut the story short, we ended our visit with an early lunch at the food court. The food that we chose that day were not as nice as the nasi padang that we had the day before.

After lunch, we took a cab back to our hotel, to drop the bags and the stuff that we bought at Mangga 2 (Pasar Pagi).  We then went back to Tanah Abang. Yes, Tanah Abang. We were there until the shops were about to close (they close at about 4pm-5pm).

We then had no choice but to go back to our hotel to rest .

Since we missed going to “Mall of Indonesia” (or locally known as MOI) the night before, we were determined to go there that night. I told Norita about it, and we agreed to meet up there. So that night, we went to MOI and met up Norita and hubby, Endi.

Here’s a pic of Norita and Endi choosing the dishes (we gave up trying to understand the menu):

My 2 “partners-in-crime” whiling away:

Norita treated us to a Sunda meal. It was delicious and I remember to snap a few more pix .

The way they served the sambal belacan was really attractive:

Similarly with another sambal:

More dishes:

And I love the sayur asam:

The main ingredients were buah malinjau and its shoots.

I know the seeds are used to make a type of crackers (keropok) that i love, as shown in this pic. That night it was the first time I saw the seeds in the soup:

Ah, enough about the food. In short, the dinner was wonderful!!

Before we parted, we thanked Norita and hubby for the wonderful dinner. Luckily we remembered to have a photo of me with them taken:

Hope to see Norita soon in KL, when she comes down to KL for some official tasks.

Day 3

We were leaving for home that afternoon. I had no more rupiah in my purse (I even owed S a few hundreds rupiahs!). Initially we were planning to just rest in our hotel room before we leave for the airport.  The temptation was high, and we found ourselves at Mangga 2 (ITC) again that morning, looking for more bargains! I resisted buying anything until I came across some chiffon head scarves that I couldn’t resist. So, I borrowed more rupiah from S and bought them.

We came back to our hotel in time for a brief rest, before we checked out and headed to the airport. Our flight was on time.

While in the plane I saw Air Asia’s new advert on the tray:

I thought the kitten looked so cute, don’t you?

We landed at KLIA at 5.50pm, and by 7pm I was home, cooking dinner for my family!

Now, that was a short and sweet RT outing!

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It’s not my habit to stop blogging for over 2 weeks, but that’s exactly what happened. My last blog was on 11th March, and today is 26th March!

Even the last blog was a short one, and short of blogging about Fis’ PLKN. Anyway, let me sum up what happened in the last 2 weeks:

1. When I wrote the last blog, I was in Kuantan, involved in a training session there.
2. After I reached home at 11.30pm on Friday night (12th March), we heard of the passing of  DH’s youngest aunty. A quick reloading of my bag with fresh laundry, we left for kota bharu at 1.30 am, arriving about 6.5 hours later. I didn’t do any driving (driving from Kuantan since 6pm was bad enough for me). DH shared the driving with Nuni.

Saturday (13th March 2010)

The funeral was done by 12 noon. I managed to take a bit more nap during the afternoon .

That night DH, Nafis (child no.4)  and I  visited Bapak Maskam on Saturday night (missing the first night of tahlil). He’s very special to me, and you’ll understand why if you read my blog entry here. Bapak was not well, after falling down a few months ago. The latest update of Bapak is that he underwent an operation yesterday and is now recuperating at the HUSM Kubang Kerian. My prayers are for his fast recovery.

Sunday (14th March 2010)

On Sunday, we went to the airport to send Nuni. She only took leave for Saturday and Sunday, so she had to fly back that day. On our way back to MIL’s place, we decided to give Nik Elin a visit. It was breath-taking, looking at the Kelantan River from her mum’s condo.

We went back to MIL’s place just in time to take both MIL & FIL to a wedding reception in Kubang Kerian (yeah, we went back to KB!).

As if it was not enough, from KK we drove to Tanah Merah to visit my brother whose wife died just the week before. While we were there, a cousin who lives next door mentioned about a childhood friend of mine who was having a wedding reception for her child. I’ll blog about this separately later. We went back to Ketereh just before maghrib, and I was around for the 2nd night of tahlil.

Monday (15th March 2010)

We drove back to Shah Alam via Perak, and stopped over at Kg Kelantan to visit DH’s cousin. What was supposed to be a brief visit ended up with us having a good serving of home-made cendol and hot pisang goreng  (banana fritters)! Read here if you want to know more about the place.

We only arrived in Shah Alam at 8pm, just in time to pray maghrib!

Tuesday (16th March 2010)

I was busy at home catching up with the dirty laundry – those from my 3 night Kuantan stay, plus ours when we went back to KB (no, we didn’t do any laundry while in KB!). Some of Mae’s (kid no.5) soiled clothes that he brought back from hostel were also washed on this day.

Wed (17th March – Fri 26th March)

It was mainly work, with the weekend spent doing the ironing, cleaning the house ,and catching up with lost sleep! We also sent Mae back to hostel on Sunday 21st).

Boring blog entry ya? Wait for the next one….

S

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Here’s the page 5 of a New York newspaper:

See the side note on the right-hand side .

See DH’s original post here.

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Admiring Sabre’s Cheesecake??

Yesterday (Monday) just beforre I left for work, DH told me that he had invited Howard, Pat & Sabre to our home after work. Wow! I thought. But I finished work late on most Mondays!! I told DH so. He then said he’d arrange everything himself. Phew!!

So, when I arrived home at about 7.45pm, I found some Ayamas roast chicken, orange juice, salad (from Nando’s), soft drinks and some mandarin oranges in the kitchen.

DH was no where to be seen. He went to fetch Howard & Pat at the Kelana Jaya LRT station. Soon after that, Sabre arrived.

Not long after Sabre arrived, Nuni came home! She was early!!

I am too sleepy to say more now. Nuni has saved me from blogging in detail by her writing her blog about the evening much earlier.

DH and I later sent Howard and Pat back to their hotel (Le Meridien, KL).

It was a brief but enjoyable evening meet. Thank you, Pat for the bouquet of flowers and thank you, Sabre for the cheesecake!

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Last Wednesday morning (about 6.15am!), while I was doing my “farming” on Farmville, I was greeted by Howard on FB chat. Howard lives in the States. No doubt we are friends and even neighbours in Farmville, we had never chatted  online before.

(BTW, I met Howard for the first time in Acheh. It turned out that Howard used to work in Kelantan. See his comments here).

Anyway, here are the screen captures of that morning chat on Facebook:

I was sceptical about this, didn’t think Howard could be that desperate to ask me for financial help.  I was thinking, “I am sure Howard has other close associates whom he can ask for such help”.

On the other hand, I thought, WHAT IF it was a genuine call for help? What kind of friend am I?

DH was about to leave for a day trip to Langkawi, but he kept on reminding me not to at any circumstances agree to give “Howard” any money online. DH said it could not be Howard.

Then it occurred to me to check Howard’s FB status:

How could Howard be in such predicament and had the time to play Farmville? And how come Howard never put in his status as something to indicate that he was in dire need of help?

I decided to ignore that chat, and turned my status to “offline”.

Not long before that I saw a notification on Howard’s latest status:

Ah, phew! So, the chat was not with the real Howard.

So my friends, beware of Impostors on Facebook!

On a lighter note, Howard didn’t terminate his account. He changed his password, and reported the incident to FB. He still is one of my neighbours on Farmville .

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