The Journey of a Distort Soul....

Langkawi Part 3...

We went to check at GeoPark Hotel on our reservation and the room is ready. I duly re-parked the car infront of the hotel and took our luggage to our room. Eliza & Arief was waiting at the lobby; resting under the air-cond after the tiring climb on the stairs. From the hotel we drove to Padang Matsirat for lunch. We wanted to visit "Jom Ikan Bakar" but it was closed. We went to Restoran Mempelam instead and we had ikan bakar (pari, keli & siakap) for lunch as well as ABC for desserts. After lunch we drove to Langkawi Water World. The last time we went here Arief was still small and he was sleeping. Arief was very excited to visit the Water World and he wanted to see the big shark (none here). Arief likes looking at the penguins; actually Arief was tired and sleepy but he was too excited to sleep. He did sleep during the drive back to EcoPark Hotel :-)

We went for our evening tea at Loft Langkawi; looking forward to their scones but it has already finished. We ordered pastries instead with hot chocolate & ice lemon tea. From here we drove to Kuah to do some Duty Free window shopping. We went to about 4 shops around Kuah; didn't buy anything yet as we still have a full day tomorrow. We went for our dinner at a foodcourt nearby to the jetty; Nasi Lemak Saloma (one of the cleanest shop there and it was quite delicious) :-)

Langkawi Part 2...

We had our complimentary breakfast at the Hotel; the spread was just nice and we really like the kuehteow goreng. We check-out by 9am as we wanted to go for the famous Langkawi Cable Car. We reached there by 10am as I got lost along the way (I should have use Google Map on my BB for direction as I drove to Pantai Cenang instead). We parked at the back and had to walk on the small suspension bridge (quite shaky). I called Maleck (my ADBA senior) as he had FB me last night saying that he is working there and he gave discounted tickets for the cable car. The journey up to the top took less than 5 minutes and it was an enjoyable ride; Arief was at awe with the amazing scenery as well as watching a lot of eagles flying around the mountain. We stop at the highest peak and decided to walk on the suspension bridge. BTW we need to walk down to the suspension bridge; stairs provided of course. The view is amazing but again it was quite shaky, But the worst part is when we need to climb back up with Arief. I carry Arief up the stairs and it was extremely tiring. We rest for awhile before taking the ride down while Arief drank his milk during the journey :-)

Langkawi Part 1...

We had to change our earlier plans for the Langkawi trip as Eliza needs to attend an interview in KL (promotion). I'll fly with Arief first while Eliza is taking the evening flight. We went our from Shah Alam at around 7am and reached Abg Ngah house by 8am; arriving at LCCT by 8.15am. The check-in counter was not open yet; I decided to wait there and within few minutes the counter was up and running. As it was still early, I went for breakfast with Arief at Marry Brown (fried chicken and chicken burger). Arief was busy taking pictures with the digital camera. We went into the departure hall by 9.30am and Arief can't wait to board the airplane. I had to coerce him to listen to my iPod while waiting. Arief enjoy looking outside the window during take-off and he asked for his milk. As long as he did not pooped during flight, I'm okay. We reached Langkawi as schedule and our rented car @ Vios is already waiting outside. I drove to our Hotel at Kuah town @ Langkawi Seaview Hotel and overshoot the turn until I reached the jetty; but thanks to Google Map on my BB I managed to locate the hotel with ease (should have use this in the first place). BTW Arief fall asleep in the car :-)

As our room is not yet ready, I decided to drove out into town to locate the famous duty free shop @ Idaman Suri;  managed to locate it with the direction given by the hotel staff. We went in for a brief survey before heading out to the shopping mall located at the Eco-Park and bought Arief's Big Ultraman @ RM10. We had our lunch at McD where Arief went and play at their mini playground and Arief specifically asked me to sit at the nearest table. BTW the service here is slow due to many customers, most of them are tourist. We went back to out hotel to freshen up and I even managed to take a short nap; only to be waken by Arief as he had pooped. We went out to Kuah Town by 5.30pm; we went to Haji Ismail Duty Free Shop where we bought a lot of chocolates as well as a cabin bag to carry the chocolates. I even had time to share "nasi lemak" with Arief before we drove to the Airport to pick-up Eliza (arrived at 7.35pm). We went straight for dinner at "Airport Corner"; rice with ayam masak kunyit, kailan ikan masin and telur bistik (they cook telur bistik differently here). It was raining quite heavily and we went back to our Hotel by 9.30pm :-)

Little Caliphs@ Muzium Shah Alam...

Arief is participating in Little Caliphs Ihtifal & Performance Day held at Muzium Shah Alam. We rushed there by 2pm with Eliza's parents and Haziq; went to the wrong museum first before driving to the correct venue (it was just close-by). The hall was already full with proud parents and the children went into the preparation room nearby. We just sat near the stairs and it was so hot (bad air conditioning). Arief performance was the 2nd last and we had to wait until 4.45pm for his performance. Arief was supposed to hold the placards but he wave the small Malaysia flag instead; crying in the process. I guess he got tired of waiting since 2pm for his turn to perform. BTW we are so proud of Arief in his participation in the performance :-)

Eliza's Convo @ UiTM Shah Alam...

Today is Eliza's graduation at UiTM Shah Alam; her Law Degree. It took her 6 years to complete as she had to skip few semesters for our wedding and pregnancy. We sent Arief to Little Caliphs as we couldn't bring in small children due to H1N1 prevention; even elderly as well. We had our late breakfast at Pak Li's Kopitiam before heading back home to get ready. We drove into UiTM by noon and it was already jam; lucky for us we have the UiTM staff stickers courtesy of my sister. I sent Eliza to Budi Siswi and went for my errands. I plan to drop here by 4pm as Eliza is the 2nd last recipients for this session. Alhamdulillah I manage to find a nice parking nearby to Dewan Sri Budiman and I walked up immediately. It was full with people and I noticed a lot of small children and even babies. I went to find a nice spot to watch the event; managed to find nearby the post office. By 4.45pm, Eliza walk to the stage to take her scroll and I manage to capture it on video. Congratulations to my Eliza on her graduation :-)

Subways, Dockers, FOS, MPH & DVD...

We went to OU as I wanted to buy Dockers as it was on sale. We arrived there by 11am and parking was easy. We had earlier plan to have breakfast at Otak2 but decided to have Subways instead (healthy). I bought Arief Ben10 magazine to keep him entertain while we have our breakfast. After breakfast we proceed to Dockers but not before stopping at their foodcourt for some teh tarik. BTW Arief went to play with Barney coin operated rides with Eliza. I managed to find my Dockers Mobile Pants at 20% discounts; light gray. I like this pants as it is easier to carry my mobile phones in the zipper side pockets. Arief was sleepy and he forced himself to stay up by asking to play at the many coin operated rides at OU. We managed to coerce Arief to play at the mini playground infront of FOS. Eliza watched Arief plays while I went into FOS and bought Adidas t-shirts for Arief at RM30 each. Initially I plan to buy just two but the cashier told me to buy at RM150 so that I can entitled for RM50 rebates. So I ended up buying 4 Adidas t-shirts, 1 hoddy t-shirt and 1 pant for Arief @ RM106 (good bargain). Eliza went to MPH and bought her book; Growing Up in Terengganu while I play ballons with Arief outside. We stopped playing when the ballons got stucked at the air-vent. It is time for us to go back when Arief ask us for his "small cars" @ toy. We contemplating to buy him the toy until we stopped at the DVD shop and they were showing Transformers 2; and I ended up buying the DVD as Arief was glued to the screen watching his favourite bumblebee @ in his vocabulary as "tubee". We did managed to buy Ice Chocolate and pretzel before heading back to our car. As we exited from OU, Arief fall asleep immediately. Before reaching home I bought rojak pasembor at Seksyen 9 :-) Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device via Vodafone-Celcom Mobile.

Open House Galore..

We have 5 open houses to go for today; in various geographical location. We went to Kota Damansara first after zohor; Eliza's colleagues. Arief fall asleep during the journey and woke up upon arriving (less than half an hour). Btw I met with my old friends from my ASSB @ UMW days there; it so happens her husband is Fadhil from ASSB. We had cendol, satay and small packets of nasi lemak. From Kota Damansara we drove to Seri Kembangan for Mofamo open house; our office colleagues. We went there last year and I parked at the other end which was easier. We met with a lot of our office colleagues there. We had satay, nasi ayam and mee rebus. Arief was keeping himself busy playing around the tent; and play games with my HP when he's tired. From here we went to Putrajaya @ Fadzly & Azura open house. We even bathed Arief here as he is waiting for his cousin; Ilyas & Irfan to arrive. And when they arrived it was fun watching them playing all over the house. Even Falesya joins in the fun; their nieces. We had tomyan, bihun sup utara and nasi impit with chicken & kuah kacang. We went back by 6pm; planning to drive to Kota Damansara again and Klang at night but Arief fall asleep in the car. We ended up going home as Arief was really tired from going to the three open houses and playing with his cousins :-)

Hard Rock Hotel Penang Part 4...

I woke up at 6am today eventhough I stayed up until midnight to update my blogs via the free wifi provided by the hotel. The dawn view from the balcony is outstanding. The bed is very comfortable. We went down for our complimentary buffet breakfast at Starz by 8.30am. It was still emply but by the time we finish it was almost full with patrons. I went out with Arief to the hotel lobby while Eliza continue to have her breakfast and I asked the staff on the complimentary platinum records; given to the first few who had booked to stay here. He immediately went to check at the registration counter and he immediately gave it to us; an excellent souvenier. We rushed back to our room to change as we plan to take Arief for a last dip in the swimming pool :-)

As were about to enter the swimming pool, it started to drizzle. Arief cried as he wanted to play in the swimming pool but we finally manage to convince him to play at the Lil' Rock Club first. 15 minutes after that it was all sunshine and Arief gets to play around in the swimming pool. We were there until 10.30am as it was already hot, Arief manage to play on the slide as well as enjoying the water playground. We checked out at around 11.30am and it was again smooth. I bought HRH Cap for my souvenier as well as HRC one shot glass for Faiz @ ADBA junior. It was an excellent vacation; the staff is friendly and the hotel is fun. We will come back here again for 2010 :-)

 

 

 

Hard Rock Hotel Penang Part 3...

We went to the bare-foot BBQ for our dinner and I immediately went to the buffet spread and took lamb, beef, oyster, crab, shrimp and chicken (it was actually salmon and it is extremely delicious). Arief & Eliza was enjoying the salmon and I went for the second helping (at this point that I realized it was Salmon after asking the chef). I really like the lamb, beef and oyster while Eliza adores the crab as well as the oyster. We also had the HRC special salad and it was delicious too. They do servsed fried rice which was just nice and crab nuggets too. BTW Arief pooped during dinner and Eliza had to bring him back to our room to clean him. While waiting I had another round of BBQ and finish it off with sweet desserts. Arief really likes the choc mud cake and he ate one small portion with his hands (well he did start dinner with choc mud cake).  After our dinner, we sat at the lobby and listen to the Live performance from a local band. We had plan to drive to the night market nearby but Arief was so sleepy that he wanted to go back to the room. We duly went back and Arief upon entering the room, he just lie down on the carpet trying to sleep :-)

 

 

Hard Rock Hotel Penang Part 2...

We went down to the swimming pool and we had a blast. Arief was really enjoying the slides and he even tried the big slides; with me and Eliza of course. We enjoyed it too and we really like the water playing area by the pizzeria; fill with a lots of water sprinkler shooting from all over the area. It was really happening over here with water volleyball being organized by the staff as well as beach football. Not forgetting the non-stop music. It did took us awhile to convince Arief to stop playing at the swimming pool and he finally agrees after he is really tired. BTW I met with my old friend from UiTM at the swimming pool; small world. While we were drying ourselves, I overheard from the beach deejay that they are having bare-foot BBQ at RM55 per adult and we decided to have our dinner here. I had planned to drive to Batu Maung for some seafood but considering the distance; we might as well have our dinner here as it is much more happening :-)

 

Hard Rock Hotel Penang Part 1...

We arrived at Hard Rock Hotel Penang by 4pm (all of us wore HRC t-shirt); a good one hour an a half journey from Taiping (Arief was sleeping soundly during the journey). HRH is located at Batu Feringgi and it is just opened on 19th September 2009. There is no basement parking but we managed to find a nice parking near the main entrance. The hotel staff were dressed in striking red ensemble and I really like their black lanyards. I immediately went to the registration and check-in; it took about 20 minutes to confirm our room. We were served with the customary welcoming drinks and it was quite good. Our room is 403 Sea View and we request for the concierge to send our luggage first as we wanted to tour the hotel. It was filled with music memorabilia and we took a lot of pictures; the best one is with the signature guitar. We went to their merchandise shop; there's three actually One for HRC and two for HRH. We bought HRC Penang t-shirt at RM90 for our souveniers. We went up to our room and we were really impressed with the design and view; can't wait to go down and enjoy their big swimming pool with three slides. Arief was already jumping up and down in the room asking us to hurry up and go down :-)

 

Mee Udang Kuala Sepetang...

We are driving to Penang today to celebrate Eliza's birthday. We started our journey at around 9.30am from my sister house as my mom is coming back to Taiping with us. Arief was busy showing my mom all his new toys; he is sleepy but fighting to stay awake. Upon arriving in Changkat Jering, we drove to Kuala Sepetang for lunch at the famous Mee Udang @ Mak Jah. We ordered mee udang special, kuehteow udang special and nasi goreng udang biasa. I think we had close to 20++ prawns in all of our meals; big and sweet. Even Arief likes eating the sweet prawns. The restaurant has a new menu as well as new plates. The food; we really like the kuehteow and nasi goreng but not the mee as is tasted like prawns :-)

TNGO, Satay & Ilyas Birthday...

It was a huge suprise when I discovered that I have about RM40 worth of rebates from PLUS when I wanted to reload my TNGO; I know I have been using TNGO a lot in a month (usually at RM200 per month) and receiving the rebates is excellent. I played tennis until 10.30am as I need to pick-up satay for my sister open house today. I was just about to leave Bangsar when the satay seller called me saying that I could pick it up at Pasar Seksyen 6. It was a huge relieved as I don't quite remember the direction to their house. We went to my sister house by 12.30pm; stopping at Kompleks PKNS to pick up Ilyas birthday cake. We had our lunch first as we will be expecting a huge crowd and indeed it was. Relative and my sister friends arrived from 2pm until 5.30pm. Ilyas was not feeling that well today but we managed to proceed with the birthday celebration complete with the cake cutting ceremony. Irfan was more excited that his brother Ilyas and he also tried to cut the cake. Arief really enjoy having the cake; especially licking the icing until his tongue turns to blue colour. We were there until 8.30pm as Abg Ngah came at 8am (he was working in the morning). We were so tired and full from the various food (lontong, satay, nasi minyak, kuih, cakes) that I went to sleep early :-)

2009 Malaysian Tennis Open Part 6...

This is the final day of the tournament and I will be going with Eliza & Arief. We went to my friend's open house at Seksyen 11 first; Apit and Tante (my ADBA classmates). We had nasi lemak lauk sotong & ayam, popiah basah, roti jala with kuah durian, kuehteow & bihun goreng. We arrived at Stadium Putra by 1pm and I parked at my favourite spot. We went in after getting the tickets from my friend and I immediately went to buy the Wilson souvenier ball for Arief; and Arief can't stop playing with the ball. Throwing, bouncing and kicking it everywhere. Even the official tournament photographer took Arief pictures; btw he was pooping while the picture was taken :-)

The first match was the double final, and the experience Poland pair won it rather easily in straight sets. Arief was at first at awe watching the tennis match but after awhile he got bored and started to make noises. At the end we took him outside and we just take turns to watch the single finals. Arief continue playing with the Wilson Ball; mostly kicking the ball. We thought we could make him tired from playing and he would fall asleep after drinking his milk but Arief decided to stay awake. I manage to watch the conclusion of the first set where Davydenko won while Eliza watched briefly the start of the 2nd set. Davydenko won in 2 sets; quite tight actually with only a single break of serve for both sets. We went to watch the beginning of the prize giving ceremony before driving to Kajang for Neng's open house. Lucky for us it was easy to drive out from stadium putra and we reached there within half an hour. Arief met with his Little Caliphs friends there and they continue playing the small bicycle outside. We drove home after maghrib and Arief was sleeping all the way. We reached home just nice to catch Arsenal defeated Blackburn 6-2; and we wore the same Arsenal Jersey to watch Tennis :-)

 

2009 Malaysian Tennis Open Part 5...

I will be going with Aiman today to watch the semifinal. I had initially plan to go to Bangsar and play tennis but I do not want to rush going to Stadium Putra; it was raining anyway. I went for breakfast with Eliza & Arief at Pasar Malam Seksyen 6; nasi lemak and kuehteow goreng. I drove to Subang Permai by 11.30am; reaching there by noon due to the slight jam at GCE; cars parked at the roadside to catch the Thunderbirds Aerial Acrobatic Show. We also managed to watch one of the fighter jet flew just above us. We had our lunch first at Kesas R&R and as I just had my breakfast; I just ordered satay kajang for both of us (Aiman also ate rice). We were there by 1pm and it was still empty as they were just about to open the main entrance. We met up with few of my tennis buddies and we went to the nearby cafe for some refreshments; while waiting for the first match to start at 2.30pm :-)

We were seated at the Gold seatings and watched Davydenko vs Soderling. Soderling won the 1st easily (6-1) but Davydenko woke-up and won the next 2 sets; third set comfortably. Soderling looks tired at the of the 3rd set. I did try again to catch the ball but I fall down to the stairs; this is the last time that I will jump for the ball (will just sit & wait). We didn't stay to watch the doubles match; we went out again for refreshments at the same shop. BTW I manage to secure two Gold complimentary tickets for the evening session; Gold seatings behind the cameraman. The highlight is the semi-final between Verdasco and Gonzales; both were the crowd favourites. Gonzalez lost the 1st; and he broke his racquet in anger at the of the set. He started the 2nd set mocking Verdasco on his late tactics to get ready by sitting down on his side of the court. Verdasco won the 2nd set; but it was a close match that could go either way. We just watched the first few points of the doubles match and we drove home; tired and hungry. We stopped at TTDI Jaya for a brief dinner before sending Aiman home to Subang Permai :-)

 

2009 Malaysian Tennis Open Part 4...

Today I plan to watch both the morning and evening session as it is already in the quaterfinal stages. The best part, I have an extra Gold seat tickets because Hamzah passed to me the Premium Complimentary yesterday. I arrived at the venue by 2.00pm and I noticed a queue started to build up and I just went in; not knowing that we are queueing to get Soderling signature (he just defeated Berdych in straight sets). Just my luck and I met with John; the guy who defeated me at the Cyberjaya Tournament. He bought silver season tickets and when I mentioned that I have an extra Gold tickets; he immediately asked if he can have that instead for a different view. I duly obliged. I also met with Colin & Alan of KLTM. BTW I managed to get Soderling signature on the souvenier book :-)

I went in and watched Davydenko vs Monfils. There was a small incidents during the 1st point of the 1st Set when a spectators sitting at the Gold Seat fainted. Monfils pointed it out to the umpire as he was about ready to return serve and the game stopped for the medic to assist the fainted spectators. They manage to bring him out of the stadium for further examination by the medical team. BTW Davydenko defeated Monfils in Straight Sets. Haza came to the stadium at around 6.45pm; he bought two gold tickets but his friend cancel at the last minute. Huzaini arrived just nice to watch the 3rd semifinal between Gonzalez and Youzhny. We were seated at Premier and behind the players. Hilmy was supposed to join us but he was late as usual. Gonzalez defeated Youzhny in straight sets as Youzhny seems to be injured and he requested for medical time-out twice during the match :-)

Hilmy finnaly arrived in time for Verdasco vs Gasquet. This is the highlight of the night as the winners of this match will get to throw the Satria Neo tennis ball to the lucky spectators. BTW as we were seated behind the players, we received a lot of air-time from Astro. I text Eliza & my siblings to watch me on TV and they did. I also managed to show a peace sign to Eliza. Verdasco won in straight sets. Once the match is completed, almost everyone went to Verdasco side to get this autographs (stumbling over in the process). I immediately rush to Gasquet side and request for his towel (Official Malaysian Tennis Open). He finally threw the towels to the crowd and I manage to grab it. It is still un-used as Gasquet was using the white towels. The highlight of the night is the Satria Neo Tennis Ball and I nearly got it; just miss it by a whisker and broke my watch bracelett in the process. Well no luck this year but at least I manage to get the official towel :-)

2009 Malaysian Open Tennis Part 3...

I got the premier complimentary from Hamzah for this evening match as well as for tomorrow morning session. This time I arrived there by 8pm; even managed to have dinner at Kesas R&R. I was seated at Premier but when I noticed few of my tennis buddies was at the silver seat, I went to sit with them there for the first match; Gonzalez vs Boppana. Gonzalez won in three sets where Bopanna double faulted on match point. For the next game I went back to my premier seat where Shah, Zam, Fizi and Amri was seated. I watched Verdasco thrased Karol Beck :-)

 

 

Eliza's Birthday Lunch at TGIF...

We went to TGIF Subang Parade to celebrate Eliza's birthday. At first we plan to go the outlet in PJ but as I need to go to Proton for the Malaysian Tennis Open tickets, we went here instead. We ordered Boneless Wings for appetizers, Shanghai Chicken Salad and Grill Lamb for our main course and two mini desserts as well as green apple sludge and bottomless Pepsi. All the food was delicious and we even managed to pack some for Arief :-)

 

 

2009 Malaysian Tennis Open Part 2...

I managed to get my tickets from Abu; bronze complimentary. I went with Syahril & Afwan from Shah Alam and we arrived there by 8.30pm. We still managed to watch Davydenko vs Dent where Davydenko won in straight sets. After the match we changed our seats to Silver where we sat with our tennis buddies; Nidzar, Bad, Fadhil and many others. We watched our local players; Yew Ming with Joachim play doubles against the brazillian Sa / Mello. It was a close contested match; going to the super tie-break in the third set where the Malaysian / Sweden combination lost :-)

 

2009 Malaysian Tennis Open Part 1...

I had earlier plan to just go on the last day but I received a call from my friend Hamzah @ Proton on the complimentary tickets for this evening session and without hesitation I drove to Proton from Cyberjaya to get the tickets. And I even drove home to change clothes and bring along my digital camera. I arrive at the venue by 5.30pm and met a lot of my tennis buddies there. I went straight to my seat; Premium North and sat beside Fadhil. I wanted to take the picts of the players but then I realized that I forgot to bring the camera batteries. I ended up using my BlackBerry to take picts; which was not that impressive. I did managed to watch Youzhny vs Ferrer; Joachim vs Hewitt and the doubles between Gonzalez / Acasuso vs Istomin / Golubev. Youzhny beat Ferrer easily and Joachin upsets Hewitt in 2 sets while Gonzalez yawn during his doubles match and lost in straight sets :-)