Ma'as salamah

مع السلامة

I'm going off today.....

Thank you all for the well wishes. God willing, we'll meet again!

Knackered

I'm sooo tired. been working the whole day non-stop save for the break for Friday prayers. I've not changed money, I've not packed, I've not listed down what to bring, I've not...I've not...I've not.....

Need to go home now and have a hot shower.....But I have a dinner to go to!

200th Post

Yeayy...It's my 200th post and it dosen't seem like it! I never knew I could post this many entries..

Yeterday, I declared an off day for the staff..But I went in anyway to finish some work with three other staff until about 2 pm. Wifey was supposed to bring the boys to a park to play footie but it rained. Parents-in-law came for a vist with my nieces and I arrived home as they were finishing lunch. Took a nap and my parents arrived. So there went our plan to bring kids to Kinokuniya...

Have you ever been to Queen's Park in Cheras (near Taman Maluri)? It's our fave place mainly for our organic food stuff and the outlet stores there. There's Esprit, FJ Benjamin, Annakku, TeddyTales, FOS, Jerasia (Nike, Naf Naf & Calvin Klein) outlets selling off season stuff.

Initially we thought of driving all the way to Ikano to get Mukti moisturiser (purely organic) for my mum from Justlife and bring the kids for meatballs at Ikea but since mom and dad were around, we left the kids at home and went to Justlife Queen's Park instead, which is a lot nearer.

Went to Guar***n to get some supplies for my Umrah trip and wrapped up the night with the new Pesto sandwich (which a friend recommended) and Nantucket Pineapple, Orange and Passion Fruit juice at *bucks.

Bought vegetables, black bean and oatmilk drink for the kids, organic passion fruit mayonnaise for me and Mukti moisturiser for mom.


I like the simplicity of the display at Justlife.

You can get off season Nike, Naf Naf and Calvin Klein from here.

Had this fantastic new Pesto sandwich from S***bucks

Down memory lane

Wifey and I were wide awake quite early last Sunday morning at my mom and dad's. We felt like taking a break from the kids and we decided to have breakfast on our own at our favourite kopitiam opposite TNB, Jalan Temenggung Ahmad, Muar. It happens to be my late grandad's fave too!

Decided to walk 2km to the kopitiam just in case our kids would hear the engine of the car revving. Luckily they were glued to the idiot box and we managed to sneak out of the house after whispering to my mom that we were leaving the kids in her charge.

Walking the 2 km brought back my childhood years in vivid colours (see the pics below). My parents used to teach in Batu Pahat, a town in between Ayer Baloi (dad's hometown ) and Muar (mom's hometown) which they consciously had to decide as a compromise. BP was home for a good 20 years for all of us until mom got a bit lonely without her siblings around after I got married. I was only physically in BP 24/7 for a good 4 years as I was "sent" away to a boarding school. Mmm..not really, it was my decision which I regretted during the first year in boarding school. Dad "refused" to let me return as he wanted me to be responsible for my own decision. At the end of my first year, I surprisingly, enjoyed being away and staying with friends for a change!

Anyway, I was hit by the simplicity of life which one can have whilst taking the stroll with wifey - in particular the life in Muar compared to the hustle and bustle life in KL. But Muar is fast being hit by rapid development. One thing which I wish that will be preserved for the mankind are the pre-war shophouses. The local council has done relatively well working with the shop-owners by asking them to apply fresh coat of paints every now and then.

Seriously, I have not justice to Muar with these few photos below. There are other interesting places and buildings FYI!

The pot of gold at the end of the rainbow - breakfast after our 2km walk.


This bakery has been here as far as I can remember. My mom used to wait for freshly baked bread before we return to BP during weekends in Muar. Believe it or not the bakers were kneading the dough on the table in the five foot way.

Mango trees are mandatory for all the houses in Muar. We (my cousins, brother and I) used to nick mangoes from the neighbourhood and eat them with plenty of sugar immersed in dark soy sauce (chilli is optional!) whenever our grandad's tree would run out of them.


This is Muar's answer to Cold Storage. They stock yeast for making bread (this was the only place in Johore then which sells yeast), frozen food, imported canned fruits, philadelphia cheese etc etc.....

Muar has a Trade Centre now with Secret Recipe as one of the tenants. This used to be the UMNO building.

Another kopitiam in town - my parents' fave as the lontong and nasi lemak are nice.

Sate grilling stations are prevalent along the five-foot-ways in Muar

Breakfast haven

The towkay with his dose of daily news whilst his wife busy attending to customers

Only in traditional Kopitiams : where strangers, regardless of race and creed, become friends

Despite the fact that my hometown, Muar (a not too smallish town down south), is only 2 hours' drive away, I only return once a year (on average) for the mandatory exodus of KLites during the Eid celebration. We are meant to do it more often but kids' activities over the weekends have prevented us to do so. And the fact that my parents are always up here in Kuala Lumpur doesn't help either.

So, a khenduri organised by parents and my mom's siblings was good enough a reason to officially ask my kids to skive, which didn't meet with any objections, and drive back to Muar on Friday night after work.

Of course, Muar is very famous for the "heavy" breakfast served in various kopitiams in the town centre. The one which wifey and I like is opposite TNB Jalan Temnggung Ahmad (this happens to be my late paternal grandad's fave place too. He would cycle his black Raleigh bicycle to this place every morning to have breakfast and order takeaways for us at home). We only made our way here on our second day, though. For the first morning we went to a kopitiam called Chin Hong & Co which is in the same block as Paris Hotel along Jalan Temenggung Ahmad right smack in town due to some request for a takeaway by my mom. We had soto, nasi lemak, mee rebus, sate, lontong and toasted bread with kaya (not very nice) amongst us! During visits like this my health conscious self is lost within me.....LOL!

On our second day, wifey and I decided to take a 4km (to and fro) stroll to the koiptiam opposite TNB to have steamed and toasted buns spread with butter and kaya, nasi lemak and sate. The nasi lemak bungkus was bought along the way at a stall which cost 50 sen. Did you know that you can still buy a 30 sen nasi lemak in Muar?

Apart from Kota Bahru, Kelantan, Muar must be the best breakfast haven in Malaysia! I know of people who drives all the way down to Muar for the breakfast...Give it a try - it's only 2 hours' drive (but look who's talking....I do it once a year! LOL). BTW read this entry by Robyn of of EatingAsia for non-halal food in Muar.

Soto in Muar (or rather in Johor) is served with clear soup rather than the ones served by its Indonesian counter part.

Wifey's sate with slightly chilled longan drink for breakfast

My nasi lemak bungkus with slightly chilled longan drink. The nasi lemak was 50 sen!

The buns are toasted/grilled using charcoal


Buns are steamed on top of the water boiler! (This is the towkay's wife)

The buns used here come individually wrapped from the supplier

Our heavenly steamed buns

Coffee cups are sterilised in the slots next to the boiler

Supper with friends

Just came back from supper with some good friends (three other couples to be exact)....! There was a communication breakdown though....Wifey and I ended up at Leha Kelfood (dunno what that means..may be "Ke L" as in Kuala Lumpur) in Melati Utama whilst the rest were waiting for us in Desa Melawati! We have not done this for quite some time now.....So you can imagine the sharing and exchanging of information within 2 hours!!! And one of them did not realize that wifey is pregnant! LOL! Anyway she's always the last to know in anything....

We had Penang fried kuey teow (flat noodle), extra crispy cucoq udang (prawn fritters) and laksa utara (rice noodle with fish based broth originates from the northern state). Somehow the quality of food didn't matter in the company of good friends whom we can rely on during bad times or good times. That said however, the food was good; the prawn fritters especially.

This group of friends we have, have been an intrinsic part of our lives since five years ago...We ferry each other kids to school, have fun times together and share our challenges with....etc etc... True friends are difficult to come by in this age of "dog kill dog" and racing to accumulate material wealth. We are really blessed to be in their company! Looking forward to more years ahead with them and the rest of our good friends out there!

Rin tagged me and here goes.....

Rin tagged me and this looks relatively do-able in one go...I had fun doing this one. BTW, the answers are what were on top of my head. I didn't put so much thought into them which make them honest and sincere.

So to those I have tagged....be a sport will ya!

Layer One : On The Outside

Name : Anwarul Haq Ahmad
Birth Date : Same as Helena Bonham Carter's only two years later!
Current Status : Married but....(the latter's a joke! Sorry wifey!)
Eye Colour : Brown
Hair Colour : Almost black but some grey ones are sticking out
Righty or Lefty : Righty

Layer Two : On The Inside

Your Heritage : Terribly Mixed - Dad's Arab plus Bugis and Mom's Javanese plus Chinese but I consider myself Javanese albeit I don't understand and speak javanese. The only thing which reminds me that I'm javanese is my penchant for nasi ambeng and the main door of my house which is a 100 year old javanese door!
Your Fear : God
Your Weakness : Overworked over nothing
Your Perfect Pizza : Wood fired pizzas (the best so far is the one from TJay's Pizza & Pasta of Pantai Cenang, Langkawi- crispy and thin)

Layer Three : Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow

Your Thoughts First Thing When You Wake Up : "Where's Ib and Umar? Need to get them to bathroom for a shower!"
Your Bedtime : After a chat with wifey to "touch base"!
Your Most Missed Memory : The one month spent with my late daughter at NICU in 1999.

Layer Four : Your Pick

Pepsi or Coke : Neither. Hate carbonated drinks. If in desperate situation, Coke (Who's the ad agancy for Coke? You definitely has successfully etched COKE in my brain for life!)
McDonald's or Burger King : Burger King for its whopper jr with cheese.
Single or Group Dates : Single for sure!
Adidas or Nike : Definitely Nike
Tea or Nestea : Any herbal tea
Chocolate or Vanilla : Vanilla
Cappucino or Coffee : Don't drink coffee. Iced coffee at a kopitiam is nice.....(I do indulge occasionally)

Layer Five : Do You ...

Smoke : No....but tried it during my 2nd year uni exam week but hated it that I stopped
Curse : Stopped after I had my first child
Take a Shower : You must be kidding me....My wife will faint if I dont!
Have a Crush : Huh? It's bad enuf that I'm dealing with a teenage girl daughter. Can't afford a crush now...LOL
Think You've Been In Love: Of course and still is!
Go To School : Still do - to drop my kids off
Want To Get Married : I'm already chained to one for life! LOL
Believe In Yourself : Goes without saying
Think You're a Health Freak : I am one!

Layer Six : In The Past Month

Drank Alcohol : No.
Gone To The Mall : Yes only to buy stuff.
Been On Stage : No. The last time was during a school reunion last year.
Eaten Sushi : No.
Dyed Your Hair : No. Never dyed my hair before.

Layer Seven : Have You Ever ...

Played A Stripping Game : Never
Changed Who You Were To Fit In : Difficult to be someone else!

Layer Eight : Age

You're Hoping To Get Married : Mm.....Please read above


Layer Nine : In A Girl/Guy

Best Eye Colour : No preference (Girl) / I'm not gay so it really don't matter (Boy)
Best Hair Colour : Ditto (Girl) / Ditto (Boy)
Short Hair or Long Hair : Ditto (Girl) / Ditto (Boy)

Layer Ten : What Were You Doing

1 Min Ago : Typing this entry
1 Hour Ago : Sound asleep
4.5 Hours Ago : Sound asleep
1 Month Ago : Busy with my parent's Ruby Anniversary
1 Year Ago : Too old to remember! May be I was thinking of what to buy for wifey's 38th birthday.

Layer Eleven : Finish The Sentence

I Love : God, wifey, kids, parents and so on and so on
I Feel : Sleepy (for now)
I Hate : Working....I want to retire!
I Hide : Everything to others not to wifey though!
I Need : A real holiday - the one which you just lay idle like a veg.

Layer Twelve : Tag Five People

Adam
Bola2Api
Intan
Pato&Pearl
Sherrina

Quickie....

One of the streets in Muar

I had no internet conection over these few days which explains my absence....Connection at home should be up by this evening.

Well just a bit of an update! Been busy at the office - accounts audit, work, train new staff etc. I'm using lunch hour to make a quick update.

Went back to Muar over the weekend for a khenduri (prayers plus a small feast) for the upcoming umrah trip.

Made a dash to Johor Bahru on Sunday for another feast (birthday, retirement, anniversary etc etc) and returned to Kuala Lumpur on the same day. Home sweet home by midnight!

Gotta dash now!

Keramat's malay eatery

WARNING : Another food entry.....

Many moons ago, my best friend's friend brought us to a busy malay food eatery along Jalan Jelatek (opposite Jelatek LRT station), Restoran Salim.

Had to send my daughter to school two days ago as my friend who usually ferries her to school had her son hospitalised. Thinking hard after sending my daughter of places to eat and Restoran Salim came to mind. I would say that this is one of the finest malay food eatery around Keramat area and entering it is akin to stepping in to your own mom's kitchen - the aroma is just divine. The variety of spread is an attraction indeed and they use fresh ingredients - tiger prawns, crabs, chicken, beef, fish roe etc etc....

This eatery has been here since god knows when, apparently! To be able to survive that long means something aint it?

The food station

Moi plate

Restoran Salim is located opposite Jelatek LRT station and housed along a mini post office within a four storey walk up City Hall flats.

Umar the hairdresser

Underneath the angelic smile lies the impish Umar. Brought him to a barber on Monday for his routine hair cut and what a nice haircut he had.

Came Tuesday evening - bald patches appeared above his right ear....Wifey was complaining what the barber had done to his hair.....

Had to diplomatically deal with the situation by agreeing that I liked his bald patches and in the same breath asked him how he managed to get this "nice" hairdo...! Surprise! Surprise! He voluntarily answered "I cut a little bit only". Wifey's confrontational method didn't work earlier and met with the response "I dunno"!

That's kids for you.......

Ampang Daily Photo: funny#links

Hey peeps...Read this entry in my daughter's daily photo blog!

Ampang Daily Photo: funny#links

What a friend!

Driving Yusof to school yesterday,I tuned in to my favourite English channel FlyFm. Fly FM Fix-it was on.

A guy called in for FLY Fm crew to fix his problem which he has been facing for the last three years and it's really bugging his conscience!

What happened was when he was 17, he stole some exam papers from one of the teachers. To make it worse, the day he stole the papers, there was a spot check conducted by the school. He was, according to him, a "clean" guy in school being teacher's pet and all.

When he found out that there was a spot check, he quickly stuffed all the stolen exam papers in to his best friend's bag (K**ar)....The nerve....!!!! K**ar was caught red-handed and was suspended from school because of this! I can imagine the shock Ku**r had!

Ku**r's supposedly best friend (can't remember his name because I was too appalled), believe it or not just kept tight-lipped! The gall!

And he had been keeping it from his best friend all these years until yesterday! Facing and telling his friend face to face was too frightening that he had to ask help from Fly FM morning crew.

When the deejay called Ku**r and told about it...he just couldn't believe what he had heard and went silent for a good one minute! When his friend apologized...guess what? He actually accepted the apology without any qualms! I was like..........???? But I was emotionally moved by Ku**r's gesture though.....I would have reacted differently! But this is an example of unconditional love at its best, don't you think?

What they didn't air over the radio was Ku**r's revelation that his own parents did not believe that he didn't do it! I think that's terrible....

When asked by the crew as to whether his problem has been fixed, Ku**r's best friend's answer was "Not until I have met Ku**r & Ku**r's parents face to face"...for redemption!

Have you ever betrayed your mate's trust? I know I have never!

Living life to the fullest

Wifey and Szee Mee doing a Yoga pose at her brother's house

Wifey received a call a few days back. Our ex-landlady, Sze Mee is back for a month and a bit. London is her home now and has been living there since she moved from her home in Ipoh many decades ago. She went on to be trained as a nurse and met her late husband who was a psychologist, if I'm not wrong. Her husband unfortunately passed on of leukemia at a very young age leaving Sze Mee with two kids, a boy and a a girl who are both happily married now (an IT specialist and a specialist doctor respectively). Believe it or not she still works part time till to date. Her employer, a GP, refuses to let her go as she is one efficient worker ( a very organized person, we can testify to that!).

We really admire her in a lot of aspects. She's the epitome of an individual who lives life to the fullest! Despite her age (she's in her mid 60s, I reckon) she leads an active life - still scuba dives, goes mountain climbing, joins hashes, travels the globe etc....Wifey and I are really inspired by her..So much so that she's rubbed on us with her lifestyle - eat organic, non-processed and non GMO food coupled with a good exercise regime AND plenty of liquid. It's all about balance she says!

Fate had it that we met some 15 years back when my senior in secondary school and his wife had two rooms to sub-let and wifey and I were scouting for bed-sits (separately of course) to rent during our bar vocational year. She was the principal landlord of the house at South Woodford (which borders Essex) where we lived.

She was more like a mother/friend to us than a landlady. She'd invite us to go grocery shopping with her and taught us domestic economy (learnt to buy bargains at Waitrose/Sainsbury's for near-expiry-sell-by-date food stuff and broken basmathi rice, compare prices before buying, etc....). She'd also invite us for lunches, dinners and barbecues at her home at Woodford Green. Her dinner parties are incomplete without her famous and yummilicious roasted leg of lamb. My parents who do not eat lamb also endorsed that the leg of lamb she roasted was to die for.

She's such a sweetie - I remember when we were doing our bar exam, she actually cooked chicken briyani (her late husband was a Ceylonese) and left a whole pot of it on our dining table with a little post-it message "enjoy dinner". She must have noticed that we had boxes of instant noodles in the cabinet and boxes of Sainsbury's frozen fish with parsley sauce in the freezer. Aah...those were the days.

We have been keeping in touch all these years. She used to come back once in two years but her return is more frequent now since her mom is not well (but who still travels and active in socialising in Ipoh! - She takes after her mom, we reckon!).

It was less than a year ago that she came back and we did Perak in about 4 days with her draging all our three boys....went kopitiam-hopping in Ipoh, caves-crawling around Ipoh (we did Gua Tempurung with my boys whom one of them I had to piggy back since he almost had an asthma attack triggered by the bats' guano in the cave. We promised that we would be back with her for an underground river adventure which is about three hours in total darkness! She's game for it..can you beat that?), explored Taiping (the Zoo and lake garden included), met Perak man in Lenggong, drove along the quiet road from Lenggong to Ipoh where the murder victim who was married to the Perak royalty was dumped. The whirlwind Perak tour was fun.....but the kids were exhausted!

We are going up to Ipoh after my umrah to see her minus the kids since we want some quality time with Sze Mee this time around which she did not object unlike last year where she insisted that we travelled with the kids! May be she's learnt her lesson! LOL!


Sze Mee, our maid, Agnes (her sis-in-law who's an angel too!) and wifey in front of one of the caves in Ipoh.

With Umar in 2003


Family portrait minus dad plus maid in 2003

Sunday Lunch

Ch** Y**n and Ch**s, our good friends and ex-neighbours, invited us over for lunch to sample their latest offering at their Kopitiam (Traditional coffee shop), mee hailam (noodle cooked in soy and oyster sauces with prawn stock). Their most recent addition is also ayam masak merah (chicken cooked in tomato sauce) which basic recipe is wifey's! Our Sunday drive from to their abode was exceptionally smooth! We brought along kuehs from Mak Jah's (next to SPCA Ampang) and my all time favourite, sun-dried tomato loaf from the Bakery.

Upon arrival we were greeted with their ever verdant and very well-kept garden. What do you expect from two garden enthusiasts? Wifey and I both were inspired by them when we moved to our current home.

The mee hailam was gorgeous - a mixture of oyster sauce and dark soy suace in prawn broth with Sarawak black pepper poured over yellow noodle, greens, chicken strips, sliced fish cakes and sauteed prawns.

Our boys had fun playing with Tz* M*nn, R* An* and J* An*. They didn't want to go back....I hope we didn't overstay the hosts' hospitality. We made our way back when Umar cried to go home.....! Umar is a home-body you see.....and he will always be the one giving cues to dismiss our fun time.....

Mee Hailam

Home made soy bean milk

Home made tofu fah served with palm sugar and grass jelly.

Time to say goodbye

Lily Can't Sleep

Another community service here. Theatre for kids from 4-8 performing from 16th to 20th May at KLPAC.

For further details....click here!

Yusof the leader

Yusof had shown the sign of being a leader since he was 3+ when he attended Kindicare. He was the most popular and never a follower! Even parents of his friends would approach us and used to say..."So you are the dad/mom of the most-talked-about-kid, Yusof. Initially we thought it was a bad sign...only to find out later that all the kids adored him in school!

Anyway, Yusof has done it again...He pestered us to get paints for his class-beautification project to be brought to school today. He has to go to school every Saturday for extra classes and has (not really..he actually has an option not to) to stay back for this project.

I thought the project was initiated by his teacher and he had volunteered (as always in any other projects) to bring the paints. I only found out today whilst we were having one of our ritual casual chats that he had proposed to the teacher for this beautification project and the teacher flatly replied in the negative. Dissatisfied with her reply, he took a class poll overriding the teacher and the rest voted unanimously in favour of his proposal and told the teacher "20 lawan satu, 20 lah menang" (20 against one; majority wins!). And hence the project came into place to his delight!

Is this Tony's Hotel?

Took this picture when I stopped at the intersection of Jalan Sultan Ismail and Jalan TAR.

Don't you think this building has an uncanny resemblance of what's painted on an Air Asia's planes' body?

Aha...presenting Tune Hotel....A one of its kind hotel - value for money (from 9.99 peeps!) with the comfort of five star hotel mattress with turn-free technology and power shower in the bathroom (doesn't come with toiletries; air-con and towels though - You have to pay for these extras! It's a no frills hotel peeps!)!

What more can you ask for RM9.99 (assuming you get this deal)...? Giving Tong Foongs and Hotel Malayas a run for their money! A good choice for the discerning budget travellers.

Genius this Tony!

Crying for attention

Is this a cry for attention? (Yes Rin, it's happenning in pur household too...and I don't know when will it end)

He's been sucking his thumb....(he used to when he was about 3 until he turned 5), drinking his younger brother's milk from bottles...He did not even object for me to post this piccie here! And he is turning 10!

Everybody in the house is crying for attention (including me - which I have no plans to reveal in what aspect) since wifey found out that she's pregnant.

Umar has been crying over the slightest reason...or sometimes over nothing! Ib too!

I suppose the only person who's not affected is Khadijah..the supergirl!

Kak Ros 911

I just enjoy eating good food but it doesn't qualify me a foodie.

Attended to a client for signing some where in Ampang Hilir quite close to lunch time. Kak Ros of Kak Ros 911 masakan nogori (Negeri Sembilan food) came to mind. Made a quick dash thereafter to Kg Pandan where Kak Ros' situates and lucky me because it was off peak. Otherwise I would have to join throngs of corporate wigs eating masakan kampung (traditional food)!

This place was introduced to me by wifey some 13 years back. Her colleagues, then, used to drive all the way from the Golden Triangle to Kg Pandan for their masak lemak (dishes cooked with coconut milk) fixes. We used to frequent this place at least 4 times a year but because of the location we have given it a miss a number of years now. Just two weeks back, wifey and her office mates went for lunch at Kak Ros and she hugged her asking where she's been all this while! Apparently she serves traditional kuehs now and her badak berendam and lepat pisang are to die for according to wifey which I have yet to try.

They serve mean gulai lemak daging salai (smoked beef cooked in coconut milk) - mmm.. actually they serve mean gulai lemak (very thick and hot - not good for the heart but who cares?); period!

How to get there? Drive towards Kg Pandan via Jalan Kg Pandan. You drive straight on at the traffic light which turns into Desa Pandan. You will see a huge modern-looking Naza Motors show room on your left and get ready to slow down... You'll see Kak Ros 911 to the right (it has a mango tree in front of it, if I'm not wrong). Another landmark will be - huge cars parked in her compound and around the vicinity during lunch time.

Why the name 911? I dunno really...we never gotten around asking since we normally get engrossed with the food there!

What else...maid story

Well...we had a sumptuous feast at Thaba Village last night. There were nine of us! Tricked my mate (he is not a lamb person) into eating lamb briyani by pre-ordering and told him it's beef (he's a sucker for anything beef. Doesn't he realise that Indian Restaurants don't serve beef?)...I could do that because the lamb at Thaba Village is cooked so well that there is no taste of lamb at all! He almost p*ked after I told him that his briyani was lamb! He admitted though, this morning, that it tasted like beef.

Where was I? Oh yes the maid.....

When we got back about 11.30 pm we heard a funny noise coming from the kitchen. Initially we thought it was the sound of our old fridge going to explode and had resigned to the fact that we had to replace it. No....it wasn't to our delight! That funny noise came from the maid's bathroom. Immediately she said there's something wrong with the "toilet" (exactly the word word she used!). I don't know what happened but some parts in the cistern were broken. How the **** it happened still remains a mystery. Apparently when she couldn't flush he called Yusof to mend it. What a p*a brain she has....Yusof has not graduated from a plumbing school for heaven's sake! Then of course the passing-the-buck session had to start by my dear maid....She blamed Ib and Yusof!

Aah....need to call the plumber! There's no point probing further!

Our Northern Indian fave

You might ask what's with the map? Our fave northern indian cuisine restaurant must be Thaba Village Restaurant along MRR2 (it's B13 on the map above and click here for the link). I was looking for it's address in the net and found this map which points to the restaurant.

Anyway if you take AKLEH (Ampang Kuala Lumpur Elevated Highway) - take the MRR2 exit and as you drive into MRR2 there will be a sikh temple on your left and drive slowly in the most left lane and turn the next left which leads to Kampung Ampang where Mei Keng Fatt fatty crab situates (my partner's friend's [from Brunei] favourite place). As you turn in, Thaba is on your right (a bungalow which is lit with multi-coloured lights).

We are taking out my best friend, Yo and his assistants Yeh & Ajak who were instrumental in running the Ruby Anniversary dinner a success tonight (my sister, her hubby and my brother have been invited along too).

What we normally order are Lamb Shahjahani Briyani (cubed lamb steamed with briyani rice served with hard-boiled egg and kenyan green chilli - heavenly. It's not oily and the lamb is gorgeous! Be warned, the portion can be big for a small eater but Yusof can finish 1.5 portion here. Make sure you order the Shahjahani Briyani as most of our friends and relative whom we recommend do not bother browsing the menu and end up with plain chicken/lamb briyani!), plain dhal, chicken tikka, kashmiri and garlic butter nan and the chapati (perhaps one of the best I have tasted in KL because it's not dry!).

Apparently the crab masala is brilliant too (we have not tried this, though!) Wifey loves the teh tarik here and so does Khadijah and Yusof. The iced lemon tea is done just right here...not too sweet to my liking! And to top it all, ask for banana flambe for dessert (NB: the kulfi is not that nice here).

Whilst you wait for your order, the ladies can shop at this little "bazaar" which carries items from Kashmir like pashmina, table cloth, cushion covers etc...!

Shahjahani Briyani...here I come!

Over the Hedge - Zooview chapter

I'm sure anyone with kids would have watched Over the Hedge produced by Dreamworks summer (if my memory serves me right) last year. What I'm about to reveal in this posting is Over the Hedge, the Zooview chapter!

Where we live is an old suburb (about approximately 30 years in existence) but is now surrounded by new developments which we once thought would be left as the city's green lung because the National Zoo is literally our neighbour. Before the hills adjacent to ours were raped by unscrupulous and moolah-minded developers, we lived peacefully alongside nature and the wildlife co-existed in harmony. Yes we do get snakes slithering through the house may be once a year (the last time was a couple months back); we had a slow loris moving about in our master bedroom, some years back, mistakenly thought as a panda by my then 4 year old boy, Yusof while wifey and I were having dinner at a restaurant some 45 minutes' drive from home and later caught by our dear neighbours and good friends Chr*s and Cha* Yi* and put in our rabbits' cage which we later surrendered to the zoo; an injured wild fox resting on our backyard pergola; tiny orange frogs leaping in our open-air-in-a-garden kitchen; countless of toads in our bathrooms; muti-cloured dragon flies and butterflies in the house etc etc....(apparently there are wild boars too which we have not seen with our own eyes). This is what you get when you want to be close to nature! That's the choice that we made! I don't find it disturbing at all since this is what nature is all about...My philosophy has always been, if you don't disturb them, they'll reciprocate (superwomanwannabe :- you may disagree)!

Look what happened when the hills were barren in the name of progress and development - the landslide which killed a couple of people last year near our house is a testament to nature disturbed and nature retaliated....!Whoops this posting is getting a bit serious which is not my intention...

So you might ask, what's the relevance of Over the Hedge?

When we first moved to Zooview some 7 years ago, we could open our windows and sliding doors all the time letting fresh air in and watching monkeys swinging from trees to trees trees around the housing estate without any disturbance.... Like I said, we co-existed in harmony!

The problem started a few years back when all the surrounding hills were developed in to housing estates...The monkeys lost their natural habitat and obviously are trapped within the concrete jungles created by us. The nearest green lung is our housing estate because our area is the oldest housing estate which is surrounded by matured trees. What happened in Over the Hedge is an exact duplicate of our lives now...The monkeys run amok whenever they are hungry and steal our food!

A couple of years back, they only rummaged through what's edible in our garbage bins... In recent times, they even have become more daring entering into homes when the inhabitants are out of sight or not at home.

Over the weekend wifey wanted to bake banana muffins using flowerinthedesert's recipe or halwafy's recipe (she can't remember she got the recipe from which blog but definitely from either the two) over the weekend. Much to her horror when she came back to bake - all her bananas were gone....None other than the monkey's job! There went our banana muffins for the weekend. The monkeys at Zooview have acquired quite good taste....If there are other fruits placed together with bananas like kiwi fruits, apples, mangoes etc....they'd pick the latter than their staple food! Last Eid, they even took the nicest cookies of the lot which were the pineapple tarts made by my step grandmom.They took the whole glass jar of tarts with them!

Last December was the worst attack so far. My daughter forgot to close one of her windows and we were away for the whole day for my cousin's wedding. When we got back - the whole house smelt urine and monkey pooh....They had a gala time the whole day in our house feasting our food - bread and fruits. When the food ran out, they emptied my organic soy powder can and sprinkled them all over the house - even the piano keyboard was not spared; traces of their feet were all over the keyboard! There wifey was with the maid cleaning the mess......

I can go on and on about Zooview monkeys....I think you have gotten the picture!