so this time round we combined the holidays with my interview with the Director of Institut Perubatan dan Pergigian Termaju (IPPT) Dr Ramli Saad (this bears another topic).
we arrived in Sg Nibong by bus on 28th may. Aam picked us up and drove us back on that chilly morning to our house in Balik Pulau. the heavy smell of durian scented the morning air and through the misty morning we drove across the island to the small town.
after a short slumber aam and i walked to the small town to buy breakfast and NST. we were seriously looking out for the article that i sent in to the editor but still not published (still not, till now. that's another topic though!)
at 2.30 pm i met with dr ramli saad at Hotel bayview on Jalan farquhar. after the meeting we went shopping, i bought my slippers with 20% discount at the price of 39.90. also bought my phone covering. here's a picture of us at the shop, taken again with the sony PDA-phone
we went home, found that aam's daughter mastika has arrived to see the notebook that Aam bought. he bought her an RM 1600.00 lenovo notebook with Windows XP and duo core processor. but mastika was not very happy about it, because she wanted an acer or toshiba notebook. of course aam was also not happy, but he showed a brave front.
we planned to take the kids out but it was raining. so instead we went to have dinner at a seafood restaurant some 15 km away. it was a majestic affair of ikan siakap masak sweet and sour, lala masak sambal petai, sotong goreng tepung, tom yam campur and 2 jugs of apple and watermelon juice. we were so stuffed out and to top it all, it only cost us RM75.oo. real value for money! just for the sake of the marvellous seafood i'd have gladly moved to penang right there and then!
A picture of nur with mastika in front of the sumptious fair
this picture taken with the sony PDA-phone was not so clear.we went back with full stomachs and watched a movie afterward. aam was complaining of the worsening of his metacarpal joint pain and i really sympathized with him. we totally forgot that the joyous seafood had only worsened the gouty arthritic pain. poor aam. he took a double dose of celebrex and glucosamine.
the next day was thursday and aam sat for his induction exam. 2 papers of MCQ and also an essay. he was as cool as cucumber not like when yours truly sat for her exams, a nervous wreck! i caught some time to do my work at his desk. barely 30 minutes passed and he came out already. then went in for another 45 minutes of essay. i hope you passed, darling.
we bought chicken and fish and in the afternoon aam drove us to find a good place for picnic at Titi Kerawang but when we reached the place it was raining, the place was desolate and quite dangerous for any recreational activities. we drove some km further and reached teluk bahang where we had our grilled chicken bbq, and grilled garlic-chicken sausages. the kids were happy they got to dip in the water although there were surprised at how salty the water was! actually they were not used to swimming in the sea.
on friday aam was supposed to be working. i said 'supposed' because his real job amounted to nothing compared to mine...! (Jgn mare bang!). actually he didnot have that much to do because his students have not registered yet for the new academic session.
we came out of the house early and aam took us to bukit jambul which was about 700metres tall but the track was so steep it reminded us a lot of Maxwell Hill. i was left breathless with the kids some 20 metres of climbing or so.
we had breakfast at Desa Bakti-fajar. this was the place that i used to frequent when i studied there back in 1988-89. then aam took us to USM museum. i didnt fancy the name 'museum' because i abhor anything to do with history. this goes way back when i was schooling at Seri Puteri and i had a nasty experience in the form of mental torture having one Puan Hazlin Karim as my history teacher! so i tried to distance myself way away from history so i dont get that panic anxiety attack (am i a severe case of a depressed-psycho or what?)
as it turned out the Museum was far away from what real 'museum' should be - thank god for small measures. i really don't want my children to turn to be an history-hater like me. it was actually a mixture of history-artifacts gallery on science and art. there was a showcase of children's art, planetarium, a nice group of scopes, hologram, human anatomy, culture, etc. the kids surprisingly enjoyed themselves there. wow! that was a revelation.
Nur trying to see through the telescope.afterward we went to Tesco and Giant hypermarts to kill time. while aam went for friday prayers i had a reflexology session. it was terrible with the capital T. it was a literary painful experience which i did not care to repeat. the charge was also more expensive than what we were used, plus shorter duration but a lot of pain! a real botched job at reflexology. i think this people need some kind of certification before they can be allowed to practise.
in the afternoon we wanted to take the kids to the swimming pool but it only opens after 3.00 pm, so we let the kids playing games on aam's computer while we got a shut-eye. as it turned out the pool was closed due to the previous day tragic death of a Jordanian student found dead in the pool.
on saturday we were supposed to await for the arrival of mak nun from ipoh whom was not scheduled to arrive until late afternoon. so we really had lots of time to kill. in the morning the children were woken up early and we went to visit Rumah P.Ramlee which was under the authority of Arkib Negara. it was a small place and not quite i expected. i would have thought a big name like his should have more artifacts and collections. there would be hundreds of his memorabilia lying around as personal collectors' items and the arkib should make some incentives so owners would gladly loan these memorabilia to Arkib Negara.
Aam at the foot of the house that P.Ramlee was born in.
The kids with p.Ramlee's old bicycle. it was said that the brake system was often faulty because P.Ramlee usually had to brake suddenly each time he had an idea for a song lyrics or something.
at the foot of Galeri P.Ramleeafterward we went to the nearby flea market near the perbandaran stadium. aidid as usual got himself his toys. it was the ultraman 'transformer' and the autobots. he also got himself the ultraman CD and we bought the pirated indiana jones and the crystal skull (Harrison Ford) and CJ7 (stephen chow's). we tried nasi lemak and rudi got herself treated to nasi lemuni.
we went to Queensbay Mall which was a very large shopping mall at the new queensbay area. before that we thought of taking the kids for a day trip on pulau jerejak, but it was so expensive so we decided to watch a movie. we saw the new release "superhero Movie" which was a bad choice as it turned out to be. a lot disgusting scenes and cheap jokes. it was a combination of superheroes Batman, spiderman, superman in one. but no ultraman, much to aidid's dismay. it was the kids' first experience at the cinema and they thoroughly enjoyed it, lest the fight to conquer the popcorn, which aidid ultimately won as the final conqueror, as always...
i went to the giant bookshop "Borders". OMG i could get lost in the book store and never wanted to be rescued. there were thousands of books and so many were my favourites! i had a tough time to choose what i wanted and finally settled with Nora Robert's Survivor in Death, in her series of "Death" mystery writing as J.D Robb and also another book by Sandra Brown about a pair of twins in "The Switch". i must say Sandra Brown is boring me, i could predict her plot after the first chapter and i think to swear off her books in the near future if she didnt buckle up!
we were so tired afterward we went to aam's office while waiting for mak nun to arrive. i had a nap and the kids went back to playing... what else, the computer games! i must say being kids nowadays are so boring and not enough challenge. they must disagree to this statement!
mak nun arrived later then expected and not until 6.45 pm. the kids were joyous to see her and amidst the excited chatter we took her to the house. that night we watched CJ7 although aidid wailed his displeasure, but later he joined in the laughter at the hilarious renditions of stephen chow's.
the next day we prepared for yet another picnic at the Forest Resort near Teluk Bahang about 20 km away from balik pulau. unfortunately after 30 minutes of arrival, there was a heavy downpour and we ended up BBQing at one of the wakafs. it was fun, though. by the time we reached the house it was already late and we were so tired.
that night we went to the pasar malam. got a taste of one of penang's pasar malam. not much difference.
the next day we drove to taiping, because we wanted the kids to have a proper dipping in a swimming pool plus a change in scene. we stayed overnight at Taiping Golf Resort and Jana Condotel. there was a room promo for a standard room hillview at RM95.00. the kids had their laps in the pool and we stuffed on mamak foods. the next day still more swim, more mamak foods and aam had to drive back to penang because he was supposed to be working that day. meanwhile we took a bus to ipoh because we couldnt get tickets to KB from taiping. pak nif waited for us at Medan Gopeng and took us out for lunch.
after a lunch of RM37.00 we went to their house for a short break while waiting until 8.15 pm at which time we drove to Medan Gopeng to get on the bus to KB. the bus arrived on time. it was cold and the trip seemed shorter, the driver actually didnot stop at Grik but drove directly to Tanah Merah, Pasir Mas and we finally arrived in KB at 4.00 am.
so, how was our performance? a perfect 10, i would say..
