I babble, I ramble, and I rattle

Sorry, intermittent and infrequent updates from Nuni presently. The doc is extremely busy at her new post, such as having to deliver at least 10 babies in the next 2 weeks. Hehehe …

Received an SMS (followed by a phone call) on Friday morning that Asten was getting married that afternoon. Since the event was to take place at the Shah Alam Mosque (which is a mere 15 minutes drive from my house), I decided to attend.

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Of all the hantaran trays, only one really caught my attention. A rojak set.

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Anyway, the wedding reception was held on Saturday at a local MBSA hall.

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Quite a number of PMC friends turned up at the reception. It was good to see them again.

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For more pics, please visit my GALLERY.

We had a special dinner on our last day in Langkawi…

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That evening, we had grilled seafood and sate among other things.

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We also had fruits…

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And puddings for dessert.

Orange = mango, pink = strawberry, green = honeydew, white = coconut milk.

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Dinner was followed by performances and presentation of certificates as well as other ‘awards’ to the participants of the induction course.

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My group did a sketch based on the story Ali Baba and 40 thieves.

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I played the part of a lady married to a rich man (they made me wear paper jewelleries!!!) whose house was robbed by the thieves.

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We had a great time that night.

The next day, it was time for us to leave the place.

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We were transported to the jetty in a bus and a few vans.

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At 11.30am, we were ready to board the ferry.

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About 1.5 hours later (I slept throughout the journey), we arrived at Kuala Kedah Jetty on the mainland. The guys (from our group), kindly offered to get the bags out for us. Otherwise, I don’t know how we would have gone through the piles of bags to find ours.

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The ‘baggage reclaim’ area.

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Outside, two buses were already waiting for us and after loading all our bags, we went our own ways… only to meet up again at a toll plaza somewhere along the North-South Highway.

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Since we were running late and many were hungry, both buses then stopped at Sitiawan town for dinner.

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We reached Pasir Salak Resort at 9.00pm, way past our registration period (2.00-4.00pm, I think). It was no surprise that the organisers were not too happy because they couldn’t start without us (even though the other half of participants had arrived much earlier).

It was a nice place, situated right at the bank of Perak River.

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Every single day during our stay there, I never failed to spot at least one of this hornbill.

** Will refer to the guidebook later to identify the species. Oriental Pied Hornbill.

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It was indeed a very nice place to stay.

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All the chalets were named based on important characters involved in the assasination of J. W. W. Birch and mine (shared with 4 others) was Pandak Endut.

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Even though the place was pleasant, the food served was another story. We’ve been pampered with good food for the previous 2 weeks. It was no wonder we couldn’t help but whine about the food (especially quantity-wise) at Pasir Salak.

I had to go without proper lunch on our second day there because they ran out of food (I think no thanks to my friends who were used to eating so much at the hotel in Langkawi ). Fortunately I had lots of chocolates and a giant bar of Hershey’s Dark Chocolate became my lunch.

The use of handphones and cameras were forbidden in the area throughout the duration of the course. I planned to take pictures of the area on our last day there, but unexpected things happened (including my group being lost in the villages – not really lost, but simply couldn’t find the designated route even though we knew how to get to our final destination), causing me to totally forget my initial plan.

View from my chalet verandah.

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The organiser shortened my name (Nuraini) to Aini. Yanie’s name (Noraini) was also shortened to Aini. The only difference in our name tags was the sequence number; mine was 62 and hers 58. I couldn’t think of a reason for it because they had no problem writing long names on the tags for other people. In fact, a friend who has 15 letters in his name had his full name written on the tag. Mine only has 7 and so is Yanie’s.

It was a source of amusement to our friends. They would call me Aini 62 (even though prior to that they’ve been calling me Nuni) and Yanie, Aini 58.

I remember being greeted with, “Hi, Ainis!” on my way to the hall with Yanie.

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On our last evening in Pasir Salak, we took the opportunity to throw our penghulu during the induction course into the pool.

** The swimming pool at Eagle Bay Hotel, Langkawi was too small for such a purpose. Besides, we had our activities there in a conference room on the 1st floor. It would’ve been very difficult to drag our penghulu to the pool.

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I really had a great time with them.

For more pics, please visit my GALLERY.

I’m finally back at home.

It’s been 3 weeks but it felt like only 3 days had passed. I really had fun with the new friends that I made over that duration. The last time I remember having such fun was back in 2001 when I was studying at PRIME College… When I spent much more time with the non-Malays than the Malays.

Our crazy and fun group which was full of dramas…

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My small group (though several members are missing in this picture) at induction…

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Since my induction course was held in Langkawi, I simply couldn’t come home empty handed, right? I ended up spending around RM300 on chocolates (I bought only chocolates and nothing else).

Bought several bars of dark chocolate for myself (Lindt’s has been one of my all time favourites), Nestle’s After Eight & Lindt’s Extra Fine White Chocolate for Ba’ah and everything else for everyone else. On my 3rd shopping trip, I was really excited to find Cadbury’s Snacks because the last time I remember having it was back in 1995 when we went to Australia for holiday.

The crispy chocolates (shaped like Pringle’s potato chips) reminded me so much of my time in Dublin when I would almost always have a supply of such chocolate that I couldn’t resist buying them too.

Only on my last shopping trip did I find Milka Yoghurt for Mama. As expected, she was extremely happy with that (Milka Yoghurt has been her favourite chocolate for as long as I can remember).

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Apart from the bars, I also bought a Smarties for my cousin, Alifus.

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Not because of the chocolate… But because I’m sure he’d really love the toy attached.

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I will try to upload the rest of the pictures as soon as possible.

To my induction course friends, I’m sorry for the delay but most of the pictures are in my computer and they’re inaccessible for the time being because the laptop charger went out of service on our last day of activities in Langkawi. Be patient, ok?

Yes, away till 23rd April ’09, so blog updates will be infrequent and unpredictable.

No more fooling around.

Our activities for the past week…

Tarik tali

Organiser: Hibiscus

Winner: Hibiscus

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Banana eating competition

Organiser: Hibiscus

Winner: Kancil

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Photo treasure hunt

Organiser: One Malaysia

Winner: Rafflesia

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Modified netball

Organiser: Tsunami

Winner: I don’t remember. Kancil?

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Modified futsal

Organiser: Kancil

Winner: I don’t remember

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Pull the string!

Organiser: Rafflesia

Winner: No winner

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We had great moments together but the time has come for us to be serious again. Time to study.

For more pictures, please visit my GALLERY.

I was working on  my Mulu stories (yeah, the trip was almost a year ago) when my family made a sudden decision to go back to Kelantan (more stuff to blog) and now I’m stuck in Langkawi to study thick books.

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The good thing is, I’m being fed 6 meals a day. And guess what? Today, I had crabs for lunch for the second time this week.

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Last week, I discovered a pile of unsorted pictures in the closed compartment of the old bookcase in my room. They were all in several photo envelopes, waiting to be arranged into several empty albums also found in the same compartment.

It was an unfinished project that I started back in 2003, before I left for Dublin. The plan was to sort the pictures (many were reprinted in 4R ) according to group of friends and chronological order.

No wonder I couldn’t find the pictures in Fraser’s Hill (all our photo albums are there; except that stack of mine which I just discovered, of course ) when I went searching for them a few months ago.

I uploaded them to Facebook and unsurprisingly received tremendous response. In fact, I managed to trace several other primary school friends, with whom I’ve been exchanging countless messages.

In 1993, a primary school opened in Section 18, Shah Alam and my schoolmates who resided in Section 18 had to move to that new school. I took this picture just before they left. Thanks to this picture, I managed to trace a few other old friends on Facebook and discovered that I used to have a classmate named Sabariah (my mum’s name). I had no idea!

4 Manggis 1993 (who had to move school) with our class teacher, Cikgu Habsah.

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This picture taken at Putri Nadeeya‘s 10th birthday party at KFC Section 18, Shah Alam really brought back memories. We were the best of friends at that time. She even curled her hair to match mine.

We lost touch when she moved away from Shah Alam. In high school, I befriended a junior named Putri Zareen. Only after I left school did I discover that these two Putris (they’re related to the Selangor sultanate) are cousins. And it was Putri Zareen (I called them both Putri! Now I don’t know what to call them ) who gave me Putri Nadeeya’s contact number. Looking at this old picture, I noticed someone familiar… Putri Zareen?

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Among my most treasured pictures was this class picture taken in 1994.

5 Jambu 1994.

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This class photo taken in 1995 is also one of my favourites. Cikgu Azme (my standard 6 class teacher) was also the class teacher for ALL my four brothers when they were in standard 6 themselves. When I told him (I represented my parents to get my brothers’ report cards) he won’t be teaching Kona because she was attending a different school, he laughed and said, “Five (from your family) is more than enough for me to handle…”

6 Jambu 1995.

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Oh, well… I was a prefect too so here goes…

Prefects 1995 (morning session).

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In 1995, I joined the recorder ensemble (to perform on the Speech Day) and played tenor. I received 5 or 6 awards that year (including Best Student) but unfortunately both my parents were not able to attend the ceremony.

If I’m not mistaken, Mama was already away in England to further her studies and my great grandmother passed away the day before so dad had to rush back to Kelantan. He entrusted the task to photograph the event to one of his brothers who happened to be in Shah Alam at that time.

Speech Day 1995. I (2nd from right) played tenor and I still remember the songs that we played that day. Among those that I still recognise in the picture: Atie, Li Quin, Hanie, Huda, Siti (Hamidah’s sister), Adah.

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Oh, oh! I also found the pictures taken at the NTV7 studio during a recording of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire (Raya special) in 2003.

I befriended an NTV7 executive, S back then (she is currently no longer with NTV7) and whenever there were gameshow recordings, she would ask me if I would like to attend; preferably bringing along my friends to fill up the studio. Once, I even arranged for a UiTM bus to send us there, making it an ‘official’ trip from INTEC, UiTM. In fact, I think I even did a report on the ‘educational visit to NTV7 studio’.

My high school friends at the set.

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With the gameshow host…

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The guys just couldn’t resist taking picture with one of the contestants (all were celebrities; it’s Raya special, remember?). An actress, I think.

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But the best thing was when that session ended. Even though there were a few other sessions (with more celebrities), there wouldn’t be space for my friends if they wanted to stay because another group of audience was already there for the next session.

Then S came to me and said, “Nuni, why don’t you wait for a while? Tomok (New Boyz) just called me and he is on his way here.”

Ok. First of all, I was not and am not a fan of New Boyz but since one of my friends was, we decided to stay.

Many minutes later…

“Nuni, Tomok will be late… But Hazami is already here. Come, I’ll introduce you to him.”

I knew Hazami as the guy who sang the Malay version of the Korean song, Winter Sonata (or whatever the title is) but I had no idea how he looked like. I wasn’t even a fan of the song. While S introduced me to him, Irma called up her friend who was a big fan of Hazami.

Introductions done, Irma asked if Hazami would be kind enough to talk to her friend (on the phone). He obliged. Even though it wasn’t on loudspeaker, I could hear Irma’s friend screaming into the phone, “OMG, OMG, OMG! (I lost count how many times she repeated that phrase) Are you really HAZAMI???”

Then… Hazami sang that Winter Sonata song to her. A few days later, Irma told me her friend still couldn’t believe that Hazami sang to her on the phone.

Irma still on the phone with her friend to show that she did REALLY talk to Hazami. (“I’m taking a picture with him right now and you can see the picture later that you were on the phone with me when the picture was taken!”)

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Good times… Good times… I was also introduced to Yusry (KRU) when I went to the studio again a few weeks later. Haszariah (a HUGE fan of KRU) almost went hysterical when she found out I met Yusry. Earlier on, I asked her to come along but she refused. Her loss.

S also invited me to a joint raya open house with Misha Omar at her apartment but I had to decline the invitation. When S was hospitalised because of a cooking accident, I visited her with Shila and Iwan (now Shila’s hubby). We missed several celebrities (singers, I think but I can’t remember who) by only minutes.

Most importantly, I tried dragonfruit for the first time during that visit. Yeah, we shamelessly ate the fruits that others brought for her while we didn’t bring anything.

Oh, back to the topic. Other treasures that were discovered in the same compartment were two shoeboxes full of cards and letters (I’m sure I should have more but when I was in primary school, I left them all over the place), my collection of stamps (including the special Commonwealth Games 1998 commemorative pack) and first day covers, my leather bookmark collection, as well as two diaries (very little entries) from my primary school years.

It was Baiti & Hisham’s final wedding reception, held at Hisham’s family home in KL. Previous posts on their wedding:

1. Akad nikah
2. Dinner with the VVIPs
3. Reception for family and friends

I’ve completely forgotten about this event which took place on 21 March 2009 until I saw the pictures uploaded by Nitzus in his album. Then I went into semi-panic because I can’t remember where I dumped the pictures that I took on that day.

Of course, they are safely in one of the computers at Lukah.

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I can’t think of anything much to write about that day.

But the food was great! 

The main attraction in the menu was this big leg of a lamb…

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Which was sliced open to reveal delicious briyani rice cooked inside it.

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If anyone is interested, this is the business card:

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From there, we went home to allow Pih to pack his belongings before we left for the airport followed by a visit to the Putrajaya Hot Air Balloon Fiesta.

For more pictures, please visit my GALLERY.