Archive | PermalinkOpah's Orchids

It's the school holidays! So we headed back to Sitiawan to spend time with Irfan's Atok and Opah.

When we arrived, some orchids hanging at Irfan's grandparents' garden over the koi pond were blooming. It was quite a spectacular sight as the following photos of the individual plants show.

Does anyone know what species of orchids they are?

Keywords: balik_kampung,flora,sitiawan

Archive | PermalinkRafe's 17 Month Birthday

And so, another month has passed by and the little guy is now 17 months old. He'll be a year and a half soon! Wheeee!

* Mouse over the pictures for captions

Keywords: alya,birthday,rafiq,travel,work_excursion

Archive | PermalinkBye Tim

Tim the Turtle had grown too big to reside in its tank. And there is no surplus space in the house for a bigger tank. Which meant it was time to say goodbye to Tim.

Thankfully we had the foresight to scout for release locations in the city beforehand and had already decided on the lake at Ampang Hilir Park.

The lake was large for a body of water mere kilometres away from the Kuala Lumpur City Centre. It shot to the top of the list of release locations because it was big and had a sizable population of red-eared sliders (and assorted fish) within its waters. We also hoped Tim would find a girlfriend some day. Or a boyfriend. We never really determined if Tim was a male or a female. If Tim was female, its name would have been a contraction of "Timah".

Keywords: critters,family_outings,irfan,kuala_lumpur

Archive | Permalink58 Months

Two more months till the big birthday! And how much do you love backdated entries! Woohoo!

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Keywords: alya,around_the_house,birthday,rafiq

Archive | PermalinkBeach Escapade: Part II

We continue our adventures in Orange Beach, AL with a beautiful sunny day! It more than made up for the rainy afternoon that we had:

* Mouse over the pictures for captions

Keywords: alya,rafiq,travel,vacation

Archive | PermalinkFriends in the Windy City

In honor of Laura and Roberto's visit to Chicago, we decided to spend the weekend there. Laura and I have been working together for a few years now, but we have never met in person since Laura lives in Argentina. We drove up and had dinner with Laura, Roberto, and the Chicago contingent of Jen, Mike and Scott:

Despite being at the famed Lou Malnati's deep dish pizza place, neither child ate the cheesy goodness that night.

* Mouse over the pictures for captions

Keywords: alya,friends,rafiq,travel,vacation

Archive | PermalinkIrfan Meets a River

On the way back from Pasir Man, Irfan met a river. It was raging force of nature filled with teh tarik after a sustained rainfall in the mountains. We just came from over the mountain.

This is no pond and there's no melody coming from it.

Keywords: balik_kampung,irfan

Archive | PermalinkRafe's 16 Month Birthday

After another fast-paced month, Adik is now 16 months old. He seems to have grown so quickly - when I look back at pictures of him as a newborn I can hardly believe it is the same baby as he is becoming more and more of a person in his own right. We saw that with Yaya, and continue to see it with her, and now we are seeing it with Adik and this is definitely the greatest gift anyone can ever receive - the opportunity to watch our children grow and become their own little persons. Especially when they are as funny as our Adik is getting to be!

* Mouse over the pictures for captions

Keywords: alya,around_the_house,birthday,rafiq

Archive | PermalinkBeach Escapade: Part I

So we went to the beach in April! We went to Orange Beach, AL. Neither Vin nor I'd ever been (not just to Orange Beach but to Alabama in general) so this was a first. We had an amazing time!

Oh Adik! Why didn't you look up? Anyway, I had been planning a short entry with a few pictures of our fabulous time in Orange Beach, but I ended up with way too many photos and a chronic inability to edit it anymore. I think we must refrain from taking so many pictures next time. Some of them actually turn out quite nice.

* Mouse over pictures for captions

Keywords: alya,rafiq,travel,vacation

Archive | Permalink57 Months

The countdown is on to Yaya's fifth birthday! 3 more months! Time passes so quickly - I can't believe how big Yaya has gotten. Where did my little newborn baby go?

* Mouse over the photos for captions

Keywords: alya,around_the_house,birthday,family_outings,rafiq

Archive | PermalinkDarkness Falls

Power outages used to be part of normal, everyday life back when we were growing up in Sitiawan. Not that there were blackouts every night, but perhaps once or twice a month (although my memory on the matter might be imprecise). The point was that we were prepared for total darkness when the power went out and it happened often enough to have the experience be a lasting memory.

It almost never blacks out at the Tenth Floor, but last night most of this sector of town fell into darkness. Power outages are a rare event here. Over the many years we have lived here, there might have been less than five power outages that happened at night.

Candles had to be lit. Irfan had a good time studying the candle and its flame.

Keywords: around_the_house,irfan,power_outage

Archive | PermalinkEX-TER-MI-NATE! EX-TER-MI-NATE!

I chased Irfan down two aisles at the supermarket with a toilet plunger saying. "EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!"

I was sad that the egg beaters weren't close by.

Keywords: doctor_who,funny,irfan