Fun-filled Day with Shah

Yesterday both Shah and I took leave. The main purpose of the leave was to get Shah new Baju Melayu which would match the theme colour for my sister's wedding this Friday and Saturday. Secondly, to spend some quality time together, i.e. have a date.

Even if it was supposed to be a date which means being away from the office or home, we still left home at 6.45 am and came to Uni*ten. The reason being, we wanted to ensure Maisarah didn't know that we were on leave. And so our date commenced at 9.30 am, i.e. after Shah was done with some work. We also knew that this was going to be a movie date. (Gosh! the last time we had a movie date was after I finished my confinement early last year).

We left Uni*ten and headed to Mid*Valley/The Gar*dens. We planned to catch the 12.10 pm Trans*formers: Revenge of the Fallen show at GSC Signature*. I knew that the movie was close to three hours so we went in search of Shah's Baju Melayu before going for the movie. He got two sets of Baju Melayu at Kam*dar (where else to find baju melayu on such short notice and in Mid*Valley?). Lucky for us Shah remembered that there was a Kam*dar store there, if not we would he been walking around endlessly. After that we shared a quick brunch of asam laksa so as to ensure we were not starving in the cinema.

At 11.30 am, we bought tickets for the movie. We opted for Premier Class instead of Gold because we thought spending more than RM100 for two tickets would just be too much of a waste. Maybe next time, we'll try the Gold Class. After getting the tickets, we went to the No*kia store as I wanted to check out the new N*97. The sales person was very accommodating and showed me what the phone could do. I was turly tempted to get it. But, not this time. I'll have to sit on it and stew on the idea of parting with RM2480 for the phone which currently meets all my needs.

Anyway, after caressing and toying with the N*97, we headed back to GSC. Since it was a weekday, there were no one at GSC Signature when we waited at 11.45 for the cinema to be seated. It was still too early to let us in, apparently. We didn;t know what to do so we bought popcorn and ate while waiting. We finished it up within 15 minutes. Then only we were allowed to enter the theatre. Both of us were the first into the theatre and at that time we thought the cinema would all be ours. However, two guys came in at around 12.15 just when the previews were about to start. So we shared the theatre with two other souls whom I bet have watched the movie already. I guess that is one good thing of having a small child which means having not many opportunities to go for a movie date. We will only watch big box office movies much much later than every one else and hence get to conqure the entire cinema.

Just as most off you out there have known, the movie was awesome. The Autobots and Decepticons captivated Shah and I. And as most of you, we too were squirming in our seats when Optimus Prime died (well at least I was) but more so because we were holding our bladder from exploding. We didn't want to miss even a second of the movie. There were some scenes which we could have lived without (and I won't list them here as most of you already know which scenes it was) but the movie was well worth the time and money spent. So half of the date was a success and fun-filled.

After we emptied out bladder, Shah went for prayers and I went to the nursing room to express milk for my precious baby at home who had no idea that Mommy and Abah was having fun out of office (even so, as most of you who are parents know, whenever we are out on a date, every thing we see will remind us of Maisarah and we keep repeating words/phrases which she would say). Once we were done with our duties to God and baby (I was give permission for not praying as it was that time of the month), we then went in search of gastronomic food to fill our duties for our bellies. We decided that we needed our Japanese food/sushi fix. So, we went for Sushi Zan*mai. We ordered unagi temaki, california temaki, soft shell crab sushi and asama (a plate of tuna, salmon and another type of fish sashimi) to share. I had rice with prawns and vege while Shah had rice with prawn tempura and egg as our main meal. I totally forgot the Japanese names of our main meals. We initially thought that all of those would not be enough to satisfy our hunger, but after eating it all, we pondered and agreed that we made the right choice to stop from ordering when the waitress asked 'Anything else?' when she took our orders. Mind you, we did pause and think before we said 'That will be all'.

These are the pictures of our lunch together.

Shah was tired after ordering but the food took less than 10 minutes to be served after ordering. So no shut eye for you Abang.

That meal certainly sealed the deal of our fun-filled day. Good movie, great food and the greatest hubby to share it all with. So Abang, when will be our next date?

Weekend Break at Equa*torial Hotel

***This post is way overdue. ***

Earlier in the year, Shah and I had bought tickets for our family holiday to Singapore from 14 to 17 June. However, due to the Swine Flu a.k.a Influenza A H1N1 outbreak, we decided to cancel the trip and find a place to go within West Malaysia. After months of planning and finding the right time, we finally had a weekend break on 3rd to 5th July. But since classes was going to start on Monday 6th July, the break we had was in Equa*torial Hotel in Bangi. Many people, especially our work colleagues, asked us why Bangi since we travel every day to this part of KL/Selangor? Well, the answer is because Shah and I love the swimming pool and the ambiance of the hotel and the main plan for the break was to spend time in the hotel and bring Maisarah to the pool. And that was basically what we did.

We checked into the hotel at 6 pm on Friday 3rd July after work. (Shh!! Don't tell the boss but we snuck out after Friday prayers and went home to fetch Maisarah as to avoid the traffic jam after office hours.) The room was huge with two twin beds pushed together (if i heard the guy at the check-in counter correctly,the hotel calls it a Hollywood bed??). I wanted a King-sized bed since Maisarah will be sleeping with us. It turned out to be bigger in size than a standard King-sized bed. After Maisarah was done exploring and Mommy had finished taking pictures the room, we changed from our office attire and went to explore the hotel. Maisarah loved the big pond near the swimming pool which had lots of koi fishes swimming around. It was the main attraction for her in the hotel throughout the stay. She kept on wanting to see the fishes at all times when we were not in the room.

Maisarah lounging on the bed watching the telly with her two "friends".

Looking at the fishes in the pond below.

Lots of koi fishes swimming around in the pond.

On our first night at the hotel, Shah had a farewell dinner at that same hotel for one of the Head of Departments (actually my head for my department) which had been seconded to TN*BR. Spouses were invited so MAisarah and I tagged along. We had the buffet dinner and it was superb. Lot's of variety and everything was delicious. Unfortunately, the last call for the buffet is at 10 pm. So I didn't eat that much as Shah and I had to take turns taking care of Maisarah who was getting pretty cranky after 9 pm which is her usual bed time.

The next day we had hotel breakfast which again was superb. Shah and I particularly loved the dim sum. Even though there were only 2 choices but they were delicious. Maisarah ate the kuey teow with soup and snacked on the rice krispies. However, the hash brown they offered was disappointing. After breakfast we headed to Ala*manda. Maisarah played at the indoor playground and enjoyed her self. But we left after that because she was getting sleepy and needed her morning nap. So headed back to the hotel. After that we didn't leave the hotel until we checked out. While Maisarah napped, Shah and I watched TV and lazed around. We then ordered room service for lunch. We had delicious pizza, which was mainly for Maisarah and I, while Shah had a scrumptious sandwich filled with roast-beef and vegetables that came with fries. I love room service because we get to order from the room,wait for the food to arrive all hot and then eat it on the bed with your loved ones. But on that day, we ate it on the floor so as not to disturb Maisarah who was stil napping.

After Maisarah woke up from her nap which lasted for almost 3 hours, she ate pizza and fries. Then we got her into her bathing suit and went down to the pool. Maisarah absolutely loved playing in the baby pool with her float. She waded her self around the pool with Shah's supervision and flapped her feet. Then she and her Abah moved to the adult pool. She wasn't scared because she felt safe sitting on her float which had a special seat. She was in the pool for slightly more than half and hour before we called it a day.



After going back to the room, Shah and I decided that dinner that night was going to be the Japanese buffet at the Kam*pachi retaurant of the hotel. We only knew about it when we read the hotel info booklet earlier that day. It was surely a treat that night. The Japanese buffet offered had a huge spread of sushi, sashimi, teriyaki, tempura and other japanese food. I had loads of prawn tempura and lots of sushi. Shah had 10 pices of chicken boxing and lots of unagi. For dessert we had ice cream and fuit fondue. That night, both of us were stuffed. The buffet cost us slightly less than RM 80++ but it was well worth it. We would definitely go there again. That night and as the night before, we all slept like a baby.

The final day, i.e. on SUnday, we had uffet breakfast again. But to our disappointment, there was no dim sum. Maybe the coffee house management saw Shah and I eating the dim sum gluttonously the previous day and decided not to offer them the next day. Anyway, after breakfast we planned to have another dip in the pool, not just for Maisarah but for us all. Unfortunately, it drizzled that morning so the plan was scrapped. We went back to the room and packed. We checked out at around 11 am as Shah had to drop by Uni*ten for some work. So that was the end to our weekend break.

All in all, we had loads of fun and we fulfilled our aim which was to lounge in the hotel and let Maisarah swim in the pool. We'll definitely do more of this but maybe not until the end of the semester which will be in November. Maybe we'll plan a trip to celebrate Maisarah's 2nd birthday. So Abang, boleh tak?

P.S: Apart from the Japanese Buffet, Equa*torial Bangi also has a superb dim sum lunch buffet which is halal. Shah and I can vouch for it so go and check them out!

Once while we were out...

Some pictures of us and the cheeky girl

This picture was taken a week before Father's Day. We went out with my whole family to Mid*Valley for fun. While waiting for my dad to shop, Shah and I thought of taking a picture of us three but Maisarah wasn't in the mood for pictures.

Later we went for pancakes at Pad*dington's. Maisarah was playing around while we waited for food to arrive.



Picutres below are of Maisarah playing at the indoor play area in Ala*manda. She loved playing on the slide and going through the 'tunnels' (is that the right term?). I wish we had enrolled her in Kid*sportz or Tum*bleTots when she was younger. I'm sure she would have enjoyed it.

Short post

Classes has resumed so life is hectic again. Wait a minute.. life was hectic even during the 3 months break! The break this year went by in a flash. Three months was filled with a few weeks of holiday (Langkawi and lounging at home), followed by a month of curriculum review and the last month filled with report writing. The accreditation season is here again. And to make it worst, classes started on Monday. I need to finish proof-reading the report by today so that we can print it tomorrow. But I wanted to write something here first as it's been too silent here on abumblebee.

I promise once the report is done, I'll find some time to write on our impromtu weekend break at E*quitorial Bangi last Friday. So till then, toodles!