28 May 2023

Today we picked up Adam from his colleague. He needed to find a dress for his prom committee duties. Why was he even on the prom committee in the first place? To gain leadership experience and extra curricular points for his resume. I thought we were just gonna rent some cheap blazer in Kajang or somewhere. Instead he brought us to Majestic Bespoke Tailor in PJ to rent a complete evening suit. Total damage - 400 ringgit. Thankfully, he paid for most of it with his own money. He does get some allowance from the scholarship every few months. The rest were money donated to him from various sources.

After that we went to 1 Utama nearby. I wanted to visit the newly refurbished Muji store there. If it's your first visit like me, it's on the ground and first floor of the old 1 Utama wing near the One World Hotel and Uniqlo outlet. There store was busy but not crazy crowded like IKEA on a sale crowded. They had the Labo section which were supposed to be special and then the Muji Green section where they sell (overpriced) plants (naturally) and finally the new Muji Café which was really crowded with constant queue and never enough table.

I wanted to taste the surprisingly affordable coffee at 9.90 and perhaps some of the overpriced cakes (RM15.00 each) but since we couldn't find anywhere to sit, I decided against it. Maybe next time when the hype dies down a bit or when they open a few more outlets with cafés as well. It was largely a disappointing visit. Instead of Muji, we had some snacks at Salon Du Chocolat nearby. I thought the name was a bit pompous and the prices were a red flag and I was proven correct. A plate of some lousy chocolate crepe cost 18 ringgit. It was very thin and unfulfilling.

Before heading home, we had an early dinner of nasi lemak at Warung Rindu near Pantai Dalam. This one rarely disappoints and the price won't burn a hole in your pocket.

20 May 2023

Despite my silent protestation, we proceeded with the mini open house anyway. I spend some two days slowly cleaning up the house (most of it on the day before). Fortunately Adam was around and the rest of the kids lent a helping hand so we managed to turn the place spick and span.

Apart from my own family, Linda's parent came down all the way from Kelantan, so does her sister Icu from Manjung and Fida from Bentong. Combined with Linda, we had plenty of help in the kitchen. The among the food served was noodles soup, satay, hujan panas rice, masak merah chicken and chicken korma. We invited some of our friends, family and also neighbours.

The open house officially starts at 1 o'clock but my mother and my uncle from Kota Damansara arrived right around 12. Then our neighbours from the right side started coming and then the floodgates opened. We had many of Linda's friends from office coming but most of them were Adam's friends from both schools. They fill up half the living room. I only invited one colleague from work but he didn't show up.

We clearly underestimated the crowd because much of the food was gone by 3:00 PM. And the open house was supposed to end only at 7:00. Around 4 o'clock, I had to order some more satay and went to pick them up in section 7. The hundred extra satay were gone in a blink, finished by Hana's friends. Remind me to order at least 200 hundred more satay and prepare much more food next time we organize any more open houses.

It was tiring and costs a lot of money this open houses thing, even a mini one. But seeing the happy faces of my wife and Adam with their friends was almost worth it. Just don't ask me to do one again anytime next year.

14 May 2023

If you drive anywhere in Klang Valley during weekends these days, you will find all the roads and highways are jammed with cars. Where is everybody going? To Raya open houses of course! Ourselves not excluded. This weekend alone we had to open house invites, one from my colleague and another from Linda's.

Saturday evening, it was my new colleague, Syafiqqah's open house in Ampang. When I arrived near Taman Fairuza, we had no idea that she is Datuk Jamaluddin Ropa's daughter. He is the Pandan UMNO division leader, not that it matters of course. Despite my disdain for everything UMNO, the fact remains they're part of the unity government. Any friend of PH is a friend of mine. To be honest, I would have no problems going to a PAS member's open house had they invited me. Okay who am I'm kidding. A deluded PAS supporter/colleague maybe. A registered PAS member? Probably not.

That said, the food was good at this open house. There were grilled lambs, among other menus. Without any government contracts, wonder where he got all the budget to fund such lavish event. Perhaps donation from his loving UMNO members?

The other open house on Sunday was Linda's office mate. This one is much nearer in Cheras. When I realized it's a condo in downtown Cheras, I started to worry that parking spaces will be hard to find. True enough, there's no more visitors parking left when I arrived at the guard house. So I dropped off my family and run around to find a parking spot on the shop lots nearby. After that we waited for the lift to go up to the 22nd floor. We didn't even get to go inside the house because the place was already crowded with visitors. Lucky they provided some tables on the balcony for guests to sit and eat.

Despite the unpleasantries, the food was good including the lamb curry. Lucky for me my wife didn't stay long to chat. The colleague and her husband are reasonably well to do folks and I'm just curious why they didn't get a more spacious home like a terrace or a semi-d perhaps. They did bought another place but it's still a condo in Balakong. Maybe they just like high-rises.

Speaking of open houses, Linda and myself will be organizing our own little gathering next week. Knowing me, I'm really hesitant of having one in the first place because it is a really hard work and expensive these open house things. But since Linda and Adam keep pestering me to do one, I cannot disappoint those hopeful faces. Hopefully my guests don't complain as much as I did but if they did, do I look like I care lol.