A Day Trip ToThe Land of Cik Siti Wan Kembang

I am blessed with a maid who is excellent at massaging. I have tried plenty but so far she is the best. Perhaps she won't suit those who frequent the beauty spa. As she put it ,"Urut sedap badan tapi uratnya semua kencang!" :-)

Sri is brilliant when it comes to segala macam urat. And yes... You have to bear the pain . I don't complain though... for she takes care of us girls almost perfectly. Sometimes the girls call her the doctor of the house ;-) The remedy she gets for us when we purge, during my menstrual pain & angin especially works almost instantly. We are indeed grateful having her around.

The only person in the household who lacks her attention is HB. Sri does not massage men & even if she does, HB does not agree to the idea & if so HB suddenly changes his mind, I won't let that happen! :-)

HB too has tried a lot of masseurs. Men OK..! ;-) One person who suits him perfectly is Abe Soh. Even how many other masseurs I have arranged for him, he still prefers Abe Soh.

I have nothing against him really. Just that he does not reside here in Klang Valley. He is in Kelantan, Kota Bharu to be exact...

HB has made plans for another of his excursion end of the month. This is another of his many hiking trips. One of his must preparations is a good massage. Hence an arrangement was made to meet up with Abe Soh.

The day chosen was yesterday. What a perfect day... :-) You see my parents come over to my place every Wednesday after their regular visit to a clubhouse in Cyberjaya. With abah & ma around, the girls were in good hands.

As usual I sent Balqis to her kindie but Yasmin & Wardah got the day off from mengaji. Right after I dropped of Balqis at her kindie, HB drove us off to KLIA.

You see we didn't really have the tickets to Kota Bharu that morning. But HB had earlier called the ticketing department the day before. There should be tickets available for us.

We got our tickets at quarter to 9am for a 1010am flight. Ample time still to have a quick breakfast. Went to the Food Garden at level 3 & helped ourselves for these.

Any idea, which was HB's & which was mine? ;-)

The flight was delayed for 20minutes. I'm sure for those who travel locally often with MH, experience the most delays this month :-( PM me if you wish to know why...

Well anyway it was a smooth flight. I after soooo long managed to catch up with my reading & HB was occupied with this...

Reached KB at half past 11. Not really a sunny day. I should expect the rain in the afternoon. The Kelantan River welcomed us.

The airport

Abe Soh was our taxi driver. He had an emergency earlier & was about half an hour late. My stomach was growling & the restaurant right in front of me was somehow calling out my name.

Anak dara sunti waiting for the taxi ;-)

What I saw opposite the taxi stand... My was I hungry!

Abe Soh finally came but his hospitality automatically made me forget his unpunctuality. HB requested Abe Soh to send us to one of his favourite places in KB...

Yati Percik

Seriously... I went crazy the moment I entered the restaurant. I saw food & more food & more food! Here are the desserts served which I really couldn't share with you the names.

Except for this one... puteri mandi. Am I not right? ;-)

Now the dishes to company the rice...

A type of clam

A couple of the gulais

Sata

Ikan percik

Sayap percik (I was confused at first for I am more familiar with kepak)

Only the wings were ready. I didn't complain because I simply love chicken wings...

The ayam percik... however was not yet ready.

Now here are the condiments to the nasi kerabu

The nasi kerabu I had...

To accompany my nasi kerabu...

Sirap Selasih

Within minutes I turned my plate to this...

Hehehe...

The dessert HB chose, ondeh-ondeh.

Abe Soh & HB

We were supposed to have a lunch date with a friend & her hubby but due to a short notice, she came a little bit later alone. HB had already left with Abe Soh for the massage.

Dr. Aleng & yours truly

We shifted to the air-conditioned area & I got myself ...

...a bowl of lai chee kang.

As we were busy catching up with things, I got an SMS from HB. He suggested me to perform my zohor prayer at Aleng's. He knew too well the place he was at would not be comfortable to his wife ;-) So the next plan was to meet up in town instead.

Aleng, infront of her house...

We were looking for an angle to upload a pic in FB. But my hand was not long enough for a better background :-)

Us in my attempt shooting a self photo.

We left for my retail therapy an hour after. KB has changed a lot since I last came to town in 1992.

The ruler remains the same ;-)

Daulat Tuanku

A shopping mall.

That was not the place I was heading though. It was the one opposite the mall...

Pasar Siti Khadijah

A trishaw is quite common in KB.

These fruit sellers welcomed us. If I were to put up the night, I would definitely go for the longans.

I had planned earlier to meet another dear friend - Ruzeleen. Found her crossing towards me in the middle of the market wearing the first lady smile. And how she could speak in the dialect at ease!

So I had 2 friends residing in Kelantan with me. A favour I needed was for them to put a show as locals & do the bargain for me ;-)

Ground floor - nothing got me interested here :-)

First floor, I got myself some brooches. Very cheap... Bumped into my senior in campus. She was in KB for a course & going home the day after.

Second floor was how I imagined it would be. Kain & more kain & more kaiiiinnnn...!

The 3 of us. I bought telekung from this shop :-)

Aleng had to excuse herself at 4pm to fetch her kids. 3 turned to 2 but the therapy didn't stop there. In fact it got contagious. Leen was infected... kekeke!

HB found us deep in bargaining. Offered him a stool, he took out his phone & within seconds he became invisible. Hehehe...

It was still raining when we left the market. It was still early & decided to have something for tea. Since HB forgot to purchase the frozen ayam percik on his way to the market, our tea was back at Yati's.

KB is the capital of Kelantan. Hence, she couldn't runaway from the bad traffic...

Leen & I had laksam for tea. It was the best I had. Felt like ordering another but ordered burung puyuh goreng (sorry no picture) instead. HB? He went for another round of nasi kerabu...

Laksam

Nasi Kerabu

We didn't omit dessert in the meal ;-)Not sure what we had. It tasted good. Sorry for the blurry photo. HB's camera ran out of battery & opted for the camera phone. I didn't bring my bulky camera though.

It was very frustrating when told that there were no frozen ayam percik. The ones they had stored were all void due to a cut at the wrapper. However, we bought the freshly grilled ayam percik.

The ayam percik

Leen sent us off to the airport & this was taken minutes before we parted...

Not only that we were early but our flight was delayed again. Good that I had Picoult to entertain me. Managed to complete the book. Beautiful... I even cried in the middle of all the passengers at the waiting hall (^_^) Will update on the book soon.

We reached KL safely a few minutes before 10pm. Claimed our luggage & headed to the car.

For a day trip... I think HB, you're over doing it with packing. Heheheh....!

The supper my girls had but their parents joined in at ease ;-)

To Aleng & Leen,thank you so much. I had a wonderful time.This day trip is reallyfun. Do expect me again in Kota Bharu in the near future ;-)

35 & wiser I hope

Yesterday, October the 1st I turned 35. A year older that's for sure but wiser..? I'm praying hard for that ;-) My day started less than 3 hours before my actual birth date. Was at our dear friends' for raya dinner & they surprised me with a cake...

Frankly I kind of expected it. I know HB too well. But what surprised me was how he sacrificed his rest on his off day to go out & get a cake for me. His excuse to go out was to accompany that very friend to the driving range. Little did I know it was part of his plan to surprise me. How sweet...

My HB is no Uncle Lee ;-) To him flowers will go to waste. So cakes & chocolates should do the trick.

The birthday cake

Look at Nadeen staring at those candles... ;-)

Balqis & Nadeen took turn blowing out the candles. Far right is Fatin, anak tuan rumah cum photographer.

First was Balqis...

and next was Nadeen with a little help there ;-)

A family portrait but Yasmin was purposely blocked by Wardah! These girls kan...!

Together we cut the cake...

The famous pout ;-)

Nadeen was having way too much fun with the cake...

The morning on my birthday was the usual. I played chauffeur as always. HB was out at a golf course.

I anyhow didn't cook. Sri prepared my favourite Indonesian Padang cuisine. Ayam goreng bumbu & pucuk ubi with sambal.

My lunch

After sending Yasmin & Wardah to school I put Nadeen to bed for her day nap. A free time for myself so I decided to make a self birthday gift :-)

Later in the evening both Yasmin & Wardah came home from school with a wrapped gift. How sweet of them. When asked where did they get the cash from. They answered simultaneously... "Korek tabung!". How cute.

The gift was wrapped by Wardah & her friend. I'd been told that Yasmin spent her money at the school bookshop for the gift & Wardah used hers for the wrapper. Hmmm... :-)

My gift. Still wrapped

In the box, a candle holder. I really love it. Thank you girls... Muah! Muah!

A birthday card from Wardah

Another one from Balqis.

Yasmin & Nadeen made one as well but it was misplaced somewhere... Grrr!

In the evening I went out for dinner. Nope. Didn't bring the girls though how much Wardah wanted to tag along. I was surprised that Balqis was such a sport. She was OK with the idea. Yasmin? She's the homey type. Nadeen would want to follow I'm sure but dinner was served
on the table & she preferred to have her chicken ;-)

I explained to Wardah why I chose not to take her. If she were to join us, it wouldn't be fair to her sisters. Hence the whole platoon would tag along. Having the younger 2 around, the time to myself is limited. I asked her... "Can't I spare for only a few hours just for myself?" She instead argued... "How come papa can go with you?!". Adoiii! To get the story short, I used the same old phrase "I'll get you something nice...".

We had a hearty dinner. Enjoyed each other company. At the restaurant that night I was not the only birthday girl. I heard at least 2 birthday songs sung.

We were at the non-smoking area & HB as usual would excuse himself for his ciggy break. And it was during that time he made plans with the staff there.

I could smell it. Furthermore a staff naively gave out a clue. You see, I asked for the menu to order dessert but he innocently answered "Your husband has already ordered the dessert for you". Hahaha...!

Since it was quite late & there were less customers around, half a dozen of the staff came to my table pretending searching for a birthday girl. I played along ;-)

Yours truly clowning with the restaurant staff

I've got something even better... Here's a video HB took. An evidence that I make such lousy participant in "Jangan Lupa Lirik" :-)

HB made the staff sang a birthday song to me in Tagalog.. Hahaha!

Now the backward song...

There was one more song but HB's cam ran out of memory. It was sure one memorable night. HB will always be HB. The plan & all sounded very like him. Tx baby. It sure was fun ;-)

Now here's the birthday girl with her gift for life ;-)

A gift? Well, HB has never been on time when it comes to gifts. He will either be too early or too late. Well Baby, I know what I'm getting & I don't mind the wait ;-) Oh yes, yours truly is wearing her selfmade gift on the head. Woohoo!

I thought the day was already over for me today. Not so... Yasmin presented me with another surprised gift. She won 3rd place for an essay writing competition & was given a KFC voucher. A chicky meal buddy which she wanted me to have. Thank you Yasmin. I'm so proud of you. Didn't help her with the essay at all because I thought it was just another school work.

The certificate & voucher.

To those who wished me via FB & sms, thank you so much. Appreciate it :-)