Padatnya hujung minggu...

Fuh! Padat tul aktiviti hujung minggu lepas!

Hampir tengahari, penuhi jemputan seorang member ke majlis kawin kakaknyer di Pantai Hill Park.

Lepas tu berkejar ke kelas piano kat Bandar Utama. Sempat lak berenti minum ice blended dark chocolate dan bayar bil kat pejabat pos.

Balik umah jer Nek Ngah pun sampai, nak menjemput kenduri kawin anak dia ujung bulan ni. Aku lepak jap jer sebab nak kena bersiap gi Salak.

Ada apa dengan Salak, ko tanye? Haaa... Abang Imam baru pindah umah ujung tahun lepas. Jadi kita dapat permission Mak Pak untuk overnight atas jemputan abang sendiri :)

Happy tak terkata weh!!! Antara prinsip utama Mak Pak aku adalah seboleh-bolehnyer jangan bermalam di rumah orang. Ni rezki umah baru lar kiranyer...

Gambo takde makne atas tu masa tengah layan sunset kat Stesen ERL Salak Tinggi sementara tunggu abang dan family jemput on the way balik dari kenduri kawin.

Masa tanye abang umah jenis ape beli, dia jawab, "Alaaa... umah teres jer..."

Tapi bila sampai- nah, amek ko!!! Punye ler beso umah dia! Style macam rumah tahun 80an dulu.

Ruang dalamnyer pun menarik! Kalau ikut bajet, murah jer sebab abang ada contact yang tau macam-macam jenis finishing yang cantik serta tahan tapi dengan rega yang sangat okey...

Atas sebab-sebab yang tak dapat dielakkan, dapur baru takkan berasap untuk sementara waktu. Kaedahnyer dinner kat luar ler malam tu ;)

Nama restoran tu Amy Redland's. Menarik tul ambiance dan decor dia, seperti memanggil-manggil kami masuk, hehe...

Restoran ni diurus orang Melayu, specialize in halal chinese cuisine tapi ada gak menu goreng-goreng biasa dan Western.

Aku makan lauk Chicken with Dried Chili. Memang authentic taste dia! Abang nyer Cantonese Kuey Tiau, Iman (bini Abang Imam) nyer sup Yong Tau Foo dan Muaz nyer Nasi Goreng Cina pun begitu gak!

Erk! Camne aku tau? Sebab aku ler jadi Majlis Perbandaran malam tu. Serving dia beso-beso ooo...

Pagi esoknyer ikut abang ngan anak-anak beriadah- kununnyer lar... Nan ado! Aku dok sibuk amik gambo bagai sambil jalan marathon lite-lite :P Nasib baik terlepas pijak taik lembu!

Sunrise over Sungai Sepang- lagi lagi gambo takde makne buat tatapan para tetamu ke blog ni (yang bole dibilang jumlahnyer dengan jari)...

Dalam kul 10.00 pagi baru ler berangkat untuk sarapan di kedai mamak...

Ni namanyer Koci. Dok layan kucing abang jap sementara tunggu siap-siap nak gi kenduri kawin (lagi!)...

Haiyoh!!! Notti lar you, Koci! Patut lar Iman dok bising ikan-ikan dia tetiba jadi penakut semacam baru-baru ni!

Rupanyer sejak berbadan tiga (ke empat?) ni, selera makan si Koci menyebabkan dia rajin menilik-nilik segala sumber makanan alternatif yang ada...

Layan punye layan, aku dengan Koci bole tertido sama kat lantai ruang tamu tu :P

Abang kejut Zuhur baru sedo, hehe...

Suka gambo ni :) Walaupun dikira tak jadi, tapi aku suka sebab dia different... Eh, nape ramai pilih tema oren tahun ni ek?

Lepas Zuhur siap-siap, bertolak ke Banting untuk kenduri kawin sepupu Abang Imam. Punye ler tarik muka makcik abang tu sebab kitorang sampai lewat. Muncung tu bole buat gantung baju dah :P 

Sebab aku ler tu... Rasa bersalah lak.

Bunga kemboja yang mak Abang Imam bela. Singgah jap umah mak pak abang, selang satu taman perumahan aje dari rumah kenduri tadi, sebelum memulakan perjalanan pulang...

Letih, tapi seronok sangat!

Harap sudi lar jemput kita dholan maneh yo kang? Matur nuwon seng akeh-akeh!

And this too shall pass...

Upon arrival in Kuala Terengganu last Friday morning, I actually received bad news from home...

An aunt had passed away during the night.

It's funny how deaths come quite close together in my family. Wasn't it just last week that my grand aunt passed away? And a few years previous, an uncle and an aunt died on the same day, followed by another relative a few days after...

Only 4 of Pa's 9 siblings are still currently with us. Of the living, 3 still have their spouse around. Of the dead, only 2 survived their spouse.

That now leaves me with a total of 4 uncles and 7 aunts, inclusive of an uncle and his wife from my Ma's side. And they too shall pass... Though death knows no boundary of time nor space, the moment has certainly arrived for my parents' generation to meet our Maker.

Imagine this- when the days were young, it took my parents and I from morning until night to visit all the relatives staying around Klang only during 'eid. The same was needed for Kuala Lumpur. Likewise for Seremban-Melaka. Now? A day more than suffice.

I expressly avoid thinking of Ma and Pa passing away, though I know it will come quite soon. I'll cross that bridge when I get to it, but until then...

Getaway...

By the time Ben, Sham and I reached Perhentian Putra, the heavy rain had turned into a light drizzle. 

The first leg of our journey was uneventful. We reached Hentian Bas Majlis Bandaraya Kuala Terengganu at about 5.30 in the morning.

We decided to rest a while at Masjid Abidin, also known as Masjid Putih.

A beautiful mosque but the security guard advised us to keep a sharp eye on our luggage at all times.

Dawn approached. We went back to the bus station for breakfast, purchased tickets for the journey home (which we almost couldn't get) and then headed out to Jeti Shahbandar to catch the 9.00 o' clock boat to...

...heaven! No lah! Just kidding :P

We chose a 3 days 2 nights package at Laguna Redang Island Resort. Quite pricey but the atmosphere was well worth the money spent.

We were given a briefing upon arrival at about 12.00 noon. The brief was light and funny. I enjoyed it immensely but few others laughed at the jokes, which was what I found sad about Malaysian society. Or perhaps the group was just too tired... (yeah, right!)

Buffet meals at the Sang Suria Restaurant from lunch on day of arrival to breakfast on departure day was part of the package.

This was the first peek at the beach from the balcony of the restaurant. Even I had trouble believing that this was taken from my very own camera! It looked like something out of a brochure!

The only quarrel I had with the amenities was that the standard room provided in the package lacked a drying area for our wet garments. Duh! With all that water around, it's only common sense that every room had to have one (even if it's not a deluxe room)!

The package allowed for 3 snorkeling trips. To my surprise, as tired as we were, we went to all three! I even had the chance to see a baby shark while swimming around the coral rich area at one of the beaches!

I had one snorkeling experience before this at Pangkor so I know enough that it is a good idea to rent the life jacket even when you could swim very well. It allows you to relax while looking at all the wondrous sights.

And since I never could get used to the snorkel breathing apparatus, I decided to save RM10 by bringing my own goggles...

The ones in blue were our guides while the ones in red were boat crew cum life guards. Oh, how I envied their freedom of movement in the water because they were experienced and seasoned enough be rid of the restricting life jackets!

That water is really blue, I kid you not! It's like someone rinsed blue watercolour off their paintbrush in the water.

We had the privilege of visiting the waters off Pulau Kerengga, the Redang Marine Park and C.K. Bay...

...and was crazy enough to go for the photo shoot at all 3 sites. Unfortunately, I'm no Tyra Banks so I was captured in a variety of weird poses and expressions in most of my photos :P

Despite that, I bought all of them even after hearing that they charge RM5 per frame! So people, my advice would be to save all that money and buy yourselves one of those fancy cameras that could be used underwater.

I went for a walk on the 2nd night and shot a lot of night scenes. Unfortunately, the yield rate was very poor due to blurring. I forgot to bring my tripod along on that particular night and was too lazy to go back to the room for it!

Yurusenai! :(

I walked along the beach into the territory of neighbouring resorts and found abundant night life. In light of the 'island party' recently highlighted in the news, I really shouldn't find this surprising but I did anyway with this being Terengganu and all...

I enjoyed this scene very much. There was a family playing with sparklers and crackers on the beach just like in the animes I often watch.

I ended my walk by relaxing next to the Tupai Cafe and listening to the resident Filipino band Tequila Sunrise.

The next day, after playing around the resort area for one last time, we packed up and took off for the mainland...

Once back at Shahbandar, we walked a few hundred meters to Pasar Payang for lunch and souvenirs. It rained that afternoon so we relaxed at one of the wakaf provided along Bazaar Warisan.

Once the rain stopped, we returned to Masjid Putih to freshen up before embarking on our journey home...

Goodbye Terengganu! Hope to see you again... if we have the budget :P

Sayonara...

Buat nenda Puteh bintu Mimah...

...al Faatihah.

Big Screen Breakdown: X-Men Origins and Star trek

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