Blogging From Shah Alam

Many things happened since I came to Shah Alam on Wednesday 14th October. That day itself was my 59th birthday. My wife Fatthiyah celebrated it a day earlier and had a nice dinner on a floating restaurant by the name of Cerana at a place called Pengkalan Datu in Bachok Kelantan. It was really quite a romantic dinner. I should be doing it more often and I like the seafood served there. Though the place is in Bachok, it is much nearer to Kota Bharu.
Azrin picked me up at KL LCCT and he sent me to my other son's place in Shah Alam where I will be taking care of Adam Hakimi. Azrin and family was on his way back to his in law's place in Taiping. Anyway I wanted very much to view the semi D house that Azrin wanted to buy at Subang Alam. Since it was along the way to Shah Alam from Enstek Labu, it was quite convenient to stop and view and perhaps give an idea on whether the place is really worth the lifetime of repayment that he will have to endure.
Subang Alam is a new housing area being carved out of a former oil palm plantation. The developer had maintained the undulating landscape and not resort to flattening of the whole area as is sometimes the case. It was tastefully done befitting a medium end living. Houses in this twenty acres of low density housing area cost anything upward of RM800K.

The signboard infront of the sale office and the show house.

The house that Azrin is buying is the one in the middle.

The proud new owner to be.

Azrin was lucky in the sence he gets to buy a house in the almost completed phase. What happened was the original buyer didn't manage to secure the loan to buy the house and the sales manager of the project offered Azrin to buy the house instead of waiting for the completion of the houses in the next phase which is yet to be constructed. Even as it is the house is expected to be handed the CF sometimes in May next year.

Azrin had a bad experience before this when he bought a house in Bukit Jelutong where the previous state government had carved a section of the forested land adjacent to Bukit Cherakah and alloted the land to developers who had no license whatsoever to d0 a housing development. Things went haywire after the change of the state government and the development of the area came to a complete stop after only the earthwork was done. Even the individual land titles were yet to be obtained and yet the bank which approved Azrin's RM320K loan had disbursed RM200K. When Azrin didn't service the loan, the bank recalled the loan and asked Azrin to settle something about RM700K. Some Islamic loan! Later Azrin engaged the services of a lawyer and the bank meekly agreed to settle for just the amount disbursed plus the overdue interest and the total sum came to about RM240K with Azrin calling the shot on how much initial payment and monthly payment to be paid back. It seemed the bank had disbursed the money without adhering to the proper procedures. They were lucky as the matter was not reported to Bank Negara and were happy to get their money back. Azrin was lucky as his nightmare at last came to an end and not had to pay the RM700K as demanded. Hopefully he will recoup his money when the land title is obtained and the land sold. Now all potential borrowers just beware some Islamic loans offered by some banks could be worse than the non Islamic ones.

My first night in Shah Alam was a relaxed one as Azuan's wife Ijjah was still around.

The next morning we sent Ijjah to the place where chartered busses were waiting to send Ijjah and her colleagues to attend the induction course at Pangkor Island.

Immediatley after that Azuan took me to Sunway to buy some art materials especially canvass as I didn't bring any from home. There were all sort of sizes and grades. It was really fun buying art materials in KL. I bought various canvass sizes from 12" x 12" to 24" x 30". If they would accept credit cards, I would have bought even more as I didn't have much cash on me.

That Thursday evening my wife Fatthiyah flew in and Azuan picked her up at LCCT while I waited at home in Shah Alam. She will be here till Sunday and will fly back to Kelantan on the first flight on Monday. So for that few days I have an assistant to take care of Adam.

The next day Dalilah Tamrin aka Raden Galoh of One Breast Bouncing came with her husband Saiful to pick up her two paintings. We were very happy to play host to them. They couldn't stay too long as the time given to them to park their car at the taxi pickup point was just half an hour and when the half hour was consumed, the securities called on the intercom to remind us that our guest must leave. Parking is a big problem at this apartment and the securities are too happy to clamp your car should you breach any of the rules as it will mean a fine of RM50 to declamp. I guess it is time to sell this apartment and get my son to buy another better place to live.

Later that night we had Kerp of Let's Go Land came with his pretty fiancee. They will be getting married come March and Kerp invited me over for the reception. Kerp gave me an Italian cap knowing that I collect them.

Being wheelchair bound, the security people allowed Kerp to park his car near the entrance to the apartment. It was kind of thoughtful of them to have a soft spot for such disabled people. So Kerp and partner could stay longer at our place to chat.

The next day was a Saturday. The area near the Shah Alam Stadium had a carnival in the form of Sua Rasa being organized by TV9 and Celcom. Non of our family member bothered to go even though we could hear all the fanfare happening there.

From the balcony of the apartment we could see the goings on at the carnival. Even the singing was heard loud and clear.

When the helicopter hovered to take an aerial shot, I took a shot at it (with my camera of course).

When our two other children Azura and Azrin came with their families, they started litting up the candles on a cake to celebrate my birthday. The grandchildren cried "Wow! So many candles" My children gave me a set of leather belt and wallet as my birthday present.
The grandchildren were eager to blow out the candles and they did just that before going back to their PS2 games which Irsyad had just acquired using his duit Raya to pay part of the cost. They didn't even bother to eat the cake though it was bought from Secret Recipe. Well even the elders didn't eat up much.

The grandchildren just enjoyed singing the birthday song and blowing out the candles, after that it was the PS2 games for them.

After all that was done we crammed into Azrin's SUV and headed for Pantai Dalam for an Open house at Su's flat. Su is a close friend of my daughter Azura. After parking the car it rained heavily and we had to take shelter at the police's block of flats.

I can't resist taking the picture of five of my grandchildren sitting on a bench. Right across the road there was an Indian Resotoran with this peculiar sounding name. Hopefully somebody may not mispronounce it's name.

When the rain subsided, we walked over to Su's flat to enjoy the food served at the hallway of the flat which was abit cramped with the number of guests. Under the circumstances city flat dwellers will have to make do with whatever is available when you are 10 storeys above the ground.

Su in lighter shirt with my Azrin's wife Yanie in black T shirt.

While on the way to Su's flat, we noticed the beautiful murals on the walls of the flat starting from the lift. This is the work of one of the flat dwellers to cheer up the mood of the dwellers on that floor. With that kind of murals, vandals are deterred from defacing the walls with grafiti. The guy who did it must be a formidable artist.

Fatthiyah had her photograph taken with Azura, Lis, As and Irsyad with one of the beautiful murals in the back ground.

We returned to Shah Alam.

It was Saturday night and we were invited to yet another Raya open house at En. Termizi aka Pak Abu and his wife Puteri Kamaliah of the famous blog Kata Kama. The family lives at the Sri TTDI condo in Taman Tun Dr. Ismail not far from Shah Alam. We were abit late and the parking area was already full of cars. Since the function was held at the poolside area, it was easy to locate the place at it was immediately at the entrance to the condo.

Though this is my first meeting with Puteri and Pak Abu, they were such gracious host that we felt so welcome.

The family with Puteri Kamaliah.

Yours truly with Pak Abu in the dark red baju Melayu.

Kay Leeda of the blog Sembang At Kay's was the other blogger at the function. The others who had confirmed attendance such as Raden Galoh, Elviza and Jaflam were unable to do so due to reasons of their own. Elviza was having a Deepavali dinner with a client, Raden may not be feeling well and when I called Dato' Jaffar, he was having a sore throat.

Another picture of the guests at Puteri Kamaliah's open house.

Sunday morning in Shah Alam means Pasar Pagi near the Stadium Shah Alam. This Sunday's Pasar Pagi will be more meaningful and crowded as it is also the second day of Sua Rasa. Fatthiyah wanted to go to the Giant Supermarket next to the Pasar Pagi so we drove over and parked almost near the supermaket. As usual the pasar pagi was crowded with the added attraction of Sua Rasa. Here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure.

The police showing their more powerful new cars, the Mitsubishi Evos. Hopefully they will be fat enough to catch the many snatch thefts that are occurring almost daily all over the country.
TV9 staff cajoling the crowd to join them for the poco poco dance. Many did and they seemed to enjoy themselves while having an excercise.

The power gliders hovering over the area.

A baby fast asleep while the mum was busy selling her wares.

That eveing we sent Fatthiyah to Enstek Labu. She will be catching the first flight back to Kelantan at LCCT on Mondayand had to be at the airport by 6.45 am the latest. Sleeping over at Azrin's place will be the best way to get her to the airport on time as it is a mere 15 minutes drive away.

While in Shah Alam, I did find time to paint. This is only possible when Adam Hakimi was having his sleep.

The first painting I did was of the white tulips for a friend's wife in Johor Baru follwed by the Flowers of Sanserveria. The second painting is on a 20" x 30" canvass and not meant for anybody yet. Any takers for this painting?

The painting of an autumn scene on the top of this post is a small painting of 12" x 18". It was done in preparation for a painting for Kak Teh of a Choc A Blog fame who promises to send the latest autumn picture of London showing all the golden hues imaginable.