Birthday picnic

My parents & I moved to Taman Tun when I was 12 way before One Utama came and Jaya Jusco was just a small little shoplot in the middle of all the shophouses. Back then we could cycle everywhere, there were no highways with speeding cars, and my friends and I used to cycle near Jalan Aminudin Baki area, which has now been converted from the pond it was then to a proper park area, Kiara Park.

Last Saturday, Eza and I and our kids met up at Kiara Park, unloaded the food from our cars, bossed the kids to help carry the things and walked further into the park than we had before, as we tried to find a good spot to park ourselves. Rasa macam lama giler jalan when in fact it was probably just about 10 mins, if that pun, but it was starting to be a hot day. Then we saw the perfect spot under the trees in between the stream and the playground but we were on the wrong side. Since we're such lazy bitches, instead of turning a little bit back and crossing at the bridge, we thought what the hey, let's jus really get back to nature and cross the stream. Okay, as Eza said, calling it a stream is a bit of a stretch, it wasn't that wide. But finding a proper flowing body of water that was or appeared to be clean and clear and did not smell hanyir in Klang Valley is no mean feat so I think it deserves to be called a stream. Tak wide, tak wide pun, we did not manage to cross that stream gracefully, Eza stumbled in the muddy embankment and like a true friend, I laughed instead of helping her. Sorry Eza. Dah lah she had brought proper food and even a surprise birthday cake for me. Thank you dear, I don't know why you put up with me sometimes. Anyway, once we had got the tikar out and set up the food (screaming like true city brats "Ants! Ants! Big ass ants!!!") her kids brought out the surprise cake for me and in the middle of the park in Taman Tun with IBM tower gleaming in the sun within view, they all sang happy birthday to me kuat2 tanpa segan silu. Thank you so much you guys!!

We ate, the kids played at the playground within our view and reach and Eza and I chilled under the tree as we dug into the cake with forks (who needs slices?) Good times....

Later we all ended up in the stream, surprisingly it felt really cooling there even though the hot sun was already high in the sky and before I could say don't sit in the water, my beloved Amani did just that, thankfully I had brought extra clothes for her.

In the end, everyone ended up getting wet in the water and I sat there on a big rock, my feet in the stream, watching my best friend and our kids trying to catch the tiny fishes in the water and I felt so content and so blessed and so happy.

Sometimes we don't need to go very far to find fulfilment.

Family outing

A few weeks back, during the last 3 day weekend, Nazri & both his brothers and our respective kids and his parents all went out together to KLCC. Riuh habis. Being an only child, when I was growing up the weekends were fairly quiet, my mom would take me to libraries and parks and so on and from time to time, I'd meet up with my cousins but when I married Nazri with his 5 siblings I anticipated more entire-family-related weekends. But Nazri nama je adik beradik ramai but they are scattered all over Malaysia, except for his younger brother so this KLCC outing was rare and turned out to be really fun. Sometimes my inlaws (read: mother in law) drives me crazy but I really do love her and them...hmmm I'm getting quite cair and lembik and sentimental as I get older...Anyway, Amani was thrilled to be with so many of her cousins and the kids ran and jumped and twirled along the tunnel from KLCC and Aquaria.

Now this is THE main joy of having children. I've been to Aquaria a few times and have always enjoyed it but seeing it through their eyes, watching them as their eyes widened in wonder at the humongous Amazonian fish and the giant manta ray "flying" through the water, just made the whole trip more special. And I was especially thrilled for them that unexpectedly we had arrived just in time (so not a Hassanal Bashry family trait) to watch the feeding of the fish by the Aquaria scuba divers. The kids ooh'd and aaah'd and so did I along with them.

Amani with her favourite Aunt, Mak Chu:

Afterwards we all had lunch together under the trees at Velodrome, Cheras - nasi hidang & ayam kampung.

A brilliant day out.