The one about Ethan's 3rd Birthday...

Ethan's turned three and we celebrated his birthday twice this year. Firstly, we had a cosy tea party at our place on Sunday 6th May - having over around 30 people comprising family and friends (and of course kids).

The modest crowd enjoying themselves...

Ethan collecting his precious presents...

Cake time!

Yes, its an Elmo cake...

Another shot of the guests...

On Ethan's actual birthday, we had a small celebration at his playgroup - we brought cake and goodie bags for his classmates. Needless to say, the kids were excited as this provided a break from their routine morning tea. Ethan seemed quite enthralled by it all, even bopping along when they all sang his birthday song.

Ethan and Mum arriving at his school...

The "Little Swan" class...

The cake being prepared in front of watchful eyes...

Ethan's moment in the limelight...

Our son... all grown up

Happy Birthday son...

The one about educating and schooling...

Wow! Yes, it's been ages since I blogged. We've mainly been pre-occupied with little Ethan. We've started him on a playgroup at a local school/nursery.

At the end of March, we enrolled Ethan into the Learning Garden, a much recommended place to enable him to experience mixing around with other kids. We felt that he's not had much opportunity to play with children his age.

After just two days in "school" Jo and I were approached by one of their directors who expressed concern over Ethan's ability to follow the class. Follow the class? The boy's hardly three years old. Anyway, we knew there and then that this place was made for "schooling" and not education. To me, learning at Ethan's young age should be really about playing, social interaction and living skills.

Anyway, after the two week orientation, we started leaving Ethan alone with the class teachers and he has proven to be quite a trooper indeed. He hasn't caused too much of a mayhem within the class nor has he had much seperation anxiety. Needless to say, his parents are awfully proud of him!

Ethan's getting ready for his first day at playgroup...

Ethan and his proud mum...

Ethan's speech is delayed as he isn't saying much still. So the poor boy's being subjected to therapy and the whole works. For the time being, he's finding all that quite fun and quite an adventure. Still we want to give him every opportunity yet hope for the best. His third birthday is coming up this 8th of May. Has it been three years already? What a ride its been for both Jo and I! The ups and downs have translated to a amazing experience. Nothing has been perfect but then I prefer it as such. Battle scars of experience makes the journey worthwhile.

We are so looking forward to the rest of the way...

The one about lost photo opportunities...

Yes, i'm back. It's been ages since my last blog entry and lots have happened.

Will quickly run thru the past three weeks or so and let the photos speak for themselves...

Firstly, way back on Saturday March 3rd, I was at my friends' Aarolyn & Chin Sing's wedding at the Trader's Hotel (formerly the Shangri La). It was a pleasantly cosy wedding which I was given the honour to emcee. Have been emcee at quite a few weddings - six, I think. Lost count. Sadly, I don't have any photos of the event as yet.

Mum was invited by my Uncle Teddy on a trip to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. In fact Uncle Teddy decided to splurge on his siblings and took a big part of the Dielenberg family with him! All eight of them were to fly off from KL on Sunday 11th March for a meaningful holiday. Friday after school, Mum drove my Aunt Florence to Taiping where they met up with my Uncle Gilbert & Aunt Sooi See. The four of them then drove to KL to join the rest of the entourage.

With mum away, we took a break from our usual Saturday night out with friends but instead invited them over to our place for a dinner. Jo cooked up a storm and we treated our lucky friends to an Italian style meal. Did take a couple of photos of the food but can't remember where I saved the shots! Sigh!

Mum was back by Thursday 15th but she didn't finish the available exposures on her disposable camera. So, no photos here yet....

On Saturday 17th March, Jo and I went for a nice dinner at Ribs BBQ. The food was delicious as always. After that, we met at Mel & Stacy's new house. It was a kinda pre-house warming intro to their place. This time, I managed a few photos.


The big event of the month would be our little Ethan's first introduction to school! Yes, we enrolled him at The Learning Garden in their Playgroup class. We felt that he has been craving companionship with other kids and it was time for him to socialise with those his own age.

So, this morning was his first day and it went well indeed. He was very attentive for once and actually sat down to play with puzzles and other toys. He did want to play outside longer than he was allowed, which caused him to throw a major tantrum but otherwise, I'm certain he would settle in quickly and successfully.


The past three weeks have been pretty much stressful for many reasons for both Jo and I. Hopefully the Easter season and a fresh new month of April will shower us with some blessings. We'll be looking forward to that...

The one about flying time and having fun...

Hi there! It's the 3rd month of the year already and I haven't really gotten out of the "festive laziness" rut. Much has happened on many fronts - the home front, the social front, the work front and the current affairs front. Ardent followers of my blog (yes, all three of you) would know that I've centred my blogging exploits on the above themes. I'm actually hoping to expand my horizons a little and go into the more edgy and controversial; the more suspenseful and traumatic. Or I could just blog about American Idol.

In any case, there's much to catch up on..so without further ado...

Valentine's Day - the one day many have criticised as being over-commercialised and over-rated. I don't know about that - after all, what's so wrong about taking a day off to recognise the loves of our lives? Mushy and not befitting any macho man image, you may say, but many a macho man was conceived out of love. So, why not get stupid and cheesy and corny or any other snack-foody about it all. Having said all that, we had a simple Valentine's Day (heh heh). Jo and I joined all our friends - Jinny & KH, Sue & Yan, Stacy & Mel and Wendy for a hearty meaty meal at Ingolf Kniepe at Hillside. Drinks later was at the nearby Torch Pub. It was fun in an understated way. I got Belgian Chocs and a couple of Liverpool Addidas T-Shirts from Jo while I treated her to a Tiffany charm bracelet.



On Friday, 16th February, we were invited by Mel & Stacy to McDonald's at Sunrise Tower for Naomi's birthday. It was a fun time for the kids and adults alike. We brought Ethan along and needless to say he had a howling great time.
Latest advert from McD's....

The animated crowd of adults at a kid's party...

Ethan, Jo, Mia Sara and Nazriah...

The kids around the birthday girl Naomi...

Two hectically busy days at work after that, we got to Chinese New Year. We had our usual reunion dinner of Steamboat at our place. Mum worked hard to get the food all organised and we had Jo's aunt and uncle as guests. With the requisite fireworks "display" after dinner, Ethan seemed a little taken aback by all the fuss.

Ethan with his grandparents and grandaunt Vickie watching the fireworks...

On the 1st day of Chinese New Year, another great family shot...

On Monday night (2nd day of Chinese New Year) we had a gathering of old friends at Jinny & KH's place. This was to be a low-keyed old SXI boys gathering. We had Tze Meng, Melville David, Jimmy Baptist, Steven Thor joining our usual gang for some catching-up and reminiscing.


We had a welcomed break till Wednesday when we got back to work. The festivities continued with some of our friends still on leave. By "festivities" I mean more eating, eating and mahjong of course...

Our gang's annual Chinese New Year do was held this year at Furosato Restaurant in Pulau Tikus. Yes, we decided that we should have Japanese food for a change. Strange but admittedly a good decision - the food was very good and we had a massively great time at dinner and at Jinny & KH's place thereafter. We snuck in a game of Taboo which is always good for a laugh or two.



On the home front, my mum will be going on a well-deserved trip to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam with her brothers and sisters - my Uncle Teddy and Aunt Lily, Uncle Gilbert and Aunt Sooi See, Uncle Francis and Aunt Cecelia and my Aunt Florence as well. It should be a fun outing for her and I do believe she is very much looking forward to it. Uncle Teddy has generously agreed to foot the cost of travel and he has been extremely excited about the whole event - actively arranging hotel and tour plans.

Jo and I are pleased that mum will have this chance to really relax and enjoy herself and hope that everyone will take the opportunity to spend valuable time together.

This will have to do for now, I'll be blogging more soon... promise!

The one about a recap...

Its already February of the new year 2007 and the "holiday" mood has hardly died down. We've already had two public holidays in the First Day of Muharram (the Muslim New Year) and the celebration of Thaipusam just two days ago.

So far its been an eventful start to 2007. Jo's family suffered another loss with Uncle Eddie Holloway passing suddenly on the 16th of January. It was merely over two months since the passing of Aunty Joyce and the Holloways-De Vries family had to go thru another sad phase in their lives. Jo and I made it to the funeral held at the St. Francis Xavier church at PJ which was officiated by no less than six priests. There were many sad moments especially since the death was so unexpected. However, it was really heart warming to see that Uncle Eddie's sense of humour and good-natureness shone thru amidst the solemn and poignant service.

On a lighter note, one of my favourite reality shows started its new season - yes, American Idol is back and we have been treated to the usual array of talented and talentless characters auditioning from various parts of the US. The sheer audacity and peculiarity of some people will never fail to amaze me.

We've had our usual meetings with the gang and experienced the night life all the way at the Juru Auto-City. This new growth area just off the North-South Highway has turned into quite a hub for restaurants and bars. We had dinner at a chinese restaurant then proceeded to Soho (yes, they have a branch there!) for drinks. It was quite a revelation indeed to find an oasis amidst the dull exterior of the rural mainland.

Well, lots of things have happened so far this year - both in the world at large and to me personally. It's really unnecessary to get into it all at this stage. I hope to get into the blogging routine again and revive this blog with more spirited stories and tantalising tales. I leave you now with an updated photo of lil' Ethan. He's becoming quite a handful but still so adorable indeed. Truly my pride and joy...

The one about good and evil...

I was directed to these two web quizzes by Mel. Its about which Super Villain and which Super Hero you are (or rather could be...) - great fun!


My Super Villain results are:

You are Magneto



Magneto 66%
Dr. Doom 61%
Riddler 61%
Apocalypse 60%
Mr. Freeze 58%
Lex Luthor 56%
Venom 55%
The Joker 55%
Mystique 49%
Two-Face 49%
Catwoman 45%
Juggernaut 45%
Kingpin 42%
Green Goblin 41%
Poison Ivy 35%
Dark Phoenix 35%

You fear the persecution of those that are different or underprivileged so much that you are willing to fight and hurt others for your cause.

Click here to take the "Which Super Villain am I?" quiz...



My Super Hero results are:

You are Iron Man


Iron Man 65%
Superman 60%
Spider-Man 60%
Supergirl 58%
Robin 53%
Hulk 50%
The Flash 50%
Green Lantern 50%
Wonder Woman 43%
Catwoman 35%
Batman 30%

Inventor. Businessman. Genius.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Test

The one about pictures painting words...

Ok, ok, so its just an excuse since I've been dreadfully lazy in composing something funny or thought-provoking or politically correct or currently relevant for your reading pleasure. These pics, taken from our end-of-year dinner at May Garden followed by the party to welcome in 2007 at Soho, will do the talking.

Jo & I at May Garden...

The Gang tucking in at our last 2006 dinner...

Riotous fun as the last minutes of 2006 ticked away...


One of our first activities for the year 2007 was a birthday party for Sue Khoon's younger nephew Jae Han. Jo and I brought Ethan and all the kids there had the time of their lives.




We were immediately thrust into a major event for the year - a birthday celebration for Mel & KH on Jan 13th. This year, we went fancy with dinner at Tiffins Restaurant at the Parkroyal followed by Karaoke at the Swimming Club. It was a particularly fun night complete with a fun cake (photo icing of both Mel & KH at their last year's birthday). Jo and I took the opportunity to give out our special gift to the Gang - each a personalised desk calendar filled with photos of all of us with all important dates highlighted - i.e. our birthdays and anniversaries. All in all, we had a great night which bodes well for the upcoming events for the year.

Jo, who worked hard to get everything running smoothly...

Me & Jo posing as Sue Khoon snapped away...

The two birthday boys looking pleased...

The Gang's (almost) all here...

The one about a brand new year 2007...

Hi there and Happy New Year!!

This post is very much delayed due to the whirlwind of events which ended last year and began this year! By now, obviously to you all, I have changed my blogface and given it a swanky new look, or so I think. Maybe too black and white for most but then again, I'm a lawyer.

So, I promise to begin blogging in earnest very very soon. Meanwhile, good health and God Bless to everyone out there!

The one about the Compliments of the Season...

Well, December has once again proved to be the busiest month of the year. I've been swamped both with work and personal matters that blogging has taken a back seat recently. Apart from the measly few entries, I haven't had the luxury of boring the cyberworld with my usual drivel.

Needless to say there'd been a lot of activities and photos but with our internet connection affected by the recent earthquake in southern Taiwan, I'll have to do a round-up of 2006 sometime much later.

First some news update for the Christmas/New Year holiday season -

Today, Saddam Hussein was executed after his appeal failed. That ends that story.

Just before Christmas, Johor faced massive floods with heavy downpour that saw as much as 35mm of rain in a day. The clean-up and repatriation works are still on-going.

Time magazine named me (and you all too) as their "Person of the Year". It was their tribute to consumer driven websites such as YouTube, Friendster and obviously all Bloggers who have shaped the future of communication through the internet.

On the personal front, we had a great Christmas - we had Christmas Eve dinner with Jo's family while Mum had Aunt Florence, Uncle Gilbert, Aunt Sooi See, Lionel, Geraldine, Priscilla and their families all over at our place for a pot-luck dinner the same night.

On Christmas day itself, Jo and I had people over from lunchtime till late. Geraldine treated the whole family to lunch at Parkroyal, so Mum prepared her famed Spaghetti Laksa for us before she headed off for a well-earned buffet lunch.

The week that was passed by swiftly, with lots of errands to run and a few urgent matters to settle before the onset of the new year. We had our usual Christmas pot-luck with the gang at our place on Friday night. The theme was decidedly Christmas with traditional dishes such as Roast Pork, Mulled Wine, Roast Chicken being prepared and served. We had a gift exchange session after and the kids - Ethan and Naomi had a ball.

Finally, here we are. On the brink of another new year. I look ahead with eagerness and trepidation alike. So much to look forward to yet still many insecurities left behind. The year 2006 has been a long long year for me. I still vividly recall over a year ago, when we were in Singapore and i spoke to my mum over the phone as she broke the news that she had been diagnosed with cancer of the colon. The months to follow had been a whirlwind of emotions. Seeing mum go through her operation and recovery period, then her 6-month long Chemotherapy sessions.

Well, almost a year to the day, on 27th December, mum went for her follow-up colonscopy and the doctors have reported there and then that it was all clear! Thank God for getting us all through those times and we continue to pray that everyone stays healthy through the coming years.

Another spot of good news. Mum has been asked to re-join the teaching staff at the Convent Light Street kindergarten and will start her teaching term with a small class this coming January 3rd. I feel it was best for her to be back on her feet and doing something which she loves and does well. I sensed a feeling of well-being with mum since she came home from her medical tests and recently from her meeting at the school. I thank God once again for the blessings which He has shown us this season.

So, tomorrow night we have a dinner planned at May Garden and later off to Soho for the countdown. Whatever state I'm in at that very moment as we all scream out "...3...2...1...", I will stop for a moment to be thankful for health, happiness, friends and many other little blessings.

So let's just drink from the cup o' kindness and look ahead to a great 2007.

The one about music & malls

I'm back. Had a break from blogging after the whirlwind of activities the last month. It has been a pretty quiet three weekes by any standards, so I'll save you the yawns by just speeding thru the events.

On Friday 24th Nov, the Catholic Lawyers had a meeting with the Bishop of Penang. We were invited to give our views on the recent events at the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes in Silibin, Ipoh. The Church had decided to allocate a Day of Prayer for forgiveness to be held on the 1st of December 2006. The Bishop was also considering a proportionate response by way of another press statement. After viewing a private home video of the actual events on that fateful day, we delved into the discussion. Suffice to say it proved to be an enlightening session for all.

The next day, we had dinner at Karaikudi Restaurant - the one at Little India in town. It was a change from our usual destination. After a satisfying meal, Ralph, KH, Jinny, Jo and I all headed to Island Plaza for coffee at Starbucks. We were joined by Sue & Yan, Mel & Stacy there. Usual banter and anticipatory talk of the new mall opening.

On Sunday, apart from our usual activities, Jo and I joined Mel and Stacy at the movies - catching "Casino Royale" a James Bond pre-quel of sorts. The new Bond Daniel Craig made his first appearance in the role. Not much to comment. Never been much of a Bond an myself.

The week beginning 27th November proved to be pretty uneventful. The one highlight was obviously the opening of the brand spanking new Queensbay Mall at Bayan Lepas. The mall boasts new tenants such as Jusco (famous for their great supermarket and food section), Borders, Harvey Normans and others.

Jo and I decided that we would want to be one of the many curious ones who would brave the possibility of traffic-jams and people-packed-like-sardines-along-small-walkways to grace the white-tiled, paint filled aroma building which is destined to be THE mall in the state. There were crowds and there was a jam but overall, it wasn't impossible. However, getting into one of the few food places was much harder. Some new places there for food - Laksa Shack, Manhattan Fish Market, Bakerzin, Paddingtons House of Pancake and lots more...

Our lunch at Paddingtons was pretty much a disaster. One look at the extensive menu convinced me that these people have no idea what they were getting themselves into. There was no systematic ordering process and the waiters were not trained (a major pet hate of mine). Jo and I had met Stacy for lunch there and suffice to say Jo's food never came and we had to tell the cashier what we ate! When will people ever learn.

Still, we left Queensbay with a sense of hope. This place has the potential of being the key mall in Penang. It certainly has brought a little bit more of the world to us in little Penang.

The next night Jo and I had tickets to the Penang Island Jazz Festival. This now annual event boasts of fine international acts from all over the world converging on a plot of garden by the Bayview Beach pool. Somehow, we managed to miss the previous festivals but this year we made an effort to attend - and we weren't disappointed. Although it didn't have the sheer magnitude nor the elecricity of other established music festivals (like the Kuching Rainforest Music Festival - which features its 10th anniversary next year 2007), I was quite pleasantly pleased by the ambience and response from the Penangites.




I met an old friend of ours Darryl Goh from the Star who is one of their chief music correspondents, who told me blankly that none of the Penang journalists were keen on covering the event so he had to come up from KL. Sigh.

Despite a late night, I had to get up early Sunday morning for mass at the Immaculate Conception Church in Pulau Tikus. We were having our special mass for the Catholic Lawyers that morning. Immediately after mass, the Catholic Lawyers were presenting a short talk on the issue of the Legal Implications of Conversion to Islam. The talk was given mainly by Agatha Foo with help from a few of us. The response was good with nearly 30 people in the hall. Questions were fielded after the informative session and we hope those who were there were enlightened on the real legal position.

After mass, Jo and I headed for - you guessed it - Queensbay Mall (again). This time I dropped Jo off as she was meeting Sue Khoon, Yan and Wendy for lunch. I took the opportunity to dash to the PC Fair at PISA. Amazingly, the PC Fair was busier than Queensbay! Still, I picked up a couple of great bargains - an new 1gb SD card for RM65 and an external hardisk enclosure for RM35 only.

We picked up Ethan from his grandparents' around 6pm and headed home only to realise that Jo needed to pick up something from Gurney Plaza. As she was a little tired out, I went alone and visited yet another mall.

That night I do remember falling asleep quickly - quite drained from all that walking. As i drifted off into the sub-conscious, my mind told me there was more to come...

The one about the KL trip...

The routine week beginning 13th November whizzed by swiftly - fueled by the anticipation of our planned trip to KL.

Monday the 13th itself we had a meeting of the Catholic Lawyers Diocese of Penang (our official name for the moment). We have planned a couple of masses - one at the Immaculate Conception Church in Pulau Tikus and the other at the Nibong Tebal parish. After the mass will be an exhibition cum talk on various legal issues facing parishioners and the church. More on that when it happens.

Tuesday morning, I travelled to Prai to a client's factory for a meeting. I was shown the organisation's set-up and factory premises. I must say it felt very good being able to identify with my client and what they do. It was also important for our simbiotic relationship to be involved with their build-up from the start.

Due to my late return, my mum dropped Jo off at work and she had a lunch date with Sue Khoon at Scarlet. The place was still opened! Sometime back I had thought they closed down. I made it in time to join them for a quick lunch. Must say the food came fairly fast but the fare was average at best.

The rest of the week went by without much fanfare as I cleared my desk to ensure no pile-up when we take off for KL on Friday morning.

Friday arrived soon enough and we got up early to make sure we cram in the day's full activities. This trip was for Jo and I to visit the gravesite of her Aunt Joyce in Malacca and to do a bit of shopping. Mel & Stacy were also going down to attend Stacy's convocation. She had just completed her MBA from the University of Sunshine Coast. So we've all decided to make a trip of it. Besides, we've arranged to stay all at Celina's place in Kelana Jaya.

Jo and I found Aunty Joyce's grave in Malacca easily enough with good directions from Richard. After paying our respects, we surveyed a few of the graves and were really impressed by their tombstones. They were really ornate and obviously had Portugese/European influences.

We made it back to KL by around 4pm, in time to meet up with Mel & Stacy at Ikea. After a fruitful browse in that store, we finally started towards Celina's at about 7pm. That night we had dinner plans - meeting some other friends at "El Cerdo" the Spanish restaurant which we had gone to last time around. As Stacy had not been there, we thought it nice to introduce her to the culinary experience that is so rare in Malaysia.

By the time Celina got home and we got settled in, unpacked and changed for dinner, we were all really really late. Jo's friends Shirren and Jason were already waiting at the restaurant since 8.15pm and Celina's friend Miki Choong (I think she's some celebrity host of a TV show - don't ask me, I've never seen her show) had also arrived early as well. We nicely waltzed in to the restaurant at 9.45pm, an hour and a half late!

All was forgotten when the chatter began, and the food ordered. Service was swift and unobtrusive (save for the proprietor Werner sitting down with us when ordering, which I thought was an informal touch that identifies the concept of the place) and the food was in quick time laid out before us. The appetiser platter of pork dishes was out of this world. So was the German Pork Knuckle (order for two shared by Mel & me). We ate whatever we could and asked for the remainder bone to be packed home. However, the waitress never brought it back to us! Must have decide to keep it for herself!! Yes, it was THAT good!

The girls discussing their orders with Werner...

All tucking in with gusto...

We were then treated to a strange KL culture (according to the Celina) - because after dinner we proceeded to Celina's friend apartment nearby for a house party. We got there, the party was a small one and at best we felt like we were intruding. The uncomfortableness lasted merely a few minutes (Thank God!) and we all left after having a courtesy drink - thanks of course to the kind hospitality of our host Nuria (Spanish teacher based here).

We got back to Celina's, sat around to chat and soon felt the effects of the day's activities. Morpheus worked his magic.

The next morning we got up fairly early. The plan was to have breakfast then head off to drop Stacy & Mel off at the Seri Pacific Hotel where her graduation ceremony would be held. Since we all got up drowsily, Stacy who was the most perky of the lot, went off to buy some Roti Chanai and drinks. Soon, our stomachs full, we were driving off (all 5 of us in my car) towards town. Jo and I planned to do some shopping at KLCC while waiting for Stacy's function to finish. Celina tagged along.

Stacy had just found out the day before that she was to be given the Dean's Award as one of the top students for her graduating class. She'd worked hard for the honours and kudos to her indeed!


The three of us got bitten by the shopping bug and to cut a long story short, a good five hours later, with Mel & Stacy already with us (they took a cab to KLCC), we found our way to my car - with shopping bags practically growing out of our arms - and started our drive back.

Dinner that night was at "Nero Vivo" a trendy Italian restaurant in the Bukit Ceylon area. Celina decided to drive herself there so we arrive first and pondered at the substantive menu. We were joined by Stacy's brother Damian who works with the Malay Mail.

Posing before the food arrives...

Jo and Celina sharing a joke...

One thing I've noticed about these "upmarket" restaurants in KL is that they have stopped serving complimentary water to their guests. I realise its their way of maximising the drink orders from their customers. When asked for water, the usual reply is "Still or Fizzy?". Look, I just want some pure God-made, rain-delivered water to drink. Does it have to come in a fancy bottle and Sophie's Choice?

With dinner nicely tucked under our belt (and stretching those belts a tad too) we moved on to a night spot nearby. It was a Jazz club called "No Black Tie". That night was a live performance by Gina Panizales and the Salvador Guerzo Octet. One of the guest singers was Salvador Guerzo's daughter Rachel Guerzo, herself a known lounge jazz singer in KL. We had an enjoyable time there and were joined by Jo's cousin Richard and wife Swee Kim.

The group at "No Black Tie"...

Rachel Guerzo taking the stage with her dad's octet...

Soon we found ourselves back at Celina's and although the night wasn't young, we wanted to make the most of it. Celina, Mell and Stacy sat on the balcony deep in conversation while Jo and I got changed. Mel then decided that he preferred to check his emails and I took his place - discussing with Celina and Stacy the psychology of people.

It was after 4am by the time I got to bed and Stacy and Celina went on till after 5am!

The next morning we got up, with bags under our eyes, and headed for 1-Utama shopping complex. We did breakfast at Deli-cious by Ms Read, another swanky outlet within the mall itself. The food was tremendous but the service was truly pathetic. It irks me so much to see fine places like these being run to the ground by inadequately trained service staff and disorganised work flow system. When will people ever learn.

The chilled-out group at Deli-cious...

Our journey back to Penang started around 4pm with stops at Sungai Buloh (to pick up some Burger King and Dunkin' Donuts) and again at the Sungai Perak layover. Tired but happy, we arrived to pick Ethan up from my in-law's around 8pm. After that, it was home, sweet home for all of us.

The one about the Birthday celebration photos...

Here are some choice shots from Raphael & my 40th birthday celebrations... better late than never!

The gang busy with the dinner...

Birthday boy & wifey!

Old friends (in more ways than one?)...

Awww... all say cheese....

The surprise turnout at Bagan...

Jo, the consumate hostess...

Jo, Phee and Karen, sharing a laugh...

Jo & I taking time off to pose...

The whole party in wide angle...


I had a fantastic time, and thanks to all who made the night what it was, especially Jo who worked so hard to organise it all. Thanks. It really meant a lot.