what do grown up men do when they are hungry and have lots of free time on their hand?
they drive up all the way north for makan!

with just a trusty gps and an empty stomach, we began our journey…..

the plan was to travel all the way up to melaka and take the road less travel. forget about the northsouth expressway, just sticking to the road that passes the sleepy towns and kampungs.

it was revisiting the small towns like ayer hitam and muar that made the drive to melaka enjoyable where we got to experience local food fare first hand while enjoying the scenery.

our first stop was ayer hitam. the town was a huge hit way back in the 90s with singaporeans going to melaka or KL, stopping at the town as a rest stop before the opening of the northsouth expressway which took most of the travellers straight up, bypassing the town totally.

we noticed that there were many food stalls selling putu bambu by the roadside. we tried the delicacy and thoroughly enjoyed the sweet and rich taste with the generous amount of gula melaka in it. all of that for just RM$2 for 6 pieces!

we had our breakfast there and tried the soto since we saw many of the customers there eating it. and boy, were we really surprised at how good the soto was. the soup was not so thick and the taste didn’t have the overpowering spice taste, just nice.

next we checked out the market there, with shops selling an assortment of foodstuff, we bought a couple of kerepoks before proceeding to our next destination, muar.

along the way to muar, we stopped at a nice family-owned snack stall. with their piping hot pisang goreng and crispy kerepok lekor, we could not resist taking a bite before continuing our drive to muar.

lunch at muar was at a little foodstall selling asam pedas. with a side dish of rendang chicken plus the killer sambal belachan, the stingray version of the asam pedas with tehO ice just cost us a princely sum of RM$8 for 2.

we were supposed to check out the famous mee bandung muar stall but because it started to rain suddenly, didn’t really have the chance to venture further. we managed to do a bit of sightseeing around town before moving on.

from muar, we drove on the sultan ismail bridge, crossing over the muar river, from there we took the lebuh AMJ which stands for alor gajah-melaka tengah-jasin expressway and onward towards our destination – melaka!

check the flickr set for more pics

continue in part 2

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the last we had a baby shower was almost two years ago, and we predicted back then that the next in the group to have a baby would be lydia, and the theme would be ‘Lady Gaga’.

both came true….

the DELICIOUS treats and FABULOUS details on the dessert isle were lovingly planned and executed by Ola Lola! dayyym, we have such talented friends.

we wish our Lady, lydia, all the best for the last leg of her pregnancy, and we know baby LH will be showered with as much joy and love as her mummy is. here’s to a wonderful start to being a mum, indeed… (and thank you for the awesome party, at st. regis no less. best!)

and i’m afraid the rest of the pictures are a liiiittle too risque, as you would imagine a theme centred around a woman who’s perpetually half-naked would turn out. ;)

but i’ll leave you with this visual:

the talented esah who did the gaga makeup for some of the girls, AND came up with her very own gaga get-up, which won her Best Dressed. wanna see?
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EH EH, TAK BOLEH! wait batal puasa.

i give you our cute baby gaga mascot instead. :p

you and me could write a bad romaaaance…

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Untitled, originally uploaded by izadd.

Untitled, originally uploaded by izadd.

executed a surprise birthday party at MBS for one of the guys, with much success.

heading to port dickson tomorrow for two nights, then KL for another night. will be missing out another May party in the meantime. have a good one, adam naufal and adil rayyan!

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had a last-minute inspiration about oh… five days to her birthday.

cookies and cake by NCakes.

owls often symbolise intelligence, wisdom, knowledge – plus, they’re REALLY cute. (and ok yeah, there’s a literary reference too: Owl Babies is one of my favourite children’s books, makes me teary every time, sniff.)

pink (her favourite) and black (my favourite) hoot loot. well, i had to compromise.

treated the kids to a stay at royal plaza on scotts over the weekend, and had close family members over for high tea at carousel.

just a commoner… ;p

cake compliment of Carousel.

the brother who still refers to his sister as “my baby”.

the coincidentally colour-coordinated grandparents, heh.

many eligible princes.

the maids-in-waiting.

yes, even he likes to squeeeeeze her. a lot.

the royal plaza people were so kind as to help set up some chairs and a table at the pool side for a small party in the evening.

night owls.

sleeping beauty was forced to wake up from her slumber power nap to blow out the candles…

and pose for insufferably many pictures.

the mommies.

the children.

kate middleton she may not be, but marry a prince… who knows?? :D

happy turning terrible terrific three, my owl baby.

ps: thank you guys for celebrating with us!

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Untitled, originally uploaded by izadd.

… and i still won’t blow my candles out! :D

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so the eldest in our clan reached 34… yeah, we’re not ashamed to claim our age. we’ve said it before and we’ll say it again – we’re loving our 30s! we were saying how we’d occasionally look through old photos of us together.. how fun it is to see how we’ve evolved over the years…

(77clan, est. Dec 03)

so what do we possess now, more… confidence? maturity? wisdom? grace?
(well, i guess you qualify for all that when you go around with a koyok plastered on yourself and *still* have someone ask if you’re a model, and have a tube of tiger balm handy in your gucci bag for random moments of muscle aches… :D)

“all u need is effort to keep the friendship going… best is to have friends who are easy going.. and no feelings of trying to outdo one another” – wise words from back-then 30-yr-old esah, dec 2007 (from an old blog post)

ps: happy birthday to the two Arians in the clan!

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Our many chewren!, originally uploaded by izadd.

the gang’s brood just keeps growing. :)

i think we need more girls, yes? if anything, so we’ll have more girly-themed parties…

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kebaya pageant, originally uploaded by izadd.

google ‘kebaya’ and you’ll land on an entry in – where else – wikipedia..

“History

The name of Kebaya as a particular clothing type was noted by the Portuguese when they landed in Indonesia. Kebaya is associated with a type of blouse worn by Indonesian women in 15th or 16th century. Prior to 1600, kebaya on Java island were considered as a sacred clothing to be worn only by royal family, aristocrats (bangsawan) and minor nobility, in an era when peasant men and many women walked publicly bare-chested.”

*cue chuckles at last line*

“Modern Innovations

Apart from traditional kebaya, fashion designers are looking into ways of modifying the design and making kebaya a more fashionable outfit. Casual designed kebaya can even be worn with jeans or skirts. For weddings or formal events, many designers are exploring other types of fine fabrics like laces to create a bridal kebaya.

Modern-day kebaya now incorporate modern Western tailoring innovations such as clasps, zippers and buttons- zippers being a much appreciated addition for ladies’ requiring the bathroom, without requiring being literally unwrapped by a helper- to the extent the true kain is near unanimously rejected.

Other modern innovations have included the blouse baju kebaya worn without the restrictive kemben, and even the kebaya blouse worn with slacks or made of the fabric usually for the kain panjang.

Modern kebaya blouses are also zippered at the back- for practicality and for larger frame women’s busts not to literally burst out the front of their blouse.”

seriously, WHO WROTE that last part??

and also… would anyone care to edit that wiki entry with an even more updated ‘modern innovation’? ;D

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BFFs slumber party, originally uploaded by izadd.

do NOT be fooled by the appearance of these girly girls.

they’re little cili padis, is what they are. :D

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Nasi Ambeng, originally uploaded by izadd.

four more days to the end of Ramadhan.

blessed to be surrounded by loved ones.

… and blessed with an abundance of food.

thankful for everything good in our lives. :)

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the kids had been singing snatches of what sounded like ‘we are singapore’ days before national day. the little one would putter about going “seeeng-a-poh… seeeng-a-poh…”, and the older one would ask the title of the song where “got lion roar, that one”, so we knew they’d been brainwashed – i mean, taught in school about national day. “singapore’s birthday?”, he asked. well, sorta, i guess. that’s much simpler than having to explain the history of independence to a 4-year-old.

i’d never been to a national day parade when i was young, my parents preferring to stay put at home and restrict our national merriment through live telecasts of the parade on tv. izad on the other hand, has only fond nostalgia of the NDPs he’d been to as a kid, now lamenting how difficult it has been to obtain tickets since the advent of the balloting system. i guess i’m not “patriotic” enough to reallllyyy want to participate en masse in flashing flags and singing in unison to sappy songs about being home, truly, but there’s enough of it to go along with the crowd to soak in the holiday atmosphere and enjoy the roaring jet displays and spectacular fireworks, the latter admittedly being my only favourite part of the celebrations.

actually, my seemingly lackadaisical attitude towards the concept of patriotism extends to having few complaints of being born here and subjected to the system that is singapore. (sometimes i even find myself defending the system, despite myself – well, as they say, don’t bite the hand that feeds you, heh.)

comfortable and complacent, how’s that for being a model singaporean?

and now, enough of that perennial (and truthfully tiring) grumblings of “wasting taxpayers money” rubbish, you cynics. (there’s plenty in the coffers, take this is small change.) i love fireworks, my kids love fireworks, and i’m ‘technically’ paying for it too, so suck it up and enjoy lah! :p

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maybe i should send the kids for proper music lessons… (coz i don’t have a musical bone in my body, couldn’t even carry a tune on the recorder in school! and would take at least ten minutes to figure out the entire ‘twinkle twinkle little star’ on a toy piano/xylophone.)

oh well, i’ll just stick to being a groupie.

and happy birthday to the rockstar-to-be…

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remind me to make a dental appointment, been having so much cake lately…

rayhan’s 4th:

damdils’ 4th:

fina’s xth:

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