Visiting Phil's Parents in Birmingham

On Saturday 25 Apr we had an invitation by Phil's parent to visit and have dinner with them at their house in Birmingham.  The girls wanted to do some shopping also.  So we left early 11:00 am heading for the latest shopping mall called the Resort World by Genting. Yes, Genting our Malaysian casino multinational. But it was not to be; it's not quite ready yet.  So we settled for the Bullring, an ugly armadillo like shopping mall, where Selfridges had an outlet. Quite an interesting place, though.

We left the Bullring around 5:30 pm to drive to Jenny & Peter Gordon's (Phil's parents) place some half hour into the suburbs.  They also had a makeover; lovely modern kitchen, dining area and patio. Peter said landscaping the garden is his next project.

Longleat and Stonehenge

Having got the 5-seater Nissan X-Trail we decided to make full use of it. So on Friday 24 Apr, we motored down to Longleat (famed for its collection of wild animals.) It was quite a drive with the GPS taking us along narrow farm roads to finally arrive at the entrance of the Animal Safari Park on the ETA given. It was nice to drive through the property with the animals roaming free but ignoring us completely. And of course the handphone cameras got busy.

After lunch at Longleat we drove off to Stonehenge about 1 hr east (near Amesbury) in the Salisbury plains.  Stonehenge had a makeover; now it's got an Exhibition Centre, a shuttle bus service from the Centre, gift shop and restaurant (of course.) Lovely. When I came way back in the '80 there was nothing of this sort.

Family visit to Ida's new house

Ida and Phil bought a house last year. We were so pleased and Ham wanted to visit.  So we decided on a late April 2015 visit, hoping that it'd be quite warm then.  Eton, Nani (Awang's wife) and Bobby (Eton's son) came with us to make a group of 5.

Ida picked us up at London Heathrow (LHR) airport on the 21st April at Terminal 4. The Airbus 380 MH 004 was quite full and going through Immigration took quite a bit of time.  We emerged at 6 something to be greeted by Ida who had waited since 2 hours earlier. We then piled into the 7 seater Alhambra (Spanish) van for the drive to Stroud.  It was still daylight; sunset being around 8:30 pm.

Eton had booked a flat in Stroud at the Bell House.  Quite a nice place and close to Tesco (by car) and the railway station (by foot.)

Ham and I stayed with Ida at her place called Hillside (no house number) in The Edge on a no-name road (one moves around by GPS using Postcodes in England, just like being in a kampung in Malaysia except for the Poskod bit.) Her place is 4x4 country really with farms all round. Good thing Enterprise car-hire gave us a 4x4. And the view from her lounge is stunningly picture perfect.

We needed a car to move around, so on 23 Apr we hired a Nissan X-Trail 4x4. Actually we just needed an automatic but they had only this 4x4 for the same price at GBP 148 per week.  Add full insurance cover and another driver, the cost finally came to GBP 531.

Saedah passed away

Ham's niece, Saedah bt Puteh, passed away last night around 01:30 am at Hospital Tuanku Bainun, Ipoh.  She was suffering from breast cancer.  Funeral is today before zohor.

Soraya's Picnic

Soraya was taken by parents Zaki and Sabrina to Kuantan staying at Raja Badrina's resort home on the beach.  It was Sabrina's family outing over the weekend (8-9 Aug 2014.)  From the pictures below, Soraya obviously enjoyed herself.  And when she came for her day-care today, she was unusually "talkative" like as if she wanted to tell us all about it.

Hamidah passed away

Dukacita dimaklumkan Hajah Hamidah bt Umar (64) -- anak saudara Hamsiah -- dan isteri kepada Mej (Bersara) Hj Alias bin Bachek telah kembali ke rahmatullah jam 1730 Sabtu, 09 Ogos 2014 di HUKM, disebabkan oleh breast cancer. Pengkebumian telah disempurnakan sebelum zohor hari Ahad 10 Ogos 2014 di Tanah Perkuburan Jalan Karak, Batu Caves. Bersamalah kita berdoa agar Allah meletakkan roh Allahyarham bersama mereka yg soleh lagi dikasihiNya. Takziah kita kepada Mej Hj Alias dan keluarga. Alfatihah.

An Atuk at last

I am very happy. My life is now complete.  At 74, I am now a genuine datuk; a real Atuk or grandpa; although I have been a Johor Dato' since 1982.  It's a nice feeling having a descendant at last.

My No 1 son, Zaki's wife Sabrina gave birth to a healthy baby girl, Puteri Soraya, on Saturday 30 Nov 2013 at 11:56 am.  She weighed 3.11 kg (6.856 lb) at birth.  Both mother and baby are doing fine and have since been discharged from the Post Natal ward of the Sime Darby Medical Centre, Subang Jaya.

Here's a video (taken with my Galaxy Note II smartphone) of the baby and dotting grandma.

...and here's another video taken at Sabrina's father's house in 1Utama on Wednesday 4 Dec 2013.

and here's a few pictures of Soraya two months or so later: