Happy Birthday Abah!

Today, we went to celebrate my dad's birthday. When I woke up, both my parents were downstairs so I sneaked down and wished my dad a happy birthday. Then I went back up decided what to wear. Somehow most of the clothes that we wore needed to be ironed so my mom ironed her clothes, my brother's and mine while my dad ironed his. He insisted.

All of us dressed casual-smart. We hit the road about 11:30 or so. On the way it was a nice drive. Light-hearted with laughter and chatter. We entered Putrajaya and after a slight detour -- due to a wrong turn -- we passed by the Putrajaya International Convention Center (PICC) and it is an impressive building. Abah says it is like a hotel on the inside. There were so many flags outside. All the states' flags along with dozens and dozens of Malaysia's flag; the Jalur Gemilang.

When we saw Pullman Hotel from the distance as we approached, we could see the architecture was marvelous. When we pulled into the parking lot and surfaced, we were blown away. It wasn't a hotel, it was a palace! The place is huge. Its like a city, not a hotel. There are three blocks or wings. Each wing is the size of another small hotel. And they have three blocks. The design was very South East Asian. Very strong Siamese influence. I liked it very much. Not to 'kerawang' but still rustic.

The name of the restaurant my mom booked is B's. It is an all-day dining restaurant. Awesome place. Very nice ambience, very nice furnishings and interior design work.

The food was topnotch. The salad was absolutely yummy. Fresh, crisp and plenty of choice. The mushroom soup was very creamy and mouth watering. The ciabatta bread I took complemented it very nicely and vice versa. Afterwards, I had some grilled lamb which absolutely delicious and an exquisitely done fettucine bolognaise. The fettucine was an exotic twist of eastern and western style. With subtle eastern herbs cooked in a distinctly western style. Amazing. While relaxing a bit before hitting the buffet tables again -- hehe -- the head chef (who had cooked my fettucine by the way) came with pretty much the entire kitchen singing happy birthday and carrying a nice little cake. After some sampling we took some photos. A very nice lady helped us so that I could be in the picture too. Thank you, by the way, whoever you are. Then I had some kuey teow sup. It wasn't bad but the beef was chewy unfortunately and I still like Taiping's keuy teow sup better. Hehe. For desert; two helpings of mint choc ice cream. It was very very yummy.

After we paid, we went around to snap some pictures. Pullman Hotel is more like a city than a hotel. It is huge. They have skybridges linking the different wings. I want to be able to go there some day. It is an extremely nice hotel. If only we had the money. The waterfront is very nice and very spacious. I like it. The watersports area looks like a lot of fun too. After quite a lot of pictures we went to pray Zuhur at the basement surau.

The surau was very nice. Very cool. The day was very hot by the way and it was a relief to get into the air-conditioned surau. After praying, we sat around a bit more before heading to the car and leaving. The bellboy was very nice. He was waiting for the elevator too but gave it to us instead. Another thing about Pullman Hotel; awesome service and very friendly staff.

Mama wanted to check out Abah's new office so we did. I fell asleep on the way. Hehe. We couldn't go up because the office is still under renovation, etc. The surrounding area is very nice. Very peaceful. Very relaxing. There is a hill nearby where lots of land are sold exclusively to different countries for them to build their embassies. It was interesting seeing which nations had already bought lots there. Iraq's Embassy was already well underway and we joked that we won't be seeing the US Embassy set up shop next door. Hehe. Mama heard there was an international school nearby so we drove by to see.

Then we went to Alamanda because I needed a new pair of socks for rugby. Akid was cranky and kept saying things like, "there's no reason to be here,", "no, don't shop,", up to a point when Mama was upset because Akid kept hassling and being unreasonable when she was browsing. Soon after though, everything was OK. I got a new correction tape and Akid got a new pair of pajamas. Oh, Abah, Akid & I ordered our baju melayu's for this year.

On the way back I dozed off. Then I took a bath, started writing at 7, had dinner and finally at 11, I am wrapping up this post.

Au revoir & thank you for reading.