A Fun Adventure - Part I

So in April, my birthday month, we traveled to Tokyo, Japan for Uncle Keith's wedding. The whole BibAni clan went including Nenek Rose, Aunty Fira and Uncle Yan. Tok Abah encountered some problems at the airport when we took off so he had to take another flight the next day.

Just landed in Tokyo

Once we arrived, we left our bags at the hotel and went straight out for sightseeing. The weather was nice and cool. The first place we visited was the Sensoji Temple. It was the end of the Sakura season but we managed to catch some of it. Mommy and dadda bought some cool souvenirs from there. We also had help from 2 cool guides, Nakano-San and An-San.

Our first sightseeing place

Wefie! (If you see anyone using monopods in Japan, they must be Malaysians. Lol!)

An-San, my new friend in Tokyo :)

Photo session with the guides before they leave.

Uguisudani station, the nearest station from our hotel. You can see our hotel at the background, Candeo hotel.

Shopping in Ameyoko.

We walked for a bit more until it was time to check into the hotel. Then, we just rested for the rest of the day.

The next day, Tok Mama and Adida went out early in the morning to fetch Tok Abah from the airport. We also got ready early and met up with them at the station where we had breakfast and waited for everyone else to come. After brunch, we browsed at the Ueno station and walked across the road to Ameyoko while waiting for the Franklins to arrive. When everyone showed up, we went for a snack at the Ueno Park just a few minutes walk from the station.

Pak Su with lil' Aaron - Aaron's first trip overseas.

Tok Abah and Tok Mama with all 3 of their grandchildren in front of Hard Rock Cafe.

The boys

Picnic in the park with the Franklins.

After our outdoor activity at the park, the Franklins had to leave to meet up with the bride and her family. Us kids followed Tok Abah and Tok Mama back to the hotel to rest since Tok Abah practically disembarked from the plane straight to sightseeing with us. The rest of them went on to Akihabara for some shopping.

The 3rd day was THE day. We got up real early that morning and dressed up.

New Otani Hotel, where the wedding was held.

Uncle Keith married Rie in a beautiful ceremony in a fancy hotel in Tokyo. We had a whole table to ourselves and I experimented with Japanese food there. Surprisingly, they tasted great. I quite like it. Idzhar also made a new friend with Uncle Keith's nephew, Oscar (he calls him 'Ostar'). Everyone in our family wore our costumes from Pak Su's wedding except for me. I had on a new outfit.

Dadda bought Olaf at the Ueno station and since then Idzhar won't go anywhere without it.

The bride and groom :)

The flower girls and page boys - all Uncle Keith's nephews and nieces.

Uncle Keith wore the Kilt and Rie wore a nice white dress and changed into her traditional Kimono after lunch. A few others were also in Kilts and other traditional costumes. We all had our own place at the table and it was all named. Even Idzhar had his own place.

It was really thoughtful of them to prepare Halal food and non-alcoholic beverages for us .

Idzhar made a new best friend, Oscar

After lunch, everyone proceeded outside to the garden for some photo session. We took turns taking photos with the bride and groom and then went on to take our own photos. The hotel had a really nice garden and ponds with large Koi fish.

Photo session in the hotel garden.

Enjoying the beautiful view with sweet lil' Millie :)

Err... not sure what Pak Su was trying to do here...

... and here...

The wedding didn't end there though. After the photo session, we all changed into something more casual and walked to a cafe/bar for the after party. Tok Abah, Tok Mama, Idzhar and I took the taxi. At the party, we got to mingle, talk and take more photos with the bride and groom, the Franklins and other guests.

Changed into their party outfits.

Before we went back to the hotel, we took one photo with everyone and then proceeded to take the train back to the hotel. It was an exciting experience for all of us and we went home exhausted but happy and glad.

The 4th day was my favourite day and I consider it as my birthday present.

Want to know why? Stay tuned for my next update :)

Nek Wan - In Loving Memory

I know in my last post I promised to tell you about what happened during my birthday month but don't worry, that will come soon. This is about my great grandma, Nek Wan.

Nek Wan left us in March, just less than a month before my birthday. She was already suffering from Diabetes and her kidneys were deteriorating. She refused to go through dialysis as she felt that she was too old for it and didn't want to go through the pain and discomfort. At the end, her kidneys failed her.

I managed to spend some time with Nek Wan during her final days as she was staying at Tok Abah's house. She was happy, I think, as she got to spend time with Idzhar and I and Idzhar always made her smile. Idzhar misses her sometimes although he doesn't really understand why Nek Wan is no longer with us now. Sometimes I think he knows that she's not around anymore but is just in denial. That's because a couple of times when we went back to kampung in Rembau after Nek Wan left us, mommy overheard Idzhar talking to himself reassuring himself that Nek Wan is there or is sleeping (he said that when he saw her during the funeral too). 

I'm not sure how much Idzhar remembers her but I do remember her. Mommy has quite a few photos of Nek Wan too so I'll show them to Idzhar from time to time so he won't forget his Nek Wan. 

Anyway, with Nek Wan gone, there goes the last of my great grandparents. Going back to kampung was and never will be the same again after that.

Nek Wan, you'll be dearly missed by all of us. I love you, Nek Wan.

AlFatihah.

It's Been A While...

Okay, okay... I know... it has been a while... In fact, this is my 1st post for this year! The fact is that my schedule is increasingly busy nowadays, I don't even have time to watch TV except in the mornings over breakfast! Anyway, let me just do a recap on what's been happening in my life in the past few months.

Well, firstly, the bibik we had for the past 2 years has finally gone back to her hometown in Indonesia. She came to help mommy and dadda take care of my brother, Idzhar and I 2 years ago and have been very helpful with the whole family. She wanted to extend her stay with us but her husband wanted her to go back and help their daughter at their food stall.

So since January, when she left us, Idzhar has been attending school with me at CIC. I have to tell you that he's adjusting pretty well with school life and I'm very proud of him. I'll be attending primary school next year and I hope that Idzhar will be fine being in school by himself without having me looking out for him like now.

Bibik and Idzhar during his 2nd birthday party in October 2013

Idzhar and I on the way to school

Another exciting news is Pak Su Ami and Aunty Kynaz had a baby boy so I now have a cousin brother. That means that I have another brother to take care of too. His name is Syed Aaron Suffyan and he is such a chubby baby boy! He was born on the 30th of December so he'll be turning 1 in a few months' time. 

Mommy with baby Aaron at the hospital when he was born

Baby Aaron with his kakak Nadyne

That's me teaching Aaron how to do a selfie :)

Anyway, just wait for my next post that's coming real soon... I'm gonna tell you what happened during my birthday month. Do you remember what month it is? 

Will be back soon! Promise.  

3 Parties and a Holiday

There were so many things happened in the month of October that kept me well occupied but then you must have already known by now that I lead a very busy life, haven't you?

On the 5th of October I attended two parties. First was cousin Aimar's birthday party at the McDonald's near Kidzania. We played at the play area, had our own McDonald's Happy Meal with our own crowns and played games. I hung out with Nadhrah most of the time while Aimar had some of his friends over for the party too. Idzhar just enjoyed running around everyone since he didn't really understand how to play the games.

From Aimar's party we rushed over to Subang Jaya for Natasha's birthday party. Natasha is mommy's friend, Aunty Shaly's daughter. They live in the UK and are now back here for a few months because Aunty Shaly's pregnant and wanted to give birth here (she'd already gave birth to a cute little boy when I finally sat down and wrote this). Plus, her husband, Uncle Jaimie is away working in another country. So, Natasha got to celebrate her birthday here and we got to celebrate it with her. 

Natasha's party was a happening one too. It had a bouncy castle for us to jump in and a room where we could play with Play-Dohs while watching our favourite cartoons. Outside, there was a candy table where we could have all the candies we wanted (well, not all since mommy was there to monitor).

That was a long, tiring but fun-filled day for both Idzhar and I. 

On the 19th of October however, two Saturdays after that, we had our own party in Subang Permai to celebrate Idzhar's 2nd birthday. Since Idzhar didn't get to have his own party last year for his 1st birthday as Tok Abah and Tok Mama were away for hajj, mommy and dadda decided to throw a real one this time.

Mommy rented a bouncy castle from Aunty Shaly's contact for the party too but we chose a different and slightly bigger one since we had a little bit more space. 

Idzhar's party theme was Spiderman so he had a Spiderman cake and party packs with lots of goodies inside. It rained for a bit in the afternoon but stopped just in time as the party was about to start. It was obvious that Idzhar was really happy with his party since he couldn't stop grinning even late at night after everyone had left and was still smiling the next day. He refused to sleep at his usual bedtime that night although he didn't sleep at all during the day. 

So, after we got all the birthday parties out of the way, we finally went for a short getaway with Adida and Mak Lel to Desaru, Johor (south part of Malaysia).

That was another fun-filled holiday!

We stayed at a hotel named Lotus in Desaru which Adida had booked a few months ago. We had a 3-bedroom apartment all to ourselves. The hotel was a very exciting one. It had its own water park, clubhouse, garden, arcade, swimming pools, spa and beach. They also have interesting activities like tele-matches, water sports, line dancing, fireworks displays, karaoke and others.

We arrived late the first day so we just rested after the long drive. The next day, while Dadda decided to explore some golf venues around Johor, the rest of us started our day with the beach. The hotel was huge so they had buggies transporting us wherever we go. As usual, Idzhar and I were always well prepared and equipped with our sandcastle-making-sand-playing accessories. Mommy and Adida decided to dive right into the sea while Mak Lel played with us.

After it got too hot, we decided to move to the water park. We took the buggy to get to the water park. I gotta tell you that we loved the buggy rides!

Around noon we went back to the room to shower and rest a little. While waiting for Dadda to come back and have lunch with us we took the buggy again to the park. We just sat on the grass facing the beach and ate ice cream. Mommy bought bubbles for us to play with too.

We went back to the beach and pool that late afternoon, this time with Dadda too. That night, we went out to have dinner at a restaurant called Marybrown. When we went back to the hotel, we went straight to the park to join the activities there. Mommy, Adida and Mak Lel went for the line dancing so I tagged along too. It was quite the exercise I must say. We then hung around a little and then went back to the room to retire.

The next day, mommy woke us up quite early. We got ready and dadda drove all of us straight to the train station in Johor Bahru. There we took a train to Singapore. Idzhar and I were so excited to be going on our first train ride. Although it was a really short ride, we had real fun.

In Singapore, we took the bus and the MRT to numerous places. The first thing we did when we arrived was to look for a place to eat. After that, we took the MRT to Orchard road to meet up with Uncle Nuar. He was already there the day before for a show. We walked along Orchard road going in and out of malls and when we finally got tired, we stopped for a drink.

At the end of the day we took the train back to JB and after dinner with some of Dadda's friends in JB, we drove back to Desaru. The next day, we drove back to KL.

So, that was my month of October. Hope you all had a wonderful October too. Will keep you updated with more activities soon.