Friday, 21 May 2010

DH is on leave today. Naturally, I'm happy whenever he's around. But I mustn't go overboard, lest DD gets jealous.

We leave home at around 7.10 am to send DD to school. DH and DD walk hand in hand from the car to the school gate. I just tag along from behind, marvelling at the close bond between them despite the little time that they spend together.

It is our routine whenever DH is on leave to go for a breakfast date after dropping off DD at school. Today is no different. But we want to be more adventurous. Hence, we're not having our usual fare of roti canai, roti bakar and teh tarik. Instead, we decide to hunt for nasi lemak in Taman Tun.

We find a Malay restaurant by the name of d'Cengkih. It has a nice ambience and deco. Most of the patrons are in office attire. DH has a plate of nasi lemak with sambal sotong and a runny telur mata kerbau that looks yummylicious. I have a plate of nasi lemak with sambal paru and half of a boiled egg. Both of us order teh tarik kurang manis. The total bill comes up to RM13. A bit pricey, but I suppose that's the price we have to pay for the nice ambience.

The nasi lemak is fluffy and fragrant with a whiff of fenugreek (halba). The sambal has the right balance of spiciness. We enjoy our nasi lemak tremendously but I cannot finish mine because the portion is just too big for my stomach.

The teh tarik is a let down though. There's a strong taste of milk which overshadows the tea.

Beside nasi lemak, other food sold during breakfast are ubi kayu rebus, pulut panggang, tepung bungkus, and a few other kueh. Rempeyek are displayed in glass bottles placed on the counter.

Having satiated our hunger, we proceed to Tabung Haji in Kelana Jaya. We arrive there shortly before 8.30, joining the small crowd waiting outside the locked door. The door opens at 8.30 sharp and I'm given my waiting number: no. 5.

We complete our transactions at Tabung Haji just before 9.00 and move on to Bank Rakyat which is located nearby. I wait in the car and DH goes in to withdraw his dividend.

Barely 10 minutes later, we are on the Federal Highway, heading towards a shop in a part of PJ to buy frozen food. Federal Highway is still jammed at this time. Well, I guess it is always jammed, regardless of the time.

This is our third visit to the frozen food shop. We are not as excited as during our first visit, which I guess is partly to do with our full stomach due to the heavy breakfast. We buy breaded chicken chops, fish n chips, curly smoked beef, black pepper sauce and papaddom. My family is a chicken chop and fish'n'chips lover, and this frozen food outlet provides a cheaper but equally yummy alternative to eating out.

Having done our shopping, we head home to store our frozen bounty. We reach home shortly after 10am.

At 11am, we head out towards Shah Alam. DH drops me off at Tesco Shah Alam and he proceeds to a Honda showroom nearby. I buy redbean pudding for Teacher's Day celebration at DD's KAFA this afternoon, dates and habbatus-sawda coffee. DH signs up an agreement to buy a new Honda. Yes that's right, we want to sell our 2005 Honda City. Anyone interested?

We leave Shah Alam shortly before 12 and speed off to Taman Megah to pick up DD. We reach there 10 minutes late, at about 12.15pm. I'm a bit concerned that DD might get upset. But there she is, nonchalantly sipping water from her waterbottle. Her class teacher, Puan Aida, is sweeping the floor. While waiting for us, DD and another girl have been helping Puan Aida to tidy up the class toom, in particular picking up pencils and other stationery items that the pupils have dropped on the floor.

I apologise to DD for being late. But she says she wants to be picked up at the same time next week because she wants to help Puan Aida to clean up the class room.

We reach home at 12.30pm. DH has rice and telur gulai, whereas DD and I have fish and chips that we bought at the frozen food shop earlier. Then DH goes off to the mosque for Friday prayers and DD and I get ready.

The three of us leave home again at around 2.30pm. This time, we are headed to the Immigration Office in Terminal 2 Subang Airport to collect our passposts. There are less than 10 people ahead of us in the queue.

From Subang Airport, we head back to our neihgbourhood to send DD to KAFA. We reach KAFA at around 3pm. I have already told the Ustazah earlier that DD would be a bit late. They are celebrating Teacher's Day today, so DD is not taking her schoolbag to KAFA.

After dropping DD off, we decide to explore the newly opened Empire Shopping Gallery in Subang Jaya. Parking is still free. The gallery is quite small, in fact I suspect it's even smaller than Subang Parade. There are a lot of food outlets though. There's Chili's, Tarbush, Italiannies and a few others. Looks like Subang Jaya folks do not have to drive out of their neigbourhood anymore to sample these fares.

We decide to have coffee at The Loaf. This is our first visit to The Loaf, and we just don't know what to choose. Since the outlet is just opened, there are a lot of pastries on promotion. In the end, we buy olive bread, a sweet bun (I can't remember the fillings), white coffee and caffe latte. The breads and buns are reasonably priced, but as expected, the drinks are expensive. I guess that's where all the margins are.

After having our coffee, we take a walk inside the mall, floor by floor. There are a lot of small shops. I notice there are quite a few are shops that previously occupy Subang Parade - Ms Read, Evita Peroni, Kenny Rogers, Toys'R'Us and a few more.

We decide to go inside Jaya Grocer's. The items there are slightly more expensive than Giant, but certain items offered have a wider selection than Giant - biscuits, fresh herbs and cheese, to name a few.

We leave Empire Gallery at around 5pm. It has been a busy day. My feet sorely need a massage!