A Tale of Two Towers, a Bird Park and Food, Glorious Food

Bird in Park = Bird Park

Monday was the Bird Park in KL – on a very hot day. We had been given tickets for it, so thought we should go and check it out. Allie joined us with River and Kaelen, hoping that it had improved since she had last been there. As we went through the entrance, we thought it looked good, but as we walked further and further through the park, it was a bit sad to see some rather large birds in some rather small enclosures. It is outdoors, and there are massive nets high up in the trees, so those sections are bearable; but there are some large horn-billed birds in cages with not really enough room to get a decent fly in, and they are going a bit wacko. Sigh. I am not very good with the zoo concept. Regardless, the kids still ran around through it, feeding fish in a pond and stopping at the Parrot Cafe for an ice cream – a hit in the heat. But alas, this outing will not be a memorable one for the journals, I suspect.
So, I have to say that, as a little interlude about names, Anton’s producer at the studio is named Alison. So he works with an Alison, is married to an Allison and has another Alison visiting his house. And then there is Ali. And lastly there is Alister (yes, that is how they spell it), River and Kaelen’s buddy, and his Dad is Alex. Instead of the city of KL, it should be the city of AL. Crazy or what, lah?



Anton playing us a tune



Kaelen engrossed in Jordan's puzzle deciphering

The birthday ping pong table that was such a hit

Lazing on a Sunday morning...

Oh, I forgot to tell you about Sunday’s dinner. In a household full of foodies, it is always fun to focus on food. Allie and Anton went out to buy fish on Saturday for our so-called Canadian dinner that night: a massive red snapper was barbecued and everyone dunked in chimichurri. Outrageously delicious. River and Kaelen are super eaters, so all the kids dug in and ate everything, loving the new taste experiences. So Sunday night – that was a little prelude, the description of Saturday night’s dinner, because in fact part of Saturday's purchase was used in Sunday's dinner...aren't you a bit curious now? – we did Eb’s squid recipe, the one with fresh curry leaves (something tough to get at home but here, well, they would be out in the back garden growing on a bush. Ah yes, THAT would be fresh curry leaves), turmeric, lime, ginger and palm sugar. And Ali made fish head curry with the head from the red snapper from Saturday night (there's the link). It was absolutely delicious. And, as if THAT wasn’t enough, Ali and Allie (more on the repetitive name syndrome later) called Richard once again to invite him over and he picked up chili crab on the way over. YUMMO. It was a crazy fish fest, and we managed to devour it all. Not surprisingly.



The nutty three: Ali, Allie and Richard



Last night we had Uncle Eb over, finally. I was worried we wouldn’t see him. For all those of you who remember him, he is alive and well and seems to be surviving. He is running around managing construction projects, living out of his suitcase, jumping all over the country and on one occasion nearly got mugged. (He was followed after being at a bank to cash a rather large cheque) and then his trunk was drilled into and stuff removed from his suitcase – important papers and contracts but not the cash – yikes. Anyway, it was really nice to chat with him. We brought him maple syrup and a copy of the kids’ book which he was thrilled to get. The kids were so happy to see him, especially Jordan. Jordan has the strongest memory of Uncle Eb, as he babysit Jordan on many occasions when he was little. There is quite the bond there, as was apparent by the world’s biggest hug from Jordan. Very sweet. Eb said he would swing by tonight for dinner (he came late last night and missed dinner) and he might possibly come shopping with us tomorrow at the Central Market, which would be great.

Yesterday we headed off to the KLCC, which is basically the massive shopping complex at the base of the Petronas Twin Towers. We thought we would go early to beat the crowds for the tower. However, when we got there, they only had tickets left for the 3pm lift up to the Skybridge, and just enough for the nine of us (Allie had her two boys and Alister came as well). So we decided to go for it – there would not be another opportunity as it was sold out for today – and just make the most of being in a massive multi-floored air conditioned shopping centre. We grabbed an early lunch at the food court. Again, I have to say here, food courts, even in mega malls, are INCREDIBLY delicious. Incredible options, incredibly prepared food and way way healthier than anything you would see in a mall at home. Really well done. Of course there is still a MacDonald’s, and if you are really keen-sighted, you might spot an overweight white family chowing down on burgers. I think Jordan said it best when he said, “How could anyone choose MacDonald’s when there is all this amazing real food?”

After the early lunch, Ali and all six kids slipped into a cinema to watch Rio (hence the early lunch) and Allie and I headed off on our separate ways to check out the place. She picked out a couple of beach dresses for her holidays, and I headed to this massive bookstore called Kinokuniya. What a fantastic selection of books, with tons and tons of great UK finds. I was wishing I knew what the Wakefield Library Summer Reading Program theme was this summer so I could grab some books here that you would never find at home. I also bought a great Malaysian cookbook, some more books in the Arabel’s Raven series, some Lat books (Malaysian comics), some great Asian cooking and decor mags for the plane, Roald Dahl’s More About Boy (bio) and some great new books for J, T and H (and they bought more after the movie as well...ack...luggage weight??). In fact, we now have to go back there again, because we got a 50RM gift certificate, given all the books we bought. We also told Allie about the books our kids had enjoyed that hers might be into – Mysterious Benedict Society, Tanglewreck, the Mooman books, etc, etc. After I bought my books, I then found a lovely little cafe (no, really I did) and had a cup of tea – I know, a bit far-fetched for me, really – and a coconut cookie and sat and watched all the fat while expats struggle with shopping bags and argue with their spoilt children.

Eventually, we headed back for our 3pm Twin Towers extravaganza. Oh, I forgot to mention. The tickets for it were 3RM for Malaysians and 10RM for foreigners. Which basically meant that everyone paid 3RM except for me. Allie and I made fun of this for the rest of the day; I kept trying to get my money’s worth, since my ticket was SO much more. After heading through some serious security and leaving all our book bags with the ‘locker service’, we headed into to a tiny cinema to watch a 7-minute propaganda-esque plug for Petronas oil (they are, after all, the Petronas Twin Towers). Even Hannah figured that one out as she leaned over to me and whispered, “This is the wrong video, Mama, it has nothing to do with the Twin Towers”. Out of the mouths of babes, wot wot? ANYway, we then headed off up an elevator at top speed (but sadly inside the tower, so no view like the one you get on the CN Tower), and got out at the Skybridge, the connecting piece between the two tower buildings. Spectacular view, but not really my bag. However, the kids all enjoyed it and I know Jordan was keen to have gone up the Twin Towers. So we took the odd touristy photo – and Allie took a photo of the 10RM foreigner – and we headed back down the elevator, collected our bags and headed home via the grocery store (YES! FOOD!). Dinner was already done because I had put on some black beans before we left at 9:30am, as a treat for Allie. She is into all sorts of healthy organic food and does all this working out now, so I had been telling her about our favourite post-swimming meal of slow-cooked black beans. I caramelized some onions and garlic, threw those in along with cumin and a jar of organic tomato and eggplant sauce (sounded neat at the store) and it was a hit, with rice, avocado and grated cheese. Their boys both liked it. (Alister, not so much...he was still a bit miffed at the lack of popcorn during the movie). I also made a batch of peanut butter cookies for the kids (Calem, I had your recipe photographed on my iphone... thanks for that!) as a treat for dessert and for Allie and her gang to bring in the car for their trip today.

Outside KLCC in the Park

Touristy short No. 453: The Scott-Talibs do the Twin Towers. Sorry, the PETRONAS Twin Towers. (Hey the video worked.)

The Gang of Six being nutty in the KLCC

Hanging out behind where they should be...making authorities nervous

Sigh. Their trip today. Allie, Anton and the boys headed off at 7am this morning for their holidays, and we were all up to say our goodbyes. The boys are on two weeks’ break from school, so they had prebooked this beach holiday at a single-resort island about 3 hours up the west coast of Malaysia. So we saw them off, which was really quite sad. They have been unbelievable to us and their home has been an incredible home for us here. They have treated us to all sorts of things, chatted endlesly with us, laughed with us and really just made us feel so relaxed and comfortable; and the kids are now strong friends, I would say...very cute to see them all hugging and saying goodbyes. And as soon as they left, Jordan was quite bummed and said he was bored (at 7am, I might add). My response when he asked what he should do was, “You can go for a swim, play ping pong, read one of your new books, play lego...tons of things” to which he responded “Yah, but River and Kaelen aren’t here, so it's boring”. And that is what life is all about, isn’t it? Friends. And Allie, Anton, River and Kaelen have been incredible friends here. The good news is that they are planning to come to Canada for their summer hols in August. Everyone is thrilled, and we will be only too happy to return the home-away-from-home favour.

So now we are left with Jatmi (superwoman cook and maid) and Alam, the driver, who is taking us to the Batu Caves this morning. It is a ROUGH life here. We were going to drive ourselves, but Allie insisted we make use of the driver as he loves driving and knows all the best ways to get to places. Ok, we said. If you insist.

And now, time for eggs. I think I will make some eggs for brekkie this morning; haven't had them in a while. Ali and the kids are playing monopoly behind me, on the bed, and Jatmi is busy making something in the kitchen, and it’s only 8:20...and the driver comes at 9:30. Time to kick into gear. Batu Caves, here we come.