Derbyshire Peak District has fantastic picturesque landscape and it’s the location of England’s first National Park. We visited Bakewell Town and Chatsworth Village and particularly admired the scenic nature and the animals like sheeps and deers roaming freely in the vicinity!

London is definitely the place-to-visit as it is always so lively, vivacious and lots of exciting things to witness and experience. We went through this route on foot à Waterloo-London Eye-Westminster-Buckingham-Kensington Park-Hyde Park-Bayswater-Harrods-Oxford Street-Leicester Square-The Strand-Waterloo. Phew! Huge effort for Ma & Pa and I think we send shivers down their spine whenever we mention our next travel destination haha. Nevertheless, the 4 of us enjoyed ourselves and had a great Dim Sum at Royal China.

Our personal Indian experience….

1986 – 1988 Every Sunday, Mum and I cycled to our favourite Indian stall at Cuepacs Phase 1 to ‘tah pau’ (take away) our nasi lemak + mutton curry for breakfast. 1983 – 1992 Every Deepavali, our family was constantly being invited to our neighbour’s residence to feast on wild boar curry, nasi briyani, curry chicken, etc. 1992 Eng’s obsession with Indian food started off with Putu Mayam. 1998 – 2000 It was lunch at Lotus Restaurant, Subang from Mon-Fri. Specials were Chicken 65, Fried Bittergourd, Fish Cutlet, Crab Cutlet, Poori….2002 Eng’s first trip to Bangalore and he went wild over Ghee Rice and Gosht (Lamb) Rogan Josh. 2005 My first trip to Bangalore and returned 4 times in a year. Since then, we both couldn’t have enough of Indian food and continued to hunt for good restaurants in KL all the way to London. Totally insane!

Sagar Rest in One Bangsar, KL is the closest one we could find. If you happen to come across others besides Passage Thru India, do buzz us! Managed to find another at Bayswater, Khan’s Restaurant. Eng’s parents love it too! We had Paneer Tikka, Chicken Tikka Masala, Chicken Dopiaza, Lamb Rogan Josh, Garlic Naan & Pilau Rice.

Oxford to me is another university township, but of course a rather reknowed and ancient one. Searching through its historical account, it became a centre of learning for training clerics sometime in the late 11th or early 12th century. However, no one knows more precisely when a school or university was established. In some ways Oxford University was never really founded, it simply evolved. By the 13^th century, it was firmly established as an academic centre. This city suffered a series of dramatic events; damaged by calamitous fire, struggled through Black Plague, riots and violence. What makes this place interesting is most of the landmarks have been conserved (like most places in the UK) and damaged sites had been meticulously restored to mimic its origin. Besides all this “boring sejarah (history) lessons”, it has beautiful botanic gardens and one can enjoy outdoor activity such as punting on its rivers. To get a good bird’s eye view of Oxford, we, including Ma and Pa climbed to the top of the 74 foot high tower of Carfax. Btw, the name Carfax is derived from the French “Carrefour” which means crossroads.

Last night, I was feeling a little under the weather again but didn’t want to sleep too much, hence I went through my pix collection – indulging in some nostalgia. Aha there you are! O genki des ka? Does anyone know if we can find fresh and tasty “mentako” in KL? It is a type of fish roe aka Japanese caviar but it’s not the usual roe that is served as accompaniments in sushi. It has a savoury taste and the size is almost like the small ‘telur ikan masin’ which is famous in the East Malaysia. I tried it once in a Jap restaurant in Sri Hartamas but it was dissapointing. Below - Me and my mentako - 14 Apr 2003 during Eng’s short term assignment @ Tokyo.

Most items come in pairs. This is another piece of food talk. Besides the all time favourite Tomyam and red-hot-chilli-pepper dishes in Bangkok, this non-spicy noodles happens to be my favourite. Just RM2 for a big bowl of delicious noodles and I had to have 2 servings in order to satisfy my small tummy haha. Below - Noodles stall @ floating market.

I usually travel alone but this time I had companions during my return to the UK. I picked up my parents-in-law at about 0900 on the 12^th April. At the check-in counter, I persuaded the ground staff to allow me to invite 2 guests into the lounge but in vain. I decided to try my luck at the Golden Club Lounge reception and fortunately all 3 of us were kindly invited ;) ‘Pa’ (father-in-law) enjoyed the nasi lemak with beef rendang and the variety of desserts.

 MAS Golden Club Lounge

MH004 took off at 1200 for a long 13 hour journey. I managed to catch a mere 2 hours sleep (as usual) and 4 movies – Rumour Says (Jennifer Aniston), Shall We Dance (J Lo, Richard Gere), The Chronicles of Narnia and 1 Korean movie which was boring and I dozed off halfway. Pa managed to sleep and it’s to his advantage that he could sleep despite of any situation. ‘Ma’ (mother-in-law) couldn’t sleep that well. Anyway, they were invited to the business class cabin during the last 30 minutes of the flight so that we could proceed to the immigration hall together. Thanks to the kind stewardess and she even presented a bottle of complimentary champagne to me. Such great customer service at MAS

  Business Class

   Lunch at Overseas Restaurant

It was a great 2.5 weeks back in KL. Most significantly, I was able to meet up with my parents again. Mum, Siti and I enjoyed the strolls and eating experiences at Mid Valley and 1U. Siti prepared my favourite mouth-watering Nasi Bryani, Lemang Indon-style, Chocolate Cake and Sambal Prawns which I managed to ‘smuggle’ into UK ooohhh yummy.

Ok ..talking about dogs and new rules and regulations, I was just wondering … do these normally get implemented when a state becomes a Developed State or a peanut town becomes a Bandaraya?

It’s quite obvious isn’t it? You have MIB going under cover in Ipoh and KLCC trying to ‘saman’ couples who hold hands (umm… to be exact, they only ‘saman’ if these couples refuse to pay bribe, they offer to let you settle on the spot the Malaysian way, quite humane right !?). Then you have few clowns from local councils gathered in cosy meeting room (under expense of your cukai pintu and tax) and imposed rule A, B, C, D, E…Z, ways to reduce cases of school kids from being attacked by dogs (it seems to me like ‘ways to reduce number of dogs in their area’). These clowns are smart, they knew population of dogs will go down and indirectly hurt their tiny dog license revenue, well solution is ….. ta…ra… you have new pricing for dog license. As usual, excuse to public: Barang-barang semua dah naik harga, tag baru akan diguna, harga cost nya mahal daripada tag yang lama… ya whateverrrr… the tags are probably provided by some crony companies by their Auntie / uncle anyway.

I don’t (to be proper, I didn’t) see these in smaller councils? Is that the way to represent that people are Maju and councils getting smarter and modern? I am puzzled… what I can see is that there are obvious stricter animal protection rules and tougher punishment for animal abuse in UK while Malaysia is still stucked with a ceiling fine of RM100 (if i am not wrong) for dog abusers. Couples in kampung can hold hands in public while they are not allowed to in the cities? I am imagining shopping in KLCC with Mel, sure i will receive silent treatment if i don’t hold her hand, cause i have longer legs in nature, holding hands is a way to keep both walking at the same pace. So, one saman for that, and if i happen to give her a peck, another Saman, then Lady in our double storey house, lagi satu! And without neighbour’s consent, another One. All 4 samans just because we try to live our normal lifestyle??!? Heloooooooo, negaraku, tanah tumpahnya darah ku, jangan tumpah Saman kasih aku….

Sometimes, I really wonder what these council people think when they impose and enforce these weird regulations. Do a web search and it’s not difficult to find these being discussed in overseas media. Wouldn’t they be ashamed of the limelight that Malaysia is receiving for the wrong reasons internationally?

There are so many far more important things than stopping couples holding hands in public or keeping photos of where Coffee is going to sleep! Do something with Traffic Jam… Flooding … Rubbish…Snatch Thieves…Parking Space…House Break-in…Drain… Illegal dumping … the list will go on, wake up Encik Datuk Bandar.

I may sound a little exaggerating, but my points are clear

Malaysians don’t need to be special to be recognised overseas, we don’t need the tallest building, don’t need the biggest flag, and most importantly don’t need the weirdest rules to be known worldwide. What we need is a sensible government body who will think for the people, the people who pay their house’s electricity bill and the least their son’s diapers. -eng

Eng and I came across multiple articles and news about reactions of the ‘authorities’ to counter the few incidents on dogs attacking some kids. Strict rules have been enforced in the Shah Alam and USJ areas and what’s shocking is instead of proposing a more sensible solution, these so-called ‘high mentality’ officials have resorted to discourage the community to keep dogs as pets by implementing some peanut fees and ridiculous guidelines. Someone commented in the Stars that it is like trying to reduce the population of humans because of the existence of murderers. Exactly! It is alright to impose a nominal fee per dog but getting consent from the neighbours is a bit too much. If you come across a neighbour who doesn’t approve just because they do not like dogs, there goes your fate. We better pray hard when we intend to bring Lady back to USJ next time, that is if we are still interested to return after such restrictions. A pet-shop owner was sharing with me that dog owners are expected to submit photographs of the dog’s compound for whatever reason. I’m kinda offended by whatever reason this is for but it’s definitely not for the fear that we would abuse our pets. I do agree that a household should be restricted to a certain number of dogs but if the party can manage the pets well and does not agitate the neighbours, then why not? What about cats that have the penchant to poo at other peoples’ premises instead of their own! They should face the same justice! It all routes down to responsible pet ownership and awareness should be created to all dog owners instead. In the UK, dogs are deliberately being trained to guide the blind and assist in medical treatment. Dogs have been classified as stress relievers and mens’ best friend. So wake up and gain some knowledge and exposure before suggesting some dim-witted regulations!