In love with Cafe Cafe

I found this restaurant on the web, while browsing for places to bring Iskandar for his belated birthday dinner. His birthday's actually last week but since he was busy all day for the music fest we decided to postpone our little celebration to this week. Anyways, the online reviews were pretty good but none of my friends hv actually been there to give me their true accounts of it. What worried me most was the location, within the dodgy dingies of Jln Maharajalela. When we found a parking spot near de restaurant I was so nervous as there was this little creepy Chinese guy tapping on my window. He looked drunk and dazed. Iskandar quickly shoved some money into his hands and he disappeared just like that. I started to have this queasy feeling in my tummy telling me that this is a really bad idea.

But all that ended soon as we stepped into Cafe Cafe. Oh my gosh!!! The candle light and sparkling crystals hanging on the ceiling just took my breath away! Inside, diners were quietly enjoying each others' company in the romantic ambience, with slow French jazz music taking them through the meal. We were seated by the window which was draped in black velvet curtains. The floors were tiled in black and white - tres chic. It really felt like we were in 1920's Paris.

Needless to say, everything was perfect about the restaurant, service was superb, ambience SO romantic, the diners were unpretentious..best of all, food was excellent and not too painful on the wallet :) I finished off with the tiramisu which was just perfect, except de fact that I was too full from the lambshank main course to actually finish it! Even Imran behaved surprisingly well throughout dinner, thank God :)

I didn't take any pictures as the restaurant has a strict policy on cameras which is a good thing to maintain its' air of mystery. But I did feel slightly annoyed with a group of diners who were snapping photos now and then, which brought me back from 1920s Paris to 2009 Malaysia again, sigh..

All in all, it was the perfect night out, just me and my two best men. Je t'aime Cafe Cafe!

Sombre year so far

As far as my family (and esp. Mak Ngah's) is concerned, it has been a quite a sad 2009 for us thus far, losing three of our beloved family members within a month apart of each other. It is particularly tragic that Mak Ngah's eldest daughter, who passed away on Feb 14, happened to be a single parent, with 5 growing kids. Now they are left in the care of the eldest son, who had no choice but to grow up overnight, take over the household and be mama and papa to his brother and sisters. I pray that God gives him the strength to go through this tough time.

Mak Ngah's youngest son passed on mid January, in a car accident. He had been traveling to and fro KL-Segamat to take care of my cousin's hubby who's been in and out of coma for the past 5 months. His contributions and sacrifices to the family is hugely appreciated, it is our biggest regret not to get the chance to tell him so. His eldest son scored 10A1s in the recent SPM exams, Abg Lokman must be proud, looking down on him from heaven.

Latest to go was my cousin's beloved hubby, Abang Hashim. What's so frustrating was that the doctors still couldn't figure out what was wrong with him, until now, and told us to pray for a miracle that one day he will wake up and recover. But looking at his condition when we visited him few weeks ago, I somehow expected that he'd never pull out of this one. Arwah was such a cheerful, youthful looking guy that sometimes I feel that Kak Teh is so lucky to marry such a lovely man. The person I saw lying on the hospital looked already half-gone, chest sunken, hair all white, only skin and bones. Not the jovial Abang Hashim I always knew. I can never imagine anyone would have such horrible feelings towards him, up to the extent as to put him through so much physical pain like this. At least that was the only thing that makes sense to us all, given the discovery of "voodoo"-like things around the compound of the house. Yes, we have resorted to numerous bomohs and ustads to help cure him but none actually could. I know those responsible (if it's true) would receive their dues from Allah one day and all we can do is redha for all that has happened.

All I can say is, I hope with the passing of Arwah Abg Hashim there would be no more tragedies in our families. I don't know if my mum can take losing another family member like this anymore. It has clearly taken a toll on her, esp as she had sorta taken responsibility to care for Mak Ngah's children after her passing last year.

Mummy's birthday is coming this weekend, we haven't planned anything yet coz she insisted that we wait for my younger sis to come home from Dublin. But I'm thinking of a surprise little family celebration for her on that day itself, especially after all the tough days she had to go through.

Till then.

Spanish dreams

Last weekend was a bit low key for us. Iskandar was feeling under the weather so we spent the rainy days watching DVDs. Watched Vicky Cristina Barcelona on Sunday which I thoroughly enjoyed! Not so much the storyline, typical lame Woody Allen stuff to me, but I just adored how they filmed Barcelona's beautiful architecture, art, scenery and the Spanish guitar nights. Breathtaking. The scenes at Oviedo were equally charming. I find myself daydreaming of visiting Barcelona someday and of the romantic balmy nights listening to Spanish guitar at one of the many garden gazebos, glass of sangria in hand :). Lovely.

Back to reality, I find myself panicking at work, realizing the tons of work I need to finish before I go off on my maternity leave. yikeS! I don't want to repeat my previous mistakes of not finishing up in time and ending up briefing my boss over the phone, from the hospital bed, on the status of each and every file on my long WIP list :P Very troublesome, and I hated the inconvenience it must have brought my boss and colleagues due to that. But then again, last time wasn't entirely my fault as the baby decided to come a month early!

I'm entering 7 months soon and with each passing moment I'm so excited to meet this new person growing inside me. The kicks and punches are getting more and more stronger and frequent, you can actually see it if you sit/stand close enough. I haven't bought much stuff for the baby. Thank god I saved most of Imran's old rompers, pyjamas and blankets. They were still in pretty good as new condition, just need a good washover.

Ok, I better get back to work, till later!

Sawadeekap!

Just got back from our shopping trip to Bangkok. It was fun as expected, especially as I get to spend a good full 4 days with Iskandar, just de two of us, exploring the sights and sounds of Bangkok. Its been a while since we had that luxury, but all the time I know we both were missing Imran terribly :P

We stayed at a cute little boutique hotel in the outskirts of Sukhumvit, near On Nut station, Imm Hotel. Scored a great deal with the stay-for-3-nites-pay-for-2 package. They even threw in a free Thai massage and BTS day pass. Awesome deal. Anyone heading to Bangkok on a budget, please checkout this hotel www.immhotel.com/fusion-home.html

hotel entrance

The hotel looks like one of those old Chinese heritage homes u see in Melaka, with a modern touch. I especially love the pool and lounge area. Super cozy and unpretentious. The resident turtles are very friendly too, always poking their heads out of the water when we pass by.

me with the resident turtle




the pool

Went to Chatuchak market on Saturday AND Sunday for our shopping binge. It was madness, stuffy, claustrophobic, and the smell of pork meat was just dreadful. At the same time, it was exhilirating to be among thousands of shoppers, bargaining away for things that are already priced dirt cheap! Bought lotsa stuff for the home, Thai silk sheets, big wooden pots and paintings and other bric-a-bracs. Of course I so can't resist the cutesy dresses and flip-flops! Bought extra for friends who I think would be interested but now I'm having second thoughts to keep it for myself!

coffee break at Phatpong

And the FOOD..ohh..I'm so missing the mango and sticky rice dessert. Had it practically every day after EVERY meal! They are that good.

one of the many i had

As I was on the BTS from MBK making my way back to our hotel (Iskandar wanted to shop some more after Chatuchak but I needed to get home coz I was so sweaty and tired), I thought to myself that this is a city I can actually live in, not just for the shopping, but also for the low cost of living, cheap massages, convenience of city traveling and food of course. And did I mention that the public toilets are super clean? Even the toilets at Chatuchak were suprisingly clean, when thousands use it every hour! I can safely say that KLCC toilets pun kalah ok.

I can't wait to go back again, I think I left a little piece of my heart in Bangkok.