Our informal living room with a new look

26th October 2009

It's now officially four months since we moved in. Apparently the process of settling in still goes on with lots of furnishings still yet to be bought. After Safiya's birthday party, we cleared the informal living room from all the banquet tables.

Having the opportunity, my wife and I decided to rearrange the furniture and gave the area a different look. With this new arrangement, we think that the room has more function and is definitely more practical. If you compare these pictures from how the room used to look like (please refer previous posts), you can see the difference.

Now the whole family as well as our guests will enjoy the comfortable sofas while watching television. I think we'll keep this arrangement for now.

Another successful event

25th October 2009

Last night, we had another successful event; my daughter Safiya's birthday celebration. Lots more pictures in the other [blog].

A big thanks to everyone who came, gave their support and made Safiya's dream come true.

Taking time beautifying our home

23rd October 2009

I've been meaning to post some pictures for quite some time but couldn't find the time.. at least not until now. Here are pictures taken during the last fasting month when we decided to plant some royal palm trees in the front yard as well as the side of the house (with the help of some gardeners, of course!), and a couple of pictures of the LED lights decorating our home in preparation for Raya.

Our princess's birthday

15th October 2009

A very special birthday wish goes out to my daughter, Safiya, as she turns 3 today. Lots of love from daddy, mummy and Syafi.

More pictures on the other [blog].

Gembo paying a visit

11th October 2009

Last night we had the pleasure of welcoming a colleague, relative as well as a fellow blogger, Gembo, to our home. Thankfully the celebrated month of Syawal or Hari Raya goes on for a month. As such it was still not too late for guests to come, and at the same time do a house-touring. Gembo has been very helpful in giving me tips and advice during our one and a half year struggle of building our dream home, and you can read about his experience building his own too on his [blog].

When two girls with the same name meet.. Iman & Iman

Welcoming more guests during Hari Raya

4th October 2009

From noon until late last night, we held another open house for our friends and families, mainly colleagues of ours. We also invited my son's school friends and their pictures can be seen on the other [blog]. The chef for yesterday is my mother-in-law and the theme was a Malay traditional menu. It consisted of white rice, "nasi kabuli" (rice with beef), beef bone stew, daging salai rebus kunyit, ayam masak merah (sweet sour chicken), sambal hati, and two local vegetables; batang pisang and sayur buah tarap. Too bad we were so busy that we forgot to take pictures of the scrumptious menu!

In addition to that, my wife also made baked pasta, one with minced beef and another with ratatouille especially for my vegetarian colleague. We also had sweet corn, egg mayo sandwiches and a variety of local seasonal fruits.

A special thanks to our chef of the day and our heartiest appreciation to all the guests who came. We wish all Selamat Hari Raya.

My wife's officemates

With her friends from university days...

My colleagues from Shell

A good friend of my father-in-law

Cousins...

Our blogger friend, Ciliqueen

Another colleagues of mine (standing up). She brought along her sisters and coincidentally, her brother-in-law is Dr. Syafiq, the doctor who was in charge of my late mother's treatments during her battle with cancer. What a small world!