Brother's Convocation

Last Sunday, was my youngest brother's (Ming) Convocation. It was held at his university's Cyberjaya campus (MMU).

The family activities however started as early as Saturday. Ming arranged for a studio photo shoot. What was supposed to be his graduation photo shoot turned into a family photo shoot! Not just the family at large but even the individual families (i.e. Shen's family & of course moi). I even went to set my hair! :-) One thing about family portraits, you better get it right, or else it's going to be there on the wall to haunt you for the rest of your life!

We also took the opportunity to take a black & white photo of Kun Sam on the crawl pose. What was supposed to be a single 8R photo ended up being 5 x 5R photos and 1 x 8R photo... tihi... sigh... but they're so good at capturing his nice pix that I can't resist taking almost all of them! I would have taken more if it doesn't cost so much already!

So by the time we finished it was 7pm. We had lunch at a restaurant nearby & went back to the hotel in Kajang (Metro Inn) that Ming booked. Not too bad at RM193/night for 2 Super single bed with breakfast included; if not for:
1) the room smells like the inside of a "smoking room" at the airport lounge - the cigarette smell was so thick & strong tht I had a sore throat after just sleeping a night there
2) the room's window is blocked by a massive signboard, so it's always dark without the lights on
3) due to the lightings of the signboard, the room was very hot. With the aircond on full blast, it was still hot that daddy who's normally afraid of the aircond can sleep shirtless! Needless to say dear hubby was sweating like a p*g.
4) Breakfast was really bad. Porridge was cold, only boiled eggs (no fried), wilted salads, baked beans was as cold as if they just dumped out from the can without bothering to heat it up, sausages were sliced & cooked with burnt-black onions (I sure hope it was not prepared by a chef - or he / she should be ashamed for even graduating!), fishballs cooked in chili sauce, fried noodles & fried rice. The only thing nice in the whole buffet spread was the fried noodles. In summary, you'll do better to starve!

Anyway, back to the story at hand - Ming's graduation. :-p
Mummy, Daddy & Ming left much earlier to attend the Convocation itself since there's only space for 2. So the rest of us only go over after breakfast & after the whole ceremony. Upon reaching there, it's another few hours of photo taking. Poor mummy was by then so hungry (they didn't have much for breakfast), she had to take some cream biscuits.

Kun Sam surprisingly did not fuss much despite the sweltering heat. He was busy observing things & people around him. He grabs at the scroll case & refuses to let go. He wore his uncle's mortar & get his pix taken like a pro. He then eyed all the helium baloons around him with dreamy eyes that it tugs grandma & grandpa's heart strings... **shakes head**. At the end, he got his wish when grandma & grandpa got him an "Angry Bird" helium baloon! Really... It's true when people say it's always the grandparents who does the spoiling... I said to them "I think you'd not have bought it if it were to be for your own kids right?"; of which they unanimously answered "YES!" **roll eyes**

It was 2++pm by the time we're done & I've given Ming his graduation pressie (a CAT watch & a congratulations card including Kun Sam's signing off as "your lovable nephew"! ;-p). Lunch was at Alamanda Putrajaya at 3pm. Not knowing where to eat, we finally selected Manhattan Fish Market. It's my first visit there. The food? ok ok lar... but not really worth the prices. RM200++ for 7 pax! I know... it's cheap for a Western eatery (vs TGIF, Tony Roma's, Bubba Gump etc), but still... the fishies were Dory... the squids were reconstituted... can't blame me for expecting more for that price. But to be fair, part of the bill is for 16% services + government tax, which is also quite a hefty sum. Not even sure wht am I paying for in tht 16%.

All in all, the weekend ended too fast. Despite wanting to drop by at the Big Bad Wolf Book Fair, can't make it this weekend. Fortunately they're having it across 2 weekends. Crossing fingers nothing disrupts my plans. Will post more updates on the Big Bad Wolf later...