Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Langkawi cat-friendly hotels and my son's wings

Yesterday, I had a one day break from AnimalCare work (but not really also, because I was on the phone dealing with Yen's rescued labrador and possible adoption of the football pups). 

So, where was I yesterday?

On Langkawi Island, to attend my son's graduation ceremony from HM Aerospace Flying Academy.

But before that, did you know the hotel where the ceremony was held is cat-friendly?  Now, isn't that nice?


This is the lounge of the Bella Vista Hotel, also owned by HM Aerospace (so I heard). 


Up the stairs to the dining hall...and what do we see?

Something you would not see in any posh hotel in the Klang Valley...

A little kitten running across the dining hall and looking very confident!


Here she is....hey, she looks a bit like Suki!


We decided to walk across to the open air restaurant and enjoy the sea breeze. 
Lovely weather, bright sunshine.


The open air restaurant overlooks the beautiful sea.


This cat seems to be a resident in this dining area.


We gave her the sotong, prawns and chicken from our fried rice.  By the way, she looks a bit like Joanie.

How nice if our hotels over here were animal-friendly too, yah?

Permit me to digress from animal news now and show you some photos of my son, Jia-Wen's graduation...


Jia-Wen and his coursemates, Firdaus and Hidayat.


The happy full-fledged pilots, waiting to get their wings.


A proud moment for all of us.  That's Bridagier General (retired) Dato Ranjit Singh (formerly with TUDM), now principal of HM Aerospace, pinning the wings on Jia-Wen.

 
The license to FLY!


Some of their ground school instructors - most of them are retired generals from the Indian Air Force - absolutely no fooling around.  The standards are very high. 


A force to be reckoned with, Capt Rana Singh, Chief Ground School Instructor, tough, but also very caring.  A rare and much needed combination, in any teacher/instructor. 


All of us.


Now I have two pilots in the family.


Fly high!!  Hooray, no more school work!  Er...not so fast, there's a base check every six months once you guys start working.  BTW, there's one girl in the group...do you see her (second from the left)? 


At the hangar.  This is one of the three aircrafts used for training.


Explaining the controls to sister, Ming-Yi, and grandma.


This is the hangar, and it's dog-friendly.  Jia-Wen and his friends used to feed a mother-dog and her puppies.


That's our present for Jia-Wen! 

It had not been exactly easy for Jia-Wen because hardly two months after he enrolled, he met with a bad motor-vehicle accident on the island (which almost gave us a heart-attack).  This was followed by monthly trips back home for treatments for almost a year, while undergoing the very tough flying course.  

It has not been easy....but that's life, isn't it?   

Nothing comes easy....

It's all about perseverance and moving on with whatever you have. 

5 comments:

Aaron said...

ah congratulations to you guys and to the young one who has sprouted his own set of wings. May his dreams fly high while his feet are set firmly on the ground.

YenLing said...

CLAP CLAP!! Hardwork pay off =) Congratulations.

actually, we do have some chalets and resorts which is animal friendly. one I know at Cherating is Ruby's Place / Resort. Check it out. Can bring dogs for holiday together-gether.

chankahyein said...

Many years ago, we went to a resort in Port Dickson that was dog-friendly, with Puppy.com. Our dogs roomed in with us.

As for shopping malls now, Jaya One is dog-friendly. Way to go!

Maneki Neko said...

Oh, Bravo! I felt like cheering as I looked at the graduation photos. Congratulations to Jia-wen and the whole family! I especially loved the photo of Grandmother in the cockpit. Great news! :-)

Lisa said...

Congratulations to Jia-Wen and to your whole family too. In the earlier post about the puppy.com outing, he was much shorter than you and obviously a teenager. The latest pics, he's taller and a young man - an adult in his own right.
All the best to him and may he spread the message of caring for animals as he flies the world.