Our now-traditional way of spending Christmas Day (ie, we've done it once before) involves going to the service at St Mary's, and having lunch at the Betel Leaf (where we deemed turkey biriyani to be seasonally appropriate).



This year we added a Marks & Spencer Christmas pudding to the day's festive mix (since we currently have a microwave that works -- well, it works so long as you don't mind rotating the plate manually...).

While we indulged, this Christmas Day cat was happy with some puddle water:



Boxing Day brought Shah Rukh Khan's Zero. I'm a huge SRK fan, but this will not be a favourite. And I'm sure I'm not alone in wanting a film where he's not weird in some way, or ends up dead...

He maintains: "What I like about the character is not all commercial Hindi films allow you to be someone like that. In most of my films, I am 'hero type'."

Fair enough. But I'm starting to think it would be nice to see him again in a good old-fashioned save-the-world role...

On Saturday, to atone for all the excess Christmas food, we went for a walk in Bukit Kiara Park. This was a delightfully Malaysian experience, from the food and drinks trucks rowed up outside the entrance (get in quick, because they've mostly dispersed by 11 o'clock), to the friendly, well-equipped folk out jogging, walking, and biking, and the flora and fauna (nice to see troops of monkeys thriving in the city).







On the way back to the MRT, we looked for a coffee shop, and serendipitously pushed open the doors of Common Man Coffee Roasters. We were surprised to find it big and bustling, with an interesting menu that tempted us to stay for lunch. I was 100% impressed with my halloumi, zucchini, and herb fritters, which came with roasted cherry tomatoes, baby spinach, a tangy chilli dressing, and sour cream. And you can sample their specialist coffees (we chose two from Ethiopia, a Yirgzero and an Ardi Sidama).





Meanwhile, as always, there's been plenty to interest us on our city walks:











New Year's Eve was Prudence's last day at work (for the moment, anyway). Which is quite a momentous thing...

And it was the end of what has been quite a momentous year (for good and for bad).

We celebrated the transition at Old Malaya, a restaurant complex housed in a heritage building that we've often walked past and said we must visit. The collective of hostelries provided the revelry, and Manja provided our quite delicious dinner.

Auspiciously, or so it seemed to us, the theme was Borneo: prawns from Borneo, in a neat little terrine; tuna from Borneo, served two ways with pasta and a strikingly flavoursome sauce; and tuak-based cocktails (delicate and fresh).

The dessert was not especially Borneo-oriented, but it was a child's dream of Malaysian sweet pleasure: cempedak gelato, squidgy onde onde, juicy chocolate truffles, dates, mango, kaya, dragonfruit coulis, and edible flowers (well, we ate them anyway...).







After the obligatory Final Countdown had been rendered, and the clock had flicked over to 2019, and we'd waaahed at the fireworks, we walked home, through crowds of friendly revellers.

So, that's it: the end of another year.

And this is the end of Travel and Food...

An entirely new phase of life, we decided a while ago, needs a new blog, and that blog is Purple Tern. Kudos to Nigel for the awesome tern image and the new design.

Posts will continue to show up on the Nilaligned home page, or you can bookmark Purple Tern.

Click right on over. There's a post waiting...