Final Post For The Year

How time flies! 2009 is zooming past us and very soon it is the time of the year again to celebrate as we usher in the New Year. Have you already decided where to go for countdown celebration tomorrow night? No matter where you go or even if you had planned to spend the last evening at home, I hope you will have a wonderful time with your family.

Before I end this post, I leave you with some of the photos taken during our trip to China last month.

Have a Happy New Year, everyone!!

Moments before boarding the plane. The 2 girls had fun running back and forth the travelator. I've lost count the number of times they went on the travelator.


The girls were seated together and I was just next to Jasmine. Sharlene was rather excited after boarding the plane. She kept turning to the back and chat with daddy who was sitting behind her. They even brought their old maid and donkey cards along and insisted that I play with them. We played a few rounds and stopped just before their dinner sets arrive. Sharlene didn't like the food, she only took the snack.


It was pretty chill during the first 2 nights. I’d to constantly remind Sharlene to zip up her coat and put on her gloves. This gal liked to remove her coat and kept saying she's not feeling cold.


The different night scenes in Guilin.


Mountains and river in Yangshuo.


My first time seeing a real panda. The one and only panda there. Ohh, she was really huge. Hmm, I didn't know that panda likes to munch on carrots too...


The gals with their new friend, Ivy. She is a year older than Jasmine.
3 of them were seen together most of the time.

Once again, wishing all of you a Happy and Prosperous 2010!!

Hari Raya Holidays (Part 2)

There is a slight delay in putting up Part 2 (the continuation of previous post) due to my computer problem. I’ve not been able to access to Internet since Monday. How frustrating! The problem was attributed to a faulty splitter and we finally got the connection back last night after changing a new splitter.

So now back to Part 2.

We proceeded to walk around the mall after our sumptuous lunch at Kinsahi Restaurant. We ended up at Jusco, as we didn’t want to miss out on the last day of sale on that day (2nd day of Raya) . My parents and I went separate ways to shop while Sharlene enjoyed herself at the game arcade inside the children department of Jusco. Got my sis to accompany her and that allows me to shop freely…heheh. Grabbed a few stuff (blouses for myself, socks, pajamas and some cute flowery panties for Sharlene). She is obsessed with dress type of pajamas lately so I got her 2 and 1 for her piao cheh.

Sharlene was halfway doing her sand art when I went over to look for them. Ah Yee helped by peeling off stickers and suggesting what colours to put.



Then she wanted to try her hands on basketball. Daddy carried her up and she happily threw the ball a few rounds until she got tired.


She went to this machine later and dunno what she did?....she spoilt the handle *shake head*
Here she’s trying to fix it back.



We left the mall and drove over to a nearby hypermarket, as my mum needs to get some fruits for juicing. During our stay there, my mum made everyone a glass of fresh fruit juice every morning.

We had dinner before we headed home. We were exhausted after a day out but this girl of mine is definitely not feeling weary at all. She was playing and eating the whole night!

Look! She was having a whale of a time with Ah Yee who was watching TV at the same time. Guess Ah Yee wasn't having fun at all with Sharlene disturbing her, climbing and rolling on top of her :D


Next, she played with koong koong’s rocking chair.


Then she ran to the kitchen (my aunt was cutting fruits) and she got herself a slice of pineapple. Her first time trying this fruit and she liked it. Probably, it was sweet. She wanted another slice but I said no...heheh. Offered her papaya but she refused.

She chose bananas instead, one of her all-time favourite! See how she enjoyed her fruit.


Aunty Jane (my mum’s younger sister) and her younger daughter came by later. As usual, she bought some toys for Sharlene, one of which is hula-hoop. While I chat with aunty, she had fun with her new toy.


The whole family went out again the next day, this time to 2 shopping malls. Shopping and eating again…haha. Well, what else to do in JB besides heading to the malls! Oh, we went hunting for ice-kacang and rojak too! Found one recommended by my sis but unfortunately the shop was closed. We then went to another one. We ordered so many items there until we were so stuffed. But we still went out for dinner later :D

After a good lunch prepared by my aunt the next day, we loaded our stuff into the car and said bye-bye to everyone.

As usual, our car boot was stuffed to the brim

In the car she fooled around with my shawl. She asked me to decorate her head with the shawl and here’s what I did. How’s that? She’s satisfied and gave me a big smile. Oh, I so love her smile!! :D


We truly enjoyed our stay and look forward to the next trip, hopefully before the end of this year.

Hari Raya Holidays (Part 1)

The week long holidays for us are coming to an end soon. Sharlene will be back to school and I will be back to work again next Monday. I think after this festival holiday, we won’t be having such a lengthy break again this year. So, where we went this time around? Hmmm, no where in particular, just took this opportunity to visit my parents again :)

We travelled back to my hometown last Sunday, leaving the house as early as 6.45am. Driving from KL to JB was a breeze...guess we made the right choice by travelling on the first day of Hari Raya. Sharlene slept through almost the entire journey there. I did wake her up earlier but she dozed off to la la land again when she’s in the car. Good for me as I got to rest too.

Sharlene was very well rested when she reached por por’s house. We then went out for an early lunch together with my parents, sis and aunty. Here’s Sharlene enjoying her chicken rice.


My aunt’s simple home-cooked food which we had for dinner on the same day. Fried fish in soya sauce, stir fried kai lan with fishcake, seaweed soup and yong tau foo, which were simply delicious!

The next day, we were out shopping the whole day. Sharlene enjoying her dose of computer games while waiting for us to get ready.

We reached Jusco Tebrau City at about noon time. After a brief walk at the mall, we decided to go for Japanese food at Kinsahi Restaurant. Here's what we had:

Udon for hubby

My set of udon that comes with a variety of sushi

Udon and sushi set for my mum ; and

My sis's Tom Yam Ramen

Once again, thanks sis for the fabulous lunch! :D

~ to be continued ~

Fun With Jenga Block Game

My brother got us a box of JENGA, a wooden block game. This game is really simple to learn and fun to play with. Even Sharlene enjoyed it tremendously! She is able to remove blocks from a tower and put them on top effortlessly. It’s pretty easy to play but the game gets tougher and more exciting when the tower goes higher.


Our first Jenga game was at my mum’s house. It was nerve-racking and we almost tear the house down with our laughter and screams :D

Sharlene's turn. Being a first timer, she’s taking out the block carefully...


...and placing it on top of the tower.


Not sure of what she’s doing here when it's my turn to stack the block. I guess she’s attempting to shield the tower from falling...haha.


Naughty girl in action :D She’s definitely giving her Ah Yee a tough time.


Looking out for a block to pull. Check out her 'style'...

We truly enjoy this game! Thanks again bro for this wonderful gift!

Our Trip To JB

We started our journey on a Saturday morning. Had planned to leave home earlier to avoid being caught in a traffic jam during school holidays...but it didn't materialize as our 'driver' woke up late. After breakfast and transporting our stuff into the car, we only left home around 9.30am. As expected, we were caught in a crawl midway but after that it was a breeze and we reached JB in time to join my parents for lunch.

So, what was my gal up to in the car for so many hours? Since it was early in the morning and she’s so alert, we started off with simple reading. It’s one of those short interesting stories that she likes. Finished reading to her the whole series of 6 books in a short time. Then her mind began to wander to something else...FOOD!! We always get ready snacks for her to munch in the car. Ok, let me recall what she ate on that day. Hmm... 2 slices of peanut butter sandwich, some crackers and boiled chickpeas.

After satisfying her desire for food, I was hoping and hoping she will close her eyes and sleeps for a while, at least, .....but this girl, she just didn’t want to! Hence, I didn’t get to rest my eyes too. Throughout our journey, she entertained herself and us by talking non-stop and singing her favourite tunes. That certainly kept our 'driver' alert :D We enjoyed every moments of her cute antics and our little conversations. Soon she got restless in the car and kept asking me 'Are we reaching popo’s house yet?' 'Why take so long?, 'Daddy, why you drive so slow, ah?' and so on...


I’d wanted to snap a photo of her but she purposely flashed out her rabbit when I clicked on the camera. She announced in the car that her rabbit is now called Floss. Previously she just called it rabbit. (Floss is the name of a rabbit in one of the books that I read to her titled The Missing Rabbit).

Sharlene took this pic of chickpeas. I was kind of surprise as that was the first time she took pix of food. Guess she saw me doing it sometimes :P

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The next morning, my dad brought us out for breakfast at Restaurant Ah Koong at Taman Sentosa. Here’s my bowl of delicious fish-ball noodles. Yums!


She enjoyed her noodles as much as we do...

More pix of Sharlene having fun here.......

Back home, colouring again...


Fooling around with Ah Yee. We were at a lighting shop to view some lights with my mum.


My bro was having fun with her and she's trying to bite his hand instead. Ouch!


Extremely hyper on that night…


Ooooo….I so love my chupa chups lolly.


Inside Toy r Us @ Jusco Tebrau City - Hey mummy, do I look like a superstar?


Enjoying durians which I’d bought from Jusco supermarket.

Our Trip To Penang

Although the kids had a short school break last month, we managed to take them to Penang for a holiday. Even before the trip they were so thrilled about it as they always associate Penang with sandy beaches and lovely swimming pools. As for the adults, we always love the wide array of hawker food there. Yum, Yum!!

As usual, we traveled in 2 cars – altogether 10 of us including the kids and sister-in-law’s maid. It was raining cats and dogs on that morning. Sharlene was a little upset, as we didn’t allow her to be in the same car as her piao cheh. When 2 of them get together in a car, all hell will break loose...hahaha. So normally for long distance trips, we will just separate both of them to avoid us shouting and screaming at them. However, when we were roaming around Penang town, Sharlene sat with her beloved piao cheh in my sister-in-law’s car most of the time.

Before our main destination, we followed sil and family to Taiping and spent a night there. Didn’t do much in Taiping as we’d already been to Taiping Zoo and Taiping Lake Garden whereas my sil and family went to temple and cemetery to offer prayers to their ancestors in association with Qing Ming Festival (Chinese All Soul’s Day).

After breakfast the next morning we headed to Penang to meet up with hubby’s cousin and family. We stayed in the same hotel again this time for 2 nights. This time around we went to Penang Hill (my 1st visit) and Mini Genting (my 1st visit too). I've not heard about this place before. Didn’t really have a good view at this place as it was raining when we reached there. There's a seafood restaurant inside there, so we just settled at the restaurant for dinner on that day . The food was quite alright...but I didn’t really enjoy it, as Sharlene wasn’t feeling well during that time and she even vomited on the wooden platform of the restaurant. That’s the time (after we left Mini Genting) we brought her to a nearby clinic.

Here's some photos taken during our trip -

~ On our journey to Taiping ~
Sharlene with her pink sunnies. Check out her favorite pink bunny lying next to her. Luckily, that’s the only one she’d brought along. Btw, everyone looked 'so pinkish', eh?

~ Port Weld ~
Went on this boat to go across the fishing village. RM1 per pax for river crossing. Brother-in-law’s sister stays there.

~ While waiting to get into the car ~
Hi, everyone! This's my little pink bunny. She's adorable, isn't she?

~ At the beach ~
Searching for sea shells

Picking up sea shells

~ Daddy and his little angel ~
Sharlene proudly showing off her half bucket full of seashells

~Banana boat ride ~
Not exciting at all as compared to the jet ski

~ Penang Hill Railway ~
Cable train ride. I didn't know that this train will not take us straight to the top, we actually have to change trains halfway.

The train was crowded with passengers and we'd to stand all the way up (about 30 minutes ride)

~ A playground located at Penang Hill ~
Sharlene got so excited when she saw a slide there and she played on it non stop.

~ Yours truly cycling with her nephew ~
Check out Sharlene and her nanny at the side of the road. She was yelling out for me. Mummy, mummy wait for me, I want to go cycling too....huhuhu

~ The kiddos at the hotel lobby ~
Bye, bye, Penang....we're going home today.