2 flights for the price of 1.

My LKJ was to fly somewhere on Monday evening for business. Next morning when I woke up, I saw his sms, wondering "so nice? know how to report arrival to me this time?". How wrong I was. He told me that their flight detour to another city because the pilot couldn't land on their destination due to bad weather. And the stopover lasted for few hours before returning back to home base. *raised eyebrows* That was indeed something new. 10pm to 8am.. back to square one. Fly loi fly hui... tak gor kat. :)

After gautim all the kids to school, I was having my leisure breakfast at a high class shopping mall, (known as passat to some silai-s) when my phone rang. LKJ called and said he's at KLIA and awaiting news for their re-flight. Later, he called again and told me the re-flight is re-scheduled to 9pm that day and MAS arranged for them to check in to the nearest posh Pan Pac just beside KLIA. He told me to drop everything right there and then and go meet him to dot dot dot.

Reluctantly, I followed his order and drove over there. Dang! I felt like a w*ore (only non-paid one, and exclusive a bit). But we did have some fun. Since it was so impromptu, we hadn't have any "protection" and I'm wondering if we can invoice MAS if I do have another bb from this experience.

He followed me home for the few hours and went to pick the kids. Meimei was really surprised to see her dad and asked "Papa, what are you doing here? How come you are not in BD?" making it sound like he wasn't welcomed home. :)

Looking forward to see him back for the weekend. Where to go leh? Heiz.. if korkor is not having his exams soon, we'll be heading to some short getaway break. I think it's been sometime since.

Home visit and birthday party

Last weekend, we had some visitors from the the kids kindy teachers. For better relations, this year, they started on this home visits so called to get to know their students home environment. I think it's a fantastic idea, although I would need to work extra hours to clear the mess in the house. But that needed to be done sooner or later anyway.

I had wanted to make some snacks for them initially, but my hub wanted to go yumcha in the morning and ordered me to forget that, just buy la, so I just went along. Not my fault, really.

Hence, we bought some charkor for afternoon teatime to serve our guests. It was apparent the kids were thrilled to have them here and show them around our home. Korkor can't wait to show off our Wii games and the other two their baby pictures.

We chatted for about 2 hours, and surprisingly to didi's teacher, she said his behaviour that day was totally different from his usual. Wonder why. She was rather shocked that he was very well mannered and good. Why? Hmm...

Pretty teachers the school hires. I guess the kids would be more eager to go to school then.

The next day, we went to his classmate's birthday party at McD. It was his first invitation to one.
I was hoping he would enjoy himself.

Check out that expression! Funny, isn't it?

After served with food (snacks of nuggets and french fries and 1 piece of fried chicken for the parents each), he was happily playing with his toy dinosaur from the Ice Age 2 promotion. Much later, musical chair was to begin, and when he was out after 2-3 rounds, he weeped! oh dear... malunya.. then again, later I found out, almost 50% of them also like that.. so, that's ok.

And to show his disagreement, he refused to play the next game and just sat there watching. Yau yeng doe sei, sitting like that. The 3rd game, I pushed him out to play, but he still remained cool aje..he stood like a statue while others moved around to find things asked by the games facilitator.

And through observation, I find that most parents are just so eager to get their kids to win something. Instead of the child going round to hunt for the item being asked for, the parent would just shove it into his/her face and pushed them to the facilitator. Perhaps they feel it's an encouragement to them by coming out a winner, but isn't that defeats all purpose of participating in a game? Well.. different parenting ways, different opinions.

Then, the cake cutting ceremony. All those cupcakes looked so "tantalizing". I didn't get to taste it as there were so many people in there. But the main cake was delicious too. My favorite moment in a birthday celebration indeed.

And the moral of the story is... I don't want to order a birthday party at McD for them. (When do I need a moral to a story anyway?)

Reading cerita dongeng can vomit blood.

I read a cerita dongeng with korkor, on my quest to improve on his bahasa. Exams coming again in another less than 2 weeks *sweat*

The cerita dongeng memang dongeng sikit. It's about a nice cute lovely princess but brainless, who rode on a talking horse to her prince for marriage, together with her dayang. The dayang who was jealous of her, cruelly switched roles with her on the journey and became the princess herself. Then the princess became an assistant to a geese shepherd at the prince's palace, and because she promised she won't reveal her true self, she just sang her sad song everyday after talking to the dead talking horse's head which was left hanging on the gate to the palace. Then the shepherd, (whom I believe, was irritated by her sad song everyday) went to complain to the king and the king investigated and saved the princess at the end. Nevertheless, the story ended with a "happily ever after".

I told korkor to read through it, write the words he don't understand and find out the words from the electronic kamus. Easy peasy. Then, I went over it again with him sentence by sentence. This is the hardest part. Can vomit blood. Because he would ask me why the princess not do this? why the horse can talk? why some strains of hair have super powers? why the princess don't just kill the dayang?... and it was only halfway to the end of the book.

Sigh...

And I kept reminding him this is just a cerita dongeng. He can perhaps be a children book author next time and write more interesting stories. How I am looking forward to that!

Let's share, and we get more.

In the car on the way home from school today, meimei was happily munching on her pack of "prized" food while didi jealously looked on. It was a treat by her teacher for having obtained 10 stars for the week. That was quite a feat, I'm sure we can't do that ourselves, can we?

Didi kept asking her to let him have a bite, but she ignored him. I asked her to share la, then she said she doesn't want to eat his saliva. I told her to let him have the last bite then, she retorted she doesn't want him to eat her saliva too! What a cheeky excuse!

Seeing how didi drooling while looking at her enjoying that food, I told her it's good to share, else he won't share anything else with her next time lor. She reluctantly did eventually, and started to weep at that. I then lectured her nicely that by sharing, they get more instead. This idea was mooted by SAHM, I am totally amazed that she had trained her kids until that stage where they would share without being prompted. This would be some challenge for me to instill in my kids too.

I'm so good in lecturing too, there's no stopping when I started. So I told her, by sharing, she will get more. Not only that, it will make other people happy, and that she should be happy that she made one person happy. I guess it still didn't take her mind away that she had less to eat, so I promised her I will give her rice crackers too when we get home as I was so proud of her. And then everyone lived happily ever after.

This episode would have been different under different circumstances. Such as, when my million dollar sales didn't go through, or when my employees mogok, or when profit wasn't as high as last year's, or when my favorite character in that TVB drama dies, or when my family is being bullied, or simply when I have a bad hairday.

During those days, I would be barking at them "Give me that thing" and out it goes from the window. "Noone gets anything when both are fighting over it, get it??" And both will be weeping quietly and hating me.

I sure hate that alter ego of mine too. I need to tell myself to be the nice loving mom like today.

A night without electricity.

Dang! Last night in the middle of the night, at 3am, right at the height of my rendezvous with chowkung, my mom stormed into our room to ask if there was electricity cut. I woke up and said "I think so lo" seeing the fan not moving.

My hub then went out to check if it's a power trip just within our household or the entire vicinity. After some investigations, yeah, it was the whole vicinity that's having the same problem. And we tried to go back to slumber amidst the humid environment. That was really not easy. My hub was suggesting maybe we should take our clothes out since it's so hot, but I thought it might also lead to some hot steamy sex in the middle of the night, so no, I didn't agree to that idea.

The warm room was still comparably acceptable, but what I couldn't tahan was the mozzies which starts to attack all of us. Poor kids, the 2 boys came over to my room and didi said "Mommy, many mosquitoes..." I told him to come over and sleep with us. Not that our room has none, but it's much fewer than their room.

He asked me why don't we turn on the fan. Then I explained there's no electricity. He said "Then turn on the aircon la".. :)

They tossed and turned until they were back to sleep, while I just kept on tossing and turning some more. With a hand-fan, I used it to occasionally fan myself or fan didi who was beside me. It was a torturing night indeed which lasted until 6am. 45 mins later, the alarm rang and it was time to wake koko up to go to school. What a night it was. Of all hours, can't it be other than that beautiful 3am to 6am? Ah no, then I couldn't go online hoh? Sigh.. I only had one and half hour of sleep and now, I'm totally zombified. I really should go to sleep jor. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz....

Koko's eyesight worsened.

Thanks to blogging, I had forgotten when my eldest son first wore his glasses and I just need to dig back my old posts to find out. Recently, I took him to check his eyesight, and the degree of damage we are having here has grown more than two folds. Poor him. It certainly felt like a knife just cut across my heart.

Both eyes now are in the region of 200-400 "readings" and the specs needed to be changed immediately. Being helpless, if there's anything I can do to help him so the damage won't be on the exponential rate, I would surely want to give a try. Therefore, when the optician suggested about the special lenses to see both long and short distances (like loe-fah), I went for it, though that comes with a higher price tag.

Wonder if it could have been avoided? I heard it's pretty much hereditary, so it's the papa's fault that he has poor eyesight! Now hoping the other 2 have my genes, if all 3 are to wear glasses, we would need to set aside a budget of at least 1k each year for just their glasses alone.

Welcoming home my mama.

My mama came home last week and she looked so much thinner and older. Really tore my heart apart. I'm so glad she's home. So does my dad. He was so surprised when he called and knew she's back so suddenly. Asked when she's going back to Ipoh to hug hug again, my mom told him she wants to stay here for the time being to "take a good rest" and gain back some weight. Poor dad, have to tolerate for awhile longer. He even asked me to take a picture of her so he can see how thin she is now. How loving!

We caught up on the ongoings and gossips around here and over at her job, and came to the conclusion that she realized she's really old now and can't work like before. She said she would ask dad to retire too by the end of this year, so they can spend more time together and 'heong ching fook' jor. I feel really happy to hear that, as I always hope that my poor dad can retire and spend time leisurely and happily before it's too late.

He had really been working too hard all his life. As always, when we asked if they want to go anywhere for a holiday, he would say it's hard to apply for leave at his work, and it's so pitiful to leave him alone. I really wish they can have more time together, whilst still be able to quarrel less and go everywhere to visit me or my brothers whenever they feel like it.

My mom bought some clothes for me, my sis-inlaws, my mother in law, and herself. It's always so pleasurable to look at new clothings, try them on, and catwalk a bit. I am unsure but I feel my mom seems to compensate back for the time when I was young as she rarely buys me any clothes then. She would sew them for me, and most times, it's just some hand-me-downs from my cousin sisters.

I wish I can tell her, she's doing more than enough for me already by being healthy and always be by my side when I need her most, especially the pregnancy days and confinement days. But it's so hard to tell her that, no? Cos, our eyes will be watery before I even get to the point and the words will be stuck in my throat. Anyway, I try to convey the message out by some actions, that is taking her to eat what she likes and durians!! I bought home 10 of it and she was so thrilled. Too bad the durians weren't so fulfilling, but I can tell she was happy to be home to savour it.

Ahh.. just so looking forward to the trip with them and my inlaws. It would be something different indeed.

Sungkai Sg Klah Hot Springs.

Knowing this place since CNY from my dear friend, we finally made our first visit to that 6mil refurbished tourist attraction.

It's easy to find the place, just go on the North South Highway either from KL or Ipoh, and exit Sungkai. (Sungkai is not Sg Wang, ok? And it's not only a stopover for toilet breaks and McD tarpao lunch!) After the toll, the signboard to the place is noticeable, unless you are THAT blurr.

Accommodation is available, my brother inlaw and his wife bought a hotel room voucher to check it out while we look see look see first.

Newer additions are some 1 to 3 bedroom villas with personal jacuzzi like the private family spa in the hot springs park. Picture of that will come later. The villas look good for a nice secluded big family gathering, but checking the price, it is too expensive for our liking.

We reached the place at about 3pm, and had a durian picnic on the lawn of the hotel with my inlaws. Lucky didn't get shoo-ed by the hotel staff. Though it didn't quite look the right thing to do, the durians were damn good.

Then we headed over to the hot springs park and boy! the weather was too hot and humid to be enjoying a hot steam bath.

The park has a big hot pool, some smaller "tubs" for foot therapy, an egg-boiling section, a boardwalk and the family private spa.

During MY's visit, I remembered she blogged that they do not sell eggs there. So I made sure we had brought along eggs. But they had improved, they indeed are selling eggs there, at 40cents each. We should have brought kicap cair, pepper as well. That would be yummier when eating the freshly boiled egg. Can try half boiled eggs too, if you like. That would be so fun! Other food can also be boiled, but not vegetables. You know why?

Pools for foot therapy. It was quite comfortable soaking our smelly feet in there. If some dead-skin fish eaters can stay alive in there and help to clear our dead skin as well, that'll be even better!
The big pool for swimming. It would be great if the weather is cool. Look for rainy days to go visit.

The kids getting bored after awhile jor. It's not very fun actually. After too much hot soaks, the head would get a little dizzy actually.

We then walked around the rest of the place and checked out the boardwalk.

The stream where hot water flows from the source to the pools.



And finally, we paid for 1 hour of private spa, all of us stripped naked. It felt realllll good. Can shower as well before going home. (Want to see a picture of us soaking in there?)

We went to Tg Malim for dinner and by then, the children were all konked out. I was too, it had been too long ago I slept in a long journey. Suddenly I felt a pang of nostalgia. It was night, and I was too comfortable, the radio was playing some familiar songs in chinese and cantonese accompany my growing up years and the ambience was just too peaceful and relaxing. Will we go there again? I think so.

Late night movie with the kids.

Hub wanted to watch Transformers long before it was shown. And then he went to overseas business trip. And then we went back to Ipoh for the weekend. And so, last Friday was perfect to go for a movie, finally.

I let the kids slept thru passed 6.30pm on their afternoon naps that day, as the tickets I bought were for the 9.30pm show. Which means we would be only finishing off at midnight. That's quite a "first-time" for us indeed. First time for the kids to stay up till so late outside and first time for me to "loosen up" on their routine. It's a nice feeling though.

Hence, I was really looking forward to it. Still had time to cook dinner and wash things up. And we eagerly took a quick shower and change to half-pjs, half gaigai clothes to the cineplex. It was very cosy, as we sat at the 4 far right seats, with didi happily got his own seat at last. Both the boys enjoyed the show tremendously, didi shouting out jubilantly "YAY, Bumblebee saves the day".

During a scene where some ass was shown, koko quickly covered my eyes, which really tickled me. Why did he do that, eh?

On another scene, Obama's name was mentioned and both papa and koko instantly turned to me and muttered "OBAMA??".. Eh, I didn't write the script, ok?

And meanwhile, meimei fidgeted all over me and expectedly, didn't quite enjoy the show. I wished it was papa she was sitting on, but she didn't want him. That's one disadvantage of her being clingy to me the most. Anyway, I am not complaining. Will be patient for her to grow up bigger and enjoy watching movies later.

Supposedly a post of pictures only.

Oh dear! I just realised I've made a grave mistake of deleting the pictures from the memory card. I thought I had saved it up into the hard disk while I cleared them from the cam and now all those pictures couldn't be found. CY, I AM SO SO SORRY!!!!

Those are pictures my bro took from a day trip to the Camerons. I've browsed through them, and some are really cute and beautiful. (At least I took a look and all remained as images in my memory only now, what a pity)

And we made a trip to visit an old abandoned tin dredge (kapal korek) in Tg Tualang, Perak. It's a very interesting trip and I definitely snapped some nice pics of the kids and my dad too. SOB! SOb! Sob!! I am sooooooo sad...

After which, we made a pit stop to eat the famous big-head-prawns of Tualang, and the food pics would make you droolllllll... The food was so darn delicious and it wasn't expensive either. We stuffed ourselves damn full. Yeah, the waistline kembang so much after just a weekend.

It didn't help that they were around for another few more days which meant I were to skip my yoga classes and go for more filling breakfasts with them. Not that I'm complaining. I had a good time with them, after all the last I'd seen them since was a year ago.


Another highlight during the weekend in Ipoh was the meeting up with Dawn, one of my good friend in Form 3, who came back from US for a visit. There were other aunties around too, and these aunties made such noise that their children would be shocked to see! Oh my! Who cared. The main point is to let our hair loose and enjoy ourselves. I didn't have any pictures, but it's so easily retrieveable from FB (other people's cam)

Ahhhhh.... I still can't believe those pictures are gone forever! boo hooo hooooo.....