Relish at Jogoya Starhill.

Oh man! Do I love Jogoya! Its buffet spread is just wonderful and spoilt for choice. A Jogoya treat comes during special occasions only, and of course, when there's promotions. Currently, there's this Buy 1 Free 1 that we can't resist and we hopped over one of a weekday to enjoy. I stuffed myself crazy with sashimi and every bite comes with loads of satisfaction and pleasure. Normally I eat like 50% of what my appetite can takes in, but in a Jogoya treat, I go 150% or even more! All the way, vrooommmm.... Even the kids do, and they went home walking in pain! Really! Too full, they said. I was full too but I didn't feel the pain until 1am halfway in my lalaland. The tummy bloated up and something went wrong and I kept returning to the toilet till 3ish. *bawl* Knowing it was futile to push anymore excess Jogoya intake out, I forced myself to go back to sleep with the excruciating pain my tummy was in. Waking up another 2.5 hours later to the alarm clock for school, the pain was still there, YIKES! I'm not going to stuff and torture myself like this anymore in future. What a price to pay! This is lesson learnt. Meanwhile, this treat was for korkor's coming 12th birthday and he had wanted Jogoya treat for a long time. He's happy now.

Managing my time proper

With the new school term, daily routine from dragging them up at 6 to shoo-ing them to bed at 9 resumed.

I had been reluctantly starting the engine gaining them up to speed on their BM and other subjects. It's been not easy since we stopped after their mid year exams in mid May. Last evening saw me talking harshly and impatiently at didi for his lack of concentration and interest in his BM text book while I went through a brand new chapter in it with him. It's challenging, to say the least.

But I'm sure the effort will pay off somehow, at some point of time. Like, in the last exams, we see that they improve or at least, stay put at where they were, which is really around the range of 70-80%. I ought to push them harder, but yet, I'm telling myself that it's ok.

After giving a deep thought about it last night, I shall reshuffle my time management a bit from now on. Since they are having their tuitions for Chinese with a tutor at home on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I would sit with them on the rest of the other 3 weekdays, making sure I prepare dinner earlier before they come home from school and leaving the rest of the time when they are back to spend it with them. It's not really that hard, yeah?

As such, complicated dishes would be adjusted for Tuesdays and Thursdays whilst the tutor keeps them occupied and easy-to-whip-up and fuss-free dishes will be reserved for the other 3 days. *smirk* Smart, eh?

If only I could relinquish this task to someone else...

An afternoon to remember

The school of music and ballet that meimei goes to, organized a concert for their students.

 At first, I couldn't figure out why there's even a need for a concert to be held. Parents pay for their costumes and the tickets anyway.

But after watching their performance, I began to appreciate the effort and pain they put to create this concert for them in showcasing their talents and passion.

 There were performers made up of children, teenagers and even the more matured ones The shows went smoothly without the uncomfortable silence between them even though the work behind the stage was tough, moving those musical equipment in and out.

There were vocal performers, violinist, pianist, and a solo performer of the gu zheng who ranks 4th in an international competition. She is very young and talented, there's a future ahead of her looking so brightly as she asserted such confidence on stage. I believe everyone in the audience was mesmerized.

 And of course, the ballet made up the bulk of the whole show, displaying various themes like chinese folklore, latin, angels, and a whole lot more!

I was dazzled by the beautiful display of colors and costumes of those ballerinas, and of course the graceful moves. Maybe somewhat missing were those smiles on their faces. If they had smiled more, that would be perfect. Perhaps they were too stressed out!

These spicy chilly red little dancers were what I was looking forward to. Another parent and I thought that this show had the most and best choreographed steps. Of course, we could be a little bit biased...

These 2 little toddler angels basically ran around the stage but they totally stole the limelight! They were just too cute! And by the end of the show, both of them sat down and gasped for breath. So so adorable!

Guess I loved the above costume the most, but come to think of it, I do love all of them! They are all so beautiful and my friends said so too in FB where I uploaded more of these pics. Yes, finally I understood why the need for this concert. It's an encouragement for the students and an opportunity to perform their best foot forward for spending so much time learning and practising whatever it was they were in.

Ooh~ one of my dreams is to be a ballerina. At this age, I don't believe I can pull it off anymore and make my dream come true. Anyway, I'm happy for meimei that she gets an opportunity to learn ballet, even though once in awhile I am thinking of pulling her out as I think involved in both rhythmic gymnastics and ballet is so tiring (for me!) and time consuming. 

But she's so happy to be going to both and thriving well in them (at least, to my standard). Well, if she's unhappy or stressed out or dragging her feet to these classes, then it ought to be stopped. That would have defy the meaning of it all, that is to relive the passion and have fun learning.

So, watudo, chauffeuring continues....

Madagascar 3

Last weekend, I was in need to be humored. To laugh. Or even relax and destress a bit, even if I wasn't stressed at all.

So, I summoned my hubs to get the tickets for Madagascar 3 and we watched it at the 9pm show.

Boy! Had I had a good laugh! No, make that a laughing out loud, wholeheartedly until my sides ached and my belly shook and the tears welled up in the eyes for me. It was THAT good! It had been a long long long long long long while since I laughed that good. Oh boy..

Well, remembering back to the scene, it wasn't really that funny. I really have no idea why or how I was so tickled. Probably you might even sail through it not noticing that humor part. But I'm so glad I had that moment. Go watch the movie and tell me if you were tickled at all.

I love Madagascar!

Where did all the money go?

Recently these few days... maybe few weeks.... or few months... or this year in general, money seems to be flowing out like waterfall.

Repairing damages. Paying fines. Shopping spree.

Case 1: my truck. I scratched it badly last few days ago. This time, hubs acted on it pretty fast. Maybe it was because he was at the car workshop as well, collecting HIS car from the workshop. His car needed major revamp too as it was falling apart, bits by bits. I didn't ask him how much he paid (NOT so dumb!)

So, we had 2 cars doing a major overhaul and now, they looked as good as new. The trusty mechanic couldn't stand seeing the old and dirty mats which was purchased when the car was bought, to protect the original mats, so he decided for us to change that blardy worn out mats too. Bless him!

Case 2: first time car being clamped! Ish! We went to this new unfamiliar mall for a function and was in a rush, as usual. In order not to be late for the special and important event, I parked the car at a non-designated slot, but pretty sure it wasn't blocking anyone's way. When we return to the car about 4 hours later, my heart went straight to the bottom seeing the wheel clamped.

We took about more than half an hour to negotiate and finally settled for half the price, i.e. RM25. Our faces were charcoal black! On our way home, korkor was asking weird questions and I snapped at him and the rest, NOT TO ask questions or make any sound for the time being. Until we get home. High time they learn to keep real quiet at foul moods like these.

Case 3: I think.... we had been spending money on a lot of items recently, both on needed and wanted stuffs.I must admit, some of the times, I lavish on myself unnecessarily. I feel down. I feel miserable, heck, I was depressed! Naturally, in times like these, I go out to see my favorite and beautiful things I love. And that spells danger, coz what's the point of seeing and touching and not owning them? *grin* (see? Happy already.)

There are many other cases where money, money, money *singing to the Abba song* but I shall let it rest.

The Club, Saujana @ Subang

On the last Friday of the school holidays, my good buddy, JM graciously invited us to use her hotel room as a playground as she would be dashing off to the airport before 7am and couldn't make full use of the grand hotel's facilities and the provided breakfast.

I briefed the kids the night before that they had to hurry and pack their swim attire and leave the home not too late. Good thing I done that as they were pretty much cooperative and fast. I arrived at slightly before 10 and managed to fill up their tummies before the breakfast session was over. 

 To the kids, hotel's breakfast means nice good crunchy koko krunch and honey stars in fresh milk. That's the first thing that they go for and the only thing that they are always looking forward to whenever we have breakfast in hotels. (Not that we often do that anyway)

 The room's design is stylishly modern and chic. The bed looked awesome soft and comfortable, but I didn't stay for the night, so had to ask my friend how it was.

 Soon we changed and ran outside to the pool for a dip. There's a vast garden for good running round, I would think it's a safe haven for little toddlers practising their steps.

 There are even bikes on loan. Didi and I took one each and cycled around the garden. It was almost 12noon but fortunately it wasn't too hot for me. Else I would just laze under those big umbrellas waiting for them.

As there were only just didi and meimei with me, they didn't have much desire to spend more than usual in there. And furthermore, I really am pulling out my hair, both of them are in a recent spite towards each other, right from the moment they wake up to the minute they go to sleep. Everyday. So so frustrated with them. Is this just a temporary stage? I hope so as I really do not want to resort to separating them in their daily routine.

After a bubble bath, we left the place and went to school to pick korkor up.

A little reunion with family friend from Brunei days.

A couple of weeks ago, a family friend from those days in Brunei were here in KL with their kids and we met up for a short reunion.

Korkor and the eldest child (the girl on his left) were of the same age and both of them were like 3-5yo when we had home parties together. Then they had their younger two while we had ours, so they were really like babies and couldn't remember each other at all when we met again. But korkor remembers the girl very well, maybe about one of the only few memories he had left of Brunei.

This wasn't the first time we had met since coming home to KL, there were other numerous times in Singapore too but the kids didn't have much time to play.

This time, we took time to a barren land where there was nothing at all and they kicked football and sand goes into their eyes, shoes all covered with mud and pretty much ran around playing catching. Had a nice seafood dinner after that and how embarrassingly, they settled the bill before my hubs had gone to it.

It was nice to catch up with some old friends once in awhile, especially considering those we spent quite an amount of time together while in the God-forsaken land where almost no entertainment exists.

The day that was his.

Papa turned 42 just last week and there wasn't any celebration except the cake blowing ceremony at home.

And why was I all dolled up while the rest were in their PJs and home clothes? That's because I just came back from a wedding dinner, getting home about 11+ just to sing a birthday song, cut the cake and wallop the whole cake. It was finished in just about 15 mins! This favorite cake of mine from Taman Desa is really the best!

Happy Birthday, dear hubs and Happy Papah's Day too!

Bits of stuffs of everything.

Ahhh.. the schooldays are back!

There didn't seem much done during the holidays either. Guess I was lazy to fire up the computer when the kids were at home and I didn't like to be hooked on to the computer once it's up. For some reason, it couldn't charge as well, and finally today, I went to a laptop repair shop to find out the problem. Apparently, the charger is not working well and the "head" was bent. How can that be?? mo-lei-yau-geh! *denial mode*

We went back Ipoh during the long weekend and had a feast, as usual. Nothing much, cars were everywhere, as usual.

I scratched my truck when I manuevered out from the garage during the school morning rush today. Damn! Just a split second and I wished I could turn back in time. How can it happen??!!! moe-lei-yau-geh! *another denial moment*

Finally the old home is rented out to a few handsome banglas. What should I buy from the extra pocket money?

The old washing machine which was 13 years old, as old as our anniversary (since it was a gift from hub's friends for our wedding) but hadn't been used for more than 10 years and transported over to KL when we moved home in Jan this year, for no apparent reason, refused to do anything! I had to endure doing the laundry the tough way for some weeks, and finally, my hubs succumbed to my pressure to get a 10kg brand new washing machine. Happy!

While we were at the electrical shop, we were also awed by a Dyson vacuum cleaner (I was!), the sleek looking all-4-in-1 microwave oven, a whopping 52" smart TV and some other stuffs I can't remember. How nice if we have the moolah to get all these things.

So much updates for now. As I have a new charger to charge up this laptop battery from now on, I shall come back here more often.