Lost World of Tambun, Ipoh

Having been here around 2 years back (I think), we thought it is a worthwhile place to spend another day there again. So when my friend, CK, saw some promo ongoing in a MATTA fair like early last year, he asked if we wanted to buy the tickets for our family or not. I said ok la, and the tickets were in my possession for as long as I remember.

Apparently, the date on the sticker on the tickets was the due date for the tickets' validity but we have no idea since there wasn't any mention of "DUE DATE/ EXPIRY/ VALID TILL". It was just written "MATTA FAIR 28/8/2011. Now, who would have thought that that date is the expiry date, right? Furthermore, is a ticket a perishable item?

Arm with the tickets in hand, we queued up diligently for the wrist band to enter. But, the staff told us the tickets have indeed expired and hence, began a 2 hour long of debate over this issue. So potong stim, but we didn't want to pay for another 5 tickets which would easily be over RM100.

Eventually, we were offered a discount on top of another and paid something like 50+ to get in. If there were no korkor's friends waiting for us inside, I think we would have just went home.

So began the day of splashing, waiting, queuing, sliding, immersing in hot tubs and not forgetting, sunbathing. Urgh! All our shoulders hurt like crazy the next day, it was really badly burnt!

This second trip was rather disappointing, in the fact that I only realized there were only a mere 2 slides for the whole of the water theme park. Holiday season is the worst time to go as well, for there are just crowds of people everywhere. And most of them wore whole baju from top to toe, which was just soooo..... yucks!

As there wasn't much activities to do, I accompanied the kids in the slides, over and over again, until they had enough. But enough was far from their minds, and in the end, I still need to pester them to move on. They kept pestering us to rent a big float to go round the "river", and eventually, I relented even though the 2 men said no. Hubs asked a man who was returning the float to "borrow" to us and we pay the deposit to him instead. Since we were going to retrieve the deposit when we return the float, that made us renting the float for free. The kids were so thrilled, and that made me contented. The younger brother of korkor's friend thanked me for it and I felt so overwhelmed. That little guy is really sweet, apart from the good manners, he is also being very nice to both didi and meimei.

During that "journey" down the "river", when we were almost at the end of the trail, suddenly we saw people scurrying away and I quickly asked what happened. A woman in front of me said people were saying there was a snake in the river a little bit away from where we were. *GASP*

I hurried the kids to do the same and all of us inched closer to where the unwelcomed visitor was and saw a HUGE biawak inside the water! It wasn't moving initially, I had thought whether it was real or dead.A ranger came with a walkie talkie and I asked him what they'd do. He told me the people from the petting zoo will be there soon to catch it. Hence we stayed around and waited to watch the action to begin (as really, there wasn't anything else to do in the theme park!)

It wasn't very exciting and soon, the biawak were caught and tied up. The rangers jokingly said this is what happens when trespassers enter without a proper wrist band.

We spent almost 5 hours in Lost World, and wanted to shower before going home. My gawd, the ladies room were horrendous! There were long Qs in every cubicle, people were showering in the toilets (even the friend's mom couldn't take a leak the whole day since it was the only restroom available!) and even in the sinks! WTF! Do you dare wash your hands after some babies peed and showered in those sinks?!! Anyway, you can't because all of them are occupied with these little toddlers/ babies. Malaysians ought to be educated somewhat!

I waited in line for awhile and the lines were really not moving at all! Gave up pretty soon and called the friend's mom asking her if it's convenient to go over to their room to take our showers. Very glad that they booked a room for their 2 nights' stay there indeed. The boys were very unhappy though as hubs were adamant to get that fast and over with in whatever ways they could in the gents room. *stifle laughter*

So, all in in all, it was a pleasant day apart from all these hiccups which I feel, the management could really improve on.

1. If the tickets have a validity date, for goodness sake, print the words proper with "DATE DUE" on it.
2. The crowds were so humongous during holiday season BUT only what? 1 counter opened for "walk-in customers", 1 counter for "purchased via other means' customers", 1 counter for buying the wrist tag. Can you imagine the long queues and the frustrations on those visitors' faces?
3. More toilets and shower rooms! As you can probably guess, where else they release themselves when they can't find a proper toilet?? *shivers*
4. Stricter rules of the garments please. It's an eyesore and soooooo unhealthy. Sick of it!
5. More rides, more thrills! I was wishing they build those challenges which we watch on those Japanese/korean game shows, you know, those fun things where they jump, balance, maneuver around spinning or rotating stuffs on water? Why we don't have that here??

So that's it! No more Lost World for us.

Kek LokTong in Ipoh

This temple cave is not new to Ipoh folks but still slightly newer than the old famous Sam Poh Tong and Perak Tong.

Over the long weekend with the Malaysia Day holiday, we chilled out a bit being relieved from the much hyped about URPS assessment.

We invited one of kor's best friend along with his family to the Lost World of Tambun, which would be in another post, and took them around sightseeing in this little hidden cave in the neighborhood 

This cave held many special times in my childhood days. I remember when it was opened way back in the 80s, my friends and I had many several happy moments there, walking and chasing each other, playing hide and seek, camwhoring, paktoh-ing....

 Nowadays, there are more and more little details added on to attract the visitors or maybe just a decoration to beautify up the place. I love these little bonzai lined up at both the sides of the stairs leading up to the cave inside.

 It was a very pleasant time taking close up pictures of those little miniatures with the cooling breeze in the air. Did I already mention it's always cool at that place? The cave which opened up to a park as pictured below provided a natural airway for the breeze to flow and hence makes a very nice cooling wind all day long.

 It seemed that the grandeur of those stalagtites lost its charm but I could be wrong. Maybe when we were young and haven't seen the outside world as much, these beauty seemed to impress us more back then?

As we were walking out back to the car, the kids ran off to another direction while I continued to admire the miniatures on the other side of the staircase by myself. After awhile, the kids ran over to me and said somebody called out to them and said that he knew them. My eyes lit up and asked who, if they knew? They said that person claimed to be my cousin, but didi begged to differ, he suggested he could be the bad guy who was trying to get close to them.

I walked over to see who that person was and turned out indeed, my cousin brother whose family I had stayed with when I was 15-17yo. One of my favorite cousins, who's around my age and grew up with us, and damn handsome looking guy. Apparently, he was there with his friend doing charity work, beautifying the place, I forgot to asked him if he had contributed to those pretty miniatures all around the place. Bumping into him felt so good, as normally we would see each other during CNY time only.

Oh, did I also mention before Kek Lok Tong is the place where my hubs first held my hand? Although he had held my hand before during the hike which sparked us off, but that time was different. I could still remember here, what I wore, how he did that and what he said. It was the sweetest thing, he said he wouldn't let go of my hand from that time on. *smile*

A pleasant, uneventful, simple weekend

Had a wonderful weekend and I'm gonna write it down here to remember this.

On Saturday, we woke up bright and early though I was a bit grumpy as I couldn't fall asleep right until after 2+ the night before. I would want to blame it on the hubs coz he scooted off to have a Friday night out with his colleagues and wasn't home until I went to bed. I wasn't particularly mad that he was socializing with them, having a timeout after work, but more on being worried since the safety in this country is not something to be taken lightly of these days.

Anyway, he was back in 1 piece as I found out in the morning and we went to our normal usual hangout for breakfast. Then, we went off to the usual mall to survey an aquarium. My hubs is yearning to have a bigger aquarium since some months back and we are looking around for one right now.

The afternoon was as usual, kids' going to classes while I do some groceries shopping, off to library to get some new books, then off to their BM tuition class. This BM tuition class has started since this month and though it locked our precious weekend time in the afternoon, it also gives both of us some time of our our own to walk around, hand in hand/arm or off for some quiet tea break. This time, we went off nearby to talk to another aquarium shop owner. It had been very informative and hubs half decided that we would get our bigger aquarium from him.

After picking them up at 6, we headed straight to dinner and since it is considered an early dinner to most KL folks for a weekend, the shop was almost empty and food came very soon. We finished our dinner and were home before 8. That was pretty early for a Saturday evening, but I had no complaints since I didn't feel like going anywhere anyway. We showered and changed to our pjs and happily snuggled around doing our own things, but comfortably happy knowing we were around at home with each other.

Today, Sunday, after breakfast, we came home, got the kids to do some studying while I busied myself in the kitchen making pizza, orange and currant scones, corn soup and soya bean drink for the lunch/teatime. When all the food was ready, the kids finished their assigned work, and they were soooo happy giving the thumbs up to the food I prepared for them. Meimei specifically asked me to make the scones again for her recess time in school tomorrow. And the pizza for Tuesday's. Yes, your highness, your wish is my command!

I was also feeling happy that the kids done their work as I told them to do. The boys washed the dishes for me after that meal, and I went up to check on their work. I was pleased that the kids did what I told them to do. I tested didi on some Malay words, and I feel glad that he could mutter the words most of the words out as I asked. This new method of learning which I would blog about later, is definitely working better than before.

I felt so recharged that I cleaned up the whole floor and settle some longtime clutter in and around the rooms and felt even more satisfied! But hubs was complaining that he was wasting time at home doing nothing! I retorted that I achieved so much today!

Anyway, since my work was almost done, I suggested to him that we all go jogging or walking at a park. It was almost 5pm, just the right time for that kind of activity. I was prepared to cook dinner but if we were to go out, the dinner would have to be outside and the soup I'd done up would be left for tomorrow.

He took such a long time to get out of the house that I almost wanted to tell him we should just go swimming. But since all of us were already in our jogging gear, we went ahead with our initial plan.

The Taman Tasik Permaisuri is such a wonderful park and merry with crowd of people that it instantly cheered me up being there, walking with my loved ones, taking in the fresh air. It was our first time there though we had been to the nearby playground before. Didi took his badminton racquets along and we also played for awhile with him taking turns. He's so into this game right now.

After the walk around the park, we had our dinner of old styled charcoal claypot chicken rice in Cheras, it was very yummy! It just add on to the list of making-wonderful-moods things. Then we went home, hurried the kids to shower and bed, while I went about to make bread for tomorrow's breakfast and the scones for my little baobei daughter. The vision of her eating her scones happily in school's recess time tomorrow just makes me feel contented.

And there, a very uneventful, yet simple and pleasantly happy weekend that had been for me. Hope more weekends are like this!

Finally, USPR!

The day my first born was waiting for all year was here.

Were he nervous? Maybe yes, maybe not. Was I nervous? Maybe no, uhm... maybe a little bit.

The day before the big day, he told me he had a headache during dinner which, frankly speaking, kinda worried me a bit. Was it pressure? Was it something wrong? I rubbed a bit of minyak angin on both spots next to his eyes and he was relieved a bit.

By 8pm, he asked my permission to go to bed and I, surely agreed. We climbed to bed together and I laid down next to him for awhile. As I mentioned we shall pray a bit before bedtime earlier, he asked me how about the prayer. We did that, but I couldn't find the proper words. I just told him to do his best, and that this exam does not dictate life.

I told the younger two to take all their stuffs out to my room, toothbrushes, pillows, bolsters, blankets, pyjamas and that the room is NO ENTRY after that second.

Laying beside him, and his back facing me, I remembered back the time when he was a baby. Here was my first born, whom I tugged to sleep every night. I remembered how he just won't go to sleep by himself and I had to wait until he fell asleep only I can get off the bed to have some time of my own.

The memories with him is so much stronger than with the other two, especially during those nights in Brunei. Some nights, he was right in the middle between me and my hubs and we would just wait until he dozed off. Then I would leave the room to catch an episode of Friends on tv. Some nights, we talked and laughed and giggled. Some nights, he took so long to doze off that I dozed off before he did. And look at him now, he's even taller than me already!

That night, I woke up at 4, 5 and 6, dammit! I kept saying I wasn't pressured as really, I don't care if he doesn't get flying colors. I think he's a very keen learner and intelligent enough to me. As I often stress to him, results is nothing compared to the right attitude and mannerism.

I gave him a hug before he left for the school and wished him all the best. He looked pretty cool and confident.

Then the whole morning, I almost freaked out a little, wondering if he would freak out or had a brain block or .... something! I was anxious as I see the clock ticks and excitedly went over to school at 12.30pm to pick him up. The sky was raining cats and dogs. When I saw him among the group of primary 6 students, girls and boys, large and small, he was cool and  flashed his cute smile when he saw me. I was so relieved. He was pretty ok. *whew*

And well, there goes a little weight of burden on my shoulders, ok I admit, I was a bit stressed out for him. Let him enjoy the rest of the exam papers for now.

Cousins forever.

My brother who is "half-Thai" now, came back home for a holiday with his family in August. The picture above says for itself how fun (not!) the cousins were playing with each other.

The girls clicked together almost instantly while my charming looking nephew is not shy and very kind to his little cousins. When he saw korkor, he gave him a nice slap on his shoulder and said "Bro!" Kinda cute.

I love talking to him too as he has this charming manner which, seriously, reminds me of his dad when he was young.

The time together was just a very short one but, WE ARE GOING TO SEE THEM IN BANGKOK SOON!!!

YAY!

It's about time we do so!

Haven't been flying off as a family for a vacation for a long long time. The kids mentioned that they missed flying and frankly, I feel that too. But no fret, Bangkok, here we come!

Didi's first taekwondo exam

He insisted that he didn't like gymnastics and wanted to pull out from it after last year's stint.

After several options, he made do with taekwondo lessons (as it's compulsory from the school that they join  a society and a uniformed club from year 3 onwards).

I didn't interfere with this punches and kicks classes until one day, he told me the teacher says he could go for the exam to advance from white belt to yellow belt. I had to pay RM50 for it and RM70 for the uniform. All through the year, he was wearing just his school's PE shirt for those workouts.

He was so excited to go for the exam, even though I was suggesting to him to just skip it laa... ($.$)

But he was adamant and even woke up bright and early on that Sat morning, all ready for school. Oh well, since he was so persistent and it was the FIRST TIME he did things so quick and prompt! If only he's like this in the mornings during schooldays!

So we bought him the uniform on the spot, change to it, kick and punch for about 2 mins (or maybe 5?) and then go home! wtf! (wtf stands for world taekwondo federation, ok!)

It was the first time I saw him doing some wtf moves and it's just too cute! All of them little ones are.

Ming wud gift from the hubs

I love my friends. Especially those who remind me not to think low on myself and that I deserve everything I am having now. *gasp*

More importantly, that I should extort from my hubs once in awhile in some jewelry and stuffs I love.

So, it's very important to have some friends who tell me to go ahead, make him pay for some nice blinking gifts, never mind it's not my birthday, or anniversary or valentine's day. 

There! I pulled him to a roadshow by a jewelry store in a mall and browsed around to see if there's anything I liked. I found a couple piece I like but not uhm, like as in fell in love with them. When I saw this chain, it was love at first sight. I've got to have it, and I wouldn't budge until the hubs paid for it. And he had no choice! tee hee! I was giddy with my sudden windfall.

While we were there, the boys were restless, most certainly. Meimei was thrilled to see all those nice stuffs as well like me, indeed girls are just girls. Her eyes twinkled hopefully like she so longed to have one too but I told her cannot.

I remembered when I was young, I had the same feeling of longing to put on make up, dress up, wear these jewelry stuffs, but my mom wouldn't let me. She never explained and never offered any consolation.

For the kind of longing and hoping I once felt so strongly, I explained to meimei why she can't wear any jewelry. Then I told her not to worry. That when I die one day, everything I own will be hers. All my jewelry and bags would all be hers alone, nothing for the brothers. She smiled (probably thinking when that day will come.... *oh-shit-look!*)

As for the brothers, I will leave them with words of wisdom. One of them is is to learn from their dad on what to look for when finding their other halves. *stick tongue out*

Plain white bread from home

My first attempt (well, not exactly first since the very first time we baked a loaf of bread was around 6 years ago) on the plain white bread. Turned out very disappointing but finished that up in 1 day nevertheless.

 The 2nd time with all the ingredients in and measured accurately was much better.

And now after learning how to operate the timer function, I made the bread timed ready baked and piping hot in the morning awaiting us when we get ready to school.

Just a little tweet in the routine change made life so awesome.

Nevertheless, I feel exhaustive to make bread every night, since 1 loaf like the above would be gone in 1 day, so there are still some odd days I settle for some other buns or stuffs bought from outside to cater to their breakfast and school recess time's needs.

My first pizza making experience

OH yeah... I tried my hand on my very own, first homemade pizza. All from scratch, the dough and the fillings.

The bread maker was very helpful indeed, it was a no-brainer, I just need to weigh the ingredients and dump everything in, turn the switch on, press for the designated program and press start. 

By 1.5 hours, the dough is ready to be poured out for the pizza making time.

There, I figured my first mistake. I had no rolling pin! Hence, I just used my fingers to try spreading the dough as neatly and evenly as possible. It wasn't a disaster but a rolling pin would certainly do a much better work than these fingers!

Next, squeeze the tomato sauce over it but I realized I should have use a spoon to even them out. That was done the next time and the next. Learning through the way. 

 I used minced pork the first time since it was what I could find in my fridge that time. Diced up capsicum and big onions and sprinkled on top of the minced meat.

 Almost there. Just 2 more ingredients, mushroom and mozzarella cheese.

 Meimei snapped a picture of me washing up as I went along. I have this habit of washing up in the process of cooking anything at all, as I don't like seeing a messed up kitchen.

It's a very rare picture of my back and I like it. I look like a freaking ghost with long hair!

Ahh... I also liked some tangy spicyness on the food I prepare, so in went some long sliced red chilly.

 And there, ready to go to the oven. I think it was too overloaded with stuffs!!!

 Then, I realized my 2nd mistake. The pizza pan I bought for the first time was too big! I was so upset with myself for overlooking that very important detail and I couldn't throw away the pizza as well! The kids would be too disappointed and me too. I tried to find something else to replace the pan but it was also tough to move the whole pizza without destroying the whole array totally.

In the end, I put the pan tilted to its side as shown in the picture above, praying that it would still turn out ok.

ta-da!! The end product.

It was still very yummy and the kids had nothing but praises for it. The hubs didn't believe I made it from scratch, suggesting that I bought those frozen ones from the hypermarkets (as what he normally does) and just heat it up, claiming then I made pizza.

The next day, I quickly bought a rolling pin and a smaller pan back home and made another one, with ham and sausages topping. I also did a banana kaya pizza, imitating Domino's which I absolutely LOVE! They turned out all pretty good.

And here, I share the recipe for the dough for you. You can knead it up yourself too, I believe, by mixing all the ingredients up evenly and kneading it for around half an hour then letting it sit for another 1 hour. At least that's what the bread maker guide/ recipe book says!

Dough
Ingredients
water - 140 ml
olive oil - 15 ml
unbleached white bread flour - 225 gm
salt - 5 ml/ 1 tsp
sugar - 2.5 ml/ 1/2 tsp
easy blend dried yeast - 2.5ml/ 1/2 tsp

No more Pizza Hut or Dominos!!

What we did for Merdeka Day.

On the eve of Merdeka's eve, the kiddos came home from school and told me that they need to bring a Malaysia flag to school the next day. *mouth agape*

Where on earth to find 3 flags for them at the last hour?

That evening, as I was out running around for them as usual, I searched for those little mini flags and woohoo, I did find them! But whaddaya know, it costs RM2.50 each! No way I was gonna pay 7.50 just so for a little show?!

I came home empty handed and told them, they ought to make their own flags, half expecting them to give up as well, and I thought it's only an option.

I didn't care if they cared, so all of us were not doing anything about the flags until near bedtime when didi suddenly said "oh yeah, mommy, we should be coloring our flags now!". Niasing! NEED MEH???? I wanted to tell them to forget it, and go to sleep already and that they won't be penalized for not holding a flag but they were already starting to draw it up on paper. Oh well..

I helped them to draw the 14 pointy star. It looked devastating but the kids just made me so thrilled with their exclamations of "WOW! MOMMY! YOUR STAR IS SOOOO PRETTIIIIEEEEE...." *giggles with delight* At that time, I found myself enjoying the time drawing up the Malaysia flag with them indeed.

Then, I took out the water color (which is seldom used, if any at all) and helped them to color them all. If they were to use color pencils or crayons, as I suggested way earlier, they would only be off to bed at midnight! And then, again... "WAHHH!!! HOE LEANG AH, MOMMIIIIIEEEEE" *more giggles* (Yes, it looked dem fugly to me alright!)

Didi wanted to have a go at the coloring himself, and reluctantly I let him. Actually I don't mind him being responsible for his own work, but knowing him, he would be upset if it's not perfect and might even want to redo it from scratch and that would take another few hours to complete which would be way past his bedtime and I would be having a tough time getting him ready for school the next day.

Anyway, he was very careful with the coloring part, but as I feared, he messed it up a bit and as expected, he went pouty face and wouldn't want to continue with his imperfect piece of art anymore.

I told him I would fix it up for him. I took the flag downstairs, whipped up something from my bag and ta-da! the red spot on the white stripe was gone magically! He was happy about it and it was a "Mommy just do wonders!" moment. I indeed feel thrilled to be the problem solver for them at desperate times like these! I'm the Supermom! whee~~~

After coloring done, I helped them to glue a pair of those wooden disposable chopsticks at the side nicely and the kids were truly happy. Didi wanted another blank piece of paper glued to the back of the flag, hiding the chopsticks well. You see, he's indeed a person of perfection.

It was nearly 10.30 when I hurriedly finish up the task for them and shoo-ed them to bed as soon as possible. They went to bed happy and it was a magical time flags making time indeed..

The next day, I wanted to see how it go with their flags and all. Meimei actually said that those kids who waved their bought-over cloth flags were much nicer. I disagreed with her and told her, no, hers is way much nicer, as she had done it herself, with her own both hands.

As for didi, a boy told him cannot use paper flags which upset him. But I told him not to worry, it was just as good as any other and to trust me, his flag was the nicest flag among them all.

Korkor? Uhm... he didn't care much if the flag was good enough or not, or if he even has any flag at all! He's  a tween after all!

But that day after school, I could still see them holding and waving their own flags while loitering around the school compound. *grin*

My favorite hobby at the moment.

You couldn't have guessed that!

I'm crazy doing egg whites masks!!!!

I didn't know egg whites can be so powerful. That was one day I discovered from the wonderful world of the internet blogging world that it can cleanse the face no other ways could.

So I thought might as well give it a try, after all, how much an egg costs, yeah?

The first time I did it, it was messy with the smell foul of raw egg all over my face, body, neck, fingers and everywhere on my vanity table.

When I peeled it off after it hardened, I just took a swift look on it and wasn't impressed.

I tried it another time, but improvised with better preparation, making the procedure less messy. Happy. But still, the outcome looked almost the same.

I think I did a few times, and almost gave up on it. That is, until one fine night, I took a torchlight to shine on the hardened egg white on thin facial cotton and got a shock of my life! There were SO MANY white heads, huge, ugly to fine small little ones all stuck on to it like... like.... I DON'T KNOW HOW TO DESCRIBE IT!

And from that moment on, I keep doing it and scrutinize the mask to see all the ugly alien stuffs that were all extracted out from the pores. I only realize my problem with white/black heads were so much more serous than I thought! It's such a liberal, momentous, almost triumphant feeling of winning the battle against the white/black heads. Noone and nothing could have done the same job as this. And I almost kick myself in the butt for not knowing this little "open secret" for 40 years of my life! How can??!!

I also figured it's more effective to do it during the daytime as the pores would be opened up more than the night time and the extractions are much easier.

Now that I'm beginning (or hopeful) to see less white heads on my face and the pores (hopeful) are smaller, I'm also beginning to feel disappointed when I don't see the result on the mask as full with those ugly monsters stuck on to it as before. On the other hand, I actually should feel relieved. Ish! Such a contradictory feeling.