Gold Coast Resort

On a nice Sunday around 4, 5 months ago, we ventured out away from our usual joints and reached the shore of Morib, where Gold Coast is developing and opening its doors soon for business.

It is said that it would be KL-lites next popular spot of hot destinations as we don't have any good nearby beach resorts for quick and short breakaways.

We were taken for a little tour to view the standard unit available for investment, alongside a penthouse unit which is tastefully and extensively decorated, said to be owned by a datuk.

Penthouse right on top of that building.

The kids were given a kite each to bring home and we hopped over to the beach, enjoying the light gentle breeze under the shade of these little pavilions. There were also some light food served free for the public - fried mee, cendol... I forgot what else.


The beach is wide and the shallow water goes way out into the sea. It was very murky though and didn't look very inviting at all.

The day was cloudy and windy, perfect for a leisure afternoon stroll and relaxation and flying kites in the open air.

I think it was the first time I flew a kite up by myself! The wind was strong that I need not any help at all to get the kite up. It made me feel like a little kid. We took it down and joined 2 sets of strings together to make the kite fly up even higher. After awhile, we lost interest holding on to the handle which controls the string and just tied it to a pole on the beach to let the kite continue its dancing like a bird with no freedom.

I remember when I was a child, my brothers used to make their own kites and fly them secretly when my mom wasn't around. Somehow, mom didn't like them to engage in this activity, I never understand why. My brothers would hide them in their room or when they were busy with this hobby, I would "keep watch" and notify them if mom's shadow was around the corner. I was pretty important, wasn't I?

It was a game that all kids played in our little kampung, making the strings strong and "sharp" so to cut off other strings and then running to grab hold of the fallen kite, chasing after them. Whoever get the kite was of course, the self declared "kite king"?

Those good old days where we see kites flying up in the air, we don't see them anymore, do we?

Visit to the dentist

Being a Monday special holiday from the school, we took a day off and stay 1 more night in Ipoh. Having half a day off to ourselves, we went for a good breakfast of cham ice and curry noodles (my standard of good brekkie @ Ipoh) and chee cheong fun, pan mee, fried mee....

Headed off to the bank to settle some stuff and hub went to visit a dentist to repair his broken tooth while my parents took care of the kids at home. That's one of the best thing about going home, having reliable babysitters so we could run errands without fuss.

I whisked didi off to see the dentist too, since his front tooth hasn't yet make its appearance after the baby tooth dropped for what seemed like many moons! Should I be worried not? The dentist said to give it another month as she could feel "something" is there in the gums and maybe it's just a slow one out. Else, we have to resort to x-ray and see if there's anything which is the issue.


Faitit la!!! The front tooth better come out soon!!!!

Hot day at the graveyard

We went for qing ming at the kids' thai-koong's and thai-poh's (that's great grandparents) graveyard over the weekend.

The qing ming event was rather "painful" as we left our home about 8+ and reached the cemetery around 9. The only 1-way road up to the hill was jammed and the other car of our clan called ours and advised us to just park the car wherever we were and walk up.

Being only us 3 adults and 2 small kids with soooooo many stuffs to carry, I had to take a big gulp and just follow the leader. Soon, the grandma and hub were far far away taking didi along with them, leaving meimei and I to fend for ourselves.

Taking her hand, which was holding a pack of stuffs for burning, and an umbrella, plus 2 packs of stuffs myself AND an umbrella, I had to make sure she didn't get any brush from the very nearby moving cars! *whew* PLUS, I had absolutely no-farking-idea where the rest were and where the graveyard's located among the sea of similar looking graves. You can imagine the stress I felt that time not?

In the end, I felt that it's better walking through the small paths between those graves rather than the road itself, and well, we just walked. Then the hub appeared and did he dare say anything? Surely not!

The whole works took almost 2 hours under the bright burning giant torchlight and nearly toasted us alive even though I wouldn't want to budge an inch away from under the umbrella.

Jeez! Next year, I'm going to fight for a resolution to wake up at 6 and start work at 7, get it over and done with by 9!

Durians from thai-koong's backyard

My hub's grandparents has left an old bungalow to my inlaws, which is surrounded by a huge space of land with scrubs and trees. Unfortunately, it is a very old bungalow and the land around it is not even maintained to be called a little garden. I can't help but feel how pity it is not to rebuild the house and change its landscape. The kids would have abundant of fun just running around.

But, there's a durian tree which bears fruits after more than 20 years, I am told, and during durian season, we can be rest assured there would be durians to eat from that old tree.

The day after we went back to Ipoh for qing ming, grandpa brought home 2 HUGE just-fell-off-from-the-tree durians and everyone had a good time savoring each bite.

Losing it is not fun.

I lost it!

They made me.

It's not that I never tried talking nicely, begging, pleading, reasoning, offering...

BUT it seems like the only way works best is scold, lose temper, scold, threats, scold... gah! Why? Why why???

Now what was it that made me lost it.

Firstly, korkor made me wait for him after school. It's ok if it's just like a couple of mins or so. But the wait has been dragging longer and longer. And that day I lost it, I was so damn hungry! He made me wait for like a century! Shucks!

Off I went talking like a mad woman how it's so rude that I am taken granted like this. As if being their chauffeur is not enough, I have to wait for His Royal Majesty to finish his all so important work in the school? I threaten that next time, if I wait longer than 5 mins, I would be going off and he would have to find his way home himself! Walk if he needs to! (yeah, like I would do that, huh?)

2 days later, and this had been going on for since God knows when, all 3 of them didn't want to shower after getting home from school! Korkor says it's meimei's turn, meimei says it's didi's turn, didi says it's korkor's turn... everyone of them practising taichi. I got very mad and just yelled at them! I know, it's bad, but really, they made me! I had been sooooo tolerant and patient with them all along.

Now that everyone is clean as new, let's just be nice to each other again, ok?

(p/s: pms also la, I think!)

Bunny hair of the 21st century

Every schoolday morning, apart from preparing their breakfast and snacks in a bento to school, I have to tie meimei's hair in a bun.

Major sien!

Some days, I need to work on it for twice a day, as she would have ballet classes one of the weekdays too.

Kill me already!

Best workable method so far

I used to get him write the malay words he doesn't know in a book, his very own self made kamus, so to speak, and read them every now and then.

It worked fine for awhile but as the pages became more and the list became a mile long, he grown impatient and refused to study the words anymore.

I was pulling my hair out on how to improve his vocab, until one sudden early morning as I woke up... *ding* a lightbulb magically appeared above my head. *ding ding*

It's actually not a very noble idea, but back to basics, using flash cards, just like how little toddlers learn from a young age. I used pieces of colored paper (to make life's more colorful) as flash cards.

While sitting down with him, going through his chapters in his text book, any words he doesn't know, I would write it down FOR HIM and write the meaning at its back in English. In a way, his vocab in English also improves, together with his spelling of the word (I hope).

Then, I would also derive some other words with that word using a few "imbuhan" I know and explain what those words mean.


So, everytime I would "flash" the words, like playing a game, testing him what it means. If the words he's able to tell the meaning for 2 or 3 times straight, I put that "card" aside and thus, the pile would not become a mountain, and he only needs to focus on the words he doesn't know. Those "known" words will be tested once in awhile, to make sure it isn't "erased" from his memory.



Well, this is so far, the best workable method I find so far. He's learning the new words like a game and soon, we are going to use those words he know into "practice", like joining them up to write an essay, perhaps? Well, not so advanced yet, but at least I can use them to ask him make sentences or jumble them up to get him arrange the words to make it into a proper sentence. Ain't I smart leh??? Don't just nod there! Say some encouraging words, dammit! *parang in hand*

But this method can't be applied to teach meimei, as the problem is... she doesn't know how to read English well yet. So I had to resort to some other technique to teach her. And that is another post altogether.