ASSORTED updates to WRAP UP 2008 !!

Life's been busy this year end !!
Pardon me for still touching on 2008 while everyone has already moved on with 2009...paiseh !!
But i think this post will be something to remember as i'd never been so much engaged during the year end with interesting events & activities. As much as i had wanted more of such excitement, i can't deny the fact that there are other areas that should not be neglected ....(eg....work & the boys' school work, grrrrr) !!

Since all the updates below were so backdated, it's better to junk them all in one post so that's gonna save up on your comments.....hahaha, so good ah me !!!

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CAMERON HIGHLANDS

24/12/2008

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We spent our X'mas eve up at the hill in Cameron Highlands. It was the boys' first visit. Previously during our trip to Genting Hightland & Bukit Tinggi, i used to tell the boys beforehand that these places tend to have cooler weather but they were disappointed only to find that there wasn't much different from the weather back home!! So this time, when i told them the same thing, the boys weren't really excited about it until they experienced it first hand.
Yes, the temperature went down to 15 degrees celsius even at broad day light much to our surprise !!! Finally the boys got really happy & excited!!

After a 4 hours + journey, everyone yearn for a stretch & release. So here was our first stop at a tea cafe ... the boys demanded for their jackets, hahaha....fun to see their new reactions !!

Once we were satisfied with the cool breeze & green view, we proceeded to check into our 3 rooms apartment at Star Regency Hotel.

It was a very spacious chinese family owned apartment, suits big crowd....quite clean & neat considering the age of the building!!

After settling down with our luggages, it was nearly 6pm so we decided to have early dinner. Our target was none other than STEAMBOAT lar....
And huby's friend who is a regular to CameronH recommended this organic steamboat rest to which we had no regret trying so much that we even long to go for another round the next day!!!

This restaurant was also featured in our local TV food program, Ah Xian's show.
According to the boss, they owned the organic farm & has been growing organic veges for 12 years!!

We ordered loads & loads of greenies......and ate like " cows " coz they were god damn cheap & fresh!!!

The happiest moment was when the bill came with a price that put you on a smile.....u know what i mean?? My super stingy mom also nodded in agreement to the reasonableness of the price that both mom & I ransacked their veggies fridge for some purchase...... as they were also available for sale.



*** Our greenies loots ***

With a bloated stomach, we decided to walk around the place. The cool air kept prompted me to recall my cooling days in Tokyo......argghhhh
Within minutes we reached our hotel and i must say the location is quite strategic, as across the street, there was an interesting night market which only operates on weekend & public holiday!!


Due to festive season, the street was quite merry with many tourists.

We did not expect to see such a wide varieties of foods & snacks at the street. For a moment, we regretted eating too full. But soon after a short stroll, we felt that our stomach could take in more food. Some of the delicacies were really worth giving a try.....like super sweet & juicy corn, both orange & purple sweet potatoes,many types of fried veggies (ala tempura style), fruits & etc etc.


First we spotted this....guess what it is??

So cheap....so the boys had one each !!! emmm.....strawberries, nice!!

Flowers were colorful & beautiful but not really fancy about it so we just pleased the eyes & walked pass!!

Next was another famous production, HONEY !!

The boys love tasting the honey & kept asking for more until we were 'forced' to buy some....

The boys got very fascinated watching the bees producing honey !!!!

Vegetables were so cheap. They were individually packed up & sold like.... for RM10, u can choose 8 packs of different veggies .....
Apart from varieties of veggies, we also brought back more snacks to our apartment barely an hour after our steamboat.....our supper that was !!! sei mou ???

As our first day was too short for any sight seeings, we had big plan on the next morning!! Unfortunately luck was not on our side, it rained cats n dogs the next morning until 11am. We were stucked in the apartment until noon & survived on our maggi instant noodles. So there wasted our half day.

Our very first stop was at the TEA Plantation Farm.

I had initially reluctant to climb up to the peak of the tea plantation, had not that the boys insisted. Anyway, i can't stop their feet.....and was in fact having a hard time chasing up to them from the back....grrrrr !!!

The 2 champions after reaching the peak !!!

Next was strawberry farm & bee farm.

The below few slightly reddish strawberries were the rare ones we could find at the place this season. The amount of big, red & fresh strawberries were very lacking....big time disappointment!!

We left CH around 2pm ish as we still need to make a stop over at Menglembu, Ipoh....my birth place to visit some relatives. Another Lai family (my dad's side) treated us to a sumptuous dinner before we headed back to KL & arrived around midnight !!!

There were still many things to explore but our time was very rush this time. Huby loves this place a lot & said he will be back more often......

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The FOO's wedding lunch at The Noble Rest.

27/12 /2008

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On the weekend after the X'mas holiday, both days were very productively utilised by us.

There was a wedding lunch attended. It was that kind of "attendance on behalf" of my FIL.
It was my FIL's cousin that hosted the dinner reception & since my FIL could not come down to KL, huby was asked to attend on behalf & since $$$ was already been paid, we tagged along to fill the tummy!! This type of luncheon can be very meaningless when we barely even know the wedding couples.... apart from just eating, ...but that's was the culture that we need to upkeep, what to do !!!??

My monster monkeying & entertaining at the same time .....

with uncle Nicholas & aunty Tricia (dady's cousins)


The wedding lunch started around 1:30 pm & lasted us until about 4pm.
We reached home before 5 only to catch a short rest before we proceeded to another party!!!


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YHsuen 4th b'day & Eve's house warming party
27/12/2008

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Yes, the same night, we attended a friend's house warming cum her daughter's birthday party!!

*** 2 princess of Eve ***
getting ready for bday song & candle blowing session

Several of my high school classmates are having only daughters ..... so my monster boys refused to join into the cake cutting session, GOSH !!!

Happy 4th B'day YH

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HIGH 5 BREADTOWN MUSEUM

28/12/08

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Very early the next morning (a Sunday), we had a VISIT arranged. It was a field trip organised by Irene Teng /phisiomom (a fellow blogger from Ipoh). Irene won 2 tickets to the High 5 Breadtown museum & offered to arrange the tour to include friends who are interested to join at a special package of course (cheaper price yet with more goodies)!!

Thanks Irene....your effort was very much appreciated!!

I had initially expected it to be an ordinary factory visit, little that i expect that the museum was so impressive & fantastic !!!

Parents out there, trust me....if you have some spare time in the future & not knowing where to go, do consider this bread museum as it is really a superb place for the kids !!!

The tour started with a multi-media show on the history of bread-making.
Then we were led to the museum in a tunnel that featured different era of bread making from centuries ago right up to the millennium era....this part was impressive to me !!!
Unfortunately, no photography was allowed!!

Then after touring the museum, we got to see the REAL thing about bread-making. Yes, it was the real production plant. The visitors walked on a sky bridge fully covered with glass to have a glimpse of the entire bread production line from making the dough, baking them in the oven right up to slicing & packaging !!

Irene has a pair of twin boys too.

Here are the sets "Dennis & Daniel" with "Sean & Scot"

Towards the end of the tour, we were led to the souvenir shop which sells ...... of course High 5 range of products.....bread, cake & etc at slightly cheaper price than outside !!
Our goodies bag also contained more of High 5 goods....bread bread & bread.....we ended up having to eat bread for the next few days!!!

Irene stood next to me .... she was so petite standing beside me.....grrrrrr !!!
The other 2 are Irene's classmates...i think

*** Here is the GROUP photo ***

Supposingly A very knowledgeable trip .... but all my "monkey boys" could care was to run & run & shout about the place....sigh !!! So i wasn't sure if they benefited from the tour but bet they enjoyed the trip very much as they had made some new friends !!!

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ELDER SIS's HOUSE WARMING PARTY

31/12/08

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We spent our new year eve at my elder sister's house as she threw a house warming party!!!

aiyo......eat eat & eat again !!!

Besides eating, it was yet another catching up with family members session !!!

That's about it at this moment.....BUT it will be continued as there were 2 more WEDDINGS we attended during this season too !!! You say our pocket badly burnt or not??

I decided to seperate the 2 wedding updates in the next post ..... eyes 'bolat' already !!

** There goes my super busy period ** wink wink

Orientation, Primary School Begins & Bento...

There will be a super long 'rojak' updates next, so better get this fix first.

We being the 'new parents' to primary schoolers finally had the FEEL of what it tastes like.... of the "havoc morning rush for school" !!

I had initially doubted & got angry why our "cleber govt" imposed such an early time to begin the primary school session, but after giving a thought over the time an ordinary working 'slave' (as if i'm not) needs to report to work (which is like around 8-9am), i turned wiser & be more acceptable of this routine!

Gotta got up latest by 6a.m. & got myself ready in 25 minutes. Then hopped over to the boys' bed with uniforms and started to give them 'ALARM' with my noisy voices (helo...morning boys...wake up edi...going to school...yr friends waiting to see you...bla bla bla...)

By the time i finished changing them, they would have been woken up...then gotta dragged them down to brush teeth (a very quick one though), wipe their face to freshen them, comb, drink a cup of either honey/milo/water!
Very quickly they will be asked to put up their socks & shoes while i had my final pack of things before leaving the house amidst the dark sky still at 6:50 a.m.....crazy !!!

Here are the boys putting on their shoes

Scot got very annoyed with the flash & mommy shooting him .......kakaka

here's the zombie look of Sean

And a 'force' smile from Scot.....haha

By the time we defeated the terrible traffics & settled at the school compound it was nearly 7:20am though the entire journey approximately 7km should only took us 10mins to arrive!!

The bell rings at 7:30 sharp.

Here are the boys gushing hurriedly into their classroom.............like 'tai kor' coming.....

apparently eager to meet their friends!!

How are they doing in school???

See below ...... it was Scot. What do you think happened?? Crying??...whining??

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... NAH ...

He was just reluctant to be snapped by the camera!!

But too bad, blame it on having a blogger mummy lor.......LOL.

My monkeys WERE (according to my judgement) indeed monkeys of the class......!!
Both of them just couldn't care less, thus walking & running about in the classroom disturbing their 'gang' of friends (as if they have known for ages) while i can see other angelic boys & girls that sat quietly on their respective chairs. Apparently the class teacher was busy handling the parents over the students' affairs on the first 2 days of school & can't bother much !!

Scot seen transforming his new pencil case (bought from HK, Disneyland) into a "gun-like toy" & started playing it as one with his classmates!!
The teacher has arranged the boys to seat next to girls for obvious reason we all know. And my Scot was placed at the last row of seat which i would have to 'talk' to his teacher one day (if the need arises), should he ever behaves like a monster at the back, he better be transferred to the front for a good watch by the teacher!!

I really sympathies the quiet & shy little girl who sat next to him lor....hopefully this monkey won't bully her so much.....sigh !!!

Here's Sean ..... looking a little more innocent than his cheeky lil brother but certainly not much better !!!

Being still a new comer plus given only an allowance of 20minutes for recess time, i got really freak out thinking of getting my boys to queue & buy food for themselves!! As if there will be earthquake if another 10 more minutes are given for the recess time......at least 30minutes should be more appropriate lar!
So being the 'kiasi' mom, i signed up for the meal package for the boys. RM40 per month per head. Each kid will be given a number which will be sticked on the table where food will be served when the kids arrived at meal time. The menu list of the meal has quite a lot of varieties too, much to my pleasure.

Hence, i should be spared of preparing bento for them i thought. But after the first 2 days, even my mom also advised me to keep 'some snack' in their bag as their meal time is 9:30 in the morning, and by 1:30pm when school finishes, both of them were screaming in hunger!! Yet, my mom said they would still have to bear being caught in the heavy traffic jam for at least 1/2 hour before reaching home for lunch around 2pm.......poor boys!! So having some simple snacks in their bag at such time would certainly ease their growling stomachs!!

But it would be tough to think of what food that still made good snacks after enduring at least 5 hours in the lunch box!! So for the time being, i could only think of bread so i made use of the various bread cutters newly bought recently!!

A Milo wafer, a peanut butter & kaya wholemeal sandwich in stitch shaped, 2 cubes of cheese & some sultanas in the little container !!!

The next day has similar snacks too ..... but this time using the mickey shaped seaweed as decor!! Ooh ya....the Madagascar bento set (by Tupperware) was newly purchased from
Peggy (LaundryAmah)!!

Ooh ya, the boys attended a holiday camp of 10 days in their new school during the school holiday. It was more like a tuition & revision actually. I'm glad that the boys' language skills in Bahasa were very much brushed up in this camp. Especially with their current 'kakak' that only speaks bahasa to them, the boys' picked up the language pretty fast surprisingly this time around. After the 10 days lesson in school, they came back kept humming in a bahasa song!!

check out what they sang !!!
i was hidden behind at the kitchen when i captured this video of the boys in action !!!

So far so good, i'm very much pleased with the environment & atmosphere of this brand new government school of 2 years!! All i hope is that the teacher would be patience enough to guide & teach my hyperactive & naughty boys!!

Seems a good start, no cry, no tears, no fuss.....**someone beaming in pride**....hehe

Happy Schooling boys !!