Girls Meet New Twin Cousins

Our girls finally met their new twin cousins on 21 December 2017. They were beaming with joy.  So was I.   I have been yearning to cuddle my new niece and nephew since day 1 they were born prematurely at 32 weeks on 1 Sept 2017.

The girls could not resist cuddling and stroking the babies, who are absolutely cuteness overloaded!

Both my sil and myself were on tenterhooks when the girls carried the babies, concerned that they would drop the babies.  And this sort of unfortunate accident really happened to my sil’s friend during the baby’s fullmoon party where a friend dropped the baby! Oh. My. Gawd!

The next time we meet the babies will be in another two  months, perhaps during CNY. They will be even more responsive by then.  We can’t wait to see the babies again.

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Singapore Trip – Day 2 (22 Dec 2017)

Today is big brother Raymond’s birthday.  We started off our day with breakfast at a nearby market. Food was really not up to we Malaysians’ taste buds.  We ordered wanton noodles, prawn noodles, fish ball noodles, economy noodles, coffee and milk tea. Nothing met our expectations, though the queue at most of the stalls were long and we had to spend 15 ~ 30 minutes queuing up to buy food.  Thankfully our lunch at Sentosa Resorts World was very satisfactory (at no other than a restaurant offering Malaysian hawkers’ food hehe) and big bro Ray treated us to Japanese for dinner.

After breakfast, we went to Novena church to give thanks and to sneak into the grounds of one of the most expensive and beautiful churches in Singapore.  After 33 months and at a whopping cost of $54 million, Novena Church’s redevelopment and extensive overhaul was finally completed. The church opened its doors to the public again on Sept 29 2017.  Novena church is one of the most iconic and popular Catholic churches in Singapore.

Clad in granite outside and limestone inside, the church’s sanctuary now features soaring arches, intricate columns, a dome and 18 large stained-glass windows.  It is indeed one of the grandest churches that we have been to.

 

 

After Novena, we headed to Sentosa Island’s Resorts World.

 

 

 

I secretly snapped two pix of Sherilyn posing with the birds coz I was too cheapskate to spend over SGD10 for a picture.  I had to remind myself that every dollar spent is RM3 and to spend RM30 for a picture that will eventually end up inside our photo album cupboard, no way am I going to add more junk into that cupboard, ha!

 

Walking to the toilets.   Toilets in Singapore are very clean, unlike the ones back home.  Even the loos at the market that we went to are of the standard of shopping mall toilets back home.  And I don’t mind paying 10 cents to use it.

We had lunch at Malaysian Food Street @ Resorts World, one of the most popular eateries at Resorts World.

Food was surprisingly not expensive and quality of food is good. The char koay teow and prawn mee tasted exactly like the ones back home.

Malaysian Food Street is created into a unique old-town ambience to flavour the experience of indulging in some of Malaysia’s finest and famous hawker fare. This is one dining destination not to be missed in Sentosa Island.  It is fully air-conditioned and designed to evoke the look of streets of Malaysia, with facades of old shop houses and replicas of 1950s coffeeshop. There are a total of 17 stalls which includes legendary Malaysian favourites such as Famous Jalan Alor KL Hokkien Mee, Huen Kee Claypot Rice, Penang Hai Beng Lor Mee etc.

 

 

 

After we got back from Resorts World and with only an hour left before dinner, my childhood best friend, Ju, picked me up from my brother’s apartment. We had drinks at a nearby cafe. It was really nice to meet up with Ju again after donkey years.  And thank you once again Ju for spoiling my girls with those gifts. And our favorite potato chips from Japan!

After our sumptuous Japanese dinner, our friendly van driver drove us to Gardens By The Bay.

Entrance fee is only SGD10 per person.

Our favorite spot is the Supertrees. When night falls, this enchanting  vertical gardens come alive with a mesmerising Garden Rhapsody light and sound show.  On the night we were there, there were fake snow flakes too.

There is an elevated walkway, the OCBC Skyway, between two of the larger Supertrees for visitors to enjoy a panoramic aerial view of the Gardens.  Too bad it rained half way through our admiration of the trees and we had to miss going up the elevated walkway.   Instead, we ran back to the entrance and got into our waiting van, half drenched in rain water. Bummer!

Tip: do bring along umbrellas during the rainy season.

Our girls against the backdrop of Marina Bay Sands.

 

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We Are Back From Singapore

We came back from Singapore late last night after an 11-hour crawl back from Singapore.  We left Singapore at 11:30 a.m., went through the Tuas Checkpoint pretty smoothly without any traffic jam and thought that luck was on our side. But we were so wrong.  A few minutes after we left the Tuas Checkpoint, we saw the longest traffic crawl ahead of us. We were totally unprepared for what was to come.

After over 3 hours stuck at the Causeway, where vehicles were barely moving, we were still not reaching the Malaysian Customs yet. All our bladders were about to explode.  Our very friendly van driver gave us some suggestions on how we could relief ourselves. But could you even pee into a plastic bag?  Or walk to the side of the Causeway and pee near the bushes? NO WAY!

Finally, we decided to get down the vehicle smack-bang in the middle of the highway and walked under the merciless 2 p.m. sun to the Malaysian Customs to use the staff toilet. What a relief it was after holding on for over 2 hours!

Long story short, after 11 hours of bumper to bumper crawl from the Tuas Checkpoint, we finally reached home.  Home sweet home at 10:30 p.m.  We had a lunch break and 2 toilet breaks in between.  Half the journey, almost everyone was in sheer agony of full bladders.

After we were dropped off in KL, my parents, younger brother and hubs had dinner at 11 p.m. before the driver continued the trip back to Ipoh to drop off my parents and brother. They reached Ipoh at 2 a.m. It was the longest ever road trip for all of us.

Much as I would like to write more and post more beautiful pix that we took in Singapore, especially the ones with my new twin niece and nephew, I have to make this post a short one. I have to be up very early tomorrow for Christmas service in church at 8:30 a.m.


Bumper to bumper crawl on both sides of the highway, all the way from Seremban to Singapore and vice versa.

 🎄Merry Christmas Everyone!🎄

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Back In KL

Our ETS ride from Ipoh to KL Sentral today was a tad eventful.  A few minutes after the train dropped off passengers at the Sg. Buloh station, the air conditioning and lights in the train were out. Suddenly the train stopped short smack-bang in the middle of no where.  Then an announcement came. The train had run out of power. Great! This has been happening too often. We panicked and hoped that the outage would soon be rectified. Thankfully after a few minutes the train moved again, phew!  However, several minutes later, the air conditioning and lights were out again and the train stopped again!  Thank God the train moved again minutes later.  What a suspense for everyone. It would be torturous to travel on a train without air conditioning with sealed windows and doors when the unforgiving sun is out at full force at 1 p.m.  And this is what my friend had to endure when she traveled from Ipoh to KL Sentral just a few weeks ago.

Thank God we reached KL Sentral station safely.  After alighting from the train, another minor glitch greeted me. The escalator to bring us up was under maintenance.  Double whammy!  I struggled to lug our huge green luggage bag up the long flight of stairs.  Cass kept snatching the bag from me to help me carry it but the bag was heavier than her and I stopped her. Thank God again that a samaritan offered to help me carry my luggage bag up. I thanked the boy (I think he’s a college-going boy) profusely.

Moral of the story:  Kindness begets kindness. And pay it forward.

During the previous ETS ride back to KL 2 months ago, I helped a woman in her 60s carry her luggage bag down the train.


Waiting for the hubs to fetch us.

Hubs brought us to Fong Lye @ Jalan Imbi for lunch. The foodie hubs has been craving to eat at Fong Lye since last Sunday. When he asked us to go to  Fong Lye for dinner at 8 p.m. last Sunday, I didn’t entertain him as it was already late and the girls and I already had our dinner. Finally he had his craving satisfied today. He even told me the list of dishes that he wanted to order before dropping us at the restaurant while he went to find parking.


Sweet potato porridge; lotus root appetizer


Stir fried long beans; sauteed pork strips with yam and big onions; fried lala with basil


Fried rice with meat floss; tomato omelette


Fried fish; Three-Cup chicken


The damage

As we stepped out of Fong Lye, the foodie hubs said he had craving for pork jerky *eeeeyeeeeerr*!!

And he dragged us to the dried meat shop just a few steps away from Fong Lye and bought a packet of pork jerky.

Dinner tonight is dad’s pork ribs and sand ginger chicken which dad lovingly deep freeze the night before after cooking for us to bring back to KL.

 

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Tour Of Gua Tempurung, Gopeng

Today papa drove us to Gua Tempurung, one of the largest limestone caves in Peninsular Malaysia.  Ever since the North South Highway was opened over 20 years ago and  Gua Tempurung made visible to all who travel on the highway, I’ve been wanting to visit this magnificent cave with a breathtaking view.

We left the house at 9 a.m. for Gopeng.  Our first stop was at the Gopeng food court, situated next to the Gopeng wet market to have breakfast.

Hawkers food in Ipoh and Gopeng are so much more cheaper than in KL.  A plate of standard (with no add-ons) chicken rice, fish ball noodles and curry noodles only cost RM4 in Ipoh and Gopeng while they cost a minimum of RM6 or RM7 in KL.

Alycia who doesn’t like noodles ordered an Indian apam which costs RM1.20 each.  The apam tastes like  Chinese ‘pak tong koh’ (steamed white sugar rice cake) in the middle while the sides are crispy.  All of us pecked on her apam and in less than a minute was done to none. She ordered 2 more pieces later.  Love it. Something so simple and affordable can taste so yummy!  Real comfort food.

On our way to Gua Tempurung, we dropped by at Gaharu Tea Valley, Gopeng just to have a look-see at this tourist spot.  Mum who had been here before told us that there is  a buggy to bring visitors up the hills to the tea valley for sight-seeing. But we decided not to do the short tour as our main purpose was to go to Gua Tempurung.

 

We reached Gua Tempurung  at about 10:45 a.m.  Papa bought us the tix for Tour 2 (Top of the World) which would bring us to Platform 5 of the cave. Tix are priced at RM9 for adults, RM4.50 for children aged 6 ~ 12 year old and RM3 for senior citizens aged 60 and above.  The estimated time for this tour is 1 hour 45 minutes from entrance to Top Of The World and return. But we managed to complete it within 1.5 hours.  Without time spent on camwhoring and admiring the caves, it would only take us an hour to go up and down the caves.

So glad that papa (74 this year) and mum (71 this year) managed to climb up the steep steps inside the cave. Some of the steps are very steep and can really exhaust you to the point of gasping for air. Thankfully papa and mum could climb up without any problem, albeit mum had to climb up and down slowly. The steps are quite slippery at certain points where there is water dripping down  the steps.

At the start of the climb inside the cave:

Participants of the wet tour ending their cave exploration at this exit, which is a stream with crystal clear water:

Our 3 hyper girls climbed up so swiftly that I could not keep up with them.

Tell me what this rock formation looks like? A teenage boy ahead of us commented that it looks like a ‘thumbs up’ but I think it looks somewhat similar to a errr, penis. Depending on which angle you look at the rock, it may look like a thumbs up at an angle and another image at other angles.

Platform 2:

By the time we reached Platform 3, all of us were sweating buckets from all the strenuous stairs climbing, though it’s pretty cool inside the cave.

 

Platform 4:

The rock formation here looks spooky. Can you see what I see?!  Staring right at you:

Finally at Platform 5 a.k.a. Top Of The World, all sweaty and sticky and  stone faced:

This locked gate will be unlocked for participants of Tour 3 and Tour 4, which involves an underground river adventure:

Exit from the cave tour and admiring the stream view and crystal clear water with fishes swimming in the water:

Papa could not resist the cool stream water and washed  his face with the water.

Though a short trip, everyone thoroughly enjoyed the cave exploration. Our next visit to Gua Tempurung will be to partake in the wet tour, hopefully with the hubs too. That would be really exciting and adventurous. The girls are looking forward to it.

 

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The Girls Are Home!

My two big babies are finally back home after a 9-day adventure in Hong Kong without their parents bossing around them.  So glad to have them home.

Alycia and Drama Queen with their ground assistant and Drama Queen avoiding the paparazzi:

With travel assistance request (which is a FOC service), the girls’ passports were safe-kept by the air-stewardess during the flight. On ground, the passports together with the children will be handed over to the parents / kin. Names of parents / kin must be given to the Airlines. I only realized today that with a ground assistant, Alycia and Sherilyn’s passports were not even stamped in KLIA and Hong Kong Airport.

Home sweet home finally:

BSF (Best Sisters Forever):

The girls’ last dinner in Hong Kong ~ a sumptuous grilled lobster and shabu-shabu meal prepped by their loving koo ma.

We reached home at 10-ish p.m. last night. The girls unpacked their loot, comprising of 80% junk food, albeit some are good quality and ‘healthier’ snacks like organic pop corns, Royce chocolates and some Japanese jelly and chewing gum.  We had supper of Burger King, bought from KLIA.

When a tween and a teenager go on a vacation without their health freak mom and dad controlling them, you can be rest assured of luggage bags bursting with snacks, toys and electronic gadgets.

Health freak mom would like to try one stick of Pocky Squeeze, just. one. stick. only ok, coz this isn’t available in Malaysia yet (?).

Drama Queen’s favorite Japanese orange chewing gum, costing over HKG50 a bottle.  And my favorite almond cookies; the girls also received a packet of emoji chocolates from koo ma:

Too cute ~ Royce Decoration Ball, a X’mas tree decor that comes with Royce chocolates inside the ball; Japanese jelly (the girls favorite jelly):

Luggage bags scattered on our living room floor; guess the bags will be lying there as we will need to pack again today for our trip back to Ipoh tomorrow and then to Singapore next week.

I’d like to say a BIG thank you once again to my eldest SIL and BIL for all the gifts, love, care and time showered on the girls during their stay in Hong Kong.

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The Weekend (9~10 Dec 2017)

Saturday, 9 Dec 2017
We had a year-end gathering with our usual group of buddies at M’s house in Kota Kemuning. We had BBQ where the hubs did most of  the grilling.  The gourmand hubs is the specialist when it comes to food and his friends are always in awe of his BBQ and culinary skills.

All our friends were raving about the off the charts delish and juicy BBQ rack of lamb, steak and roast turkey, all prepped by the most critical foodie amongst his friends.

We sipped Japanese sake, listened to songs of the 1980s from Air Supply, Cool And The Gang, Madonna, etc. while reminiscing, prattling and laughing about our party, disco and school days when we were  teenagers in Ipoh.  The guys are the hubs’ school and classmates and I have known them  since I was 12.  The bunch of guys are my older brother’s classmates too.

The kids, especially Cass and  Amber were besotted with their friends’ new pet cat named Racoon.

 

By the time we got home and showered, it was way past 2 a.m. before we hit the sack.

Sunday, 10 Dec 2017
We had Japanese for lunch today. While waiting for our food to arrive, I browsed through Facebook for friends’ updates. I was shocked and in total disbelief when I read that my friend, Evelyn Ang Loo was hit by a reckless driver at 4:30 a.m. today while she was running in a marathon in Klang.  She and 2 other pacers were knocked from behind by the reckless driver. Evelyn suffered severe head, skull and jaw injuries and is now in a coma, fighting for her life. I am really devastated by this news and just can’t seem to stop thinking about her. I first met Evelyn at an Ikea bloggers event over 5 years ago and have since become friends with her on Facebook.  Evelyn, an animal lover is a very jovial and friendly lady, my age.

I seek everyone to kindly say a prayer for Evelyn, for her to wake up, recover and start running again.  Evelyn needs lots of prayers and miracles now.

99f0

https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2017/12/10/pacer-knocked-down-klang-international-city-marathon/

http://says.com/my/news/female-marathon-runner-in-critical-condition-after-being-rammed-by-a-car-from-behind

 

 

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Alycia & Sherilyn’s Adventure In Hong Kong

Thank you to Drama Queen, I get lots of updates, photos and videos from her everyday on her adventure in Hong Kong with Alycia.

Two days ago, they went hiking with their uncle B.

Enjoy the pix:

 

 

Yesterday they went to Disneyland. This marks Alycia and Sherilyn’s second visit to Hong Kong Disneyland. Their first visit to Disneyland was 8 years ago.  This is the girls’ 4th visit to Hong Kong.

The sisters goofing around:

 

They went up this gut churning ride. I would have puked and gotten a stiff neck had I gone up this ride. Can you spot the 2 girls?

Eating ice-cream, with cousin E.

They spent the entire day in the happiest place on earth! Wish I was there too.  Exactly two years ago on 8 Dec 2015, Cass and I were at Disneyland. How can time fly by so so fast without me even realizing it?!


Munching on Mickey head shaped waffles.

Today is the girls’ grandma’s birthday and there will be another grand celebration.

I can’t wait to see Alycia and Drama Queen again on Monday next week.    I pray that they will have a smooth flight back home.

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Our Thursday, 7 Dec 2017

I spent almost the entire day with Cass at Pantai Medical Center today.  Cass’ routine yearly ultrasound scan of her urinary tract for this year is overdue. The date that I got from HKL (Hospital KL) to see the doctor is in January 2018 but I didn’t want to wait so long and didn’t want Cass to skip school, thus I brought her to a private hospital to have it done before our trip to Ipoh and Singapore. I want to have a peaceful holiday without the nagging worry that I have not done what’s important.  Each year I will go through the same worry each time Cass’ ultrasound scan is due.

Waiting for the nurse to check Cass’ blood pressure  (high blood pressure is often a tell-tale sign of poor functioning kidneys) and radiologist to scan her kidneys was nerve-racking for me. Thank God all her readings are perfect.  Cass’ kidneys are growing well and there is no scarring on the right dilated duplex kidney. Praise God again for his blessing and healing upon Cass.


Breakfast at Subway.

Cass loves Subway sandwiches while I relate them to hospital food. Most private hospitals here have a Subway outlet. I ate Subway sandwiches on the day of my surgery in May this year. I ate at Subway when I did my yearly check-up at Pantai early this year. So Subway to me is hospital food and does not appeal to me at all.


Cass trying to dodge the paparazzi! 😀

By the time we reached home, it was way past 4 p.m.  After completing some work on the computer, I whipped up a very simple and quick dinner.  Cooking for just one kid is such a breeze!

We had breakfast for dinner!  This is what Cass loves and she could eat this kind of meal everyday for lunch or dinner.

Mushroom omelette with Havarti cheese, milk, black pepper and lots of onions; grilled organic tomato, cucumber and butter on toast.

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Our Wednesday, 6 Dec 2017

Life with only a child is pretty free and easy!  Now I understand  how my friends with only one child have so much more time than me to do things that they love.  With only Cass to care and cook for, I find I have so much extra time on hand.  I could finish cooking in under an hour, have time to update my blogs everyday, have the luxury to sit at the cafe to have long lunches, can sleep in till 8 a.m. and much more.  One of the biggest relief is the amount of laundry that I can cut down. Even the floor at home is cleaner with only one child and two adults.  And dinner preparation is easy peasy with so little veggies to wash and so little meat to prepare.  Tonight I will be cooking another one-pot dish, i.e. stir-fry celery with fish paste and mushrooms. Cass doesn’t like rice, so I can even skip cooking rice.  I’ll probably blanch some noodles for her or just pop a piece of bread into the toaster.

Our brunch today is at De Market Supermarket again.   We love having our brunch here as the place is air-conditioned and clean. After lunch, we can do  grocery shopping.  We shared a bowl of meehoon soup with fish balls and fish cakes.

The Rubik’s Cube that Cass was playing with while we were having lunch disintegrated.  She spent the entire time that we were having lunch figuring out how to fix the cube back, piece by piece.  Back home, she turned to Google for help but alas, it is still incomplete as she could not find a piece of the cube. She must have dropped it at the supermarket.  Just one piece and the cube will be fixed. She’s so upset over this.


After a heavy and sumptuous buffet lunch followed by Korean for dinner yesterday, Alycia and Sherilyn burnt off their calories at the running tracks this morning. The two towering buildings behind them are The Cliff and The Summit.  The weather in Hong Kong now isn’t as cold as the time we were there exactly two years ago.  The two sisters are having a gas in Hong Kong. Lucky girls!

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Alycia Turns 14 Today

Fourteen years ago today, I was the happiest woman alive on earth.  I finally met my long-awaited baby.  After years of battling  PCOS, infertility and fertility treatments, I held my bundle of joy for the first time. It was the best feeling ever.

The 9 months of my pregnancy was fraught with stumbling blocks one after another: a German measles scare, horrible round-the-clock morning sickness, spotting for 3 months, an ultra sensitive uterus which rendered me to be put on partial bed-rest until the 35th week and much more.

I was only truly happy and believed that I was having a baby when I finally met my precious baby.  I remember very vividly my baby’s cries when she was first delivered via c-section. When our anesthesiologist friend (Dr PK Wong) placed her on my chest, she stopped crying immediately, as if she recognized my soothing voice. And she winked at me!  This beautiful baby with skin as fair as snow, rose bud red lips and sweet deep dimples captured my heart right away. I was completely besotted with her and since that day, I was set to be her slavery mom for life.  And there will never be any regret.

This year Alycia gets to celebrate her birthday in Hong Kong again with her doting aunt (hubs’ eldest sister), uncle, grandma and Sherilyn.  Three years ago, she celebrated her birthday in the air on her flight to Auckland and two years ago she celebrated her birthday in Hong Kong.

These are the birthday celebration pix taken today in Hong Kong:

The girls’ koo ma treated them to a buffet lunch with a super impressive spread of international gastronomical fare.

Wish I was there too!

The 2 sisters monkeying around:

With doting grandma:

Happy birthday my dearest precious baby Alycia. You will always be mummy’s special little one.  You’re one year older today and I pray that you’ll be one year wiser too. May you forever be blessed with good health, happiness, a kind and compassionate heart and lots of  good luck chasing you 💕😘💋

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Bon Voyage

Despite having a late night yesterday doing last minute shopping at the shopping mall and only hitting the sack way past midnight, I managed to jump out of bed at 4:45 a.m. today.

Alycia and Sherilyn’s flight to Hong Kong was at 10:30 a.m. today.  As it’s their first time traveling alone without any accompanying adult, we had to be at the airport at least 2 hours before departure time.  Everything went smoothly and we reached the airport at 8:30 a.m.

While the hubs parked his car, I took the luggage bags for cling wrapping. Then did the check-in.

Looking for counter H for Cathay Dragon:

The girls received a special ‘Travel Assistance Request’ pass for airport staff to assist them until they reached the departure gate.  I requested for this service via our ticketing agent who is based in Ipoh.  I was told by the agent that the request may not be updated at the airport system and this was what happened this morning. Upon showing the check-in staff the confirmation from our ticketing agent, the request was only keyed into the system.

Within an hour, the airport assistant came to bring Alycia and Sherilyn to the departure gate.

We had breakfast at PappaRich before sending the girls off:

 

My ‘precious baby’ will turn 14 in 2 days.  She always gets to travel overseas on her birthday!   The char koay teow at this PappaRich outlet is super delish.   And that’s one of the reasons why we have to pay much more at this outlet than at other outlets, I guess.

Seated in front of us was Datuk Jimmy Choo, world renowned shoe-maker.  And this paparazzi in me just had to furtively snap a picture of him 😁

Saying good-bye with big hugs to my two big babies. They don’t seem to miss me much though 😥

Other than a 30-minute flight delay, everything went very smoothly for Alycia and Sherilyn today, praise God. I’m very sure the two sisters will have a swell time traveling and bonding together, though I know  my audacious and mischievous middle child (she’s got her dad’s DNA for sure) will annoy her po-faced and serious sister  to no end. She’s already Whatsapp-ed me a video of her sister sleeping on the MRT and I’ve chided her for being so evil.

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HEALTH FREAK MOMMY