We will be spending the whole week in Penang. See you guys after Christmas. I shall post up our Christmas celebration hopefully before the new year comes.
Once again, Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday. Just in case…Happy New Year too!
Nope…it wasn’t a holiday for me. I was there to stress out my brain for an off-site meeting to align our team’s strategies and setting the KPIs for the next 12 months. Since I’m still BF Jonathan boy (morning & night only), I had to take him along for this 3D 2N meeting. Darling had to work so I got my parents to come with me to babysit Jonathan. Two of my nieces tagged along too.
We stayed in the water chalet with a partial sea view. Before the trip, I was so excited. But when I stepped in to the water chalet, nothing to woo about actually. Besides its open sky bathroom, the room is not as big as what I see from their website. The room comes with four-poster bed and a Pangkin daybed.
This is where we stayed.
The spa…Avi Spa
What lured me was the open shower concept where you could experience the freedom of showering or bathing underneath the clear blue sky. I felt uneasy at first and kept looking up if there is anyone hanging on the roof looking at me bathing. After a while, I felt so tantalizing showering with their aromatherapic bath gel and shampoo.
The kids was having great time at the petting farm and swimming pool. Jonathan enjoyed himself at the pool and playground. They even have a playroom for children. Mom obviously busy taking care of Jonathan whild Dad prefers to laze in the room watching tv.
Jonathan boy had a great time with his Gong Gong, Po Po and two big Jie Jie. But poor me…I see the sun rise in the morning but no chance to see the sun set in the evening. Definitely is not a holiday for me but a painstaking session. I definitely need more resources. Praying hard for a good bonus next year. Cheers…
When Jonathan boy was barely 1 year old and his molars have yet to erupt, I gave him baby biscuits to keep himself entertained while we enjoy our meals peacefully. Now that his two upper first molars has fully erupted with the right bottom first molar and two upper cuspid erupting, he could enjoy more table food.
While dining out, I will normally call for a plate of plain rice just for Jonathan boy. If he is lucky, he gets to have some tofu, fish or vegetables to compliment the rice. I’ll leave the rice in front of him with a spoon or sometimes he demand for our chopsticks or fork. And there he goes pooking or scooping the rice. When he gets fedup from no rice going into his mouth, there comes his fingers picking up the chunk of rice to feed his hungry stomach. That can keep him occupied throught the whole meal time without any fuss.
Now, Daddy & Mommy can enjoy meals peacefully with a MESS to clean up after that!
P/S: Always check that I have the bib and extra clothing to change if needed.
Remember me grumbling on the flood? This is somehow related to that incident.
Monday – My youngest niece next door vomited few times in a day. She threw up anything that she ate. No fever and diarrhoea and she is still very alert. At first we thought she misses her daddy coz the last time her daddy went oversea, she was sick too. Sis brought her to see doctor and he said it’s food poisoning and could spread to others.
Tuesday – My youngest niece was back to her jovial self but her brother got it with fever this time. He vomited in the car and my sis had to clean up but couldn’t get rid of the smell.
Wednesday – It was Jonathan’s turn. When I reached home, my MIL told me that Jonathan vomited each time after food or milk. I though probably he is reacting to the new milk coz he had just been “upgraded” to the next step. So I told MIL to feed him porridge and cereal only the next day and monitor.
Thursday – Jonathan stopped vomiting. My sis came over to my place looking restless and complaining of vomiting and no appetite.
ME: So, you also misses your husband too?
SIS: Who say…
ME: The, pregnant ar?
SIS: No sex how to get pregnant!
Friday – Darling called to say that my MIL was feeling nausea. We rushed home and brought her to the doctor.
One after another and all had the same symptom and got well the next day. The virus is contagious I suppose. According to the doctor, apparently a lot of people has fallen ill these few days. Most complaing of the same sickness. The flood the other day had contaminated the water. Doctor advised to eat cooked food and be careful with fruits and vegetables that we eat raw coz we uses the unboiled water to wash it.
Sunday – Darling had diarrhoea and migraine. He could have caught the virus too.
It is now left me and eldest niece who is still “healthy”…*touch wood*
Finally, the day has come and had passed. We have been waiting to board the ship to experience a cruise holiday. It was a 4 days 3 night cruise with SuperStar Libra to Langkawi and Singapore ex Port Klang. With us was my parents, 2nd sis and family, 4th sis (pretending to be single and available this time…leaving her kids and husband at home) and youngest sis (hoping to find her Leonardo DiCaprio).
Before we embark the ship.
This is how the ship’s lobby looks like.
This is the cabin and the bed is smaller than a single sized bed.
This is the pathway in between the cabins.
You never get hungry when you are in the ship. They provide 6 free meals a day giving you 3 restaurants to choose from for each meal….Chinese, Western and Asian. The food wasn’t that great or special. If you dine in the Chinese and Western restaurants, they only serve set meal. Only one restaurant serves buffet. Imagine having thousand over passengers but only 3 restaurants to dine in. If you are late, you need to queue or take a queue number. For those with children, they only have limited baby high chair.
Our first lunch in the ship.
If you do not want to die of boredom, participate in their activities, programmes, games and shows. Or else, stay in the cabin and enjoy movies marathon in Astro channels. There is a casino but you don’t have to dress in batik/jacket to enter. Too bad there isn’t any “A Night with Captain” or “Gala Dinner” in our trip, else we will be dressing up sexy and hot with Jonathan in his little tuxedo. All transaction in the ship is in Singapore Dollar. We hardly spend cause all meals are free and provided for. Most shows and programmes are free.
Some of the shows put up by the ship crews.
One of the games we participated in…Box or Bucks!
The swimming pool on the upper deck. The swimming pool is of sea water.
Sunset view on the most upper deck (10th deck).
The dawn on Day 2. We are reaching Langkawi.
Ah Yi (my youngest sis) with Jonathan boy at Awana Porto Malai.
From left: 4th sis, 2nd sis, Jean Suen, 2nd BIL, baby May Suen, me, Jonathan boy and youngest sis.
Dad and Mom at Awana Porto Malai.
Overall I only give SuperStar Libra a rating of 6 out of 10 in terms of my expectation for a cruise holiday. The ship crews are friendly especially towards the children but generally the ship is not children friendly. They don’t have a playground for kids except for some board games available for rent. The restaurants don’t provide plastic utensils for children.
Nevertheless, it’s a good place for relaxing. You must know how to enjoy their facilities and participate in their programmes. My favourite spot is the upper most deck where I can see the horizon, sun set, sun rise and feel the strong wind. We are looking forward to a next cruise perhaps with SuperStar Virgo or an international cruise. Have to start saving for that now.
p/s: More pics on my Facebook. All pics courtesy of my 4th sis and youngest sis. Hear her stories here and here and here.
It’s 3.00am now and I’m still awake merely to let my hair dry before I can go to bed. Nop…neither did I just came back from a late night movie nor clubbing nor just finished spring cleaning my house nor because of I just managed to settle down a crying baby. All because of the RAIN! Sometimes rain could be a blessing to us, sometimes rain can create disaster. This time is the latter!
There was a heavy downpour yesterday in the whole of Klang. Not too sure about other places. It started to rain at around 7.30pm. Getting heavier and heavier until at 10.00pm, the thunder alerted Darling’s car alarm. Darling went down to check on his car. But suddenly, he called out for me and at the same time, my sis next door gave me a ring to check on my kitchen. So I went downstairs. The moment I saw my kitchen, it was flooding and the water was filling up almost 1 inch, reaching my living room.
Grabbing whatever cloth that was around, I tried to save the water from running up my living room. But the water speed was faster than me. The water ran underneath my staircase and everything there was wet. I can’t be bothered of that anymore but to think of a way to prevent more water from coming into the kitchen. Luckily I have a sliding door in between the kitchen and living room so it helps a little. The water was coming thru the squatting toilet bowl and overflowed the bathroom then to my kitchen. The only thing I could do was to prevent more water from flowing in by scooping out the water. Sis even throw a sandbag into the toilet bowl to prevent more water from flowing out. The whole thing was so DRAMATIC. When situation were under controlled, we could still joke of it just to release our tension.
Surrounding the house, the water level was around knee high. The water only started to subside around 12.30am. It’s still raining now but not that heavy. The whole housing area got affected. BIL almost got stucked in the middle of the road as everywhere was flooded. Our area is prone to flood but this is the worst in 6 years of my stay in this area. Some of my neighbours just watched the water flowing into their house as nothing much can be done to stop the water.
And now, all of us are suffering from backache, muscle pain, sore fingers and lack of sleep. Blame it on the rain!
p/s: Too busy with the scooping job so no time to take photos.
Was tagged by Agnes on this one. A, B, C,…,Z!
A. Attached or single? – Permanently attached.
B. Best friend? – Not really, merely just friends.
C. Cake or pie? – Cake.
D. Day of choice? – Saturday. Can sleep till the sun shining at my buttock.
E. Essential item? – Mobile phone. Can’t leave home without it.
F. Favorite color? – Blue. That’s my wedding theme. But getting to like champagne colour.
G. Gummy bears or worms? – Gummy bears of course. Don’t ever come near me with a worm.
H. Hometown? – Famous of seafood…Sitiawan.
I. Favorite indulgence? – Depending on my mood.
J. January or July? – January.
K. Kids? – Oh, you mean how many I have now? Visit my Cyberhome and you’ll know the answer.
L. Life isn’t complete without? – My Darling and my kid(s).
M. Marriage date? – 22 January 2005
N. Number of magazine subscriptions? – None. I don’t like reading.
O. Orange or apple? – Orange, provided they must be sweet.
P. Phobias? – Lizards, frog or any reptile or slimy thing.
Q. Quotes? – *Ask my Darling. He’s very good in quotes.*
R. Reasons to smile? – Everyday when I arise from bed and see the sun shine.
S. Season of choice? – Autumn
T. Tag 5 people – Guess most have already got tagged so not tagging anyone here.
U. Unknown facts about me? – Drop me a note if you want to know anything unknown.
V. Vegetable? – My fav is kai lan’s stem.
W. Worst habit? – Eat and eat and eat…junk food most of the time.
X. X-ray or ultrasound? – Ultrasound…less risk.
Y. Your favorite food(s)? – Pork ribs.
Z. Zodiac sign – Aries.
All I want for Christmas is my……Ooopps! Not for me but for my not-so-old man and no-more-a-baby boy.
Thinking hard on what should I get them for Christmas. Both are not an easy task. Putting on my thinking cap in figuring out on what will make them happy and what they really need. Of course Darling has hundreds and thousands of stuff (or gadget) he wish to have. This second he would say he wants this then another second he saw something else he says is a necessity. Old man Darling quite troublesome isn’t? 🙂
It’s so much easier when it comes to Jonathan boy. He don’t mind (or don’t bother) what is in that colourful wrapper. As long as Mommy likes it! But old lady Darling can be a nuisance too. Undecisive and want everything under the sky. Hehehe… I can’t make up my mind on Jonathan boy’s Christmas gift.
A car? Obviously it’s not the real adult car we are talking about here nor it’s the miniature toy car. We spotted a battery operated car in one of the toy shop here in Klang selling at a very cheap price. It can be controlled with a remote control too. Jonathan boy can sit in it and let the car bring him around with us maneuvering the steering wheel by using a remote control.
A train set? I can imagine him catching the train while it goes round the track and wouldn’t let it go. Or maybe a big moving toy train that can make chuckling choo choo sound. He has lots of cars and busses but not train.
A LEGO set? Since he has mastered stacking skill, the new level is building and making things up. But I think ended up Daddy will be the one who will get hooked to the LEGO set.
A pair of shoe? Since he has started walking, I can get him more shoes and of course to be prepared for Chinese New Year.
A drawing board/mat? We came across Rainbow Aquadraw drawing mat. It is a waterbased drawing mat. Simply fill the special markers with water and draw. When the mat dries out the pictures drawn will disappear and the fun can begin all over again.
What else do you think he likes? Or should I say what else do you think he will have longer interest with? Remember the Malay proverb, “Hangat-hangat tahi ayam”? I just don’t want the toys laying there collecting dust.
So any suggestions from the floor?
I decided to stop posting on Jonathan boy’s monthly update as he is 1 year old now. Nevertheless, I won’t stop posting on his new achievements or milestones from time to time as I won’t be able to remember so many things with my deteriorating brain.
His upper left and right first molar has fully erupted. Now I can introduce more food to him. I no longer need to mash or grate the porridge ingredients. Just dice into smaller cubes or break into smaller pieces. And instead of leaving the porridge to cook for 45 mins, I reduced it to 30 mins. Soon, I will substitute porridge with rice.
His new fond play item is the toilet bowl. He tend to put his hand into the toilet bowl to reach for the water. He will grab a toy and drop it into the toilet bowl. When I instructed him to pick the toy up, he will do so. Jonathan boy, do you know the water in the toilet bowl is so dirty? One day, he may climb into the toilet bowl. Yiiiicks….
He is very good in manuevering around the house with his Thomas scooting train and Mr. Tolo scooter….moving forward, run through a bumper, go astern, turn left and right.
Like I mentioned before, he inherited my character and personality – SHY. He refuses to wave goodbye or smile. He will pull away when someone try to hold his hand. He will turn away hiding on my shoulder.
The greatest of all, he has started to throw tantrums. Just yesterday, I refused to give him the box with a broken toy in it. I grabbed it away from him worrying that the broken toy may hurt him. He then tried to pull the box from me and was yelling and screaming and crying. He is being demanding too. During meal time, if you don’t let him hold his own spoon, he will cover his mouth with his arm and hide his face down trying to get the message accross to Mommy that, “If you don’t give me that spoon, I won’t eat! It’s either you win or I win.” He just want to play with the spoon. Once you gave him a spoon, he happily let you feed.
From gliding to crawling on four and now walking on two. Just last weekend, he was still clenching to our palms while wandering around. The next day, he is letting his hands free in the air. How long will he hold on to our hands?