Tuesday 30 September 2008

A Day at the Resort

It was my first time to Kasih Sayang Boutique Health Resort & Spa (Kasih Sayang Resort) at Kokol Hill. It is only 45 minutes drive from Kota Kinabalu International Airport (KKIA). Kasih Sayang Resort offers the majestic views of Kota Kinabalu City, the Crocker Range and Mt. Kinabalu. Being 2,400ft above sea level, the temperature ranges between 18°C to 25°C. I went there for a day work related trip. We had our breakfast and lunch in between our assignments.


The entrance


Part of the building view where the rooms are situated. There are 16 rooms altogether.


Some rooms can occupy up to 6 - 8 persons with extra mattresses or beds.
The interior
The view from the rooms

A standard room

Of the many bathrooms, I find this one a bit unique. Longish in shape.


Another view from the one of the room

The greenery view from the restaurant
Tuaran Mee, one of the chef speciality. We ordered this for our breakfast.

The view of the Mt Kinabalu from the entrance of the resort
The decorations
The wine display at the restaurant

I like this piece of water feature displayed on the way to the Spa

Spa and massage are one of the facilities you can enjoy at the resort

You will definitely be able to find many local florals and orchid species at the resort

I like this flower. Mixture of yellow, orange, pink and red in one little flower, love it!!

I started to notice the Morning Glory 牵牛花 because of their many colours. This is the Pink one.

The dark purple and white ones

and the maroon and white ones
The yellow orchids
Our lunch, this one not in the menu. Served only on request.
Can't finish the salted egg. Anyway got to get back to complete our assignment.



Sunday 28 September 2008

New Shoes

Finally Pearl got a new pair of school shoes.  She has been wearing Crystal's old pair of blue shoes to school all this while, probably because they are more comfortable than the rest of them.  We noticed that she has out grown the blue shoes recently furthermore the other shoes from Crystal still of a larger size for her to fit in.  To give her tiny and growing foots the comfort, the daddy chose a pair of pink sport shoes for her.  She loves them.

Saturday 27 September 2008

Mooncake Festival celebration at school

This is a late entry for Mooncake festival which was celebrated 2 weeks ago at Crystal's school. The programmes for that night among others were performances, Tang Lung competitions. Light dinner and mooncakes were served on that evening too..Each class made their own tang lung as their entries to the contest, here they are:







Teachers and students are getting ready to carry their tang lungs into the performance hall.


Crystal in her class before dinner.
Took the opportunity to show her colouring in school
She got a consolation prize for this piece of Merdeka Day's colouring competition in school.

Sunday 21 September 2008

Caffeine good for Asthma??

Asthma, one of the serious and potentially fatal diseases suffered by many people out there, including my dad. Because of my dad's condition, it leads me wanting to know more about the nutritional blockbusters that fight asthma. The treatment that my dad receives from the hospital are mainly using medications to control the disease rather than on how to protect or make him stronger to fight the disease.
A very useful book entitled "Eat and Heal" by the Editors of FC&A Medical Publishing, that I bought few months back has provided me with the basic nutritional knowledge needed to fight asthma. In summary, the nutritional blockbusters that fight asthma are:
  • Vitamin C
  • Vitamin E
  • Vitamin A
  • Lycopene (such as tomatoes, pink grapefruit, and watermelon)
  • Magnesium and selenium (broccoli, oysters, beans)
  • Water (at least 6 glasses a day)

and interestingly surprise that Caffeine is useful to fight asthma as well. Reseach shows that caffeine helps relax bronchial tubes so that airways stay open as such it can help improve the symptoms for up to four hours. Therefore, it would be helpful to start the day with a fragrant cup of coffee. I do not know whether my dad would like to have a try on starting his day with a cup of coffee!!?? I should try to convince him.

Saturday 20 September 2008

A Disturb Mind

Eversince my dad had a stroke in October last year, I'm having the kind of fear of seeing my siblings' phone numbers appear on my cellphone cos I do not want to receive any news of my dad being unwell. I am started to relax myself from that fear after nearly a year of my dad had the stroke, but yesterday, a call from my brothers informing me that my dad has been rushed to the hospital semi unconsciously due to very high blood pressure and breathing difficulty. I broke down immediately in the office. My colleagues gave my dad a quick prayer seeking GOD's helps so that he will be able to get through in what he is sufferring; I rushed to the hospital to be at my dad's side. The doctor managed to bring his BP down and briefed us on his condition. He was admitted again for further review.
I woke up at 4.30am this morning with a very disturb mind and couldn't get myself back to sleep again. At 7am this morning, big sister and myself were at the ward to visit my dad. He looked weak and only willing to drink some of the fruits and vegetable juice that I made for him. My prayers go to my dad for his speedy recovery.

Thursday 18 September 2008

New Member in our Family

This is Baby Chloe, the youngest daugther of two to my big brother Anthony and SIL, Alice.  Finally I got the chance to take photos of her on Moon cake festival when we had family dinner.  She is nearly two months old now.
Pearl, mum, baby Chloe, Albert and Shirly (who due to deliver a baby boy end of October this year).

Wednesday 17 September 2008

September Birthday Stars

There are birthday wishes all around in September.
First of all, I would like to wish my old time friends, May and Carol, a very Happy Birthday to both of you, whose birthdays fall on 7th and 15th respectively.  We hardly meet each other though May is in KK while Carol is over in Australia, we usually drop a few lines for each other emails and lately via Facebook.
A surprise party was organised for our Director at the Kampung Nelayan Restaurant on the 8th.  We had a nice dinner that night, I particularly like the fish and the prawns.  Our present to our director was a basket of 2 different species of live orchids. 
KK HQ staff with our directors
Our present : one of the orchid
and another different species of orchid
The following day was our BIL, Nicky's birthday.  SIL, Rosalind bought him a birthday cake, unfortunately she was not feeling well and unable to come for the little celebration, nonetheless, our two princesses are ever eager to help out, from placing the candles, singing the birthday songs and blowing the candles off for their uncle.
Here comes the youngest birthday star.  Pearl turned 3 years old on the 15th (she shares the same birthday with my friend Carol).  We thought of having a small birthday party at the school for Pearl (just as we always do for Crystal) but we did not manage to inform the school as Pearl was sick on Thursday and off from school on Friday and still feeling weak on her birthday, we decided to just have a family dinner for the celebration.  We went to Kenny Rogers for the dinner.
Guess what, Pearl was so grumpy and restless in the restaurant that the daddy have to bring her out.  She got herself some candies and biscuits from the shops outside, came back a little cheerful, but refused to eat the meals that we ordered;  She only ate or rather played with those candies and cookies on her plate.  Probably because she just had her bottle of milk earlier.
A delicious Kenny Rogers meal which Pearl refused to eat unlike Crystal, she still feeling hungry after finished our servings of maccaroni and cheese that we have to order another serving for her.
This birthday girl was so restless that the daddy have to bring her out for the second time.  This time the daddy bought her a birthday balloon.  More cheerful as you can see.  We have to buy another one for Crystal as she was nagging to have one too.   After meal, we walked around Centre Point, thinking of buying a pair of shoes for her birthday.  The girls nearly turned the shoes shops around; they tried shoes one after another, picking all those bigger sizes ones and those with heels ones too which are highly unsuitable for their age.  We quickly leave the shop before get out of control.  We ended up at Ngiu Ngee for another search for the shoes but stuck at the toys section. 
Pearl finally picked this as her birthday present but refused to even let Crystal touch it.  Obviously showed on her face.  Both of them ended up in tears after much negotiations failed, ha ha.. The daddy came to handle the situation, Crystal got very upset and tearfully went to play her computer game and..
Pearl played her tea set alone.  Lonely and no fun playing alone eh..I can sense it :)  Not long after that, she took the tea sets and placed at the table near where Crystal was.  A sign of letting the sister play her toys in a way.  Later in the evening they were playing together joyfully. 
Pearl is cutting her cake, she loves the chocolate chips.  This cake was specially baked by SIL, Rosalind.  Very thoughtful of her, thanks a lot.

Tuesday 16 September 2008

Papaya Soup

While shopping for food and groceries at the supermarket on last Saturday, I saw papayas at the fruits section, all of them are still raw; I said to myself, why not try papaya soup today so I bought two raw papayas, one for soup and one for dessert when it's ripened.  Here's my papaya soup with pork and red dates.  The last time I had papaya soup was during my confinement after giving birth to Pearl, to induce more breast milk, however, this formular did not work on me.  Many people have been telling me that papaya soup is also good for health that would be good for the kids too. 
I marinated the remaining papaya using apple cider vinegar, salt and sugar.  Very appetising and it is ideal for cooking of sweet and sour dishes or eat on its own.  I feel like having some before my dinner though.