Tuesday 28 August 2012

McDonald Kid's Meal Toys/collectibles : Strawberry ShortCake & friends

This bunting at McDonald has attracted many kid's attention.  After knowing the Strawberry shortcake & friends figurines at McDonald 2 weeks ago, our girls have marked the introducing dates for the next appearance of the other figurines.  We were a week late to get the Strawberry shortcake figurine, they were all gone out of stock, only managed to get the Raspberry Torte while it is on for grab.  

Our girls do not want to miss out their chance for the next one, the Plum Pudding figurine, which was introduced on the 23rd August.  They kept reminding us to go McDonald on the day itself, since we have already promised to them before hand, the Daddy always fulfill what he had promised, though it was raining and even after dinner from grandma's place, we drove all the way to McDonald, ordered 2 kid's meals to get each of them a Plum Pudding figurines.  Pearl almost finished the whole burger by herself and we joined force finished the other kid's meal.  I later found out that we could actually just buy the toys without having to purchase the kid's meal.  These collectibles are scented by their individual flavours.

Picture166
Two sets of scented Raspberry Torte and Plum Pudding from McDonald

The next appearance would be the Orange Blossom, coming out on the 30th August 2012 and last till 5th September 2012.  Don't think our girls want to miss that too...see whether they will remind us or not *.*.  We would have been able to get the whole set of the 4 Strawberry shortcake figurines if we hadn't missed out the first one, that's the Strawberry Shortcake "sigh"

Saturday 25 August 2012

Raya Visiting

Hari Raya is the time to visit our Malay friends. We visited 2 of our Malay friends on the first day of Raya. We started off with a visit to our new friend, Mohd Sharul's home just before noon. A simple traditional Malay food is readily served on the table when we arrived. And this was the first time our girls tasted the the curry and rendang dishes.  
A picture with Mohd Sharul and his wife, me taking picture
simple but delicious home cooked dishes, not hot & spicy at all, just suit our taste, our girls really like the chicken curry and beef rendang with the ketupat
our next visit was to Juriah's home (lovely lady in light blue).  Her family home is opened for visiting on the first day of Raya, we have been there for the last 3 years, no invitation is needed for the visit. 

Food is served at Juriah's home

As I am still pretty full from our previous visiting, I walked around Juriah's home to pick some Raya Kuey and cookies with my assitant
So many types of cookies to choose from, we just picked some that we would like to try
some of the kuey and cookies that we picked

Juriah's garden.  The entrance to the fish pond behind our girls.  While I was enjoying the cookies, Clet walked around the garden to take some pictures of the plants, these plants are as healthy as ever.  I noticed that their garden have more green plants than flowering plants.. 













We will come visiting again next year.  

Saturday 18 August 2012

Kids Eat Free Everyday at Pizza Hut


Not long after we have ordered our meals at Pizza Hut City Mall yesterday, Clet spotted the banner says "Kids Eat Free Everyday" at the door.  When the waiter came around to serve us the drinks we asked him what this promotion is about.

"Kids Eat Free Everyday" promotion started on 15 March 2012, I remembered we have been to Pizza Hut a couple of times since March this year but we only got to know it yesterday.  

The promotion offers every RM20.00 spent entitles to :


~ 1 "Kids Eat Free" meal. Linited to 1 meal per kid
~ Valid for kids below 8 years old or below 120cm in height,  whichever applicable.
~ For dine-in only.
~ Not available in Pizza Hut Genting Highlands.
~ Not valid for purchase of Group Party Packages.
~ Terms and Conditions apply.
Our bill came up to more than RM40.00 that entitled us to claim for 2 "kids Eat Free" meals though Crystal is more than 8 years old and taller than 120cm in height.  

"Kids Eat Free" meals

We ended up with extra serving of Spaghetti bolognese and Chicken Meat Balls, these "Kids Eat Free" meals also come with soya bean drinks.  Not bad at all.  But our girls have already whacked their Carbonara   pasta by the time the "Kids Eat Free" meals were served, can take in any more food. Well, with me around there is no problem having extra food, I am quite a big eater...  

Friday 17 August 2012

Hotel Booking Websites

With airlines periodical promotions nowadays, it has made travelling more affordable to many people.  Once we have booked our tickets to our chosen destination, next will be to look for hotel accommodation.  

Instead of flipping through the Yellow Pages like what we used to, now we can just go online to search for hotels around the world, compare prices, check on the room availability, their localities and make reservation within minutes.  

I was told that making reservation on hotel accommodation on line can be cheaper in many cases, some offer reward points in monetary value for next booking through their websites.  Here are a list of websites that we can browse through to shop for hotel accommodation at our convenience.  
  1. Booking.com
  2. Hotels.com
  3. Zuji.com
  4. Wotif.com
  5. Pyotravel.com
  6. Tripadvisor.com
  7. Asiarooms.com
  8. Agoda.com
  9. Expedia.com
  10. Asiatravel.com
We are already in the 2nd half of the year. Soon it will be a long school holiday starting from mid-November till January 2013.   Year end school holiday is the time where parents take the opportunities to go for family vacation.  A lot of planning needed to make the vacation a memorable one.  50% job is done when we secured the hotel reservation.   Which website do you normally go for to make your hotel reservations?  Please share your experiences with us.

   

Thursday 16 August 2012

Day trip to Kundasang & a night at Kasih Sayang Health Resort

This was a weekend away from home in June this year. Plenty of photos to do the talking.

We took a day trip to Kundasang in the morning, stopping by the town of Tamparuli for its famous mee as usual.  The coffee shop was not opened yet when we reached there before 9am, we waited for the shop to open at 9.30am just for the mee.  
Tamparuli mein with stuffed pork blood (bought from other shop)
We continued our trip to Kundasang after having our breakfast.  We had another stop at Pekan Nabalu, which is 67km from Kota Kinabalu city. Nabalu is a very small township with shops and stalls selling local fruits and produces, souvenirs, and a great view of Mt. Kinabalu on a clear sunny day.


souvenirs stalls at Pekan Nabalu
Local produces - ground nuts sold in many forms
Our famous Sabah Organic Tea, sold in sachet, powder or dried leaves form.  Also sold in major supermarkets nationwide.

Local produce Pure Honey
Tourist coaches stop by here for their tourists to buy souvenirs & local fruits and produces on their way back to the City.
Monkey soft toys, protected animal
Out of the many trips to the Kinabalu National Park, this is the first time we drove up to the climbing point of the Majestic Mount Kinabalu.  If you want to conquer the highest mountain in Malaysia, Pondok (shelter) Timpohon is the starting point (only climbers with pass are allowed to go through this check point).   After which there are 7 pondok (shelters) to stop by leading you all the way up to Laban Rata, situated at 3,272.7m above sea level.  Laban Rata is the resting point for the night before proceeding to the summit of Mount Kinabalu at dawn the next morning
We could find the squirrels come around looking for food on top of Pondok Timpohon, children are amazed seeing the squirrels coming near them.
This squirrel is so tamed 
expecting some more biscuits
The weather was very cloudy that day, I only managed to capture Mt Kinabalu on our way back in the afternoon.  We spent the night at Kasih Sayang Health Resort, Menggatal.  I finally utilised the complimentary stay at the resort, a lucky draw I got some 2 years ago.
Night view from the resort


we had our dinner at the resort's restaurant
the day view from the resort
plenty of green
the view of the Mount Kinabalu is visible from the resort too...
rabbits at the resort
breakfast provided in the morning
partial view of the resort

Wednesday 15 August 2012

How much do you worry about aging?

Everyone wants to look at their best in front of others.  One can dress up as nice as they can be, put on as much as make up and accessories as they want to, but just how much can we cover up our real biological age? Will you consider doing surgery to restore the youthfulness??

As we start to age, the sign of aging start to appear on our skin, the most obvious ones are wrinkles and age spots.  Each time I look at myself in the mirror, it worries me.  I find myself with more wrinkles and age spots.  Besides worry, what else can I do to stop and reverse the sign of aging??  Invest on expensive skin care products?  No, can't afford.  Change to a more relax, work less and sleep early lifestyle ??  No, can't afford that too..work less means less income, sleep early means more work left undone, relax lifestyle means more leisure and spend more money, what will these result to.......no money more worries and lead to  premature aging, :(

I read about an article written by a member of Triond on Aging Isn't Wrinkle Free, this article gave us a realistic way of looking at aging, it has cleared some of my worries after reading it.  Since we can only do what is within our means to protect our "youthfulness", we can not do much about the process of aging really so why not let us age gracefully!! 

Tuesday 14 August 2012

Interest in Beading crafts

Like mother like daughter, Crystal shares similar interest with me in many areas.  One of it is the beading works.  At one time, I was very into beading projects.  I invested in tools, beads, findings, books and time just to pursue my interests.  

I used to follow the patterns from the books to get bracelets done from night till dawn.  I have made myself many earrings and necklaces which I still use them when I am out and about.  I also gave many of my handmade necklaces, earrings and bracelets as presents for birthdays and Christmas.  It's fun but I have no time for beading projects ever since I started my full time job some 3 years ago.

But my tools, beads and findings have not gone to waste.  Crystal has been asking me to let her do some beading works when she was still small, I disallowed her because she couldn't handle the bits and pieces then.  Since she is bigger girl now, she can handle the beadings pretty well after giving her a few steps guide. I bought some glass beads in different colours and sizes for her to mix and match.

 Some of the beads, findings and tools 
 beads
 and findings

Now she would start her beading projects whenever she has got the mood in it.  She did 3 necklaces over the weekends.  I help her with the opening and finishing part of it, the rest is all up to her creativity.  She did a pretty good job in colour matching.  
she designed this necklace for me with faceted glass beads, I told her I need a longer necklace, this is what she came out with.  A design with tear drops beads.

faceted clear and blue glass beads necklace and rainbow glass beads necklaces (named by Crystal)
3 necklaces designed by Crystal.
She used this rainbow necklace to tuition today. 
the necklaces are stored in this organza jewelry bags