First Day Cover / New Stamps for The Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II

When I first arrived at the Main Post Office in KK just before 8am this morning, there was already a long queue in front of the entrance.  I told myself that there must be a first day cover released today, but I am not sure what theme is being released today.  The crowd seems to be very excited telling each other how early they have been here at the post office.

I did not line along with the queue because I do not need to take any queuing number from the counter, I just need to buy stamps to send my products off to my buyers as usual.  

Before the door was opened, the post office staff informed the people in the queue that there are limited numbers of First Day Covers for everyone, for those who have registered their names the day before will get theirs and no additional are available for sale if they want more, some might not get a complete set.  With no idea of what's being released, Clet and I proceed to buy our stamps at the other counter.  

After almost done with sticking the stamps on our posts, one of the elderly lady holding her First Day Cover envelope and stamps on her hands and puzzling how to place it on the envelope, with her asking for help, I moved over to help her out.  I was surprise to see this special release of these new stamps for The Diamond Jubilee for Queen Elizabeth II, there is also stamp for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Prince William and his wife Catherine.  These stamps are so nice that I want to have them instantly.  The best is the Duke and Duchess has actually arrived in Kota Kinabalu last night, they are actually here in Sabah for their 2-day visit.   It is very meaningful day to have the First Day Cover.

I asked for the elderly to take a photo of her envelope and stamps

queuing up

I quickly queue up (the queue has became shorter by then) hoping for a chance to get this set of stamps.  Luckily Clet helped to queue up on the other line which he got his turn before me.  We did not manage to get any First Day Cover's envelope and folder, they were all sold out.  But I am happy to get hold of 2 sets of the stamps.  They are meant to be kept for my 2 little girls. 

another line of people queued up

the new released stamps, 2 designs

Stamp of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to commemorate the royal visit to Malaysia, at RM1.50 each

First Day Cover stamp design

A "stamp on stamp" design, with an older stamp which was released on June 2, 1953 to commemorate the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, it is now being re-released after 60 years, the Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty on the throne.  RM1.50 per piece.

I ended up late to work this morning (slightly la) because of this, I can't kept my excitement having those stamps that I showed them to my colleagues, they all got excited too..one of my colleague walked all the way to Tanjung Aru Post office to buy these stamps but returned with disappointment that these stamps have not arrived to their post office yet.

I would have missed this fabulous First Day Cover if I hadn't gone to the main post office today.

Prince William and His wife, Catherine visit to Sabah

It is our great honour to have the Duke and the Duchess of Cambridge to visit Sabah after touring Kuala Lumpur from 13-15 September 2012.  They are here to represent their grand mother, the Royal Highness, Queen Elizabeth II on her Diamond Jubilee tours, making her 60 years reign as Queen.  

They began their Asia Pacific Tour from Singapore on 11 September 2012 where they had a tour at the Orchid Garden. They were presented with the Orchid named after them.

Their next stop will be to Kuala Lumpur and Sabah.  I am sure the airport and the hotel that they will be staying will be packed with greeters under strict royal protocol, though I am in Sabah, I don't think I will be able to have a glimpse of Prince William and his wife, Catherine in person. It's a working day, most of us will be on our work desks.  

The Duke and Duchess will proceed to visit Danum Valley, a virgin rainforest deep in the centre of Sabah, where a conservation is done by Royal Society to protect the precious ecology in the area.  It is an interesting place to visit but I have not been there yet. Danum Valley is a paradise to Birds watchers and nature lovers.  Amidst much controversial, I guess they will proceed to Danum Valley as planned. 

image from tourmalaysia.com

McDonald's Collectible Toys : Strawberry Shortcake - Orange Blossom

To avoid disappointment, we went to purchase the last release of the Strawberry Shortcake's friend, the Orange Blossom, on last Saturday.  This time we just bought the toy figurine without having the Happy Meal.  That's made the collection with only Strawberry Shortcake's Friends without the Strawberry Shortcake herself.*sigh*.  

Clet has asked for his friend's help, whose wife is working with McDonald, to get hold of the Strawberry Shortcake figurine but unfortunately there is no stock left.

These figurines are so adorable, of course it would be nicer if we have the complete set of them as collection. At the moment they are placed on our girls' bed head frame like this.

We shall watch out for the next McDonald's Happy Meal collections to add on to our girls' collections.

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.

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"

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.  

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...  

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.

   

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