Legoland

This was the main reason we went to JB (not Hello Kitty) and it was totally worth the long drive and entrance fees.  We paid the full adult price of RM 140 each, and redeemed two child tickets with vouchers.  We were blessed with good weather throughout the day – not too hot and thankfully, no rain, though the sky was menacingly dark during the early afternoon.

We arrived slightly past the opening time of 10am, and the park was already quite busy but being a weekday, I’m sure it was still better than weekends or the school holidays.  Many of the visitors were foreigners from Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia, India, etc, bringing in much tourism revenue for Johor!

We started at the Lego Technic, and Yiu Yiu promptly went on the Technic Twister ride with her papa.  Then she went with me on the Aquazone Wave Racer and Project X.  Poor Yiu Yiu was so terrified at the beginning of the ride on Project X where there was a steep drop from the top that she was practically frozen throughout.

Technic Twister 

Aquazone Wave Racer 

Project X 

Next we went to Lego Kingdoms, and while I went on the Dragon’s Apprentice (a mini roller coaster ride) alone (Yiu Yiu was still too scared), the girls spent their time playing at the Forestmen’s Hideout.  The Dragon’s Apprentice was pretty mild, and I only realized later that there was another full size roller coaster ride named The Dragon.  Anyway, the queue was pretty long so I gave that a miss.  Yiu Yiu got her face painted, and while waiting, papa took the little one for horsie ride at the Royal Joust.  She went on a couple of rounds as there was hardly any queue.  Yiu Yiu joined her later after finishing her face painting.  The last ride at Lego Kingdoms was the Merlin’s Challenge, a carousel ride.

 The very mild Dragon's Apprentice

Forestmen's Hideout 

Horsey ride @ The Royal Joust

 Merlin's Challenge

We move on to Imagination, where Yiu Yiu went on the Kid Power Towers with papa.  They had to pull themselves up the tower before releasing the rope and glide down. I then joined the queue for the Observation Tower while the girls enjoyed some air-conditioning and playing with Lego bricks inside Build & Test.  They joined me later when it was our turn to go up the Observation Tower.  We skipped the Lego Studio where 4D movies are played, as the queue was much too long.  The girls spent sometime playing at the Duplo Playtown and going on the Duplo Express.  We then had our late lunch at Pizza Mania.  Food was pretty decent, but slightly overpriced as expected. 

 Kid Power Towers

(L): The Observation Tower, (Top R): Inside the deck, (Bottom R): View of the Kid Power Towers from atop 

Duplo Playtown & Duplo Express 

After lunch, we visited the Land of Adventure, where Yiu Yiu and I wanted to get on the Dino Island ride.  Unfortunately, she was below the height limit L  And with two whining girls who wouldn’t let me get on the ride myself, I had to give it a miss L  So we settled for the seemingly kiddy Beetle Bounce, which turned out rather fun, and since there wasn’t much of a queue, we went on the ride a couple of times.  We then went on the Lost Kingdom Adventure ride – a ride through some Egyptian scenery to hunt for lost treasures.

Dino Island ride, which I missed 

Beetle Bounce - you get butterflies in your tummy being bounced up and down

Our penultimate stop was the Lego City, and the girls enjoyed the ride on the planes at the Lego City Airport.  The girls and I then took part in a rescue mission at the Lego Rescue Academy, before the girls learnt driving at the Driving School and Junior Driving School.  We then went on the Legoland Express, a train ride that took us all over the park.  Our last activity at the Lego City was going boating at the Boating School.

Riding on the airplane @ Lego City Airport

 The Rescue Academy

Helping put out a fire @ The Rescue Academy 

The girls learning driving

Boating @ The Boating School

By then, it was already past 5pm, so we did a quick tour around Miniland.  I was really impressed by the level of details of all the buildings.  I harboured the hope of being able to revisit The Dragon and Dino Island if we still had time in the end but no such chance, since the park closes at 6pm on weekdays (and 7pm on weekends).

Clockwise from top left: Fishing town of Balinao @ Philippines, Tanah Lot @ Bali, Angkor Wat @ Cambodia and Mosque @ Brunei 

Clockwise from top left: Hoi An @ Vietnam, World Peace Gong and Patuxai @ Laos, Karaweik Hall @ Myanmar and Forbidden City @ China

Clockwise from top left: Wat Arun @ Thailand, Taj Mahal @ India, Merlion and Boat Quay @ Singapore 

Clockwise from top left: Railway Station, Twin Towers and Masjid Jamek @ Kuala Lumpur

Legoland is definitely worth another visit or two, but will probably wait till Yan Yan is slightly older so that she could get on more rides.  During this trip, she could only get on few select rides.  Work is in progress for Legoland Water Park, which is supposed to open in 2013 so will definitely revisit Legoland then.

Pet snake, anyone?

I listen to MixFM on my way to work daily.  There’s a segment in the morning show called Dilly’s Daily Dilemma whereby listener can call in with their problem, and Dilly, the host, will open the lines up to listeners to call in with their recommended solutions.  Today’s problem was really one of its kind – a guy called to say that his 18-year old brother acquired a pet recently – not the regular hamster, rabbit, kitten or puppy BUT a snake!  He probably got too carried away with the Year of the Snake J  So the caller was in a dilemma as the whole family is not comfortable with the presence of the snake in the house, yet the 18-year old refused to give up his pet.

I’ve never had a pet all my life but the girls have on occasions asked for one and I’ve steadfastly said no.  No way was I gonna commit to looking after the pet, in addition to looking after the girls and the household, while holding a full time job.  Luckily they have also not been persistent with their request – they are probably put off by the idea of having to clean up the pet’s poo J

We had, on two occasions, been given a tiny guppy fish.  We simply kept the fish in a glass jar filled with tap water.  One survived for a couple of days, while another one lasted only one day.  Poor poor fishes!  Come to think of it, fishes are probably the easiest to keep as pets for the girls.  I just need to get proper aquarium filters from www.petsupplies.com.

Hello Kitty Town

During the recent long Prophet Muhammad’s birthday and Thaipusam weekend (which included a self-declared holiday on Friday), we headed down south to Nusajaya to visit some of the attractions.  We started the journey on Thursday morning, making a pit stop in Seremban for brunch.  After a few more stops along the way, we reached the Puteri Harbour Family Theme Park at about 3pm.  Tickets to Hello Kitty Town is RM 50 each, for ages 3 and above.  The combo ticket, priced at RM 85 each, would have been a better deal as it includes entry into both Hello Kitty Town and The Little Big Club.  We didn’t opt for it coz we wouldn’t have enough time to cover both, since the park closes at 6pm.  Anyway, Hello Kitty was the reason we were there in the first place.

At the entrance

Hello Kitty World occupies an entire floor but it isn’t that big, really.  There are several activities station, including Nail Salon, Jewellery Making Workshop, Costume Dress-up and Cookie Studio.  The girls enjoyed painting their nails and decorating them with nail stickers, as well as decorating Hello Kitty cookies with chocolate sauce and strawberry jam.  They couldn’t really handle the tool at the Jewellery Making Workshop, so papa ended up making the bracelets for them.  We gave the Costume Dress-up a miss as the costumes didn’t look that attractive and were too huge for them to put on. 

At the Nail Salon

Cookie Studio  

Decorating and then eating their Hello Kitty cookies

Jewellery Studio

 I was disappointed they didn't have Hello Kitty pendants!

The little one also enjoyed the Tea Cup Rides.  Though we went on a public holiday, the place wasn’t crowded at all so we didn’t have to queue for any of the activities.

There was a live performance, the Hello Kitty Heartful Journey but it was nothing to shout about – it appeared like a really low cost production.  What saved the show was the cuteness of Kitty and Daniel J

Hello Kitty, Daniel and their friends made an appearance again during the Hello Carnival Parade with lots of singing and dancing.  I was surprised the characters didn’t linger to take photos with visitors after the parade so for the entire time we were there, there was no photo opportunity with Hello Kitty at all.

A key feature is the Kitty’s House, a Hello Kitty-themed house complete with living room, bedroom, bathroom and kitchen, all decorated with Hello Kitty paraphernalias.  Though not a die-hard Hello Kitty fan, I found the house pretty cute.

 

 Gorgeous details on the door

 

Couch with Hello Kitty ribbon detail - unfortunately hidden behind me

Kitchen, bathroom (wonder why it's blue and not pink :-)), part of the bedroom, walk-in wardrobe

Another attraction is the Black Wonder, with a maze and puzzles which you must solve to rescue Kitty and Daniel.  We didn’t bother with the puzzles but just took a walk around the room which was designed like an ancient castle, unlike the rest of the bright and cheery environment.

Personally, there really isn’t much to do or see in there, so it's not worth making a trip to JB if it's just for Hello Kitty.  Even the girls, who were totally excited at the beginning of the visit, were bored after some time. 

2012 Xmas decorations

This is totally outdated, as the malls are all decked out in CNY decorations now.  But I’ll still post them anyhow, just so the moments are captured.

We started visiting the malls really late as I had been very busy at work.  I think we only hit the malls on Christmas Eve, so we didn’t really visit that many before the decos were torn down after the New Year.

1 Utama
1 Utama was filled with cakes, doughnuts, lollypops and everything sweet, with the theme being Pastryland.

The Curve

The theme at the Curve is A Christmas Fairy Tale, and when we were there, there was a dance performance titled Lil’ Fairies Out and About Dancing.

Mid Valley Megamall

It was the scene of an Old Village at the Centre Court of Mid Valley, with a log cabin and bird houses, evoking a very traditional Christmas feeling.

Sunway Pyramid
It was An Enthralling Christmas at Sunway Pyramid.  I love the mosaic art inspired by the genius mosaic mastermind - Antoni Gaudi, whose art originated from Barcelona in the 18th century.

It’s kindy time

Yan Yan started going to the kindy this year, and it’s already the 4^th week of school!  So this post is way too late L.

Prior to school reopening, she had been really excited as she can finally go to school, just like her jie-jie and the other kids at babysitter’s.

The first day of school, Yan Yan woke up on her own without me having to wake her.  She got ready in a jiffy and was all set for her first day.  She was in a jovial mood all the way to the kindy.  Jie-jie came along as she wanted to meet up with her previous teachers J  Kindy was scheduled to end at 10.30am for the first three days, so ample time to get herself ready for school in the afternoon session.

 

At kindy, Yan Yan got apprehensive, and didn’t want to join the other kids who were playing.  She preferred to just sit by the side and observed the going-ons, all the while insisting that either jie-jie or mummy sat next to her.  She stayed by the sideline for pretty much throughout the first day, loosening up a little towards the end when the children all gathered for the sing along session in the hall.  Coincidentally, her class teacher is Yiu Yiu’s 6-year old class teacher.

Saying her prayers before meal time 

 She preferred to just sit at the outer edge despite much coaxing asking her to join her classmates

Her jie-jie was by her side for most of the day

She enjoyed the singing session most 

At dismissal, we let her follow the transporter back to babysitter’s, with jie-jie accompanying her of course! When asked if she wanted to go to school again tomorrow, she said yes.

Day 2 was much better – she could detach herself from her jie-jie and joined in her friends for activities. At dismissal, she travelled alone in the transporter’s van. I expected her to cry when jie-jie didn’t get on the van but to my surprise, she waved goodbye to us happily.

Forming a choo choo train to go to the washroom 

 Getting a sticker from Teacher Nyin Yin for good behaviour

Something must have been so funny 

I couldn’t take leave on Day 3 so we pre-empted her that she’ll be on her own without mummy or jie-jie staying back in school with her. I was pleasantly surprised when she waved goodbye to me and walked calmly into the kindy with her teacher when I dropped her off.

Subsequent days:

Day 4 – no drama, gave her a hug and sent her off into kindy with her teacher leading her in.

Day 5 – took a turn for the worse. Insisted that mummy took her into the kindy and cried piteously when I wanted to drive off. No choice but to park my car, carried her and tried to calm her down. The teacher told her that mummy could only stay for five minutes and when the time was up, she took over and carried her into the building and she cried even more. I just let the teacher handle her, but crept in quietly behind just to observe how she was. She quietened down after a couple of minutes and I heard the teacher asking if she was ready to join the class. She must have said yes as the teacher then carried her into the class.

Day 6 – first thing she said when she woke up was that she didn’t want to go to school, she wanted to go to the babysitter instead. She was protesting thoughout the process of getting her ready. In the car, I pep talked her a little bit and she finally said, “OK lor, go to school lor.” I was prepared for another battle but to my surprise, she got down without a protest, and followed her teacher in.

Thereafter – no drama, willingly walked into the kindy with her teacher.

And so, save for the drama on Day 5, the little one is settling well into kindy. May the three years in kindy be an enriching experience for her.

My little one in her uniform on the third week

 

With her in kindy, there’ll be more to blog about, and more photos and videos to take so I probably need Cyberlink video editing suite.  Heading over to Cyberlink now to check out what’s available.