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This is totally outdated, as the malls are all decked out in CNY decorations now.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.

2012 in retrospect

2012 breaks yet another record for this blog – an all-time low number of posts, 56 including this.  I guess as the girls grow older, there are fewer things to blog about.  Another reason is probably blogging fatigue, as things that I deemed blogworthy in the past doesn’t seem so now.

We started the year with a significant event – Yiu Yiu entering formal schooling.  She adapted well to school, though she didn’t do too well in her final exams.  She also took up gymrama as part of her co-curricular activities.  Then, she achieved another milestone with the loss of her first milk teeth, which had to be extracted as her permanent teeth were already cutting through her gum.  It took almost a year before she lost the next tooth, her upper incisor which dropped out on Christmas Day.  Another significant event for Yiu Yiu this year was becoming a 四眼妹 (four-eyed girl).  Speaking of which, I did not see her putting on her spectacles throughout the school holidays.  We also switched her to a new art centre, while she requested for a switch to violin lessons from her piano lessons.

Yiu Yiu seemed to have hogged the blog limelight this year.  Yan Yan, on the other hand, has had pretty much an uneventful year, save for the trip to A&E when she shoved a coffee bean up her nose J

I also ventured into baking buns, two years after owning a bread machine.  I baked a few times, and unfortunately lost steam again when Yiu Yiu’s interest in bringing buns to school for her break time waned.  No point to bake when there are no takers L  I may just pick this up again soon, coz Yan Yan is starting kindy next year, and she already asked for sausage buns to bring to school for snack time J

On the work front, I started a new job in September, after one year ten months in the previous job.  I surprised even myself for lasting that long in a job and company that I was so clearly unhappy with.  But on a positive note, my time there wasn't wasted – I learnt new things, developed new skills, and definitely emerged a stronger and better person.  I’m much happier in my current job, though I had been extremely busy due to two vacancy gaps in my team.  What made the hard work worthwhile is that good work I put in and the positive energy I brought into the company is being appreciated and recognised.  Work also took me to Beijing, Yangon, Seoul and Hong Kong this year.

It wasn’t all work and no play in 2012, though we really didn’t go on many trips this year.  We visited Koh Samui during the June school holidays, visited Pulau Ketam during one of the long public holiday weekend, and the Lost World of Tambun on Christmas Eve.

Last but not least, I just found out that my review on Kennedy's Grill scored a mention in the current Jackcow deal on the restaurant.

So that wraps up our 2012.  2013 will not be a dull year, with Yan Yan starting kindy and a holiday planned in March.

Wishing everyone a fulfilling and blessed 2013.

Beauty & the Beast – The Musical

Younger sis got some free tickets to the Beauty & the Beast – the Musical at Sunway Lagoon Ampitheatre earlier this month, so she, together with elder sis, brought the three older cousins for a treat.  Will let the photos do the talking:

Look at Yihao's expression - it's as if he was saying, "Help, I've got two girls by my side and I don't know how to deal with this!" :-)

They got really good seats - third row from the stage

Left: The village scene, Right: Gaston surrounded by girls

The witch who cast the spell on the Beast

Cogsworth, Mrs Potts and ....??

Beauty and the Beast having their supper

The Beast transformed back into a handsome prince 

Closing scene with members of the cast all together

Lost World of Tambun

We didn’t go for any family holidays this year end holidays, as I had been too busy at work.  So when sis suggested making a trip to the Lost World of Tambun, I readily agreed so that the girls would have some fun before school reopens.  We bought the Groupon vouchers, and went on Christmas Eve.  Apparently, half the state population decided to do the same – the park was teeming with people.  But it was a nice day for a visit – the sun decided to go into hiding, yet the rain didn’t make any appearance.

The Lost World of Tambun is run by the Sunway Group, so the overall concept and attractions is pretty similar to Sunway Lagoon.  What sets it apart is its location – amidst beautiful 400-million year-old natural limestone hills which are characteristic of Ipoh.

Cat statues guarding the entrance to the Lost World of Tambun (L), entrance to the Lost World of Tambun with the beautiful hills in the background

Similar to Sunway Lagoon, there’s the Water Park, Amusement Park and Petting Zoo.  Additionally, there’s also a Tiger Valley, Swan Lake, Tin Valley and Team Building Park.  A unique feature of Lost World of Tambun is the Hot Springs and Spa, and there are a number of pools and a steam cave where visitors can enjoy the health benefits of natural hot springs.

We started the day by visiting the Amusement Park, where the kids, and adults alike, enjoyed the three available rides.

Giddy Galleon

Dragon Flight

Top left: Yihao and I waiting for the ride to begin.  Bottom left: Yiu Yiu looking longingly from the edge - she couldn't get on the ride as she was just slightly below the height limit of 110cm.

Storm Rider

For younger children, there’s also a carousel.  There are also plenty of games stalls, fun fair style.

Then it was time for the children to hit the water – and they pretty much remained at Kid’s Explorabay, a kids only zone with slides and play area with tipping mine buckets, water cannons, water curtains, and fountains.  

They took a break for a while when we adults dragged them to the hot spring pools.  Water temperature in most of the hot spring pools exceeds 40 degrees centigrade but since it was a gloomy day, it was quite nice dipping into the hot water.

Saphira's Lair and Foot Spa

Clockwise from top left: Saphira's Lair, Top of the World Pool (this is supposed to be a jacuzzi but it was not switched on), Infinity Pool, Lost World Steam Cave (nature's sauna)

Towards evening, we wanted to catch the Adventure Express, the Lost World train that takes visitors on a big circle around the park but as the queue was long, we decided to walk instead.  We just missed the tiger feeding at the Tiger Valley, where two Siberian tigers roam freely in their enclosure.  The tigers look well-fed and well cared for, unlike tigers we’ve seen in some zoos.

A relatively new attraction is the Tin Valley, with exhibits depicting the history of tin mining in Perak.

Statues of elephants, depicting the mode of transportation in the mines in the olden days

Beyond the Tin Valley are the Needle of Tambun, a unique vertical rock formation that looks like a pencil from a distance, and the Team Building Park.

The Needle of Tambun was once part of an arch which was known many thousands of years ago as The Kingdom in the Sky.  It is all that remains after the fall of the arch.

We also visited the Petting Zoo, a well laid out area of 80,000 sq ft at the foot of the mountain.  The natural setting and vegetation has been pretty much preserved for the various small animals in the zoo.
 

Top from left: Raccoon, ferrets, white eared marmosets

Bottom from left: European hedgehogs, guinea pigs, striped skunk

Sis and I wanted to go on those adventurous slides at the water park but we didn't get the chance.  All our time was spent watching over them in the water, accompanying them on the kiddie rides, and bringing one after another to the toilet…haha.  But watching the kids having so much fun made it all worthwhile.