Their first durian tasting

Children had been requesting to get a taste of durian.

As I do not take durian (rare for local person), I forbid any durian fruits in the house. Besides I can't stand the 街路边 durians. 爸爸 recommend 葫芦 durian as the first ones for the children as it taste sweeter and not so bitter. 红虾 durian have a bitter aftertaste according to 爸爸, the durian eater in the house.

He got one 葫芦 durian from the market, it costs RM14. Super expensive as it's now in the middle of durian season in Penang. Good thing about 打包 home is that the vendor will open the prickly fruit for you and put into a food carton. At least can reject on the spot and don't have to deal with any 虫虫 :)

In the car, even though the pack is closed, we can still smell it from the car boot. Phoey....
This is how the 葫芦 durian looks before eating.


姐姐 having her first durian. 蹲 at the balcony as I can't stand the smell at home. She quite like it and finished one seed by herself.


弟弟's expression after a small bite. He say, " Euk, it's yucky" and nearly vomit. He "drove" away quickly on his toy car. Well, durian eating is an acquired taste and we laughed over his reaction.

Ballet Primary exam registration

姐姐 going to take for her primary ISTD final exam. The girls have started practising from the syllabus and also the Twilight Elf dance. We have bought the fairy wand from last year when we saw it at The Curve, RM10 for 2. Last year they started having extra class from August, so this year will be about the same. Will post photo only when parents are invited to observe the class, as my phone doesn't have camera function anymore and it looks weird taking photos with camera fr outside :)

Happy Father's Day - Note for Dad

Children posted this at Jusco QBM during our weekend shopping trip. Sweet huh.... :)

This is 弟弟's Father's Day craft from kindy. 姐姐's craft is still at school, she say will be giving back to the students later.

Penang Children's Library

This is how the children spent 2 afternoons, at the Children's Library located Scotland Road. They have an i-Play corner, only i-Play members can go in to play. It costs us RM12 per child for a year's membership. The children enjoy playing there since it's still new to them. Hurray we have a place to go during holidays. Not much of a crowd at all during our visits on weekdays. I also enrolled for family membership for RM5 for borrowing books.

Opening hours are a bit different, they are closed on Monday and Tuesday. Open from Wed to Sun instead in 2 sessions, and we've only been to afternoon session after 2pm.

姐姐 manage to borrow a few Bahasa Malaysia story books for her NILAM holiday homework after playing. 弟弟 also found a few story books, his current fave is about tippers. I heard from other moms that we need to scour rack by rack to find the books we might be interested in.





后记: During the 2nd visit, a mom at i-Play asked about 姐姐's school and how she is coping. Well, 姐姐 has been very happy at her school and there isn't much homework, only at the most 2 or 3 subjects a day (a few pages only). However that mom seem like still wondering about her own decision to let her child go to Sekolah Kebangsaan - some convent girls' school. I'm not the indecisive type, from long time ago already know that my children have to go to Chinese school, no matter how much homework or stress there is. Where would our children learn Mandarin, Chinese culture, discipline?

The mom says, worried that sending her child to Chinese school and too much school work will stress out her child. And since she is from Chinese school, she feel that her English is not good and want her child to learn English from Kebangsaan school. Sorry, but I wanna laugh... hahaha.... I told her, it depends on how you educate your child, I forgot to tell her learning is through experience, exposure and education. I'm thinking, rather than speak broken English at home, better speak mother tongue. Broken English is really hard to correct especially the child has been learning that since young. Everyone is entitled to make their own choices.

Singapore trip with children, our verdict

We don't travel frequently with the children. Other than cost, it's mainly worrying if they could take being away from comforts of home for up to 1 week. Usually if we go to foreign country, this is the amount of time 爸爸 like to spend to explore. So most of the time we go cuti-cuti Malaysia. Singapore is the first time we go for near to 1 week.

Overall the children are very happy. They had been chatting and cheering about it since we confirmed our flight and hotel. They behaved as promised, only occasionally slip-up when too excited or too tired, which are understandable. Especially 弟弟 is used to taking afternoon nap, but during the trip he missed all the naps. We should have started to train him to miss the nap 1 or 2 weeks before the trip.

The first hotel, Hotel Michael, is quite child-friendly in the room. Of course the lobby is fancy artsy type for adult taste. But the room really impress me as not much glass/glassware and a friendly bathroom. Most impressive is the footstool which the children when they brush their teeth. The breakfast is good too with a wide variety of choice. I'm really unlucky as unable to eat much due to tummy ache and diarrhea.

The 2nd hotel, Marriot Hotel, is swanky 5-star type. However it is not child-friendly. What I meant by child-friendly is the amenities in the room and thinking for the children's well being in common areas. Being child friendly is not about having a kids' room with toys and games but the room or common restaurants is totally meant for adults. The room is full of glass deco's, glass table top, even a bottle of wine and wine glasses in the room. Bad for folks like us with children. Every time they put their glass on the table, it clanked and got me worried of causing a crack. The bathroom is even worse. The hangers for towels are so high up that I cannot reach as I am short. Perhaps Marriot Hotel is meant for gwai loh which are tall, thus the design is only suited for them. Eventually Asia took over as economic power and now they have to start marketing to Asia too. The sink is too high for the children and no way they can reach the taps. End up 爸爸 devise a temporary "stool" by overturning the waste basket. Bad idea as 弟弟 fell over losing his balance. Poor dear. However the bed is super comfy, and you know why? It's because there are a couple layers of mattress protectors.We needed to iron dry some clothes and the ironing board is totally not working. Guess swanky guests do not need to iron their own clothes.

Breakfast at the cafe is quite good with variety, but the replenishment seem a bit slow. There are many types of milk, but when we needed it, it's all gone. No one at the waffle station and since we don't know how to operate the machine, we didn't have waffle the first day. Only from 2nd day onwards a kwai loh is there to make the waffles, so we manage to get some. The one food that children enjoyed the most is ice-cream, but I find it weird that ice-cream is offered for breakfast. Coffee and tea selection is superb, whole cabinet full of tea bag selection. Food is good too, but I prefered the ones at Hotel Michael as not so many people. Perhaps due to the promotion they are having at Marriot Hotel that's why there's a lot of folks there, wrestling for breakfast. Too bad to say the cafe tables and chairs not suitable for children.

Honestly I wouldn't like to stay there next time we go to Singapore. The hotel is a octogon shape. The room itself is not a square or rectangle. Typically in feng shui, we are taught to have a square or rectangle shape as having a odd-shape room or house means there are insufficient "qi" or something. Perhaps knowing that gave me an uneasy feeling staying in odd-shape room, even for a couple of nights. The path coming in to hotel has lots of water feature, so perhaps the hotel did look into feng shui. However every time we go into lobby I felt very stressed as the tables are again fancy glass top, there are vases and near the drinks corner there are more glass, for wine or drinks maybe. Even the display shelf is a torture as I am so stressed about the kids pulling something off in their excitement (toys and glass mugs are near side-by-side). I'm guessing not many children go there with their parents thus no one thought anything of it.

As for other places, most of which are tourist attractions are good, public toilets are clean except for the one near Boat Quay. After all, that area is famous for its drinking and pubs (went in a toilet near MRT with ppl's puke in the sink and 姐姐 was with me. She asked me why people vomit until so dirty and didn't clean up, so how do I explain some people got so drunk they don't know what they are doing.

The public transport is good, the malls are even better. Even food seem more affordable if we earn and use S$. We didn't go shopping even though it's Singapore Sale due to lack of time. Most service staff are good too, local staff have a lot to learn from those over the causeway. Perhaps with their strong currency they can attract more talents to work there. Only among the public crowd the display of kiasuism shows its face for a brief moment :)

Singapore Flyer and Marina Bay Sands

I'm flying back this afternoon, while children and 爸爸 fly back at night. We have breakfast at nearby Toastbox with toasts and coffee. After breakfast we pack and check-out from Marriot. I need to bring 2 suitcase back home as Air Asia check-in luggage need to pay additional fees. Since Silk Air can check-in and handcarry luggage easier, it's become my charge. After sending me to airport, the children and 爸爸 have other plans to visit Singapore Flyer and Marina Bay Sands. I asked them to take more photos to show me as I can't join them. They take the MRT to their next destinations.


Outside Singapore Flyer




Their journey begins..


Inside Interactive Gallery







Outside the deck, going up




They say purposely take this photo to show me how high they are going :P







Mini round-the-world famous places :)




Woa look aat all the wires pulling the flyer


On the way to Marina Bay Sands









This should be near the Art Museum





Playing







Walk of Mist


Some mascot :)









In the mist again


The children wanted to take sampan ride inside Marina Bay Sands, but children are required to ride with adult. Since only 爸爸 and he is not comfortable leaving any child alone while the other child goes on the ride, they didn't get to take the sampan ride. So having mom around is useful too :) Heard 爸爸 say 姐姐 offer to sit at the side while 爸爸 take 弟弟 for ride, but they didn't want to leave her alone. They had dinner at MBS, having pineapple rice which they say is yummy.



They went to Changi Airport early and play at the playground there. Changi's really good for those with children, as there are places to visit, and water fountain easily available for drinks for those waiting at the terminals.



Sunflower Garden


Orchid Garden





Finally one photo with the Air Asia aircraft. They were shooed by guard but manage to take a photo.