Rambutan and ethics

What has rambutan fruits got to do with ethics? There are 2 incidence that I witness which came to this post. One day, after picking up 弟弟 from kindy, I saw a familiar looking auntie. She is one of the 婆婆's that came to 姐姐's school to pickup her grandchild. She parked her car by the roadside and she was fiddling with a pickaxe at a tree, and she was standing over the little drain outside. When she crossed the road, I just realized she was picking rambutan from that house. She had a bunch of rambutans in one of her hands, and some of her grandchildren are waiting in the car for her. I do not think she has the permission from the houseowner for picking the rambutans, otherwise why is she being so sneaky about it, had to hover over the drain and went back to her car in a hurry.

I just thought it might be just a one-off incident. While waiting for 姐姐 outside her school, we saw the same thing with another mom doing it too. This mom used a long tree branch to get a bunch of rambutan from the house. If the houseowner knows about her intention, usually the houseowner would just pass the fruit to her right? But she was jumping about and finally went back to her car with a bunch of fruits. Besides we had been there before she came and didn't even see her talking to anyone from the house. Sigh.... why do they take things without permission in front of the children? What are they trying to teach the younger generation, is it ok to take without asking when you see some other people having lots of things? I'm sure if they had the courtesy to just ask, they would also get the fruits from the owners.

Since 弟弟 witness both incidents and he is bound to tell 姐姐, I have to explain to him that perhaps they might have already asked the owner and if they did not, it is not good behaviour. I have to tell them again and again it is not right at all to take other people's things without asking and getting the other person's permission. Same thing with throwing rubbish out of car's windows or into drains, it is not tolerated in our household. It's a tough environment trying to instill good values in children when there are folks who could not care less about it.

Bumble bee craft

This bee came back with 弟弟 on Tuesday. Teacher Annie Tang made this for the children for Beamind Mandarin class. He say he colored the black stripes for the bee. The others are done by teacher. I think teacher is trying to make the lesson more fun for the preschoolers as they are learning about farm, zoo and animals now.

And do you see the mint plant at the background? Not the botak one :) the one with more leaves. 姐姐 had been taking the leaves to school for her maths and art lesson. Why they need leaves for maths, I also have no idea. She told us many children in her class forgot that teacher ask to bring leaves, and since we give her extra pieces she shared with her friends.

Seafood noodles/porridge Sungai Tiram, Penang

爸爸 and I used to frequent this place when we didn't have children for something light and soupy in the evening. Now that we seldom eat out, hardly frequent the place anymore. But for dinner tonight, we are going for seafood noodles with the children in tow. They liked it, and 弟弟 like the satay. 姐姐 like the one with maggi noodles, and 弟弟 like the one with mee sua. Of course, it is quite pricey but the fish is fresh. There are other places which serve about the same thing, but since we're in the area we go to this one.

How did children get so messy after school?

At the end of the day, when we pick her up from school, she will have messy hair. She say I didn't bun her hair tight enough, but when I use the tight band she say pain. There will be smudges on her face, smudges on her white shirt. If she's wearing the sports t-shirt it will have smudges or pencil marks on it. Her shoes will have black spots here and there. Her pinafore is wide (she's wearing size 26 from Kimnovak) but short, already above her knees. So her knees will be black as well from all the sitting and kneeling in the school hall before school starts. Usually one side of her pinafore will drop off her shoulders as she has small shoulders. This is the description of our little princess when she comes home from school. No photos as she didn't like us taking photos of her when she is not "ready" :D

Transformers mask from ToysRUs

**Chuckles**... posing with Bee poster finally at ToysRUs with masks. It's funny how Bumble Bee is swanking new as a yellow sports car while his robot mode is sometimes covered with dirt.

Just wondering, wondering.... will Bee be arrested here, since he is all of yellow :) hahaha...

When we queue up to buy the Bumble Bee that comes with KFC chicky meal last week, we saw one of the moms fr music class. I showed her we're here to get Bee and she was quite shocked as she said this is for boys to play. In this day and age of globalisation and equality... when girls play with robots also kena comment is boys' toy. I wouldn't have a problem with it if she plays ... but she just collect and keep, now it's missing 'd.

Transformers, we are hooked again

Yes, we went to watch Transformers 3 at 1st Avenue's TGV. Citibank promotion for TGV buy 1 free 1 tickets during weekends with their credit card only valid through 26 June 2011. But for those who are going on weekdays there is a RM10 per ticket promotion with Citibank. We went on Thursday as it's Penang's public holiday and the children didn't go to school. So we didn't get the promotion price :P But children are charged RM7 per child instead of RM12 like us.

Waiting for show to start.. took some photos of this mock setup of Optimus. He does look like coming out in the photo huh? :) We didn't watch the 3D version as the children don't really know how to appreciate it. If watching on our own, we'd definitely go for 3D. In order to bring them to the cinema, we had been preaching to them about sitting through the show and not to make noise. For reward, we will buy them a box of popcorn each :) We had 1 of each type, 1 salty and 1 sweet type. Actually the sweet type taste better for the children.



1st Avenue TGV is quite comfy and very new still. The seats are tiered seating, meaning the seats are arranged in sloping tiers so that the ppl at the back can see over the heads of those in front. Especially good for short ppl like me and for children. It's so irritating to be seated behind some big guy and we keep seeing his head instead of the screen.

It was super cold inside, and both 姐姐 and 弟弟 keep complaining about being cold even though they have a jacket on, especially complain more towards the 2nd half of the movie where there is no robot scenes. Seems like that is the time when the popcorn run out too.

姐姐's comment about T3: super boring..... watch for 2 hours, legs also cannot walk after movie finish
弟弟's comment: human parts super boring... only robot and fighting parts good.

My verdict: It's true... the parts with humans are mostly boring, even gross sometimes. The story is overall a bit out... I only like the robot and action scenes. Some of the action are in slow motion, so we can see it better unlike the previous 2 movies which everything happen so fast. I don't get the movie critics comments either, worrying about the actors' acting skills. Sam Witwicky is his usual self, pretty good. Model gf is terrible in acting, and her lips look like 猪唇. I didn't type wrong, really looks like pig, but her hair and body is hot la.... She is not suitable for action movies, keep screaming and is very irritating. Megan Fox was much better looking and looks much better in the action scenes. And the ppl doing T3 really 敢死, kill off our fave Autobot Ironhide, also kill off the Decepticons' mighty Megatron, Starscream and Shockwave. I didn't read the comics or any of the books, so I didn't know if they really died in the end. But even movies like Pirates of the Carribean went to movie #4, Fast and Furious to movie #5, Harry Porter to movie #7, not to mention James Bond, Batman etc. How could Transformer stop at #3 and how to continue when the baddies all dead? Aih... doesn't look like they can be revived since already berkecai.

After the movie, we were so inspired that went to KFC to buy the Bumble Bee toy which comes with Chicky meal. It's still available there as of Thursday. Wah... this toy actually can make Bumble Bee recorded sound. So cool ya... for the same price of a Chicky meal. Wanted to get a Optimus Prime too but he is sold out at KFC Batu Lanchang.

弟弟 with Bumble Bee




On Saturday while going shopping at Gurney Plaza, we tried to look for KFC there, but 爸爸 couldn't find any KFC there. Guan lai really no KFC there. We went around to Bayan Lepas, and stopped at Sunshine and Giant, but Optimus prime is already sold out. Finally last stop, Tesco, and got him there. 爸爸 even have to ask the counter staff twice, luckily the manager on duty heard him and bring out another bagful of toys and dig out from there :) So that's why the group photo here. 弟弟 had been asking us to get Starscream for him since he heard me saying only left Bumble Bee and Starscream. But we refuse since knowing them usually the bad guy will be left in the cold and not played with at all ... we'll see if he request again LOL


Saw this activity book at KFC Giant, took 2 back for the children. There is a page with stickers which they enjoy.

Tribute to Ironhide

Ironhide is one of our fave Autobots. The above photo is a figurine we got from KFC Chicky Meal promotion a while ago. The 'bot doesn't "transform" like the previous Bee and Optimus we got from Petronas but it's only RM8.10 (before tax with the toy). Not sure why the photo appear like this, I had actually rotated it the right way... sigh... what's wrong with blogger??

The reason I'm spending time to reflect on Ironhide because 爸爸 heard from his friends that watched Dark of the Moon that Ironhide has died in T3 **sob sob**. In order to avoid the crowd we had wanted to watch in cinema next week, but now I've decided not to go. Why had they taken out Ironhide from the movie???!!!

弟弟 had been talking about Ironhide all the time when we are on the way home and especially excited when he sees any trucks like the one Ironhide transform to. He has watched both transformer movies since getting the above Ironhide. However how do we explain to him that his fave 'bot die in the movie? Argh... what a disappointment....

Tooth obsessed schoolgoer

That describes our princess' 心情 lately. She's having a loose tooth since some weeks ago (lower incisor B on the right side, see here for my reference of the names and position). She complaint of pain, can't eat much due to the pain. However we don't see the new permanent tooth coming up yet so didn't do anything about it. About a week ago, she say it's back to normal and she can eat again. 爸爸 told her to kinda push the tooth a little with her tongue to further loosen it. Previously, her two other lower incisors were taken out by Dr Tan the dentist and both times her new permanent teeth already pushing up.

After she came back from school, 爸爸 tried to use dental floss to tie around her loose tooth in his brutal attempt to yank it out. I heard her screaming from the kitchen. Later they say everything's ok. By the time she finish her shower, she showed me the tooth had come out! OMG.. 原来爸爸 folded a piece of tissue and shook the tooth instead after the dental floss trick failed. He distracted her by saying need to wipe off the blood caused by dental floss. Then he yanked out the tooth, he say very easy as it is already very loose. 姐姐 say it's not painful at all. No photo this time, takkan take photo of the loose tooth? :)

My poor girl.... mianhae, your mom dare not pursue these blood and gore stuff and have to pass this task to 爸爸. At least I don't go "yiiih.... yieah...." :P

Haze, haze, go away

Penang is grappling with haze once again. As far as I can remember, haze hazard is something that came to us in recent years, perhaps in 2006? Prior to the children born, I didn't notice much of haze. However nowadays, I follow reports on haze because both children cough and feel uncomfortable with the haze.

Monday morning, we went outside and everythings shrouded with whitish smoke. We can smell smoke from the air we breathe. This put us on alert to start drinking lots of water. We could see Penang Bridge from our door and Georgetown from our balcony on usual days, but from Monday visibility has really dropped until we couldn't see Penang Bridge.

Even bouts of rain throughout the week did not help much. However at least now we can see Penang Bridge and Georgetown buildings once more. We used to be able to see Butterworth with clear skies, but now visibility is still poor so it's not visible yet.

When will the haze go away, and how come no one's getting sued for causing such pollution?

Now we ordered an air-purifier which has not been delivered yet. Hope it's going to help the children get some clean air at home.

I-Play at Penang Children's Library

They were playing doctor's with the play clothes at I-Play, Penang Children's Library, Georgetown. Usually weekdays are pretty empty with only a couple of children at most. During weekends there are more children. 姐姐 say her classmate 田心 saw her there but she didn't know and they didn't talk to each other. Too engrossed in her own play as she is running around with 弟弟 :P 弟弟 always like to visit I-Play as it has his fave toy diggers/dumpers.

Saw a notice outside that the library closes at 6pm on weekends... so more time for play. Remember it doesn't open on Monday and Tuesday, only open from Wed to Sun, except public holidays. That's why when we went on a Monday the gates are locked :)