Meet and Greet Hello Kitty at Queensbay Mall

We finally got the opportunity to take photo with Hello Kitty. She is at Queensbay Mall today and tomorrow. The meet Hello Kitty session is at 1pm and 6pm. Seems like the 1pm session is more popular. And today there was a tea party with Hello Kitty, so called tea party is just getting a cupcake with Hello Kitty cartoon in cream and a Hello Kitty file. However since the tea party is at 2pm, we missed it and not even sure what's the eligibility.

For the Meet and Greet, only one photo per family, only 4 pax per group and only 30 families who did not apply for Hello Kitty Debit Card. Oh, so many rules, lucky we manage to get a pass. 爸爸 is too shy to take photo with Hello Kitty. Since only one photo allowed, the one we took is not too good shot, with 弟弟 looking away.

弟弟, why you are looking at Hello Kitty like that?

Anyway we're glad to be able to take a photo with Hello Kitty mascot. The children say her hand felt soft, "just like Smurfs" they say, as they had taken photo with Smurfs mascot before.

Fliptec at Q Celebration of Learning 2012

This will be 弟弟's final year at his kindy. So the last Celebration of Learning mini concert for him. He was so excited to have a concert. He requested to have his hair styled spiky with gel :) No wonder, all his good friends in class all having spiky hair today, hahaha.

Most of the boys with spiky hair

Partner with his good friend Bryan

Finale also stand next to Bryan

They sing Bubbly song for boys and Mandarin song 洗澡歌. The 6 years olds are the ones performing first. Last year, when he was in 5 years old class, his class performed last. As usual this year parents are all over the place trying to get their children's video and photos so it's very crowded. 姐姐 didn't want to have a photo and it's still very crowded in the hall for refreshment session, so no more photos :)

Just last week, they had Parent Teachers' Day and 弟弟 was given good feedback by his class teacher. Only his Mandarin teacher feedback that sometimes he was chatting to friend in class. Hm, have to enforce discipline to restrict chatting during lessons otherwise it will become a problem when going to primary school.

Flowering Trees In Bloom

It's nice to see that we have quite a few nice flowering trees in our neighbourhood. The children make a deal with me, I take their photos with the nice flowering trees and they get to go to playground to play :) This is taken after their art class. The one with crimson flowers is called Flame of the Forest.

Nice yellow flowers, just like the one I took of 弟弟 last week

弟弟 climbed up and down playfully and 姐姐 tackled it slowly and seriously

Day trip to Alor Setar, Kedah

I'm also not sure why we're so keen on Kedah nowadays. Maybe it's because 姐姐 told us, she don't like to go to kampung places. Makes us more determined than ever to bring her to all those kampung places before she totally refuse to follow us. Anyway, Alor Setar is not as kampung as we thought. My my, it's got more big buildings than we ever thought.

First stop to the furthest place on our itinery. If not for the GPS we would have difficulty to find it, as there isn't much roadsign along the way. We have heard of Gunung Keriang bearing the shape of an elephant. So there we are at the Gunung Keriang Recreational Park. The place is quite deserted except for the local traders, and a few youngsters zooming around in bicycles and motorbikes. The main attraction for our children seem to be a flock of ducks waddling around the man-made lake. We didn't attempt to hike up since not many people there.

Elephant shaped Gunung Keriang. The children are at the gazebo.

They were chasing the ducks around and the ducks all waddle into the lake.

After that we went looking for Muzium Padi (Paddy Museum of Kedah). There was already big sign boards leading the way to the Muzium Padi. Entrance is RM3 for adults, RM1 for children between 7-12 years old, and RM2 for camera. Many people bring their camera here :) Oops we forgot to take photo of how the muzium look like as it is in unique circular shape. This shape makes the paintings/mural look 3-D from a distance.

Outside Muzium Padi, and a model cross-section of rice

Spectacular painting gallery, but visitors not allowed to go near.

The blue lake is painting of Lake Pedu (Tasik Pedu), below is the tools of traditional paddy planting 

Revolving platform where visitors can view the massive mural of Gunung Kerian and its surrounding scenery.

We left the museum around 2pm. Gunung Keriang is just a skip away. We saw Gunung Keriang Tradisional Village still under renovation. Looks like new place if visiting later in the year. We tried looking for late lunch at Alor Setar town, but gosh, everywhere seems to be closing or already closed! Man, don't people in Alor Setar have a late lunch? There are so many big buildings but nowhere open for lunch at 2:30pm (circle around many times ler). We ended up at McDonald's instead of savouring local food :(  Next time, have to take our lunch when reach Alor Setar before visiting any places :P

After our late lunch, it's time for more exploring the town. Since we're at Alor Setar, it would not be complete without a visit to the Menara Alor Setar (Alor Setar Tower). It's RM6 for adults and RM3 for children 4 years and above. There's a revolving restaurant serving lunch, tea and dinner, but we're already stuffed with fast food.

Lastly a photo session of some landmarks in Alor Setar. Only 姐姐 agreed to be our model, 弟弟 say he is too tired :)

We went to Alor Setar again in 2015 and the new post is here (click on this link).

Firefly Watching at Sungai Kerian, Nibong Tebal

We saw the promotional price at groupon and bought the package for 2 adults. It seems to be a good family activity for the children for this short school holiday. The package is called Amazing Nibong Tebal I think. When we called to confirm our place, we just found out that the firefly watching trip at Sungai Kerian is only available during Fridays to Sundays, probably due to the low demand during weekdays. This package that we got is not departing from the official pier, but from a little kampung house's own private pier :)

First we went for tea at Auto City as we have to cross Penang Bridge early to avoid weekend traffic. The children always loved to play at this water fountain even though it's a very hot day.

 Went early to scout out location of the place we will go for firefly watching. No one was there when we reached around 6pm. Took this opportunity to take photos before sun goes down.

Since it's too early, we went to look for playground for the children. We found one at the nearby taman. The children were so happy they finally had a chance to play.

Mock rock-climbing

 
Around 7:30pm, we went to wait for the organizer to turn up. They were still not there (went to have dinner??). Good thing we come somewhat prepared, I asked the sweetest member of our family to wear long pants :) And we slather on mosquito repellant lotion all over our exposed skin (even ears, necks, feet and soles). There was another family where some of the ladies were wearing perfume and attracted a lot of mosquito bites. For anyone interested, please remember to bring mosquito repellant lotion, wear long pants, tie up your long hair as it's super hot while waiting at the kampung house :)

Another photo while waiting

After it turns dark, that the organizers arrived. We were given life jackets and paid for the children's fares (RM8 per child is promotional fare as we booked adult fares. Normal fare for children is RM15).

See the lighted stone walkway? That's the path to the little pier to board the boat for firefly watching

The life jacket makes us very hot but have to wear for safety

Once we're on the boat, the breeze make the trip bearable. The organizer gave us a briefing in Mandarin, asking us not to walk around on the boat and not to lean over, not to put on camera flash as it will cause the fireflies to stop lighting up, and to alight carefully only after the boat driver hold the boat. There was a mat salleh lady and someone requested her to repeat in English. She started with "When the boat open..." and there was roars of laughter for all of the passengers :) If you're wondering, it's because she said 开船时 for her Mandarin version and "when the boat open" is direct translation from Mandarin hahaha. Our education is so terrible, ill-preparing our students even in spoken English :) Now why didn't the organizer spend a little time and effort to prepare their announcement in English, Mandarin, BM and just play the recording prior to starting the boat?

We enjoyed the boat ride with the wind blowing on our faces. It's already pitch dark by then.

This is the mangrove trees if you can see from the dark photo

It's an amazingly adventurous ride, it's a small boat so we're very near to the river. And it felt like a crocodile is going to snap up anytime, kind of like Crocodile Dundee. In fact, coming to think of it, we're taking quite a risk as the boat is pretty open, but perhaps the organizer did not encounter any crocodiles there :)

We were taken very near to the mangrove trees by the river, the fireflies are so bright! They look so much like LED light blinking, that we were speculating are they real or just fake LED lights planted on the trees as they are not moving. Once 爸爸 saw a firefly flying, the light was moving away from the tree and flew to another branch, that we believed it was for real :) After all who would be wiring up a whole bunch of LEDs in the jungle? Unable to take any decent photo of the fireflies but it's pretty amazing to see with our own eyes. Right at our backyard too :)

The children thoroughly enjoyed the trip. It ended with a bang, while we were making our way back to the kampung house, it rained heavily! Phew, luckily we're not on the boat. It's already 9pm by the time we make it to our car.

After the firefly watching trip, it's time for late dinner, and we went to Bukit Tambun for the first time with the children. Initially they didn't want any seafood, but they still enjoyed the food. We reach around 9 something but the place is still packed and some people even come later than us.

弟弟 accidentally ate a cili padi and stopped eating after that. He had already had his share of rice, noodles and fish by then. To our surprise he refused the prawns and crab as he said they smelt bad. 姐姐 ate everything, including prawns and crab, except the spicy clams which is the adults' own dish :) We went home tired from the trip but with a very full stomach.

Playing with crab claws

Hurray, It's School Holidays!

Finally term break for the children! Traffic is bad at Penang, but we still brave it out on Saturday. We were lucky, traffic is bad on the way back -- on the opposite lane. We wanted to check out the Spring Akari festival at Straits Quay but maybe we mixed up the activity time, so there isn't much when we were there.

Snoopy bus stop? :)

After our early dinner, we left but the children didn't want to go home yet. They are in holiday mood! So we ended up at the nearby playground :)

He fell off the swing doing stunts :P

Rain of the Yellow Flowers

I think the trees are called Angsana tree. The yellow flowers from the trees scattering the roadsides are so beautiful. They are everywhere in Penang now. Even near our house so I got 弟弟 to take a few photos, just so that I don't look so crazy taking photos by the roadside.

There are also the purple flower tree (I think those are called tecoma tree) in front of our house. This year, the trees didn't bloom very nicely as compared to a few years ago. We're waiting for the trees to bloom nicely to take more photos.