Reunion in August holidays

What a busy weekend! 爸爸's brother, sister and their families are back. The children had lots of fun with their cousins from Klang Valley and UK. One of the MI is to have studio photo taken. However I felt the casual ones taken by ourselves using our cellphones look wayyy better :) We haven't seen the touched up photo though :P

Our lovely nieces and the children :)

The one on the left is my favourite photo and the one on the right is them goofing around

Hehe next time I better stand with the kids :)

爸爸 did this lovey-dovey frame using some cutesy software called "Line Camera" from his phone

After photos, it's lunch time! We didn't have as much food any weekend as we had this weekend. As it was getting late, the few places open in Kulim are Big Tree Restaurant or Restaurant Kolam Ikan. We ended up at Big Tree Restaurant (again?!). I must say the limau drink is delicious! The rest of the food quite good too, especially the fried mantis prawn with salted egg recommended by Ally. Even though I still prefer the Tambun version, but this is still good.

Outside Big Tree Restaurant

Playing snap while waiting for food

During window-shopping time, somehow 弟弟 manage to manja 大姑 and Uncle Michael to buy t-shirts for him. Oh, did I mention he already had an exploding wardrobe? :P

Fruits at grandparents house, the oranges disappeared so fast!

On a hot day like this, between the four of them, they devoured all the oranges in less than 10 minutes

At night we went for seafood at Bukit Tambun. Parked until almost to the end of the village. 爸爸's aim is Restaurant Gee Seng but they are so packed and crab, prawns are finished by the time we reached around 7+ pm. Next time must really go early. We ended up at Prawn Village a few doors away a little after 8pm. Waited some more and food only started coming after 9:30pm. Well, this is the Raya weekend and school holiday as well. It's expected but it's the first time I'd been to Bukit Tambun where it's so crowded! Too bad the food is only so-so, I think too much crowd until food quality dropped. We only finished our dinner by 10 something.

Food photos at Prawn Village from Ally, the rest especially satay was finished before any photos taken

Next morning, we went for dim sum at this place in Prai Raja Uda called 超全. It's my first time there. So crowded! We said our goodbyes there, come back soon everyone :)

The chidren didn't want to go back home, so we ended up at Sunway Carnival Mall. They enjoyed playing at the concourse area with wau decorations. They were jumping around the white tiles and one of the photos I took had them looking like floating :P

Playing at the wau prop in central atrium at Sunway Carnival Mall

We got some small toys at this gift shop. Took a photo with the giant teddy bear. But they don't allow us to take photos at their display of Hello Kitty, Doraemon etc.

Photo with large teddy at a gift shop

We had dinner at Burger King as cousin Vicky say her favourite food is fries from Burger King. 弟弟 had been following her since meeting her, and everything she say he must try :)

We had dinner at Burger King

A piece of good news that came after their cousins went home. Ally, superb work and congrats on your success! Happy mugging for the next 3 years :)

New school bag in the middle of the term

In the midst of the school term, 姐姐's school bag was torn with a big big hole and even the trolley handle came off. I think it's because when the bag overturned, she didn't realize it and dragged it on the road for a few moments and that contributed to the hole and trolley handle damage. We had hoped it will last another 3 months to the end of the school year. Turns out it didn't. She had been using the spare school trolley bag that 弟弟 used to bring to school. Even the wheels on the spare bag is damaged, in fact both wheels are now missing. So we had to go bag-hunting this weekend.

姐姐 had this craze for Hello Kitty nowadays, and is requesting for Hello Kitty bag. The damaged one is with Princess design.The original version is very expensive and we're hoping to find a "copy version". Found it at Hinn Lee along Jalan Magazine which I think also sells school uniforms, school shoes and other school supplies. We're too pre-occupied with bag-hunting that we didn't pay attention to the rest of the things. The bag had black background and 姐姐 actually prefer to have all pink. Negotiations didn't go too well and we ended up going around the shops near Penang Road. However the shops 爸爸 bring her to didn't have Hello Kitty design. More popular are the ones with Angry Bird, Barbie or Princess designs. Of course we have no energy to go further to Air Itam market or Taman Pekaka market. In the end, we still went back to Hinn Lee.

The price of this 'Silver Star' bag is higher than her previous one, but it looks sturdier, has more pockets and comes with warranty of 1 year for zip, trolley and accessories. Hope this one will really last 2 or 3 years like the sales lady said.

Her new Hello Kitty design school bag and old Princess design school bag

The Kitty bag was taken to school for a couple of days, then wham, the trolley handle came off. We sent it for repair and it just came back. Hope it will last this time. 姐姐 did told us one of her good friend and classmate have the same brand Silver Star school bag (different design), the handle came off easily and she was always helping the friend to fix it back. Why didn't she tell us when we buy it :(

Kitty bag, please last at least until she finishes Year 3 next year :P

爸爸's birthday!

It's a celebration for the favourite guy in the family! He was travelling, and just came back on his own birthday. We were so busy we didn't have time to pre-order a cake for him. Went to 3 bakeries around our taman and none had ready-made cakes. We only wanted a small one as the children are recovering from flu and cough, maybe too tired (劳累过度) in the past two weeks. Found one simple one at King's Bakery at Tesco.

姐姐 played Happy Birthday for 爸爸 and 弟弟 and I sing for him. We hope he is touched :)

Family photo for 爸爸's birthday :)

Children posing with the birthday cake

Enjoying the cake

They polish off most of the cake and made a mess :P

We had dinner at Dragon-i (again) at the children's request. Seems they like the taste of the Shanghainese dumpling, buns, fried rice and Shanghainese noodle there. 弟弟 had 2 helpings of the fried rice (in his kid size bowl), Shanghainese noodles 排骨拉面 (again in his kid size bowl), Shanghainese dumpling and Shanghainese bun (窝贴), half a piggy red bean bun and 奶皇流沙包. 姐姐 had 2 helpings of Shanghainese noodles 排骨拉面, 3 pcs of 小笼包, half a piggy red bean bun and 奶皇流沙包. We are soooo very full after the feast :)

Enjoying Piggy Bun, 奶皇流沙包 (custard bun) and 小笼包 (Shanghainese dumpling)

Eating their 奶皇流沙包 (custard bun)

Happy Birthday 爸爸! Hope you enjoyed feasting with the little dinosaurs 小恐龙 :)

Penang Bon Odori Festival 2012 (日本盘舞节)

Our first Penang Bon Odori Festival! In the past we didn't go as the children are still small and it would be difficult to carry two children in the crowd. We finally made it this year. There's such a big crowd and the surrounding road from Weld Quay to Beach Street and beyond are so congested. We were lucky and manage to squeeze the car in at an awkward spot quite far away, but still not block other cars.

We finally reach Esplanade around 8pm on foot. There's still dance performance on-going.

The dance performance on stage. The stage with the MPPP building lighted up makes a nice background. 

The food trail, the crowd is maddening. There are long queues at the stalls. The few tables and chairs are fully occupied. I think the food is so-so only.

Burger with special crispy bun

Both children like the crispy burger

Trying Okonomiyaki, but they didn't like it

Very ordinary ice-cream, but they still enjoyed it very much

By the time we finish all the queueing for food, it's almost 10pm. Just in time to go near the stage for fireworks display. And it's spectacular, lasted so long in the children's eyes. They keep asking, why it is so long and the fireworks hasn't ended? We didn't manage to capture the fireworks nicely :P

After the fireworks, we made our way back. The roads are so jammed up, everything is almost a standstill. Even though the traffic jam is horrible, the children still say they want to go again. 人山人海 is true description of the Bon Odori Festival this time :)

Meet and Greet Ice Age 4 characters at Queensbay Mall

Nowadays the children like to go to the Meet and Greet sessions at the malls to take photos with the latest movie or cartoon characters. A recent one is Ice Age 4. This weekend art class was on holiday, so free slot to go for photos :)

爸爸 dropped me off at Queensbay to get the photo pass. Usually the photo passes are given out 1 hour prior to the meet and greet session. Then he rush off to school to pick up 姐姐. I waited and waited around, there was no one at the counter yet. I even saw the people playing the characters walk by carrying their costumes and they said hi to me :) The folks giving out the passes only start doing so about 30 minutes prior. There were quite a few parents waiting for the passes too. Finally manage to get our pass and started queueing, without the children yet! They came just as the session is about to start and just in time too. Very funny, somehow we dressed them in Madagascar t-shirts to attend Ice Age 4 photo session. 姐姐 even had to wear her school shoes as we forgot to pack her slippers.

They can even squabble about who get to wear the number tag.

First it was Q&A session. The emcee was kind to give hints before starting the session. I mean, I didn't watch any of the Ice Age cartoon even the children did, and they could not even remember the characters names. That's exactly the question asked, name the characters of Ice Age 4. I whispered the names that I remember to both 姐姐 and 弟弟 and they get the merchandise. They were mighty happy they manage to answer the question. It's Ice Age 4 stickers and colouring booklet. As the emcee had a stack of the goodies, after a couple more questions she distribute to all the other kids :)

Then it's the characters time. 姐姐 said the elephant Manny uses its feet to "pet" her head, and she high-fived with Manny before she went down. 弟弟 said he pulled Sid's fur and called him "Hello, silly" to Sid, and Sid made face at him. Unbelievable, this is just in a couple of minutes and they still remember.

The children holding the colouring book and stickers they got from Q&A session

Ice Age 4 characters meet and greet at Queensbay Mall

After that, we went for lunch at Sushi King. The children chose this as they like the ice-cream here.

Meet and Greet Spider-Man Character at Gurney Plaza

This one's cute, wanted the children to be aware of the new happenings in town :) There's a meet-and-greet Spider-Man session at Gurney Plaza. Of course it's not the actor in the new Spiderman movie, but just for fun for the kids you know. Now, when is Batman going to be in town? :D

The children enjoyed running and goofing around while waiting for the "man in costume".

Around the stage

The children said they were startled when Spider-Man suddenly jumped on the stage :)

弟弟 trying to imitate Spider-Man's hand gesture

More goofing for photos

Today, they said they had 2 dinners. First we stuff them up at Sakae Sushi with their favourite sushi (before the Spider-Man session). Then, after their turn to take photo, we went to Nando's. It's been ages since we ate at Nando's, and now that they are full, 爸爸 and I jump at the chance to have the hot and extra hot peri-peri chicken :) Since they are already full, they have a little of our side dishes only, the Mediterranean rice, coleslaw and chips. They ended up finishing most of the side dishes.

Near encounter with flood at school

The field from my car window while stuck in jam at school compound

Wow, it was raining cats and dogs today. Even though we tried to be out of the house earlier, we're still caught in traffic jam on the way to 姐姐's school. When we reached, there's already a traffic snarl outside her school. As we inch towards the covered porch, then we realize why. The school compound is practically flooded! Teachers (who park along that way) were trying to move their cars to the other side of the school, causing further congestion. One mom was carrying her boy wading over muddy water. The water rise so quickly and I dare not stop the car, but just step on the gas and move out quickly. I parked by the roadside and asked 姐姐 to wear a jacket and take an umbrella for herself. We will walk into the school instead. 爸爸 was away for business trip and I wouldn't know what to do if the car stalled, luckily it didn't.

Not such a good idea after all. Water was flowing back from the school field towards the school building. The left wing of the school where the covered walkway is located already covered with flood water. The water kind of created a "moat" around the school building. Even before I can stop her, she was already wading in the muddy water with me! I had actually wanted to dunk the heavy school bag over first to the corridor then carry her across so that her feet will not get as wet. Oh, too bad! The muddy water reached mid-way between to my calves and ankles. We just don't have experience dealing with flood. I personally had never encountered any type of flood before. She got her feet and shoes wet again trying to cross over to the other building where the canteen and school hall is located. Some moms had already lined up benches for children to walk over. But my little anxious girl just dash through the muddy water ignoring the benches, sigh :( That auntie was so worried she was almost screaming for her to get on the bench.

After sending her to the school hall, I made my way out of the "castle/moat". As I was wearing flats there is no way I could not get wet, as it is my feet are already wet to the core! I walked here and there trying to find a spot to hop over, but there is none. Finally had to wade through the muddy water again :(

There was traffic jam all the way back and it seems like the congestion continued for a couple hours more. I only dare to brave the traffic again ~3pm to bring dry socks and her spare old school shoes to 姐姐. Luckily I did (and traffic was almost cleared), she was sitting on the walkway jabbing at her wet shoes. She said she was walking about bare-footed in class. Some of her classmates have such incredible stories to tell me as I was waiting for her to change. She had to go back into class immediately as recess time ended in a jiffy. Even though she didn't have the chance to say anything, when I pick her up from school in the evening, she was very happy to have dry shoes. I can imagine how uncomfortable it is to have wet feet all the time.

The heavy downpour caused such havoc at her school! After this incident, I was asking 爸爸 should we buy galoshes (or rain boots) Pua Chu Kang yellow boots and keep in the car in case flood again? He poured cold water on the idea, saying I'm 夸张 (over-reacting) :P I hope we don't have to encounter another situation like this again. Well, at least next time I hope to have a pair of spare slippers in the car and hope to stop the child in time before she or he step into the flood water. But sometimes this situation is not easy to control, especially when there are cars moving around, cars honking like mad outside and hands are full with umbrella and stuff.