Malaysian Ice Cream!!

You wont believe how happy I was when I saw it! Do you guys remember the good old malaysian ice cream? I used to love it soooo much! And my favourite flavour was thick milo!!!!


We were in Cameron Highlands last weekend and I got to taste strawberry flavoured ones and oh boy ... they were darn good!



Bryan taste it for the very first time and at first, he just wanted to hold it .. until I taught him how to suck it! And then, he never gave it back to me ... LOL!


Sorry for not updating my blog for quite some time. Will update more in a couple of days okie? Thanks for dropping by!

Did it really cross the road?

Our dear friend finding its way I guess :-)

Son's excitement = Daddie's worries

Son : Wah, so exciting this place! Got big big bizard ... so nice!

Dad : Aiyoh .. got big big lizard man here ... must hold this fella tight tight!

Langkawi Moments

Lots of hesitations before we decided to finally go ahead with this trip. Mostly, our worry about A(H1N1). But we took precautions and prayed for the best.

Sharing with you some pics below.

First things first, upon check-in, little boss check out his bed .. accompanied by his ever-faithful portable DVD player. This one sure cannot miss one. Every where we go, must bring it along, else all of us sure pengsan!
























After that, sure must be pool-time! Eh, sorry ar, little boss still scared of the big big ocean, so no go near there. Just the baby-pool saja.
























Then its time to head to town. The only place that is worth visiting is the Oriental Village which houses the cable-car station. Its totally worth every single cent that you pay! The ride is so cool and the view even better! But, be prepared for some physical exercise ... cos you need to walk down from the station to the viewing deck (which is the easy part), then walk back up to the station (which will get you breathing heavy!!)
























We did very little shopping. But we bought lots of chocolates! And a few bottles of wine for my mom's upcoming 60th birthday dinner.


It was a very simple, kinda relaxing and smooth holiday. Of course, my mom, hubby and myself were very tired having to carry his royal highness everywhere cos he refuse to walk, but then, he behaved quite well during the trip. So we are quite happy it turned out good.

I even had a surprise birthday cake presented to my by the hotel! And for the first time, my son could sing "Happy birthday to Mommie" ... it melted my heart . Hehehe.

I am also happy that I have the chance to finally bring my mom for a short holiday. We have been planning a trip since my boy turned 1, but unfortunately, we just could not make it. He was such a handful when he was younger (he still is!) and I felt stressed having to handle a kid who does not sit or walk (just jumps & runs). At least now, he can walk (if he wants to!) and can eat anything we adults eat. He also understands so much more and can communicate esp when he wants shi shi or pot pot. So that makes travelling a whole lots easier.

I just want to thank my MOM for sacrificing not only her golden years, but also her health, to ever willing to help me take care of my son. He is no easy toddler. And it has taken so much out of her to take care of him 12 hrs a day while we are both at work. And now with the house renovation, she has even helped me take care of him every Saturday. I really cant thank her enough other than being a filial daughter to her. I love you mom.

Should we go?

I have been pretty excited about planning for our first "real" holiday since Bryan was born. Moreover, a free 3D2N accommodation at The Andaman was just too good to let go!

You know, I have been waiting for ages to go on a real holiday! I have been waiting for the day where my son understands instructions (following instructions is another thing lah!), waiting for him to know how to sit still (not jumping about like lil monkey) and waiting for him to be able to eat a variety of food comfortably (and not having to carry along my slowcooker to boil porridge!).

We have even booked our flight! But now ... after 6 more deaths in one day relating to H1N1 is beginning to worry me lah! Todate, there are 44 deaths and most of them are in the high-risk category ... meaning kids and old folks lor. Aiyoh ... how now? To go or not to go?

I know, sure you will say, better be safe than sorry right? But .. but .. but .. aiyoh. Have to wait and see a lil longer ... cos trip will coincide with the long Merdeka weekend ... still got time to monitor the situation.

Err ... is there any precautionary jabs for my prince to strenghten his immune system against flu-related illnesses? Can consider wor hor?

Sun, Sand & Sea

If I remember correctly, the last time I went to Port Dickson was about 20 years ago. Yes, that long time ago. Probably during my teenage years when I went there with mom and her family.

This time round, mom came along too, together with my aunt & my cousins who had a little boy who is the same age as Bryan. So I guess, it was a good outing for the 2 boys as well as long as they dont fight over toys! Bryan used to be the agressive one and would often just pull away whatever toy his lil cousin would be holding on to, but this trip, both of them were very fren-fren. A bit more grown up kua now since both are 2 yrs old already.

I am getting abit worried after this outing. Simply because my son refuses to step on the sand or the sea barefoot! Nope! Not even on the grass! He was clinging so tight to anyone who would be willing to carry him. There was no way to make him even try stepping on them. He would scream his lungs out!

Coming to think of it, we hardly ever allow them to be bare-footed if we were to be out of the house right? So probably he thought it was not ok for him to be bare-footed other than inside our home.

I think I have to work on this issue a bit more. Else, how on earth is he going to really enjoy his childhood days right? Playing computer games? No way!

As expected our beach was not in the cleanest state. So no swimming for any of us. Just laid our mat under the tree and maybe tried a couple of times to bring Bryan out to the seaside just to try to get his feet wet .. but it did not work. He was screaming! Even his favourite past-time of picking up stones also did not attract him enough to get him down on his feet. Just clung on to us like a koala. Sigh ...

Saw a few Malay kids happily enjoying themselves in the sea. They just dont seem to be afraid and jump up & down in the water. There was a toddler (probably abt a year old only) who was walking right into the sea (with his mom lar of course) and here I have mine who refuses to even allow us to carry him & walk close to the sea. Alamak!

Can you see his worried face in the pics below? And note the colour of our sea.

I told daddie we should plan for more short trips since the fart is a little more settled in the car.

Perhaps to Cameron Highland next?

Ostrich Farm, Port Dickson

We headed out to Port Dickson last Saturday for a one night stay away from the city. Hubby managed to secure a company bungalow for the weekend and since it has been ages since we went away for anything & anywhere, we thought this would be a great place to start it off with lil one. Moreover, with the new highway, it hardly took us an hour to reach our destination!

Our dear master did not kick up a fuss in the car. He behaved pretty well, but insisted he sits on my lap in the front passenger seat. As long as he can stay quiet, I am happy.

As we can only check-in at 1pm, we decided to stop by the Ostrich Farm. I thought it would be great for him to see some real ostriches and I actually expected to see some great ostrich races for real! How silly I was! I forgot that I am in Malaysia .. duh! Like every other tourist destination and tourist attraction, this place is so badly maintained after a few years in operations.

I did not count but there were probably about 20 ostriches in total I would guess. Most of them are "senior citizens" in the sense that they actually hardly have any bulu in them left! Serious! And there are 3 monkeys named Along, Abu & Siti .. all chained to their cages! Gosh! And some chicken and a few peacocks. That's it. Entrance fee is RM8 per adult with RM1 discount if you are Jusco Member. Never expected the discount though.

Would I go there again? Of course not! Would I recommend anyone to go there? You will kill me. Then where else to go to kill time before check-in? I also don't know cos the rest seem to be not so toddler-friendly. Maybe Eagle Range would have been better. Not sure also.

While I was there, tried their pathetic ostrich satay. 6 sticks for RM10. We ordered 30. It taste like beef but not as tough. Quite tender but a bit "sou" smell. I guess for this sort of meat, it has to be very deeply marinated like satay, rendang or fried with black pepper. Other dishes not suitable. Anyone knows if there is ostrich burger in our local supermarkets?

Will try to post tomorrow, my lil one's first ever encounter with the sand & sea!

How to take pics like that!

I had a really lovely weekend. We went to a nearby seaside resort and spent a night there. It has been ages since we last went on a real holiday! Although there is nothing to shout about in terms of the destination, the journey and overall get-away-from-the-city was indeed refreshing.

As the lil one grows up, I find that he is slowly understanding us more and more. He does not really kick up a big fuss in the car. Well, he does get bored but when I explain to him, he seems to understand and then lies down under your arms (baby position lah) and manja-manja with me for a while. But all hell breaks loose when we reached! Its like letting him out of jail I tell ya!

For obvious reasons, I cant have the camera with me when he is around. He is just ALL OVER THE PLACE and I have to chase him and be as close to him as possible so that he does not break anything or get kidnapped! He can run damn fast ok! Sampai I really have to sprint to catch him .. else ar .. he surely out of my sight in just a mere 5 seconds!!

As much as I planned to blog about the trip with wonderful, beautiful and everything else "ful" pictures ... but I dont really have any decent spontaneuous shots! I kinda envy those bloggers that can have so so so many good shots with their DSLR cameras ... jelesnya! Moreover, I was soaking wet in my own sweat all the time! Of course I can ask hubby to take pics for me lah but he wont really know what I want, so .... but again, got some pics is better than no pics at all???? Ha! Ha! Ha!

Anyway, I will blog as much as I can about the short trip with some simple pics when I find some time to upload them. See ya real soon!

Planning a vacation

Its been really a long time since we went on a real holiday trip. Its like since I was preggie - and that is like almost 2.5 years ago! Gosh!

Since hubby has got some annual leave to clear this December, maybe I should suggest to him that we seriously consider a real good vacation. But I think i will start my planning first as usual cos hubby usually leave everything to me as far as planning for a vacation is concerned.

There are many sites that i love browsing through for real good vacation rentals, especially when you wish to scout for some good bargains for a florida vacation rentals and orlando vacation rentals! It has pretty much all the information you need about holidaying in any part of the US including services about car rentals, airline travels and even up-to-date information about weather and skiing conditions. And that's cool, so that should we decide to go, I can easily access all these information and be well prepared when packing, especially for lil one cos he has never travelled during winter time.

One other great service that this site provides is you can even list your own vacation home out for rental and get enquiries directly from people who are keen. So this eliminates the need for paying a commission to agents, etc. Isn't that great? Times are not looking good so this could be one option to consider for more savings.

Now let's see if hubby is game for a winter vacation ...!

Rabbit Farm

During our recent visit to Colmar Tropicale, we stopped by the Rabbit & Deer Farm for our little one to visit.

This is the first time my little monster is seeing an animal face-to-face other than the dog & cat in our house (hahahaha!). I was pretty confident my lil monster would not be afraid of any of those animals cos I dont call him a lil monster for nothing you know ...

Trying to make monkey faces at the deer! Naughty fella!

And trying to squeeze the poor rabbit! And this guy only goes for all the white rabbits ... chasing them all over! Wonder why he does not like the others which are black or grey or spotted ones .. .which were cute too!

Entrance fee to this farm is RM3 per head (in addition to RM10 per head we paid to visit Colmar Tropicale) but if you intend to just visit the farm, you need not pay for the entrance to Colmar Tropical cos the gate to the farm is before the tickethouse into Colmar Tropical.

This place is perfect for a half day outing for the family but its a kind of place you would come once every few years I guess.

Colmar Tropicale

It was the first day of Hari Raya and it being a public holiday, we decided to take a short drive out of town to visit Colmar Tropicale. It is located about 45 mins from the city and the roads were totally clear of traffic and was such a breeze to drive. Take the Bukit Tinggi exit from the highway (after Genting exit) and turning in, will lead you to a long winding road before you reach the top of a hill where this "french village" is located.









The last time I went there with hubby was before we got married and now several years later, sad to say, not much improvement has been made to this place to make it much more attractive.










This place has got a golf course too, so you will see large numbers of cars here on weekends as it is located on a slight highland with some cooling fresh air when the wind blows. There is also a Japanese Tea Garden (good for senior citizens) as well as a Rabbit & Deer Farm for the little ones. Worth a half day visit.

Penang - Final

It has been quite a tiring trip to Penang. And its a totally different experience travelling with a toddler as compared to the nice, comfy, romantic 2-person drives we use to experience.

The journey in the car was not as bad as I thot it would be. However, all the small-bytes and little books and new toys that I bought for him to keep him busy in the car were just enough to keep him occupied for a mere 2 minutes per new toy! Sigh ...

Not sure if I have mentioned this before but my toddler is one of those "energizer" kids - moving non-stop 24-7 (even when sleeping!). So we never really had a chance to sit down & enjoy any of the food. We had to take turns to bring him out to walk here & there while the others dined. Hubby dines first, then pass him to hubby so that I can eat, then my mom will take over from hubby so that hubby can continue ... something like that lah .... Well, even the best penang prawn mee or char kuay teow just tasted as bland as the KL ones ... sigh again.

If he is not running about, he is then sleeping over my shoulder. We have to then carry him to wherever we plan to go. Sigh the 3rd time.

Little rascal also developed some heat rashes or insect bites, dunno which, and he had big & little red spots all over his face! We took him to the doc to check him out and some medication to ease the redness & itch. It becomes worse if he is under the sun or sometimes in the (hot) car. I guess the heat makes it more unbearable for him. Is it me or is it me? I feel Penang is much much hotter than KL!!

We reached home late afternoon on Sunday. The moment we got home, we showered him and changed him to some real comfy clothes and he was so well behaved after that. We played some Barney & Baby Einstein dvds for him and he just sat on the cushion enjoying them silently, with occasional smiles & even laughters. I guess he misses home after all.

Will I soon plan for another holiday with him?

Well ... they grow up everyday and now at 16 months, I can see him picking up new skills more often. He is now able to interact with us as he is not a baby anymore. He can tell me if he wants something (through action) and shake his head from left to right if he does not want it. He can also say a few simple words. So I guess he is growing well ...

Sorry for not posting up more Penang food reviews. I initally really planned to but it was just too hot, tiring and a hassle for us as this was our maiden trip with little rascal. Maybe next trip okie?

Having had this first experience, I guess I will be better prepared for my future trips (at least mentally!). We know now what to really expect and so, I guess, in future, it will only get easier (*smile*).

Penang - Part 2

I had earlier made a dinner reservation at Jemputree.

Read about this new place from several food blogs and the thought of dining on the tree top pretty much attracted my attention.


This place serves malay, chinese and western cuisine and its specialty is all about dining on a tree-top ala "bersila" style. There is only one table for tree-top dining that can accommodate about 8 pax, which was just nice for our group.

Quality & taste of food was probably 5 out of 10. I guess the lesson to learn is to order malay food since this is a malay restaurant. Dont bother about the chinese or the western choices cos you'll be disappointed.

Toddler friendly food was almost nil. But he did enjoy the cucur ikan bilis!

Service rating was another 5 out of 10. Maybe they should have a bell for those dining on the tree top cos everytime we needed something, we had to shout out to the waiters on the ground floor or "climb" down ourselves!

Maybe I should just stick to my all-time favourite of pandan coconuts at Lorong Abu Siti!!! Never fails me!

Penang - Part 1

We left KL early in the morning and arrived Prai at about 1pm. Just in time for our lunch date with C, my long time buddy.

Lunch was at Chai Leng Park. We had a secret mission to meet a secret someone here ... ahem ... and lunch personally prepared & served by him (*smile, wink, smile*). We had seafood noodles and it was quite good.

Then it was time to "check in" into Nangka Resort! Haa! Haa! Never heard of this place leh ... well, even money cannot guarantee you a booking here okay ....its a special "resort" for priviledged friends like me. Hee .. Hee...

Little one was dead tired and needed a nap, so we took some rest, showered and in the evening headed off across the bridge for our next date (*wink eye*).

Packing for the trip

This is the first time we are travelling with little rascal.

And its a road trip, so I have to make a plan on what to bring & pack along, so that I wont miss out on any essentials while we're there.

Here's my to-pack list off my mind :-

• comfortable clothings (for the hot weather)
• comfy shoes
• lots of disposable diapers
• milk powder, milk bottle, hot water flask & drinking water
• wet tissues
• swim suit & arm float
• towel
• sun-block lotion
• finger food to keep him busy in the car
• small toys & little books to occupy his time while travelling
• small slow cooker - to prepare his porridge (not in the car lah!)

Really not sure if i should bring his stroller cos this rascal will NEVER get in there!

I really dont understand why my little one never liked getting into the car seat or the stroller since he was born! Even now, he even does not like getting into those supermarket trolleys which other kids just love!

Strange boy I have ... think he just hates the idea of being confined in one place I guess.

Did I forget any other essentials?

Maybe LCOM could be of some help since she's got the experience eh? Read all about her eventful trip back home to Malaysia during the recent summer.

Hurray! Hurray! Its a Holi Holiday!

Oh! Holidays! Oh! I almost forgot the real meaning of a holiday!

Before I got pregnant (which is 2 full yrs ago!), hubby & I frequently went on holidays both in & out of the country, be it a short break or a real vacation.

We enjoy all kinds of holidays. Beach. City. Shopping. Relaxing. Food. Tour guided ones or self exploring ones. Its just nice to just go somewhere (away from the office!) and spend time together exploring something you've never seen or tasted or somewhere you've never been to.

So, now, we have this little rascal with us this time, I really dont know where we shd be going or will it really end up being a holiday in the first place. But nevertheless, we decided to take a drive up north to Penang this coming Friday. Just to test the ground a bit (smile). Its a 4 hour drive each way ...so wish us luck!

Why Penang? Well .. several reasons.

One, SIL lives in Ipoh (which is only 2 hours drive from KL) and if needed, it will be our emergency holiday destination should the rascal end up being really difficult to attend to in the car.

Two, we will put up at my friend, C's place, in Penang and this will make us feel much more comfortable compared to a hotel room. At least he has got space to run about while we put up our feet to rest.

Three, we've been there plenty of times, so I think we should stick to a familiar place since this is the first trip with little rascal. If anything, we know where to go and what to do, etc. etc.

Really looking forward to this trip.