Happy 90th Birthday to Ah Chor

My grandma, whom I fondly call Ah Ma, and the children's Ah Chor, celebrated her 90th birthday on August 8th this year in Sitiawan.

If I recall correctly, there were 8 tables filled with close friends, church friends, relatives and family members from near and far as we ate and sang at Restaurant Beiking.

Ah Ma was in high spirits.  She sang cheerfully and loudly and despite deteriorating heath over the past few years, she reflected her old gusty self that night.

I pray and wish her God's richest blessings of good health, surrounded by good friends, assurance of His love and family's, dwelling in His peace and may His joy be her strength.

My 4th Uncle and his wife and their son Anthony, together with Uncle John came back from the United States to celebrate this happy occasion.  It's also a good time too as our ringgit continued to weakened against the American Dollar.

A rare and precious picture with Ah Chor but somehow someone had to close his eyes 

A simple surprise birthday for Popo

Popo comes up to PJ as often as she can on weekends that she's free and not away.  Some months, she can be up here every alternate weekends and we really appreciate her time and sacrifice.  Her single trip travel here takes on average 2 hours with one change of train. 

The weekend before her birthday, she was up in PJ with us.  She intended to take the earlier train back the next day ie Sunday and did not know that Gong Gong and I had pre-arranged a surprise lunch and special pick up for her in PJ.  

A bit of challenge to juggle the timing, as we were all ready to leave the house but Gong Gong, Yi Yi and gang were still on the way.  They stopped along the way to purchase a birthday cake because if I did, it would have been very obvious that we were going to celebrate her birthday.  To her, she wanted only a simple lunch before she left. 

She also wanted to drop by my aunt's place to see Tai Gong.  So after some messages and hurrying, we headed to the Restaurant in Paramount Garden where we were supposed to "bump into" Gong Gong, Yi Yi and family.  

It was so much fun to see her surprised face as Grace ran towards her in the restaurant and how she came to realization that we had all these planned for her special day.

I love it that Popo Gong Gong are such simple folks, and Popo's birthday wish every year is always the same loving wish - for everyone to be healthy and happy.  We wish her the same, health and happiness too, on top of every other blessings from God to overflow in her life, and that she may have long life to see even her grand children marry and carry her great grand kids with Gong Gong! 

I love you Mi, from the bottom of my heart and you are indeed a role model for our two generations to follow.  

William's School Sports Day

William had his school sports day on Saturday, August 15th.

All children from Years 1 to 6 were required to arrived latest by 7:45am at the Stadium (forgotten the name but it's near our house).  I did not know that there were food stalls set up at the Stadium where we could get our breakfast, so we stopped by the dim sum shop along the way to buy "pau" and "lo mai kai" for the kids to eat in the car.

William was in the Galatians team, and the team color was purple.  Therefore, all team mates had to wear purple tee.  The other teams were Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians.  In each team, they had children from different age and class.

The team banner

Doing the team march followed by the team cheer in front of the judges

Team Ephesians

Team Philippians

Team Colossians

We initially took the seats up on the gallery before we and many other parents started moving around to get better angles and also away from the heat of the morning sun

Waiting with two feathers stuck to his head

The event started with the school song, national anthem and the team march and cheer.  After some introductions, the teams then moved on to the first event, which was the race, followed by many other games.

William took part in the 100m run but did not win.  However, he did well and was the second last standing in the Dodgeball competition, which the team eventually won first place.

William had so much fun playing the Dodgeball; he teased and danced during the game too.

                         

The team won the Dodgeball competition

Tug of War was fun

Kids tug of war first, then the parents were invited to join in the fun

He is so happy with his gold medal.  The team won second place in the overall games.

All the teams played well and thank God for good weather, and great bonding and fun.

It is so wonderful to see everyone had fun and teamwork.  There were no tears but many cheers!  The Sports Day was supposed to end at 12noon but we ended about half an hour earlier which was a good thing as the sun was getting too hot for comfort.  We tapau-ed a simple lunch on the way home.  William was still so charged up and tells me that he wants everyday to be Sport Day.

Where did all the time go?

Oh my oh my!  We are one week eating into October and I have not even written a single post for the whole month of September.  How time flies!

Many things happened in the previous month.  Notably, we had a new addition to our family (well, temporary for now until further notice) called Lewis who came into our lives on Merdeka Day.  Lewis is a 4 months plus mixed pup.  I'm not sure who his parents are, but a reliable source said he looks like a low grade Rottweiler, but lately a few more people have commented that he has Alsatian streaks.

Lewis at 3 months plus, when we took him in

Well, to me he looks like a typical Malaysian pariah dog.  Will give him the privilege of his own separate post.

Then during the short one week school holiday in September, we went for a 3 days 2 nights holiday at Club Med Cherating with Popo Gong Gong, Yi Yi and family, and Uncle Julian who flew all the way back to spend time with us.  Sadly, Auntie Winnie couldn't join us so Joshua stayed back too.

Daddy couldn't take leave from his new job too, so we had to go without him too.  More on this holiday later too.

The kids have been busy with homework and house work (not the chores, but the book type) and I don't know what else.  A short update on everyone:

William is still into reading, so much so I find it annoying at times and have to stop him, especially when he's supposed to be changing, or cleaning up, or finishing his meal, or doing his homework.  If he's silent for a long time, then you know he's probably got his nose in between a book!

Vic is growing fast -  a fine young lady now, and sometimes I feel I don't know her that well.  We really need to bond more, I suppose.

Daddy, my dear dear hubby -  has been so tied up at work and not by own choice, in his new role at a new company.  Kids are simply elated with the new model cars.  We will continue to pray for God's purpose and will to unfold.

Mummy - well, mummy is here there, and running around errands as usual, spending a bit more time on new bakes, all thanks to a really cool baking book she bought at last year's BBW sale.  Speaking of which, is there a BBW sale this year end?  Mental note to check it out.

Phuket Holiday: Karon Beach and the Upside Down House

I'm not writing according to days now, because hey, this is Phuket... and we did mostly the same relaxing stuff everyday - eat, play, swim, just hanging around.  Like I said, there wasn't a fixed itinerary but just a list of to-do stuff like shopping and visiting certain places.

One of the reasons for staying in Karon was because of the beach.  We thought that Patong beach could be too overcrowded, hence Karon and yet its not being too far away from the night life and shops.  The two setbacks are that Karon town has nothing much to offer, but the massages there are plentiful and so, so cheap!  I think it's THB300 for a full hour massage - and you can choose either foot or Thai body massage.  The prices are definitely higher in Patong because it's a tourist crowd.  Secondly, it's impossible to walk from Karon to Patong along the windy roads where vehicles zip past quite fast.

Karon Beach

So from where we stayed, it was just 5 minutes walk from the quiet Karon beach, literally across the road.  The cars can be quite fast along the windy, two way road, but the hotel guard is kind enough to hold traffic for all hotel guests.

Cross this wooden bridge...

... to reach this!  Someone commented on the internet that the sand squeaks as you walk on it... and another person verified that it's true, and now I'm going to confirm those claims that the sand DOES squeak!  Victoria is my witness.

Placed our hotel umbrellas next to this flag.  We took umbrellas as the clouds looked dark but God held the rain from falling so we had a relaxing half hour without the harsh, hot sun

Young man showing off his muscles.  It's his idea to take off this top because it was wet and sticky, and he wanted to be just like daddy.

Made himself comfortable on the beach, and threw sand balls towards the ocean

Our dinner in Karon town

Noodles for the one craving (not me!)

Prawns for the one craving (yes, this is for me!)

Little fler gave in to his fatigue whilst waiting for the food to arrive.  When Vic and I finished our meal, he was still sleeping so we headed nearby for foot massage.  Daddy ate as slow as he could as he waited for the Sleeping Handsome to wake

Very nice!  I love the fresh peppercorns.  

Tom yam seafood soup (my favourite) and steam fish in sweet lime sauce (note to self - I wanna try mimicking this sauce at home)

The Upside Down House (Baan Teelanka)

We went to the Premium Outlet which was just a stone's throw away but we didn't get much things from here since the prices were such a bargain and the items offered were not suitable to us.

This place is officially known as Baan Teelanka, as some maps do not label it as the Upside Down House

                           
I was personally excited about the Upside Down House because this was my first time (in fact, the first for both kids too) to such a place.  I was quite disappointed though, as there was only two floors minus the basement, and not airconditioned so it was stuffy and hot inside.  The place was not spacious and makes it difficult to snap good pictures without someone photobombing or giving the secret away in the background.

The objective was to give the children their (and mummy's) first time experience in this sort of place.

Hanging on to the roof top

Look out honey!!  Don't drop your Samsung A5 into the toilet bowl

The new way of riding a bike?

Whoa!  Where's the gravity?

Pulling onto the tuk tuk... wait for uuusssss!!

William!  Stop hanging around!  Get back to work!

Let's do some vacuuming from up here, boy boy.

Phew! Finally, it's not him who's upside down now.

That's all folks!  One final post on the markets we visited and that'll wrap up our Phuket holiday posts.

Phuket Holiday: Pool and Patong!

Day 2 

4th June 2015

Today we had our first buffet breakfast in the hotel... food selection was slightly above average but service was very good.  We became regulars at the egg station from this day onwards (until our check out).  William enjoys his omelette with extra cheese most!  This egg alone can almost fill one's tummy up!  

We love how generous they were with the cheese and ingredients.  William was intrigued to see how long he can pull the cheese

This is the adult pool view as we walk down to have our breakfast

 We had nothing on our agenda today, so after breakfast we headed to Kid's World again where we each found something to do... either on the table futsal, or a video game, or fooling around with some toys, or a football match on the PS3.  I picked up the "Maleficient" book (I have watched the movie and wanted to see if it's as good as the movie) and was allowed to borrow it out.

Kid's World was not crowded so our family kinda monopolized the whole place.

Didn't know this table futsal can be so addictive.  We took turns to compete against each other.  

Having a complimentary session on puppet making with the staff called Anne whom Vic grew quite fond of towards the end of this trip. 

Entered Patong town in the evening. 

Walked around and found this full house place.  Many mainland chinese here.  We checked the menu out before deciding, and liked the varieties and price!  

For very reasonable price, the quality or quantity was not compromised.  

Many tables ordered this, so we ordered a small dish as well. 

There's a little competition between these two....

Sawadeeka. Mimicking what Ronald does.

We walked around the shopping mall

Excited to sit on one of these tuk tuks. We asked around for the price we had in mind, got turned down a couple of times then finally found one who was willing to accept our offer.

The ride on the tuk tuk back was a fun experience for all of us.   The driver immediately put on a party dance song over the loud speaker, and Daddy went into his auto-dance mode, moving William along!  Driving quite fast, along the windy road from Patong back to Karon where our hotel was located, we enjoyed the cool breeze whilst hanging on to dear life as there was no seat belts or doors or windows.

The little boy was thrilled, but I think Jie Jie preferred a classical anytime!  Hahah... (that's for now)