Penang holiday: Day 2 - Fort Cornwallis

One of my fav photos taken during this holiday, when Sam was playing with gravel.

Fort Cornwallis turns out to be Sam's big playground, he got such a kick walking & playing with gravel there! Initially we were still trying to stop him from getting himself dirty, but we soon gave up........

It was a bit silly actually, going to Fort Cornwallis. Considering that as Singaporeans, we ourselves have not visited Fort Siloso or any other similar sites since our secondary school days, it felt a bit funny to see something so similar, not only in the cannons & barracks, but also in the history of the place. Don't think would have gone there if there were other places we could go to with Sam so early in the day......

Anyway, won't be posting too many photos here, cos I've uploaded all the pretty pictures of our entire trip in Picasa (link in sidebar), the actual album link being: http://picasaweb.google.com/tanhui23/PenangDec2007

Sam fell asleep in the taxi on our way back, so we skipped off to a good lunch at the Eastern & Oriental hotel. The grilled seafood was great! But unfortunately they've already started the X'mas promotion, so we ended up paying >2x the usual price for the buffet. *heartache*

The hotel was a beauty though, an equivalent of our Raffles Hotel. The main lobby actually retains one's echo very easily!!!

Will post the afternoon trip to the Blue Mansion in a separate post, it was a worthwhile visit!

P.S. Hopefully will be able to finish this Penang journal as planned.......getting more & more distracted by my parents' visit (among other things), & getting lazy abt writing in so much details after spending effort on the web album! ;P

Sam's New "Friend"

Silly Sam couldn't tell the difference between a mannequin & a real life human being!!

Location: Isetan KLCC Children's department.

Blog Diary Archive

Have decided to take the Blog Diary out of the sidebar & put it up as a blog post instead, cos realised am adding more & more to the Diary. Wouldn't want the sidebar to be longer than the blog posts! ;)

So from now on, will be using the label "Blog Diary" on all posts relating to changes to this blog.

This post is basically the archive for the previous Diary entries:

25 Dec 2007
Removed the video bar of Sam, since have added a link to my YouTube channel. Easier this way to share the videos of Sam & those that I'm watching.

24 Dec 2007
Finally have a photo of myself that I dare put in my profile! :) This was self-taken using my Sony Ericsson hp (yes, I like it) on the way home from Penang trip.

8 Dec 2007
Having a lot of fun embedding YouTube videos into the blog! Think I'm now spending more time formatting the blog than actually blogging! ;)

6 Dec 2007
Hopefully won't be changing the template anymore! Formats of posts before 6/12/07 are basically in a mess now, but don't have the energy to correct them, so do bear with it!

Penang holiday: Day 1 - Arrival, Shopping & Char Quay Teow

20 Dec 2007

Our 1st family holiday since moving to KL (going hm to Singapore didn't count) started off with the 11am AirAsia flight to Penang. Flight was not only punctual, but we arrived 5 min early too.

Luckily for me, Sam fell asleep right before takeoff.

Unfortunately, my hubby fell asleep too, thus I was stuck with a sleeping toddler in my numbing right arm & no one to talk to. Couldn't even reach my bag at my feet for a drink! So spent the time taking pictures with my Sony Erisson K810i hp......

Reached the Gurney Resort Hotel at abt 1 pm & the whole family ended up napping.

So had a late 3pm lunch at the 'famous' Penang char quay teow stall. A long long wait for the dish......we polished off neoh heong & spring rolls in the meantime, Sam getting bored in the rattan baby high chair.

The char quay teow was a bit disappointing. Though delicious with large prawns, don't really understand what's the big deal abt it. Maybe cos we didn't end up in the right stall: there were 3 char quay teow stalls along the same stretch of road!

Wanted to go sightseeing after lunch, but the Blue Mansion was closed on the Hari Raya Haji holiday. So we ended up with the only option available to us at that hour & place: shopping at the Chocolate Boutique & the local products shop!

Back to the hotel by 5:30pm to shower, followed by a quick & short dinner downstairs at the Jap restaurant, then it's bedtime for Sam at 7 pm!

After he fell asleep, we were stuck with nothing to do as couldn't watch TV or switch on the lights, lest Sam wakes up.

So we chatted in whispers by the light of the bathroom while snacking on the local products bought earlier on. Poor hubby ended up having to read the map by the closet light to decide on the itenary:

I got so bored, I took out all our purchases from the Chocolate Boutique to commerate the unplanned expediture of RM$200 there:

Oh, the durian chocolates were great! Definitely worth the RM$35/box (9 pcs/box) price tag! In case anyone is interested, the brand is Beryls & take note to get the durian creme type, not the cheap durian flavouring type.

Back from Holiday

Got back from Penang yesterday, great trip!

Oh, there were loads we couldn't see or do, & I totally miss the night scenes of Penang, thanks to Sam, but it was a good R&R holiday, couldn't complain much!

Only regret is didn't manage to get a picture of the whole family.........
And poor Sam soooooo missed his rice & porridge, cos we ate lots of char quay teow!!!!

Am now trying to compile the photos from our digital camera & our 2 camera phones. (talk abt digital age! In the past, all we have to do is just develop the rolls of film & put them in the free albums!)

It'll take a while before I can post the photos though, cos have finally decided to use Picasa to post my photos (still can't get used to Flickr). This way can easily organise it in the desktop, post on web and blog and Facebook!

Oh, this time I can't dilly dally on this, cos my parents are coming over to KL to visit this weekend, so I must finish the compilation in time for them to see!

Going Holidaying

Going on holiday tomorrow, a 4D3N trip to Penang.

This is the 1st time we're going on a holiday since Sam has learnt to walk.

Hopefully it'll turn out to be as 'easy' as when he was merely a baby!

Already I will be wasting my nights in Penang, cos will be grounded in the hotel once I put Sam to bed at 7pm. :(
Don't intend to deviate too much from his bedtime schedule, else I'll have hell to catch up once we get back home.

Lucky hubby got a hotel near the famous hawker centre. I'll probably grow even fatter feasting on supper he goes out to buy while I put Sam to sleep!

Hopefully this time will manage to take some nice pics of our whole family again. And some reasonable nice ones of myself that I'll be willing to post out for the world to see!

Hoping the AirAsia flights will not be delayed by too much.

Hoping hard that it will not be too difficult to find somewhere to breastfeed out in Penang.

Hoping & hoping that Sam will be able to take his naps, else my nights will be terrible!

Hoping very, very hard that the Combi pram can tahan the Penang pavements & not breakdown on us!!!

Exciting Tues Morning

1st thing in the morning at Suria KLCC, Sam was excited to see the snowman, part of the Christmas deco on the Concourse level. Though, as you can see, not excited enough to forget to ask for his cheddar cheese flavoured goldfish biscuits........

Up on 4th floor, happily playing on the Oscar the Grouch musical car. At this rate, we'll probably end up sitting on all the musical cars available in KLCC!

Went into Petrosains for the 1st time (just the ticketing area, of course, not paying yet!). Was pleasantly surprised to see a carp pool cum water fountain. Sam happily stood on tiptoe to catch a glimpse of the large fish.

Then he got distracted by the turning crank display. But he was obviously too short to enjoy the game, not even on tiptoe!

So he desparately reached out for the wheel & scared away the teenager playing! I ended up raising my leg to let him sit on one knee, so that he can turn the wheel - in the wrong direction!

Backtrack: Fries on 15 Dec 2007

Yes, haven't been checking email/facebook/blog again!!!!!

So now backtracking, cos wanna share our 1st trip last weekend to the big shopping mall, One Utama. We loved the X'mas deco at the new wing:

Didn't go down to see the pretty moving soldiers in detail. Side trips like that are a luxury now that we're shopping with a toddler in tow.

Instead, went on to MPH to find some storybooks for Sam to read. Or rather, for me to read to him, cos me getting sick of reading the same old stuff at home.

Was glad finally got a photo of Sam eating one of his fav foods: french fries!!!! (P.S. lovely polo t-shirt courtesy of Auntie LZ.)

Oh, I know all abt the health hazards of fries, esp. those sold outside. Never mind that I make the effort to press the oil & salt of the fries one by one before handing them to Sam. Can only console myself that Sam is thin enough to take in some oily fats anyway. ;P

When you become a mother, you'll rather your finicky son eats something rather than nothing, so I continue to allow him his weekly lunch of fast food fries.

Besides, it's one of the few foods he loves to feed himself, so that I actually can finish my own lunch leisurely!

1st time in Musical Car

Today the 1st time I put Sam in one of those musical cars - or whatever the actual name is - you know, those things that will rock & play music when you put some money (in our case, RM$1). Thought that will distract him from his constant endeavour to enter Giodarno Junior (why he likes the shop designed for > 3 yrs old, I have no idea).

Of course, didn't put any money in the car. There's be plenty of chances to do so in future, I'm sure, after he's learnt how fun that can be & learnt to howl for it. Lucky I saved the RM$1, cos Sam loved being in the new 'toy', it was 10 full minutes before he was bored of it! Hence I have plenty of time to record how he actually amuses himself in the car:

Relapse......Again!

Have lapse into my old bad habit again!

Have been keeping to myself for the past 3 days, never checked email, facebook, nor blog.

Basically abt the only things I did on the internet was to find a recipe to cook the codfish, & to find my fav drama serial.

The day before, I didn't even manage to have the time/energy to watch any of my fav programs in the daytime.......

It's so tiring to try to watch anything with Sam on my lap: ever since he discovered that the space bar will pause his fav i-tunes visualiser, he's been trying to press on the space bar whenever I'm trying to watch my shows, thus succeeding in pausing my shows every few minutes.

When he tries it while I try to simply read my fav entertainment news, the action becomes a "page down" command, so I get to see the ads at the bottom of the website for every 2 lines of news I read..................

And of course, me suffering from lack of sleep: nowadays can't nap in the daytime, cos have to make use of Sam's naptime to cook his lunch & our dinner.

With me trying to fix his new bedtime schedule to start at 7:15pm, this means I have to finish preparing all the dishes beforehand & let hubby warm it up in the microwave when he gets back. And yes, I have to re-heat again when I have my own dinner at 8pm. Or later, if have any trouble getting Sam to bed!

Hey, how did this become a complain session again????? Me merely wanna state my resolve (again) to make the effort to keep in touch.............

Couldn't Sleep Again!

Have been having trouble falling asleep for the past 2 nights.

Nope, this time, it's not because of little Sam.

It's because I've been watching the taiwanese music talent variety program before bed, and got so excited by it, I couldn't calm myself enough to sleep at 1am!

Must introduce this to anyone reading this who hasn't watched the show, 超级星光大道.

This is the American Idol equivalent in Taiwan, in terms of its popularity.
However, the contestants are not voted in by the masses; they are awarded points by 5 judges.
The viewers have no say at all, except to create a BIG hoo-hah on their internet forums!

What makes this program so popular???

After all, it's not the 1st or only music talent show in Taiwan right now.
However, the contestants from the 1st season got so popular, most of the finalists received recording contracts after the end of the season. One of the challengers even became as popular as the winner!

1 reason of the show's popularity is of course the judges, at least 1 of whom would be a guest judge.

A lot of the credit also goes to the compere, 陶晶莹.
I've never really thought she was a great compere when I 1st started following the program.
It was only after sitting through 15 torturous minutes of a malaysian Superstar finals (another music talent show) that I realise how good she is in creating suspense, engaging the audience, judges & contestants in small talk, & generally making the intervals between the singing interesting.

But I think the main reason why I got hooked is because of the contestants in the 1st season.

It's quite obvious they really love singing, and enjoy doing so on stage.
This passion really makes their songs very 'touching', very engaging to watch.

While it's fun watching them improve week by week, it is even more interesting to realise they actually became good friends despite the competition, and the amount of tears they shed everytime one of their numbers got kicked out (by themselves!) is quite, er, amusing! ;)

Now season 2 is not so engaging, partly cos the contestants don't seem to be able to put as much emotion into their singing.

Or maybe, as my hubby says, I'm already too involved with the 1st season. How I wish the DVD collection of the show is available over here!!!

Anyway, will still continue to watch the 2nd season, since now it's down to the final 6 vs the quite impressive challengers (one of whom is a malaysian!). Very exciting!!!!

But, I still prefer the 1st season leh! :)

Must try to catch it on cable here this Sunday. Haven't been able to watch it for the past few months cos of Sam's bedtime. :(

So spent all my free time today collecting my fav clips from YouTube! Have posted it at the end of this blog, enjoy!

Birthday Thoughts

So, my 31st birthday has passed me by for 3 days already............such a quiet event this year. I was in no mood to celebrate, trying to get Sam to sleep. Besides, which woman would want to celebrate being > 30 yrs old?

But am very glad hubby tabao dinner back that day, saved me the effort of thinking what to cook & the chore of cleaning up. And he thoughtfully bought me a birthday cake (though why 5 candles, he couldn't explain), which we're still trying to finish up in the fridge. And of course with my new hp as birthday present bought last month, I can't complain much more, can I? ;)

And it was absolutely heartwarming to receive the phone call from friend LN, she's always a thoughtful one to make the effort for the long distance call. I tend to keep to myself when left on my own, but chatting with her always bring back the 'kick' in me, reminding me the joy of interacting with others.

And the thoughtful emails from close friends, who make the effort to remember the day. I feel so guilty about not remembering their birthdates correctly! Haven't even updated my email address book properly since I stopped working, had been so slack...............

Most surprised by Facebook, really makes keeping in touch with friends so much easier & fun! Though it's quite impossible to keep up with all the numerous applications available (it always makes me wish I'm still single without a troublesome toddler), it's really an interesting way to interact with people you care about.
For one thing, I've received 3 virtual b-day cakes that I can indulge in without worrying about putting on weight! ;) Wonderful invention!!!

Talking abt cakes, I'm now regretting didn't tabao the birthday cake for LZ & me when we met up last month: I should have eaten more of the red bean/green tea combi then!!!! Oh, it feels like such a long time ago since we 4 gals have met up to celebrate a birthday!

像当年, when we were only schooling gals, we could have held 4 birthday celebrations each year; now, with us in different countries, & hubbies & babies to drag along, it's becoming a challenge to have all 4 meet up at the same time.........kinda makes one wish there're more weekends in a year, huh????

Feeling so old now.......................

Prince or Princess?

Yes! Finally managed to capture Sam on film while he's wearing my hairband!

Nope, I didn't put it on him. He loved to do it himself & watch us laugh, then laugh with us. Sometimes he'll even pull it off my head!

Doesn't he look so girlish wearing the hairband like a crown?

Wonder what he'll think if he sees this photo when he's all grown up......... *hee!*

I wanna Sleep!!!

I need to complain!!!!!!!

Why isn't my little boy one of those who sleeps like a log, naps effortlessly, and in general, simply an easy-to-take-care toddler??????

Why haven't I had a peaceful night ever since I had him? Worse, since I've been awake every 2 hrs during my pregancy, in total, I haven't had an 8-hour straight sleep for > 2 years already!!!!

Yesterday night was one of the worse ones over the past week: after sleeping peacefully at 9pm, he started getting up at......................*drum roll*

1:30 am,

2:30 am,

3:30 am,

5:30 am,

6:30 am, &

7:30 am,

before becoming fully awake at 8:30 am, by which time, his mother has a splitting headache & a monster temper to go with it!

Okay, can't complain too much, gotta go.........no, not for the blissful bed, how I wish I can!!!! have to prepare his lunch while he's napping, so I won't have an audience at the kitchen door.......

Who says it's easier to be a homemaker than a career woman????!!!!!!