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!