A Mum's Hideout

Chinese New Year in Dubai

2012-02-14T22:10:00.001+04:00

As the Rabbit makes his way out, the Dragon enters! This lunar year marks the Year of the Dragon. The dragon is the only mythical (non-existent) animal in the Chinese Zodiac. It is deemed the most powerful animal.

This year is the first year that my family and I are celebrating CNY away from home. It is also Shien Wei’s and my first time spending CNY away from our families. It was definitely different for us. It felt different, it felt awkward. We decided to stay back in Dubai to usher in the New Year because 1. We had just come back from Malaysia not too long ago 2. Kids have school But after all those reasons, we regretted making the decision not to go back. Anyhow, we tried to make the most out of it.

Being away from home, we are definitely missing the ambience, the excitement, the mood, the family. I tried to make the best out of what we have here. I decorated the house, I bought oranges, I did my spring cleaning, all to get into the mood.

I even have God of Prosperity in my house! Back in Malaysia, I never had to go this far to create the CNY mood. CNY mood is effortless in Malaysia. But here, I did it so that my kids know and appreciates the importance of CNY.

Most decorations were from Malaysia. Surprisingly there weren’t many CNY decoration stuff even at Dragon Mart! Dragon Mart was rather disappointing. I expected the entire Dragon Mart to be filled and selling everything CNY.

Not too bad eh? I will remember to buy more more more next CNY.

I obviously did not go into great lengths to prepare for CNY. I did not get into baking and making CNY cookies (or you would have definitely not hear the end of it). Maybe I should have done so but hey, I think I deserve a pat on the back for making the effort that I have :P

I also bought some decorations for Jiawen & Jiaxiangs’ classrooms. I bought red lanterns for their classmates and they decorated the classroom.

CNY Eve

Before we went out on our Reunion Dinner, we had a mini photo session at home, all dressed up.

GONG XI FA CAI!

It being pretty cold outside, we had our winter clothes on.

3 Families, 1 Reunion

Leon Family

Leong Family

Ooi Family

Yee Sang! All the way from home. So it did feel a little like home.

Loh Sang!

Reunion dinner! We had dinner at Sun Tour Restaurant at International City where we had pre ordered some dishes.

Jiawen’s 8th birthday happened to fall on first day of CNY so we celebrated her birthday with our friends.

Jiaxiang admiring Jaywern’s accessories which included earrings, necklace and rings.

Growing up, my siblings and I were taught to serve tea to our parents on the first day of CNY to wish them well and as part of the Chinese tradition. In return our parents would give us Ang Pow (Red packets). I have carried on this tradition with my kids and back home, they would do the same for their grandparents.

So during our reunion dinner, we got our kids to serve tea to the fathers. The kids also gave (along with the tea) a red packet containing well wishes written for the daddies.

Gong Xi Fa Cai from Dubai!!

CNY Day 1

Homemade CNY goodies by Christine.

We had an “angmonified” CNY Breakfast with Mages & Segar at Carluccios.

CNY Day 5

Just a few shots before going out

Homemade Lohbak by Mei Lin

Homemade Teekuih

YaaaammmSeng!

Lohsang… again!

It is a tradition (in most families) to have steamboat during CNY. The family sits together and slowly enjoy the food. Because steamboat takes more time to cook, this gives the family a chance to sit down not to only enjoy the food but to spend time with the family as part of the reunion must.

We sat through the night and enjoyed the cold until it got a bit too cold. “Smoke” came out of our mouths that night!! Good food, great company!

CNY Day 12

A few of us organised a CNY Picnic Potluck at the park on the 3 Feb. This time we decided to have the picnic at a new park, Barsha Park. Last year, we had it at the Creek Park and parking was horrendous, so we changed it to Barsha Park where parking was a breeze.

Friends invited friends and it turned out to be another successful CNY Picnic.

With goodies like these, who needs to go home for CNY right? (not)

Lohsang yet again.

With friends, CNY is good.

Thank you to all who came and made the event a successful one. Till next year…GONG XI FA CAI everyone. May the year of the Dragon bring lots of happiness, prosperity, good health and joy to you and your loved ones.

A380

2012-01-09T14:35:00.001+04:00

FINALLY! Finally we got a chance to fly on Emirates’ Airbus A380, the world’s largest passenger airliner! To date, Emirates Airlines has 18 A380 flying to London, New York, Sydney, Auckland, Bangkok, Toronto, Paris, Seoul, Jeddah, Beijing, Manchester, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Johannesburg, Munich, Rome and the latest destination … KUALA LUMPUR! Last year, Emirates Airlines announced that it would fly their A380 to Kuala Lumpur, servicing one of the 3 daily flights into Malaysia.

Flights into Kuala Lumpur and back to Dubai are full most of the time so it was timely that Emirates fly their A380 into Malaysia. Emirates Airlines flies 3 times daily into Kuala Lumpur and with the A380 on top of the two B777s, this means Emirates potentially flies approximately 1209 passengers into Kuala Lumpur daily! According to some newspaper article I read, Emirates is the 2nd largest carrier out of Kuala Lumpur in terms of passenger numbers.

Emirates Airlines flew their A380 in their inaugural flight into Kuala Lumpur on the 1 January 2012 and was received by a water cannon welcome at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA).

(picture from The Star Newspaper)

Click here for some spectacular pictures of EK346 arriving on the A380 at KLIA.

A full-page ad announcing her arrival in The Star Newspaper on the 1st January 2012

When Emirates Airlines announced that it would start flying into Kuala Lumpur on the A380, we got really excited and told ourselves that we must fly on the A380!! Since we were in Malaysia for the Christmas holiday, of course we took the A380 plane back to Dubai. And we were proud and excited to be a part of the first A380 flight from Kuala Lumpur to Dubai (EK347). Not only was this a historical moment for Emirates Airlines, it was the very first A380 commercial flight in and out of KLIA!

In anticipation of the long check-in queue at KLIA, we thought we’d go to the airport earlier than usual. EK347 was scheduled to depart at 1930 hours but we got there at 1600 hours to check-in. When we got there, there was no long queue at the check-in counter. There were a lot of ground staff stationed at the check-in counters and there were a lot more check-in counters opened. With a full flight, the ground staff were prepared to check some 489 passengers in! There were a lot buzz right from the beginning. We could see that even the check-in staff were excited and a bit nervous. They must have been briefed and told to give it their best performance. We were welcomed warmly by the ground staff, all dressed in the Emirates Airlines uniforms and they served us with courtesy. We checked-in quite quickly.

The crowd started to come after we checked-in.

At gate C27. Normally they only open 2 security check points but that day, they opened 4 security check points to handle the crowd.

We could feel the excitement and buzz all over, even the security people were excited themselves!

I have come through this gate many times before but never noticed this escalator going upstairs. This escalator leads the First and Business Class passengers to the upper level which then leads them to the upper deck of the plane. I shall have my chance one day.

Crew briefing. I did not count how many cabin crew are assigned to the A380 flight but it was significantly more than the usual.

There she is. Emirates’ A380-800 Regn: A6-EDJ, EK347 bound for Dubai

Notice the 2-level aerobridge.

Like I said, there were a lot of buzz everywhere including the ground handlers. Even the Emirates Airlines KL officials were there too.

(picture courtesy of a friend)

Boarding the A380 for the first time.

Economy class. Rows of seats as far as the eyes could see! Emirates’ A380 has 2 seat configurations for the Economy Class; one is with 399 seats and another with 427 seats.

Overhead luggage compartment which pulls down lower to a more convenient level for passengers. It is also much spacious.

Our first time on the A380 and hopefully many more to come.

Each seat had this tiny convenience pouch which had a pair of socks, eye mask and a toothbrush.

How can I not take pictures of the A380 toilet uh?

Water tap by sensor – cool = no more pressing and pressing for water.

I tried to take from every angle. It may look like any other airplane toilets but this one has a better finishing.

I wandered to the back of the plane and I got excited when I saw this stairway leading upstairs which we all know leads to the First & Business Class. My first thought was, “How odd that it wasn’t blocked off”. So Curious Szue Fei went up the stairs only to find a gate to the upper deck’s aft galley.

Emirates Airlines raves about their Inflight Entertainment and I have to agree that they do have a top notch Inflight Entertainment system. The movies they show are very recent and their movie and music bank is unbelievable.

Leg space on the A380 Economy Class is much better. I think there’s about 3 inches more than the B777s.

Check out the number of emergency exits! There are 16! Massive massive plane!

Bigger windows

Emirates Airlines A6-EDJ A380, EK347 departing KLIA,1 January 2012, 1930 hours on schedule!

When the plane took off, I took note of the “noise” the plane made while taking-off. I have heard of people saying that the A380 is a silent plane and it is true!! You can hardly hear the strain and thrust of the plane taking off! The engines were so quiet that it didn’t feel like the plane was taking off and it definitely didn’t sound like it was carrying the weight of 500+ people and luggage. The take-off was very smooth and silent! According to Wikipedia the engine noise is 50% less than of a B747!! The retracting of the main and body landing gears (wheels) was quite loud but I guess it must be hard work to retract 20 wheels!

In the air, the plane was significantly less noisy compared to the other planes. We could hear more noise coming from inside the plane i.e. passengers and all the activities than the engines itself.

Adjustable headrests. The “pillow” can be adjusted up and down according to your height and the sides adjusted to support your head while sleeping. Cool!

Approaching Dubai. A very detailed flight information.

Emirates Airlines A6-EDJ A380, EK347 arriving at Dubai International airport,1 January 2012. Bravo!! Landing was smooth and quiet.

It was a lovely experience on the A380. I look forward to many more A380 experiences. Emirates Airlines placed a firm order of 90 A380s with Airbus (largest order by any airline) so I am sure there will be many more experiences on the A380. I most definitely look forward to a chance on their Business Class. If I do get a chance, I promise you that there will be much much more pictures!!

And if you’re wondering how I got the pictures of the plan view of the plane at the bays in KUL and DXB … there’s a camera on the vertical tail fin! There is also another camera which displays the forward view and the ground view of the plane. The real time video is fed to the Inflight Entertainment on the passenger screens.

Uncle Loi’s Bak Kut Teh

2012-01-07T22:48:00.001+04:00

Melaka has another hidden secret. A secret not many people know about. It was maybe more than 10 years ago when I was introduced to this one of a kind that I think can only be found in Melaka. There was a time where we had this every weekend!

Uncle Loi’s Bak Kut Teh is one of a kind because it is Beef Bak Kut Teh !! For years, Uncle Loi has been cooking and serving from the porch of his own home in Bukit Baru (opposite Kastam) but now he’s got his very own shop!!

After such a long time, we decided that we go have some Beef Bak Kut Teh .

I love the shop, so spacious, clean and airy. Uncle Loi has bamboo trees surrounding the shop which blocks out the sun and heat. Uncle Loi used to do everything on his own with the help of his wife and kids but now he’s got workers!

Need I explain what is inside a Beef BKT? Beef fillets, beef tripe, beef balls, beef tendons, etc.

Cracker chili sauce to go with it!! Just spells YUMMYLICIOUS!

The lots of pepper found under the soup. This is what makes the soup unique and one of a kind. The black pepper makes the Bak Kut Teh different from the ordinary pork Bak Kut Teh. It does not taste at all like the normal BKT and it is just simply superb! A MUST TRY for those in search of Melaka’s hidden secrets!

Loi’s Beef & Bak Kut Teh
Jalan Permai 2, Taman Perkota,
75350 Melaka
GPS Coordinates: N2 13.583 E102 15.822
Business hours: Daily 10.30am to 2pm, then 6pm to 10pm

Longkang Cuisine

2012-01-07T22:01:00.001+04:00

It has been a long time since we’ve had what we had and all I can say is “THIS IS NOT FOR THE FAINT HEARTED”

WARNING: Try it only if you have a strong stomach

We brought Jia Wen along to let her see what was the buzz all about. We didn’t let her eat though but I don’t think she was that enthuse about it either.

The reason why this place is known as the Longkang Seeham because Longkang means drain in Malay and where we were sitting was literally by the longkang. Not a very scenic sight but the sitting on a wooden stool by the drain is the novelty.

And if you are wondering what seeham is. Well Seeham (aka kerang) is cockles in Chinese so it is Seeham by the drain!! Fresh seeham is blanched in hot water for about 30 seconds and walaaa…. pry open the shell and eat! If you are feeling low on haemoglobin, this is definitely an instant booster!

Most times, the seeham is dirty with mud so you’ll have to get rid of the mud first before putting the seeham into your mouth or you will just be eating sand.

What we ate that night. R: The seeham chef!

I wasn’t kidding about the drain right?

DISCLAIMER: Try it only if you think you have a strong stomach. Even if you don’t have one, try it anyway. That way, you’ll know how strong or weak your stomach really is! Okok jokes aside, I have never gotten sick after eating this. Or maybe I am just immune already. Try it anyways! And yes, only have this if you have had your Hepatitis jabs. Ah heck, just try it!

If you dare, head on to Bunga Raya in Melaka town and just ask around for the Longkang Seeham!

And yes sometimes you do get the occasional visits from “Remy" and friends.

Proof that I have come out alive time and time again after this cuisine

http://www.szuefei.com/2008/01/longkang-see-ham.html

Pink Christmas

2012-01-07T21:09:00.001+04:00

Short of snow, we might just have one of the Christmas homes in town. Every year, my brother-in-law takes the pains to decorate the house for Christmas with different coloured themes every year and a touch of extravagance I might say. We have gone through blue, silver, gold, green, red and this year we went pink. All decorated in one afternoon.

Pink, pink pink pink…

Preparing the tree, kids had fun helping. They were told to “concentrate” on the bottom of the tree for professional reasons.

We didn’t have enough pink flowers so we had to put the gold ones we had from before. Wished we had more pink flowers, the gold flowers did outshine the pink ones.

Even the presents were wrapped in pink.

PINK

PINK everywhere, including Jiawen!

For the past few years, we’ve had Christmas parties in the house inviting family and friends over to have some Christmas fun. I think this might have been the 5th or 6th year we’ve had a party.

Family

MIL’s friends

Friends

After the party, the kids got to open their first present and got Kong-Kong Arthur to fix it up for them. Jia Wen slept in her tent for the night while JX decided to sleep in the comforts of his grandma’s arms. :)

We took our time to open our presents, over a few days actually. We had our Christmas party on the 23rd so we had a few days to slowly open the presents. Teaching the kids “delayed gratification”.

Beautifully wrapped presents by Jacky.

Presents opening continues. Till the next Christmas.

40th UAE National Day

2011-12-10T20:15:00.001+04:00

This year, the UAE celebrates its 40th National Day and because it is its 40th anniversary, it was special and especially bigger.

In conjunction with the 40th anniversary, almost everywhere including schools organised events and activities to mark the occasion. Regent International School organised several activities related to the National Day for the students to experience.

Jia Xiang and his fellow classmates experienced a what they called a “Parent-Student Art & Craft Day” where parents were invited to school to do some National Day related arts & craft. Students rotated from one class to another doing different activities.

The morning started at their respective classes. Jia Xiang’s made hommous and a candy flag.

With the help of the parents, the children made hommous with the ingredients provided.

After making, they got to eat what they made. Jia Xiang enjoyed his hommous, for 2 seconds! Honestly, it tasted good and it is a dish that you cannot get wrong and plus, I like hommous!

Next was making candy flag, this was definitely a favourite with all the kids.

After the first activity, it was time for break time so the kids adjourned to the courtyard for snacks.

Jad, Benny and Kieren

After snack time, they went on to another classroom with a different activity.

Next was writing names in Arabic and henna.

We were given a chart with arabic alphabets and pronounciation. Parents would write the arabic word in pencil and the children just traced it with paint. According to the chart given, this is how I think Jia Xiang’s name is written – J-ya-s-i-ya-ng. Then they decorated it with glitter.

And what did Jiaxiang wanted to henna on his hand?! Instead of using real henna which will stain clothes and all, we used black paint.

Next station was collage. Collage of a camel and the UAE Flag.

School Celebration

This is our 3rd year celebrating the UAE National Day in Dubai and this year, it was more exciting because it is the 40th anniversary. Everywhere, we could find and buy National Day merchandises, all sorts, with the flag colours.

The school celebrated the National Day on the 30 November 2011 (actual day is 2 December 2011).

I had to Youtube how to tie an Arabic turban for Jiaxiang.

I got into the spirit and painted flags on their faces. Look at Jiawen’s hair. it has a flag-coloured clip too. I bought that last year and since my hair is too short now, she wore it.

All ready. I bought Jia Xiang’s dishdash from LuLu’s and the whole outfit cost me about 35dhs.

Yes, I too got into the spirit. FYI, I happened to have the dress, I did not purposely go buy one for this occasion.

Jiaxiang was glad to not be the only one dressed in dish-dash

You guessed it, they made a human flag

This year, they got 2 camels instead of the one last year

Teachers and staff dressed up for the occasion as well.

Even KG who arrived that morning from KL was dressed for the occasion.

FS2s getting ready to join the celebration on the pitch

The greens

Here comes the FS2Fs

My little Arab

They were holding the flags they made on their own

This girl sang the UAE National Athem for the raising of the flag. Before her, a Quran was beautifully read by a little boy. Such things always bring tears to my eyes.

Teachers rode into the pitch on the camel

Performance by the students. I call it the hair flipping dance. The whole time the girls were dancing it, Willow Smith’s “I whip my hair back and forth” song kept playing in my head. It was my first time seeing girls perform an Arabic dance and I didn’t know it involved flipping hair!

I was so proud of JX that morning. He kept his turban on his head the entire celebration. I thought he would complain, itch and all but nope.. I guess the weather was cool enough.

Teachers from the Arabic Department with Ms Roberts

UAE National Day Celebration with face painting, henna and a few other National Day related activities for the students. Fantastic job by the FRIS and parent volunteers.

Jiaxiang with his class teacher, Ms Ferguson. She looked so glamorous in her Abaya. Makes me feel like getting one for myself too.

FS2Fs waiting in line to get on the camel

They all got a chance on the camel. The camel stayed knelt down for safety purposes.

FS2F

We gave Jia Wen a camera to take some photos of the occasion and here are the photos she took:

Her friends. R: Camel poo

Girls and their henna

The bigger kids got to ride the camel

It was a fantastic occasion. Yet another memorable school event!

Hanarum

2011-11-21T20:05:00.001+04:00

For the benefit of any new Koreans to Dubai or those who likes Korean cuisine, there’s this shop in Karama that sells almost everything Korean.

The owner of the shop who is a Korean prepares some fresh Korean dishes for sale like Kimchi, etc.

This shop is located near the Emirates Post Office in Karama. Turn right after the post office (post office on your right) and if I remember correctly, take the second left and Hanarum is at the end of the road. It isn’t very hard to find.

Grandma & Grandchildren

2011-11-21T19:52:00.001+04:00

My mum came for about 2 weeks to spend some time with the kids and because the children had school break during her stay, they got to spend some quality time with them.

One of the things they did was the beach and I managed to take some very nice pictures.

The beach was beautiful, the weather was beautiful, it was a beautiful day!

A random pic of Jiaxiang playing with Ah Ma.

While the kids were in school, my mum, Mei Lin and I went to the Souq. My mum wanted to get some shawls so bargaining we went.

Mum and Mei Lin on the water taxi to the souq.

This shop only sells shawls and the salesman was friendly. We had a good time bargaining with him, persuading him for a better price.

We also went marketing at Karama Market

We had coffee morning at my house where my mum cooked Penang Asam Laksa for my friends.

Sadly my mum had to go back to Malaysia for my cousin’s wedding. Till her next visit.

Muscat Oman

2011-11-21T19:32:00.001+04:00

The kids had one week off school 2 weeks ago and since my mum was around and Shien Wei too had a few days off work, we decided to go to Muscat. And since all the flights to almost everywhere at that time were so full, the only way for a short holiday was to drive.

He headed out of Dubai at the break of dawn as we knew that it was going to be about 5 hours drive and we anticipated some traffic at the borders. We left home at 6 am.

The drive was a pretty easy one. There weren’t many cars on the road and the weather was perfect.

If you study the UAE / Oman map, you’ll notice that Oman is actually broken into several parts along the Gulf of Oman and tiny little Hatta which belongs to Oman sits right in the middle of the UAE. To get to Muscat, we chose to drive through Hatta which meant that we went into Oman twice, Hatta and then Muscat. But because Hatta is very small, there are no immigration check points. There are check points at each end and the police just stands there to check ID or passports, no stamping of passports. So that bit was rather interesting.

We got to the UAE border check point and there was a little bit of a queue there. It was the Eid Holiday. But we didn’t have to queue too long and luckily it was still quite early and it wasn’t very hot yet.

At the UAE Border Check point exiting out of UAE.

We drove on until we got to the Oman Border, the immigration. When we got there, there were already a lot of people but luckily things got done quite quickly and the immigration office is big, spacious and comfortable. We heard that the Oman immigration offices can get really packed and we might have to wait a long time because of the holiday but to our surprise, it took us only about 45 minutes in-and-out.

The rest of the drive into Muscat was pretty easy. The roads didn’t look as nice or weren’t as big as roads in Dubai but speed limit was 120km/h most of the way.

A few days before going, Oman had quite a bit of rain and certain parts of Oman flooded. We didn’t think that it was that serious. I mean how serious can floods get in the Middle East right? Well take a look at this:

On the highway leading into Muscat, they have warning signs like this.

You see the red poles there? If water reaches that red marker, cars are not to go ahead. And they had these warning signs and markets at quite a lot of points of the highway. To have such warning systems, it goes to show that floods really do happen and it happens quite often. In fact, the rain they had the few days before we went damaged quite a few key roads in Oman that were closed to cars.

the kids playing in the car

Omani Rial. Trip meter shows the distance from Dubai. This was taken about half an hour away from Muscat town.

Driving into Muscat. They had funny street names!

With the help of the GPS, we found our hotel. We had booked to stay at the Rotana Hotel Muscat. It was located about 10 minutes away from town and it was very well situated. There were many restaurants and convenient shops around that area. Very convenient.

Right after we checked-in, we headed out to the town immediately because we knew that the next day would be Eid and everything will be closed. We headed to the Souq.

Muscat town isn’t big at all and it is very different from Dubai. You know when you watch war movies that are shot in Middle East (Black Hawk Down, Hurt Locker), it looks exactly like that and it being the Eid holiday, shops were closed, businesses were closed it was deserted. It really made it look like a war-torn town. Not that it made me feel unsafe, it just reminded me of places like maybe Iraq?

Mutrah Souq

These mens’ head gear is typical to Oman.

Walking in Mutrah Souq is like walking in the Souq in Dubai. There’s no difference at all! The ambience is the same, the things that they sell were exactly the same.

Mutrah Souq oveseas the Corniche.

We sat down at a café by the corniche to have a drink.

Oman is famous for its many many forts! There are forts everywhere!! Unfortunately for us, none of the forts were open due to the Eid holiday. Most of the forts aren’t opened to public anyways.

We climbed up to this one but the door was locked. We did get quite a view from the top.

The geography of Oman is totally different from UAE. It somehow resembles Greece. Lots of mountains by the coast.

Al Alam Palace. It is kinda like the Buckingham Palace where people could take pictures outside it. A lot smaller of course.

Day 2:

Although we knew that everything and everywhere were closed, we drove around anyway and tried to take as many pictures we could of what we could see. Just took our time and relaxed.

Jia Xiang took a picture of Ah Ma and the pic on the right was the pic he took.

The kids had a go with the camera so Ah Ma became the subject.

With nothing much else to do in Muscat, we headed to the beach. The beach isn’t as nice as Dubai’s. The kids enjoyed themselves nonetheless.

It really felt like we were on a beach in Mumbai or somewhere in India. It certainly didn’t feel like we were actually in the Middle East!!

After the beach, we drove into town again hoping to have dinner at the corniche but when we got there, the whole town was jam packed with seas of people walking around taking advantage of the holiday. We really thought we somehow travelled to a parallel universe – India! We drove back to our hotel and had Indian food nearby.

Day 3:

We headed back to Dubai right after breakfast and took a relaxed drive back. We took a different route from when we drove into Muscat. This time we took a brand new highway which wasn’t in the GPS. This highway bypasses quite a bit of Muscat and it was a beautiful drive.

Oman is very mountainous and it was like driving through the Grand Canyon

A petrol kiosk along the way.

Shell Station, something that we do not see in Dubai. Petrol is cheaper in Oman than in the UAE.

Tired passengers

UAE Immigration – this was a very small make-shift building that is a bit too small for the crowd. This took us quite a while with queues spilling out of the building.

When we got into Dubai, we were greeted by rain!! First rain after the hot summer!

The trip could have been a lot better if it wasn’t the Eid Holiday and everything weren’t closed. Nonetheless, it was a good short getaway and the kids did enjoy themselves. It was a very relaxing holiday with no itinerary and no programme. Must go to Oman again but next time, it would be to explore the outskirts of Muscat.

Fender-Bender

2011-11-20T15:43:00.001+04:00

Don’t want to say that this is my ~~first~~ car accident in Dubai because I definitely do not want any subsequent ones *touching wood*. But I had my first experience this morning.

I was leaving a friend’s place in Spring 11 to go pick Jia Xiang up from school. I stopped at a red-light waiting to turn right. My car was STATIONARY. There was a white Honda City in front of me and my car was a good 4-5 metres behind him. He was the first car in line and he too was stationary until he decided to switch lanes so to do that, he reversed into my car!! I honked and honked but he kept on coming and BANG!

I quickly came down of the car and noted that my car wasn’t damaged except for a slight dent on the number plate. A relief. His car, only a long horizontal crack on his bumper. Not a big damage I know but the next question is whether or not to make a report. Since my car isn’t damaged and that fella doesn’t want to make a report, there wasn’t much reason to call the police and make a report. But after thinking, I thought I’d better call the police just in case that fella decides to go to the police later and claim that I banged into his car which is very believable since it was his “ass” that is damaged! He did admit that it was his fault, but still!

At the crime scene, that’s the car that banged into mine.

As you can see, his car bumper is already being held by a tape!! You can see the black line on top of his bumper, that’s the damage I think my car “caused”.

My car, you can see the slight slight dent on the number plate (somewhere in the bottom left)

That’s the driver. He didn’t really wear a top hat though.

So I called the police and told the fella to stick around. I told him my concerns and fear that he would go to the police and report against my car. That fella said that his car was already damaged from a previous accident and I could see that the front of his car needs repairing. He also said that he already has a police report from a previous accident and he isn’t too fussed about him being wrong. He didn’t seem too stressed, concerned about his poor driving skills. It is a company car, so maybe that’s why.

In between all those, I called my friend to go pick Jia Xiang up from school. I called the school to inform them that someone else will be picking Jia Xiang up. So my friend along with another friend went to pick Jia Xiang from the school. My friends dropped Jia Xiang off with me just as the police came.

The police took about 20 minutes to come. When the police came, he took a quick look at both cars – mine no damage, the fella’s car minimal damage. The police told us no need to make a report and “kalas”. Told us to drive off. Still unsure about that, I asked the police again if the fella could just go into a police station to make a report against me. The police assured me that it won’t happen. What else can I do right? The fella drove off immediately.

Fleeing the crime scene – the fella and the police.

I think out of the whole ordeal, Jia Xiang was most shaken. I could see it in his face when he arrived at the scene. I think he was worried why I wasn’t there to pick him up and where were the 2 aunties taking him to. Although he does know my friend but still, I can imagine how he must have felt.

Phew… sigh!

School Happenings

2011-11-18T18:05:00.001+04:00

Jiaxiang dressed in his Indian costume for Diwali (Deepavali) celebration in school.

Year 3 had Holiday Day where each class represented a certain country to represent its climate. There was Spain for its temperate climate, Alaska for its cold, Brazil for its tropical climate and Egypt for its hot and dry climate.

So Jia Wen’s class represented Spain. Students were encouraged to wear Spanish costumes and to bring Spanish cuisine to school so students from other classes could visit their classes and learn and vice versa. Even Ms Hamilton, the class teacher dressed as a matador! I pitied the class that represented Alaska as all of them came to school in fur and think winter clothings! They did however give out ice cream to everyone!

I borrowed a Flamenco costume from a friend and Jia Wen wore it to school. A lot of the other girls went to school dressed in the same costume as well.

The school also had a bake sale where all students were asked to bring something to school to sell. The school delegated certain types of cakes / pastries to each year so that they don’t end up with 9 thousand cup cakes!

Anyway, when I went to the sale, there were so much sweet that I didn’t feel like buying anything. I made cupcakes.

Then there was Book Character Day. You see, in the UAE, Halloween is not celebrated and schools are not allowed to celebrate it so instead of calling it Halloween, most schools call it Book Character Day. So basically it is Halloween!

Jia Wen went to school in what you can call dressed as 2 characters – Angry Bird (not a book character, I know) an Little Ms Wrong. Jia Xiang didn’t go to school that day because he was sick so he missed wearing Ben10 costume to school.

The pic on the right is of Ms Roberts who is the school principal. I’ve said this many time before – she is the best principal I have ever seen and know. She is also one of the most sporting principal! She went to school dressed as Captain Jack Sparrow on that day. What a sport!! Did your school principal dress up for any occasion before?

Looking forward to more events to come!

Jia Wen’s First Science Project

2011-11-17T23:27:00.001+04:00

Jia Wen came back from school a few weeks ago with homework instructions to do a science project, her first science project. The instruction was to go into this website http://www.sciencefairsanity.com/home/sci/smartlist_9/free_elementary_science_fair_projects_3rd___5th_gr.html and choose a project to do from the list.

Me being the lazy mum that I am looked at the list before Jia Wen did just so that I can “choose” the project for her to do. The easiest project with the least amount of work and resources.

Take a look at the list. Just by looking the titles of the projects, which project do you think is the easiest? At first glance, I “decided” for Jia Wen that she would do “Take A Deep Breath”. So since we were given about 6 weeks to do the project, I told Jia Wen that this was the project she will be doing and put it aside. Then when the time came to start on the project, I read the details of the project and NO!!! It wasn’t what I thought it was. I had thought that it would really be simply gathering results of how long a person can hold his / her breath and Jia Wen would just have to test a few people and time them. I was wrong! Anyway, cut long story short, I slash we decided not to go with the first choice.

After scheming through the list again, we decided to go with “Capillary Action”.

The science project was to be done and documented at home and students had to present their project in school. I asked Jia Wen’s teacher how she’d expect the students to present; powerpoint, slide, computer, cardboard? The teacher said that it didn’t matter how the student decides to present the project and she wasn’t going to judge the presentation based on the sophistication of presentation. It was more about the understanding of the project and the ability to present it.

So she did the experiment, recorded it and made it into a presentation (with my supervision and guidance).

We also got her to practice her presentation a few times at home.

When the day of the presentation came, Jia Wen presented her project in front of her class. She also chose to show the experiment to her classmates. So she brought celery and all to class.

Good job Jia Wen!

Jia Wen’s Piano Progress

2011-11-17T20:45:00.001+04:00

Jia Wen started piano classes sometime in September to date, she has had 8 lessons with Peter Kalmar at Centre of Musical Arts Dubai and so far, she is progressing quite well. Better than me when I first started!

Jia Wen goes for lessons once a week and her lessons are 30 minutes each. I like her teacher and Jia Wen seems to be quite alright with him so far. I have a friend whose sons are Peter’s students and she tells me that he can be quite strict as well which I can see but as long as Jia Wen doesn’t mind it and she is enjoying her lessons, we are happy.

I have sat in for all her lessons. It is pretty common these days for parents to sit in and observe the lesson. I for one like it because I can actually see Jia Wen’s progress and of course I get to document (blog) it.

For the first 5 weeks, we didn’t have a piano in the house for her to practice. Guess how Jia Wen practiced? On the iPad!! Yups!! I downloaded a “piano” application where she could practice on. It helped. We didn’t want to rush into getting a piano for her because we wanted to see her progress and interest so we took our time but we finally got one for her. We didn’t get a real piano but we got her a digital piano. We got the Casio AP220 for her. Of course it doesn’t have the same feel as a real piano but it’ll do for now. So yes, for the first few weeks she did her piano practices on the iPad. She didn’t like it but it did the work for a while. But when she started playing with both hands at the same time, that was when I decided to get a piano for her. We didn’t tell Teacher Peter about practicing on the iPad but thankfully he didn’t notice.

Before her classes, we’d go a little earlier and if there’s a piano studio empty she would go practice there – on a real piano, for a few minutes.

Since we got the piano at home, she has been quite good at practicing. Although she doesn’t have much time during the weekdays to practice but she would (on her own) squeeze in a few minutes in the mornings before going to school and after dinner before bedtime to practice. I try to sit in at least once or twice a week in her practices. For once I am grateful for the lessons I had when I was younger. It helps a lot with guiding her practices.

Random pictures of Jia Wen playing the piano.

Jia Wen’s Symphony No 5 duet with Peter. This brought tears to my eyes!

One of the practices she had at the studio before class.

That’s the piano we bought – Casio AP220

This is the latest duet with Peter (15 November 2011)

I surely don’t remember playing like this when I was just learning. All I can remember is playing the C note for a very very long time!! I hope Jia Wen keeps this up and keeps her interest and I pray that I do not drive her into the wrong direction.

Wise No More

2011-11-17T19:28:00.001+04:00

About 2 months ago, I got one of my wisdom tooth extracted because it was growing sideways and it was impacting on its next tooth. So before it gives me any major problems, I told my dentist that I want it out.

I got referred to Dr Gabriel Harutunian at Dr Michaels’ Dental Clinic for this. I have not had my tooth extracted since I was a kid and although I do still remember how the numbness from the anesthesia but needles are much smaller these days. I remember those days, the injection needles were huge and scary but the numbness remains how I remember it. I did however lose a little control of my tongue so I couldn’t speak properly for a few hours after that.

I didn’t know that extracting a wisdom tooth would be such a big deal. I knew that it is a minor surgery as it involved some cutting and stitching but I did not know that I would be made a big deal until I got there. First, Dr Gabriel gave me all the necessary pain killers and numbed my jaw in his clinic and I thought he would just pull my tooth out! I was wrong. After my jaw and gums were numbed, I was sent to the OT! Yes, the operating theatre where I was prepped for surgery!! The nurses prepped me up while Dr Gabriel scrubbed!

Dr Michaels’Dental Clinic on Al Wasl

Before the surgery, I asked Dr Gabriel if I could take pictures of the surgery (I was going to camwhore) but he said that I would be under blankets so I won’t be able to hold a camera. If not, there would be more pictures to show!

Dr Gabriel came into the OT in scrubs and the nurse wore his gloves for him and started. The whole procedure took about 15 minutes and I didn’t feel any pain. I only felt pressure and tugs but no pain. I could hear the metal things digging into my gum but no pain. I didn’t even realise when the tooth came out or when he sew my gums up!

Wala!! My wisdom tooth from my lower right. Doc prescribed Brufen 600 to be taken regularly to prevent pain which helped. I hardly felt any pain nor did I have any problems post-op. It did feel weird for about 3 weeks not having that one tooth there but it is back to normal now.

Long Absence

2011-11-17T18:30:00.001+04:00

I know it has been a long time since I’ve blogged. I’ve been… mmm a little occupied lately. With what? Daily chores, daily school runs, ins and outs of the house / car, school activities, my attempt on fitness (don’t seem to be going anywhere with this) and of course keeping up with what my husband calls “social butterfly” status!

The kids have after-school activities almost everyday. On Sundays, Jiawen has after-school club + swim training while Jiaxiang has music class. Thankfully Jiawen is independent enough that she goes for those activities on her own while I take Jiaxiang to his music class and I only have to pick her up after. Between the two of them, almost every afternoons are filled with after-school activities so my mornings are spent trying to stay on top of house chores especially dinner. I don’t have time to prepare / cook dinners on days where they have after-school activities so I have to prepare, most of the time cook dinner in the mornings so that I only have to heat them up at dinner time. Of course I have the usual house chores which I do quite minimally actually. As long as the house is livable, it will have to do.

Jia Xiang at one of his swimming lessons

I have also volunteered as a parent helper at for Jia Xiang’s class swimming lessons every Tuesdays. As the class is too big for one PE teacher to handle and teach swimming, the school requests for parent helpers to help him in the pool.

FS2F’s first swimming class

I also try to go to the gym as regularly as possible (my attempt on trying to turn back time) and I am proud to say that I have been doing quite diligently. I’ve been going to the gym in my building and lately I’ve also started going to the Hayya Club at Lakes and had my first ever pilates class. Not going to brag too much about this because I don’t want to jinx things.

And in between all these so called hectic runs and not forgetting high petrol consumption sends and picks, I have what my husband thinks, an active social life! While my tummy is ever so grateful to all the coffee mornings (kopi pagi), I am even more grateful for the friends and friendships I have. We have so much fun together, so much laughter, we share, we cry and we are there for each other. *hearts*

F.R.I.E.N.D.S are our families when we are living away from home.

Weekends are mostly dedicated to homework especially for Jia Wen. Year 3 is quite a big leap from Year 2 when it comes to homework. Jia Wen has much more homework from school than before and since she doesn’t have time during the weekdays to do any, weekends are just spent on the dining table with me supervising. Jia Wen has also started doing school projects and her first one was a science project that she had to do and present in school.

Jia Wen’s first science project presentation – Capillary Action.

And there’s the piano practices to be done. We try to squeeze some practice time during the weekdays (after dinner, before bedtime) and I do sit with her when she practices. So far, she is progressing pretty well. I like her teacher, Peter Kalmar and Jia Wen seems to like him too.

Shien Wei has been on a course for the past 7 weeks and I miss having him home on his off days and I am pretty sure he misses his off days even more. He has been pretty occupied with studying for weekly phase exams.

Anyway, I hope to be blogging as much as I can in the next few days so stay tuned. :)

FS2F First Swimming Class

2011-10-04T20:50:00.001+04:00

Today, Jiaxiang’s class had their first swimming class in school. The kids were excited. And since these are young children, the school called for parent helpers to help with the class in the pool. It would have been impossible for one PE teacher and the class teacher to handle 22 students in the pool, most of them not knowing how to swim and some scared of the water. I, along with a few other mums volunteered to help out every week.

Getting ready to go to the pool. Getting them to change and get ready was a task alright which the class teacher Ms Ferguson was adamant that no mothers helped with this process. The kids were to try to do it themselves.

Going to the pool

All so well behaved and listened to instructions very well despite their eagerness to get into the pool.

Mums all ready to help, all attentive to the childrens’ safety

Mr Mohan teaching them safe entry and safe exit

Now everyone tries

Helping them get in and out of the pool safely

Getting them to feel comfortable in the pool. Those who could reach the floor of the pool tried to walk a distance.

Kicking exercise

They all did very well today. We did not have any problems with anyone, they were attentive and very well behaved. There were a few who were scared but I think all of them tried their best and they all went into the water.

Done with swimming, now the real task – getting them to dress up!! Again, Ms Ferguson didn’t want the mums to help with this and she successfully got them to dress up on their own, even Jiaxiang!!! Mums left immediately after swimming class.

Lantern Festival @ DXB 2011

2011-09-16T13:25:00.001+04:00

After last year’s Lantern Festival at Safa Park, this year we had another massive picnic again but this time we decided to do it at Creek Park. We learnt from last year that Safa Park gets very dark and there aren’t enough lighting to have a picnic in the evening. So we went to Creek Park this time.

Once again, everyone had fun and had a good time despite the heat.

This year, I did a little extra work to make it more meaningful. I brought back lanterns and strung them up to decorate the park. Using tealight candle is a wonderful idea. It is stable and safe and it lasts longer too. You’ll have to use double-sided-tape to tape it to the base.

This is our usual picnic spot and with the help of some friends, we hung the lanterns around the parameter of our picnic spot. It turned out beautiful!

We even had a professional balloonist to entertain the kids!

As usual, we had so much food!!!

Homemade mooncake!! I forgot to take pictures of the mooncakes that everyone brought to share.

Lanterns all lit up. Nice isn’t it?

a fantastic group picture by Guido.

Till next year…

2011–2012 Academic Year

2011-09-16T12:52:00.001+04:00

It is September and summer holiday is over, school year begins. This year, Jia Wen enters into Year 3 and Jia Xiang enters FS2 (Foundation Stage 2 = kindergarten). And this year, I have both of them in the same school. After all the dramas I had with registering Jia Xiang into Regent International School, Jia Xiang managed to get into the same school as Jia Wen, the same school that he has been going to, playing and running around at since Jia Wen started Year 1 there.

Jia Xiang is quite familiar with the school and is pretty comfortable with the school and its environment. He goes there almost everyday to pick Jia Wen up and is familiar with the people there too. So that made settling into a brand new school much easier.

First day of school was Orientation Day which to my surprise was a full day for the children.

Orientation Day started a little later than normal so they had extra time to get ready!

Jia Xiang making sure he looks good enough to impress the girls, not.

I didn’t put them in full uniforms for Orientation Day, no need lah.

Jia Wen meets her friends again. Yes, a lot of children bring big huge cooler boxes like that for lunch.

This is Jia Xiang’s classroom – FS2F (Daisies)

Remember this boy? It is Jia Xiang’s best friend Benny from his nursery last year. Yeah they are in the same class and his mum and I made sure of that after we knew that they were coming into the same school. It makes settling so much more easier for the two boys and I am glad we did that. They were so happy to see each other and they started playing together like best buddies!

Real deal begins! In their full uniform

Jia Xiang was first in class that day.

Jia Xiang and his class teacher Ms Ferguson

Class manifest.

Jia Wen Swims Butterfly

2011-09-15T21:44:00.000+04:00

I finally got round to uploading this video.

Jia Xiang's Swimming 2011

2011-08-28T21:15:00.000+04:00

Mini Reunions

2011-08-28T21:05:00.001+04:00

I have always enjoyed organising reunions with friends and family. It is of course a joy when I get good responses to a call to meet and catch-up. ~~It is very disheartening and disappointing when it doesn’t turn out to be what I expect to be especially when I give ample notice or I get FFKs or even worse, no RSVPs~~. This year, I organised a few meet and catch-up sessions:

Dubai friends @ KL

Miri friends @ Miri

Goh Family

Ex colleagues

Labuan friends @ KL

This reunion was the shortest of reunions! Zamhar (primary ex classmate) had just flown in from the UK on his way back to Labuan for Raya and he stopped at Nilai for 2 minutes (literally 2 minutes) to say hi to me before heading off! Thanks Dr Zamhar Ismail!

Aren’t reunions nice? This time, I did not have time to catch up with my Miri friends @ KL, so please forgive me. I also caught up with some friends individually which was nice too.

Fish Head Noodles

2011-08-28T20:08:00.001+04:00

Ever since my friend brought me to eat fish head noodles at Taman Desa, I’ve been going there everytime I come back to KL. It is the best fish head noodles I have ever had!

Yummilicious

Woo Pin Fish Head Noodle
Jalan 1/109F, Taman Danau Desa,
Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.09832, 101.686503
(I obviously copied this from someone)

For those who might find it difficult to eat the fish with so many bones, you can opt to have the fish paste (fish cake) noodle which doesn’t have bones.

Empty bowl, the only problem is you have to be extra careful when eating the fish. Otherwise, a must try.

If you google the shop’s name, you’ll find many links leading to this fish head noodle! Go try.

Patriotism, really?

2011-08-27T18:18:00.001+04:00

I was driving on the MEX Highway (MAJU Expressway) last week and I noticed quite a lot of Jalur Gemilang (Malaysian flag) have been put up. I was thinking to myself, do people recycle / reuse flags for the next year? Then I looked at the flags again and it looks very new so I am pretty sure the flags are brand new. Then as I kept on driving, I noticed that there are 2 flags hung on EACH lamp post and so (in my opinion) that’s quite a lot of flags. Then it dawned on me that “Wow, that is a lot of brand new flags to put up inconjunction with the coming Merdeka Day!”

On the way back, I purposely took note of where the flags started and where it ended. It was about 8km stretch. EVERY lamp post on the highway (left, right centre) had 2 flags including the lamp posts at the R&Rs! Lamp posts were about 50m apart. So just counting the lamp posts in the middle of the highway on an 8km stretch, there should be 160 lamp posts multiply by 2 flags each = 320 flags! That is quite a lot, in my opinion and I can’t help thinking of how much money is spent!

Yesterday, I went on the MEX Highway again and this time I thought I’d be a bit more diligent and make sure I get my facts right. Well guess what? More flags were put up! This time, flags were put up the entire stretch of MEX HIghway! The entire 30km and still, 2 flags each lamp post. So let’s do some maths again:

Length of MEX Highway = <>26km = 26000 metres
Distance between each lamp posts in the middle of highway = 50 metres
Number of flags on each lamp posts = 2

26000 metres divide 50 metres = 520 lamp posts (just in the middle of the highway)
520 lamp posts X 2 flags each = 1040 flags on each lamp posts (again, just on the middle of the highway)

1040 brand new flags! And that is not inclusive of the ones of the random lamp posts on the left and right of the highway and on the R&Rs!

Brand new flags

2 flags on each lamp posts!

Flags at R&Rs as well, 2 flags!

Flags as far as the eyes can see!

FLAGS!

By putting up this many flags, does it instil one’s patriotism to the country or promote patriotism to its citizens? Mind you, this is just on the MEX Highway. I am not even talking about the numerous flags put up at schools, government offices, corporate companies, GLCs! Of course I know and understand the need to put up the Jalur Gemilang especially when it comes to the Merdeka month but are we over doing it? In my opinion, putting up thousands of flags DOES NOT show patriotism, instead it just means someone is “gaining” from this flag galore. Common, if someone isn’t “gaining” from this, why put up flags on EVERY lamp post? Is it really necessary? Do our citizens have to be reminded that Merdeka is approaching? Does our Rakyat need reminders to be patriotic to the country every 50 metres while driving?

This brings me to another point, are the flags reused for the following year?! I think not! The flags on the MEX Highway are clearly brand new and so are the rest of the flags everywhere else! We don’t recycle / reuse these flags?! Really? That’s just plain sinful waste of money!

I am pretty sure the flag makers aren’t the one “gaining”, in my opinion lah. :)

Speccy Jia Wen

2011-08-26T22:15:00.001+04:00

Last year, I brought Jia Wen to see an eye doctor at Optimax (where I got my eyes lasered) to check her eyes. I brought her then after catching her squint a few times while watching television. When we saw Dr Chuah last year, he did say that her astigmatism is quite high but he adviced not to wear spectacles just yet and observe for another year to see how it goes. He also said that Jia Wen’s slit eyes (small eyes) has helped her eyesight. This is because with small eyes, she needn’t squint as much to focus on something. That was the first time I’ve ever heard of such a theory but it makes perfect sense. You squint your eyes to focus on something you can’t see well, small-eyed people won’t need to squint as much to focus on something they can’t see well. We followed Dr Chuah’s advice to wait.

A year went by and I brought her to see Dr Chuah again and this time, he wrote a prescription for us to go get a pair of glasses from the optician.

I brought her to Better Vision at 1Utama and the optometrist there checked her eyes again and agreed that she need glasses. However, his reading deferred quite a bit from what Dr Chuah prescribed. But after looking at how thorough he was in checking Jia Wen’s eyes I decided to go with the optometrist’s prescription. The optometrist spent nearly an hour checking Jia Wen’s eye and he explained that Jia Wen could have been born with high astigmatism to begin with. He even simulated Jia Wen’s astigmatism for me to see with my own eyes and it was quite bad. So after the tests, checks and choosing spectacle frames we decided on one and were to collect it the next day.

Jia Wen at her eye check. The check was quite thorough that not all children will be able to go through because after a while, they tend to lose focus and get fidgety. We were lucky with Jia Wen that she was alright sitting through the checks.

Jia Wen with her new glasses. I like the frame she chose. The optometrist said to go back for another check the next time we come back to Malaysia and to see if there’s any changes to her astigmatism.