Science Centre Visit 2017

Our last trip to the National Science Centre was already 3 years ago.  It had been closed for renovation for ages, just reopened (with free entrance to boot for 2017) so off we went. :)

Hmm while the building definitely looks better, the exhibits weren't part of the refurbishment.  Quite a lot aren't working.  Lighting is generally too dim to read the signs properly too.  Compared to the one in Singapore where science is the focus, this one seems targeted for young kids to press buttons, turn levers, move things, touch this and that.  Oh well, since young kids are what we do have...

What happens if I put my hand on this...

Wow let me connect the dots

Row row row

Now for some mining on this mine train

Say cheese! (Don't get a headache now)

Heh actually the kids loved it.

WOW

Some booths were manned, which was nice.

So I tap the tuning fork and hold the ball against it? OK

Outdoors had more fun stuff.

The access was really fun - a combination of climbing, sliding, rope bridges and whatnot for quite a distance.

Up up

The water play area wasn't open.  It was a super hot day so I was rather glad of that.  We went to one area for butterflies and a few other animals.  Overall, still a great place to entertain young kids.

Off for lunch at The Ship.

Yes, the chocolate ice-cream for me

A good day out indeed!

Camerons trip 2017 - Part 2

(Part 2 being basically days 3 and 4 plus some pics from the previous days)

Day3... Waze still showed a 1-hour journey to Kea Farm.  Sigh.  Traffic was all right around 10am, but the girls were up till late, woke up late and only finished breakfast around 11am.  Even if we endured the long journey up, there wouldn't be parking space.  So we just ducked back into iPad time.

We did venture out eventually.  The girls were excited with this sand art place beside our lunch restaurant.  This is considered value-for-money considering how much time it took to finish!  After quite some time, only these few patches were done haha.

Do you like my sun?

Went to Kea Farm and Bee Farm later in the evening.  Some enterprising people set up this ride place.  Anyone who wants to know how long money lasts, try spending here.  RM5.30 or 6.40 per ride, times two for 2 kids... nope, not long at all.

This ride had some 'drifting', quite fun

They also liked this turning, twisting thing:

Yayy!

At night, cotton candy!

Ahmmm ahrrmm

Let's dig in!

Haha notice the cotton candy in the next pics is now purple.  Yep, it's another one on the next day.  That's the thing staying next to the pasar malam, you could walk over and get things easily.

Ahmmm

Ahmm ahmmm

 We had Jin Jin steamboat again... hmm this time found the food bland.

Take picture with Mummy

There were a couple of other places that I was expecting to visit, but just couldn't because of the traffic jams.  This trip would have been a lot better without the crowds.

We stopped at the waterfall again on the way home.  SE asked, "why not we turn back to our apartment?  We don't go home yet".  Haha so she did enjoy the trip.  And that's the whole point, really.

We like this place!

Camerons trip 2017 - Days 1 and 2

It has been 1.5 years since our last trip so here we are again!  First up was the waterfalls.

Greetings from Cameron Highlands!

\

I am the queen of the world!

We were here over an hour and the girls still weren't ready to leave haha. 

This trip we stayed at an Airbnb in Golden Hills.  This area is relatively new so everything is still nice.  Good thing was, the night market has moved here so it was just a short walk there.  We bought our dinner from various stalls.  Hmm overall food didn't taste great.  Snacks were fine - sweet potato balls, strawberries in chocolate, piping-hot corn.

Bad thing about this trip was the traffic and the crowds.  We were only 6km from Kea Farm, but Waze showed a 1-hour journey.  What to do.. since we couldn't go uphill, we went downhill instead.  First up was Cameron Valley Tea. (Hubby: What's there to see?  Tea only what!  Me: Grrr people come here TO SEE TEA)

Tea, tea and more tea

The kids didn't like the steep paths either.  Oh well.  Everyone perked up when we had food.  The red velvet cake was nice and fresh.  Tea wasn't hot at all.

Chocolate cake for me! You eat the other cake first

Continued on downhill to this place which turned out to be called 'Skyfarm'.  It had the plants and cactus that I wanted, other souvenirs and pick-your-own strawberries!  Which we didn't realise at first as it was built above the main area.  I read that another place charges RM30 a person with 500g of strawberries.  This place charged RM2 a person for entry, with picked strawberries extra at RM50 a kg.  A much better deal for us since we're interested in the experience rather than the fruit.

Now where are the good berries?

Come here, little strawberry!

Cheeky SE was cutting leaves as well fruit.

Hehehe cut cut cut

I limited each girl to 10 strawberries each.  These came up to under 300g.  Besides being way more expensive than those purchased directly, these were SOUR.  Luckily we didn't have much!

We spent quite some time at the place.  Then adjourned back for iPad time hehe.  Dinner was steamboat at De V Garden - better than pasar malam food! 

Ipoh trip 2017 - Food

When in Ipoh, eat.  (My weighing machine mysteriously jumped a few digits, but I'll have to deal with that later).

First dinner was at Soo Har Yee.  It was a long wait, about 45 minutes.

SE is not amused. Just hungry. Very hungry.

Finally the food arrived!  First was the sweet sour crab in a bun.  This was good!  But I was amused at the end of the meal to see that 'Crab' was RM144.  'Bread' was RM15.  Hehe could have sworn that 'Crab' and 'Bread' were one integrated item!  The crabs could have been firmer but the cooking style was good.  The charsiew-like pork was heavenly.  Other dishes were all right.  Overall, while it was pricier than expected given the coffee-shop setting, would happily come here again.

Crab in bread, soy sauce prawns, pork

Another memorable meal... Hubby's target was the pork satay at Kong Heng.  While it was closed that day, turned out the satay stall was actually located in the next shop - didn't quite realise it after all these years!.  Good, except that not a single table was available.  It was only by chance that we found out we could sit at the 3rd shop and order from the 2nd shop (1st shop being Kong Heng)!  Yay finally!  This shop was not busy at all and we could eat in peace without people hungrily eyeing our table.  Hubby had packed away the satay before knowing they could actually deliver to this shop/

Nomm the satay

The girls got a giant cotton candy flower.  Back in my days, these only came in a pink blob haha.

Pose first 

Attack!

Attack!

We also had Michelangelo's pizza.  Bacon, Italian sausage, smoked meat, blue cheese, mozzarella, eggs... about a million calories here!  This was good too.  But next time would probably save stomach space for local food.

Gimme some of that...

There were still some more places I'd wanted to eat at.  Some were closed, and there was just no time for others.  Oh well, next time.

Ipoh trip 2017

Second trip of the holidays.... Ipoh!  We just went back to the previous place since we liked it.  But there was a cheaper unit so why not heh.

Look what I found, owls!

The kids enjoyed the facilities, as before.

Me on the zip-line!

Love the pool!

Love the sand!

The weather was hot when we were there.  We went to the caves, fed turtles...

Which turtle to feed next...

I'll feed the small cute ones!

Turtles galore

Fed the fish...  JE threw in the food ONE pellet at a time.  SE on the other hand, threw by fistfuls and yelled "Party!" at the fish.  Hehe.

I only have nice pictures of JE from my comfy seat in the shade.  It was too hot and I didn't want to follow SE as she walked round the pond.

I will make this packet of food last forever!

Next post will be on food.

Genting one more time

We were in Genting again for the first trip of the year-end school holidays, the kids asked for it.

Well why not... the weather is cool and it's not far away.  The cartoons run 24 hours...

Now to find the cartoon channel

Food choices are never-ending and just a walk away...

Like my cute plate set?

Going to get nice dimsum!

Christmas deco is mostly already up.  Cute theme this time with Snoopy.

It's a Snoopy Xmas

There were Snoopy's all over.  But couldn't really take decent photos as they were all lit from the bottom.  SE brought along the toy squirrel hubby looked all over Europe for.

Squee my pet squirrel is on Snoopy!

Someone didn't feel like posing for photos...

No want take photo. Want hide behind Papa

We were there 2 nights, seemed pretty long.  But it was a relaxing break for sure.  The kids played in the bathtub every single day, ate junk food.and vegetated like this throughout:

Ahhh. Car-toooons

Finished Standard1!

This one survived a year in a Chinese school!  She still doesn't speak Mandarin well yet, but her class teacher told me she has improved.  This class teacher is a good one.  I think she just started working - she's hardworking and passionate about her job, and kind to the kids.  I'm happy JE got a smooth start in the relatively alien world of primary school and a Mandarin-speaking one at that. 

JE was in the top 10 in class and 89th in the school.  Not great (I was always at the top in MY time!) but guess she's doing all right.  Definitely thanks to Ah Mah and Ah Kong for their dedication to the kids.  Me and hubby are 'banana' Chinese and thus pretty useless in a Chinese environment.

And now that the school holidays has started, time for some rest and relaxation.  Plus a bit of study and preparation too of course.

Peace

Baking cookies

We still seldom bake.  Because the kids still don't eat much.  (And Mummy typically has to finish up all the baking results.)

Anyway, posting this since this is the first time SE is actually making cookies!  Usually she is a nuisance and has to be captured and removed from the scene.  Or she doesn't want to get her hands dirty.

These drop choc chip cookies are perfect, easy and there's no need to use her hands.

They had to fight over the batter container though.  Pulling it this way and that.

Take dough, and...

Put nicely on tray

Results were quite good!  Now I'm hoping they will eat more of the cookies.