Another tic

SE has been presenting us with weird tics ever since she was tiny.  There was excessive blinking, stuffing her hands into arm-holes of her top, sucking on the ends of her hair, putting her shirt into her mouth, sitting with her leg up like an 'ah pek' - gosh so many that I can't remember all. 

Noting down this one since I managed to catch a picture... making this piggy mouth every few minutes.

*Snort

As usual I will just try not to make a big deal out of it and wait for it to pass.

Farewell BTS

It has ended, JE's first craze.  After about 2 years (good thing I have this blog to check!).  After all the Korean food everyone had to eat, the Korean songs everyone had to listen to, all the BTS anecdotes everyone had to (pretend to) listen to... it's over.  She has already given the green light to delete the Korean songs we downloaded, the final proof that she's over them.

Oh, after all the BTS stuff collected also - water bottle, pencil case, keychains, stickers, T-shorts, hoodie, newspaper cuttings, these 'official' dolls of Jung Kook.  Luckily I bought them off Shopee else would have cost a bomb!  Hubby bought the 'official' figurines which probably cost more than all the knock-off stuff.  Will see if SE wants to play with them (nobody responded to my for-sale ads)

Nah Mummy, can sell these

Next 'crush' is Draco Malfoy from Harry Potter.  I don't think this phase will last very long since, well, there are only 7 movies.  So I'm responding very slowly to requests to buy HP-related stuff haha.  Those are pretty hard to find anyway unlike for BTS.
 

The hotel

The non-food part was nice too.  :)  I didn't bother to google earlier for information on the hotel and was pleasantly surprised to find it a 5-star one.  Meaning classy lobby, good service, nice rooms.  Ok this toilet is obviously not our personal one.  We were just wowed by the sheer size of it haha.

Can run in this toilet!

In our family studio, there was a single bed facing a TV...

And in the adjoining area, a double bed facing another TV.  (Nobody bothered with the TV except hubby).

Watch iPad with Penguin

Overall it was very spacious, worth the extra RM100+ to upgrade from the deluxe room for this package.  Even the separate pantry area was huge, with a full-sized fridge, microwave and kitchen sink.  I happily sat there reading the next morning before hubby and the girls woke up.

Pantry area

It was a staycation (or makan-cation!) but it was nice having a mall next door to walk some calories off a.k.a distract ourselves while digesting the previous buffet and preparing for the next one.  

SE kept asking why we didn't stay TWO nights.  But no way I could have faced EIGHT buffet meals!  The next day breakfast was our favourite meal with lots of variety.  I settled the girls first so I was still eating when they were done.  So I asked them to get me some bread from the counter (there were buns, rolls, pastries etc).  JE asked, What kind of bread?  And I replied, Anything.  "Anything" turned out to be this....

Meet "Anything"

I spied them when they were halfway making their way back to our table, SE running and carrying this giant thing.  I laughed my head off.  Hubby wanted to abandon the baguette onto the table and hightail it out of there.  But if you notice, this picture was taken in our room.  Well we couldn't put the baguette back after the girls had manhandled it right?  So... waste not want not.  Took it home and it served me well for breakfast.  

A good staycation indeed!

Buffet marathon

We are back from my kind of marathon!  Our booking was originally for October 2020 but it had to be postponed twice due to the pandemic.  This package was named "Stay kawtim, Makan Unlimited" and covered four consecutive buffet meals - lunch, tea and dinner on one day, breakfast the next.  Greedy me was intrigued the moment I saw the deal.  It was only RM418 including a nights' stay at Sunway Putra hotel for 2 adults and 2 kids.

So first, we went for buffet lunch.  Ahhh not bad at all.  Hotel-standard environment and food (meaning not super-great but not too bad) . 

Lunchie

I always like being able to try a bit of this and that.  There was a decent variety of Western and Asian food.

We have... dessert!

After eating our fill, we could check in already.  Must say the hotel staff were friendly and helpful.  We chilled for a bit in the room before emerging for buffet tea.  As expected, I didn't have the stomach space to do this much justice.  Had some kuih, currypuffs, rojak, banana fritters, tapioca fritters.  I sampled some mee goreng mamak but balked at other carbos.  Luckily had space for dessert hehe.

Sago pudding and cute creme brulee. Greenie is pistachio

After tea we strolled around in the mall next door.  Then back to the room for iPad time.  The thing about not allowing the girls to play iPad much on normal days is, what they look forward to on holidays is being able to play non-stop!  Heh kinda strange but ok lah.  As long as they are happy.

We surfaced again for a late buffet dinner.  Hmm this was the meal we liked the least.  It was mainly rice with dishes and the same offerings for dessert.  Wish they rotated the selection since we were having 3 sessions in a row.  Like the huge tray of bread and butter pudding was there for lunch and tea.  The same type of cakes were served for lunch and dinner.  The same strawberry ice cream and toppings for all 3 sessions - at least rotate the flavour?

Anyway the girls happily ate ice-cream at all 3 sessions.  Multiple servings each time too.

Mmm!

 Next post... non-food related.

My birthday 2021

Arrangements this year were more for convenience sake.  I couldn't take leave (to bum around and do anything or nothing as I like!) due to work.  I couldn't buy a cake since my Secret Recipe vouchers were expiring.  At least could dine out already.

Woke the girls up for school and announced it was my birthday.  But I didn't have to... they surprised me with hand-made cards!  I had no idea they were even working on this.  Harry Potter-themed this year as this is their current craze.  Those are owls on the cards:

Happy birthday to mummy!

JE's is actually a whole book: 

Page 1: To unlock and enter you must know the Spell

Page 2:  Good Job.  But now... Neville does not want you to enter.  Find a spell to freeze him

Page 3:  WOOHOO YOU DID Great!  NOW.... Grab the sword.  Oh no, it's fake!  RUN!!!

Page 4.  A Death Eater is behind you.  KILL IT.

Page 5:  YOU DID IT.  Now close this Your day has end Now check the last page But goodbye for now.

(what's this garbled sentence??)

Page 6:  HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUMMY

A Harry Potter book-card!

SE kept saying that HER owl on the card is hand-drawn while JE's are merely stickers. 

Anyway not a bad birthday.  Dined out at Kam Lun Tai but had to sit at two tables due to social distancing.

Now to enjoy the remaining moments of my sweet-forties.  :)

Happy birthday to me!

School reopens

Finally, back to real school.  Hopefully no more unexpected closures after this.  The past year has been so problematic in terms of learning.  Some teachers were hardworking in setting up online classes, others were barely seen the whole time.  

JE generally followed all her classes and kept up with homework.  Good thing her class teacher is a good one.  She missed a few and I actually got a call asking, why hasn't JE been attending class recently?  Why didn't she hand in her homework?  Aren't you monitoring her?  Who is monitoring?  Haha got scolded by her teacher!  Err so I said my parents are the ones monitoring.  And hope she won't have to call my my parents to 'scold' them too!  

SE... oh it hasn't gone well.  She was already struggling in school.  Somehow she shuts off whenever people try to teach her Chinese or BM.  End up she couldn't understand basic instructions, was clueless on things happening around her, constantly got punished, was angry and frustrated with everything.  We were hoping MCO would give her a respite, a chance to catch up.  My parents tried with Chinese and I tried with BM.  However it was very difficult to get her to sit and learn, then when quizzed back later, she retained very little of what was taught.  

Anyway so school reopens. Both JE and SE are now in the morning session. One grumpy girl and one excited girl on their first day.

We are waiting for transporter aunty