Graduated from Primary school

What else has happened... JE finished 6 years of primary school.  The graduation was on the very day of my workshop (at work) so I couldn't go.  It meant enough to JE that she asked my mother to go with her.  

Ah Mah and me

So my mother had to sit through the spectacle of many people walking up on stage to receive scrolls haha.  I didn't think of this event as a big deal actually.  Others apparently did - seems graduation bouquets were a thing and JE got emotional when she was the only person in her group of friends not to receive one.  I read these messages from her later at work: 

* A lot of ppl got graduation bouquet.

* Parents gave.

* Me no get.

* Me no parent.

Poor kiddo.  Oh well it was too late to do anything by that time.  I'm so thankful that my mother was there for her at least.

Come to think of it, the past 6 years WERE momentous ones.  JE was only a young child of 6 upon entering the school for Standard 1.   And now she's all poised for teenagerhood and the next stage of her life.   *sniff

Hedgehog

Gosh Feb is gone already! Blame it on WORK... after weeks of preparations with multiple changes and about-turns, we finally had the workshop with client users from various locations in the world.  It was unfortunately rocky and rough.  My project director saw it fit to cut my session short (first time I have been dragged out of my own workshop!), there were calls for different people to come in to help, there was drama and all.  Luckily my boss supported me and so did the client boss.  In summary, I survive to live another day.  Phew.

Continuing on my previous post as though there was no time interlude.  

I found these pictures amusing.  Now THIS is the face of someone who wants to hold a hedgehog...

Me and a hedgehog!

And THIS... is the face of someone who doesn't, and is being forced by her mummy to HOLD THAT HEDGEHOG AND TAKE PHOTO!!

Eeeee

EEEEEEeeeEEEEE

The staff there decided to pick up the poor hedgehog and hand it to poor JE.

EEE-mmmm-EEEEEEE

Faster take photo Mummy

 HAHAHA so funny.

Farm in the city

It was still CNY hols and I was wondering what to do with the kids. Googled for the Farmfresh place (closed) then adverts led me to Farm in the City.  Oh why not, it has been quite some time since we'd been there.  I bought tickets online.... not realising it was for a future date until we got there.  Aiya!  

When the right day rolled around, we went again.

We are in! Here is a big tortoise

This here is the birds enclosure

Some employees were holding a cockatoo, an alpaca and a snake for people to take photos with. JE liked the alpaca and I politely asked the lady holding the snake to kindly move out of the photo hahaha.  Yes my life would be easier if I didn't have the phobia but what to do.

The alpaca. And us

Us and the cockatoo

We tried longkang fishing (unsuccessful) then moved on to the bunnies/guinea pigs where we spent the most time.  

Small furry animals

Then the raccoons...

SE, Piglet and the raccoon

Back to the tortoises....

Last pic with animals

While it was nice enough, I think the girls have outgrown this kind of place.  SE liked it all right but JE got rather bored.  Called it a day after couple of hours.  Food inside was expensive and very limited in variety, so we just headed for the McD near home.

CNY eve

Slowly continue to post... work has been hectic. :)  

So this year, we finally got to what I'd been wanting all these years - CNY eve reunion dinner with my side of the family!  Growing up, my reunion dinners were always bustling, noisy affairs with lots of people courtesy of both my parents coming from big families.  So my first time with hubby's side was a significant change as there were basically only MIL and SIL. While MIL has passed on, relatives for CNY eve dinner increased. But since reunion LUNCH was relatively common within the family, I'd suggested changing our gathering to lunch so we could go to my side instead.  Anyway hubby had always preferred it to be dinner.  Then THIS year, things clicked. End of long story... so we made it there for dinner!

 

Happy me

Good food and lots of it, good people and lots of them haha.  My bro had a brainwave of introducing gambling to the kids.  I had somehow forgotten it, but this was one of the CNY activities I always enjoyed as a kid.  

We are gambling! Don't call police on us please

 Overall a very happy night indeed! 

Pre CNY

This year CNY was slightly different.  First, we had a pre-CNY family photo session cum lunch since my sis wouldn't be around for CNY.  My bro suggested Tropicana golf club so off we went.  

Happy Rabbit year to all!

The whole gang

We took some photos around until people got too bored/tired/hot and then adjourned to the Chinese restaurant.  Food was ok only lah.  The yee sang cost RM128 and didn't taste that good - mainly it was too dry as in it didn't have enough sauce.  Other dishes fared better.   

The kids and the grandparents

Good start to the rabbit year.  Happy new year to all!
 

Beautiful place

Ending the Melaka series with the most beautiful place, The Baboon House.  I simply love the natural flora theme!  Again another popular place - we reached about 11am which I considered to be early for lunch. but we were informed there would be a half-hour wait.  Guess this is another place to aim for "right-after-opening" time!

I took some pictures while waiting.  There were a couple of these perfectly-set tables as in the pic below.  In a way luckily we didn't get these as I'm sure other people wouldn't be able to resist snapping a picture (just like me hehe)

Not us nor our table

The building was so long inside. This is SE walking to the washroom at the far end... 

Still haven't reached

After using the toilet, continued taking pictures. These are only a small part of the green. Imagine living in a place like this!  This is technically WITHIN the building which has an open indoor courtyard.

Pic 1

Pic 2

Finally it was our turn to get a table. Absolutely love the little alcove we got, it even had a small personal aquarium!  There were actually so many plants that it was difficult getting a clear shot for the camera.

Our table

What bliss!  Until I had to 'sour grapes' a bit and say that well living here, it would be SO difficult to maintain the plants and that much nature at home will be a little creepy.  Suffice to say I was the most excited in our group haha.  

The food?  Oh not bad at all.  The salads had rocket in them (a good sign of quality in my books since rocket is expensive) and the sweet potato fries were freshly-fried.   

Finally food. I'm going barmy already with all the plant talk

Sighhh.  Despite the queue, definitely a must-visit for next time!

Melaka - Food

(Continuing on Melaka posts)

While I did try looking for things to do, there weren't many which suited us.  Which left our main activity as FOOD.  Some places we went to...

Coffee and pastries at The Stolen Cup:  Cosy place with decent food. It wasn't cheap though - the croissant with strawberries and cream cost almost RM18.  The mixed berries pastry was procured by hubby who didn't notice the price.  I estimate it wasn't far off as they did use fresh blueberries and blackberries.  Overall it was good stuff, and I was excited seeing these lovely pastries appearing on our table together with a cappucino, but will probably try other places next time.

Mmmm pastries and coffee!

The Daily Fix was a repeat visit for us.  It is so popular that there's a queue almost all the time.  I gave up on the first day.  Luckily we did stay VERY close so I set an alarm the next morning and managed to get everyone there within 10mins of its opening time hehe.  Talk about kiasu!  

Ordered the big breakfast (okay), the smoked duck sandwich (okay), spicy spaghetti (not good - hubby's choice) and chocolate chip pancakes (will return for this alone!).  Story of the spaghetti:  It tasted like chilli prawn oil from a jar stirred into spaghetti. and was too spicy even for hubby.  I asked for the leftovers to be packed since there was a lot, and got charged 80sen for the packaging haha.  Then I put this into my bag and walked the rest of the morning with it.  The next morning when I opened the box, the contents smelled a bit 'off'.  Ate a bit only as I didn't want to risk a tummy-ache.  Confirmed it  wasn't nice at all so it was with some relief that I tossed this into the bin.  So this spaghetti totally had the last laugh!

Mmm chocolate chip pancakes

The enamel trays deco

After a couple of days of street and cafe food, we finally had a 'usual' meal.  Walked to Atlantic for a nyonya-style dinner.  Only to find that it had a big carpark so we could have easily driven there instead.  Enjoyed the pandan rice, ladies fingers and petai prawns.  The chicken rendang was not bad but rather too heavy for us.  Can consider a repeat visit for this place.

Not bad, not bad