Ipoh trip 2023 - Mirror Lake

Fast forward to the next school holiday.  This time I was determined to go somewhere - *I* needed the break if nobody else did!  Previously I'd always hunted for apartments with fun facilities for the girls.  The last round though, I had to actually dig the girls away from their gadgets to go play.  So this time I didn't bother with facilities - found a new place at Kinta Riverfront.  Aha not bad at all, definitely a place we can consider next time.  

Found ourselves a comfy nice apartment

Mirror lake was left out in favour of Qin Xin Ling at our last trip so we headed there.  

Here we are!

Admission was RM20 for us.  There is a nice tunnel to walk through....

Cave mouth entrance

Oh but the area after that tunnel is really small, basically a jetty area for the boatride (which we didn't take as not cheap and didn't look like worth it).  The girls had to be coaxed and bullied into posing for pictures.

Mummy says pay RM20 already must take photos

Photos generally don't turn out well when the subjects are unwilling.  Oh well, pose myself lah.

I will make the RM worth it

We walked over to Chang Jiang coffee after that.  It looked nice enough but there was a 20-min waiting time to get in so we left.  I could see plenty of empty tables inside - maybe they just could not handle that many people.

After that we drove the short distance to Mirror Lake 2 which was one of the boat stops. Nothing to see there.  There might be some other attractions around but we couldn't find anything.  OK then just call it a day.

Work lately

So work... has lately been pretty horrible.  A key client personnel joined the project to head the area I'm in charge of and (I think) his primary aim was to prove his worth.  Very quickly he complained about me and requested my management to replace me - for reasons which seemed unjustified.  Initially I thought I could easily save the situation.  Then as things progressed it seemed this person's expectations was a thorough study of existing processes, then a proposal to revamp and redesign.  Well this was never part of my expectations and I was surprised when my management accepted the additional scope.  

The person I experienced such stress working with over 2 years ago was brought in to help drive project progress.  And again the pressure and stress mounted for me.  I cancelled various leave during the last school holidays.  While the girls had decided not to go anywhere, I'd planned to take them out for day trips and movies. Well, nothing doing, all the hours in the day weren't enough for work and mentally I couldn't think of much else.

OK now that phase is done (about a month for my own record).  I avoided the toxic person as much as I could (mostly succeeding heh).  Things now resume.  I am still to be replaced on the project but that doesn't seem such a bad thing now - in fact quite a few people on the project have expressed envy that I get to 'escape'!  Haha.

I still have to work on weekends.  There are still quite a few items I need to solve.  At times when I leave my laptop for a break, I find something like this.... 

Monkey on computer

Octopus now

Chicken too

Hehe.

Petrosains 2023

Gosh work is eating up most of my time and my posts are so late now.  I have been cancelling my planned annual leave recently.  I'm well aware the girls are growing up fast and I have to spend time with them while they still appreciate mine.  

For the Wesak day holiday, we went over to Petrosains with my bro's family.  Got the tickets online - RM25 for adults (JE already in this category) and RM12 for kids - quite expensive already.  It was a smooth drive into the city centre on the public holiday.

Me and my sister

JE showed me how to get the whole twin towers in the picture heh.

This way, Mama!

Then we went in for our 10am ticket time (no time limit once in).  There were lots to see and do.  And of course it was more fun with the cousins around.

Multi-faceted using mirrors

Can design your own fish and release it into the tank

Can you lift yourself? Easier if you cousin helps.

Nice slide down in a sack

Can you catch the bars dropping at random times?

We stopped for coffee and snacks at the cafe - it wasn't as expensive as I'd expected and quality was overall decent. 

Oh I like this picture of us waiting for the 3D movie, so stylish with the glasses hehe.

Fashionistas r us!

I liked this exhibit where the screen depicts you in various famous art styles - would have been perfect if they had labeled what each art was.

Theme from 'The Scream' 

Theme from 'The Starry Night'

Rope bridge above the dinosaur exhibit

Compared to the National science centre, exhibits were in much better condition.  Overall it was a good day indeed and we got to spend time together.

SE's birthday 2023

SE is now 11!  Celebration was on a weekend so all within a day (unlike JE's).  Let's see what the birthday girl selected....

First up was Japanese food for lunch.  

We ordered lots of tempura!

Happy girl

Since it was a birthday, I thought why not llaollao which JE requests all the time (which I usually decline on the grounds that it's over-priced).  JE was more excited than SE haha.  But SE tends to go with what JE likes so they happily got one to share.  

Ah finally a llaollao

Since we were nearby, popped into TK Bakery to get a cake.  The girls selected 'Purple love' in pretty pastel colours, which turned to be a berry/yogurt cake with black glutinous rice bits in the cream.  It did taste good, though I was expecting better from my fav bakery.  We were lucky to get their Mother's Day promo for a large cake.  

My pretty cake

Happy 11th birthday to me!

Mother’s Day 2023

The girls surprised me with self-made things.  JE drew this... it's of course extremely difficult to draw people.  At least I can recognise the original which inspired this! (The last picture in this post)  Too bad JE herself isn't in the picture haha.

Drawing from JE

From SE came this heart-shape on a stick. 

The heart opens up to reveal a "Happy Mother's Day" and an "I love you!".  With a "by PIGLET" and a "by MIGLET" (of course really this is done by SE) in a 4-leaf clover.  Pretty good - a heart and a lucky clover. :)

Totally appreciate their effort.  Awww.

JE's birthday - Part3

The next day, on to the makan place she selected which was Haidilao hotpot. Come to think of it now, very 'adult' choices of first tiramisu and then a hotpot.  The younger JE would have picked, oh, a cartoon cake and fast food.

Our first time at Haidilao, which isn't the type of place you just walk in as and when you like.  First I sourced out the online queue.  You can't book until the queue has opened.  I didn't want it too early (you only have 30mins before you table is given up) or too late (our family isn't good at waiting) so I got into line just before we left the house.  It was early and we got a table while still on the way there.  No worries, we arrived before the 30mins were up.  The famed manicure services are no longer available - I can't imagine being in queue long enough for that to happen anyway!  

We walked straight in and had a friendly waitress who explained how things work.  So there's a flat charge of RM8 per person for free-flow sauces and appetisers.  Our waitress didn't charge for the kids.  The sauce bar had many ingredients which was great as JE LOVES messing around with sauces.  And having the apron to wear was fun as well.

Mix this mix that

Soups aren't free.  It's about RM15 per quarter-pot and almost 4 times that for a full pot.  We chose tomato, 3-treasure and szechuan (this turned out to be mala and very spicy).  We inadvertently stumbled upon a good combo as the 'water' option (the fourth quarter-pot for us) is free.  For future visits, to be frugal 2 soups and 2 waters would be sufficient.  

Let's test out the taste

Sometimes request hubby to take photos or I wouldn't ever be in

Everything tasted good!  Appetisers were mala peanuts and king mushroom slices which were yummy.  We barely touched the szechuan soup but it was actually flavourful and fragrant so I imagine it would have a fan base.  Over-ordered as I didn't factor in the free-flow appetisers and ice-cream.  

If it's your birthday, they will come and sing you a cheerful song and deliver a piece of cake. 

Free cake

Overall loved the 'fun' factor - the sauces, the noodle performance (if you order noodles, you can request it with or without the dance!)  Grabbed some junk food packs and ice-cream (it was the stick type selling for RM2) before we left.  A solid thumbs up!

Oh for future reference, it cost us over R50 a head.  Hubby and the kids are very small eaters though so this needs to be scaled up for normal eaters.

JE's birthday - Part2

The following weekend was the celebrations!  The plan was to go out for lunch on Sunday.  On Saturday, our maid cooked a special meal on her own initiative.   I had expected a normal dinner so was pleasantly surprised.

Roast meats and vegetables, shell-out style prawns

Good dinner and then it was CAKE time!  JE finally got the tiramisu one.  She had been eyeing it previously but figured that SE wouldn't like the coffee taste.  Now SE is bigger and not as opposed to coffee.  

With my fav toys

And Yaya 

(which is what she calls SE)

And Papa and Mummy

The cake tasted good but it had too much cream compared to cake.  JE liked it though.