Ever wonder why people like to stick Post-It note on the fridge?  My reason is because kids spent more time rummaging food in the fridge rather than looking at the notice board!

Since I’ll be leaving for holiday in 2 days time (uppababy vista), I have to set a reminder for each of them.  They are more like weekly task that should be done before the start of a new week.  Meaning, by Sunday, all homework, uniform, shoes, etc have to be washed/pressed/done by then.  Using a post-it note is more convenient too as when they finish each task, just tear and discard.  I told them, “When you see no more post-it note on the fridge, meaning all tasks has been complete”.

On the other hand, I tried to pack as light as possible for my trip.

Only 30% occupied!  This is all I brought for my 10 days trip to San Francisco and Las Vegas.

I have friends asking me on the total expenses incurred for our holiday. So this is merely a very brief post on how much we spent for our 4 days/3 night holiday to Hong Kong.  These are the expenses for 2 adult and 3 children that was charged to our credit card:

1. Air Tickets – Flying with MAS Airline – RM3,441.00
2. Accommodation – BP International House (3 nights) – RM729.14 (HKD1574.10)
3. Disneyland Entrance Fees – RM669.04 (HKD1450)
4. Ocean Park Entrance Fees – RM335.33 (HKD725)

We have other miscellaneous expenses like transportation (public buses), food and shopping.  All in, we used up all the RM1,000 that was allocated for this trip.  I do not know which is more expensive, DIY or tour.  But I think spending around RM1,200 on each person is cheaper than tour packages that could cost around RM2k per person?

Seriously, I have no time to compare prices but I like the thought of ‘sendiri jalan’ (leisurely walk) and what’s more, with 3 kids in tow.  We woke up anytime we like and we don’t have to rush for time or the awaiting bus.  Life is less stressful that way. Even though we might miss out the best duck in town or the best egg tart in town, what’s important is your priority.  Ask yourself what you want during a trip.  Walk till you drop or just a leisurely lazy holiday.  We are definitely the lazy type. LOL!  And I know my kids can’t tolerate long walking or shopping and it’s Summer!  Freaking hot out there!

Talking about which, living expenses in HK is very high!  3 plate of chicken rice cost us about HKD95 (RM45)! Even their Vitagen is so much more expensive than ours!  Transportation wise is very convenient but lots of walking involved.    I guarantee you will go slim even without taking any weight loss supplements. We are a bit spoilt as we are so used to  driving back home.  All in, it was a wonderful and most important, no stress holiday.  How do you definite no stress?  Mine would be – “Mummy-&-Daddy-is-not -yelling- at- each- other- because- of- the- kids.  (well, it happen most of the time) *rolling eye*

Was gone and back from a short holiday to Hong Kong with the kids during the 3rd term school holiday.  Too much to write but so little time I have.  If time permit, I shall blog the journey, or else you can view the photographs that I have uploaded on Facebook.  I’m not a camcorder person.  Too shy to talk at a machine.  Would prefer still photographs most of the time and this time, I have lots of them!  As usual.

Hey, do try the above collage.  They are quite fun to put them together.

After a few trip up to Cameron, we started to fall in love with the place especially the weather although at some days it can be hot and some days the wind can be very strong making the weather so pleasant, so suitable for outdoor camping or even rent a rv towing. This time, we plan to let the children explore with nature.  I have been planning this event since 5 years ago but the timing is always not right whenever we are in Cameron Highlands. So I die-die also must go pick my own vegetables. While driving around looking for the vegetable farm, ‘ssssssssssome’ people losses their patient and we get comment like this:

“Aiyah, just buy some carrot and stick them in the ground then ask your kids to pull lor.”

“Veges from the market don’t want to buy. Come and pluck veges and do all the farmer’s work. He must be laughing his way to the bank!”

Thanks to BIL & Daddy. That is such an encouragement. Not!

Lots of pictures of Kharsyn & Carlgene as he enjoy getting himself dirty. Kharlette is ‘allergic’ (*rolling eye) to mud and has been staying at the cemented floor most of the time.

The first one we attack is the carrot patch!

This is the only proper picture of Kharlette at the vegetable farm

My Nephew, Jonathan looks like a dwarf holding a bunch of mini carrots.  Cute!

Raddish

Unearth the potatoes

Beetroot

One can tell that the cabbage is really heavy by looking at Kharsyn’s facial expression!

Cherry tomatoes.  They are so sweet!

Fresh carrot, anyone?

I’m loving this place.  Will be back again next time and many times more!

Short Talk: Yesterday, I bring along my 4 years old to enrolled for ballet lesson.  Told the teacher I am enrolling my 9 and 4 years old daughters.  She look at me and said, “… but you look so young!” I know, dem perasan right?  Make my tail stand and whistle like the Kettlebell.  Woot!

Back to Cameron Highland post.  Last May when we was in Cameron Highlands, we didn’t know strawberry was a seasonal fruits.  Since all the strawberry hasn’t ripe yet, there is none for us to hand pick.  But this time round,  Strawberry was everywhere.  This is how the charges like.  Two person is allocated to one basket and you must pluck at least half kilo of strawberry.  A line was indicated on the basket to roughly tell you the weight.  Half a kilo of strawberry is RM20.00.  I saw somewhere selling pre-packed strawberry at RM12.00. ( >.< Just close one eye).  Prices could varied from farm to farm.  We don’t want to waste time stopping at every farm comparing prices.  Most of all, we was doing this all for blogging fun and experience.

We took 2 baskets.  Dotter and Son one basket and my Sister and me another basket.  I sneaked Little Missy when the guy was not watching.  Sheeshh….

Dotter and Son happily and excitedly dash off harvesting their crops.  I have to remind them to “CUT ONLY THE RED ONES!!!”.  My Sister and Little Missy paired up so that leaves me all the time I have to be a photographer.  The two team was going their separate way so you can imagine how I ran the whole place like a mad girl.  No good.  After a while when I look into their baskets, I goes, “CUT ONLY THE DARK RED ONES! NOT THE LIGHT RED!!!!” LOL

This is my favourite shot.

Next post will have more farming involved.   Stay tune.

During our recent 2 days/one night trip to Cameron Highlands, I came home with over 400 shots.  Day by day, my pc memory is running low.  Thanks to the 16gb external hard.  Instead of clogging up my blog with pictures, now I have them uploaded in Facebook.  I will still choose some of my favourite shots to share with those who is not in my Facebook account.

This is my 4 years old Little Missy occasionally aka Little Miss Troublemaker or Baby Princess but today I shall address her as Little Missy.  You will know why after looking at her poses.

Tips:  The thing with .jpeg files.  The more editing (resizing) you do, the quality is reduced by the number of usage.  So each time you resize them, got to sharpen it.  By then, you will get very crappy picture. The lazy me always do this.  Open the original picture (2888px), resized them at 600px for Facebook upload (sharpened it), resized them again at 200px for scrapbooking (sharpened it), finally resized again the scrapbook layout to accommodate my blog. (No more pixel to sharpen)  Crappy isn’t it!  If can, always use original picture and never reuse the resized picture.  Geddit?

Have you guys watch Transformers – Revenge of The Fallen?  If you do, you will notice Sam Witwicky address Bumble Bee as ‘Bee’.  Not sure about you but I think that name is a bit sissy to be used for a robot.  And to make him look more sissy, why on earth does he (Bee) have to weep a bucket (a scene in Sam’s garage).  And that scene of Sam parent’s garden is so beautifully ruin.  Awesome!  I wonder how much does the home insurance quote gonna pay for a new house.

By the way, here is some ‘Bees’ photographs that I took in Bees Farm in Cameron Highlands.  The purple flower is lavendar and they have heaps in the farm!

v

I was trying to squeeze in this post many times but always get busy with other matters.  When I look back at the photographs now, some of the kids has grown more matured like my Prince Charming aka Prince Carlgene *cough*. Last year (26 Dec 2008) during Christmas, we went to Spice Garden since we are in Penang.

Admission rate was charged at RM35.00 for 2 adult and up to 3 children.  I feel the price is way too expensive for a little garden like that.  Nevertheless, her are some of the pictures i took:

Eldest Sis with Jasmine admiring a dangling flower right at the entrance.

They claimed that they have more than 200 type of spices in the garden.  However, I do see a lot of screwpine leaves (daun pandan) only.  The rest *shrug*.  And the whole place smell so fresh.  It took me quite a while to guess the smell.  Alas, they are lemon grass (serai) and no.  Not from the fresh plants but they are the lemon grass flavoured mosquito repellent.

Spot the green leafy plants? They are called daun kadok another type of betel leaves (daun sireh) used to cook otak-otak. Penang otak-otak rawks! I don’t like the Johore version.  And guess what I’ve spotted?

Wood fungus!  aitelyu, sometimes I get so mad at my Tamron lens.  They are always out of focus and they like to focus object next to it.  It happens so many, so many times!  Now you see why the wood moss is sharp but the fungus is blur.  Haiz…

I love this picture of my Eldest Sister swinging on the hammock. The place is so serene and cricket chirping is like music to my ears. Only one thing that I am afraid of… SNAKES! Or lizard!!! Or whatever that has 4 legs!!!

While busy playing photographer for my Sis, my Prince Charming called out to me and when I look up, HOLY MOLY!

This is one huge giant swing that I’ve ever see before!

See my Prince Charming?  He look so babyish (to me he is!).  Maybe it’s his hair style.  Ever since school started, he has been wearing that army spikey hairstyle that I never like.

Various plants around the garden.  They are not spices.

The four older children are born just month apart. Can you imagine that year, my mom’s house had 4 babies?  The little boy in stripe is an intruder!  From left to right:  Jean Suen (2nd Sis), Jasmine (1st Sis), Daniel (3rd Sis) and Kharlette (My Little Missy and I’m 4th).  We did not plan this.  It just happen!

The spaghetti sure taste good cos by the time I’m done with photography, they are all gone.

ooo… this one must try if you love lamb.  They are very delicious!

3rd Sis with Daniel.  Sis said Daniel hardly smile for the camera.  I think this photo deserved to be publish 😉

Jean Suen – Drooling man!

Food photographs not shown are some cinnamon drinks and ginger tea.  The spice cookies rawks too!

Very cosy ambiance at the cafe.  A blend of zen, western and oriental which makes them looks… to me, not nice la!

This is the Gents’.  The door is so ancient looking.  I do hope everything inside adhere to the standard bathroom safety.

Very shady and windy place for a quiet reading too.  In the evening you may catch a sunset.

The whole bunch of us.  Over looking are the sea.  Don’t know why my sea is badly over exposed.

Check out more pictures at my Facebook.

From our hotel to Great Wall, the journey takes about 1.5 hours.  Instead of DIY, we hire a private driver.  The trip to Great Wall was actually paid for and I was thinking we might as well book the driver for the full day and paid him the shortfall which was RMB450.00 (RM225.00).  I still thinks that RM225 is quite pricey tho.

Pictures on the way to Mutianyu Great Wall:

Able to see Great Wall from far!

We are not quite there yet.

At the carpark.

Scene near the toilet.

There are several side of Great Wall that is accessible to tourist like Simatai, Jinshanling, Gubeikou, Badaling and Mutianyu.  We was advised to visit Mutianyu Great Wall as there are less tourist.  I think Badaling is having the most tourist of all.

We took the trip up by cable car (RMB35.00 = RM17.50).  The Mutianyu Scenic spot is hugged by mountains with beautiful natural sceneries.

This is where the tracking started.

The experience at this section of the wall is breathtaking. Thankfully the touristy crowds are not here. However,  climbing up the very very steep steps occasionally made me wonder if I was in shape enough to make the climb. Then awe struck me that this wall that goes on as far as the eye can see was built with hand tools so long ago.

Making our way to the watch tower.

Up at the watch tower.

The sky is awesome, isn’t it?  It is now Hubby’s duty to carry my camera bag as my shoulder is aching, feet is getting heavier and the heart pound faster.

Random pictures

The wall presents different aspects of beauty in the four seasons. Flowers bloom all over the mountains in spring. Grasses dress the hillside green in summer. Trees are laden with sweet fruits in autumn, and especially in October, leaves are turning red or yellow, touching the mountain tops with gold. In winter, the wall is covered by snow, making it seem more magnificent.

We don’t feel a thing coming down.  Now to hike back up is really killing us!

A sled named ‘Speed Chute’ will give you an opportunity to experience thrills by taking you swoop down from the high mountains.  They are almost similar to Luge in Sentosa Singapore.  Instead of wider sledding lane, the single luge skidway was made from aluminum and does not require much maneuver  except to shift some body weight while maneuvring the curve.  Those are arenaline rush ride down hil.  Ticket priced at RMB55 (RM27.50).  For the faint hearted, you may take the cable car ride down.

We have fulfilled one of our wish to step foot on The Great Wall of China.  Check out more photos in my Facebook.

I know I’ve mentioned in Day 2 that I have nothing to brag about day 3 in Beijing but after going through my photographs, it cracks me up again and thought maybe I should put it up here. So my usual chronicle of events. The Hubby like day 2, left for work at 7am and I got up from bed at 9am but this time with a severe of purging. I still make it for breakfast but a quick one. Wallop 2 tablets of charcoal but the purging won’t stop at all. Infact, my feces looks like seaweed. *yikes!*.

The Hubby came home back at 3pm and it is so kind of him to run (yes he ran!) to a Chinese Medical Hall about 10mins away from our hotel to get me medicines. The Chinese sinseh told him, “This one very powerful wan. I guarantee you no more purging after taking this.” Bull shit la. Still purging wat. The other guys was planning to go for foot massage and some shopping. I was so weak and yet the thought of confining in the hotel room during vacation is such a waste. So I die-die also join them. Fuah, the temperate was at 6C but one minute I was perspiring and another minute I was so nausea I want to lay down on the street. But kena tahan la cos I did not want to spoilt other people’s vacation.

First stop was to Silk Market and they thought we should go get a cup of coffee or tea, whatever and I was like running to the toilet every minute. Wah, so much shit talk here. I better cut long story short.

Fast forward …. as we was leaving, I puke because the guys was smoking. I felt better than before after that puking! God Bless me! I managed to shop in Silk Market for 1 hr without yelling for the toilet. Talking about toilet, I used to read horror remarks that toilet in China is very….. awful. But hey, they are not that bad you know. At least their toilets floor is dry not like the Malaysian toilets. The only thing you have to tolerate is the smell. The are really horrible!

The bargaining in Silk Market is horrible too! But I still managed to lug back lots of stuff. wakakaka….. they are so cheap, ok! I know this is going to happened and make sure my luggage was half empty when I came to Beijing.

We only shop for one hour cos the other guys wanted to go for foot massage. And to cut the long story short again….. While checking on their available services…..

We couldn’t stop laughing!

I think it has something to do with exfoliating the dead skin. Sorry about that cos I don’t read Chinese. The masseur said that I have cold feet and ask if I am unwell. Wah, she so smart leh.

After that we balik to the hotel and Day 4 onwards, Hubby’s work had finished and we already book the private driver to Great Wall of China. Can’t wait to see the world heritage, eh? 😉