See what I mean?Wednesday, 23 November 2011
Cameron Highlands Trip - Day 2
We really maximized our day. We woke up bright & early (thanks to Kun Sam - natural alarm clock) & started the day by going down to Ringlet to the Boh Tea Plantation cum Factory. Alas, we found that they're closed on Mondays. So we went to the cafeteria of Bharat Tea Plantation instead (mid-way between Ringlet & Tanah Rata). The view from the cafeteria is truly majestic! Hills & valleys of age old tea tree of almost the same height. It looked like a huge patterned green carpet!
Food is pricey though. You'd have thought that the tea being so near, it should be cheaper than KL! No Sir-ee! The teas (though wide selection) was so expensive. We took among the cheaper ones -Massala tea; which is really creamy & tasty & 2 packets of Nasi Lemak. It cost us nearly RM20 all in all. As much as I wanted the scones, butter & jelly set, it was too pricey too. So with breakfast nicely tucked in, we took a stroll down the steep steps towards the tea plantation. We snap some pictures with Kun Sam "busy" hitting the tea "bushes". It's really painful because there were many twigs growing upwards, so hitting it would be like having a wooden fork poking at your palms. Yet Kun Sam seem to be oblivious to all that & continue "whacking" like no body's business. I tell you... this boy is truly destined for the drums (no piano for him)!
After breakfast, we visited a strawberry farm & have strawberries! It was sourish, but delicious with cream. Kun Sam loved it so much, his face is all smeared with strawberry juices. Don't belief me? Take a look:
Yummy but so sour mummy! See my eye?
We then went up to Brinchang and had a simple lunch of rice, boiled vegetable with oyster sauce & stewed pork leg in vinegar, near the local farmer's market so it's not as pricey. Not knowing where else to go, we went to another strawberry farm (cum cactus cum rose garden cum hydroponic vegetables cum restaurant cum cafe etc) nearby. After walking around, we found that the scones set & pancake set in this cafe is much cheaper than Bharat. So, we took tea! A pot of tea + a hot scone + butter + strawberry jam + 2 pcs of pancakes with pieces of strawberries in the bater + vanilla ice cream & more butter & strawberry jam! Kun & daddy loved the fluffy pancakes with ice cream. Mummy is contented with the hot scones - ahh... finally...
After stuffing ourselves with sinfully delicious desserts, we visited a temple in Brinchang & took a meditative stroll around the compound. We then head back to the hotel room for a little snooze & clean-up Kun Sam.
We ended the day with dinner at Brinchang - a restaurant we've been eyeing the previous night but did not go because it was jam packed with people. I'm happpy we went there. It's really delicious. We had "Indonesian" fish curry, stir fried "dragon whiskers" vegetable (only available in Cameron apparently) & errmmm... can't remember the third dish... if not mistaken, it's mantis prawns. Kun Sam? Teething biscuits & milk for dinner. :-)
Really a relaxed family outing.
Believe It Or Not?!
In my last post I mentioned Kun Sam was sick right? He was having fever for 4-days despite taking paracetamol. So went to see the paediatrician who made a more detailed check & even take a blood test. We had to wait 45mins to get the result of the blood test (which is pretty fast actually), before going back to the Dr's office again to get the diagnosis. Nothing serious. Just viral infection of the throat & inflammation of the nose canal. Just some mild medication, no antibiotics required. All in all, the whole exercise took about 2-hrs.
On the way driving back, my mother-in-law is still feeling uncomfortable that Kun Sam's illness may be related to something paranormal. Rationale is that we always bring him out at night, so some evil wondering soul must be disturbing him - hence the fever.
To give her peace of mind, hubby drove in to a Taoist temple that she normally go to for "enlightenment". There's apparently a medium who's very "accurate" & good in resolving such paranormal disturbances. To be honest both hubby & I were skeptical. At least hubby roughly know how all this works. I was truly like a fish out of water. I don't know if I should sit / stand / pray / burn incense etc.
There's an old man at the right hand corner of the temple who got Kun Sam's information like his name, date & time of birth, place of birth etc. Then we're asked to bring the envealope to the medium who was seated in the middle. He just took a look at Kun Sam, pointed at him & said, "Kun Sam right? Listen carefully. He's not being hounded by ghosts or having paranormal disturbances. His nostril is merely blocked, hence causing his throat to be infected; which causes fever. Just give him this list of herbal medication & another herb to soothe his teething gums, he should be fine. I'm also giving him a "fu" (a strip of yellow paper with some characters written by the medium in red & 3 stamps of a wooden stamp), you should burn it, take the ashes & disolve in water. Use the ash water to make his milk. Understand? Hmmh ok."
That was it!
In only less than 10mins & he was able to rattle off all the Dr's diagnosis that took about 2-hrs & even issue a prescription too (albeit the dubious "fu" that we need to give its ash to a baby)!
I'm not sure if I'm a convert now... but WOW! Believe It Or Not?!
On the way driving back, my mother-in-law is still feeling uncomfortable that Kun Sam's illness may be related to something paranormal. Rationale is that we always bring him out at night, so some evil wondering soul must be disturbing him - hence the fever.
To give her peace of mind, hubby drove in to a Taoist temple that she normally go to for "enlightenment". There's apparently a medium who's very "accurate" & good in resolving such paranormal disturbances. To be honest both hubby & I were skeptical. At least hubby roughly know how all this works. I was truly like a fish out of water. I don't know if I should sit / stand / pray / burn incense etc.
There's an old man at the right hand corner of the temple who got Kun Sam's information like his name, date & time of birth, place of birth etc. Then we're asked to bring the envealope to the medium who was seated in the middle. He just took a look at Kun Sam, pointed at him & said, "Kun Sam right? Listen carefully. He's not being hounded by ghosts or having paranormal disturbances. His nostril is merely blocked, hence causing his throat to be infected; which causes fever. Just give him this list of herbal medication & another herb to soothe his teething gums, he should be fine. I'm also giving him a "fu" (a strip of yellow paper with some characters written by the medium in red & 3 stamps of a wooden stamp), you should burn it, take the ashes & disolve in water. Use the ash water to make his milk. Understand? Hmmh ok."
That was it!
In only less than 10mins & he was able to rattle off all the Dr's diagnosis that took about 2-hrs & even issue a prescription too (albeit the dubious "fu" that we need to give its ash to a baby)!
I'm not sure if I'm a convert now... but WOW! Believe It Or Not?!
Tuesday, 22 November 2011
Scared Shitless but Don't Know What to Do!
This month must be a very bad month for Kun Sam. He first had fever for 4-days. Then after seeing the paediatrician, his fever continued for another 2-days before finally subsiding.
After taking so much medication & so little milk, his face & some parts of his body broke out in rashes like spots. My mother-in-law said that it's due to "toxins" in the body trying to be excreted out.
Then... this morning he fell off the bed!
I left him on the other end of the bed towards the wall & he was sleeping; to quickly make a trip to the toilet. When I came back, he's already on the floor (on his stomach - crawl position)! I freaked out!! But.... I can't show that I'm freaking out inside because my mother-in-law is already on nagging mode. (e.g. "I've taken care of so many kids & not once did they fell off the bed!"). Well sorry to be such a bad mother!! As if I'd wanted such things to happen.
Sigh... I try... I really try... Maybe I'm truly a lousy mother...
Anyway, Kun Sam is fine (or at least that's based on the fact that he just cried for a while), he can move all his limbs, there's no nasty cuts / bruises on his head / body, not vomiting blood / bloody nose. He even started playing & smiling by the time I was ready to leave for work (yeah... I actually left for work, but that's to collect my laptop to be able to work from home later as I continue to monitor him).
It's 4pm now & so far he's eating, drinking, playing & sleeping as usual. I don't know... Should I bring him to the paediatrician again to check if he suffers anything from the fall? Scared SHITLESS!!
After taking so much medication & so little milk, his face & some parts of his body broke out in rashes like spots. My mother-in-law said that it's due to "toxins" in the body trying to be excreted out.
Then... this morning he fell off the bed!
I left him on the other end of the bed towards the wall & he was sleeping; to quickly make a trip to the toilet. When I came back, he's already on the floor (on his stomach - crawl position)! I freaked out!! But.... I can't show that I'm freaking out inside because my mother-in-law is already on nagging mode. (e.g. "I've taken care of so many kids & not once did they fell off the bed!"). Well sorry to be such a bad mother!! As if I'd wanted such things to happen.
Sigh... I try... I really try... Maybe I'm truly a lousy mother...
Anyway, Kun Sam is fine (or at least that's based on the fact that he just cried for a while), he can move all his limbs, there's no nasty cuts / bruises on his head / body, not vomiting blood / bloody nose. He even started playing & smiling by the time I was ready to leave for work (yeah... I actually left for work, but that's to collect my laptop to be able to work from home later as I continue to monitor him).
It's 4pm now & so far he's eating, drinking, playing & sleeping as usual. I don't know... Should I bring him to the paediatrician again to check if he suffers anything from the fall? Scared SHITLESS!!
Monday, 14 November 2011
Cameron Highlands Trip - Day 1
I know... it's stale news. What with my trip to Cameron being last month in Oct, but really didn't have the time nor the mood to write since coming back... Until now...
Before heading up, we had dim sum for breakfast, then took a slow drive via the trunk road towards Bidor. Upon reaching there, we stopped by to have a quick lunch of "wu kok" (fried savoury yam dumplings) & wan tan noodles at the famous "Pun Chun". The "wu kok" was as good as we remembered, but the wan tan noodles is really not recommended. I'd rather have only "wu kok" for lunch & nothing else than to attempt eating the noodles again. Kun Sam had his teething biscuits - boy he loved them. He had 5 sticks in 1 sitting!
After lunch, we continued our journey up the highlands via Tapah. Gosh... I was really sick on the drive up. I know I tend to have motion sickness but it's a first going up to Cameron - I didn't have it in my past trips. Partially thanks to Kun Sam actually. He just refuses to seat in his car seat. He has somehow learned to pull & kick & tug at the seat belt till it's so loose that he can squirm out of the seat belts & wriggle out of the car seat. I just can't describe it more accurately but suffice to say if I had left him to his own device he would have fallen out of the baby car seat & on the floor!
So I had no choice but to carry him. Bad move...
On top of the safety risk, he was just super hyper! I'm not sure if it's because he's super excited to be travelling & not cooped up at home or everything he sees out of the windscreen is just super interestingly new to him. He was jumping, clambering on & off my lap, peek at his dad over the rear-mirror, clamber to the window on the left & then to the right & the whole "process" repeats again. Golly... Upon reaching Ringlet, we just had to absolutely stop because I was really close to vomiting in the car! So Kun Sam... If you read this when you're older - you really owe mummy this!
Anyway, it was with much relief to all of us that we reached Heritage Hotel in Tanah Rata safely & me without vomitting. The hotel is ok... A bit old, but it's spacious & has all the basic things we need - fridge, TV & clean bathroom. That's more than enough for me.
After putting down our bags & enjoying the fresh cool air from our balcony (yes we had a balcony but not much of a view though... It's facing the car park though, so at least we get to see our car); we left the hotel for Brinchang. We drove around just to survey the area & start planning (loosely... not a regimental plan) where we want to go in the next few days.
We then took a walk at the Pasar Malam - bought some fried mushrooms & steams sweet potatoes for Kun Sam. Poor Kun Sam by then was so tired that he fell asleep on dede's shoulder as we walked around the stalls of the pasar malam. Finally we adjourned for dinner at one of the restaurants in Brinchang. We had steamboat! It was nicely cold - not too cold that you'll need a sweater but cool enough to want a nice hot steaming soup. Not to mention it was drizzling slightly. Parking was atrocious though. We waited for nearly half an hour for a space to park.
With Kun Sam asleep in the stroller we had a nice steamboat for 2 consisting of prawns, fish, pork fillet, pork balls, fish balls, vegetable, eggs, noodles etc. We were so stuffed! Not to mention tired. The 3 of us fell asleep almost immediately after washing up, changing & feeding Kun Sam!
Before heading up, we had dim sum for breakfast, then took a slow drive via the trunk road towards Bidor. Upon reaching there, we stopped by to have a quick lunch of "wu kok" (fried savoury yam dumplings) & wan tan noodles at the famous "Pun Chun". The "wu kok" was as good as we remembered, but the wan tan noodles is really not recommended. I'd rather have only "wu kok" for lunch & nothing else than to attempt eating the noodles again. Kun Sam had his teething biscuits - boy he loved them. He had 5 sticks in 1 sitting!
After lunch, we continued our journey up the highlands via Tapah. Gosh... I was really sick on the drive up. I know I tend to have motion sickness but it's a first going up to Cameron - I didn't have it in my past trips. Partially thanks to Kun Sam actually. He just refuses to seat in his car seat. He has somehow learned to pull & kick & tug at the seat belt till it's so loose that he can squirm out of the seat belts & wriggle out of the car seat. I just can't describe it more accurately but suffice to say if I had left him to his own device he would have fallen out of the baby car seat & on the floor!
So I had no choice but to carry him. Bad move...
On top of the safety risk, he was just super hyper! I'm not sure if it's because he's super excited to be travelling & not cooped up at home or everything he sees out of the windscreen is just super interestingly new to him. He was jumping, clambering on & off my lap, peek at his dad over the rear-mirror, clamber to the window on the left & then to the right & the whole "process" repeats again. Golly... Upon reaching Ringlet, we just had to absolutely stop because I was really close to vomiting in the car! So Kun Sam... If you read this when you're older - you really owe mummy this!
Anyway, it was with much relief to all of us that we reached Heritage Hotel in Tanah Rata safely & me without vomitting. The hotel is ok... A bit old, but it's spacious & has all the basic things we need - fridge, TV & clean bathroom. That's more than enough for me.
After putting down our bags & enjoying the fresh cool air from our balcony (yes we had a balcony but not much of a view though... It's facing the car park though, so at least we get to see our car); we left the hotel for Brinchang. We drove around just to survey the area & start planning (loosely... not a regimental plan) where we want to go in the next few days.
We then took a walk at the Pasar Malam - bought some fried mushrooms & steams sweet potatoes for Kun Sam. Poor Kun Sam by then was so tired that he fell asleep on dede's shoulder as we walked around the stalls of the pasar malam. Finally we adjourned for dinner at one of the restaurants in Brinchang. We had steamboat! It was nicely cold - not too cold that you'll need a sweater but cool enough to want a nice hot steaming soup. Not to mention it was drizzling slightly. Parking was atrocious though. We waited for nearly half an hour for a space to park.
With Kun Sam asleep in the stroller we had a nice steamboat for 2 consisting of prawns, fish, pork fillet, pork balls, fish balls, vegetable, eggs, noodles etc. We were so stuffed! Not to mention tired. The 3 of us fell asleep almost immediately after washing up, changing & feeding Kun Sam!
Friday, 11 November 2011
It's 11th November 2011 - Kun Sam is exactly 10 months old!
Wow! Time really flies. Not only 11-11-11 is a special day due to the many 1s; the significance to me is greater. Kun Sam is exactly 10 months old today! 11th Jan 2011.... 11-1-11...
I wonder if ppl celebrate 10-mths b'day? Hehe.... 1-yr birthday is juzz too normal & boring... ;-)
I wonder if ppl celebrate 10-mths b'day? Hehe.... 1-yr birthday is juzz too normal & boring... ;-)
Sunday, 30 October 2011
Pangkor Laut Resort
Day 1 at Pangkor Laut. This place is fantastic. If only it doesn't rain so much.
Kun Sam was fortunately behaving himself. He surprisingly allowed himself to be strapped in a lifejacket for the trip to Pangkor Laut too! He was so tired that he fell asleep half standing though, with his chin supported by my hand. :-)
Wish I can upload all the pix from here now, but alas I don't have the cable with me.
Jeez... It feels a little uncomfortable updating my blog in such a public space. Maybe I'll update when there are less people around me / after going back (hopefully I have the time!)
Can't wait to share all the beautiful pix of this area. If the pix didn't turn out nice, it's the camera & camera man. Definitely not because of this heavenly place.
p/s: heavenly if you can afford it... Not so heavenly if you can't! ;-)
Kun Sam was fortunately behaving himself. He surprisingly allowed himself to be strapped in a lifejacket for the trip to Pangkor Laut too! He was so tired that he fell asleep half standing though, with his chin supported by my hand. :-)
Wish I can upload all the pix from here now, but alas I don't have the cable with me.
Jeez... It feels a little uncomfortable updating my blog in such a public space. Maybe I'll update when there are less people around me / after going back (hopefully I have the time!)
Can't wait to share all the beautiful pix of this area. If the pix didn't turn out nice, it's the camera & camera man. Definitely not because of this heavenly place.
p/s: heavenly if you can afford it... Not so heavenly if you can't! ;-)
Friday, 21 October 2011
A Mother's Dilema: Am I Spoiling Him?
As much as I said I don't want to spoil my boy; sometimes it's quite hard keeping that resolve! It's indeed much easier said than done. Especially when he's your 1st and not to mention he came after many years of trying.
Last weekend, we went out to use up some cash vouchers we received as a present & what did we use it for? A "Bu Dao Ong" i.e. Self-righting-toy aka humpty-dumpty. Although it's only RM9.99, but still... is that spoiling him?
He loved it though... He laughed with glee when we hit it & the walrus-shaped bu dao ong bounced back tusk & all (no kidding, the bu dao ong is in the shape of a walrus with tusks!). It saved dede (daddy in Canto) a lot of effort when taking care of Kun Sam while mummy is on the computer working.
This week? Well, we're going for 2 coming trips as a family - Cameron & Pangkor. The hotel we're staying in Cameron has a pool as well, so I justified that it'll be great to bring Kun Sam swimming. Hence, we'll need a float! So off we went to buy a float. You can't imagine all the shapes, sizes, colours, cartoon characters etc that they have on floats now a days. We got the one that the middle of the tube had a seat so that he can sit in it rather than relying on his hands to cling to the float. I wanted the cute yellow duck that looked like the rubber ducky we float in bath tubs, but hubby said - "My son is not sitting on any Duck. He's no Duck!" (Cantonese nickname for a Gigolo is - you guessed it! - Duck). So we finally settled on a giraffe at RM14.
So.... am I spoiling him? He's only 9-months and look what I've already got for him! If I didn't control myself, I was sorely tempted to get him that push car in the shape of a tiger too (fortunately it costed RM140, so it was thankfully a huge turn-off)!
Now, the pertinent question - Am I Spoiling Him?
Last weekend, we went out to use up some cash vouchers we received as a present & what did we use it for? A "Bu Dao Ong" i.e. Self-righting-toy aka humpty-dumpty. Although it's only RM9.99, but still... is that spoiling him?
He loved it though... He laughed with glee when we hit it & the walrus-shaped bu dao ong bounced back tusk & all (no kidding, the bu dao ong is in the shape of a walrus with tusks!). It saved dede (daddy in Canto) a lot of effort when taking care of Kun Sam while mummy is on the computer working.
This week? Well, we're going for 2 coming trips as a family - Cameron & Pangkor. The hotel we're staying in Cameron has a pool as well, so I justified that it'll be great to bring Kun Sam swimming. Hence, we'll need a float! So off we went to buy a float. You can't imagine all the shapes, sizes, colours, cartoon characters etc that they have on floats now a days. We got the one that the middle of the tube had a seat so that he can sit in it rather than relying on his hands to cling to the float. I wanted the cute yellow duck that looked like the rubber ducky we float in bath tubs, but hubby said - "My son is not sitting on any Duck. He's no Duck!" (Cantonese nickname for a Gigolo is - you guessed it! - Duck). So we finally settled on a giraffe at RM14.
So.... am I spoiling him? He's only 9-months and look what I've already got for him! If I didn't control myself, I was sorely tempted to get him that push car in the shape of a tiger too (fortunately it costed RM140, so it was thankfully a huge turn-off)!
Now, the pertinent question - Am I Spoiling Him?
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