My take on the recent Kuching trip

We have found that every time AJ is on holiday away from his familiar surrounding for an extended period, he grows and becomes more mature.  The first time when we brought him back to Kuching for a month when he was 2, we noticed a significant improvement in his speech.  He went there with ability of only word speaking to phrase speaking.  This time, his Mandarin has improved profoundly.  Although we speak only Mandarin to him at home, prior to this trip, he often replied either with full English or half English/Mandarin.  You just can never underestimate the influence of daycare.  But he now speaks very fluent Mandarin we could literally have a long chat with him in full Mandarin. Amazing what one month away from home can do!

Apart from the language, we also noticed a change in his attitude.  He has become more reasonable and understanding.  We were so pleased that he got along so well with his cousins albeit their reasonably big age gaps.  He especially liked to stick around his “koko” throughout that one month.  The first thing he woke up in the morning, he looked for “koko”.  

There were a few milestones we wanted AJ to achieve in this trip and I thought he did well.  He is now more accustomed to the Chinese New Year celebration, from being afraid of lion dance, fire crackers/fireworks to wanting to dance the lion himself!  LOL.  He loves "bak gua" and "keropok" (surprise surprise!).  The swimming part.....well....I am pleased with the effort he has put in but I say give him a bit more time!

My next plan is to introduce AJ to his one and only maternal cousin, 5 years his senior living in Perth whom he has yet to meet in person.  It would be interesting to see how the two get on although I am confident that they would get along just fine!

And of course, the moral of this story is....to plan more tripsssss!  LOL

Damai Puri Resort getaway

This was planned as a family (in-laws) weekend getaway.  It was good to have a break from the hustle bustle and put the mind at ease with sun, sand and sea.  

As soon as we got ourselves settled in our hotel rooms, we dashed out to the swimming pool for some water fun albeit the scorching sun at 2pm.  Oh yes, we wasted no time.  We then ran down to the beach to get some wave and sand therapy.  And I got myself a soft tan by end of the day!  LOL

Coincidentally, it was also my nephew’s 7^th birthday. 

This nephew of mine is all crazy about Power Rangers right now, and he even designed his birthday cake in Power Rangers theme. 

Beautiful, isn’t it?  I applauded his dedication and attention to details. 

We then decided to give him a SPECIAL birthday treat....

The birthday boy turned mermaid! And only then we realised we should have left half of his body out.  We all got too excited you see.  The brains just stopped thinking, all of us!  LOLOL

Anyway, after we all done running, splashing and laughing by the beach, it was time for food.  There were quite a few options available at Damai but we eventually opted for the food court which offered home-y hawker style food.  And glad that we did.  We were all gushing at how good the food were.  Rick and I were so “suaku” (i.e. out-of-date) we were intrigued at some of the food that we have never heard of.  We were like:” Huh?  Roti tissue?  OMG, What’s that?” or “Nasi Ayam Penyet?????” LOLOLOL  Yeah, I reckon we should go back more often too!

After treating our stomach, we had a good walk along the coast before heading back to our hotel where a birthday celebration was awaited.  Of course, the cake designed by the birthday boy didn’t materialise.  It was just too hard to make.  Nonetheless, that upset him NOT!  He was one happy child with the cake his parents made for him and the Power Rangers pressies/ang pow from all of us!  We all love you, Tyrone!

We finished off the night with some champagne and wine over multiple sessions of boardgame King of Tokyo fighting monsters to our heart’s content!

The next morning, we enjoyed some hearty buffet breakfast before we headed down to the beach one more time.

I really enjoyed this beach sortie.  We should do that more often!

Our brief Miri weekend

We made a trip back to my hometown, which I no longer go back often since my parents’ move to Kuching.  3 nights, not much but I managed to catch up with the usual bunch of friends and relatives.  As soon as we touched down at Miri airport on Friday evening, we were swept away to a big relatives gathering of my mum-in-law’s side.  Big bunch of great people, lip smacking food and some gentle gambling fun (the CNY tradition of course!) to the wee hours.  And where are the pictures?  Geez, we forgot to take any! (-_-)

Then, the next day is all about visiting relatives from my father-in-law’s, and once again stomach stuffed to the max by the end of the day.  Going on any longer I will explode! LOL

I caught up with my old neighbour/friend/sister over a coffee at Tea Leaf.  She suggested bringing me to her parents’ house for a visit.  The house that’s now part of one I once called home.  They have been living there since day 1 and since becoming owner of my old house they have done some renovation merging the two terrace houses into one but I have never had a chance to visit till this day.  So with great honour, I was brought to walk down the memory lane.  The feeling was incredible, completely nostalgic being in “my home” again.  I could still vividly paint the picture of where my lounge was, and the corner where my piano used to be although the rest were kind of unrecognisable due to the entire facelift.  And, and…their swing is still there, in all its glory!

And while I was happy having some time off catching up with friends, AJ had a great time by the beach with the rest of the family albeit under the red hot scorching sun.  There were digging out the sand bubbler crabs, playing sand, teasing mimosa etc…all the fun stuff that are now long forgotten as we all buried in a sea of tech-y gadgets these days.  It is quite a sad reality.  Kids should be out exploring and getting dirty rather than being a slave to gadgets don’t you think?  Although we don’t let smartphone/pc games/tablet take over AJ’s life, he has got mountain of toys.  For this, I am guilty as charged.  Really, we should appreciate the nature more, know them and love them.  I sound like a Greenpeace activist huh!  Seriously, I do mean it.

I really really love this pic

Introducing mimosa to AJ!

On Sunday evening, I had a great get together with my old school mates at the cosy home of Alicia’s.  There were hell lot of laughter and jokes (the usual us!).  Man had I stayed a little longer (we were laughing till almost midnight!), my whole face would have ended up having 6 packs or even more. LOL. The two little ones certainly contributed quite a fair share.  It was AJ’s first time meeting with Vanessa of same age and the two hit it off right away!  It was an awesome night.

Love you all

I know right, the sweetest hug

It was nice to meet y'all and certainly good to be back in Miri albeit brief.  Till we meet again!

Welcoming the year of the snake in Kuching

The main purpose of this trip was to celebrate Chinese New Year with family and to appreciate the ambience that we have missed for many many years. In fact, being married for 7 years, that was my first Chinese New Year with my in-laws (you can see why my mum-in-law have been nagging us! LOL) and also AJ’s first exposure back home.  We had very merry and warmth reunion dinner at home.  The ambience was just perfect not to mention the scrumptious food my mother in law and sis in law had prepared.

I was amazed by the amount of food/cookies/cakes etc that my in-laws had prepared for the occasion. It was massive! To be frank, celebrating CNY at my in-laws had reminded me of how much I used to love CNY. Just when I thought people nowadays were moving away from the full-on whole shebang celebration, I had regained that long lost feeling of excitement and joy in celebrating this important occasion.

On the first day of CNY, my sis-in-law brought us to her boss’s open home affair and to watch the impressive lion dance performed by a group of 9 lions.  They danced for as long as 1 hour! OMG! Then the next few days was all about visiting, ang pows giving and sinful food.

Brotherhood

Oh the cheerful 財神爺

How could we not camwhore on this day when everyone has a license to dress up?

Cousins

And as part of the family CNY tradition, we took family portrait.  This time with the 3 of us in!

We got carried away.....obviously LOL

Ulala~~

The kids with the grannies

Ladies in da house!

Sisters!  With my sis in law and 幹姐姐-in-law (so complicated.  LOL)