Sunday, September 30, 2012

Lembing - The nostalgia

Lembing has its unique charm that caught my attention. It resembles my home town in a way in the 80s 90s. My home town has since developed at an amazing way that the traditional architecture gradually being replaced by the westernized designs.
Malay style kampung house 1
Malay style kampung house 2
Animals running between two houses.
Wooden shop houses
The old style association building

Saturday, September 29, 2012

Lembing Escape 林明 : Rainbow Waterfall & Panorama Hill

When we arrived at Lembing from Terengganu, it was time to go to bed. Below photo was our lodging for the trip.

Just kidding, someone else got the privilege, with a toddler in tow it was just not practical to stay in a tree house.

First destination : Rainbow Waterfall. Breakfast at 6am then we were transported in two 4 wheels. The journey lasted around one hour and I certainly do not miss the jumpy bumpy trip. I literally had to prevent myself from falling down.

As usual, no pain no gain. After the one hour bumpy ride + 45 minutes trekking, we were welcome with a peaceful waterfall.

We were told that when the sun arises, we would see the rainbow.

Well, there was no rainbow that day, but it didn't prevent us from having fun.

Showering under the waterfall.

Enjoying the waterfall.

One of the tour guides prepared hot milo (hot chocolate) and instant noodles for us. Hubby found it weird to have instant noodles in this location, but the kids were happy to have them.

The second morning, we went to Panorama Hill for its famous sunrise scenery. This was what we aimed to see.

We had to climb many stairs before arriving. Well, hubby went wandering around the day before and did the hiking within 19 minutes. As for us, it took us around 45 minutes.
And we saw this. It was below expectation but we did have fun. I especially enjoyed the morning market and the breakfast after.

Kuala Terengganu

We didn't have much time in Kuala Terengganu. All I remembered was the delicious dinner in the China Town, yellow sandy beaches along the coast and the comfortable jacuzzi in our hotel room.



Source
On the way to Lembing we vaguely saw this animal crossing the road. What a surprise! A Tapir in the wild.

Belum-Temenggor Escape - The special moments

The satisfying moment : arrived after half an hour hiking to a hill

The rewarding moment : enjoying the scenic views

The bonding moment: connecting with the cousins

The catching moment: he caught them with elastics, they were supposed to serve as bait for fishing

The flying moment: at one point the boat was flying

The encountering moment :Aelig first encounter with a Orang Asli (indigenous)

The tropical moment: the tropical rain visited the island after 5 minutes of strong wind

The sharing moment: not sure if it tasted better this way

The babysitting moment : shuttering around the kids

The mouthwatering moment : steamboat!

The napping moment : please do not disturb

The lonely moment : surrounded with islands without inhabitants, she is all by herself

Thursday, September 27, 2012

A dialog

Hubby and Aelig were going down the stairs. Hubby wanted to make sure that he didn't forget the car key so he was searching in every pocket.

Aelig: Le fone?
Daddy: Quoi (what)?
Aelig: *incomprehensible baby garble* .. le fone?
Daddy: Je ne comprends pas (I don't understand).
Aelig: *A bit annoyed* Dian Hua Lah (telephone + lah in mandarin)
Daddy: Ah, je cherche mon téléphone (ah I'm looking for my cellphone)?
Aelig: Oui *thinking finally he understood me*
Daddy: Non, je cherche ma clé de voiture (no I'm looking for my car key)
Aelig: Ah

She is speaking Malaysian mandarin with the "lah" at the end. :-)

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

2 years 9 months

Beside traveling in Malaysia, this month's highlight is the beginning of school life for Aelig. She has been in school since last week. Grandma was with us to help her slowly integrate into the school schedule.

Today is the first day we start the her going to school and us going to work life without help. So how did it go? Around 6pm, I received a call from the school.

School: Hi madam, your daughter is still at school, is it normal?
Me: Yes, she is supposed to stay till 6.30pm.
School: Well, the teacher didn't tell me that she would stay after school finishes. And your daughter didn't get to have snack since I didn't have anything from you. And, all she does is crying.
Me: Ok, I'm coming.

I met up with hubby and hurried to the school. Aelig was the last kid to be picked up. We have subscribed to the yearly after-school nursery class but since the teacher was busy this morning, hubby didn't tell her that it would start today. The snack box was placed beside Aelig's bag but the teacher didn't notice it. The after-school baby sitter advised us to pick up Aelig earlier as going to school 10 hours a day is just too much for a young kid like her. She encouraged us to find someone to bring her home when school finishes at around 5pm.

All these kids get picked at 5.30pm at the latest except Aelig. Our sitter doesn't provide after-school pick-up service like some do. Either one of us leave work at 5pm or hire someone to pick her up at 5pm then stay with her till we come home. Headache.

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Company activities

We had a week of Wellbeing@work activities at work, and one of the events was a cocktail lunch held in our future new building. Here are some common French cocktail serving "Canapé" (couch), a type of finger food.
We started with some appetizers. These were pieces of bread with foam toppings.
Some vegetables with dipping sauce. I had seen these being served in US too.
Sandwiches. Sardine sandwiches are quite popular when having party in Malaysia but uncommon in France.
Sweet breads stuffed with crabmeats.
Ciders and softdrinks.
Some were served in a spoon so that you can put it directly in your mouth.
Ham with cheese.
These should be considered a serving in the main course. I was busy chatting so I'm not sure if I took all the servings in photos.
Scallops in cream sauce, my favorite.
Desserts. Noticed that there was only one macaron left. I took the last one, too sweet.
Another activities was family visiting to the company. It is not a common activity in France so I invited Aelig to go to "work" with me. She was intrigued and had been waiting for the day to come.
There were some snacks and she ate a lot. She even complained when the other kid finished a type of chips.

Saturday, September 15, 2012

Raclette with family

Before leaving to Malaysia I asked my sister what she would like to have from France. To my surprise, she told me if I could bring the raclette set, as she loved the dish the last time she tasted it in my place. I didn't even remember that I had prepared this dish for them, as my parents are not keen on cheese based food.


We went to Carrefour and managed to get most of the ingredients. My sister found cornichon (gherkin, a type of pickled cucumber) in a local store.


Everyone seemed to love it, even my parents tried. Hubby said the ham, the bacon and the sausages were quite authentic to those in France. I smuggled in the raclette cheese from France, but they could find it in Cold Storage in Malaysia. All the ingredients are quite pricey though.


At one point we wonder if we could cook an egg with this raclette set.


Yes we could, it just takes longer time to cook.


Hubby joined in the conversation without my help. He has blended in and I'm very proud of him. :-)