Trip to Kuantan- Day 1

We were all set to make a trip to Kuantan in April; but due to the whole fiasco with the maid, we were not sure whether it was still a good idea to go (i.e. without a maid to help out). Thank God we were fortunate enough to find someone who was available immediately (although it did cost us a lot of money). My mum is the kids' primary caregiver, and she insisted that she needed help to manage, so we went ahead to hire another maid, even though we were quite prepared to manage without one. 

Anyway, back to the Kuantan trip. And so, with God's providence, the trip was back on! 6 adults and 2 children- hehe. The drive there wasn't too bad, although certain parts of the highway had very windy roads and that was rather scary. The kids managed to get some sleep during the journey, and later when they finally reached their restless and cranky 'threshold', we arrived at our destination. Phew. 

Our 'home' for the next few days was the beautiful Hyatt Regency Kuantan. I decided to upgrade to a Seaview room, and wow, that was a really great decision. Check out the views from our balcony! We also got a good discount, since I re-booked one room under my mum-in-law's name (thus earning us a senior citizen's discount), and another room under my mum's name (apparently government pensioners get special rates too); so that was a nice surprise! The downside was we had to wait for AGES for the check-in to be sorted out, but since there was potential to save $$$; I waited really patiently...

Dinner that evening was at the famous Pak Su Seafood. The food was nice, but the whole experience left a really bitter taste in our mouth, as we were unceremoniously ripped off. My mum ordered a fish; we were told it would be 2.4 kg, and at RM150 per kg, that's already a whopping RM360- and that's just for the fish! When she went to pay the bill, she was told that the fish turned out to be 3.6kg, and so of course she protested! We should have been informed what the final weight of the fish was, BEFORE they went ahead to cook it. It was certainly unethical of them to do what they did- after all, having already eaten the fish, who could argue with them exactly how heavy it was to begin with?!?

Anyway, I happened to see my mum at the counter (she snuck off to pay the bill) and went to see what was going on; and when I found out what happened, I joined in to support her by kicking up an even bigger fuss (my mum was actually quite prepared to relent after a while). The culprit offered an RM30 discount; I said no and told him that I wanted to speak to the boss. He disappeared for a while, and then came back out, offering RM80; and I said no, round it up to RM100, which was the final discount we got in the end. On hindsight, I probably should have roped my Dad in for the 'fight' as well; we probably could have gotten a bigger discount!

Lesson learnt- ALWAYS verify the weight of fresh seafood before you commit to your order. As for Pak Su Seafood- NEVER AGAIN! >.<

Good riddance to bad rubbish!

We had no choice but to fire our 2nd maid in early March. I won't go into all the details here; since it won't do me any good dwelling on the matter.

In a nutshell, she found herself a boyfriend, slept with him, had a handphone, made calls to her friends from our house phone, snuck out and locked my mum and kids in the house, etc. AND she actually had the nerve to stage a suicide attempt in my house! Frankly, I really felt like slapping the living daylights out of her!! Words really cannot adequately describe how I felt about the whole thing.

We're really devastated that our maid experience so far has not been good; honestly, we really do treat them very well. Sigh.

For now, at least it's good riddance to bad rubbish!

Lion and Dragon dance!

A lion dance troupe performed at our condo during Chinese New Year, as has been the practice for the last few years. This year, there was an additional dragon dance, since it is the Year of the Dragon; and that was really quite special! 

We took videos of the performances and our little boy loves watching them over and over again. 

One thing that really irked me was the naughty children that was virtually 'torturing' the poor lion. Some kids were throwing oranges as the lion danced on the poles (so dangerous!); and the worst thing was the parents did not do anything to stop them! As you can see from the photo above, they walked right up to the lion and started manhandling the poor thing. All this while the performers were trying to keep up with the performance and all. Tsk tsk. Frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if the lion dance troupe refuses to come back next year! :p

Chinese New Year at Pavilion

There is always so much going on at Pavilion. The United Buddy Bears were there recently- check out the cool photos!

The United Buddy Bears are an international art exhibition with more than 140 two metre tall fibreglass bears. Under the motto: 'We have to get to know each other better, it makes us understand one another better, trust each other more, and live together more peacefully'; more than 140 countries acknowledged by the United Nations are represented, promoting tolerance, international understanding and the great concept of different nations and cultures living in peace and harmony.

The Chinese New Year decorations were spectacular, as always! The dragon really does look quite fearsome, eh? :p

Celebrating hubby's birthday!

We celebrated hubby's birthday this year at Monte's, BSC. Time really flies! Birthdays always seem to arrive so quickly. What, another year gone already? 

Yummy pasta...

Happy birthday to my dearest hubby! You're absolutely the best!

Trip to Putrajaya!

We wrapped up 2011 with a 3D/2N stay at the Pullman Putrajaya. The kids had never been to a beach before, and I found out that there was this small man-made beach at the Pullman, and so we decided to make a trip there. Haha, sad I know. But there really aren't that many beach destinations that one can go to at the end of the year, no thanks to the monsoon season.

We had lunch when we arrived at the hotel, since the room was not yet ready. Food at the restaurant- named B's- was not very nice. Expensive, and yet not nice. :p

When we finally got to see our room, I was really rather shocked. The floor looked old and dusty- and there were stains everywhere! I think it wasn't really 'dirty' per se; it just felt that way because there were stains and the room just felt really really tired. It did feel rather yucky to be walking around barefoot, and I was beginning to dread staying there for the next 2 nights!

While waiting for our luggage to be sent up, I thought about it and decided to make a call to the front desk, asking the guy who checked us in (who was really very nice and helpful) to have a look at the room and to check if it had indeed been cleaned. I hoped that we would be given another room; and to our delight, we were upgraded to a suite at no extra charge! Fabulous! That really made all the difference. Praise God!

The kids really enjoyed themselves at the beach. The sand was coarse and the water looked rather yucky; but I guess everyone still managed to have a decent time.

We had dinner the first evening at 'The Village' and the food was really good. Very expensive, but at least it was yummy! All 3 main courses were superb. Thinking about that meal makes me hungry!

Clock tower at the Pullman Putrajaya

The next day, we opted to go on the Putrajaya Lake Cruise, which was quite nice. Our little girl was charming everyone on board, and our little boy was so excited watching the captain steer the boat! Haha. We saw some interesting buildings and structures on the cruise as well, such as the 'steel mosque' below.

In the late afternoon, we went to the beach again, but it started raining only after a while so we had to leave. We decided to head to Alamanda Putrajaya (the only shopping mall in Putrajaya I think), to have dinner and walk around a bit. I even managed to do some shopping, and the kids enjoyed themselves on some kiddie rides so all was well. 

When we got back to the hotel, we had some fun at the pool table (it was free since it was still early), and that was a great experience for the kids. We plonked our little boy on a high chair and gave him a cue, and he was happily pushing the balls into the pockets! It was so cute watching both of them at the pool table.

All in all, we had quite a nice trip, mostly thanks to the upgraded room, which made our stay a whole lot more comfortable. We couldn't do that much- since we were travelling with young kids- but I'm quite sure they had fun nevertheless!

Christmas chow...

I made smoked salmon pizzas for Christmas Eve dinner, and they turned out really well! Was so pleased :)

Blessed Christmas everyone!

Christmas at Pavilion

Pavilion usually has one of the coolest Christmas decorations- perfect for photo opportunities! Isn't this just so sweet?

We took the kids for a ride on the carousel; so that was good fun. We wanted to ride in the teacup but some other kids beat us to it. Drat.

Publika playground!

There's a new shopping mall in our area! Publika is the name. I'm still wondering why we have 3 malls in such a small area, but that's another story I suppose...

Check out this cool playground! We bought the kids there the other day, and it was their first time on a swing (yeah, sad I know :p).

Arty-farty playground, eh? :)

5th Wedding Anniversary!

We celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary recently; time flies- 5 years already! We took the day off to spend some time hanging out- just the 2 of us. I was very excited at the thought of our outing and spent ages planning what to do that day, as well as how to use some of the vouchers that I purchased online! Haha.

Hubby got me these- I love the perfume, and isn't the bottle just too cute? He sent the flowers to my office the day before our anniversary, so that was a sweet gesture. :)

We started the day with breakfast at Jalan Imbi- yummy bak kut teh! We were sooo stuffed after that though. We then went to Pavilion to do some shopping before heading off to catch a movie. I was so disappointed that there weren't any shows that we really wanted to watch, so we ended up just choosing something that hopefully wouldn't be too bad. And so.. we watched Petaling Street Warriors. Hmmm. I certainly wouldn't watch that again. :p

Next up was a late lunch at Tenjin, Grand Millennium hotel, where we used the Groupon I purchased. The food was really delicious. The sashimi was very fresh, and even the simple green tea ice-cream was superb! I would certainly not hesitate returning to Tenjin to dine.

We had a spa appointment at Solaris Dutamas next; again, we made use of some vouchers. Hehe. Overall the experience was quite ok; although I probably wouldn't go for a body mask again- it just feels too sticky and uncomfortable. We were pressured to sign up for a package after we were done, but we managed to 'escape' in the end, so that was ok.

For dinner, we initially considered trying out a luxurious degustation menu at Millesime, but since it would probably take too much time, plus we weren't sure if Chef Max Chin would be cooking, so in the end we just ended up having a simple and quick dinner at OverTime. Hardly romantic, and the food was so-so, but we were quite tired and my tummy wasn't feeling 100%, so I guess it was the best choice.

A rare day out just by ourselves! 

Thank you dear God for 5 wonderful years together; and we humbly ask that you grant us many many more blessed years of walking with each other, and with You. Amen.