Langkawi- Day 1

Hubby and I had the opportunity to head off to Langkawi for a short break early this month. We didn't bring the little one; my mum kindly agreed to babysit him overnight for a few days, so we could have a less stressful holiday.

I spent a lot of time planning the trip (it's an obsession of mine), to make the most of the time we had. We were there for 4 days and 3 nights- all in all, it was a rather nice break- except for the weather, which was waaaaay too hot!

The flight to Langkawi was a slightly delayed, but that was ok. I bumped into a colleague who was also going to Langkawi- with twin babies in tow! 3 adults with 2 babies- wow. For a moment there I really felt bad about leaving the baby at home. Yikes.

Anyway, we touched down and proceeded to rent a car to get around Langkawi. Driving around Langkawi is really easy actually, except that one needs to watch out for the animals that might be crossing the road, heh. We drove to Langkawi Fair Mall, which apparently is the biggest mall on the island.. which turned out to be really really small. Okay- guess we have to cut them some slack and not compare the malls there with the ones in KL.

We had lunch at a quaint little cafe filled with paintings, which were also for sale, incidentally.

Lunch at Arts Cafe

After lunch, we drove to Dataran Lang, which was on the way to our hotel- The Westin Langkawi Resort & Spa. I rarely go outdoors, so this trip really reminded me of how hot and humid Malaysia is. Gosh. Walking around under the scorching sun is seriously uncomfortable. No wonder I tend to stick to cooler destinations for holidays!

Did you know? The name Langkawi is a combination of “Lang” and “Kawi”. “Lang” comes from the Malay word helang meaning eagle and Kawi means red or brown. Hence, the gigantic statue of a brown eagle at Dataran Lang.. =)

We headed for the hotel after taking a few photos at Dataran Lang; it was just too hot to hang around outdoors. We arrived early, but they managed to sort out our check-in so we could get some rest. Service was great- we were given cold face towels and refreshing drinks to cool off while we waited to be checked-in. Nice.

We were so warm and tired that we seriously considered staying in for the rest of the day- haha. Still, we managed to drag ourselves out of bed after a short nap, although it wasn't easy! We then drove all the way to the Oriental Village to take the cable car up Gunung Machincang. It was almost closing time so there wasn't a queue, which was nice. The ride up was s-c-a-r-y! The cable car swayed so much in the wind, and it was unnerving seeing the cables swing up and down with the attached cable cars bobbing along with them.

There is also a cool-looking suspension bridge that one can check out, but we decided it was too far a walk to get to, plus it was getting late and we had dinner reservations elsewhere.

We had dinner at La Sal, a restaurant at Casa Del Mar, a pretty little hotel situated on Pantai Cenang. Our table was on the beach, with a lovely view of the sunset. The ambience was really nice and romantic.. until the sun disappeared in the horizon.

After that, we were attacked by mosquitoes (although the restaurant did provide repellant) and the night turned warm and muggy. And there was no longer any breeze! Darn. Should have remembered my Geography lessons on 'bayu laut' and 'bayu darat' ... :p

Ah well. And how was the food?

The appetizer we ordered was really yummy- Deep Fried Kataifi Prawns on Avocado, Grapefruit, Mango Salsa with Curry Lime Mayo. Too bad there were only 2 prawns though- and this cost RM39!

Hubby's Australian Beef Fillet with Chive Mash, Beans, Watercress, Hollandaise & Shallot Jus was wonderful. The beef was tender and just right. An excellent choice indeed!

I ordered the Seared Sesame Tuna with Edamame Potato, Asparagus & Bean Salad & Wasabi Aioli. I made the mistake of ordering it 'well-done' (didn't want to risk eating anything raw-ish while on holiday, given my sensitive tummy), which meant it turned out like a thick slab of tuna instead- way too 'dense' for my liking. Sigh, what a waste. I can imagine how wonderful it would have tasted just seared. Arrrghh!

On the upside- the Edamame Potato was delicious...

Ushering in the Year of the Tiger

It's baby's first Chinese New Year, and we had the opportunity to travel back to Ipoh this time. So exciting! It's been a while since I've joined my family for the reunion dinner (mum-in-law decided she didn't want to cook this year hence the chance to go back to Ipoh earlier), and I was really looking forward to it. Plus it was a chance to introduce our little darling to the clan.. what fun!

We were a tad worried that the little one fuss or freak out at meeting so many strangers, but he was really really well behaved. He enjoyed playing with the children, ate and slept well, so that was a real blessing. My only gripe with the whole trip really was that it was just waaaaay too hot! The heat was simply unbearable. Gosh.

After a couple of days away, we were so glad to be heading for home. The trip turned out great- with good traffic and good food, but home is still the best, eh? :)

Our little tiger :)

Happy Chinese New Year!

9+ months on...

So much has happened over the last few months!

• First tooth made an appearance in December. Up till now, he still only has one tooth. The other one can't seem to break through the gums! Hmm.
• As a prelude to crawling, he learnt to 'swim' on his tummy to propel himself forwards. Hilarious!
• After a bout of 'swimming', he's finally learnt how to crawl, and since then, he's been going places! He now realises he's a lot more mobile and is always trying to wriggle about and climb over all kinds of stuff. It's getting a lot more tiring to watch him these days. Changing his diaper can be a workout in itself! Wow, wonder what it would be like when he learns to walk and run...
• Oh, and he can pull himself up to a standing position too!
• Strangely, he likes to burrow the back of his head into the pillow and mumbles 'mmmm' when he's about to sleep. He also likes to place something soft against his lips (e.g. pajama sleeve, bolster, etc) as he drifts off to sleep- just like his mummy!
• We're trying to teach him to feed himself with a spoon. You can imagine the mess he makes! But I guess we should not stop trying, eh?
• For some reason he's started to dislike drinking water. Not even from a bottle. We've tried various different cups, but to no avail. Sigh. The best way appears to be feeding him with a spoon, but I think he spits out more than he takes. He likes to go 'boooo' and 'phhpppt', and loves seeing the water spray all over the place! Naughty fella :p
• We've taken him swimming a couple of times- he seems to enjoy it. Nice :)
• He's quite fascinated with little things like labels, strings, ribbons, wheels, screws, etc. Give him a toy and he'll play with the label. Haha.
• Loves tugging his own socks off. Absolutely hilarious to watch.
• He's learnt to play with his tongue- stick it out and roll it about in his mouth. And he can 'flip' it too! Just like mummy :p

Ever since he started crawling, things seem to move along much faster- his development I mean :)

Latest Recipe at Le Meridien KL

We recently took a day off from work to spend some time together. My mum kindly agreed to babysit while we had fun, so that was really nice.

We watched 2 movies- 'Legion' (which was errrr... rather strange) and 'Sherlock Holmes' (which was absolutely great). That was followed by a Thai massage, which was not too bad, but not relaxing enough. Think I should just stick to aromatherapy massages.

Anyway, we capped the day off with a fantastic buffet dinner at Latest Recipe, Le Meridien KL. A special seafood buffet was featured for the month of January, and we had a marvellous time tucking into the prawns, scallops, abalone, oysters, and so much more!

The fresh oysters were plump and juicy; I should have eaten more at the beginning of the meal because it's just impossible to enjoy something as raw and slimy as oysters on a full-ish stomach. Made me gag when I had some more later in the meal. I loved the tapas- not many choices, but there was one featuring a whole scallop coated with sesame seeds which was really nice.

The seafood teppanyaki was a little bit on the salty side (too much sauce I suppose); could have been much nicer if we ate it with the garlic fried rice.. but hey, eating too much carbo is a waste at buffets!

I was sold the minute I saw the 3 chocolate fountains- check out the plump strawberries!

Yummy!

I didn't fancy having salad (what a waste of stomach space) even though the dressings were creatively presented and looked oh-so-yummy. Talk about trying to get diners to eat their vegetables. Haha!

Test tubes?

Hand lotion, anyone? (The orange liquid is actually thousand island dressing..)

Although I didn't have rice, I succumbed to the call of the pasta station. A few strands of squid ink fettucine, with small chunks of all things seafood, served in a creamy pesto sauce. Nice. So much for the no-carbo rule at buffets. Sigh.

I loved the desserts at Latest Recipe as well. Having 3 chocolate fountains certainly caters to everyone (unless you don't like chocolate of course); after all most people usually prefer one type of chocolate to another. And the strawberries were large and juicy so that was a huge plus.

Also, the teppanyaki ice-cream counter was so much fun! You can choose all the different stuff you want to mix in with your choice of ice-cream flavours. There were all kinds of nuts, dried apricots, dried apple slices, raisins, wafers (remember those shaped like a fan?), M&Ms, marshmallows, chocolate balls, chocolate chips, sprinkles.... the list goes on. The teppanyaki ice-cream turns out a bit like 'rojak' but it's really quite nice tasting the creamy ice-cream with bits to nibble inside.

Spoilt for choice!

While waiting for the teppanyaki ice-cream I saw this.. so cute isn't it?

But should one just take the chocolate, or the whole spoon? Haha :)

We used the complimentary dining voucher from my Starwood Privilege Card so it was really worth it. Otherwise it would have cost us RM118++ per person!

We really really enjoyed ourselves at dinner. I was still thinking about the yummy seafood for days afterwards!

My new Starwood Privilege Card

After mulling over it for the longest time, we finally decided to sign up for the Starwood Privilege Card. The benefits appeared really attractive, and I wanted to get it on time to utilise some of the benefits for hubby's birthday.

At RM620 for a 13-mth membership, we get to enjoy:
- One complimentary dining certificate for 2 at Le Meridien KL
- One complimentary dining certificate for 2 at Sheraton Imperial KL
- One complimentary dining certificate for 2 at The Westin KL
- Dining benefits (2 pax 50% off, 3 pax 33% off and so on)
- One night complimentary stay at any of the 3 Starwood hotels above
and much more!

We've since used one of the complimentary dining certificates- more about that in my next post! We're also planning a trip in early March, and I tried to utilise one of the accommodation benefits, but I was a bit miffed to find out that I could not do so, due to some conditions that I didn't know about. Hmmph. Oh well, we got another deal that seemed quite reasonable so hopefully it works out after all.

Celebrating hubby's birthday with dinner at Duck King

We celebrated hubby's birthday recently with a simple meal at Duck King. It was a weekday so a simple dinner was all we could do.

Food was relatively nice, but it was a bit tough to really enjoy the meal because the little one was fussing quite a bit. Fortunately my parents came along, so we managed to take turns eating.

Eating duck at Duck King is a no-brainer..

Frog legs- way too salty! And the photo is not blur- that's steam..

Loved this dish- I have a thing for 'tau kan'! =)

Got a lovely birthday cake from Fatboy for hubby, which was simply delicious. Nutty Boozey Spencer- so chocolatey and stuffed with macadamia nuts! Yum...

Strawberries were our own... :)

A home-cooked meal for Christmas

I don't cook much, so it was great fun (although it was a tad stressful) to do a bit of cooking for Christmas. Nothing fancy really, just some simple fare. I wouldn't say the meal was a resounding success, but I guess the food was edible. Or my family was just being polite. Hmm.

I made a Seared Scallop Salad, although the scallops were anything but seared. Darn. I think they just kind of 'boiled' in the butter. I always find it so hard to cook scallops (not that I try often; those things are much too expensive for me to keep getting wrong, haha). Anyway, the salad wasn't too bad- with scallops, walnuts, pears and rocket leaves, the different tastes and textures went quite well together.

For the main course I made pasta- with homemade pesto and bacon and mushrooms. Yummy! The pesto was a pain to make because I had so much trouble finding basil leaves, plus my blender was too small so I had to make them in batches.

With some simple cheese and smoked salmon on crackers plus a delicious 'cocktail' of Malibu rum and pineapple juice, I guess it was a decent meal after all. Ah well, by my standards anyway.

Christmas around KL

Being the little one's first Christmas, we made the effort to trawl the malls to show him some bright lights and Christmas decorations. Not that Christmas is about all that of course, but we thought it might be a good way to entertain him.

Pavilion was our first stop- lovely decorations with a red and gold theme.

Fountain outside Pavilion

Cute!

Gardens opted for a pretty winter garden theme, complete with white butterflies and lamp posts (Narnia?), although I felt the area decorated was a bit too small.

Not your usual Christmas carollers =)

MidValley went for a medieval theme- with castles and princesses and all. Interesting.

Here are some photos taken at The Curve...

Check out Ikano's Underwater Christmas! Cute.

Best of all? Our humble little Christmas tree, set of specially for our little darling.

Our 3rd wedding anniversary!

We celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary on Dec 2nd. The past year has been eventful- preparing for the arrival of our little one, celebrating his arrival in April, and watching him grow over the past few months. Hubby is simply amazing; he is such a great husband and father. Watching him care for and interact with our child makes me thank God even more for this wonderful gem of a husband...

My mum was kind enough to watch the little one while we went for a quiet dinner that day. We opted for Michaelangelo's at Solaris Mont Kiara, after reading an article about the restaurant. The food sounded good, plus there were some offers for Citibank credit card holders, so off we went.

Lovely flowers from hubby..

...that came in a nifty cardboard 'vase'!

A reproduction of Michaelangelo's 'The Creation of Adam' in the Sistine Chapel

For starters, we had the Carpaccio Filetto- paper thin sliced beef topped with shaved parmesan, rocket salad and mushrooms. Absolutely delicious! We ate every last morsel on the plate in record time. Looks like there were lots on the plate, but the beef really was paper thin. Yummy! :)

Hubby had the Aragosta Alla Pomodoro- half lobster cooked in a spicy, creamy tomato sauce, topped with cheese and served on a bed of spaghetti. Very nice as well.

Can't recall the exact name of the pasta I had- but it was nice and tangy with lots of capsicum and tomatoes, topped with slices of smoked duck. The smoky flavour from the duck balanced the tangy flavours quite nicely; it tasted a bit sweet towards the end (the effects of diminishing marginal utility I suppose) but the pasta portion was quite manageable so it was fine overall.

Chocolate lava cake with ice cream.. fabulous way to end a lovely meal!

Michaelangelo's is definitely a place we would go back to.

May the Lord continue to watch over our marriage and family... Soli Deo Gloria! :)

A weekend in Bukit Tinggi

Hubby organised a company weekend away recently to Bukit Tinggi, and all of us tagged along. And when I mean all of us- I really mean ALL of us. Hubby, myself, baby, my parents, his mum, and our domestic helper. 6 adults to 1 baby, haha.

It was really really great to have all the help. Travelling with a baby is no mean feat, I tell you. Seemed like we had to pack the entire bathroom and kitchen on his account!

Colmar Tropicale looked ok on the outside- this 'French village' was definitely nothing to shout about, but entertaining enough for a short stay with a baby (since babies are quite easily amused anyway). It was really just that one street, and that was it. It was nice and cool that day, so at least that was a plus.

We set our expectations really low after reading all the bad reviews online about the Colmar Tropicale hotel rooms. We occupied 2 rooms between the 7 of us; the one bedroom suite was decent and spacious, but the family room was rather awful. Especially the bathroom. Ewww. I shudder just thinking about it. Plus, there was some awful karaoke going on until late at night so I barely got any sleep. Throw in a cranky baby and well.. you can imagine. Thank God it was just for one night.

Resident swan at Colmar Tropicale

There were a few game stalls on the main street, and since there was not much to do, we had quite a bit of fun (and spent a lot of money I think) playing the silly games and trying to win prizes. I think the one who had the most fun was my mum! Haha.

Our cute prizes =)

The next day we popped by the rabbit farm; nothing much there, but hey, it was for the kid. Next was a trip to the bowling alley, where I bowled the worst game of my life... *shy*

It was a really tiring weekend for all of us, even the little one- who was still sleeping off the excitement for a few days after we got home!