A Short Break at Genting Highland

This was Iman's 1st holiday. Like she cares right. Actually, it was JD's idea. If it was up to me, I'd wait until Iman can walk just like Honey's 1st holiday. So off we went to Genting because we thought Honey would enjoy it. Of course we do know that even spending time at Kidzoona would make Honey happy. Fine, just a playground nearby would satisfy Honey.

Ok back to the plan, I guess why not. It'd be such an experience to bring a baby for a holiday, even a short one. As my principle when it comes to a holiday, the more the merrier, so I asked Kak Ty & Apit to join us.

We all sampai pukul 12. Boleh terus check in. But we decided to head directly to the indoor theme park. As expected, Honey enjoyed most of the ride.


In fact, all of us enjoyed the ride.


Lepas main & lunch, hampir pukul 3, kitorang pun ke bilik. Pukul 5, keluar balik, sambung main & dinner. 7:45pm balik bilik.

Pukul 9pm, JD & Honey keluar berdua jalan-jalan.


Tinggal lah Mama & Iman yang dah tido.


I guess this is the typical family holiday with a baby. Cannot be together all the time. Huhuu, ni yang buat rasa cepat lah Iman besar. Just like JD said, there are many activities we can do there besides enjoying the theme park like watching movie & playing bowling. Tapi kene lah tunggu budak2 besar dulu kan. Baru lah sesuai.

Esoknya, kami turun breakfast pukul 9am. Pukul 12 kami checked out. Honey & Iman mabuk. Dua2 muntah on the way turun dari Genting. Ok cancel pergi Cameron. Like it's on the plan, hehee.

Bila dah bad mood, dua2 nak kat Mama aje. Iman yang kecik pun tak mau kalah. Mengamuk nak tidur, tapi nak aku gak yang dodoikan. Yang kakaknya, nak tidur berbantalkan peha Mama gak. Masing2 sombong dengan Mak Mok. Masa pergi ok je. Ni lah ragam budak2. Tak boleh nak jangka.

Ok next holiday, tunggu dua2 besar.

Farm & The City

I guess being a mother really makes us think less about ourselves & think more about our children. At least, since I become a mother, when I have to think what I wanna do on my special day, I just wanna Honey to enjoy herself.

So today I decided to bring Honey to Farm~In~The~City, a mini petting zoo located at Seri Kembangan. Yup we do have a zoo nearby. I just found out about the place a few days ago. Kinda eager to check the place out & let Honey interacts with the animals.

The entrance fee for adult is RM30. Am not sure for kids since cos Honey & Iman are still small, it's free.




No picture of Iman though cos she just spent her time lying & sleeping in the stroller. However, she seemed to enjoy the trip as well by being a good baby.

Here I was last week...

I was at I.C.T.P, Trieste, Italy, attended a 1-week workshop.

The place is beautiful.




View from my room's window.
Tapi tempat ni berbukit2. Merasalah di hari pertama mendaki bukit. Seriously. The path is very steep ok. Mengah gila dibuatnya.

The special thing about travelling is no matter how much we've travelled, everytime will bring a new experience, it can be either sweet or bitter. Of course this time around, I got to experience taking a long-haul flight during pregnancy. Well, it was a bitter experience. Hahaa. I felt so damn tired due to lack of sleep & comfort. Luckily I felt so during the flight back. I felt really sleepy but couldn't sleep due to the lower back pain that I'd only suffer during pregnancy.

Sampai je rumah, terus tido di atas tilam yang empuk. Lega. I said to myself, that's it, no more long-haul flight during pregnancy. Only woke up to the cutest lil face on Earth, my dear Honey. Honey was not home when I arrived. She celebrated Mother's Day with her famili angkat. Did I feel jealous? Huhuu, like I said I was so damn tired to bother as long as she was in a good hand, all I wanted to do was get some sleep & ease my lower back pain. Futhermore, I have this conflict in me, should we celebrate Mother's Day or not? But that's another story.

Alhamdulillah, semalam monthly checkup, the fetus growth is normal, according to the schedule. Proud with this baby. Despite all my physical activities & lack of rest, the baby stays strong. He/she's sure a tough one.

Panas! Selebriti Popular Pergi Bercuti...

"Eh janganlah amik gambar I. I tengah makan lah..."
Hakikatnya sekadar selebriti popular blog Purple~punya ini sahaja. Pada 27-29hb Jan yang lalu, dengan izinNya Honey telah pergi bercuti di Langkawi dengan Mama & Papa, Nenek, Mak & Pak Mok serta Abang Apit. Alhamdulillah, percutian yang telah dirancang dari tahun lepas lagi berjalan dengan baik.

Honey's 1st Holiday: Morib~Gold~Coast

Somehow this place was better than I had expected. As I said in this post, many complaints about the service so I didn't expect much. So I was happy to see a clean apartment & waterpark. However, seriously the management should do something about the long queue during check-in.

The 3-bedroom apartment's living hall...



The dining area...



The master bedroom & the bathroom...




The view from the balcony...




For me, I satisfied with the size of the waterpark. Since it was school holiday & Christmas was around the corner, I thought the waterpark would be crowded. But it was not. There was enough space for all of us. Most importantly, Honey had fun.

See, the happy face of Honey...




She really loved being in a water...

Honey's 1st Holiday

Dah lama gila tak pergi bercuti. Sejak Honey lahir tak pernah pergi bercuti. My interpretation of 'pergi bercuti' is going away from home, staying at a hotel/resort or something like that at least for 1 nite doing thing that unrelated to work.

I did plan to go for a holiday only when Honey could walk. Alhamdulillah pada usia 1 tahun 2 bulan, Honey is able to walk. Walaupun memang dah rancang nak pergi bercuti bulan depan, tapi bila Honey dah pandai berjalan, hati ni terus meronta2 nak pergi bercuti la ni gak.

Nak bercuti tempat yang dekat & mesti ada kolam renang. So ke Morib~Gold~Coast je lah. Most of the reviews complained about the bad service. I guess, we'd see. When it comes to holiday, for me, it'll be more fun if the time is spent with family.


So this was Honey's 1st holiday.

Last Day @ Jakarta

Yay! Can't wait to go home. Harap2 flight tak delay.

Besides learning from the workshop, here I also learn other thing... they might be poor, their value of money compare to ours are low but they are rich with hospitalities. If there is evaluation, I'll give the organiser full mark. Basically while I was here, I didn't need to spend any money. They provide everything. Even when we went out for visit/sight-seeing they provided us with mineral water. Or I might be just lucky with the organiser. But I like to think +ve. So they are indeed nice people.


At one of the entrances of the workshop venue.
Mereka juga kreatif mencari rezeki. When I arrived at the airport I felt like I was being bugged by them when they offered help to carry the bag etc. Of course their assistance are not free. But think about it again now, they don't ask much actually. I think 5k rupiah will do which is ~RM1.50. Last night I went to a shopping mall nearby with the Myanmar lady (Cho) accompanied by an Indo girl (Tanty). It was raining by the time we wanted to go back so we needed an umbrella to find a mini bus. Tanty brought her own. Suddenly there was a boy which was already wet carry an umbrealla, so Tanty called the boy & the boy gave the umbrella to me. Me & Cho shared the umbrella while the young boy followed us in the rain. Tanty gave him 4k rupiah. I wanted to give more but Tanty didn't allow me. Poor that young boy. Hope he'll be in good health. It makes me think how rich we are. We would spent so much to eat, but for some even they stayed whole night in the rain, they couldn't afford the single meal that we had. Sekurang-kurangnya mereka ini mencari rezeki yang halal dengan membantu orang lain.

Ok, sampai ketemu lagi...

@Jakarta

Ini je wang Rupiah yang dibawa ke Jakarta...


Even JD says it's so little but since I dont know whether I have the opportunity to shopping, I don't wanna change so much. I hope I have the opportunity but the schedule is packed. Absolutely, there's no way I'll go to Tanah~Abang. The organizer already said that it's far (I'm at the south of Jakarta) & the traffic is bad. So far I haven't go anywhere. To be honest I'm afraid to survey the area on my own.

The hotel...


Here I share the room with a Myanmar lady. Of course I didn't like the idea at 1st. But turns out it's not bad at all. She's nice & not like we have to chat all the time. We just do our own business.

This is the reason why I'm in Jakarta rite now...


This is one of the activities during the workshop...


Basically we learn how to program the microcontroller, the power supply options which one of them is solar energy, the wireless communication & how to integrate all of these into a radiation~monitoring system. The instructors are warm, easy going & they actually expert in their fields. The foods are good. I have to say, Indonesia has been a very good organizer. They even provide dinners even though I.C.T.P has informed us in email that dinners are not provided. They even provide us a bus even though the hotel is very near to the workshop place due to the construction along side of the road. By the way, me & the Myanmar lady are the only female participants.

Last but not least, me!!!



© Posted from my henpon

A Missing Piece

I think I need to write about this before the feeling totally disappears as a reminder & lesson to myself.

Err actually I think I already forgot the feeling. Ni lah contoh manusia yang mudah lupa. So tulis apa yang ingat je lah ya.

An excerpt from the article that I googled from internet...

Feelings of grief can often accompany a miscarriage. It is natural to feel loss, sadness, anger, and even guilt, despite the fact that the end result is out of your hands.

Yup I did feel guilty at 1st & kalau direnung2 balik sampai sekarang masih ada rasa bersalah. That's why I need to write about it so that I won't forget & remember it as a lesson. A lesson to always be grateful atas kurniaan Allah, kecik atau besar, ready or not. I took a night to absorb the idea that I was pregnant again. I was scared at 1st, I was afraid that I couldn't handle the responsibilities of being a mom to a toddler & a baby. Aku lupa, that should be the last thing that I should be scared of. Aku lupa I should be scared if anything happens during the pregnancy instead.

After a nite, baru aku tersedar. Baru terfikir that I'll travel, can the pregnancy survive & so on. But my concern only regarding the need to travel to Netherlands. Somehow I thought if anything wants to happen, it'll happen due to that. Allah Maha Besar, perancanganNya is beyond our expectation. Rupa2nya balik dari Taiping on Thursday of the 1st week of Raya the bleeding started. Tak payah nak tunggu aku naik kapal terbang.

Masa mula2 keguguran, I felt like something was taken from me. I felt like I was missing something. There was a desire to replace the missing feeling by getting pregnant again. Hahaa. The feeling only lasted for a week. After a week, I guess I've got over it & finally came to my sense. I should be grateful since I still have Honey. The miscarriage only a small test. الحمدلله at least I had a chance to be pregnant again even only for a few weeks. ;-)

Allah's plan is perfect indeed. There's a reason for everything. There's a reason for the pregnancy & miscarriage ordeal. There's a reason why I had started bleeding even before traveling to Netherlands. Seriously even I thought I was ready, but if I started bleeding after travelling it'd be harder for me to take it. The guiltiness might be greater & the travel didn't worth it. Next time I'll avoid taking such risk.


Me, on the day before the unfortunate event, at the city of Delft waiting for dinner.
Now I guess it's time for us to learn & improve ourselves to be a better parents to Honey & our future kids (انشاء الله). I should take time to let my body ready & completely heal. I should be on a diet. Erghhh. No excuse untuk perut buncit anymore.

Allah mengetahui akan apa yang dikandung oleh tiap-tiap ibu, dan mengetahui apa yang kurang dari yang dikandung dalam rahim itu atau yang lebih. Dan tiap-tiap sesuatu adalah ditetapkan di sisiNya dengan kadar yang tertentu.
(Surah ar-Rad: 8)

@Delft

I didn't take many pictures... except for the pictures of equipments.

Presentation by Russian on Tuesday...


Each country had to present. Mine was on Monday. There were 17 countries altogether. There were supposed to be 19 but participants from Syria & China couldn't make it. Among the 17 countries, there were 5 other Muslims which were from Algeria, Egypt, Bangladesh, Indonesia & Morocco. Only 2 ladies including me, the other was Canadian.

The hotel...


The rate is ~€80 for a single bedroom. There's no mini bar & aircond. Quite expensive actually. It's summer. Luckily it's not hot. The temperature is ~19°C. So I just keep the window open. It takes 30 minutes (power) walk to the meeting place, yet it's the nearest I think. So all the participants stayes here except the one from Netherlands of course.

The city...



Not so busy & not so many famous label stores. ~15 minutes walk from the hotel. There are canals of course as Netherlands is famous with the canals. It has so many indeed.

Beriadah di hujung minggu...

Anak dah keletihan, mak masih nak berposing.

Honey ke luar negeri...

Time flies really fast when we enjoy ourselves, rite? Cuti 4 hari tak terasa pun.

Hari Ahad kami ke Pengkalan Balak, Melaka. As usual, piknik di tempat kesukaan Mak. On the way to Malacca, we had McD. Tapi sampai2 je, tengok ikan bakar, terus lapar balik. Tak cukup 1 pinggan nasi, tambah lagi sepinggan. Haih... kalau duduk 3 hari, memang boleh naik 3kg. Lupa plak nak amik gambar ikan siakap bakar, my favorite ikan bakar. Kalau nak tengok gambar ikan bakar, tengok kat pos lama ni ok.

Angin bertiup dengan kuat. Asalnya niat nak buat photoshoot di tepi pantai, tapi sesi terpaksa disingkatkan kerana risau mata Honey masuk pasir. Memang tak sangka angin kuat & cuaca agak sejuk. Ombak rindu pun kuat. Nampak seronok je kalau mandi laut. Tapi aku tak mandi sebab datang bulan. Boleh je kalau nak mandi, cuma ni lah pertama kali aku datang bulan normal sejak bersalin, not just a spot. Traffic jam di PD pun dah buat aku rasa lenguh... ni pulak mandi laut dengan ombak yang kuat.

Berangin...

Ambil gambar dalam stroller je lah ye Honey.

Seronok tengok depa mandi laut.

Mak, Mak Long & family memang stay kat sana 3d2n tapi me & JD balik malam tu gak. Ini lah kali pertama Honey ke luar negeri... negeri Selangor, hikss. Perjalanan paling jauh Honey setakat ini. In fact, selama ni Honey jalan2 pun dalam Lembah Klang aje.

Ok lah, ini budak kecik nak ucap Selamat Tahun Baru Cina.

Kalumpang~Resort

Kesinambungan daripada bila hati gedik nak bercuti...

Wah, dah sebulan rupanya masa berlalu. Rasa macam baru lagi percutian ni. Time flies so fast indeed!

Sebab Mak nak bercuti dalam hutan, Kalumpang~Resort jadi pilihan. Never been there but judging from the pics on internet, it's green enough & the most important thing ada sungai. Mula2 call sales office, dapat chalet Layang2. Check kat internet, macam tak best je chalet Layang2 tu. Call lagi sekali, dapat chalet Tempua pulak. Betul2 mengadap sungai. Ok la tu. Tu pun nasib baik ada sebuah yang available untuk 2 malam.

Ok lah, terus ke pros & cons tempat ni based on my experience...

Pros:

• Ada sungai yang terjaga & bersih. Seronok bila berenang nampak ikan2 dalam sungai. Mak buyung pun enjoy berenang ala2 ikan duyung.
• Ada mini zoo.
• Chalet Tempua tu memang betul2 mengadap sungai. Bila buka pintu akan kedengaran bunyi sungai mengalir deras.
• Hijau, suasana redup aje.
• Takde line tepon. Kalau ada pun setakat 1 atau 2 bar. Bila buat panggilan asyik putus, so sms je lah. Nak bercuti dalam hutan kan, so what do you expect? So instead of bergayut & surf internet, nikmati je lah suasana yang ada.

Cons:

• Dari parking lot ke chalet agak jauh. No bellboy. Tiada troli disediakan. Staff pun buat tak tau je tengok kita angkat barang.
• Selain daripada mandi sungai & jalan2 dalam kawasan resort, tiada aktiviti lain disediakan. Resort tu pun tak besar sangat, 1 jam dah abis jalan. So for 3d2n mati kutu gak lah.
• The main drawback of the resort - the chalet is very basic & mediocre for RM200 per nite. Dalam chalet cuma ada katil queen, TV kecil, almari buruk & kipas dinding. Nasib baik ada aircond. There's no fridge, chair & table inside the chalet. Tu takpe lagi. There's even no electric kettle or complimentary mineral water & towel provided. There was breakfast for 2 but according to Kakty who went for breakfast on the 1st morning we were there, only tea & nasi lemak was served. Tu pun tak sedap. So on the 2nd morning, nobody among us interested to use the breakfast coupon.

Overall the place is quite ok. Cuma sebab bilik tak best, so kurang selesa. Nak psiko diri supaya bertahan for 2 nites, anggap aje lah aktiviti perkhemahan di tepi sungai cara mewah - ada katil, bilik beraircond & ada bilik air. For those yang teringin nak mandi sungai, I'd still recommend this place tapi stay 1 malam cukup lah. I'd suggest chalet Tempua, Kasawari or Kenari sebab dekat dengan sungai.

Morning walk di dalam resort.

Sekitar resort

Kita minum dulu!

Cameron~Highland, 3/4/2011

Sunway~Lagoon, continues...

 

Alrite, let's continue the post on Sunway~Lagoon. So, here's a bit info (or complaints!) about the place.

• There is deposit RM10 for the wrist band. RM50 will be charged if we lose the wrist band. What an easy money since there might be a chance of losing the wrist band. Why don't they just use the standard paper-but-water-resistant wrist band (I don't know what it's actually called) like Genting. However they do use it for tube & photo taken.


• Inefficient so called e-wallet. I deposited some money in my wrist band, but turned out to be frustrated because not all the food kiosks accept it. So what's the point of doing so since I still need my real wallet. I wanted to cash back the e-wallet, but can only do so at the main entrance, meaning I have to exit 1st. Guess what, if we don't return the wrist band before 7pm, they'll strip any remaining credit on it. So yeah, it's unwise to use the e-wallet.


• Talking about food, the food is expensive alrite, but I don't mind if the taste is good but I seriously doubt it especially after reading reviews on the place. Thank God, there was a Pizza~Hut kiosk. But as I stated in the previous point, it didn't accept e-wallet.


• Ridiculous locker rental. The charge is RM5 & we can only open the locker once. The locker has key (& we have to keep the key with us) but we can only use it for 1 time. Another easy money.


• On our way out, a number of staff promoted a few items to be exchanged with our wrist band. I don't like the way they promoted the stuff by saying that the stuff are FREE, just exchange the wrist band. Hello, the wrist band's not free. We'll get our RM10 back if we return it. So they should drop the word 'free'. I think it's very unethical for a big company to practice misleading promotion.

In conclusion, it's definitely a fun place (well, I give credit where credit is due) where obviously too serious in making money (that hardly impossible for us not to be aware of it).

The day before I grew older (I berendam sampai hitam)...

Here, I went!

Well, my assumption in the earlier post was wrong. The place was not too crowded. Still lots of people, but just nice. No need to queue to get on the rides except for the slides at waterpark, easy to find an empty chair to have a rest & enough space for us in the pool.

We spent time at the waterpark from ~11:30am until 3:30pm. Before & after spending time at waterpark, we tried the rides out. I though I was invincible to sunburn but I was wrong. I went home with red cheeks & nose. My arms got really tanned. Luckily the weather was great. Not too sunny.

I left our tube to get on the snake slide, being optimistic by thinking that all the visitors could afford a 2-hole tube which was RM30 (RM15 price + RM15 deposit). Actually I didn't plan to leave the tube unguarded, but somehow Fir changed his mine to try out the slide. Turned out, the tube went missing. We searched around for the tube by looking at the number. Finally, Akak & Adik found it. It was taken by a Malay man with a kid. Fortunately, Akak was wearing a tag with the tube number written on it. Here, we only got the RM15 deposit back for the tube if the one with the identical tag number return it. Akak said the man didn't even apologize. Just something to ponder - among so many visitors which most of them were foreigners & Chinese, was it coincident that a grown up Malay man took the tube?

Ok, will continue later. Good nite.

San Francisco: Hop~on Hop~off

Well, I traveled to SF alone. So I think the best & safest way to go around SF for sightseeing is by riding a bus tour or  hop-on-hop-off bus. At 1st, I planned to buy the tix online, but I couldn't decide which day should I have the tour. Luckily, I decided to buy the tix at SF itself.

Union Square, SF is very suitable for those who really love shopping & have big pocket. Those who crazy about high-end labels, this is the place. Just name it, mesti ada. On the same nite I arrived at SF (which is on Saturday, Dec 11), after having dinner, I went out to browse the place. Unfortunately, to my disappointment, there was no grand sale & I certainly didn't have a big pocket to spend. I guessed shopping wouldn't be my main activity there. So that was it. I decided to buy a 2-day pass of hop-on-hop-off for $35. It was cheaper too compare to the cheapest one I found on internet. There were many bus tour companies actually. I found out about the one that I chose from a brochure I got at the hotel.

The hop~on hop~off bus.

This was actually the 1st time ever I rode one. I have to say I was glad to choose this bus tour. The service was good & reliable. There were 20 stops altogether & for every stop, the frequency of the bus was 30 minutes. So I could just hopped off, took a walk around the stop then hopped on the bus back. The 1st bus arrived at Union Square was at 9:30am & the last bus was at 5:30pm.

Views of SF city from the bus.

Since I had nothing more interesting to do besides window shopping, I used the service thrice! Twice on Sunday & once on Monday. Hence, I crossed the Golden~Gate bridge three times!

Crossing the famous Golden~Gate bridge.

It was a fun experience. I love sitting on the open upper deck & feeling the cool breeze swept across my face. I guess I was so lucky that the weather for the 2 days were great.

Enjoying myself.