Flora Fest 2007

Last Saturday morning, we headed to Putrajaya as Flora Fest was on. This festival of flowers had floats on display (after the parade) and all sorts of flowers / plants to buy at an adjacent tent. Yes, there was a parade early in the morning but we did not watch the parade as we only arrived at the place about 11:30 am.

Anyway, all the floats were on display in huge air conditioned tents. We were thankful for the air-con as it was a hot and sunny day. Entrance fee was very reasonable at RM2 per adult. There were floats from all the states in Malaysia so it was very exciting to see the offering from each of the states. I must say that there were some very creative displays of flower arrangements that day. Some were magnificiently colourful but there were also some which were a bit plain.

All in all it was a beautiful morning!
Have a look at some of the photos we took.
































Butterflies were aplenty on a lot of the floats!

















From Malacca!

































Flowers made from flowers!
































I like this one as the fish looks like it is floating in the air!

















A float from Sarawak.. Land of the Hornbills! Hoorah!
















































A colourful chameleon and a lizard!
















Our national flower... the hibiscus.
































This float is from Penang and won the best themed trophy. We thought that this float was the best among the rest! Well done, Penang!

What's outside Daddy's window?

We have been in Kuala Lumpur for almost 2 months now. Daddy's office has huge window panels that overlook the 'golden triangle' of Kuala Lumpur. On clear sunny days, the view is really fantastic as one can see the famous PETRONAS Twin Towers, KL Tower, Chulan Tower, Lot 10 and lots more of the concrete jungle!

Here are some shots from Daddy's camera to show you how the view is like.


The picture below was taken yesterday morning.





































PETRONAS Twin Towers, Chulan Tower and Prince Hotel.





















The syringe looking tower at the background is the KL Tower. Marriott hotel is the one with the see-through dome at the top of the building.


















The same view after lunch.

Fare.Net

My colleague asked me yesterday about any local (asian) website to find good and reasonable fares over the internet. I have come across this site which I think is rather useful for travellers. It not only give comparison for air fares but also prices for hotel accommodation as well. This site is called Fare.Net. Personally I have yet to use it to plan for our holidays. I have added this website to my 'links' section as well.

Go check it out and tell me if you find it useful.
Happy travelling!

Fraser's Hill

Last Friday, we drove up to Fraser's Hill to spend an evening away from the hustle and bustle of city life. It was a pleasant drive up the mountains with not too much traffic. The drive up to Fraser's Hill was windy but nevertheless scenic. We passed by a water reservoir (dam) which is the source of water supply for Selangor. We even spotted some monkeys sitting on the rails along the journey. There were lots of tall bamboo trees all over the jungle. Some were overgrown and lean quite precariously towards the small windy road! Too bad, no pandas!

We were up in the mountains by 5:30pm and were greeted by the cool mountain air and low lying clouds. We checked into our apartment that had a fanstastic view of the hills. Our apartment had a balcony that overlooks the hills. One thing we noticed was the rich flora there. There were also birds flying at a distance by the hills. However, after half an hour after we checked in, the rain came. We spent most of the time in the apartment watching telly... relaxing!

The rain did not stop and lasted through the night. When we woke up, it was still raining hard. I managed to catch 2 episodes of ER on the telly before we check out later that morning. We had lunch in the quaint town of Fraser's with the small/dwarfed clock tower at the centre of the mini roundabout. If we were to judge the town by the roundabout and clock tower, we would think that the people living there were dwarfs! (This is not true of course...)

After lunch, we proceeded back to KL. Traffic was not too bad and we had a nice drive home. We were relaxed.

Fishy Post Continues...

We had a situation a couple of days ago. Jess was a bit too excited about feeding the tank gang that she poured the entire bottle of fish pellets into the tank! Oh no! Daddy only knew when he came home from work. The water was murky because of the fish food. Grandpa and Grandma tried to 'fish' out the excessive fish food but it was too late.

The remaining fishes (one red swordtail, two yellow libido and two tiger barbs) were swimming gleefully! They must think that they are in 'fish heaven' or something like that, having limitless supply of food! Just open your mouth while swimming and ye bellies shall be filled! But little did they know that this excessive food in their environment will eventually bring them closer to the actual 'fish heaven'!

So after dinner, Daddy emptied half the tank and change the water. It didnb't help much as most of the food was at the bottom of the tank together with the pebbles! So today, Daddy had to overhaul the tank. Everything was taken out of the tank and washed thoroughly. So now, we have a nice, clean tank once again. And the fishes survived this ordeal!

Remember the mysterious murders in tankville? Well, one day Mummy saw the yellow libido bullied the one and only remaining red swordtail! So it wasn't the tiger barbs at all! We were mistaken. The yellow ones did it! I went back to the fish shop and asked them why this has happened. The shop assistant enlightened me saying that this type of fish (libido) do not mix well with fishes that are smaller. They will attack them. I guess they are territorial animals, like dogs! We can learn a lot from the tank gang... yes, both Josh and Jess are learning that it is not good to bully others who are smaller or weaker.

Fish tank life lessons continue...



Pictures of the clean tank! Daddy has added a fluroscent fake plant and a coral background on two sides of the hexagonal tank. Notice the 'innocent' look on the yellow libido!


































































Can anyone advise what I need to do to capture good quality pictures of the tank gang using my Sony Cyber-shot (DSC-W5) digital camera? Fishes don't 'stand' still!

What's Your Flavor?

We went to an ice cream parlour last night as a treat for Josh who has 'succesfully' completed his first 'week' in his new school. It was also a dessert time/night for the Yongs!

We were at BR (Baskin Robbins), just a small outlet here, to enjoy the treat. Josh wanted the strawberry flavoured ice cream whilst Jess wanted chocolate. We also ordered a banana split, which gave us three choices of ice cream flavours in the 'boat' (Daddy always refer to the Banana Split serving tray as a boat, 'cos it looks like one!). The choice of ice cream was French Vanilla, Chocolate and Old Fashion Butter Pecan. We had hot chocolate fudge, strawberry and roasted almonds (crushed) for the toppings... very yummy! Grandpa and Grandma had the cone ice creams... cherry flavoured ice creams.

Jess was licking Grandpa's ice cream whilst eating from our banana boat! We all enjoyed our ice cream and on top of that, we were given a 10% discount as Daddy paid using his HSBC credit card. So, if you are having a treat at BR, do try to pay with your HSBC credit card. You will be pleasantly surprised / rewarded.

If you have not already guessed, "What's Your Flavor?" is BR's slogan to demonstrate to the world that they have lots and lots of ice cream flavours (yes, more than 31 to choose from) to satisfy your sweet tooth! Notice that 'Flavor' in their slogan is spelt without the letter 'U'... you got it, it's American ice cream! Go check out their website and drool over their variety of ice cream flavours!!! http://www.baskinrobbins.com.my/home.htm

















Choose, choose and choose your flavour!
















An ice cream cone on the wall as wall lighting? How creative!


Josh enjoying his "Very Berry Strawberry" ice cream.
















He digs into the ice cream with his plastic spoon...
















It has some ice cream on it...
















... and the ice cream goes into his mouth! Big yum!

















Jess sampling Grandpa's ice-cream.
















And Josh also want a sample too!
















Jess posing for a pic whilst holding on to the ice-cream.
















The Banana Split!
















Jess digging into the Chocolate ice cream.































Yummy, yummy ice creams!

Kite Flying at Port Dickson

On New Year's Day, we went to Port Dickson to have some fun at the beach. Josh prayed for a day without too much sun, a cloudy day but no rain... and breezy enough to fly kites.

God answered his prayers because the day we were at the beach, we could be out in the open beach from 8am until 11am without getting sun burn! The wind picked up and soon all of us were flying kites, courtesy of Josh's cousin, Amanda. We didn't go into the Straits of Malacca as the water didn't look appealing!

That day, even Jess flew a kite! We all had a picnic by the beach and had a wonderful, relaxing morning by the beach. I managed to catch a catnap on the beach chair that was there before we left for home.

















All having a good time by the beach.






















Josh running around the beach with no T-Shirt... and no sunburn after that either!






















Jess flying a kite sitting down. Look carefully and you will see the string that she is holding.

































Ah Teo (Amanda's dad) flying a kite. His kite went up high until we used up all the string!

















Even Kung Kung flew his paper kite!

















A thirsty moment!

Blessed 2007!

Have a
Blessed 2007 everybody!

This is a new and fresh year to start/continue our lives...
Live for God!

We Have Fish!

Ok, so we finally bought some fishes. The chosen ones are Yellow White Labido (2 pcs), Red Swordtail (4 pcs) and Sumatra Tiger Barb (2 pcs). We also remembered to buy some fish food. The vivid colours of the fishes look fantastic in the tank.

I wish I could say that the "tank gang" is a happy family but... the next day, two of the Red Swordtail were 'bullied' by the alleged Sumatra Tiger Barb pair! They lost their tails and eventually floated horizontally... lifeless! Later that day, another of the Red Swordtail was found 'murdered'! Oh, no! (And I specifically asked the shop keeper if these fishes could live in harmony and his answer was "Yes!". How disappointing for us!).

Anyway, the remaining Red Swordtail has remained strong and has manage to keep himself/herself alive. This 'tank gang' has added colours to our lives... with their murder mysteries and "I am King of the Tank" attitudes!! BUT seriously, we are glad to have these fishes as pets.. the YONGS' pets!

Here are some of the pictures of the 'tank gang'.
















The 'Tank Gang'.

















You must have guessed that the yellow ones are the Yellow White Labido and the orange (lone survivor of the clan) is the Red Swordtail.

















We just love the long swaying movement of the Red Swordtail.

















The two stripped suspects, Sumatra Tiger Barb.

P.S. "Dancing Queen", we did not come across any 'moonfish' but we will look out for them at our next fish shop trip(s).