CNY Outfits

We hope your CNY celebration is going well... lots of renewed friendship and refreshed relationships! Good food too I hope. We decided to go to Port Dickson (again) with my sister and her family. The kids had a blast at the beach and the swimming pool. We adults just ate, ate and ate... lots of chit chat too. We had steamboat by the way. (Will blog on this separately later).

Just sharing a few photos of our kids in their CNY kit/costume.
So cute don't you think?


























Here's Jess in a pink 'cheong sam'. This was getting ready for her play-school CNY party. She looks just so sweet.


























Josh and Jess in red on CNY day. Jess found her oufit to be very airy! :D

Here's wishing you Happy and Blessed CNY ... we still have 7 days of CNY celebration to go! It'll all end on "Chap Goh Mei" (night of the fifteen). What will you be doing for "Chap Goh Mei"? Hope it will be delicious... hee hee!

Gong Xi, Gong Xi!

Happy Chinese New Year to you and your loved ones and may this year be filled with God's wonderful blessings! A new year is always good as it spells a year of 'new-ness' or new beginnings for many. According to the Chinese Lunar Calendar, this year is the year of the boar/pig or 'oink-oink'.

The pig or boar to many different tribes mean different things; to the Kelabit/Lun Bawang it is food (smoked, barbequed, stewed.. yummy!), to the chinese it is the suckling pig, 'siew yuk' (roast pork), 'cha siew' (barbequed pork - best one so far is at Jln. Alor in KL), etc... but to the muslims and jews, it is a no-no food (not halal). Anyway, besides being a discussion on food, the pig is also synonymous to character traits - similar to the zodiac. We, as Christians, don't believe in this though - our future and character lies in that of a 'new man' in Christ! Not in some foretold ways of living or having some good/bad character traits but to live like Christ ~ following His ways, believing in His promises, trusting in His leading and living a life of hope!

On Chinese New Year eve, after the re-union dinner, we were watching the Disney Channel and there was this cartoon called the Zodiac Race (or something like that). It is a story about a race among the 12 animals in the Chinese Lunar Calendar : Chinese Lunar Calendar is based on the cycles of the moon, and is constructed in a different fashion than the Western solar calendar.

In this story, the rat made it first to the assembly and received the first year. Though the rat did a lot of trickery to reach first to the congregation. At first he tricked the ox to let him ride on its head. The ox agreed and they went together. Just when they were about to reach to the assembly the clever rat jumped off the ox's head and got through the finish line first. This is why the year of the rat is the first year in the cycle and the year of the ox is the second.

This is probably the reason why the first of the twelve years is the Year of the Rat then followed by the year of Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig. This selection of animals delighted both Josh and Jess as they are big 'fans' of animals! Anyway, it was a lot of good fun learning a bit of our Chinese Lunar Calendar.





















Oh, by the way, do you know that the chinese character 'fook' (meaning 'blessings' or more commonly known to many as the character of prosperity) is made up of three parts i.e. God, man and the field (garden - Eden)? This is a very popular symbol used during CNY ~ also on Ang Pow packets. So here's wishing you a very 'fook' year ~ a year of you with God in his wonderful plan (garden of promises) for you!

Oink-Oink!

So romantic wan... or is it?

Just saw this on Docfiles webpage. It is so hilarious... Watch, laugh and de-stress!



Hero? Love? Or .. - video powered by Metacafe

To DSLR or not?

Lately, we have been capturing a lot of 'kodak' moments with our Sony Cybershot digital camera (5.1 mega pixels). You can view some of those pictures here in our blog. We have had this camera for a year now and I must admit that this is a good camera but not perfect.

The challenge in using this camera is when trying to capture clear and well defined pictures in slightly poor lighting conditions or when the kids will only hold still for a fraction of a second! Most of the pictures will turn out blurry or have high noise content. It is disappointing when we know we will not be able to capture those moments again.

Furthermore, our kids seem to grow up so fast now (i.e. when I finish blogging about this, they would be all grown up and have their own kids already... ha ha ha! Not that fast la... or do I mean I type that s-l-o-w-l-y!).

I think this is the limit of automatic compact digital cameras. However, we love it because it is easy to carry around and the model chosen a year ago uses AA batteries (which are easily available if our batteris run flat whilst we are travelling).

I have heard fantastic stories of DSLR (digital single-lense reflect) cameras and have seen friends using them and giving such beautiful pictures. Are we missing out in capturing more precious moments with our kids at this tender age with only an automatic compact digital camera? Nowadays, DSLR cameras have gone down in price (but still in the RM '000 range) with better offerings than before. Two models come to mind; the Nikon D40 and Canon D400. Decisions, decisions, decisions... what shall we do?

Oh well, that is my current dilemma.... perhaps more research on the www would help.

Here is a picture of our current auto point and shoot compact digital camera.










Here is the Canon D400









And here is the Nikon D40.

An Outing to Bukit Tinggi (Colmar Tropicale)

It has been a week now since we were at Colmar Tropicale resort at Bukit Tinggi, Pahang. Since it was a public holiday in KL (FT Day) and Selangor (Thaipusam), we decided to make a day trip there. Mummy has been there before but that was many years back. Mummy did say it was a nice place to visit. We drove our MPV there and it was an easy and pleasant drive; just under an hour from KL. The weather was perfect too; nice and slightly sunny, no rain!

There was an entrance fee of RM16 per adult and RM8 per child. This fee included entrance to the Colmar Tropicale, the Japanese Garden, Botanical Garden and the Rabbit Park. It was reasonable we think, so no regrets in paying. The place was very well maintained. Upon driving up to Colmar Tropicale (a French themed park), tall steeples greeted us at the horizon. As we got closer, we saw a castle! Wow! Castle with pine trees all around in Malaysia! How about that! It was just so unreal but wonderful. The air was cooler up there too.

When we entered Colmar Tropicale, it was like being whisked back in time to a little quaint village. Just the sight of the two rows of shops was quite something. There was also a fountain too at the centre of the square. Oh, there was something that was REALLY out of place in that village though... it was the rows and rows of red lanterns (I guess it is in conjunction with CNY) hanging in between the two shops. Have a look at the photos below.

















Imagine the place without the red lanterns... I think it would be so much better!
































There was a moat that surrounded the castle and swimming on the waters were swans! There were white and black swans. So serene. After the French village, it was Japan for us! Yes, on to the Japanese Garden which has a tea house. The tea house has a hostess dressed in her kimono and she serves tea... with a fee of course. They have what they call the tea ceremony in the heart of the garden. The garden was beautiful with streams all over. We loved it... even had a little lunch picnic there. I must say that there are no proper sitting places in the garden, I guess akin to the theme... no benches.
































There was a pond with plenty of 'koi' in it. Lovely!
































To Josh's delight, he found a funny looking earthworm! Hammer Head Worm??
















After the Japanese Garden, we went across to the Botanical Garden. Nothing astounding there as most of the flowers and plants were not in bloom.

Next was the Rabbot Park. This was like Josh and Jess' haven. Rabbits were running freely in an exclosed little field (garden) and everyone was allowed to pet the rabbits and chased them around. Jess is really a brave little girl. She would just go up to the rabbits and try to pick them up. Of course it wasn't as easy as she thought as the rabbit would hop away from her! It was a lot of fun for all.
















Daddy had to help a bit to 'capture' the rabbits for Josh and Jess.




































Jess caught this white rabbit by herself! Well done Jess! Just look at her face... totally satisfied!


Oh, before we left, Josh wanted to ride the donkeys. There was a little stable there and it costs RM6 for a short ride. So to date, Josh has ridden a pony (at A'Famosa in Melacca), an elephant (at A'Famosa in Melacca) and a donkey!

















And guess what else was there? A deer farm! We fed the deers through the fence. Quite an experience for the kids.

















We had a great time together!

The Eye on Malaysia

I guess we must have all heard about the Eye on Malaysia in conjunction with 'Visit Malaysia 2007'. So what is the Eye? It is a 60m high ferris wheel located by Lake Titiwangsa near Dewan Budaya. We used Jalan Tun Razak to get to the Eye last Saturday afternoon. It was a beautiful day for a ride in the gondola of the Eye.

The queue was not very long at 4pm so we were in the gondola after a short wait. It was also not a very 'hot' wait as there were adequate fans at the waiting area. The fee per adult is RM15 and children below 8 years old pay RM8. The Eye is 'new' and coated in white. Capacity of the gondola (that is what they call the indivual 'baskets' on the wheel) is 8 adults (max.) but I would reckon 4 adults and 2 children would be just nice. Oh, if you fancy a private gondola, you can book one for RM100! Steep... but I guess makes good money for the operator.

The gondola went around for 6 rounds and gave us good views of parts of Kuala Lumpur and Selangor. It is also air conditioned so the ride was pleasant. We even saw a bird perched on the frame of the wheel whilst we were up there. All in all, it was a pleasant and smooth ride... a ONCE in a lifetime experience (note the capitalised 'once'). Have a pleasant ride if you are ever in KL and riding the Eye!

The Eye overlooking Lake Titiwangsa.
















The PETRONAS Twin Towers at the background.
































The ticket.
















































Mummy and Jess enjoying the view.









































"That's all folks!"