Happy Merdeka and Happy Birthday!

Today, we celebrate Malaysia's 50th Independence Day. We ushered in this new 'era' with an all night prayer meeting in our church, praying for Malaysia! It was wonderful to be in God's presence collectively, offering our prayers like sweet incense. Malaysia is blessed!










Besides the usual parades and jam in KL, there were fighter jets zooming across the KL sky. There were also helicopters carrying all the flags of the different states in Malaysia. Quite magnificent.

Not only did we celebrate Malaysia's birthday, my mum turned 68 today! Yes, she is a pre-Merdeka baby.. well 18 years before Merdeka that is. Anyway, we bought a birthday cake from Hotel Nikko (for a change from Secret Recipe) and had a 'Yong-Tau-Foo" dinner at Kepong. It was a delicious dinner. We all congregated back at our home to cut the birthday cake. Here are some pictures of the event at home.




















The birthday cake... candles not representative of age! It seems to be the trend nowadays when one gets older!


















All admiring the cake... and singing Happy Birthday!


















I guess Grandma didn't manage to blow out the candles on the cake... the grandkids got to the candles first!


















Grandma with grand kids!


















Look at Marc... giving his best (cheeky) smile!


















Picture time!

Langkawi 2007

So, this is yet another delayed post... well, because we went to Langkawi last week. It was a good break! Langkawi is a beautiful island with lovely beaches. We really enjoyed our stay there. The kids loved the swimming pool and the sandy beaches. Mummy and Grandma (and Daddy also) went for spas. (Yes, I was influenced by my wife to go... it was my first ever spa!) Grandpa relaxed as well and had a blast with Josh and Jess. So everyone is happy. The only regret on this trip was the island hoping tour which we did not manage to go on. It was canceled as the weather was bad that morning.

So what did the Yongs do in that little island?

Besides the beautiful beaches (Pantai Cenang)....


















... we managed to visit the Underwater world, which we thought had more exhibits than Aquaria in KL. Josh enjoyed the exhibits there and kept going back to revisit the exhibits when we reached the end... he didn't want to leave. He does have a passion for animals/sea creatures.

















There were plenty of huge aquariums there! It magnifies all the exhibits in the aquarium due to the thick glass.

















Yes, penguins!
























































































Nemo was there too!


















There were sea dragons.

We even reached the skies in Langkawi! Yes, the cable car ride and the tree top bridge/platforms were also a great hit with us. The temperature up there was so nice and cool. Elevation was 703m (above MSL). Clouds moved passed us as we traverse the bridge joining the two platforms that seem to magically hang in the air above the trees! The best part was that there was always a continue fresh cooling breeze up there.


























































































































Amazing, isn't it?



































The kids also had their caricature done as well. Their first. It cost RM25 each, by the way.


















Jess' caricature... made her look very mature.


















Josh's still has his boyish look.

We also went to the town called Kuah (aka gravy) and saw the biggest eagle statue in the world. It was quite a phenomenal sight. The kids had fun with bubbles at that place too.











































Bubbles, bubbles away!

One strange sight that we noticed about Langkawi almost everywhere are these bird's nests. We were told that they have been left behind by the birds since the eggs have hatched. Anyway, this is indeed an interesting sight on trees and also in shops!


















Oh, and one last thing about Langkawi, drinks lots of water... it's a "hot" island!

Birthday

We have been busy lately so the blogging world also had to wait. But we are back now and time for some updates.

We celebrated Mummy's birthday this month with a Baskin Robbins ice-cream cake. Lesson learnt is that don't buy an ice-cream cake if the room where you are having the cake is not air-conditioned to suit the temperature of the cake! Look at how the letters disappear under the heat. Second lesson learnt is try out the sparkly candles to see if they actually works i.e. sparkle. If not, return them!

Well, Mummy had a handphone upgrade as a birthday present and she is happy with it. Now Mummy can take photos with her phone.

The other major event is Joshua's sports day. We didn't take photos but only videos... more on that later!


















Baskin Robbins did not mispell Mummy's name... it's the heat that melted the words!


















No sparkles but still pretty.


















The pearly white K550i Sony Ericsson Cybershot phone.

Aiya... tagged by Nick of Miri!

Ok, so I kena tagged again. Here it is.

8 Random Things About Me

1. Started blogging about one-and-a-half year ago.
2. Been to both the Northern and the Southern Hemisphere, and now living in the middle (Equator-la).
3. Lived on an island for 18 years (Borneo Island-lo).
4. A Josephian true and true. From primary to secondary schooling years.
5. Love cycling... but not doing it... now. : (
6. The song Hosanna is currently my fav.
7. Green tea is the best beverage... my green tea comes from China.
8. Own two hydration pack bags... and more to come!

So that's it... pretty random don't you say?