Party Day at Juara Cerdik

Today being the last day of this academic year, the kids at Joe's kindy had party with the theme - Garden. Joe later told me, "I thought we were going to have a garden party in a garden??!?!!"


This lazy mummy was much too lazy to come up with an elaborate costume so Joe went dressed as a gardener.

Evan was a garden and Nat was a banana. Nat's papa stayed up till 4am fixing his costume! What a dedicated dad!

They kids ran around (even though teacher kept saying, "Children...sit down!") until about 9am when they started eating.

I managed to get a picture of Joe with his teacher before eating.

There was so much food. Some parents went to a great deal of effort. But kids don't eat a lot. And the pantry is full of leftovers to reward the teachers for their hardwork.

Jasmine Class 2009

I hung around the place looking at the artwork....

These are all the kids who won the Best Dressed Awards. One from each class. There was a carrot, a pumpkin, an apple tree, Bob the tomato and Larry the Cucumber. Joe enjoyed himself. It's been a good year. Now we look forward to a good holiday!

Student of the Year 2009

Joseph called me in clinic yesterday as soon as he got home from school. He was so excited!

Yup....he did it! He received the Student of the Year 2009 award for Jasmine Class.

I was very pleasantly surprised. I didn't know there was such a thing because the awards day was last Sunday and it only involved the 6-year-olds who were graduating.

Over the phone, I told him I was very proud of him and asked him to wait till I got home to take photos before he opened his present.


I am indeed proud of him. From crying and vomitting on teachers at the beginning of the year, to Student of the Year....he has certainly grown a lot this year.

At the mid-year parent-teacher day in June, Teacher Esther did tell us that Joseph is usually the first to obey her instructions. I was surprised because I have to call him 10 000 times before he does anything at home.

Today is his last day for this year, and it's Party Day! Will post photos later. And tomorrow is the year-end Parent-Teacher Day. We will find out what teacher has to say, and also his 'exam' results!

Happy Belated Birthday Yee Teow (9Nov) and Tua Um (15Nov)

dance like Pocoyo

ee-ya-ee-ya-oh

Did the kids miss me?

If I had thought that the kids would miss me and be miserable during my 3D2N-absence, I was sorely mistaken.

My mum reported that Joy-Anne did not ask for me even once. And Joseph said, "How about mama and papa go for honeymoon everyday?"

On Sunday, they did not nap till 3.30pm! (They normally sleep by 2pm and wake up at about 4pm.) Joseph woke up at 6.30pm and Joy-Anne slept till 7pm.

They went out at 10pm (all recharged and energized) to Ah Ku's new house and came home at almost midnight.

On Tuesday, Joseph decided he would skip school and Nana let him.

They had a party at home! Maybe we should have another baby. Or go away more often.

Legend International Water Homes - Day 3 : the good and the not so good

It's a rare thing for me to wake up to sunlight streaming into the room. Lovely.

Breakfast was better today. I started with the same wattery chicken porridge followed by a plate of nasi tomato with chicken rendang (pretty good), crunchy ikan bilis (for YeeTeow's benefit, ikan bilis = anchovies) and hash brown. I liked the hash brown - crunchy on the outside, crispy on the inside.

The other stuff was basically the same. But I did like the chocolate croissant which I only discovered at the end. I had 3 pieces of this.

After breakfast, we took a walk around the hotel grounds, and also across to Legend Water Chalets.

This is the view of one branch of the water chalets, taken from the opposite branch. It's not very far apart and if you zoom in....


...you can see the guy cleaning the pool on the top unit.
I only have a 3x optical zoom. Imagine what you can see if you have more zoom power.


This is the view of the Tower Block of Legend Water Chalets, taken from the water chalets.




The Legend Water Chalets pool - it's pretty small. There's a outdoor playground and also a kids' playroom in that building next to the playground. The tall building at the back is Glory Beach Resort.

This is the layout of Legend Water Chalets. The distance between 2 branches is only about 40m. So people on opposite branches look directly into each other's balconies. A wee bit too close for comfort for me.

Back at Legend International Water homes, we walked to the end of the water chalet branch and this is the view looking back at the main hotel building. Behind the wall on the right is the private pool of a pool vila.

So people can't look into your pool area, but neither can you look out to the sea which to me, defeats the purpose of being over water. All you can see of the sea is through that glass panel on the floor. And all you see is murky water.


Even if you get the end unit which looks out on to the open sea....

...the pool area is still walled up.

This whole resort is still very new - you can see morning glory climbing the support posts and other plants waiting to grow and green the place.

the view of the corridor for the water pool villas

Some things they could improve on...

1. The Gym - they could put a clock on the wall for starters. Then add free weights, daily newspapers, some magazines and a tv (with astro).

2. Breakfast - add yoghurt and muesli.

Note to people planning to come here - the air con can be very cold. Bring a cardigan. Even at 24C, it felt very cold when it rained.

Overall, we had a pretty good relaxing time which is the purpose of our getaway. And we got the private pool we paid for. The staff are all very smiley and polite. They greet you, hold doors open and see to your every request.

It's a kid-friendly place. Contrary to what I thought, it's quite safe to have kids in the pool villa. There's a sliding door that you can close and lock to prevent kids from straying into the private pool should you need leave them jumping on the beds while you take a shower or make a drink.

Now if only they had a feedback form in this hotel room so I could tell them what I think...

Legend International Water Homes - Day 2.

We woke up to a very wet and grey morning. It rained all of today. Not too bad for hibernating.

So we walked over to the main hotel building (using the umbrellas thoughtfully provided by the hotel) for breakfast at the Duyung Restaurant. It was cold! Maybe super cold due to the rain. Daalin had to go back to get another shirt for me.

I started of with a bowl of chicken porridge to warm myself up.

It was not too bad though I've tasted much better ones. A wee bit too watery if you ask me, and the condiments were scarce. Daalin wanted fried dace to go with it.

The breakfast spread was alright but not quite what I'd expect of a 5star hotel.

I liked the variety of beverage - pineapple, mango, orange, guava juices, low fat milk, strawberry milk, full cream milk, soya bean.

This was round 1 - nasi goreng kampung, minced beef pie, chicken sausage, beef rendang, siew mai.

The minced beef pie was a bit too salty. The rest were alright.

There was a lot of stuff that I didn't even touch - pasta, pulut kukus, nasi minyak, beef bacon, potato wedges, mee hoon siam, curry chicken, pau, croissant, bread, muffins, salad.

Unlike The Saujana (which is kinda my benchmark hotel), they did not have nasi lemak (not that I wanted it), no muesli, no yoghurt.

So I had 2 rounds of koko krunch, lots of fruits, 2 rounds of porridge, an omelette and plenty of juice.

the scale model of our room

We then spent the rest of the morning lazing in the room before taking our afternoon nap.

layout of the hotel

More photos and comments about the room - the television is firmly stuck to the wall. They should have put some thought into fixing the kind of bracket that would enable the tv to be pulled out a little and turned left and right.

This sink in the pantry - the tap is too near the wall and too far from the sink. Water splashes out of the sink too much. If they had installed the tap just 2 inches nearer to the sink, or placed the sink further in towards the wall, the water wouldn't splash out as much.
I also don't like taps with 2 knobs. It's inconvenient when I have dirty hands. I much prefer the lever kind that I can just nudge with my elbow and swing left and right for temperature adjustment.

This is the kids' playroom. It's a good alternative to the playground on a rainy day. Located next to the pool cafe, parents can sit and have a drink while keeping an eye on the kids.

Plenty of brand new bicycles at your disposal...

The view of the water chalets from the swimming pool. Maybe if you book the ones at the far end, you'll plenty of privacy but no wifi connection.

We drove out to Port Dickson town for dinner but couldn't find any decent place to eat so we ended up at the same place as last night - Restoran Seaview Chardin. This time we had the same butter cheese sea mentis, spring onion/ginger venison, singapore fried mee hoon...

...and nestum soft shell crab.

I hope they different stuff for breakfast tomorrow.

my vain princess is growing

We took Joy to the paediatrician last Friday. I thought she missed her chicken-pox jab at 13 months. But when we got into Dr's room, doc pointed out (on another card) that she did get her jab back in February. However, she didn't get her HiB (Haemophilus Influenzae B) booster jab which was due at 18months because government clinics no longer give that.

So we gave her that booster. She came home and said to her grandmother, "Nana...my buttock painful."

She now weighs 13.5kg and stands at 87.5cm. Since I weigh about 48.5kg, our total weight is now the same as that when I was 9 months pregnant with her - 62kg.

Annual Honeymoon 2009 - Legend International Water Homes

We're finally on our annual honeymoon, 2 weeks late. Joe is done with his assessment and tomorrow is a school holiday for him so here we are...

The road signs were not very good. We overshot the turning and found ourselves in Port Dickson town before turning back. For those intending to come here, it's right next to Glory Beach Resort. You'll have to turn right where the sign says "Legend International Water Homes. 600m" because the 600m means there's 600m from that junction to the hotel. Not that the junction is another 600m away.

There was a huge tour group checking out as we arrived so we had to wait a while to check in. That done, they kindly drove us to our room in a buggy.

It was actually very near. But we appreciate the nice gesture.


Entering the room, I could still smell the fresh paint. The floor felt kinda sandy. We used the indoor slippers and called housekeeping to clean the floor again.

Two king-sized beds. Ample space for families with big kids.

There's a pantry with a microwave oven. I found it weird that the mini bar is not here, but in the main room underneath the tv. There's also a small counter with 2 stools here.

Nice selection of tea. A wee bit more variety than the usual that hotels provide.

Separate toilet and shower. Useful for people who sit on the throne for ages. I like the rain kind of showerhead in the shower. This bathroom is huge. You could pitch a tent here.

Toiletries are arranged in a nice wooden tray.

I've no idea what brand this is but it sounds expensive. Hotel toiletries usually have their name and logo on them. This one doesn't.The highlight of the room - the private pool.It's a decent size, about 4ft deep. The entire pool is roofed (because there's another unit above us) providing enough privacy to go skinny dipping. But the rules and regulations on the wall says that proper swimwear is required.

The pool area is cordoned off with glass swing doors (that will not stay open by itself and are quite heavy to push open) that should keep kids out.

After a much-needed afternoon nap, we ventured out of the room to get some exercise. The swimming pool which is just behind our room has a nice kids playground IN the pool! So kids can actually slide into the pool. It's also got water shooting out of the little spouts. I can just imagine how excited Joseph will be to see this.

But Daalin said, "No! We're not going home to bring the kids here!".

So we went to the gym which is located next to the swimming pool.

This is the swimming pool with the water chalets in the background.

This is how our room unit looks like with the swimming pool behind us. The bottom unit is our room. The top unit (probably a sky villa) has a private pool with the sky above. It doesn't seem that private because we can see the showerhead and door from where we were standing. I guess you shouldn't go skinny dipping if you book one of those units.

The gym is very new. But really small. It's got a nice view though.

But unlike the gym at The Saujana, this one doesn't provide towels, water or fruit. There's no tv, no newspapers, no magazines (I like to read while on the stationary bike. It helps to pass time).

We went back to the room and I stepped on the digital scale. It's been a while since I weighed myself.

Then we showered and went out for dinner at a nearby seafood restaurant.

Dinner was a very big plate of seafood fried rice, some noodles Daalin ordered and a small portion of cheese butter lai liu har (sea mentis). I'm glad we didn't order more because I was very full. There's no wifi in the room but it's free in the lobby and in the restaurant.

Gonna go relax in the room now and watch CSI while sipping green tea. Looking forward to breakfast tomorrow. Hope it's good.

Two, Three or more? - Joe can't decide.

On Friday, Joseph all out of the blue said to me, "Mama...how about we make one more baby?"

I was surprised.

So Mama said, "Why? I thought you don't want anymore baby?"

Joe said, "Make one more baby...then we will have three children. Because the dinosaur on the show Ah Ku gave me also got three babies".

He had been watching Ice Age 3 - Dawn of the Dinosaurs and the T-Rex had 3 babies.

they look so cute, don't they?

Then on Saturday....Joe said to me, "Mama...I don't want another baby. Just 2 children is enough."

Now Mama was confused. "I thought you want another one like the T-Rex?", I said to him.

Joe said, "No....just Joy-Anne is enough".

Oh well....we'll see what God says.

By the way, after the picture was taken, they hugged and kicked and rolled over each other in their sleep like two drunken snakes. Absolutely adorable!