Joseph's First Concert

Joe much-anticipated-First Concert finally happened last night. He had been practising it at home when he thought no one was looking but refused to dance for me. In fact, until Saturday he told me, "The concert day is very near already. You just have to be patient for one more day".

Yesterday evening, in spite of the very heavy rain, we made our way to DreamCentre at 5pm. The children had dinner in ther classrooms while parents had dinner in the Sports Hall.
After I helped Joe's classmates to touch up on their make up, I made my way upstairs where I found Joy-Anne pining for her brother.

She kept saying, "I want my brother.....I want my brother..."

After Negaraku, speeches by Pr Daniel and Teacher Stephanie, the curtains went up to reveal a most impressive backdrop.

Joe's item was the first one - Colours of Malaysia, to the tune of Siti Nurhaliza'z Warna Warna Malaysia.

The costumes were all really colourful and beautiful. Sure looked good on stage!

I thoroughly enjoyed myself watching all the dances. The children were all very good and they danced so very well.

After the concert, Joe got a photo with his classmate, Miss C - she danced really well too.

This costume will be recycled for Chinese New Year next year. Joy wants me to "please please pretty please buy me a pink costume".

In the mean time, he'll get to wear it again on Friday at their year-end party.

White walls and what colour doors?

I have to decide.

On the paint colour for our new home. Real soon.

To make things easy, we initially decided on everything white. Yup. A white house. Or rather, home.

But after the weekend at Avillion Admiral Cove, I'm so inspired by the blue/white colour scheme which I find so soothing. Maybe just one blue wall.

Or blue curtains. I can easily change curtains when I tire of the colour.

And what colour doors? White as well? Or something else?

Breakfast & Bye Bye Avillion

Breakfast at the Traders Coffee House this morning was marginally better than yesterday's. They had guava juice and orange juice. Yesterday they had mango juice and orange juice. I started off with a bowl of fruit. The nasi lemak (only with sambal and the usual condiments, no chicken/beef.) and mee goreng looked too unhealthy. So I had some eggs, sausages and hash browns (nice and crispy).
I finished my breakfast with another huge plate of fruit. The breakfast fare is alright if you just want something to fill your stomach but can't beat the quality that we had at Saujana and Cyberview Lodge.

After breakfast, Mr Alan the General Manager arranged for the marina manager to give us a guided tour of the pontoon area.

Overall, it's been a good holiday. On the hotel - it look really nice and pleasant. Staff are friendly and courteous. The signboards leading to the hotel are rather obscure and not easy to find but Mr Alan says they are working on it.

As for the little things (in the room) that were not in working order, Mr Alan's offer to change our rooms made all the difference.

I like the Vista Wing much better. The design shows that somebody did some thinking. For example sink at the pantry, bedside power points and conveniently-located switches. The daybed is also spacious enough to sleep 2 small kids. It's actually the size of a super single bed (3.5' wide). We'll certainly consider this hotel in future, and maybe bring the kids along.

Avillion Admiral Cove for our 8th Anniversary

We take a short break every year in conjunction with our wedding anniversary. This year, we decided on a different view and found ourselves at Avillion Admiral Cove, Port Dickson. We picked the Straits Studio for RM235nett per night, booked at Matta Fair.
First impressions was that it was clean and neat.

But we eventually found lots to complain about. The safe wasn't working, the tap was faulty, the electric kettle didn't switch off automatically, there was no TV programme and the telephone was faulty as well.

Maybe it was just this one particular room we were in. Nevertheless, I liked the looks of the KDK Baby Fan. We bought one unit of this for our new home.

The view was lovely. It's a sea front hotel. Not beach front.

That's good for us because we like looking at the sea but not swimming in it.

On our second evening there, we took a short drive to check out the lighthouse in Cape Rachado.

Signboards leading to this place are quite scarce and we had to stop twice to ask for directions. We finally found the entrance to the Hutan Rekreasi hidden behind Ilham Resort. This forest reserve is actually in the state of Melaka.

We hiked the tar road and it took us 8 minutes to get to the lighthouse.

Another flight of steps took us to the gate which was locked.

So we walked around it, taking in the view.

The only other lighthouse I've seen close up was at Cape Schanck, Melbourne.

There was another trail which we walked a while but then decided to turn back because they sky looked like it was going to pour.

Back at the hotel, we got a call from the hotel General Manager, inviting us out for a drink. I suspect that it must have been due to the feedback I submitted to the reception earlier in the morning.

So we met up with Mr Alan Kay at the bar for a very friendly chat over milkshake and (virgin) pina colada. Then he kindly offered to move us to another room in their new wing.

So we got an Executive Room on the top floor of the Vista Wing - newly opened in April this year.

It's much bigger the interior deco is pleasing to the eye.

The cute little pantry area has a small sink so you don't have to go all the way to the toilet. And the kettle works nicely.

The bathroom is spacious and comes with a nice rainshower.

Tomorrow, Mr Alan has kindly offered to arrange for us to visit the pontoon area (normally restricted to only boaters).

Joe's First Hospital Stay

I was at work yesterday when Daalin alerted me that Joe came home from school looking very lethargic and went straight to bed without taking his lunch.

A while later, Nana called to say Joe had a high fever. While I usually wouldn't panic because he has a fever ever so often, this time I decided to go straight home to check on him.

He looked unusually tired so I took him to Pantai Hospital because his two other usual paeds were closed at that hour.

We saw Dr Azam - a paediatrician Joe had seen before a couple of years back. Long story short, I decided to have him admitted so that antibiotics could be administered intravenously. The paediatric ward was a full house so they put him in the adult ward next door. And because it's an adult ward, we got a single room while paying for a 4-bedded room.

Joe was really brave when the needle went in. He said it hurt just a little bit.

He wasn't too happy at first but cheered up after Daalin promised him a reward of a piece of strawberry marshmallow cheesecake.

While Daalin sat with him in the hospital, I went home get a shower and Joe's dinner.

He didn't eat the hospital dinner which wasn't too bad.

Then Daalin went home to get a shower and also bring Nana & Joy-Anne & Kong Kong for a visit. Joe was getting restless while waiting for them. I think he missed his sister a lot.

So I kept him busy with some games on the computer. He could play with both hands. Even the wrapped up one.

Then his reward arrived and he happily ate. No more vomitting. And he was much better after the first dose of antibiotics went in.

While KongKong, Nana and Daalin watched tv (only in single room) for the by-election results, Joe played his computer games and Joy jumped around the bed.

This morning Joe was much more alert and happy. Thank God Dr Azam allowed him to be discharged even though he wanted to keep Joe for another day. But Joe was getting really restless. I think he might have broken the bed if we stayed another day.

So he's got to continue on his antibiotics orally. The recovery might be a bit slower but at least he's at home.

More Sushi and Cakes

We went out yesterday evening (Daalin's real birthday) to our new home to meet the contractor and then decided to have more sushi for dinner.

Earlier in the day, Daalin's office colleagues took him to Sushi Zanmai (Sunway Pyramid) for lunch.

Then it was Sakae Sushi for dinner.

Daalin didn't mind one bit.
He also had another two cakes in office making it a total of four cakes for his thirty-fourth birthday!

Fun with Four Eyes

I found two blind mice on my bed yesterday...
Joy still wants a pink sunglasses but settled for Joe's old grey one.

After making the pair of real spectacles, I found out my professor doesn't use it.

He says the actual reason he can't see is because that particular teacher uses red marker pen while the other teacher used black marker pen.

Duhh.....now why didn't he tell me that earlier!!!!

I could have just bought teacher some black marker pens instead of spending RM150 on a pair of spectacles that just sits in his bag.