Lovely December ^^ - Part 2 - Legoland in Johor, Malaysia

Saturday, 21^st December 2013 

  

Our first visit to Legoland near Christmas time :)

Our block RC (Residents’ Committee) organized a one-day trip to Legoland (Lego-themed theme park). It’s a Malaysia’s first International Theme Park located in Johor, opened in September last year. I heard about it before but had never been there before. So, at 8.40am, we departed from our house's block together with other residents in our neighborhood. There were 40 of us in one bus. Mostly it was family with children, lots of children!!!

Two kids tried to barge in the Legoland :P

Below is how the Legoland Map looks like. See how big the place is!!! When I first looked at it from the outside, I thought the place was so small. I was a bit disheartened and thought not going to visit it again. However, there were lots of places to see and play. We were there from 11am to 5.45pm and not every corner been visited yet.

 

Legoland Map

Other than the theme park, there are also hotel (will be opened next year) and water park. The water park seemed fun too! Perhaps next time I will go to visit both theme park and water park, and stay for a night or two at its hotel. Let's see!!! ^^

Merry Christmas 2013 Ho Ho Ho :)

Here we were!!! There were lots of things made of Lego everywhere we went. It was amazing how they could build it from the small piece of Lego bricks!!

Lego everywhere!!!

Even built the animals from Lego!! They were cute, weren't they???

Animals made of Lego bricks

My friend and I couldn't stop taking photos. My son was showing his black face since his purpose there was to play. Lolx!!! He was afraid that the sky was going to rain and asked us to walk faster and stop taking photos hahaha... 

Below was the first game we played. There were some quite innovative and interactive games that you couldn't find at other theme park. One of them was this one, called Lego Rescue Academy. This game was specifically meant for a family with 2 kids. Four people to board into one of these 4 vehicles. Two adults were there to push the handle so that the vehicle could walk forward. Once it reached the building which was on fire, they had to immediately go down. 2 adults were to pump the water and 2 kids were to aim the water to the spot which was on fire. 

After shooting enough water, the sign would change, which means the firefighters had done a great job in extinguishing the fire. They had to ride the vehicle back by pushing the handle again, returned back to the original position. Sounds easy, wasn't it?

But, do you know how hard it was to push the thing for the vehicle to move?? It was very tiring la!!! At first, my son was so exciting when he pushed the handle. After a while, he felt so tired and had no energy to push anymore. Yalama!! We were sweating and our hands stiffed after playing this game. 

Only after it's over, I then recalled on what my eldest sis told us during chatting. That time my 3rd sis was complaining that her son made her to have a ride on a duck pedal boat when they visited Garut. Her son would happily sit next to her and enjoy the ride while my sis had to pedal the boat by herself. After that, my eldest sis told us that my 3rd sister's son made them (she and my brother) to exercise too (this time was hand exercise) when playing the fire extinguishing game in Legoland. Then I understood why she said so. But it was too late for me as we had finished playing the game. Lolx!!! No more next time on this game, I guess!! Not for me, at least! Hahaha.... :P

See how tired we were!!! Lolx!

Another game was called Kid Power Tower. Here, two persons to play together as a team. I played with my son. We had to pull the cable up in order to let our seat going up. After reaching the top, we could choose to stay there or to go down. If you chose to go down, you had to go up again, whatever you wanted. See photo below (right below part)

Many different games to play!!!

This park was marketed to families with younger children (11 years and below). However, there were other games that adult could play too, such as Dino Island. See photo on top (left top part). 

Before playing, my son and my friend had already warned me that we would get wet. We could choose not to get wet by either buy their poncho (raincoat) or don't play at all hahaha... I didn't want to spend unnecessary money (like buying poncho) just to play this game. So I told my son, "Don't worry la, it's only wet a bit. Why you were so scared of water??" He had no choice but to follow my words.

My friend was waiting for us as she didn't dare playing the games like this. That day it was crowded in the park, but luckily we didn't have to queue for so long at each ride. We could store our bags at the provided rack before we got into our boat. Before going up, like usual, the boat would bring us around and let us see many Dinosaurs made by Lego bricks. It was quite nice, but the journey wasn't long and we went down. I had no time to get scary at all as what I could feel was a BIG splash on my face and body!!! Both of us was wet like hell!!! Hahahaha......... 

My son looked like after swimming... Lolx!!!

My son was wet from top to below. Both of us didn't bring any cloth from home. At the end, I had to buy a t-shirt for him as I didn't want him to catch a cold and the cost was much more than the price of two ponchos hahahaha.... :D Seriously, I had played this game in many different them parks, everywhere in the world, but this one was built really to get people wet like hell ya!!! You could see also in the photo, the rest of the passengers were all wet too!!!

After this ride, we watched the 4D movie at Lego Studio. We watched Lego Racers 2. We wore 4D glasses inside. The side effects, like the wind and snow, were really good. I really felt like flying or in mountainous snow. It blew my pants dry but I was freezing cold since my cloth was still wet. Yalama, I thought I would get sick immediately, luckily I didn't. After the show, I immediately went to toilet and made my cloth dried-out.

Lego bricks inside the Pizza Mania

We had our lunch after the show. We order family pizza combo (1 big Aloha Chicken pizza w/ 4 soups - mushroom or broccoli - and 4 soft drinks), a la carte pasta (Spaghetti Bolognaise) and a set of chicken wings at Pizza Mania. Nyummy!!! We ate until very full!!! Ready to continue our day!!!

We played a big roller-coaster games called The Dragon inside the Lego Kingdom. It was fun! But when we're about to reach the station back, there was some technical problem. It made us grilled under the heat of the sun for some time. OH, I thought I was dying by the heat from the sun and kept praying hard for a miracle that we could enter the station soon. I think there was some effect on my body due to the sun :( 

At Lego Kingdoms

The sun was suddenly so hot. I let my son playing the smaller roller-coaster called Dragon's Apprentice and The Dragon again while my friend and I was resting under the roof, sometimes browsing inside their store, looking around for some souvenir to bring back home. 

There was another fun game not to be missed, called Project X. It was like riding a car, but more like roller-coaster. My son played twice while I played once.

Project X at Legoland

While walking, I took picture of everything that related to Lego. Body dryer, dust bin, decals on the glass windows, Coca Cola advertisement, etc.

Once done, we went to visit Miniland. There were lots of building made by Lego - resembling well-known places from Asia. Check out the photos below.

Singapore, Malaysia, China, Brunai, Vietnam, etc.

Cities mostly in Malaysia

Many different places from Asia

Cruise, ports, airport, etc.

It was beautiful, wasn't it? All was mostly made of Lego. Sometimes I wondered how creative the person who built all that. They deserved a well-praise la! Well done!

We still had about an hour time and we used it for shopping :) My friend and I bought some stuffs back home. Oh ya, btw, there were lots of stalls for playing games inside the theme park. They offered an attractive prize to bring back home like big Minion dolls, big panda dolls, big cow dolls, etc. They were all so cute :)

Three of us together in front of The Big Shop

We gathered with others at 5.45pm and departed back to Singapore at 6pm. Reached at 8pm. We had our dinner at coffee shop nearby my house and finally returned back home. It was a wonderful trip!!! We had a great time together!!! Thank you for the good karma given to all of us :)

Lovely December ^^ - Part 1

December is my favorite month of the year :) Although it’s not me  – usually it’s my son who is having the holiday – but I can feel the atmosphere and mood it brings hehe… 

Baobei 11th year Birthday - 12 December 2013

Starting with celebrating my son’s Birthday on Thursday, 12^th December 2013. As per previous blog post, it went smoothly. My son was satisfied and happy with his favorite Korean food and his birthday’s presents adding his precious collections – what a lucky chap he is!!!

Friday, 13th December 2013. Last Friday 13^th of the year. It's time for year-end Karaoke with my colleagues. I asked other colleagues to join us, also from our department, but they had already arranged their own. We couldn't join them as there would be too many people, which meant less chance for us to sing as we were only allowed to stay for three hours in one session. Therefore, we organized it and went on our own at a different place because we had to become a member in order to be able to book that place, which no one from our side was the member.

Year-end Karaoke session - 13 December 2013 :)

We went to Party World at NEX Serangoon, right after finished our work. My ex-colleague joined us and she came late due to unfinished work. At the end, it was only 4 of us. It was only few of us so that we could sing more songs hehehe.... Don't know why, this time my song lists were mostly slow ones and some were sad ones. Overall, it was good. We had a great times. We ordered 5 bottles of Carlsberg and 5 bottles of Corona. I drank 3 bottles, enough to make me sleepyzzz.... hehehe... We went home after that :)

Sunday, 15^th December 2013, my son and I joined the X’mas BBQ gathering party organized by my colleagues in one of my colleague’s staying place in Bishan. There were 7 of us. Some brought their spouse, I brought my son, and the person who stays there would automatically invite her family members. We went there before for our Finance BBQ party last year, but this time, my friend managed to book the BBQ pit where there was roof on top. Other than that, the grilled machine was using electricity – not charcoal. There were chillers, oven, washing area, dining tables, and outdoor round chair made of rattan provided. Wow!! What a wonderful place! It located near swimming pools too.

Few of us met up at the nearest MRT station and went to buy some items required at the supermarket. After that we took bus there. At that time, the weather was quite hot. Once we reached the place, my son immediately went to the swimming pool and enjoyed his relaxing time there. I helped up preparing the things for the BBQ. About half an hour later, suddenly heavy rain poured the earth. Luckily there was a roof. We didn’t get wet. Only that many times the loud thunder and lightning scared us. Hahaha…. 

Christmas BBQ Party @Clover by The Park - 15 December 2013

While raining, we started barbecuing. Different type of sausages, enoki/golden mushroom wrapped with bacon, pork/chicken satay, otak otak (made of fish paste), and marinated chicken wings were grilled. Hhhmmm… It smelled nice. We cooked first for the children to eat. After that, while barbecuing, me and my friend were eating it too. Hehehe… 

My friend prepared the sangria – fruit based wine punch – made of red wines, green/red apples, and soda mixed with ice cubes. Perfect for the raining day as it warmed our bodies up ^^ She also prepared Sherpherd Pie – meat pie (beef) with a crust of mashed potato. My son loved it so much and ate it for few rounds hahaha… She also mixed tortilla chips with some minced beef and mozzarella cheese then put it into the oven until the cheese melted. Nyummy!!! I bet your saliva drops while reading this hehehe… just kidding ;)

We also barbecued the corn (brushed with butter and honey) and sweet potatoes. In the evening, another colleague came and his wife made Macaroni & Cheese for us. As the Sangria finished, I started preparing ‘Malibu Ananas’ – mixed of Malibu liquor (Caribbean rum with coconut flavor) and pineapple juice. It’s been always my favorite mixes since my school time until my schoolmate called me “Ms. Malibu” :P It’s a refreshing, not a heavy drink, suitable for women. 

We ate, chit chatted, listened to the Christmas songs, enjoyed the cool air, drank, laughed, and so on. For desserts, we had beautiful crunchy watermelon (chosen by my guy colleague who phoned his Mom to ask how to choose a nice and sweet watermelon :D), cut by my friend’s Mom into this kind of beautiful shape.

Not only beautiful but also sweet and crunchy!!! ^^

We also had Bubur Chacha – it’s a dessert made of coconut milk with taro/yam, sweet potatoes, and tapioca pearls. Oh, we were all very full!!! Not forgetting Vanilla ice cream with hazelnut as our last touch! It was a wonderful and enjoyable evening and I was glad being able to bring my son there to join in my activity again and again; let him socialize, mix around, learn something new, and not forget feasting the food together. He has joined in most of my activities with my friends. Lucky him ba! ^^ We stayed until 10pm then went back home as I need to work the next day. 

Tuesday, 17^th December 2013. While Bhutanese celebrated their National Day all across the country and even outside the country – Happy belated 106^th National Day to all of you! – I also took my last childcare leave from the office. 

My hubby, son, my brother’s daughter and I went to Adventure Cove Waterpark at Sentosa Island. This place was opened last year in November. I didn’t even know about it until my brother and his families went there few months ago. This year, I really didn’t touch the swimming pool at all. One of the Running Man series had allured me to visit into this place hahaha… I was craving of water park adventure lah and since this place provided the entertainment, I decided to visit it, at least once. Apart from my own interest, I also wanted them to have fun. 

Adventure Cove Waterpark - 17 December 2013

Whole day I’d been praying so that we could have a nice weather during that day. It seemed that my pray and wish came true. It wasn’t that hot (the day before that the weather was very hot and burning!), and it wasn’t rain at all too! Fiuhhhh….. You know, I’d been avoiding swimming since I couldn’t stay under the sun. Therefore, the weather that day had made my day :) 

Once we entered, we changed our outfit and applied sun block cream all over the body. My hubby went buying goggles. Ours had broken since it was stored and wasn’t used for so long. When coming back, he forgot to apply the lotion. Poor hubby!!! Then we put our belonging into the rented locker. The locker was very expensive. Medium size one costs $10. Since we seldom used it, we didn’t know that once we locked it, we still could re-open it without additional charge. We put our things in, except the glasses that my hubby and son wore. Hahahaha….. We looked each other after we locked the locker. At the end, we just put both glasses on top of the locker, of course, with a risk of getting lost or broken. Luckily Singapore is considered a safe country with majority of its people being honest in their behavior. Lots of people put their slippers on top of the locker cabinet too. Also, in front of each ride, they had open round-shape rack provided for us to store our goggles as we weren’t allowed to bring it into the ride. So far, our four goggles were safe at all times. Felt grateful living in this country! :)

We started our day by dipping ourselves into Adventure River. We made half round following the water flow and went up. We saw the Rainbow Reef where people could snorkel to view the beautiful and colorful tropical fish. The place is 2.9 meter depth and you must be able to swim in order to experience snorkeling there. We didn’t try it. The queue was quite long and without doing that, we still could see the beautiful fishes from the glass mirror from the outside.

We chose to play the rides :) We started it with Riptide Rocket. We had to queue for some time before our turn came. Two persons sat in the tube. We had to go up using the elevator (sitting on the tube), then we started our rollercoaster ride on water in a high speed, plunging us up and down, twisting us here and there before coming out from inside the pipe. It was fun, but we felt the journey was too short for half an hour queue :P

Once we went out, the waves came on the Bluwater Bay. We dipped in ourselves there, jumping and playing with the waves. Ohhh… it felt so good!!! :) Everyone enjoyed it so much! Once it’s over, we continued with other rides: Pipeline Plunge, Twidal Twister, Whirlpool Washout, Spiral Washout, and Dueling Racer. Everyone was having great and fun time.

After that, we went to Adventure River again. This time we saw the fishes on top of us and from the glass window next to the river. We had so much fun watching the different kind of stingrays and tropical colorful fishes. 

We played most of the rides there and went back to Bluwater Bay again to enjoy the waves over and over again hehehe… We reached there at about 10.15am and went out at about 4pm. We spent almost six hours there until I got hungry. They had a restaurant there, but we felt like eating outside. Therefore, we went to Bugis to look for the chicken rice plus steamboat restaurant. But it was closed :( We ended up eating steamboat plus grill near the Bugis Junction.

Steamboat and BBQ at Bugis :)

All of us were soooo hungry. We immediately put in the ingredients into the pot and cooked some meat and prawns on top of the transparent glass. We ate until very full. Once finished, we had a walk in Bugis Junction (shopping center) and went back home at around 8pm. I had an early sleep since I had to work the next day. 

To be continued at part 2 here

Nothing last forever

When I knew my hubby for the first time, he was working as a Technician for a fire-alarm related company. He drove van and ran around the city to service the fire extinguishers, installing and checking fire alarm systems inside the buildings, etc. He worked there for around six years then decided to quit so that he could find a better work that was more suitable for him, also to earn more money to feed the family.

Since he wanted to earn more money, he tried to do sales job. He tried twice. One was in the handphone shop, another one was in the jewellery shop. However, he was too honest and unable to sweet-talk the customers, also he couldn’t stand to stand up too long inside the shop. Therefore, he decided that sales job wasn’t his cup of tea at all.

Many times he couldn’t have a heart to charge the customers, especially the elderly, who claimed his/her hand phone spoiled, but it was actually not and only needed to do some small adjustment to turn it on again. Same thing happened in the jewellery shop. He couldn’t have a heart to allure (a.k.a. trap) the customers (mostly elderly aunties) who was attracted to purchase a cheap $10 pendant or stone bracelet, to purchase a much more expensive gold/diamond jewellery. He just worked there in less than a month and decided to quit.

He was quite desperate, not knowing what he was good at, or capable with. His saving diminished slowly as he still needed to pay bills, house loan, and other things (since he didn’t work, no CPF was contributed into his account, which therefore, he had to top-up cash money to pay the house loan). He struggled that period quite badly and almost fell into depression as he had to be jobless for quite long period of time.

Luckily, he had a cousin, few buddies, also family members who supported him all the time. Buddha also pitied him with his situation until one day his cousin’s buddy was offering him to work under his company, to engage a contract with other company that allowed him to work as a personal driver.

I might say it was a fate ba! It’s his good karma to be able to get this job. It was really good from the start. The company that his cousin’s buddy had a contract with, employed his Boss, a Thai-Chinese man who in his 40s, as an expatriate to work in Singapore. He married with a humble and down-to-earth woman who would stay in Singapore once in a while to accompany her husband.

When I said about his good karma, it referred to his Boss and his Boss’s wife who were very good and kind-heart. Although his Boss was graduated from Professorial degree and held a very high post in the company, he respected everyone including my hubby who worked only as his driver. He was also a very humble person. I often heard my hubby praising over both of them, especially his Boss. Sometimes he couldn’t believe such a person existed in this world.

The place where his Boss stayed was quite far away from where we lived. My hubby had to take and switch bus twice and it took him more than an hour just to commute one way (including waiting time for the bus to arrive). He often grumbled and called me when he missed out the bus, which made him waiting for another half an hour for another bus to come. Every morning, he had to go out early from home too. Luckily his Boss usually worked only after 9.30am.

He was quite happy with his job in first few years. But after that, there were some changes made in contract as requested by the company, which made his salary decreasing. However, my hubby still continued with the work, on account of his Boss and his Boss’s wife. Both of them had been very kind to him and treated him well, that’s what made him stay.

There were ups and downs in his life working in this job. Good thing was when his Boss flew overseas, it meant holiday for him. Sometimes it could be as long as one month. I always envied him for this :P But when his Boss stayed in Singapore for weeks continuously, most of the time he had to work continuously too, sometimes with no days off. He had to work during weekends too as his Boss loved to play golf.

His Boss’s wife would give him cookies (handmade by her sister) when she came back from her home country and sometimes buy goreng pisang or fried banana after shopping some Thai food in Beach Road. Every Chinese New Year, the couple would hand in red packet to him as a token of hard work appreciation, which came out from their own pocket (My hubby’s job didn’t entitle him for 13th month salary or bonus just like others who worked in the company. Therefore, the additional red packet would mean a lot for him).

Day passed, years went by. Today it’s a last day of my hubby serving his Boss. My hubby had decided to stop working as he wanted to try another opportunity offered by his cousin’s buddy, still to work as driver, but in different way. It’s been almost six years he had worked with his Boss and it was time for him to strike while he still could. He had to quit this job with a heavy heart, as he would no more serving his Boss and his Boss’s wife.

Since early this month, when his cousin’s buddy announced the discontinuation of the contract, his Boss, his Boss’s wife, and his Boss’s secretary were all asking what the reason was and tried to persuade him to stay. However later on, both of them understood his situation and supported him to pursue his dream and to grab the opportunity.

Few days ago, he sent off his Boss’s wife to the airport. She flew back to her home country. After dropping her off, his Boss’s wife gave a hug to him and he almost cried. This morning, he sent his Boss off to the airport. After dropping out his luggage from the car, they talked for a while and before separated, his Boss asked him to give him a hug, wished him good luck, and passed another red packet to him. He was so touched for both his and his wife’s gestures and kindness. Both of them had treated him not just like a low-class driver where usually others might do, but more like a good friend, or maybe more than that?

He was deeply touched, couldn’t resist more to hold his tears and finally burst out after he left, and called me right away. On the phone I asked him to express what he felt so that he could let the sadness go. I know it’s hard for him to separate with these two persons who have meant a lot for him in his life. He even said it’s been such a long time since he last cried.

Hubby, his Boss and lady Boss - Housewarming Steamboat Jul 12

Actually, I admired my hubby for his spirit and passion to serve his Boss and lady Boss. He put his heart, effort and did the very best into his job. He always did his job full of responsibility, always prepared in advance on the locations he needed to go, checked the arrival and departure times, always be early to wait and not to be waited, be honest with his overtime hour, didn’t anyhow utilize the company’s vehicle, and so on. Sometimes he complained when he got tired because he had to wake up so early to fetch his Boss’s niece to school (as he was not a morning person), or to stay as late as past midnight to wait for his Boss finished his entertainment’s job. However, he continued doing his job happily, again, on account of his Boss’s kindness.

I tried to appease him, “There is nothing lasts forever in this world. No matter how good they are to you, one day, you still have to separate from them. Even if it’s not today, in one year, in two years, or more, they still have to go back to their home country, and you still have to move on to find another job. Since this is your decision on what you want to do, let this passes on. I am sure they also felt touched by your dedication and kindness towards them these past six years. But you see, they could accept the fact that since it’s a good opportunity for you to have a better career, they never selfishly insisted you to stay with them, no matter how much they wanted you to stay. And the fact that they treated you with respect and wanted you to stay had shown how much they treasured you as a good and kind human being.”

Farewell gift by his Boss's secretary

Well, the day has come. Nothing last forever, really. I hope my hubby’s sadness will be over soon and I really hope that his dream of the new venture will come true and hope everything will go smoothly. Wish you all the very best Dut, and good luck!! :)

Books and comics during childhood time ^^

In Indonesia, my parents' house was located  very near to the school. It was just five minutes walk from home. All my four siblings studied there from kindergarten to senior high school. It was so good that you saved time and money for the transport. Especially when you forgot to bring things from home. You could just go back home during recess time to collect your thing back.

I studied my kindergarten there but was rejected to enroll my primary school because I was born in late months of the year. The school said I was too young to start (I was not even six years old) and they wanted me to enroll the next year after that. However,  my Mom believed in my capability that I would be able to catch up with the lesson. Therefore, I went to another school that was located very far away from home. 

The kindergarten, primary school,  and junior high school were located in one area, which means no barrier to access to these three places. Only senior high school was separated from these three. 

Just behind the kindergarten,  it was where their library was located. I still remember after I finished school (during primary school time), I would drop by the library there. I would enter the place as if I was the student there. It was quite big place. Sometimes I would enter together with my sister to reduce the suspicion. Of course I couldn't borrow those books back home. I could only read it there.

At that age, I had favorite books to read. It was detective book for children written by M. Monsters. The book was translated into Indonesian language. It was about two children, age twelve, who were neighbor, and stayed in a small and quiet ville. The girl's name was Amy Adams and the boy's name was Hawkeye Collins.

Serial detektif cilik Hawkeye Collins and Amy Adams (Indonesian versions)

Each books consists of several short stories. Both of them would face case and problem in each story. Usually Hawkeye Collins would draw a sketch from the scene and included everything that he saw. Reader would have to read thoroughly about each scenario and looked at the sketch properly in order to be able to solve the problem up.

The answer of each case was put behind the book and it was written the other way around. You need a mirror to read the solution.

Ooohhh.... I loved solving their cases. All stories were interesting and not so difficult to solve. There were numbers of series and I slowly enjoyed reading each of it. That was my recollection on how I started going to library and developing my interest in reading books. Other than that series, I also started to read 'Lima Sekawan' or 'Famous Five', again about children detective stories but this one was more words and less pictures  and the problem was solved by themselves, not by readers.

If I recalled back on how I was so blatant to enter the library and disguised as the student there, I would smile on it :) Luckily the librarian never kicked me out from there and I managed to read quite number of the story books there.

I came from quite big families (five of us) so I didn't dare to ask my parents to buy us books lavishly like other children. At that time we subscribed one children magazine called Bobo. My 3rd sister and I had to fight and snatched, sometimes I even cried when it was delivered to our house as both of us didn't want to read it late.

Majalah Bobo :)

To ease our hunger of reading, we would borrow comics like Tintin, Asterix, Nina, Donal Bebek - all Indonesian versions from friends. 

Childhood time's favorite comics - in Indonesian versions

I would consider myself lucky being able to read those books and comics since very young as many people in other part of the works didn't even know how to read, didn't even have access towards books.