My Personal Reflections [Part 5]

"Hmmmm.... after deep thought, there seem to be lots to reflect for Year 2011" let's get on with my writing then......."

On several occasions, Alice an old childhood friend have invited me to go for a holiday, so, this time round I have made up my mind to say 'YES' to her.  We both worked out some itinerary, booked our flights and accommodation and in no time at all we are all set for our short holiday in The Land of the Orient, Penang. 

D' Foursome which comprises of myself, Alice, her daughter Alicia and her neighbour, an aunty arrived Penang on 17th March and stayed at YMCA situated at Macalister Road.  We explored Penang by bus, walked many miles, visited few interesting places of interests and munching the different types of Penang's popular food!! Included in our list is a day-trip cruising "The Amusement World"......

On 19th March, after a simple breakfast at YMCA, we  took a bus to KOMTAR, change another bus to Air Itam to visit the popular Kek Lok Si Temple.  

Though I've been there many times but each visit has been a different experience for me.  We have Penang Prawn Mee for lunch nearby, after which we took another bus to Thai Buddha Temple, where a 180-foot gold plated reclining Buddha Statue lie - the largest Buddha in Asia!

Tired of all the bus ride, walking and sweating, we went back to YMCA to rest our feet, shower and as it's time for dinner, we took a bus all the way to Gurney Drive for Penang's hawker food. 

As usual, after breakfast the next morning we took a 8.45 bus to the Botanical Garden - the garden is full of greenery, with beautiful landscapings, clean, fresh and cool fresh air. How I wish we have a botanical garden like this in Kuching too ~ smiles ~

Being the last itinerary on our list, we went back to YMCA, packed all our things, checked out and took a taxi to KOMTAR, waited for a bus to bring us to Penang Airport.  What I still remember is that the bus driver 'drove like crazy!'  We board our 5.25pm flight back to Kuching.  It's indeed a long-n-winding holiday with bus rides, lots of training-the-leg muscles and not to mention lots of sweating!!!!

My Personal Reflections [Part 4]

"What have I to reflect for Year 2011??" Let me put on my 'thinking cap' first - give it a good thought, put those pictures into words and it's time to get busy with my fingers....... 

Great joy storms our home and family this Lunar New Year, with all our children coming back to celebrate this festival, and the breaking news from Alex and Choulyee that we will  be expecting a new member to our family ~ SMILES ~

As usual, I cook some home dishes for our reunion lunch in the comfort of our sweet home, followed by another reunion dinner in a bigger scale together with all the other Kuek family.  We have a simple Open House as well as visiting some of our close relatives and friends.

We decided to celebrate Chap Goh May  in KL and three of us flew over a day earlier, 16th February.  At this point of time we still travel around KL by LRT/MRT/Monorail and also taxi. The next morning Karen brought us to KLCC and we spent quite a while there, capturing lots of photos as usual......

In the evening we have our Chap Goh May dinner at a nearby local restaurant after which we proceed home, spending quality family times together.

Our next plan is a night stay at Genting, we have mamak food for breakfast at Steven's Corner, Cheras and drove to Genting Skyway Station....

As usual we split in two groups of three, one group to the gambling den, which is the Casino, while  myself, Karen and Aaron moved around  enjoying some games of rock climbing, bowling, etc and then we proceed for a buffet lunch.  In the evening we all gather for a buffet dinner at Hot Pot, First World Hotel. We went for a stroll and its indeed a windy cold night, and with the Archery Centre nearby the boys decided to have a game of Archery.  As we made our way back to the hotel we stopped by for our family photo....

Myself and hubby woke up early, so we both went for an early morning stroll while waiting for the children to wake up, getting ready for breakfast and we all met up at Resort Cafe, Resort World for our buffet breakfast.  Lots of nice yummy foods comprises of local and westerns are being served and we all enjoyed very much! Another family photo to share before we packed up, checked out and journeyed home......

As it's a Sunday, we all get ready for Mass at St. John's Cathedral, after which we proceed for lunch at Berjaya Time Square "Food & Tea."  As always, we all enjoyed a great holiday!

My Personal Reflections [Part 3]

"Part 2 has been published and what's next??"

Looking back, Year 2010 have been an adventurous year for my family ~ smiles ~ We decided to celebrate Chinese New Year in a unique way! Myself and Aaron flew to KL earlier, while hubby joined us 3 days before the festival.  Alex have planned a road trip to Melaka and it all started on the eve of CNY.  Choulyee drove us there, checked into a home-stay 'apa kaba' while Alex drove in from Tangkak, Johor after his half day's work.  We enjoyed the slow drive round Melaka and ended up at the Food Court of The Portuguese Settlement to have our Reunion Dinner, which is situated along a whole stretch of sea with beautiful scenic views.  After dinner we parked our car and took a stroll enjoying every bit of Melaka's night view. Karen flew in from Redang Island on the day itself to KL, travel by bus all the way to Melaka to join us for CNY. After fetching her from the bus station and pack McDonalds for her dinner, we decided to call for a night. When the clock struck midnight, fire crackers are heard all over.......

It's Chinese New Year "Kong Xi, Kong Xi!" A family photo taken in front of our home-stay, decorated with long red cloth, according to the Chinese tradition.....

After exchanging new year greetings with our neighbours, we checked out, put all our luggage into the car booth and off we go for breakfast. Our next stop is one of Melaka's popular historical spot, the A Famosa, capturing many memorable photos for our album.  We drove to Port Dickson and stop by for a while, and finally made our way back to KL.

Next day, we decided to stay home relaxing and enjoying a fun-filled family day of Card Game, which we normally won't miss out for CNY.  The day ends with a simple home-cooked dinner with the tossing of Yee Sang in the comfort of Alex & Choulyee's home at Pandan Indah, Cheras.

It's the 3rd day of CNY, we are all up early getting ready for our trip to Genting.  We all went in two cars, driven by Alex and hubby to the mid point, parked our car there and took cable car to our planned destination.  It's a day filled with fun, laughter, nice yummy foods and off course hubby and Alex are not missing out at the Casino. It's indeed a UNIQUE way of celebrating CNY, looking forward to one of such again in the near future!!

April 2010 recorded a milestone for Karen, myself, hubby and Aaron flew over to Miri to attend her graduation ceremony as well as sharing her joy.  This is the time that we get to have our ground tour of Curtin University.  We are proud of your achievements girl, thumbs UP!

Within this same year, another road trip have been planned and this time it's to the Land of the Orient, Penang!  Myself and hubby flew in to KL on 19th August, leaving Aaron 'home alone' as he's not able to join us for this trip. We enjoyed a couple of days moving around in KL, and our road-trip started on the early morning of 23rd August.  We made our stop at Ipoh to have our breakfast of Dim Sum at Foh San Restaurant.  We stopped by at Sam Poh Tong Cave Temple and captured a lot of photos for our sweet memories.  We made another rest stop at Sg. Perak, after which we drove all the way to Penang, check in at Hotel Grand Continental, sort out our luggage and off we went, not wanting to waste much time! 

We enjoyed viewing the history of the Khoo Kongsi, as usual taking lots of photographs for remembrance, then take a stroll down Lebuh Keng Swee, Penang Road to queue up for the famous teochew Chendol. The fun thing about this Chendol is no table and chair, just stand and eat hehe.....  After a short rest at the hotel and have shower, in the late afternoon we drove to Batu Ferringhi, stop by at the beach to enjoy the soft sand as well as the vast beach overlooking the sea.  As the sun is setting we decided to leave and made our way to Mama's Nyonya Cuisine to have dinner, at the same time to celebrate hubby's birthday. We called off for the day after that as we are all tired from the long journey, the many stops that we've made as well as the many miles we've walked **GOODNIGHT**

Waking up feeling fresh, had our breakfast at the hotel's restaurant, checked out and made our way to Kek Lok Si Temple.  We climbed up the small stairway and stopped to view things that are of interest to us, took many photos, fed the tortoise and finally bought tickets for the 1st Inclined Lift of Malaysia to view the bronze Kuan Yin Statue which is at its highest point! The scenery is beautiful up there, with a big fish pond and amazing landscaping.  When we've finished touring the whole place we decided to make our way back to mainland by using the ferry ride since we've experienced using the Penang Bridge on our journey there.

Bye Penang, will be returning again some day!

My Personal Reflections [Part 2]

"I know I can make it, just a matter of whether I want or not!"  Glad that I get to have Part 1 of my blog article "My Personal Reflections" published, and now it's time for me to continue with it.......

Being not tied down to working hours and having to apply leave to go off for short holiday or attend to any personal business, I really have all the time I need to do whatever comes my way, according to my own whims and fancies! 

I recall the years working in the Store, I never have any opportunity to take my leave during Christmas and New Year.  It is sort of Supervisor must stay behind while most of the subordinates take leave to 'balik kampung' to celebrate Christmas and New Year! Another sad thing is that those celebrants who did not take leave on Christmas Eve are allow to go back earlier, which is normally at mid morning but for my case I am only allow to leave at noon ~ sad ~  This is what we call practicing 'double standard!'  All these experiences are history to me now but still lingers in my mind!

I have been doing lots of cooking since then and most precious of all is that I get to learn lots of cooking tips from my late mother-in-law. Being a great and experienced cook herself she have imparted  a whole lot of cooking techniques to me, which is much easier to master than going through 'trials and errors' if I were to try a hand on her home-cooked recipes myself - indeed I am blessed!  Today, I am able to cook some of her favourite dishes to share with not only my own family members but also our extended family members ~ smiles ~ Getting to have the taste of  her home-cooked food is cherishing her presence with us!

I managed to go for short holidays during the first four years with family and friends.  Though its just holidays within our own country but the people whom I am with makes the most difference - having lots of fun and laughter with wonderful sweet memories to treasure!

I have been rather occupied for Year 2009! With my son Alex's wedding fixed on December 12 and with him working out of hometown, this is where myself and hubby needs to get things sorted out and arranged. Being the first wedding in our family, it's not as simple as it seem, lots of things to find out and how to go about with it bearing in mind certain necessary Chinese traditions that we need to follow. It is lucky of us to have my mum and late mother-in-law to assists in giving us advises, which enable the whole ceremony and function to sail smoothly.  The whole celebration brings great  joy, peace, love and most of all HAPPINESS to our Kuek family......

My personal Reflections [Part 1]

Saying to myself "Hey lazy bum! Get Up! Put your mind into deep thoughts and rest your hands on the keyboard to let those unspoken words flow swiftly out of you to keep alive with your Blog!"

EXACTLY, this is what I should be doing!!  Let me start off by reflecting on myself few years down my memory lane.......

Once a while, deep in my heart, I'll praise God saying, "Thank God for blessing me to "pack up and leave" after 25 long years and 8 months of my working life." Whenever I met some ex-colleagues they will congratulate me for being so blessed to be able to break free from all the stress of working life - indeed I am so blessed, Praise The Lord!!

Hmmmm.... as far as I can recall, I enjoyed getting up late in the morning, just couldn't get enough of my warm cozy bed, and waking up being engulfed with quietness and peace surrounding me - this is what I want, no more having to force myself to wake up early and those early morning rushes ~ smiles ~

Being equally busy with the supervision of our house renovation soon after that, all the chores of a Home Manager - washing, cleaning, vacuuming, moping, sweeping, dusting, marketing, cooking, assisting my mother-in-law with her cooking, bringing my mum for medical appointments and many other endless things to do, but I really enjoyed doing it with an open heart full of love!  I realise that I have been missing out so much as a responsible wife, mother, daughter and daughter-in-law, but I trust that it is all because of this one good reason 'to earn a living to assist in supporting my own family.'

I have friends and ex-colleagues who are still working posing me this simple question, "Don't you feel bored staying at home?" My answer is a big NO, I enjoy every moments of it.  Always remember that when we are working we tend to do the same thing over and over again day in and day out.  This is mainly due to the fact that we spend most of the day time in the office and there is totally no room for us to stretch! Being as free as a bird now, what I need to do is to manage my time well, come up with good plans for each and everyday, work out special plans for certain days and I assure those who are still doubtful that you would want to be in my shoes ~ smile ~

Off for a week holiday [Final]

It's a Tuesday morning, the 21st of May, as usual we went out for our must-have breakfast......

Then stopped by to buy Siew Pow to bring home......

Janet helped me to do my final packing, which makes me SMILE, as coming with only one medium size luggage and a handbag,  but going home with my pulled-up luggage, two boxes, an extra sling bag and my handbag!!!

Janet, hubby and his son dropped me off at Senai Airport, and then made their way to Singapore.  I met up with Shirley and her son a while later and off we flew back to Kuching.

It's an interesting one week holiday with my dear friend Janet and family, most of all their grand hospitality! Thank you my dear friend **hugs**

Off for a week holiday [Part 6]

It's another bright morning, which is also my last day in JB.  As usual we started off with BREAKFAST!

After which we pick our friend Shirley from her son's office, then off with our today's journey......

This is what we have for lunch.....

After lunch, Janet dropped us at a shopping mall as she have something to settle in her office.  Not long after that she joined us back for tea, after which Shirley excused herself, with her son fetching her from the shopping mall.  We also made our way back home to have some rest and a good bath.  

With several menus and venues in mind, we finally settled down for STEAMBOAT for our dinner......

It's indeed a yummy-licious steamboat with herbal soup, we all ate till our tummy called out for a HALT!!

Off for a week holiday [Part 5]

Waking up early on a Sunday morning, all set once again to view the unexplored areas of JB, which of course implies to myself! My childhood schoolmate Janet have stayed in JB for many good long years, so she really knows the in and out of this State.

As usual we went for a quick breakfast and without having to waste any time, we made our way.......

We decided to go ORGANIC  for the day, which includes fresh fruit drinks with the fruits planted in this Organic Farm as well as Organic Steamboat.......

We head on to Kluang to grab a glass of this famous Kluang Coffee, but sadly when we arrive the Station is already close, instead we go for Rail Coffee....

On our way back, we stop by at Mr. D.I.Y. for some shopping.....

What are we having for dinner??? The must-have when in JB, which is SEAFOOD!  This is Janet's family's famous spot, which is always full house......

I enjoyed the Seafood dishes which is quite different in terms of preparation and serving.  After a good seafood dinner both Janet and myself spent the rest of the night exchanging recipes, uploading of photos which we've captured since the last few days, while Janet's hubby is helping me to save oldies songs into my thumb drive for my listening pleasure  ** smiles **

Off for a week holiday [Part 4]

It's a Saturday morning (18th May),  and we've decided to do some home cooking in Janet's home kitchen. After a simple breakfast of Roti Canai made by a Chinese young man, we went to the nearby market to get some ingredients for our cooking.

 After a morning of much enjoyment in the kitchen, Janet and hubby then decided to bring me round some popular spots in JB......

We drove many kilometers, made many stops and also took many nice photos till the sun nearly set! Before we made our way home, we stop by for dinner.  We spent the rest of the evening chit-chatting before we call off for the day!