cuti @ banding

Last month we went to banding lakeside inn, a place where DH wanted to go. It's about 40km after Grik. Before reaching Grik for our lunch, we stop by Lenggong to see the Perak Man,  at the Lenggong Archaeological Gallery.

at the entrance

one of the many items displayed

after lunch we check in to banding lakeside inn..lake view room

a much better view from our room.

 Petang terus turun jeti for rafting activity. DH and Alia trying their hand at rafting.

the next morning we took a" ranforest lite" package to explore Belum.

 Started our journey to look at rafflesia.

after 15 minutes of trekking/ panjat bukit sampai pun...tapi rafflesia dekat cerun bukit. Irfan tak confident nak panjat. i took this photo with one leg behind Irfan, just to make sure he didn't accidentally slip down.. gambar tak clear

 masa nak turun DH has to teach Irfan where to put his foot as some places are quite steep and others are slippery, masa nak naik bukan main terer lagi.. as we were the first to go among 8 other boats, we were also the first to reach down and waited for all them before our next destination...

Kampung Chuweh.. a orang asli village in Temenggor with  a population of 32

Alia with orang asli kids

some of them are quite camera shy

papa trying sumpit

view of our boat from the village.

next destination...sg enam base camp for waterfall

our second check point here.. we had our lunch here.. after 10 mins trekking from 1st check point. Jetty to first check point took about 20 mins. after lunch , another 10 mins trekking to the waterfall, with 3 streams to pass. this is the first experience for the kids in the jungle, alia was excited while Irfan was a bit apprehensive at first, but in the end he did enjoyed the trip.

 going back... waiting for everybody else at the first check point

 kepenatan...we started at 9 am from the hotel and reached our hotel again at 5pm...if this a lite package i cant imagine the real ones. sampai hotel mandi, solat, order room service and by 8pm i dah zzzzz.

big bad wolf 2012

 the damage this year

 the kids...i gave them a budget of RM50 each...carik buku yang mana nak...we started with irfan, then alia, then I chose a corner for them to sit, browse through their books and stay put. it's my turn to look for my books.

 my haul......in my excitement i bought a book that i've read before....it's the mary higgins clark, ..i have most of her books and i can't remember whether i've read it or not till i saw the identical title on my bookshelf......haihh..;-(.......any takers?

my sister-in-law kirim books for her kids, particularly dora, thomas and bob the builder books. the kids had fun choosing books for their cousins. i didn't really browse the non-fiction part....kids are waiting in a corner somewhere, remember? would love to go again and take my own sweet time there..

bakes & cakes 10

 dulce de leche using condensed milk imported from indonesia..courtesy of my maid, more flavourful and not as sweet as using our condensed creamer. This was made ages ago but i have another batch in the fridge made from 'chocolate condensed milk'.

 i saw this butterscotch chips in jaya grocer...and straightaway bought it and googled for choc chip recipe.

 and ended up with shortbread butterscotch chips cookies. I also made another batch using my mom's shortbread recipe and add butterscotch chips. Preferred the latter because it's crispier. i still have some of the chips stashed in the fridge, will make another batch of cookies..if the kids OR myself did not eat it on its own...You gotta try this chips....it good even on its own, infact i think it's better to eat it straight from the bag ;)

 first attempt of making cheese tart..you'll noticed that there were 2 sizes of tart shell here... because i started with the small ones, and i only have a dozen of those. Looking at my dough i figure it took me about 5 mins to fill prepare the shell, 20 mins to bake it, another 10-15 mins to cool the tart before i can knock off the casing, and start to prepare the shell again...the thought of 4 cycle of those really put me off and i started to use a bigger silicone tart case (even though it's more difficult to shape the dough) and managed to finished the dough all at once!

the bigger tart is more satisfying...more cheese to base ratio ;)

konsert n konvo irfan & anugerah kecemerlangan alia

Last Friday was Irfan's concert in monterez. I sent him  to school at 5.30pm  and went to monterez with DH and Alia after Maghrib. We managed to get a middle seat as there were many others earlier than us.

 while waiting for the concert to start

 dah keluar...cikgu still tengah sibuk susun the kids

 show started...nyanyi lagu cita-cita yang irfan selalu nyanyi especially dalam bilik air

 menari tarian cina pulak

 graduation cert from principal teacher

 siap kiss lagi cert tu. the event ends around 11pm and we went to have our supper as the kids are hungry. pergi kedai mamak then noticed there was another 4 families from the concert having their supper there as well. Irfan excited jumpa kawan2 kat kedai mamak. the next morning we sent alia to school and go off for breakfast.

 after breakfast we saw her already sitting at her place to wait for the ceremony to start.

 irfan still mengantuk from last night. he was lying down trying to sleep most of the time.

 posing at the stage

third place in class...alhamdulillah

bakes & cakes: hari raya haji

 During the raya haji I made pavlova for my in laws. Since they are celebrating raya in Kajang I can prepare the topping just before we go off to Kajang. 

For my grandma in Melaka I made super fudgy brownies with almonds. Gone within just a few hours after serving. The kids really loved this brownies.

seafood shopping @ bagan pasir

We went to Kg Bagan Pasir to stock up our fish and seafood. DH last  came here was probably 2 years back while I have never been here. It was a 45 mins journey from our place. We bought huge prawns, udang tajam, sotong, bulus and kembung near the jetty. Then we went to the fishery to get some "big fish".

 some of the fishes up for sale

 Irfan geli tengok sotong. Tapi bila dah goreng dgn tepung, dia makan paling banyak.

 Crabs...tak beli

 Just look at the size of the fish!

 DH with the towkay. We bought enough seafood that will lasts us 3-4 weeks. Next month we probably make another trip since the seafood was very  fresh and cheaper than our normal place.

After that we make our way to Pantai Remis to get some oyster. RM10 for 12 pieces of oyster,.. bought RM20 of these and straight away have it for dinner... baked oyster with cheese. Yums..

War museum, Penang

During the long raya break we went to Penang for my cousin's wedding. We went there a day earlier and DH decided to visit the war museum.The briefing was interesting and we made our way to 'Malaya' shortly after.

 passage way to bilik senjata and escape route

 all of us crawl inside this escape route

at the end of the route before you have to climb a very tall ladder that connects you the the outside world

it was quite high and since the kids were with us, we decided to to climb it...so i had to 'reverse crawl' from the tunnel.

 quite a scary looking tree/place...

 at one of the dorm/room/lock up area. We also given a flashlight when we went into one of tunnel. there was another tunnel  but since there was a warning on bats at that tunnel we decided not to go in. This was a different kind of outing from what we usually went for, but it was definitely enjoyable.