On the beach again

Here, just want to have a little breather from Bandung stories. It's been ages since we went to the beach despite staying near the beach and all. One day I realised that if we were tourists, we'd be snapping photos like trigger happy Rambos, but just because the beach's so near, I've never really taken photos of the kids on the beach. So here I am sharing my poor attempts and believe me, they are mostly candid (and potentially blurry) because no yelling of mine to my kids to cooperate and look at me and smile worked.



There I was calling out, "Look at Mommy!" repeatedly and all I got was either frozen poses or the tops of their heads.

These are not recent, they are probably taken a month ago or even earlier.

Bandung Family Trip Day 1 - cont'd

So, yea, we played Stepmania. If you don't know what it is, and you've watched Transformers (the first one), you know the part when the SWAT team enters the house of the computer hacker kid, one of the characters was doing Stepmania. It's really cool and the one I have connects to the laptop, and I have 2 dancemats so that both the kids can play at the same time and challenge each other. Hana likes to join in too and it's the one game I allow my kids to play any time of the week 'coz they can only jump so much and they get tired out sooner or later, and they sleep early which leaves me to do work I bring home. Haha, yea, that's my little secret out in the open. It keeps the kids healthy, burns off their excess energy and gets them to bed early. It's also good incentive for them to get their homework done first. Though nowadays Mika's more into Hotwheels car games. And thanks to Lexi who bloghopped recently, we also discovered another cool game site called http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/. We particularly liked game called Boomshine among other games.

And now, days later, I'd like to continue where I left off...so I was saying we passed by the zoo which was one crazy busy place and there were really many people there and you can see horses and their handlers, horses and carriages, people on horse rides on the main road. I thought of getting the kids to ride the horsesor the carriages but my mom didn't think it'd be a novel experience for them coz they've been on horse rides before. Plus coz we shared the road, she felt it was a little dangerous. Anyway, half an hour later, we finally arrived at the nearby FO that would have taken us 5 to 10 minutes to walk to. I think we went to Episode first. Then Jetset. I think Jetset had better stuff the first time I was there. My mom who has also been to Bandung before, stayed at Grand Serela Hotel, somewhere near Jl Riau, have not really explored the FOs in the area we were now staying at. Anyway, we realised after going into several shops that stuff in the shops were 'seasonal'. Hmm how do I say this? For example, bags, this time we went there, there were a lot of Samsonite bags on sale, whereas during our previous visit, we didn't come across Samsonite bags. I bought Burberry stuff at Jetset and this time round, no more Burberry T-shirts. But this trip, it wasn't really for us. We've been saving up so we can get stuff for the kids especially Inez, and Mika whose clothes were getting smaller. Zul bought them all Sports shoes like Nike, and Adidas for RM60 each. That's half the price of what it costs here. Anyway, that jumping the story a bit. So after some looking and seeing, and since these shops were near the hotel, we didn't do any serious purchasing. We figured we could always go back the next day.

So we got back to the hotel and Zul checked us in already. Two rooms, two different buildings. We (and Baby Hana included) took the one that required some climbing while Mom and the bigger kids took the room at the back.

Then we went to Pasar Baru after that. Zul got bored and took Mika with him to get him out of our hair and we went cloth shopping. Hehe cloth was the only thing I wanted to get for myself this time and they all had to be the non wrinkle type coz God only knows how much I hate ironing. Which is why I don't like wearing batik sometimes, but the satin silk type is not that wrinkly. As usual I digress.

After spending like 3 hours there, Zul started reminding us that we haven't done shopping for the kids yet. Okay, okay! So we left for Sogo Paris Van Java for early dinner and hopefully some mindless shopping. Hehe (Read here for more info on PVJ and see the cool pictures of PVJ; I didn't really take many pictures this time coz we were busy chasing after the kids.)

I've been wanting to go there but didn't get to the first time. We did go to Paris Van Java FO though. Hehe. My mom also hasn't been there before; so we got the driver to take us there and it's really a huge mall. Sorta remind me of when I went shopping in Maidstone and when you walk out of the main mall, there are smaller boutiques on the outside that lined the street, both left and right. And the brand Charles and Keith was there. That's like a present fave. They do have some interesting designs and they are affordable and they were having a sale! I already bought my bag (no sale though) in KL. Other brands include Billabong, Roxy. Really, the blog I linked above got everything there is to know on PVJ.

The first half of the evening was cool but around 8pm local time, and 7 pm,their time, as my mom was searching her handbag to take out her wallet to purchase something, she realised her wallet was not in her handbag. She started to panic as she realised that she has been a victim of some pickpocket. Thankfully her handphone was still in her bag and her passport was in my safekeeping. If not we would have to go to the embassy. So as it turned out, we spent our first night out at the PVJ Security Guard Post. Thankfully, all the guards muda2 and tegap2. Hahaha. Seriously, it was like nearly 12 when we got back to our hotel. Again, I digressed.

Back to when my mom discovered her missing purse, we went separate ways searching for the wallet just in case Mom dropped it somewhere, or left it at the payment counter at some shop. Thankfully, Zul was sooo nice and understanding about it and kept the kids busy while we sat down somewhere to cancel Mom's cards; and blocked her ATM card too just in case. You never know. Poor Mom, dahlah sakit belakang, the reason why she was somewhat careless in the first place. The backache was so painful she thought of cancelling at first, but we persuaded her to come anyway.

And then this happened, Mom was sooo not in the mood but Bandung anymore. We told her maybe she'd helped some really poor people. Yea, she was okay till we came back and my dad's credit card statement came and those poor pickpockets went shopping like crazy in TWO boutiques to buy stuff amounting to about 2 million rups. That's like nearly 1k our money and that got my mom soooo upset. She already lost like also 2 million rups in her wallet coz we've just arrived, we've not spent and whenever my mom wanted to spend her money to buy lunch or dinner, we told her to keep for shopping. Moral of the story, if people want to treat you, let them. Hahaha then if something like this happens, they'd lose less.

So after that, we reported it to the guard of PVJ and that was when we had to hang out in the security post. First we waited for one of the guards to go get a form because they seemed to have run out of them. That took some time. Imagine if the guards were gendut2 macam some guards in Malaysia, that'd take even longer. After some time, the guard came back, and the one who sent him out discovered that the guard took the wrong form. So he himself went off the get the right one. Tunggu lagi. So we waited and finally he came back, and he took down our details and account of what happened. Which was not easy, coz seriously, BM and Indonesian language aren't exactly the same , you know.

Some time during the report, Mika already fell asleep in the pram, followed by Inez and then Hana. Then we were advised to go the the police station to report the theft. And so we did and that really took less time than the guards and the police didn't really refer to the guard's report which made us feel that if something similar happens to anyone, just go to the police station immediately. Anyway, they were helpful.

So there ends Day 1. Later I will write about the subsequent days.

Bandung Family Trip Day 1

As mentioned, we went to Bandung again. People did ask me why we are going there again since we have been there before. I answered that this time we are bringing the kids, it's always better to bring kids to places you are familiar with. At least you already know how to go about in that place and where to go to eat and shop and so on. Hence Bandung! Plus the shopping there is great!

So okay, we got the passports ready and off we went. This was the second trip for my mom as well. This time we stayed at the Patra Jasa Hotel. We were lucky to have booked the hotel rooms two months prior to our trip, because I did recommend this hotel to my friend who went earlier and she couldn't get rooms anymore.



We arrived at 10 a.m. and it was a Sunday. Since we brought the kids, Zul thought we had better hire a van and driver, and the driver was recommended by his nephew who was just there the week before. The driver was really nice, very punctual and helpful but he doesn't really talk much. I'll update this post later and include his name and number just in case anyone is interested in using his services.

So when we arrived, the driver was already waiting for us, and he took us to the hotel, surprisingly the roads were busy and congested and we were caught in a jam. We were not, the first time we were there. But it was the school holidays and so people, including the locals flocked to Bandung. We arrived at the hotel earlier than we were supposed to, coz we were too early to check in. Anyway, we decided to have our lunch first and then go back to the hotel. We went to Simpang Raya, a restaurant we went to during our first visit. After that we went back to the hotel but the rooms weren't ready yet. So Zul said he'd wait at the hotel when my mom and I decided to check out the nearby shops but instead of walking, we took the van since it's paid by the day. Oh boy, we got caught in the jam and it took us half an hour to get to a shop which would have taken us 5 minutes walking. but we saw there was a kebun binatang. That means zoo and the kids got excited. So first thing the next day was to go to the zoo. It was holidays after all for the kids.

Kids want to play STEPMANIA. To be continued....

Soooo lazy!

Guess what I'm doing? This is me rebelling against work. I'd thought, 'hmm since I want to put work out of my mind, why not blog?' I've been staring at this box for a good few minutes and I'm thinking, where do I start? It's been ages since I have really written. I mean , a recipe or two was fine, as that didn't require much thinking.

Soooo much has happened. At work, I've been promoted. That happenerd in April. I don't like to tell people about it. I dunno why. In fact, my mom just found out. So much to do, it's just crazy. I'm still trying to fit it all in.

Then, I had a miscarriage. That was in early May. I was 8 weeks pregnant, and I lost my baby. I had just returnbed from a teambuilding course and before that, I was traveling as well. It's easy to blame the trips I've been making but at the end of the day, I guess, it was just not meant to be. The doctor just a couple of days earlier couldn't detect the heartbeat and told us as long as I didn't bleed I was fine. But on the 3rd day, I did. I was on MC for a week, and bleeding that whole week until on Sunday, I felt this funny sensation that compelled me to go to the toilet and it just came out. So tiny that if you held it and clenched your fist, you wouldn't even be able to see it in your hand. Not that I wanted to. Whatever I did see, it was because I had to wash the hand that was holding it. It was so tiny but it had eyes and nose and everything and attached to a transparent plastic bag like thing. Allah is so great. I saved it and took it with me to the doctor's. The doctor looked at it and said that it's all out. I was like, "Really, so I don't need to do the D&C?" Thankfully, no, but that was upon the condition that she doesn't detect any blood clots in the womb during my next visit.

The ironic thing was that I had just come to terms with the fact that I was pregnant. Anyone watched Marley and Me? I was exactly like Jennifer Aniston's character when she got pregnant the second time and was sooooo totally not ready for it. I did 3 pregnancy tests. The first one had a faint line, so I had thought, nope, couldn't be. It's too faint, it can't be, so I did another one, showed hubby and he said, "Yup, you're pregnant!" but me, I was in denial. "No way, I can't be! You can hardly see that second line! Tomorrow, we've got to go to the pharmacy and get those pregnancy kits without these damn lines."

So, my hubby, God bless his heart took me to the pharmacy the next day and hah, nah engkau, i bought like 2 more kits! Puas hati, but guess what? There are no kits that show that you're positive without those darn lines.

Took them home and well, whaddayaknow? I was pregnant...still that faint line. I guess that was when I finally accepted it. I think I had felt it was too soon and that I wasn't ready for another. Hana was just a year plus. Anyway, that weekend, we went to the doctor's, who did a scan and confirmed it.

So, I accepted that I was pregnant, and since this was not my 1st pregnancy, I basically knew what I needed and began shopping for stuff. Though not that much. I figured since we were supposed to go to Bandung again at the end of May, this time with the kids and my mom too, I'd do my shopping there. I had already imagined myself tired from waddling from one outlet to another. Hehe.

I remembered thinking when I miscarried that I would be walking normally in Bandung. Haha, really, and a part of me wondered whether my initial denial phase was the reason why I didn't get my baby. Another part of me wondered if it had anything to do with work and the trips and courses I had to attend. At last, I just felt that it just wasn't meant to happen, the baby had no heartbeat.

For that I had another 2 weeks of sick leave and it was really difficult to be on leave coz it was so totally unplanned. I was still sending memos to tie whatever loose ends I'd left hanging. I had to find people to replace me for this and that meeting on short notice. I am really thankful to all my colleagues who stood in for me. Haha, but by the time it was the 3rd week, I wasn't ready for work anymore. Dah malas dah...

But I swear the 3 weeks that I was on leave was the first rest I had in a long time and I do mean, real rest coz there were so many restrictions. My parents just wanted me to stay in bed, especially the first week of MC. There was still hope. Friends of mine and friends of Jaja's had the same experience before that the doctor didn't detect heartbeat but the pregnancy came through. My friend just gave birth recently to a baby girl and at first her doctor told her that there was no heartbeat too. But after it came out, then it's like confinement all over again. Some say, you go to take extra care coz miscarriage is like plucking a fruit that's not ripe yet. Oh yea, the first week after the miscarriage was painful. You could feel the contractions and the medication made me drowsy.

But, it was during that 3 weeks, I bonded back with Hana and my Inez and Mika. Maybe, that was why it was fated. Hana was at that time, so close with my mom, that my mom was like her birthmom and I was like the grandma. As I said, I was just real busy at work and was away a lot. It was just nice to be spending a lot of time with them.

And where was Zul all this time? In the US, for some factory visit, and the H1N1 had just started. Thankfully, he returned home safely and H1N1 free.

Bread and Butter Pudding

This recipe is actually a combination of two different recipes. The original bread and butter pudding recipe is from Halwafy and the crust comes from an apricot cobbler recipe taken from a magazine. The recipe below is basically adapted for those who like sweet stuff but don't want it too sweet.

INGREDIENTS:

6 slices day-old bread

2 tablespoons butter, melted

1/2 cup raisins/ mixed fruit

4 eggs, beaten

2 cups milk

1/4 cup white sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

METHOD:

Preheat oven to 175 degrees C.Cut bread into triangles and arrange first layer of bread in an 8 inch square baking pan. Drizzle melted butter or margarine over bread. Sprinkle half the raisins. Then arrange 2nd layer of bread and drizzle butter over the bread. Sprinkle the rest of the raisins.In a medium mixing bowl, combine eggs, milk, sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla. Beat until well mixed. Pour over bread, and lightly push down with a fork until bread is covered and soaking up the egg mixture. Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until the top springs back when lightly tapped.

Above is the basic recipe for bread pudding. If you want a cake crust on top, before baking, mix the following ingredients:
TOPPING
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar (I usually reduce this to 1/4 cup.)
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg
2 tablespoons butter, softened

Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Add egg and butter; mix well. spoon over pudding and put in oven.

Good luck baking. I've had it from friends that the added crust on the bread pudding gives it extra oomph. Also I'd like to say thanks to Tricia for dropping me a line. I hadn't realised. Well, I'd just like to say that where credit is due, credit should be given. Thank you to your mom for spreading so much joy through her cooking and Apricot Cobbler.

Run! Run! Run to the SALE!

This morning, with my dad in KL, I was the designated chauffeur. So since I was sending Mika to school, I left with Mika 15 minutes before school started. Inez, unfortunately had to forego her Agama school 'cause I'd have to be on leave to be a full time chauffeur.

So there I was, leaving a bit later than usual; and there was Inez, not rushing to get ready for school and there was Hana, ever ready to play. I saw Inez giving Hana a small paper bag and some pieces of scrap paper. I heard her say,"Here's some money Hana. Run! Run! Run to the sale! and my crazy little one ran to the front door like her pants were on fire. It was hilarious!

Omigod! Do I have shopaholics in the making?

Mika going Wild at the International X-treme Autoshow

It's been ages since we went on holiday with the kids. Inez went to my mom and said that her school holidays were nearly over and yet she hadn't even been anywhere with us. My fault, mostly - been so busy and hubby is also usually traveling - and weekends are supposed to be lazy.

Anyway, we had two wedding invites, both at the end of the spectrum: KB and KL. My hubby actually wanted to go to both; but since my Dad cancelled the plan of going to KB for my cousin's grandson's wedding, we decided to go to KL for Zul's niece's wedding. It's that time of the year when people take advantage of the long weekend hols to get married.

So we decided why not kill two birds with one stone and take our young ones for a holiday while we're at it. Melaka, here we come! But Melaka was fully booked. Never knew Melaka was such a hot holiday destination. It was crazy, every hotel we called up was fully booked. So, we went to our wedding, helped out with it, even Inez and Mika played a small but significant role in opening up the petals of the bunga telur. The solemnization of vows were to take place that night after the Isyak prayers, so we took time off from the wedding preparation to go to Bukit Jalil for the International X-treme Autoshow. Tickets were priced at RM28 for adults and RM8 for children, if I remember correctly. It was the first day. It was like seeing all the cars on MTV's Pimp My Ride in one place. Mika was just so excited and checked one one car after another and wanted to have his photos taken here and there at one car or another.

Unfortunately for him, his mommy had forgotten to charge her camera battery and the camera sort of died out on us during one of his poses. Poor boy!
Anyway here are some of the shots:
Really can't believe how boys just instinctively grow an attitude when they are snapping photos in front of cars. See Mika's cool poses. Normally, he'd just make a monkey face whenever the camera's on him.

Compare that face to Inez's face in the pix below.

Here's Inez in front of a car she can tolerate. Haha!
And here's Mika with all the cars in the background (well, most!)
Mika didn't want to leave but we did have a wedding to attend, so we left around 6:30. Inez said it just wasn't her day. :)

The Hunt for SOMETHING FOR ME: Day 3 Bandung Shopping

Day 3! We're going home and my bag's empty? How can that be?
Hubby felt sorry for me and we went out again to JL Dago and stumbled into LEVEL. Struck gold! Finally, a shop that I found something I liked. Bought myself some Jockey Yoga Pants (not that I do Yoga, but Yoga pants are extremely comfy to wear around the house) and bought Yoga pants for my mom, and my sisters, and I also found Isaac Mizrahi's T-shirts for Target which cost around I don't remember anymore. So I got one for myself and one for my mom. One satisfied customer. :D
Then , we came to a little factory outlet called Jetset, there I found Burberry T-shirts. Nice! Now I was happy to go home.
Anyway, here's a picture of an affordable hotel we came across called Patra Jasa. We figured if there's a next time in Bandung, we'd bring the kids and stay here coz it's on JL Juanda, and you just have to walk left or right or just cross the road to get some crazy shopping experience. You don't even need the Angkut.
Anyway, we left Bandung before noon on the TransX coz Zul didn't want to get stuck in any unpredictable jam in Jakarta going to the airport. Well, that's it, our bandung holidays!

Day 2 Bandung

Day 2 was a Sunday and due to their Independence Day Celebration, it was a long weekend, as Monday was also a Hari Libur/ holiday for the locals. After a long hard shopping day the day before, we were kind of undecided what we wanted to do. More shopping or some sightseeing. Anyway, as we were crossing the road near the hotel, an Angkot going to Lembang honked at us. Since we were without any real plans, we hopped into the Angkot. If you want to go to Tangkuban Perahu, you will pass Lembang. Here's the view from inside an Angkot:
It's kinda low, so you really need to bend your head when you are getting in. The boy in the picture is a fellow tourist. He's from Jakarta and also heading for Tangkuban Perahu. You can see a musician/busker at the door. We stopped at a traffic light. Street musicians take this opportunity to earn a quick buck.
Here's a random pix of Lembang.
It's like a cowboy town. For me, Lembang wasn't exactly that impressive but the way up to Lembang totally was. You can see all the Dutch influence in the buildings and so on. Apparently in Lembang, you have to take another Angkot, or car or whatever to Tangkuban Perahu. We never found out coz we turned back. We didn't even get down in Lembang town but got the Angkot to put us at the Strawberry Park that we saw as we were going into Lembang.
There, we bought some strawberries and blackberries. My first taste of Blackberries! Definitely, if I come across them again, I'd buy more this time. Nice!
But the park itself was kinda sad looking. We have better looking and better maintained parks in Cameron Highlands, I think. We couldn't wait to get on another Angkot and go shopping instead. As we were going down, we saw that cars were really piling up to go to Lembang/Tangkuban. We thanked God that we decided to follow our feet. Had we decided to go later we'd be wasting time, being stuck in a jam.
From the strawberry place, we took another Angkot back to Bandung town. I saw a kids' boutique (Yen's Baby Shop) and we got down. There was another outlet for kids (Happy Kids) next to it and between the two outlets was a steakhouse. We went from one shop to another. I saw a Baby Phat dress here but Zul didn't want his kids wearing any of those. I don't think he's too impressed by what he saw on Entertainment channel 712. But we bought Ben 1o T-shirts here, 1 from each shop. One for Mika and another for Naqib. Mika loves Ben 10. His fave alien is the one that can roll himself into ball, like an armadillo. Ah, what am I saying? He likes 'em all.
We had lunch at the steakhouse. It was okay. I've tasted better. Price? Not too cheap and not too expensive. More like the price of Western food at the food courts in KL malls.
From there, we took another Angkot to go to FOs in Jl Dago that we didn't enter the day before. I had not done my shopping yet. I can't remember where exactly we stopped at first. It could be Zenith FO (pix below) but I don't know. I know I didn't buy anything from here. After a while, all the FOs began to look alike to me. Especially when I kept seeing the same fashion for women and they don't stock many in 1 shop.
Here's the inside of Zenith. They had some interesting kids' stuff but I've been buying and so I tried really hard to stop myself from looking at more kids' stuff.
My hand must have been shaking. Kinda blurry but you get the picture, right? After that, we went to Level FO. (sorry not Jetset as mentioned earlier. We went to Jetset on Day 3.)Finally, something for me! But it's something to wear at home. I think Zul bought himself a Giorgio Armani suit here. I guess in all the excitement, I forgot to snap a photo of the FO. Bought this horribly cute dress for Hana and surfer shorts for Mika. I know, I know, I just couldn't resist buying stuff for the kids. I think all together I spent too much on the kids. No more birthday presents, I say!
Then, we walked to Rumah Mode (see pix above). Rumah Mode is supposed to be the biggest and most popular FO in Bandung. You feel the difference just getting towards the building. So many people! Cars coming in and out of the parking lots! Tourists and locals! and I really didn't see what the hype was about when I walked around inside. Plus I was feeling a bit dizzy because of all the people inside. I got out. I didn't buy anything. Outside there was a live show. Interesting, the singer was singing Rihanna's Take a Bow. I must say she sang better than the original singer. Sorry, Rihanna. Haha.

These are people leaving Rumah Mode.

We then left Rumah Mode and I think we boarded another Angkot. We stopped the Angkot at the sight of Paris Van Java (pix below). I got in, got out. Nothing! However, what was interesting is the signboard near it advertising X-Trans. We haven't figured out how we were going to get back to Jakarta; so we decided to check out. This brought us to Cihampelas-where FOs were named after superheroes.
This is the view from the X-Trans office. Below is the X-Trans office building. Anyway, Zul booked us seats to go back to Jakarta on Tuesday at 11 a.m.

Then, we went back to our hotel. Went out again for dinner at a nearby restaurant just outside the hotel gate. Zul thinks the restaurant served the best rendang he's ever tasted. Then we explored the shops nearby. Apparently there's a Carrefour and one of the shops was selling Pumpkin Patch clothes and Batman 3/4 shorts on discount. Beli lagi baju untuk budak2. Sigh!

Then I tried the roadside fried tofu. Yummy for Rp3K.

Then we went back to our hotel and crashed out.

More Bandung Shopping! Still Day 1

After lunch at Dapurku, we decided that the day was still young, and why not head for our first Factory Outlet or FO of the day. On my list was Jl Dago. And next to it was a recommended FO called Uptown. At the restaurant, we asked how to get to Dago (which apparently is the oldest and most famous street in Bandung). We saw many Angkutan Kota or Angkots on the road.

We also noticed that the locals were using them. They must be affordable; and they were! It costs about Rp1000 to Rp5000 per pax depending on the distance.So we asked how do we get one that goes to Dago. Did I mention that when we were there, people were celebrating their Independence Day on Sunday? You could actually hear people practising for the parade especially early in the morning.

Anyway, the lady manning the kerepek counter gave us some directions and we found ourselves outside these gates (see pix below).
Across the street was like an Angkot stop. These Angkots can actually pretty much stop wherever and anywhere they like. If the drivers spot anyone they think need their service, they'd stop or honk. If the targets do need an angkot, other angkots won't stop for them anymore. It's almost as if the code among Angkot drivers is Finders keepers, losers weepers. Anyway, if you want to stop the Angkot, you say KIRI (left) and the driver will stop for you.
So we took one that says Dago on it. Be careful which Dago Angkot you take. We learnt the hard way that there are many Dago angkots and there are several combinations like Kelapa-Dago and so on. Kelapa is actually a name of a place. From the Angkot, we kept our eyes peeled and found Uptown! (Refer to earlier Bandung post for pix.) So cool! And we weren't disappointed.
Here's what Uptown FO looks like inside. This is the kids' section. We bought clothes for the kids.
Here is another FO we saw across the street.
And here's what it looks up close:
We didn't buy anything from here. Then we walked to Kartikasari (also within walking distance).
This is the place famous for its brownies. See pix below. We just bought a slice of this and that to try. On the last day, we stopped at a branch of Kartika Sari near the hotel to get some cakes and brownies to bring back. Zul went designers' here. He bought himself a Just Cavalli jeans and D&G shoes. They were very affordable. And absolutely gorgeous on him. Perfect fit.
Then we walked to the next FO and the next.
From here I think I bought some pants for Mika and Naqib. So far nothing for myself yet.
The building above is DSE. Here Zul bought a bag to bring our shopping home (he foresaw our bags wouldn't be enough), and some Old Navy pants. So many shops, yet, I hadn't found anything for me yet. Zul seemed to have struck gold at nearly every shop.
Anyway, we took a cab from DSE and I wanted to go to BEC. Somehow, in my mind, BEC changed to BTC (Bandung Trade Centre, and this was some distance away). Taxi wasn't a Bluebird. At first we thought he was using his meter but he said it didn't work. This was the taxi that fleeced us. Everywhere we wanted to go was 'lumayan jauhnya'/ reasonably far, even our hotel. Since he told us that BTC was lumayan jauhnya and cost RP35K, we decided to go back to the hotel. But on the way, I spotted the BEC building and realised that it was BEC that I wanted to go to and not BTC. We stopped the taxi and even though we didn't stop at our hotel, he wanted RP35K. Of all the nerve! We protested a little and I think we paid him RP30K.
Here, it was nearly 9 p.m. and most shops were closing. In that short window of time, I checked out the camera shops and knew that cameras were more expensive in Bandung. I gave up my quest for buying a camera, but Zul bought himself a laptop bag, which was really impressive coz it could be a backpack and a shoulder bag as well. It cost RM120 ++ if I'm not mistaken. Then we went back to our hotel. The champion shopper for the day was Zul. I was kinda depressed I couldn't find anything for me. Nothing appealed to me. It's just like that Samuel Coleridge poem, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner that goes, "Water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink."
Shedih gitu...but who knows what tomorrow brings, and let's keep that till the next post. Ngantuk dah nie.

Wordworld on Astro now ; Simply Cool!

This is such a cool cartoon airing on Playhouse Disney Channel 613 on ASTRO. Especially SUPER COOL if your kids are learning to read and spell.

PEN INK ON WALL

I don't know if anyone remembers this but once upon a time, Mika scribbled on the wall between our rooms with black ball point ink. At first I thought they were pencil marks and so as punishment, I got Mika to rub it off with his eraser but to no avail. After trying everything I had, my paint began to thin. So I simply rectified it by taking out the chest of drawers from the kids' room and put that against the wall. At that time, even the internet couldn't help me.

Anyway, now guess what? There's finally a way to get rid of the pen marks. Apparently pantene pro-v hairspray works like a charm. :) Definitely will be trying that once I get myself that hairspray.

Read more about the tip from the link below:
http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf865567.tip.html

MORE YOUTUBE FAVES

HAMSTER DANCE


DANCING SLUGS


BEBE LILLY DANS L'ESPACE


ARABIC ALPHABET NASYID


ARABIC 1,2,3
Hana will yell out 'asyra' when it's number 10! Well, it sure sounds like it! Haha!


Mika's Faves.
WE WILL ROCK YOU! by WATER BOYS


ALIEN SONG


GUMMY BEAR


CRAZY FROG


INEZ'S FAVES.
Inez is like a teenager in a 7 yr old frame, sometimes methinks. Luckily she also likes the ones that Mika likes. :)
7 THINGS


THIS IS ME (FROM CAMP ROCK)


FROM HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 1


BARBIE IN DIAMOND CASTLE


BEN 10

UPSY DAISY LYRICS

Thanks to Ja, my baby Hana totally loves this song. Below is the Upsy Daisy Lyrics.

START

'I look, I see 2. (专辑名)

Upsy Daisy, now don't be lazy,
it's time to go to the Masjid.
Wash your face up, and pick the pace up,
it's time to go the Masjid.

Help your mother to get your brother,
it's time to go to the Masjid.
It's a wonderful place to go,
as a family.

We'll be standing,
all together in prayer.
We'll meet all our friends
when we are there.

We'll be standing,
all together in prayer.
We'll meet all our friends
when we are there.

So, upsy daisy, now don't be lazy,
its time to go to the Masjid.
We'll greet everyone with Salaam
when we're at the Masjid.

Listen carefully to the Imam,
when we're at the Masjid.
It's a wonderful place to go,
made for you and me.

We'll be standing,
all together in prayer.
We'll meet all our friends
when we are there.

We'll be standing,
all together in prayer.
We'll meet all our friends
when we are there.

So, upsy daisy, now don't be lazy,
it's time to go to the Masijd.
First we'll sit and read Qur'an,
when we're at the Masijd.

Next we pray with everyone,
when we're at the Masjid.
It's a wonderful place to go,
a wonderful place to be.

We'll be standing,
all together in prayer.
We'll meet all our friends
when we are there.

We'll be standing,
all together in prayer.
We'll meet all our friends
when we are there.'

END