Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

We spent 4 days in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia during our recent trip to Singapore.  We got around by taxi or with Grab. Grab is Uber's number one competitor in South-east Asia.  We stayed in the Bukit Bintang area and usually a 5 mins Grab ride cost us 5Ringgit (1€). Considering we were 3 adults with 2 children, it was cheaper to squeeze into a car than taking the bus or the MRT. We did take taxis a few times and it cost us thrice the price of a Grab ride.

For most Singaporeans, KL is a weekend getaway place for shopping, food and massages. Since my family and I travelled from far away, I decided to add in touristy stuff with a visit to the National Museum, the aquarium (cos it was cheaper than in Singapore and France) and going to the KL Tower to have a bird eye's view of this city.

The last time I visited KL was more than 15 years ago when I attended a friend's wedding. KL had changed a lot with so many sky scrapers. There was still construction going on just beside the Petronas Towers. Does this city need all these office space?

We shopped at the Central Market for souvenirs. I chose this market as it had air-condition. Seb waited for us at a cafe after half an hour and the boys stayed with him to write post cards. My mum and I continued to the second storey of the market.

There were shops selling local products be it food, craft or clothes. I bought a few batik sarongs as they were really beautiful. I intend to make them into bags or pouches. My mum bought mango chewy candies and durian chocolates. To each his/her interest.

After posting the postcards just outside the Central Market, we took a taxi to the Petronas Tower.

Petronas Towers are the tallest twin towers in the world. The boys were excited to see them. We had lunch at Suria KLCC, the shopping center at the foot of the towers.

After lunch on our way to the aquarium, we came upon a lion dance blessing a shop front. As it was still the first 10 days of Chinese New Year, I was glad that my boys could see this loud performance.

Lion and dragon dance is part of Chinese New Year. So is the big head doll (大头娃娃) though it is often left out.

Aquaria KLCC was just a short 5 mins walk from the towers. As we went on a week day, it was not crowdy.

The boys had a chance to touch small sharks.

This aquarium was as good as the ones in France and from my old memory, that of Singapore's.

We managed to watch sharks feeding. These sharks were fed twice a week and we saw different species of sharks. Other fishes like eels and rays and even a big turtle tried to snatch food.

On another day, we visited the National Museum. The museum is divided into four sections. Starting from the prehistoric age where traces of early men were found in caves, the bronze and iron ages, the colonisation period until the present day with the advance development in the country.

The museum was not big and could be done in an hour and a half. We headed to KL Tower in the afternoon to take in the view of KL. We could see the top of the Petronas Towers. This was where I got the big picture of how developed this city is.

One evening, we visited Chinatown. I thought spending a cool evening there would be nice. It was disappointing as Chinatown only sells fake luxury goods. Touters kept asking Seb if he wanted bags, watches, clothes etc. Seb told me never to bring him to another Chinatown. The one in Bangkok last year was too hot and dusty. This one was full of touters. Oops. The only good thing out of this trip was that the boys bought metal miniature airplanes and were happy. I bought 2 KL t-shirts for them and mum bought local fruits.

On our last day, we hung out at Suria KLCC as Seb wanted to shop for ear phones. Below photo is a Chinese new year theme set up in the shopping mall. It was very well done.

We enjoyed this short getaway. We stayed at a service appartment and the boys enjoyed the pool. The place was beside a train track and from our 10th floor, A2 would look down eagerly for passing trains.

Things in Malaysia is very affordable though I didn't do much shopping. How is it possible? , my friends would ask. The proof: We went by AirAsia with no check in luggages and came back with the same hand carry bags.

KL feels safe and people are friendly. I would like to visit this country again in our next visit to Singapore. Maybe Penang or Ipoh.

Post vacation

Our vacation in Singapore is over and everyone is back to school and work.
Various thoughts on my mind each time I come back from Singapore.
I was looking forward to go office yesterday to catch up with my colleagues especially one I am close to. She informed me that she had broken her ring finger while walking her dog on the slippery walkway. Sick leave imposed and I won't see her until my next passage to office.
A2 came back from school yesterday and told me his friend who lost her father to cancer is losing her mother too to the same illness. I know this family and A2's friend has come and play with him before.
My close friend C who is going through a rough patch in her couple life, sent me a message yesterday telling me she and her partner are separated. They have two kids togather.
I am affected by these news as these are my new close friends in France.
Broken finger, broken lives, broken hearts.

Snow

On tuesday evening, it snowed heavily and Paris and its surrounding area were paralysed. Roads were blocked as snow piled up. Cars were stuck and snow trucks could not pass to clear the snow. An estimated 1800 drivers spent their night in their cars on the road. A neighbour who worked 15km took 4 hours to reach home. I could imagine her stress as I had a minor experience too.

A1 was sick on tuesday and I brought him to the doctor. On the way to the pharmacy, cars were driving at 30km/h and we saw some cars skidding on the slippery icy road. A bus stopped and could not move and I was just a few cars behind. We waited for 10mins before some kind souls helped direct traffic as it was a single lane road. During that time, I thought I had to park my car by the side and walked 3km home with my sick boy.

After getting the medication, under the heavy snow, I drove slowly back home. From the town to my village, there was a long line of cars. We were driving at 10mk/h by then. 

On Wednesday, A1 stayed at home while I brought A2 to school. A1's teacher was there but not A2's. His teacher could not make it to school. So I brought A2 back home and the boys played in the snow.

In the afternoon, I borrowed a snow shovel from a neighbour and cleared my driveway. I was told that temperature would stay at zero for the next few days and if the driveway was not cleared of snow, I would not be able to drive out the car.  I don't intend to use the car this week as all activities are cancelled.

This morning, A1 went to school as usual while A2 still did not have class. He stayed with 6 other kids doing coloring activities and playing games. Parents who could not go to work kept their kids at home. I had to pour hot water over our front gate as it was frozen and would not open. As the canteen was closed because the caterer could not deliver lunch, the boys came home for lunch. Secondary school kids did not have school as there was no bus service.

The sun came out and the garden shed looked like a mountain chalet.  

We are not going to ski this year yet the boys had a chance to put on their ski suits and shoes. They had fun sledging down the slope in the park.

Seb was lucky to escape this as he is in Italy since Tuesday. He will return tomorrow night and I hope he can come home easily as snow is expected.

When I sent photos to my friends in Singapore with the caption "Paris and its suburbs are paralysed", one replied "it's more like paradise." Yes, paradise for the kids. For us adults, this is not much fun because this weather is rare and we are not equipped.

Just Kunafa

Seb went to Dubai last week for a last minute meeting. He took the flight on Thursday, had his meeting on Friday, met an ex-colleague for dinner and took the 3am flight arriving at CDG airport on Saturday morning.

 I told him to try and get me a box of baklawa. I love these middle east desserts. He was thoughtful enough to get t-shirts for the boys and even a fridge magnet for his mother-in-law despite the busy schedule.

When I received this beautiful box of sweet delights, I thought of sharing with friends. There were too many and the kids did not like them. However once I started eating them, I could not stop. I am going to finish this box by myself. Won't do good to my waistline but I just couldn't resist them!

If you go Dubai, go visit this shop and try these. They are really really good.

New year's creations

Happy new year everyone. I haven't been posting as December was a busy month preparing for christmas plus year end activities for the boys. Seb being often on work trips did not help. 

I was feeling under the weather due to the grey and rainy December skies.

I am taking vitamins and hopefully 2018 will begin on a cheerful note; though it rained the whole day today. Yesterday we welcomed the new year celebrating a friend's 40th birthday. So today, we stayed at home to get over the hangover and rest.

Me being me, I took out the sewing machine while the boys took a nap. In no time at all, I made a zipped pouch. The tutorial can be found here. Zips do not scare me anymore. :)

I also made some make up remover washable cotton pads. I got the idea from the DIY workshop organised by the village library in Dec. I don't put on make up often and I use disposable cotton to remove the make up. With these washable pads, there will be no waste of cotton pads.

For year 2018, I aspire to be a responsible consumer in generating less waste. What is your resolution for 2018?

Christmas windows

We went windows viewing at Printemps and Galleries Lafayette after chinese lesson. The boys told me they enjoyed viewing the windows though I felt that they had outgrown this tradition. They used to look at each window for a long time, catching all the details.

Seb felt that the window displays were full of consumer goods and had lost the magical Christmas feeling like it used to be. There was even a display of EasyJet with its plane and bears dressed as crew members. 

We went into Galleries Lafayette to admire the center decoration. I find it really pretty with all the candies bright balloons.

I told the boys this was the last year but they were keen to come back next year. We shall see.

Almost zero waste

I have always recycle and do my part to save energy. On my own effort, these are some of the examples:

1. Lights are turned off when I leave a room. 

2. Tap is turned off when I do not need running water. Like scrubbing the dishes or pots, brushing the teeth, shampooing my hair.

3. When washing vegetables, I have a basin in the sink to collect the water. I then pour the water into a pail. This water is used to water the plants. The water collected from washing rice is full of  nutrients and help my orchid plants to bloom frequently.

4. Left over food are given to Handsome.

5. Peels from fruits and vegetables used to be kept in a bag and thrown into the forest while walking Handsome as natural compost or food for wild animals.

6. Plastic, paper and glasses are recycled. I tear off the plastic window from envelopes as this flimsy plastic cannot be recycled.

7. I keep jam jars for friends who makes jam.

8. I use grocery plastic bags as rubbish bags instead of buying black rubbish bag. 

9. On my letter box, there is a sticker 'No publicity' to avoid junk mail.

10. Since I work from home, I don't flush the toilet after each short usage. 

11. I boil hot water and keep them in a hot flask. I notice colleagues boiling a kettle full just for a cup of tea.

12. If the sun is out or if the fireplace is working, I hang the clothes to dry instead of using the dryer.

13. I mend clothes and A2 wears hand me downs from A1.

14. I source for pre-loved items at flea market or on LeBonCoin.fr.

15. Back of envelopes or unwanted papers are used to write shopping list or to do list.

16. I bring my own grocery bags to supermarket. For my rubbish bags, I have friend and family in Singapore who give me supermarket plastic bags.

17. I try to buy local and organic.

18. I eat less meat.

19. I recycled my hair.

Living in this village, I came to know other mums who are eco conscious like me. Some are striving towards zero waste. Kudos to them. We exchange ideas and I came to realise from our discussions that though recycling is good, the best is to avoid having materials to recycle.

That means making our own, instead of buying excessively packaged products from the supermarkets. 

For my part, I have cut down on buying cakes and snacks and instead make cookies and cakes once or twice a week. Some friends even made their own cleaning products but I am not there yet.

I wished for a yogurt maker for my birthday and am making yogurts for the boys regularly. This means less plastic yogurt containers to throw since they cannot be recycled. And the boys love my yogurt.

A neighbour takes my veggie and fruits peels for his composter. I no longer throw them in the forest. He in return gives me the rich soil. That started me in creating my vegetable plot this year.

I use a cup to reduce the waste of hygienic pads. 

And with these ladies, we are organising events to influence people to care for our planet. 

We started a seed library in the village library. Our seed library is basically a box containing small paper bags of seeds. People can share seeds from their gardens or take seeds they want to grow. 

Our last event was a clean up of the forest. Our forest looks green and clean. We were expecting small litter and beer bottles. However, the participants found bulky garbage like plastic table top, tyres and a gas heater too.

Our next event in Dec would be on a DIY theme. We shall be making sponges from old socks, cloth produce bags, microwave heat-able bean soft toys and bird seeds feeder.

I am proud that there are movers and shakers in this village making an effort to save the planet despite their busy schedules. 

If you have ideas to add in, please leave a comment. All ideas welcome. 

Rome revisit

This post is way overdue. It has been in draft mode since my last post about our Italy holiday. Let me put a proper end to our summer holiday in Italy now that autumn is here. Seb and I visited Rome in 2013 thus Rome is not new to us. As all roads lead to Rome, I would like my mum to visit this city.

From Gargano, Seb drove us to Rome to our third Airbnb. It was an apartment with two bedrooms nearby the Colosseum. The apartment was very comfortable with everything provided, even washing detergent. If you are keen, drop me a comment and I can share the Airbnb with you.

In Rome, we walked a lot in the city center and enjoyed ice creams under the hot sun. We visited chapels and cathedrales. We took photos at the main attractions, the Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain, the Palace of Justice just to name a few. We had wanted to visit the Pantheon but it was closed when we arrived.

With my mum, we visitied the Vatician City while Seb brought the boys to the science center. We reserved a guided tour of the Vatican Museum online to avoid the long queue. The guided tour was informative and we ended the visit with the Saint Peter's Basilica.

After Vatican City, we met up at the appartment to rest. Seb told me the activities in the Kids' Science Center were in Italian and was not useful for the boys. He had to explain to the boys. Still, the boys had a good time.

On our last day, we visited the Colosseum. There was a queue due to the security check. Tour operators were touting and telling the people in the queue that it would take an hour and half to get to the ticket counters. They offered guided tour which could get us in without the queue. As Seb and I had done a guided tour before, we were not interested. The queue moved on fast and it took us less than 20 minutes to get the tickets. These touters were liars.

The end of our Rome trip was also the end of our summer holiday. My mum enjoyed Rome. The kids enjoyed the beaches more than Rome. I enjoyed my time in Italy and do not mind coming back for the next summer.

Bibs

I made three bibs from scraps of the boys' school bags I made few years back. It is addicting making bibs. They are really easy to do. 

Just need to find babies to give to now. Next project is to make three girly bibs as I have three friends who just had baby girls.

A note to his father

This happened on thursday when A2 was at home after school with his father. I was bringing A1 to his music lesson.

Seb recounted the following. A2 came into the home office and took a piece of paper and starting writing.  Seb was having a conference call with his colleague then. He did not pay attention to what A2 wrote when A2 presented him the paper. Seb just put a cross on the box 'Yes'.

A few minutes later, he heard the gate opening. He looked out from the window and saw A2 wearing his helmet riding his bicycle to leave the house. Seb quickly shouted at him to come back. He read the paper carefully and realised that he had given permission to A2 to join his friend to ride their bicycles outside.

When I reached home, I saw A2's friend Lucas lingering at our gate. I told him to get his mother's approval to come play with A2 in our garden. 5 minutes later, the two boys were having fun in our garden.

I read A2's note. It was no fault of A2. Seb admitted that he should have taken time to read it. A2 is a witty boy. He knew he could not speak to his father so he wrote a note.

It reads "Il y a LUCAS DEOR (dehors) avec son vélo je pe(peux) ales (aller) avec lui DEOR (dehors) avec lui en vélo. Coch (coche) ui(Oui) Non. LES-clés silteplai (s'il te plait) papa."

Translated to english, it would be "There is Lucas outside with his bicycle. I can go with him outside with him on bicycle. Tick Yes No. The keys please father."

There were a few french spelling error but it was a clear request in my opinion for a 7 year old who was determined to get permission to play with his friend.

When he got his father's approval, A2 looked for the house keys. He called the dog to enter into the laundry room and shut the door tight. The laundry room connects to the garage. As he was not sure which button on the remote control key opens the main gate and which the garage door, he did not want to accidentally open both the gate and garage door and risk having the dog run out of the house.

This he explained to me during dinner time. We all find it amusing but told him that he should have known the answer even before writing the note. Seb and I do not think the boys are old enough to ride their bicycles outside without an adult.
 
This little boy really has lots of tricks up his sleeve.

Farewell party for our family doctor

Our family doctor has retired. Her colleague organised a surprise farewell party for her and invited all her patients.  Though we were told to bring food for four, potluck style; there were still too much to eat and drink.

Our doctor was happy to see her patients and chatted with everyone. She gave a touching thank you speech. Her husband also gave a speech thanking us for being great patients to his wife. It was a jovial event.

I got the doctor a book and left my gift on a table full of flowers and gifts. That's when I saw a beautiful cake. What an appropriate cake. :-)

Speaking of the book, it was recommended by the book shop owner. It seems interesting. I would go check the library for it.

I never thought I would attend my doctor's retirement party. Living in the countryside does make a difference. People are more personal and there is more human touch than living in a big city.  I hope the new doctor will be just as warm as the retired Doctor Thery.

Gargano, South Italy

We spent 4 days at our second Airbnb in the Gargano region. This place used to be a convent. The structure collapsed about 50 years ago and the owners bought the place and divided it into 3 apartments.

Inside the apartment, the walls were very thick and kept the place cool despite the hot summer weather.

This was our apartment with two bedrooms. There was a big swimming pool and we were the only ones using it in the afternoon. The boys had fun jumping into the pool. 

We could hear the bells of the cows and barking dogs as there was a farm just beside. A2 being the animal lover went to look for the farm dogs.

We visited Foggia, San Giovanni Rotondo, Vieste and Monte Saint Angelo. And each day, we either stopped at a beach or headed to the swimming pool.

We visited Foggia after lunch and all shops were closed. They only opened from 5pm. The streets were deserted in the afternoon. At San Giovanni Rotondo, we were looking for dinner. Seb suggested eating Chinese as we passed by a chinese restaurant. We went in and while ordering, a chinese man came over and asked if we were from Singapore. He had overheard my mum and I talking. He was a Malaysian living in Singapore and had come to Italy to help out his chinese friends in the restaurant. He hoped to open one in Rome. What a small world. I did not expect to meet any Singaporeans or Malaysians in San Giovanni and it was rather inland and there were only locals. I wished him the best.

On our second day, we saw a mother cat with her 5 kittens just outside our appartment. They were very thin and the left over food we gave them were quickly finished up. A2 insisted to give the cats more food. When visiting Foggia, we stopped by a supermarket and A2 bought a box of cat food. He was very eager to go back to feed the cats.

There were almond trees where we stayed. The cats ate the peeled almond nuts. We were amazed. The boys had fun cracking. A1 ate the broken almond nuts and kept the perfect almond nuts for his father and the cats. Such a sweet boy. My mum enjoyed cracking the nuts and became a pro. She found the technique and I had to keep up her pace plucking almonds from the tree for her to crack.

We had sunny weather throughout our stay except for the day when we drove 20mins to visit Monte Saint Angelo. It was rainy and cloudy. We visited the castle and the famous sanctuary of Monte Sant'Angelo. It is the oldest shrine in Western Europe dedicated to archangel Michael and is an important pilgrimage site. We had to walk down many steps to reach the grotto where the shrine was. The architecture was interesting.

After Monte Saint Angelo.,we headed to the beach. It was deserted due to the weather. It was very cloudy but the water was still warm. The boys just loved to be in the water.

After Gargano, we drove to Rome, our last destination in Italy.