Just can’t imagine how time flies… In just 10 days we will be flying off to our new home Down Under. It will be a great adventure for all of us while we explore the unknown. How exciting!!! A part of me is filled with anticipation and another part of me is filled with fear. I just hope everything will fall into places as time goes by.

We still have some stuff to pack as well as to clean up as much as we could before we leave. There are lots of stuff like closing bank accounts, cancelling credit cards as well as all those MISC stuff to look into as well. That being said, I hardly have much time to blog and check out blogs like southern blog and some of my blogging friends’ blogs for the time being. Will definitely do that once we have settled down.

Have not been getting much sleep the past few nights as Glennedine tends to fuss in the middle of the night. Probably she has nightmares or feeling uncomfortable… just hope it is just a phase.

After a long proscrastination, I’ve finally decided to start an e-store, Pre-Loved2Go in the hope of finding new owners to all the things we used to love but no longer need them since the kids are all growing up too quickly and outgrown all their baby and kid stuff. Though we have tried giving away some to family and friends but not everything are suitable so I thought I’ll offer them to others who may want or need them more.

Besides the regular baby and nursing stuff on sale, there are also some other knick-knacks (unused or brand new) on sale too… all from impulsive buying!

Please pop by and recommend to your friends or family who are looking for used/pre-owned items.

Thanks and have a great weekend!

Helloooooooooooooooooooo!

Our life is always filled with lots of challenges and I am pursuing yet another challenge now… I’ve just submitted 2 entries for a contest!

If you’ve already ‘Be-friended’ me in FaceBook, you would have seen my new status update about voting for some lunch boxes. Well, I’ve decided to enter the Dutch Lady Malaysia’s  ”What’s In Your Meal Container?” contest after much procrastination as I have lots of tasks to complete as well as managing the two little monsters…

I am the queen of small speedy bento (cliché) if you have been following my bento blog. You’ll hardly see me packing BIG bento since Darrius can’t eat that much and that was why I am only good in packing small-small bento.

Here are my humble bento submitted for the contest:

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Set 1

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Set 2

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So, how can you help my dearest friends???

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Step 1

You need to be a FaceBook member

Step 2

Go to Dutch Lady Malaysia Page and click ‘LIKE’ to enter their page

Step 3

Click ‘LIKE’ on this link for Set 1 and this link for Set 2 under the name ‘Alice Foo’

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That’s all!!!! It is that simple!

I need to collect as many ‘LIKES’ to be qualified for the next round so, I really, really need your help! If you think my bento qualifies, please help me to ‘LIKE’ them ok!!!! Thank you from the bottom of my heart!!!!

Voting period ends on the 8th of May so there are still 1.5 weeks to go so please, please spare me a few minutes of your precious time and click on them! I HEART you all!!!!

This year my birthday fell on a Friday which is one of my favorite day. PiggyBeng works half day on Friday so it was a good day… no less. The day went on smoothly though there are still a few yelling sessions since I have 2 monkeys at home!

Initially we have no idea where we shall go for dinner since I am not expecting any grand celebration. To me (or to us) it is just another excuse to pig out only! So, in the afternoon, PiggyBeng asked what I would like to eat and I casually mention to have buffet. Checked a few places and at the end we decided to go for G-Hotel’s BBQ Seafood Buffet. We have seen the buffet each Friday whenever we are in Gurney Plaza and finally we went to try it!

Verdict? I must say it was pretty good! Not that the food was excellent but edible and quite value for money. In fact for the price it was much better compared to Equatorial Hotel which we went last year. Food was so-so and Baby G kicked up a big fuss so we did not enjoy the dinner at all. That was why I hardly snap any photos to blog about it!

This year was slightly better since Baby G is already 14-month old. She can self feed so we managed to keep her quiet by giving her food which kept her busy for a while.

And here, a look at their spread…

Their dessert counter is one of the best… I always got attracted by all those colorful glasses of jello or whats not displayed up there…

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The fresh food counter is also another popular venue since one can have unlimited serve of fresh oysters and salmon sashimi…

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The fresh fruits counter is a hit with kids since they have all kind of fruits on skewers ready to go through the chocolate fountain at the end of the table…

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Are these macaroons??? I have no idea since I don’t have any space to try them!!!

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These are coconut tarts which I did not get to try too as I was having just too much… next time perhaps!

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My personal favorite on their dessert counter that night was this berry cheesecake…

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Baby G was making fusses too but we are lucky she was still eating so we just fed her to keep her busy! She too likes the berry cheesecake which she finished half of it!

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Darrius was having loads of fun as he can now walk about checking all the food counters out! PiggyBeng filled Darrius’s plate with food but he only ate 20% from there! The 80% he was gallivanting around the chocolate fountain having endless skewers of strawberries and other fruit sticks!

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We have to go to the al-fresco area to collect the BBQ stuff. There were salmon, XXL prawns, cat fish, squid rings as well as cray fish which the hotel staff referred as ‘lobsters’!

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And here is my 1st plate of the many plates from the BBQ counter…

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My plate from the fresh food counter…

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I dare not take too much fresh oysters and the salmon sashimi though I was dying to. I am still breastfeeding Baby G so it was not advisable to have to much of those.

Therefore, I decided to have more of the ‘lobsters’ which was extremely popular among the other diners…

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The BBQ crayfish tasted damn good with the assam jawa (tamarind) sauce. The spicy and sourish taste made one feel so hungry! I am salivating when I am typing this!!!!

Before I decided to call it a day, I die-die must try this particular jello+custard with that berry on top. Not sure what was the name but it sure tasted really yummy!

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The night went on smoothly until I discovered this…

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Now you know why Baby G was nicked name Samseng Girl??? She chewed off the straw even the bottle is less than 3 months old!!!! We can’t leave her with things else she will destroy them in seconds!!!

I did not bake any cake for myself and PiggyBeng did not buy any either. Instead, he went to ask the hotel staff if he can get me a complimentary cake…

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Good food, good company… great time!

Though I am another year older, it was a true blessing to have my 3 babies with me to celebrate the day together.

And here is the so-called ‘pressie’ from my room-mate…

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And that wraps up my birthday for 2011!

It was really a tiring day for me since I have to take care of the 2 monkeys as my parents need to chat with relatives as well as folding ‘golds’ for the offering/burning session tonight after some chanting sessions by the taoist monks.

For the Hokkien’s culture/tradition, there will be some buffet spread of food served to visitors when they come for the wake and yesterday we had quite a scrumptious meal during dinner time. I think I need to start stocking up on some adapexin-p soon else my diet plan will not be successful!

Another sad thing is, the person who is sharing the day with me has to leave for a trip to another continent. Don’t ask me why he chose to go today coz due to all the schedules… so it was unavoidable.

Now, the only consolation is, my parents will be here tomorrow as they need to go to my grandma’s place in Lunas (near Kulim) for the wake and funeral.

What a way to celebrate our 6th year of union!

Coincidentally, it is a Saturday (our wedding day was also on a Saturday)…

It was supposed to be Ms Samseng’s BIG day but we can’t give her any big celebration due to the timing factor during that few days. That was because we have to go to KL and stayed for 3 weeks as PiggyBeng have to travel to 3 different countries!

Thus, we had a small do for her a week before her actual birthday together with my parents since my brother and his family already have other engagement that night. We went to a restaurant in Mahkota which serves quite tasty food…

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Then on the actual day I brought the kids out to Mid Valley myself and spent the day there doing a host of things. The kids had so much fun of course!

Firstly, we had morning tea a the Struddle Cafe in Metro…

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When we were done, we went around looking at the Christmas decorations which were already 80% done up.  And what else but the kids enjoying the fun Christmas atmosphere???? The theme in Mid Valley last year was Toy Box or something so among them, there was this really HUGE teddy…

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When we were done with sight seeing in Mid Valley, we hopped over to Gardens to look for Glennedine’s Birthday cake since I am not baking any. Birthday girl must at least blow the candle right????!!!! And so we bought something from the famous young baker’s bakery…

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Once we settled on the cake, we went on search for a place to have our lunch. As you will know, lunch time in Mid Valley is mayhem coz every nooks and corners will be packed with people! I had wanted to go to Fong Lye but like I mentioned, the crowds are scary…

So, after checking out a few more locations I asked Darrius what he wanted to eat? He was clueless and Baby G was already zzzz. Then I asked if he wanted to have pizza and pizza was what we had!

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There is no Domino Pizza restaurant in Penang so it was good that we get to check out this one in Mid Valley. We went for the promo where we get a personal pan pizza with unlimited serving of soup, twisted cheese sticks and a glass of ice lemon tea. Good value! Darrius had 2 serving of their soup! He only ate one slice and Baby G was sleeping the entire time and by the time she woke up we were almost done so I gave her a twisted cheese stick which she finished in no time!

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We shopped for a while more before we left around 3+pm to avoid the massive jam in the Cheras highways. Managed to pop by Tesco to get some stuff too before we head home for dinner.

After dinner, PiggyBeng called from Osaka to sang the Birthday song to his little princess and she blew her candle in from of the webcam…

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That that pretty much wrapped up the princess’s BIG day. I made her daddy to promise that he will give her grand celebrations in the coming years since he missed 2 of his princess’s BIG day!

For the very first time, we put Glennedine at the rear with Darrius as we wanted to start training her to be more independent as well as an intention to get her get used to it before we move Down Under. It was a bad move actually since she was a little frighten and was crying the first 15 minutes of the drive before she went to lalaland. Thus, I have to stuff her with snacks to keep her quiet…

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We arrived around noon at my 2nd uncle’s place. My cousins and my mom were already playing mahjong. And after all the greetings, they stopped for a while and the kids took over literally!

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After freshen up, we went out to look for food and disappointedly, there were nothing much available so we ended up at a Malay kopi shop for lunch!!!! My uncle said most Chinese shops will be either too crowded or not operating on the 2nd day so we don’t have much choice since we don’t want to drive too far off. His wife was craving for some ‘Ramli Mee Rebus’ so we just followed…

Apparently their mee rebus is ‘kick ass’ but I am not a mee rebus fan so I did not order any. Both PiggyBeng and myself had their nasi lemak which was quite ok…

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Darrius and my dad had their nasi ayam which was so-so only. I thought I can get Glennedine to eat some noodle soup so I ordered one for her and it turn out that it was filled with pepper!!!!

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There were quite a number of us as my other uncle and his family with my aunt and her hubby joined us shortly after we arrived. The waitress got our orders all messed up (lousy ordering system!) so we have to ask for our orders many times as some never seemed to come!

And here a shot of the entire troop…

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After lunch we drove back to my 2nd uncle’s place again so mom and the rest of my aunts can continue with their mahjong session!

PiggyBeng was very tired so he dozed off while I have to babysit the Samseng Girl as she refused to nap! Too noisy from the mahjong table I supposed!

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So nice to see both kids in their festive wear!! This year Glennedine had so much fun as she can already walk prior to CNY and she practically walk non stop! She strut around every nooks and corners of the house which she get access to. It was so cute to see her strutting around in that little red qipao!

While the adults were having a good time catching up the kids were having a great time playing with each others. Here is Glennedine with her cousin brother, Jovern…

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He is about 1.5 month younger than Glennedine so he still can’t walk yet. Our Samseng Girl was the social butterfly that day going around as if she was the host of the place! hahahaha

Besides ‘pai-nian’ at eldest aunt’s place, we also went ‘pai-nian’ at FIL’s place as well as MIL’s mom’s (the kids’ gread grandmother) place.

It was a tiring day!!!

How time flies! This is the 6th Lunar New Year for Darrius and the 2nd for Glennedine! And this is my 6th year celebrating with my little family!

Previously we will normally have our reunion dinner having steamboat at home as this is the tradition in PiggyBeng’s family but we did flaunt the tradition twice though! Once, we went to the hotel for buffet and another time we joined my side of the family. These happened because SIL and her family can’t be home for the celebration so it was really a hassle to cook so much and at the end we have to stuff ourselves silly with lots of left over food or ingredients from the steamboat. We had the steamboat last year but at a much smaller scale since SIL was not home as well.

So, what happened this year? Well, my MIL was not feeling too well and all of us are lazy busy (PiggyBeng has to study) and we felt eating all the leftover is a dreadful thing to do… Well, isn’t that the greatest excuse to eat out???!!! Eventually we will eat out since we don’t have to slog in the kitchen the entire day and ended up with cleaning up as well as lots of left overs clogging the freezer!

It was difficult to source for a venue actually because Penang has not catch up with the rest of the states yet by offering reunion dinners like Ipoh or KL. Initially we have wanted to go for buffet again at the hotel but most are HALAL and how can we have HALAL food when it is Lunar New Year right????? It was another lucky thing that my parents came just 3 weeks before CNY and I brought them to Red Tea House in Far Lim for dim sum and asked if their Red Bali is offering any reunion dinner and BINGO!

And off we went for a stress free meal with just the few of us…

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The food was good and their pricing was reasonable too since we did not order those typical CNY dishes. This was the first time we ate here but MIL has eaten here before. However, due to the fact that it was CNY eve, the service was a little chaotic as I suspected some of the staff are employed just for that day. It took us 2 hours to finish when we can normally finish within an hour. Anyway, everyone was happy as we don’t have to clean up after dinner!

Also to note that both kids behaved quite well while waiting for the dishes to be served. There were two other girls about Glennedine’s age sitting at the next table and they were making lots of noises as well as crying and screaming. Instead of joining them, Glennedine just stared at them with complete amusement! o_O

On our way back to the car, we decided to pop over a temporary make shift stall selling fireworks and sparklers for Darrius…

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We did not sleep early that night as the sound from all the firework bombings made it tough for us to sleep so we waited till mid night to see all the fireworks before retiring at almost 1am.