The doctor then referred him to the University Malaya Medical Centre where he went for the operation to remove the ‘tumor’. He was told that the whole process will only takes about 5 days (from admission to discharge) but what really happened was he was stuck in the hospital for almost a month! He was finally discharged yesterday and all of us hope he will not have to go back in there again!

I am not going to elaborate about what actually happened until I get all my facts right but my family are damn pissed with the whole ordeal! It is not just about the no medical exam life insurance but the ethics of our medical profession! Arrggh!

.

.

This time, we got lucky as we got upgraded to the Traders Club City View room which was on the 27th floor. The furnishing is more or less the same as the one we stayed previously though except for some additional gadgets in the bathrooms.

.

.

Just love how comprehensive their toiletries are…

.

.

The last time we were there, Baby G was still very much a non-walking baby so she was oblivious to her surroundings. However, this round she is older and knew that she can have so much fun!

.

.

Of course we can’t leave Darrius out…

.

.

And here is the view like from our window…

.

.

No view of the twin towers though but who cares???

The highlight of our stay is of course having fun at the roof top pool @ the Sky Bar located on the 33rd floor. This is also Baby G’s first time playing in the jacuzzi…

.

.

She was hesitant in the beginning but quickly warmed up and enjoyed tremendously playing in the water. We were lucky again as there were no other hotel guests using the jacuzzi.

After spending about an hour in the pool, we went back to our room to clean up and discovered that the housekeeping staff had brought the playpen into our room…

.

.

We were unsure where to eat as it started to drizzle so we took the buggy ride to KLCC. Almost all the places we wanted to dine at were crowded so we settled ourselves at the food court. While taking a look around, I discovered a new stall selling this yummy set rice…

.

.

This plate cost me around RM10.90 (I think) and it comes with a cup of soft drink. For KL’s standard (KLCC area) this is considered as quite reasonable. PiggyBeng can’t find the stall so he ended up buying from another which was more expensive and with less item @_@

PiggyBeng left very early the next morning to meet his colleague so he did not go for the breakfast. Therefore, I brought the kids with me and we had a ‘blast’ there. In the afternoon met up with some mommies at KLCC for a quick lunch. On that day I received news that Japan was hit by the biggest earthquake and tsunami…

Did not snap any photos that day except when we visited the pool for a 2nd time…

.

.

On the following morning, it was a Saturday and PiggyBeng went to the breakfast with us. He was so happy to find some pure fruit juices being served…

.

.

So far, I still find the Gobo Chit Chat has one of the best breakfast among the hotels I’ve stayed so far…

.

.

Another item that caught PiggyBeng’s eyes was the coffee making machine located at the entrance…

.

.

He called it the Ultimate Coffee Experience.  Hotel guests can choose from the rack the types of coffee that they fancy and put it into the machine. It took less than 2 minutes and you’ll have a cuppa that filled with distinct coffee aroma. I did not even notice this facility before since I am not a coffee enthusiast. Normally hotel guests are given a flask of regular coffee/tea when they are being seated.

We checked out shortly after breakfast and moved to my parents’ place for another night. We drove back to Penang on Sunday morning. This round we did not dine in Saisaki again since my last experience I got the worst diarrhea in my entire life.

On 22 January 2011, we finally set our foot onto the beach after a very long hiatus. I can’t remember when was the last time we were there but it was definitely way before we conceived Baby G. We did went to stay at Bay View Resort when I was at about 3 months gestation with Baby G which I did not blog about it here.

It was actually an impromptu decision to go to the beach. All because we wanted to go to the buffet dinner in one of the beach hotels that triggered us to bring the kids to the beach. The weather was good (though it was a little hot and humid) and timing was just nice (the afternoon sun was blocked by the hill) which suited our plans.

We set off around 4pm from our place since it takes about 30 minutes for us to get to our usual beach spot. That day the tide was high so sea water covered most of the sandy areas so we were left with limited spots to choose from as there was another family occupying the spot which we intended to go for.

After changing the kids, PiggyBeng placed Baby G onto the sand… her first encounter with sand…

.

.

Baby G froze for a moment and refused to budge when PiggyBeng pulled her forward as the funny feeling from stepping on the sand must have gave her the fright. She stood there for a long time before taking another step forward.

As for Darrius, he was so impatient to start his ‘expedition’ with his ‘tools’…

.

.

After about 5 minutes, Baby G has warmed up and chose to sat on the beach to play with sand…

.

.

It was so darn cute to see her exploring those sand that she scooped up with her hands. She was literally studying those fine grains! We also caught her putting sand into her mouth many times too! She is indeed one very curious baby! I don’t remember Darrius was that detailed on his first beach experience. Darrius was much older too when he first experience sand in his hands.

After playing on the sand for a while, I pulled Baby G up again and made her walk about and I was quick to notice that she was all clamped up! You can see how uptight she was by looking at her ’stressed toes’…

.

.

While I was busy with Baby G, PiggyBeng and Darrius was busy digging a small pond away from the area where the waves hit the beach so that Baby G can play in there…

.

.

Baby G was excited… I presumed! She did not make any noise nor any weird expressions. Just that I still find her a little frozen when I noticed her toes were curled up this way for a loooong time in the water…

.

.

Cute right???

And after 30 minutes or so soaking in the water, her toes turned this way…

.

.

Hehehee… all crinkled up!

After the pond dried up, we decided to bring Baby G to the area where the waves washes up to let her experience water splashing onto her feet and body. Well, she don’t like it one bit!! She started screaming and crying…

.

.

Since she don’t like the earlier water splashing experience, we brought her back to the sand where she started to play happily again… this time became more daring by standing up and walk about a little…

.

.

We thought she is more or less toughen up after the many new adventures in that afternoon and decided to put her back to the waves…

.

.

And poor thing, she still scream like as if it is the end of the world! At one point her expression told us that she was pleading with us to pick her up from the waves… but the daddy was persistent in trying to toughen up his little princess! He even covered her feet with sand! hahahahaha

We stayed on for almost 2 hours including of washing up. It was a great experience and a fun day out. We left around 6.30pm and drove to the hotel for the buffet dinner which I will blog about soon!

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…

.

.

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

.

.

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…

.

.

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

.

.

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

.

.

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

.

.

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!

.

.

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!

.

.

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’!

.

.

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

.

.

My plate from the fresh food counter…

.

.

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…

.

.

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!

.

.

The night went on smoothly until I discovered this…

.

.

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…

.

.

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…

.

.

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!

And to appease the little Samseng, mommy has to give her something…

.

.

Yeah, she wanted a share of the action too!

Ok, she is still too young to be caught up in this gadgety world but when everyone in the house is playing with one, it is quite tough to avoid the situation. This girl also too smart as she will throw away the toy phone as there are no lights or sounds!

On Darrius’s actual birthday after we had breakfast (the famous beef noodles in Taman Tayton) and dropped PiggyBeng at the KLIA Express station, we adjourned to Kidz Sport at Bangsar Village Shopping to celebrate his day with his cousin, Adrian. At the same time I wanted to check out Marmalade Cafe after hearing so much about it from fellow blogging mommies. So, after checking the kids in to Kidz Sport, together with my parents and my brother, off we went to Marmalade.

It was not that crowded when we arrived so we got the bench seat on the platform area. While everyone was checking out the menu, little Ms Samseng do not want to lose out too so kau-fu gotta entertain her…

.

.

I would say the ambiance for the place was quite pleasant… bright and cheery since it was situated at the corner of the building with glass windows around. I was told that there is a children play area but silly me has forgot to check out that place since the kids were not around except Baby G. Anyway, I managed to see the kid’s area on another occasion which I will blog about later.

Since we just had breakfast not too long ago, my dad said he don’t want to have anything which is too heavy so he decided to order from the bakery. He had their bread pudding cake which came with some cream and a scoop of ice-cream. According to dad it tasted quite good.

.

.

Next it was what my mom ordered. For the very first time she had beef lasagna! She was never a beef eater previously but turning into one lately. Must be my dad been telling her that she has missed a lot of great food if she do not want to eat beef!

.

.

The lasagna tasted quite ok too though it was pretty rich with all those cheeses and cream! After all, we had late breakfast that morning! Mom can’t finish on her own so dad helped her (that was why dad did not order any main dish as he knew mom can’t finish her food!)

Next was what I ordered…

.

.

It was some Masala chicken with fried brown rice. Ok, I must say that the fried brown rice tasted a little weird… kinda sticky. However, the Masala chicken tasted quite ok too. It came with a small jar of gravy, some vege and a piece of papadum.

My brother only had a cup of tea as he had brunch just before he joined us.

And here is Ms Samseng with her signature pose…

.

.

Most of the main dishes are less than RM20 so I would say they are quite affordable since the cafe is nestled in a so-called high end shopping mall. The pricey items are their drinks which cost at least RM8/glass (juices) except soft drinks. It is a nice place for catch-up sessions with friends with kids since they also have Kid’s Menu which I did not get to see on that day but ordered from on another day.

However, thinking that he might not have much of a chance to enjoy all these when we relocate, I told PiggyBeng to get him some after we had our reunion dinner.

Being a chicky (he was born in the year of the Golden Rooster), he only dares to play with the harmless ‘POP POP’! Damn useless right????!!! No matter how we coaxed him to play with the sparklers it was furtile, he will shook his head and ran away!

.

.

Since he dares not play, the daddy keep no reservation and played them! Well, the little princess wanted to watch all the bright lights mah!

.

.

Then on the eve of the 9th day, we finally managed to persuade him to try playing with the sparklers since his boxes of POP POP finished. Also due to the continuous banging from our neighbors (there were so much fireworks being played!) that the little chicken heart ventured out…

.

.

I am glad he enjoyed himself and has those memories with him to bring along when we are in DownUnder. Don’t know when he’ll gets to play with all these fun festive stuff again???!!!

Guess this post wraps up our Bunny year celebration!

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…

.

.

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!

.

.

.

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…

.

.

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!!!!

.

.

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…

.

.

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!

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…

.

.

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…

.

.

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.