I had to rush back from KL shopping trip for today. Today is Tim first orientation for primary 1. The program started at 8am ended by 11am. We gathered at the hall and anxiously waiting for what will happen next.

A teacher came on stage to give us the program briefing and next the children names were called to enter the classroom. Classes were named after the planets. How cool is that? No prize but guess what planet my son felt on?

There were 290 students for standard 1. The teacher told us that it is one of the biggest primary school in Penang island. Students were seated in the classroom but parents were Q-ing for forms submission. I totally forgot that I had to buy the report books for submission. I asked my hubby to go to the Q at the bookstore to purchase that and Tim’s school books. It was slow process.

I had to fill up forms after forms, writing my child’s name, his details, my name, my detail, my hubby’s name and his details more than 10 times. This is like a punishment for me, sort off. After sorting out the forms, I took my son to the PE teacher to measure his size for PE shirt and trousers.

Next, the children were instructed to line up to follow the class teacher. Tim’s class teacher is a very pleasant lady which has been teaching for 13 years. I had a casual chat with her. A very nice lady indeed. Ooh, I am so glad to see a few Chinese students in the same class with Tim too, along with a few Indians and lots of Malay students.

The children were given loan textbooks and most of them were brand new. They even give out new activity books. I was surprised the books I had to buy for him were a few. As compare to my time, I remembered I had to buy lots of books.

One thing I like about this school is that they provide language learning as one of the subject. For Chinese, the student needs to take Chinese. For Malay, they take Arab language. For Indian, they take Tamil. An extra class will be conducted for additional Chinese or Tamil. I will certainly sign Tim up for the additional class.

The day ended with school rules briefing. The afternoon lead teacher was very kind and he approached us for a chat too. I really had a pleasant experience for the first day of school. Now it makes me want to become a student there.

As for Timothy, he was excited to go to his new school. Why? 2 things, one is the karipap and second is the football field. Let’s hope he will enjoyed school next year.

Books On Loan:

Books I Bought:

It is not hard to get your child to brush his/her teeth. What I discover with Emily is strawberry toothpaste. Every morning or night, I would tell her that I want strawberry kiss. She will gladly go to the bathroom and brush her teeth. After that, she will give me a strawberry kiss. She will be very happy after she does that and the best is her breath smells like strawberry.

I got my children the Colgate for kid’s toothpaste, now it comes in strawberry, orange and bubble fruit taste. Try it, it will be fun for your children.

A Christmas message “It will be a mess without Christ in Christmas”. I was too lazy to bring out the Christmas tree. Emily scolded me saying, “Mummy, see no Christmas in the house.” Tim and Emily thought the Christmas tree or presents are Christmas. I told them that Christmas is Jesus Christ’s birthday. It happens in the heart. This morning, Emily started singing birthday song to Jesus. She is also learning the song “Joy To The World”.

No presents opening this year too because they are already playing with their presents from Hong Kong. Tim got 2 huge transformers, Emily got a Hello Kitty house, hubby got Apple Wifi Router and I got a diamond & pearl pendant. It does save me time from putting up the tree, taking it down, wrapping all the presents and unwrapping. Meaningless….

On another note, I bought the children to Teluk Kumbar, a fisherman’s village. I have not been there but I got to know there is a beach there from one of the brochure I picked up. I did some searching in the Internet to find out where it is.

It turns out that there is a very beautiful beach with not many people. I guess not many people know the hidden beauty and untouched. It has a lake there too. It is a good place for fishing and clam digging. At some parts of the beach, the sand is like powder. My children love it there. They played sand and water for over an hour. There is a malay store by the beach where Tim, I and papa had delicious laksa with a sea view. Simply Delicious!

I will certainly go back. It has a big area where tents can be set up or hammock. We can spend the whole morning and afternoon there. One thing missing is there are no toilets there.

Here is a map of the place:

My friend told me that Gertak Sanggul is even more beautiful with a river stream. I hope to explore that in the future. There are many undiscovered places in Penang. When the kids are older, I want to bring them to Pantai Kerachut to see some turtles. It involves some hiking.

I am off work for the year 2008 starting from today. I had to clear leaves as well as company having a shutdown break to save some money. Anyway, since it is my off day, I thought of bringing the children out.

Today is also my hubby’s birthday. Yes, he is born on Christmas Eve. However papa had to work because project is due soon. Poor him.

Early in the morning, Tim & Emily sang papa a birthday song. They were really excited because they knew mummy is bringing them out to do the things the love. We had breakfast together as I had to send papa to work with the children.

Tim & Emily: We all go look at fish, go shopping and play balls. Papa you go to work.
Papa: I want to go too.
Tim & Emily: But you got to work. :giggles:

I took the children to the Fisheries Research Institute where they can have fun viewing the different kind of fish. However it was closed on Wednesday. Bumma! They got to watch the turtles and tortoise swimming outside the building.

Next we went to Queensbay mall to change a book that we bought. If you go to any book stores, be it Borders, Popular or MPH. Ensure you check the book before walking out. I bought a book for Emily, it was nicely wrapped. After we return home, some things were missing from the book. *FRUS*

We went to the indoor playground on the top floor where they can play slide down, balls, climbing up and down. A good workout for them. They spent a whole hour there. Later we went to pick up papa for a quiet lunch.

In the evening, we had a birthday dinner together with FIL, MIL, BILs, SILs, nephew and niece. It was a scrumptious meal.

At the end of the day, I think it is more the children birthday than papa’s birthday. :giggles:

Before having fun, they need to do work.

Let’s join the queue. Now sure what are they que-ing for??!!

Finally it was over! I am glad there were many children turned up for the little Christmas play held on 21st December 2008. Remembered I was in charged of angel costumes, shepherd boy costumes, sheep, shepherd staff and the back drop. I am glad a few people helped me. This kept me busy for 2 months.

I had to do 10 tutu’s, 10 gowns, 10 angel wings, 20 shepherd staffs, 40 sheep, 20 shepherd costumes and a backdrop. I have many little helpers to help me paint the staff and wool the sheep. :giggles:

Tada here is the results:

The backdrop is designed by a church friend. Everything is recycle stuff.

Now anyone want to hire me for their next children concert or play?

Who has this? Imagine I still have it wrapped in McDonald original plastic bag. I kept it for more than 9 years. Now I can pass it to Emily. Too bad she is asleep but I arranged it at the end of her bed. She will be grinning ear to ear when she sees it in the morning.

I remembered McD started with the couple bears. Lots of people were crazy over it. Imagine people wakes up at 5 am just to queue outside McD for the bears. I bet many have ate many burgers to collect the entire collection of bears. Anyone of you so crazy? I heard a grand dad bought a few ice-cream cones just to get bears for the grandchildren. Every morning, he will get a Tupperware to fill those ice-creams. I wished I had a grand dad like this.

Next it was Hello Kitty. I guess when it came to Kitty, the crowd wasn’t so bad. I managed to get it during my lunch hour. I remembered a foreigner was cursing because McD was crowded. He just couldn’t believe it.

Those were the days.

Tim started eating spicy food when he was 1+. He would go after our Hokkien Mee (aka Prawn Mee). Now he will go after my asam laksa. Everytime when I am having laksa, he would come near me and ask for it. He loves it and he will grin from ear to ear when I ordered it for him.
Last time, I was wondering how to introduce spicy food to my children. I guess I do not have to worry with Tim. However he will hold his big water tumbler when he eats it. If it is too spicy, he will drink the water.

Funny thing, he gets the kicks out of trying spicy food. He also loves curry and nasi lemak. As for Emily, she cannot take it. Once she told me that she doesn’t like laksa because it is too spicy for her. Guess what happen, Tim thought her the way to eat spicy asam laksa that is to drink water if too spicy. She came back to tell me, she likes laksa. However she doesn’t crave for it that much compare to Tim.

Next, I probably introduce nasi kandar to Tim.

I can’t believe it! I can’t believe it! I can’t believe it!

Oh well, my Tim will be going to primary 1 next year. Aiks, next year is just a couple of weeks away. I am so not prepared. Anyway, I had to get his uniform. I went to Giant but the quality of the uniform was not very good. I went to Sunshine store. The service is much better her. Being a virgin in buying uniform, I was really blur.

A sales guy came to me, first thing he asked, “Kebangsaan or Chinese School”. It was a very good question indeed. He explained to me that Kebangsaan will require Tim to wear long pants. Chinese schools allowed short pants. I didn’t know that. If I had gotten the uniform from Giant, I would have gotten the wrong pants.

I don’t remember such a rule during my days. I remembered my brother was in short pants and he was in Kebangsaan school. Is this a Penang rule?

Tim was excited in trying out his new uniform which got Emily excited. She wore Tim’s white shirt for fun. :rolleyes:

Orientation starts on 31st Dec, a little frustrated because the school just cut my vacation plan into 2.

Another milestone that is exciting and yet challenging.

Oh yeah, just got a big pinch today…boohoohoo 😥

Look at my long bean plants, after a few weeks of watering and sunshine. Actually it only takes a week to grow and another week for it to bear long beans. My children loves to pluck them and my hubby will make steam the long beans. It is very sweet even if you do not put anything on it. I love it with a little bit of butter. Within seconds after steaming, the beans will be all eaten up.

I am glad my children love vegetables and fruits. They like to eat lotus in soup, spinach, carrots, broccoli, sometimes lettuce and beans. I remembered when they were below 3, I have to chop the veggie into tiny piece and mix with the rice. They will pull it out if sense any veggie in rice or soup. Once they made me take out all the spring onions from the soup. :rolleyes:

It is really healthy for them to eat lots of vegetables, fruits and less meat. I usually cook fish for them. Oh well they should love veggie and fruits because daddy & mummy love them too.

Thanks to my PIL for planting the long beans and lady fingers for us. Now my hubby will take the seed to plant more in our garden. Lady fingers goes very well with Indian curry. Yummy.

Here is how Emily eat her bean.

My hubby got a free complementary stay in Rasa Sayang Shangri-La Hotel Penang. Actually it is a free night stay at any Shangri-La hotel worldwide. We decided to book it in Penang since we have enough travelling for the year.

I didn’t know there is a difference between sea facing and sea view room until my colleague told me. I booked the sea view room. I also invited my nephew to join us and my children love to have him. They really have fun together. I guess more fun for them than us.

We also decided to dine in Spice Market Cafe and go for the International Buffet as I have 20% discount there. However I didn’t find the buffet any special for the price we are paying. It was an International buffet minus the oyster and lobster. Maybe we went on the wrong day. Oh, my dept picked the same place to have early Christmas dinner. I will dine free again here.

The overall service was not what I expected for a 5 star hotel. It was really short staff because no one came to clear our plates during the buffet, waiting time for check in was longer and nothing exclusive.

Anyway, it is a good short & cheap vacation.

Here are the pictures:

Enjoying the Welcome Drink – Fizzy Orange Juice

Enjoying The Big Swimming Pool

Transformers Time – Exercising The Children Brain

Sand Play & Enjoying The Sea View