Today is a big day but most companies do not recognize it as an official public holiday. The police, customs and government officers are all on holiday. It caused havoc in Free Trade Zone in Penang. Why? The main custom gate was closed 80% of the traffic flowed in through there. Everyone just follow everyone blindly, thinking the gate will open. Sadly everyone had to make a big U-Turn out of there.

I left my house at 7:30am and reached work at 8:45am, missed a meeting too. Fortunately I have a project manager who is smarter than me. He waited at the gate. I guess some big shots complain and someone came to open it. He reached the office at 8am while I did a detour.

I must salute those who came to rescue the bad traffic, the one who did open the custom gate and the traffic police that directed the traffic.

Last Saturday evening it was raining cats and dogs which was cooling evening for my family to have bbq with steamboat. I always run out of places to eat in Penang, yeah it is true. If you come here once a while, you probably find more choices. Anyway the bbq was very good. An adult cost RM18. My children were not charged at all. They have marinated fish, chicken, seafood, vegetables, a variety of fish balls, noodles and bean curds. Free flow of barley drink and ice cream for dessert. The place is opposite of ex-Macro, near Pelita nasi kandar store.

They placed the table outside but sheltered, with cooling breeze blowing. The children were fascinated with the bbq plate. However they didn’t eat much, only noodles and fish balls, of coz they wipe the ice-cream bowl clean. After the scrumptious meal, we had to go home and shower, the oily smell really sticks on to our clothes, hair and body.

My 2 favourite dish:

My family went for a 1 day trip to Pulau Jerejak, a small island opposite of Penang. It used to be an Alcatraz of Malaysia, with an ex prison there. Now it has become a Resort & SPA. There are only a limited activities you can do there like jungle tracking – enjoying the flora and fauna, Abseiling, flying fox, suspension bridge, cycling, paintball, volleyball, netball and swimming. They have a nice swimming pool. You are not allowed to swim at the seaside as the jellyfish will kill you. Oh you can camp there too.

You may ask why are we doing there? My children loves to play sand and we hate to drive up to Batu Ferringhi so we though to go across to let them play some sand. They enjoyed the boat ride across and have an hour fun of sand playing.

By the way, food in the island is not cheap, so if you are going for a day trip, do pack some lunch with you. The adult fare for the ferry ride is RM20 with a bottle of mineral water and sandwich. If you are staying there, the ferry ride is RM10 per adult.

More info here: http://www.jerejakresort.com/

Today avoid going to the south side of Penang. Predicted to have a massive jam. Maybe it is the 1st of December, there are 3 big events.

1. Opening of the Penang Queensbay Mall.
2. PESTA Penang Opening for the year-end fun.
3. PC Fair

What is in the Penang Queensbay Mall? A few new outlets has landed in Penang, Jaya Jusco, TGIF, Borders, New Zealand Natural Ice Cream, Sa Sa and lots more. Click here and here.

Lastly not forgetting people rushing to go home from the factories, as it is a FRIDAY.

Happy jamming. I will be staying at home.

I found there are readers of my blogs who are interested in Penang, I decided to start a new blog and copy some of my previous post about Penang into the new site. I hope to share more interesting post about Penang to you.

Here is the new URL: http://penang.mybabybay.com/penang/

I still have problem making the subdomain penang.mybabybay.com point to the above URL. Any expert out there who can help? I tried every solution I have in my tiny brain but it didn’t work. Sigh.

Continuing my story from yesterday, about the extremely unsatisfactory florist. As most of you commented, it will be offensive to tell my kind friend about it. On the other hand, I was very grateful what she has done. I send a thank you message to her, expressing my gratitude. Knowing her, she asked me how was the gift. Oh oh. In the end, I told her about it, in a tactful manner. She said she wants to look at it, so I took a picture and send it to her.

What I got:	What was ordered:

She was furious, not with me but with the florist. She called the florist and I suppose bombarded her. They were in shocked when they saw the picture too. They apologized and will resend another bouquet to me. Weird, they should send an apology bouquet to my friend too. They have to send it to my office as I already started work. The bouquet came, a very small one. Peculiarly, it was send to an admin, usually bouquet are received by the receptionist. The admin called me to pass it to me. Casually I asked, why did it land on your desk? You know what she told me? The florist shop belongs to her manager’s (Senior Manager’s position) wife. Oh oh. What a small world?

I blog this NOT because I want to offend my friend or put her in an awkward position. I really thank her for the special gift and the thoughtfulness of her. This blog is to let you know that when you order anything from the Internet, you really have to be careful, especially from people you do not know. There is a case where this guy bought a second hand notebook and when he got it, it was already broken.

As for florist, usually they will use affiliate florist if it is from another state. The affiliate florist will not have a clue or picture what the customer order. It is merely base on descriptions.

p/s The chicken essences are at the bottom of the basket but a different brand. Not sure whether it tastes good, I let you know when I tasted it. 😛

Tracy’s side of the story.

I am having a good time this week, no work but shopping, watching TVB series and rest. Shopping is one mode of resting. Anyway I was disappointed I cannot find things I want to buy. I got a wallet and a pair of working shoe. I think I have enough of rest. The doctor asked me “When you want to start work? Want some more MC?” I laughed. I told him that I will start work on Tuesday. Trick him, he thought he needs to write another MC for me. Monday is a replacement public holiday for Penang, Governor’s Day. I bet lots of people in Penang will stay up to watch the Final World Cup France vs Italy.

Don’t you think that when a lady received compliments, it feels so good? Someone told me that I look young. I know I am not, opps no offence to those older than me. There are certain kinds of people who just know what to say at the right time. Of coz it has to be said that it doesn’t sound fake. Hey all kinds of compliments work on me. :giggles: Now even I am not young, I feel younger. 😆

By the way, I am back to normal.

The Chinese Lion Dance is important tradition during Chinese New Year. The first recorded performance of a lion dance is dated back to Third Century BC, before you and I were born. Those who perform the lion dance often need to have Wushu skills. One, handling the lion’s head, leads the dance and shows the lion’s emotions. The lions express joy and happiness. The proper lion dance must match with the drum, gong and cymbal rhythm. The lion head performer or the drummer must signal the other, so that the movement and music can be synchronized. There are a few sequences, that is normally used, like the 3-Star or 7-Star movement, followed by High Dance.

Payments to the performers are usually made through the eating of the green vegetable also know as “Choy Cheng” The angpow will be tied to the green for the lion to eat. Choy as in vegetable symbolize wealth. The lion head performer must not drop the angpow, as it would mean bad luck. After he has taken the angpow, he will tear the green vege apart and throw it out first to the left, then to the right and then to the middle to help spread prosperity in all directions. The music will then change to “high dance” and the head will be raised and moved as if the lion is happy to have consumed his prize.

Yesterday, there was a lion dance competition in Penang Gurney Plaza. My family went there to watch. My son likes it a lot, in hokkien lion dance is called “Boo Lan Sai”. He uses our blanket to do the lion dance on the bed. He was fascinated with the performance. However Emily didn’t enjoy it and she got bored after the first performance. I had to entertain her with food.

Let’s have the lion dance on my blog, not that I believe it will receive any special blessings. Here’s wishes you a happy and early Chinese New Year!!!

Penang has the largest toy museum in Asia. It has over 100,000 figurines, toys and models of a variety of characters in the toy world. If you step in and admired every single toy, it will take you days. It is located in Tanjung Bungah, very close to the Copthorne Orchid Hotel. Opens from 9am to 9pm daily. Entrance Fees are RM10 per adult and RM6 per child. It is a great place to visit if you are here.

The toys ranges from Star Wars, Lord of the rings, all action figures like Superman, Spideman, Ultraman, Batman, Incredible Hulk, Toys Story, Chicken Little, Barbie, Disney Characters, Harry Potter and some horror characters too.

As usual, Emily and Tim enjoyed the place. One set back about this museum is that it has so many toys, so tempted to take and play with it, but you can only see and not touch. 😥

Enjoy the pictures:

The place:

Mr Bean:

Jacky Chan

Chow Yuen Fatt

Bruce Lee

Tomb Raider

The Beatles

Elvis

Star Wars

The LOTR

Star Trek

My Dream Car

Batman

Incredible Hulk – Emily can copy this charater very well. Yet to capture it on video.

WWF

Chicken Little

Little Mouse

Monsters

Incredibles

Doremon

Japanese Doll

Warning: The section below contains horror characters, view it at your own risk. Please do not let your children view, they may have nightmares.

The End

Last Saturday, I went to the mainland to source for beans for my bean bag. Previously I got it from CarreFour in the mainland and chances of getting it will be high. Sure enough I got all the beans. Bags are smaller but same price 🙁

On my way back, I saw a massive jam on the way to the bridge. I told my hubby, since the children never experience the ferry, we will take the ferry instead. What a mistake??!! :sil: We drove to the ferry terminal. We saw the jam, we didn’t know how far off we were from the terminal. We thought we were only 15 minutes away. By the way, they change the route from the way it used to be. We need to drive up a highway ramp that went in circle to the toll booth. We waited for 2 hours. It was the longest wait, ever. Children were pretty tired by then. Emily and Tim were climbing everywhere. I don’t expect them to be sitting for 2 hours in their car seats. Fortunately, they were only restless at the end of the jam. 2 hours jam for a 10 minutes ride. They did enjoy the ferry ride and on the way back, they both slept. Funny there were drivers who turn back after reaching the toll booth. One unfortunate soul, his car broke down at the toll booth.

I am not sure why are there so many cars going to Penang island. Maybe it was due to school holidays or the Pesta Events happening.