As you know Penang started a new bus system with a batch of new big buses. I am not sure why it has taken so long for Penang to improve their bus system. Not to mention the cab taking a lot of advantage in charging people an exorbitant rate and not using the meter.

Rapid Penang is still new and it covered most of the places in Penang Island. If you want details of the bus route, click here. However, they didn’t publish the rates of the tickets. Tickets are priced at RM1-RM3.

I took the children to have fun sitting on the bus. They were excited. We took from Bayan Baru all the way to town and back. Funny the fare going was RM2 but the coming back trip was RM1.50. Nope, we go on where they drop us off.

The going trip was pleasant, the seats were leather but the return trip seat was hard plastic. It is tough to sit for a long time. My butt was really painful after the journey. The back seats of the flooring of the bus are quite high and the seats were raise up. My head almost touch the top of the bus when I sat there. It was difficult for some senior citizen to climb up and sit.

So when you are visiting Penang, remember to try Rapid Penang (nope it is not a white water rafting adventure). You can almost go round island trip with it.

Hard Plastic Chair – No No.

Gbay: China Toys Recall

Emily draws a piece of art that really looks like something. She is starting to learn how to draw, putting her imagination into drawings. I hope she does that often like Timothy. It is a great way to exercise her right brain, better than watching TV.

I have to say, I do not spend much time to do enough craft with them. I need to do more of it. There are so many craft ideas that many mommy bloggers blog about. I must try those with them.

Gbay: Stress Reliever

I got a tag from MyLovelyMummy. A simple tag that does not take a lot of my brain cells away. Thanks MyLovelyMummy. I still owe a lot of people a lot of tags.

Creatures I hate:

1. Flying cockroach, I am not afraid of those that do not fly. I hate those with wings. Imagine I spray pesticide on it, it fly an attack me. Yiiiiak. By the way, for those that cannot fly, I usually catch the antenna with my hand and flush it down the toilet.

2. Spiders, not the small tiny ones but the ones that has fur. In Australia, lots of spider is poisonous. When I was there, I found one fury one in my room and it really freak me out. My house mates and I had to use the Vacuum cleaner to suck it in.

3. Dead rat, they stink!

I am passing the tag to:

Hui Sia – Always requesting for tags.
Vien – You gave me a big job today.
ShoppingMum – Really like to know what you are afraid off.
Chinnee – Your filler tag.

Gbay: Cashing US Cheque

Mybabybay is spinning off a new blog. Gbay, in short of Geniuses Bay, will have articles on the latest news, products, ideas, innovations and current affairs. Sounds cool? 😎 The main objective of creating Gbay is I am trying to organize my children journal blog. I hope to move out all non related posts a new blog, eventually.

Please help me to generate some traffic for Gbay by linking to it and of coz visiting it too. I can assure you I will put interesting articles there.

Let me know if you want to trade links too. The link is gbay.mybabybay.com.

GBay Article: Increase your EPF Funds?

Finally after much procrastination, my hubby and I have moved Tim to a new kindy run by my church. The reason we procrastinated was because we need to plan for transportations and babysitter arrangement for Tim. The new kindy only run half day and the other half he will go to the babysitter. We were very glad after a long negotiation that Emily’s babysitter decided to take care of him.

Why did we change his school? We saw no progression or development in Tim. He didn’t speak to any of the teachers and he is not reading. To top it all, the school gave him plenty of homework and there is no interest in him to do any of it. Worst is the syllabus is so advanced and Tim having a hard time to catch up. The teacher just let him be and did nothing to solve the problem. When my hubby had 1-1 with the teacher, the teacher didn’t give him a solution or plan to improve the situation.

I must say that Tim’s learning curve is slow and he needs more attention to learn. Now I have to tutor him in reading and spelling after work. Tell me at what age does boys learn to spell?

Tim has a new buddy and his name is called Ultraman. I am not sure when he knew Ultraman existed. For those who do not know who Ultraman is, it is a Japanese hero who fights huge ugly monsters. Ultraman was around when I was young and still alive today.

Timothy got my mom to get him a 2 episodes of Ultraman VCD. He has been watching it over and over again. I lost count. Almost every day he requested me to switch it on for him. He changed his milk powder to Sustagen because of Ultraman. Last month, Sustagen gave free Ultraman notebook and color pencil. He persuaded me to get the milk for him.

Yesterday his school bag spoilt and he got his papa to get another new ultraman bag for him. Oh, I still owe him an Ultraman T-shirt. I guess this is the power of children marketing.

Emily is getting to a stage of being super manja. She demands what she wants else she will cry aloud. Usually I just let her unless it is in a public area or late at night. She threw one at me yesterday night and got some serious caning from dad. I really hope she improved.

Once she wants me to carry her downstairs. Here is how the conversation goes:

Emily: Please carry me downstairs.
Mummy: *try not to pamper her* Mummy cannot carry you, leg pain.
Emily: Carry me la, I want to fly like Peter Pan.
Mummy: Mummy no energy, see. *giving the lethargic look*
Emily: Wait. *pretend to go to my back* Dit Dit Dit Dit *pretend to open a invisible door at the back of me, take something and put it in and close back the invisible door*
Emily: Mummy, I change your battery already. Now you can carry me.
Mummy: Sigh.

She makes me laugh but I just hope she will overcome her demanding character.

Before I was married, my hubby and I love to go visit any show house or apartment. I love to look at their decorations and the way they renovate the place. Penang property is expensive and the space is not very big either. Many interior designers here will make the tiny area looks spacious and presentable. We go there to leverage their ideas.

Today we didn’t have any plans for the weekend and we went to look at a show unit near Queensbay mall. The place was decorated very nicely. I like one of the children room, it has pinky wallpaper, pinky carpet, pinky chair and a little pinky seating area. It was lovely and Emily keep saying, “Come come to my room”. It gives me some idea how to decorate my children’s room. However I will not put wallpaper because hard to maintain and install.

By the way, the show unit was only 2388 square feet and you have a guess at what it is priced at? It is greater than 0.7 a million and it is only an apartment. The only plus point is it has a seaview.

Emily has grown so much and she has learned lots of words. I cannot remember when she started speaking in sentences. Now she can hardly keep quiet. She will go bla bla bla bla bla non stop. Worst, Tim and her go bla bla bla, trying to out beat one another with louder voice. I am seeing a lot of competition between the both of them.

Sometimes it gives me a headache. On top of that, they want me to participate in their conversation, asking me this and that. It is hard to get peace and quiet. I think I can achieve that when all of them are asleep. This is why I love the night time because it is so peaceful.

Emily can sing very well too, here are some video that I promised a long time ago. She was in a good mood today and sang all 3 songs for me to record.

Durian is in season and my hubby bought a few back. Tim loves durian and he can wallops a lot. Emily, it depends on her mood. If she likes it, she will take 1 biji. To sums it all up, all of us have the durian gens.

When I was young, I try to avoid taking because I couldn’t stand the smell of my hands after eating. However I love eating it especially when it is from the fridge. There was a point in time when I use plastic gloves to eat. My parents are a great fan of durian and they are sure to get a bunch when it is in season. We will have a durian party. My hubby side his mom and brother dislike durian.

As you know Penang is a place to get good durians and even expensive ones too. Imagine now durian have different grade and types. I prefer the sweet ones than the bitter ones. There are a couple of places here where they have “eat all you can durian buffet”. I am serious. It cost between $15-$20 per person. When my children grow up, we will sure go for the durian buffet. Yum Yum…