Monday, 15 June 2015

Tioman Getaway

13 June 2015 (Sat):

This trip was rather impromptu; unplanned for. The day before, R called me on my mobile while I was working, telling me to pack some clothings as we will be going away over the weekend. I told her not to joke but she said she was serious and that it was Daddy who told her so.

Fast forward to Sat early morning at 4.45am. We set off across the causeway, arriving Mersing at 7.40am after grabbing breakfast at MacDonald's drive thru. Okay, no prior booking for neither ferry tickets nor hotel/resort, how on earth are we getting over?!

We approached one of the many tour desk set up outside the counters and bought a package for 2 way return ferry tickets and 1 night resort stay. The ferry was due to set ff at 9am but due to some unforeseen circumstances, we were not boarded. We got our refund and I decided to proceed to Kuantan instead.

Daddy decided to try our luck at another ferry terminal - Tanjung Gemok. This time, we managed to buy return ferry tickets only. We got the Malaysian mobile data card and booked a resort online.





Our ferry tickets at RM35.00/A and RM30.00/C.



The conservation charges.


Our ferry boarding pass - Gemilang 2.






Waiting to board the ferry.





















Pretty nice resort and its surrounding but poor accessibility  Guess which resort?




Relaxing...



Learning to canoe... 






Serious or not?!!! 





We went trekking to get over to Kampung Paya Jetty for our dinner. Our resort was between Kampung Genting and Kampung Paya Jetty. Coming over to our resort was quite inaccessible unless by sea taxi service or via this jungle trekking. ( which is not advisable to do so at night - pratically no street lamps and its dangerous - whatever that could be lurking on both sides of the forest.






Our dinner for the evening. I have forgotten to take photos of it till we were halfway thru... LOL.

Now, I do not have photos for the 2nd day. We booked a half day trip which includes snorkelling, Marine Park and duty free shopping.

The weather was bad in the morning and i got sea sick. I was really unwell throughout the whole trip out at sea. I couldnt even stand up long enough to take a shower. My whole body was jelly-like. I drank a few spoonful of soup for lunch and thats it!. All I wanted to do was to lie down. But as we had already checked out of the resort, all I could do was sleep sitting up. ( and to think I actually slept).

Our departure time was booked for 2pm and i woke up at 1.30pm. My kids were having ice cream and I actually felt well enough to have one too.

I slept through the ferry journey and felt hungry when we arrived back in Mersing and Daddy said to get some light meals.

But hey, we had lost our car keys while at the resort. ( we found out while I was packing in the morning). There was no way we could drive back. We took a taxi who drove us to Larkin Terminal in JB for RM300.00. We had dinner and took bus #170 to JB customs and decided to transfer to AC 7 back to SG instead, ( The Q for #170 was long... and i mean LONG).

My uncle who lives in JB, came over to Singapore, took the spare car key from us and went over to Mersing to drive our car back. Phew!

We would not going back to Tioman anytime soon.

Thursday, 28 May 2015

28th SEA GAMES

28 May 2015 (Thursday):

Lionel took part in the 28th SEA GAMES opening ceremony and we were given tickets to watch the sneak preview on the 20 May 2015 and the actual preview on 28 May 2015.

The 20 May sneak preview were actually a Parent's Appreciation Night for YPS students which the school wanna thank the parents for all the support they gave during the practices and rehearsals.

I went for both previews and at the same time, to really take a look at the new National Stadium after its revamp.

The sneak preview:



Very nice revamption done here. 


Hey, meals were provided. Very considerate. LOL! This was on a Thursday and they knew how majority of the parents rushed down after work and would not have the time for a bite.

The actual day:


Nila, the SEA Games mascot.





The SEA GAMES goodie bag.






SEA GAMES participants (here's hoping I've got the countries and their National flag correctly):


Brunei.


Cambodia.


Indonesia.


Laos.


Malaysia.


Myanmar.


The Philippines.


Thailand.


Timor-Leste.


Vietnam.


Singapore.


All 11 participating countries and their National flag.


Giant creatures of the Southeast Asian lore.


 An egret


A dragon


A turtle


A lion


A carp




Lionel's snippets of the performance in Act 2 - Imagination.

I did not stayed through the whole event. In fact, many people got up to leave the event right after the march pass of the altheletes. I do not know why. But for me, i did not want to be caught in the mass of crowd. I left after Act 2 and headed straight for the MRT. It was quite packed already and  I can imagine the crowd would be worst later on.

Monday, 4 May 2015

Wushu Grading

03 May 2015 (Sun):

The kids had their Wushu Exam this afternoon. Red Belt Syllabus for Rachel and Black Belt syllabus for Lionel.

Shown below are snippets of their examination syllabus.









Passed - Rachel with her Da Shi Xiong.


Passed - Lionel with his Da Shi Xiong.


Rachel, Alexis ans Thyron.

Sunday, 3 May 2015

The Last Kampong

03 May 2015 (Sun):

Unbelievable - I so stunned like vegetable....haha.

Nestled between high rise HDB buildings and condominiums, I did not expect the last lot of kampong still existed in Singapore. Built in 1956, it was the last surviving kampong (Malay word for village) located at Kampong Lorong Buangkok in Hougang.




There were bats flying all around.








Friday, 3 April 2015

Happy 10th Birthday, Lionel

03 Apr 2015 (Friday):

Happy 10th Birthday to my boy. How time flies! It has been 10 years since the day you stepped into this world.

May you continue to grow up healthily, happily and be a good son and brother, nephew and grandson to all.





Thursday, 2 April 2015

Grade 1 Ballet Exam Open House

02 April 2015 (Thurs):

This evening, Rachel has her Grade 1 Ballet Exam Open House.

Yes, some of you may remember she had a preliminary round last Nov but this time, Ms Wu has fine tune the steps and syllabus concerned and the girls were doing different character dance.

I will leave you with snippets of her ballet syllabus and dance items.



















Winter - Snowman




Spring - Planting Trees ~ Character Dance.