30 December 2012 (Sun): After Rachel's ballet lesson this morning, we head over for their Wushu Grading Exam. Purple belt exam for Lionel & Yellow belt exam for Rachel. We have a guest in my post today & he is Lionel's childhood fren, attending the same Kindergarten & Primary School. His name is Thyron, also having his Wushu Grading Exam for Yellow belt.
A bow to all the invigilators ( 考官）
Lionel waiting for his turn.
Rachel & Thyron.
Preparing themselves before the invigilator & listenig to instructions.
Executing the neccessary moves.
Correct posture?
The examiner demostrating the moves.
Are we doing it right?
Another move.
Sharp claws, js like the eagle.
Yet another demostration. This examiner is kind enough to show the kids the correct moves.
Grading...
Congratulations to Lionel. Next level: Red Belt.
Now its Rachel & Thyron's turn.
Executing their moves...
Grading...
Congrats to Rachel. Next level: Orange Belt.
Posing & smiling sweetly for the camera.
Congrats to Thyron too. :)
Lionel's Wushu Grading Exam on the 1st item.
Lionel's Wushu Grading EXam on the 2nd item.
Lionel's Wushu Grading Exam on the 3rd item.
Rachel's turn: a little slow in executing her move but that's not important. The important thing is she got it all correct. :)
25 December 2012 (Tues): Merry Christmas! It was a wet morning. We didnt know that it rained the night before. We woke up, lazed around in bed & did not get out of our room till about 9am. We had a simple tim sum breakfast at the nearby kopi-tiam. LOL! With no agenda for the day, we head straight to JPO - Johor Premium Outlets.
You can see some of the outlets such as Guess, Coach, Burberrys, Ferragamo, etc..
With nothing else planned & no idea where to go, we decided to head back to Kulai for lunch & a haircut. And this where i had another little accident. I am damn unlucky.
After my haircut, i did not notice the curb and, well... next u know what had happened. I fell on my knees & I thought i had landed on sticky mud. But after I wiped away the mud, i realised that i had scraped my knee quite badly & blood was flowing freely. Kind residents having lunch nearby offered me plaster. Daddy took a bottle of water & helped me wash my wound and applied medicated herbal oil
We returned back to Singapore via Tuas Checkpoint & Lionel reminded Daddy of the water play. So Daddy bought us to Punggol Swimming Complex where there are slides for the kids to play.
A trip for 3 days & 2 nights well spent except for poor unlucky me.
24 December 2012 (Mon): Its Christmas Eve!!! Good morning people. We woke up at 830am this morning & after breakfast, we head over to LEGOLAND.
Waiting for Daddy while he went to park our car.
Time: slightly after 10am. Crowded, isnt it?
The 1st game we played this morning. Dino Island.
A video of the pair enjoying themselves.
Lost Kingdom. Its like Buzz Lightyear Shootout in HKG Disneyland. I wanted to take photos but my camera got stuck somehow so i ended up playing as well.
Queue-ing up..
Rescue Academy. Pump your vehicles to move forward, pump the water pump for water, aim it at the fire & pump your vehicle back to the starting point ( I hv a video of it below). Its not as easy as u think. You gt to pump fast for the vehicle to move fast. Anyway, most of the work done by the adts. :)
Next on the agenda is the Driving School. Both Lionel & Rachel drove a car separately &
" obeyed " the rules of the game. :P
The Beatle Bounce game (2nd item) u see in the above video where u hear a little gal yelling in fright. That is the little one sitting beside Rachel. Third from your right. Other than those pictures shown above, we also watched a performance at the City Stage, went up the LEGOLAND tower & caught a 4D Adventure as well. We opt out some of the rides such as the Aquazone Wave Racers, Technic Twister, Boating School, LEGOLAND Express, etc.
Check out: 3pm plus on the 24 December 2012. We're off to Kukup for the rest of the day.
Heading towards Kukup was a dare-daring decision for we do not know the way at all. Following directions for Pontian Kechil & Kukup, towards Tanjong Piai, we arrived Kukup some 1 hour later.
The waves & the smell of kelong greeted us. Water tide was low as we look around. The children were excited to see small creatures such as the mudskipper, crabs & some ..er... creepy stuff.
We took a boat ride out to the mangrove swamp & fishing kelong out at sea. $5MYR/adt & $3MYR/chd.
This is the mangrove swamp. The island was supposed to be close to visitors already as it was after 430pm but the staff onland allowed us in. Last entry @ 430pm. Somehow, we were given FOC onboard the island. Usually, an admission fee is required.
We saw many monkeys as we walked in but they were equally afraid of us humans as we were of them.
Next is the kelong. See how bold the 2 kids are; holding a horseshoe crab with their bare hands. Hey, is that a horseshoe crab anyway??
Daddy buying some local products such as dried ikan bilis, salted fish, silverbaits, fish maw & dried shrimps ( 虾米).
Coming to Kukup was easy but we lost our way on the return leg. And not forgetting, Mummy here met with a little accident again. I missed a step coming out of a local produce shop & fell backwards, knocking my bottom on the curb. And yes, bingo! I hurt my tailbone. :(
Okay, somehow we ended up in Skudai on the way back & street light was very dim along the small roads. Finally, we saw directional signs for Kulai & followed closely. Phew! We made it back.
23 December 2012 (Sun): The night before, both kids dragged me into packing our luggages. They chose what they were gonna wear for each day & reminded me to bring along their swimsuits. Is there a water theme park in LEGOLAND? I doubt so but Lionel said we can always go elsewhere for a swim cum water play... Anyway, we set off at 745am the next morning as Daddy has something to handover to his contractors. Work craze!!! We settled for our breakfast at Jalan Sultan without Daddy & lingered around till about 930am. We went via Tuas checkpoint & traffic was smooth. We followed road signs for exit 312 to Nusajaya after the checkpoint & found our way easily into The Little Big Club & Sanrio Hello Kitty Town.
Hmmm.... nothing fanciful here. The ticket queue was long so we decided to wander around the mechandise shop first. And Daddy said might as well head over to LEGOLAND since the weather was good. ( it has been raining practically everyday here in Singapore during the month of December - likewise, I am pretty sure JB is also with covered in showers almost everyday).
Before we head over to LEGOLAND, we stopped by Puteri Harbour just outside of Hello Kitty Town. We wasted no time for a short drive to LEGOLAND. Luckily, we managed to find a parking lot.
We approached the Medini Mall first which is still under construction & will be completed in stages, including the LEGOLAND hotel which will be completed in 2014. But the ground floor of the mall are all covered with various restaurants & cafes, souvenir shops, etc..
You can find BK & KFC, Manhattan Fish Market, Tutti Frutti (yoghurt) & yes, even Each A Cup (bubble tea).
We had our lunch before going in.
Yippee... LEGOLAND. This is the area at the admission front. Time: close to 12 noon. Boy! Look at the crowd.
We joined the queue, scanned our voucher & head over to the counter to exchange for our annual pass. The weather was hot but good. A good thing that the counter inside was air-conditoned. :)
This is the new annual pass price.
Filling in our particulars...
Picture taken...
Uh-oh, the machine was having some technical problems & our annual ID pass cannot be processed. Hence, we were given these temporarily pass & to be redeemed into the ID pass within 3 months.
Map of LEGOLAND.
First stop was Miniland. Here u find all buildings created by using millions of mini LEGO pieces. Very interesting. You can see the Petronas Twin Towers of KL, the Sultan Abu Bakar Mosque, Tanah Lot in Bali & even our very own Fullerton Hotel in Singapore.
Singapore Flyer & Riverside Point...
Can u see Spidey?
All these are built to their look-alike. I wonder how many millions or even billions of LEGO pieces were used?
This above video I took showed how the vehicles comes alive using remote controlled wired underground.
Some of the games the kids played. Note: I did not take photos of every single games or activities the kids played or did.
Project X. Rachel was gung-ho to join her Daddy & brother on this ride. Min. height: 110cm.
Not for the faint hearted like Mummy here.
Look at the sky. Threatening to rain. Dark clouds looming.
And yes, "raindrops keep falling on my head.. " just right after the 3 muskeeteers got off from the ride. The kids put on their raincoats & we made a dash for cover @ LEGO Mindstorms.
Both kids indulge in LEGO building for quite a while as we wait for the rain to stop.
Th rain stopped and the weather was cooling. Cool winds blew all around. Next stop, The Forestmen's Hideout. Its js a play area for the kids to run around & do some swinging & sliding.
However, it was here that I saw a little girl with some injuries. Her face was scratched with blood oozing out. Kind passer-bys provided tissues, water & antiseptic lotion.
Okay folks, the reason why there were no more photos after this was becos Mummy here wasnt feeling well. Right across from this playground was the Dragon's Apprentice. Its like a mini roller coaster but without the loops & plunge.
So Mummy here decided to go for it. Hey, there's nothing to it really, or so Mummy thought! How wrong I was.
After 2 laps, my head was spinning, legs weakened & my stomach was churning... I staggered to the nearby bench for a rest, hoping to ease off the grogginess. The 3 muskeeteers went for horse joustling. I was perspiring like crazy though the weather was cooling. I could not stand up. My head continued to spin. I made my way to the nearest grass to puke but nothing came out.
They came back & Daddy asked me to try & walk along with them. It was starting to drizzle again. We went for cover & all of a sudden, I made a mad dash to the nearby toilet. I stayed inside the toilet for quite some time, knowing that i need to get it all out.
The 3rd time i was not able to get to the toilet on time & I just made it in time to the grasspatch. Sorry LEGOLAND. The time was around 6pm plus & Daddy suggested we get out & head over to the nearest town to look for a hotel for the night. We took a slow walk to the exit & I was feeling much better. I think the cool wind gave me a refreshing feel :)
We drove into Kulai & asked the rates for 2 hotels. 1st hotel was Hotel U & Me & the 2nd one was Country Inn. We chose the latter. Rates were $75MYR/night with 1 double & 1 single bed, hot & cold shower facilities, air conditioned, clean & spacious. Note: These are all boutique hotels, mind.
Kulai is a small little town but huge in amenities, You can find clinics, cafes, coffee shops, restaurants, hair salon, spa, etc... JPO is just over the other end & that's where we willne heading towards on Day 3.
We showered, cross over the road for dinner & had desserts after that. Daddy mentioned we shall go back to LEGOLAND the next day as there wasnt time to finish all.
