Daddy's new toy - Tent

Shortly after our camping trip, hubby got all excited and bought a HUGE 6-man tent from a warehouse sale.

He wasted no time setting up the tent in the garden:

The huge tent

Look at the size! 

I can even stand up straight at the centre of the tent

Say hello, Erin!

Elyssa and Erin happily brought their toys to play in the tent

Playing session in progress :-)

So, will this tent be another white elephant in the house??  Time will tell.  (ahem....yes, I was obviously not consulted before this purchase!)  But then again, after reading this, I'm sure hubby will put the tent to good use.  haha.



My India trip - 2013

I made a short 3D 2N working trip to New Delhi last week as my company is setting up 2 new subsidiaries there. The meeting was only from 10am to 5pm for one day though.  The other two days were for travel time.

Timing wise, Malaysia is 2.5 hours ahead of New Delhi. After a 6 hour morning flight, we arrived around lunch time.

Bad traffic from the airport to the hotel

During the 1 hour journey, a lot of  kids knocked on the taxi window either peddling stuff or asking for money.  Some were no older than Elyssa.  Sad sight indeed.

During the ride, I discovered something else - Indian drivers honk a LOT!  Can hear honking practically every 10 seconds. Everyone jostles to get their way.  Driving in New Delhi is definitely not for the faint hearted.

When we (my boss and I)  checked into the hotel, I had to request for a room change as my original room faced the main road.  No way I could sleep with all the honking noise. Freshened up a a bit then we went for lunch at the hotel restaurant.

 Free Appetizer

I was rather surprised with this huge plate of raw onions! Discovered later this raw onion dish is a norm.

My (half eaten) Butter Chicken and Plain Naan 

OMG......it was sooooooo good!

 I was rather tired from the whole journey, but after taking a few bites, I perked up immediately.  Happy, Happy  :-)

After lunch, workaholic boss went back to his room to work while lazy employee went out shopping. Wheeeeee!

Negative point - Most of the markets are closed every Monday.  And yup...we arrived on a Monday.  Bummer.

I asked the van driver to bring me to Khan Market, one of the few markets open on Monday.  (but it's a more upscale market for their expats)

Some photos from Khan Market:

Variety of Necklaces

Handmade Paper and Notebooks

Magnets

Little trinkets

Nothing really that interesting. (but I did a elderly guy squatting down to poo at the carpark!). After less than 2 hours, I asked the van driver to bring me back to the hotel.

Plenty of these 3 wheelers on the road

For dinner, we joined our other colleagues for dinner at the upmarket Hauz Khas Village.

Trendy restaurants and bars 

 

We went to  roof top restaurant called "Out of the Box" (pic from the net)

Food was excellent again! Discovered that Indian Rum + Coke was very good as well  :-)

Day 2 -  We had our meeting from 9am to 5+ pm. 
Then it was time to go shopping again.  Yay!

One of the external consultants drove us to the nearby Lajpat Nagar market. When we went into his car, he rolled down the windows a little to let in the cool air. But remember the kid peddlers? I got a shock when a girl put her hands through the window gap asking for money when the car stopped at the traffic lights. We couldn't drive off with her hands in the car!!  The consultant patiently explained to her that we were tourists and she shouldn't give a bad impression.  After a while, she made a face and then left.  Phew. My heart was beating so fast throughout the incident.

The consultant suggested a dining place for us and then dropped us off at the market.

I was so glad we made the trip there! We walked around absorbing the sights and sounds of the market. So interesting!

Some photos :

Freshly made bread

Smelt so good!  But dare not try in case our tummys can't take it. (the seller handles the bread with bare hands and wraps it in newspapers for takeaway)

"Kitchen area" just behind the bread stand

Everything made fresh on the spot. The oven is basically a huge pot embedded into the ground. 

Another bread stall

This one had a more modern kitchen

Local spice shop

Me, at one of the market streets  :-)

The weather was really nice.  Cool, but not too cold

 

 

After walking around for a while, we went for dinner at at Indian restaurant called Pind Balluchi.

 

Our Drinks

Being adventurous, we ordered the most exotic sounding drinks on the menu.

They were absolutely AWFUL !!! Salty and milky and with plenty of  spices. We just couldn't finish them.

Appetizers - can't remember the name but one was paneer cheese and the other was stuffed tofu. 

They were both very good. (cheese was oh, so light and creamy inside)

Our main meal

Err....chicken dish, vege dish, spinach naan and another type of bread. (must remember to take photo of menu next time. hehe)

Again, they were excellent!!!  Definitely over-ordered.  Burp!

After the very filling and yummy dinner, we walked the streets of the marketplace again-

Roadside stalls - fried potato wedges

Roasted corn, sweet potatoes and lime

Random stalls

 

 

My haul from Lajpat Nagar Market

Dried figs, pistachios, walnuts and organic tea

The next morning, we checked out after breakfast and headed straight for the airport.  Traffic was surprisingly clear so we had plenty time to shop around the airport.  Got myself a nice Pashmina shawl :-)

Bye Bye New Delhi!

Random Photos - December

So many things to blog about, so many photos.........where do I start??  how do I start??

Here's some random photos while I sort things out in my head  :-)

I just LOVE this photo of Elyssa

I think her eyes look gorgeous!

Posing with a Christmas tree @ Empire

With Garfield and Odie

Decorating Christmas Cookies at Home

Our Christmas cookies!

Cute? ;-)

 

Elyssa playing the big sis role 

 

 

That's all for now!

Weekend Camp at Radiant Retreats - Part 3

-- continued from Part 2 --    (Ooopss....am super slow these days!)

After their nature art activity, we went on a short drive to an organic farm.

               Caretaker explaining their planting methods

    Some of the plants we saw - cabbage, asparagus, passion fruit and pumpkin

        Kids in a wagon.  Hehe......I think this picture is so cute!

       Erin "harassing" a poor dog. Kids followed the dog everywhere until the dog ran away :-)

Hubby and I enjoyed the organic farm visit too!  Pretty educational.

After the farm visit, we had a short break and then it was time for the next activity - Outdoor Obstacle Course. Forgot to take photo of the whole obstacle course, but the highlight for Elyssa was the wall climbing.

     Wall climbing

Elyssa was very scared initially, but still managed to climb all the way to the top to ring the bell! 

She was super proud of her feat  :-)

Ding! Reaching over to ring the bell

She climbed this wall twice

Feeling brave after the first wall, she eagerly climbed the next wall 

Next activity was paintball. (or more like using a paintball gun to hit a target).  Kids happily queued up but the activity was cancelled cos the paintball gun ran out of gas.  :(

Ah well.....what to do. We went for lunch shortly after.

It started to rain a little during lunch.  But that didn't hamper the kids enthusiasm at all.

Happy to wear their raincoats for their fishing activity

Elyssa and Erin fishing

Uhmm....actually, Elyssa was fishing.

Erin just took her fishing rod and stuck it in the water ;-)

Hubby and I tried to catch a fish without any success. When Elyssa took the rod from us, she was THRILLED when she caught one!! 

Elyssa with the fish she caught

Ok, it was a super small fish. But still better than mummy and daddy!

She caught 3 more after that. She shrieked in delight in time.  Priceless moments :-)

 

 

Next was a classroom activity about understanding plants -

 

 With Teacher Kenny

Then, a short session about Roselle Plants-

Explanation session about Roselle

Tastes like Ribena.

We took some seeds back and planted in our garden already. Hope they grow :-)

Next was a nature walk to identify plants/trees. Each kid was given 10 tags - durian tree, cempedak tree, banana tree, rambutan tree etc.  The facilitator explained major characteristics of each tree (Hey, I didn't know durian tree leaves are green on the upperside and golden on the underside!)

Elyssa tagging a durian tree

 

And sadly that was the last official activity of the camp.  How time flew by!

 

Elyssa requested to go and play in the tent one last time (Erin fell asleep during the nature walk)

 

Happy in the tent

 

Since Erin was still sleeping, we stayed a little longer after the camp ended. No complaints from Elyssa!

Playing with other kids

So, that concluded our very first camping experience!!  Both girls enjoyed it very much indeed. Back home, Elyssa couldn't wait to tell everyone about it.

My take on it?  The first day was ok, but I think it was the second day that really hit the "great" mark. It took a while for us to get used to the whole outdoor and camping thing (ok, the silly forgot-the-bag incident on the first day didn't help!).  I also heard other kids complaining about stuff like muddy shoes and heat at the beginning but they were ok by the second day.

Oh yeah, also on Day 1, hubby complained about paying (this camp is not cheap!) to "torture" overselves. But when we got home, he was happily whatsapping photos to his friends telling them to bring their kids next time.

Really happy we went for it  :-)

Renewing Passport for Elyssa

Just came back from renewing Elyssa's passport.

Our experience?

Elyssa and I arrived at the Kelana Jaya Immigration Department just after 7am on a Sunday morning. And got greeted by this :

Already more than a hundred people ahead of us! I googled beforehand and I knew they would only issue 200 numbers on a Sunday. Judging from the numbers, I should be able to get my number. (still not certain.  What if a big family wants to renew but sent only 1 representative to queue? If there's a few similar cases, then that will reduce my chance. But of course it could be the reverse situation, where there may be 2-4 people in a family queing up but only 1 needs a passport).

Anyway, we patiently waited until the official opening time of 8am. Just after 8am, a officer came to the crowd and said "Harap Sabar. System offline!!!"

What the heck???  Already waited 1 hour!!  When I asked him how long it would take for the system to be up, he said it can be hours or even the whole day. Aaarghhhh!  

I decided to wait for a while. 10 minutes, 30 minutes,  1 hour, 1 hour 30 minutes......  Just wait and wait.  As time went on, more and more people left the queue but majority still stayed.  I kept thinking "Am I silly for waiting so long for perhaps NOTHING? But then the other thought was "We have already waited so long, maybe just another 10 minutes). And thankfully, Elyssa didn't fuss at all.

Just after 10 am (3 hours of waiting), the system was back online. Yay!  Then came another news - due to the delay, they would only process 100 number that day. Oh nooooo! The queue had become slightly shorter but we may or may not make it. Aiyo.

It took approx. 40 minutes till we got to the door.  Our number : 82.  Phew! If we came 10 minutes later, we would have missed it.  Or if some people ahead of us didn't leave, we would have missed it too. While waiting, I chatted a bit with the couple in front of me and the small family behind me. I tell ya.....we were sooooo happy with our numbers. Before we reached the door, we were already asking each other " Can ah? Can ah?  Should be ok hor?  But got risk cannot". When we got through, we were all smiling ear to ear like we won the lottery. haha.

As expected, there were plenty of noise and complaints from those who just missed the numbers. I would be too!  Imagine standing in line for almost 4 hours only to be told to come back another day.

After getting the number, it still took almost 1 hour. Our actual time at the processing counter was only about 5 minutes.  Few minutes later, our number was called for payment and finally...... DONE!

By the time we left the Immigration office, it was around 12pm already.  Imagine this - 5 HOURS in total to renew passport!  The system down-time was the main reason for the delay.  But not being able to renew online and not being able to renew at the kiosks were 2 big factors as well. Why or why did they do away with that?? I won't be able to renew via those 2 methods for Elyssa's passport anyway, but that would have reduced the crowd significantly.

So, that's how 5 hours on a Sunday was wasted. But at the point, I am more relieved than upset. At least we got it all done.  Phew!   (passport collection is tomorrow onwards, but that should be fast).

And I like this shot of Elyssa having her photo taken yesterday :-)