Cameron Trip 2007

So last week we all took a trip to Cameron Highlands. We meaning, me, hubby, the kids, my parents and all 3 of my brothers. We took 2 cars; I drove my mom's car while my dad took his car. Everyone wanted to ride with me, not because I'm such a fabulous driver (which I am, really) but because riding with my dad means being subjected to numerous listenings of CDs such as The Best of JayJay, Sharifah Aini and the KL Orchestra plus, my dad's personal favorite, Compilation of Francisca Peter, Shima and Zaiton Sameon.


I admit, when we were growing up, we used to listen to those CD not because we wanted to but because we had no choice. I once sneaked in my NKOTB CD into the car's CD player, only to have it chucked to the car floor after my dad heard the opening sequence of Hangin' Tough.


Our Cameron trip was for 3 days 2 nights. I had booked us a 3-bedroom apartment unit at Royal Lily Apartment, which was about a 5 minute drive from the Tanah Rata town. Itv was nicely decorated with ample sleeping arrangements for everyone. For those who are interested may contact Mr Wong Kok Peng at 012-6530841/019-4251107. Because we went during the school holidays, the rent was a bit high (RM250 per night) but the facilities provided really helped (kitchen provided, hot shower, extra pillows for all, astro STB).


We arrived at Cameron around 2pm. It was raining slightly and kind of windy. Dania wasn't feeling all that hot; having thrown up twice during the car ride. She's just like her mother, gets carsick quite easily. After unwinding from the winding ride up, we headed out to town to look for something to eat.


Strawberries. Everywhere we went was brimming with strawberries. They even had like four strawberries on a stick which you could dip in chocolate, all for RM2.00. Sheeeshh. I could tell my brother wanted to have some if not for the possibility of being teased as Mr CT (tau2 lah siapa yek).


We ate at this place called Zainab's corner. Oklah, not bad, the bihun sup was very nice. Dad had mee bandung which looked delicious. Sorrylah, no pictures, too busy eating. Hehe. Mom ordered sate and yong tau foo fr everyone so of course, food was plenty on the table. Dania ate like RM3 worth of nasi himpit. Pergh, terus buncit perut!! Dina also ate a lot of sate and helped finish my bihun sup. Man, that gal can eat. I think maybe it was the eating togetherness that brought out the carnivore in us.


We walked and did some window shopping after dinner. The gals were interested in everything all the shops had to offer. They just loved everything strawberry; strawberry purses, strawberry coin banks, strawberry glasses, keychains, magnets, slippers.


After dinner, we headed back to the apartment for a round of cards (dad won), during which the guys held their own farting competition (dad won also, hands down!!). Everyone, even the gals, slept at 1am. Peh, penat wooo.

The next day, it rained in the afternoon. Heavily. Dad and Angah had already planned to play some golf so they headed out early morning. The rest of us stayed at the apartment to sleep some more and watch Merdeka-themed documentaries. Oya, did I mention the apartment had an Astro STB but we were suppose to bring our own Astro card? Huh, so yang bleh tengok, TV1 and TV2 only. Aiyo...layan je lah.

After dad and Angah had come back, we all went out for lunch. The guys went for Friday prayers first (lawak story, got lost on the way to the mosque) so mom and I took the girls to town for some sightseeing and picture taking at these huge fruit playground. I dunno how to explain it, just see the pictures below. We decided to have lunch at Brincang, about 4km from Tanah Rata. We found a very nice and rather cheap Kopitiam. If anyone's interested, it located a few doors away from Jasmine Hotel, near the taxi stands. Order the lamb chop or the laksa, both are divine!!

Since it was still raining heavily, we decided to head back after lunch. Dania was disappointed because we had promised to take her strawberry picking. The rest of the day was spent at the apartment, playing cards, watching TV (more Merdeka documentaries) and having more, disgusting fart competitions. Seriously, how do people make themselves "blast off" on command?!!

Fortunately for us, the weather the following day was nice and sunny. After we checked out from the apartment, we headed the nearby Tea Shop to take pictures of the tea leaves.
We bought all sorts of tea; lemon tea, strawberry tea (my favorite) and lime tea. After spending and hour or so there, we went to the Kopitiam for a nice lunch. We then headed to the Cactus Valley for some strawberry picking. The girls were so excited, it made the whole trip worthwhile. Dania was in charge of cutting the strawberries from their stalks while Dina followed her around with the basket. Between them, the girls plucked nearly 1kg worth of strawberries, all really big and juicy. Even the man who handled the strawberry park there said that the girls had picked the nicest bunch of strawberries he had ever seen (kes bagi bebudak seronok le ni).

Next we headed down the hill to the Cactus Valley. Mom, hubby and myself were too lazy to go look at more cacti (cactuses?), so we decided to just stay by the ticket booth and wait for the others. Oya, tickets to the Cactus Valley are RM4 for adults and RM2 for children. Apparently the place was huge coz dad and the rest of the pack spent nearly an hour looking at all the different cacti.

We headed back home at around 4pm. It was raining slightly and the road was steep and full of corners that I had to have my foot on the brakes 90% of the time. We took a break at the Tapah R&R for prayers and arrived home around 9pm.

All in all, it was a very nice family vacation.

Not Much but At Least It's Something

I'm at hubby's cubicle, waiting for my meeting to start. Outside, I can see the jet fighters rehearsing for this Friday's Merdeka celebration.

Man, they are good. And LOUD!!

Merdeka. 50 years. What an achievement. I should really write a post on what this means to me personally when can find the time.

To my readers (all 3 of you!!), sorry I haven't been updating as much. So much negative things have happened these past few weeks, that I haven't had the mood to rant it out to the Internet. But I'll write again soon about our family trip to Cameron Highlands and also my new maid (bibik!!).

Till then, take care.

And Happy Merdeka everyone!!!

Working With Idiots

You would think that if someone had arranged for you to come for a presentation and the time scheduled was from 1-4pm, lunch would be provided.

But NOOOOOOO!!!

Despite being a multi-million dollar company (heck, the founder is the World's Richest Man, so you can guess what company I'm talking about. Another hint, it starts with "M".), what did they offer us during the measly 5 minute break?

"Errr, Ms. Would you like Coke or Diet Coke?"

WTF!!

You call me to your office and make me listen to your bragging and all you can offer me is a lousy can of soda?!!

God, how cheap are you?! No wonder you have so much money.....grrrr.

Because I had an earlier meeting in the morning, I didn't even have a proper breakfast. I was STARVING by the time the presentation ended (which was at 5pm...bloody mat salleh kept menceceh, menceceh, menceceh...).

Should have followed the lead of my CEO and cabut during the break. I could have gone and ate a nice lunch instead of munching on roti bun in the lrt on the way home. Uhuk!

Scam

Yesterday I received a very dubious phone call from this lady who claimed to be from a credit rewards company. She quickly introduced herself (kind of mumbled the company she was from) and proceeded to tell me the purpose of the call.

Congratulations!! For paying your credit bills on time, we are going to reward you.

Now we just need your bank's name and the expiry date on your credit card.

Wait a minute!!

First of all, if I was to be rewarded for being such a good payee, wouldn't my bank be the one to reward me?

Second, why do you need my credit card info to reward me IF you already know I'm such a good payee?

Third, why did you get all impatient and antsy when I asked you these questions? You kept pressing me for my credit card info without giving me sufficient details on what I was giving it for.

In the end, I told gentleman nicely (the initial lady had passed over to her "supervisor" when I wouldn't give her my credit card info), thanks but no thanks.

He still persisted. Wouldn't you feel bad missing out on all these wonderful rewards? (He still wouldn't tell me what those "rewards" were, being very vague...hotel stays, vouchers, bla, bla, bla).

I told him, NO, I don't need any rewards. I don't feel comfortable giving out my credit card info over the phone to strangers. Yes, you can take me off your "exceptional payee" list.

Yes, you can stop calling me from now on.

What do you think me to be, a sucker?

Bad bosses get promoted, not punished?

Want to know the secret on getting ahead at the office?

Treat your subordinates badly.

According to an online survey, almost two-thirds of the 240 participants said the local workplace tyrant was either never censured or was promoted for domineering ways.

Read more about it here.

What can I say? Being rewarded for your hard work and loyalty is a thing of the past. It's the pushy people, the backstabbing people, the people who take other people's work for credit that get ahead. I've seen it so many times here in the office, it just doesn't faze me anymore.

Kids Say The Darnest Things

I came home from work today as soon as I could. I had visions of the children running around naked playing with the water hose while hubby was cowering in a small corner, mumbling nonsense to himself. So you can imagine my relief when I drove up to the house and saw that it was still intact and not burnt down to the ground. Seriously, maybe I should give hubby a little more credit. Hehee..

Dania was, in fact, in the midst of doing her homework out on the porch. Dina was riding her bike, pretending to be an ice cream saleswoman. I sat with Dania and looked over her homework. Dina came over, ringing her bell.

"Ibu, what iceklim you want buy?"

"Hmm...I'll have a chocolate ice cream."

"OK. Oney (money), please. Kaklong, wat boat you?"

"I'll have a mango ice cream."

" No mango."

"No mango? What you have?"

"I have.....EGG ice cream!! Here you go. Oney, please."

"Egg ice cream?! YUCK!!"

The laughter that followed rang throughout the house. Sometimes kids do say the darnest things.

SAHM vs FTWM; That Soalan Cepu Emas Again

I spent the last three days (Monday to Wednesday) at home since our new maid STILL has not arrived. I was a bit anxious as work has been piling up but then decide whatever it is, work can take a back seat when it comes to the kids. So in the end, hubby and I decided that I would take Mon-Wed off while he would stay at home Thurs-Fri.

Now that I'm back in the office (and I believe hubby is currently spending his time taking a nap with the kids), I'm beginning to cherish the time I spent at home with the kids. It wasn't easy, I spent most of my time figuring out which part of the house I would spring clean first, thus Monday was rather tiring as I swept and mopped the entire ground floor twice! Tuesday, I concentrated on the upstairs, moving furniture and other stuff that had never been moved since we moved in thus finding several lizard droppings and other gross stuff that accumulate in dark corners, and getting rid of them. Luckily Dina was a charm, she spent most of the time playing with her blocks, watching TV or reading (pretending to read) her books. The only time she called out to me was when she needed to go to the bathroom or when she wanted milk.

Figuring out what to cook was also a cause for headache. I don't despise cooking, in fact during my Uni years I was pretty good but truth be told, I would prefer if someone else took up the cooking. Good thing last week my MIL came over and stocked our fridge so I had a lot to pick and choose from. In the end, I just fried some chicken and prepared boiled mushrooms with sawi. I also prepared some hard boiled eggs coz the girls lurrveee eggs. That was our menu for Monday and Tuesday. On Wednesday, we had run out of mushrooms so I took Dina to the nearby store to buy some items to make chicken soto. The girls love soto because I make it using nasi himpit. I find it somewhat weird coz the girls say they love nasi himpit but don;t like regular rice. What's the difference; it's still basically rice? Kids!!

One thing that I loved about being at home was the actual amount of time I got to spend with the kids. Sure, sometimes their occasional fighting and whining would drive me up the wall but just sitting down with them to read a book was priceless. The only time we switched on the TV was when I wanted to take my bath or perform prayers; other than that we would do colouring together or practise the piano or read books.

Truth be told, I think I would make a pretty good housewife. I never really did miss the lack of adult interaction but then it was only for 3 days. I found out that I do a much better job at cleaning and maintaining the house than any maid could and no matter how much I hate ironing, I make it more bearable by ironing in front of the TV while watching Supernatural or CSI. The kids also loved having me at home; Dania's face lit up everytime she saw me waiting for her at the door when she came home from school.

However, to be realistic, I dunno if our family could survive on just one income. As of now, I pay for a lot of things; the Kelana Jaya apartment, Dania's Smartreader and Yamaha classes, Dina's Tumble Tot's classes, my maid's pay. Even though it's not that much (the KJ apt takes up a lot but that's because I intend to finish the payments earlier than expected), I still love the fact that I have my own money and can buy anything I want without having to ask from hubby. Unless I can find a stay-at-home job that can guarantee me the same (or even half!) of what I make now, I don't think I would want to give up my financial security.

Plus of course, there's that bond issue with my current company; quitting would mean having to pay back over RM150K which just makes me pale when I think about it.

I guess since I'm yet again thinking about making some serious changes in my life, I'll have to make a Pro and Con list with hubby and figure out what to do.