Spiraliser For Zoodles: Part 2 of 2

My PIL lovingly carted a unit of spiraliser for me from Lakeland, Yorkshire.

They just had to get me this because it was the only item on my wish list. I should have asked for a Chanel Boy or two, you said? Hahaha.

Top and tail washed zucchini.

Place securely and turn handle to spiralise. I have better control with this model. The four little suction pads underneath prevents slipping. Two other blades store neatly in the compartment below. I was using the coarse spiraliser blade, the other options are fine spiraliser (for carrots) and slicer (for cucumbers). This simple design is for keeps.

The corer removes seeds, if any. I feel this is also great for carrots' core.

Fresh platter of raw zoodles. I still steam mine for less than 10 minutes now, but will eventually move on to raw vegan version for my own good. Baby steps!

Syukur alhamdulillah for this healthy and nourishing plate of dinner.

Bon appetit!

Summer 2015 Retreat Summary: Day 5

Final day!

Oh, Bean slept in again as he was up until wee hours of the morning after a bad bout of cough. He was playing, reading, snacking and chatting from 12.30 am until 5 am. Naturally, I missed my breakfast too.

The Other Half and The Little Girl had really enjoyed their quality father:daughter 1:1 breakfast time, SubhanAllah! Their mornings have been filled with sharing of beef bacon, beef sausages, croissants and refills of fresh orange juice for her /long black for him. Poached eggs on toast, how I miss(ed) you!!

Once Bean woke up, I quickly packed up our bags and got us ready for check-out by 11 am. We loaded all our luggages using the exit from our own balcony, it was fun, speedy, private and most convenient. The lane leading up to our room is on private resort road away from the main thoroughfare. Security at the resort was reliable and impeccable throughout our stay.

On our way to Habu, we stopped by the final tea destination at yet another Cameron Valley Bharat Plantation. The noon sun was high upon us at 26C so we skipped the tea bush walk. 

Our descent to Tapah was safe without any speeding vegetable trucks, syukur alhamdulillah. We made a short pitstop to purchase some really sweet local wild rambutan at Lata Iskandar too. 

We had a great time. Thank you, Cameron Highlands! InshaAllah, we will be back.

Summer 2015 Retreat Summary: Day 4

My memory bank is fast to mash up our entire holiday into tea, flowers, strawberries and gardens (although they were mostly from different places); so let me be quick to finish posting our recent retreat summary before it becomes this:

Jade vine at MARDI.

The blue skies.

The tea we did not have any more stomach space for.

Our goodbye visit to our favourite garden and lunch venue.

Our resident very hungry caterpillar.

A fun 4WD ride and 200m tea bush walk up to Sungai Palas BOH.

Tea leaves harvest.

Cacti farm.

Cacti farm.

Harvest of the day behind Cameron Highlands Resort.

We felt it was quite hot at 24C. Disappointingly, we somehow did not make it to Mossy Forest although we were at Sungai Palas BOH plantation nearby. InshaAllah, next time. 

It was another glorious heaven on earth type of day - one where we did not have much, but we had everything. Syukur  alhamdulillah.

Summer 2015 Retreat Summary: Day 3

This was the day it drizzled and rained, true to its famed highland tropical weather. We enjoyed a different facet to this wonderful hill.

Here is what we did on our third day:

Bean woke up to a wonderful spread at breakfast. This turned out to be the only time he did show up for the most important meal of the day, sigh. His cough and fever kept us up at night so he slept in every morning. 

After that heavy meal, we ventured out to burn it all off.

A drive down to Blue Valley in search of Kwang & Sons Grapes and Tomatoes:

Harvest is every June and December, my lovelies. Take note.

Cherry tomatoes. Lucky us!

Evergreen aubergine.

We took a pitstop for tea bush walk and a cup of tea at Cameron Valley Bharat Plantation on our return trip from Blue

Valley. 

One of the highlight of Day 3 was Rose Garden. We spent a long time here admiring different varieties of flora as they  host more than just roses.

After about 101 roses later, we left smelling as sweet as tea roses; as hungry as wolves.

The closest restaurant we were familiar with was The Coffee Shop at Capthorne Hotel, formerly known as Equatorial Hotel. We sat at at the terrace al fresco to enjoy the fresh breeze.

Upon our exit from Capthorne Hotel, we stopped by EQ Organic Strawberry Farm for another plentiful harvest. No prize for guessing what we are as snack in the car on our way back to Tanah Rata.

The rest of our afternoon was spent indoors thanks to the rain. An intended visit to Brinchang Hills Mossy Forest was postponed. Instead, books were read, the Playroom was put to good use and Disney Jr. kept us entertained.

It was a memorable day, syukur alhamdulillah.

Summer 2015 Retreat Summary: Day 1 & 2

We were away for 5D/4N not doing much, syukur alhamdulillah for the restful period at Cameron Highlands Resort.

The first day was spent travelling to Cameron Highlands via Tapah. The drive was pleasant with some rain at the lowlands. The kids especially loved spotting stray dogs and orang asal huts after Lata Iskandar before arriving at Ringlet.

The light drizzle continued after our check-in. We were very pleased to find ourselves in Jim Thompson Suite because we booked and paid for the 2 bedroom family room via Agoda. Thank you, Cameron Highlands Resort. It was a nice surprise.

After settling down and unpacking, we headed out to a halal restaurant at Hotel De La Fern for an early dinner. The rest of the evening was spent at The Playroom, washing up, ordering supper via room service and rewarding The Little Girl with stickers for successfully solving some pages of Kumon (if you are a loyal reader you would already know how The Little Girl always brings her Maths workbooks along to keep herself happily busy and engagingly challenged). Bean started coughing so I kept vigil.

Here is what we did on the second day:

The short hike did us all a whole world of good. There is a small field at the very top for scenic view of the tea hills.

We rewarded ourselves with a traditional mid-morning tea of scones served with jam and cream treat after the descent  - but the little ones cleverly chose a slice of chocolate cake instead (No clotted cream to accompany the scones much to our huge disappointment). My slice of lemon butter cake was washed down with a delicious cup of BOH brew.

After that, we brought them to yet another place to run about.

Ye Olde Smoke House was perfect spot for another light nibble while the little ones had a great time playing in cool fresh air and sunshine. 

We continued playing tourists at Kok Lim's Strawberry Farm to harvest some RM40 worth of strawberries, which we ate after a quick rinse on-site. They were absolutely fresh and nourishing! 

Here is how the strawberry bush looks like after our harvest:

We ended the day with an early evening walkabout at Lavender Garden. My lavender ice-cream smelled a lot like, unfortunately, my Dettol lavender multi-purpose cleaning liquid at home so I would highly recommend one or the other, not both! 

We had learnt that room service at Cameron Highlands Resort is only available between 7pm to 10 pm so we dined early at The Coffee Shop at Capthorne Hotel on our way back. 

At home, we typically eat our dinner around 5.30 pm because my kids go to bed early (8.30 pm to 9 pm is early by Malaysian standards).

The restaurant upstairs at Cameron Highlands Resort, Gonbei, only serves steamboat now instead of Japanese gourmet cuisine, alas. I have been looking forward to Japanese bento for dinner here, disappointingly no rezeki. Steamboat is tricky with Bean around. I bet he would have insisted on cooking the meal for us!

The other restaurant downstairs, The Dining Room, practices smart casual dressing code so we decided to keep our noisy ducklings away from other honeymooners and their romantic candle-lit dinners. 

Our saviour had to be The Children's Playroom at Oak Room which is open 24/7 and is great for kids who refuse to sleep/actually have jetlag! My lot had a jolly good time even with just 2 slides and a playhouse by Little Tikes. There was also an oversized blue ball which could not pass through the hoop. The stucked blue ball thrilled them silly. Despite the 2 TVs not working, and a few random play bricks that were lying around, my lot had a great time. They could not stop requesting for "Playset" every time we passed by throughout our stay there. 

Overall a fabulous second day, we could not have asked for more. Syukur alhamdulillah.

Autumn 2015

We have something to look forward come September 2015. The Little Girl, who is going to be 5 years and 6 months then, is going to Year 1 (and be doing work for Year 2). InshaAllah.

I think she read her Roald Dahl prescribed literature the week we got her books, about a fortnight ago. And she loves it! Since then, she had been asking for more of his published books whenever we are at MPH or Borders. 

We haven't been able to label her books with LetraTag or wrap them with Popular Bookstore clear plastic booksleeves because we haven't been told the name of her new class. The OCD in me just wants to complete this task and pack the school bag neatly *blush*

Speaking of OCD, I have purchased, washed and ironed her new school shirts and pinafores. Her Friday Baju Kurung is being tailored as I write this entry. We even found her 2 new pairs of navy thights to spare for days with sports or swimming. The prescribed black pairs will be released come autumn/winter at British/USA retailers, so I am not panicking just yet. If the worst comes to the worst, she will have to make do with navy first until black is released. There are black thights being sold at CottonOn Kids but those did not last us very long as The Little Girl came home with holes in them. 

She will be needing new white canvas shoes and white socks too but the search had been futile so far as not many local stores cater to international schools. Bata and Kikilala told me outright the shoes restock will be this November. Well, they should try to release their stock earlier, because not every international school prescribes black shoes with black socks. 

Fortunately, I have an upsize new pair in storage which we can use until new arrival. This taught me to stock up this November to last us until next November. We put 2 pairs out on rotation. So far, this strategy had seen us through rainy days, sports days, muddy paths, Pepsi-cola games and other random games involving stepping on shoes of fellow classmates.

We mark her shoes using permanent marker. Whenever it gets lighter from washing, we just rewrite her name. Simple, fuss-free. It is vital to name shoes because other students may have the same shoe in the same size and after removing their shoes for swim class, vocal or dance lessons...they return happy and high - then blur and panick  as all canvas shoes look the same to the little ones!

Canvas shoes are washed, dried in the sun along our windowsill and then chalked. We get the liquid chalk with applicator sponge stick from Bata/Pallas.

We also looked at designs from Adidas,

Vans, Converse, Reebok and Nike but my daughter does not want shoelaces! 

StrideRite has white rubber shoes with double Velcro straps, but unfortunately not washable. Hygiene factor wise, a non-washable pair is a plain no-go. 

We were out looking for a new trolley school bag but she has yet to decide if Inside Out is exactly the design she wants. I suggested washing and drying her current Frozen trolley bag to save some money and, surprisingly, she agreed! Bless! For that, I think I will treat her to a new pencil case and a new box of colour pencils *grins* oh, the joy of labelling every single colour pencil *wide grin*

The most expensive backpack I have seen all year as a pink MCM leather backpack on another little girl at school. Uber sweet!

The reality is, my own daughter will probably trash hers about. Something like this would be more realistic:

I can even match hers with this, on me:

Alright, I will not freak her out with something so heavy on her back every Thursday when homework is being packed home, to be returned equally heavy every Monday...trolley school bag it is for now.

That said, I am going to relax and go away on a holiday or two with my family. Syukur alhamdulillah for those little blessings in our lives. To those who are also going on holidays, we wish you safe journey and return. May our respective holidays be filled with lovely and joyful memories. Amin. 

Have you made any preparations for the new term? Please do share! 

Report Card Day

Friday, 21 August 2015.

Milo ice-cream for breakfast. 

Yes, The Little Girl asked for this exceptionally rare treat on the final day of her Reception at The Big School. Considering she had achieved excellent work in the past 8 months in every aspect of her academic/sporting/music and performing arts life, I relented.

Once I had purchased her desired breakfast item, she carefully placed it on her designated spot at the table at the dining hall, washed her hands and sat down at her designated seat to enjoy her sweet treat. Half way through, she was satiated and offered it to me. How kind! 

Her class teachers who saw her all teased her about having the freedom of choice to sit freely that morning. She blushed. 

After 2 episodes of Nummies Nerdy, we put away our used utensils, plates, and garbage and proceeded to wash then dry our hands. She was so cute when she prompted me to place the correct item into the correct bin, prefect style. I remember my heart swelled that little bit more and felt all emotional at how fast she had grown. How compliant she seems, how eager she is to fit into her environment correctly.

A short walk later, we arrived at her classroom to receive her certificate of completion at about 9 a.m. It was only 8 months ago when she had first entered and clung on to me, refusing to let me go...tempus fugit.

Mamapumpkin with T1 and T2 were already in deep discussion so we just said a very quick hi and bye.

As for us, her assigned tutor, Puan J, praised The Little Girl for her excellent work and encourages her to keep it up. InshaAllah.

We then took some farewell photos of her with her class teachers (Mrs. R, Puan J and Miss V; Mrs. C had been away on medical grounds). 

On our way out, we stopped by the front office to request for purchase DVDs of the newly concluded year end concert and the 2015 annual musical production, Annie. We will find out in near future if these are available for sale. 

Then came the emotional part:

"Ducklings. Mrs. R will get new ducklings come September, Mummy?", she noted as we climbed the steps up towards North Hall.

"Yes, darling", I replied.

She said with a slight tinge of sadness, "I am their favourite duckling, you know that? I always finish my work and stay quiet to pay attention". 

"You will get a new mama Duck or two, they will inform us who, soon as they can", I tried to console her.

We kept silent for a few more steps as she was deep in thought.

I thought of a way to distract her from her emotional reflection as I dreaded having to drive her home in tears. Alhamdulillah, we bumped into her classmate on her way in with her family. We quickly took a sweet photo of the girls before they bade farewell. This friend, she will be going to a different school in Autumn 2015.

We then walked no more than 5 steps before a Security Officer at the gate stopped me to ask for a copy of Release Letter. We did a quick U-turn to obtain one from the Front Office. I am so glad SOP is adhered to!

We then headed home to treat her to a lunch date without Bean (who was away at Playschool). "So, this is how it feels like to be a single child", she teased me.

And just like that, she is moving on to her next milestone in her young life. It seemed like just yesterday when we were told by the Registrar she had answered her science paper 100% correctly and that she was being offered a place at The Big School.

Oh, my munchkin, I am so thankful for His blessings upon you. May you recharge well this holiday to return taller, stronger, smarter and wiser. Amin!