The haze has been really bad, and the government has been declaring school closure day after day after day.

Good thing is the girls have finished their exams and so they are having lots of fun at home (creating chaos for the mother).

Here is Zaria’s writing about the haze and the holidays she’s getting.

I thought it was funny.

If I haven’t mentioned it before, I think she’s my favourite author.

Zaria has been extremely difficult the last week, using foul language, spiting in her sister’s tea just because her sister made tea without telling her (they always brew tea together), using her sharp tongue to talk back, sometimes even telling us she wished we weren’t her family, she wished she was an orphan etc etc.

This little sweetie pie has a sweet sweet sugary filling, but sometimes her temper gets the better of her. After a few ‘counselling’ sessions we had with her, she decided to write us her promise or her ode to her family.

(She even signed it in red to indicate she’s serious).

Sweet Sweet Zaria, we all love you very much, and hope you will be able to control your temper, and outgrown this episode in life, and we hope you will keep all these promises you made to your family.

Zaria made nice cup of coffee for me at the hotel when we were holidaying in Kelantan, since then, we’d made her the barrista at home.

She’s responsible to make coffee or tea for me daily in the afternoon, and she took this job seriously, she sets up the timer and ensures the coffee or tea is brewed only for 2 mins. Sometimes she makes hot chocolate for Zara or tea for hubs as well.

She said we should open a cafe since she likes my cakes, biscuits and cooking and she imagines herself to be the barista at the cafe. And what would the role of her sister be? Popsicle maker since Zara has made a couple of flavourful popsicles like this Ribena passion fruit popsicle.

So this is her plan all drawn up and written down.

(The hubs’ role is to take photos of customers according to her).

Recently, Zaria wrote this in her journal instead of writing a diary entry.

A poem which she said she made up.

So the parents’ nightmares school holidays have started.

This is what Zaria wrote in her journal yesterday.

So yes, she can do lots of fun things, but of course, mummy has to spoil their holidays by giving them work to do! That’s what mummies are for. 😛

We just got back from our holidays to Japan.

We bought our tickets to fly to Kansai International Airport early this year when Air Asia was doing a promotion, thinking it was a great deal. A couple of months later, MAS had their promotion, and tickets were even cheaper. A few of my neighbours actually managed to grab the tickets and theirs cost less than ours! Bummer!

Due to the busy schedule this whole year, we only started to plan for the trip 2 months before our holidays. We decided to only focus on a couple of places around Osaka and Kyoto area even though we have 12 days there, preferring to take things slowly.

This is the map of where we’d been.

Did the girls enjoy Japan? They sure did! They asked us to extend our stay, they wanted to go there again; and we have to keep reminding them Japan is an expensive holiday destination. Accommodation, transport, entrance fee are all very expensive! It’s not some where we can go every other year.

Here is Zara’s thought about Japan written in her journal.

Note :
1) Travelling around Japan.
We traveled around Kyoto using the bus and train. The (bus and train) maps available are quite easy to read/understand.
In Osaka, we took mainly the subway, it looks complex, but lines are clearly coloured with station numbered, see this; i.e. Y15, S16, M20 for Namba 難波駅, なんば駅 (as it can be reaced by 3 subway lines)
We rented a car for 4 days and requested for an English GPS. To get to a place, we only needed to enter the phone number. Traffic updates however were announced in Japanese.

2) People are extremely friendly and courteous in Japan, even if they don’t understand you, if you asked for help, they will patiently listen to you and try their very best to help you. We seek a lot of help from people at subway stations, bus stops, convenient stores. A couple of times, we asked for directions at shops, and they whipped a copy of maps, charted out the route, and gave us the map. Amazing people!

3) Chin Nee asked how do we read menu in Japanese. Usually, they have English menu. When they don’t, they will have some pictures/photos of what they served. I read Chinese, so I look for key words as well in menu, e.g. 豚 (pork), 鶏 (chicken), 魚 (fish), 焼 (grill), 揚 (deep fried), 野菜 (vege) etc etc.

And posts will be added below as and when I’d finished writing them.
Part 1 : Day 1 – Nara 奈良
Part 2 : Day 2 – Takao 高雄
Part 3 : Day 3 – Arashiyama and Sagano 嵯峨嵐山
Part 4 : Day 4 – Nijo Castle 二条城 and Nishiki Market 錦市場
Part 5 : Day 5 – Eikando 永観堂, Kiyomizu-dera 清水寺, Higashiyama District
Part 6 : Day 6 – Fushimi Inari Shrine 伏見稲荷大社, Tofukuji 東福寺, Gion 祇園
Part 7 : Day 7 and 8 – Road Trip, Exploring Takayama 高山 and Epic Lunch at Turuturutei つるつる亭
Part 8 : Day 8 and 9 – Snow at Shirakawa-go 白川郷 And Gokayama 五箇山
Part 9 : Day 10 – Gero 下呂 Friends Making and Osaka 大阪 Takoyaki Making
Part 10 : Day 11 – Osaka Castle 大阪城 Dotonbori 道頓堀 Shinsaibashi 心斎橋
Part 11 : Day 12 – Osaka Doguyasuji 千日前道具屋筋商店街 and Shinsekai 新世界
Useful links :
Japan Guide – I refer to this a lot when planning the trip
Kyoto Tourist Guide Book – I printed this out to bring along as a quick guide.
Frommer’s Japan Guide

Maps:
Official Kyoto bus map – here, and here This is a must have if you took the bus in Kyoto, hotels will be able to give you a copy too.

The recent case of a 15 year old being murdered, has made me extremely worried about my girls. (What is this world coming to?)

I went on to share with the girls some of safety measure they could take to prevent themselves from being a victim. Just to make sure they understand it, their writing project yesterday was to write about How To Stay Safe.

One thing still missing from their list, that is to keep their parents informed wherever they go. I have to continue to drill that.

And mind their spelling, they don’t use spell check like us adults on the PC/phone/tablets.

(Zaria still have a very vague understanding of what rape is, but Zara knows what happen in a rape, and she said it’s too disgusting to write it down in her journal.)

The girls although love each other and enjoy each other’s company very much, they are also always bickering over the smallest issues. Lately, they have even started fist fighting!

One day, it was because Zara drew a picture of Zaria kissing someone. *POW* Zaria gave Zara a punch, and then Zara punched back, and then the punching began, until I intervened. So as a punishment, they had to write 20 lines “I shall not fight (with my sister) anymore.” in Chinese.

As if they learnt.

Another day, Zara tickled Zaria when Zaria was doing a handstand on the sofa (which is forbidden); to retaliate, Zaria put her hand into Zara’s pants and started tickling Zara’s buttocks. Zara of course didn’t like it, and started beating Zaria, and Zaria fought back; it was PUNCH PUNCH BEAT BEAT until I intervened. Again, they have to write 20 lines “I shall not fight (with my sister) anymore.” in Chinese. Sigh.

Here are their comic strips capturing the ‘moment’.

o.O” (And they said I’m mean for punishing them!）

Do your kids fist fight with each other too?

The girls don’t have to go to school this week from Monday to Thursday because of UPSR, so I drew a schedule for them to follow. Basically for the whole day, I’d planned out that for 3.5hrs they need to do some worksheets and journal writing and for the rest of the time it is free and play time.

I had a clause that states if they played with Bubbles, our dog, during the time allocated for work, I’ll minus points for each offence, and if a total of 10 points were accumulated, I won’t bring them ice skating.

They were not happy when they first saw it.
Zara : 你的字那么的丑，我都不会读. (Your writing is so ugly, I can’t even read.)
(I sat them down and made them read through, and understand the clause)
Zaria : You are so bossy you know.
Zara : (annoyed) 遵守什么? 什么都要遵守, 不然就扣分!? Haiyoh! (Follow the rules, everything also must follow the rules, or else minus points.)

So for the day’s writing, they did a comic strip about me.

Zara’s.

Zaria’s.

For the longest time, the girls have been asking us for a dog. Last weekend, we succumbed to their request.

Bubbles, a 2 year old West Highland Terrier, was adopted, and moved in with us on Sunday.

I’ll let the girls tell you about him.

From Zaria.

From Zara.