When we suggested for a holiday further away from Hong Kong, Zara made some noise, “What’s the point of going for a holiday when all we do is walk walk walk?” “It’s so boring taking the plane.” “I have ear problem, and you still want me to take the plane” etc etc.

We gave her 2 options, either go with us, or stay home with Jelly. Of course, she chose the former.

Daddy’s airmiles could cover 4 of us to either Perth, or Taiwan. Looking at the AUD exchange rate, we therefore decided to go Taiwan instead. We have to time our trip according to flight schedules claimable by airmiles and to make sure I’m in town on December 9th because I have bought tickets for Jacky Cheung’s concert. Hence, the trip was made during the wet season in Taiwan. Sigh.

♥Nov 30th♥

We arrived at Taipei about 7pm+, it was already dark. Upon arriving at the hotel, a package from my Taiwan colleague, Teresa, which consisted of a Taipei Guidebook and 2.5Kg of Taiwan rice welcome us.

Our hotel for the next 4 nights will be Li Yuan Hotel (儷園飯店), a small hotel located near Shida (師大) and 1 minute walk from Tai Power Metro Station (台電大樓站).

We got a family room with 2 queen beds. The room is small but functional and clean.

Soon after we checked in, we went straight to Shida Nightmarket (師大夜市) for dinner. We picked a restaurant which specialises in herbal chicken soup, 龍涎居雞膳食坊. We were too hungry to take any photos, but Daddy who’s not a chicken eater claimed they serve one of the best chicken soup he’s tasted.

We did some walking about the nightmarket after dinner, and then headed back to rest.

♥Dec 1st – Gloomy♥
We woke up late and missed the hotel breakfast and had to eat out.

Our first destination after breakfast of road side pao and bubble tea was Bo Ai Road (博愛路), the Taipei Camera Street, to get a lens Daddy was eyeing (he did the research before arriving and knew exactly which shop to go to. o.O”).

We spent sometime in Ximending (西門町), for lunch, to glance through some of the small shops.

Shops and stall at Ximending :

菓風小舖, the sweet shop where we spent most time in.

Roadside Sweet Potato Ball Seller

Girls kept asking for money for these ‘games’, but I didn’t let them.

Lots of shops have dogs at the door front, this is one of them.

上海老天祿 stewed duck wings

The Red House (西門紅樓), Taiwan’s first public market now a theater.

Girls were fascinated with the many costume shops across the Red House.

Besides getting some sweets from the sweet shop, we didn’t buy anything else in Taipei’s shopping street. o.O”

As Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall (中正纪念堂) is nearby, we thought we’ll visit it as well. Not knowing we’ll spend so much time there. As it’s surrounded by a big park, lots of locals walk their dogs, do team practice for various events etc etc.

We saw a brass band practice in the park.

Zaria spent so much time chasing after pigeons.

School team practicing march.

Li Zhen’s Sculptures (李真雕塑) were exhibited in front of the Memorial Hall.

Girls wanted to take photos of the sculptures.

And wanted to be photographed with the sculptures.

Inside the Memorial Hall, the girls could not believe the still guards were real, and not human.

Zaria asked who the statue is “Is he the King of Taiwan?” o.O”

As we were there in the evening, instead of change of guards, we managed to catch the flag lowering ceremony (at 5pm).

As night fall, they started lighting up the whole park.

Li Zhen’s sculpture.

That night, recommended by my Taiwan colleague, we went to the Eslite flagship bookshop (誠品信義店). A bookshop with 8000m² of floorspace! Heaven for me!

We even had dinner there at their food court, then just glanced through the various floors.

We love the 杏仁燒, an almond dessert with grass jelly, peanuts, red bean and tosted almond chips from this dessert shop Summer Tree Sweet (夏樹甜品) at the food court. (sorry no photo).

(To-Be Continued)

The debate is still on. Is added sugars ok in growing up milk?

If you are still confused with fact of sugars in milk, I’d gotten some materials from some key opinion leaders on this topic. Let me share with you some points of what they said.

Dr John Monro from Plant & Food Research, New Zealand :
1) All sugars are sourced from plants except for lactose which are naturally present in milk

2) Added sugars (in milk powder) are mostly factory products of chemical and enzymatic starch digestion

3) All sugars and pre-sugars (carbohydrate) are rapidly converted to sugars in the body

4) And to sum it all, see the diagram below :

(credit : Dr John Monro)

The child could be consuming a lot of *added sugars every day!

Professor Peter SW Davies from The University of Queensland :
1) In 2010, 43milion Preschool children are overweight or 92milion ‘at risk’ of overweight

2) If we lose the ability to ‘balance’ our intake and expenditure body weight can be lost or gained dramatically

3) WHO Recommendation on Nutrient Intake Goals
…………………………% of Total Energy
Fat —————————-15-30%
Protein ———————-10-15%
Carbohydrates———— 55-75%
Free/Added Sugars —– < 10% 5) Carbohydrates with nutritious value (you can find a whole list on the internet) : bread, banana, apple etc 6) Added sugars have NO nutritious value which is Empty Calories. Extra calories lead to weight gain, and is not required in a healthy diet. 7) So what can we do? Select wholesome natural food as source for carbohydrates; look out for *added sugars in processed foods. While we know that growing up milk has essential nutrients for growing up children (for their brain and physical development) , and contains more nutrient than a glass of fresh milk, what you can see from the above key opinion leaders is that, the excessive added sugars being added in is not needed in children’s growing up milk. So parents, when you are choosing your children’s growing up milk, do check the carbohydrate per serving found in the tin/pack of the milk. Remember, anything above 11-12g per serve is added sugars. *Added sugars come in the form of corn syrup solids, sucrose, glucose syrup solids, maltodextrin

One more week and it’s the end of Standard One for Zara, I’d also moved from one who was seeking advice last year this time to one who can tell others on what to prepare for Standard One (based on my own experience).

School Bags – Buy a good bag, but not too expensive
I’m not sure about Kebangsaan school, but for Chinese school, with the amount of books they have, it’s best to get a trolley bag. The school will put the Standard One kids on the ground floor anyway.

Unless your child is big size, it’s going to be difficult for them to manage a backpack no matter how back friendly it is. The books probably weigh 5~7Kg if not more, I think for a 7yr old, that’s too much weight to carry.

(My neighbour paid a lot for a good backpack, but after seeing how her daughter struggled on the first day with the big bag filled with books, she went shopping that same night to get her a trolley bag)

Think (at least) 400 children racing hurrying through corridors, halls, a couple of steps;
Think kids unzipping their bags, reaching for things in one shout of instruction (and when there’s any delay, they may get a stroke of cane).

Try out the zip, the retractable handle, see if they are easy to operate. Target for the bag to last the child for 1 year at least. Unless your child is the extremely careful, not too active kind, the bag will probably get very ‘charn’ (Chinese : worn out) come year end.

For Zara, who’s quite careful, but rather active (always racing her friends to get to the hall the fastest) this is how her bag looks like after a year (we gave it a wash during school holidays, or over long weekends). She’s already asked for a new bag for next year.

School Shoes – At least 2 pairs to interchange.
I got Zara 2 pairs of cloth Kikilala shoes which is washable. She alternate between the 2 pairs. We wash them weekly, and apply those white shoe polish to whiten them.

I don’t think an expensive pair is required, as they will be running in fields, dusty basketball courts, and their feet grows so quickly.

We had to buy a new pair for Zara a month back because one of her pairs just ‘disintegrated’. This is what the surviving pair looks like. Definitely need new ones next year.

School Uniforms
Unless you are on a tight budget, buy something which fits the child (oversize uniforms and very faded uniforms make the child look sloppy). We bought ours from Kamdar, nice cutting, and didn’t cost a lot. If I remember correctly, it was ~RM20 for the pinnafore, and ~RM10 for the blouse, we got Zara 3 sets to interchange.

By end of the year, the blue has faded a bit, the skirt has reached the knee (was slightly below the knees starting this year). Still presentable, but I think Daddy will want to get new ones for her to make her look smart.

Stationary
She had 20 mechanical pencils given to her for Christmas last year. None she could use because the teachers only allowed normal pencils for her Standard. We got her lots of 2B pencils instead.

We got her a nice pencil case, but after a while, she started using her reward points or sweet talks (Daddy) to get other pencil cases, and when she was given allowance, started buying them from pasar malam or the school bookshop. So I guess, they don’t need a fancy one to start the year. (Now, she has one for school, one for music class, one for English class, one for ….. I lost track).

Drinking bottles, food containers
We just get the Bros ones. Don’t want them to get something too expensive and when she looses it we get heartache.

Wallets
We got Zara a small wallet to put some coins and her allowance. She leaves it in her bag, and sometimes money goes missing. Not sure she miscalculated her spending or someone has been pinching from her wallet.

When I asked her to put the wallet in her pocket and bring it every where, she said she’s afraid it may fall off from her pocket. Her next wallet will be one which comes with a strap and hook which she can hook on to her belt.

Book Wrapping
Don’t be like me, cutting up big sheets of PVC to wrap her books (took me 20mins to wrap 1 book), unless you enjoy wrapping book. They have book sleeves available which you can buy and then just slot the books in. The books come in similar sizes anyway.

There….. Hope you find this useful to get all the things ready for Standard One.

Continue from here.
♥August 30th♥
We were supposed to check out on this day. However, the girls didn’t want the holidays to end so soon, and asked if we could stay for an extra night. There was still rooms available for the night, so we extended another night.

In the morning, the girls went swimming with Daddy after breakfast while I went to the market again.

Our plan was to skip lunch and then head on to Siam Road again for char kuey teow (the stall is opened from 3pm to 8:30pm) for tea. We arrived 3:15pm and there was already a large group waiting.

It was a hot and sunny day, and the wait (at the coffee shop oposite the stall) was loong.

When our plates of kuey teow finally arrived, it was a bit too spicy, and of course wasn’t as good as the night before.

As we still have the whole afternoon free, Daddy thought we should take a drive to Balik Pulau. There was no destination in mind, but we somehow ended up in Hai Boey Seafood Restaurant 海尾海鲜 (29 MK 9,
Pasir Belanda, Teluk Kumbar, 11900 Bayan Lepas, Penang).

It was 5pm+, only a few tables were occupied. What attracted us was not the restaurant but the beach the restaurant was facing. The restaurant has set up some lazy chairs at the beach, probably for customers to laze about while waiting for their food.

The girls have a fun time playing at the beach.

And I just enjoyed the breeze while watching over them.

We drove off before sunset, when throngs of customers started arriving, filling up all the tables. We thought we’ll see if we can find a better and similar restaurant.

We passed Good Friend Seafood, a few KM away (driving towards Bayan Lepas), it was smaller and so crowded, we thought we’d better go back to Hai Boey.

Alas, Hai Boey by then was in full swing. All tables were occupied, with many more customers standing waiting for a table. We thought we would have to have chai boey (菜尾, whatever scraps left) at Hai Boey. Luckily most of the customers came in big group, and we got a small table for 4 after about 10mins wait.

Food was quite good, and reasonably priced. No wonder the restaurant was so crowded.

There was some prayers being held opposite the restaurant, and we thought since the night was young, we would go check out what was going on at the prayer hall. What a gem we found.

A Chinese puppet opera show, (the locals told me it was called Char Kah Lay in Teow Chew), put up by the locals for the ‘God’ Tuah Pek Kong (大伯公). We didn’t know what the script was all about because it was all in Teow Chew, but we stayed to watch for ~20mins.

The locals were so friendly, they came up to talk to us, asked us to join in their little dinner party of catered food and roast pork. They told us it was the first time they have hired the puppet opera troop for Tua Pek Kong’s birthday, so we were lucky to catch it.

We stayed till almost 10pm before we left for the hotel.

Back in the hotel, Grammy Awards 2011 was showing, and girls and I watched till way passed midnight. It was the last day of their holidays, so I just let them stay up late.

♥August 31st♥
After lunch, it was more swimming for the girls, and then it was off home.

Staying in town where everything is easily accessible (compared to staying in Batu Feringgi) made the holiday more relaxing and enjoyable.

We’ll be there again next year.

We did our once a year trip to Penang during the Raya Holidays. Some may ask why go during peak season? Since Zara started schooling this year, we can only go away when she has holidays, so we are really not left with much choice.

♥Aug 27th♥
First time in our family history, we left the house before 11am to go on a road trip holiday! Yay to Daddy, who kept his promise of leaving the house by 7am to beat the jam.

We managed to have breakfast in Ipoh, and then have late lunch in Bukit Mertajam. Before lunch, we stopped by St Anne’s church to say our thanks for another wonderful year.

Girls were facinated by the candles.

Zara giving thanks.

Girls collecting holy water playing water

St Anne’s.

Since we’d never tried the Ferry before, we thought we would try out this time. Girls loved it.

It was so windy, the girls’ hair was in a mess.

We got to the Traders Hotel (our current favourite hotel in Penang), by 5pm. It was nice to be greeted by a nice cool room with comfy beds. To the girls, this was when the holidays begun (getting into the hotel room).

That night dinner, we have it at Nonya Breeze (50, Abu Siti Lane, 10400 Georgetown, Penang), Zara’s request. The team there has changed (as the original team had moved to Strait Quay to run the other newly opened Nonya Breeze), but the food was still equally good.

♥Aug 28th♥
After a sumptious breakfast at the hotel, we visited the market along Jalan Kuala Kangsar. Our ‘must-do’ in Penang.

Fresh oyster seller.

Jalan Kuala Kangsar.

Offerings to the Hungry Ghosts (孟兰节).

Popiah skin maker (last year, an elderly man was making them, this year, he’s seen relaxing in the shop while this lady took over).

Poridge seller preparing the last few bowls of poridge for customers.

My favourite dry grocer Fook Weng, a yearly must stop.

Ointment seller giving extra service to get the sale.

Big Sale going on for Angry Bird stuff.

Girls choosing Agry Bird items.

By the time we were done, it was lunch time.

We went to Soul Kitchen (102, Muntri Street, 10200 Penang, Malaysia), a restaurant highly recommended by Tripadviser. Their pizza was one of the best I’d tasted!

We had to shelter ourselves after lunch from a down pour in a temple on Muntri Street. For Zaria, it meant play time!

After that it was back to the hotel for a rest.

One of the advantages of staying in Traders is everything is so near and within walking distant. For dinner, we walked out to De Happy Seafood Restaurant (62 Macalister Road 10400 Penang). Food wise, it was so-so, so I don’t think we’ll be going back there next year.

♥Aug 29th♥
Daddy woke up early, and went exploring George Town by foot before daybreak. He took these photos.

After breakfast, we decided to go to Penang Hill, since we didn’t get to explore the place due to a downpour the last time we went there.

The old funicular train has been replaced with something more modern. It was going at faster speed as well.

View from the train.

It was a wet day, but we could still see George Town from the hill.

Because it’s cooler environment, flowers bloom beautifully.

Besides the cool air, the train ride, Penang Hill has not much to offer. We had tea at the Bellevue Hotel, and then took the train down.

We headed back to the hotel to rest. Daddy took a nap with the girls, while I went to have a massage in the hotel.

For dinner, we decided to go to the Siam Road Char Kuey Teow.

More than 1hr wait later, we were rewarded with a plate of super delicious Char Kuey Teow.

It seems I’m slacking in blogging. I find I barely have time with a full time job, all the chauffering (kids to school and to activities), home work and revision with a school going kid and lately another item has added to the to-do list, i.e. completing a course for career development by year end.

Anyway, this post is not about how busy I am, but the trip we made to Singapore during the school holidays.

Before the trip, I asked Daddy to get us a GPS, as I could foresee navigating with a map in Singapore, there’ll be lots of stress in the car. The El-Cheapo He went to Daiso and bought a compass instead; he thought a compass would at least tell us which direction we’re going without a GPS. o.O” Thank goodness I shared this joke with my neighbour, and she loaned us her GPS for the trip!

♥4th June, Saturday♥
To keep up with Daddy’s (dilly dallying) track record, we left the house after 11am (we’d never left the house earlier than 11am on any driving holiday trips we made), and got stuck on the North–South Expressway.

It seems everybody was heading towards Melaka for the weekend. It took us more than 4hrs to get passed Melaka. By the time we reached our hotel in Singapore, it was 6pm.

We stayed in V Hotel Lavender, a newly opened hotel located in Lavender housing area. We got very good rate for a room with 1 queen and 1 single beds. Although the room is a little small, it is comfortable, and best of all, its location is super. The Lavender MRT station is on the basement of the building, and around the hotel, there are lots of small eateries, and also a few small HDB food courts.

Not wasting any time, after checking in, we headed straight to Orchard Road to shop, as well as to have dinner (at the Ion Food Court). With the exchange rate of S$1 to RM2.50, every thing seemed extremely expensive even during the Great Singapore Sales.

♥5th June, Sunday♥
The original plan was to go to Singapore Zoo, but it was pouring in the morning, and we have to change our plans, it was to Singapore Science Centre instead. Tickets were : $9 for adult, $6 for children (3~16yrs)

I prefer Petrosains, as there are more things for kids to ‘try’ out there. Still, we spent a 4hrs there, *yawn* watched 2 shows, The Tesla Coil Show and World of Insect Show.

In the evening, after a rest/nap in the room, we took a taxi to Marina Sands Bay, to watch iD by Cirque Eloize at the Grand Theatre. It’s a colourful Hip-Hop Circus act from Montreal, with lots of music and dancing. Girls of course loved it.

What more, we met our neighbour and her girls, who are the girls’ age and their best friends, visiting Singapore and watching the same circus!

They played together during intermission, and also after the show, went to explore Marina Sands Bay and had supper together.

♥6th June, Monday♥
Girls said they had already been to the Singapore Zoo on our last trip, so they wanted to go somewhere else instead. Sentosa Island was the somewhere else we chose.

We took the MRT to Harbour Front, and took the cable car ride (Tickets were : $26 for adult, $15 for children round trip), there was a promo going on where Malaysian tourists only need to pay half price, but because we didn’t bring along our passports, we had to pay the hefty full price. 🙁

We took the cable car to Mount Faber first, spent some time there.

Then took the cable car to Sentosa Island.

If you are going to Sentosa Island, plan your trip well so you can save some money buying combi tickets or play passes. We only went on 3 activites, and spent quite a fair bit because we didn’t know about this.

We watched the 4D Magix (girls screamed and shouted, and they said they didn’t like it at all because the ‘visual effect’ was too real) and went on the Extreme Log Ride (a ‘roller coaster’ rides with high-definition wide-screen projection, which the girls loved but I didn’t like it at all). (Combi Tickets were : $29.90 for adult, $17.90 for children)

We had dinner at Sentosa so that we could catch the Song of the Sea show (Tickets were $10 per person), a show which uses fountains, lasers, projection to tell a story. Now seriously, I don’t think Song of the Sea is worth the money, as you can get a similar show in Marina Bay Sands for free (read on).

After the show, we walked back to the cable car station, as there were long queues for the free monorial and bus ride.

We didn’t go to Universal Studio this round as there are lots of rides Zaria cannot go on due to her height. We’ll do that the next visit.

♥7th June, Tuesday♥
Girls pleaded with Daddy to stay in the hotel with them, as they wanted to spend time in the pool. So, the first half of the day, Daddy spent time with the girls at the hotel pool, and I went shopping on my own.

In the evening, we went to Marina Bay Sands (MBS). We took the MRT to Promenade Station, and then took a 10min walk via the Double Helix Bridge to MBS. It is a very scenic and pleasant walk, there were some local joggers jogging, but mainly foreigners enjoying the view as well as to take photos.

Daddy spent so much time there snapping photos, the girls got pretty impatient and in the end, I had to bring them into MBS first while he continued shooting away.

We have dinner there at the food court (we had almost all our dinners in the food court this trip, so sad), did some shopping, and then headed to watch the show at the Promenade. It’s a similar fountain and laser show like the Song of The Sea, except this is free, and we find more entertaining (no cheesy dialogues).

We then walked back to the Promenade MRT station the same way. The night view from the double helix bridge (and from the Promenade at Marina Bay Sands) was spectacular.

♥8th June, Wednesday♥
The last day of our trip, we only did shopping around Orchard area, and then it was home.

Zaria asked if she could stay in Singapore forever on our way back. And when we asked the girls which event/activity they liked best, they both claimed the morning they spent in the pool was the best. o.O”

Their holiday, we probably should just book a hotel nearby with a pool for them.

After realizing the sugar content in the girls’ growing up milk, I was really looking into switching the girls’ milk.

I started doing research on the web.

There is a lot of information on the web about sugars in children’s growing up milk from various milk companies. Most have stated their reasons on why sugars are added. I.e.
1) Children need carbo because carbo generates energy which is required for their rapid growth
2) Sugar is added for taste and what’s added by milk companies is compliance with Malaysia’s Recommended Nutrient Intake (RNI) and World Health Organisation (WHO) recommendation
3) Added sugars are from natural plant sugars
4) High lactose is not well tolerated by Malaysian children, therefore natural sugar is added instead of lactose

However, these are my thoughts :
1) Sugars are sugars, natural plant sugar, natural sugar, they are basically the same. If I want the girls to have natural plant sugar, I would give them watermelon (a fruit which has the highest natural sugar) for example, and not what is added to their milk for whatever reasons. And to be honest, I won’t give them watermelon every day, because of its sugar content, so why would I want to feed my children milk added with sugar every day, three times a day?

2) I don’t want the girls to develop a sweet tooth. I’d tried a few brands of growing up milk, IT IS very sweet, overly sweet for my liking.

3) I read on the net and also was told by a dietician, and got this – Under Malaysian food labelling regulations, the ‘carbohydrate per serve’ number in the Nutrition Information Panel (NIP) on growing up milk is only made up of two things:
a. Lactose which is sugar naturally present in the milk. The natural lactose level in a glass of standard milk is approximately 9g-13g per serve (200ml).
b. Sugars that are added to the milk powder. Anything higher than 9g-13g for ‘carbohydrate per serve’ in growing up milk is equal to added sugars

So as parents, we have to make informed decision about getting what growing up milk for the kids.
1) Check your child’s growing up milk powder pack/tin – look only at 2 things.
a. The ingredient list – corn syrup solids, sucrose, glucose syrup solids, these are all added sugars.
b. The carbohydrate per serve in the NPI – remember, anything above 11g-12g per serve (the lactose present in milk) is added sugars

2) Taste the milk. I do that often when I want to introduce a new brand to my girls. If I find it too sweet or too artificial tasting (some milk tastes like plastic!), I won’t consider.

3) Talk to people (other parents, your paed etc), do your own research and find out more.

For now, while still hunting for the right milk, Zara, being almost 7, has stopped drinking growing up milk but is on fresh milk now; as for Zaria, because she’s still not 5, she’s still taking her growing up milk. As fresh milk lacks the added nutrient, we are supplementing Zara with multivits.

Once we’d found the right growing up milk, both girls will be switched to that.

I attended the Proton Exora VIP Test-Drive Session held in Full House, Sunway Giza Mall on Saturday (21st).

Participants were selected based on the registration at their website : http://www.allaboutexora.com/, and the session that I attended was held for the Chinese community and had about 20 couples attending (well, it wasn’t all couples, there was a pair who’s a mother and son team).

After registration, we were ushered in to have breakfast.

And when it was time, everyone proceeded to the Event Hall in Full House for the start of the event.

Melvin Wong, Head of Marketing Communication from Proton Edar, made the opening speech.

This is a session to let the couples selected to experience Proton Exora as never before. It’s not just a test drive session; various speakers were invited to cover topics of interest, and then games will be played which actually allow you to get to know the car better.

Kenneth Chiew, Driving Instructor for Proton Exora covered the Product Safety of Proton Exora, i.e. airbags available, advance seat belts for all passengers, protective frame of the car etc.; and we were shown how the car was designed to handle various accidents (front collision, roll over) as well.

For those couples who have children, Ms Loh Sit Fong, Clinical Psychologist from UKM Medical Center, talked about child development, and how to keep children safe in a car ride.

She definitely caught the attention of this little girl, who came with her parents for the event.

It was then the start of the test drive session. First we were all brought outside for a group photo (I didn’t get in, because I prefer to be the photographer than to be photographed).

Or maybe I should have joined in, because see the number of photographers available?

We were then assigned our cars. 2 couples to a car and I got this red one, the last car of the lot and my partners were Mr Ong from Sin Chiew Jit Poh, Izaton from Proton Edaran, and Sam from the media company.

Mr Ong, since he’s going to be our drive, got briefed.

Look at the number of Proton Exoras assigned to the Proton Exora VIP Test-Drive Session.

Couples started boarding their cars, ready for the take off.

Each car were given a walkie-talkie, and the organiser had the walkie-talkies tested out. He gave the last of the instructions, and then of we went.

The convoy of cars driving towards Desa Park City.

Somewhere in Sri Damansara, we stopped to swap drivers, so that everyone get a chance to test drive the car.

The parking lot next to Waterfront in Desa Park City has been set up for the outdoor event, with driving circuits and all.

3 different games were held concurrently. All were eligible for points collection, which will qualify couples for various placing, and gifts were then given later based on this placing.

Game number 1 was the blind fold challenge. Each couple decided on the driver, which was blind folded, and the navigator, which was to give instructions to the driver. The challenge is to have the blind folded driver do a parallel park with instructions given to him/her by the partner.

This is to see how a couple trusted one another, for if there was no trust, it’s difficult to give the instructions as well as well as to receive it. Of course having a car that’s easy to maneuver with power steering, like the Proton Exora, helped a lot as well.

Some navigators really did a terrific job, getting the driver to park the car in slightly more than a minute.

Game number 2 was piling challenge. Each couple was timed, they had to get some suitcases, a golf bag and a pram into the car boot, usher in their 3 passengers, get themselves into the car and buckled up as quickly as possible.
From this challenge, you can see how much luggage the Proton Exora can take, and how easy it is to turn the seats on the last row to provide bigger boot space.

On the driving circuit, game number 3 was held, to test out the ride handling of the Proton Exora. Kenneth, the Proton Exora driving instructor were giving instructions to cars via the walkie-talkie on when to accelerate, when to step on the brakes on the circuit, or when to do a steep turn.

This is the sort of things you won’t get to try out in a normal test-drive session. Here, you get to actually try out the ABS & EBD brake, and the Proton Lotus Ride and Handling on a circuit.

Lots of brakes screeching were heard. This must be fun for those who get adrenalin rush from speeding. I get dizzy just seeing the cars zoomed by.

Kenneth took the excitement 1 step further, he took the wheels and drove a couple of people in the Proton Exora, and of course being the driving instructor, he was driving faster, and tested the ABS and EBD brake, and Proton Lotus Ride and Handling to its fullest. I didn’t want to be his passenger (or anybody doing the ride handling) in case I threw up.

That was the end of the outdoor fun, and we then went back to Full House in our respective car. The convoy again stopped in Sri Damansara for another driver swapped.

Back in Full House, the cool aircon and lunch welcomed us.

We were famished!

While lunch was going on, some couples were brought to a corner to be interviewed about their Proton Exora test drive experience.

After lunch, we all got ushered back to the event hall.

Ms Loh Sit Fong went back on stage to talk about relationships. Couples were asked to rank things important to them in a relationship, and then checked if the female and the male have similar priorities.

Cherrise Tan, an image consultant from Adamaya Image Consultancy, came on next, and did a make over of one of the participants.

Kenneth came on again to answer any questions we had after test driving the car. I guess people were really impressed with the Proton Exora, its ride handling after they have driven the car on the circuit, its ease of maneuvering, and its space available.

We then got a talk on managing investment as well from Eric Wong, from A.D. Financial Sdh Bhd.

A little boy named Ethan (Merryn’s son), patiently sat through the talk after talk (I salute him, not easy for a kid his age), but he did say, “Why this one always not yet finished one.”

(Zaria wanted to follow me, and good thing I didn’t bring her along. Getting a child sit through the whole thing can be really testing their patience).

What was the end message delivered by Melvin Wong? Proton Exora is a practical and economical family car(fuel consumption : RM0.13/km), now if any of us is considering a family car, this is a good option, however, “Do not buy a product if you have not tried it.” We should have at least done a thorough test drive before committing. And in deed, this session allowed the participant to thoroughly test out the car.

At the end of the session, there was prize giving (it was Cash prize, ok?); it was done in such a way that every couple got a prize, but of course the couples in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd places, got bigger envelopes.

Every couple got a goodie bag with spa vouchers as well.

Haisay, I sat at this table throughout.
So no spa vouchers nor cash prize for me.

I’m going to register myself for the next Proton Exora VIP Test-Drive Session, I want to go as a participant this time.

So what was the knowledge that I gained from this session? For me, with a family of four, to choose an MPV, I’ll choose one :
1) that gives me space (I sure love the space in Proton Exora),
2) that’s economical (RM0.13/KM for Proton Exora, half of my current car’s fuel consumption),
3) with all the necessary safety features included (2 airbags, ABS & EBS brake system, advance seat belt, protective frame).

Now, don’t believe what others say about the car, don’t even believe what I say here, test drive the Proton Exora and experience it for your own.

What are you waiting for?

Have you tried your children’s growing up milk? Are you like me who find growing up milk excessively sweet?

Recently, I saw in a message at the supermarket that we could be feeding our children up 13tsp of added sugar with their current growing up milk. So I picked up a sugar calculator, follow the instructions on it to cross check if is true.

The girls so far have taken 2 brands of growing up milk. First brand indicated I might be feeding 8~12tsp of additional sugar to my children, and another indicated I might be feeding 13~17tsp of additional sugar to my children! Shocking?

And here I am trying to control the girls’ excessive sugar intake (which I wrote about in an earlier post)

I have tasted the girls’ growing up milk before, and I thought it is too sweet. I thought it must have been intentionally sweetened so that it’ll be tasty enough to appeal to young children. However my girls like fresh milk too. Without the added sugar, they still love the creamy and milky taste (per how they describe it). I’m still letting them drink growing up milk though, because I want them to get all the added vitamins they’d included in growing up milk.

However, with this new information, I will try to find children growing up milk with no added sugars, or with less added sugar.

Read the label next time you pick up a tin or pack of growing up milk. Even though you can’t see all these common names of added sugar (i.e. corn syrup solid, sucrose & glucose syrup solid), check the Carbohydrate level with the sugar calculator. Use the sugar calculator to find out how much sugar you’ll be feeding your children additionally with the growing up milk you are about to purchase. I’m definitely going to do that.

More than a month ago, Daddy has given me the most romantic present ever, a trip to Hong Kong, without him, without the kids, just me, alone. He took a couple of days off to be home with the children (since it was school holidays), while I have this personal time, that is, a ♥romantic♥ gesture to me.

I spent 5D/4N in Hong Kong, staying with my best friend. We managed to spend time together, and besides this, I got to catch up with a couple of my ex colleagues as well. It was a relaxing trip of shopping, eating, spending time with friends.

Just photos (taken by point & shoot, which explains the quality) and a brief trip summary.

♥16th March♥
Arrived Hong Kong in the afternoon. My friend Ping lives in an extremely nice appartment on Old Peak Road. After unpacking and playing with Maya, Ping’s 2.5yrs old daughter, a bit, Ping and I left for Causeway Bay.

We had wanton noodle at Mak’s Noodle (麥奀雲吞麵世家) for tea, something Daddy and I won’t miss when we are in Hong Kong; bought my Fancl stuff; and then packed some roast goose and char siew home from Keung Kee Meat Shop (強記飯店), another place I try not to miss.

After dinner of roast meat and rice at home, we went to the spa (a very nice one) at Ping’s appartment.

♥17th March♥
This was the only day that were packed with activities!

In the morning, we went to Central and had a typical Hong Kong breakfast.

And then took a stroll around the Central market. (I just love markets!)

Narrow lanes but so many things to offer!

By late morning, I took the MTR to get to Tung Chung station to meet with my ex colleagues. They brought me to Tai-O (大澳), a fishing town in Lantau Island, about 45mins bus ride from Tung Chung. The bus was zooming through narrow and winding road up hill and down hill, so I was feeling rather sick when we arrived. Luckily the air in Tai-O is fresh, which made recovery quick.

Tai-O being a fishing village has lots of shops selling dried seafood.

The locals drying their own seafood.

Some leaves (紫贝天葵) being sold. My colleague told me it can be boiled and turned into a herbal drink.

Most houses were built on stilts.

Houses are small and low, and streets are narrow.

The whole town is mainly occupied by older people. The younger ones probably all have gone to work in the city.

As we were there on a weekday, the place was really quiet, most shops such as this one, was closed.

We had late lunch at one of the seafood restaurants. Mixed seafood, kailan with salted fish, and their famous octopus cake.

We then took the bus back to Tung Chung and then headed home. It was a good trip, and it was nice catching up with my colleagues.

In the night, Ping brought me to a super fancy restaurant Zuma.

We ordered 2 sampler sets, and there was so much food! The food was delicious, but oh my, it was so expensive. Thanks Ping, for the treat!

♥18th March♥
A relaxing day. Had early lunch with Ping, and then I went out looking for books on my own. In the night, we went to Espirt outlet in Mongkok.

♥19th March♥
We went to Stanley to shop (lots of small shops selling out of season branded stuff at a fraction of the price). It was raining, so besides shopping, there was not much we could do.

We had lunch there, and then headed home.

I met with another ex colleague in the night. We went out for dinner together at a quiet Yunan restaurant in Tin Hao.
Another good catch up with old friends over a good meal.

♥20th March♥
We went out for dimsum breakfast. I checked in my baggage at Hong Kong station and then Ping and I went to a supermarket to do some last minute shopping as well as to grab some pastries (嫁女饼) from Kee Wah Bakery (奇华).

See, the whole trip is really to spend time with my best friend and also to meet up with my ex colleagues whom I used to work with closely.

Thanks Daddy! Second half of the year another trip yeah?