Baby girl aint a baby anymore......

Time surely flies,

A shoe size bigger, a change of wardrobe (from kiddo's to pre-teen wear), chucking Barney out and replacing it with the High School Musical movies, even some boys of her school have made it into her circle of friends (which was an all girls club not so long ago)....

And none the least, she has grown more vocal and independent, straying away from the 'nest' from time to time (sleep over parties),.....

The venue and guest list was dictated by her and we complied as we had promised her that for this year's birthday we would grant her her wish of celebrating it with her friends.

And that's how we wound up at uncle Ronald McDonald's family resto, 30 kids and their respective guardians in tow.

Luckily that we didn't organize it at home, otherwise our house would certainly have been redecorated by the kiddo's, and I assure you, it would not have been a pleasant sight.........

Ronald McDonald's party hosts did a fine job entertaining the younger crowd, showering them with food and goodies and ofcourse our B-day girl was the center of attention on her big day. All in all.........a perfect day :)

Happy B-day little girl, may all your wishes come true.........

Christmas awaiting in the wings

It's barely late November, and Santa Claus is already awaiting in the corridors to make its appearance ?!?!

That's what shopping malls here wants us to believe..........they must be taken us for either ignorants or .... just plainly fools......

And the general population 'buys' it, barely 2 weeks after another money spinner called "Halloween".....a month after the Indian New Year "Deepavali", and less than 2 months after "Hari Raya" or "Ramadan".....

People here practically jump from one festival to another festival, giving the impression to outsiders that Malaysians are peeps who like to 'party' all year round.....which is actually fine by me,......I prefer happy 'souls' anytime over 'dreary' ones :)

No wonder that the banks here make record profits despite the economic turmoil, unscrupulously issueing credit cards to unwary, free spending consumers,.........who in turn rack up debts like the sky is the limit......

Yes indeed, the 'easy' money keeps the economy going, but record number of people are declared bankrupt or are on the verge of being in that not enviable position....

Does Santa Claus give a damn ?!? I bet he doesn't even blink his eye, but peeps tend to forget what X-mas is really about, a time of reflection, a time of renewing vows, a time of tightening the bonds with their loved ones..........

Surely that doesn't cost much, does it?

And last but not least.....to start so early with the X-mas sales......marketing dudes use a different calendar than me I guess....

Canto pop-stars from the first row

Canto popstar Hui Chee Ong and another dude whose name keep slipping my mind :p held a one-time concert together here in Kuala Lumpur.....

And courtesy of Jess' employer, Datin Seri, we got hold of first row tickets of their respective performance at Genting Highlands, Arena of Stars (kinda like "Sportpaleis in Antwerp", "O2 Arena in London", "Madison Square Garden in New York)

To be honest, Laetitia and me didn't and still don't have a real clue who these Asian popstars are, and I'm quite sure that Jess isn't a big fan either of these 2 guys, but boy oh boy, ......they do know how to entertain the crowd, ourselves included.

One thing's for sure......our girl and her friends had a great time, dancing and playing in front of the stage on the rhytm of the songs, ...........

And to top it all off, we had access to the post-concert press conference and "meet-the-fans" session..........now, who would have guessed that we would mingle with Asian popstars!!! Courtesy of the generous Datin Seri..........:)

Skipping the rope

Earlier in the year,

Our little dragon girl showed off her prowess on her hoola hoop skills........

http://yuenslair.blogspot.com/2009/02/hoola-girl.html

Year-end and along the way she has picked up a new skill, .......SKIPPING ROPE........,

At least that's what she informed us, but knowing her adversity for anything that involves physical activities, .....we wanted to see for ourselves whether she was 'bluffing' or not....

So we kindly asked for a demonstration of her newly acquired skills.........

A big round of applause was in order after her 'performance' in front of us, or rather, in front of the 'camera'....:)

She might be lazy at times, she might even be stoutly built, ........ but never ever underestimate her abilities............you will be mistaken.......BIGTIME !!!!

Different work ethics

It was bound to happen again,......

Soddy workmanship and use of inferior materials have resulted into a power outage at our terra casa once again........third time in three years time...., not that we were surprised about it, au contraire!!, we expected it once the lights in our house began to flicker again, and no,....it was not because of some paranormal phenomena!!!!

But then again, last time we had this 'inconvenience' was less than a year ago so it looks like it will become a normal occurence.....read our previous blog entry.

http://yuenslair.blogspot.com/2009/01/angpow-for-our-saviours.html

Well, we did have a good experience with our 'saviours' last time 'round.....so we reassuringly called up the emergency number requesting for assistance asap, and once again the 'rescue' team arrived in a short while, and that in the middle of the night......take that for customer service !!! :)

Same, same problem again, lousy contractor's workmanship, our lines couldn't handle the fluctuating power levels, resulting in the combustion of the cables and cable housing.....

Last time we thanked our 'saviours' with a bit of angpow for helping us on a public holiday, and this time the mechanics didn't even utter a word as it was their duty......but heck, a bit of coins for their troubles didn't hurt anybody's feelings, ......we are happy, they are happy.....keep the peace....

Although a small remark though, my neighbour had the same problem with his electricity and also went through the same procedure as us, calling up the emergency squad to help them out......but these 'guys', (not the same team that helped us out though on our earlier 2 mishaps), demanded money upfront before they even undertook the repair job.

Aren't they supposed to bail us out...........at NO CHARGE ?!?........strange, very strange indeed.....seems that the 'saviours on the road' maintain 2 different standards.......

So how in God's name are we, customers, to differentiate the 2 different work ethics?!...You tell me !!!!

Knee wrecking climb

Batu Caves,

Located a mere 20 minutes drive from the bustling heart of Kuala Lumpur,.....the limestone nature-made caves have attracted human presence for ages, inhabiting the caves, but it came to more prominence when the local Indian community erected the first of many temples honouring their Hindu deities......

Today, it is synonimous for mass worship during the yearly "ThaiPuSam" event, attracting over a million visitors in the space of a few days time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batu_Caves

Ofcourse, don't expect us to squeeze into these huge masses of people, we might be 'adventurous' at times..... but then again....we are not THAT 'adventurous'.

Even though we only live a stone's throw away from Batu Caves, we rarely ventured out there, so it's been quite a while that we or rather I, visited the place.

As it happened to be, a party of my Hong Kong family members made a stop-over in Kuala Lumpur, and besides the ubiquitous Twin Towers and Genting Highlands, one's visit is not complete without a visit to Batu Caves. And ofcourse, being the host, I took them to Batu Caves.......which was a perfect excuse for me to say 'hi' again to the 'caves'...:p

To gain access to the caves themselves, we had to climb 272 steep steps.....

Did I count them? Ofcourse not.......the cave administrators were friendly enough to paint the number on each step and 'torture' us.

But at least I put on a brave face and didn't display the agony of feeling the burning, sore sensations in my poor thighs as opposed to my more senior family members who were practically huffing and puffing their way up.

So were the caves itself worth the laborious climb? Yes and no........No : for that it wasn't that special at all, just an enormous, hollow cave......but Yes : because the Indian temples located at the premises were a nice exhibition of Indian temple art, and last but not least.....now I can renew my T-shirt displaying the proud message "I conquered Batu Caves!!!" :)

Ai, had to carefully climb down the steep steps again, one by one.........there's a saying....."time heals the wounds'.......you sure bet that I totally forgot how an agonizing experience it was climbing up and down these torturous, malevolent steps........till the next time!!!

Aliens on the catwalk

Jess, the other day, approached me with an invitation to attend a charity show.......proceeds of which would go to fund scholarships for poor students.

A show? I thought that charity events usually involves lots of food :p.....but she comforted me with the knowledge that there was a standing buffet available, and after all since that it was for a good cause, who am I to refuse such an honourable invitation.

Dress code, check,........our best smile, check,........our stomachs empty, definitely check.......and off we went.....

And we sure didn't mind that the buffet was served before the actual show.........stomach comes first.

As for the show itself........Jess somehow 'forgot' to inform me that it was actually a Fashion HAIR Show.......eeeeeeeeeuuuuuuuuh, what? Ermmm, yups, you read it correctly, a Fashion HAIR Show..........and not a common Fashion Show......

On the makeshift catwalk, it was a continuous display of hairstylists showing off their latest creations, ..... e.g. perms, fanciful colours, airbrush, brylle cream galore........in short, all the .

Was it interesting? I would tell a blatant lie if I'd said that it was interesting, but somehow, all these weird hair make-overs made me think about my favourite movie, "Star Wars", in particular episode VI, the scene in the canteen where all kinds of strange aliens passed along the screen

Now take a closer look at the above pictures, I've mixed up some Fashion HAIR Show pics with those of the movie "Star Wars"...........not much difference is there? The charity fashion models could easily be transplanted into any "Star Wars" scene.....they would certainly, effortlessly mingle with those ' movie aliens'.

Was the charity show a success then? It definitely was, thanks to some big-time contributors.......but for me, it was definitely out-of-this world, in short..........spacey