Friday, July 24, 2009

Second beach outing cum dinner

Last Saturday, I finally managed to persuade hubby to take us all to the beach. I read in several websites like this and this that toddlers at Leia's age are interested in playing with sand and water. So, I thought we must grant this favour to Leia. And the last time we took her to a beach was several months back. But of course, the recent raining season has been a "good excuse" to hubby as to why we shouldn't... Hmmm, I think he's getting lazier and heavier each day.... No wonder!


And the recent haze enveloping major parts in Malaysia (Penang certainly not spared!) just adds salt to the wound. So, if you ask us what we have been doing lately? Home and shopping complex quarantined.


Getting all ready to go. Where is this papa?

What happened to her pony tail??


Have to wait for mommy to get ready... as usual...



Meantime, let's play outdoor with Mr.Giraffe!



Phoenix wants to join in the fun!



Ah Kong continues to water the plants while waiting for everyone to get ready...

Real hot weather. Itchy...

Mommy, wipe wipe....

There are so many beaches in Penang and since clock was showing 6pm plus by the time we got ready, we decided to go to the nearest beach at Tanjung Tokong area so that we could get good sunset view. The beach was located behind Naza Hotel.

Getting there soon....

The sea!

Going down the steps


Yay, we're here!

Tie hair. Hot, hot , hot!


Wear slippers, roll up the jeans


We first visited the beach with Leia when she was less than a year old. I could still remember that she was afraid of the sea wave appproaching her then. And last Saturday, she was afraid too. The wave was rough and it was high tide. And it was so hot! We could hardly open our eyes. Ah kong and the maid were smart to go hiding under a shady tree.

So, this mommy decided to take on the role model stand. I went near the sea and dipped my legs into the water. She was encouraged by the sight of me touching the sea water and took a few steps forward.... before retreating. An angry' wave was approaching, you see...

And before we knew it, the wave reached her violently and SPLASH!! Leia's offcially wet. From her chest all the way down. And what's the next reaction? Waaaaahhhhhh...!!! Official sign of protest from the 'lil princess.
Very, very sad....


And perhaps we (or should I say... "I") have taught her too much about the need to being clean, she regarded the sand stuck to her feet as "dirty". In between her cries, she couldn't stop complaining, "dirty..... dirty.....dirty.... mommy dirty...... papa dirty......". Both hubby and I didn't know whether to laugh and sympathise at her antics! Well, we did try to explain to her that it is sand and not dirt... but.... tough luck.

Showing us her 'dirty' foot...

Still, I wasn't ready to give up on our beach outing. So, we quickly took out her beach toys - spade, Maggi mee empty cups, container... and showed it to her on how we're supposed to play with sand... build sandcastles....collect sea shells..... bury our feet into the sand....

A one minute of non-crying scene. But still in her static pose....


Well, she did sat down on my lap and played with sand for a while before she remembered the 'dirt' still stuck on her feet. Then, the whole drama started again. Haih.... that officially ended our beach outing. Went for dinner instead. In wet clothes and no change.

Hmmm....we should do this beach outing more frequent. What say you?

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

What now?

Okay, here I am trying to juggle a few tasks at one go. Well, not the first time, though...

Priorities, priorities! Set my priorities right, that's it! I think I have a serious problem with that.

So, what do I do first now? Prepare the listening text for my students (my least favourite task...) or search for some good classroom materials for my afternoon class later? Or even better, write a post in my blog now... hehehehe....

As I surf the net for ideas, I got information overload. One thing led to another and before long, I'm lost - once again....

Was trying to look for a great article for the listening test and ended up reading up Twitter. And since I haven't installed one in my blog yet, thought I could do a quick one. "Mana tau" I ended up wasting my half hour figuring out (still) how to fix it. And that took me a whole big process of reading, understanding and following the instructions. As you can see that there's still no twitter widget uploaded here, you can guess the outcome of my effort.... zero.

Why did I end up babbling here when I'm supposed to focus on my listening test preparation. Blame it on distractions!

Friday, July 10, 2009

Purpose in life


This must be the best year ever in my life! I'm able to focus on my family-building, particularly. Also, I'm enjoying my new working life, qetting acquainted once more with my old school buddies and many others through Facebook and indulging into new hobbies like cooking, baking and recycling. All at one go! My house, my home has never been much a better place to live than now!


I never thought that letting go that once prized job could open up so many new opportunities to me... But it was not easy to let go. It took me about a year to discern and finally took that leap of faith. I'll never forget that one very important person who made me realised the need to walk the talk. That is, to put important things in my life FIRST. It's always been easy to announce to the world that 'my family comes first' but it's always been a struggle to many families or parents like me to really put that into action. If we do indeed give it a real serious thought, it's not that difficult to see that it's almost contradicting to believe that our family comes first when most of the time we're engaged in office or other activities around the clock.


Really, God has been good. Now I understand the purpose of God placing those not-so-comfortable situations in my life 1-2 years ago. Yes, it is good!

My papa's 61st birthday celebration May this year.