Samuel + Jesse On Plane

Both our kids has many experiences travelling on the plane. We were never worried about them. So far, so good. But this time, Jesse was very afraid. To the extend that, once we got on the plane, she kept requesting to go to the toilet. I think she asked to pee about 5x while alot of passenger is still boarding the plane.

It was not difficult for me to bring her to the toilet as we were sitting almost at the end of the plane, which is near the toilet. Out of the many times going to the toilet, she only pee-d once.

After trying to comfort her, she was willing to sit on her own. One hand holding her Minnie Mouse soft toy, while the other hand holding on to my hand tightly. I can see that she was very afraid. After we started taking off, she was alright.

While Jesse was worried and afraid, Samuel, who was sitting on my right, on the next row with the maid was very excited and kept asking us when is the plane flying.

Both did not sleep until we landed :0 Samuel dozed off just after we landed, while taking off his seat belt o_O We tried to wake him up but he couldn't open his eyes. Daddy has to carry him, while I carried Jesse.

When we left KL, Jesse was much easier to manage. She was afraid initially but after a while she was alright. She no longer need to hold my hand for comfort or ask to go to toilet :p

Worried face during our flight going to KL

Happy faces when we left KL

Samuel again was very noisy when he was on the plane and we can see that he really enjoyed himself on the plane. He even made alot of funny faces for daddy when daddy was taking his photos.

Malaysian Airlines, MH = Malaysian Hospitality?

We had a short trip back to KL last Sunday, via Miri. We travelled to Miri on Saturday evening, after Samuel & Jesse's music class. We stayed a night at daddy's colleague's house in Miri.

We left Miri on Sunday morning at 11.30am via Malaysia Airlines (MAS). We decided to travel by MAS although it was slightly more expensive compared to Airasia as we thought the services are better.

We were so wrong. Upon checking in, I requested for children's meals and the ground crew told me that they do not have children's meals. I know MAS used to serve children's meals, that is why we requested it but I thought because of the bad times, they do not serve it anymore. We were told that they only have "sarapan". Serving breakfast for lunch? (11.30am - 1.40pm flight)

Not only they gave us the wrong information, the ground crew who gave us our boarding passes also gave us 3 different rows of seats. She told us that since we did not buy the tickets together, she can't give us the seats on the same row. o_O
A family travelling together with little ones sitting in 3 different rows?? She's got to be kidding!

The MAS online tickets only allows us to purchase a maximum of 4 tickets at the same time. How do they expect us to buy the tickets together when there are 5 of us travelling? As there are 3 adults and 2 children, does she expect 1 adult sitting with 2 children while the other 2 adults sitting at a different seperate rows? I told her we wanted to have the same row next to each other. She changed it for us without any other questions.

When we were on the plane, I saw the air stewardess serving other children, children's meals. We were so dissapointed when I approached one of them and they said we did not request for it! We requested and the ground crew told us there were no children's meals. Can you feel our dissapointment when we saw other children having their own children meals while ours doesn't. We paid more than RM100 extra as compared to Airasia for better services but this is what we got. The normal meals are spicy (ayam masak merah, etc), so my children only had bread for lunch.

We requested for a suggestion form to lodge our dissapointment.

To make things worse, our dissapointment did not stop when we were going to KL.

Before we boarded our flight from KL back to Miri, while we were in KLIA (one of the largest airport in Asia) we were told (and its printed on our boarding passes) to board from Gate B11 (at the very end of KLIA airport)

When we reached Gate B11, we were told that we are to board from Gate A10. Which is the other far end!! o_O. They only announced the change of boarding gate 15 minutes before boarding time. What happened??

Although Jesse is considered light for her age, she is still heavier than a bag of 10kg rice. Walking from one end to the other end carrying her is no kidding.

To test our patience even more, we did not get our children's meals AGAIN!!
Yes, they only had bread for our little ones AGAIN!
We were told, by the air stewardess, this time there were no records at all for children's meals on board. Does that mean, the ground crew did not even bothered to attend to our request? We made very sure it was clear this time when we checked in.

So, how does MAS prove itself to be MH (Malaysian Hospitality)? Or has Malaysian Hospitality changed so drastically over the years?

Isn't it an insult to Malaysian Hospitality when they associate Malaysia Airlines (MAS) as
MH = Malaysian Hospitality ?

We sent in 2 comment letters and we are now waiting for their reply. We shall see if there is going to be any replies.

Blog break

We are currently away in KL for holidays. Our little ones are starting to feel better. Thanks for the many well wishes.
Will be bloging again when we return & settle down.

3 Down

It looks like Samuel's virus has spread to daddy and Jesse. On Thursday, daddy started to feel nauseas but his condition is under control. He is still on medication. Jesse started to vomit and has fever since yesterday. She is still having fever this morning.

Samuel is still not fully recovered yet. He still vomitted yesterday evening after his dinner. He was much better since Thursday, but he was only taking porridge until yesterday dinner. We gave him rice and I guess he still couldn't digest properly. Not long after his dinner, he threw up.

I hope everyone can get well soon, we are leaving Brunei today for a week holiday back to KL.

End of Term 1, 2009

We had parent teacher's interview yesterday. This year their progress report was very different from the previous years. The report was meant for 3 years, since the Montessori course is a 3 years program. It is a very detailed progress report.

According to Samuel's class teacher, he is progressing well in his language. He has not been taught any Mathematics yet as their pre-requisite for Maths is to finish the sensorial. From the report, I noticed that he has only done about 25% of what they are suppose to learn. I guess by end of the year they will not touch Mathematics.

We also brought back alot of papers. Some are spelling papers, cutting papers and some art papers as well. Apparently they have been doing alot of spelling, what they call "words building". Samuel has completed most of these as they learn base on the boxes as they progress. The teacher said that Samuel has no more boxes to work on.

Looking at Samuel's progress uptodate, he will be graduating at the end of this year.

My Handbag

I got so dissapointed when I noticed my Louis Vuitton handbag is no longer in good condition. It is either dirty or the colour has faded. I suspect it is actually dust that has been accumulated for some time and because of the dust, the bag became dirty and it looks as if the colour has changed.

Besides the colour, I also noticed the thread is not at its original condition.

I called LV, KL's service centre and they told me that I can only use a damped cloth to clean it. One of them told me that if the colour changes, then there's nothing I can do about it. This is so sad.

Actually I hardly carry the bag. Most of the time its either in my office drawer, at home or in the car. I never know how to take care of handbags. I should have kept it in my cabinet when I'm not using it instead of just putting it on the floor in my room. Well, there's nothing I can do now except to learn from this mistake.

Sick Boy

Yesterday was last day of school for Samuel and he started to have fever in the evening. We were about to send him to swimming lesson and noticed that he has slight temperature, 37.6 degree celcius. He has to skip his lesson yesterday.

He threw up 3x, after each meal except during school break. We brought him to see a doctor and was given anti nausea medicine. He was alright and did not have any fever yesterday night after 1 dose of paracetamol. But this afternoon, after his lunch, he has mild fever again. I hope he will recover soon as we will be away for a week.

>_o wink o_< wink >_< blink

>_o wink captured by Ing che che

Jesse has been doing alot of adorable things lately. One of which daddy has been trying to capture on the camera but has always been unsuccessful is literally

*wink* *wink* *blink* >_o o_< >_<

Piggy Back

These days Jesse likes to piggy back on us. Sometimes if I'm sitting on the floor she will run and hugs my neck from the back. There are many occassions that she hugs me very tight until it is very difficult for me to breath and even chocked. At times, when she piggy backs on me, I do not need to hold on to her as she will be hugging me so hard that she will not fall.

Rhyming Recital

Samuel's school just had a "rhyming" recital in Riverview Hotel today. It was a recital for the children only. He was asked to wear something (kinda like a costume) related to the rhyme that he presented. Since he was chosen to say the "silver rocket rhyme", he was asked to wear something like a silver rocket! Its a good thing that he has a silver shirt and pants. It was his korean costume that we made for his 2007 concert.

He needs to memorize and present his rocket rhyme which goes :

A tall silver rocket,

Standing on the ground,

Now its almost ready,

Here comes the sound,

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1

Blast Off !

He also memorized and presented a malay rhyme. Here is his part :

Pokok berangan, pokok durian

Limau purut buahnya sedikit

Since it was for children only, we wonder how he did in his recital earlier today.

I Love You

A week ago, Daddy switched on a music CD and we sang along with the kids. When it came to Barney's "I Love You" song, Jesse came to me and give me a big hug. Upon seeing this, Samuel followed her. It is always nice when the kids hugs or kisses us without us telling them to do so.

Although Samuel is not an expressive type, he sometimes surprises me and tells me that he loves me. I wonder what makes him say that out of the blue.

Something to Share

I have an article to share. Please read.

A long time ago, there was an Emperor who told his horseman that if he could ride on his horse and cover as much land area as he likes, then the Emperor would give him the area of land he has covered.

Sure enough, the horseman quickly jumped onto his horse and rode as fast as possible to cover as much land area as he could. He kept on riding and riding, whipping the horse to go as fast as possible. When he was hungry or tired, he did not stop because he wanted to cover as much area as possible.

Came to a point when he had covered a substantial area and he was exhausted and was dying. Then he asked himself, "Why did I push myself so hard to cover so much land area? Now I am dying and I only need a very small area to bury myself." The above story is similar with the journey of our Life. We push very hard everyday to make more money, to gain power and recognition. We neglect our health, time with our family and to appreciate the surrounding beauty and the hobbies we love.

One day when we look back, we will realize that we don't really need that much, but then we cannot turn back time for what we have missed.

Life is not about making money, acquiring power or recognition. Life is definitely not about work! Work is only necessary to keep us living so as to enjoy the beauty and pleasures of life. Life is a balance of Work and Play, Family and Personal time. You have to decide how you want to balance your Life. Define your priorities, realize what you are able to compromise but always let some of your decisions be based on your instincts. Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of Life, the whole aim of human existence.

I saw this article few months back and I save this in my email. I thought this is something good that I should keep and to remind myself not to work too hard. I have always regard myself as "stingy" when it comes to money. I would want to save more money not only for my future but also for my children's future.

On and off I will read this article again to also remind myself that at times, we should pamper ourselves for the hardwork. I think every month besides putting some money away for savings, we should also allocate some fund to pamper ourselves, don't you think so?

Welcome Diapers

Jesse peed on her bed 3 nights in a row. We started to stop her night diaper on the 25/2 and she has her 1st wet on 3/3.

For the past 3 nights, not only we have to change her pants, we have to change her mattress and blanket as well. 2 nights ago, she wet herself and the mattress at about 12am. I woke up at 215am and notice my comforter was wet but Jesse's pants was dry. At 230am, she woke up and wanted to pee. Within this 2.5hours, she peed 3 times. Yesterday, we put on Drybees cloth diaper for her. As expected, she peed and wet her mattress again!

Tonite, we are going to be more prepared. We will put rubber mat in between the mattress and the bedsheet. I certainly hope the mattress will not be wet again. o_O

Jerudong Park Playground

Last Saturday, we brought our little ones to Jerudong Park Playground. We went there about 5 pm. We started playing at the playground (swings, slides, see saw) before enjoying ourselves on the other fun rides.

Daddy and Samuel went on the Junior Sky Diver ride. Jesse didn't want to sit on the ride so I have wait for daddy and Samuel with her. We then went for the Caterpillar ride before we played the Bumper car. We were on the bumper car ride for about 10 minutes non stop. We felt it was abit boring taking such a long ride and decided to stop. So, we left the bumper car and Samuel wanted to play at the shooting gallery.

Since Samuel enjoyed the Junior Sky Diver ride very much, I decided to ride with him. After the ride, mummy felt dizzy. After the skydiver, we went to ride on the carousel. Then we headed to the mini amphitheatre for a rest before the magic show started at 7 pm. After we magic show, we left the playground and went home.

Bath Time

Recently daddy bought some bubble making toys for our little ones. We let them play bubbles during their bath time. A couple of months ago, we started to bath Samuel and Jesse together.

Usually we will bath Jesse first and then let her continue to play water while bathing Samuel. These days, before we bath them, we will play bubbles with them. Both of them will shout and scream with joy when they see lots of bubbles. Not only they enjoy playing in the bath tub, they enjoy the bubble bath as well.

Jesse Praying

Everynight before our little ones go to sleep. Daddy and Mummy will pray with them. Samuel usually says his own prayer while Jesse will usually close her eyes and hold her hands together. She will always say "Amen" aloud at the end of the prayers.

Daddy has been very amused by the way Jesse prays he took a few photos of her.

Jesse Saying Amen!

Tea Party

Recently, we have been playing tea party with Samuel and Jesse. They both love the tea party basket that we gave them.