Study time

I told you to study.. and when I walked into your room, I see these on your table. 

Online Learning

One good thing which came out of the Movement Control is that the school is ready to conduct online classes when there is the need. As the scheduled water cut was to last 4 days with sufficient notice from the government, the school issued a notice that classes would be conducted online even before the new year rolled in. In the week leading to the water cuts, teachers even had sessions to train children on the usage of electronic devices and how to log into MS Teams and attend classes.

With that, we all decided to move our "office" and "school" to Ipoh. Yay! There is water... and there is many opportunities to eat the yummy food in Ipoh which we miss so much. 

Evelyn's first day of online lessons

Evan's New Room

.. for the next 1.5 years... 

As we had to rush back to Penang (Mei-mei had school the next day), we quickly picked up the keys from the agent (he was still cleaning up the place), did a quick check on the room and then headed to Grand Imperial where the rest of the clan were waiting to have dim sum with us. 

As Ashley Kor-kor and Uncle Dennis had headed home, we asked them to help bring along your 2 big luggage with them. After lunch, daddy headed back to Cyberjaya as he wanted to fix up the light in Yvonne Kor-kor's house while we hopped into Uncle Dennis' car and went to Pyramid to quickly buy mattress topper before heading to Geo Sense. 

They provided some input on the layout of the room and we reshuffled the room. 

Then we headed back to Denai Alam where daddy met up with us. We had an early dinner at Mozer's before heading back to Geo Sense again. After much persuasion/discussion, we finally agreed on another layout. Helped you to measure the available space so that you could buy the correct furniture for the room. The next day, Uncle Dennis picked you up to go to Ikea to pick up your stuff. After buying the stuff, he also helped you build the shelf and set up everything. Ah, I think your room looks quite cosy now.. just a matter of whether the table is big enough for you.

And of course, after all that hard work, you were treated to Jyuraku.. lucky kid!

Happy New Year 2024!

As we were in KL, the initial plan was to order in and have a little dinner party in Ashley Kor-kor's place. But then the plan was suddenly hijacked and turned into a BBQ party at Yvonne Kor-kor's place as Chek Kong, Chim Poh and Kor Poh were also around. So we were supposed to stay the night at her place. Well, she did invite us to stay over at her place, so that we need not move around so much, but we preferred Denai Alam which is nearer to Sunway. 

So before we arrived, we had bought the slab of beef and 1 tomahawk from Penang. Upon arrival, we bought the ingredients for vegetables at the nearby Jaya Grocer. The one challenging item to get was the red onion (we didn't want China ones) and in the end, as a last resort I had to buy yellow Holland onions. Oh well... 

We left in 2 cars, 1 in search of onions and another to buy some light snacks for lunch. 

Shortly after we arrived in Cyberjaya, daddy started the fire on the BBQ grill. It was just 2pm, so he slowly roasted the Japanese sweet potatoes. 

Then, hungry Check Kong asked if that was all, so daddy grilled 1 packed of sausages (from Honest Butcher):

 

Italian Dinner

While we waited for the rain to stop in the Klang cafe, everyone searched for an Italian restaurant for dinner. In the end daddy found "Portofino" and everyone agreed it sounded ok to try out.

Managed to get a table for the evening. Turned out that the restaurant was relatively empty... for a Saturday night. But the food was quite good actually.. 

My blurry photo of the Four Cheese Gnocchi

Tagliatelle Bolognaise

Lasagna

Seafood risotto

Pizza Margherita

We decided to add another risotto, the Mushroom risotto. It tasted nice, unfortunately the risotto was rather undercooked. 

And we finished off with some dessert:

Visiting Klang

Thought of trying something new, so we went to Klang to eat their version of BKT. There was first a wait for our table then another wait for our food. It took a little longer than other people as it seemed that the person who took our order missed placing it in with the kitchen. 

Dry version

Soup version

The verdict.. Penang version is the best, with the herbal flavours in the soup.

After lunch, we headed to a cafe called "Blackstone Bakery Cafe". There was a little store upstairs which sold locally crafted gifts. So we got some stuff from there before heading downstairs to have a drink and a cake:

It started to rain quite heavily, so we sat abit and waited for the rain to let up a little before running to the car, which was conveniently parked just across the street from the cafe.

Cheeky Girl

This were the faces you showed me when I tried to take photos of you eating the ice-cream in Family Mart while we waited for daddy and Ko-ko to clean out his room in Waterfront Residences. 

Driving Test

Long, long day for you. We dropped you off at the learning center (the exam is held here) at around 7.40am. Then we headed to Kg. Jawa to eat the CKT and also to pack back for you, seeing that today is your last day in Penang for your December holiday.

We assumed you should be done quite quickly but it just kept on dragging on and on. At 10.30am, you had just completed the driving portion.. 1/3 of the test. Then you said that you were hungry. Had not packed any snack nor drink, thinking there was a vending machine there. Unfortunately, it was out of order! So we had to bring you some Panettone (CKT was rejected.. ) 

Snapped a quick picture as I passed you the food

Then we headed back home and waited again. At around 2pm, we went to wait for you, thinking that you should be about done. But in the end, we had to head home as you still had to wait for... something...

You were finally done at 3pm. Brought you home to eat 1.,5 packets of the CKT (despite all the remarks about it not being as good as eating there, the egg being too cooked.. bla bla). You rested a bit and we packed the car then off we went to KL. 

Grandma/Tou-Tou's 95th Birthday

The planned big bash was supposed to be on the 17th of the month. Unfortunately, many of the family caught Covid, including Tou-tou. So it was postponed to 1 week later. With that, it was a clash for daddy (golf December birthday celebration), Mei-mei (ballet rehearsal before the evening performance) and me (needed to send Mei-mei to USM). But in the end, ballet school requested for Mei-mei to arrive by 12pm. So Ah Ma, Ah Kong and Ko-ko headed to the restaurant, while I went later by Grab after dropping her off in USM. 

It was a long drive for me (heavy traffic), but by the time I arrived the luncheon had not yet started. And at long last at around 1.15pm, we were served the first course:

Four Season

Soup

Duck's crispy skin on sushi rice (with cheese)

Peking Duck 

Fresh water prawns with noodles

"Fa gau" dessert

The kiddies got to collect an ang pow from Tou-tou:

And before we had cake, birthday pau and red eggs, there was a photo session. Here is one of all the folks who made it for her birthday celebration:

Meal Trays for Covid Patients

It's not an easy task to prepare the trays for the 3 of you. As Mei-mei says.. Ah Kong's breakfast is a buffet spread! Some days, I am able to fit food for both Ah Kong and Ah Ma in one tray, and on other days, they need 1 each!

Their buffet spread

While we used to put the tray on the floor when daddy was in quarantine, we had to put a chair and clear some space on the side table to put their trays on it, as they have difficulty bending over to pick up the trays. 

Next, I'd have to wait for over an hour for them to enjoy their leisurely breakfast before they put the tray and dishes out for me to wash.. 

And very soon, we'd repeat the same process for lunch and then dinner!

By the way.. on the rare occasion, Ko-ko also got a breakfast tray:

Dinner in front of the TV

It was a simple meal, just the 3 of us and we wanted to finish up the movie Shang-Chi. So we parked ourselves in front of the TV to watch the movie and eat our Mr. Shawerma dinner. 

Covid comes a-visitng

And here we go again.. 

On Tuesday evening, you called me to ask where the test kits were. Reason being Ah Kong wasn't feeling well and had fever. Oh no.. just as we reached home, you called to say he tested positive and you will self-quarantine. We also asked Ah Ma to self-quarantine seeing that she was sitting with him (and you too) the whole day while he was already sick. You both tested negative and so we told you both that you can come out the next day if you test negative. 

On Wednesday, you called to say that your test came back positive.. sigh.. my heart dropped. You had no symptoms for the whole day, so your appetite was very good (read: always hungry). You also said you wanted to eat as much as you could before fever hits you and you lose all appetite. That night, the fever came...

On Thursday, your fever was very high. You barely had any appetite, but managed to scarf down the Kg Jawa CKT that we had bought in the morning. We were also getting suspicious of Ah Ma's status as we could hear her coughing a lot in the room downstairs. So after lunch, daddy had her tested twice and it came out positive. We debated on where would be a better place to keep her. In the end, we opted to move her into the room with Ah Kong. He said that he would move into the room downstairs once he's cleared.

Ah Ma also started her fever in the evening. This time we gave all of you 1.5 of the 650mg Paracetalmol. It worked better. Your fever was also running you down and you had no appetite for dinner with your fever hovering near 39 degrees. We gave you 1.5 of the paracetamol and once it was suppressed, you appetite came back with a vengeance. Daddy had to make you supper. But I'm glad that you could still eat.

It looks like it's going to be a long week... many more days to go. Hope that you'll all recover faster and have as mild symptoms as possible. 

Harmony of Hope

You were suddenly drafted into the musical ensemble for the Harmony of Hope performance in school. Luckily you only needed to be in school by 6.30pm for the 7pm performance.

As it was only 30 minutes, we decided to just hang around until the doors open to the MPH.

Quick photo before you headed to the gathering point

Our tickets (premium seating)

The event started late as we had to wait for the arrival of the Penang Chief Minister. But once it started, everything went smoothly. We were treated to the school orchestra's performance, primary music ensemble, guitar performance and many more. 

Ko-ko had to try a few times to finally get a photo of you. Good timing as you smiled so sweetly

After the performance ended, you went back to the music room to collect your stuff before we headed off. Daddy and Ko-ko went to collect the car, so we quickly took a photo of you with the Christmas nativity setup:

 Made a quick call to Via Pre to check what time their kitchen closed. I was told 10.30pm and since it was 9.30pm, we thought that we had ample time. Unfortunately, it was soooooo jam heading to the restaurant. But we made it on time to order our food and had a great enjoyable meal before heading home after a long, long day...