Sunday, June 29, 2025

Before Leaving for Penang

Today we headed out for Vietnamese lunch. It's a different place from our usual Ara Viet, called Goc Viet. It's quite a distance to drive. We went in 2 cars as Ashley Kor-kor planned to head home after lunch. She also had to drop Smoky off for his shower before heading to the lunch spot. 
This is what we had:
Vietnamese Hot Coffee
Cold coffee
Pho with no veggies for the 3 of us
Spring rolls
Then we headed back to the condo to drop off the keys for the agent. Next, daddy dropped us at 2nd Street. Ko-ko said that there was a big one near his college. They both went off for coffee while we browsed the shop. It was actually quite small. Only the ground floor. Then they came and picked us up and we went to the other branch. It's bigger, but we were too tired and couldn't really find much. 
So we went home to rest, and pack up. 
But we still needed dinner. In the end, we headed to JyuRaku. Final hurrah at Ko-ko's favourite dining spot. It was a good thing that Ashley Kor-kor had helped to reserve a table for us. It was a simple (not cheap!) dinner. 
We also each got a serving of ice-cream before starting our journey home.
The pretty lighted up Ferris wheel:
And again, traffic was horrendous this trip. It took us over 4 hours to reach home. There were times where we came to a full halt on the highway!

Saturday, June 28, 2025

Back at Marta's

Booked a place here to have dinner with Alex Ku-ku and Ah Kim. Daddy enjoyed it the last time we came, so we're here again. Ordered a lot of food. They were mostly amazing:

Oops.. we were too busy enjoying the food and company that we'd forgotten to have a group photo taken!

Packing Up

Today, we planned to clear out your room. But before that, brunch. We drove to a cafe nearby in 2 cars. It was a little wait for our table. Placed our orders and soon our brunch was served.  The food was quite good. 

Then Mei-mei went home with Kor-kor while the 3 of us headed to Geo Avenue to pack up. We slowly packed up the clothes, determined what to do with the table lamp and you sifted through the big stack of papers to decide which is to be binned. Daddy then went down to Mr DIY to see what can be used to fix the patch on the wall (caused by you sticking a hook on the wall and removing the paint along with the hook). Well.. he found a white marker pen and bought a tub of putty too. The fix looks quite ok. Only noticeable if you look really closely. 
The initial plan was to bring the shelving units with us as we were to pass them to Alex Ku-ku when we met for dinner. In the end we managed to load the car with everything so we wouldn't have to come back again. Tried to contact the agent, but by the time he responded that we could just leave the keys in the room, we had already left. So we would need to go another time tomorrow to drop off the keys. 

Well, time to say Sayonara to your "home" of 1.5 years!

Friday, June 27, 2025

Whole Day of Outing

Today Ko-ko said that he'll need to catch up on his sleep and that he would have lunch or dinner plans with friends. So we decided to head to this place that Ashley Kor-kor and I had seen on Instagram for lunch. It's called La Spiga D'Oro. The drive was rather far, but it was a good thing that we arrived early (before noon). There was a 15 minute wait for our table and once we were seated, we placed our orders. 

First up: Insalata Caprese

Then the sandwiches. They all tasted different and was very delicious. The focaccia was heavenly. 
After lunch, there was a long queue of people waiting for a turn to dine in the restaurant. We overheard the waitress informing them that the wait would be an hour! Thank goodness we had an early start to the day. 
Next stop was The Gardens. We did a little shopping there and then headed to another place what we had seen in Instagram. It's called Brewmaster. They had their own beer on tap, which Ashley Kor-kor and I picked (daddy was attending a meeting). Er.. not the best place and not the nicest beers. So this place is striked off our list. 

It was nearly 6 and we decided to head to another place called Monster and Beer. We had been there to pick up some beer the last time we were nearby for dinner. 
We were not really hungry, so we ordered some light bites from their menu. Then Ko-ko said that his dinner plans was cancelled. We told him to pack a bag and take a Grab over to us. He was still looking sleepy, but hungry so we ordered something for him to eat. Then also ordered roast duck from the nearby shop to eat at home.

Now we have both our babies with us. 

Graduation Trip

Quite a while back, you mentioned that you wanted to go on a graduation trip with your classmates. After a lot of back and forth on where to go.. there was silence. You said that everyone could not agree on a place to go. In the end, you all finally agreed on visiting Kota Kinabalu. 

It seemed that the plans were set in motion quite quickly: tickets bought, accommodation booked, and even driver booked. 

So after you came back from Johor for the competition, you had to quickly wash the clothes you needed and off you went to Kota Kinabalu.

We're happy that you shared some of your experiences and plans even while on holidays.

Here are the photos of your AirBnB in Kundasang:

And then another photo of a super yucky food which you regretted ordering. 
You sounded like you had great fun. Drinking (in moderation as you claim) and doing a lot of activities. 
And by the time you landed in KLIA2 from the trip, we were already in KL all ready to bring you back to Penang. 

Thursday, June 26, 2025

In KL Again

Phew.. we've made so many trips in the past 2 months. But each time was filled with fun. Well, except for the heavy traffic we seem to keep encountering these trips. We left at 5pm today and only arrived in KL past 9pm. We had to find the dinner location which would still be open and be near enough from the nearest toll. In the ended we decided to go to Publika which is very near to the Jalan Duta Toll Plaza. 

Arrived shortly after 9pm. Waze brought us to the carpark which lead us almost directly to the restaurant, Ma Maison. Mei-mei got to eat the Tonkatsu which you have been wishing for (which Ko-ko is not too keen on.. he's been eating it I guess). 

After dinner we had to rush to Kor Poh's house. She had made yam cake for us to bring back to Penang. Daddy even scored 2 custom made dumplings from her (lucky him.. as the ones she had given him were eaten up before he had a chance to eat them). 

Then we pumped petrol for the car and started to make our way to Ashley Kor-kor's house. As we were driving, Ko-ko messaged to let us know that he's landed in KL. So we sent him this photo to tell him that we're in KL too:

He seemed surprised that we had already arrived. I guess we did not really tell him the actual plans on when we'd arrive to pick him up. 

We tried to stay up to ensure that he'd get into his Grab. Poor thing.. took the Grab nearly 2 hours to pick him and his friends up. Daddy had to be on standby in case he needed to pick him up from the airport. 
 

Saturday, June 21, 2025

Birthday Celebration

Today's dinner is to celebrate Chek Kong and Kor Poh's birthdays. As usual the venue is in East Ocean Restaurant. What a pity Ko-ko could not make it to Ipoh as his team decided that they would be leaving for Johor on Sunday morning at 9am.

We went in 3 cars. Upon arrival, the first thing requested was fried fish crackers. 

Soon dinner was served. This dish unfortunately had peanuts so Mei-mei could not eat. 
Nicely presented
After being mixed up
Of course, we had their signature prawn dish:
Suckling pig, but in a different style. It had glutinous rice under the skin and salad in the middle:
Stir fried duck with some condiments and served with the fried mantao:
My assembled mantao
As Mei-mei was weary of the duck having peanuts, Chim Poh ordered a serving of fried rice, which was mainly eaten by Mei-mei and Martin:
The third dish utilizing the duck was the glass noodles:
And since it was a birthday celebration, the chef also suggested noodles (a dish usually served for birthday dinners: signifying longevity). So we had a small portion:
And most importantly is the dessert followed by fruits:
Dinner is not complete without alcohol!
Just as we started our journey home, I noticed that Waze indicated police on the route home. So changed driver (Ah Ma), took a longer route (Uncle Dennis) and took the risk to drive home (Yvonne Kor-kor).
We finished off the celebration with cake at home:  

Happy Birthday Chek Kong and Kor Poh!

Evelyn's First Attempt

Today, we decided to have home cooked food instead of buying lunch after piano classes. So we asked Kakak to steam up the potatoes which daddy and I had bought earlier ready for us when we come back. 
I had also defrosted some sausages, so while I fried up the sausages, you prepared the mashed potatoes..
Well, you seemed to be able to follow instructions and made a rather tasty batch of mashed potatoes. Good job!!


Friday, June 20, 2025

Dim Sum Lunch and off to Ipoh

Yesterday evening, we decided to have dimsum in Grand Imperial for lunch. We also invited "Yam Cake" Kor Poh and Kor Teoh to join us for lunch. The food here is always very impressive. Except today, Ah Kong and Ah Ma over ordered the food.. wah.. we had to stuff ourselves with the food. 

Enjoying our meal
Daddy finally got to order the roast duck which he keeps eyeing every time we are here to dine:
It was delicious!
After lunch, Mei-mei and I headed to Sunway Pyramid in search for the Pop Mart shop. But they didn't have what she wanted. The rest of you had gone to drop off the leftovers at your place and to pump petrol. After picking us up, we headed to buy the cake which Kor Poh had requested from you. Ah Kong had gone back first with Uncle Dennis. 
Dinner was at Lam's Kitchen before we dropped you home and started our journey to Ipoh.