Category Archives: Everyday Life

Outings at Kolej Permata Pintar Negara

Posted in Parenting, Family and Relationships by

My son is lucky that his place of study is relatively near to his home. So much so Mr Husband can make a visit every fortnight to help him with his laundry. On weeks when there is no outing, the husband would grab the laundry basket, shoot it at the nearest laundry mat and then return it to him with an outside meal. They would usually spend a father-son moment in the car, eating junk food while watching movies. On weeks when Ee has an outing, we would take him out to Aeon Seremban or someplace nearby, also do his laundry and send him back safely.

The students also have outing bermalam. So, those who stay nearby could use this privilege to go back home and spend the weekend with the family. Parents are allowed to fetch these students on Friday after 1230pm but they must return to their hostel by Sunday before 6pm. Once they are done with their outings, they have to return their outing book to their wardens. Ee being Ee, has forgotten to return his book twice resulting in him being punished. Thankfully parents can still visit during normal visitation hours on the weekend. So, that would mean another meal on wheels at KPPN. I told him to set the alarm on his handphone every time we send him back nowadays.

On this particular weekend outing, Mr Husband scheduled Ee for a Scrabble competition. The tournament was at Shah Alam and Ee participated in the game with his cousin, Echa. Ee secured 4th place while Echa was the first runner-up. He said he was unlucky because he had 2 rounds with the champion. Honestly, I think he should try harder and stop making excuses. haha.

The next time he’ll come home will be in December for the final year of school break. Then, he will be in Aras 2 in 2025 welcoming his younger fellow students on board.

Visiting my brother

Posted in Parenting, Family and Relationships by

I made a quick visit to my brother today because I saw an IKEA advert a few weeks ago.

The IKEA advert was about a mother-son duo who went shopping together at IKEA. The son was planning to move into his new home, just around the corner and bought new furniture for the house. Throughout the video, the son is depicted as a child running adult errands. This goes to show that children will always be children in their parent’s eyes no matter how old they are.

My brother is in his early 30s and lives alone, an hour and 40 minutes from where I stay. While he is independent in knowing how to pay his house bills and such, there was something in the IKEA advert that prompted me to pay him a visit.

Moms are said to be the life of a home. When my mom died, a lot of people’s attention was towards my father. They were concerned about how he would fend for himself every day knowing that the daughters live far away tending to their own family, the youngest son also has his own family to look after. Leaving this single brother who unfortunately is not on good terms with my father. They were able to be civil to each other when Mom was still alive. However, once she died all the remaining grace was out of the door.

My brother moved out. My dad was not bothered. In short, they were fending for themselves once Mom was gone. Now that my father is in a relationship with our prospective step-mother, it left me wondering about my brother. If my mom could call from the grave, she’d probably be asking if he is doing well. If he is eating. If he is lonely. Because moms usually take care of those things for their sons when they used to live together. No matter how much they’ve grown.

It also got me thinking, if one day me and my husband are not around, will my kids look after each other as they embrace adulthood with all the responsibilities at hand? I would love to think that they would but it’s something that would slip our minds if we don’t ponder on it enough. If all siblings take care of each other, no one would have to be homeless or end up alone on the streets. I would hate for it to happen to our family.

So for my ‘wellness visit’ to my brother’s house, I decided to bring him some home-cooked meals. It took me just about 2 hours to get everything done. I made him spaghetti bolognese, shepherd’s pie, baked macaroni cheese, rice with potato sambal, fried rice, burgers, grapes, fruit salad and a potato salad. I even bought him a 1-litre carton of Bright Cow milk because I wanted him to try something new. The theme is pretty much Western for now.

He was well, alhamdulilah. The house was clean. Probably because my sister gave him a heads-up. He admitted that he vacuumed and mopped the house just before we arrived. He even put Sponge Bob on the TV for my daughter to watch. Something kid’s friendly, he said. My visit to his home was short. But I am thinking of making this a routine visit every 2 or 3 months. So that he knows that even mom is not here anymore, we siblings are still here for him and care for him just like mom used to.

Diabetes Day Celebration 2024

Posted in All in a days work, Good Things by

This year my team is going low-key with a very minimal budget. There’s not even an opening speech, a gimmick or sharing sessions with patients. I personally felt that the patients were also not trying hard enough to improve their health conditions. I have yet to witness any cases of really good changes in their HbA1c level.

The celebration started with an aerobic session followed by activities at the booth area. The medical officers and diabetic educators were in charge of the registration and arranging the breakfast buffet for the team. We also had a few games at our stall with small trinkets as prizes. I bought syringe pens as registration tokens which I had prepared 2 weeks earlier.

The dietitian booth was a one-woman show. Madam Siah was demonstrating the diabetic diet meal sets which were so realistic.

The pharmacists had puzzles to solve and Uphamol was given as a token of participation.

The Occupational Therapists unit had a stereognostic box. Participants were told to put their hands inside the box and feel the objects. Whereas the Physiotherapist booth has a Physical Activity Pyramid. It’s interesting to see which daily activities that we do are considered as having low, medium or high intensity.

The programme did not incur much budget as we were parting knowledge more than anything. We did use money to print the banner which will be used for the next 2 years as the themes are the same. Part of the budget is for tokens and our meal for the day. I am hoping to do something different next year. We will see what my brain juices will think of in 2025.

Enjoy the pictures

Here is my team. Well, part of it. We forgot to take a photo together during the event. This was when we were clearing the area.

GBW Hotel, Johor Bahru

Posted in Everyday Life, Leisure & Travel, Reviews by

This is what I said on Google Reviews. Mr Husband booked a room here during the Deepavali holidays. Coincidentally, school is also out so we get to go for a staycation at Johor Bahru.

My daughter was really looking forward to our stay here. She said it’s been a while since we went for a holiday. Although I believe we’ve just had a weekend stay at The Everly Putrajaya a few weeks ago.

Kids waiting at the lobby while Mr Husband checked us in.
Little fashionista going up the lift with her new hat and Anya

The moment I stepped into our Premier Suite, I immediately loved it. It was a lovely room that had a kitchenette equipped with a microwave, a fridge and a kettle, a dining space, a living area and a separate bedroom. There were two writing desks which is great. I could continue doing my assignments in the room and he could do his work in the living area. My daughter enjoyed the bath tub of course and the son just loved being in an air-conditioned room. Staying in a dorm means that he is deprived of life luxuries. This room probably cost us roughly between RM250 – RM270 per night through Agoda.

Free WIFI is available but only 4 gadgets are granted access. There’s an ironing board with iron as well. The pool is on the 7th floor. We wanted to have a look but then we got stuck in the lift. Hence, the mission was aborted.

Breakfast for 2 adults is included in our room rate. So we paid extra for the kids. The breakfast menu was top-notch for a 4-star hotel. As mentioned, I loved their nasi lemak paru. The restaurant is also not overly crowded making it a pleasant experience in the morning. If you prefer having breakfast outside, either order a GRAB and have it sent to the lobby or walk across to the R&F Mall.

During our stay there, we were out and about mostly until after lunch. We would just order our dinner through GRAB but that is when an unfortunate incident happened. Our Kacang Pool and rice meals were stolen by a fellow hotel visitor. The hotel cooperated by giving access to their CCTV. Mr Husband had a good look of the culprit’s face, requested a refund from GRAB and was hoping to confront this guy during breakfast time. We didn’t see him. Most likely he enjoyed our meal as breakfast. HA HA HA.

Since this hotel is near the main road, we could hear motorcars honking almost every 30 mins during rush hour. It’s almost normal to see some shameless car owners cutting the queue. I understand the frustration.

Overall, it was a very comfortable stay. I would definitely repeat a stay here although I’d be more likely be trying out other hotels if we are ever going to JB again. It would be nice though if the big windows were cleaned as the view seems amazing at night. Minus the smudge.

Zoo Johor

Posted in Good Things, Leisure & Travel by

Zoo Johor had a makeover. The first time I went there was when I was heavily pregnant with my daughter in 2017 and the second time around was when she turned 3 years old. Now, the zoo looks more modern although it is way smaller than Zoo Negara and Zoo Melaka. Of course, the fees have gone up but it was still a great place to spend the day out with the kids. Tickets can be bought online or at the premises using the kiosk. The zoo will be closed every Tuesday starting November 1st.

I liked the part where we hovered over the Gladiator-like rings to see the lions, tigers and bears.

Another great feature is that visitors get to snap photos with the birds and snakes (in a glass box) without concerns about paying extra or being in a queue. I would say it is a minimalistic zoo that is equally entertaining. As it doesn’t have the ritual photography sessions at the front gate or the ‘come here buy your fridge magnet‘ salesperson at the zoo exit. It’s just a place where the family could hang out and get excited over the animals at a small cost. I like that. Animals should be accessible to all classes of citizens. Rakyat Johor sangat bertuah.

We spent roughly an hour at the zoo and managed to put in about 5K steps into our daily walk routine. Afterwards, we made a quick stop at Mid Valley South Key Mall for lunch. We had Nandos and even ordered the bottomless drinks and yoghurts. The vanilla yoghurt had a smooth taste and not too sour. My husband loved it. He also shopped for new work bags and a luggage bag for his sister. I didn’t get anything. I am being very mindful of my spending lately because I have a bigger financial goal in a few months to come.

The beautiful posh mall
Thankfully with Deepavali decor instead of Halloween
Our bottomless yoghurt

During this staycation in Johor Bahru, we stayed at The GBW Hotel. I will blog about it in another post.