Seimpi Lesson 11

26 Sep 2010 (Sun):

Today, we had 2 lessons. One in the morning at 1045 am & the next at 3pm. Well, we were late in leaving the house, therefore we took a taxi. Teacher Eigene's class were different in their approach.

They spent the 1st 15 mins practising the keyboard with the teacher gg round to each student & listen to them play & correct them if needed. Then everyone will play the same song while listening to the CD as well. Meaning, they played in tune to the CD. Rachel wasn't prepared for that ( neither was I ) so she could only played the keys when she was ready.

But i think this is a good lesson. Shall get Rachel to listen & play in tune with the CD too so that she can catch the speed required & not play her at her own sweet time. ( Good practice for me too )

Then the teacher wld have the kids sit on the floor & go thru what they've learnt previously. Lucky for Rachel, she's also learnt this stuff like Dynamics, Note Values, etc already so she knew what it was all about. Teacher Eigene gave each student stickers after every song played or after every topic gone thru. So Rachel received about 10 new stickers just in her class.

Teacher Eigene's class seems very advance, i think at least 1 or 2 lessons faster than Rachel's. Or maybe its becos the class started together through FIRST, then Jumpstart, followed by Playtime (whichever), so they were able to grasp teacher Eigene's pace.

After lunch, we went to the library & browsed thru the books there. We spent some time walking at NTUC as well. I wanted Rachel to have her noon nap but she wasnt sleepy at all.

We arrived for our 3pm class 10 mins early, so we did some "homework" given by mummy (me). Heh.

Rachel has to count the dots shown on each domino & match the correct note values.

Then, she has to do it vice versa, whereby she has to match the correct no. of counts against each note. Teacher Marcia marked both pieces of work as this were also 2 of the activities they did in class.

We had our next lesson with teacher Marcia. For this lesson, we went thru last week's lesson, so Rachel was very well versed cos we did the same thing with teacher Eigene's class. Heh.

Exept for teacher Marcia's class, they hv hands on activities such as placing the correct notes with Bass Clef, then pointing to the correct notes when teacher Marcia asked for it or matching the note values according to their counts. Then they went thru spaces & lines - 4 & 5 respectively. Teacher Eigene's were mostly flash cards sequence. But i cannot compare much cos its only that one lesson which we attended so i cannot say who or who is better.

We also did more on F- forte & P - piano & did some exercises like pasting the correct dynamics on the animals. For example, a tiger wld be matched with F - loud & a mouse wld be matched with P - soft.

We learnt a new piece of song today called: 10 Little Fingers.

" I've got 10 little fingers and they all belong to me

I can make them do things

Would you like to see

I can shut them tight

I can open then wide

I can put them together

And make them all hide

I can make them jump high

I can make them jump low

I can put them together & hold them just so. "

For homework, we were given:

We will be learning this piece next week. This is a bass clef piece, meaning we play with the left hand. Will play the CD & get Rachel to play along with the count. In this way, she will be able to know the speed required & play more confidently.

For this exercise, the kids will have to listen to their CD, track 19-21 & memorize the sequence of the loud & soft. For loud sound, to paste the drum sticker & for the soft sound, to paste the tambourine.

See ya next week.

Baking

25 Sep 2010 (Sat):

I came across this baking recipe from another blogger fren's website & she in turn from another website (see below) & saw that the ingredients they used do not include the usual sugar, butter & eggs. Hmm! Interesting.

Compliments of http://weelicious.com/2010/09/23/banana-oatmeal-chocolate-chip-cookies/

Banana Oat Chocolate Chip Cookies (Makes 30 Cookies)

3 Bananas (preferably ripe or spotty bananas)

2 Cups Old Fashioned Oats. I used 1 cup Quaker Oats.

1 Cup Dried Dates, pitted and chopped. I used raisins instead. Those Sun-Maid California ones, comes in indivdual packing of 6. I used 1 box.

1/4 Cup Oil. Since there were no specifications, i used our normal cooking oil.

1/2 Tsp Cinnamon - opt out

1/2 Cup Chocolate Chips, Walnuts or Raisins. I used choccolate chips morsels, abt 2tbsp full.

1/4 Tsp Salt

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. My oven only allows max 280 degrees as i'm using those microwave kind ( what's the actual name? ) so i set to 180 degrees. The usual temperature for muffins.

2. Mash bananas in a bowl, and mix in the remaining ingredients.

3. Allow the mixture to sit for 10 minutes.

4. Using a mini ice cream scoop or tablespoon, place the batter onto a Silpat or parchment-lined baking sheet. Suggestions: place a half cut red cherry on each scope for decor.

5. Bake for 25 Minutes. I bake for 20 mins.

6. Cool and serve.

** To make into bars – place dough in a greased 7×11 dish, bake for 35-40 minutes then allow to cool. Cut into bars or squares.

**To Freeze: allow cookies to cool after baking then place in a Ziploc bag, label and freeze for up to 3 months.

I change the above usage slightly as this is my 1st time baking. See changes in red. This is the outcome after my 2nd try. The 1st try was a total failure as all the choco chips got burnt & there was a burnt taste. Most prob, i got the temp too high & baked for too long. I threw it all away. Luckily, there were 3 bananas left so i did a 2nd time.

I'm nt sure what the texture should be like after the baking but according to the website, you should be able to feel the soft texture & sweetness of the mashed bananas n raisins & at the same time, the crisp of the oats.

Updates: To be honest, the cookies didnt taste that well overall. Yes, the said texture was there but the taste just wasnt rite. Maybe its becos i left out the cinnamon. And maybe i shd using SOS butter the next time iso of cooking oil, if i ever try baking this recipe again.

Wushu - completed with its uniform

24 Sep 2010 (Fri):

Another evening of Lionel's Wushu (chinese martial arts) class. I went to the CC after work in the evening & saw him standing in a line, praticsing along with his peers. And he is also in his uniform - white top & black pants.

In the past few lessons, he always wore his home clothes. Now his coach says that they are ready to wear the uniform. As u can see, he is wearing the white belt. This means level 1. Only when they wear the black belt, this means that he has attained the highest grade in Wushu.

Lionel on the left.

Relaxing for that few seconds.

Cant wait for him to pass the graded test & gets promoted to the next level. Heh :)

Seimpi Lesson 10

Okay folks, lesson 9 was last week on the 12 Sep but we were away on a holiday, therefore we missed it. However, by right, there was no lesson last week due to Seimpi Holiday but teacher Marcia made it up for this lesson to cover another lesson on 14 Nov due to herself not being able to make it on that day. But for this lesson 9 that we missed, we cannot do a make up lesson for it. So its on to lesson 10 for 19 Sep 2010.

We had finished the homework given the week before except i had forgotten to include 1 more piece.
Rachel has to colour the keys accordingly to the given letter name. Example: colour C key. So she has to find her C key & colour it. Or colour E key. Then she has to find her E key & colour accordingly. No specific colour though.

For homework, (which we missed last week), she's to do these 3 pieces:

This is a piece on Staff-Spaces where she has to memorize each colour on the example for each space & colour accordingly below.

Then she's to memorize the the number of each line & colour the respective line in accordance with the given colour stated.

About our left hand & right hand, she's to paste the correct number on top of every finger acoording to the example.

Today's lesson, we learned about Dynamics, Time Signatures & more about Bass Clef. What are dynamics? It refers to the volume of a sound or note.

From left to right: th symbols for piano, mezzo-piano, mezzo-forte & forte. The 2 basic indications are p for piano, meaning soft or f for forte, meaning loud. mp stands for mezzo-piano, meaning moderately soft & mf stands for mezzo-forte, meaning moderately loud. But teacher Marcia said in order not to confuse the child, we focus on p for piano & f for forte first.

This is the Time Signature. Rhythm is expressed, stated and decribed with a time signature (time). If you look at the diagram where the left corner shows 2 numerals, 4 over 4.

The bottom numeral is the duration or length of the beat and is the counting note; in this case the quarter note, therefore each quarter note gets a count of 1 beat.

The top numeral is the number of beats per measure; so we will have 4 beats per measure. Count and clap: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4.

This time we are working with "three-four" time. How do we count it? Work it from the top numeral this time. "3" represents number of beats per measure, count and clap 1 - 2 - 3. "4" represents the time value of the beat - a quarter note.

Sounds complicated to me...help :P

And remember our dear old bass clef? Well, we learned more about it today.

We listened to the pitch played on the CD player. For bass clef, the first note begins with C, followd by B, then A, then G & lastly F. Each note sounds lower than the other. Instead of Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, this is So, Fa, Mi, Re, Do. Look at the above illustration (bottom row). Find C which is in purple colour with a short line across. Next comes B, sitting on the 5th line in blue. Then followed by A in yellow, sitting on the middle of the 5th line, etc...

And lastly not forgetting about a new topic, Staff - Spaces & Lines. In each staff, there are 4 spaces & 5 lines. See below illustration.

So for class activity, Rachel did this.

Paste 5 balloons' stickers on the 5 hanging lines & paste 4 rats' stickers in the 4 spaces on the ground.

Then if off to piano practising. Rachel played her piece of Apple & Bananas & teacher Marcia commented she will have to play slightly faster in the next lesson. So its practise & more practise.

For next week, the kids will have to do score reading & play the notes on the keyboard. Gasp! I am in total doubt on this score reading thingy. Lucky for me, there is a CD provided to help me grasp on its all about before i guide Rachel along. Oooooo............

Rachel got back a progress report from Seimpi.

She got a Good for Pitch, Rhythm, Songs/Rhymes, Music Theory, Score Reading, Keyboard Playing, Memory except for Focus, she got a Fair. Comments: Rachel is very participative in class. She has shown interest in music. She has a good memory skills. Keep it up!

I was like: " Huh? a progress report for even a music class? But is good to know her progress. And also to keep in mind, she is only 3 years old. Again, there is no gurantee that she will continue or will show more interest in music.

For next week's lesson, we got 2. One at 1045am with teacher Eigene (make up lesson for 26 Aug 2010) & our own at 3pm with teacher Marcia. I'm still wondering how to while away the time in between. Its a rush if we choose to go home but if we hang around, we have 3 hours in between.

You see, we start at 1045, then ends at 1145. Travelling time to & fro home takes about an hour, arriving home at 1245. Then its lunch & back to sch, leaving at 2pm for classes at 3pm. If we hang ard, from 12 noon to 3pm, what are we gonna do? Catch a movie? Any suggestions from u readers out there?

Langkawi Day 4

14 Sep 2010 (Tues)

We only visited the snake santuary (admission @ RM15/A. Children below 6 FOC) this morning after we checked out of Citin Hotel. With nothing more to see, we went to the airport early as usual. Our flight took off right on scheduled.

Upon arrival into KLIA LCCT, we paid for the parking fees @ RM126 for 4 days. Then its off to Malacca to visit hb's fren's wife, who had js given birth about 2 months ago. We gave her one of the DOM wine that we bought. We ate dinner at their place since she had cooked "bak kut teh". I told hb: " your wish has been fulfilled. hiak hiak! "

We left around 8pm & arrived back home close to 11.30pm due to the delay at Singapore customs. You see, at the secondary clearance, the woman officer asked to open our luggage & saw the bottle of DOM we bought. She told us we have to declare that, so hb took the wine & his passport & went over to the waiting area. I waited in the car for more than half an hour.

If that woman nvr checked so in detailed, we wld hv been home long ago. Sheesh!

So this concludes our trip to Langkawi. Now, to save $$ for our next trip next year. :)

Some facts:

Air tickets to & fro LCCT KL: RM1116 (at time of booking)

Hotel for 3 nights: RM360 (at time of walk in booking)

Sightseeing in total: approx RM600

Meals in total: approx RM TBA. (need to gather all bills from hb before i can calculate the total)

Items purchased: approx RM300

Exchange rate based on 30 Aug 2010 @ approx 2.31. I changed about SGD500 initially, there- after another SGD200 at LGK airport.

Langkawi Day 3

13 Sep 2010 (Mon):

Today was our 2nd last day of this Langkawi tour. We begun our morning with a visit to the Wildlife Park which we happened to bypass yesterday. We were the 1st visitor for that day as the park opened at 8.30am. Soon, more & more tourists groups/individuals flocked into the park. Admission fees: RM22/A & RM15/C (3 yrs onwards). But we "declared" Rachel as below 3. Heh.

Inside the park, they have a variety of birds, small animals & fishes. What made the kids squealed was that they get to feed the animals by buying the food prepared for them. Carrots, cabbages & different kinds of seeds for differents birds. Hb bought them for RM6 in total.

So its walking, feeding, yelling for joy, jumping up & down, gettin excited, more walking, more feeding, more yelling & jumping.....

After about 2-3 hrs, we went on to the Mardi Agrotechnology Park aka fruit farm. Admission: RM15/A & RM8/C. There we got to ride on a tram, visited the different areas of the farm & got to eat 6 different kinds of fruits. Our guide gave us starfruits, papayas, pineapples, dragon fruits, pomelos & bananas. ( video below of the guide explaining to us abt the starfruit that they have grown)

Guide explained to us about starfruits & the way they were grown.

I jokingly told my hb that we do not need to have our lunch anymore, given all these fruits.

Rachel received a ring from a guide at the park. Its made of dried banana leaves but i had forgotten to ask the guide what it was. However, the fragile ring was torn apart after Lionel wore it on his finger & accidentally pulled it apart.

We went back to Kuah town & hb decided to have 'Bak Kut Teh" but alas, the store wasnt open. We came across another kopi tiam selling a variety of food so we decided to have our lunch there. Its just opposite the Coco Valley. For once, we had something cheaper. Hb had hokkien noodles while i shared wanton noodles with Rachel. Lionel wasnt feeling too good so he forego lunch.

We walked about Kuah town, browsing at the wines & chocolates they sold there. As Langkawi is a duty free shopper's paradise, i had my eyes fixed on certain choco products. Hb had his eyes fixed on a wine product which he saw while we were having lunch on the 1st day. Its comes with a dispenser, something like a water cooler where you can just pressed the gadget to get the liquid flowing out. We were thinking of buying the products later this evening after our shopping at Langkawi Fair cos most of the shops were closed last evening so we only got to browse ard & see very little.

Lionel at this time, reminded his father that he wanna take a photo with the cattles which we saw on the 1st day. So on the way to the fish farm restuarant, we passed by a herd of cattle, grazing the fields. As Rachel was asleep, i did not get down the car. Lionel & hb went down to take some shots. Within a few mins, Lionel came back with tears in his eyes. i asked him what happened but he didnt want to answer me. So i asked hb. It turned out that one of the cattles butted against Lionel, causing him to scream in fright. I wanted to laugh but stopped myself. So i asked Lionel if he's in pain, at the same time, trying to hold my laughter. He replied he's ok & then scolded me: " i got butted by the cow & yet u still can laugh. Hmmph!"

At this time, i cannot contained my laughter anymore...

We arrived at this fish farm. In fact, its a " cook what u catch" restaurant. They have a private kelong whereby u can fish for your food. Then u bring it to the restaurant, where they will prepare the way u like it. Per fish is RM8.50 per 100g. We had it the cantonese way. Hb caught the red snapper. Besides that, we also ordered soft shell crab, battered prawns & apple salad. I took 1 small bite of the salad & forego that plate the whole evening. ( video of the kelong provided)

Walking on the rickety bridge gave me the chitters. Its made of wooden planks & some of them threatened to give way. Hb told me to walked along where they nailed down the planks. Its safer.

Hb fishing..

A look around the kelong..

Then its off to Eagle Square where we took photos of the enormous eagle, a Langkawi icon by jetty point. I managed to catch a glimpse of the sun set as well. (See below video). We went towards Coco Valley & Langkawi Fair to purchase our sought after items. Hb bought in additional to his wine, another 2 bottles of benedict DOM @ RM72 per bottle. The wine costs RM45.

A sunset view around Eagle Square.

I got my chocolates like Hersleys, Ritter Sports, Andes, Swiss Lindt & more. Hb said we will check out first thing in the morning & go about seeing those less than popular places before proceeding to the airport. Our flight is at 13.25pm so check in is at 11.25am. So its back to the hotel for some packing.

Lights out!

Langkawi Day 2

12 Sep 2010 (Sun):

After a good night sleep, we woke up refreshed & rejuvenated. We got dressed & went down to have our breakfast. Nothing much; more of a simple fare like porridge, fried rice, mee goreng, bread, baked beans & potato wedges. Plus coffee/tea & orange juice.

The 1st destination of the day was suppose to be the Underwater World. Quoted: "If u have never been to the Underwater World, you have never been to Langkawi". Or just like: " If you have never been up the Great Wall, you have never been to China".

Well, thanks to the GPS, we got lost & make big circles 3 times ard the island. Due to some areas of Langkawi being remote areas, the GPS cannot received any signal & thus a breakdown. This breakdown caused us to continue driving onwards but in actual fact, we were suppose to turn at certain roundabouts or turnings.

We ended up at Kilim Mangrove Tour jetty instead since we saw a sign indicating Kilim Mangrove Geoforest Park. We parked the car & walked up to the ticket counter. For a 1 hour boat tour, it cost RM200 & for a 2 hours, it cost RM300 & so forth. Each boat can take up to 8 passengers.

We saw a couple enquiring abt the 2 hours boat ride & we thought of approaching them to see whtr they were interested to share so as to cut down the cost. Alas, their guide came up to them & took RM300 to pay to the ticketing staff. So we proceeded with our own tour & paid RM300 for our very own boat. Heh!

The 1st stop was the fish farm where the guide introduced to us all the various marine creatures they have & demostrated some feeding methods. ( see below video). We walked ard each pond & learned abt the type of marine creatures there. Hmm, i see people from Jordan, UAE, Pakistan, Yemen, etc..

Lionel feeding the fish, with bread wrapped ard his little finger.

Feeding the stingrays.

Fish "shooting" water to get the bread. Its one of their skills. You have to pay attention closely to the tiny droplets of water the fishes "shoot". The white piece of bread is sticking onto the vertical stilt

Next is the eagle feeding area. The boat took us to the middle of the river where we saw many eagles flying ard. The boatman brought out a bucket full of chicken pieces & threw up high in the air. Whoosh! The eagles came flying down one by one, glided across the waters & picked up the pieces one by one. (caught on video too).

We cruise ard the Andaman Sea as well, the wind blowing in our faces; perfect day to be at sea ( sounds familiar? quoted from "The Little Mermaid")

Last stop, the Kelawar Cave aka Bat Cave. We disembarked from the boat and walked up along the boardwalk into the dark caves. It was so dark and at certain points, you got to bend really low to walk across. The uncle behind me kindly shone his torch up at the caves, bright enough for me to take a shot of the bats.

If you looked at the black circle, against the orange light, you can actually see tiny black spots perched on the ceiling. Those were bats. We were not allowed to use flash lights.

2 hours flew past in a flash & its the end of the tour. We returned back to mainland at approx 12.15pm. We sat back in our car & browsed thru the map, trying to decide where to have our lunch. Our next destination would be the UnderWater World so we thought of having lunch near the area. Hb spotted a Lan Kwai Fong Restuarant, located just opp the UWW on the map, so we headed over.

Lunch at LKF was not all that fanstastic. We had 2 sets of fried rice & 1 set of lamb chop rice. It comes with veggies, soup, drinks & dessert of the day. Total paid: RM52.50. Do you think its worth the $$? If u said no, i agreed with you. And they cheated us of 2 plates of desserts. We ordered 3 sets of meal, so we shd get 3 plates of muffins but we only got 1 plate. :(

After lunch, we went over to UWW. Admission was at RM38/A & RM28/C for foreigners. Total waste of time & $$. The place was not like what i though it would be. Again one of the recommended place of interest in Langkawi. What turned out was that there were individual glass tanks housing different species, thats all!! At the end of it all, there was a bigger tank housing some bigger marine creatures together. The more interesting things to look at were the penguins. They consisted of the Rockhopper & the African penguins.

Next stop, the Oriental Village. Another dead town. There were practically no one around, set aside for some tourists here & there. Most people were gathered at the base of the cable car station, queueing up to buy tickets. Other than that, the whole village was empty. We brought some snacks from a small provision store & the storekeeper told us, lucky enough, we get to see half the stores opened, otherwise, most of the stores were always closed.

You can see from the above photo that there really isnt anyone about. Actually, i also dun know what's there to marvel about at this place, but since i came across a website indicating that this is a must-see place, i came for the sake of it. Haiz!

The kids had an enjoyable time at the animal garden, feeding the rabbits.

We decided against joining the queue for the cable car, so we went towards the Seven Wells Waterfall. In Malay, its called Telaga Tujuh Waterfalls. The waters slides from 1 pool into another, cascading 90m down into the seventh pool. We climbed up some 500 plus steps, only to arrive at the lowest pool. For the more adventurous, you can still go upwards. But for us, this was enough. The kids were eager to enter the pool & we saw some people already basking under the setting sun, wearing their swim suit & splashing about.

I did not pack the kids' swimsuits as this was a there & then decision, so what to do, they went in naked. Haha! After spending about 1.5 hrs up there, yes, we stayed that long, it was time to go downhill. What happened to me next was - i was in tremendous pain right from my ankles upwards to my knees. In other words, i was not able to walk or run cos i cld feel my muscles "pulling" and that was very painful. I had to hobble slowly & finally made my way down.

That night, i had hb gave me a massage, trying to ease the pain. We made our way for dinner back at Kuah Town. Again, we sourced thru my printouts & found a recommended place for dinner -Yong Leong Restuarant ( YL Restoran). We had buttered prawns, sauteed pork ribs, home-made tofu with specialty sauce & seafood soup. Total bill: RM71.80 including rice & drinks.

We shopped at Langkawi Fair Shopping Complex & had some fries/apple pie at MacDonalds for supper. Most of the shops were closed. I believed its either late or the people were still celebrating Hari Raya. Hb bought some DVDs again, like Alvin & The Chipmunks 2, G-Force, Karate Kid & a few others.

Thereafter, we returned back to the hotel. The kids were still wide awake, so we gave them a warm shower, pamper them with their milk, had some little games & soon, they fell fast asleep. :)

Tomorrow's itinerary:

Wildlife Park/Bird Paradise

Mardi Agrotechnology Park aka Fruit Farm

Langkawi Fish Farm Restaurant

Eagle Square

Langkawi Day 1

11 Sep 2010 (Sat):

We were up & about by 3am. We took our own sweet time so by the time we left the house, it was 4.10am. We cleared customs on both sides; traffic was a breeze & were soon on the NSH at 4.30am. Yes, its THAT fast. Heh!

Both kids were excited & happy & didnt want to sleep. We stopped at Ayer Keroh for a toilet break & arrived into Nilai at 07.50am. Boy! That was early. KLIA LCCT is located at Nilai area, which means we only drove for about slightly more than 3 hours. Since it a town area, the shops are not open for business yet. We ended up at Macdonalds for breakfast.

** i was thinking we might need at least 4-5 hrs of driving but we ended at arriving with more than enough time before our check in. Our flight is scheduled to depart at 1200pm which means we got to check in by 10am. **

We left Macdonalds at abt 8.40am, allowing the kids for some play at the indoor playground. We arrived at LCCT approx some 10 mins later, giving us so much free time to laze & wander ard.

KLIA LCCT...

We walked abt the grounds, took some photos & slept for a little while on the chairs inside the terminal. When it was abt 10.20am, we joined the queue for Air Asia flight to Langkawi via AK5324, SIN/LGK.

Hiccup 1: there was no prompt during our booking with Air Asia to indicate that their flights were 0kg baggage allowance. I assumed & pressumed that it comes with a 15kg allowance, hence i was shocked when we were asked to pay RM60. It cost RM30 for every 25kg weightage.

Air Asia flights were on time, at least for ours. The flight took off earlier than scheduled, arriving into Langkawi at 12.35pm, some 25mins earlier. Cool!

We collected our luggages & proceeded to the car rental counter to rent a car. We got a Toyota Vios for RM380 plus a refundable deposit of RM50 for 4 days usage. There were so many models to choose from that i left hb to do the decision. I know nothing abt cars.

The tank in the car was empty so hb told the staff since they gave him one with an empty tank, we would returned with an empty tank. They were okay with it.

It was late at 2pm & we were all hungry. The kids fell asleep while hb drove around, trying to navigate with the help of his GPS system. I flipped thru my printouts & wandered where to have our lunch. Finally, we decided to stop at this roadside restaurant style, May Yi Cafe. We ordered szechuan veggies soup, steamed fish, stir fried mixed veggies & shrimp. If you looked at the photo closely, you would noticed that all dishes comes with carrots & 3 out of 4 dishes includes tofu.

After lunch, we drove onwards to Bayview Hotel which i had pre booked via Air Asia. I thought to myself happily: "finally, we can get a good rest, especially the kids who looked tired." But luck decided to play a cruel trick on me.

Hiccup 2: More shocking news bestowed upon me when the staff told me they do not have my booking. They tried retrieving using my first name, last name & even checked thru all guests who were supposed to check in today but the system still did not display my booking. I told them i have booked thru Air Asia & can they kindly check with Air Asia on this. Their rude reply: " You have to call Air Asia yourself ".

Being Hari Raya which was a PH both in Singapore & Malaysia & also being a Sat, the airline office was closed. There was no way i could get hold of a staff to assist me. It was also useless to check my booking online as Air Asia only displayed the flight portion.

I was in a terrible mood for that few hours. Anyone who crossed my path was not spared, including my kids who happened to made me even mad with their endless yelling & running about. I was wrong; the kids were not tired at all. They had too much energy in them.

Hb was calm & felt that it was of no use argue-ing further with the staff. He sourced thru the website at Bayview's business centre to check what other available alternatives there were. All rates were either too high or there were no rooms available. We drove out of Kuah Town, into the resort areas like Pantai Cenang Beach area. We stopped at Langkawi Lagoon & checked on their rates. RM370 per rm night. God help me!

We bypass Sheraton Langkawi & the kids wanna have some fun in the water. So we walked along the coastal lines, enjoying some breeze & at the some time for the kids to run wild & got wet.

We drove back to Kuah Town & bypass a boutique hotel, Citin Hotel. The rates were about RM120 per night & more importantly, rooms were available. We register immediately & lugged our baggages up into our room on the 2nd floor. Being a small hotel, there was no lift available. And there was also no tea/coffee making facilities like a flask or hot water kettle. Instead, u have to call up the recep to ask for it. We were okay with this. So long the rooms are clean, air conditioned, with hot/cold water shower, we were easy on it.

It was already 6pm plus by the time we showered, changed & stepped out of the hotel. The recep even asked: " Going for dinner? Enjoy. Have a good meal ". I was completely at ease by that time & wasnt felling annoyed or irritated anymore. Perhaps it was the stress of not being able to or would not be able to find a hotel with affordable rates & available rooms that made me so frustrated. I learned my lesson. NEVER book with Air Asia EVER again!

We drove back to Pantai Cenang area cos we saw a whole row of sidewalk cafes & restuarants earlier in the afternoon. We came across a Thai Seafood Restaurant & decided to try that. However, the restuarant was so crowded & apparently there was a shortage of staff. We waited for quite a long time & still no one came to take our orders. We left & crossed the street to another restaurant, Casablanca Seafood Restuarant.

We had roasted duck in plum sauce (RM28), fishball soup (RM8), fish fillets fried with garlic & spring onion (RM28) & stir fry veggie with deer meat (RM25). Total bill: RM103.00 including drinks & rice. While eating, my ils called. And they took turns speaking to the kids. I guessed they must have missed them already. :)

After dinner, we went to walk ard the area. We hit our beds ard 10pm & all 4 of us slept like a baby thruout the night.

Itinerary for the next day:

Kilim Mangrove Tour

Underwater World

Oriental Village

Seven Wells Waterfall