.....times of refreshing.....

It's almost mid-Jan and as the year kicks in, work are back as usual. Gone are the peaceful, quiet but joyful days of December and work stress started pilling up. Well, I do enjoyed the festive mood of Chinese New Year in the malls now, where the Christmas has been replaced with red lanterns, paper firecrackers, plastic flowers and etc. Not forgetting the joy of buying new year goodies and clothes.

A simple but healthy pasta

Strawberry latte

My favourite pandan  kaya toast

The first weekend of the year seems switched back to typical, normal routine before the school break. My kids were in schools on Saturday, with the older one spending almost a day at the tuition center, due to the extra loads of homework. Sometimes, I really pity kids of today as their schoolwork were so much! I wonder is it due to the school's ambition to achieved excellency by producing good students or simply this is today's reality of being in school? My opinion is, besides academic excellence, another important aspect was to trained the kids EQ so that they can handle life in future, and thus reduces cases of suicides, depression, anxieties and etc.

I had a good Saturday rest and even gotta the chance to run 2.5KM around my neighborhood. Took a pix of the sunset below, which was so serene!

Such a beautiful art of nature.....

 Before that, since the kids were not around, my CFO aka wifey and I have the opportunity to 'pak tor' and had a nice tea time at Lavender Bistro. As usual, I had my Americano and we ordered some sandwiches.

Lavender's famous thin crispy kaya toast

Ciabatta with cheddar cheese and ham

After my jog and picking up the kids, we went for dinner at Aeon Tebrau City, as well as hang around there to do some CNY shopping. The mall was filled with CNY atmosphere already, where last week it was still playing Christmas songs. How fast it switches!! And, I am slowly feeling the CNY mood, especially so that I am going back to Ipoh this year. :)

Btw, nice to see that Aeon opened a new eatery serving hot plates menu, just like Singapore's hot pepper meals. It's called Tengu Magic Tepan.

Salmon with rice

Salmon spaghetti

Salad in thousand Island

Salad in Japanese sauce

And, there was a free flow of soup which they offered Miso soup and Chicken cream soup.

My little princess busy sipping the soup....

Quite a nice but typical Saturday, no more tiring trips to theme parks but relaxing at home and around town. :)

Happy New Year 2013! Hope this will be a good and blissful year for everyone! Frankly, though it's a celebration to usher in the new year, I always had this post new year blues on 1/1. In fact, I missed December! It's really a nice, peaceful, joyful and cool month with all the festivity activities going around. Imagine hanging out at happening places, you can felt the joyfulness around. For Jb and Singaporean folks, last December was a month to throng Legoland and the Hello Kitty town.

Entrance to Hello Kitty town

I shared in my previous post that kid's friendly theme parks like this are great for family bonding. The activities are both suitable for the young and old and of course, the adults must always be there to supervise the little ones in any games.

My kids having a good time helping Bob....

Anyway, I only been to the Little Big Club cos we are running out of time to visit the Hello Kitty town. One good thing I like about this place was its indoor and air-cond., thus need not worried about the changing weather as in Legoland. It was also smaller compare to its famous counterparts, thus, it won't take too long to complete all the activities and less tiring. The queues are shorter too!

Barney's place... my kids having a good time running around

Angelina's place

Over here, kids can wore the ballerina dress and pretend to dance around... my little princess love this place

A pix with Angelina

The theme park was two storeys where the upper storey contains all the rides in the amusement park.

A view of the upper floor where the amusement park is located

Thomas on the way...

On Thomas's train .... ready for the ride

Another view of the park

That's Bertie's Bus.... it throw you up, down, left and right. lol...

another shot of the park

My kids on  the windmill

Bertie's bus again...taken while waiting for our turn to board

My kid in the bumper car

while my little princess enjoying the helicopter ride

and there's Pingu... my kids' favourite cartoon character

great for the kids and family bonding...

We spent almost 3 hours in Little Big Club and that's more than enough, as my kids ended repeating the rides again and again. There were also playgrounds for them to hang around while my wife and I took turns to supervise them. It's always nice to accompany your kids for games together, instead of them playing computer games on the phone or PC. Let them have a good time before school starts....today. :)