Euphoric!

Whale shark!! *check*!! Twice!!

Yippee!!!

We saw two whale sharks yesterday. The first one was smaller and we were all snorkelling and swimming after it! It was so tiring! Hubby was swimming with a bad back and with a camera in hand!

Then we saw another one on the second dive. The dive master was clanging like crazy and pointing a little above us, at around 15m depth.

I looked hard at the direction he was pointing towards. Visibility wasn't so great, maybe 15m.

Then all of a sudden it was right in front of me! It was so huge and majestic! Even bigger than the earlier one... Maybe 5-8m long!! Truly a gentle giant!

I was awestruck! It came towards us, swam upwards, over us... Then it turned around right above me and went back the same direction it came and descended into the deep blue!

*sigh* This is definitely the most amazing dive experience ever! Everyone was ecstatic and jumping about with joy when we came up onto the boat!

A great day indeed!

Frolicking with mantas

So we were in between dives and our boat was slowly making its way to the South of Ari Atoll in search of whale sharks.

Suddenly there was a shout! Someone spotted a manta ray jumping majestically out of the water! Slowly, more and more appeared and they seemed to be just frolicking about!

The crew stopped the boat straight away and everyone was scrambling to change and jump into the sea!

There were almost 20 of these huge majestic creatures everywhere! They were feeding on plankton and just swimming about, not caring about those pesky humans snorkeling about with cameras flashing in their faces! Lol!

It was amazing! This is definitely the highlight of this trip so far. The dives have been just okay up till now, as visibility is not too good. The monsoon season is just about to start here, and ours is the last trip before they take a 2 month break to repair the boat etc.

So frolicking with mantas, *tick*. Next on the check list is whale sharks! *fingers crossed*!! :D

Happy, happy divers!!

Maldives

Hubby and I are in the Maldives! Living on a boat called MV Eagle Ray... Which not only has phone line, but Wifi as well! I am blogging from the middle of the Indian Ocean! Hurrah for technology! Lol!

The Maldives are indeed as beautiful as they say. However, back home we are having some major "maid drama". To cut a long story short, Sidekick ran away! But I shall elaborate on that some other time.

Right now, we are in paradise and I shall try and focus on enjoying every moment of it!

Tooth fairy

Solomon's tooth came off yesterday. It is his very first tooth to come off! Now he's a big boy! A "bo gae" big boy! Lol!

So he left his tooth under his pillow last night for the Tooth Fairy. Early this morning he came to our room, beaming, with his tooth in one hand and a RM10 note in the other.

I told him to put the money in his wallet for spending but he said he wanted me to put it in the bank. He would spend it on buying lunch when he was big enough to go to Jie jie's school! :)

kindy reunion!!

I forgot to blog about my mini kindy reunion! Yup, kindy as in kindergarten!

So there were 14 of us who went from kindergarten all the way up to Grade 6 together in Lodge school. We were all born in 1977 and were the last English medium class. We still used the British curriculum then, and the classes after us were all switched to KBSM, the national curriculum. So after Grade 6, most of us had no where to go, as there were no secondary classes for us at Lodge and other schools were using the national curriculum. Everyone had to go overseas, to places like Singapore and Australia.

I think I was the only one who stayed behind. If I went straight to a national school, I would have had to waste a year in transition class. So, Dad figured out a way for me to escape transition class by going to Sunny Hill School for 2 months, then moving to St Teresa's. Sunny Hill is a private school using the national curriculum, so as long as I could cope with classes, I didn't have attend transition class. (FYI: I was top in class there!)

Then moving from Sunny Hill to St. Teresa's was not a problem, as both used the national curriculum. All my sisters have been to St. Teresa's, so it was natural progression. I remember the first day I got there, the maths teacher apologized for they were having a test that day and told me to just try my best. I scored 100% for that test because it was so easy! They were just learning about negative numbers whereas we were already being introduced to algebra in Lodge by our wonderful maths teacher Mr Lee! So maths wasn't a problem, but BM (Bahasa Malaysia) was a bit of a struggle. We only had one BM subject in Lodge, but in the national curriculum, it was the opposite. There was only one English subject, but everything else was taught in BM. I especially detested Sejarah! (history)

Well anyway, back to the reunion... So out of the 14 of us, 4 of us are currently residing here in Kuching. When another two, namely David and Diana, were in town, Alan decided to take the opportunity to organize a mini reunion. After 24 years, half the class was quite a good turn out I must say!

We met at Alan's place for lunch and the kids had a swim after. It was great to catch up with old friends, and also amusing to see their respective 'mini-me's! Lol!

Most of us were in this kindy class, circa 1982?!

Shop transformation

My pharmacy is gone! It no longer exists!

So here's the shop, currently undergoing a transformation...

The ground floor.... will be showroom for curtains..

First floor... Hubby's office..

First floor... showroom for kitchen cabinets...

2nd floor is for keeping stock and also a workspace for sewing curtains.

Mother's day 2013

Last Sunday was Mother's Day. Here are all the beautiful treasures I received! Hand-made with plenty of love!

The three girls made this for me during their Chinese class. I have no idea what it says though! Lol!

Little Solomon made this in school.

Eva made this by herself! And the red crepe paper carnation was made in school. (I love my cake!! Lol!)

Claire made a complicated card, all by herself.

Thank you all, my darlings! I am a very lucky mummy indeed!

Happy Mother's Day to all you Supermums out there!!

netball in Mukah

Annie went off to Mukah a couple of weeks ago for the inter-division Netball competition. She and her classmate Giselle were the only two from their school.

Along with another student from Chung Hua no.1 and a teacher from Chung Hua no.6, they took a small 19-seater MasWing plane to the small town of Mukah. The rest of the team (girls and teachers from different schools) took a bus and the trip was 12 hours long! The plane however took only 1 hour.

They all stayed together, 4 to a room at a small hotel called Sarina hotel, for 5 nights. It was a good experience and the kids had a great time. They played netball in the day and held meetings and parties at night! I am sure it was a good lesson in independence, responsibility, leadership, teamwork and unity!

The girls did very well and came in third! They were up against strong teams from Sibu and Sarikei.

Annie and Giselle were both selected to go on to the inter-state competition, but unfortunately, since Giselle is not Malaysian, she could not proceed.

So next week, Annie will have to go for a week-long training session in Sarikei and thereafter, the inter-state tournament in Perlis.

My sisters bully me!

Here's an essay written by Eva!

Footnote: Annie is called the 'rubbish collector' because she loves to collect things like boxes, toilet paper rolls and leftover bits of paper etc.. for use in her future craft projects. She even once made a crocodile out of a cardboard shoe insert which they place in shoes on display at shops.

P/S: One day Annie came home from school and exclaimed to me angrily, "Mummy! You know what Eva's friends call me??!!"
"The Evil Rubbish Collector!!"

Lol!

505

So on the 5th of May, I did my part for my country and voted. This is only the second time I have voted. Prior to this, I never really bothered to know much about politics. It all seemed such a bore.

However, since the advent of the Internet, more and more people are being exposed to non-government controlled news and information which sheds light on just how corrupted our country is.

Now, more than ever, people (especially the younger voters) are aware of the dire need for a change of government. Young parents like myself are forced to think about the future of our children if they are to stay in this country. So it is for their sake that we vote, in the hopes of providing them with better opportunities and a safer environment.

So on Sunday, everyone was excited and filled with hope. We went out with pride to the local schools to cast our votes. Long queues and rain did not dampen our spirits. I had many friends who flew back from the peninsula just to vote. Even SIL and Hubby booked a flight the night before just to come back for a few hours to vote!

That night, many of us could not sleep as we waited for the results. Many stories of election fraud poured in and the counting carried on suspiciously until way past midnight!

When BN announced a dodgy win, it seemed a darkness fell over the land!!! That sounds a tad too melodramatic, but I really don't know how else to describe it. It was really depressing. It felt like all hope was lost. Even on Facebook, everyone's profile picture eerily started changing to black... (to signify the death of democracy).

We really had our hopes up. After the defeat, we just felt like it was all useless, we were fighting a loosing battle. We were David and they were Goliath, extremely wealthy Goliath at that...

Then in the days that followed, we were reminded that basically; Rome wasn't built in a day. Nobody said it was going to be easy... etc, etc, etc..

And after a huge rally in KL, where Malaysians of all races got together in a beautiful show of unity (to protest the election results), our spirits were revived once again. There was hope yet for this beautiful country of ours, filled with beautiful loving people.

So the fight goes on... Let's see if we can turn the tide come the next election in 5 years time!

Love and peace!!

a bit of high tea with ex-schoolmates back to vote!

Home of peace food fair

Last Sunday we went to the Home of Peace to help out with their fund-raising food fair. The Home of Peace is an old folks home at 10th mile, and is one of dad's pet projects.

Anyways, they held a food fair to raise funds for the home. So the whole gang woke up early to go set up shop! We ran some games stalls in the home's activity room. It was a very pleasant venue, with ample space and plenty of fans. Compared to the last food fair, where Sis No.3 and I sold cupcakes at St. Joseph's school canteen, this was way more relaxed and fun.

We had gathered lots of second hand soft toys, some new,  from our own homes and also from friends. These were used at prizes, along with some canned food and drinks and packets of biscuits.

The games included ring toss; tossing rings onto bottles of drinks or cans of food. There was the ping pong ball toss; where you tossed a ping pong balls onto egg cartons, and the colour of the hole it landed in determined your prize. Then there was the milk can ball toss, where you tried to throw balls into pails and milk cans. We also had a lucky draw. RM1 for an entry and you could win hampers!

All the kids helped out. The big ones worked especially hard and we managed to raise over RM850! The kids had fun, though they did reclaim some of their old toys after having second thoughts about donating them! Lol!

Taekwondo upgrading

Last month, the girls had their Taekwondo upgrading, right after the Singapore holiday.

They did well and have all been upgraded. So, Eva has been promoted to yellow belt....

Whilst Claire is now green tip...

Annie and Amanda are now red tip.

Well done girls!!

Taekwondo Joggerthon 2013

*yawn*

Woke up early today to bring Annie for her joggerthon organized by the Taekwondo association.

They jogged (more like sprinted!) two rounds round the MBKS building. Annie and her friend both came in second and first respectively. She is elated to now have her very first, hard-earned trophy!

There were plenty of little kids there too. The organizers prepared many medals and trophies for the top ten in each category. So almost everyone went home with something. I thought that was very nice.

Anyway, well done Annie! Next year I shall drag Claire and Eva there as well :)