Ocean's 11

So I mentioned visiting the casino on our Chinese New Year holiday to Genting Highlands. I learned a lot about this insane world of gambling! It's pretty amazing and also very sad to see all that money being gambled away, and more so when 99.99% of gamblers are our very own Chinese!!

I think gambling is hardwired into the Chinese brain! We all dream of getting rich and while people wish for peace and joy at Christmas, we wish for prosperity at Chinese New Year! :) Go to any casino in the world and I bet you'll see mostly Chinese folk; men and women alike! Funny isn't it? Notice how there are virtually no 'ang moh' tourists at all in Genting Highlands???

So anyway, this is what I found out. The casinos at Genting Highlands are divided like this;

First there is the common area where anyone above 21 yrs of age and not Muslim is allowed in. Here you can get free water and cordial I think, and you can place small bets like RM10 or something...

Then, you have the area for silver card holders. Coffee and tea are free and bets get larger.

Next is the VIP lounge for gold card holders. Here you can have food and non-alcoholic drinks for free, and of course bets get correspondingly larger...

Then you have the Elite Club for platinum card holders. There is first class food available 24 hrs here and also free booze! Hubby brought me here and we had wine and cheese and of course I had to have the Haagen Dazs ice-cream even though I was freezing!! :) How can you pass on Haagen Dazs ice-cream? Moreover this was free Haagen Dazs ice-cream! It was all for free even though we didn't gamble!

The minimum, I repeat, minimum, bet at a table here is RM2000!! I think you could feed a poor family for a few months with that amount!! And that's just one bet which takes only about a minute or two!! The people here reeked of money and I felt so out of place in my Bata sandals and green hoodie jacket (I forgot to pack formal wear)!! :)

That is not all! There is yet another more elite club called the Maxim club. I think there are only over a hundred members in this club and I dare not imagine the amount of money that rolls there!

Anyways, I think that all casinos are dangerous places where money seems to have no value!

Look at that, RM10,000 reduced to a small piece of plastic! While at the casino, we met one of  Hubby's acquaintances who was casually flipping a rectangular piece, and I strained to see what was printed on it, and to my shock it read, "250,000"!! That's a quarter of a million!! *crazy* I think you could build a small school in Africa with that piece of plastic!!

Here we are slogging away 9-5 for chicken feed compared to what these guys are casually gambling away! It's a little mind boggling and depressing, dontcha think?

I have since come to the conclusion that casinos are definitely *evil*!! But they do serve nice ice-cream, I must say... :)

So does money make the world go round??

Well, one thing for sure is it does get you nicer washrooms!!

Here's one of them regular washrooms at Genting, for us regular folk....

 and here's one outside the VIP lounge for VIP butts... :)

Genting trip 2011

On the second day of Chinese New Year, the whole Ng clan, together with Kung Kung Titus went for a holiday. We spent 2 nights at Genting Highlands, and another at Kuala Lumpur. Well, technically we were in KL, but we stayed at Gardens Residences, and never set foot out of The Gardens or Mid Valley Megamall the whole time we were there!

I don't know where to start, so I guess I'll just let the photos do the talking!

This is Solomon's first time on a plane and he enjoyed it so much, he's been asking to "fy ayopyane high, high" everyday, since we got back.

 Cousin Hughie loves to sit/ lie on public floors! The cutie pie wasted no time getting on the airport floor (outside the toilet!) as soon as we landed! :)

Here we are 'stranded' at luggage collection and guarding the kids as Grandma, Taiku and Daddy went to inform the authorities that someone else took Grandma's luggage! While Grandpa and Uncle Will went to the train station to see if they could catch the culprit!

The authorities managed to call the lady on her handphone, because she left her own luggage on the carousel and it had her tags on it. She was already in a taxi and on her way to LCCT! Silly lady! :)

Waiting for the Genting Highland Resort cars to bring us up the mountain.

Our first meal at Genting, was lunch at a Chinese restaurant, where a plate of simple wantan mee cost RM16!!

This is wantan mee... at least ours came with a bowl of wantan soup!

Anyway, after that, it was off to the arcade to waste hundreds of ringgit on collecting coupon tickets to exchange for slinkies, stickers and cheap stuffed toys!! :)

 I thank God that Sidekick came along! This is the first time we brought her on a holiday, cause it's also the first time we brought all four kids on holiday as well!

 Since Sidekick was around, I got to sneak out when all the kids were asleep! Hubby brought me to the casino, since I never had a chance to go to the special VIP rooms. I'll write more about those in my next post!

So anyway, the next day, we spent the whole morning and part of the afternoon at the outdoor theme park. It was a beautiful day and everyone had lotsa fun.

Solomon had the time of his life, since this was his very first encounter at a theme park!

He wanted to go on this rodeo ride with Claire and Eva. We were hesitant at first, cause I was worried he would cry halfway through the ride! But I figured I could always ask the lady manning the controls to press the stop button if that were the case.

So we let him go and after some initial uncertainty, he was laughing all the way!!

Annie must have found the carousel "lame"... and insisted she and Daddy go on the swinging galleon ride thingy...

That's more like it...

There was plenty to see; lion dances, magic shows and there were these guys with the big heads walking around (see below). The gods of prosperity right?? Chai sen...

Well at least they're cute, unlike those scary men in red make-up lurking about in shopping malls!!

See what I mean??? *gooosebumps*

The kids with their loot; a total of 5 stuffed roosters (meant for pets and not kids, I read the label) from playing those impossible carnival tossing games!

Kung Kung fell asleep on the bench while we waited for Daddy and Annie who were queuing up for the galleon ride.

Tai Ku and Uncle Dylan were a great help with the kids. Thanks you guys!

That night, we had dinner at another Chinese restaurant, and this was the highlight of the meal...

You know what that is???

Deep fried durian!!!

It sounded a bit fishy at first, but if you are a durian lover, you will fall head over heels for this! It is durian flesh and white chocolate ganache (that's chocolate + cream) with a flour coating and deep fried!!

Leaving Genting hotel and heading down to KL...

 We stayed at The Gardens Residences and their two-bedroom apartments are simply gorgeous and so well-equipped!

Here we had dinner at TGIF to celebrate my dad's birthday and also little Hughie's birthday which was coming up soon.

The food was sinfully delicious and Annie who loves western cuisine (the unhealthy American deep fried kind) was bewitched and kept saying she wished we had a TGIF in Kuching!

Everyone also enjoyed the 'presentation' made by the staff for the benefit of the birthday boys! Until now Solomon is singing, "We will, we will, rock you!"

So we stayed a night and all we did was shop and eat!

 Kids' heaven...

 Look what they had for breakfast! Cheezels and chocolate milk!! Hahaha... holiday ma.... Mum not bothered to argue...

Another great thing was that we got to meet my Aunt Jo and Uncle KS. Aunt Jo was my mum's oldest, bestest friend. Sis no.4 and I stayed with them when we were studying in KL. They were so generous to have opened their homes and hearts to us. FIL also knows Uncle KS from their Police Field Force days in Sarawak.

 The icing on top of the cake was the train ride to the airport! Living in the only state in Malaysia which does not have railway tracks, a train ride is indeed a novelty for the kids!! Actually, it would have been cheaper if we took the taxi, but a train ride was way 'funner'!

Though tiring, we all had a grand time. I was rather dreading the holiday, what with the CNY crowd to contend with at Genting Highlands, all the while with 4 kids in tow. But it wasn't all that bad. I guess it's because we had Sidekick and all the grandparents and aunties and uncles around to help out.

Whatever the case, the kids had a blast and they can't wait till the next holiday!

Kantoi

I recently learned this new word, "kantoi" from Hubby. Apparently, it is a local Malay slang for "caught red handed".

So, you can use kantoi in cases such as this...

or this...

FYI: that is Daddy's expensive Chinese New Year lime plant...

:)

Chinese New Year happenings

So this time round, we ushered in the year of the rabbit. The celebrations started on the eve of the eve of Chinese New Year, with dinner for the Ng clan at Mandarin restaurant. There were cousins and aunties from Vietnam, Miri, Penang, KL, and great aunt Anna from London. So it was pretty much a complete reunion!

The next day was "Sa Chap Meh", literally translated it means 30th night. It is the eve of Chinese New Year, when families get together for dinner and as always, there will be waaay too much food served!

 The kids eyeing the Coke!

 So first, we had lunch at my dad's. It was much quieter this year, because the "Singaporeans" could not make it back home this time around.

Anyway, as tradition dictates, we would usually light some firecrackers before starting the feast. For your information, fireworks and firecrackers are illegal here, but that doesn't stop the Chinese community from lighting up the Kuching sky at midnight on Sa Chap Meh! *we rock!* :)

After lunch, we exchanged ang pows; red packets containing lucky money. Only married couples are required to give ang pows to children. So this is when having 4 kids comes in handy!! :)

Later that night, the celebrations were at the Ng home. It was the dinner feast with family first, then the other relatives popped by later for second rounds!

After everyone was stuffed to the point of regurgitation, came the pyrotechnics! This is Hubby's department and he usually goes overboard when purchasing his weapons of mass destruction! This year however, he managed to restraint himself and only bought a carton of fireworks and another of firecrackers. He also got some flying lanterns and sparklers for the kids to play with.

Here are some gorgeous photos not taken by me! :)

Next on the agenda, after the kids went to bed, was the gambling!

Just some small time Blackjack... Chinese New Year is not complete without Blackjack!

The fireworks started as soon as the sun went down, and became deafening towards midnight. The noise even woke Annie and Solomon up! So they came down to see the colourful display. At midnight we joined in the fun and lit some crackers. After another 15 minutes of frenetic explosions and choking smoke, the racket started dying down until 12:30pm it stopped cause it started to rain. What excellent timing!

Anyway, after going to bed at 3am, the next day, the first day of Chinese New Year, was filled with visiting relatives' houses.

Then on the second day, we went on our trip to Genting Highlands and KL... and that's another post...

Poor Solomon doesn't appreciate all the loud noise from fireworks and lion dances. For a few nights, he even fell asleep with his fingers plugging his ears!

Puppies

Around a month or two ago, the dog at Kung Kung's house gave birth to 7 puppies. One puppy unfortunately died, so that left 6; three males and three females.

Yesterday, I gave 2 to my staff and Annie chose the fattest, cutest one as her BFF Samantha's birthday gift. I sent it to school that afternoon and all the children were instantly smitten! She was just so adorable, and I wanted to share the cuteness!!  >_<

*geram*

Airport

So as you know, Daddy travels a lot for work. He mostly goes to Bintulu on weekdays and comes home on weekends. Solomon is so used to seeing Daddy emerging from the airport doors that every time we go to the airport, even if it's to send or pick up someone else, he'll be looking for Daddy. He must think Daddy lives at the airport!


So anyway, the other day, when we were heading to the airport for our trip to KL, Solomon pointed to the airport and said, "Bintulu!"

Upon hearing this, Eva laughed, then she shook her head and smiled at her little brother all-knowingly-like and said, "No lah Solomon, Bintulu is not there."

Then she pointed up and said, "Bintulu is up in the sky."

!!!


(Well, at least she's a step closer to being correct!!) 

Chinese New Year 2011

Phew! Chinese New Year has come and gone!

We just came back last night (Monday night) from a 4 day trip to Genting Highlands and KL. We took the 7pm flight back, so by the time we got home last night, it was almost 10pm! School started on Monday, but I gave the kids a special 2 days off! Anyone who's ever brought 4 kids on vacation will know that we need a holiday to recover from the holiday!

There are so many photos and stuff to post, so I'll try breaking them up into bite-sized pieces to post over the next few days. For now, I better start getting back to working and school mode! At least I don't have to think about breakfast and school-break options for a while since there are tonnes of CNY goodies leftover! The kids will be pretty sick of pineapple tarts and kuih lapis by the time we finally deplete the supply! :)

 So it's back to school tomorrow! I'll blog more when things are back to the usual familiar routine!

Till then, "Gong Xi Fatt Chai"! Hope this guy with the big head brings you prosperity aplenty!!

Petrol prices

There's yet again an increase in the RON97 petrol price here in Malaysia. Basically we have two types of petrol, a RON97 and a RON95. RON95 is subsidized by the government and RON97 isn't. I don't really know the formulation difference between these two types of petrol, but apparently 95 and 97 refers to percentage, so how much difference can 2% make???

The marketing of RON97 claims that it is more superior and long term use will keep your engine in better condition. I think this is all just a bunch of crap. I'll bet this is just so that when they raise the price of RON97 petrol, people can't complain much, as there is still an alternative, the RON95. Before, when there was only one type of petrol, every time the price was raised, there would be an uproar! Now, it's not as bad, so they've been raising the price of petrol very frequently, even though we produce petrol in our backyard!

I don't know why people would bother using RON97 when there's subsidized petrol for you. I doubt there's much difference between the two. And anyways, at the rate I'm banging my car left, right and centre, it wouldn't matter if my engine lasted long, as my car would most likely have fallen apart by then!! :)

All this talk about petrol and how expensive it is nowadays compared to "the good ol' days" remind me of the time when Hubby and I were on motorcycle!! :)

We were 15/ 16  years old then and Hubby had a red motorbike, a Ninja was it? It was something like this, but more beat up. I remember it was extremely loud and I could hear him coming from very far away!! Also, Hubby didn't have a license, but that didn't stop him from bringing me around town with it!! (It helped that his dad was still a high-ranking police officer then, and he would sneakily drop his dad's name when stopped by the police!!) I wonder how I ever convinced my mum to let me on that thing!!!


So anyway, petrol. Well, petrol was much cheaper those days, but we were secondary school students and of course had limited funds! We were always running out of petrol and one of the tricks was to stop the bike and tilt it so the petrol would come out of whatever nooks or crevices in the tank and we'd then still have a bit more to go on!! Hahahaha...

So there was this one day that even after tilting the bike, we were seriously really out of petrol and had to stop at a petrol station. I think Hubby had 20 cents in his pocket and I manages to find 40 cents in my pencil case!! So altogether we had a grand total of 60 cents and proceeded to ask the lady to fill 'er up with 60 cents of petrol!!!

She gave us a 'look', then gave the petrol pump two whole squeezes!! And that was it.

It was embarrassing then, but so stinking hilarious now!!! Hahahahahah! At least we managed to get back to my house without walking!

I guess we should be happy it happened when petrol was still relatively cheap. I think today, maybe 60 cents will only get you 2 drops of petrol!!

*sigh* those were the days....