Jutz 1 Blog

When our house were broken in last year, I really really really thankful that we bought home insurance. At first Daddy was quite hesitant. But when I discovered that it only cost a mere RM300 I decided to buy it and sign the docs on the spot. Good thing that we did, cause 6 months down the line our house were broken in. The pay out was quite good, almost 100% fully paid. One thing, make sure you keep receipts of all the items you purchase. That’s very important for insurance claims.

Sometime ago, when I didn’t have kids. I ever thought that I might want to study courses online. Taking courses online is an option readily available for working people like me. I find that the WGU website is very useful in providing online degree information to people like me. From this website, I’m able to look thru what are the online degree courses offered. At the same time they also publish the rates online so that you can check whether you can afford to go for the online degree. Probably I should start thinking if I should start studying online and get another degree.

Seriously, I wish I’m travelling for leisure and not work. SInce end Oct, I’ve been travelling almost every 2 weeks!! If it’s leisure, then it’d be nice and relaxing. But hey, when I got back to work, I had tonnes of emails to clear. So the summary is no matter you are travelling for leisure or for work, when you are back in office after that you will suffer from clearing-emails-syndrome.  I actually sat in office till 10pm last night and finally cleared most of my mails. Now I wonder when I can go for my ski vacation with a tight schedule like this.

Whenever I pick my kids to school, I’m always amused with the type of systematic approach they take in ensuring that our kids are safe in their hands. Each parent is provided with a card. Upon arrival they will announce the kid’s name based on the card and we can pick our kids up. We don’t even need to get down the car. And they’ve also stated clearly that without the card, we will not be able to pick our kids up. I feel very safe indeed to leave my kids there. At least I don’t need to recommend them to install school alert system in this school.

Yes, I still have 1 more post on Phuket architecture & shophouses which I’ve yet to post it up. I’ll be pretty busy for the coming 2wks.

Firstly, I’ll be travelling next week, next month & month after for both work & leisure. Sigh…bad planning, all my travel plans cramped up in 3 months!!

Then, TwoPixels Photography is celebrating their 1st Anniversary with some goodies for all existing & potential customers. We are giving away FREE SHOOTS!! So watch that space in November :).This means alot of preparation work needs to be done as well.

So here’s a sneak peek of Sino-Portugese Buildings @ Phuket, Soi Romanee Street. Yum yum….

photos taken last Friday night, she went ga-ga over my camera and wanted to give me some silly shots :P.

I’m not sure about other kids out there. But at the tender age of 4.5 yrs old, I’m a bit worried about Faythe. She’s a very competitive or maybe kiasu person. At home, we don’t encourage her to be competitive and to be the best of the best. But I notice that this is within herself.

Most of the time when we play games at home, she wants to win. I often tell her, it doesn’t matter if we win or loose, cause it’s just a game. Most important is we learn from there and learn how to win the next round. Sometimes she understands, but other times she will show her black face or maybe start crying cause I win and she didn’t.

It also happened last year, when we went to watch Asimo at 1u. They threw some questions to the audience but we were not fast enough to answer it. Hence we didn’t get any goodies. She got so upset because of that. Even after that when I bought some asimo goodies for her, she refused to accept it. She told me she wants to get it from the Q&A session, not via me buying it O.o. She was so upset the whole day, so I made a promise to return there next day and so we did, and I had to make sure I answered the Q&A session and we got some goodies from the Honda people. After that she was very happy. *roll eyes*

Sometimes at home, after showering both of them, I’ll wipe them with the towel. Again, she will want to be 1st to get wiped. If she’s slow and I wipe Vyktore 1st, she’d deliberately cut the line. The other day, I casually asked her, “Why always have to be you 1st. Sometimes didi, sometimes you. Must take turns”. She answered me this:

“I always want to be 1st. 1st in everything”

I was pretty shocked with her reply. I told her, “But it’s only wiping body. What would you get out of this if you are 1st?”

She didn’t answer me.

My main concern is that, if she’s so competitive and don’t want to loose out, if someday she fails, she might not be able to recollect herself. But at the same time, if she’s very laid back and not competitive, I might have worries too, if she’s competent with rest of her peers. I would feel much better if she is those type that able to accept win & loose at the same time. For some things in life, you need to be competitive in order not to loose out, but some things in life you won’t mind loosing out.

For now I have not seen that in her yet. Maybe she’s still young?

I must admit that I was never a competitive child when I was young. But my parents put me into a school where it becomes competitive. Along the way, I discover that YES, I do need to be at certain level to survive in school, but that doesn’t mean I have to be the top student. Obviously I was not smart enough to be the TOP, but I was smart enough to be in the top class LOL.

Probably we all live in a different era now compared to those days. But I really do not want Faythe to turn into someone that is so competitive, even minor mistakes she doesn’t accept it. This will go down very hard on her if she does fail along the way.

Parents, any advise out there? Are your child competitive or laid back? What would be your approach in dealing with this?

My flight no. Good thing the flight weren’t full. Thanon Yaowarat, that’s where we had lunch the next day

Yup, we went to Phuket for a short holiday (just Mr. Hon & myself). Yeah…that banner up there is taken in Phuket, not Australia or Japan :P. Well actually, we were supposed to be at Taiwan for 9 days holiday. But I regret big time after getting the tickets cause then I realise I can’t be away for so many days (and the tickets were so so cheap *sob sob*). So we cancel our Taiwan trip and head to Phuket instead. Lets hope I can go Taiwan next year.

KL view, taken from the flight

Mr. Hon book our tickets to Phuket, via AirAsia. And 1st time do booking, already make a big mistake. He actually booked the 2 tickets separately, thinking that he can cheat the system to get the cheap ticket, but he didn’t know he actually booked both tickets at the wrong timing *EMO*. So he went there noon time, but my flight was night time…DUHH!!

So there I was, alone taking the flight to Phuket..boring!! Daddy rented a car for 900THB/day. In Phuket, you either stay in Patong and forget bout the transport OR get a bike/car to go around. Since both bike & car cost the same, he opt for the car. Moreoever it’s raining season in Phuket, so better to be safe get a car. He came to the airport to pick me up.

We didn’t have any GPS, but he already round almost the whole island while waiting for me to arrive, so he more or less knows the road with the help of the map.

Our hotel from the outside.

We stayed in Kata Beach Resort. Less noisy, less crazy. We got a good deal from Late Stay website, 1 night for 2550THB incl. breakfast. Normal rates @ 6000THB. Hotel, it’s OK, nothing grand. But apparently it’s the only Resort at Kata which is facing the beach. Even Club Med which is next to our hotel doesn’t have their own beach. I’d say the sea over at Kata is more calm compared to Patong. It’s also cleaner.

It was already 9pm by the time I check into the hotel. We drove to Patong to have a taste of their *Night Life*. Seriously, it’s nothing much. Endless ah kua dancing around. So many people drinking. That’s about it lah. I didn’t bring my camera, no photos of Patong at night :P.

We went back to rest by 12am. Must admit we are getting old. All this clubbing really out for us LOL.

Next day, we left the hotel after breakfast. Head straight to Phuket Old Town. Though Thailand has never been conquered by any foreign countries, this Phuket town is rich with Western Influence. At one glance, you feel yourself back in Penang/Melaka. This little town resembles that of British Straits Settlements i.e. Penang, Melaka & Singapore. They call this Sino-Portuguese. I’ll post more about their architecture in a separate post. There’s just too many photos to fit into 1 post :|.

And being a person that admires historical buildings, I just can’t help myself taking photos of almost every other shop house LOL. Until Daddy had to tell me to stop and go, cause to him they are all the same. But in fact it’s not.

Daddy patiently waiting for his food. The man wrapping popiah

We parked at the roadside and had lunch at one of the streets (Thanon Yaowarat) in Phuket Town. Simple lunch comprising of: Popiah, Pork Satay & Hokkien Me (Phuket Style). Simply delicious.

Delicious popiah served with sauce

After our lunch, we started our walk around the town with our Manual-GPS (Daddy reads the map) :). I do all the photo snapping haha…..

Our 1st stop, Thai Hua Museum. It’s a pity the Museum was closed for refurbishment. We only manage to look around the ground floor. Our guess is that this used to be a Chinese House or something. It has a Classroom, and some other rooms with exhibits.

The classroom. Mr. Hon pretending to be a teacher LOL

That’s how the classroom looks like. 2nd pic, a clock tower at the roundabout. I’ll talk about this later.

But it never stop us to have some camwh*ring session outside the Museum haha…

that’s me. Gosh..I look so fat

that’s Mr. Hon, pretending he’s to be a scholar LOL

A beautiful old-aged Chandelier in the Musuem. 2nd pic, a lil cupid on the roof (one of the buildings)

We continue walking along the road. Actually we just simply walk and lookaround and take photos. We don’t really have a aim where to go. It was hot, but good thing it’s windy.

can’t remember where was this, one of the buildings we went

at one of the temple, we saw this on the left & right of the Chinese Temple.

There are a lot of Chinese Temples in town. We visited quite a few. In fact they are very well maintained compared to those in Malaysia.

Continue walking somemore. Came to On On Hotel. A backpackers inn. Pretty rundown, I for sure won’t stay here LOL.

Then we came to Soi Rommanee. The Love Road. *Phe-wwiittt*. I like this street alot. I’ll post more photos on this road in the next post. For now, only 1 photo, of me at Soi Rommanee LOL. I

love this street very much because each of the shop is preserved very well and painted in vibrant colours. Absolutely great spot for photoshoot. If I ever want to take portrait photos for my family, I’d sure want to take it here :).

I didn’t manage to take alot of photos here cause Mr. Hon was hurrying me and he refuse to go in…..arghh…

Our desert

Since it was so hot, we stop over at a shop to eat jelly ais. It’s like ais kacang, minus the: kacang, jagung, cincau, cendol, gula melaka. Basically it’s just jelly, ice & red beans with syrup.

The uniqueness of Phuket Town, some of their walkways are tiled :). Here’s 1 of it. Very matching with my Ipanema sandals LOL.

After our desert we walk somemore. By then we are almost done visiting every nook and corner of the town. Our next destination, eat famous Hokkien Mee.

We took a drive there. Sorry, I don’t know what’s the place call, but it has this roundabout with a big clock tower. (See pic somewhere above)

Another round of food. This time consisting of Steam Otak Otak. Not as good as KL Otak Otak, but not too bad.

10 sticks of pork satay, served with cucumber & onions. I love their satay. They are thinly sliced pork on the skewer. Very yummy. It’s sure cook because it’s thin. Unlike those here, so chunky and often not cooked :(.

And here’s our main meal. Phuket Hokkien Mee. It comes with half cooked egg like the above. Oysters too!! It’s has some gravy as well. Like our stew noodles. But much tastier :). The gist of this is, you have to add some fried pork skin (I know very unhealthy) on it and stir all of them. You can actually hear the skin popping in the mee.

Pop a spoonful of the noodles with the pork skin into the mouth…..simply satisfying.

that’s the Hokkien Mee Signage. 3 young guys walking at the beach. I don’t remember their face, I only liked their footprints they left behind

After the noodles session it was alraedy 4pm. We went back hotel and took a nap. We are definitely pigs LOL. Makan Tidur Saja.

Waiting to be hired. You need to pay 20B to rent the deck chair and 1 canopy.

Late evening we went to the Kata beach, just behind our resort to cuci mata :P. It’s too late to cuci mata actually, cause nobody was sunbathing haha…

The sun sets pretty early, by 630pm, it’s beginning to get dark. Here’s a black & white shot during sunset. Just trying out some new effects.

The beach is usually filled with surfers during peak season. Sept is non peak and considered dangerous to surf/swim. They put red flag along the beach. And their lifeguard will summon you in if they spot you swimming at the red flag zone.

Sunset a Kata. Love the colours.

2nd pic, Phuket Government probably trying out alternative for electricity for the island. Photo taken at the view point. We went here the next day.

We went back and took a quick shower. Then we decided that we should have our dinner @ Kata Beach. So we walk around, check out the price and finally decided to go for Lobsters. 2 baby lobsters @ 680THB. Cheap!!

Here’s our dinner. Lobster cooked in local style. Baked Potato Skin.

Lobster baked with Cheese.

Fried vegetables. They only have mix veg. Everyone only cooks this in Phuket when you order Veg. Aiyo…

Thai Curry. Very spicy!!

After dinner, Daddy rushed back to hotel for toilet break. So I walked around looking at the things sold at the shop at Kata Beach. Then I went back to Hotel and we went to bed early. Daddy claimed that he over eat. Whole night be couldn’t sleep, while I slept like a log LOL.

Next day, we didn’t have much things to do. So we thought we’d leave the hotel late, close to 11am. We sat at the deck chairs by the beach and spent the morning there. Then we left the hotel and went to the View Point. It’s not very far from our hotel. Good thing that we are driving. I doubt I’d be able to read the map if we were riding a bike.

From the view point, you geta  spectacular view of Phuket (Part of it). Furthest being Patong, then Karon, then Kata Beach.

I asked Daddy to take a artistic shot of me admiring the scenery. And this is what he gave me. Pass or not?

Our Legend of Condor Hero

When we were about to leave the viewpoint, we spotted this local with 2 eagles. Pay 100B and take photo with the eagle. Being Mr. Hon, of course he snap this opportunity LOL. Now he can proudly show Faythe, cause Faythe been showing him picture of her with the parrots standing on her head haha…

After that we took a drive, to don’t know where, just bumming around. We came to Rawai Beach. A much more tranquil and calm beach. This looks more like Malaysia.

Ikan bakar Thai Style. Goes very well with kicap.

We had our lunch at one of the shop by the beach side. Delicious food we even went back there for dinner on that night!!

This the fish after it’s been deboned.

Tomyam Chicken

Don’t know what crab is this. But it’s nice. They just steam it. Lots of meat and shell is soft.

Horse shoe crab. Daddy’s favourite. This crab is full of roe. They made salad with it. I find this kinda weird, cause the roe are hard. Not soft like the roe we eat with sushi :P.

2nd pic: Tomyam we had at night, with lobster meat.

Daddy took his own sweet time enjoying his horse shoe crab salad. I took a stroll along the beach and took more photos. I personally prefer Rawai Beach. Even more quiet. More relaxing.

A bar for sale. Any takers?

I wanted to walk out to there, but after a while, I decided it’s too far. Hence I just took a pic of it from far.

People enjoying their food by the beach side.

Looks like Malaysia beaches right LOL.

Closer shot of the fishing boats.

Then we scan thru our map, and spotted the Shell Museum. We drove around, high and low, nearly give up and some what lost, and finally bumped into it haha…

A shell fossil shaped of a unicorn

Why must come here. Well, I promised Faythe I’d collect some shells back for her. She’s crazy over shells thanks to Little Mermaid. I didn’t spot any by the beach the day before. So I thought it’d be good if we can go here and purchase some shells for her.

One thing we like about this Museum, it allows us to take photos haha…Here are some of the photos taken of the shells.

All the shells are kept on display on transparent holder. And a glass frame goes all around . Very well designed for photography purpose :).

Odd looking shell.

Shells framed in circles. Very creative. I took this short from the botton to get the view of the shell in circular mode.

Giant shell

Don’t know what species. We were too lazy to read thru, just look, *WAHHH*, then next, then repeat the whole process all over LOL.

Shells with polka dots pattern.

Shell that looks like a purse. Arrangement of all sorts of shells.

Don’t know what shell.

This I remember. They are from the land. Usually found in Forest. Cool eh.

this one if not mistaken is forned from many many shells stuck at some rock.

this looks quite common

I like this, pretty cool eh.

looks like snake skin LOL

Striking orange one!!

A giant shell. I think Faythe can even sleep in it!!

There’s really like 1001 types of shell. All sorts of shapes. The more I see, the more dizzy I get. By the time we are done, I have shells all over my head.

We bought a packet of shells with all sorts of colours for Faythe and left the place. Went back hotel, took a rest and head towards the beach.

Our mission, to dive with the wave O.o. After a few rounds and drinking some salt water, I give up. I sat by the beach while Daddy enjoyed himself with the wave.

After that we went to have dinner at the same place we had lunch. Again we order lobster. This time sashimi style.

We also ordered grill chicken & steam snail. Each of these dishes comes with different sauce for dipping. Of course sashimi goes with Wasabi & Soy Sauce :).

After dinner, apa lagi, went back hotel and pack. SInce next day we are leaving. Though it’s at night, better start packing.

Next day, we lepak around the hotel till check out. Dump all our stuff into the car and drove to Patong Beach. Went to Junk Ceylon Shopping Mall. It’s a Mall that looks like the Curve.

It rained heavily all of a sudden. So while waiting for the rain to stop, we went for Fish Spa. Extremely cheap!! We paid 100THB for 15 minutes!!

Phuket Tuk Tuks.

Their walkway with tiles.

Then we walk around Bangla Road. Nothing much to buy. All ready to slash us with a high price. We had lunch in the car. Mr. Hon suffered from over-eating for 2 days haha..so he said last day must eat salad. We went to Carre Four in Junk Ceylon, packed some salad from the salad bar.

After that we spin off to the Factory Outlet. This is a brand new factory outlet along the way to Airport. He spotted this the other day while waiting for me. So we decided that we should go here and shop till we drop before we board the plane.

Well, I didn’t shop till I drop. But my jaw almost fell off, that’s for sure!! They were having sale. So cheap O.o.

1. Original Crocs - going as low as 600THB (RM60 our currency!!)
2. Original Levi’s - going as low as 890THB (RM89 our currency…OMG….*fainted*)
3. Ripcurl, Lois Jeans, and a whole lot more…..can’t remember so many
4. Original Nike
5. Original Adidas

I didn’t go into Nike & Adidas, but Daddy did and bought a pair of shoes.

There were some other brands too. I bought 2 tops. There were also Warner’s Brother Studio Boutique there. We bought Transformers T-shirt for Vyktore (50% off).

After all the shopping, I packed the luggage nicely and we went to the airport.

We arrived in KL at 12am. And next day gotta go back to work…..tiring…..

That’s all for Phuket. Don’t mind going back there again with the kids.

After our trip to Phuket, Daddy is suggesting yet another trip to the beach!! While I was doing the hotel booking, I realised that most of the time the photos look great over the internet, but when you are actually there, it looks totally different. All these are definitely gimmicks!! This happens to ASIAN hotels I notice. So I wonder if today I were to decide to book hotels in north myrtle beach, will they be the same as what we see on the internet?

Since I’ve put on some weight recently, I’ve been thinking if I should start exercising again. Not only for weight lost reason, but also for health. I admit that I’m not a discipline person, so going to gym is definitely not an option. I’d probably end up paying the fees for nothing!! But then again, if I get an exercise equipment at home, will I have the time to work on it with the kids around. Dilemma dilemma…

This is not about that spare tyre behind the boot. This is about that big chunk of spare tyre around me :(. Recently I notice that it’s getting more flabby. Gosh, is that because of me sitting too much in office? Even all my office pants been a bit tight. If there’s only a book on how to lose belly fat, I’d sure go grab a copy and find out how this gonna work for me.