Letter To My Girls: Khayla (60 Months) & Khadeeja (36 months)

My darling daughters,

Today, both of you celebrate your fifth & third birthday. Happy birthday, sweeties!! No days have passed without laughter since you girls came to our lives. Of course there are days when I wished I could have some peace and quiet. There are also days when all I want to do is to lock myself in the room so I could have some me-time without you two poking your head and asking me what's up. But those days are nothing compared to all the time I enjoy watching you grow up, loving your happy nature as well as childish antics.

As usual, I'm going to write to each of you separately. May one day you two enjoy reading these letters and remember how much I love you till my last breath.

To my Queen Elsa a.k.a. Princess Amber a.k.a. my sweetest firstborn - Khayla,

At four years old, you are quite a chatterbox. You like to observe things and asking 'Why's'. Your love for singing is still apparent - and what a sweet voice you have too. You like the finer things in life like travelling in an aeroplane (Malaysia Airlines, of course) and staying in a hotel (at least 4 stars!). Whenever I told you we are staying in a hotel, you get all excited and will then rush to pack your small toy luggage for the journey LOL!

Watching cartoon programs en-route to KL

Part of the reason you love staying in hotels - food tastes better in fine-dining restaurant?

At this age, your command of English far surpasses mine when I was your age. What's more, you speak English with an accent, courtesy of Disney Jr channel. Nevertheless, you have started picking up Malay language from friends at school, and occasionally you address yourself as 'kamek' (me), which is kinda cute.

Telling dad a story

Like any other 4-years-old girls, you adore Queen Elsa of 'Frozen' and desperately wish to be her in every aspect - you want to dress up like her, speak like her (you can recite all her lines by heart!) and everything you own from your school bag to your stationeries, have pictures of Queen Elsa on them. Every morning, I have to wake you up saying, 'Wake-y2x, Queen Elsa!' because you fancy her so much you want to be her LOL. You are crazy about Hi-5 too, but now you are slowly losing interest in this group. And this month, you start to watch Sofia the First and calling yourself 'Princess Amber'!

Love getting made up - even with face painting

You are still VERY picky about food, and most of the time only eat one type of food - white rice. Or noodle (plain). It is quite normal of course, but I still get very agitated each mealtime. Nothing will ever work out your appetite since you even refuse multivitamins!

Social skills-wise, you seem to be able to mingle with friends but when I ask you if you have any best friends, you can't think of any and end up saying you don't have any friends. We will have to work on that, sayang, because to survive in this world you need to connect with a lot of people. You also still can't get along well with your sister most of the time - refusing to share toys, colouring pencils or food with Khadeeja. BUT. When you guys do get along, I get all warm inside watching you play with dolls together, or just chasing each other screaming with laughter.

Joining in colouring contest

My beautiful princess,

The thing that I love about you is how you are fond of proclaiming your love to your family. Clearly, you love your family A LOT. There was one time when you stay with your Wa, and then you called us to tell us how much you miss us. Your Wa then told us after you hang up, you cried because, in your own word, 'I miss my family.' Only that, most of the time, you don't count Khadeeja as your family. In your mind, family is Bapak, Mommy and yourself. This is another thing we have to work out, sweetie. 

Moving on to my adorable little cupcake, Khadeeja;

Despite your petite size, you are the embodiment of LIFE itself! You are sweet, lovable, huggable, loud, annoying, hard-headed, funny,/"" confident, bad-temper and clever all rolled into one. You never seem to run out of energy - always running, meddling, shouting and going after your sister like a hurricane. You are the opposite of your sister - where your sister is shy, you are bold and you have this devil-may-care attitude that no one can match except your mother. 

I love to eat - omnomnomnom!

At this age, you are extremely independent too - you don't want Mommy to bathe you, no thank you! You can shampoo yourself, brush your own teeth and occasionally put on your own clothes too. You also have your own preferred style - despite your very boy-ish behavior, you refuse to put on anything other than 'princess' gowns - choosing skirts over pants or shorts.

You love food especially fruits (apples, grapes, oranges, watermelon, durians - you name it) but you don't seem to grow that much despite your healthy appetite.

Ice cream, Mom?

You look up to your sister in the love-hate kind of way. She is your role model but she is also your fast enemy. You want to be like her  and you love everything that she loves, yet you have no qualms of picking fights with her as well.

Even though you are close to three, you are still very 'pelat' - you can't pronounce 's' and often say 'sat' as 'cat'. Yet, this is the thing that endears everybody to you.

You have a quirky sense of style at this age

Here rockin' up another shades!

Sweetie-pie,

If your sister likes to proclaim her love to her family, you prefer to show your love physically. You enjoy giving kisses and hugging us, something that your sister is more reluctant to do (she doesn't mind getting kissed but don't really like kissing people). You still want me to hug you until you fall asleep at night, which can be complicated since your sister also wants to sleep in my arm. Then you both will fight and end up one of you will cry (most often than not, your sister). Even though both of you can't seem to sleep without being physically in contact with another person (me or Bapak), somehow in your sleep you can sense if you get too close to each other. Then you two will push and kick at each other even in your sleep LOL!

My chocolate cupcake with cherry on top,

In terms of learning, you are a very fast learner and can catch a concept with no problems whatsoever. My only worry is since you are very stubborn at times, you refuse to let me to show you how to do things correctly (e.g. how to write letters). This is something that we need to talk about, Khadeeja - your stubbornness. Somehow, I know I have to teach you how to listen to others because you could get obstinate and refuse to come when I call you.

Adik is about to get kicked!

My darlings,

Despite everything that goes on between the two of you, sometimes you can be very sweet to each other too. Like picking matching dresses - or playing together. You two have started getting along with each other. For example, tonight I was feeling not well and decided to rest. The two of you rarely interrupted my nap, except for important matters. The rest of the night, you played with each other which is a major relief to me.

Taking photo together

My gentle Queen and princess warrior,

No matter what, no matter when, I will always be by your side especially on your special day. I love you two very, very, very much my darlings. I won't trade you with anyone, not even with Prince George and his adorable baby sister. In my eyes, the two of you are the most beautiful gifts that Allah bestowed on me. Alhamdulillah.

Happy birthday sayangku, Khayla & Khadeeja!

Happy together

Love you with every beat of my heart,
Mommy

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Riverside Majestic Hotel Kuching

My colleague was getting married last month at Riverside Majestic Hotel so our colleagues and yours truly flew to Kuching and stayed at this hotel for the wedding.

Before I went further, a short intro to this hotel - located along the Sarawak Riverside (thus, its name), it is right smack in the middle of the town with easy access to Kuching attractions namely Kuching Waterfront, Top Spot Foodcourt (famous for heavenly seafood) and adjacent to Riverside Shopping Complex (where guests can shop at Parkson right next door).

To be honest, this will be a short review because I was sharing room with two other friends so I couldn't really spent the time to properly review the hotel. 

However, my overall take of the hotel room is - it is comfortable but needs to be improved in terms of cleanliness - I was sneezing almost non-stop throughout my stay here!

Checking in was a breeze and when we came i through the door, the doorman and bellboy greeted us warmly. 

Below are some photos that I managed to snap right after entering the room:

Deluxe Twin Room

At a glance, the hotel room looks clean but we couldn't help but notice some corners near the lighting area and and the bed were rather dusty.

Decoration-wise, the room seriously needs some face-lifting as the furniture, the carpet and even the bed are outdated. The whole room just looks and feels dull to me.

Bathroom with adjacent toilet

Same thing applies to the bathroom where you don't get separate shower and bathtub area, since all old bathrooms tend to have showers in the bathtub.

A tips for guests staying here - if you don't get hot water even after turning on the tap to Hot, make sure you turn the knob to the max. I find it rather annoying though.

Apart from that, you get full amenities in your room namely iron and ironing board, safe box, tea-making facilities with two complimentary bottled drinks, stationeries etc.

The tea-making facilities

Not bad if you are staying here on sightseeing or business trips, but certainly not the right hotel for staycation.

Rating: 7/10

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Selera Rasa Segar, Miri

Wherever you are in Malaysia, food is a big thing and breakfast is no exception. When you are in Sarawak, locals will tell you to try out the local delicacies namely mee kolok and laksa Sarawak. However if you are a local yourself or just tired of having the same menu for breakfast, then head over to Selera Rasa Segar (or SRS in short) in Miri.

SRS stands out amongst other eateries simply because the main menu for breakfast is not mee kolok or laksa Sarawak. Instead, they serve nasi lemak with plenty of side dishes to satisfy your cravings.

Selera Rasa Segar from the outside

The restaurant itself is set in a rustic setting, with wooden floor and round table, very much like any kopitiam. 

Packed with patrons early in the morning

Stepping inside, the first thing I noticed is the queue of people waiting to be served by one very busy young man, dolloping bowls of steaming hot nasi lemak and attending to orders. Basically, the standard menu is the rice in coconut milk (nasi lemak), two slices of cucumber, a spoonful of fried peanuts, one half of hard-boiled egg and a dash of sambal bilis (anchovies). The extra things, you need to tell the man which dish you want to add on.

Choices of sambal, rendang, ayam percik, masak hitam (soy-sauce based gravy) to name a few

More choices of protein - you can opt for chicken, beef or mutton

I decided to just have whole egg of fried chicken added to my nasi lemak. Don't be fooled by the pitiful look of the dish below, the chicken is flavourful and the nasi lemak is delicious. My only fault is in the sambal because it doesn't have a lot of anchovies in it and just tasted of blended dried chillies or what we call 'cili boh'. What a disappointment!

My choice of nasi lemak for breakfast

If you happen to go in a group but don't feel like having nasi lemak, you can also order nasi kerabu, laksa penang, nasi ayam (chicken rice) and oh yes, the usual laksa Sarawak and mee kolok. They do carry that in their menu.

Other options for breakfast

So if you want to try out the nasi lemak at SRS, head over to Jalan Permaisuri where their outlet is located. It's definitely worth a try when you want a break from the usual.

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How To Share Microsoft OneNote Across Devices

I happen to be one of those people who embraces IT and its uses in every day life, for example taking notes. For me, traditional note-taking using pen and paper is not only inefficient but also not supporting forest conservation (unlike using electronic devices where you can simply delete or undo a typo).

These are some of the awesome things about taking notes using iPad or good ol' laptop:

1. Use less paper, contributes to cost-saving
2. You can edit your notes later by using 'Copy+Paste' function instead of copying and re-writing your notes (saves time!)
3. With different choice of writing tool (pen, pencil, paintbrush, highlighter) in a notes app / software, you don't even have to worry about forgetting to bring a pen to a meeting!
4. You can even search your notes even those you took months ago without breaking a sweat!

There are plenty of note-taking apps out there, but the one that I like the most is none other than Microsoft OneNote:



OneNote is available across platforms and even on iOS

Even though Apple recently released an improved version of Notes, it still can't beat Microsoft OneNote in terms of looks and functions. OneNote looks very much like the traditional notebook complete with colored tabs for different sections. You can even add pages in each section so your notes will appear more organized and structured:

OneNote looks a lot like traditional paper notebook

There's a lot of things you can do using OneNote, like making checklists, creating reminders, saving web links for later reference, saving images (great for recipe / idea books!), do sketches, and many more! Simply put, there are endless possibilities with OneNote. Even more interesting, you can share your notebook with others so everyone can jot down their ideas and collaborate online on real-time. It's a great collaboration tool but this is something that I haven't really explored.

 

Since I use my iPad mini a lot during meetings, I am really grateful of the idea that OneNote can be synced across devices. There's only one snag - since my office network blocks OneDrive - Personal (it only allows access the company's SharePoint drive, I can only sync my OneNote if I bring my laptop home and use my own WiFi.

 

That is certainly not efficient if I have to refer to two different notebooks, so I decided to move my notebook on OneNote from my OneDrive  - Personal to the Company's OneDrive for Business / SharePoint.

 

What I have to do after that is to send the link to my company's email address, and then open the notebook from the link on my iPad once I'm logged on to my office network.

 

Moving OneNote is surprisingly tedious - you can't just copy and paste or move the whole notebook to the new location. This is basically the steps that I had to do to move my notebook:

1. Create a new file in my OneDrive for Business folder through OneNote (New > Other Web Locations > OneDrive for Business folder
2. Open the notebook that needs to be copied
3. Right-click each section and select 'Move or Copy...'
4. Wait for it to finish copying, repeat until every section is copied.
5. After the notebook has been uploaded on the new location, share the notebook by clicking on 'Invite People'.
6. Type company's email address and you will receive a link in your email
7. Open the link on your iPad, and then choose option to open in OneNote apps

Moving my notebook to OneDrive for Business

Copy in progress

 

I tried those steps and found that it works :) So basically I don't have to worry about outdated versions of notebook since it is totally synced between the notebook on my laptop and the one on my iPad.

 

So what's your favourite note-taking apps? Do share in the Comment section :)

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Borneo International Kite Festival 2015

Every year in Bintulu, you will be amazed by the sight of hundreds of kites in various shapes, sizes and colours adorning the skies at the old Bintulu Airport runway.

It is none other than the Borneo International Kite Festival that started way back in 2005. This year is the 11th year of this majestic event which was held last week, with participation from more than 30 countries flying more than 200 kites. The event kicked off with Pesta Gudi (Bintulu dialect term for 'kite') where local kite flyers paraded their kites in the sky.

We are quite lucky that haze did not inflict this part of the country and could enjoy the spectacular view of the kites from all over the world flying joyfully in the blue sky:

From afar, the kites stirred excitement that drove many Bintulu folks outside of their home to this event

This venue is perfect for kite-flying not only because it is a wide open space (used to be a runway), but also due to its proximity to the ocean, the wind is quite strong in this area.

Participants of this event came from all over the world to showcase their innovative kites

As my kids love kite-flying, we went to this festival on the last day of the event to join in the fun of kite-watching and flying. Besides watching (and playing) kites, the place was abuzz with various stalls selling all sorts of things ranging from handicrafts, food and clothing, but also furniture, household items, cars and even properties! Of course, you could find plenty of kites on sale and my kids were super-thrilled to find Frozen-themed kites. The kites were priced at RM10 to RM15, complete with the thread.

After the kids were tired from kite-flying, we simply sat under a shed put up by the organizer for visitors and watched the kites flying above us:

This rainbow kite in the shape of a stingray is quite possibly one of the largest kite around

Rainbow stingray kite is several times bigger compared to other kites

Nowadays, kites are quite sophisticated and could even be flown in syncronized motion:

One of the attraction - synchronised kite-flying

This stunt-kite flying was performed by participants from Japan. We were very impressed to see their skills flying the kite to the beat of music, and even expertly landed the kites so they stood smartly on the tarmac before flying off again into the sky!

Just as we were leaving, there was an announcement asking all kids to enter the kite arena (this year, public was not allowed to enter). It turned out that they were going to drop a bunch of lollipop parachute from one of the organizer's kite.

The moment the candies 'parachuted' down, all hells break lose and there was a frenzy as kids rushed to pick up the candies! In the process, my 4-year-old girl was pushed and almost trampled upon by bigger kids. It was lucky that I was there to guard her and picked her up. Poor Khayla, she was so excited to get a lollipop the first round that she wanted to join again for the second round only to lose her lollipop when she lost her grip on it after being pushed by some other kids!

Before the lollipop drama, the kids were enjoying the various ground arts

This year as well, the organizer succeeded getting into Malaysia Book of Records by forming the longest arch kite tunnel of 500 metres. That's an achievement that Bintulu could be proud of.

For us Bintulu folks, we are just happy to have an excuse to spend quality time with our family.

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