Kuantan

It was long weekend again and we drove up to Kuantan for a short break this time round. It was supposed to be a 3-hr drive but took much longer due to traffic jams on the highway and roadworks as well. As usual, it was a breeze to drive when the two kiddos are sleeping but once they are awake, lots of effort needed to keep them entertained, so that the driver can keep his sanity while driving.

The easiest method is of course the goodie bag, offer a continuous flow of tasty tidbits and that will definitely keep their mouth stuffed. The downside is they will drink plenty of water and we would need toilet break at the pit stop.

Next, music CD. First, 童谣, Jeremiah loves it. Play and sing the whole CD, throw in some silly actions and expressions, they will be hooked. Done. Music CD again. This time, the "Signing Time" CD. This one does not last long because Jeremiah is not familiar with all the songs. After a few songs, he starts to protest and whine. Nobody release him from the car seat and his whining soon turns into shouts and screams. Then WAILING.

Luckily, Daddy covered quite a bit of distance while the action was going on and we had already hit Kuantan town. We were not driving that fast anymore and we decided to release Jerry before we all become deaf.

The weather was fantastic on the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia at this time of the year. Bright and sunny, the perfect settings for a day at the beach. To avoid anyone from getting a heat stroke, we played safe and only went to the beach after 530 pm.

Daddy and Sofia had all their tools ready to build a sandcastle but I think Sofia was more interested in playing with sand only. Both of them had a blast, they even went into the sea shortly after. Sofia, for the first time, was hit by the waves and swallowed a few mouthful of sea water. It was a new experience for her and she enjoyed it very much.

On the second night, we had planned to visit the turtle sanctuary at Cherating to watch turtles laying their eggs on the beach. Later we learnt that there was no fixed time the turtles would come and we could spend the entire night waiting and not spot a turtle in sight. That was disappointing, we were so looking forward to seeing the turtles. We visited the sanctuary anyway and we were lucky! The guys there were in the process of releasing some newly hatched baby turtles back to the sea and we were just in time!

The baby turtles were so tiny and fragile but so cute! We laid them on our palms and patted them before putting them back on the beach. It is sad to see how much this animal need to struggle to live now because of poachers who came to take the eggs away for commercial reason. Of course, there have been turtles being abused by people and pollution too.

Nonetheless, we wished these fellas good luck when they disappeared into the deep blue sea. Hopefully, they will be back someday later to lay their eggs on this beach.

Milestones

Jeremiah reached one of the major milestones a week after his 1st birthday - walking. Days just before his birthday, he was still reaching out for chairs and tables for support while on two feet. Shortly after, he took two, three steps on his own. I think he was thrilled and the cheers for everyone gave him great support. So we pushed him further by enticing him to walk a few more steps with toys and food. And there was no stopping.

Before we knew it, he was cruising around the house effortlessly, delighted at his newly acquired skill which enabled him to reach for "new" toys. We started to put more things aside again and had to be more cautious about things we left lying around.

One of his favourite item is the cordless phone that is often left lying around. The backlight gets triggered when he starts punching the keypad and if pressed correctly, the speaker would be on and the "sound effect" will double his fun. I just hope he would not accidentally press "999" again, it had happened once and I was in time to end the call. That was NOT fun for me!

Adjustments

More than two weeks ago, I came back from Japan with a pain in the neck that would not even go after two weeks. It was all caused by a night sleeping on a pillow that was too soft and low. I could not quite turn my head to the right and the pain was quite intense during the first few days. I gritted my teeth throughout the rest of the trip and was so glad to come back to my own pillow once home.

I thought the pain would gradually subside after a few days but it continued to disturb and irritate me, making me tired and worn out everyday. Deciding that it was enough, I went to see a chiropractor. After the first visit, I was requested to have some x-rays taken to have a full and proper "look" at my spine. He gave me two neck adjustments then and already I started to feel less tension in my neck! It was scary at first cos he turn your head like the way the kungfu masters do in the movies when they want to kill the bad guys.

KKRRAAACCK! Ok, then another KKRRAAACCK! on the left. It sounded so loud! For a moment, I thought my neck snapped!! Luckily I was wrong.

My x-rays were taken and the chiropractor shared his findings with me. I actually have 5 areas in my spine where the vertebrate is out of alignment, subluxation and spinal degeneration has occurred. This could have been caused by bad posture, pregnancy, etc. I was in the early phase of subluxation and symptoms might now show up until months or years later. But I do certainly at times experience pain, swelling of tissue and muscle stiffness in my neck and back.

So. I am now under the initial intensive care of the chiropractor to be "twisted" back to shape three times a week.

All thanks to the pillow ...

1st Birthday

We celebrated Jeremiah's first birthday couple of days ago with a simple chocolate cake at home and just the five of us.


I think he was more fanscinated by the flickering candle on the cake more than anything else. It did not matter to him the birthday song we were singing to him or the three cheers we gave to him. The candle mattered most. Perhaps if I had let him burn his fingers, he would have thought twice, or thrice?


The happiest person in the party got to be Sofia again, because it is her favourite chocolate cake! She ate and ate so much cake, like it was the last chocolate cake on earth.


I also brought Jerry to the hairdresser to chop off his baby locks, this is him, before and after. Doesn't he look like a smaller version of Daddy now??

Kobe II

It was our final day in Japan and we woke up in the morning wondering how did our holiday passed so fast? Of course we were all missing Jeremiah, who is at home with Ana, 公公 and 婆婆. We were sure he was missing us too, all his playmates had disappeared for so long!

This morning we brought Sofia to the Kobe zoo, the last trip to the zoo in Singapore was ages ago so we thought it would be very interesting for her since she loved animals. We saw plenty of animals, eg. panda (who were sleeping cos it was so hot), koalas (also sleeping), giraffes, elephants, penguins, monkeys, etc..


By then, it was close to noon and the scorching heat was unbearable for us. We took a break and had one of those cute panda 包, it was pretty delicious!


After watching a couple more animals, we decided to head downtown for lunch because it was really too hot.


After our lunch and nap, we decided to hop on the free city bus tour to a place called Mosaic Kobe Harbourland at the seaside.


The place is a modern shopping and dining area, developed on the edge of the Kobe Bay. There are restaurants, bars, a movie theatre, a shopping market, an amusement arcade and a little amusement park.


The place is very lively and there are all sorts of activities going on in the open field.


We decided to stay on for dinner and enjoy the beautiful night view at the bay.

Going to miss Japan very much as we head back to Taipei tomorrow, before flying back to KL the day after.

Kobe

We spent the next morning doing some laundry and doing some last minute shopping at Hiroshima. After lunch, we made our way to the next destination - Kobe!

It was close to evening by the time we were done with checking in and settling down. There was this beautiful park at the back of our hotel so we decided to explore the hilll before heading downtown for dinner.

It was very windy and cold, Sofia was pretty exhausted by the time we reach middle of the hill.


So we took the ropeway again to enjoy the city view.


Of course, the highlight of the day was to have Kobe beef for dinner!! That is exactly what Kobe is famous for right?
We chose this little restaurant where you can order any type of Kobe beef and grill it at the table yourself. The beef tasted REALLY good. We were told that there are actually quite a few conditions to "qualify" Kobe beef, for example:

-Tajima cattle born in Hyōgo Prefecture
- Farm feeding in Hyōgo Prefecture
- Bullock or castrated cow, to purify the beef
- Processed at slaughterhouses in Kobe, Nishinomiya, Sanda, Kakogawa and Himeji in Hyōgo Prefecture.
- Marbling ratio, called BMS, of level 6 and above.
- Meat Quality Score of 4 or 5
- Gross weight of beef from one animal is 470 kg or less.

On top of that, the cattles are fed one beer per day, massaged with sake daily, brushed to set their fur, and fed on grain fodder. I am not sure if the above is true unless I visit the farm itself and witness all these "extra" treatments but if this is truly happening, then it does have an impact on the beef because it was REALLY GOOD! In the end, the three of us went back to the hotel with a bulging waistline!

Hiroshima II

The next day, we visited the famous Miyajima island where the Itsukushima Shrine is located. The moment we stepped off the ferry, we were greeted by deers living on the island and they wondered around freely. Sofia was attracted to them like bees to honey and all our calls to her simply fell on deaf ears. She just wanted to get her hands on the deers!! Given the chance, she would have patted and kissed all of them.



This is the Otorii (grand gate). We just took a picture from a distance because it was low tide and it was pretty muddy all around. If it is high tide, the gate would look like it is floating on water.


The stroll through Momijidani park was lovely, so much so that Sofia fell asleep in the stroller and poor Daddy had to carry her up the hill to the Momijidani Ropeway Station.


From the Momijidani Ropeway Station, we took a cable car up and down Mt Misen. From the carrier we enjoyed the beautiful view of the Seto Inland Sea and virgin forests.

Somethings in life are just too good to be missed, for example, Hiroshima's fresh and succulent oysters grilled on charcoal till perfection. They were so yummy!! It cost around US$4 for two huge pieces and they were ALL MINE!! Simply because "these things" does not go down well with Daddy, so I had them to myself. They were really fresh and sweet, I think Daddy was kind of tempted when he saw how much I enjoyed them. He was hovering over me like a vulture, wondering if he should take a bite. Haha! It was a PERFECT ending to a long day at Miyajima island!

Hiroshima

Our second morning in Fukuyama was lousy, it was raining so the plan to visit the castle across the street was thrown out of the window. Instead we spent the whole morning doing what city folks do - shopping ... Sofia and I hit the mall at the train station, enjoying the fashion display, toys, etc ... Our hands were definitely itching in our pockets but the dangling price tags do serve their purpose well. They are just like the mosquito repellents placed strategically back home to keep away the bugs, but here, the price tags repels my hands very effectively!

Daddy got back late in the afternoon and we made our way to our next stop - Hiroshima, via the bullet train. Sofia was all excited to take the train (again!) and indeed, she was very well behaved. We guess it could be due to the cold weather, she would obediently let me put on all the layers and sit quietly in the stroller. She probably realised that sitting in there will keep her warm.

This is Japan savoury pancake, Okonomiyaki (お好み焼き). It is very popular in Osaka and Hiroshima and the way it is made differs between the two cities. This is the first time we are trying the Hiroshima pancake and Sofia loves it. Well, she just love anything that is SWEET.

The next morning, we headed to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park and Museum. The museum exhibit presents the facts of the atomic bombing, with the aims of contributing to the abolition of nuclear weapons throughout the world, and of promoting world peace. The Peace Memorial Museum collects and displays belongings left by the victims, photos, and other materials that convey the horror of that event, supplemented by exhibits that describe Hiroshima before and after the bombings and others that present the current status of the nuclear age. Each of the items displayed embodies the grief, anger, or pain of real people. It was heart-wrenching to walk through the museum, looking at the exhibits and to learn that many of the victims were children at school.

We could not spend as much time as we would have liked at the museum as Sofia was super bored. No games, nothing interesting (to her), everyone was solemn and quiet, except her. Once we exited the museum and entered the park, she was overjoyed.

Here are some photos taken while we were running around at the park:

Sofia outside the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum.

An accidental photo of us taken by Sofia at random, I am surprised it turned out well!

A "tiger" set free at the park.

Sofia and "her" fountain.

The atomic bomb dome.

A huge train engine replica at the park.

We ended the long day with a beautifully cooked omerice which tasted just as good.

First Stop at Fukuyama

Sofia and I started off with an early morning flight from Taoyuan airport to Kansai airport (Osaka). The plan was to make our way to Fukuyama via trains and meet Daddy for dinner. The ride on the plane was pretty smooth and before we landed at Osaka, Sofia dozed off and the bumpy part started.

I woke her up after we touched down and in a blurry state of mind, she WET her pants! Of course she was very uncomfortable and stood there at the plane's exit, wailing at me to change her pants and all. I had no extra change of clothes and the soonest would only be possible after we collect our luggage. So I pulled her along, heading to the nearest toilet first to empty her bladder. After that came the luggage collection and change of clothes for her in the toilet. I was completely thrown off balance with having to manage the big luggage, stroller and Sofia.

Once that all was done, we headed to the train station to buy our tickets. What came next was yet another surprise. The lady advised me to buy the train tickets to Shin-osaka and Fukuyama at the airport as it would be cheaper and I readily agreed. I requested for reserved seats on the Shinkansen (Osaka to Fukuyama) as it would be an hour ride. She could not find any two seats that were next to each other so she proposed to have us seated in the "SILENCE CAR" and that was the only way out. SILENCE CAR!!!??? Yes, we are suppose to KEEP QUIET and NOT TALK in the car. I had no choice but nodded ... back in my mind, I was racing for a solution, how am I suppose to keep a 3yo QUIET for a good one hour?

This was the sticker behind every seat to remind all the passengers to KEEP QUIET. My solution? I took out all the snacks I had in my goodie bag and offered them to Sofia, no questions ask. It must have been the best train ride for Sofia in her life, snacks round the hour, no strings attached ... With that, I had her munching non-stop all the way to Fukuyama. At least the munching sound from her mouth is not that audible ...

We checked into the New Castle Hotel at about 4pm, our room had a gorgeous view of the castle across the road. The plan was to check out the castle tomorrow morning while Daddy is away for meeting.

There was also a beautiful cathedral across the road but seems a bit far to walk to. We went to grab some lunch and washed up before taking a short nap, it was such an eventful day for just the two of us.

Holiday in Taiwan

I finally went for my overdue holiday with Daddy and Sofia end of April to Taiwan and Japan. It was a business trip for Daddy and he extended it in Japan for our break.

I took it so slow in Taiwan that we practically did nothing except spending wonderful time with my cousins, enjoying home cooked food and chatting away.


Sofia, as usual, started off shy and reserved but when she realised that there was an endless supply of chocolates and cute crackers popping out of the fridge and cupboards, she need not hide behind me anymore!


Life is much more delicious with 舅舅 and 舅妈 who gives her things that Daddy and Mummy do not. Oh, it was sooo EASY to win her heart! After a few big chocolates and cookies, she was practically eating from their hands and playing with them! Looks like my cousins have not forgotten the way to win a child's heart after 20+ years.

It was a good weekend there in Taipei city, before we headed off to Japan (Fukuyama) to join Daddy.