31 Mar 2012 - Javier turns THREE!

Today is Javier's 3rd birthday. We bought a big cake and had a family celebration at my sis's place. As usual, we bought the cake from Prima Deli.

Javier was quick to stand right in front of the cake. The cake was so tempting to him that he wanted to touch it a few times, luckily stopped by me.

Before we started singing the birthday song, Javier had already sang a few times to himself, so funny. Anyway we all sang again and had some photos taken.

Everyone enjoyed the cake, especialy Javier himself. Most people asked for smaller piece while Javier had a big one.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JAVIER!!!!!

31 Mar 2012 - My "Predator" is ready for Diablo III

Blizzard had recently announced that Diablo III will be launched on 15 May 12. My friends and I had been waiting for this 3rd edition since about 12 years back when we played Diablo II without day and night. I had always wanted to purchase a desktop but would like to do it just before Diablo III launch so that i can get the latest PC specs. Now that the time has come, I started looking around for the past few weeks. Today I made my decision and here is what I had bought in preparation for Diablo III.

I bought an Acer Predator G5910 desktop. It runs on Intel i7-2600 CPU @ 3.40GHz and comes with 16 GB RAM, 2 TB harddisk and Nvidia GeForce GT545 (3 GB DDR3) graphics card. It also comes with a few freebies such as SonicGear 2.1 sound system (speakers and subwoofer), 1 year antivirus software and a 8GB thumbdrive. As for monitor, I bought a Samsung SyncMaster S23B350 LED monitor and it comes with a free HDMI cable.

Everything was setup without much issue. The final task was to put up the Diablo III wallpaper!

Diablo, you beware as my Predator is here waiting for you......bwahahahaha....... :-)

25 Mar 2012 - Tropical Storm

It was bright and sunny in the morning. However, when it came to the afternoon, the sky suddenly turned dark. It seemed a tropical storm was brewing as the dark clouds gathered. I took the risk to ran up to my rooftop and took the above photo. It looked scary and noticed the "eye" in the middle of the cloud? When I looked at this photo, it looked to me like a scene from some aliens invasion movies........

17 Mar 2012 - "Artificial" smile

Recently when I tried to take photo for Jerlene, I found out her smile looks very "artificial". The more I asked her to smile naturally, the more it looked "artificially". I think next time, I need to capture her without her noticing her.

12 Mar 2012 - Port Dickson Day 3: Malacca for lunch

We left Port Dickson at about 11am and our plan was to have lunch in Malacca. The journey to Malacca was pretty smooth but once we entered the town, traffic jam started which was more or less expected. We were in the jam for more than 30mins before we reached the Jonker Street carpark.

We had our lunch at Jonker 88, a popular eating place in Malacca.

It's famous for its laksa and chendol. Even when it was drizzling, you can still see people queueing to make order. The people queueing behind us must have hated us because a few of us were there ordering for our entire group, about 15 bowls. There was only one auntie preparing the food and she did one bowl at a time..........

We did not have much time to spend in Malacca. By the time we finished our lunch, it was almost 3pm. We headed back to the highway and drove south towards Singapore. My travelling group decided to stop at Yeo's Family restaurant (near 2nd link) for dinner but I decided to give it a miss and headed straight back home. Javier had not been eating a lot during the trip so my intention was to quickly go home and cook his favourite Macaroni for him.

This marked the end of our Port Dickson Funch Trip 2012.

12 Mar 2012 - Port Dickson Day 3: Goodbye Lexis Water Chalet

After breakfast, our original plan was to visit a nearby ostrich farm. However, most of us were physically exhausted from the first two days' activities and decided to give it a miss. Instead, we brought our kids to the pool and had a relaxation time. It started to rain half an hour later and we were glad that we did not go to the farm.

Soon, it's time to pack up and check out. All of us took a shower we were ready to embark on the long journey back home.

Before that, we had a last look of Lexis Water Chalet. On the first day when we arrived, it was low tide and all we saw was mud everywhere. Now that the tide came in, we finally saw the chalets on water which we all had in mind.

As we were about to leave Port Dickson, we saw a sinking boat structure and it seemed to symbolize Port Dickson. Anyway, farewell Port Dickson!

11 Mar 2012 - Port Dickson Day 2: Sunway Lagoon Mall

After arranging with my travelling party on a time and place to meet before returning to Port Dickson, we began our "adventure" of the day. There was a Friso event at the mall and we saw some games for the kids. So we approached the counter and registered for both Jerlene and Javier. Upon registration, we entered a tent where there were some virtual games designed for parents and kids. We spent about 10mins there.

When we exited the tent, we were being led to an area where we were to design and take a digitized family photo. And good thing was all these were free.

We continued with "adventure" and my little angels seemed to be in good mood. It is very rare to see them holding hands.

We then bought McDonald's Happy Meal for the kids, while Tracy and myself had our lunch at GeorgeTown restaurant. We then bought Jerlene and Javier an Angry Bird balloon each.

After which, they were busy playing Angry Bird fighting. I wonder how long the balloons can last.

As we walked further down, we came to another playground. So as expected, both my angels went straight at it. We got our helper to look after them while Tracy and myself continued our shopping. After about half an hour, we came back and took a peek. Both of them were still having fun in that small playground. As such, we continued our shopping in another part of the mall.

After we went back to pick up the kids, we brought them to the mall's indoor amusement park. This has to be the most enjoyable part of our "adventure" for the kids. They took the mini train ride, ferris wheel and animal car ride. I was a bit surprised that they dared to take the rides all by themselves. I guessed now with Javier around, Jerlene had become bolder.

At 5pm, we met up with the rest and drove our way back to Port Dickson for our dinner. Time flies and two days had passed. Tomorrow we will be checking out and heading back to Singapore.

11 Mar 2012 - Port Dickson Day 2: Sunway Lagoon

Today, my travelling party decided to go to Sunway Lagoon Theme Park. We followed them there but instead of the theme park, we decided to shop in the mall and let the kids play with those indoor rides. The journey there was slightly more than an hour. We reached there at about 10:45am. The moment we saw the building, the first thing that caught all our attention was.....OMG, the Lunar New Year decoration had not been taken down!!!!!!

The mall has expanded so much. It is about 3 times bigger since we were here about 10 years ago. The ice skating rink at the centre of the mall is still around though.

Other than the mall, I was told that the theme park has also expanded. I remember the last time we came, there were only two parks and now there were five.

As I felt that my two little angels are still too young to take most of the rides in the parks, we decided to give it a miss this time. Furthermore it's also a bit rush. We thought we have made the right choice when it started to rain in the early afternoon.

10 Mar 2012 - Port Dickson Day 1: Lighthouse and Dinner

After the Go Kart session, we decided to drive to a nearby lighthouse for some breathtaking view of the sea. We followed the direction shown on the GPS and we came to a beach. However, we did not see any lighthouse around the area.

And the beach was just so-so, similar to those in Singapore but no where near the standard of Gold Coast. My two little angels did not even ask to go to the beach and play sand.

We decided to drive further down the road to take a look. And yes, we finally reached the right place. However, before we could see the lighthouse, we got to climb 100m up slope, according to the sign. Half way up the slope, we all felt that the sign was very misleading......it's definitely more than 100m. We were all very tired except for Jerlene, who was leading the way up. Finally, we reached the lighthouse, just to realize that there are more steps to go.

Again, Jerlene seemed to have unlimited energy and was the first to reach the top. We had a good view of the ocean at the top but it was pretty dangerous as the place is not fenced up. We were practically standing on the edge of a cliff.

We quickly left the place and now it'll be easier as it's going to be down slope all the way. With her infinite amount of energy, Jerlene was the first to reach the bottom of the slope. I had a hard time catching up with her.

A short drive from the lighthouse, we arrived at our dinner place, Weng Yin Seafood Village. The food was cheap and good. Javier did not eat much and he had been refusing to eat proper meal for weeks. However, he ate a lot of junk food though. We had to make sure he drank a lot of water.

That's the end of first day in Port Dickson. It's a great day, though tiring. :-)

10 Mar 2012 - Port Dickson Day 1: Go Kart at Extreme Park

Our first activity in Port Dickson was Go Karting at Extreme Park. It's a short drive from the resort and it's a great day to play Go Kart......not raining and not too sunny. There were 4 groups before us so we had to wait for a little while.

Among the group, I am the only one with no Go Kart experience. The closest I got was playing Mario Kart on Wii. After watching the others going round the track, I started to get a little nervous as there were a few collision and skidding. There was also one funny incident whereby a guy had his car overturned, and the next moment, he was holding a steering wheel, detached from the car, in his hand. We all had a good laugh.........

Soon it was our turn and we were all set. Before the actual race, we all got to go one round the track to get familiar. And guess what, during that round, I realized that I cannot completely stop my car. When everyone had lined up nicely on the starting lane, I could not stop my car and zoom past them.......haha....... I heard people shouting "STOP" but I just couldn't. So I got one more free round while the rest wait for me at the starting point. As I was approaching the group this time, I managed to slow down but again, I could not completely stop and "bang", I knocked into the car in front of me.....sigh...... And everybody laughed....... After consulting those experienced Go Kart drivers, I finally realized my mistakes. When the brake doesn't work, I should not try to press on it even harder, which was what I did initially. What I should do is to completely release the brake and then step on it again. Now I got it but it was a bit late.....sigh..... However, it was fun and I will probably try it again next time.

10 Mar 2012 - Port Dickson Day 1: Lexis Port Dickson

Lexis Port Dickson, formerly known as The Legends Water Chalet, will be our accommodation for the coming 3 days. We checked into our water chalet at about 2pm. As the chalet is stretched out into the sea, we took a buggy from the hotel lobby to our unit. Once we stepped into our room, my two angels immediately "attacked" the bed.

Not only did they "own" the bed, they also "conquered" the TV with their cartoon channel. Anyway, each unit comes with a king size bed and a day bed. But the best thing is......it also comes with free WiFi in every room and lobby.

As the chalets are built on stilt outstretched into the sea, there is also a solid glass panel in the unit for underneath seawater viewing. However, I personally felt that unless the water is crystal clear, which is not in this case, there is nothing special about it.

Each unit also comes with a balcony with a nice view into the sea. As it was low tide at the time we checked in, all we can see is simply mud everywhere.

We rested for an hour and met up with the group at about 3pm. We called for the buggy to send us back into the hotel lobby. While waiting, we took some photos and there is a small island not far from us, which looks quite artificial.

Btw, looking at the photo below and based on the angle it was taken, you should have guessed who's the photographer, right? Yes, Jerlene took it and from this point onwards, she "owned" my camera. I can only use my iphone if I wanted to take any picture....sigh....... Next time, I will have to bring two cameras out for any trip.

10 Mar 2012 - Port Dickson Day 1: Off we go

We embarked on our journey to Port Dickson today. As this is the weekend prior to the one week school holiday, in order to avoid the traffic jam at the custom, we set off very early in the morning. We left home at about 5:45am and met up with our travelling groups at Raffles Marina Country Club (Tuas) at about 6:15am. We were the last to reach the meeting point, thanks to my two sleeping beauties........

Even though it's so early, there was still slight jam of about 20mins at the Malaysian custom on the Tuas link. I can imagine how bad the jam will be if we set off later. After clearing the custom, we met up at Gelang Patah R&R for a short break. We then proceed to Machap R&R for our breakfast. My two angels finally woke up when we reached there. Next to the kopi shop was a small playground and the kids were all having a great fun.

Our next break was at Pagoh R&R and that was our last break point before we arrived at Port Dickson.

We reached Port Dickson town at around noon. So before heading to our accommodation, we had our lunch at a recommended restaurant. Initially, our GPS led us to their factory and after asking the staff, we finally found the restaurant round the corner. It's called Lucky Kings Bun Restaurant.

This restaurant is famous for its curry wrapped in a big bun. It's similar to the 933 golden pillow curry in Singapore, except taste slightly better. We ordered other usual Chinese dishes, especially for the kids.

After lunch, we made our way to our accommodation, Lexis Port Dickson.