Malaysian Pride - Upin & Ipin

Upin & Ipin is the pride of all Malaysians. Thanks to Les' Copaque Production!

We got to know about Upin & Ipin just recently. I think probably early this year when we moved back to Ho Chi Minh City. I still vividly remembered the very first episode we watched was on Disney Channel Asia.

The story was about how the twins (two 5 year-old boys named Upin & Ipin) celebrated their 1st Mother's day. Kak Ros, their eldest sister had brought them to meet their mom at the graveyard. Their mom passed away in their infancy. They were happily cleaning up and beautifying the place for their mom. It was a joyful moment for both of them.

In the end, they did not forget to also celebrate "Opah's day" (grandma's day) with their beloved grandma. It was a very lovely and touching story. 

As I was watching it with my daughter, I was telling her that "hey, this story is so Malaysian!" It can't be produced by Malaysia, right? It is on Disney channel! That was what we thought. As the show ended, we were so surprised to see that ... Wow, it is made in Malaysia!!

From then on, my daughter has been "chasing after" almost every episode, from one season to the other. She doesn't stay in Malaysia nor study in Malaysian school. Upin & Ipin is a great exposure for her to understand Malaysia. Some of the things I had done before when I was young. The feeling was so nostalgia. 

This round when we got back....

One day, when I was driving on Federal Highway, my girl was shouting from the back seat: "Mom, Upin & Ipin!! On magazine now!!!" A delivery van just drove passed us with Upin & Ipin's ads on it. That was how we got to know that Upin & Ipin's on magazines!!!

The next day, we dropped by Popular bookstore. We managed to pick up issue 6 (June release). It's RM4.90 each.

Most stories in there were continuation from previous issue. In addition to Upin & Ipin's stories, they also have the new one "Geng". Both comics were in locale Malay. It is a great opportunity for our children to learn the locale. This will be helpful in their communication skills.

Apart from comics, children also get to learn what's happening behind screen, who is the voice behind Upin & Ipin, how the animation was produced, facts about Malaysia, the states and capital cities.

The comics can be easily understood by children of 7 - 9 years old depends on their Malay language capability. for the others, parent's guidance may be required.  

Missed the previous release? Not to worry, you can still get the previous releases. You can purchase the latest issue from Popular bookstore. There is a form you can fill up, mail it across attaching the money order / postal order of RM52.90 (for 12 issues). Write a little note to ask them to mail to you the previous issues. Thereafter, just continue the subscription of the remaining issues.

Alternatively, you can visit their office in Petaling Jaya for purchase of the previous issues as well as to subscribe for future releases. That was what I did because it's equally troublesome to go to the bank or post office to get a money order / postal order. Just bring enough cash will do.

Their office is located at:

Nyla Sdn Bhd

No. 47, SS14/28

(it is a bungalow unit behind Digital Mall, SS14)  

Tel: 1700806952

Upin & Ipin's official website : www.upindanipin.com.my/

National Library Malaysia at Jalan Tun Razak

Every summer holiday we came back to Kuala Lumpur, the few places my daughter won't miss were Popular bookstore, MPH, Kinokuniya and the National Library at Jalan Tun Razak. 

Newly refurbished National Library Malaysia (Perpustakaan Negara Malaysia, PNM)





I started to enroll her as member since last year. It's convenient and free of charge. What you need to do is just to bring along your child's birth certificate during registration. For adults, the membership will be built into our identity card. 

When we were there last year, to my surprise, they still had my record ie. like 23 years ago or something. I was once a member even before the library moved from Jalan Raja Laut to Jalan Tun Razak. Based on the records, I was still a member but not able to produce my member card, hence considered "lost card" case (how on earth a normal person would have kept a card made out of paper for 23 years for that matter?). Anyway, in order to renew my membership, I was fined for RM10 for losing it somehow. 

My daughter was very happy visiting the library. Though I must say the books were really old and practically none of them ever been sold in any bookstores anymore. Pile and pile of books lying everywhere in the library. There is no way one can search for one particular book unless you literally flip through each and every book on the shelves, trolleys, racks etc.

But somehow, we still spent half a day every two weeks in the library. Bookworms were not choosy I supposed! 

This year when we came back, as usual, we visited the national library. We are delighted to see they have improved tremendously. We saw a lot of new children books on the shelves. Some even have Popular's; Kinokuniya's price tags still on!  There are still piles and piles of books on the trolley but at least we saw a few librarians were sorting them back to the shelves, at a slow pace unfortunately... well, still better than before.  

I really appreciate what is being done to our National Library. This should be the way to be. The building was constructed in such unique and beautiful architecture. With the improvement of its content, more people will visit. I really hope they will continue to improve and bring it up-to-date. It will be beneficial to general public and our future generations. 

National Library Malaysia / Perpustakaan Negara Malayisa (PNM) is located at No. 232, Jalan Tun Razak.

If you are coming from the south, southwest and southeast (Klang, Shah Alam, Subang, Petaling Jaya etc) of Kuala Lumpur, use Jalan Sungei Besi. Head towards downtown direction. You will pass by KLCC, Jln Bukit Bintang, Ampang. As soon as you are approaching Bulatan Pahang, you will see the library building on your right. Just make a U-turn at Bulatan Pahang to get to the library.    

If you are coming from the north, then Jalan Kuching is the most convenient way to get to the National Library. Take the flyover to Putra World Trade Centre, you are on Jalan Tun Razak already. Pass Bulatan Pahang, look out for the library bulding on your left.

 

Carparking is still an issue. The perimeter parking is always full. You need to park along the "side road".

A multi-storey carpark is under construction. Hopefully with its completion, it will ease the parking problem.

The library is opened from Tuesday - Sunday from 10am to 7pm. It is closed on Mondays and public holidays. 

Give it a try! 

A Breath of Fresh Air

It has been quite a while I didn't visit my blog. Quite substantially busy for me throughout the last three weeks because I was working on some jobs I got via online. To add on to the chaos, summer holiday has arrived and it is time to plan for return to home country for holiday. 

In between working, I had to organize my luggage, make sure it won't be under or over-weight. Nowadays, the one thing I must always do before heading home is to scan around my house (in Vietnam) to see what needs to bring home (to Malaysia) first, and what needs to leave behind. As we are planning to relocate back home soon, this is the one thing I must do before every trip so that I won't end up with loads of stuff to bring back. 

The next on my priority list is of course my shopping list. I make sure I stock up the necessary stuff for at least 6 months supply because it is either too expensive in Vietnam or they are not available. 

It is a never ending process. I brought home something. I bring something back. I  pile them all over my house in Vietnam. Come the next vacation, I pack something else and bring home again. And I go shopping, then I start piling them.... 

Sigh... I wonder if this is the way all expatriate wives run their household? 

Well, back to where we were. I have been a home maker for almost three years now. I enjoyed every bit of it. Now, I managed to get some online jobs that made my life even more interesting. Busy yes, rush for sure, not enough time to do other things definitely, but it is very refreshing! 

The thought of being able to make some money whilst still able to manage my household hand-on, I think this is a real dream come true. Like the song in The Sound of Music goes... "...somewhere in my youth or childhood, I must have done something good." 

I have worked on this for two years. I saw the light at the end of the tunnel finally....

So for home makers out there, never give-up. Life will turnaround. There are lights at the end of the tunnel definitely. 

 

Unit 11 Bahasa Melayu Lesson - Di Sekolah Saya

This lesson may be a bit complicated as it contained quite a number of new vocabulary. Try to split the role play in 2 or 3 stages. One at a time. Take it slowly.

You will notice that I had introduced a few verbs with Imbuhan (prefix) "me" ie. "menunggu", "meminjam", "menyanyi" etc. I would like them to accept the word and its meaning as it is. In the next few lessons, I will introduce them more in depth into root words (kata dasar) and the rules of Imbuhan "me". But at this stage, the focus is merely to make them understand the meaning of the words and the sentences.

Click here to download this Unit. 

To download the rest of the Units, go to "Quick Download". 

Unit 10 Bahasa Melayu Lesson - Buah-buahan

I have created the quick download link (on top right panel of my blog) for easy downloading of the Bahasa Melayu Lesson. I have uploaded so far Unit 1 - Unit 9. Today, I will be uploading Unit 10, about fruits (Buah-buahan).

Just a quick overview of this lesson. I tried to use simple sentences in the role play so we can focus on the learning of fruit names. Try to do the role play with your children several times throughout the week.

If need be, ask your children to draw the fruits next to the "bold" words. This helps them remember. 

Up until this stage of learning, you will notice that I still have not touch any topic on grammar. The focos now is for children to understand the usage of keywords, build up their vocabularies and let them familiarize with the simple sentence formats. It will make more sense when we introduce grammar later. 


Click here to download this unit. 


Go to "Quick Download" page if you want to view or download the rest of the Units. 

Amazing Onions and Bananas

Some facts about the amazing onions and bananas.

1. cut onions are POISONOUS, particularly the uncooked ones.

2. onions can combat flu.

3. bananas quiet a cough.

I had tried them out, and the result is amazing!

Our family doesn't eat a lot of onions. Sometimes, I will use it to stir fry with eggs but one onion plus 2 - 3 eggs is just too much. So, I usually use half for stir fry and wrap the other half with fresh wrap, keep in refrigerator for the next meal. 

When I need to use them, they usually turn really ugly that I had to throw them away.

But now I don't have to do that anymore. I slice out whatever amount of onion I need for cooking,. Then, I will place the remaining cut onion in a bowl and put it in the living room. 

Onion is a strong magnet to bacteria. Hence, when placed in open air, it absorbs the bacteria away.

I have been doing this for six months now.  We seldom down by flu. Even we had, it was very mild and would recover within the next day. Our body immune system seem to improve too. We don't get infected so easily despite our influenza jab has expired.

My girl used to catch cold and flu very easily. Now, it has reduced a lot. 

Last Friday, she had fever. I fed her with a dose of paracetamol in the afternoon. At night, I put 2 pieces of cut onion on the table next to her bed. The next day, she recovered totally. I  didn't need to follow-up with more paracetamol nor visiting doctor. 

I Also didn't give her any cough syrup.  Instead she took bananas . The fact is bananas is the better medicine to quiet a cough. She took a few pieces of bananas on Saturday and she was fine after that.

I usually change the cut onions 2 - 3 times a week depends on the condition (ie. the extent of bacteria absorbed). You will notice that on days when someone in your family have cough or running nose, some black powder-look spots (like fungus) may appear on the surface of the onion. Just replace them with new ones. It is as simple as that .




These are 3 days old cut onions. Notice the front two pieces  with darker shades than the back two? The dark ones were in my daughter's room last Friday when she was not feeling well.

Simply amazing onions and bananas!

Easy, cheap and effective way to keep our family healthy.  

So, start putting onions in your living room and bedroom today to see the result. 

Natural healing is the best cure! 

p/s. the above suggestion is good to combat flu however if symtoms persist, please visit your nearest clinic for more advice. It may not be just flu. 

Moment of laughters... I mean a real laugh!

I went to bookstore the other day. My eyes wandered around as usual looking for interesting covers. This particular novel caught my attention. Out of curiosity I pick up the book. Not any latest release, in fact it was major motion picture a few years ago. Haha!! Well, I must admit I am not those who are very up-to-date type!

The book is written by John Grisham. That is y i was curious! As far as I could  recall, John Grisham writes stories related to criminals, accused and defendant and all the related blah blah blah. ... I am not particularly a fan of his. But somehow, this book "Skipping Christmas" ~~ as I interpreted from its cover, it is a comedy definitely.

I decided to buy the book anyway. To my surprise, this book is really hilarious.

The part I enjoyed most about this book was the laughter it had brought to me and my daughter. One night I retold the story to my Lv, we laughed and laughed until it was way beyond her sleeping time. My husband was giving warning signal... its 10 o'clock already... its 11 o'clock already... usually I am quite particularly having Lv sleep on time. But, for that particular night, we just had too much fun and laughter, that I thought to myself ..... "well... to hell with it! [ophs..] lets have fun!!"


I could see her face expression with eye widely opened, from surprise turn into oh my god! At one point she hid her head under the pillow knowing that something really bad gonna happened! We both laughed our heads off. Uh... it is one of those best moments of laughter.....

Also try out this DVD. Hilarious!


So, if you are in search of a real laugh, trust me, it is really fun when you retold the story to your little ones!


Skipping Christmas by John Grisham

Piano ABRSM Exam - A Dilemma

I was chatting with my sister about registering my girl for ABRSM exam next year. Considering her standard now, I believe she is ready for Grade 2 ABRSM next year if she works hard on it.

Well, I must admit that this is the mother-kiasu thing again (kiasu in Chinese dialect means scare of losing).... :( 

Recently, I was chatting with a friend. Her daughter is 7 and she is going for Grade 1 ABRSM this month. She told me how nervous she had been these few weeks worrying for the exam. She regretted registering her daughter because it gave her so much stress. She worried about her sight reading, scales and out of sudden, she realised that her daughter's tutor had not been teaching her the aural skills blah blah blah...

So, I thought well... her girl is 7 and going for Grade 1. Mine is 8, so rightfully, she should go to Grade 2 next year... That was what I thought.

I tried her with some scales, sight reading... It was really upsetting for her and learning became so stressful and boring. She used to enjoy the song she played. If the song comes with lyrics, she will ask me to play and she sings along until she is able to play the song herself.

When she is ready, she will try to sing along as she plays.

But now, she hates piano time now!

It makes me "pull my hand break" and start to reconsider my decision.

Should I continue to push harder? because like those who made it to Diploma would say :

"I was so thankful to my mom for pushing me hard enough, otherwise I won't be here."

Or should I leave it to her free hand? Let's see how far she can go?I recalled a friend who was a piano tutor, once told me that don't push your child to take ABRSM too early because learning music is to enjoy it, not for the sake of exams. I tend to agree with her a lot. It doesn't really matter at what age the child starts taking the exams or at what grade he/she takes the first exam. The fundamental is the child enjoys it.



I totally agree with her comments as only certain grades in ABRSM are compulsory.

Then, I recalled a Korean friend of mine, she enjoyed playing piano. In Korea, they do not follow ABRSM. She didn't go through any formal ABRSM lessons or exams either. In fact, she was very shock when I told her that we need to go for exam every year to get certification from Grade 1 to Grade 8 and all the way to Diploma.

I remembered one day when she visited the Reunification Palace in HCMC, in the living room, there was an old grand piano. She was very excited. Without thinking further, she sat down on the piano and started playing despite there were many strangers around. She played very confidently and she was enjoying it so much.

Everybody applaused as she ended her song.

I was very very impressed. 

I asked myself how many children from ABRSM passes really appreciate music and have such passion as her strong as her?

Really a dilemma...

I recalled when I was young, I never enjoyed playing piano because of the yearly exams. The scales, sight reading, aural thing and the exam pieces which I had to do over and over again for one whole year.

To add more trouble to it, I had a very good but strict piano tutor. She was not very patient with me. She liked to twist my ears when I could not play well or I could not understand what she asked me to do. I always ended up crying at the end of the lesson.

It was never a sweet memory for me. I wasn't sure why at that time, I never refrained myself from going for more lessons.

I guess I learnt because my daddy asked me to. He said that it can be a career when I grew up. 

But now, I am in a dilemma... whether I should proceed to register my daughter for ABRSM exam next year...  

I wish I have answers for that...

Dilemma of Moms

My friend told me this morning that she quarrelled with his son. Exam is approaching. Therefore, this week is study week. His son chose to study at home but mummy was not agreeable. Mummy's argument was there were many distractions at home like computer games, PSP, TV blah blah blah, hence it would be a better idea to study in the school library. 

Who was right and who was wrong? If you ask me, both were not.

The problem was getting the message across correctly. Mummy saw the advantages of studying in school therefore magnified the disadvantages of studying at home. From her son's point of view, he interpreted as mummy would never trust me! So, he started to act rebellion. 

If she had expressed her intention as (frankly, I hope I would be as calm as this when my girl reaches that age...) but, like it or not, we need to learn to communicate in their "teenager" language.

"You know, this is one of the big exams that will determine your future prospects. It is a chance of a life time. Mummy feels that it would better to study in school library because of less distraction, you can concentrate better and in case you need any reference book, they are easily available. But if you think you are able to manage your time well by studying at home and not distracted by TV games, mummy is fine with it. Mummy can make you some good food to eat while you study. "

We informed our children of the facts, pros and cons, and most importantly we throw the decision back to them. If they did poorly in the exam, they would not put the blame over mummy for "forcing" them to study in the school library and the next time would be a wiser decision. If his results turn out to be good despite the "distractions", then they really deserved a pat on the back.

As for his son, perhaps he wants the flexibility like he can just grab anything to eat as he studies along. Unlike, studying in library, may be peaceful but he needs to pack up, go to the canteen and queue for his lunch. Perhaps he is strategizing for victory but not wanting his friends to know about it?

They must be reasons why he chose to study at home. If he is willing to study before the exam, it means the exam is important to him. He knows what he is doing. The moment we as parents challenge his decision (by not believing that they made the right choice), he would close all communication channel and rebellious behaviour takes over.  

Mummy would never be able to find out why. More and more misunderstanding and the gap becomes greater and greater. We want our children to talk to us. But sometimes our behaviour / respond cause otherwise. We only realised it when the damage was done.

I always have this dilemma. It is like a mouse trap. We fall into it over and over again just like the mouse and yet we never learn from it. 

Sigh... not easy to be parents indeed...

  

All you need to know about Universal Studio Singapore Part 1

Last week, we went to the newly opened Universal Studio in Singapore. It was not as crowded as we expected. Perhaps it was not a weekend. 

It is very easy to get there via MRT. Hop onto the nearest MRT station from your hotel and get to Harbour Front Station. There are several ways to get to Universal Studio from here. The most convenient is via the Sentosa Express. 

Sentosa Express Station is located at 3rd floor of Vivo City Shopping Mall adjacent to the MRT station. The cost is SGD3 flat rate for child / adult. However, you still need to purchase the tickets individually despite it being the same rate. Return trip is free of charge.

It took us less than 10 minutes to get to Universal Studio from here. We reached Universal Studio at about 10.00am in the morning.

Tickets

Operating Hours : 10.00am to 7.00pm It was not very crowded at the ticketing counters because more than 10 ticketing booths were opened that day. However, it is advisable to book your tickets online if you are planning to go on the weekends. The park controls number of visitors per day. Usually, tickets would be sold out by late morning / noon on weekends.






Operating Hours
For now, with several attractions not ready (frankly, we were very disappointed with this ...), one day pass is enough. If you go the right strategy (please read "Tips to beat the Crowd" below), one day pass is mooore than enough.   


Universal Express - unless you really hate queueing, it is not really necessary. The extras you are getting are waiting time not more than 5 minutes per ride and you get to enjoy the performances at VIP seats (best spots).


As most of rides are quite challenging, I personally think that it is not very suitable for children 5  or 6 years old and below as compared to Disneyland. So if you happen to bring young children along, be prepared to skip quite a number of rides / performances.


In the month of May 2010, each ticket purchased will be complemented by a SGD10 meal voucher in any restaurants in Universal Studio Singapore plus a SGD5 souvenir voucher.

Though the operating hours is until 7pm, Hollywood Boulevard (mainly retails shops and restaurants) extends their operating hours till 9pm on Friday and Saturdays. But, on the day of our visit, the shops and restaurants in Hollywood Boulevard remained open until about 8.00pm as there were still plenty of customers in the shops. 




Tips to beat the Crowd


1. Watch where the big crowd are moving (especially those comes via tour agencies) . Avoid them!

2. Go against traffic.

3. Pick up the latest performance schedule, decide which time slot you intend to go before you start your journey. Clear them off your list as early as possible so you will not need to stop in the middle of rides and rush for another show. The park is really not that big, it is absolutely alright to walk back and forth from one area to the other.

4. Have early lunch - just before 12noon will be good.

5. Skip rides (I mean only rides, not performances) in The Lost World and Ancient Egypt during noon time. That is the time when crowd from both sides (ie. via New York / via Madagascar) meet. Come back after 4.30pm. 

6. Skip the retail shops along Hollywood Boulevard and head straight to either Madagascar / New York depends on where the crowd are moving. Come back later for shopping.

7. If you have particular interest in certain characters within the park ie. Dinosaur, Madagascar etc., do find some time to visit the small retail shops within the area itself as some of the merchandise may not be available at the Hollywood Boulevard shops.

8. Wear comfortable shoes preferably flat and tied shoes as some rides may require you to suspend in the air.

To view the interactive map, go to http://www.rwsentosa.com/language/en-US/Attractions/UniversalStudiosSingapore/Tickets

Hollywood Boulevard and New York
As you entered the park, you will be welcomed by many lovely shops and restaurants offering attractive merchandises. That is the Hollywood Boulevard. As they will remain open until 8.00pm at night, it is a good idea to drop by later before heading home.

Next, you will come to a junction where to your left is Madagascar and to your right is the New York / Sci-Fi City. When we were there, we went to the right because we saw many people heading to the left. Remember to avoid big crowd.

Head straight to Pantages Hollywood Theater in Hollywood Boulevard if you can catch the first show at 10.30am. Otherwise, catch the next one that suit your time.

Next, diagonally opposite the Pantages Hollywood Theater is Lights, Camera, Action! in New York, hosted by Steven Spielberg. This is a MUST-NOT-MISSED!!

However, young children may not enjoy this. It creates loud bangs, strong winds, huge things swaying from one end to the other.... but really fantastic!

That's basically all you can get in New York because Stage 28 was not ready at the point of our visit.

There are also outdoor performances in front of the Palace (Street Dance) and the Pantages Hollywood Theater (Kowabunga) at 11.00am and 11.45am respectively. If you want to learn how to do street dancing, then don't miss the 11.00am performance. 

Street Dance at 11am

Kowabunga at 11.45am

• 
  

  The performance was alright initially but it was a bit too length though.

Sci-Fi City

As everybody must have known by now, the Battlestar Galactica was not operational, therefore only one attraction left to enjoy in this area. The Accelerator. It is just like the teacup rides. It sways more and more as you turn your steering... Nothing new really. So, if you really have not enough time to take this ride, you can just give it a miss! 


Ancient Egypt

When we arrived Ancient Egypt, it was almost noon.  We could see the crowd were building up. Treasure Hunters were very very crowded.

This is one of the easy rides. Young children will definitely enjoy this. But, we skipped this and headed for lunch as the waiting time was 45 minutes!

Remember, get to the restaurant just before 12noon!. 



We saved a lot of queueing and waiting time because the majority of the crowd were still enjoying their rides when we had our "peaceful" lunch.

The other attraction in Ancient Eygpt, Revenge of the Mummy was not that popular. My girl is 8 years old. She is qualified for the ride (need to be at least 122cm height). Unfortunately, she is kind of timid. Therefore, we skipped this one too. My friend told me that it was really fun and SCARY!!! So, if you are ready for the excitement, don't miss this one.

Click here to All you need to know about Universal Studio Singapore Part II

All you need to know about Universal Studio Singapore Part 2

Click here if you wish to start from "All you need to know about Universal Studio Singapore Part 1"

After lunch, we went back to the Treasure Hunters in Ancient Egypt. As most people had gone for lunch, the waiting time has reduced from 45 minutes to 15 minutes only!

The Lost World
Next, it is time for the WaterWorld performance at 1.30pm. This again is a MUST-NOT-MISSED event. If you can't catch this one, be sure you catch the next one at 4.30pm. There are only two shows daily.

Be prepared to get really wet if you happen to seat within the PRIME Zone!! The wet zones are demarcated so choose your seats at your own risks!

You are about to experience the real live gun-fire fighting and awesome stunts and explosions as in the movie!

There were some moms with young children left the the theater in the middle of the show as it was kind of "unexpected" for young kids though there was no height / age limit.  

See how the crowd enjoyed the water splashing prior to the show began.






By 2pm after we finished watching the WaterWorld and after lunch for some, most crowd gathered in The Lost World at this time of the day. The only attraction in The Lost World that was totally not crowded was the Amber Rock Climb because you need to pay a separate fee to enter for this one. 

I would think that it would be better if Universal Studio can offer another package with entrance fee + Amber Rock Climb at the ticketing booth. It is just psychological thingy I felt because not many people noticed that extra fee applied until they got the map (after purchase the tickets) or until they reached the Amber Rock Climb itself. Many would not want to spend the extra dollars just because it was not included.  

Canopy Flyer was great and the crowd were tremendous too. Unfortunately the waiting time was 50 minutes when we were there. So, we decided to skip this and come back later.

To take this ride, make sure you have tied shoes. However, if you happened to wear slippers, they would advise you to keep them at the designated place.

Dino -Soarin was nothing but just the Dumbo thing in Disneyland. Young children will enjoy this as well. Again, if you do not have much time left, it is alright to skip this one.

Another disappointment was the Jurassic Park Rapids Adventure. It is a river raft ride within the dinosaur habitats. It was not ready at the point of our visit, unfortunately.



Far Far Away

Then, we moved on to the Far Far Away park. Shrek 4-D Adventure was fantastic. Though there is no height limit, younger children (5 years of age and below) may not enjoy this as it is quite thrilling. Your seat will move, water sprinkling from everywhere, you get a feel of spider crawling over your leg....

Next, the Enchanted Airways. This was really fun. It is not as scary as the normal roller coaster, so children will enjoy it.

Donkey LIVE - I personally don't really enjoy this because first of all in terms of humour, it is nothing comparable to the Stitch in Disneyland. Secondly, which is the sickening part (may be funny for some but...), was when they made fun of one of the audiences about her smelly armpit! It was just a joke of course but out of so many things to talk about, why this one? With such hot weather, it made people felt so uneasy. So, to avoid being grabbed, make sure you choose a seat away from the main aisle in front, at the back, left or right.....

Magic Potion Spin - this one was good only for really very young children. It is located in one of the retail shops - Fairy Godmother's Potion Shop. 

Madagascar
It was 3.30pm when we reached the last park, The Madagascar.

Madagascar: A Crate Adventure
It is a river boat ride into the jungle with Madagascar. But, when we reached the check-point, we were told that they were facing some technical difficulties and trying to fix it. The staff had told us to come back later. So, we did. In fact, we went back there twice! But soon, we found out that the canal was extremely dry. We suspected that the ride was never working since god knows when.

Next is the Party-Go-Round. Basically it is a merry-go-round and that's is it. Your little children will enjoy this.


The Ogre House was a sad encounter as the interior was either not ready or it was not meant to allow visitors to enter? I wasn't sure.


By 4.00pm, we were almost done. We headed back to those rides that we have missed. No hassle at all because the crowd has reduced tremendously.

After going around for all the rides, it was about 6pm. We still have some spare time for shopping in the retail shops within each park. To be frank, it was not easy to spend the souvenir vouchers of SGD15 (SGD5 each for the three of us). They were either too pricy or not practical stuff.


With a fair bit of top up, we ended up buying 1 key chain, 2 pens and one bouncing ball from the retail shops in Hollywood Boulevard before heading home.  

Last but not least, like Disneyland, you would come across movie characters as you walked around the park, be sure to get a snapshot with your favourite artists. Our children may not know all characters. You know like Charlie Chaplin, Marilyn Monroe, Betty Boop etc. Of course there are also the more recent ones like Madagascar gang, Shrek, Princess Fiona, Woody Woodpecker etc.


All in all, if the park is fully operational, I think the experience would have been much more. The free vouchers indeed compensated some of our disappointments.


Most of the rides are very "adventurous" for my girl though she is 8 and exceeds the minimum height limit. Anyway, I personally feel that bringing toddler there would not be a good idea though. 7 years old and above would be fun.


A few attractions worth-mentioning like the Lights, Camera, Action by Steven Spielberg, The Waterworld, Shrek 4-D and Pantages Hollywood Theater. There are really fantastic live performances that you probably won't get it elsewhere.


I hope Universal Studio Resort Sentosa Singapore can quickly do up the rest of the attractions in the park to make it a "wholesome" adventures for all, that is value for money.

p/s. the information above is good for the current date it was created.  For more information, please log on to http://www.rwsentosa.com/ 

如何让孩子轻松的学华语

最近，有位朋友建议让我们两家的小孩一同学华语。朋友告诉我说就试一试，让她们一起玩，一起学习， 或许会有不错的效果。

我欣然地答应她了。

我整顿了一下以前给我女儿学华语使用的flashcard, 第一阶段有60个字。

如何教导小朋友，可以参考我的部落格 用flashcard学华语。

因为这位小朋友已经七岁了，我就不用太大的字体，我把A4纸它分成6个格，输入这60个字/词，然后再用影印机把它们影印出来就可以了。150 - 160gram 厚的纸挺够了。

如想共作参考，可用email联系 (很抱歉，我的电脑本领不怎么样，不懂得把zip file 放上我的部落格，暂时只能以email方式联系了。请见谅。）。

My First Visit to the Dentist Chapter 6

Click here to start from Chapter 1

   “Hello Dr. Phuong.” My mummy greeted.

   “Hello Mrs. Shee. How did you know about our clinic?” Dr. Phuong asked.

   “Oh… a friend of mine came here before. She recommended me to try. ” My mummy answered.

   “Oh really? That’s good.” Dr. Phuong replied. Dr. Phuong has a face of a grandfather, a kind-hearted and loving grandfather. He had a greyish white hair that matched really well with his white teeth. I guess it is a must to have nice teeth if you ever want to be a dentist.

   "Em… it is her first dental visit so she is a bit nervous.” Mummy told Dr. Phuong as she pointed at me.

   Oh.. what an embarrassing secret mummy…. Dr. Phuong smiled at me. His jaw didn’t really drop to the floor as I would have imagined. Well, it was not that embarrassing after all. But yeah, mum was right. He was handsome.

   “Oh.. no problem sweetheart.” Dr. Phuong said.

   As they were talking, the nurse in charge pushed me to the dentist chair. She was a Vietnamese and she didn’t speak good English. I couldn’t really understand what she said but I could understand from her body language that she wanted me to sit on the dentist chair. Mummy was still busy talking. I was nervous and I wanted to shout for “Help mummy!!!”

   Before I realised it, I was already on the dental chair and hooopsh…. I heard a sound of like the air being let out from a big balloon and I was being “pushed” up. Wow, that was awesome! I felt like I was the pilot getting ready to take off. The nurse put a piece of paper towel on my chest. She clipped the paper towel on one side and role a green wire over my neck and clipped on the other side of the paper towel. That was a DIY do-it-yourself bib. Awesomely easy. Isn’t?

   I was really nervous. At that very moment, I really wanted to escape. I recalled my mummy once told me she was nervous going to dentist too. She was even more nervous going for injection but somehow as we grow, we need to learn to control our nerves and they are controllable. So, I tried really hard to calm them down.

   “Shirley, it is OK. I just need to put on my glove then I take a look at your teeth. I am not going to do anything but just to look at your teeth. OK?” Dr. Phuong said.

   I could not find my voice. I just nodded. Tears came to my eyes but I controlled it from rolling down. I knew I could do it. Mummy said I just need to trust Dr. Phuong and everything would be fine.

   “Oh, you have such a nice teeth there. You must have been brushing your teeth.” Dr. Phuong said.

   I nodded with my mouth wide opened. I came to realise that it was not easy to nod with an open-mouth though.

   “OK, close your mouth a little while.” Dr. Phuong said as he passed me a mirror.

   “Can you see your teeth in the mirror?” Doctor asked. I nodded again.

   “Come over her Mrs. Shee so you can have a good look at her teeth. Let me explain to you.” Dr. Phuong said.

   “She has a few permanent teeth down here and up here as well. Because her gum is still a baby gum, therefore you will see that the teeth are quite “squeezy” down here. But, not to worry, wait for a few months for her gum to grow more.” Dr. Phuong said.

   “OK.” Mummy answered.

   "OK, Shirley. Close your mouth and say gee…You see her front teeth are not inline with the bottom teeth. This is because she has a habit of using her tongue to push her teeth.” Dr. Phuong continued.

   “Babies like doing that but usually they will stop after two and a half years old.” Doctor added. Really?

   “Shirley, you are seven years old already. I am sure you are not a baby anymore. Right?” Dr. Phuong said. I smiled a little.

   “Now, I will teach you how to exercise your tongue so that you will stop pushing the front teeth using your tongue.” Dr. Phuong continued.

   "Open your mouth a little and say ah…, then stick your tongue on the palace… yeah… higher a bit.. yeah… that is right. Then close up your teeth and say gee…. without moving your tongue. OK? Then, try to swallow.” Dr. Phuong said patiently as I did what he said.

   “Sometimes it will be difficult to swallow; perhaps you can give her a glass of water. She can swallow the water instead.” Doctor said.

   “OK, Shirley? Can you do again? Say Ah…. OK OK…. Stick your tongue… yes, very good. Then, say Gee…. OK, now swallow. Well done!” Dr. Phuong said as he nodded with a gentle smile.

   Dr. Phuong said that I needed to do this exercise 10 minutes a day for the next two months. He would see me again in two months time.

   “Shirley, do you like rabbits?” Doctor asked me as he showed me a rabbit face with two front teeth resting on his bottom lips. I smiled a little bit more. He looked really like a rabbit when he did that. A rather cute but elderly rabbit. Gee…

   “wek.. I tenk we ma lik abit but… we don’t want to look like one. Do we?” Dr. Phuong teased. I figured out after that what Dr. Phuong was trying to say ~ “well… I think we may like rabbit but…” I laughed.

   Yeah, mummy was right. Dr. Phuong was funny, handsome and really nice.

   You know, I still didn’t quite understand. How something as soft as my tongue could possibly pushed my teeth out? They are called permanent teeth, aren’t there? Permanent means something that cannot be moved or erased. If you had used permanent markers to write on a whiteboard, the writing would be permanently there and would not be able to move it or erase it.

   “It is because her gum is still a baby gum; therefore it is still not very strong.” Dr. Phuong told my mummy. Wow, Dr. Phuong was not only handsome, nice and funny, he was a mind-reader in fact.

   “Shirley, when you come for the next visit, I will see how well you have done. If it is necessary, we will fix an appliance to help you hold your teeth to the right position. If you practice well, then we will not need any appliance. OK?” Dr. Phuong said again.

   Dr. Phuong showed me and my mummy how an appliance looked like. Yuk! There were wires that looked like braces. It was ugly. Dr. Phuong said the appliance would help to pull my front teeth backward if I tried to push them forward with my tongue.

   “You need not wear it at school. You can wear it at home after school.” Dr. Phuong continued.

   I didn’t want that thing to be in my mouth. It looked like the fake teeth my grandpa was wearing except it had wires instead of white teeth on it.

   “Some children can use their tongue to fix and take out the appliance, without using their hands. It becomes their little toy.” Dr. Phuong said.

   Really? Well, it may not sound so bad if I really had to put it on. If it was for my own good, may be I could try. It was not painful after all.

   As I heard Dr. Phuong was talking to my mummy, my mind wondered. I didn’t know since when I started to relax lying on the soft dentist chair. I still heard Dr. Phuong saying something to me or may be to my mummy as if we still didn’t understand. But I wasn’t paying much attention. I was admiring myself in the mirror that Dr. Phuong gave me just now. It was a special mirror. It was a two sided mirror. One side was a normal mirror. The other side was a magnifying mirror. Wow, that was another awesome!

 

   “Dr. Phuong, Shirley has a few new teeth coming out but the old ones are still there. Is it necessary to pull them out to give way to the new ones?” I heard my mummy asked.

   “No, no. It is still early. Not until it becomes like that, we can let these teeth drop naturally. Keep wiggling it, Shirley, it will be fine.” Doctor answered as he pointed to my other permanent tooth that just grew out of my gum. I had been expert in tooth wiggling. So far, I had wiggled 6 teeth and I had 5 teeth in my secret box. You know why? Let me tell you.

   I lost one of my little teeth in school. It must have been a naughty tooth because it chose the wrong time to come off. I was having PE lesson on that day. As I was chasing after my opponent, I felt something rough in my tongue. Oh my god, something bad happened. I stopped running after my friend, instead I ran for the toilet. I took the tooth out from my mouth and washed it under the running water. I wanted to make sure that it was really clean so I could keep it in my secret box at home. When I was done washing it, I dropped the tooth onto a tissue and then only I realised that there was no tooth in between my fingers! The tooth was so little that I didn’t even know it slipped off my fingers. I didn’t know when it slipped off my fingers either!

   So, back to my first dental visit today, well. it was really nothing after all. It was not as embarrassing as I had imagined. There was no pain. And Dr. Phuong was not a monster dentist either. The visit in fact turned out to be AWESOME!

• I learned how to make a DIY do-it-yourself bib. That’s awesome No. 1.

• I knew how a pilot would have felt at the point of taking-off. That’s awesome No. 2.

• Dr. Phuong’s detective mirror was as cool as my detective pencil case. That’s awesome No. 3.

The only trouble now is, I have to wait for another ttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo months before I can own the appliance. I wished really badly for the TIME MACHINE …….

   Don’t worry, the soon-to-be-my appliance will be mine soon. In the mean time, I will make myself busy with the detective pencil case.

   Oh, I almost forgot, I suppose to tell you the story about my teacher who did not agree that I was a PERFECT (= polite + obedient + hardworking + helpful + talented + well-mannered + confident + brave) young lady. I will tell you next time.

~~~ THE END ~~~

My First Visit to the Dentist Chapter 5

   As I said before, I was a PERFECT young lady. I honoured what I said. I promised I won’t open the present and I kept my promise. Well, to tell you very frankly, I actually forgotten about the detective pencil case for a while. You know, it was not my present yet, it was just a soon-to-be-my present, so I didn’t really ask my brain to keep a record of it.

   "Shirley, tomorrow is Saturday. We are going to see Dr. Phuong.” Mummy reminded me on Friday night.

   “Don’t tell me mummy.” I said.

 

   “Well, you wanted the brave girl present. Isn’t it?” Mummy said.

   “Yeah, but just don’t tell me.” I said.

   Mummy understood. What I meant was just bring me there. I didn’t want to think about it and I certainly didn’t want the monster dentist to come after me in my dream tonight. I just wanted to get it over with as soon as possible.

   The next morning when I woked up, everything seem quite normal. Mummy prepared breakfast as usual. Daddy prepared to go to work. I had my breakfast as usual too, watching my favourite Tom & Jerry cartoon of course.

   As soon as I finished my breakfast, Mummy said: “OK, let’s get going. Dr. Phuong didn’t like patients who are late.”

   I opened daddy’s special cupboard wanted to take a good glimpse of the pencil case before I went to see Dr. Phuong. Daddy had a special cupboard in the living room. He didn’t like anybody to mess up his belongings so he would keep all his things (I meant things that he thought I was too young to handle) in the special cupboard. I knew he would keep the soon-to-be-my present in his special cupboard because that was the only “safe” place in the house, out of reach by a PERFECT young lady like me. But, I tell you a secret. I could reach it now because I have grown taller. Daddy didn’t notice actually. Gee….

   “You can pack it in your bag and bring it with you.” Mummy said.

   “I can?” I can’t believe what I heard.

   “Yes, it is a brave girl present. Isn’t it? It will make you brave. As soon as you finish seeing Dr. Phuong, you can open your present.” Mummy continued.

   Shortly after that, we arrived at the dental clinic. There were a few people waited at the reception area. I saw strangers with sour faces. The nurse at the registration counter was the only one who had smile on her face. Of course she was happy because she didn’t need to see dentist. She sees Dr. Phuong everyday.

   Mummy filled up a form while I was busy trying to control my heartbeat. It just went “pip pop pip pop pip pop pippop pippop pippop”. Mummy said that heartbeat of a normal people would be 60 to 80 a minute. It would not be good if it shoots up to 100. I started to worry if I would get heart attack for that.

   “OK, sweetheart. We are done. Let’s sit down there and wait.” Mummy said.

   “Mummy, can I see my pencil case?” I asked.

   “Go ahead.” Mummy answered without even thinking. I opened it and started to play with it. We were seating by the glass window. I saw two kids were playing jump rope at the pavement outside the glass window where we were sitting. They saw my detective pencil case. I could see how much they admired it. I was so proud that I made the right choice to come to the dentist at this very moment. As they were looking, I started to demonstrate how it worked. They eyes were wide opened, as wide as when I first saw this pencil case.

   “Shirley Shee.” I heard my name was being called. Mummy quickly ushered me to keep my case and followed the nurse to Dr. Phuong at Level 3. My heart went “pip pop pip pop pip pop pippop pippop pippop” again…..

~~~ click here to continue ~~~