For info, I spent 5 days at Sri Lanka for short vacation recently. When I told people about going to Sri Lanka, almost everyone would ask me this similar question...

:: Images credited to Barefoot Ceylon ::

Fifthly, FINE BONE PORCELAIN. Have you heard of Noritake or Dankotuwa Porcelain? I'm sure you've heard of at least Noritake. If you think Noritake fine bone was made in Japan, then you got it all wrong. They are produced in Sri Lanka and they have quite a number of Factory Outlet selling Noritake products with factory pricing, which is absolutely much much cheaper compared to market and boutique pricing. Owhhhh droolingggggg .... Most importantly, Noritake that made were made in Sri Lanka was halal as they're using cow and ox bone. I'm sure you've heard about this issue about Muslim using Noritake being debated before not long ago as they claimed that fine bone that was made in China was using ash from pig bone. Anyway, it's no harm to do your personal check before you purchase anything and please do not rely on one individual source aka ME :). I might be wrong.

:: Pic googled ::

Sixth, SPICES, SPICY CURRY & CHEAP SEAFOOD! And I mean dirt cheap seafood. All happened to be things that I like and enjoyed most. I love to eat, I love to travel and I love to eat during travel. I don't think I can enjoy my holiday if I had to diet during my vacation, like seriously. A friend of mine just came back recently from Europe tour and lost merely 7 kilos because they've been eating bread and fruits for two weeks of their vacation. They're non muslim so halal status wasn't really an issue here. The issue is everything was way too expensive hence they had to opted for cheaper option to survive. For me, if I go anywhere, I would want at least try their local food since it's the most efficient and fastest way to get to know local culture, through their food. I can't do that if one plate of rice would cost me my kidney.

Seventh, WHALE! When my cousin went to Sri Lanka last Christmas, she joined this whale watching trip. Returned home, she uploaded a video about the experience on FB. Ever since, I've been itching and pestering my husband about it. Based on my reading, whale and dolphin watching season was from December to April. This is the best time as they'll start their annual migration and make their way from the food-rich southern ocean to the breeding ground if the warm northern waters. Our trip was on September which is low season and even though I wasn't very sure whether we got to see any whale or not in this trip, it doesn't stop me from getting excited.

I believed I had gave you enough reasons already.

So, after all that being said, the only answer I'm able to give to Why Sri Lanka's question is Why Not Sri Lanka?

Mode jiwang karat ON plissssss...

Back at home, precisely when I am still holding working mum title, I will as best as I can, avoid to follow any serial soap-opera-drama, be it Malay, English, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Indonesian or Phillipines, no matter how great the drama was. Most of the time, I'd be clue-less and totally left behind when everybody at office or at my mum's place talking about recent drama that's been talk of the town. Of course, once in a while, exception given to those isolated case like Winter Sonata, Femau ( remember him? Goshh I miss him and his addictive terhinggut-hinggut shoulder gesture )Bella, Nur Kasih, Puteri Yang Terbuang... just to name a few but most of the cases, I would try not to follow. I even restraint myself from watching even 1 episode of Nora Elena, not even a trailer, despite having had to hear, read, breathe how romantika di tampoi, how handsome, adorable, considerate and all those so called perfect husband to be Seth Tan is, practically everywhere. My sister can't stop talkingg about Seth and so did my friends at office. Seth practically wins every woman's heart, no matter which age group they belongs to. Bukan kekwat taknak follow okay. I have this things with series drama. I am loyal viewers, too loyal most of the time to the point of addictive. Once they got into me, into my mind, it will took over my life there's no stopping to it until the final episode. I will even skip my meal, even change my sleeping pattern if have to kah kah kah. And to those who knew me well, I don't usually compromise when it comes to my sleeping time *blushing*

If during my teenage time, Chinese drama and malay drama swasta was a hit. Lately, it's Korean Wave era. K-Pop is everywhere and seriously, I don't get the hype until recently. We don't have much variety in term of entertainment here since majority of the channel was conquered by Arabic channel. We do have FOX, MBC Max, MBC Action but the selection of the movies was soooo yesteryears. This is where I started to pay attention to KBS World and got hooked to it.

So much so, personally I still find some K-Pop songs irrelevant and in-appropriate in term of lyrics, their outfit and their dance. Some dances appeared to be too alluring, some outfit is way too revealing and some lyrics just doesn't make sense. Too much for a conservative mom like me. Anyhow, there are a lot of good songs too. Nonetheless, there's one common similarity shared by K-Pop songs. There are likable. It's very easy to like their songs.

Among many songs I've been listening lately, below song by 2 A.M immediately caught my attention, easy to my ears, soothed my soul and stays in my heart. The melody was very beautiful to begin with, the lyrics was poetic albeit simple and sincere, and the singers's voice was nice.

Please don't get me wrong. This song doesn't have any relation to my personal situation at the mo. Truthfully, I am having a huge mad crush on my husband lately, hence the songs give me soothing and calming kinda feeling, not sappy. Theoretically, if I am a young girl with break up and letting go issue, I would definitely cry a river every time listening to this piece.

Since I like the song too much, I'm sharing it with you here. Hope you like it too! And if you don't, I hope you could someday find a song very dear to you, close to your heart that will give you the same effect as below song gave me.

Thank you to the person who uploaded this clip and went extra miles providing the subtitle and Korean lyrics.

So as we know it, Alis officially entering schooling life today( 15th Sept). We had to forced her to go to bed by 9pm that night, worried she might not be able to wake up at 6 the next day. She had trouble to shut her eyes though, which is something I can truly relate.

We left home at 6.50 am and Alis can't stop smiling ever since we stepped out from home. Looking at her, I had this tight knot in my stomach and bitter sweet feeling in my chest. She was standing there proudly in her new crisp uniform, carrying her backpack of her choice. Oh my, my girl has grown up, in a speed of light.

In here, the school was quite flexible in terms of homeworks and uniforms. School shoes must be black color and that's about it. Any design, flat or high heels or wedges, ribbon or no ribbon, beads or no beads.. as long as black will do. Socks must be white colour base. Again, you can wear any white color sock, they even allowed those "kenduri" socks that came with ribbon lah, bunga la as long as it white. For girls, there's no restriction for their hairband color. Kat Mesia kan boley pakai putih, biru and hitam only. Here, pakai la shocking pink kaaaaa, kelabu kaaaaa... tak kesah. Nak letak sepasu bunga atas kepala pun takper * exaggerated* . As for school uniform, most international school will came up with their own design so you can buy your standardize uniform at their uniform store. However, for public school, they can buy their uniform from mall. Again, as long as they get the color right, design doesn't really matter. I've seen pink uniform with Tom & Jerry badges la, Strawberry Shortcake laaa.. meriah betol !

:: Smiling gloriously ::

KG (Kindergarten) and reception students are not allowed to buy food from school canteen since they're way too small to handle money of their own, hence every kids must be provided with foods from home. I asked Alis what she wanted to have for her 1st day at school and she replied Nugget and Sausages. I offered to make her something heavier like Nasi Goreng Cina or Meehun Goreng, but she had her mind set on nuggets.

:: Light snacks enough to last her till 1.00 pm. The school will provided cookies in between breaks too ::

:: Strawberry Milk. I also prepared a bottle of plain water for her ::

We enrolled Alis to C@mbridge English School so she will be following UK syllabus and most of her teachers coming from there too.

:: Her school taken from opposite the street. I was having chicken shawarma for breakfast at shops opposite her school when this picture was taken ::

:: Welcome everyone. Jemput masuk yer... ::

After checking on the student list, Alis was put under Reception Blue, under care of Teacher Clarice and Teacher Florence. Both from UK, I think.

As soon as we entered the classroom, my jaw dropped and rolling on the floor. Lucky there's no one there just yet hence my stupid embarrassing expression was spared ha ha ha. They even have 32 inch" LCD TV in every class room. This is kindergarten or what? Their classroom was way more luxury than my high school classrooms, heck it's even dahsyat than my university lecture halls ha ha ha. Come to think of it, definitely worth every dinars we paid la kan since believe it or not, her one term KG fees cost more than my 3 years diploma's fees put together.. *faint-recover-faint again*

We were immediately greeted by their staff on duty, a very friendly and ever so talkative middle aged English woman. She definitely made my chill morning felt a lot warmer with her stories on how her brother used to run away from kindergarten every morning, and her advice on how to handle preschooler's tantrum. From the way she described it, she must have a lot of experiences in this area, and of course.. she was very good with kids. She introduced us to Alis's class teacher and let the teacher took over the rest. Teacher Clarice immediately approached Alis, shake her hand and introduced herself. Then she was ushered into one corner, to one blue tray where she was asked to choose one bear tag that represent herself.

And for a reason that only she would know, she chose this bear of all bear there is ....

:: Bear Jantan ! Pelik gak since there's a lot of other "girly" looking bear in the tray. She must have been very nervous I reckon since this bear is sooo not her style he he he ::

She was then were asked to hang the bear tag on the board and this will be their daily routine. Then the teacher showed her where she should put her lunch box and back packs. She must and need to be able to do everything on her own everyday and they'll be doing this routine repetitively every morning till they get used to it.

:: Teacher Clarice showing her how to do it ::

After that, they were allowed to do any activities they like until the school session starts at 7.30 am. Alis's chose to play with playdoh. There's one girl wanted to do coloring and a pair of boys wanted to play with wooden jigsaw puzzle.

Anyway, below are the sneak peak of Alis's classroom where she will be for the next one year.

:: They even have portable beds. Kids will have a short nap after their lunch break ::

:: Teacher Florence distributing playdoh for the girls to play ::

:: Some of the kids work of art hung proudly on the wall. It said : We Are All One Family Under The Same Sky. So very true ! ::

Around 7.30 am, we excused ourselves. Of course, after I'm satisfied with all how, what, who questions we've been practicing at home.

Well, am definitely not trying to be over-protective mummy here. I just wanted to be sure she knows everything she needs to know hehehe...

I was hoping for smooth ending, you know where I can leave Alis with my mind at peace and I surely can't if she's crying or throwing tantrum. Although I kinda expected it, still she amazed me with her calmness. When I told her that mummy and papa are going home, so if you have any problem, do tell teacher okay. She just nodded, smile, so composed and wave good bye. Phewwwwww...

When I thought my day would be drama-free, then the real drama begin...

:: This kid doesn't want to leave school and demanded to stay at kakak's school and she surely made sure her demand was loudly heard, most probably by the entire school. She started crying the moment we dragged her out from Alis's class till few hours later. She stopped when she forgot about i tand she resume crying at the very moment, the school thought came to mind. Nothing could make her stop so I'll leave her be. She can stop anytime she feel like it hahaha. I rest my case ::

::This was taken in our apartment lift, seeeee... still very much crying. At school, in the cab, reaching home, in the lift and the crying goes on and on till maybe and hour later. Sighhhhhhhh.... ::

For her 1st day, we sent her to school but she need to take a school bus home and she need to learn it today. Before we went back, I had reminded her that she'll be going home by bus today so her teacher and her assistant will send her to her bus. Try not to fall asleep and always alert of her whereabout. I'm not worry much though because, from her class door till the 1st step of bus's staircase, school assistant will guided her and there'll be maid in the bus taking care of them. Once each student reached home, they will not be allowed to hop off from bus without the presence of either one of the parents. As long as the parents or guardian wasn't there, the kids stays in bus. If it's taking too long, then the maid will call the parents as they have both parent's contact numbers. Definitely give me a piece of mind.

:: That's her bus at the back. School buses here comes in white and blue color mostly. They do have typical yellow Malaysian school bus here, but that kind of bus was used by factory/labour workers. Terbalik kan, kat Mesia, bas kilang warna biru, bas skolah warna kuning. It works other way around here. Sometimes, just a sight of yellow "school bus" carries old "students" old enough to be a grandfather give me a good laugh. ::

P/S : I'm not fat, it's the wind and the shirt ! *in denial mode ON*

P/SS : Can you see Erin soooo restless and kepoh in this picture? She can't help but terkinja2 and terloncat loncat out of excitement ha ha ha

As soon as she reached home, and changed her uniform, I bombarded her with thousand questions like there's no tomorrow.. Aishhhhh this anxiety and curiosity is killing me. I wanted to know everything, every little things that's been happening to her at school. Much to my dismay, she was non-responsive. Most of her answers, ye lahhhhh... Makan lahhhhh.... Minum laaahhhhh... and she even answered some of my questions with only jelingan maut kah kah kah. I surely annoyed and gets on her nerve alright. When mummy doesn't get her answers that satisfied her, mummy not happy, so mummy bugged and pestered her some more. This is when my husband decided to step in and save her daughter from agony.

Drowned in my own excitement, I forgot that this is after all her first day at school and definitely something new to her. She must be exhausted of all the experiences because she would never ignore my questions before. Mannnnn I even forgot to offer her rice. Mummy so bad !

Anyway she refused to eat lunch and just wanted to sleep. After a good few hours of sleep, she woke up, refreshed, rejuvenated and most importantly, more voluntary and willingly to attend to my long list of questions.

Then the real fun begun...

She started told me about how her days like at school, how her teacher took them around the school for tour, toilet, garden and playground, give them chocolate, cookies, play flash card with them... Somehow, deep in my heart, I knew she was going to be fine. My worried was definitely unnecessary.

Owhhh she even got 2 stars because she managed to get 2 questions correct and I can see that she was quite happy with it. Yeayyyyyy..... She also told me that she went to toilet by herself, of course with an accompany of her classroom's assistant and she even did everything all by herself. Double Yeayyyyyyy.....

I praised her and told her 2 stars is good, but in future, you need to get more stars . Once teacher raise her questions, you must quickly answers okehhhhh? When I said this, she looked me straight to my face and replied....

Owhhhh ya kaaaaaaa.... Sorry naaaaa, it's not that mummy forget the very simple rules at school, mummy just a very competitive student ha ha ha.

Correct, correct... Make sure u raise your right hands okay? *termalu*

Finally, after spent one day around her thick-heavy UK slang spoken teacher, she can't help but getting influenced and I can predict not so bright future for me kah kah kah. Soon there'll be a day where I can't even understand what she's says, even when she speaks in English..

Heading to swimming pool at Ground floor of our apartment with her friends. When the lift was about to close, she shouted..... Heyyyy ! WEY DAP (wait up)....

Errrkkkkkkkk... kelas ko Maria !

We were eating dinner that night when I spilled some of the gravy on the table and spontaneously shouted, Alamakkkkkkkkk...... She gave me this concern looks and said.... What's the madderrrrr mummy?

And this is only first day.....

Poyo eh kamu !

:: Signing out... Yo peace yo ! ::

panCAKE and banana CAKE.....

Even though most of her friends already started their school session early this week, Alis will start schooling tomorrow to which I'll write a post about it. Mesti lah kena tulis post of it's own kan, kata ade mak kepoh!

It's normal for KG students to begin their term much later that primary and secondary students. Based on education system applied here, earliest level will be KG1 as in Kindergarten 1, KG2, Year 1 till Year 8 for secondary. Theoretically, she'll need to start from KG1. Anyhow, she passed the assessment test so her teacher decided that she can skip KG1 and straight away register her as KG2 student. I was thinking of registering her for Year 1 but the school need us to provide certificate showing that she had completed her kindergarten back home, which we didn't have. Alis managed to completed only 6 months in Sm@rt Reader when we're moving here. Therefore, I had to just be happy with her in KG2, for now.

Enough with Alis's bits. Alah macam kan anak de sorang je nak masuk skolah, anak org lain dh lama masuk skolah tak kecoh punnn.. :)

Moving on, below are 2 new recipes I tried few days back. Simple recipes to which really suited my lacking of culinary skills. As embarrassing as it can be, each time I'm googling for recipe, I would end up choosing the simplest, and shortest recipe I could find among many. Recipes that came in 2-3 pages long always tend to give me motion sick ha ha ha.

Well, like an old saying, blame the floor if you can't dance, blame the oven if you can't bake....... and in my case, blame the recipes if you can't cook !

1st one would be Chocolate Chip Pancakes ..... although some of you must think, alamakkkk buat pancake pun nak kena tgk recipe ker heheh but to my defense, being a working mum before, my pancakes previously, mostly comes from the instant ready made one where you just need to effortlessly pour some milk, add and egg and the batter is ready. Now that I don't have nothing to rush for anymore, except for my beauty sleep, my kids definitely deserved at least home made pancakes made from scratch by their mummy, no matter how lazy I could be sometimes.

Recipe taken from here . Since I'm feeling extra generous today, I pasted the recipe here too, for your easy reference.

As can be seen below, the original recipe comes with cinnamon honey syrup which I skipped. My kids wasn't really fond of cinnamon except for cinnamon roll so I just pour normal Cabin Log

's Maple Syrup.

RECIPE

:: Satu untuk kau, satu untuk aku, satu untuk kau, satu untuk aku ::