"You What?!!"

After an overnight train ride from Edinburgh back to London, we reached Euston. From Euston, we lugged with two huge luggage, took train to Victoria Station and then back to Hackbridge, where we could walked back to our friend’s house, cum our temporary lodge in London.

When we boarded the train in Victoria Station, we were at the cart #9 or #10 (or #11) of the train- the very tail end of the train, literally. However, most of the platforms in the suburbs are shorter, that included the platform in Hackbridge. It was shorter (as in only 7 or 8 train-cart length), getting ready and walk forward before the train stops (at least 1 minute prior the train stopping) was required. But we were slow, too slow. The train doors shut-off while SC and I were still walking, lugging two huge luggage through the narrow aisle inside the train. The girls were already out and waiting for us at the platform. Once the train moved on slowly, I saw both shocked faces through the glass door of the train. This made my blood run cold!

2015 in (very brief) Review

As the year is approaching to its end, I am looking back at my grand-list that I wrote in February. Thankfully, most are stroke off from the list:-

• My family and I had a remarkable trip to UK. But I only manage to complete blogging on Scotland.
• I learn and relearn about my first born. I mellow my approach on her, I try to focus on life skill than academic. I need to learn to embrace her. 
• I have been attending Yoga/Pilates classes regularly since the very beginning of the year. I no longer breathless when I climb more than 2 flights of stairs. 
• I cook more, bake even more!
• I maybe scrapbook lesser but hey, I blog more too, thanks to the inspiration from our visit to Scotland. 

I think I have an optimum year!

Credits: Design by Anita, etc.

Scotland Scenic Drive

According to my husband, road trip is the best way to see a country. In this case, gloomy Scotland.

“The gladdest moment in human life, me thinks, is a departure into unknown lands.” – Sir Richard Burton 

We knew nothing of Scotland. Now we do.

And we are glad that we have discovered more of Scotland from a road trip. Let me walk you through some of the amazing views we captured, albeit sombre but like my friend was saying, we had a taste of the true Scottish weather- rain and rain and prevailing wind. The Road was typically forlorn. I think we were lucky. In a way.

I'll let the pictures speak...

Pulled over at the roadside of A84, towards Tydrum.
I imagined Harry's Hogwart Express soon to pass by the bridge.

This was taken in between Tyndrum and Onich.

Whilst this was from between Onich and Dornie.

Isle of Skye was a tab more beautiful, dull-coloured still and cold. Very cold, as if the Isle was unwelcoming us, rejecting us.

Baking is Addictive!

Of late, I have been hooked with baking. I don't know why but the mixing brings calming effect to a tired brain and the aroma coming from the oven are incredibly irresistible! And of course, the eating part, scrumptiously joy. It is very different between homemade and those selling in the bakery/pastries shops- more and better ingredients and lesser sweetness. Some of the cake I made, I can finished them all and left little for the girls. I should not, but I am totally lost control!

That explains how I did not realised November zips by so quickly and I only completed one post for the month. I bake a lot since October! Mostly at night, or mid-night. When Little Bomber caught a glimpse of me taking out the mixer and the needed ingredients and what not, she would exclaims, "Not again?!"

Anyway, for the record, I have been very busy!

Broadford Youth Hostel, Isle of Skye

Accordingly, we came to the forth 'pit stop' of our adventure in Scotland- Isle of Skye, after Edinburgh, Callander and Onich/For William.

My search for accommodation led me to one of the YHA(Youth Hostels Association)'s hostel in Isle of Skye.

This was the first youth hostel we had been to, after becoming parents of ourselves. Well, we had been to backpackers' hostel with the girls, not YHA's kind of hostel. (There is slight difference between both)

A Taste of Living in a Cold Chalet

Fort William/ Onich was our next stop after we left Callander or to be precise, the region of Stirling.

Together with Lochaber, Fort William are well known as 'Outdoor Capital of the UK'! and this was the day we arrived the Highlands of Scotland- which is very different from Lowlands, culturally and historically. When we were approaching the place, we gathered some information from Tourist Information Centre and learnt about Ben Nevis. Regrettably, it was more damp, gloomy and cold than when we just left Bracklinn Falls in the morning that day, we had to scrap the idea of having any outdoor fun.

Inevitably, I have equally fogging impression of Fort William, the Great Glen and the Lochs. All I can remember is the gloomy skyline and cold atmosphere.

Repair and Repurpose

1.  Repair

Remember the backpack that I almost lost in Edinburgh? I have not reveal its identity yet- a sturdy grey Deuter backpack. Well, the hanging loop was not sturdy apparently. After 5 years as travel companion, the bag gave up on me, the hanging loop particularly. I must have overloaded the bag too much and too often. Bad habit.

Without the hanging loop, the use of the backpack became very inconvenient. I had no help when i needed to lift up my bag, the bulky shoulder strap was the substitute instead. Cumbersome at times; panicking when the preschooler whining for immediate extra clothes from the bag. I had to adapt the old bag in a new way throughout the trip, as if it was another new bag that was without a hanging loop.

After our return, I was contemplating to replace the bag or find a way to repair the loop. It dawned at me that the small little hanging loop of a backpack was very important and I relied on it very much! I needed a backpack with hanging loop desperately. So it was timely when Agatha hosted a workshop on fixing haversack on her regular Fit it Friday Series. Gladly, I signed up and attended the workshop with my backpack.

Scotland: Eilean Donan Castle

Come to think about it, Eilean Donan Castle probably was the only castle we got to get so close in Scotland.

We were on A87 road, on our way to Isle of Skye, from Fort William. All of us needed a loo break after stuck in the car for almost 2 hours.

Jun 2015: Beautiful Moment with You

Capturing the smiles of my first-born during the trip to UK.

Credits: Template from Sahlin Studio, Designs by Anita, P & Co.

Time flies, she is ten years old. I used to worry on her a lot and did scrapbook about her to console myself, so to speak. I am, still worry on her, but I have not done a page for a long time. No wonder it has been frustration and conflicting and distancing...

Ten years of motherhood, doesn't mean I get better.

Bracklinn Falls, Callander

After a nice sleep and a full Scottish breakfast at the Waverley Hotel, we had a impromptu visit to the Bracklinn Falls. Simply because, the daddy took the leaflet "Callander Geodiversity Trail" from the one of the Information centres we popped by. He wanted the family to have some bear-hunt woodland adventure.

Apparently, it is a very popular beauty spot in Highlands.

Callander: The Hotel, the Main Street and the Meadow

Prior to the visit, I did not know anything about Callander. We were here because my dear husband suggested me to have a pit-stop somewhere near Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park. Not very helpful, because it could mean we stay a night in the freezing forest park. 

[You can check (click in to zoom in) my map below, Callander was the first pit-stop we had after we left Edinburgh. Isle of Skye was our ultimate direction to head to] 

Source: Google Map

So I looked around the region of Stirling. For a very long while, I satisfied with my finding of one rated-8.1/10 accommodation in Callander via Booking.com. Despite the rating and the pricing of the accommodation, Callander was less than 2 hours drive from Edinburgh or just another less-than-an-hour drive from Falkirk Wheel, for our case.

To Market, To Market: Admiralty Wet Market

Retrospectively, an established wet market then was in an open air context, where fresh produce stalls gathered and arranged uniquely along roadside or a vacant compound, ie open carpark space. Usually, siting in a shophouses area, brought in the crowds and business to kopitiam (coffee shop), kedai runcit (provision shops) or clinic(s) from morning to noon, vice versa. Sellers would think of a way to pipe in water, or set-up a gas and stove if cooking was required. Cages for poultries, big rotan baskets for bundles of green leaves, or sometimes, big lorry just behind the seller! Raining days brought in challenges to the sellers and patrons too. When a market was over populated, it would be expanded naturally to the nearby gas station, to next junction and into the minor arterial road in the adjacent housing zone, like crawling branches of a money tree plant. It caused huge chaotic to morning traffic in the vicinity, and everyone would do adjustment to each time of expansion. One of my friends was affected, the market nearby her house extended further and went into the road right in front of her house. Patrons' cars were parked in front of her house inconsiderably. Big frown. Essentially, market was where people had gather for purchase and sale of provisions, livestock and other daily goods. People didn't mind the disorder of a market place mostly, as it brought many conveniences than inconveniences. Maybe they minded, but just had to close one eye.

Well, I'm from Malaysia, grown up and stayed in a suburb of the city of Kuala Lumpur and then moved to a small town called Lunas, Kulim- up in the northern part of Peninsular Malaysia. Those were my past experience with pasar, aka wet market. People improvised along the way in siting a market or should I say it is the evolution of a market.

(To be fair, over these years, wet market is slowly becomes part of a township and well-planned to be fitted into a neighbourhood and serve the people, not just the morning, but until dusk too. There is physical, structured infrastructure to house a market orderly and provided ample car parking lots, such as the one in the new neighbourhood that my parents moved into few years ago. I have yet to familiarise with that market yet though.)

By and large, it is pretty different from local wet market, where mostly are sheltered and well-facilitated. Since we relocated in Singapore for coming to ten years, I didn't have issue with transiting and patronising the indoor wet market here in Singapore... except the stuffy environment part.

Supposedly, I am part of a blog train sharing about the market I frequenting here in Singapore. But the task of writing current unlocks my past. Those days, I was dragged to market by my mum, to learn to adapt the buzz and to help her with her loot. This part of the memory was locked for long, until this blog train. All the sudden the images of the old pasar I visited flashback, and I have to pen it down.

Edinburgh: Museum on the Mound

While I decided on visiting National Museum of Scotland, this was the museum, that handpicked by my daughter- Museum on the Mound.

The Museum on the Mound is housed in the marvellous, purpose-built head office of the Bank of Scotland. Today the building also serves as the Scottish headquarters for Lloyds Banking Group. Paid a visit to the bank sure got to learn more about the fascinating history of this beautiful building, as well as learning some knowledge of currency and monetary of Scotland. Unlike most countries where it is only the governments, through their central banks, who are permitted to issue currency, in Scotland, there are 3 banks are allowed to issue banknotes, namely Bank of Scotland, Clydesdale Bank and The Royal Bank of Scotland. 

Review: Jane Means' Gift Wrapping Workshop

On the first day of August, I had the privilege to attend Jane Means' Gift Wrapping Workshop. I got to relearn some of the skills I left behind for many years.

I no bluff. I was an excellent gift wrapper. I loved dong it and I could wrap a present beautifully with minimum 3 pieces of scotch tapes, just to seal the edges of the wrapping paper over the gift. Before I learnt about the use of double sided tapes, I could hide those scotch tapes if I wanted to(you probably know how). At one time, I was obsessed with fancy gift wrapping papers and I collected lots of them. Who doesn't like pretty things? I made good use of them for embellishing a bookmark or a card, or gift wrapping. I was good with pleating wrapping technique after seen it in a mall's gift-wrapping service corner. For many years, I have books' and dictionary's covers protected by beautiful wrapping papers. These days, I do more of impressing my daughter by recycling a page of Kikki K's catalogue into an envelop, neatly.

But I am not good with ribbon tying. Terrible, terrible, terrible. If you see one bow perfectly tied by me, it must be my lucky day!

So usually my gifts were without ribbon and bow.

Edinburgh: National Museum of Scotland

There are a number of Museums to visit in Edinburgh, of course. But National Museum of Scotland stood out among all. The kids wanted Natural History (the dinosaurs!) and I was keen on its World Cultures gallery. It was not too far from the Royal Mile (we were there earlier), approximately 10 - 15 minutes walk via George IV Bridge. As the museum situated at very beginning corner of Chambers Street, we were able to see the magnificent Victorian building when we were approaching the junction of Chambers Street and George IV Bridge. 

The building of the Museum of Scotland after the merger, opened in 1998, not just to tell the country's history from earliest times to the present day, it created a landmark museum in Edinburgh.

Entrance Hall at Level 0 (left picture above);
Grand Gallery at Level 1 (right pictures above).

Little about Edinburgh's Architecture

I was intrigued by the Scots Baronial, gloomy grey stone wall and uneven rooflines with feature towers adorned by small turrets. The Royal Mile of Edinburgh probably the best place capturing Scottish rich architecture. It has many interesting buildings all within walking distance. With the excellent accessibility by the Closes, we spent a half-day strolling and exploring the Medieval Old Town in the Royal Mile and, another few hours in Princess Street, the renowned shopping street in planned Georgian New Town. Having booked an accommodation in the heart of the city saved us time in in-and-out. We were the residents of the gloomy Medieval, and we were tourists to admire the beauty- how exciting!... even though for the shortest time.

It was really exciting to be in Edinburgh, so much so I didn't have enough photos to impress you all. I was engrossed with what surrounded me, the architectures were glorious. I was freezing cold too, my body was not yet adjusted to Scottish's weather. And I was with the kids, One of them very curious and mummy, mummy non-stop, while the another girl needed water, needed jacket, needed toilet. 

Anyway, I should not rambling. I do have some of beautiful shots from The Royal Mile...

Edinburgh: A Lost and Found Story in Waverley

I left my own backpack in Edinburgh's Waverley Train Station when we first arrived. We had too many things to lug with for the trip, from London to Edinburgh- two big full luggage, two backpacks, one camera bag, two girls and their bags. Some rubbishes in hand too, or kids' papers that they scribbled during train journey and insisted to keep/bring along. I can't remember for sure. It happened too often.

Sorry, I digress. Anyway, we only realised it after 3 or 4 hours later when we were settling down in our rented apartment in Cowgatehead. My heart sunk. Immediately, we dashed to the train station. I dashed, due to the urgency of the matter and the girls couldn't be speed up in view of the steep slopes and flights of stair. SC and the girls caught up with me from behind. 

Edinburgh's Closes, Cowgatehead and Grassmarket

If anyone ask me my impression of Edinburgh, I probably would tell you about the Closes in Royal Mile. Closes are those narrow alley between buildings. We passed by them a lot during our carless days in Edinburgh. The medieval town was built on an undulating terrain and yet fabulously well-connected. Once we arrived the Waverley Train Station, we started to navigate towards the Old Town where our rented apartment was. From the exit of Waverley Station at Market Street, we walked across the road, into one of the nearest Closes to reach Royal Mile- Fleshmarket Cl. After that, we found Old Fishmarket Cl to reach Cowgate. Once we were in Cowgate, we turned right towards Cowgatehead for our apartment, passed by an arch tunnel where George IV Bridge was right above.

Other times, when we roamed around the Old Town, passing by Royal Mile, we used Jackson's Cl, or Anchor Cl, or the renowned Mary King's Cl. Similarly, we wandered and used Stevenlaw's Cl towards the train station and further up to Princes Street.

Scotland: Falkirk Wheel

Have you heard of Falkirk Wheel? It is the world's first and only rotating boat lift!

It is sited in a countryside of Scotland, approximately 23 miles (37 km) from both Glasgow or Edinburgh. To be precise, it is situated in the Falkirk Town, Central Lowlands of Scotland, historically within the county of Stirlingshire.

Falkirk Wheel was the only point of interest I earmarked for my trip in Scotland, after I stumbled upon. [My entire trip plan is free and easy and by that mean, the rest of the plan is blank of places-to-go, only the places-to-stay].

I was very impressed with such a futuristic structure, in the middle of nowhere, just for the purpose of connecting the Forth and Clyde Canal with the Union Canal. For the first time, I heard of Falkirk, for the first time I learnt about canals' history (brief) of Scottish. For this case here, the two canals had been historically joined at Falkirk by a flight of 11 locks that stepped down across a distance of 1.5m (since 1800s), but these were dismantled in 1933, breaking the link.

Falkirk Wheel was meant more than just to restoring navigability across Scotland actually.

Chinese Glutinous Rice Dumpling

In the pantry of my office right now, I am having Chinese glutinous rice dumplings (肉粽) as lunch. I have a sense of gratification as this is something I made from scratch. And seriously, it ain't easy! There are lots of preparation work prior to the wrapping, cleaning and washing numerous utensils after wrapping and waiting at least 2.5 hours of cooking thereafter. I always know it, that's why I didn't want to do it myself, alone. I grown up in typical Chinese family where every year praying of Dragon Boat Festival (or Dumpling Festival, 端午节) and eating dumplings are part of the family tradition. I have the vivid picture of my mum wrapping dumplings, siting on a stool with all the ingredients laying on the kitchen floor; I have fuzzy memory of my grandma doing the same. Long hour of hard work.

Then we grown up, my mum demanded helps from me and my sister. I didn't learn dumpling wrapping skill from my mum willingly. Well, I didn't resist it either. I found it challenging and wanted to overcome it and I sensed, she needed company. In retrospective, this was probably one skill that she passed to me with little confident, as she admitted that she didn't like the work and not good at the technique of wrapping the dumpling. Sometime, we would had wrapped dumplings leak/loosen up while cooking. She repeated the same confession more than once. Her little fear blocks her from improvement. Yet, it didn't stop her from doing. My dad loves dumpling apparently and we love it too. I reckon, family love gave her a push to do it. Over the years, she saw my sister's and my wrapping technique doing better, and better. I think, she was relieved.

One little dumpling revived One little family tradition of mine.

Thanks to Mrs Kam and Lynn, gladly joined me last Sunday (Fathers' Day!) to wrap dumplings from 2kg glutinous rice, 1kg of pork belly, and many other ingredients (I used Diana's recipe). If not, I would not able to complete the entire process of dumpling making! whew~!

How I Find Places to Stay in Scotland

SC and I started to plan our trip to UK about three months ahead of the departure. Upon our decision to spend our time in Scotland mostly, I narrowed down my search for accommodation to these cities/Loch/Isle/Shire- Edinburgh, somewhere near Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park, near Fort William, in Isle of Skye, and lastly close to Loch Ness (or Inverness) before we headed back to Edinburgh to take train back to London.

We broke down 10 hours of road journey into a week, by having 5 pit stops along the way.

Pit stop as in, spending a night in a selected accommodation.

source: Google Map

That made my effort to do accommodation reservation easier. I searched accommodation not too far from those places of interest. So strategic location of a accommodation is essential to me, Google map was my best friend during this period of time. Most hosts/agents would provide address, if not, the town or the street name of the listed apartment/hotel/house/B&B, etc. When some listing are vague about the location, I wouldn't want to have second look at it.

Pearl Beans (aka Cranberry Beans) and Corn Soup

Peeling off the pod of pearl beans are great for training toddlers' fine motors skill, as well as mathematic lesson for primary schooler- counting, grouping; addition and multiplication.

My daughters love the work involving these beans, I always get help volunteering in peeling off and extracting the beans. Little Bomber first laid her hands on the beans when she was about 3. She was probably attracted to the beautiful appearance of the bean pods.

They love to consume the soup that is boiled with these beans too.

As I surfing in the internet, it is also called cranberry bean,

Ingredients:

• 200g of cranberry beans
• 1 ear of fresh corn (or two, if you wish for more sweetness from the corn)
• 250-300g of pork ribs
• some red dates (optional) - Or carrot
• 1500ml of water
• salt to taste

Penang: Murals/Heritage Trail

After hearing so much of the Penang Murals Trail, we too, took a morning to hunt down as many murals as possible. Along the way, we discovered that there are not just Ernest Zacharevic's murals, there are many other amazing works too.

It was a fun morning, very much like a treasure hunt game- walking towards unknown based on the guided route.

Creadits: KPertiet's paper; Clementine Creative's Watercolour Circles; Misschifis' Fuzzy Felt Alpha;
Telling  the story of our lives from mscraps.com; etc.

Black Chicken and Black Beans Soup

I learnt about black chicken soup from my grandmother. At that time, two youngest aunts were still single and under the same roof with my grandmother. They taught me that this yummy chicken soup was great for nourish the body and the tasteless chicken meat was actually tender and delicious to eat with bit of soy sauce. I had some great time on my grandma's dining table with her and my aunts. They always tried to feed me and my siblings healthy nutrients whenever we were sent by my mother over while she headed out for some errands or her work.

In the nutrition aspect, black chicken does indeed have less calories than regular chicken, mostly due to less fat. For example, a 100 gram piece of regular chicken has around 8 grams fat, while black chicken has only 2 grams.
Recent evidence also shows a higher level of an antioxidant called carnosine. Antioxidants in general are a great thing, and black chicken has double the amount of carnosine than regular chicken. - source

To me, my grandma boiled the most hearty chicken soup in the universal.

Whilst, my mum taught me about black bean. She usually cook black bean soup with pork rib. According to her, black bean nourish blood, essence and yin. One step before making the soup is, the black beans are to be roasted or pan-fried without oil until the skin of the bean crack.

Over the years, I learnt from somewhere else that both black chicken and black bean are in greater effect by combining both together in a pot with black dates and boil. It helps to replenish blood and vitality. So, here's the simple recipe:

Ingredients

• 1.5L of Water;
• 1 whole black chicken
  [I usually would ask the poultry stall to de-skin and cut it into 4] 
• 100g -150g of black beans
  [wash them and then pan-fried without oil until the skin of the bean crack]
• Some black dates (optional)
• Salt to taste

Penang: Occupy Beach Street

Beach Street, or Lebuh Pantai is one of the oldest streets in Penang. Renownedly, it is a vibrant banking district with numerous heritage buildings standing side by side.

It was built as early as 1786 or 1787, subsequent to Light Street, to be the main commercial street of the newly established George Town. Beach Street is older and has been around longer than many of the towns on the Malayan Peninsula including Singapore, Taiping, Ipoh and Kuala Lumpur. Unlike arrow-straight Light Street, Beach Street was built to follow the curve of the beach, which was then right beside it. The result, as can be seen to this day, is a meandering street as it makes its way towards the southern hinterland. Today both streets meet at the Light Street Roundabout. - source

I used to came for classes at the British Council, Pengkalan Weld, in the evening and drove through Beach Road after class. Besides admiring the charming old-world facade, I enjoyed the peace and smooth traffic home. It was a buzzing commercial area of Georgetown in the daytime. It is still.

Mar 2015: Another Ordinary Day

Time flies, she is 5 now. Love every moment with her, except when she bombs me.

Credits :Sahlin Studio's Digital Scrapbooking Template - May2015; Feifei's Stuff; Amanda Yi Designs; KPertiet@Designer Digitals; etc.

Penang: Apam Balik

Everyone, please meet Malaysian traditional pancake, Apam Balik- literally means turnover pancake.

(source)

I was thrilled when I saw this during our last visit to Penang. This was my childhood favorite! I could easily had it every week in the pasar malam (night market) near my house. But it is getting so hard to find it these days, especially in KL. The Malaysian Department of National Heritage has listed this as one of the heritage food.

A good year ahead

Clean house. Good year.

- Ancient Chinese Belief

As the Lunar New Year arriving soon, the focus for most of us begin with cleaning and decorating, from each's threshold into drawers and cupboards. Jolly, the house would be de-cluttered determinedly, cleaned sparkly and decorated with all sort of lucky symbols to usher the family in a prosperous Chinese New Year. Dirt, residue, negative attitudes, unpleasant words and disrespect are to be swept before or after the celebration.

Along with the clean house, I suppose one's mind must also be refresh and optimistic. Only honeyed thoughts should come out of one's mouth, and the little minds are not reprimanded or scolded during the celebration period. 

Cleaned shelter, honeyed thoughts inject positivity from one to another. And so we all prosperously embarking into a good year. 

Here, I am not going to tell you how my physical house being cleaned up significantly. What is more meaningful, in my opinion is, cleaning up the house of my soul from last year. I started of jotting down things in a year I plan to do since last year. I felt that it solidified the year for me to live on: purposefully, happily. So, here I am again, wrapping up 2014, which I believe it would help to led me to another meaningful year of 2015. Planning for the year is all over the place. 

1. I had been cooking a lot more than before. Sometimes, I can even handle a meal for 6! The routine kicks in so naturally now that, I hardly hear my girls mention about dining out.
2. I jogged regularly, kept sickness at bay.
3. I've saved up the money according to the plan. The question is, what's next!
4. Together with sc and little bomber, we cafe-hopping whenever we had time and had fun throughout the year.
5. I had a great trip with my good old friends in Bangkok.

Penang: Misty Penang Hill

I have fond childhood memory of visiting Penang Hill. With luxuriant green, cold refreshing weather, tranquil, some part remained colonized too. I recalled, there was a green corner for kids to run wild while the parents get to sit down and relaxing close-by. About 830km above sea level, generally five degrees cooler than Georgetown, you will get to experience the change of temperature from the foot of the Hill to the Hill itself, with less than 30 minutes, excluding the waiting time at the queue to take the funicular. Penang Hill is one place that offering a spectacular panoramic view of Georgetown, sometime, Penang Bridge and beyond. 

Dec 2014: Pulau Pinang

Before the year (2014) ended, we managed to make a trip to Penang. The trip was unexpectedly awesome. Even the girls said so and asked for a return. Well, maybe we hardly a tourist in our own homeland, time was always allocated for family gathering, friends meeting, running errands and shopping(it's cheaper there). This time round, despite we made the effort to meet uni-mates and bonding with family members, we did what tourists do: sight-seeing to Penang Hill, water and sand playing at the beach, wandering and hunting down those famous street arts, finding those food stalls that we used to patronised... Penang is really fun, apparently.

This scrapbook captured one fun moment of the girls. SC drove through Jalan Tanjung Bungah to reminisce what we knew of Teluk Bahang, Batu Ferringhi, stopped by one of the smaller and quieter beach at Tanjung Bunga for the girls to have some sand play time. The girls were thrilled. They jumped, cart-wheeled, shell and rock throwing, soaked into the sea water, etc. They didn't have enough of it. Beach, one great place to be for the kids to release their energy. Zero cost, infinite joy. 

Oh, throughout our visit in Penang, it was raining everyday. This was the only bright, cooling day for us to enjoy the beach.