Austin Chase, Wangsa Walk

Went to Wangsa Walk to get Aysar a bangle (with bell) as mom needs it urgently to be able to locate him. Nowadays, he has been good at keeping quiet while being mischievious. But then, thanks to his petite thans standard Asian size, none are fit for him. In the end, Alya laks yg dapat silver bracelet as mom claimed that her anklet doesn't make any sharp sound anymore. Not that she needs any help to locate Alya~

Well, cut to the chase.. We test our taste bud to this cafe, Austin Chase. Love the setting and the waiter/waitress as they are very much helpful and friendly.

Chose to seat outside / open space

The cake... Top layer actually rasa a bit liat macam goreng sket.. Anyway, they have this promo for purchase over RM50, cake got 50% discount.

Mom got herself a caesar salad with salmon @ RM 19.80 and a hot cuppa of lemon tea @ RM 9 (not the English selection - and with extra slices of lemon)

Mom claimed that the salmon tasted a bit salty

Along and I shared Seattle Club Sandwich @ RM 19.90 and Iced Caramel Macchiato (large) @ RM 15.50

The food was very much fulfilling but the drinks was too coffee-ish for me

Hubby and Alya shared Chicken Chop @ RM 17.90 with Austin Chase Iced Chocolate (regular) @ RM 12

Indulging...

Though the taste was just average as any other cafe, what stands out this cafe from others would be - they provide family games such as Taboo, Scrabble, Monopoly, Chess, Uno Stacko and etc... This way, while waiting for the food, guest can enjoy each other company by playing the games and yes, to also kill the time. Memang sempoi laa~

Muka focus tak haci hingat~

Some of the crazy steps (mostly by Along) yg buat kitorg keep covering our food and drinks sbb takut the blocks jatuh.. Gilo!!

Minah ni rileks jer~ *Phuii berlakon

Eh, cam sungguh serunuknya bersantaian... Where's Aysar?

Off to dreamland.. Ni la yg org slalu dok sebut, "sleep like a baby~"

They also happen to serve breakfast set which quite attractive.. Well, if you compare it with Coffee Bean laa.. (now, talking about that, dah lama ek tak breakfast kat sana kan?) Erk~

Interested to give Austin Chase a try? Details, www.austinchase.com.my

Ketek ketek

Have you ever used a typewriter before?
Do you even know what is a typewriter?
Hehehe... Bunyi berlagak habis kan?

Anyway, being a daughter to stenographers, I am well exposed to typewriters. I was even started to learn computer long before it was introduced in school (primary school; to be exact).

But then today, I had the chance to use a typewriter in the office. Pelik? Tapi benar.. Though it is an electrical one, but still falls under the typewriter category.. Memang best menaip dengan bunyi yang macam nak announce to the whole building.. And the best part in this electrical typewriter is, it is equipped with the ability not only bold function but also to delete. How cool is that, huh?

Mee Udang Mak Jah

Mee Udang Mak Jah

Hujan ku redah jua, demi mee udang..

Menu standard. Biasa RM7, special RM11. Beza? Size udangnya...

Cucur udang, mi goreng udang and mi udang.. Yummy!

Dah sudah makan baru bley angkat muka.. Hehehe..

Cucur udang, kuah kacang - sepinggan RM3. Ada cucur udang, fishcake and tauhu.. Hujan lebat, lagi laku..

End result

Orientation

As per previous entry, we'd successfully enrol Alya into QDees. Went last Friday to pick up her school bag and reading books and mula la dia excited menggalas begnya ke sana ke mari...

In her school, with her school bag~

Outside her school.. Gaya cam tengah tunggu school bus je kan?

Budak beg melurut~

And officially on Tuesday, 3rd Jan 2012, Alya started her first orientation day at school. Yang sangat nervousnya, as expected would be the mother.. Yeah, I'm that lame!

Started off by sending her to a class on the first floor. The school teachers had decided to combine the class of 3 and 4 years old students during the orientation days. Once settled, parents were ushered to outside of the school for a briefing by the principal (who happen to be my caterer during my wedding! Sungguh berjaya sehingga bley bukak franchise kindy laks kan? BTW, the catering business is still on!). After 30 mins of briefing, we then back to the class to observe on the kids. Macam nak kecik hati, Alya macam tak notice je I was gone.. Hehehe..

At 9.30am, they'd queued up outside the toilet for the teacher to help them with washing their hand before their snack time. Alya mmg bersemangat nak queuing up time nih. Then, off to downstairs. Part nih agak sangat kelam kabut though there were 3 teachers to assist. Malum la budak² at the age of 3 and 4 nih lain macam sket. Alya refused to hold hands as she felt tak selamat kot turun tangga holding hands with friends, and so she was the first came down. Mujur la teacher trusted her and ushered her to the dining area. And lucky for her, she's the only one yg dapat pink set (bowl, spoon and cup). They had nasi goreng with diced of carrot and chicken tapi Alya (yg memang susah nak makan pagi) bley la makan dalam 3, 4 sudu.. Dah la tuh dengan selambanya dia cakap "I only eat nasi goreng with ikan bilis, egg and sambal". Poyos tol! Teacher laks leh cam amazed dengar dia kata makan sambal.. Setakat once in a blue moon bley makan sambal, nak wat announcement camtuh... Huh!

On the way to school. Muka kena paksa bagi pose..

Pandai teacher ambil hati Alya by giving her puzzle. She loves puzzle!!

Momma trying to get her attention.. Nah, nothing can take away her focus from the puzzle, thank you!

Tired by Done the puzzle, moved on to next activity; colouring..

Tapi she was trying to put the colour pencils inside her pencil case. Luckily she took it all out and told me that teacher said, these cannot be brought home.. *phew~

Another activity yg I pon tak tau.. Yg pastinya, she was trying to tie the things together sampai nak menjejeh air liur la tahapnya.. Mujur tak menitis..

This boy is his classmate tapi muka sedih je control macho..

For her second day, hubby came up with the design to label her school bag. She was very much proud of it though she wanted it to be more pink. That reminds me to spare some time to come up with a proper design for her.. Err.. not that I disagree with hubby's design or anything~ *rolling eyes~

She'd later forced me into putting her school bag with some glitter on it. And since I malas nak bergaduh di pagi hari, I gave in to that. Got myself red glitter glue and started to trace on the red Q letter. (That way, we can hardly notice the glitter as it is the same colour!) *Pandai tak momma dia? Hihihi.. Later, she asked me to write down with marker (yes, you read it right, MARKER!), "Thank you momma and papa for decorating my bag". Apakah tujuan nya? Of course I won't do it. What does she thinks this is? A bag or a note book? *dang!
Note to Alya: That was sweet of you to say such thing, darl! We felt appreciated! *about to roll tears~

The decorated bag... Told you!

Sent her off till the front door, waited for her to take off the shoes and bid farewell. It was one of our attempt to see whether will she be ok and yes, she was very much fine! Alhamdulillah.. She just amin both of our hands, hugs and kiss us before holding to teacher hand and up to her class. She certainly look like a big girl already..

After 2 hours, we popped into her class. She hugged us and back to her activity. Today, instead of combining 3 and 4 years old in a class, the principal decided to separate them into individual class. We couldn't agree more as it'll reduce the influence of those kids yg ada separation anxiety.

There are only 5 students in Alya's class. Alya, a Chinese girl (as brave, active and friendly as Alya), a Malay boy (yg yesterday sat next to her, but today tak bley masuk class sebab dah start tangkap syahdu), an Indian boy (insisted on his aunty to be by his side ALL the time) and an Indian girl (who was at first ok until she saw her father).

Teacher Fatin who is the class teacher nampak sangat friendly and helpful tapi sangat la obvious nya muka fresh and kadang² nampak gak muka panic. InsyaAllah as time goes by, she'll be able to guide my daughter to learn more.. Amiin..

Apa yang Alya dapat hari nih from the school? Err... not the uniform (yet!). It's a badge and she's proud of it! Pengaruh Special Agent Oso~

Kita tengok la nanti camne esok plaks...

Kindies hunting

We (well, personally me) have started on kindergarten hunting ever since Alya was just 2 and a half years old. Believed that early education is important besides the social exposure as she stayed at home with only mom and was circled by at least 20 years older than her, we did try hard at getting our hands on many some kindies:

1) Kizsports & Gym
My eyes was first fixed on their Early Learning Academy classes. Had sent Alya for a trial class and memang best. Though it will only be 3 times weekly, it was impossible for us to make it. Dah kelas nya kat One Utama, sape laks nak ngantok ngambik budaknya?

2) IIUM Montessori
Oooo... Talking about this pon can make myself drooling. The distance is perfect. The programs / classes are perfect. The environment is perfect. The teachers are so-so ok. But the price, humang aih! Dah macam student U dah gayanya. With semester fees which when u calculate, average about RM450 monthly. Well then again, what do u expect with such standard, rite?

3) Smart Reader
Programs and advertisements you can find anywhere look exciting and so I searched on more reviews for the specific branch in my area. My oh my... I must say out of 10 reviews I read, 9 mentioned that the teachers were negative thinkers. Memang terima kasih je la kan jawabnya~

4) QDees
Suggested by SIL, we went for a review and agreed that the kindy is ok. The minus point would only be the grey uniform. Grey? What on earth were they thinking?! About to roll her in, mom laks yg kata tak yah laaa.. She is still too young, she's about to get a brother and give her the chance to get to know him laa and so on. And yes, we gave in to that~

Now that she's entering 4 next year, we seriously thinking over on the kindies matter. And of course MORE kindies to be reviewed:

5) Little Caliph
As we do have that intention to enrol her into Chinese school, of course we'd like her to have the Islamic basic first and foremost. There're no review on the franchise in our area but the programs are certainly looking good. Called the principal, she was either sounds uninterested or tak angkat phone langsung. Hello, at least have the courtesy to call back la kalo dah nampak more than 2 missed calls! Dang! Tp takpe lagi.. Nak punya pasal, we all still tak give up. Went to the school straight and paid RM50 for booking. The teachers macam takde masa nak entertain we all, perhaps they were occupied. But when I asked the principal whether do they teach Mandarin, dia bley jawab, "Tak. We all Islamic-based". Bley? Nampak tak negative thinking nya. Apa kalo dah islamic based tak bley blajar bahasa asing ke? Jawab "tak" je pon dah memadai kan? Nih dah tak pasal-pasal I yg ada negative remark on them!

6) Brainy Bunch Islamic Montessori
Programs, best! Reviews, best! Fees, acceptable! Tapi... Takde transportation laks! This time around I memang sangat frust as I love the look of the kindy gak..
*Am putting this in KIV for next year!

7) CIC
Another Islamic kindy yang juga menarik. I was at first bolayan to call the kindy as it is situated at a shop lot. I'm pretty skeptical with kindy on the first floor.. Anyway, the programs are great and teachers pon helpful. Tapi... The class are already full as we're very late already to sign her in! Eeiii... Geram btol!!

In the end, we're back to QDees... Had registered Alya without second thought. Thanks to their three times in a row award winning. Harap-harapnya with the new management and the improved syllabus, Alya can achieve more.. InsyaAllah...

By the way, yes, the uniform is still grey.

Chillies in the house y'all!!

Though we live in a terrace house, we are blessed with a small area for us to plant few vegetables. We tried our hand on some green veges (kai lan, pak choy), long beans, pandan, lemongrass and chillies.

And since we're on leave today and maid is about to leave (for good) this friday, hubby decided to rearrange all the plants. After all, we've left them unattended for the past 3 days.

We've moved our ever growing pandan and hidup-segan-mati-takmau serai to across the road with hope that they'll grow as well as they did before; next to pokok langsuir.. We'd planted papaya tree right across them sometimes before tapi mcm tak membesar pon.. Sama je size as before.. Agak-agak kan, akan ada buah tak from the papaya tree?

The former place for both lemongrass and pandan; which is next to the dustbin will become the new place for the greens. The seed has now come out looking great and we think it is time for them to be placed in a larger area than the pot. I am looking forward for the green so that lepas ni tak yah la we all mengkayakan Tesco lagi.. Hihihi..

As for chilli, MIL found some chilli plants grew at the back of our house and decided to try to plant it together with the flowers.. My oh my, they grew so well and even started to ada chilli already. Hooray!! Nop, we do not have any idea whether itu cili padi or cili besar yet.. Being in a family yang SANGAT suka makan pedas, we'll surely save A LOT kalo the chilli plants sangat berjaya..

Pandan that have to be rid off sebab dah banyak sangat merimbun

Pandan and lemongrass (can hardly see) new home

My chilli plants among pokok hiasan.. Dah caca marba~

Aren't the chillies beautiful? Suka! Suka!

Pokok limau kasturi yang masa dapat je berbuah.. Lepas tuh tidak lagi.. Harap²nya lepas nih berbuah balik ek?

Pokok kacang yang rajin memanjat.

The greens (bayam, sawi and ulam raja). Excuse kebanjiran tuh disebabkan oleh Ms Alya yg terlebih rajin menyiram!

Garden bed in the making.. Sian my man lepas tuh claim sakit pinggang~