Happy Birthday Malaysia

Malaysia celebrates its independence on the 31st of August 2009. Mrs Kong celebrates this momentous event with a sleep in as Mr Kong will be home to feed JW his breakfast! Everyone is happy. :)

Happy Birthday Malaysia!!

ps - Mr Kong is wondering when Mrs Kong turned into a psychic?

Happy Chinese New Year of the Ox!

We would like to wish our family and friends a happy new year, and may the year of the ox bring good health, wealth and happiness! More posts on JW's new year adventures to follow...

Baby's first holiday

For JW's first holiday, we decided to take a family trip (just the three of us) to the popular Malaysian tourist destination - Cameron Highlands. The journey was well planned, with the major portion of the trip (to Tapah) for JW's lunch time nap. Starting off at 12 noon, with JW in his new car seat, we made it to the hotel with a few stop overs. The views were amazing and the air just cool!

JW started the day being very excited. Perhaps, from the tone of our voices, he knew that this would be an exciting day for all. We tried our best to prepare him for colder air and temperature by getting a few pieces of warmer clothing. In the end, we ended up piling on the layers when the night came, as it was truly cold for our little Malaysian baby.

JW in his little cot provided by the hotel. Yes, having mummy's body heat close by did come in handy

Our son was king of the hill. We were bowled over by the attention he commanded. Waitresses loved him. Coffee shop managers came to make a cot for him to lay down while we ate. Yes, he isn't ready for a high chair yet, but never mind, he just gets his own cot in the restaurant! We looked around the restaurant and wondered why only JW got a little cot made for him!!

Rolled up between two table clothes, our fella fell asleep watching a couple of Japanese children at the next table. It was like a dream. Then again, we suspect that the waitresses would have offered to baby sit if he started fussing about. He definitely caught everyone's eye!

napping in the coffee house

waking up from a nice nap

JW and Mr Kong at the Boh Visitor Centre - JW dressed for winter in Japan

We made it to a few attractions, including the new Boh visitor centre. JW watched us as we had scones with lovely afternoon tea. (no solids for him yet!)

diapering above sea level

But on the way back to the hotel, we just had to leave our mark via a diaper change.

We had a good trip to Cameron Highlands, and am relieved that we survived the trip without too much fuss. Maybe we will go to NYC next..

No shopping centres pt 2 - Lake Gardens

Continuing our quest to let JW experience environments other than shopping centres, last Sat Mr & Mrs Kong were planning to go to the Titi Eco Farm in Negri Sembilan since it was Mr Kong last weekend on his weeklong 'holiday'.

We'd heard a bit about the farm and read some things about it. It seems like a very nice place to visit, get some fresh air and learn about organic farming.

Unfortunately, after studying the map (lots of white 'uncharted' areas!) and reading that it takes 2 hours from KL and we needed to get there by 9:30am to catch the farm tour, Mr & Mrs Kong wisely decided to be less brave and go to the Lake Gardens (aka Taman Tasik Perdana) instead ;)

Mrs Kong with JW picnicking on the grass.

"What is this green stuff?!?"

"Must investigate the green stuff..."

Chubby hands in the grass. Notice the lack of wrist.

Grass all over the place!

More green stuff!

Mr Kong has good childhood memories of picnicking at Lake Gardens and hopefully JW will have them too. It is still a very nice bit of green in the middle of KL but Mr & Mrs Kong couldn't help noticing that building works are making it smaller and smaller. What a shame.

At the very least, we hope this picnic is a small step in ensuring JW doesn't turn out addicted to Malaysian shopping centres!

Being tourists aka no shopping centres pt 1

Mr & Mrs Kong are trying their hardest to take JW to places other than shopping centres.

Its hard as there aren't that many baby friendly places in KL and shopping centres are definitely the most convenient, there's food, no need to worry about sun or rain, the floor is smooth and Combi stroller friendly, there's lots for JW to look at and the best ones have great changing/feeding rooms (though they never have an extra chair for the father - cheh!)

Our top picks for shopping centre changing rooms are - Isetan @ Midvalley Gardens, Isetan @ KLCC, The Curve 1st Floor changing rooms.

Anyway, that's how the other week Mr & Mrs Kong took JW to KLCC park on a Sun evening. The park was packed out with tourists (or maybe KL's contingent of immigrant workers)!

Mr Kong could not resist a couple of tourist shots too:

With JW at the Twin Towers

Not much you can add to that. Hope JW noticed that it wasn't just a noisier, windier, hotter, green and blue shopping centre.

Norwegian National Day Celebrations

where Mr Kong made some pizza...

and had some family over

... as it just happened to be Mr Kong's birthday too :).

Chinese New Year Again!

Almost a week to Chinese New Year, and everyone is frantically making preparations to welcome the year of the rat. Some do it which huge shopping and cleaning sprees; some others attend Feng Shui talks in the hope of gaining a perceived advantage over the rest for the new year. I have never understood the latter, but I suppose someone has to keep the Feng Shui industry thriving.

We on the other hand, are bumbling along as per usual, in full knowledge that our house is still in want of a lot of DIYs and cleaning up. We had hoped to be done by this time of the year, but "other" events have kept us busy enough to stall further efforts to clean up. Mr Kong has been busy winning Frisbee tournaments and Mrs Kong has been ... busy.

Nevertheless, those who choose to visit us during Chinese New Year can rest assured that there will be at least beer at our place. Hopefully we will be able to rustle up something in addition to beer for the chinese new year visits!

New Washing Machine ... !!

Yes, it is taking some time to get our house and all its contents in order. Nevertheless, we are happy to report that our washing machine is finally in working order, on its new cemented and tiled pedestal. The pedestal is courtesy of the construction workers currently renovating the house next door. One of them came over one day and built it in a few hours, under Mr Kong's supervision.

We regret to say that we have no pictures as our digital camera is sort of not around. (actually we need a new one!)

Now we just need a new clothes horse!

Our first House, our family

When Mr Contractor completes work (hopefully) next week, we will be moving into our very first Home.

We have lived in several categories of rented accommodation before, but this is probably the most exciting of all our previous domestic experiences; partly due to the time it has taken us to prepare our house, but mostly because we will be planting our roots for the first time in 3 years.

Everything from land assessment to the plants in our garden will be within our realm of responsibility, and from this, we anticipate a less care free life. Notwitstanding the added responsibility, we do look forward to a life together in a place we can truly call our own, in every sense. Perhaps this is a significant part of being a grown up, and building a life together.

It is a sense of pride, that we feel, that flows beyond words; or perhaps it is the case that we just can't find the words to accurately express our happiness.

Things are finally looking up... I think (Part 18)

The good news is that our house is finally done. Save and except for some minor touch ups here and there, Mr Contractor is moving in the right direction.

Further good news from since our last post is that Mr Contractor has finally commenced rectification work on the long bath. Today, Mr Scared Looking Indonesian boy came with Mr Contractor to add cement to the bottom of our bath. We were hugely relieved that that is all they needed to do (ie remove one tile and slot cement in) because otherwise, the whole long bath would have had to be removed. We are even more relieved that Mr Contractor is taking this seriously (as we still owe him 20K!). We certainly hope he keeps this up till the end!!

Still we dare not say when we will be able to move in just in case it gets jinxed! We have been very stern with Mr Contractor over the last week and thankfully Mr Contractor has played ball & cooperated.

Are we there yet? Are we there yet? (Part 17)

The standard question asked of us these days is "have you moved into your new house?" and our standard answer is "almost". The whole experience feels like a long car ride to some unknown destination when what we'd rather be doing is lying on a secluded beach somewhere!

A lot has happened since our last post. Mr Contractor has gotten his act together on a few occasions, and then slacked off, and then gotten his act together. The good news is that the house is done (yay!)

The bad news is there are a lot of defects, with the bath tub being a major one. Mr Contractor has installed the bath tub incorrectly, causing the bottom to be slightly flexible. Mr Contractor did not think anything wrong of it mainly because he did not test it when installing. This certainly raises alarm bells, but what can we do now but to insist he hacks it up and redo the job?

Sunday Action (part 16)

After much pressure, telephone calls, temper tantrums, Mr Contractor has finally move into fifth gear with respect to renovations on our house.... for the last 2 days anyway.

Yesterday, Mr Wooden Flooring arrived at 8am to start work. Mr Marble Floor was here at 3pm to fill in the gaps, in preparation for polishing tomorrow, Monday. Painter boys arrived at 10.30 am started painting, and finished the second coat on the interior walls downstairs. The basins and WCs were installed, and Mr Contractor has finally gotten thinking about the fittings.

Today, Mr Plumber even attended briefly to look at an outdoor pipe. Things are finally moving. More has been achieved in the last 2 days than the last 2 weeks.

So we are finally hopeful. We are not relaxed yet, but hopeful.

Blood Sweat and Tears (Part 15.5)

Mr Wooden Floor has given a verbal, albeit personal guarantee that the uneven colour will be of the same colour once they finish polishing the floor. Mrs Kong, being so mad already, told him that she will put this down in writing. Mr Wooden Floor did not look too happy.

Too bad for him.

Blood, Sweat and Tears (Part 15)

I can quite confidently say that there has been effort and tears spent on every inch of our house,
ONCE COMPLETED! We are no where near completion in case you are wondering, with only less than 8 sq feet worked on this week - and yes, I am referring to the flooring!

Last week, Mr Wooden Floor laid wooden slabs on an uneven floor, causing a disparity in levelness of at least 1/2 an inch. At least this was the obvious mistake. Today another different landing has been subjected to even more mistakes: colour of the so called "teak" we paid for is off.. resulting in 4 different shades of wood, ranging from the darkest to the lightest... all within 5 square feet.

I wish we had better news to report. I wish we had some progress for a change.

More Delays (Part 14)

Just when we think we have our house renovations done, up springs more surprises. Yesterday evening, we discovered the wrong grills installed on our doors and windows. Mr Contractor called Mr Grillman this morning and discovered that Mr Grillman had used the wrong design!!

Now is that ever possible? Well apparently so, and not surprising since no one writes anything down in this business!

Mr Kong is extremely disappointed with this outcome and Mrs Kong is thinking of buying the Mr Contractor a notebook.

Crazy (Part 13)

Mr and Mrs Kong - absolutely knackered - absolutely fed up with mistakes Mr Contractor is making. Too tired to list the ones made today!

Progress Report (Part 12)

Almost all renovation projects will inevitably face delay. At the end of the day, we accept this fact and the question turns to "for how long" will this delay be?

It is now 2 weeks since Mr Contractor promised the 3 week deadline; which leaves us with only one week to go for works to be completed. We were skeptics at the 3 week deadline, not because it isn't possible (anything is possible) but more so that this isn't a big enough job for Mr Contractor to pour in all his resources.

With a slight hiccup with tile supplies from MML last week (MML was scheduled only to deliver in September - which was really not acceptable so Mr and Mrs Kong kicked up a huge fuss), that will probably be Mr Contractor's most convenient excuse.

On the bright side, the tilers did work today. Mr Contractor was bright and early. Mr Carpenter has started to take our kitchen cabinets a little more seriously after we told him that we are moving in on the 30th of August, and we should have all our kitchen white goods ordered by the end of the week!

Colour Me Wrong (Part 11)

How difficult is it to get the colours of a small double storey terrace house wrong? Especially after the house owners have specified their choice of colours IN WRITING, ON A SHEET OF PAPER?

Well, apparently quite easily for Mr Contractor.

As the "Paint Team", three Indonesian men were sent over to paint our house. They have been working quite swiftly, preparing the walls of our house for the final layer of paint. They have been working hard, no doubt, though the house is not that large to begin with. However, (and yet again) Mr Contractor had failed to give proper instructions as to what our instructions meant, and our Indonesian friends mixed up the colours for Bedroom 2 and Bedroom 3.

Mr Contractor has since instructed Indonesian friends to correct the mistake but we suspect we have not seen the last of this category of mistakes. For 3 days later, we walked into a yellow house, coloured yellow on the inside!!

At the very least this project is "interesting".

Bedroom 2 in the wrong colour.

Kong's Newly Tiled Kitchen (Part 10)

For once in the period of this renovation project, we have been so pleased with what we see. This is one occasion where we did not have to call Mr Contractor up immediately to complain about some work he did or did not do. We had happy thoughts of Mr Contractor on this day.

We are happy with the tiles we chose for the kitchen, and Mr Contractor has finally, after much cajoling, completed the kitchen tiles (for Mr Carpenter to measure for the kitchen cabinets). Fingers crossed, everything goes well in this space and the rest of the house from now on.

Mr and Mrs Kong's blue mosaic wall

special switches for special fingers

Blue mosaic wall ... again!

Despair (Part 9)

10.25 am in the morning and there is no one working at our construction site.

3 weeks he says!?