Cheap Ticket from Sydney - Kuala Lumpur

Here comes the good news for those who are longing to come and visit Malaysia from Australia.

Australia's low-cost carrier, Jetstar (owned by Qantas Airways), will be starting its new service from Sydney to Kuala Lumpur on September 9th, 3 times a week, using Airbus A330-200s (wide-bodied).

Jetstar will fly to Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) instead of Low Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT) and this will be the first Australian airline operating in KLIA.

By the way, this is also good news for Malaysians who like to travel to Australia. From Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) to Sydney is RM850 one way.

Hmmm...AirAsia?Knock...knock...Are you going to Australia or not??When will it be?

Good news this year

This week is the 4th week of January 2007 and already I have a full schedule for this year from doing things at home to going away for travelling, all filled up until after Chinese new year next year! Imagine that!

This is definitely good news for me and for all my friends that I always bug around every time I'm bored and lonely...;-)
You guys will be jumping up and down "yay, finally this girl will stop bugging me!" ...he..he..he..
Don't be too excited! I may still disturb you though..he..he..he..(Damn! :-D)
I get bored and lonely too even when I am busy. So, yeah...just let me know if you are the one who is tired of me...;-)

Ok, continue on.
By end of February, I hope I can finish at least part 1 of my program so that I can see if it is worth writing it and continue with other parts or not.
This is my own project so that I can keep my knowledge intact, be ready if I need to work and at the same time teach and monitor my son at home.

I enjoy doing this project and am very happy that I came out with this one but unfortunately I don't have a good support. I can only do my program when no one else uses the computer table and internet at home. This is the problem when everyone at home is a computer and internet addict.
I have suggested to install a switch so that more than 1 computer can connect to the internet at the same time but someone else sees this as a waste of money when all of us actually can take turn using the internet.
Yeah...yeah...talk to the hand! It's hard to take turn when someone already said "I don't know when I can finish using the internet. I have to check my emails everytime anytime. I am the one who put the bread on the table."

I know I can use the table and internet as long as I want when no one is around, but the fact isn't that easy.
My son is with me and although he is only 2 years old, he has developed a computer and internet addiction too just like his parents.
When he sees I am around, he wants to participate in 'writing my program'.
I don't mind at all. But the problem is that he likes to just press anything and click on anything so I'm really afraid he will ruin my work.
Man! If you ever think working at home while taking care of your children is an easy thing to do, you'd better think again. It's true that you can see them so you feel safe but they also can see you, so they want to make sure you spend your time with them.

Talking about my son, this is another thing to do this year. I have to spend quality time with my son now that he is 2 years old and getting smarter everyday.
I really can't avoid the fact that he needs me and he needs my guidance to help him to become a better person.

My son loves books so much. Since he knows almost 90% of alphabets, he is trying his best to read though he still does not know how to connect those alphabets to become words.
He will say the alphabets out loud and try hard remembering those alphabets.
I guide him everytime I see him reading the alphabets. I teach him how to read as a word.

There is one incident when my husband and I were glued to the television and my son was sitting behind us reading (the alphabets on) a newspaper out loud.
He was not interested in watching TV at all. He was more interested in reading big big letters written on the newspaper.

Ok, next is about my travelling plan and festive season. I know for sure that from December - February every year, I will be very busy travelling back and forth to my in-laws place. I can forget about trying to go to other places or to do anything for other people or even for my own family (My family celebrate Christmas and New Year too, you know and I have never been celebrating Christmas and New Year for 6 years with own family) if I want to keep my marriage.
Anyway, I'm squeezing a trip back home to visit my parents this February.

In June-July, I can look forward to spend time with my parents again when they come to visit me.
On Hari raya Aidil Fitri, I will be back to visit my parents again like last year.
All these happen thanks to Air Asia.
Yeap, everytime I want to go back home, I have to wait for the mercy from Air Asia... :)

So far, these are my confirmed travelling plan. I do have some other plans that I will squeeze them throughout the year.

Since I will be very busy this year, I may not be able to update my blog too often or post any messages.
But this is just the talk I have because I am a computer and internet addict...he..he..he..
There is always time for me to go online... :-D

Air Asia 1 million free seat

After making big news for offering RM9.99 ticket to London from Kuala Lumpur, Air Asia is back with another big news. Air Asia 1 million free seats flying from Kuala Lumpur, Johor Bahru, Kota Kinabalu, Kuching, Bangkok and Jakarta to over 70 routes across asia are up for grab at its website www.airasia.com.
Booking period is 10-19 January 2007 and travelling period is 1 April - 27 October 2007.

This is the best opportunity for people like me who like travelling and visiting new places but don't have big budget.
You really have to be quick in your decision and have good internet connection. Once you log on, you need to be patient as many people flock the website at the same time.

The moment my husband read monthly newsletter from Air Asia on his email, he quickly logged on the website and with all his might tried to get as many free seats as possible (so kiasu..he..he..). He managed to get 2 tickets for my parents to fly from Jakarta to Kuala Lumpur. He also got 4 tickets for us to fly to Jakarta from Kuala Lumpur. He told me he tried to get free seats to Kota Kinabalu but he wasn't successful. We haven't been to Kota Kinabalu. The last time Air Asia gave free seats, we managed to grab 4 tickets to Labuan and 6 tickets to Jakarta.
Not too bad. We just have to be patient and adventurous. If the free seats to your preffered destinations are not available anymore, try to go to different destinations. Be more adventurous! This is the time for you to explore new places that you have never been before.

Beware though, you still need to pay for the administration fee and any taxes, but still the total price you have to pay is much cheaper than other airlines. You definitely do not want to miss this opportunity and I'd better let you go quickly to check out Air Asia website before all the 1 millions free seats are no longer there and you have to wait for the next opportunity to come.

Now, everyone really can fly... ;-)

My son's important milestones

As a mother, the proudest moment in my life is when my beloved son reached new milestones in his life.
By end of 2006, at the age of exactly 26 months, my son managed to reach 2 new important milestones in his life:

1. Ability to alert people around him and himself when he needs to go to toilet either for 'small business' or for 'big business'.
   
2. His amazingly improved ability in colors, sorting, and Math such as to count 0-10 in 2 languages and doing simple arithmatic such as + and -.
   

My son's vocabularies are increasing tremendously as he is also able to speak & understand 2 languages at the same time.

In order for my son to reach the 1st milestone, I tried my best to do anything I could to train him. I let him go around the house without diaper during the day and at first, he just peed anywhere in the house and at the same time telling me that he has peed. I kept on telling him to inform me BEFORE he urinated. It took him a week to make him understand the difference of before and after. My house was very smelly. Smell of urine everywhere but I didn't give up.
Until one day, he finally did the right thing. He alerted me first BEFORE he peed. I was extremely pleased and so was he. I praised him over and over again and he was very proud of himself that made him remember to always alert mommy before he runs to toilet.

And for the "big business", at first I was very worried that it would take a very long time to train him because he just refused to sit on the toilet bowl to poo. He prefered to stand and poo at the same time. And when he pooed, the surrounding had to be very quite so that he could concentrate on pushing the poo out.
I bought him a small portable potty so that I could just put the potty anywhere he felt like pooing. But this didn't work. He likes to sit there but he couldn't let go of the poo and still standing is the best for him.
I tried anything my mother suggested me but nothing worked. I was so hopeless.

Then during my Christmas shopping last year, I saw this Leapfrog product which I have been longing to buy for my son.
I bought one for his Christmas gift.
I never expected that my son would actually love to play the Leapfrog while sitting on the toilet. This Leapfrog is great! My son finally is able to sit on the toilet and poo with the Leapfrog in front of him. Oh thank you God for showing me the way! Since then, whenever he wants to poo, he will ask me to bring him his Leapfrog board or any of his story books. Wha..ha..ha..
He definitely got this from his mommy 'coz I also like to read while pooing... :D

Because of his ability on alerting me when he wants to pee or when he wants to go for bowel motion, I dare to take his diaper off all day. At night I still put on a diaper for him so that he doesn't have to wake up in the middle of the night. My son is so used to not wearing diaper anymore and even when he is wearing one, he still insists of going to toilet to do his 'business'. That's why if he sleeps without a diaper on, he will wake up and go to toilet. This is Ok, but the bad part is that after going to toilet, he won't be able to sleep again and he will disturb me or my husband because he wants someone to play with him.
Thank God!! I thought it would take a longer time for him to reach this milestone.
Now when I go for shopping, I don't buy diapers too often anymore, but instead I buy many cute mini briefs for my little man.

Since my son knows how to count from 0-10, he will count everything. He counts how many trucks on the road. He counts how many cars parked in the garage. He counts how many fish on a picture hang at his dentist office. He even tries to count how many ants running around in front of him. At one time, I noticed him trying to count how many hairs I have...which was very cute because when he reached 10, he doesn't know what the next number is, so he started from 1 again. I really couldn't hide my laughter. He is an extremely cute boy.
He knows that when he has 2 fish-cookies and mommy takes 1 cookie from him, he will be left with only 1 fish cookie.

At this time, my son can also recognize about 50% of the 26 alphabets and he can read some words that he is very familiar with such as mommy, daddy, his own name, fish, banana, horse, and aaaatttchooo. The last word was quite a surprise for me.. :D
My son is also good at drawing. He can draw a fish. He is good at fixing puzzles too. His imagination is quite high. He likes to arrange pieces of paper with triangle/circle/rectangle/square shape I cut for him and he will say "It's a house" when he arranged a triangle on top of a square.

Oh no!! My baby boy isn't a baby anymore whether I like it or not, I just can't stop him from becoming a real person. He is such a lovable boy. He loves to hug me, kiss me and gently tap me on my back as if trying to comfort me "Everything is gonna be alright, mommy." I know many times I treat him like a baby and he will ask me to let him do things by himself.
Oh no!! I don't want him to grow up too fast because to me he is still my baby boy and he will always be my baby boy. I love you so much my boy!

Visit Malaysia Year 2007

Welcome to Malaysia!
In conjunction with its golden celebration of independence this year, Malaysia is having Visit Malaysia Year 2007.
The event was officially launched by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Badawi on the 6th January 2007 with fireworks and a laser display illuminate the "Eye on Malaysia" ferris wheel in Taman Tasik Titiwangsa, Kuala Lumpur.

The giant ferris wheel is 60-metre high and has 42 gondolas. It offers a 12-minute ride to an excellent views of Kuala Lumpur, including major landmarks of the city such as Menara Kuala Lumpur and Petronas Twin Tower. The fee is RM15 for adults and RM8 for Senior citizens, the disabled, and children age 3-12 years old. There is a discount for groups of five.
For a more comforting way to enjoy beautiful views of Kuala Lumpur, you can also pay RM50 per person to get into the VIP gondola which offers a cabin equipped with cushioned leather seats, plasma TV, DVD player and soft drinks. It will be open to public until 31st December 2007.

During Visit Malaysia Year 2007, there will be 50 unique and fantastic world class and local events throughout the year to make sure that your visit to Malaysia this year will be the most exciting and memorable one.

To support Visit Malaysia Year this year, I will post more stories about life in Malaysia and will be accompanied by some photos to promote the beauty of Malaysia.

This year is really the best year to come and visit Malaysia. When you visit Malaysia, don't forget to stop by Ipoh in Perak state. Ipoh is about 3 hour-driving from Kuala Lumpur International airport/Low cost carrier terminal in Sepang and about 2 hour-driving from Penang international airport.
Ipoh (the bougainvillea city) is the cleanest city in Malaysia. Life in Ipoh is completely different from in Penang or Kuala Lumpur. It's calmer, cheaper, and very relaxing.
I have posted some information about Ipoh on my previous post. Just to recall, you can read that post again here: Ipoh's hidden treasures.
I also put slideshows of Ipoh so that you can see the green and beautiful Ipoh.
To get more information about Ipoh, you can visit Ipoh Community website (http://www.ipoh.com.my)

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If you want to read more about Visit Malaysia Year 2007, you can visit:
Tourism Malaysia (http://www.tourismalaysia.gov.my)
The star newspaper (http://thestar.com.my)

Malaysia is truly Asia!

Hope to see you around!

Announcement from Coffeeliqueur

Just to inform you that I won't be able to check my emails and to update this blog too often because of the internet congestion as the undersea cables hit by an earthquake in Taiwan was being repaired.

According to the news I've read, this internet disruption will last for 3 weeks. The repair of the 4 damaged spots could only be completed by January 19, Deputy general manager of Chunghwa Telecom estimated.

Since tomorrow businesses will reopen after the long break, the internet congestion will worsen and to avoid frustration, I'll try my best to use the internet only during the low period (if I can stay awake).
As the result, I may not be able to reply emails, may not able to update the blog, may not be able to chat and may close my eBay store temporarily until the internet connection is back to normal.

Thank you very much for your attention and hope all of you who do not affected by this disruption keep visiting my blog and writing me your comments.

New Year Celebration

Last night was the most boring New Year celebration I have ever had. No fireworks, no noisy sound of people honked at each other’s car, and no loud sound of counting down to welcome the new year. The night was so dark and consider quite for a New Year night.
I am glad I was not alone feeling disappointed when there were not any fireworks or loud screaming of “Happy New Year!”
I was with many others who have gathered in front of the City Hall to experience the countdown together which usually had fireworks show.
But unfortunately, last night was different and I didn’t know that there would not be any thing at all at the City Hall to welcome 2007.
My first plan was just waiting for the countdown at home while watching fireworks on the tv and having a glass of wine with my husband. But since my son was still running around and refused to be put to bed at 11.30pm, I had my last minute decision to take my husband and my son out for the countdown.

When we got out, the traffic was already bad. Many cars parked anywhere near the City Hall and this has made me fuming because I really didn’t want to miss the fireworks show. My husband decided to pay to get a nice car park where we would have the best view of fireworks show.
5 Minutes to New Year. 3 Minutes to New Year. My husband kept on updating me since I didn’t have a watch with me. When it was 10 seconds to New Year, I started to see people inside some restaurants and pubs counting down and I got my son out of the car to be ready for the fireworks show. My husband and I did our own counting down according to his watch then we waited and waited and waited for the fireworks show to start but then nothing happened, a very quite situation instead. I saw many heads fixed to the direction where the fireworks were supposed to start. I heard many people started to ask each other, “Where are the fireworks?”
There were a couple of sparks on the sky but those belonged to some private parties.

At the end, my husband decided to drive back home. We were all very disappointed, especially my son. He kept on asking me for more fireworks. I’ve tried my best to explain to him that this year there was not any fireworks display on the sky.
Finally he could accept it and dozed off while my husband and I continued with our first plan of having a glass of wine while watching Star Wars on the television before going to bed at around 3am.

It was a boring and quite countdown to welcome 2007 but then at the same time, we actually got a chance to spend time together and enjoyed the company of each other. It was not bad after all. I hope this New Year will not be as quite as 2006. I hope to have more positive activities to kill my boredom and my loneliness that have been with me for the past 2 years and I also hope this year will be a better year for me and for all.