A Young Soul that is so Valiant!

It have starting become our family tradition that we shall have our family morning prayer before we step out from our home.

This morning was so rush that daddy and mummy totally forgotten about it...

That was this little young man ran out to the window and called his dad, "Dad, we have not have our morning prayer yet!"

I was so touched at this little young man determination on reminding us on our family morning prayer... And we had ours this morning.

I am so grateful that the Lord bless us with him in our life…

We grow spiritually together as a family…

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#‎issaclaughs‬ ‪
#‎annabelleloves‬ ‪
#‎familyisforever‬
‪#‎iamamormon‬
‪#‎eternityfamily‬

Annabelle 1st Beethoven Music World Concert 25 Jun 2016

Early this year, Annabelle told us that she wished to learn violin. She is so amaze with Lindsey Stirling whom is an American violinist, dancer, performance artist, singer and composer. She is our church member too.

Annabelle was so excited when she watched Lindsey’s violin performance in You Tube, immediately Lindsey Stirling became her idol. She can looking for Lindsey Stirling’s music video on internet whenever I fetched them back from Mahkota Tuition Centre to home.

We started to look for a music school for her, and finally we choose the Beethoven Music World at Empire Shopping Gallery Subang Jaya. She attended the violin class after the art class at Citta Mall.

Annabelle started in beginner class. She started learned things like holding the bow properly, producing a good sound, playing in tune, proper left hand position, reading music and much more.

After which, Teacher Yaalliny let her learn note-reading so do as ear-training skills while learning to play Violin with the proper technique.

This is her Beethoven Music World’s first concert. She participated in the violin Ensemble (Medley Secret Love Song – Selamat Hari Raya). The concert time was from 11.30am to 2.00pm. The attire was black long pants/skirt with white shirt/blouse and black covered shoes.

We have to skip the art class for this concert, well her 1st concert! Even though it was just a simple and a group performance, it is good enough for a beginner like her.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Puchong Branch, Kuala Lumpur District Leadership 12 Jun 2016

The Puchong Branch Presidency and the auxiliary have a group photos last Sunday for the Mormon Malaysia Newsroom write-up.

The link is here: http://www.mormonnewsroom.my/article/leadership-learned-by-following-the-savior

The Happy 8 Retreat @ Kuala Sepetang 2-3 Jun 2016

I found this design unique hotel from the internet, and it really draws a huge attractions to this little village.

For travelers who want to take in the sights and sounds of Kuala Sepetang, The Happy 8 Retreat @ Kuala Sepetang is the perfect choice, if you are choosing artistic environment and different than the usual conventional hotel.

There are not much similar hotel like this, others would be more of motels or homestay or inn.

Staying at the Happy 8 Retreat provide something more priceless - the chirping of birds, the noise of the fishing boats in the background as we just rest and relax at the mother nature.

There is actually no recognizable entrance at the ground floor! We can recognize the location of the hotel through the signature head of eagle sculpture on the roof top.

Entry is through a fish dealer's warehouse, with cold rooms to one side, and tricycles to another. There's even a slight fishy odor. And on top of that, at the roadside leading to this entry, fish and prawns were being dried out in the open.

Initially, we were a bit puzzle and not sure we were at the right place, but getting nearer through the entrance clear glass, we can see the nicely decorated interior and we were sure enough that we were at the right place.

Outside the lobby, at the waiting area are large chairs carved from huge timber logs for visitors to sit. Behind this, another mural of happy boys fishing.

One thing great about this is the privacy of the patrons are well guarded, the main door is activated by key card; no key card, no entry.

Once enter to the reception lobby, besides the waiting area, we can notice that it is a café at the ground floor.

The designer have tastefully furnished the lobby. Facing brick walls, timber flooring warms up the place. Plants in rattan-weave baskets, a rattan overhead lamp and a driftwood  sculpture hangs from the ceiling to add to this décor.

Just beyond the lobby, the dining area has the same local theme of charcoal and fishing nets. Charcoal logs low partition separates out different sections.

A glass table sits on charcoal log legs surrounded by yellow netted chairs. The outdoor dining is near to the river, we can enjoy a lovely view any time just by sitting there enjoying the drinks.

Happy 8 is consists of 2 levels of the rooms. Some rooms with the panorama river view, some with partially village view, and with no windows.

The ambience is warm and cozy along the walk to the rooms; the corridors are dim and lined with murals of eagles and marine life.

All is on a blue theme with brown timer frames accentuating this. It brings out the exotic feels of the place.

At the end of the corridor, a louver window gives a peep down to the river below. It shows a scene of a boat idling sailing down the river, it is a scene that promises of more to come.

One thing interesting and special about Happy 8 is that, each room have its own theme and design inside the room.

Even the bedrooms’ door are easy to identify, each bedroom door has a nice icon of a wildlife - fishes, bird, etc.

Our room was at the 3rd floor, and with a forest kind of theme. Yes, there's a lot of timber around to balance and give warmth amidst the blue theme.

There is a King size bed down, and 4 single mattresses at the bunk bed above.

The view of the the King size bed looking through the colonial style timber louvered doors with a large timber pull lock leads to a small balcony with a fishing net railing.

From here, one can enjoy a lovely evening view of the river with the moored fishing boats.

Birds twitting, a slow boat chugging and the sun setting in the background primes one for a good night's sleep.

In the morning, overlooking the river, there is the shrill chirping of swallows and the roar of the fishing boats as they leave for the day's fishing. It's a wake-up call for an exciting day ahead.

In the bathroom, the basin itself is a solid timber carved with the round shape bowl. The tap with it's exposed copper piping and brass tap heads adds to the rustic, old world ambience.

The shower area is an expose where we can just look up to the air well which expose to the roof top.

There is a TV in the room but the TV do not have any signal or channel at all. Well, this encourage us do other activities than watching the TV.

I was a little bit disappointed with the breakfast serving as there is not much choice, but truly quite surprise with its presentation.

It is roti canai wrap with chicken sausage, scrambled eggs and ham for adults, and sandwich with cheese, eggs, hams and chicken sausage for the children.

Salad and fruits completes the meal, while free flows of coffee or tea are served.

Of coarse we just brought our own mineral water. We were  having our breakfast happily and every once in a while looking through the fishing-netted railing at the boats along the river.

Overall, we found this is a great place to stay at a fishing village, as our family love the nature and like to experience different things.

Kuala Sepetang River Cruise 2 Jun 2016

It was an instant decision we made during our time waiting for check-in to the hotel.

Daddy was asking the owner of the hotel how to book or buy the ticket for the river tour, as we have seen many tour buses brought a lot tourists for the river tour.

While we were waiting, the kind uncle introduced us to the tour operator, then Daddy gave him our contact number, so he can call us later.

After we came back from the walkabout around the town, we were all resting in the room, until a man knocked on our door. He was from the Port Weld Eco Tour, he introduced himself and the package offer to us.

The package include sightseeing fisherman village, variety of boats, Kampung Seberang, fish farm, eagle watching, Kuala Sangga, seeing firefly and viewing evening sunset. It would take approximately a 2 1/2 to 3 hours journey. All together is RM150.00 including 2 adults and 3 children.

Daddy just on the deal, and we were asked to wait at the ground floor lobby at 5.00pm. A young boy was waiting for us and guided us to the boat.

There were a few families on the boat as well. The children were so happy and excited on the trip. There were 2 little tour guide on our boat, the boy whom guided us to the boat, he is a teenager and in secondary school; the other a fat boy is in primary school. Both of them are funny and talkative.

First, the boat brought us to the “little island” which made by the cockles shells, there were monkeys on the areas too, unfortunately it is not meal time yet, thus we can’t even see them.

After that, we were brought to the upstream of the Sungai Sepetang to see the fisherman village both sides of the river. There is an overhead bridge linked both sides of the village. According to Ah Boy, that was just finish constructed a few years ago, before that the villagers still using the boats to come and flow between both sides.

There was a cockles washing factory in one of the house facing the river, various of boats, big and small, parked just out of the houses.

There is a boat repair yard too, the one and only at Kuala Sepetang. Every fishermen will go to the same yard when their boat need to repair. The boat stopped nearby the mangrove forest where the eagles live.

When our boat reached the calm water area surrounded by the mangrove forests, the boatman shut down the engine to eliminate the noise.

Ah Boy went to the backside of the boat with a bag full of chicken skins and starts throwing the pieces into the water. The eagles here seem to know when a boat is around they would have a feast on offering.

Look at the sky and you will see many eagles circling. And then they will start swooping down to catch their food floating on the water and take off in split seconds.

The eagles have terrific eyesight and can actually pin point a target such as a fish from a far distance.

After, we were going to the fish farm, whereby the fish farm was purposely built up by the local tour operators to create the tourist attraction.

There were horse shoe crabs, and surprisingly puffer fish! Everyone of us can feed the fish by taking a paper cup full of fish food.

Issac was so brave in touch and hold the puffer fish! ah Boy gave a clear explanations on the puffer fish characters, and their habitual.

After the fish farm, we were heading to the Kuala Sangga. Kuala Sangga is a small fishing village with only a few dozens of households, mostly are Teow Chew clan.

Majority of them live on shrimp industry and raising live stocks as supplementary. There is no water and electricity supply here and thus, villagers have to drink rainwater.

Early immigrants attach great importance to education and they established a Chinese primary school for their children. However, there are only approximately 20 household here and 20 over students with 10 teachers in the Chinese primary school. There was a house just next to the school, I guess that should be the teachers’ hostel.

There are a few Chinese temples on the island, and a catholic church as well. During when we were strolling along the boardwalk, we were hearing sort of Thai music were playing on the music player.

Daddy said, mostly are Teowchew people, they are more font of Thai music.

Ah Boy even shown us the so called ‘pirate king’s house. Kuala Sangga used to be the home of the pirates, and their leader used to stay here.

The house looked a bit old, but I believe the local did help to paint the external of the house, thus it still looked ok from the front.

At the back portion of the house had been falling apart already. The ‘Pirate King’ story added on the eeriness of the house itself.

There were 2 boats ferrying Chinese tourists here too, during we were waiting for our boat to park at the jetty.

After Kuala Sangga, we were brought to the open sea to see the sunset view and the eagles.

It was almost 7.00pm. The whole day was so hot, thus we were hoping to see the nice sunset as well. Unfortunately, the clouds were so thick that, it had blocked the sunset view.

It was not our lucky day too as we unable to see any of the pink dolphins. Annabelle was so disappointed that she cried a little during asking her Daddy about the dolphins.

It was almost 7.30pm when the boat heading to the Kampung Dew. There, we were able to see the firefly. It was so strange that the firefly only come to certain species of trees.

In the dark, it looked like a blinking Christmas Tree shining in the dark. And, it were just a few trees on the river side, not the whole stretch of the trees along the river. Just only for a while, then we were taken back to the jetty, and completed our river cruise tour of the day.

It was so tiring but really a fruitful one. The children were so happy about it. It was almost 8.00pm when we had our light dinner in one of the restaurant at the village.

Then, we were so tired and went back to the hotel, took our shower and have a good sleep. The river cruise concluded our day at Kuala Sepetang, and we were never regretted on that, it was the highlight of our day!

3D Surfing Tricks ^^ 8 Jun 2016

We were on our family movie night out and we saw this stand just outside the cinema lobby area.

Here are some pretty cool actions that both kids did!

I Love Pan Mee!

Here is a photo that Kim Thai forwarded to me showing Issac was enjoying his Pan Mee very much!

Issac was helping in making the pan mee too, at Mahkota Tuition Center during their lunch time.