Alvin Birthday Celebration

Today is Alvin’s birthday. On our way back to home, I stopped by Berry’s Cake House to buy a birthday cake for him. We had our dinner at Hunan Restaurant at Bandar Puteri Puchong. Alvin loves to eat Chinese Si Chuan or Hunan dishes. We have a yummilicious dinner.

Then I went to the Zentangle class tonight. After the class, I drove back to home to blow the candles and cut the birthday cake together with Alvin and the children. Daddy together with Issac and Annabelle blew the candles together and cut the cakes.

For this year it has been quite rushing for me to prepare Alvin’s birthday present. I took a day off yesterday to go to the Tangs to choose Alvin’s birthday gift. I saw he have 2 or 3 ties which he used to wear to the Church every Sunday. I am thinking of a pair of ties for him. I hand picked 2 ties for him.

I just told Alvin that there are only little presents which costs a little that I am able to buy for him and hope that he like the ties. He said, the ties design not bad.

We all hugged him and love this man of our life too!

Pulau Ketam Day Trip

Today a public holiday, it is the day that Malaysia celebrate for the installation of our new Agong, which is from the Negeri Pahang State. Alvin and I also off for today public holiday.

We planned to go to Pulau Ketam for a day trip. This is not our first time go Pulau Ketam. It seems like our family will surely go to Pulau Ketam at least once a year. It is the nearest getaway from here.

As usual, we drove our car and park at the nearest parking to the Subang Jaya Komuter Station. Around 9.00am, we commute using Komuter to the Port Klang Komuter Station. Opposite from the Port Klang Station is the Ferry Terminal for the passengers.

Both Issac and Annabelle were so happy and they did all kinds of funny funny things, stuffs in the train. The train stopped a lot of places, and it took about an hour journey for us to reach to the end of the train route.

Finally we came to the South Port Passenger Terminal about 10.00am to buy the tickets for the boat. We can see a huge giant golden crab at the Terminal. It is the landmark to take a photograph or check in before we ride on to the speedboat.

We had our quick breakfast at the Terminal and bought 2 packets of Pulau Ketam style of Nasi Lemak. It is really Pulau Ketam style as the nasi lemak comes with small shrimps sambal and shrimps crispy dried chili. Indeed tasted different.

Due to the public holiday, there are a lot of tourists. The speedboat was scheduled to depart around 10.30am. We choose to stand at the roof of the speedboat to enjoy the view and breeze at the sea.

It was almost 11.30am when we stepped our feet on the Pulau Ketam. It took us about 60 minutes to reach Pulau Ketam. The island was crowded with people, especially the restaurants.

We choose Restaurant Remember Me. The first thing to do is to find an empty table in a restaurant. We ordered a dish of deep fried fish with sweet and sour sauce, a dish of butter fried prawns and a seaweed fish ball soup. We extra ordered a large fried omelette with clams.

After the lunch, we just walked through the market and walked into the boardwalks on the island. There are a lot of Chinese Temples on the island. We passed by the one and only school on the island.

We were just wandering around on the island and the heat of the sun was so strong that we finally surrender and headed back to the jetty to catch a speedboat back. This time around we choose to sit inside the seating areas in the boat and enjoying the aircond inside.

We were so tired mainly due to the hot weather. It was almost 4.00pm when we reach home. After that we just rested in our small home and enjoy the rest of the day.

Well… it’s a good day that we get together and enjoy the day as family. We took quite a number of the selfie too!

Zentangle 2nd Class 25 Jul 2019

Today at our 2nd class of Zentangle, we handed our past week homework and we did share among our thoughts on our own homework. Here are my work over last week.

Teacher Mici taught us to draw on the white paper tile 3.5 inches square. We were taught the 8 steps of Zentangle Method and a few tangle patterns such as poke leaf, poke root, and such names that I cannot remember.

We have a group photos with our work tonight!

And this is my work tonight.

Transporting Tiger Back

Alvin sent some photos back while he was transporting his Tiger back from JB to KL.

Sister Theresa Birthday Celebration

Today is Sister Theresa’s birthday, her family Sister Sophia, Brother Sanjay and his wife Sister Kushila organised a small surprise party or gathering for her.

Sister Sophia have planned everything and few of the Church members together with the sisters missionary came and celebrate with their family. It was a happy occassion for all of us.

Zentangle 1st Class 18 Jul 2019

Today is the 1st class of attending Creative Aesthetics Art class at Puchong Tzu Chi Continuing Education Center at Setiawalk. The lesson that we started with was Zentangle.

Zentangle is founded by Rick and Maria in United States. The Zentangle Method is an easy-to-learn, relaxing, and fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns repeatedly.

The Eight Steps of the Zentangle Method (from www.Zentangle.com website):

• Step 01 – Gratitude and Appreciation

Get comfortable, take a few deep breaths and feel gratitude and appreciation – for this beautiful paper, for these wonderful tools, for this opportunity to create something beautiful.

• Step 02 – Corner Dots

We teach beginning Zentangle Method with beautiful museum grade cotton paper, 3.5 inches (89 mm) square. To answer a familiar question of what to put on this beautiful paper, place a light pencil dot in each corner, about a pen's width from the edges. Now it’s no longer a blank piece of paper.

• Step 03 – Border

Connect those dots with a light pencil line, straight or curvy, to create a square. And that is your border.

• Step 04 – String

Inside the border, draw a light pencil line or lines to make what we call a “string”. The string separates the tile into sections, in which we draw our tangles. A string can be any shape. it may be a curvy line that touches the edge of the border now and then, or series of straight lines that go from one side of the border to the next.

• Step 05 – Tangle

A tangle is a predefined sequence of simple strokes that make up a pattern. Draw your tangles in pen inside (usually) the pencil strings and borders. Tangle is both noun and verb. Just as you dance a dance, you tangle your tangles. Draw your tangles with deliberate strokes. Don't worry about what it's going to look like. Just focus on each stroke of the pen as you make it. Trust that you'll know what to do next when the time to do it comes. There is no up or down to Zentangle art so feel free to rotate your tile in any direction that is most comfortable for your hand as you draw.

• Step 06 – Shade

Add shades of gray with a graphite pencil to bring contrast and dimension to your tile. The black and white two-dimensional tangles transform through shading and appear three-dimensional. You can also use a tortillion (a paper blending stump) to soften and blend the graphite.

• Step 07 – initial and Sign

This is art you created. You should sign it. Put your initials on the front (many people create a unique monogram or chop for this step). On the back, place your name, date, comments and observations.

• Step 08 – Appreciate

Hold your tile at arm’s length. Turn it this way and that. Appreciate what you just created.

Today Teacher Mici taught us about the basic tangle that founded by the founders: Fluxes, Hollibaugh and Paradox.

Besides that, we were assigned some homework to do in the home and bring over for the next week class.

I got to know some new friends in the class and all of them are married with children. I think all of us have the same reasons that want to attend some enrichment classes to release tensions or learn something new to rejuvenate our own lives.

Well, the 1st lesson indeed inspired me to love myself more and at least give myself some “Me Time” 15 – 20 minutes a day to focus on something I love to do and find some inner satisfaction in it.