thistle....

After the kids' carolling practice, we rushed off to PD again. This time to Thistle (which was known as Guoman when we first visited it long time ago). KC's second brainstorming was in Thistle with a different group of people. 

Thistle is slightly further from Avillion. It's quite close to the Methodist Center and Cape Rachado (where the lighthouse is). After enjoying Avillion, we kind of had our expectations slightly higher. From what I remembered of Thistle, it was a big place with a golf course. 

So we were kind of disappointed with the room when we arrived. It was facing the golf course. As it is a room and not a chalet, the space is slightly smaller. Dan was disappointed with the bathroom which doesn't have a bathtub. I was disappointed at not having the sea right beneath me (well, I already know the sea won't be so close this time but.....I miss hearing the waves).

 The room has a very big bed....I think it's like two super singles joined together. Again for the four of us....more than enough sleeping space.

 The view in the night. The whole place is nicely lighted up. I remembered a little herb garden many years ago when I visited but found that the garden isn't there anymore.

 We decided to follow this path in the night and it brought us to.......

 Cumulus...a bar (which was closed when I revisited in the morning). It's a nice bar...I was hoping to go there for a drink with KC but by the time he returned to the room, I was already snoring. Kids were not allowed in, though Dan said he could pretend to be an adult....everyone knows he's a kid from his baby face.

 The path in the morning.....

 This is supposed to be an infinity pool just next to the bar. So you can drink and swim...It's so quiet and nice when I visited in the morning that I was so tempted to just jump in for a swim (didn't have time).

 The porch of the bar. The beach is just below. Very lovely.....when the kids and I took a peep in the night, there was hardly anybody. Probably it was a weekday.

 The beach....it was low tide this morning. The sand was solid compared to the beach at Avillion where your feet just sink in. Different sort of sand. It's finer here and when it's wet the sand gets compacted. Had a great time doing some stretches again facing the sea. Again there was hardly anybody on the beach....most people are lazy I think; they would rather laze in bed than to go the beach at 7 in the morning. I can't afford to laze today....had to leave at 8.30 to send kids to music class.

 The swimming pool is big....very spacious. Infact the whole place is spacious. It has its own uniqueness and beauty compared to Avillion. Checked the price and found that it's more expensive than Avillion....maybe it's the golf course.

which do I prefer? Thistle or Avillion? Thistle is a bigger place with larger land area. The beach is quieter as it is further away. Cleaner too. But I like the concept in Avillion...village styled chalets built into the sea.

pd 2012

Whenever KC goes for brain storming or whatever they call it in PD, we will follow if we have the time. This time it is Avillion. Reached there quite late as I had to wait for the kids to finish their carolling practice and take them for dinner before I could hit the road. Was telling the kids, if it had been KL, I will not drive them there as I don't drive in cities.

Was dark by the time we reached the hotel. I'm fine with it as I think I'm quite familiar with PD roads. Unfortunately there was no parking at the hotel compound, we had to park across the road (they had extended parking across the road).

Was quite impressed with the place. KC had a chalet built into the sea. Big with two single beds and a queen sized day bed. Was more than enough room for us. On top of it, the bathroom is also very big and luxurious. While we walked around and enjoyed the place, somebody had to crack his brains brainstorming till almost midnight!!!

 Got up early to catch the sunrise with a cup of coffee. But sunrise is not from this side....can catch sunset here.

 The chalets built into the sea. It was low tide this morning. Can actually walk underneath the chalets.

 The sea was actually quite clear and clean as it was low tide. We could walk quite far out and the water just reached the ankle. But when the tide came in, the upper part of the beach was dirty. So the water ended up looking brown and murky.

 View from the lobby. Nice swimming pool and games center.

This is the entrance. We had to walk across to the car park to get our car.

Had to rush home as the kids had carolling practice again. No chance to just loiter around PD longer.

It's a nice place to relax especially if it is not peak. I enjoyed the early morning walk along the beach doing some stretching exercises.

Hobbit

The much awaited movie finally came. Went to watch the movie the next day after kids returned from their camp. Brought Uncle Hoe with us. 

The cineplex was almost empty. Probably it was a working day and the hour we chose was odd. Was nice to sit with a minimum number of people around. My kids sat to each other and kept whispering and exchanging notes. 

Totally LOTR style...same old faces and creatures. There was Frodo in the beginning and of course Bilbo Baggins. The story is about his adventure after all. Then Gandalf and the dwarves make their appearance. I think the dwarves are new ... don't remember seeing them in LOTR.

Hobbit explains stuff that happened in LOTR...like how Bilbo met Smeagol and how Smeagol lost his precious and was found by Bilbo. The picture above is Smeagol....can be quite a scary looking creature but he's interesting. Sort of like split personality and totally obsessed with his Precious. Kids love him and think he's cute.

The Brown Wizard is another new character. Dirty yucky old man....with animals living in him and with him. 

Review said this movie is not as good as LOTR...maybe....but for a die hard Tolkein fan and anything Tolkein; it was good. 

The story is about how the dwarves lost their kingdom to a dragon due to the neglect of their king who was drowned in his greed for gold. Later Gandalf rounded the dwarves together to return to their homeland to claim back their kingdom and Bilbo came in the picture as he is a halfling. So hopefully the dragon will not be able to identify his scent.

 One need a little background on Hobbit and the Middle Earth to understand and enjoy the movie better. For people like us we have LOTR and our books to educate us on this topic. On top of it, we have a walking Hobbiton fan in Lyn who can spill out facts which we can't even remember and point out parts of the movie which has been changed or is not in the book. So we really enjoyed the movie and the expressions on the faces of the characters. But I think Uncle Hoe was kind of lost.

This is Gandalf. He's a real cool guy. Both in this movie and in LOTR. There is another wizard...Sarunam...who is not as kind as Gandalf. Never liked him...I guess it's because he became bad in LOTR.

The movie ended in the most exciting part....just as the dwarves reached their homeland which was lost to the dragon. I was stunned when the lights came on and realised it had ended and I have to wait till next year for the next show.

mystery, suspense, thriller

My favourite writer now is David Baldacci. Bumped into his book quite by accident. KC gave me an e-book...One Summer; after reading it I decided that I would like to read all of his books.

Big Bad Wolf gave me a chance to search for his books. I found quite a few. Bought three ...all for RM8 per book. 

I've read One Summer, Hour Game and I'm now reading the Sixth Man. Hour Game and Sixth Man is from King and Maxwell series. Now I need to get Simple Genius and First Family and I would have the complete set.

His books are thick; more than 500 pages. But he is not long-winded....he is fast paced and there are people dying all the time. 

Hour Game was pretty gruesome but I enjoyed it. Sixth Man is also exciting. Keeps the adrenalin pumping.

Wikipedia is so helpful....look what I found when I googled DB.

Sean King and Michelle Maxwell

#	Title	Publication Date	Publisher	NY Times Bestseller #
1	Split Second	October 1, 2003[14]	Warner Books	2[15]
2	Hour Game	October 26, 2004[16]	Warner Books	1[17]
3	Simple Genius	April 24, 2007[18]	Warner Books	1[19]
4	First Family	April 21, 2009[20]	Grand Central Publishing	1[21]
5	The Sixth Man	April 19, 2011[22]	Grand Central Publishing	1[23]ng

Compared to John Grisham....I prefer David Baldacci's style of writing.

hilltop

The kids were at Cheefoo for YLDP so the adults decided that we will follow them. Su May told us about this bungalow that she booked with her friends and we were excited. Quite a few months back, we booked the Hilltop Bungalow which has four rooms for whoever in the CG who want to join this trip.

Finally we ended up with only three families. KC and I took the double bed at the ground floor as it's just the two of us. The Tings took two rooms upstairs (two single beds and a double plus single bed) while the Chias took the other room which has a double and a single bed.

The bungalow is big and old. Close to a 100 years. It used to belong to the Perak Sultan who lost it in a gamble. The furniture is old....really old and creepy. There is an old cupboard in my room where one of the door keeps opening. I hate cupboards with open doors....it's like any minute I'll see a skeleton hanging in there. 

Mr Choong is the caretaker. His mother used to run the house and he has taken over now. He cleans the whole place on his own and also does the cooking. He cooked two breakfasts and two dinners for us. I think food was the best part. We didn't have to jam out to town and search for restaurants to eat. Just tell him what we want and what time we want the food and...we are served hand and foot. There is no rush to finish eating and we just sat and talk as we enjoyed our food. Really really enjoyed this part of the holiday....slow and easy plus good food and good people. Mr Choong cooks well and makes fantastic jams. A real jolly and hospitable chap.

It was the Tings' first time to Cameron Highlands. Used to laugh at Justine who has been to Australia, US and what have you but never been to Cameron. So we had to act as tour guides. Took them to Sg Palas tea farm, a strawberry farm and a bee farm. That took almost the whole day and we even had an unforgettable moment when Eric had great difficulty negotiating a narrow road. He did it anyway and that makes him an expert driver.

 This is what we see when we drove up the long driveway from the entrance. When driving up we were not impressed at all by the surrounding....creepy and mossy and bit unkept but seeing the beautiful view once we were close to the bungalow gave us more confidence of the place.

 The unkept entrance. Could have missed it. To the left is the retaining wall which is inches thick with moss. To the right is a valley with trees and ferns that look as old as Jurassic age (that's what KC told the kids...).

 Can't make out what the sign board says but it's suppose to be Hilltop Bungalow. By the way the property belongs to Eu Yan Sang family and I think they are real kedekut.

 It's a tudor style house. Really solid.

 View from the side. The land around it is real big but lots of wastage. The area further from the house is just left as jungle. Closer by is nicely landscaped with beautiful flowers.

 Old chest of drawers. I didn't use any of the drawers or cupboards. Didn't feel too comfortable. The first night here, I made KC accompany me everywhere because Ing is always frightening me with stories of haunted old houses and I was a bit scared.

The sinks and bathtubs etc are as old as the house. This sink has a symbol of two tigers and it says Made in England!! The bathroom needs upgrading....who dares to use the real old bathtubs?

A single night cost RM1200. Not cheap but we have the whole bungalow and lovely grounds to ourselves. I think it was worth it. Had we stayed in a hotel, I think we would not have had such great bonding and fellowshipping.

Don't mind coming here again in a group.

God's Hand

This has been a very interesting holiday. I believe God's Hand is in it right from the beginning. I was on the standby list for SPM invigilation; so right from the start I didn't plan for any holiday in November and early December. Turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Albert was pestering us to go for a mission trip in Sarawak which I firmly turned him down. Last year while we were in Myanmar, Aunty Lillian went home to the Lord. We were so shocked when we heard of it.

Last Saturday KH was admitted to hospital with extremely high bp. His arms were numb and legs were heavy. Thank God he was able to drive himself to the hospital and got himself admitted because we were in KL meeting a doctor and visiting homes. We don't know yet why he is in this condition but we pray all will be well and he will be back to his bubbly self soon. I think MIL passing on had the greatest impact on him as he was the one who took care of her and they became very close in the past years.

We made an interesting trip to PJ to meet a helpful doctor who gave lots of information and advice. We visited two homes which put everything into a more positive light. It all started with Ing's help actually....the endless number of contacts she passed to us. So by contacting the one closest to home....Dr Lay; the ball started rolling. From Dr Lay to Dr John and to the home. So far all is going well.....I've been able to put medication in her food and she's responding a little. First time ever in my 18 years of married life that SH talks to me.

This Saturday we are planning to execute THE PLAN....to send her to the home we have selected. We have run through the plan over and over and imagine how it would be like. God help us that all will go on smoothly till she reaches the home. It's the best we can do for her which we should have done eight years ago but stopped by MIL.

I covet all prayers for protection and guidance in handling this complicated situation and also for healing on all family members.

I think most of all I'm really thankful for God's presence with us all this time that we don't feel hopeless or helpless. We are able to go through the past three weeks with the knowledge that His Mighty Hand is guiding every situation. Here is a quote from Joyce Meyer: Depending on God for everything may be difficult, but it's the key to the victory we need every single day of our lives.

Life of Pi

I've seen this book at the bookstores for quite a while but somehow Lyn and I just didn't think of buying the book or wanting to read it. When I saw it in the movies, I thought it must be some book that can be made into movie. So we decided to catch it yesterday.

I was so impressed right from the beginning. The effects, cinematography...was so powerful. This show can be viewed in 3D too and I can imagine how it would be like if viewed in 3D. I don't think I would enjoy it as my heart can't take too much excitement. Rolling with Pi over the waves and into the deep sea during the storm would be too much for me.

Pi short for Piscine Molitor Patel or also known as Pissing in school went through a dramatic life that is quite unbelievable. Brought up in a zoo. Lived in Pondicherry (which was under French influence)...so his family could read and converse in French. Lost his parents and brother in a shipwreck on their way to start a new life in Canada. He survived the turbulent sea with a tiger. This is the most intriguing part of the movie.

The whole movie was very effective for me right from the beginning where the various animals in the zoo were caught in action which we normally won't see. The scenes in the sea was frightening yet dramatic....

Here is one movie which in reality is quite unbelievable but brings a powerful reminder of the determination to live and making the most out of life regardless the situation.

 After this comes the Hobbit, really looking forward to it. We also saw a snippet from Les Miserables. This is THE movie which Lyn and I must see. I guess the only popular movie currently showing which we have yet to watch is Breaking Dawn...none of us is interested.