Busy, busy, busy

The guilt weighs upon me like a big stone. Each time I start up my PC, IE gets directed to my blog page immediately and I cringe when I am reminded that I haven't blogged for more than 10 days! I have a hundred ideas in my head but they are just that...ideas in my head and never quite make it to the PC.

So this morning, while digging into my bowl of cornflakes, I tell myself that I must write something before the cobwebs form.

(don't the bowl and spoon look familiar to you R2 fans out there??)

The last two weeks have been a flurry of activities. My kid's exams are always a bane and pain to me though she is the one who is sitting in the exam hall. When the report card came back, the pain went up a notch! More work needed for the second half of the year!

Then the much awaited letter from the developer arrived to invite us to collect the keys to our new home! Yahoo! but also "oh..oh" because it's time to start paying back the bank in monthly instalments. The belt just got tighter. Endless discussions with the interior designer on the overall layout and color scheme to be used for our new home have been ongoing for months and we are still deliberating over the color of laminates to be used for the built-ins and feature walls.

(dark wood or maple?? - still undecided)

Not to mention the trips to Ikea looking for ideas and possibly cheaper alternatives for the floor to ceiling built-in cupboards especially the one which is going to house my boxes of books.

Over the last weekend, the family took a breather; we drove up to Cameron Highlands and stayed a night at the Equatorial. My last visit there was about twenty years ago. Somehow the air seemed less cold this time and the crowds of people in the little town of Brinchang reminded me of the swarms of shoppers at MidValley during the Mega Sale! The scenery at the tea plantations and flower farms were breathtaking, though I don't think I want to see another strawberry for some time.

Sungai Palas Tea Plantation - Boh Tea

Pink cactuses at Uncle Sam's Farm

We had the strawberries fresh, in ice cream, dried and even in the form of cookies, all in the span of twenty four hours we were holed up there. But the one incident that takes the cake was a simple Chinese lunch at a restaurant in Brinchang when we first arrived hungry and thirsty on Saturday afternoon.

The proprietor was super friendly and efficient. We ordered four dishes; claypot taufu, asparagus fried with belacan, pea sprouts, sweet sour meat and a pot of Chinese tea. The bill came up to a whopping RM84-00! Now that is high-land price for you! Before we went up, we thought we did our homework pretty well and got hold of a couple of restaurant names known to charge exorbitant prices and thus, to avoid. Well, Kwan Kee wasn't in that list then, but it surely is now.

Tomorrow is going to be another busy day. We are going to test knock some tiles in our new apartment to make sure that they are solid stuff before we hand in our defect sheet to the developer for rectification.

More news next time. Over and out.