Jeshan's 3rd birthday

Jeshan's 3rd birthday - August 9th 2008.

We decided to have two parties - one for our friends and one for his friends. The parties were also meant as a housewarming do.


Party I - August 7th

Jeshan wanted a cake with lots of animals on it so we decided on a Noah's Ark themed party - though the theme is more obvious in the second party with all the little children.






Aunty Sheila made these cupcakes for her nephew...




After the candles go out, little hands scurry for the animals.




Posing with the birthday boy


Alice and David

Edgar and Alex

Losh, Ming and Dinesh

Jules, Losh and Ming

Bernie and Jac

Little Josh

Makenna

Birthday Boy - Thank you Aunty Brenda for doing the face painting




Thank you aunty Jas for picking up Makenna while her mummy and daddy were away and for bringing her to the party...

Jeshan and Duke play footie

Things that inspire me

I like surfing the net for pretty things - they inspire me in my own art work. I don't copy directly but looking at stuff provides inspiration and ideas when I have run out of my own. They help me coordinate patterns and colours better; show me ways of doing things I hadn't thought of and certainly, they move me to come up with something entirely new.

Will show later what I came up with just from looking at these pictures.

Clear stamps

Just discovered these and learnt how to you use them, thanks to the folks at Craft Haven (in One Utama). Was surprised to find that they have all the stuff I have been drooling over on the Internet. It's sad tho, I have seen all these things in the US at Michaels and at the Scrapbooking Shop but they cost so little there - just a few dollars each. Here everything costs three to four times more.

Petaling Street

Petaling Street... always a scrabble of human activity

By the time we were ready to leave last Saturday morning, my friend Brenda had taught Jeshan to say "Chinatown".

We were heading to Petaling Street - Jasmin, Bren, myself and Jeshan - each for their own reasons.

Jas and Bren were merely entertaining my fancy I suppose. I wanted to see if Petaling Street had changed much from over 18 years ago when I used to take the bus from Rawang after school to Pudu Raya (a good hour in a rattling old bus) and then walk to the tuition centre opposite the Klang Bus Stand for extra drilling in the subject of Economics.

I remember how most of us would sleep off in the bus, our mouths agape, and some dripping saliva out of the corners...

From Puduraya, we would have to walk past the stalls in Petaling Street to our destination, always stopping in the hot Friday afternoon for a long cool drink of "Air Mata Kuching".

I wanted to take some shots and just experience the place again - it's been a long time since I ventured there.

The closest I've got in recent years is Peter Hoe's (wonderful place for gifts) which is at the corner opposite Central Market and to the huge flower wholesalers a few blocks down, to look for sweet peas and purple roses for my wedding flower arrangements.

This morning, Jeshan was coming along because he loved going wherever his mummy would take him, and Aunty Brenda had regaled him some fine stories about carts and wheeled stalls selling fruits and flowers and things with lots of colours.

Our first agenda was to find a palatable place to sit and eat. We found a noisy Chinese Coffee Shop in some corner and almost everything we savoured was delicious.

Jeshan had quite a lot of fish balls all to himself, and managed a few bites of ee chak kueh too.
The wanton soup was really nice - the wanton contained prawns and mushrooms - as was the wanton mee and the char siew pau.

Tummies no longer rumbling, we meandered through the heavy traffic of humans, moving stalls, and men carrying racks of shoes on their back.

Petaling Street has not changed much.

Same old, same old.

Only the people manning the stalls are different - more foreigners.

One fella will sell you a Polo t shirt for RM20, another will ask for RM25 for the same one, but if you tell him that the other fella sold it to you for RM18, he will give it to you at RM18 too.

Same old crooks...

The Mata Kuching lady was not there. Too early in the morning I suppose.

Jeshan was all excited as we ventured out into what was new territory for him. He ooohed and aahed at this and that.

He was particularly interested in why little bears were sitting prettily in bouquests of flowers.

He spent some time counting them one by one... he got as far as ten.

Bren happily entertained him, while mum played with her shutters.

We found a pet shop on the way back to the car, much to Jeshan's delight.

He got to see up close and personal all the creatures he was first introduced to in one of those delightful children's VCD's called Kipper - Hamsters, Guinea Pigs and Rabbits.

One of the birds kept saying "Hi" to us, but we couldn't tell which one.

Seeking, exploring, experiencing... what a nice way to spend a Saturday morning.

Flowers

Transport

Shopping

Sights

Time to go home...

Kuala Gandah Elephant Sanctuary

I had the privilidge of riding an elephant the first time I visited the Elephant Sanctuary in Kuala Gandah several years ago. I was there to experience and write about the place and what the team there was doing for elephants in this country.

Most of the elephants here are used to help translocate wild elephants that are considered a threat to human settlements (hrrmmph! more like humans are a threat to them, if you ask me).

When a wild elephant or its herd is identified as a "threat" the translocation team tracks down the wild elephant, sedates it, chains its legs to a tree and waits till the next morning to move it.

If at sunrise, the wild - and by now enraged - elephant has not escaped, the trained elephants are used to flank the captured wild elephant. This calms the wild elephant down. The flanking elephants then lead the captured one to a truck, where they are all transported to a barge. Down the river they go, usually to the Taman Negara National Park, where the elphant is released. Bet there is an over population of elephants there now. Lately they have been collaring the released elephants to track their movements. Most try to find their way back to reunite with their herds. Other's destroy their collars somehow.

Anyway, the guys at the sanctuary have got smart over the years. Now they charge visitors an entrance fee and this helps towards the running of the place. We made this trip on Chinese New Years day and it was crowded. The place was just overflowing with people. It looks like a much better set up now, compared to the run down struggling centre it was before. They have a few sponsors too these days.

Farewell my favourite

Jeshan's favourite play mate in the whole world is his cousin Nashya. He squeels with delight everytime she comes over and when she doesn't he is always hopeful she is going to turn up at any moment.

They fight a lot too but their love for each other is unconditional and they quickly forgive and forget.

Unfortunately, she has just moved to Dubai with her mum and dad and little brother Rohan.

They are missing each other a lot now. I'm glad I managed to take a video of their last fun time together which Jeshan makes me play for him every day.

My sister had come up with the idea of having an early birthday party for just the three of them complete with games, an inflated pool and party packs.

Children of their age play best in small groups and they had an enchanting time at the soiree.