calling Rose

Sometimes Shee Yun pretends to call Rose using an imaginary mobile phone when we are outside. Rose is the children's baby seal soft toy, who is Shee Yun's daughter, and Chen Rui's younger sister, in their imaginary play world. When they play with the baby seal, one of them pretends to speak as the baby seal in a high squeaky voice, while the other conducts conversation with the baby seal. This applies when they call Rose from outside, checking on her to see whether she is doing alright.

So yes, Rose is still alive. There has been 3 previous incarnations of the baby seal, and each had its own name, and each died young.

We have not asked the children to pick up phone calls when at home, and they have never been interested in doing so themselves. When the phone rings they just call out to us to tell us it's ringing.

This past weekend has been a tiring one. We had many errands to run. We brought the children to both KL Tower and iCity. It was their first visit to KL Tower, and second visit to iCity. It surprised us that we could spend two hours at KL Tower. I think less than one third of the time was spent at the observation deck. The children, especially Shee Yun, seemed to have enjoyed themselves more at the Cultural Village, which is just a small area with many house fronts showing the different traditional architectural styles of Malaysia. It is an interesting idea. There is a traditional dance performance, although the costumes used and dances seem to me a weird mixture of various traditional styles. More prominent components are Malay joget and the Sarawak Iban or Dayak dance. At the end of the performance, I was one of visitors pulled onto the stage to dance the bamboo-poles-snap-feet dance, because we were sitting in the front row. There is also a mini zoo, which had many snakes, and also quite a number of albino animals. The children didn't like the snakes at all, but Shee Yun loved the rabbits.

11 Dec 2011. Michelle at KL Tower. When we were there the staff by default assumes we are foreigners and speaks English.

Petronas Twin Towers / KLCC from KL Tower.

Chen Rui trying to listen to the explanation that comes with this device. The device has both video and audio, and gives a background about KL Tower, and I think also explains what can be seen from various spots at the observation deck. I didn't listen to it.

Istana Budaya can be seen in the distance - blue roof.

From the base of the tower.

Chen Rui said she didn't want her little jacket (the type that Shee Yun was wearing).

Traditional house of Sabah.

I didn't ask her to sit there to take a photo. She sat there and expected me to take a photo.

I think the one on the left is Johor, and then the next two are Terengganu and Kelantan respectively. The rightmost bigger house is (I think) not part of the houses. It contains the staircase leading down to this Cultural Village area. These houses are actually quite small, and shallow. Inside each house, there is only very shallow room. In fact you can see the back wall of the house.

I can't remember which states these represent. I think the rightmost one is Melaka.

The cultural dance performers. There are 6 of them, but unfortunately my favourite, the guy dressed in Sarawak Dayak / Iban costume, was holding the camera and thus isn't in here. I kept hearing the lady dancers saying the children were cute.

Shee Yun and one of the rabbits at the mini zoo.

We went to iCity again because the children requested it. I myself am not such a big fan. I have been checking weather forecasts for the past week. We only told the children we were going on Sunday itself, so that we wouldn't disappoint them by saying we would go and then later cancelling due to rain. Chee Ying's parents also brought her there, and we met up there. There were new things, including some fun fair rides, and also a snow walk section (extra entry fees applicable). The children went for the double decker carousel ride. Chee Ying's family went earlier and went for the snow walk. We didn't do the snow walk. The main thing I remember from the first visit is how hot the weather was. This time it was not as hot, but I still sweated some. We went at around 7pm, before it was dark, and left before 9pm. By the time we left, we noticed many cars jammed up to go there. Luckily we went early, like we always try to do wherever it is we want to go.