I planted some lemon grass/serai in our garden. We would use it for cooking or just drinking the lemon grass juice.

I have always like lemon grass. I even bought a few bottles of lemon grass essential oil from Thailand before.

Mom taught me to soak some lemon grass leaves in hot water. I like it when it is cold with honey/fructose and a slice of lemon.

Did you know that there are two types of lemon grass although they look like twins? One has no strong ‘smell’ at all. To find it out before you buy the from the grocery stores or markets, peel the leaf and crushed it with your finger tips. And then you smell the leaf. If there aren’t any smell, don’t buy it. If there are, that is the one.

Mom has been drinking the serai juice quite often. She just went for her body check up and her cholesterol level has gone down a lot. Even taking her medicine is not as good as drinking the lemon grass juice.

According to mom, it is to lower cholesterol,  and it helps with high blood pressure too.

I drink it because it dispels wind from my body.

Together with some friends, we decided to visit the nature again by going for an overnight camping at Sg Chongkak. Hubby and a friend went to the ‘site’ in Ulu Langat  to check it out personally before we confirmed this trip. After we have decided on the date, hubby reserved the camping site. We went for Zone 1 because it is the nearest to the toilet. As we planned for the trip, we were quite excited. Kids couldn’t wait to have their first real over night camping trip. We bought some camping items and borrowed the tents. Each of us have our own sleeping bag for convenient and hygiene purposes.

With the kids tagging along, you can imagine how many bags I had to pack. Bathrobes, swimming gears, sleeping bags, pillows (yes, I wanted to be as comfortable as possible), extra clothes, chairs, mats, bowls, tumblers, pre-cooked and canned food, eggs and bottles of mineral water. Each of us were delegated with the lists of items and food we were to bring.

We arrived at around 11.30am and the men started setting up the tents.

Our lunch was nasi lemak bought by a friend from the morning market. It was drizzling on and off and luckily we had our nasi lemak as we didn’t have enough time to cook lunch.

Kids enjoyed their ‘swimming’ at the stream while some mommies, daddies, uncles and aunties, busied with our own preparation.

When a couple friend arrived with her pan and portable gas cooker, we started heating up and cooking our dinner.

It was not a really that bad because it was our first time and we have kids, so we couldn’t have a hardcore camping. But if we decide to have another camping trip, we would know what else to bring!

When the kids were not soaking themselves in the stream, they helped the men to set up the fire or play ipad games.

It would be better if it wasn”t drizzling though.

After dinner, we all just hung out under our own made ‘canopy’ which was the rain cover of one of the 8 men tents. Beers, wine, and the rain created a nice atmosphere for us to laze around.

The next morning, we had kids’ favourite food. The instant noodles!  After a hot milo, all the kids had instant noodles. Then, they continued with the swimming while we had our breakfast. We started packing at 11+ and left around 12:30 for our lunch at a kampung house for their famous kampung chicken!

We decided to head up to Sg Lembing which I had never heard of before. A friend of ours, who is a local artiste is having a shooting there and she and her hub invited us to spend the weekend there. So three families joined this couple for a village adventure.

The drive took close to 3 hours. Before we reached the town, we decided to bring the kids for some fun time at a shallow river which was about 2km away from the town.

While the mommies stayed away from the water and ate whatever food that we brought, the daddies and children went on to have fun.

The kid definitely loved it!

After some ‘water’ time, we then headed to the town. My God! And I thought hubby’s hometown was small, it was even smaller here! Only one street with two rows of shops facing each other.

Only a food court / morning market which is busy in the morning.

All the houses are kampung style. No wonder our local production company came here for shooting. Sooo…. kampung plus some scenery.. I believe the houses here are all kampung style, as I didn’t see any terrace houses at all.

But the residents here are friendly. One auntie even showed us the way back to our chalets as we have forgotten how to and she turned out to be the char kuey teow seller at the food court!

I guess most of the residents are born here and retirees. Many youngsters must have gone to the cities to study or work.

Population here is around few hundreds and this shop’s rental fees is only RM300!

The chalets we stayed in are lousy as it was quite newly built.

There is another place nearby which is quite established but it has been all booked by the local artistes. So we just had our BBQ dinner there and let the kids have fun with the rented bicycles, swing, hammocks and hula hoop!

While the adults keep on eating and drinking beer.

The nice place to visit in Lembing is the Rainbow Waterfall. We didn’t go as we have to rent a four wheel drive there, and jungle trek in a knee deep river for 45 minutes. With kids in tow, we decided to let it go.

But hubby and his friends climbed the 30 min mountain which has steps, the next morning. Ian and another friend’s son tagged along.

It was Ian’s first mountain climbing and waking up so early (5.3oam) to see sunrise. But it was a disappointment as it was a cloudy day. But then, I am glad that he did so with his daddy. Let him have such experience as he is an outdoor boy. Besides, he  can bond with hubby.

That was why the reason we cam here too. To stay away from the city and let our kids enjoy the nature and be dirty!

Hubby wanted to do something different on the past weekend. Instead of going to the shopping mall, hubby suggested going to the waterfall near Ulu Yam. But the waterfall was fulled with Chinese praying at that time, we headed to a stream/river and had our picnic there. It was the Kawasan Perkelahan Hutan Lipur Sg Tua. Besides, waterfall is too dangerous for our little ones.

We invited a few friends and packed some food and went there in the morning. We found a nice spot for our picnic and tent(brought by a friend) and the spot is just near the stream.

The daddies and kakak(s) accompanied the kids to play water at the stream/river while the mummies prepared food and staying away from the sun and water. We decided not to get wet and just sat there and talked.

Kids were having so much fun that they didn’t want to leave.

They were playing and soaking themselves and had two breaks for food.

It was different from walking in the shopping malls and kids get to see more greens.

Even the adults and our maids were having fun too!

We intend to do this perhaps once a month, just to relax ourselves and stay away from the busy city.

Hubby’s birthday will be in a couple of months time. I better start searching for gifts to buy him. Besides, Father’s Day will come soon after hubby’s birthday so I probably need to look for two items. It is so difficult to buy gifts for men. It is always the standard gifts, such as wallets, pens, handkerchief, etc. But I want it to be different this time. I am out of father gift ideas at the moment, so I better go through the website to get some ideas. What do you suggest?

I sleep well when I have the right pillows and linens. I used to avoid those really expensive bedsheets but a good linen comes with a price. It is softer and last longer and feels like in a dreamland. Well, at least for me. It is time for me to purchase some new bedsheets and am thinking of trying Sferra brand. I also like their throws where I will usually bring one when I travel to cold countries. I even bring a throw with me when I go to Genting Highland. I must check out their designs and see which I can buy.

Ever since I started seeing a dermatologist, my pimples have subsided. I regret for not seeing him a year earlier where all the pimples have been popping out every now and then. I have tried all sorts of pimple creams but it didn’t help at all. The dermatologist gave me antibiotics to control the pimples for two months and now I am free of pimples. I never had pimples when I was younger, only one or two if I slept late.  I didn’t even need to consume acne vitamin or acne cream. Glad I have my acne free complexion back.

Hubby bought an expensive CD player and speakers a few years back. Sometimes he would play the CD loud and enjoy listening to them. But then I would tell him to lower the volume as it is so loud and plus the kids’ voices, I can hardly talk. Having kids around won’t give us the pleasure of listening to our favorite music or songs. So I told hubby to only play the CD loud when the kids are not around. He doesn’t even need to invest in a bluray home theatre system too as I think we will hardly use it. The most will be the kids watching their DVD instead.

I was told by my aunt that her younger son will be getting married end of the year. The wedding would be held in Malaysia instead of USA since my cousin is planning to return home to work. Besides, his future bride is a Malaysian. Unlike his elder brother who married a Chinese American, the wedding was held in Ohio. It was a truly American wedding where all the bridesmaid dresses matches with each other. Back at home, we usually have a mixture of Chinese traditional and Western wedding. I am so excited and better plan when to look for a nice dress for the wedding.