Endau Rompin again

Another beautiful trip to Endau Rompin. What makes a trip beautiful is the beautiful nature surrounding us, the sound of children's laughter and the fellowship between likeminded people.

 Jo spotted these beautiful caterpillars while on a short trek.

 While Nel was busy taking a leech off her foot, I spotted this spider going in for the kill. What great timing for some photography.

 A close up shot of the spider paralyzing and wrapping it's prey in web.

 To our joy, we managed to secure our favourite spot again, and the children as usual spent most of the 24 hours in the river or by the river, playing pretend games, building their own world with rocks and sand.

 This time WW brought PVC pipes and the fathers built a raft, which the children loved and spent hours on rowing up and down stream.

Night time is where the adults fellowship over some drinks....and we get to hear some interesting stories, while the children made their own campfire to roast marshmallows. I'm proud that the children are now able to chop their own firewood and start their own fire!!

@poundthegarlic.blogspot.com 2017

2017 so far

A lot has been going on and we have been busy. Though my intention had been to slow down this year, instead it seems to be busier than ever before.

I don't even know where to catch up on this blog. Some things the kids have been up to:

Jo sent in a resume to Kidzania to be congresskid. She made it past the interview, did a video of herself and campaigned at Kidzania. Unfortunately she didn't get in though personally I think she did great at her speeches. I guess, it's as they said, "if you wanna get in, try singing a song or something."
She didn't sing. Still it was a great life experience, all that public speaking, video making and interview was a worthwhile experience.

Both Jo and Nel are now part of ICC Words Alive group, a group committed to helping young people become better public speakers for a good purpose. Earlier this year the whole group visited Pulau Ketam as a chapter, and presented a drama. They also volunteered by playing games with the local kids and taught them English. For Nel, just being in this drama was a BIG deal!
She really struggled in her first rehearsals, not wanting to say her line because she was so conscious of people looking at her. In the end she did great! She had the role of a teacher, while Jo had the role of a busy body, which she played really well!

The first quarter of this year has also been memorable. Both girls auditioned to be in our church's Easter presentation and got in. Hubby and I decided to hang around their first few practices to observe, but what do you know, hubby got "sucked" in and ended up playing three roles, which he did amazingly well! I'm astounded, having discovered his hidden talent for acting! Proud of him.

Jo played a little child, as well as a seller at the market scene. Most of the time she was observing the director (Vince Chong)  and producers, being very curious about how a whole production is put together. I think she learnt a lot about theatre through this experience.

As for me, I accompanied Nel to her dance rehearsals to encourage her. My goal was to get her out of her comfort zone and try performing arts (dance with drama) to help her blossom out of her "shy"self. So I too hung around and joined in the warm ups. But guess what, I got roped in too, and ended up dancing! We had fun preparing our own costumes, which included ripping and smearing them with paint. Fun was also painting our own faces to look the part of occupants in hell.

The most beautiful part of it all was that, we were actually once, all together in a performance, serving our dear Lord together, as one unit, together with other like minded people. We enjoyed the weekly rehearsals, going together, rehearsing together, it was well worth our time!

Apart from that, there are our usual homeschool activities, too many to list. One memorable one perhaps was the camping trip we had in Perak in the month of March. The river was beautiful, we had great company of good friends and lovely food all cooked by the OAs.

Oh I forgot to mention, a new addition to the family. It was Chinese New Year, and I was preparing Heng Hua Mee Sua and making homemade pizza when hubby brought back a kitten!! We named him Blue. Hés turned out to be quite a tyrant...an alpha kinda male, but I've grown to love this lil fella.

 I'll conclude by saying 2017 has been a really fruitful memorable time so far. God is good!





@poundthegarlic.blogspot.com 2017

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Homeschoolers Unite at Tribe Fest and Lembah Barakah

Jo and friend ZH wanted to present a short drama for a HS Tribe FEST. So together they recruited a few friends and in 5 weeks prepared a short skit to present. They called themselves, "Homeschoolers Unite." Jo wrote the script without my help. Then every Wednesday, 8 of them would meet at a friend's apartment lobby. They didn't want the help of adults, so we mums would sit far away and eaves drop now and then.

Despite quarrels, disagreements, play, chit-chats, jokes and moments of unfocused wondering, they managed to discuss and rehearse the script, create their own props, chair their own meetings, block their play and all. It wasn't always smooth going, sometimes they had major disagreements on certain things....but in the end, they performed so well to a wonderful crowd! I'm really proud of them!

This to me is a well worth-it experience. It's nice to see how they resolved problems and disagreements without adult intervention, made decisions that they were proud of and came up with the concept, theme and everything by themselves. Because they totally owned the production they were really proud of their work! There were moments I was tempted to provide input, but I'm glad I held back. Though the final performance was great, I think, greater was the experience  they took with them throughout the process.

(Smiley added to protect identity of child.) 

To reward their hard work, we took a two day break at Lembah Barakah, Ulu Langat. Though we mums were tired, the energetic children cooked their own dinner, and had a crazy fun time together. Night time, 16 of us slept, aligned like sardines, in the beautiful kampung house we rented. They had a midnight feast, and the chattering and whispering did not stop till after midnight. They certainly deserved this getaway together!

 On the second morning, a cold one! brrrr...., we had a brief tour of their place and had an interesting session on kelulut bees (stingless bees.) It was interesting to view the structure of the hive, and the highlight was when the owner removed a tiny portion from a honey pod and put in a syringe to draw liquid gold. The honey tasted like a mix of honey sweetness and apple cider vinegar. Delicious!  Then some of the kids jumped into the river for a quick dip while the rest played cards.
To rent this lovely kampung house, message them via their FB page at Lembah Barakah Organic Orchard .

@poundthegarlic.blogspot.com 2016
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Scout CAmp

We had a nice three day camp with the HS Scout Group. This time the venue was a private cove in PD.

Setting up tents

First things first...digging a toilet. The girls did a good job, digging it about 3 feet deep, but a little too wide for the littlest scout girl. :/

Nel helping Scout Master Quek to set up the Tarp 

The girls' friend, ZE made this cute cute sign! :)

Loving the activity of digging, Nel decided to dig further. During the point of this photo, the hole was about 4 feet deep. She eventually dug it to about 5 feet, and found a source of fresh water!

During this camping trip, scouts had to chop their own bamboo, and find random pieces of wood. Then attaching used bottles, they made their own rafts.

Testing raft time. All the rafts floated well!

This is one of several shots taken after a day of work. Girl scouts playing while it was the boys' turn to cook dinner. This photo makes me happy. Perhaps it's capturing joy and carefree moments that makes the photo beautiful.

Enjoying some quiet time while having dinner by the gentle waves.

Though it was supposed to be two nights on the beach, we had to abandon campsite on the second night. Strong winds hit us on the second night, snapping my tent poles in two. Embers from the large bornfire blew towards our tents threatening to set them aflame. Some of the children panicked and about two had panic attacks...and it was truly a state of emergency when we evacuated the beach.

It reminded me of the scary experience we had camping on Segadas when storm and lightning demolished our friend's tent and flooded ours, while we literally fought against the wind with our hands so the tent wouldn't cave in on our children. But I told myself despite the panic that hit me, I had to remain calm for my children. So thank God, He gave me strength as I calmly gave instructions to my children to load our belongings and calmly unpeg our very large tent to evacuate.

We all ended up taking refuge in YL's house in PD...20 + of us. It was a "refugee"moment. :) But oh what a memorable trip! :D

@poundthegarlic.blogspot.com 2016

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Zaini's Guesthouse

We spent three days at Zaini's Resort in Janda Baik, hoping to watch the Perseids. Unfortunately on both nights, though we saw quite a few stars (just the brightest ones), it just wasn't clear enough to see meteors. We were 6 families, and so we booked most of Zaini's guest house.

The ClubHouse at Zaini's, which we booked, was the main hangout area for all the kids. Initially it was booked for two families and four children, but of course, all the kids wanted to bunk together, so we ended up with 14 people in this spacious guesthouse. We all lined up pretty much like sardines, adults in a row, children in two rows, girls one side, boys on the other.

The "ClubHouse" which housed 15 of us.

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The children mostly hung out here to play board and card games.

Nel enjoying a read by the narrow, fenceless balcony.

The large field where the kids played Capture the Flag.

On the first night we lay there watching stars till 2 am. Alas no perseids,  but while lying there on our mats we heard a loud crash. A friend shone his powerful torch and we all spotted an owl with a mouse in it's beak. Whoah! That made the wait outside worth it. By 2 am..when clouds wouldn't part we went to bed.

Since it was Jo's birthday, hubby who only arrived at night brought a surprise cake for Jo, so there in that cold weather we sang happy birthday to her and feasted on moist chocolate cake.

A short but refreshing getaway.:)
To book, I texted Ciku at the number below.
Mobile Tel (Cik Ciku): +6013 969 5592 

@poundthegarlic.blogspot.com 2016
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Revisiting Endau Rompin, Selai

We had a lovely week away at Endau Rompin, Selai. Since we camped there way back in 2010 we've been wanting to do a return trip but just never did because we were exploring other sites.

How blessed we were when we discovered that other campers for the days we were there had canceled their reservations and we'd be the only campers there for the week. We were just three families consisting of 8 children, and that size is just nice for a relaxing getaway. Good food, close company, shooting stars and peaceful river all to ourselves. What more could we ask for.

To book, email erselaijnpc@yahoo.com 
On day of arrival, head to the office in Bekok, sign in and pay.
If you have your own 4WD, you'll save money on transport.

**Sadly we discovered that the other side of the river has been heavily logged by illegal loggers. The forest rangers told us they couldn't do anything about it.  That's so sad to know! I hope enforcements will try to stop further logging before we loose this very very beautiful forest. Here's a video I took by our campsite. You'll notice the gaps between trees as the area behind has been totally logged.
Yet listen to the beautiful song of the gibbons. I awoke everyday at 5 am to their song which would go on till sunrise and then they'd stop.

Daily hangout area. The children especially would stay there almost the whole day singing, creating stories and chatting.

Our daily visitors

Each day we were there it threatened to storm. But God was good, each time we'd pray and then watch the storm clouds move away. We were blessed with sunshine for our entire stay. And finally it rained just as we left the place. God is good.

We paid for one rod. But it sure was tough....the fish wouldn't take our bait.

The kids' favourite rock...where they'd eat...write their journals...read a book..chat.

A resident got really brave. Looks like they're used to having visitors around.

@poundthegarlic.blogspot.com 2016

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Tambun Cave Ipoh

Upon the invitation of a friend, we visited Tambun Cave. We've always wanted to go, but the dates never matched. Well finally it did!

It was a great learning experience. Phd students from USM led our group and provided interesting facts and info about the caves. We also took part in two interesting activities which were, 1) Map out on a chart where the cave drawings are, and 2) create a cave drawing on plaster boards provided.
Twas a great learning experience!

 To go on one of their trips, watch out for announcements on the Gua Tambun Heritage Awareness FB Page.

@poundthegarlic.blogspot.com 2016

Camping Hutan Lipur Lentang

Together with friends from the HS scouts group we went for a one night camp at Hutan Lentang.

It was one that was activity packed for the children. Building their own bamboo table, learning to weave their own ropes, swimming at the river and waterfall, carving their own swan out of apples and lots of fun games. They were supposed to have a survival night, but alas, it rained. So they ended up singing songs and telling tales.

Jo, K and a new scout, An shared a tent, while Nel slept with us in our larger tent. 

The girls had their own territory, and they made the boys dig a large trench around their territory, and paid the boys in form of twigs! :p   haha..

All in all a short but really enjoyable trip!

The girls built their own campfire, which was just right for marshmallows so in the end...almost all the kiddos who went formed a tight circle around the fire, roasting their own marshmallows.

@poundthegarlic.blogspot.com 2016