Monday, January 31, 2011

Kwong Ngai Acrobatic Lion Dance 22 January 2011

EnHui were looking forward to the lion dance performance. They love to watch the performers at work, setting up the poles.  

Lion dance at Curve.

En managed to catch two oranges and passed one to a little girl who stood nearby. Hui caught one orange too. The lion cheekily nibbled on her hand when she handed over a 'red packet'. :)))
Catch the next show on Feb 3rd & 4th - 230pm, Feb 5th -3pm, Feb 6th - 130pm and Feb 12th - 2pm.

Chinese Culture Dough Doll Demo @The Curve, PJ 22 January 2011

The dough and tools.

Video on creating a colourful dough.

En's parrot. The lady demonstrated and gave it away free. Usually, it's sold at RM5 per doll.

Check the video on how to make a rabbit.
Another two sessions on Feb 6th, 2011 - 4pm and Feb 13th, 2011 - 230pm.

Chinese Traditional Dance & Fusion Musical Instrument. 21 January 2011

Friday night.
Lots of performances at the malls in conjuction with Chinese New Year. These two performances are shown at One Utama Mall. Check out the schedules if you are at the mall.



Fusion musical instrument - Electric guitar, keyboard, drum and Erhu.

Erhu.

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Draw Sketch Scribble 21 January 2011

Hui's sketch.
Left - two one-eyed monsters. Right - Dad. Note the moustache and goatie on the face. the orange colour is the armpit and armpit hair !!!, so she said. 

Drawing on the wooden board.
Left - En like to draw houses and sun. Right -  Hui's house. Usually, Hui likes to draw faces or people.

House plan by En, Jan 22, 2011

Face & tree by Hui, Jan 24, 2011.

Treehouse by En, Jan 25, 2011

By En, Jan 25, 2011. Note the flower bud and the bloomed flowers.

Castle  by En, 25 Jan, 2011.

Gingerbread man munching blueberry doughnut. It sat by the rock. The green line is a lock to prevent it from being eaten by the fox, horse, old man and woman. by Hui, Jan 25, 2011.

Rapunzel by Hui, Jan 25, 2011. She said " I like to scribble too"

Dog & Cat 20 January 2011

Thursday 3pm
En and her shadow puppet show again.
Popcorn and tickets, with assigned seat number.

One of the posters on the wall.

The screen and the backstage.

I didn't listen to the story.. *yawn* (after an early morning at Thaipusam..)

Saturday, January 29, 2011

"I am a zookeeper" at Zoo Negara 18 January 2011

Tuesday 9am
While browsing through Zoo Negara Educational Package for Junior Biologist, I found the birdnest topic was the only attraction. Unfortunately, it was taken off the shelf when I enquired about it. So, I asked for 'behind the scenes program' and was offered "I am a zookeeper" trip.

One of the instructions received, was to prepare name tags for the children. So, I handed the task to En. She was also in-charge of delivering the stickers to the children.

Left - our group of 14 adults and 21 children, aged from infant to 9 years old. 
Right - ice breaking session. It was fun seeing Hui moving to the beat. En who didn't like it, left the circle. 

Left - boarding the tram.
 Right- Edwina, the zoo educator told us to construct a goat with papers, boxes and glue where we put the meat inside and serve it to the hyena.

Hui didn't know what to do with the goat and found colouring the porcupine more interesting.

I overheard, a staff told Hui to colour the whole picture, and  Hui replied ' I'll colour it tomorrow" :))

Kids prepared food for porcupines by stuffing them into the bamboo with holes in it. 

 The meat was wrapped with leaves and put into the goat that we made.

Left - porcupine's sharp spines. Right -  Only two listeners - Hui and Ishra. !!! LOL

Porcupines gnawing into the bamboo !

The crafted goat was laid into the hyena 's enclosure.
It walked around and sniffed at it. It left shortly after. I thought, the hyena won't be fooled by the fake goat but I was wrong. After observing it from afar, it came back and sniffed some more before pulling the yellow paper horn and tore it apart.  

Hyena tore another piece of the goat.

Finally, the hyena pulled out the leaf that wrapped the meat.

yay!!!
This fake goat will stimulate the hunting senses of the hyena instead of the usual direct feeding. So, this is the reason why we were asked to make the goat.

Multi-animal show at 11am.

A souvenir from Edwina, which is now pasted on our wall.
I am a zookeper field trip fees,  RM25 for adult (a maximun of 5 adults is entitled to RM10 per person),  RM20 for children aged 4 and above, RM15 for 3 year old with hands-on activity and RM10 without hands-on. Amount stated does not include any souvenir. There is also an option with souvenir.
Email Edwina at  education@zoonegaramalaysia.my or call 03-4108 2219.

Thaipusam, Batu Caves 20 January 2011

Thursday morning.
We took a train to Batu Caves. Direction - KTM from Rawang to Putra. Cross the pedestrian overhead bridge to the opposite platform and board the train which terminates at Batu Caves. When the 650am train arrived at Putra, all the carriages were full to the brim. We couldn't get in and I began to think that we won't be able to make it there.  If I were to go to Batu Caves to see the celebration of Thaipusam next year, I would take a taxi there in the morning. 

Suprisingly, the next train that arrived at 723am was pretty empty and the journey to Batu Caves was smooth and easy.

Crowd control at Batu Caves train station on the return leg.
A police officer stood by the staircase, releasing passengers to the platform after the previous batch of passengers have boarded the train.

Crowd at ticket counter. It's advisable to buy a return ticket on your way up to Batu Caves.Otherwise, prepare loose change/notes to purchase  from ticket machine which has a shorter queue.

Passengers waiting in line at Batu Caves station. The ride was okay if you don't mind travelling in the packed train and we were the only Chinese in our coach. :))) The devotees were polite, letting me board first, upon seeing me carrying Hui.

We passed by the market once we stepped out of the train station.

Areca nut is wrapped in betel leaves for chewing (also known as betel nut) . The lady let us try one of the ingredient in the bowl and it tasted sweet.

The huge crowd of devotees fulfilling their vows. I love the Jasmine flowers tied on the hair of some devotees.

Devotees held milk pot on their head for offering to Lord Murugan.
Trays containing different types of offerings.  





Kavadi with hooks pierced into the devotee's body and pulled a decorated cart.

The more pain, the greater the merits. It is also for fullfillment of vows for prayer answered.

Right- a kavadi bearer resting on a stool, carried by helper.

Some devotees wearing Lord Murugan's favourtite colours - yellow and orange.

 A devotee pierced his skin with val skewers.


Some of the items being sold in the market.


Our posters - 3 for RM10. Yellow plastic bags contain praying items at RM3 per bag. 
  
Left - En's souvenir, flowers garland and a yellow plastic bag. Right - a sneak peak into the yellow plastic bag.