Ipoh Trip (8 - 11 December 2019)

We made a trip back to my beautiful hometown of Ipoh without the hubs this school holidays. He's been too bogged down with work and had to be around to ensure that all his functions run glitch-free. Sometimes without the boss around, the staff tend to snafu things up. In the food catering industry, once a function is screwed up, it's hard to gain the confidence of the client again.  Imagine your event being screwed up by your caterer. How do you like it? Would you call him again for future events? Most likely no.  And this is why we can hardly go on holidays with the hubs as he can never leave his business behind. We were actually planning a short holiday to Penang or Pangkor Island but had to cancel the plan due to hubby's work commitments.   So it was just me, the girls and the mil, by ETS (Electric Train Service) from KL Sentral to Ipoh.

We've not traveled by ETS to Ipoh for almost a year and thus, have not eaten at McDonalds @ Sentral for this long too and I didn't know that orders are now done on a touch-screen computer outside the restaurant. You then get a number and collect your order at the counter when it's your turn.  We took the 9 a.m. ETS and the girls had their brekkie of McD in the train.




Upon arrival at Ipoh, papa was there to fetch us. The 5 of us had to squeeze into his car (6 plus papa). We had our lunch at the Stadium Food Court, my favorite food court in Ipoh where I can find almost all my favorite Ipoh hawkers food here.







The next day was the mil's 74th birthday and papa treated everyone to a sumptuous dinner at Kok Thai Restaurant and bought a cempedak cake from JJ Swissroll, which is the mil's all-time favorite cake.









I wanted to sleep in the next day and mom baked some very yummy low-carb gluten-free bread for us for breakfast. The only time that I can wake up without an alarm clock without an iota of worry of having to do house chores is when I'm back home, where I'll be treated like a princess 💓



We spent the entire afternoon at the shopping mall. We had our first lunch at Sushi King, a restaurant that the hubs wouldn't bring us to back in KL, but the food was so unsatisfactory that we left after just a few plates of sushi taken from the conveyor belt. We walked round and round the mall trying to find something nice to eat and finally settled for Secret Recipe - again another restaurant that hubs wouldn't bring us to back in KL 😆



After lunch, we watched Jumanji, a movie that we thoroughly enjoyed. I watched the first Jumanji over 2 decades ago, starring Robin Williams, who'd passed on several years ago.




Can't believe how much grown up and lady-like my fashionista drama queen is. She's always been one very fashion-savvy girl, always dressed up like a peacock and accessorised like a Christmas tree since she was a toddler.


After Jumanji, we shopped for X'mas presents, courtesy of mom. Alycia and Cass both wanted jigsaw puzzles whilst Sherilyn chose novels.






A trip to the mall will never be complete for Cass without a few tries at the claw machine at the arcade.  This time I spent more than RM10 for 2 bouncy balls and rubber ducky. Seriously, these would have just cost a few Ringgit from a toy shop but Cass says she loves the adrenaline rush when she tries clawing a toy out of the water.



When we got out from the mall, we saw a beautiful rainbow in the sky!



We had the smoothest tau fu far from papa's favorite roadside stall. The girls love tau fu far and so do I but I've been avoiding soy products (estrogen) ever since my gynae detected a fibroid in my uterus, which was removed via laproscopic surgery two years ago.


Cass had a RM13 only hair cut at Orchid Salon, a no-frills hair salon at Kg Simee, a salon which the girls normally have their hair cut since they were a year old.



Our dinner on our last night in Ipoh was Ngar Choi Kai (bean sprouts with chicken) at Bercham.

No-Frills Hair Cut In Ipoh

Our girls have their hair cut at least 4 times a year, during our trips back to Ipoh.  Their hair cuts would be at this village style hair saloon called Orchid located in a village.  They will have their no-frills but very neat hair cut done by the owner of the saloon. My mum has been patronizing this hair saloon for decades.

The total cost for 3 no-frills hair cut was only RM22, which is not even enough for one hair cut for Alycia at a glitzy hair saloon back in KL. Her hair cut normally costs RM36 with NO wash.  Being a school prefect, she is very, very pernickety on the length of her hair as a school prefect has to be exemplary. She gets her hair cut once every 2 months.

Do check out the silai on the left -- she was engrossed playing with Candy Crush on her iPad whilst the hair stylist worked on her hair! These days, everyone seems to be engrossed with Candy Crush. Some people always complain that they have no time for this and that, yet they have time for Candy Crush LOL!  I suppose this game can CRUSH away their STRESS! I don't know, perhaps I will also get obsessed with this online game if I were to try my hands on it.

 


#2 and #3, looking fresh after their hair cut :)