Cherry cake

Alright...I am a full time housewife until Tuesday. Not just a normal housewife, but a full time house bound housewife, for the reason to babysit my chicken pox son. So...what can I occupy my time with?

Watch TV? Boring...
Watch movie? How can you watch more than one movie a day?
Eat? Yeah...I am going to be fat!
Reading? Hey, how to concentrate with a hyperactive boy at home?
Cooking or baking? Emm...Sounds reasonable!

So, I browsed the internet for some recipes and came across a nice looking cherry cake by joyofbaking.com. Baked it, tried it and wow, it was delicious!

Giant Panda

When ask to imagine about panda, you probably have an image that is similar to something above. Everyone knows how pandas look like. They are recognized by their large, distinctive black patches around the eyes, over the ears, and across its round body.

Three of us were watching a quiz show last night.
One of the questions was, 'What color is panda's tail? black or white?'
Since we were unsure of the answer, white was my wild guess and black was hubby's guess. Then we heard a soft voice said, ‘white!’ My son tried to join the group.

We asked him why white? He pointed to his panda soft toy’s tail (named pan-chan) and said ‘Hora…Pan-chan's tail is white! It’s so simple!’ True enough, the answer was white. We looked at him and shook our head. Partly embarrassed, for never tried hard enough to search for hints!

Crocodile

After a swim in the pool, my son asked, 'why does it hurt when water gets into the nose?' Daddy the scientist, who thought his son finally asked him his favorite biology subject, proudly answered, 'Cause we are not fish, we breath with nose. No gills to allow breathing under the water. That's why it hurts'.

Then my son asked again, 'What about crocodiles? They have nose like us, how come they can live under water....?' My husband and I looked at each other for 5 seconds, then burst into laughter.

Chicken pox

It started after our camping trip.
Started with a low grade fever...for no obvious reason, apart from his occasional complaint of headache. Then the temperature subsided but the headache persisted. On Tuesday, my hubby noticed a red spot on his temple which looked like a mosquito bite. Wednesday morning, spots appeared on the face and trunk. Ah...this looked like Chicken pox...I diagnosed, feeling hopeless.
Chicken pox, as you know is highly contagious. Isolation from the public is required for about one week, until the lesions dry up and scab.

My hubby and I have to take turn to take leaves in order to take care of him.
He's otherwise fine, apart from the itchiness...he is not complaining too much.


Luckily my lab work is not much affected so far. However my prof is definitely not going to be very happy with me having to take too many leaves. But what to do... I didn't ask for this. And our summer vacation is pretty much gone too. We are thinking of canceling our camping trip next Saturday. Also our lab trip to the beach next Friday.

We'll have to occupy our summer holidays with something...otherwise he's gonna be very bored doing nothing. Plus, this might be our final summer in Japan. So we gotta make good use of it. Think, think, think...
Never mind, we'll come out with something. We usually do.

Camping

The end of rainy season has been declared last week. Apa lagi, camping, here we come! Camping is our routine outdoor activity in summer. This time, we decided to camp at a campsite called Shikoku Saburo no Sato, which was about an hour drive from the city. We have been here two years ago and really enjoyed the peaceful atmosphere, so we decided to come back and camp again. Apart from camping we had another mission, which was to explore the so called 'clearest river in Shikoku island', Anabuki river. The Anabuki river has been awarded as first grade quality water in Japan and has been holding the title for more than 10 years.

Looking for a nice spot to land

Decision made! お決まり

A Japanese man fishing

Another man fishing, some peculiar method!

Very translucent clear water

Setting up a tent for some shade

Enjoying the cooling water

It definitely was my first time seeing people fishing using this method. He was using a binocular-like box to look for fish in the water while another hand holding a fishing rode.

All refreshed!

Time really flies when you are having fun. It was time for us to check into the campsite. We had to check in before 5pm and make sure the tent is set and dinner is ready before sunset.

Heading to the camp site

B-15, our camping site

Cooking time!

Our dinner

Ah...I ended up cooking too much food! We had roast chicken, baked potato and carrot, all sorts of grilled vegetables, barbeque chicken, lamb and beef. We ate so much! Luckily we had a cool box with lots of ice in it. So, we stored all the food in the cool box, hoping they would still edible the next day.

The next morning, we woke up at 5am, to watch the sunrise while I prepared breakfast. It was definitely a sight to see. Above was our new comfortable spacious dome tents, which the front part represent the living/dining and the back represent the bedroom. The two tents were joint together.

simple breakfast

Before enjoying our breakfast, I quickly prepared the ingredients for pineapple turnover cake and used the Dutch oven to bake, which I had used for last night's dinner, roast chicken. It took me about one hour to bake.

Surprisingly it turned out OK...just like any regular cake I baked in electrical oven! I was quite suspicious at first, wondering how it would be. So, now I know it really can function as an oven, I would definitely challenge myself with some other recipes. Hmm...maybe an apple pie next time? *wink*
My hubby would definitely love it!

Have a wonderful summer!

Dream

A conversation before sleep.
My son, Sya was tossing and turning, trying to sleep. He seemed to take longer time today, I noticed.
Sya: 'Mommy, why God never let me see dream?'
Me: 'Why dear, are you trying to see dream? What dream do you want to see?'
Sya: 'I want to see Toy story 3' He said dreamily.
(Toy story 3 is a Disney cartoon movie that has just opened for viewing recently. I knew he wanted to watch the movie badly)


Me: 'Don't worry dear, if you don't see any dream tonight, we'll go to the cinema and watch the movie OK?' I promised him willingly.
Sya: 'Hait...' He said happily.
Surprisingly he fell asleep right away.
Feeling good and happy for what reason I don't know why, I hugged him tightly to sleep.

Kidzania Koushien

Kidzania is a Mexican chain of family entertainment centres currently operating in 10 locations. Every Kidzania is themed as a child-sized replica of a real city, including buildings, shops and theaters, as well as vehicles and pedestrians moving along its streets. In this city, children aged 3 through 15 learn about the adult world, the value of money and work, by experiencing up to 70 different professions.

My son, Sya had experienced 3 different jobs when we first came to Kidzania in autumn last year. He worked as a baker, a fireman and a train operator.

Working at DonQ bakery

The melon bread he baked...

Putting out fire...

Operating train...

The money he earned...

The pictures shown above were from our last year's trip.

We went to Kidzania again last weekend. We had booked the entrance tickets two months ahead. Yeah, two months in advance, in order to get the ideal date which coincidentally, is always the ideal date for others too. This time around, my son managed to try 5 different jobs. He worked as an ice-cream maker, art designer, pilot, worker at coca-cola factory and construction worker.

Working at the ice cream shop

Pilot training

Working as a mechanic at Autobacs

Making his first coca-cola

Building bridge at construction site

My son wasn't the only one who learned new things that day. We the parents, also had the opportunity learning some new things we thought we knew and took for granted. Sya had a blast that day. He ate his ice-cream and drank the coke he 'made'. I would recommend this to every parent out there. In case you wonder, Kidzania will be launched in KL, Malaysia in year 2012 at Mutiara Damansara. So check it out!