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I know I’ve been going on about the importance of buying/reading books to kids in my blog but today I thought I’d take it a step further to share a one good place to buy books. And as usual, AT A BARGAIN! Coz seriously, books in Malaysia are overly insanely priced. And I think for that reason many people chose not to read! Of course time is also a factor but shit, why are books so expensive here?! 

Anyhos, it was during Sairah’s Birthday preps that we managed to find this place. It was a random mall trip to Amcorp Mall in PJ (and mind you we barely hang out there) that we stumbled magically upon Book Xcess! I wouldn’t have known about them if it wasn’t for that mall trip. In general I think people are just used to MPH, Kinokuniya and Popular Bookstore, but after knowing about this new found place for cheap books, I only step in to MPH to buy magazines

This was our second visit here. I forgot to take photos of the shop but it’s rather huge with tons of books (but of course, book store what!). And to be honest, I am more drawn to the kiddie section because they have an insane number of books for kids at a very very affordable price.  The prices are so  cheap that it makes you want to grab everything you see!

And I have NO idea how they can manage to sell books that cheap but they oh so do. I was told that each container of books comes from the States and they usually have no idea what books are in there until it reaches our shores. They don’t have the most up to date books but either way I am convinced if you pay them a visit, you are bound to pick up a book or two.

Plus at this point the last thing we want to do is pay alot of money for books for Sairah when I know a few days down the road it will either get ripped off by accident (butter fingers this one). And if there’s one thing I’ve learned too is to let kids stay away from Pop-up books – it’s by far her only most damaged book around, lol.

Baby Sairah all gearing up to take a peek inside. Sometimes randomly she’ll say ‘ I like books, I like books’ – she did that often last week so I thought what the heck, let’s go to the cheap bookstore and get more BOOKS coz she was indirectly telling me she’s bored with her current books.

Let’s dig and see what’s inside.

First up, her favorite – MICKEY sing along book

Ma look, original price RM80. Book Excess price: RM25

One of my fav – a magnetic ’sticker’ book! I have invested so much in sticker books it’s not even funny. And once she’s done with it the book is literally of no use. What’s with kid’s obsession with sticker books btw? But with this magnetic sticker book – it’s pretty much reusable and it lets her creative juices flow.

Original price: RM64 (and mind you, it’s high quality and a hard cover – butter fingers will most definitely not be able to rip this one off), Book Excess price: RM17.90

Okay the dolphin goes right down there….

Oops it’s a seal

Next up, a combo that would drive any book worm wild – an all in one Winnie The Pooh……..wait for it, story book, coloring book AND sticker book!! How not to contain the excitment????

Like so: Holy Mother of Boooooks!

I believe the original price for close to RM80 but we only got it for a mere RM20!!!!

Which one to attack first, choices choices….

And here are some high quality sticker/activity books and mind you, the stickers are the fancy glitter types which are usually expensive. I”ve been buying her these cheap china sticker book for RM5 near my work place but  guess I won’t now since for less than RM10 I can get these babies.

Total spent was under RM80 if I”m not mistaken, for 7 books mind you. They roughly work up to RM11 a pop, which in my books (pun pun, hah) are a steal.

And of course, mommy must also do what she preaches so I got myself this highly raved book called 50 Shades Of Grey, ahem. Got it from Popular Bookstore though coz like I said, Book Excess doesn’t exactly carry the latest books. But I did see Dan Brown books (the hard cover big book) going for a mere RM18 compared to RM80 else where

I believe this book is on top of the list at the moment. What can I say expect sex sells. At first I wasn’t expecting much because reviews were pretty much mixed but page after page I found myself getting more and more intrigued coz I”m perveted that way! I actually read close to 400 pages in 2 days and in less than a week, I’ve finished the book *pats back*. Now I plan on getting the complete set and see where this story shall lead to.

My favorite line from the book “I am 50 cent shades of fucked up” :D  Hmm, I might just do a book review on this one day. I told the husband to read it to get some ‘tips’, but he said, I’ll just wait for the movie thank you very much, LOL – Men!

Dafuq kinda book is this? Why so thick lady?

Hmmm…….Mom, I don’t think I’m suppose to read stuff like this.

There, much better with her kiddie books.

What can I say except, I like books, I like books!

Check out their FB page here and better still, grab your child and pay them a visit soon!

And thanks to Dhash, you can read more about Book Excess’s story here.

Thanks to Aunty Dhash who knows what a Pocoyo addict Sairah is, she gave me the heads up about the newly launched Pocoyo merchandize in Robinsons, Gardens.

As usual, I couldn’t contain myself and told the husband we were going to Gardens the very next day to check it out! My little girl watches Pocoyo EVERYDAY. And as it goes, requests to watch Pocoyo everytime she gets the chance. She knows all the characters by heart too.

These were the photos she emailed to ‘tempt’ me further, and at the rate how nicely these photos were taken, I have a feeling she spent quite a bit of time at that section, heh.

How not to make a trip to Robinsons after seeing these photos??!

I forgot to bring my camera the first time we went to check it out but Sairah was her HAPPIEST! This was what we got on our first trip there:

A Pocoyo sleveless top

See how happy she is?

And we also got a bowl which we eats off nicely at my parent’s place.

She was also eyeing the blue Pocoyo bag but it was rather pricey @ RM69 so I told her to wait a lil longer till mommy gets her bonus before deciding to splurge on her.

This was our second trip there, with my camera in hand

So shy around Eli!

I wonder if mom would buy me this! I remember she said she wanted to buy me that Pocoyo bag but she didn’t!

I went ahead of her and quickly left that Pocoyo bag in the middle of the store. I wanted to ’suprise’ her and even if she didn’t know that concept of  suprise, she sure as hell knows now!

Hmm, what the heck is this bag doing in the middle of the aisle?

I think someone is taunting me with this since I wanted it during our last trip here but didn’t get it.

Old lady, any idea what I should do with this bag? I know you didn’t buy it for me the last time and I highly doubt you will this time either….should I put it back?

Eyeing more Pocoyo merchandize at the same time, something cheaper perhaps?

It was then I told her to carry the bag to the counter and paid for it. After a 5% discount thanks to Citibank, the bag came up to a cool Rm65. I thought it was rather pricey until I saw a Sanrio kiddie bag going for RM300!!

It was when we finally got home that she realized that the bag was indeed hers. That smile on her face made me happy and content with life that entire week. Even now just looking at this photo I have a huge smile on my face.

Sayangggggggg Pocoyo!

This was the next day, all decked in Pocoyo to go to One-U.

Oops ma, trolley bag doesn’t want to budge coz it’s so heavy!

But course, let’s face it, she doesn’t lug around that heavy bag. So guess who’s in charge of that?

LOL, that’s right……..Daddy and sometimes mommy too. He doesn’t look too pleased (esp since I’m capturing this less than manly shot of him in a kiddie bag!) but hey, check out the aunty on the right smiling at Sairah

Oh and we got this for her on Wednesday. We got her a water tumbler which cost me RM29 (I initially was against buying this at first coz of the price, but caved in coz now I’m kinda obsessing about these merchandize myself) and a plate for our home, which is priced at RM16! Like I said, pricey, but worth the splurge.

And the best part? The lady at the cashier recognizes me and Sairah as the Mommy-Baby who like to buy Pocoyo items! How’s that for being a true loyal Pocoyo addict aye?

Reason #1451781 why it’s so awesomely great to have a daughter

And then you put a male in the equation and everything just goes wrong!

Hmm I buy an Ipad for the wife and this is what that dumb woman does with it?!

There a fake smile before he hurries off to unload our groceries. Good riddance the baby said!

We don’t need Daddy in our shots, word!

Mommy-Baby Love

This is what we think of daddy!

Ohmmmmm……………..happiness is the state of mind

Duck face!

Phew, this is probably the only post that has so little words in it but I don’t care coz I SUPER LOVE these photos of us. The husband asked how did I get her to put up the SAME expressions as I and I said ‘it’s all in the training’ but truth it, she’s a girl (more importantly mine), it’s in her genes to pose like that!! Also it’s the case of monkey see monkey do And of course some training too, that I will agree.

Now I really should get the husband to attempt to recreate these photos with her and see which team will win I think we all know which team you should put your money on

*Cue pretty woman baby song*

Pretty baby walking down the street…

Pretty babbyyyy and while the song is still playing in your head…

Top: By BB Luvs Me (yes the top is on SALE!) and I should add, something about the top screams Victorian to me.

White Polka Dot leggings: Courtesy of her aunt, bought from Tesco me think.

Location: Curve, just because we were feeling adventerous that weekend

And then she goes and does thissss…..

*almost want to run away and cover my face* Why baby girl, WHY??

And if that’s not enough, thesedays she insist on ‘picking out’ her own lunch or basically goes through the menu on her own leaving her father and I to share one menu. Of course at the end of the day she can pick whatever she wants but doesn’t get it coz  mommy decides since we both share a meal together Unless of course if we’re in Italiannes where kids eat for free *cough*

What, kids don’t get to eat for free here??! I am SHOCKED! I believe it should be our constitutional right to eat for free for we are the little people with no source of income but who will one day shape the future of Malaysia!

Aight never mind what I said, dad’s paying so I’m thinking of the Pizza.

No wait, make that pasta! Fickle baby is fickle. But it doesn’t matter. Coz end of the day, she had lasagne. And some pizza crust since her dad had that. She LOVES pizza crust.

Anyway, I took these shots which I think are awesome shot depicting a ’sharing’ moment between my toddler and father. Because you see, I don’t indulgence her in drinks when we’re out. She sticks to her normal water. Coz for starters when we’re out I’m afraid of the type of water the restaurant might use (though I realize we’re not really a third world country but still!) plus of course there’s the issue of sweet drinks which I don’t want my little chubby to try.

Since Vivo in Curve sells these awesome juices, I thought what the heck, let her try.

This was the end result.

A lil bit for daddy…

Some for me…

Being a typical toddler by just playing with the straw.

More for Daddy…iz liking the manana juice. See how her mouth is open as he drinks it? Too cute.

Then we did a lil bit of shopping, and guess where she ran off to? YUP, the lingerie section!! I was wondering why a bunch of women were just laughing away when I turned around to see this!!

22 month old baby picked up TWO BLACK LACE panties (I should add they were pretty sexy looking, something mommy would pick out herself, ahem) and she started running around with it. Her dad of course was running behind her, asking her to return it but nopeeee….

Wooo pretty panties

Catch me if you can suckers…

She created quite a scene, a few sales people and aunties were just laughing at the sight of her running around with those sexy panties. Not sure if I should be happy or be embarassed but this scumbag mom joined in and laughed so loud. Then oh so graciously, she puts the panties back (after being nagged at) , waved and said bye bye to everyone and walked out of Robinsons like a BOSS!

Think we’ll be lying low from Robinsons AND the lingerie section for that matter for a while now thank you very much. Though I do foresee an awesome shopping buddy in the making in the near future

During our trip to the Bird Park, we had made a quick stop to the Planetarium to kill some time.

Upon entry, we were shocked to see school kids running everywhere.

And let me tell you, it was an utter chaotic mess in that Planetarium. Kids were screaming everywhere – the noise pollution was absolutely unbearable, they were running around like as though it was their grandfather’s plantation, fighting, in short not even learning one single damn thing about the universe and such.

Now I’m not saying I know have everything about the universe (yes we have sent a dog to space before, please see photo below) but what I failed to see is what’s the damn point to this trip if these so called teachers were gonna let them run wild and not teach them anything? Why waste their parent’s money when the end results are gonna be absolutely rubbish? What will they tell their parents when they ask them what did they learn from the trip? The usual ‘I don’t know’?

And since when do schools have field trips on a Sunday? From what I can recall back in my school day it was always on a Saturday. If these kids wanted to run wild instead of learn, I’m pretty sure this can be easily achieved in a playground where they can go more wild (and yes no one like me would judge!) instead of traumatizing other visitors to the Planetarium.

After all, both places are free.

Daddy and daughter both don’t look pleased at all.

Kids were jumping around, shouting at one another, pushing around to play at the slide, banging around the computer………to their defense, I did see one or two kids quietly learning something on their own so out of the 50 monkeys that were there, 2 got educated well that day, but what about the rest? I absolutely shudder at the thought of their future.

And if that’s not enough, what ticked me off most were the so called teachers sitting at the corner busying themselves with their phones/tablets not giving a single f*ck to these kids. Where’s the damn discipline? Where’s the let’s form a line and make a quiet tour of the planetarium as I teach you? Nothing. It’s either the teachers themselves have given up on this lot of kids (which in that case does make them bad teachers) or these teachers are just naturally not bothered at all. This was indeed a far cry from what we saw in Perth where teachers had lined up kids as young as 4 mind you in a straight line while they were TEACHING them. Kids had their activity books with them and were anxious to learn.

And then let’s not forget the safety issue!! What happens if one child accidentally walks away from the Planetarium and wanders out on his own since no one was bothered to even watch over them? Even when we took the lift up to the viewing section, some kids were jumping in and out of the lift and while making SO much of noise. How are these so called teachers even keeping track of them when all they did was run around the damn place??!

Still not too pleased with the noise pollution and monkey behavior around.

And one kid, despite having the barrier to stop people from entering the capsule thingy that mimics a small rocket (sorry don’t know what’s it called), he cleverly  stupidly disobeyed that and decided to climb into the capsule. And he could have easily fallen off it and hurt himself badly coz there’s a reason why that thing was cordoned off in the first place! One concerned parent told the guard about this and as usual, the guard with his tidak-apa (whatever) attitude  just shrugged it off and said it’s okay! Then all of a sudden more of his monkey friends came to join in and were climbing around the capsule.

This is the shit kind of education system we have now the husband kept saying. After a while he couldn’t take it anymore and wanted to leave. But I refuse to believe him, maybe it was just this particular horrible school with its horrible teachers who don’t know how to teach these kids well and instill good behavior or make a field trip an educational one.  There are still some good schools and teachers out there (cough, MGS, cough)…..but never mind, I will save that debate for another day.

Right now I am still struggling to brain the purpose of this trip when end of the day, those kids learnt absolutely NOTHING. Terrible waste of money! Too bad I didn’t manage to get that name of that school but seriously shame on them, please don’t EVER have any other school trips, coz you’ll only do a GREAT job terrorizing others while giving foreigners are very bad impression of our local school.