Nurturing sport passion with Milo® Champions Clinic

This post summarises the 1-week school holiday for the boys.

I enrolled the boys in Milo® Champions Clinic (MCC) a week before the school holiday started on 11 September. Option of futsal and badminton was given; the boys chosen the latter sport. 

The kit arrived a day before school holiday, which consisted of 1 Milo training jersey, 1 badminton racquet with bag, 6 cones, and 6 synthetic shuttlecocks for each participant.

It is a 5 weeks of at-home training, where each week, the children will learn basic skills at home by watching a video clip, submitting homeworks to coach, then followed by a weekly online coaching session with an experienced coach, where the progress will be monitored to ensure that they learn the right techniques. So, from 11 September, my boys have been watching the Week 1 training clip, and learnt the techniques at home accordingly.  

Both are enthusiastic to learn, as one is a novice  and  of playful nature while another has exposed to the sport back in school previously. With the current pandemic, it is hard to get the children to sweat and get active while cooping at home, but thanks to Milo® Champions Clinic, there is a new way for children (age 7 to 12 years old) to learn and pick up sports, safely at home during this difficult time. 

Yesterday, the boys had their first live e-coaching session with their coach via video conferencing. It took around 15 minutes, where 3 participants interacted with their coach. Over 200 participants this round, where they are divided into groups of 3. Each group is assigned to one coach and a specified time for e-coaching every Saturday. 

I like the fact that the e-coaching is more personal, as not many participants so the coach could guide each participant well via video conferencing. The boys had chance to show the coach what they had learnt; and correct tips and points from coach were given. 

Over this 5-weeks of home training and e-coaching session with Coach Tan Shau Heng, I hope my boys not only have a fun time but at the same time, learn new useful, practical techniques through this programme.

Thanks to Milo® Champions Clinic, this school holiday isn't totally spent and wasted on TV and online games, but getting my young, growing boys to stay active and nurturing their passion for sport. At the same time, this mummy also get to practise along too!!! Years have passed since I picked up a badminton racket!! 😊 The boys' eldest sister also joined in the fun, playing with them! A nice bonding time for family, away from TVs, phones and gadgets.

If any parents are interested to learn more or want to sign up their children for the next session, please log onto Milo website.

Over the moon

It was so expensive that we initially didn't want to buy any this year. But somehow we felt like uphold the tradition of having it once a year so we bought 2 mooncakes in the end. 

We tasted Baker's Cottage mooncakes few years ago, so we remembered it was quite nice. When we had our shopping in Emart Hypermarket on National Day, we saw a section of Baker's Cottage mooncakes right at the entrance of the hypermarket. So we choose 2 mooncakes (our favourite flavours of pure lotus single yolk, and low sugar white lotus).

Low sugar white lotus (RM18+) was what I chosen. No, we can't wait for the actual day to taste it so few nights ago, we had this for a night snack.

White lotus mooncake, my favourite. 

Hubby wanted a single yolk in his mooncake so we took 1 pure lotus single yolk (RM17+). Different lotus pattern on top. Both were pretty.

We took it last weekend. I was not so crazy about the yolk so I scrapped it as much as I could, and enjoyed the pure lotus. Sweeter than the white lotus though. The sweetness did balanced out with a little bit of the yolk.

So that was the first 2 mooncakes that we got to taste. Fortunately we bought another 2 flavours from Baker's Cottage when we went shopping this morning in Emart. We couldn't find any with yolk so we ended up with these two.

Pandan lotus (RM14.40 after discount) and Mixed Nuts (RM15.60 after discount). Can enjoy them this weekend at home. The kids may have grown up and no longer crazy about lantern but it never stopped us from buying some paper lanterns to hang. Lol. 

No one gave us any mooncakes as gift this year unlike in the past, we received quite a lot that we were having hard time finishing them. Time must be bad. Have you tasted any, and what flavours?

Happy Mid-Autumn in advance to all my blogger friends and readers!!

How was the taste

It was a Saturday. I did not go anywhere other than tapau breakfast early in the morning, so I cooked lunch and dinner at home. 

Now I saved more time in kitchen by whipping more or bigger portion for lunch so I do not need to cook much for dinner. Dishes are more or less the same for both meals.

Hubby bought a pack of petai (stinky beans). It was already peeled so only the beans. I never had cooking experience with petai in the past so not too sure what to do with it.

Anyway, I used this prawn sambal that I had in the fridge to go with it. Just slices some garlic, big onion, and my petai dish was ready. When I asked how was the taste, he said it was alright. I thought the petai was still on raw side, could taste the heat but somehow he was fine with it. The sambal udang was on spicy side, so covered some of the petai taste.

Other dish that I whipped up was this steamed Japanese cold pressed tofu. Served with minced meat topping.

Stir fried kangkong with garlic was my favourite. I rarely cooked with belacan as this was heathier version of the vegetable.

Another favourite on the table was fried chicken wings. Marinade would not be the same all the time so no one will get bored of it. That day, I used Kentucky curry flavour powder for my meat. It gave that more golden look as well.

Second order

After my first order from this restaurant in Stapok , I made a second order soon after that. I forgot to mention in that post that the restaurant offered 20% discounts on their fried noodle, do that was the reason I ordered them. So, a reorder was made since they still have the discount in Food panda app.

This round, I decided to taste its tomato crispy noodle. I liked its well deep-fried crispy noodle and the ingredients and gravy were pretty generous. Taste-wise it was sour and sweet. 

Tomato crispy mee (RM8)

Meanwhile, Jan had fried rice, with special instruction to add salted fish in her rice. Smell and looked good.

Fried rice (RM8)

The first time, the boys had its fried kway teow so this time, I ordered fried kolo mee for them.  It was rather tasty and big portion. No egg request from me for the noodle. 

Fried kolo mee (RM9.50)

Price-wise it wasn't that cheap but considering the discount and big portion, I don't mind ordering them once in a while.

 *Prices stated are after discount.

No Merdeka for me

On 31 August, hubby and I went for our morning walk. We walked all the way to this coffee shop to buy our breakfast and then we walked back.

After our breakfast, both of us went to Emart Hypermarket Batu Kawa for our grocery shopping. It was not yet 9am but the place was pretty packed. Public holiday I guess and everyone was as early birds as we were. Anyway, we spent about an hour there, bought the necessary.

As for lunch, I decided to cook since we didn't know what to buy or eat for lunch. Hubby caught a big mackerel with 2 roes in it a week ago so I took out a pack of mackerel slices and its roes early in the morning, waiting for them to defrost. And we bought this preserved mustard pork belly from Emart non-halal section for RM19+.

It was simple to prepare. Just boil a pot of water, toss the whole pack in (everything intact), close the pot lid and let the water boil for 20 minutes. Take out from water, open up the pack and place onto a serving plate.

Mui Choy pork belly, not bad. Salty and fragrant. Those that love the fatty part of pork belly slices would like this. 

The other dishes that I cooked were fried mackerels, fried mackerel roe, steamed egg custard with preserved radish topping and 2 vegetable dishes. Quite a lot of work in the kitchen, not much of a Merdeka Day for me. But the end result is always satisfying. Family enjoys what I cook and we can eat at the comfort of our home. Definitely worth all the sweat.

This was how we spent and what we had on National Day this year. Last year, we went for a short outing to a dam and had lunch in a food court. Read my entry over here.

Just the two of us

It was 21st August, a Saturday. Hubby wanted to get new bed and mattress for mum-in-laws, we are getting ready her room. So we went to Vivacity Megamall around 10am to hunt for the bed. 

It has been almost 2 years since our last visit to this mall. Anyway, it was just the two of us as we don't dare to bring the kids along. Furthermore they aren't vaccinated yet, and they themselves weren't do keen to go out anymore. They rather cooped at home. As hubby and I stepped into the premises from the basement, we were to show our digital certificate and did the scanning and temperature check, then they allowed us to enter. 

We spent almost 2 hours there, scouting from one furniture shop to another bedding shop before we finally decided on getting this bed set.

Super single mattress and an extra single mattress with bed frame and 2 pillows. The single mattress can be slid underneath so it is an extra bed. The availability and transportation will be in next 2 months. No hurry, since my MIL isn't coming over anytime soon.

After all the walking, we were super tired and hungry. So we stopped by this outlet at basement for our lunch. No one other than few Grab riders waiting for orders. 

We ordered our lunch. Hubby was messaging his sis, told her on the new bed. Oh yes, I also got myself a new walking shoes from Sports Direct store. Hubby insisted, so I treated it as another birthday present from him. Lol.

What did we had for lunch? Sakae Teishoku for RM26.88, hubby had white rice instead of garlic rice to go with it.

Grilled scallop, which I found it rather salty, breaded chicken cutlet with Japanese curry served with miso soup and chawanmushi. The chawanmushi was served later so it was not in the photo.

I had salmon and yakitori (RM27.88), which consisted of salmon teriyaki, chicken skewer, omelette and assorted fruits.

There wasn't a single customer other than us, and few Grab riders. Pitiful sight. 

Tapau would do

With the current pandemic, we are starting to do without going out and dine-out in our favourite eateries. It is rather depressing as we feel like been confined in our own space without the freedom of going out anymore. But what matters the most now is survival, so we have to sacrifice certain things and make do without them till situation gets better.

Few weeks ago, my kids wanted to taste some fried noodle. It was a weekday, so my hands were quite full with housework and the kids' schoolworks and online classes. So, food ordering was the best option when I was busy on weekdays.

I saw this Riverpark Seafood Restaurant, they offered dishes as well as fried noodles in FoodPanda app. We went there once, last year for my birthday dinner. How time flies, it was a year ago. Never tried its fried noodle so I decided to order it for the kids. I took my brunch of my fried rice that day so I was still full, did not order for myself.

RM6.40 each, without egg. I liked that they specified the ingredients in the noodle on the app  and an additional charge if want to include egg in it.

Jan had fried mee hoon. She liked this more than kway teow. So the boys had fried kway teow instead. Quite a portion, and the noodles were fried nicely.

I tasted a bit of the fried kway teow, it had some wok hei in it. A pack of chilli and dark sauce was included in the order.