Now that Jeff, Vivian, and I are all boosted, and Elena is fully vaccinated, we are all about adventures around town, but it's also nice to spend time at home together as a family, so the past month has been full of a combination of both. Added to that, I started volunteering (still waiting on the Malaysian government to put through all my paperwork to actually get paid) at the school as a substitute to cover for all the covid absences, and it's been a full on, busy month. Our most recent adventure was this past weekend, when we did a staycation at The Westin, which is across the street from Pavilion, one of the best malls in the city. Of course, it was absolutely pouring rain on Saturday afternoon and evening, so we were "at home" in our two bedroom suite playing our new favorite game, Wingspan.
The lunar new year was at the beginning of February, and there were three days off, but it was a Tuesday through Thursday. It's also an extremely popular holiday in Malaysia, and a lot of people go home to be with family, so the traffic levels are similar to Thanksgiving in the U.S.. We decided to just stay put for the three days and have fun at home. That was when we took the time to learn how to play Wingspan. It's a game I got for Jeff for Christmas, and it's all about collecting birds for your aviary. Birds are worth different amounts of points and have attributes that can give you more points. We have become completely addicted.
Elena, who never misses an opportunity to dress up, played the game in full ball gown splendor to help celebrate.
She's also been exploring her love of color at school with what she dubbed "accident art", an interesting result of spilling water based paint.
Vivian's artistic expression has taken puzzle form. She got some new Disney puzzles. I helped her get the frame going, but we need Safta to motivate her to finish it up.
We do leave the house though, especially for good food with friends. We went out as a family for our first KL brunch, although the food was so plentiful, it really was a full on lunch. The restaurant was small, our group of ten took up about half of it, and we had a great time. It was a roast beef feast with all the trimmings.
Across from that was a blindingly white marble bathroom.
The room itself had a bed and a nice sitting area.
My only major complaint was that the bed was really hard, not firm, just hard, which is not at all what I would have expected from the Ritz. The fabulous buffet dinner more than made up for it though. There were cold stations for salad and dessert,
and several hot stations with everything from quesadillas, to mac and cheese, to a great Asian noodle station.
The best part though, was the live jazz quartet. We haven't heard live music in so long. We spent about three hours there, sipping wine, sampling from all the buffet options, and enjoying the music. It was decadent.
The next morning we weren't really hungry, but we felt like we had to at least go and check out the breakfast spread. Again, there was a great selection, beautifully presented.
The quesadilla station from the night before was now the egg station, but, much to Jeff's delight, the noodle station was still the noodle station.
Actual Valentine's Day was on a Monday, so Elena and I spent Sunday afternoon helping Vivian bake and ice cupcakes. We kept some for us to enjoy the next day, and then she put red sprinkles on the rest and took them to school to share with her friends.
The sight of all those cupcakes made me so happy, because after all the trials and tribulations of online learning, Vivian now has lots of friends to celebrate with.
On Monday morning, Jeff and I set up some presents his mom had sent the girls on their place mats, so that they could have a fun Valentine's Day breakfast surprise.
The panda actually smells like strawberries, and the dog smells like a donut. Elena has named him Daniel the Donut Dog. We also had a special Valentine's Day roast chicken for dinner in the dish that Jeff's mom had sent me as a birthday present.
Monday also marked the start of me doing a full week of volunteer subbing. The first thing that struck me about the school was the incredible view. The entire city skyline is laid out in front of the students.
There are balconies on the ends of the buildings facing the city, and there are tables and chairs set up out there for enjoying the view. I was subbing in Spanish and French classes, and I joined the foreign language department for al fresco lunches all week. It's definitely something I could get used to.
That week also brought what I hope will be the final chapter in the extended trials and tribulations of Vivian's hair. We had gone to the hair place next door to get her ends touched up, and instead the lady bleached the entire front of her head white, and then added a gray tint. I got her to take the gray out, but the front of Vivian's hair was completely fried. We asked around for recommendations, and found a new hairstylist who isn't too far away. She fixed the color and has been gradually repairing Vivian's hair through moisturizing treatments. For this visit, she also gave Viv a bit of a trim to help encourage her curls. Vivian was a bit panicked, because it was straight for a while, but they curled it back up for her before we left. The whole process took quite a while, and Jeff kept asking for updates, so I have a series of pictures of the whole thing.
I just love all the different colors in her hair. It tempts me to dye my own hair, but I'm planning to wait a bit longer. I like my natural color, and I figure there's no point messing with it while it's still coming out of my head that way. Once it starts to turn gray, I've told Vivian she can be my color consultant.
So now we're all caught up to this past weekend. The girls had Friday off for a teacher professional development day, so Jeff took the day off, because I had found us another deal. This one was at The Westin, where if you booked a suite, you got a connecting room for free, and all four of us got club level access which included evening food and drinks. Honestly though, all the girls really need is a floor with a pattern. This is them while we were checking in.
The suite was pretty darn nice though. We had lots of living area.
The beds were comfortable, and the bathrooms were spacious and clean. They even brought us a little welcome snack.
The best part though, was the windows. We were on the 31st floor, and between the two bedrooms and the living area, we had about a 270 degree view of downtown KL. We didn't really want to leave the room, but some friends of ours were also staying at the hotel, and they wanted to check out the bar, so we met them down there for a drink. It was a pretty nice spot.
The girls were happy with their room service dinner.
The club started serving at six, so we went up to check it out. The hotel has all kinds of cool glass ceiling features. We immediately noticed the one in the club entrance and the light above our table.
The club is on the third floor, and at first I was puzzled as to why it wasn't on one of the higher floors, but then I saw the view of the luxury shops at the mall across the street and understood that there are all kinds of fun views to be had in this part of the city.
There was enough food on offer to make a good meal for us. A little while after we got settled with our friends, the girls messaged to ask what was for dessert. After giving them a hard time about their sense of entitlement, we told them to come down to the club. Children were allowed until 7:00, and there was a table full of different cakes. They got their own table for two and with some help from us got a good sampling of the sweets on offer. They also made a classy exit before their deadline, so we were proud of them. We stayed until 8:00 and made friends with the staff, so we were well taken care of.
The next morning, we started off with more eating at another breakfast buffet spread. This one wasn't quite as plentiful as the one at the Ritz, but there were solid offerings, and everyone found something to eat. Elena followed Jeff's lead and had noodles and soup for breakfast.
The alarming green bun on the plate, actually turned out to have sweet paste in the middle, so I enjoyed it with my coffee. There was a central cooking station with noodles at one end and eggs on the other, as well as some cold dishes spread out in front.
On our first pass, we didn't see any bread, but then our late-rising teenager showed up and said there MUST be waffles and pancakes somewhere. She pressed past the cooking stations, and, sure enough, found an entire other section full of baked goods.
We were determined to offset all the eating with some movement this time, so Jeff took Elena to the pool, which was saltwater and quite deep. They played there for a couple hours.
Vivian though, didn't have any interest in the pool. She wanted to go shopping at Pavilion Mall across the street. She could see all the stores from the window, and she was dying to check them out. We crossed the street and paused for a photo op in front of the Tiffany's. It wasn't quite Breakfast at Tiffany's, but a post breakfast stroll to Tiffany's isn't half bad.
That particular entrance isn't open though, so you have to go into the mall. We stopped for a photo op at the fountain.
There were also lots of photogenic flowers inside, so my photogenic daughter posed in front of them. This is the mall where I practically froze to death and Jeff had to buy me a coat, so Vivian brought the coat to be on the safe side, and I had a shawl in my bag.
After walking a couple miles around the mall though and successfully purchasing several outfits, she was all warmed up and didn't need the coat anymore. We found a couple other fun photo ops. For some reason, there was a Doctor Strange statue at the entrance to a department store.
The decor choice on Tokyo Street made a bit more sense though, since it's an area with Japanese stores.
By that point, we were getting hungry. Jeff and Elena had finished at the pool and cleaned up, so they came over to the mall to meet us. We walked around the restaurant breezeway, and the girls picked an Italian place called Michelangelo's.
The food was actually really good, and they had a special on a pitcher of sangria, yes please.
The girls had a lot of fun too. Elena was almost immediately presented with a balloon advertising that kids eat free on weekdays.
Both girls had a view of the television screen at the restaurant next door which was called K-Experience. The tag line was K-Food, K-Pop, K-Culture. Elena was especially pleased to be able to catch a BLACKPINK music video. But the best entertainment came from the beer commercial across the way that played on a loop. One of the screens advertised the beer's smooth "mouthfeel". This cracked everyone up, and my crazies kept bringing it up, especially in discussions of the quality of our lunch. Jeff snapped a picture to preserve the memory.
Next to the beer commercial was an ice cream shop, which Elena had been eyeing throughout lunch. She did a really good job with her food, so we got her an ice cream cone for the walk back to the hotel.
We got really lucky with the weather, because shortly after we got back to the hotel, the skies opened up and it started pouring. The wind was also blowing furiously, and we could tell, because we could see the sheets of rain going sideways from our windows. We spent a while admiring the storm, and then pulled out Wingspan, which we had brought with us for just such an opportunity. We had a great game and finished just around time for dinner to be served in the club. This time we just brought the girls with us. We had discovered that in addition to the cold appetizers they had out, you could get a hot "set" that included bread, soup, noodles or rice, and a warm appetizer.
The soup was a bit too spicy for me and the girls, so Jeff did his best to finish it off. They did end up liking the noodles and the little fried dumplings though. Like the night before, they left a bit before seven, and Jeff and I stayed and enjoyed the view and the wine. Back up in the room, we enjoyed our bird's eye view of the lit up city. It was still raining though, so I couldn't get a good picture through the window.
I tried to bring Elena into it to improve the photo.
But Jeff, our master photographer, got the best shot.
The next morning we had another good breakfast, but it was a bit rushed, because we had to get Viv home, changed and ready to head out again by 9:30. It was a little chaotic, but we got her out the door and on her adventure outing with her friends. She had a great time, but we'll definitely try to avoid scheduling things back to back like that again.
Overall though, it was a great family staycation, and we can't wait to do another one. We are really enjoying exploring KL.
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