Salaree is 4 – 15 August 2016

Princess Elsa wanabe

Salaree is able to demand what she wants now. So this year, she requested for Frozen themed parties; one party was held at Tea Time Bakery in Cheras on 14 August 2016 and the other party at her Chim kindy on 15 August 2016.

1^st birthday party – 14 August 2016

The party at Tea Time Bakery was for Salaree’s close friends; i.e. Nana, Simone, Noah, Hannah and Marcus. This café is tucked away in the middle of Cheras residential area. I was complaining about why it is so far away but we decided on this place as it had good reviews of the cakes and pastries, and the food and drinks were reasonably priced. 

We had a dessert table, specially prepared for Salaree by Tea Time Bakery (at least I didn’t have to go through the headache of organizing and preparing the desert table myself). Also, I got party packs for the little kids who attended the party and also for Salaree’s classmates in kindy. 

Our guests arrived and we requested them to order food and drinks from the menu. The kids started to play hide and seek and were running around the café. After the guests had their meals, it was time to sing the birthday song. The café played the birthday song and we had to sing twice as I’ve forgotten to light up the candle the first time.

Salaree’s wish for her birthday was to become Princess Elsa. Oh No……………Salaree will have super powers to freeze our hearts.

Here are the pictures:

Salaree’s dessert table (pastries, cookies, tarts, marshmallows, chocolate wafers and chips)- RM400.00

Salaree's dessert table 

Frozen theme cake, rainbow flavour -RM130

The service in this cafe is fast. Parking around the café is available but certain times can be pretty challenging.  

 

The details of the cafe:

Tea Time Bakery 

No.9, Jalan Bunga Tanjung 8

Taman Muda

56100 Kuala Lumpur

Tel: 016- 7705669

Opens daily – 10 am – 9pm

2nd birthday party – 15 August 2016

As for the party at Chim kindy, I decided to order another Frozen cake (only Elsa) and this time it’s a chocolate 3D cake from Moonlight Cake House. They have several branches and it was pretty convenient as they have an online catalogue for the cakes.  You choose and order your preferred cake online, make payment and select the branch, date and time of when you want to pick up the cake.

3 days before the pick-up of the cake, I called Moonlight Cake House, Damansara Uptown branch to ensure that they have received my order and it was confirmed that the cake will be ready by Monday, 15 August 2016 at 9am.

I was so afraid that the cake house will not be open at the time. It was indeed open before 9am and there were customers buying fresh bread and pastries.

I showed my order and the cake was taken out from their kitchen fridge and handed to me for me to check before leaving the cake house.

Her 2nd Frozen cake - RM233.20 from Moonlight Cake House

We arrived at the kindy at 9.30am during their snack time. Apart from the Elsa 3D cake, we also brought over some marshmallows, packet of Frozen biscuits, extra cookies that we ordered from Tea Time Bakery and chocolate snacks and of course party packs for the kids.

Snacks for the children

Party packs for the children

Salaree’s friends stood up and sang Happy Birthday, in English and Mandarin for her. After that, Salaree cut her cake and she handed out the snacks one by one to her friends together with the party packs.  

We spent approximately 1 hour in the classroom, chatting with the children and teachers on Salaree's progress in kindy. 

Check out the pictures below:-

Decorations on the blackboard for her

The children of 7M

The happy girl

Teacher Lim, Teacher Yeok and Teacher Clara

Vice-Principal and the Principal of Chim Kindy

Salaree with Helena

Acme Bar & Coffee (ABC) – 10 August 2016

My husband decided to bring me to ABC for lunch to celebrate my birthday. This was our 2^nd time here. We were here a few years back when it was first opened.

This restaurant is situated at the side of Troika condominium.  

Entrance to ABC

We had a reservation at 1.30pm. As we entered, it was busy and we were ushered to our table. The place was nicely decorated with colourful shaped papers at their windows and bar. The colourful papers were similar to their colourful menu, Samba Samba Paradise Season.

Playing with the coasters while waiting for my food

There was Asian and Western food, but mostly Western food. These were the dishes that we ordered:-

   

Grilled Marinated Lamb Shoulder in Spicy Kicap Sauce – RM57.00

The portion was very huge with fries and lots of peas. Best to share with another person. The lamb was nicely marinated with spicy kicap sauce. Although it was mentioned spicy, however, it was not spicy for me and it was a kind of sweet and slightly salty sauce. The lamb was very tender and juicy. I highly recommend this dish.

Chicken bowl rice with Miso soup – RM29.00

This was a Japanese dish. The texture of the rice was like sushi rice (sticky), with fried chicken strips, fried onions, pickled radish, sunny-side egg, shredded seaweed and edamame. Once you mix it together with its Japanese sweet soya sauce (inside the bowl of rice), the taste is really nice. Again, quite a big portion for me and I had to request for a doggy bag.

Sizzling Brownie and Oreo ice-cream – RM19.00

I must say this must be their specialty dessert. I loved it the first time I was there and I ordered it again. A hot square brownie on a hot plate, together with 1 scoop of ice-cream, topped with a small slice of strawberry. The waiter will then pour the hot chocolate sauce onto the brownie and I watched it sizzle. Let the brownie cool down before you eat your brownie with ice-cream, otherwise the hot brownie will burn your tongue.   

Sizzling Soft Baked Chocolate Cookie with orange vanilla sauce – RM 17.00

The chocolate cookie was alright. It was the same concept as the sizzling brownie; the waiter will pour the orange vanilla sauce onto the cookie. I ate it together with the orange vanilla sauce but I didn’t really like the sauce. To me, it just tasted funny and I don’t think I will order this dessert again. I still love my sizzling brownie.

Shaken Honey Lemon – RM17.00 and Fresh Orange – RM19.00

A must order for the Shaken Honey Lemon as it was super refreshing! The fresh orange was just ordinary.

Long Black Coffee – RM13.00

The service in this cafe was alright. A nice and cozy place to enjoy your meal and afternoon tea.

The details of the cafe and bar:

Acme Bar & Coffee  

Ground Floor, The Troika

19, Persiaran KLCC

50450 Kuala Lumpur

Tel: 03- 2162 2288; Fax : 03- 2164 3722

Opens daily

Weekdays – 11 am to 12am

Sat & Sun – 9.30am to 1am

* Best to call to make a reservation as the restaurant is always quite busy

Viva Vertical In House Competition – 16 July 2016

Venue: DPAC Theatre
Date: 16 July 2016 (Saturday) 8.30PM
Ticket price: MYR50

Our annual in-house pole competition is back with the addition of aerial hoop and silk. Students were asked to submit a video (not more than 2 minutes) to be assessed as to whether they would be chosen to compete in the finals.

These were the finalists:-

Aerial Silk Solo

1.         Charmaine Ang

2.         Mindy Yong

3.         Nessie Tu

4.         Tan Yun Ru

Pole Solo 

1.         Lee So Xi

2.         Eileen Woo

3.         Wang Wei Hua

4.         AJ Wong

5.         Noah Yap

6.         Jax Burditt

7.         Teoh Mei Yee

8.         Alan Lim

9.         Fiona Shak

10.       Shernes Tan

They were supposed to have Pole Duo and Aerial Hoop but these 2 categories were taken off from the list as there were not many students who submitted the videos for these 2 categories.

The name of the finalists was announced in mid-June 2016 and they had 1 month to choreograph their new routine and to get their costumes ready.

In preparation for the competition, some of the students had extra lessons with Viva instructors and they trained most of the days of the week. There are also time slot allocated for them to practice during access time.

So on the day of the competition, we started off with our emcee, Samantha Chan Geok Hui giving a brief introduction of pole and aerial and the contestants’ journey to the finals. Also, she introduced the judges Samantha Yee (Miko), Nana, V Lea and Reiko Shalini Soo.

The beautiful emcee Samantha Chan Geok Hui

The judges (L-R) - Samantha Yee (Miko), Reiko Shalini Soo, V Lea and Nana

Sad to say I could only watch the competition from the side of the stage and I must say that the students did put up a brilliant job and having the guts to be on stage. It’s definitely the first time for some of them!

Here are the contestants in action:

Lee Soxi

AJ Wong

Mindy Yong

Eileen Woo

Noah Yap with his comical wiping floor act

Shernes Tan

Fiona May

Jax

Mei Yee

Alan Lim with his Chinese pole act

After the competition, we had some performances lined up by Virginie Laurency on aerial hoop and the Aerial Master group performed a 10 minute routine on silk, due silk, duo pole, synchronized hoop and duo hoop, while waiting for the judges to tabulate the marks of the contestants.    

Here are the pictures of the performances:-

Virginie on aerial hoop

Opening dance for Aerial Masterclass with the song Feel the Light

Cynthia Wong on aerial silk

Squido and Noah Yap on duo silk

Mai Ukaji and Sheila on duo pole with their artistic act

Sun Wei on syncronised aerial hoop with the song from the soundtrack Terminator

This is me on syncronised aerial hoop with the song from the soundtrack of Terminator

Our last dance before our duo aerial hoop and syncronised pole

Me and Squido on duo spinning hoop

All of us as a TEAM

After the performances, the emcee announced the winners. The winners were:-

Winner for Aerial Silk Solo - Mindy Yong

Best Dress Award - Alan Lim

Pole Fitness (Men) Runner Up : Alan Lim

Pole Fitness (Men) Champion and Audience Choice Award: Noah Yap

Noah, a shy young innocent boy came to our Aerial Master class few months ago and has fully matured in his performances. How do I know? Well, we trained together.

When he practiced his pole routine in front of me, I told him that you are going to be the WINNER. I was super right about that. 

His routine was all about a boy hired by his employer to clean the premises. While cleaning, he imagined himself dancing and doing a pole routine. Immediately when he performed his routine, I knew what the story was all about, what he was trying to tell the audience and that itself is unique and good enough to capture and captivate the judges’ heart for the ultimate champion.

Pole Art Runner Up : Mei Yee

Pole Art Champion : Fiona May

Pole Fitness (Women ) Runner Up : Shernes Tan

Pole Fitness (Women) Champion: Jax

Congratulations to all WINNERS on a job well done. For those of you who did not win; always remember you are already a WINNER by performing your routine on stage (that’s what I always tell my ballet students). You have come so far in your journey, pain, sweat, stress and blood! Never give up as there will always be next year. 

Good Bye and see you in next year's competition