Monday, March 21, 2011
Juan Or at the Norwegian Food Fair
We parked at Carrefour Subang (otherwise where else has free parking!?), took a walk in front of Subang Parade and crossed some major corssroads before reaching Empire. Still it was pretty early when we reached there because most of the tenants were not opened yet - still another 10 to 15 minutes' wait before 10am, so we loitered at a bench first while Juan Or played hide-and-seek of sorts with Mommy at one F&B tenant's chairs and table.
Along the way, Mommy caught sight of this interesting tube structure - turned out to the longest indoor slide. But of course to slide in it, you need to reach a certain minimum height, plus pay for the ticket. One notice indicated that the ticket fee is half-price on the 1st of every month, however there's no indication at the ground floor on how much is the ticket price.
When the clock striked 10, we walked over to the Norwegian Food Fair's booth. First and foremost, we were greeted by the hole-in-the-face life-sized picture of a Norwegian couple in traditional costume. So Juan Or and Mommy tried it. Looks funny and odd, huh!
We also posed in front of the Norwegian flag and 'house'.
Then along the way, Juan Or seemed keen to run away to other neighbouring tenants, so Mommy had to chase and bring him back again. Unbeknown to Mommy, Papa had taken a shot of us coming back to the 'true path'. This shot really made Juan Or and Mommy look like shopping kakis (hats)! ^_^
At the food fair section, the main attraction was the selling of Norwegian frozen seafood such as salmon, cod, blue mackeral, shrimp and crab. Some of these seafood were sold in vacuum-packed marinated form. Mommy remember reading about this Norwegian food fair at The Star Metro section on Saturday (19th March 2011) and the article did mention about the frozen seafood sold at bargain prices. So are they really a bargain? In Mommy's opinion, they are definitely not! For example, a 200g vacuum-packed frozen salmon fillet (non-marinated) costs RM12, i.e., RM60 per kg - that's exorbitant! In comparison, a salmon slice in Tesco costs RM24.90 per kg during promotion and in one TC Boy Warehouse Sale last year, a 700g to 800g piece of imported salmon fillet (frozen, vacuum-packed) costs RM27 only. Other than frozen seafood on sale, there were Norwegian breads and bread premixes for sale too but Mommy didn't take a close look. In one section of the booth, you can see one staff cutting the bread into small pieces. You think they are preparing free samples of the bread for people to try? Nah, you have to buy them to try! Cheh!
Putting aside the food fair, there was also a section in the booth where photos of places, people, scenes and scenaries of Norway are displayed - something like a "To know Norway is to Love Norway" expo kind of thing.
These are some of Juan Or's favourite things....
.....the waterfall and.....
.....the choo-choo train!
Before leaving the Norwegian food fair booth, Mommy managed to take some free recipe booklets and leaflets for cooking salmon fish. Yippy, even if Mommy had nothing to buy from the booth, at least there's still something to take and keep for future reference!
Since we still had a lot of time left before lunch time, Papa and Mommy took Juan Or to his favourite place - Toys R'Us! Mommy then took the opportunity to enquire from the customer service counter how much points were collected thus far and to Mommy's delight, it was 814 points and that entitled Mommy to have RM30 worth of vouchers to redeem (RM10 voucher for 250 points)! Woo-hoo! You may then be thinking that Mommy had spent RM814 previously to buy toys, right? Wrong, Mommy had only spent RM254.50 so far buying toys from Toys R'Us. So how did Mommy do it? Actually Mommy made use of windows of opportunities. One was when Mommy made use of Standard Chartered's credit card cash rebate promotion that gives RM188 rebate upon first swipe of any amount transaction. Second was when Mommy got 3X points when purchasing something from a new Toys R'Us outlet in IOI Mall. The best part was that Mommy made use of those windows of opportunities simultaneously to reap the maximum benefit possible! ^_^
Juan Or had a jolly good time at Toys R'Us. Mommy asked him to pose next to this life-sized Ben10 hero (his current favourite cartoon character), but don't know why, he refused. *Shake head*
Then there's also this Lego corner for children to play.
When we came out from the toy store, Juan Or did not fret to want to stay on unlike in other toy departments in Jusco previously. What does this mean? It simply means he had seen and played to his heart's content already! ^_^
You may then be wondering what Mommy bought using the RM30 voucher? Here it is - the 65th Anniversary celebration edition Thomas train set selling for retail price of RM89.90. Mommy knows this set is pretty expensive and no discounts are given even during Jusco sales. Also, Mommy has never seen this set on sale before in Litt Tak's Warehouse Sale all these years. So this is good opportunity to make use of the vouchers to get it for a cheaper price! Anyway, it's to add to Mommy's collection as well! ^_^
Once back home, this was how Juan Or played with it.....crash, boom, bang.....fall down! If you have watched Thomas and Friends in Mistry Island Rescue before, Juan Or actually wanted to simulate one scene where Diesel unintentionally pushed the jovi logs to the edge of an unfinished track and they all fell into the river.
If you are a train model enthusiast, this 65th Anniversary edition features an interesting passenger coach.....
.....that can be opened up to fit in Sir Topham Hat!
Hehehehe.....another addition to Juan Or and Mommy's choo-choo train collection! ^_^
Monday, March 23, 2009
Toys for Juan Or at Litt Tak Warehouse Sale

(Three plush toys in a hanglet, all for only RM2! What a bargain!)

2. Winnie the Pooh Security Blanket
This blanket is made of fleece material and has nice satin cloth wrapping the fleece at the border. There's also the Winnie the Pooh head sticking out of the blanket which acts as a rattle - makes sound when you shake the Pooh head. The blanket is packed in a box with a see-through cover and the box has many cellophane tape marks on it. Price? RM5 only. Very cheap and good! Mommy also bought one piece for Ms. Stephenie's baby as a token of appreciation for giving Juan Or the Similac infant milk powder.

(Full layout of the Winnie the Pooh Security Blanket.)


(Juan Or sleeping with his Pooh security blanket.)
3. Teether cum Rattle
Only two designs were available: Mickey Mouse and Winnie the Pooh. However, the Mickey Mouse only had two units left whereas the Pooh was in abundance. Mommy grabbed both the Mickey Mouses (where one is for Juan Or and another for Ms. Stephenie's baby) and one piece of the Pooh. The teether part is actually the handle at the sideways of the rattle, though the teether is not as soft as those proper type of teether. The Disney figurines, however, are made of hard plastic, so is not meant to be the teether part. Price? RM1 per rattle! Very cheap and good for Disney toys!

(Each costs only RM1!)
4. Winnie the Pooh Plush Toy cum Rattle

(A close-up view of the Pooh plush toy cum rattle.)

(Juan Or enjoying his Pooh toy.)

(Another photo of Juan Or playing with his Pooh toy.)
These are plush toys with strings attached where you pull out the string and the toy will wiggle until the pulled out string fully goes back into the toy. The size of the animals are also quite small. Price? RM2 each, not very cheap compared to the other RM2 toys that Mommy bought, but can-lah....for variety and fun. However, Winnie the Pooh cannot be found. By the way, the brand is Playgro (Australia).

(Wiggling toys, each at RM2.)
6. Soft Rattles of Eeyore, Tigger and Piglet
These are rattles that also serve as plush toys. Winnie the Pooh, again, was not available. Price? RM2 each! Very cheap and good! Mommy saw a baby stock clearance sale in Leisure Mall Cheras selling similar types of soft rattles (but not Disney characters) for RM6.90 each. So what Mommy got here in Litt Tak is really, really good buy! The brand is also Playgro (Australia).

(Each priced at only RM2! Cheap and good!)
7. Multiple Texture Plush Toy
(Still in the packaging.)
(Front view)
(Back view)
8. Mickey Mouse Stacking Cups Toy
There's only one unit of Mickey Mouse left (Mommy quickly grabbed it!) and the rest are Winnie the Pooh. Price? RM10. Mommy's not very sure whether it's really cheap or not, but should be cheap-lah, considering it's Disney type of toys.
(Mickey Mouse stacking cup toy)
9. Gun with Felt Bullets
Mommy saw this toy together with the Pooh plush toys and rattles that Mommy mentioned just now. Price? RM2. This toy is meant for Juan Or to play when he is much bigger and older.
(Gun with felt bullets for only RM10.)
10. Robot Transformable Train
Mommy bought this, again, in view of Juan Or reaching a much older age. The brand is Takara Tomy and costs RM5. Obviously, Mommy doesn't know whether there's any "Hikarian Railroad" cartoon on the TV screen or not, but anyway, just buy-lah since it's selling for a cheap price!
(Still in the packaging)
(The two parts join together to form a train.)
(The two parts detached and opened up.)
(A closer view of the robot portion.)
All in all, Mommy spent only RM48 for all these toys! Good bargain! Ooohhh, Mommy loves buying things at a bargain! By the way, this time, Litt Tak stocked up a lot of Thomas and Friends sets at a reasonably cheap price (compared to Jusco), but not as cheap as a mere RM10 or so. These sets cost RM45, RM55, RM60, RM70, RM80, RM150 up to RM300 in the Litt Tak sale. But this time, Mommy is not giving in to the temptation of buying Thomas and Friends because Mommy already bought a Thomas and Friends Starter Set (RM55) for Juan Or in the previous Litt Tak sale in December 2008.
How about the crowd and the queue? The answer is good - no crowd and the queue at most is only 3 to 5 customers long (so much unlike Mattel Warehouse Sale with its horrendous crowd and queue)! However, the place is quite crammed with toys with only small passageways for people to walk and browse the toys. Mommy reckons that probably because Litt Tak sounds chinaman, so most people think they can't find good toys there. Anyway, Mommy doesn't care about Fischer-Price toys (found in Mattel Warehouse Sale). The hell with Fischer-Price toys! It's not worth it to go brave against the wave of horrendous crowd just to grab Fischer-Price toys (which are not that cheap also in the warehouse sale) and then queue for something like 3 hours just to pay for the toys!
By the way, just a sidetrack, although Mommy knows that this is none of Mommy's business, but Mommy can't help mentioning what Mommy observed at Litt Tak. When Mommy was done with the purchases and walked out from the building, Mommy noticed that there were no more Winnie the Pooh Security Blanket left (the blanket was placed just outside the building entrance). Mommy clearly remembered that after choosing the Pooh blankets (Mommy bought two pieces of it, remember?), there were three more left. Now it looked like all were sold out. But on a closer look, Mommy saw one empty blanket box and the see-through cover already detached from the box and the blanket was gone! What do you think happened? Go figure out yourself!









































