Justin's Diary Archives - The Funtastic Family

09/03/202109/03/2021Justin's Diary

Wadi Abadilah – stream and greenery hike

Hey guys, I am back to my blogging mode.

Today I am sharing our hike at Wadi Abadilah. Located somewhere in Fujairah, it is 1.5 hours away from Dubai. We had our simple breakfast at home before setting off for our hike. I am guessing early breakfast and car journey do not agree with me because this is the second time I am having nausea/diarrhea on our way to hiking. I puke the last time we went to Wadi Showka and it was definitely not a pleasant experience.

Although I did not vomit this time round but I was feeling totally unwell on the journey there. I only felt better after hiking for a bit and out in the fresh air.

Yes, there are lots of fresh air around as the first leg of the hike consists of stream/pools of water with trees surrounding it, making us lots of oxygen as I have learn in my UOI classes.

At the car park, you would see the flag. Head down the stairs next to the flag, and u will soon see the streams and trees.

Upon reaching the car park, you can see a flag which is next to a staircase. Take that staircase down and it will lead to a trail and at any point if you are comfortable, take the downward trail to the stream (there are a few to choose from). From there onwards, just explore on your own. The stream trail will come to an end and then it will be hiking on rocky trail, lots of boulders which are huge and require a push. The rocky trail part are mostly not shaded so do bring lots of water, wear a cap and put lots of sunscreen. Mini bites are definitely a must to keep the energy going!

Us playing at the big rocks along the way. So fun!

My sister and me had lots of fun at the stream area. Bring a chance of clothes or pack along a pair of slippers to wear after playing at the stream, otherwise bring a towel to wipe yourself dry. We spot lots of fishes, two frogs, a dragon fly (red one no doubt) and not forgetting a lizard that ate our strawberry. Totally fun playing at the stream, I would say it is the highlight of our hike!

trying out insta 360, see if it is really waterproof!

Do be extra careful though as snake had been spotted in the area before!

If you do plan to head here, this is the google map link to the entry point where you park your car. A 4WD is not required.

https://goo.gl/maps/gJbkUCU9BxuoszXcA

We had burgers for lunch after our hike at Outlet Burger and I would definitely recommend it. The burger bun is really soft and the fillings where fresh and abundant. They had Cheetos burger and it was so yummy!

Mummy made a YouTube video on our hike. Check out the cool underwater view of the fishes taken using our insta360.

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04/03/2021Justin's Diary

World Book Day

I love World Book Day. What is there not to love.. we get to dress up in our favourite character to school, and there is a bookstore near our house that gives out free books every year for world book day.

And this year I got this book. The River Whale. It looks super interesting and I can’t wait to read it!

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23/01/202123/01/2021Justin's Diary

Dubai winter vegetable garden

It is hard work ploughing the soil to make way for our home-grown vegetable

It is the time of the year again… Dubai has cooling winter season. Believe it or not, it is not hot all year round in Dubai. Although it is not long but at least for a good 3 months (December to February), it is really very nice and cooling in Dubai.

It is the perfect time for us to grow some vegetable in our garden. We went to Al Warsan area in Dubai to get some vegetable seedling. For AED 1 each, we can get a variety of seedling. It saves us some time to grow the vegetable from seed as the winter is not too long here in Dubai.

We spend AED 10 and manage to get 2 tomatoes seedling, 2 chilies seeding, 2 cucumbers seedling, 2 cauliflowers seeding and 2 lettuces.

We used a wooden fork to make a label for the vegetables so that we could recognise them. They look really cook, doesn’t they?

Let’s water them diligently so that they grow big and healthy … so that we can EAT them soon!!!

My super excited sister and our vegetables.

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19/10/202019/10/2020Justin's Diary

The day mummy left her iPad alone…

This is what happen when mummy left her iPad out of her sight. In my defence, Jaclyn started first so I just follow.

What brother am I if I am not my sister’s partner in crime!

Mummy seems pretty pleased with the videos we make! It definitely makes HER DAY!!!

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29/09/202029/09/2020Justin's Diary

New fav restaurant

Daddy and mummy has been bringing us to this restaurant so often lately that I could not help but to write about it in my post. If you ask me why we like it so much, I think I would say that this restaurant tick most of our boxes. We love a bargain and the food here are very reasonably priced for Dubai standard. The interior is cosy and delightful. Most importantly, the food is yummy and it is near where we stayed.

So, introducing… ALLO BEIRUT! This cosy and super affordable place is at Hessa Street, just next to Saudi German Hospital.

Our first visit was a spontaneous one and since we enjoyed the food in Beirut during our last visit, we decided to give it a try. The place is really packed during meal time so be sure to go early to avoid disappointed or be prepared to wait.

I had the chocolate kaak on my first visit. It was ok but a little dry. Their lamb dishes was well done and mummy enjoyed it. I would like to point out that our favourite by far (after visiting a couple of times) is their chicken shawarma platter. Priced at AED 37, it is definitely good enough for two pax. It comes with chicken, very yummy fries and a dip. Fresh homemade bread is free flow and goes very well with the chicken shawarma.

Daddy even brought me there once for lunch while I was doing e-learning at home. We had a wonderful boy’s lunch. Men’s talk only 🙂

P/S: Check out my pic at the top, I lose both of my front tooth already!!!

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19/08/202019/08/2020Justin's Diary

My Jokes Corner

#throwback to end of school term in June 2020

Towards the end of school term, Ms Stacey has been keeping us occupied with these riddles jokes. It is indeed a wise move as most of us are very much bored staying home and doing home/e-learning for more than 3 months now.

I could never imagine me doing home schooling and this was never gonna happen if it is not due to the highly contagious COVID-19 that has been around for more than 6 months now. I love being at school, fooling around with my friends and running about. I probably gain at least 3-4 kg now that I have not been going for football and swimming classes for many months. We could still do exercise on our own but summer in Dubai is not very welcoming for outdoor activities.

So far, my parents had brought me out for some beach activities where I had an encounter with jellyfish. It loved my feet so much that it practically tangled and kiss my feet, leaving some red spots as a souvenir. After that, we dare not submerged ourselves in the sea water, so we were satisfied by just playing with sands by the beach. However, we could not do it often due to the high humidity that sometimes reaches 70-80%, making it unbearable to stay outdoor for more than a couple of minutes.

So, back to my riddles jokes. I love the riddle jokes and since we had to share these daily with my classmates during my online classes, I decided to take a peek at the internet to grab a couple of good jokes. Before I share it with my class, let’s see if my sister and mummy would love them 🙂

Check out my video below for these wonderful riddle jokes!

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30/04/202030/04/2020Justin's Diary

An art-sy afternoon

Jaclyn and me had an art-sy afternoon last week. As a reward for working hard over the week, mummy set up an art corner for us to explore our creativity.

First, we paint some ceramic shapes that we got from Botanical Garden while visiting the Sharjah Wildlife Centre. There is flower, tree and leaves.

I was done after that but Jaclyn still very into painting. She is definitely more patient that me so she started painting on a piece of paper.

It was nice having some time off the screen and not to be stressed out with homework.

We enjoyed our weekend very much even though we are stocked at home. At least we had some activities to keep us occupy and were extremely grateful for that!

xoxo Justin

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02/04/2020Justin's Diary

E-learning Week 2

Second week of e-learning.

We start the week off with a nice BBQ session after “school” on Sunday! It was nice as we get to BBQ Marshmallow. Jaclyn and me finished the whole packet by ourselves. In our defence, there is not much in a packet ( I am going to leave out the fact that each marshmallow is HUGE. Haha!!!)

This week I am starting my mother tongue classes too. Although it is not my favourite subject, but it seems like I did not have any choice. E-learning is going to continue beyond 2 weeks until end of the term in June, so I can’t laid back and relax anymore!!!

Fortunately, the session went pretty well.

We are slowly adapting to e-learning although it is definitely not a good way to learn. I don’t see my friends, the questions I asked my teacher doesn’t get an immediate reply so a lot of my work has to come to an halt every now and then. Mummy is busy cooking, daddy busy teleconferencing so sometimes I don’t know who to ask. Teacher did not exactly mark my work so to be honest, I don’t know if it is correct or not.

But since this is going to continue, I am just gonna try my best and get on with it.

One night, Jaclyn and me make dinner for our family. We took the order and make a customise dinner for everyone.

This is what daddy ordered. We customised it with a D on the bread. D for Daddy!

Daddy and mummy rewarded us with “Onward” a pretty new movie! It is amazing! Our mid-week FUN!

Jaclyn and me also had some fun choreographing a song for my Dance assignment. Since we had to do the assignment anyway, might as well make the best of it.

And we end the studying week with some home cooked yummy food!

I am not sure how this home stay thing going to last so let’s make the best of it.

Meanwhile, I am going to entertain everyone with a JOKE OF THE DAY!

Here goes:

How does the oceans say “Hi”

It waves 🙂

Till then, enjoy #stayhome

xoxo                                                                                                                  Justin

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30/03/202030/03/2020Justin's Diary

Week 1 of e-learning

My sister and I have been looking forward to e-learning. We love going to school and I am sure e-learning is going to be fun too!

Unfortunately, my brain and body does not agree with one another. While my brain is looking forward to studying, my body is too tired to wake up.

School starts at 7.40 and this is me at 8.08am!

After much effort, mummy finally woke me up and Jaclyn hold my hands while I walk downstairs with my eyes half closed.

For the first day, mummy make us fresh juices to start the day. Unfortunately, mummy’s effort only last for a day cause for the rest of the week, she could not wake up too! Haha!

On top of doing task online or in our book, I also….

Do some gardening.

I planted an orange seed. It was fun spending some time in the garden. But a week has passed and it still did not grow. I might have been too ambitious. Should have just planted green bean like my friend did!

There is also a celery experiment which I like a lot. Did you know that plant uses their branch to bring water up to their leaf. Check out my celery experiment!

If you are interested, have a look at this video and make your own blue celery!

Even though we are staying home, I need to stay fit too!

Check out my PE classes movement!

One day, we make our own dumplings for dinner. Home learning work from mummy! Jaclyn and me really enjoy making them into various shaped which drove mummy crazy! haha, so funny!

I have to say there is much more work studying at home and I am definitely less motivated. Half of the time, I could not wake up on time or should I say mummy didn’t wake me up on time.

My friends are not with me and learning is not that fun.

So, Ayaan and me starting zoom video call-ing one another to make our learning more fun and it did!

I do hope that the COVID-19 issue pass by quickly so that I CAN GET BACK TO SCHOOL and I know MUMMY is thinking the SAME THING TOO! She already can’t stand seeing us 24/7 for 3 consecutive weeks already!

Here’s to a pre-weekend fun kinetic sand session….

But oops…

This weekend is a stay home weekend again. Why am I not surprised..!!!

It’s cleaning up the street weekend so we are all advised to stay home. Luckily I LOVE STAYING HOME!

My favourite activity this weekend is OUR SCIENCE EXPERIMENT!

We mix Sodium Alginate Solution with Calcium Chloride solution and guess what!!!

We make worm-y! and many different shapes! It is so cool!!!

But mummy was not too pleased. The worm went everywhere and she had a hard time cleaning up!

So, I had to let mummy take some picture of me playing with 3D animal to post it on her Instagram!

Time to recharge before next week of e-learning!

Till then.

xoxo                                                                                                                    Justin

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16/03/202018/03/2020Justin's Diary

A short getaway to Al Aqah, Fujairah

Spring break sprung on us unexpectedly, and with the travel advice and situation changing daily, daddy said it is best to stay put in UAE to avoid not being able to come back (as many flights cancellation and some countries just suddenly close their border).

Daddy booked us a 3 days 2 nights stay at Intercontinental Al Aqah in Fujairah two hours drive away from where we reside in Dubai. We went there once last year and had an amazing time.

The weather is perfect at the moment to enjoy the beach and pool. As many people chose to stay home during this time, there are not much people at the hotel and we did our due diligence in keeping our hands clean/sanitise and drink lots of water to keep our mouth moist.

We arrived around 3pm as daddy had a meeting in Fujairah and we went to Oriental Restaurant in Fujairah city centre for lunch. We particularly loved their salted egg squid and we ordered a second serving.

We had a good time at the resort, having a well deserved short getaway in midst of the chaos.

Jaclyn and me loved the bath tub so much, we finished the whole big bottle of bubble bath mummy brought. Jaclyn kept saying ” This is the perfect life while dipping herself in the tub”. Haha!

Breakfast is included in the package and Jaclyn kept imitating my perfect way to eat an egg yolk off a sunny-side up without dripping.

Do you wanna know how I did it?

Just suck it up vertically…..

LIKE THIS!!!!

Slurp- super yummy! Highlight of breakkie!

The beach is wonderful as well. Not overly crowded and the weather is very nice in late afternoon/evening, love the cool breeze.

But late morning is best to sleep in or just enjoying the kids club. We learned it the hard way, we went swimming one morning and I came back with a super tanned line.

We saw lots of jellyfish washed up to the shore, maybe it is the jellyfish season? cause we didn’t see any the last time we visited.

This is the top view of jellyfish. Check out how reflective it is.

And this is the view from the bottom. Pretty cool yeah?

By the way, I tried to bury Jaclyn in the sand so that I can get “rid” of her but unfortunately, my plan is unsuccessful cause she is home with me now!!!

Need to dig a bigger hole next time! Hahaha!

Daddy enjoying himself a lot too , practising his drone skill. Check out his cool drone!