Bufori - excursion to a car factory @Kepong

Briefing

Meeting up with good friends was the highlight of the trip for the boys.

Ean was reminded of a train's flatbed when he saw this

Kevlar material for the car's body - 5x the strength of steel, lightweight and bullet proof

handling the material

showing possible colour combinations on the cars - red, gold, silver...

A V6 engine

car frame

car with body

car ready for the road

Vroom! Vroom!

Ean getting comfortable.

The session ended with a question "What is your dream?"
The kids were told an inspiring story of how the founder followed his dream and created a car manufacturing empire. Each and every child present was advised to chase their dreams.
More on Bufori here.

Gardenia Factory

While staring dreamily at a loaf of bread one day, JY muttered "I would like to see the cooling tower of bread in Gardenia again"

So with a phone call to Gardenia to set up a date, posting the event up on the homeschooling network's facebook page and getting a few enthusiastic families to join in, we were set!

I had my homeschooling family for company that day.

After watching a video on bread making, we were ushered into the factory with a stern warning "No stepping over the yellow line. Do not touch the glass panels"
*To this day, my boys will repeat "Do not go over the yellow line!" whenever they see a yellow line.
The smell as we stepped inside was heavenly and the huge tower of revolving freshly baked bread was a sight to behold.
Each step of the process was labelled alphabetically and easy to follow through. We watched as huge vats of dough were kneaded, cut and plopped into baking tins before being baked in a huge oven. I couldn't take my eyes off the many loaves of bread as it swirled around the cooling tower.
Cooled bread was then sliced, bagged and tagged mechanically.
Rejected bread is packed in an unlabelled bag separately for donation to Zoo Negara.

Snack time
Waffles and coffee was served. Followed by a Q&A session.

Goodie bag time. Gardenia was really generous giving each and everyone of us a loaf of Butterscotch bread, waffles and kaya. Thank you Gardenia.

For more information on how to organize a factory visit, call Gardenia.

Yakult Factory

Yakult Factory in Seremban.

The factory's feature wall was interesting, especially since the boys are into flags lately.

During the briefing, Ean got restless and started taking photos

Another photo by Ean.

We were grouped with Mandarin speaking students that day.

We were given a slide show presentation and a short cartoon on the journey of the Lactobacillus Casei bacteria as it travels through the gut.

Fai got himself a notepad when he answered a question correctly which infuriated Han because he didn't get to answer. These Q&A sessions do get the boys frustrated when they can't get the right answer. I had a hard time cheering Han up after that episode.
They still do not go for any games that are competitive and would rather play games that require teamwork.

Fai sketching his boredom away. Bone dragon (top) and skeleton warrior (bottom)

Icy cold Yakult was distributed and we were shown the proper way to remove the straw.

We got to take a look at the factory through glass walls. The boys were most fascinated by the QC lab technician who was busy pipetting Yakult samples into petri dishes.
They got to see:

• Yakult bottles popping out of a machine,
• huge vats where the bacteria was cultured and stored,
• bottles being labelled, filled and sealed
• how machines replaced man
• how idle the man was - all he had to do was look at the bottles whizz by
• how a pipette was used
• how agar is used as a medium to grow bacteria. Agar-agar is not just for eating!
• how useful a conveyor belt is - not just in a sushi bar
• a huge roll of straw

Ice Cream factory visit

Photo by Ean

It was a hot Wednesday afternoon and it cheered the kids up that they were going to an ice cream factory. They couldn't wait to sink their teeth into some chocolaty creamy ice cream.
It was nice to see familiar faces and a group of happy kids playing while waiting for the programme to begin.
This visit was made possible because a homeschooling 7 year old who wanted to visit an ice cream factory, so her mom organised the trip.

DH caught up with 2 homeschooling fathers who were his schoolmates and that got him into inviting them to my parents' farm - an event that had been pending.

I caught up with a hs mom and plans to PD were made. Events such as these are great for future plans :)

We were treated to a presentation on the icy products that were available and the processes in ice cream making.

Fai saw the section on hygiene and was worried that he had to go through the vigorous routine before the factory tour. Luckily we were told that access into the factory was strictly forbidded and he let out a sigh of relief.

A brief look through a glass panel tour and our guide pointing out what she had shown in her video presentation earlier followed.

The kids were eager for the last bit, ice cream sampling.
Little cups of ice cream in 3 flavours - strawberry, chocolate or vanilla were served.

I found it a treat. The ice cream was nice, cold and refreshing.

Han and Ean wolfed down 3 cups each. They must have liked it too.
But JY and Fai thought otherwise.
Fai came up to me and said that the ice cream tasted like fondant.
In the car, JY commented that she tasted nothing but vegetable shortening.

It was my first factory visit that I had to pay for and I expected more. If you are keen on seeing food processing, I would suggest Gardenia or Vitagen or Boh tea factory. All of which are free.

Nutmeg Factory @Balik Pulau, Penang 10April2011

Every part of the nutmeg fruit is utilised Young fruit(left) and mature fruit(right) the seed of the mature fruit is covered by a red lacy aril and is known as mace. The nutmeg fruit produces two different spices - nutmeg and mace

Mace drying in the sun Removing mace manually. The nutmeg factory is a family business. 3 generations were seen working side by side.

My all-time favourite - the original jambu air. Sourish and crunchy, there is nothing like it. I have tried planting this plant many times but they all dried up and died on me.

Plucking spree.

No one can resist this pink fruit. However be wary of black ants that can be found within the fruit, Ean's tongue got bitten by one.

The nutmeg tree

My very first encounter with a nutmeg tree. It starts fruiting on its 5th year.

Nutmeg seedlings were planted in sand. Once they are big enough, the sand is washed off. We were told not to yank the seedlings out as the roots are very fine and damage easily

Nutmeg harvested by the crates.

Preserved nutmeg in process

Nutmeg products.

Cordial made from boiling ripe nutmeg for 5 hours, nutmeg balm for insect bites, nutmeg essential oil for aching joints

Essential oil is extracted from the dried seed.

The owner scraped a bit of the seed and said that is all that is required to give your dish a new dimension. Recommended for chinese dishes such as Tauyu Bak and Kiam Chai Ark

Fai trying his hand at cracking the seeds open.

The owner with my nutmeg plant. He taught us the correct technique for removing the black plant bag. Cut around the bag 2 inches from the base, pull off than remove the rest of the bag. This method will increase the plants survival rate.

Batik Factory @Penang 9April2011

Observing artists at work in the batik factory.

One was drawing onto the cloth with a pencil, a few were painting and another was hand stamping.

Step 1: Dip stamper with desired pattern into molten wax. Leave the stamper in the wax for a few seconds. Shake off excess wax.Step 2: Press down the stamper onto a white cloth. Starting from the bottom left hand side of the cloth, moving upwards. Repeat both steps. The wax dried almost instantly. This man worked with such precision, using just his fist for measurement. JY examining the fine details.Finished product.

The dye was still wet and the boys were warned not to touch. Lots of ways to tie the sarong.