'Family' Reunion

CNY, Day 12

This is a gathering cum reunion I wouldn't miss for the world. Every year, we set a date during the CNY period to meet up together; they are my college mates and we have all known each other for more than 10 years now. Yup, still going strong.. ;)

Alicia's place has become pretty popular somehow for our reunion. Don't know why. Guess it is more central for all of us. I was the first to arrived, since the rest were all working and *ahem* usually late too. Fortunately Danny was home to greet us!

By the time the rest of them arrived, namely 7, Olivia, Charmaine, Charlize, Donald and Jenneifer, I nearly fainted from hunger.. lols! Without further ado, we quickly set up dinner cooperatively...

Don prepared the 'Yee Sang'

Btw, I brought the 'Yee Sang'! ;p

Oli squeezing out the tomato sauce into a bowl.

Ali graping cutlery for our dinner.

If you are wondering why I took a photo of this - it is because for the first time I see a box of KFC drumsticks!! Long Live Oli!! (7 & Oli brought KFC)

Our Muhibbah-1Malaysia dinner - Satay (from Don & Jen), Yee Sang (me), Nasi Lemak (Ali & Danny), KFC (7 & Oli)

Healthy Orange Juice to complement our dinner!

And lovely Oreo Cheesecake baked by Ali for dessert! It was yummy!!

Dinner proceeded without waiting for hubby's arrival. He was working and promised to join us at Ali's place straight after work. During dinner, we were already discussing what we game we should be playin' - Black Jack, Texas Holdem', In-between... We reminisce on the laughter we had while playing Texas Holdem' last year but couldn't remember the game rules. And I thought it was one of us who suggested the game! Little did I know, 7 reminded that it was hubby who taught everybody how to play that game last year! lols! And I thought my hubby was innocent! Hence, hubby was labeled as the 'Big Head Ghost'! a.k.a. 'Tai Tau Kwai' in Cantonese! Lols!

So after his arrival and indulgence into our Muhibbah-1Malaysia dinner, here's the rest of us trying our luck at Texas Holdem'!

All of us happily exchanging abundance! lols!

On the other hand, the kids were having a great time themselves! Actually I didn't have plans to bring Thea along because I knew it'd be a late night. But lovely Charmaine asked her mommi Oli to call me and said, "Auntie Moon... will you bring Thea tonight?" Seriously, didn't know how to say no to that... so she got her wish - I brought Thea!

They were initially shy when they first met each other again (they only meet each other once a year during such gathering), but hit it off almost immediately after some time to 'warm up'! They had so much fun that they all fell asleep together in Ali's AV room!! Lols.

We didn't realise that time flew so fast, part of the reason was because our reunion started pretty late. It was already 2am when we decided on the last 3 games. Despite everybody's sleepy faces, I insisted on our annual family portrait! Lols!

Me, Hubby, Donald, Jenneifer, Olivia, Richard, Danny, Alicia.
Love Live The Family! :D

Sometimes I wonder, if we kept in touch with each other more often would we then lose the excitement and fun while being together just this once a year. I guess not. It is truly the company. All different special characters being moulded into one big happy family... lols!

I am thankful for habit of smoking 10 years ago - for that was how the some of us met and allowed the friendship to blossom from there on...  :)

*Note:- Donald quit smoking more than 2 years ago and we are all awfully proud of him. :)  

New Home

I've been tired. But no matter how tired I physically am, I would never allow myself to miss the opportunity to visit my baby brother's new home.

Didn't know that he is actually so traditional - stick a 'fook' wording on the front door, upside down somemore! lols!

We arrived there at about 8ish. Everybody wanted to head downstairs beside his condominium for dinner, except me. They were very excited that Bee was actually staying within the vicinity of popular food joints and wanted to patronise these restaurants to experience the short distance within reach. I kept saying, "Eh, I thought the objective tonight is to hang out at Bee's place? Let's just order in lah!" Although everyone agreed with me, I still lost :-/. They still wanted to do 'the walk'.

Had dinner at Pasta Zanmai. While in the restaurant, couldn't help thinking about Alina's mention about how she absolutely loves this restaurant, lols! I've tried the branch in 1U before, and found the food menu very authentic and interesting. Hubby loves this place since because it is a fusion of his favourite - Japanese & Italian, though Pasta Zanmai is not really that in its case.

After dinner, we took 'the walk' back to his home again. It's a cozy place. He keeps saying that this place is for investment - for rent or sale, eventually if the price is right. Secretly, I think he will just stay put there. It is afterall, his own home; and it is always nice to stay in our own homes, right?

To add the flavour, dear baby brother single-handedly (with the help of Phua's workers, of course) renovated the unit all by himself, with a proposed design plan by our darling SIL, Paul. Paul's an excellent ID, by the way! :D 

I remember when he first brought Paul and me to the bare unit, I was thinking to myself what a small unit! But with Paul's design, Bee's handy mandy skills and Phua's workers' tireless assistance and support, the place actually turned out to be spacious and cozy! Now, that is what I call space planning! Both Bee and I agreed that the spacious and cozy feel would not have been made possible without Paul's design! So, credit goes to Paul too! Check out her other work here!

Some snapshots I took of his unit. Pictures taken not so 'chun' in my perception, but ah-well, practice always makes perfect! ;)

Walkway from front door.

Cozy hall.

The unit is a studio-see-all. Just one straigh forward hallway, some people call it. He manually put up the partition separating his hall and bedroom.

His self-made kitchen. FYI, where the sink is now was previously the toilet door (the toilet door is now on the other side in the picture). He somehow concealed it so well that it didn't look like there was a door there before. You see, he's got potential! lols!

Would you believe if I tell you that he fixed up the panels/partition or whatever you call this thing that separates the bedroom from the hall, himself? He really did, with help from Phua's workers.

 Below are KL views from his bedroom window: - 

Nice right? :)

I am very very proud of you, little baby brother, for having now own a little place of your own with minimum financial aid from anyone, especially so for fixing up the place so nicely mostly on your own! :) Just remember to come home for dinner whenever I cook (and you know that is rare, right?) and whenever I have computer/laptop/printer problems ;p! I love you always! *muaks*

Lovely Moments

I had a lovely evening today. Met up with Soon for a short session of tea albeit with purpose. And then proceeded to meet Terri for dinner.

No details required. The evening's moments are embedded in the heart. :)

Thank you, Munchkins, for a lovely night.

A Celebration of the Past

CNY, Day 8 ~ 9
The Hokkien Big Celebration

I only arrived at Jon's place at 1030pm because I had to put Thea to sleep. I wasn't going to let her miss her rest since both of us had came down with flu. Because Jon & Paul's hasn't picked a guardian angel for themselves, I agreed to 'loan' my guardian angel to them, which means that hubby, Thea and I had to 'fix' ourselves during the time when guardian angel was not around. Because I had to go to Jon's house to pray anyway, I had hubby pick guardian angel up to come home to accompany our sleeping princess while hubby and I headed back to Jon's place to assist in the preparation of the CNY 9th Day prayer.

Fireworks that greeted us shortly after our arrival. :)

Preparations for the prayer

Scattering 'gold paper' a.k.a. heavenly cash in front of the porch to be lit up after prayers.

Offerings to the Gods/Heavens

Everybody lighting up the joss sticks for prayers after 12am.

This is dad's very2 old friend - uncle Lou Kam. He was tasked to light up the firecrackers.
Oh yes, please ignore the 'NO PARKING' sign. ;p

The 'gold money' being burnt as 'offerings' to the Gods/Heavens.

My family celebrates this 9th Day prayer in a very elaborated way since I was a little girl. Friends would come by our house on the 8th Day night annually to dine with us and then join us in our prayer followed by supper which would consist of freshly cut roasted pork, duck, chicken, fish and etc. Yes, it is enough to feed an entire village. To prepare for this event is no joke, because there are lots to prepare (obviously!). Since no guardian angels around to assist, I offered myself as 'ah sei' a.k.a. guardian angel for the night albeit the flu! ;p

There was soooo much food that we had to pack and give away to our guests (to be honest, this itself is a yearly ritual too). Everybody keeps saying, "aiyoooo, so much food! so much food!" and Paul was like, "you wanna take back? you wanna take back?". Both her fridges were stuffed with food even from the eve of CNY! So you can imagine!

And I had not done so much cleaning for a long time. Thankfully, some guests helped and Jon had 2 male workers from the office to assist too. Without these 2 guardian angels, I think Paul and I would have fainted. Where were the guys (as in hubby, Jon, Bee & dad)?!? Oh, they were all drinking and gambling away. :-s

To be honest, I do not understand why this celebration still exists. Long ago as I understood it, we give gratitude to the heavens for 'saving' the Hokkien clan because they were able to escape from their enermies by hiding themselves in a sugarcane plantation. I don't know how long ago this happened, but this year is already 2010. Why are we still celebrating that day? So much has evolved since then! Why not celebrate (without the josssticks, the burning, the firecrackers, the candles and extra food for prayers - seriously, some loving thoughts and actions for Mother Nature?) the gratitude and appreciation for what we already have NOW? The past has gone, the future doesn't exist and what we have, is actually just this present 'Now', yes?

I was surprised when one of dad's friend also highlighted to dad that this kind of celebration is history, he said, "Dom, it's history! Let's celebrate just for the sake of having a party and enjoy ourselves because the only thing we have now is the present!!" Apparently, he is a Maoist. First time I heard it. What he explained is also similar to what I believe - live in the present. :) Kudos Uncle Jimmy!!

Prosperity

The Sun rises over the Earth;

The Image of Prosperity,

Thus the superior man himself

Brightens his bring virtue.

***

Your own prosperity depends on using the gifts already in your hand generously.

The more you assist others to flourish,

the more, in return, you will receive

ongoing support from the people you cherish.

Modesty

Within the Earth, a Mountain;

The Image of Modesty.

Thus the superior man reduces that which is too much,

And augments that which is too little,

He weighs things and makes them equal.

***

Be natural and unpretentious.

Be aware of your strengths and weaknesses.

Flaunt not your achievements or undervalue yourself.

If you have a light, then let it shine.

But do not set yourself up to outshine others.

If - A poem received

if you can disentangle

yourself from your selfish self

all heavenly spirits

will stand ready to serve you

if you can finally hunt down

your own beastly self

you have the right

to claim Solomon's Kingdom

you are that blessed soul who

belongs to the garden of paradise

is it fair to let yourself

fall apart in a shattered house

you are the bird of happiness

in the magic of existence

what a pity when you let

yourself be chained and caged

but if you can break free

from this dark prison named body

soon you will see

you are the sage and the fountain of life.

~Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi~

Aiyoo... got some more of welcoming Tiger wor...

CNY, Day 5

I finally couldn't take it anymore. I was home the whole day, with nothing to do. I was watching AOD over and over again!! I think to the extend that I was probably able to memorise some of the verses of the series! :-s

Received an invitation from JH, but could not decide if we could attend a gambling session since hubby was working the next morning. :-/

Then Pauline came over. At the same time, I chatted with Alina on the MSN. It was a spontaneous thing. I asked her if we could bring forward our dinner date with was supposed to be today to yesterday. And then I even typed, 'let's go karaoke!' And she was like 'huh? just the 2 of us?!?'. So that's it, I made plans for the night, and then also made plans with Jon & Paul for the next day. ;p It was fast and inspired - lols - by boredom!! Lols!

Alina swung by to pick me up. We arrived at Neway 15-20 mins later. After we grabbed our food at the buffet counter, we sang our hearts - actually, more like shouted our lungs sore from approximately 8pm to 11:30pm. Non-stop! Lols. We were singing songs from our times like True Blue, the Locomotion, Crazy for You, some rock songs from Bon Jovi and etc. It was hilarious! We laughed and screamed and shouted all the way!! It was really fun! She turned to me and said, 'eh, I think we should do this once-a-month!'. Singing is always an 'on' thing for me.. lols! so any sort of procrastination, discussion or debate were not necessary! Lols!

Bestie Alina & me.

She actually sings well. She just thinks she doesn't!!

After the session, we decided to head to a mamak stall near my place to chat. We hung out till 130am! Lols! Madness! I really appreciate her acknowledgment in our meeting up quite frequently these days. To be honest, I wasn't hanging out with my friends as often ever since Thea was born. You know, the mommy-thing. And then, the wife-thing. Just always between these two! Lols! Having a husband who works on a roster is in many ways rewarding (we get to spend time on weekdays when all other husbands are working) and also frustrating (we don't get to hang out on weekends, public holidays, festive seasons or go out with our friends as much as we like on their normal regular off-working hours if he is working). I am not complaining though. I love that we are not succumbed to the normal working hours because we enjoy the free and easy traffic flow and lesser crowds in malls. And, he gets to send Thea to school on the days that he is off too! That to me, is sweetness! :) But I guess there were times when my friends and I get frustrated that we don't get to catch up with each other so much. Nevertheless, I am very blessed with understanding friends. :) And now that Thea is more independent, it gives me peace of mind to go ahead to do my own stuffs or to make my own plans. It's bliss in many ways!

CNY, Day 6
Which is today. Despite sleeping only at about 3am this morning, I woke up at 7am because I promised Angel to be at the centre by 8am. And guess what, I had a dream about Kevin Cheng!!! Urgh!!! Just as I was about to speak to him, my blardy alarm rang!!! Urghhhhhhhhh!!!!!

As promised, I was at the centre at about 8:05am (according to my watch, that is). After helping out with dainty stuffs, I took out the new toy and started snapping away.. they called me, *ahem* the Resident Photographer!! Lols! What a boost to the ego! Lols!

We were greeted by 2 dancing lions and the bald guy.. lols! Everyone enjoyed the company and the dancing lions (as what Thea calls them). I was just busy snapping away. Sorry guys, too many pics so won't share most of them here. I don't think they are very good anyway but I particularly liked the below pictures though. So, I hope you will like them too. :)

Most of them crowded around the lion while 'it' was doing 'its' thing.. if you know what I mean.

The bald man and one of the guests.

My darling Angel & the lion.

My teachers, LF & BB with the lion.

It was a fun and successful event, I'd say. It was my first time attending the lion dance performance at Clove&Clive. Everyone was busy stuffing angpows into both the lions' mouth! It was hilarious and a totally new sight for me! Never witnessed such things before (as in the angpows in the lion's mouth), so it was a pretty good experience. :)

Left Clove&Clive at about 11ish. Took Thea & guardian angel to Midvalley to run some errands. So blessed again with the smooth flow of traffic. :)

Tonight, will surely be another fun night for me with Jon & Pauline. Just can't wait!!

More of the Tiger! Grrrrr....

CNY, Day 3

The plan was nearly altered. But with much persistency and with the common objective of everybody wanting to just spend time with each other, we stuck on to the plan - despite some of us having to 'work' a little prior the fun. :-s

Dad had a few friends over, and Paul was wearing out due to the hectic first 2 days of CNY. So some of us decided to help her out! :) Yeah, we are nice, I know.. ;p

Paul washing the dishes after dinner.

Pris was drying up the dishes while, ahem, her boss looks on.

Ok, although my face is not in the pictures, I cleaned up too, OK!! Lols! Bee, too.. just that someone (meaning, me!!) had to be the one holding up the new toy right? Lols! Bee dried up the dishes before Pris came behind to help. The moment he saw her, he annouced that his 'maid' had arrived! Lols!

The miniature pears were really yummy! Only found in the Kok's residence on this day.. LOLS!

Fruits we had after dinner

After cleaning up, we decided to play MONOPOLY!!!!! I know, a bit old school, but that was the game that accomodated the 6 of us - Jon, Paul, Bee, Pris, hubby & I. And the property tycoon was my bro, Bee. All of us bankrupted. ;p

Monopoly

The game ended at about 2am. We had loads of fun, laughing at each other and with each other. I loved moments like these. Maybe it is because we, the siblings hardly ever get to gather like these without talking about serious stuffs. Most of the time, we are either discussing about things getting done, or things that had gone wrong. So this day was good. :) Looking forward to many more good times like these. :)

CNY, Day 4
Morning/Afternoon
Jaruwan, Yap & baby Jian Sen came over for lunch. It was good catching up with them. They could have stayed longer for a few games of mahjong but they had to leave because they were going to watch a CNY movie with Yap's siblings. Ah, it's nice to hear that other people are spending time with their siblings too. :)

These are pictures I took just as Jaruwan was heading out. I couldn't resist the inspiration. ;p

Hope you liked the pictures as much as I do! :)

Evening
Had dinner with in-laws. Finally met up with Siang, SIL's bf for the new year. It's good to see him and eat together again for the festive season. :)

Valentine, Valentine!!

As everybody knows, this year's Valentine's Day falls on the same exact day as our CNY. Nevertheless, darling hubby never fails to surprise me with beautiful flowers (though they arrived a day earlier) to remind me that I, am the very Valentine in his heart; so is he of mine. :)

Valentine Flowers from Hubby. :)

Don't know since when, hubby prefers to give me flower baskets rather than bouquets. I told him jokingly that if he keeps giving me anymore flower baskets, I won't know where to put those baskets anymore!! Lols!

My last entry had a hint of Thea and my visit to the flower shop while hubby, parents-in-law and SIL were praying at another temple. You see, I bought this stalk of rose (the one she is sitting next to below) for her to give to hubby as a Valentine gift from her to her dada. :)

Thea & her Valentine gift to her dada.

Unfortunately, while I was still snapping away various posts of her and the stalk of rose, she turned and the vase which contained the beautiful rose fell and broke into pieces. Lols! Nah, I wasn't angry with her. Neither was hubby despite that guardian angel was not around (she was staying over at Jon & Paul's to help them out for the CNY celebration). Hubby and I co-operatively cleaned the floor and the glass pieces of the vase. It was all done in a jiffy. 

However, I was not done with photography.

You see, when Thea presented the rose to hubby when hubby turned up at the flower shop, she sulked. Hubby asked her why, she turned to point at a bouquet of roses and said, "Dada, I want you to buy me those flowers for Valentine too." Hubby, parents-in-law, SIL and I burst out in laughters... lols! So yeah, hubby bought her that bouquet she wanted alright... and here's the picture. The tall rose that stands out was the one she gave hubby. I stuck it there in the middle of the bouquet because the vase broke (remember?!?) and I didn't have any other vase to put just a stalk of rose.. lols!

Thea's Valentine bouquet from hubby and Hubby's stalk of rose in the middle of the bouquet.

So, each of us in the family received flowers! It was a good laugh and a joyful night, oppps... early mornin' for us, I mean. Happy belated Valentine's Day to you. We hope you had fun too. :)