A Myriad of Activity

Craving : Beer batter fish, prawns, anything...:P

Wow. Really need to start forcing myself to blog more regularly. Then I won't have to try and cram a weeks plus full of stuff into one posting, each which could have taken up a whole post by itself. It was really great having one week off for just fun and relaxation. In fact, the activities even started on the eve of the eve of Chinese New Year. I know I wasn't too optimistic about how my Chinese New Year celebrations were gonna pan out, but in the end, things turned out pretty well.

So let's get the ball rolling shall we? The Friday before CNY was a pretty special occasion. My niece whom I haven't seen in years was back for CNY and actually had time to meet us for dinner! Woo Hoo! So the gang got together and we had a makan at "Sam You" restaurant in PJ State. Expected about 11 people, but only 9 turned up so the food was a bit much. Was abit on the pricey side too. The catching up was nice and the fellowship was great. It's always good to see friends again, and to know that after all those years apart, you're still friends. Also to top it off, an interesting piece of news regarding one of the couples was revealed. We'll not so much revealed as "bounced" into revelation. So to those two I say "Congratulations!". I don't have a picture of everyone who was there, so instead I'll just attach a picture of myself with my niece.. :)

She had to leave after dinner though and so she couldn't join us for the next part of the night. Usually after dinner activities with my gang consists of Magic: The Gathering. This night however it was different. We had planned to watch a movie, but on the way there, we saw a massive jam and took a detour to a friend's place. All set for another night of cards, right? Wrong! Well at least not in the normal MTG sense and this is because we had...tada! Casino Wong!

Serious. No joke. It was a portable Casino, with roulette, bacarat, black jack, poker chips, everything. I think everyone who was there was just as surprised. So needless to say, that was what kept us occupied the rest of the night. And though no money changed hands, it was truly lots of fun.

Ok so on to CNY eve. I had been expecting a pretty quiet family dinner with only Mum and Dad and myself. Dissapointing for a CNY eve dinner. Especially if you are used to really large noisy, bustling family gatherings. However I was informed that a couple of families were coming over for dinner! What a pleasant surprised. The food fare wasn't the standard without the loh neng (braised egg), loh ak (braised duck), te kar lao chor (stewed pig trotters with vinegar), te tor teng (pig stomach soup), phak cham kai (boiled chicken), hai siem (sea cucumber), etc. but it was pretty special too with great veggies and a roast goose and a suckling pig. Even though the number of people there were smaller then usual, but at least there was some semblance of the CNY mood, and for that I'm truly grateful. CNY just isn't the same without family.

The next day was a quite dinner though. With just my parents and myself. We were lazy to cook or have left overs so we went in search of food. Surprisingly, we actually managed to find an open Chinese food store. Prices were jacked up by 28% percent!!! Better then nothing I guess. Interesting deco though, which is why my parents seem to be in Hong Kong instead of a table.

Next day was my birthday. Yay for me! A quarter of a century old with still so much more to do with my life. My birthdays are generally quiet events. This is because it usually falls during the CNY period or holidays or there abouts. So people are are usually busy with CNY and my birthday passes by quietly. This was especially true during my schooling days. With my birthday falling on the 2nd day of CNY this year. I fully expected it to be a quiet affair. I was asked out to a movie and Yam Cha by Weng Soon. Declined the movie but decided to go for the yum cha session. I got there early, read some books. When Weng Soon, Mun Onn and Mun Fai finally arrived we chatted a bit and they bought their tickets. Then we proceeded to the go yum cha. Imagine my surprise when I rounded a corner then suddenly heard a bunch of fellas singing happy birthday! I turned and there was Joshua, Li Yee, Shelby and Yueen San hiding behind the corner. I was shocked and I was happy. Thanks a lot you guys. We later ajourned to paddingtons where this pics were taken.

Later the group broke off. Some went for the movie, while others came over to my place. Where we played a really stupid drinking water with cookies game. It was all in good fun though.

The day after I managed to meet up with and old friend who was back from the states for CNY. Still as skinny as ever with the same mannerisms I present to you Kelvin.

Went for a drink with him and Kev and did lots of catching up. After which we actually went jalan-jalan in Atria to see how the place was now these days. Most shops were closed though, although we found an open remote control store and had some fun with the cars in there.

As you can see my narrations are getting shorter and shorter, this post is also pretty darn long by now. But there is just one more bit to go. The friday before the holidays ended, Charles, Serena and myself spent most of the day together. After someone made a purchase that made someone else grin like a Cheshire cat for the whole day...we later decided on a whim to cook dinner. Well actually Serena said "We go to Charles' house then I cook larr". So we said ok. Somewhere between that and the getting the groceries it became "Su can cook also right?" and after groceries it became "Su is the head chef".

The cooking was fun, I got to open an almost 10 year bottle of wine, just for marinade. Charles also kena con and got involved in the cooking. Pretty much I did the lamb chops while Charles and Serena did the rest. There were plenty of hillarious moments, quite a few that came from banana flavoured milk. Suffice to say, lucky we caught it in time or our mashed patatoes would have been mashed banana flavoured potatoes. In the end we had, Salad with coleslaw dressing, Mushroom soup with extra mushrooms, mashed potatoes, lamb chops and pink guava juice. Everyone was involved and it was great fun, really must do it again. Yay!