Happy Chinese New Year!!! 大年初一

Finally, my favourite day of the year is here!

I woke up a bit later than usual and so, we were in a rush to go out and did not do our annual family photo-taking in front of the decorated wall. What a waste... I didn't get to take a photo of me in my cheong-sam too.

Anyway, before we leave the house, my brother and I would 'bai nian' to my parents and get our first ang-pows of the year.

At first, my brother and I wanted to rent a car as my dad no longer has his company vehicle. However, we made our decision a bit too late and rental price was out of our budget so we thought of taking cabs around instead. Luckily, a few days before chinese new year, dear Aunt Choo called and offered us her extra car. So, we ended up driving a quite new Mazda-6 around on the eve and the first two days of chinese new year.

Thanks Aunt Choo! I love you and I know you love me too!

Almost everyone had reached the headquarters (paternal grandma's place at Tampines) and were waiting for us to go to the next stop. We had a quick breakfast that grandma prepared, the usual fried bee hoon and whatever fried food left over from the night before. There's also the standard red date longan tea my grandma made but I had no time to drink it. Luckily, I had a cup of it before I left my own house earlier.

After saying lots of 'happy new year' and getting ang-pows from my aunts, uncles and married cousins, we prepared to go to the next stop - my god grandparents' house at Bedok.

My god grandparents (my dad's godparents) are actually my dad's uncle and aunt (my grandfather's cousin). That's why the whole extended family goes along to visit them every year too.

When we arrived, the living-room was cramped with almost not enough seats for everyone. This happens every year. It's another round of 'happy new year' and ang-pow receiving. Usually, the visit will last around an hour before everyone goes off to the maternal side.

My maternal grandparents stay just a few blocks away from my god grandparents. In fact, all the grandparents know each other. Almost all of us used to stay in Bedok too, with Adeline's family in block 1, my grandma house on 4th floor of block 2, 5th uncle in the unit just beside her, my family at 7th floor of the same block and my godparents at block 3. It was so fun then...

We had lunch at my maternal grandparents house. As usual, we were the first family to reach. My dad left soon after lunch and went back to headquarters to report for mahjong duty. My brother and I stayed with my mum to wait for the rest of my aunts. This year is quite lucky for us as we managed to meet almost all family from my maternal side. They sometimes went to my grandparents house on another day.

At around 5pm, my brother, mum and I took a cab back to headquarters to report strength. We had dinner before going home at around 9pm.

And, that's how I spend the first day of chinese new year every year!


At headquarters, after dinner.
From left
On couch: cousin Jassica, cousin Eunice, Joanne (cousin Lawrence's girlfriend) holding baby Chloe and Juliana (cousin Ethan's heavily pregnant wife)
Standing: Rita (cousin Vincent's wife), ME and cousin Adeline.

Happy Chinese New Year!!!

I missed last year's Chinese New Year celebration with my family but I'm back for this year's! Every year's schedule is the same old routine but I'm not bored of it. In fact, I love predictable and routine. Haha...

Before the festive begins, there will be lots of preparation going on and, to me, most important of it will be buying of new clothes! It's always a challenge trying to find clothes that are appropriate for the new year and still 'wow' people. Previous years, I always 'wow' by wearing very little and flashy. This year, I decided to go for demure look and bought a modern 'cheongsam' from IceLemonTee.

Reunion dinner is as usual, at grandma's house with the usual sharkfin's soup, braised duck, curry, fried bee hoon and other fried food. The only unusual food there would be the salad. My mum made it for Christmas 2008 and they liked it so it was back by popular demand. These people never eat food according to festivals. They just cook and eat whatever is well-liked by most of us.

Two months ago, grandma told me that she will be ordering buffet for reunion dinner because she is too old to labour away in the kitchen. Everyone loves that idea, especially all her daughter-in-laws (my aunts) who would have to help in the kitchen. Then, last month, she suddenly changed her mind and said she wants to cook instead. Everyone can only speculate on her reasons and accept her decisions since she's the eldest. Lots of preparation, cooking and cleaning that day. Next year, I'm going to make sure we order buffet.

I had forgotten to bring my camera to the reunion dinner so I had only uploaded one photo here, taken from cousin Adeline. Dear Ade, remember to send me the rest when you are done with your projects!

After dinner, it's back to my own house for preparations to pray and also, some final touches to the decorations. As the art director of the house, I'm in charge of decorating with my brother as assistant.

After praying to the gods, we watched the television while trying to 'shou shui'. It's weird how I can stay up very late on normal days but always feel very very sleepy when it comes to Chinese New Year's eve. I think it's a test on my determination. Haha... Anyway, I went to sleep at around 3am.


From Left: ME, Jassica and Adeline. My mum dubbed us as 'The Three Fiercest'. It's true that all three of us are really spoilt with a quick temper and very good at sulking when we were little. The sulking gets better as we grow older though. One advice, never try to piss all three of us off at the same time. Your ears might drop from the combined berate delivered!

14th July 2008 - Sunshine Coast

Our second day was spent in Sunshine Coast, a beautiful place full of natural sights such as mountains, plantations, beaches, trees, trees and more trees.

We started our day later than scheduled as I had a hard time finding our car rental company, Avis. We were supposed to collect our rented car the day before but we missed the opening hours and so had to collect this morning instead.


First stop, Glass House Mountains. I love looking at mountains. It was supposed to be winter but you wouldn't guess it, looking at my brother and I.



Love the view behind them. Haha...

Can you see the rainbow in this picture? Clue: it's not in the sky!

The tourist look-out of Glass House Mountains.

Look at the dark clouds... We were really lucky that it did not rain!

Some of the toilets at Glass House Mountains had no flush systems. Instead of flushing, you had to pour a cup of compost (can't remember what it consists of) into the toilet bowl everytime you finish your business.

The car we rented from Avis was driven by Sindy most of the time. My family took another car, borrowed from my friends. In hindsight, we should have rented a 12-seater van instead of taking two cars so that everyone can be together. I thought it'll be too difficult to handle but I forgot that both my dad and brother are perfectly capable of driving big vehicles.


Sindy as the driver and Alan as the navigator, helping her to keep an eye on our vehicle which took the lead. We rented a GPS unit and I was the one in charge of it. I had to confess that I took quite a long time to familiarise myself with it.

Our second stop, Strawberry Fields! That's right, this place is named as just 'Strawberry Fields'.

It's the season for strawberries when we were there so you can see workers picking the ripe strawberries for packing.

Before picking our own strawberries, we decided to have some ice-cream first. I simply love this ice-cream with REAL strawberries in it. All of us had one, including my parents. Can see my dad enjoying his ice-cream in the background?

Look at Alan's face! He wanted to do an individual shot but Sindy jumped in and thus, that expression.


Finally, we proceeded to the fields after finishing our ice-cream. My parents really enjoyed themselves there, especially my mum who loves strawberry. This trip spoilt her because after this, she had no taste for strawberries which were not freshly picked.

My brother with my sunglasses. Everyone admitted that this is his best-looking photo to date. But of course, his personal stylist (in case you didn't know, it's ME) is back!

Trying to perform stunt by passing the tray to Alan from that distance without falling flat on my face.

The strawberries we picked. Yummy!

The strawberries costed us AUD12 per kilogram. The strawberry patches were numbered and rotated to be picked. We picked our strawberries from patch 16 that day.

Last stop, Big Pineapple, which is recommended in travel books. We went to Bee Factory before this but it was a wasted trip as the factory was relocated to New South Wales and we didn't know that beforehand. We were so disappointed when we reached the old Bee Factory and saw that it was vacant.

Entrance of the Big Pineapple, which showcased some history of the place. However, the interior was not very well-maintained and there were not many tourists around.

The Pineapple Shop which sells lots of pineapple products and sweets at a very low price. We bought lots of things from the shop to bring home as souvenirs.

We went back to rest very early this day as I planned a very tiring trip for everyone the next day. Stay tuned...

13th July 2008 - Brisbane City

Back in Brisbane city with my family who joined us in the morning. Special thanks to Ian, a dear friend from RCC, who drove me to the airport early in the morning to pick my family up. Sad to say, my meeting with my family at the airport was not like what I expected too. No hugs were exchanged as we were in a hurry. Ian was late in picking up other friends from Gold Coast airport, which is around an hour's drive from Brisbane airport. My family took a later flight at the last minute and my other friends were much earlier than usual and that caused the rush.


Finally all met up and ready to go explore Brisbane city. The serviced apartment we rented looks quite like a chalet and is at the outskirts of the city.


We had to walk around 15 minutes to reach the main shopping area. My dad kept walking very fast and was always the first while my mum walked really slow and was always the last. I felt so stressed, trying to keep everyone together. So glad that my BFFs were there to keep my mum company while I try to keep up with my 'gan cheong' dad.


Halfway to the main shopping area, with Alan as photographer.

Brisbane's Central train station. Have to alight here if you want to reach the city.

Embassy Palace Backpackers. We would have stayed there if not for my dad and brother. Seriously, we were very glad that they were adamant over not staying in backpackers as we were quite sick of it from the experiences in Melbourne and Sydney.

My tour group (BFFs and family) was really amazed when they saw this for the first time. People actually crossed traffic lights diagonally here because cars from all four directions stopped at the same time.

Pigs & Whistles, quite a famous restaurant pub in Brisbane, although I've never eaten there before. Sindy, trying to imitate pig on the signboard.

Having lunch at the foodcourt inside Myer Centre, the busiest shopping centre in Queen Street Mall, Brisbane city.

Outside Conrad Treasury Casino. My family and I went in while they waited outside. They will have to put their bags in lockers if they want to go in and since they did not have much interest in casinos, they decided not to go in.

On the bridge leading to South Bank, another tourist attraction which we'll go another day.

They were waiting for my dad, brother and I to return with the car. We had to go back to my place to pick up my things and return my keys to my landlord.

Had dinner at Nando's, one of my favourite restaurant. I thought of buying their special chili sauce, peri-peri sauce, back to Singapore but did not do it in the end.

The chicken that Ivy was holding is Nando's trademark. It's also our order's number.

Nando's chicken and peri-peri chips. You can actually choose the degree of spiciness for the chicken. My favourite is extra hot. I thought I'll miss this the most but surprisingly, I did not even crave for it once.

Sindy asked her mum to pass this thick jacket to my mum, after she experienced the crazy coldness of Melbourne and Sydney. However, she did not even get to wear it once as Brisbane was not cold at all! According to my friends, the weather turned cold after I left. We couldn't stop laughing at her after that. Haha...

25th December 2008 - Christmas with my big crazy family

Was really happy that I get to spend Christmas day with my big crazy family. I've always felt that Christmas eve should be spent with close friends and Christmas day with family. This Christmas day gathering was even more meaningful as it had been a very long while since all of us met up. We used to gather every Sunday but it stopped a while ago. Missed those times...


Went to collect this turkey from NTUC with aunt Choo and she was shocked when she saw this. She thought the turkey would be already roasted and not look so raw. Lucky for us, aunt Choo just bought a big multi-purpose microwave oven not too long ago so we did not have to mutilate the turkey.


Cousin Lawrence and girlfriend caught stealing food! He even dared to say, ‘连偷吃都那么帅’. wth... But they were not the only two stealing food though...


Cousin Vincent and wife, Rita. Sweet couple...


My dear grandma actually initiated this photo herself. When she saw me holding my camera she put on the Santa hat and asked me to take a photo of her standing beside the tree. My loving grandma who managed to confuse me with her sometimes old-fashioned and sometimes open-minded thinkings. I love her no matter what and I know she loves all of us dearly too!


Now for the other love of my life... Baby Chloe! I just love taking photos of her and now then I realised why my aunts and uncles love to take my photos when I was little. Little princess refused to smile for us...


Looking at her grandpa (my uncle) who's trying hard to make her smile...


Looking at her mum (my cousin Jassica) who succeeded in making her lips move...


And finally, she smiled! So adorable... I thought I got the most adorable photo, until I saw my cousin Adeline's blog. The one she got was so cute that I melted. So jealous... Ade, if you are watching this, I'm openly challenging you to see who can take the cutest baby photo!


The aunties at work. From left, my dear mummy, aunt Yan, my godma, aunt Jasmine and aunt Choo. By the way, the gathering was held at aunt Choo's big house.


Lawrence with baby Chloe. Jassica and I both agreed that baby Chloe looks a bit like Lawrence when he was that age.


Finally, the feast is ready! Whoever heard of Christmas feast with curry chicken and braised duck? Always amazed by what my family managed to come up with...


Tucking in...

Big baby Felicia meets small baby Chloe... Quite funny because Felicia keeps carressing Chloe's face and Chloe tried to do the same to Felicia. However, Chloe is still too small to be able to control her strength properly and so ended up scratching Felicia instead. Luckily, Felicia is a mild-tempered girl, unlike her aunts (ME included).

Mummy's second contact with baby Chloe. First time was when Chloe was still a newborn. I think Mummy is half in love too.

Uncle Hwa, the doting dad who spoilt cousin Adeline endlessly, who is also one of my favourite uncle and my dad's best friend in the family. Jassica was initially tasked with cutting the watermelon and uncle Hwa entered the kitchen to 'supervise'. Jassica roped me in to help her and my mum followed out of curiosity. In the end, my mum cut half of the watermelon and uncle Hwa cut the other half. These 'adults' just can never let us do anything ourselves. In their eyes, we will forever be 'the kids'.

My dad's first photo with baby Chloe. He was smoking when Chloe was carried out so he quickly finished his cigarette and demanded to carry her. Who can resist such a cute chubby baby?

Log cake from Bengawan Solo, sponsored by Ethan and Juliana.

Grandma with her first great-grandchild, Felicia.

Aunt Yan, mummy of cousin Adeline, the official 'cake-cutter' of the family. She tried to get me to take over her but I refused the position because I think she's still too young to retire.

Oldest with the youngest.

Video of our log-cake cutting ceremony which turned out to be more like a birthday cake cutting ceremony.

Special thanks to aunt Choo who made this gathering possible...

I do love my big crazy family even though there are problems within it. Every moment spent together is fun and sometimes crazy. Even though some of us may not contact each other very often, we always know that they will be there for us when we need them. I'm so glad I'm back now so they can't have gatherings without me anymore!