Long Weekend = Family Time

I had a long weekend this week mainly because I was on leave on Friday :) That day became the 'cousins' outing day. As my young cousins were having the March school holidays break, we decided to go out together just to have a bit of fun. We headed to KBOX for brunch and belted out some of the latest Chinese pop songs. After that was bowling time! I'm not very good at it at all, but we still played 4 games. My highest score was 83...pathetic...haha... Anyway, after the activities, my body totally ached on Saturday and Sunday (!) from the bowling. Terrible :(

Saturday was Dear's cousin's 21st birthday celebration, so we had dinner at the bbq pit they rented. Quite a simple evening spent with the maternal side of the family :) Check out the t-shirt that PaPa was wearing...it glows! Ha Ha...

Finally on Sunday, another round of birthday celebration. This time it's Dear's grandma's birthday lunch at some chinese restaurant at RiverView Hotel. The service there really sucked man...the waitresses also don't smile, all look so serious and 'du lan' : -| As it was alacarte buffet, we were quite pissed at the way they took our orders but yet took so long to deliver some of the dishes! Anyway, other than that, it was still a hearty meal. We end of with a really big family picture:

It's a 'techie' weekend!

I became quite the 'techie' person this weekend with the IT fair going on at Suntec. Dear and I went down on Saturday and it was really packed with people. Quite a lot of people were browsing, while some others made their purchases. We belonged to the latter. Well, actually we were there just to buy new speakers for our desktop and we did get them eventually from CREATIVE. However, after walking around, I started to get very tempted by the notebooks lurking in every other booth... :P After much consideration, we bought an ACER notebook...something that is within our budget and of suitable configuration. Pretty happy after that! Hehe... so it was a techie weekend indeed... :)

元宵节

After 15 days, we've come to the end of Chinese New Year. Today being 元宵节, Dear's family decided to have another round of reunion dinner amongst ourselves at home. Surprisingly, Sudha came with Phyllis today...looks like he has finally recovered from his bout of 'sickness'...haha...Anyway, we had steamboat and also yu sheng. Last day to say Happy New Piggy Year!

CNY gathering

Just had a small gathering at Tracy's place last weekend. It was really nice to meet up with my ex-colleagues again. Amidst having some tea snacks, I also had a good time playing with Tracy's young daughter...she's really such an adorable little gal! :)

新年快乐 万事如意!!!

It's Chinese New Year! So far the first 2 days of the Lunar New Year has been quite alright. Did the usual visiting and eating of snacks and food, plus watching shows and a little bit of gambling. Hehe.. Here's some photos to share over the last few days of activities.

Chinese New Year's Eve: Before dinner, we went to catch a movie (Just follow law). Then we had reunion dinner at Dear's granny place. It ended early, so soon enough, everyone left for home. Ivy came with us and we hung around before catching another movie at night (Protege). Back at home, that's just us clowning around with some of our new year decor...

First Day: The usual motion of visiting begins! We started the morning by visiting my parents home, followed by my maternal grandma who stays nearby. After that, we went to Dear's parents home to bai nian and have breakfast together.

We then headed to Dear's grandma place to bai nian. As many of their relatives gathered there, we stayed for quite a while. Played some blackjack with all the cousins and made a loss of $1! Haha.. Later in the day, we visited Papa's boss house too and they have a little dog that was so shy and timid. But at the same time, it was also cute and obedient and listened to certain commands :) After another stop to Dear's maternal grandma's place, we were finally done for the day!

Second Day: In the late morning, my family dropped by my 2nd uncle's home, allowing me to meet up with them and my cousins whom I did not manage to see on the first day. After that, we joined my parents for lunch at my paternal grandma's place so that we can bai nian at her place.



Could not help playing with my cousin's dwarf hamster...a little slower reaction than my own hammies, but much easier to photograph. Look at how cute he is!

Later in the day, Dear and I went to catch a movie, after which we treated ourselves to a nice meal at Esplanade. Since we were already in that area, our timing was just nice to catch the daily fireworks by the bay. Although not as spectacular as previous ones we've seen, it was still a nice feeling to be there :) Once the fireworks were over, we popped by the River Hongbao Festival just opposite Esplanade. Nothing interesting, but it's just to rub in with the festive atmosphere I guess. There were just so many people everywhere...and the ground was pretty muddy too...yucky...

That more or less wraps up our main Chinese New Year Celebrations. We're glad to still have another 2 more days of holidays though :) Hehe...Anyway, here's wishing everyone good health and lots of wealth in this golden PIGGY year!

Happy Birthday!

It was dear's birthday yesterday and we celebrated after work. A simple dinner outside and then back home for a small surprise :) As it was the eve of CNY eve, my company let us off earlier, so I took the time to get dear a cake...well actually just 2 slices to make it look like a small cake. Haha...

Anyway, it's CNY eve today! How fast ya!

新年快乐 万事如意!!

Valentine's Day : - )

We had a simple V-day celebration again this year.Yesterday, Dear and I cooked our dinner together, just like last year. This time, we specially chose to prepare our dishes from a Spanish cook book that we have - chicken thigh in garlic sauce and also garlic sautee cauliflower! Haha..sounds like quite a bit of garlic, but it actually tastes not bad! Part of it included mixing some white wine to create the taste. Love it! :)

Just a week more to Chinese New Year

Generally, this week has been quite relaxing. We went shopping a few times especially over the last few days to get some last minute stuff. It was also a tiring weekend as we really got down to packing our rooms and throwing away lots of rubbish! We also took time to do up our hair and more shopping! Quite a packed weekend indeed.

Of the many things we bought, we are very pleased with our latest addition - our new orchid! Check out our 'seasonal corner' too with our Chinese New Year decor :P

We also celebrated Dear's birthday in advance with his family...here they are cutting cake at our home. Can you spot a 'special guest' we had?? :P Anywayz, will be planning some stuff for Dear on his actual birthday really really soon... ;)

More Birthdays

This week, we celebrated 2 more birthdays. The first was my Dad's, where we had nice meal with my parents.

Then on Sunday, it was Dear's Grandma birthday. Their relatives booked a chalet at Loyang. It's been really long time since I've been there. I still remember when I was young, my family stayed there before too. It's where each unit is a big bungalow like place with 4 bedrooms and the bbq area just behind, faces the pool.

We took a short walk by the beach and also found someone who left their rabbits out on display! Cute little animals. Reminded me of Peter Rabbit, the character created by Beatrix Potter in her childrens' books. Haha, this came to mind only because we just caught the movie, Miss Potter on Saturday :P

Here's Dear Dear's Grandma and her big 'shou tau' cake!

And finally the Family Photo

Chinatown and a New Cabinet!

We headed down to Chinatown for a walk and to get into the feel of Chinese New Year just a few days ago. Although we did not buy much (we just got a few decor pieces to decorate up the home a bit ), it was still a nice feeling to walk through the streets, seeing how every stall more or less sells the same old stuff..haha.. Yupz...it's just 2 more weeks to Chinese New Year again! I'm half looking forward to it, partly because it's public holidays so no need to work. Which leads me to another point that just came to my mind...lots of movies opening in the next 2 weeks that are worth catching! He He...

The typical 'La Wei' stall selling the stuff you usually eat during Chinese New Year period...

And us in the crowded street

We also bought a new display cabinet last week and this week, it arrived in our home! Quite happy with this buy as we were considering such a cabinet to display some of our stuff...especially Dear's precious Gundam :) Still waiting for him to fix up the one I bought him :)