Awesome Double Date on Valentine's Day

My brother blogged about our double date with our cousins on the Valentine's day in his blog the other day, and I decided to blog about it in this blog as well, before blogging about my short holiday cum mother's birthday trip to Kuala Lumpur which has just over last few days.

My brother was right when he called it a double date - since we have two guys and two girls for a hang out session. It just that it coincide with the Valentine's day. Well, to be honest the day itself is full of surprises and an interesting one - well, at least to me.

Our awesome possum picture!!

First, it so happen we met our relative from KL whom we had our family gathering the day before at the Foh San Restaurant. And the next surprise and I think it only applies to me as somehow my brother made and my cousin was talking about meeting out and hanging out on that day.



Anyhow, we fetched them at their hotel and had our lunch at the Sushi King in Ipoh Parade, mainly because we will be hanging out at the nearest Starbucks there as well. I don't really realized it was Valentine's day until I saw many stalls setup to sell flowers and gifts and then my cousins been talking about it.

 

Scanning for cash on the go :P

And so, the following surprises, I'll just take it directly from my brother's blog, as those really best sums up the whole thing.

"Flowers are involved...I still remember that there are moments when hands are hold together...ahem!! and yup, the outing ended in a hotel."

But.......it's not exactly what everyone might be thinking. We just dropped my cousin back to her hotel and I so happened to accompany her back to her hotel room. Overall, it was fun meeting and hanging out with the two of them although it does get a bit awkward "dating" cousins during the Valentine's day.

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My Chinese New Year Celebration [Day 2 and Day 3]

This post continue from the previous blog post of My Chinese New Year Celebration [Eve and Day 1].

After all the feasting on the eve of the Chinese New Year and the first day of the Chinese New Year, we don't really stop there. I think part of the Chinese New Year is about food and drink, as we stock up our house with soft drinks, mandarin oranges, cookies and other food.

On the second day of the Chinese New Year, we just re-heat the leftover food for our lunch and then as usual, I will watch the television. Anyway, most of the day time was spent at home because my aunt (my dad's sister) and our cousins came over, so we basically chat throughout the afternoon until about dinner time when they will go to my uncle's house for dinner.

We had our dinner at Nando's Chicken, when at first we plan to dine at Dragon-I, but the Dragon-I was fully booked until after 8.30p.m, which is way after our dinner time. And so finally, we don't really have much choice in Aeon Station 18 except Nando's.

Menu

Dinner

As usual, after dinner, we will take a walk around the shopping mall, with my parents doing some groceries while we were supposed to go to Faceshop to buy something, but unfortunately most of the shops are still closed, so we kind of like window shopping before we have our coffee session at the Starbucks.

Queue to order our Starbucks

Jam when we are on the way back

Next day, we woke up early morning and get ready to go to Sam Poh Tong, as it is my grandma's "last seven". So, we met my mum's siblings' family at Sam Poh Tong and have some prayers had our breakfast at the nearest Old Town Kopitiam, as the coffee shop that we planned to have our breakfast was packed.

And finally, we had our dinner at my uncle's place and he himself will be the cook for the day - he has always been the cook most of the time during the festive seasons at my grandmother's house. We had quite a good and simple meal and time together before it's time to send my younger sister to the bus station as she will be heading back to Singapore.

Salad prawn......taste very good - one of my favourite

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My Chinese New Year Celebration [Eve and Day 1]

It is a different kind of Chinese New Year celebration for me and my family this time, we are not supposed to have the celebration, but in order to respect our grandparents, we do it a little bit low profile. This is in fact the first time we celebrate the Chinese New Year without our grandparents, so we kinda spend most of the time at my house, with my super mum as the cook for our meals most of the time.

Homemade roast pork

On the Chinese New Year eve, it is kinda a bit rush for us, as my sister from Singapore called us early in the morning informing us that she bought the wrong flight ticket and she will wait in the Changi Airport to see if there is flight ticket back to Ipoh available, while at the same time buying the bus ticket. Thank God that someone left Singapore to Ipoh few days earlier, so she has got her flight ticket finally and was able to join the family for dinner.

We have our dinner at the house and we are served we some of the best meal we have ever had, with my mum as the cook. We even have home made roasted pork as one of the dishes, and like most Chinese, prawn is definitely part of the menu. Our cousin also join us for the dinner and we really have great deal of quality time feasting and chatting with each other.

Supermum starting to cook

Chopping chicken into pieces

Dinner

To usher in the year of Snake, we have simple some snacks and tea as well as red wine while watching some Chinese New Year movies on our big TV at the living hall. This is something that we always do every year to usher in the lunar year.

Snacks, tea and wine

Next day, we had lunch at the house together with my mum's sister's family and chat a while before they left to go shopping at the Kinta City while we watch movie at home, while getting ready to have our dinner at the Fairway Restaurant inside the Perak Royal Golf Club. The dinner is not exceptionally great, but was good and it was also another great time spend together.

Beautiful scenery in the Perak Royal Golf Club

That wraps off what I did in the Chinese New Year eve and on Day one. Will blog more about this year's Chinese New Year's celebration in my upcoming posts.

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Happy Chinese New Year and Gong Xi Fa Cai

Wishing everyone who celebrates the Chinese New Year, a prosperous Chinese New Year and others happy holiday!!

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Happy Chinese New Year

Well, it is now less than 3 hours before we welcome in the year of the Water Dragon which is expected to bring the Chinese a great year. It is another celebration which focused on gathering of the family members and friends.












Yesterday I also went to meet with a friend, he's also my sister's friend and the three of us went to Luen Fong Restaurant in Tanjong Tualang. The place is famous for its fresh prawn as well as some other dishes. Then, my family and I also went visiting my grandparents before doing last minute shopping at Ipoh Parade as well have a cup of Starbucks before going home.









This morning, went to church service as usual, before going to my grandma's place for reunion dinner. Now uploading photos to Facebook while watching I Love Hong Kong.

Wished everyone a prosperous and Happy Chinese New Year and Gong Xi Fa Cai!!!

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Happy Chinese New Year and Gong Xi Fa Cai

Fresh Air....
Fresh Idea....
Fresh Talent....
Fresh Energy....
I wish U to have a .....
Sweetest Sunday,
Marvelous Monday,
Tasty Tuesday,
Wonderful Wednesday,
Thankful Thursday,
Friendly Friday,
Successful Saturday.
Have a great Year. HAPPY NEW YEAR

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Time Flies.....Chinese New Year Is Just Around the Corner

This year I have a feeling that time really flies. I mean, we still have our 24 hours a day, each hour is 60 minute and there are 60 seconds every minute. However I do have a feeling that time just really past by me without me realizing. It was not long before I blogged and wished everyone a Happy New Year, and before that it was Christmas and end of the year holiday season.


One of the reason I have this feeling that time is shorter than it used to be is because the Chinese New Year is just around the corner just about six weeks after Christmas, which makes the transition between Christmas and Chinese New Year is way too short.

Imagine this, before Christmas, we were busy preparing for Christmas, setting up the Christmas tree, presents, food etc. Then right after Christmas, we have to take the tree down, which is time consuming, and then started to put on the Chinese New Year decoration.

My mum, I have to say.....is a supermum. I even skipped to blog our Christmas celebration and preparation, as my brother has already blogged about it in his blog as Christmas Reflection, but my mum managed to get almost everything done from taking down the Christmas tree and decorations and jump start Chinese New Year preparation without the help from her kids, well, I do help out with some decorations and preparation, but mostly is done by her alone.

She even managed to make some home cook cookies with my sister for Chinese New Year and some of the Chinese New Year stuff, not sure what those are called. Talking about it, maybe I should blog about this as well, maybe tomorrow, or later tonight.

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Happy Chinese New Year

I would like to wish every one a very Happy and Prosperous Chinese New Year. Gong Xi Fa Cai!!!

Chinese New Year or Lunar New Year is also celebrated by the Koreans as well.

Some brief information about Chinese New Year. Chinese New Year or the Spring Celebration is the most important traditional Chinese holidays and is celebrated in countries and territories with significant Han Chinese populations, such as Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, Taiwan, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand; as well as cultures with whom the Chinese have had extensive interaction which include Koreans (Seollal), Tibetans and Bhutanese (Losar), Mongolians (Tsagaan Sar), Vietnamese (Tết), and the Japanese before 1873 (Oshogatsu). Chinese New Year is sometimes called the Lunar New Year.

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Preparing For Chinese New Year

As I was writing this post, Chinese New Year is just two weeks away. Seems like times fly, the last round I blog about this cultural festival was last year. This year, I hope to post more about this cultural festival and the background of it instead of just wishing the readers Happy Chinese New Year.

Nien Gao that my mum made

Chinese New Year this year could cost a lot due to inflation, especially food prices which soar about 20%-30% which makes this festival expensive. Anyway, to start with, my family has been busy preparing for this festival, especially my mum. Over the weekends, me and my brother were busy dusting the house and removed the cobwebs. My mum successfully make sticky rice cake or more commonly known as "Nian Gao" today, which is presentable as well, before this she has been trying to make "Nian Gao" - the taste is ok, but looks a bit crumple. There are a lot more to do list on her hand, which unfortunately I will not be available to help her out.

Back to Chinese New Year, I am really looking forward to it and will be taking a week of from work, so it will be a holiday for me as well. As I have mentioned earlier, this year the Chinese New Year could cost a lot, so it is time for us to start thinking of ways to spend smart for this festival season, but at the same time don't look too stingy. I will try to post some of the ways in my Money Master blog. Till then, I'll keep updating this blog on the preparation.

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Chinese New Year Photos - Part 2

Yesterday marked the final day of Chinese New Year which has been ongoing for 15 days. It was consider the so-call Chinese "Valentine's Day" where the females will throw mandarin oranges and the males will be fetching the oranges (of their other half) at the other side. But I think this tradition is not practiced anymore.

Anyway, here are the continuous photos from the Chinese New Year.........

Continue from the "tea" session from Part 1

Getting red packet from parents :)

Next day, at my 1st uncle's house visiting them and my grandparents (father side)........

1st uncle and his family (one of his son don't want to take the picture)


My father, 1st uncle and their parents, my grandparents :)


Me (white shirt) and my brother Kian Hin

At night, we go Old Town Kopitiam "tea" session again............

Tai Ka Jie


Kian Hin and Yen Leng
Mum and Dad


Me and Kian Hin


My younger sister and me :)

2nd day.....prawn "Har"(which sounds like laughter) day at Tualang

The place

Har - sounds like laughter


My cousins


With grandma
The Young family

The Hiong family

Busy eating....Kian Hin is the cameraman because he don't eat prawn


The result from me ..... actually this is 1/3 of it

My cousin camwhoring at my house

That's all the 2 days Chinese New Year photos...

The political situation in Perak is in quite a mess since the Chinese New Year, which I think could be a good topic to blog on my next post. Well, I'll see how as I want to stay as neutral as possible.

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