When old pals meet again...

It was a crazy crazy evening when these old pals meet again. Just last evening, we turned Ban Seng Restaurant @ Boon Keng upside down. You bloody rascals are parents now and worst, hello Anne >>>; a grandma.... OMG!!! GRANDMA!!!!!!

Okay.. okay... you lovely young people.... WWWWhhaaaatttt!!!!!!!! The total age of this bunch is at least 450 years old. I better stop writing, if not all of you would whack me at the next gathering. Bye for now.

Birthday

It is the 7th day of the Lunar New Year which is notably everyone's birthday and a day to toss yusheng. Margaret chose to lo-hei at my mother-in-law's place. Present were our children and their maternal grandparents. Let's toss for good luck for the younger ones and good health always for the older folks. Huat ah!!!





Our family celebrated Margaret's birthday with a dinner buffet at Kiseki Japanese Restaurant@ The Heeren. The initial plan was to have it at Buffet Town@ Raffles' City but it was fully booked. Overall the food and ambience were good. At the end of the day, all of us had bloated stomachs. More importantly, the birthday girl was happy and smiling all evening. I just realised that I didn't take any picture of our children and Sheryl earlier. Argh!!!!

Everlasting smile

It is supposed to be an auspicious Dragon Year for me. To date, there isn't any lady luck and I lost a few tens of dollars in gambling together with bets on 4D/ Toto. Believing my luck would change for the better, I took a photograph of the Good Fortune Buddha and brought it home. And now I am sharing it with whoever needs his blessing. You'll never know. Big money! Let's bang on the S$8.8 million Toto draw on 3 Febraury 2012. Smile, an everlasting smile......

The lions are busy

1st day of work

The first day of work in the Year of the Dragon. Fengshui Master wrote that my year will be average should I start work today. I am fine with it. My workplace was pretty quiet. Luckily a good friend Francis Koh visited me and that's how I killed my time in the afternoon.

In the evening, I declined a few appointments. Instead, me and Margaret went to visit Joe's mother at Yew Tee. If you can remember, Joe was my childhood friend who died of cancer a few years ago. Sad to say, I couldn't find the time to visit his mother last year. And just earlier, we were welcomed by this wonderful lady into her house. I was told that she was so excited and got dressed up to wait for us after my call. Thank you Aunty for all your love and blessing. I will try to visit her more often instead of CNY only.

Aplenty

Good morning! Today is the 3rd day of the Lunar New Year. We are still celebrating abundance aplenty in the Year of the Dragon. The past 2 days had been busy house visiting. Most probably it's a once a year affair for my brothers and sister to meet up on this happy occasion. Our children have grown up, so are our age.

Well, the 1st day was spent at my mother-in-law's house. Age has caught up with my father-in-law and he spent the afternoon resting and sleeping. As usual, there was a small gambling session with younger generation. Though I lost a little money but I am happy that everyone enjoyed themselves.

新年快乐

新年快乐 恭喜發財 迎春接福 萬事如意

CNY 2012 Family Reunion Dinner

No excuse

Today is the last day of work in the year of the Rabbit. High time to relax and forget about the office for once. Yes, let's say farewell to the Rabbit and prepare to welcome the Water Dragon this super-long weekend. We shall return to work on the 4th day of the Lunar New Year i.e. 26 January 2012 Thursday.

Oh no! Spring cleaning at home. Like what I said earlier, a general cleaning will do. But it's going to be very tiring at my age. Will do the best I can for a clean and tidy house would bring luck to the occupants. Btw, my right eye is a bit swollen due to lack of sleep. My doctor gave me antibiotic eye-drop and confirmed it's not contiguous. Unfortunately, he didn't issue a MC to excuse me from Spring cleaning. If only......

What the fish!!!!

Year of the Fish? What a joke! They are meant for the dining table. But it's no laughing matter when a kilogram of pomfret fish cost S$55 at the wet market. Store vendors really know when to suck your blood. I can only feel sorry for those elderly aunties. They just keep filling their trolleys for this occasion and pay when told by these store vendors without knowing the breakdown. I once asked my mother-in-law for the cost of a certain item she bought from the market. You can imagine the blank look she gave me. It's not her fault for she was taken advantage of. So, it's not surprising many of her age are paying exorbitant price at the mercy of these greedy vendors today. That is DAYLIGHT ROBBERY!!!!

Dividend

I received a cheque of more than S$100 for my Malaysia shares dividend. It came unexpectedly. Maybe meeting the God of Fortune works. Haha... what a joke!

We celebrated a reasonable good Rabbit Year with a lunch at Long Beach Seafood Restaurant this afternoon. The Rabbit will return to make way for the Dragon. We had lobster, black pepper crab, etc. It's simply too sumptuous. But each year I am puzzled by the tossing of 'yusheng' before the new year. Let's assume that it's a rehearsal for the coming Dragon Year.

OMG! Lee Hoon broke my rice bowl. She initated the ex-HHG CNY gathering instead of me. No hard feeling. Jokes aside, we set the get together on 3 Febraury 2012.

Who is he?

No prize for guessing it right on who is with me. Needless to say, he is my good friend the 'God of Fortune'. Recent luck has not been good and it's nice to meet him at a local shopping centre. I am sure he gave me good blessing that day. Huat Ahh!!!

Another seminar at SMU again? I have no choice but to attend this evening.Thank goodness that I picked up a lot on today's topic. Definitely it's not a waste of time. Heng Ahh!!!

New Year stuff

Jade Buddha for Universal Peace @ Ngee Ann City

A busy weekend for me and Margaret preparing to usher the coming Dragon year. Though we had bought the majority items on the checklist, there are still quite a number outstanding. We cannnot buy vegetable now and keep them for a week. Prices for New Year decorations reduced by 50% or more on the eve. Need I say more? Haha...
We bought the Mandarin Oranges which were a little green this morning and they should last through the New Year. Need to return to the supermarket to get more can drinks.
OMG! I managed to get another polo and tee shirt at Paragon this evening. Got to avoid shopping for I can't resist buying. What??? I heard something like 'Post CNY Sale'. LOL.

Living dangerously

Love is such a beautiful thing. Prince Charming with his beautiful princess living their sweatest dream day in day out. OMG! That is living dangerously especially for those who are still under the roof of education.

So long as it doesn't disrupt their studies, I am fine with my young adult children to have boyfriend / girlfriend. I just hope that things would not get too hot and they got carried away. Cool the damn thing down. Come on, it's the final semester. Remember that nightmare awaits should you fail to graduate.

Pongal 2012

The Indians or rather the Tamils come first. They are celebrating their biggest festival of the year Pongal, Harvest Festival this Saturday 14 January 2012. It is equivalent to the Chinese New Year. The similarities in celebration are family reunion, discard old things, wear new clothes, etc. This festival is celebrated over 3 days whereas CNY is stretched over 15 days.

Here's wishing my Tamil friends,

"Thai Pirandhal Vazhi Pirakkum" (தை பிறந்தால் வழி பிறக்கும்)

literally translated :"the commencement of Thai paves the way for new opportunities"

Spring cleaning vs general cleaning

The God of Fortune has descended and is resting at Toa Payoh. We are getting nearer to the Lunar New Year. Gosh! Why am I so excited this time round? It must be my work which is basically coming to a standstill. This allows us so much free time to enjoy and feel the festive atmosphere. Simply love the Chinese New Year songs playing everywhere I go. Gong xi gong xi gong xi ni ya ........

Spring cleaning? Definitely a no-no. Me and Margaret are too tired to have one. Our children are far too lazy to help either. Without a choice, my poor wife and I shall do a not-so-thorough general cleaning to welcome the New Year. For those who wish to volunteer, please give me a call. Haha...

Dragon awaits @ Chinatown

A blessed Rabbit Year

Two more weeks to Chinese New Year. Damn forgetful nowadays. I have not bring my new pants to alter the length. Gosh! Margaret will remind me tomorrow morning. Okay, both our children return to campus today to start their final semester bringing along their final tuition fees. May it be so.

It's thanksgiving for the blessed Rabbit Year. I went to the temple to offer thanks and prayer last week. Of course our late parents were not forgotten. Me, Margaret and Fyn paid our respect to them yesterday morning.

In the evening, we had our family zhi char dinner at our neighbourhood coffee shop. The last time we had was 6 months ago prior to Fyn's overseas university exchange. Joining us last evening were my mother-in-law and Sheryl. It's nice to have the family complete and together.

May the coming Dragon Year be as blessed. Cheers!

Oriental Pasta

Guess what food Fyn missed when she was in New Orleans? Hmmmm....... PASTA. I mean oriental pasta in soup base. I am sure all of you cannot understand my simple English. Let me put it in Singlish instead. Down there hor, dun have one. Ok lah, dun one to tease you all any further. It's Mee Hoon Kuey. She craved for it upon returning. Finally, she had it at Toa Payoh Central this evening. So remember hor, there is no Mee Hoon Kuey in America.

Mother and daughter reunion

Our daughter is back. We were there at the Changi Airport Terminal 2 to receive her. The plane landed at 6.10am instead of 6.50 am as scheduled. We waited for about 5 minutes before she pushed her trolley out of the arrival hall. Welcome home.

Rabbit gor gor

Hold on Mr Dragon, the Rabbit Year is not over yet. Unless you are in Japan, you have to wait till 23 January 2012. Well, everyone is busy preparing to welcome you.

This Rabbit Year has not been good worldwide. Thankfully, we are not greatly affected. Maybe Rabbit gor gor would bless us with 'big money' before he goes off. You will never know. Haha... huat ah!!!!

First

The first day of work in the new year. Due to a machine breakdown at my workplace, we finished our job not too long ago and I've just reached home. In less than 10 hours, I shall be reporting for work again. This is nothing compared to my previous project where we worked 24 hours a day. Grrrr.....ahhh! Those were the days and I don't see it returning over here.

The first day of school for all students. OMG! Crying children attending Primary One level. I can imagine parents hiding behind to monitor them. Do I have to go through all these again? Definitely, not on my children but my grandchildren in the forseeable future.. Hehe...

Arsenal lost their first match of the year to Fulham 2-1. What a shame! This season is going to be tough for them. Fire or misfire, I will be supporting them. Boomz!!! Sounds familiar?

More good days

'Ambivalent of Then; Appreciative of Now...Aspiring forward >>>>>>' a friend wrote. Berry chim lah! This guy speaks and writes good English. Many times I have to stand by my dictionary whenever he appears.

Okay, 2011 had been kind to us. There were more good than bad in our daily lives. All of us stayed healthy except for Margaret's stomach nuisance in November. Guess everyone were reasonably happy. It's time to move on. We hope for more good days to come.

Me and Roger went shopping this afternoon. Margaret went to the hair salon and joined us later. At the end of the day, Roger got himself 2 pairs of trousers, a pair of shoes, socks, etc. Of course he is very happy for we foot the bill. It's an annual event which we gladly brought him out. Fyi, he is my 2nd brother. Btw, I bought 2 pairs of slacks too. We are ready for the CNY.

2012

Happy New Year!!!
Here's wishing all a successful and joyful 2012.