Free for a meal?

There are simply too many good food in Malacca. Chicken rice ball, satay celab, nyonya food, durian chendol, durian puff, thousand layer cake, etc. Of course, the meal is not complete without the balachan chilli. So for three days two nights , what I brought back was a bloated tummy with a lot of gas / wind. It's such a waste to go there and not eating their local food. Overall, it's a good family trip coupled with lots of fun.

The last of my three days leave before I move to a new workplace. In between, I catch up with many friends over lunches and dinners. I believe they appreciate my effort in calling and arranging the meetings. Well, the final one will be a Frog Party at Balestier with my ex-Poly mates this evening. For I value and treasure friendship, this is an exercise I practise whenever I have time. Yes, I find this meaningful and essential. Hey pals, many thanks for turning up. Cheers!
 

Family trip - Melaka revisited (3)

Malacca River

Family trip - Melaka revisited (2)

Family photographs

Family trip - Melaka revisited (1)

Jonker Street Night Market

Me, Hercules?

No, I am not going to change my name to Hercules. This picture was taken at my workplace. Actually, this solid rock is a cushion seat and mind you it's not light either. Btw, my worker took the photograph. Credit to him.

Coming Malacca trip

Love, peace and fashion, the lingo of the 70's. Time passed us by and we are growing older each day. Still, there is love and peace. But for fashion, it's meant for the young. That does not mean we have to dress like uncles and aunties of yesteryear. A pair of jeans, track shoes and t-shirt is what I grew up with. Short hair suits me better now. Rock steady still goes underground.

All of us are excited on our coming family Malacca trip. Our young adult children as usual surrendered their passports to their mother for safekeeping. Talking about growing up but then, old habit dies hard. Anyway, we let our children to arrange the programmes as this is a free and easy trip. It's a long awaited and much needed break for all of us. As usual, we will take lot of photographs to post here. Cheers!

New dining chairs

Ok, I am a fool to part with my hard earned money for these beautiful chairs. Yes.me and Margaret finally got what we wanted after searching for so long. Initially we thought these chairs would be too ' light ' for our granite table. But we could not give up on this simple, clean design chair despite the high price. As luck is on our side, it looks perfectly matching despite our earlier worry. I like the back rest curve. Simply classic. Gonna spent my weekend appreciating these designer chairs.

 

       

Roti for dinner

Everyday eat the same thing, so boring. We were sick of rice, porridge, noodle, pork chop, hor fun, etc. Be it home cook or eat out, monotonous lah. For a change this evening, Margaret suggested bread for dinner. Straight away Delifrance came to my mind. We refreshed ourself with a shower after a hard day's work and headed to Toa Payoh Interchange for the dinner.

When was the last time we patronised Delifrance? OMG! It must be donkey years. We ordered  croissant tuna sandwich with tomato soup and a cup of ice lemon tea as add on. The ambience of the restaurant and the taste of the food remain the same but not for the price. It cost about 40% more as compared to years back then. Still, it's affordable when we are talking about a total of $20+ for both of us. That's something for a change...

Haji greeting

Dining chairs

It's a headache going round looking for new chairs for my dining room. We have been hunting for more than a year. It's never easy for suitable chairs to come along i.e. to match our granite dining table. About 6 months ago, we found one which cost about $260 a piece. Mind you, we need 4 chairs which would come up to more than a thousand dollars. Holy shit, this afternoon we found another plain simple timber chair at Liang Court and we were told it cost $500+ per piece. It's not that we cannot afford but to throw $2000+ for the chairs is really foolish. Post modern chairs with plastic and stainless steel materials are definitely out. Please let us know should you come across furniture shop with good timber chairs at reasonable price.

Relief

Finally, our project has cleared the BCA TOP re-inspection this morning. A relief for everyone involved. What's next? Preparing for handling over units to buyers and common area to Property Division. For me, my job is done and should be going out anytime soon. Will announce my departure once confirm by management.

Colleague on holiday

Deja vu! My colleague and his wife are touring Central Europe travelling the same route we went during Spring. Yes, he is using the same tour agency too. Saw his pictures in Venice on FB today. Have fun and enjoy yourself, Kwan!

We are having a family outing to Malacca from the 25 October 2013 to 27 October 2013. The last time our children joined us was in 2005 which we toured Taiwan. After which both of them had no interest in travelling with us anymore especially in those China provinces tours. Of course, we couldn't afford to bring them to Europe or America. We had to standby a sum of money for their university studies. No doubt I promised them a West America trip years back, it's going to cost a bomb for the whole family even now. Let's wait and see...

Our birthday boy

 

Happy 26th birthday to our dearest son, Smily! Early celebration for him at Cajun Kings Restaurant with me, Margaret, Fyn and his loved one Sheryl in attendance. This restaurant and location were foreign to all of us actually. Best of all, most of the food were served in plastic bags and we were expected to eat with our bare hands. No plate, fork and spoon. The shells of crab, prawn, mussel etc  were to be left on the table. That made the table messy and untidy. It didn't look healthy either. Somehow, that's the culture in New Orleans. Yes, an American eating place. Overall, food were good but exorbitant. Worth a try, for once. Good choice, birthday boy!

A little luck

I won the Singapore Sweep 2-Digit prize in the October 2013 draw. The ticket cost $3 and I make a 100% profit i.e. $6 for the payout. No big deal but like what I said 'no money is too small for me'. Shiok! Big money is on the way.

It's LP Koon birthday. He turns 90 today. For those who have not heard of him, he is a Thai high monk equivalent to a living saint, Wishing him good health and long life. Sadhu, sadhu, sadhu.

My working prospect is looking brighter as of now. It hasn't been a fruitful year but I am happy to overcome a lot of unpleasant incidents. Actually I don't ask for much except for an easy going and a happy-go-lucky environment. I won't bother what others do so long as they don't get me involve. Worst, pretending to pat me when in actual fact stabbing me. I believe in karma. Om...

Stay healthy

I was asked to make a wish. Automatically wealth, money, strike lottery, huat ah came to my mind. Guess everyone would wish the same as what I thought. Somehow I was a bit uneasy and started to think harder. What if I have all the money in the world and I cannot be healthy? So the wealth would be worthless. I cannot travel overseas, need someone to look after me, a burden to my love ones. Scary, very scary.

Sincerely from the bottom of my heart, my wish is to be HEALTHY. So long as I am healthy, I can be employed for the next 5 to 10 years. That will keep me active and also do what I love most, travelling. I really envy those elderly who travelled with us on holidays overseas. So far, the most senior was the 81 years old uncle who joined us on the North East China trip in 2011.

Let me share my wish with everyone out there, 'Good health always and keep smiling'.

Some are good...

 

OMG! We are in October 2013, the last quarter of the year. Birthday celebrations for our family start from this month to January next year. Oh yes, since our children are working it is only right that they foot the bill for the family dinner on their days. Sad to say, our daughter Fyn asked for birthday present in return on their celebrations. I hope she was speaking in jest.

 In general, parents deserve more than a dinner a year for bringing their children up. But the grown up children of today have different mentality believing their parents owe them everything. Some of them abuse their parents for not being able to feed their lifestyle. Of course there are others who earned enough and contribute to the family monthly expenses. There was a song that goes like this...
some are good, very good
some are bad, very sad....