Lo Hei Weekends – “大团圆“

Our Lo Hei started since Friday evening. We invited my Parents in law for a Lo Hei dinner at Zhou’s Kitchen @ Novena Square. Since Chinese New Year till Friday, our extended families have not done any Lo Hei, which is very unusual from previous years practice. : P

This was also an appreciation dinner towards my In Laws for giving our family moral & physical support during Adrian oversea detachment. We ordered a Chinese New Year Set menu which bound auspicious names:

- 丰收鱼生(Bountiful Harvest Salmon “Yu Sheng)
- 廷年益寿 （Double boiled chicken soup）
- 喜哈大笑 (Crisp fried Prawns with Butter and Wheat)
- 高瞻远瞻 (Braised spinach bean curd with Mushrooms and vegetables)
- 风气呈祥 ( Stew Chicken with fermented wine)
- 金银满屋 （Fried glutinous rice with Chinese sausages）
- 鸿运团圆 （Sweetened red bean cream with glutinous dumpling）

We had a very nice and relaxed dinner. My father in law even went to invest in the Toto Ang Bao draw after dinner… : )

Hopefully the Lo Hei would bring lucks and good health to the families for the 牛年。

On Saturday morning, I prepared my traditional 年糕 for the family. This is another tradition I will upkeep.

Wishing Adrian 步步高升in his career; Anthea 学业进步；Anders 快高长大!

We had New Year lunch at Imperial Treasure restaurant with Adrian’s group of buddies. I had known them since our dating times and it’s a yearly affair to meet up during Chinese New Year. We had a very sumptuous dim sum lunch with a very Auspicious Abalone cum Yu Sheng Lo hei.

At lunch we had a good time with new updates on one another families. After lunch, we headed home for the children nap.

In the evening, I had a gathering with a group of my Ex- colleagues from IATA. One of the colleagues will be migrating to Australia, so this gathering was mainly for her farewell.

When I reached her home, I was so happy to see so many good, OLD friends. I had left the company since 2003 and to see all of them after 5 – 6 years really brought back good memories.

Hugs were all around and some shed tears of joys. We were busy chatting and the house was filled with laughter at all corners. I met my ex-Boss (Kelly) and we had a good time reminiscing those good old working days. She is still with the company and I think she is reaching her 24 years of work with the company.

The organizers – Vivien, Alice and SL had ordered buffet and also arranged for a special farewell gift for Maggie.

Coincidentally Alice birthday also fall on this day and Maggie’s daughter baked a Bailey’s cheesecake for Alice birthday. We sang her a birthday song, double happiness…oops..Nope, another friend’s Su also celebrated her birthday on 3rd February, so we sang another birthday song….joy after joy.

Good time passed fast, at around 9.30pm Adrian came over with the children to pick me up. I was scheduled for another round of Mahjong session at my youngest BIL home… : P

My youngest SIL, Cherry, is still a ‘PPP’ (P-Plate Player) in mahjong but judging at her game, she will be PRO very soon…haha.

Today is the eve of 15th day of Chinese New Year (元宵) ，we will be doing another round of “reunion dinner” at my parent’s house. This is to celebrate a 圆满Chinese new year and may the year ahead be 一帆风顺， 大家生活都美满。

甜甜蜜蜜的周末

Saturday

Aunty SK organized a get-together for the families as her youngest son, Wen da, will be going back to Sydney for his study. So she had requested that my youngest BIL booked a room at Shangri La hotel for Wen Da to stay and for us to rest and relax at the hotel. Adrian was commenting we are really going HIGH CLASS, going to Shangri La hotel 2 weekends in a row…haha.

The children took an early afternoon nap as they knew that we were going to the hotel for a swim with their 2 favorite uncles (Uncle Wenyi & Uncle Kiat).

While the children were napping, I took the opportunity to prepare some dessert to bring along to the hotel. From last Monday experienced, I knew the aunties were going to bring lots of food to the room. I decided to prepare the 龙眼白果清汤，I also added a bit of 百合, wishing all 百年好和.

Anthea and Anders woke up around 4.30pm and we left for the hotel. The room was as usual very big and spacious. Yes, plenty of makan stuff was in the room, as expected...haha. Uncle Kiat was in the room waiting for Anthea and Anders. We quickly changed and went to the pool.

While Adrian was looking after the children by the pool, I went to the gym and I was really amazed at the service level. When I went on the treadmill machine, the gym staff gave me a towel. Then he switched on the small monitor in front of the treadmill machine and gave me a headset. I was so impressed!! No wonder Shangri la is so HIGH CLASS…haha.

When I was done with my routine, I went to the pool and brought the children back to the room to shower and changed. Adrian went for his gym workout.

Around 7.15pm, we left the hotel for our dinner at La Forketta restaurant hosted by Uncle HT. All the children had at great time at dinner with the spaghettis, pizza and the dessert – Chocolate cake.

When it was time to go home, the children were quite reluctant to part but I told them we will sure have chance to meet again… : )

SUNDAY

Adrian was on guard duty so he reported back to work in the morning. Anthea had her swimming lesson and Anders had to tag along with me to the pool to wait for anthea.

In the evening, we went over to my Parents in law house as my FIL’s youngest brother was visiting him for CNY. I brought the children over to greet Uncle Philip and Aunty Winnie. We had dinner with them at the seafood restaurant by the coffee shop. Then we headed to my youngest BIL’s place for a game of Mahjong.

FINALLY, I had the CHANCE to play 麻将...hee. It was so much fun and I really enjoyed playing with them. There were so many jokes on the MJ table. Uncle Philips and his wife are very humorous people.

The game ended around 10.20pm and we went home for our rest.

又是一个快乐和甜蜜的周末。希望大家再来临的一年里事事都顺利，每天都甜甜蜜蜜

喜气洋洋

大年初一 ：

Our 1st stop for Chinese New Year was my parents in law house. After a good breakfast, we changed and went over to their home. Both Anthea and Anders greeted my In-laws with their “新年快乐“和 “恭喜发财”。

We had fun chatting around and playing with our little niece. As my 2nd BIL was resting at home after his knee operation. My 2nd SIL brought my niece over to 拜年 and she went home to take care of my BIL. My little niece was having a good time with the music and she loves to groove to the songs.

After that, we went over to my parents place to 拜年 and we had a nice lunch there. At the same time, my 1st uncle also came over to my parents place and we managed to catch up a little on the progress of my cousin who is studying oversea. She will be back this weekend.

Then we left my parents place and went home to rest. The children had their usual power nap.

Something happen during the nap time – while I was hanging the children clothes out to dry; Anthea ran urgently to me and show me something in her hand. It was her FRONT TOOTH. It has finally dropped out….haha. She is now officially “无牙” and what a way to start her New Year.. : P

In the evening, we went to Shangri La hotel. My parents in law had a room booked by my youngest BIL. He had some free nights stay with the hotel, so they decided to use it on Chinese New Year day for my In Laws.

The room was fantastic as it was very spacious and also they had a pool facing room. The balcony was so big that we joked that we can camp over night with a sleeping bag..haha.

The children went for a quick swim at the swimming pool. They had fun playing with Uncle Wenyi. After ½ hour of swim, we went back to the room to change and got ready for dinner with my In laws and 2 of the aunties. My youngest BIL and SIL also came by to join us after their visits.

We had dinner at Spaghettis at Tanglin Mall and the adjourned to Coffee Club at Forum for dessert and coffee. It was pretty relaxing and we had a good time chatting with the aunties. Both Anthea and Anders misses Uncle Kiat and I told them we will try to visit him when he is back from his Thailand holiday.

We called it a night around 10pm and headed home to rest.

大年初二 ：

In the morning, we had no visits plan, so we thought we will just rest and relax till the afternoon. I received a lunch invitation from my 大哥 and we had Tim Sum lunch at Sze Chuan Court @ Fairmont Singapore. It was a very sumptuous lunch.

After lunch we walked around the mall. Adrian had planned to get something from Billabong but the shop was closed. So we went market place to stock up some groceries. After that we went home for the children power nap.

In the evening, we went over to my 1st uncle house. Anthea and Anders get the chance to meet with all the 舅公，舅婆，表哥& 表妹。Anthea and Anders had a chance to play football with my cousin twins – Samuel & Daniel. Anthea said they lost the match to the twins, score was 2 – 7. Great to hear that they had fun.

Another good new in the pipe line, one of cousin – Jun Ru is expecting her 1st baby boy and she will be due end February 2009. I am so happy to see new addition to the family. This OX year seem to be full of Baby BOYS...haha.

I had good time chatting up with all my cousins. It’s a very good reunion as we only get to see one another on this day.

Dinner was at my uncle house. As usual, my 大舅母 will cook up a storm for all and we had a round of Lo Hei too.

After dinner, we went home. Anthea and Anders were very happy and said they like 舅公家 very much. As it will be a school day tomorrow, we had an early night.

It has been a good 2 days of Chinese New Year and looking forward to more gathering on weekends..

Happy 牛Year!!

今天是年除夕，再过几个小时就过年了。。时间过得好快。

这个星期都忙于大扫除，买新衣和办年货。好像一直在更时间赛跑。。好喘 不过很开心。

For our reunion dinners, my parents will usually arrange it a day earlier because they understand that I would need to be at my In-laws side for the reunion dinner as well.

Thanks to their understanding, we celebrated our 1st reunion dinner at my parent’s home last evening. It was a sumptuous meal of Hainanese Chicken rice, Roast duck/pork, Abalone, vegetables and soup. I bought a set of 鱼生from Ichiban Restaurant and we started the dinner with our 1st 捞起Lo Hei for the Chinese New Year.

With the Lo Hei, I wished my parents – “身体安康“and wished both my brothers “事业顺利“。

After the dinner, it was giving Ang-pao time, both Anthea and Anders were very happy to received their 1st few 红包from 阿公，阿婆和大舅／二舅。

This evening we will be having our 2nd round of reunion dinner at my In-laws home. We will be having steamboat. Next few days we will be doing our usual New Year visiting.

Just a few more hours, we will be welcoming 牛大哥 and with this I would like to wish all the families and friends:

新年快乐，万事如意！！Happy 牛Year!!