大年初一

Chinese New Year this year is pretty windy and cooling as compared to the previous years. Though I shou sui the night before, I felt energized to start the day, despite my flu didn't seem to go away. But I guess the CNY mood was helping me very much.

It was pretty much standard for our day 1 when we would visit hubby's side of the family then to my eldest Uncle's family at Marine Parade then gathered with my extended family at someone's place. And this year my papa volunteered to host the CNY gathering again. 

I was excited dressing Evans up in his new clothes. It is true that you can't vary much with boys' dressing but I think it is also blessing to be able to dress up boys in different colours and styles.

His poses amaze and amuse me, it's all him.

It wasn't a perfect start to the CNY visiting as hubby was "lamenting" how we were late to meet up with his sis's family for photoshoot. I was seriously a little pissed but really, I did not want my favourite festival to turn out ugly, so I went along and just told him to let it go since it was CNY. Gosh! 

At my in-laws' place, we had lunch and also took some photos. Evans was in a vibrant mood as well and he enjoyed taking photo with jie jie. :)

Last year I did not get to visit my eldest Uncle somehow because of some delay, so this year we made it a point to go there. When we were there, we met bro at the lift lobby chatting with Cousin Lay Cheng. There was a buffet line, though quite emptied out. LOL. Mama was happily playing the poker cards in the kitchen with the aunties and she introduced Evans to them. Of course, Evans would not remember them at all. Haha!

Evans loves his jiu jiu!

It was already late afternoon by the time we drove mama and bro back to their place. We headed back to our place for a nap/rest before we went back to my parents' to gather with the rest. To my "surprise" when we reached at 7.30PM, the party has ended! Since no one got to play any Mahjong, they left earlier and this year, I missed the chance to catch up with my cousins. Evans was still "practising" his CNY greetings when we were downstairs! Haha, that was too bad, 

Nonetheless, I got to enjoy the food and drinks still. 

Chinese New Year Eve

Hey hey hey what a beautiful Sunday and it was the eve of CNY, my favourite part of CNY where the anticipation for good food and great reunion began!

Uniquely we went to the Bedok Library in the morning for Evans to return his books and to borrow others. We had a simple lunch at a nearby kopitiam cos tonight would be a feast! It felt really nice with CNY in the air, despite me having to be in mask most of the time. The flu couldn't stop me for feeling festive. Thankfully I felt better after a warm shower.

Evans and I spent our afternoon resting at my parents' place while the cleaning aunty did the cleaning at our place. Papa and mama were busy preparing for reunion dinner.

Our first stop for reunion dinner was at my on-laws' place. They too prepared steamboat like my parents. It just felt more like CNY with the hot pot, just like how turkey/roasted chicken is for Christmas. And Evans showered me with his cherry tomato juice when he took a bite, the juice just splattered all over me. #$^&*/$#& Thanks. No biggie... just glad to be able to let down my mask and enjoy the dinner.

Round 2 was at my parents', another round of steamboat!!!! Never get sick of it especially during this time of the year. With all my favourite like tau kee, wongbok, prawns, sotong balls, mushroom balls.... I could whip up another bowl of rice! Yum!

Following tradition, we also played the fire sparklers just at the lift lobby. This tradition started even before I was married. Still remember how my bro and I would play with the sparklers then take many funny wefies to stay up way past midnight - shou sui. Now we couldn't but we would still try to stay up to the max to shou sui.

Fire sparklers time

Just the 4 of us but that's good enough

This year Evans was asked to formally do CNY greetings to the elders in order to get his angpaos. I must say he could remember the standard set of wishings pretty well. Quite funny to see him do that in his new pj.

Bai Nian lor!!!

After fetching papa to the neighbourhood temple, we headed back home and got to count down to the Year of the Monkey in the car... Evans slept pretty fast and so now I got to continue my shou sui by watching the free singtel tv channels.

Happy Lunar Year of the Monkey, my dear friends!

All Ready for Chinese New Year!

Despite being hit by the flu virus, I was glad that I started the spring cleaning earlier and bit by bit, we managed to clean up some parts of the house while we will leave it to the cleaning lady to help us with the cleaning on CNY eve.

My bro also got to buy Evans a set of CNY clothes just in time. I haven't been able to get something I like.

I am also very thankful that my boy recovered from the fever and cough!

Regaining his cheekiness

The decor which lights up the house with CNY mood

Last Work Day before CNY

As our tradition, we would meet up for our little reunion lunch on our last working day before CNY. This year we would not be able to enjoy a CNY eve half day in office cos the eve falls on a Sunday but let's create a little CNY mood with lots and lots of chicken and laughter. And Irene turned up late so she wasn't captured in the picture. Still glad she came in the end to help with clearing the dishes.

Team Lunch at Ichiban Boshi

Miss Ang insisted on giving the team a treat for our help in covering her duties when she was away and also for some bets they were in and did not want to share.

After some discussion, we decided to have Jap food (again, for me)--> Ichiban Boshi at Novena Square. I know I just had jap food yesterday but I was fine with it. I kind of love jap food and I think it needs to take a few more meals before I get sick of it. Am still missing yesterday's sashimi.

The pictures in the menu looked all delectable and quite spoilt for choices especially when it was a treat! Hehe but of course we did not exploit Miss Ang. We ordered within limits. Think my Chirashi Jyu was one of the cheapest $14.90++. Basically it was rice with sashimi cubes (tuna, swordfish & salmon) with roes and cucumbers. Refreshing. I just had to dip the sashimi and rice in bits of soy sauce, it tasted good. Oh it came with miso soup as well.

Thank you Miss Ang for the lovely meal!

Rainy Friday

A good weather for piping hot and spicy Bak Kut Teh, as Ah Yeo said. But now I am kind of feeling "heaty"... a little headache. :S Or maybe it's the work. I don't know.

Ah Yeo drove us to meet up with Bo who was on leave today, at Founders' Bak Kut Teh. It was packed with patrons but luckily Bo was there earlier to help book the seats.

Initially we took the table inside the restaurant but it seemed stuffy so we went to sit at the table outside instead. Thankfully for the rain, it was breezy too. The food was served very soon after our order.

The ribs were tender yet springy. I would love it if it has the soft cartilage bones. :) I also love eating "Tau Kee", a must-have, though I still prefer the steamboat kind cos' I can decide how long to cook it, to retain its chewiness. Ah Yeo also ordered the pigs' parts assortment where everyone got to eat their favourites like pigs' intestines, liver, stomach, etc.

Again, Mr Kok could not join us because of his site meeting. And... ...

It's a mistake to send your photo to your friends... Haha! Hope Mr Kok won't mind our nonsense. As usual, while we were talking and all, Ah Yeo was busy snapping and doing his collage. Stealing this from him:

Argh! I am beginning to feel the heat around my neck and head, I think it's the bak kut teh.... Better drink lots of water!

Lunch at Xinwang Cafe (Anchor Point)

This was what I had today for lunch. The gang drove to Anchor Point and we settled our lunch at Xin Wang. All the way there, because Mr Kok needed to send his Sacoor Brothers' Suit for alteration. And Bo recommended him a tailor (Queen's Alteration) at Queensway Shopping Centre. So, journey to Queensway.

Anyway, this was the 2nd time I ordered this noodles cos' I love the soup! With the milk and papaya, the soup was soooooo sweet! And that time Irene told me we could change bee hoon to noodles. So I ordered the same combination, except I forgot to change the hard boiled egg to sunny side up. Nevermind, it still tasted good.

Why did I order this healthy sliced fish noodles soup? Because KS, Yeo and I wanted to try something else... it's a little sinful, oily and fatty. So to compensate that, I ordered this soupy main. LOL! What was that we wanted to try?!? (Hubby would be very interested to know this.)

Each only took one piece so not that sinful actually. Frankly the chicken wasn't big. Verdict is it's just like any normal fried chicken but KFC would be much much better. So, I don't think I will order this again. (Hubby, hear that?) For fried chicken, I will still settle for KFC, Popeyes or IKEA!