Archive for January 2009
Chinese New Year
Posted on: January 30, 2009
Prepare for an image- heavy entry.
First off, what I wore for Chinese New Year. Dress is from Thailand, so it costs no more than $10. Shiok! (Cheap thrill) I seldom bother to blow- dry my hair or put on make up; but for Chinese New Year, I made the effort to.
With Vodka baby. Pretty or not? Hehehe :)
Handsome Papa. He has very bushy eyebrows!
Beautiful Mummy. Vodka is her beloved baby...
I think we are a family of baby faces (except for my younger brother, he’s “chao lao“). I think my Mummy and Papa looks younger than they really are. Guess their age? Aunty Shirley’s sister said I look like a 19 year old Polytechnic student! Hahaha! Make me happy only. Cannot believe it, I will be 24 next month. *sigh*
Traveling from Punggol to Clementi takes quite some time… So what better way to spend it than to take photos of one self? Hehehe… So be warned, next few photos will be huge- ass images of ME only.
Dress up, make up, of course have to cam-whore a little right?
Seldom smile so demurely
Trying to act natural. Can see detail of my dress too!
Arrived early at Grandma’s place. Not many people there yet.
What's New Year without Mahjong
My two favourite newphews, Ethan and Elliot
My lovely Mummy
My adorable Auntie and Grandaunt
Fiona, I used to call her Baby jiejie (She's tiny)
Fiona’s just got married! She and her husband has a romantic love story. Fiona’s husband, Anwar, is a Singapore- based businessman from Pakistan. They were seeing each other for about 5 years when Fiona’s mum, a staunch Christian, disapprove of their relationship because Anwar is not a Christian (Pakistanis are Muslims, right?). So in order to please her mother, Fiona told her a white lie- that she has broken up with Anwar. Then another 5 years later, Fiona told her mother she’s going to marry Anwar. All this while, they were still seeing each other (for about 10 years now, Fiona’s about 30+ years old if I’m not wrong), she was even working in his company… Her mum flipped of course, and did not approve of the marriage. But Uncle Gilbert manage to persuade her and in the end, she relented. As cliché as it may sound, true love is hard to come by. And they overcome all obstacles- distance, disapproving parent etc, but they stuck through thick and thin and now, they will be together happily ever after!
Gerald, Uncle Gilbert's son, used to call him Gerald boy
Bowei & Joey with Grandma
Joey, the girl in the middle, wearing the purple Penarakan costume, is actually wearing her great- grandmother’s Penarakan costume! Cool right?
Handsome boy Ethan
Good looking family
Then we head home around 3+pm, to prepare to go to Aunty Alice’s (Mummy’s eldest sister) place to bai nian.
My baby Vodka
Smiling Vodka (Actually she's yawning)
Love my dog dog
She keeps jumping onto Papa! So cute!
Looking so forlorn...
With some of my cousins...
I have quite a big family. My mother has 9 other siblings. I have about 20+ or 30+ cousins (on one side of the family)… So it’s always noisy during family gatherings.
Every year there's lion dance
Try to spot the numbers...
Papa hard at work... playing Mahjong
Old photo... I think I really look like my Mummy when she was young!
These 2 brothers used to be so chubby, now grow up to be so handsome!
With Mummy dearest
Mummy with her dear daughter (Vodka's my sister)
My sistaaaaaaaa
My 3 nieces, the cuties
So adorable
They really very cute!
I fell sick! :( I was spending my last few hours at Aunty Alice’s house sleeping. Had a bad sore throat; there was no fan, no air con but I was still feeling cold even with the blanket over me. Sucks to fall sick on Chinese New Year.
Disappearing Acts
Posted on: January 28, 2009
Few incidents just before New Year irritated me quite a bit. I think it’s quite a common culture in Singapore (or maybe it’s just everywhere else).
Last week, I invited the girls Juvina and Dionne to come over and take a look at my dresses, all 50+ of them. They were interested in getting some for the New Year. Juvina and Dionne were supposed to come over on Wednesday, but last minute they canceled on me because one of the girls has school. Now, that’s totally fine by me, last minute or not, because I was informed. We rescheduled the meeting to Friday instead.
On Thursday night, I SMS- ed Juvina once or twice to ask what time she’ll be coming; saw Dionne online and asked her the same question as well. But both of them did not reply AT ALL. So next day, I tried calling Juvina on her mobile but she did not answer the call at all. I was afraid the girls would travel down all the way from Jurong (How stupid of me) so I waited till around 3+pm, then started to feel a little stupid for waiting for people who ignore my calls and SMS- es. But I still made the effort to SMS to tell them I will be going out now because I assumed they will not be coming anymore.
Overall, I feel these are very irresponsible people. It’s fine if you cancel the appointment but please have the decency to inform the other party. I won’t feel angry even if you cancel on me last minute, because at least I am being informed, I can make other plans. But I spent my whole Friday afternoon waiting for no- show idiots, I really feel pissed. Is it that difficult to make a phone call or SMS (Or rather, RETURN at phone call or SMS)? I feel there are no excuses for such behavior. If you miss my SMS, you can possibly miss my missed call. If you missed have no time today, I’m sure you have at least 3 minutes to spare next day (they should be free since they set the appointment on Friday). I have no qualms saying all this because it’s a fact that happened and I really dislike such irresponsibility.
Some of you sure think I’m stupid because since they didn’t reply to SMS or return calls, that means they are not interested in coming anymore. But that is not the point. The point is they don’t even have to responsibility to inform me about it. If I was sure they would coming (like they said they would) and didn’t try to contact them the day before, I would have wasted my entire Friday instead. I think its BASIC courtesy, and it sad that nowadays, people don’t really have it at all. It takes only 3 minutes to SMS or make a call and say you’re not coming. Don’t even have to give a reason. Or some of you might think, maybe they too paiseh to say no to my invitation so they just say yes first. That’s just plain stupid… Other people I invited either gave me reasons like, they don’t wear dresses, no money, or just no thanks and that’s all it takes. Rather than give an empty yes, only waste other people’s time… That’s irritating.
I’m sure everyone have encountered such no- show-ers at least once in their lives before.
Now my Mum as complaining because I brought out all my clothes (just so that these idiots could take a look) so my room is freaking messy now. Anyone kind enough to clear the clothings for me? :D (This is probably a I- have- PMS post. Hahah)
Reunion Dinner
Posted on: January 25, 2009
Every year as usual, Reunion dinner was held at my paternal Grandma’s place.
I help arrange the 鱼生
Sprinkled with crackers
Yusheng literally means “raw fish” but since “fish (鱼)” is commonly conflated with its homophone “abundance (余)”, Yúshēng (鱼生) is interpreted as a homophone for Yúshēng (余升) meaning an increase in abundance. Therefore, yusheng is considered a symbol of abundance, prosperity and vigor.
I think the sentence “The tradition is still widely practiced till today and has since spread to many parts of Asia, although not practiced as much as in Malaysia and Singapore.” taken from Wikipedia is not very accurate leh…
This is clearly a sexist tradtion -.-
Only the guys and Grandma gets to “lo hei”. I think that’s also because our family’s quite big, so not enough space in Grandma’s 3- room apartment.
Look at all the home- cooked goodness
It was good to see everyone again. For my paternal family, we only see each other two or three a year, namely Chinese New Year, Grandma’s birthday and Christmas because they all live in the West side and we, North East side. (But of course we visit Grandma more.)
Love their expressions- Moses and Ethan
Grandma threatened me not to take her picture because she's not dressed up
The adorable Elliot, Ethan's younger brother
And every year, my kind and generous Uncle Gilbert will lend Papa his car for one day so that we need not rush and squeeze with the crowd on public transport or wake up so early to travel to Grandma’s (We take 1.5 hours to travel from Punggol to Grandma’s at Clementi).
Perseverance
Posted on: January 25, 2009
Attended Church of Our Savior with my Uncle Gilbert and his family today. The sermon left an impression on me and gave me motivation for my little project. :)
“Winners don’t quit and quitters don’t win.”
“Those who see failure as final will finally fail.”
“It’s perseverance who got the snail on Noah’s ark.” (Hahaha!)
And be like a bulldog…
“The nose of the bulldog has been slanted backwards so that he can breathe without letting go.” (Winston Churchill)
I’m only young this once, nothing ventured nothing gained! So I hope I will have the strength to NOT GIVE UP even though I may be faced with challenges, difficulties or discouragement.
SOO SOO EMILY!
At Uncle Gilbert’s
Posted on: January 24, 2009
Vivocity is so big, I got lost trying to find Crabtree & Evelyn. I was supposed to meet my Uncle Gilbert and Auntie Shirley to go over to their place to hang out. Did a bit of grocery shopping at Giants, had my lunch at Kopitiam then headed to a nursery near their place to get some plants for their house.
The flowers are all so bright, colorful and beautiful! There was a huge- ass cactus too! And you know how to pitcher plant captures little insects or rather, ants? When the ants climbs onto their “pitcher”, the slipped and fall into into the mouth of the pitcher because it’s too slippery. Can imagine little ants walking happily and then suddenly slipping and falling into the pitchers.
Today, for the first time in so many months, I swam, together with Uncle Gilbert and Gerald (my cousin). They live 5- 10 minutes away from my Grandma, so I’ll be staying over tonight and heading to Grandma’s straight from here. Will be attending church with them tomorrow morning too.
Auntie Amy, who is Auntie Shirley’s sister as well as neighbor has a dog named Bruce. He’s such a darling I tell you! He’s so well- behaved and so clever! Put a treat on his nose and he’ll toss it up and eat it! Auntie Amy says Bruce likes to show off. Haha. Love the puffy dog. Very affectionate, quiet, cuddly and react-ive (if you know what I mean).
Not bad, I managed to swim at least 16 laps? And I can hold my breath under water for about 1 minute 10 seconds (or probably more). Heh! I played basketball yesterday too! I’m on my way to a healthier lifestyle, and hopefully toner body. :)
Tonight, we’ll be having yummy char siew and wanton noodles for dinner. Haven’t had wanton mee in ages!
P.S: I bought 3 Muji photo albums ALL in the wrong size. They looked exactly like the ones I had bought previously. *sigh* Pockets too small for my Thailand trip photos. And I lost the receipt, so not sure if they allow me to do a change.
Emily in Thailand 