CNY First Day

CNY came too early this year as we have not even gotten over the Christmas festival which happened only last month.

Being first day of CNY and one of our busiest days, we have many places to visit in our program today. Starting off this morning, I finished and packed up the cupcakes which I prepared yesterday for our family luncheon today.

We set off to pick up my mum at her place as she was busy preparing her famous curry chicken for the lunch. We arrived at my aunt’s place while they were still preparing the luncheon. We started our luncheon after greeting and giving our best wishes the elderly.

Our lunch spread was great! We had mum’s curry chicken, gu-jie’s vegetarian, cousin Bick Guan’s first attempt Hong Kong style steamed fish and steamed herbal prawns, aunt’s pan-fried chiku meat pancakes, Florence’s HK style pork ribs and lastly, my chocolate cream cheese cupcakes as desserts.

After a sumptuous meal, we went to our uncle’s place which is only a few blocks away from my aunt’s. It was great to meet up with my younger cousins whom we only get to meet yearly… glad to see my elder aunt got better from her dementia. Though it was such a rush visitation but it was all worth it.

We continued our visitation to Leslie’s uncle’s place in Dover. It was a pity that my sisters in law have left when we arrived. We stayed for a while to chat with his cousins and when almost all arrived, we had the Lo Hei ceremony…. That is one of the best Yu Sheng I would say besides the one at Chinatown… this is home-made and truly delicious!

Happy New Year everyone!! Huat Ahhhh….

CNY Reunion At Aunt’s Place

This is a yearly affair that we will hold our family’s CNY reunion dinner at my Gu-Jie’s place and we, as the younger generation will prepare the food.

We headed out to lunch and then went to get Lo Hei from Chinatown which is known for the best Yu Sheng. When we arrived, I was shocked to see a SUPER LONG queue and I continued to queue as I want my family to have the best Yu Sheng. Finally after queuing for an hour, we finally got our Yu Sheng.

In the evening, we headed down to Gu-Jie’s place and as the elderly sat to chat, we, the younger ones prepared the table, the food etc… While most of us were in the midst of preparing, some of us had to tend to the kiddos too. Zoe and Faith were happy to see each other and they can’t seem to let go of each other. It was really great to see the cousins’ hanging out together.

As usual, before the main dinner, we will have our Lo Hei as to wish everyone a great year ahead and hope all our wishes with come true with each toss. The kiddos joined us in the tossing and it was such great fun to them finally to toss stuff up without getting scolding!

We had steamboat dinner as it has been our family’s tradition. We simply love steamboat as there is less cooking and most of the dishes are cooked instantly. Everyone enjoyed the food and so did the kids.

After a sumptuous dinner, we sat around the living to recap our menu for tomorrow while enjoying the longan beancurd desserts which I made. It’s great to recap to avoid missing items on the first day of CNY.

Happy New Year in advance everyone!

Faith’s School CNY Celebration

I was on leave since yesterday and have been preparing for the coming CNY. I was busy baking cookies for cousins and for Faith’s school CNY celebration.

This early morning, Faith woke up excitedly saying that she will be having party in school today. School informed that the kiddos are requested to dress in their party dress and to bring some CNY goodies for the party.

I dressed Faith up in her cheong-sam which she wore for CNY last year. I was really surprised that she was able to fit though the length of the dress is shorter as she grows. She was happy that I prepared cookies for her to bring to school.

Happy Party Faith!  

Lo Hei Dinner At Swissotel

Ms Momoko of Swissotel kindly invited us to the CNY Lo Hei dinner organized by her hotel. I haven’t been attending such events for a while and it’s really nice to be able to join today.

It was somehow their dinner and dance which involved their clients. The theme was ‘Swinging 60s’ and the staff were spotting enough to put on costumes which made them looked stunning! The games were back to those 60s where they arrange kachang putei, ti-kum ti-kum and some other ‘fun fair games.

On the dining table, it was decorated with many of our childhood toys like the cha-teh, paper ball etc… apart from the decoration and their beautiful ballroom, we were pretty much impressed that they hired the Flying Dutchman to be their MC for the night. He is such a fantastic host and I truly like him from his radio days.

There was a dance performance by the Sales team and it was really great that they put up such a wonderful show. Even the bosses were spotting enough to dance in when they were introduced.

Dinner started with the Lo Hei of course and everyone was impressed how beautifully the Yu Sheng was decorated. The chef created the word ‘Horse’ in Chinese using the Lo Hei ingredients and it was very pretty indeed.

Though we were seated with some strangers but when it comes to Lo Hei, we were united! After that, we introduced each other and found that they are from the travel industry. The Yu Sheng not only looked good but it tasted delicious too.

After the Yu Sheng, the soup was served. I really like the soup… it was chicken soup with Wai San which was good for health as well as beauty! It was unfortunate that I had to leave after my 3rd dish which was the delicious crispy roasted chicken….

Well Done Swissotel!

CNY Reunion Dinner

Today, we had our first reunion dinner for CNY at my in-law’s place and planning to celebrate Maggie’s birthday since her actual day will be on Monday!

Hubby and I went to buy some family favourite dishes while my mother-in-law prepared some home-cooked dishes to add to the spread. We were looking forward to have the Lo Hei and went to Chinatown to get the best. At the same time, we went to get roast meat from my father-in-law’s favourite stall. Both queues were long but we were thankful that it did not take us long to finish up all the tasks… hahaahahaha

We started off the dinner with Lo Hei of course and the kiddos were excited to toss the vegetables too. Though it got a little messy during the toss but it’s a yearly affair we toss and wished for the best for the New Year. It was such a wonderful and sumptuous reunion dinner. We were happy that both young and old enjoyed the food very much.

After dinner, we had a surprise cake cutting ceremony for Maggie who had no clue of the cake. She was happy that we had a small celebration for her and we had the cake as desserts.

I am now looking forward to my family reunion dinner on New Year’s Eve…. Huat Ahhhh!

Baby Shevelle’s Turns ONE

Time flies and baby Shevelle is turning ONE soon. Her lovely parents organized a birthday party for her two weeks before her actual birthday as it clashed with CNY.

Maggie booked Tickle Tickle playground at Delta Sports Hall and our little Faith is really excited about the party of her little cousin. She simply loves Shevelle as she is the baby in the family and such a cute pumpkin indeed. Tickle Tickle is small indoor playground similar to the Hockey Pokey at Millenia Walk but slightly smaller. The kiddos simply enjoyed playing slides, building of blocks and riding on car & motorcycles etc…

When I enter the party room, I was blown away how beautifully it was decorated. The theme was pink and white; with all the items in pink and even the lovely birthday cake. I then realized that it was all done up by Maggie herself. She came by to have the whole place decorated early this morning and she even brought her own cake stands, cupcakes stands, table cloth etc… THUMPS UP!

She started the party with cake cutting ceremony almost immediately after the arrival of all her guest. Faith loved the decors but I was thankful that she did not request that for her upcoming birthday…. Hahaahahahaahah

Happy Birthday Baby Shevelle! May the good Lord bless you always and we love you very much!

Birthday & CNY Gathering

We planned a birthday dinner for our best buds Vivian and Hairon at Irodori Japanese Restaurant located at Riverview Hotel. There are two popular Japanese buffets and this is one of them.

While waiting for the rest to arrive, we ordered some of the dishes to start off since it is buffet style. The food was not too bad and I personally enjoyed the California maki very much. There are other dishes like the octopus ball, shisamo, garlic beef etc… were pretty good too.

We too ordered their Yu Sheng since CNY is not too far away. The waitress who is a Philippine came to prepare the Yu Sheng for us saying the blessings but she wasn’t too sure so, we helped her out.

Today, we too included the X’mas gift exchange for some who we did not get to meet during the festive season plus the shopping damages some had before meeting up for dinner.

Happy Birthday to Vivian and Hairon! Cheers to good health and happiness!

Lunch At La Barca

Today, we received a surprise invitation to lunch from our boss. His reason for lunch was to bond with our new colleague Oba-san, who will be stationed in SIN for a good three weeks.

We went to La Barca since we have not been there for quite a while. It was certainly great to be back once again and our boss gave us the green light to order.

After discussing with Yoyo and Oba-san, we decided to order the cold cut platter with cheeses (Burrata &  Pecorino) and warm seafood salad with lemon cream dressing which was so refreshing for our starters.

Our mains were squid ink pasta, Risotto with clams and pasta in Bechamel sauce which were extremely tasty. It was Oba-san’s first visit to La Barca and we were happy that he enjoyed every bit of the dishes we ordered.

Though we were really stuffed after such a heavy cheesy lunch, we had the sweet tooth for desserts and we went ahead to order the orange scented crème brulee which was heavenly! It was just right, wasn’t too sweet and super tasty to our liking! Thumps UP!

January Babies’ Birthday Celebration

It is a yearly affair that we go on a feast in January as we have four beauties celebrating their birthdays. As usual, they allowed us to choose the venue as well as the menu… as such; we decided to go to our favourite restaurant, Spring Court.

We took a ride on the new Downtown Line from our office and it’s only 4 stations away from where we were. Super convenient! We arrived early at Chinatown and went to have a feel of the CNY and hoping to do some last minute shopping for Bak Kwa…

Everyone was on time except for Ran as she was held up by some work for our GM. We started our dinner slowly and waited for her to Lo Hei. While we were all enjoying our suckling pig, Ran arrived. Leng did not want to pay extra for slicing up the pig; she somehow tore the pig apart and served us the meat. She was enjoying almost all parts of the piglet and even wanted to eat the head too!!!

After cleaning up the table, they served the Yu Sheng which was one of the highlights of the dinner since it’s about one week to our Chinese New Year. We were all excited and tossed as high as we could; some of our hands or arms were also filled with some strips of vegetables too.

Before serving the desserts, we had the cake cutting ceremony for the Fantastic Four and some photo taking sessions. Everyone was so stuffed up after a 9-course dinner and we did not managed to finish up my desserts too…

It is always an enjoyable and fun dinner gathering with the ladies and Happy Birthday our Fantastic Four!

 

My First Photo-Shoot In 2014

I tagged along since Linda has a photo shoot with Belle and Rie wanted to try her make up skills on us.

We arranged with Belle and Dave who are our favourite photographers at their beautiful house located in Changi area. It will be our first time having our faces painted by Rie who is taking up make up courses at the moment.

She started painting on Linda’s face and seeing the difference from a plain Jane to a sexy babe, I was really impressed by her works. It was really fun seeing her work on Linda’s face and thereafter mine. I was totally relax and allowed her to transform me into a Red Indian lookalike… I love the colours she used on my eyes which matches the head gear and my outfit.

Our photo-shoot went really well and it is always fun to shoot with Belle and Dave who are super pro! Simply love their new backdrops and man… the photos came out to be awesome!

Thank you Rie for the beautiful make-over and the cool couple for the fantastic pictures! Thumps UP!