Bye bye 2008, embrace 2009

Heppi San Lin!

It's interesting to read about the many parties planned for tonight to usher in the new year, especially the one without undies. Why, people are just getting desperate or trying to be creative? This kind of parties, been there, done that laa wei..

Anyway... again, HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU YOU AND YOU!! I LAP YOU!

2 movies in 2 nights

After lepak-ing around for those days, we chilled out at home most of the time apart from the breakfast and the planned ahead Breadtown tour with some good friends of mine. After eating out for the last 2 days, we just had dinner at home, after frantic desperate attempt to burn off the extra calories in the pool in the evenings.

Hence, we have some few hours to kill at nights, after tucking the kids early to bed at about 9. Bought some new movies home to watch after going paktoh-ing at the night market. It's confusing why businesses in night markets flourish as I don't see their prices being anything lower than the hawker stalls, coffee shops or other similars. But it is good to walk around in the open air once in a blue moon, browsing leisurely, though the sight of beggars in 1-family-big-small sitting around on the walking paths is just depressing.

So I came home, put in the movie in the player and watched Angelina Jolie in an x-rated show with her big boobies, before she was femes. The storyline wasn't very exciting, a few minutes into the show, I was about to press the stop button, but somehow, something just kept my attention (not the boobs la) and eventually, I finished watching the whole thing.

The show is apparently a true story about Gia, the first supermodel who became a hit almost instantly, and it weaved her life story of how she succumbed to AIDS. I rate this show 6/10, half of it solely because of it's Jolie (and the 2 tetek), whereby I think she's really attractive and giving quite commendable acting of a newcomer.

Hubs was busy playing his online game and asked me what the story was about as I think he was pretty surprised that I had stayed awake for the whole movie. After briefing him, he said "Cheh, so simple storyline only ah? Anything juicy? Can just jump to that part only?" Men!

Last night, I watched another one called "Taken". And yes, I think it's good, capturing my attention until the end. In fact, this one do spill over in the sense that I would think about the story even until now. Get it and watch for yourself. Though it might seem impossible to have just one man going through the odds and fighting off another 100 to save her daughter, it's anyhow interesting to see how resourceful he is to overcome the obstacles. And being a mother to a daughter, it surely tugs the heartstrings watching the scene where she was abducted. OK, anyhow, I sure am a bit more of the emotional kind.

And that concludes my movies review for the day.

Recollecting my thoughts

Just for the records, the past few days had been rather pleasant, albeit a little bit confused with contradictory thoughts playing, rewinding and playing again in my mind.

I think it had been quite sometime since the last when we had stayed around in KL for the longest weekend break there is. 5 days. It seemed weird banker hanging around stepping on my toes for that long.

The dinner with our VIP guests turned out ok. Too much food on the table, about 8 dishes for 12 of us, old and young, all inclusive. I cooked 4 while the rest were brought over by them. Yes, there were char-siew and grilled chicken wings. Her Majesty commented the char siew could use more sugar for marinating. I admit I was slightly disappointed that the effort to "fish" for some nice comments came to null. It came from His Majesty though, telling everyone the chicken wings was good, well marinated. And that feels good. Is saying something nice about someone's cooking so difficult? Or it hurts that I can cook? blek!

The other 2 dishes were assam nyonya prawns with different kinds of veggies, which was almost untouched, until the end, when I noticed that she did picked a few more to munch on. And the other is what they called "the-big-4-kings". She commented I should have fried the brinjal so it would be soft inside and not hard as it was then. Sigh! OK, maybe I should take these comments constructively, huh?

What they brought over was a crispy duck, pork leg, roast pork (which was saved for another day), choy sum fah, and fish where we steamed it with grind ginger. Not one was finished up, in fact when we were done, the table looked as if dinner was just to start. What a total waste of food!

I could have saved my time and energy in the first place. But there were really several reasons why I did what I did. I genuinely wanted to cook something for them in return, for all the meals that she had done for us when we went back home. I too, wanted to show off, that my name is not Lulu, that I can cook as well. How would I possibly look like to serve just plain rice to them, right? And to have thought over, planned, arranged days before that day, it came sort of a failed mission to touch their hearts.

After cleaning up and hanging around at home, with the "cheerful" sounds of mahjong, TV, children voices, it was time to open christmas gifts. Oh yeah, we finally did make it to try giving them a memorable christmas with us, and banker told me to get them the gifts in the morning. I was very excited at the thought of shopping, but with time constraint, I couldn't browse around more to get the nicest gift I can possibly get for them each.

In the end, it was clothes for all the ladies and socks for the 2 men. And the children have building blocks to play with, didi is thoroughly enjoying himself each day playing with it. I am thrilled to see that actually.

My mom loved the blouse I got for her, apparently, mother and daughter do have the same taste, almost, at least. BUT, for the other "mother", it's just almost definite that what I like seems like what she doesn't like, vice versa. I should have bought her the worst looking dress I think, going by that logic. But how could I do that? In the end, I picked what I think the best looking blouse for her, something which I thought I would love to be in too, but as it is, in the end, I don't think she had liked it. It was rather obvious with the expression in her face when she opened the gift. I do hope I'm wrong though. To be honest, it's really upsetting. When you hope to just get a simple beaming smile in return, it's truly... what a sigh!

The next day we went to Crab Island, and the weather was really in our favor, without the hot sun, just good enough to walk around without even an umbrella. Perfect. That made everyone in a good mood, especially when the whole entourage was there, without any absentees. Even when one who might not choose to be there but obliged to just because..

I'm not much of a hypocrite person, I show much of how I feel inside on the outside. That might be good but yet, can be disastrous at times. I can't imagine how stressful it is to put up a good show all the freaking time. Then again, for some, it could be a good thing, especially for filial sons.

We talked about this, apparently what I think doesn't seem to be what he thinks. It makes me frustrated indeed. Am I not good enough? Then again, I think about how scary it is to be seeing face to face with someone who is not what she might seems to be. Makes no sense, right? I think that's the intention.

We had a great seafood lunch and were home by evening. It was good I managed to steal a quick nap in the car on the way home, something which rarely comes by nowadays.

The next day we took them to Cheras Yulek famous charsiew wanton mee. Then dropped by at Sg Wang where everyone had something home, the simple yet effective way to end a short break happily. They packed their bags and went back after a late lunch, leaving the mess to me, which I don't mind really, as most importantly, I did have a good time as well. I did, but just some question marks always hovering on my head following me around. And it's these times I would ctrl-alt-del to think deeply in my thoughts. BUT, this time around, I chose to spill it out, let it out of my system. I guess I know who I want myself to be in the end. I chose to be myself.

What we are going to do on Xmas eve and Xmas day.

I will be having a party of cocktail, carols, gifts exchanging and laughter around the home, NOT!

That would be what I had wished and dreamed for, always, but instead..

Some VIPs will be coming over, apparently it's Her Majesty's birthday, according to the chinese calendar. Since we have plans lined up for Sunday, they are coming in our direction to have a big "tai char fan" together-gether.

And I'm going to play masak-masak, for a (let me count my fingers again.. 6+2+2+2, not enough fingers timm) 12 people, including me and my kids. Wah.. I'm going to be so busy tomorrow.

Anyway, being smart and crever girl, I do have some easy to make, good to eat, easy to clean up dishes, like the grilled chicken wings and the char siew, which are already in the fridge soaking and marinating all the ingredients I dumped in. Then, there will be some green vegetables, and she is kind enough to be bringing over some food too so I need not slave so much. Then again, I have this slightest angst in a little corner of my heart which says "What? You think I can't cook and I can't cook well for you, izzit izzit izzit??"

Well, no need to be so angst la, not that I cook very well also. Up to them loh, hoh?

Since tomorrow coincides with Xmas eve, which was the main reason we are not planning to eat out, as it'll be a huge crowd everywhere, coupled with the big group of us, I was just thinking if I should "kau kau hei fun" to get some gifts for each of them, put them under my xmas tree (which is STILL bare beneath), so christmassy, right? For the sake to see their beaming faces and happy smiles, I thought it would be worth it, but time is running too short now.

Well, talking about xmas gifts, this year, I have quite many, from my hubby and myself. Mostly are the items I bought myself, which I had so longed for for the longest time. And I treat it as a show of love from me to me. I so love them. And I'm so happy. Shopping is really good. Hope hubb won't come and marah me later tho. OK, going to sleep now, have a merry christmas, everyone.

Part of the crowd in Ocean Park

This would be mostly a post of pictures. On our last day of our HK trip, we went to Ocean Park, with my pal, MY, who has beaten to me in blogging about it here.

We tried to be early, in anticipation of a huge crowd, to get to the rides before the queue starts picking up, but it was of no use. Everywhere we went, the waiting times were easily between 45 to 1 hour long. Sigh.. OP has become too popular for an easy leisure theme park enjoyment.

Dora the explorer, with map and backpack!

The first ride for korkor. I lost the guts to ride with him.

The 2nd ride for him while meimei and didi were getting bored
"When are we going to have some fun?"

"Whoosh!! Down we go!"

When we met up, the boys clicked together like magnets, and it was a lot more merrier together. Off we went to Pacific Pier to watch sea lions and seals, which by now I still haven't been able to differentiate yet. Don't both look the same?

Eww.. I thought it looked like a big giant leech!

The Q to this attraction was damn long when I was here the first time, and it's still the same this time. Almost an hour's queue, I think.

A very good view when at the top.

This set of Jaws teeth gained much interest among the visitors there. We had to q up to be "eaten" by the shark. But meimei was pouting because I didn't let her to disrupt others while they took their picture, while the both boys were, as always, not cooperative. Sigh!

While korkor was having all the fun going for all the rides, both of these younger ones have to be satisfied with walking around aimlessly with me.

Can't even get the biggest prize for us, what la!

When he was finally allowed into this ride, he ran in, took off his glasses, took off his shoes, put them aside and ran to find a vacant seat. He was the only one to take off the shoes, btw, and I giggled to see him doing that. I was telling MY lucky he didn't start taking off his clothes and pants as well..

Rushing off to be in time for the dolphin show, and that was the crowd by then. It was like a current in a river, you can't stop when you are walking among the crowd there, else you would be trampled all over. Didn't look so good, huh?

We found some seats, though not with the best view. I haven't watched the dolphins performance before, as the last time I been there, it was closed for renovation. I admit this is one of the 2 attractions I was looking forward to in OP. The other being the cable car ride.

The show was so-so, everyone just got excited with exclamations of "Oohs.." when the dolphins jump out from the water, and that was about the only thing which was interesting in the whole show.

It was really too sad for me that the Q for the cable car was miles long, that we had to forget about it and take the other option, via bus ride. My heart weeped as I was just longing so much to see the magnificient view from the cable car again. Damn those people!


We reached the other side in no time and feeling hungry, bought some hot dogs to eat. It was about to get dark too, and we saw some performances, had a go at the children's park, and lastly the koala bear sanctuary.

Meimei's first thrill ride.

We finally step out from OP when it was about to close, and off for dinner back at Mongkok. As it's the last day of our HK tour, banker wouldn't "die heart" to get his hands on his pair of sports shoes, and walked around to buy those shoes. One pair for him, one pair for me. Though I'm not quite sure how many times I use those shoes actually. We reached back at the hotel abt 11pm that night, and we had yet to pack our bags. That was because we had to go off early in the morning the next day for our return flight.

So, overall, it was a pleasant trip, although too exhaustive from the endless walking and entertaining the children's fuss.

Not enough yakkity yak

I had assisted in getting the gang of my high school friends a get-together today, after having left school for the last 20 years. It was chaos situation - an uncontrollable group of lovely ladies who were making so much noise that the rest of the patrons were shaking their heads away and staring at us in crude looks. How very unladylike - of them!

Anyways.. who cares, as long as we were having fun, noone bothered if we looked like prisoners who were just released from jails or ahlians who were out from the kampung. But of course, I was the only one who kept a composure and even reminding to the girls to act like girls. :)

The turnout came to a headcount of 37, some who I had not seen for all these twenty years, my gosh! But those years didn't seem to get in the way as we yak like it was only yesterday we just met each other, accompanied by lots of bursts of laughter and endless camwhoring.


Before Caroline went off (the first one to have to go off), all of us went to the pool area to take a big group photo, and asked for the waiters to help us with that mission. 3 of those lengchais came and the pile of cameras there were enough to make us laugh silly. Even one of them left a handphone camera as well! By the time the cameras finished clicking, our jaws were already numbed from smiling too long.



These girls, some are just darn sexy, cute, sweet and pretty. I haven't got enough ogling at them yet. And they were already asking to have another get-together on the year we turn 4. Then again, I think we will get-together more, whenever there's any little reason to do so, like when Dawn is home again! (Dawn, we are counting on you!)

Short break at Langkawi

I guess I don't need to give much introduction to this island. It was a rather short-but-just-nice-and-relaxing break over the weekend. Apart from a few minor hitches before departing, a brief shopping, mostly for liquor at duty free shops, a monkey(s)'s visit to our chalet while we were swimming at the hotel pool, 2 pretty good dinners of tiger prawns and chilli crabs, a bruised ankle, consecutive few nights of wild sex and quite an unexpected pleasant tour at the Cable Car hill, there's nothing else much to note down. Just a few pictures (out of 332!!!) here.

The eagle that is the landmark of Langkawi.

"I want to go on the yacht.. I want I want I want..."

The Cable Car Station which is the new landmark. A must-visit tourist spot now. Dang! The queue was an hour wait for us. But it was all worthwhile when we were at the peak.

Happy to be finally on the cable car. Legs felt sore from the longest wait.

The scene which was awaiting us. I was wowed. Since we saw the Q in the first stop, we declined to disembark as we had enough of waiting and went on straight to the second/ last stop.

... and the scenic view.

Look closely, you will see UFO landing..

Study the map well before start exploration. It now has the hanging bridge which was opened in late 2005, and a must-see too.

Must have a family shot for remembrance sake.

And the hanging crooked bridge. Quite an awesome sight.

Boy! It was so darn high, people with acrophobia better not go near. I myself dare not look down. The information on the internet said future plans will have a bungee jumping from the peak as well. That would be so adrenalin pumping.

Can't miss another one for a family shot as well.

See the kaki kangkang? Must stand like that one, to give better balancing.

Back at the beach. Weather was really favoring us. Though it was cloudy and threatening to pour, the wind blew the grey clouds away and let us have a good time at the beach and the pool.

And he was sporting enough this time to allow me to bury him in the sand.

The Oriental Village at the bottom of the cable car station. Lots of souvenir shops, duty free shops, eateries, walkway to stroll on..

Killer stare!

The kind of beach scenery I used to draw for Art lessons, my absolute favorite.

And the much recommended seafood restaurant in Pantai Cenang. We were there 2 nights in a row, it was good food, reasonable pricing and good place to stuff yourself full.

Mm...yum yum! Tiger prawns, am salivating even when writing this.

And off we go, back to where we started.

Images from my old home.

No, this picture below is not from the childhood years. I think I have seen a couple or more people putting pictures from MVM's Xmas decorations on their blogs now. The place is such a hit.

Made me have second thoughts about putting the same thing on mine. But I suppose 1 or 2 won't hurt la, hoh?

No wonder. It is really a huge crowd during weekends. I was there for 2 days berturut-turut last weekend. Crazy. I guess some of the times, you can't help joining in the fun pushing and shoveling around.

We have GSC vouchers and took the kids to watch Madagascar 2. And, there was a Modern Home and Property Fair. We bought some home appliances and some properties as well to make our parking fee worthwhile. (wishful thinking!)

But wait, yes, we did buy something. The water taps to replace the fountain-making taps in our homes, and the juicer/blender/chopper after watching the demonstration. It is redundant, but the part where I can make it handy to make soyabean milk so conveniently sealed their deal with us. Sigh.. poor flers like us, got conned into parting with our money so easily.

This is my home where I grew up in. My parents told me we moved in when I was 3 months old and from then, I slept with my brothers in 1 room already, leaving my mom alone to be in a world of her own with my dad at nights. So young I was so well-behaved! :)

The colors of our first family portrait had gone like this. What a pity. See my left hand in the picture? I remembered nothing except that I kept putting my left hand on my mom's hands, and she kept putting it away and the result, I seemed to have lost my left limb. What kind of trash I keep in my memory, I have no idea.

This is our 2nd family portrait, and we took it before my elder brother depart overseas for his high school education. I had practised smiling in front of the mirrors for the hundredth time and during the photo shoot, the photographer told me to be natural, and this the end result. Like a pakchi-mui indeed, I agree.

The first addition of family member. I remember nothing in this picture except I felt my legs dem cold. Oh, and the white frock was specially chosen by my sis-in-law and my brother, wanting to get me something nice and special for their wedding day. I am still keeping it, in the years to come, I wonder if my dotter would like it? Regrettable hairstyle, made me looked 10 years older.

Of all family portraits, I think I looked best in this one, unfortunately the background really sucks big time. Can see until tau-fah-ngan-luen, right? The 2 little babies in there are so grown up now. When I was wedded, the tai-kam-jea said we shouldn't take family portrait with the bride's family as I'm considered the "thrown-away water". 4-8-poh!

Thus, that wasn't anymore studio family portraits which is enlarged and displayed proudly on the wall in our living room other than those above. Right now, there are 16 of us, I really do wish we can take one for remembrance, but I am not too confident if we can have it before someone say byebye. *sob*


Dinner. We are a bunch of carnivores today, deboning the roast pork like hungry lions in the afternoon and tearing off the grilled chicken like sap-yun-9-sau. I bought the roast pork home from my hometown, supposedly as a treat for my banker. See see he told me he's not coming home for dinner, and we have no choice but to finish it off for him. So full until I can't eat anymore now.

Eh, the story for today jumped up and down, with no flow or relation to each other one? Aiks. who cares, as if anyone reads this.