After some tussle and fussle, finally set a time to go visit Ah Meng at his house. It has been a real long time since we last went to his house at Seng Kang. And this time, we have an additional member, Jingwen with us on this voyage. Me and Choi headed to his house first while Li Ling waited for Jingwen at the interchange. Got a mini gathering of the workers from PSB of the past...talked about some recent happenings, ate some new year goodies, and took some pictures. As usual, Kimberley was the highlight at 3 months old. Adorable little girl who knows how to choose her playmate. lol...see the pictures below.
This is Ah Choi with the young babe...she cried shortly after.
Liling with Kim, somehow she looks like she's the mother!! lol...anyway, the baby's trying to run away from her crutches...and guess what?? Less than 3 seconds after she took Kimberley from Jingwen, Kim started wailing super loudly!! She really knows who's nice and who's not! Smart girl!! On timer mode...only Jingwen, Choi and me are looking. Those horrible 3, don't know what they trying to do... Finally, a more proper shot... This is KIMBERLEY!!!! Pretty??
It had been a long while since I went to Changi airport and on this beautiful, lovely morning, I arose to the ringing alarm and proceeded to the airport to send my uncle and family off as they going back to Taiwan. Poor me doesn't have a car, so I get to take the efficient MRT system all the way from West to East.
Ok, here are the pictures taken just before they enter the departure hall:
Aunt and my cousin
Aunt, my mother and cousin A group picture...i'm inside too!! There's a nice background too...nice orchids I thought these were fake flowers initially until I felt them...real orchids!! And lots of them...purple too...love the combination
Lunch was marvellous as well...took a while to source out the food centre located at Changi Terminal 2. It really is a huge food centre man...all sorts of stalls with attractive rates for staff.
I must make special mention of the western food stall man...really really OISHI!!! When I look for food, first I follow the queue, then I follow my nose and I ended up at the western stall. I wanted to try this: "Grilled Catfish Fillet with Creamy Dill Sauce"....Arghz...sadly...they only offer that on tues, thurs and sats. Anyway, that costs S$5.50 and it really looks nice...no choice, have to settle for the below: "Linguine Seafood with White Wine Sauce". And guess what? It's really damn nice!! Not what you would expect of hawker fare and I should say it's the best pasta i've eaten so far. No bullshit man...i've got a golden tongue when it comes to food, and when Weixin says it's nice, go try it!!
The chef is really damn good in her culinary skills, she used quite a bit of garlic which I hate to the core but there's no garlic taste and it goes down well. And she manages to merge the sauce and the linguine nicely. The clams were of a generous serving too...7 clams in all, rather fresh too. Cost me S$3.90 for this dish but I would say it's worth every single cent. Coffee and tea sucks in this food centre though...go get some can drinks instead. And btw, on the way out of airport, passed by Terminal 1's Crystal Jade bakery and I saw this "Coffee Egg Tart", looks interesting and new, so I tried it...hmm...innovation's there....but but...the taste just doesn't blend in well. The tart itself is good and crispy. But the coffee firstly isn't strong enough and ya, don't think it's a good combination. This thing cost me S$1.15...wasted.
Ok, the previous blog was just me whining and some thoughts about the festival. Let's now look in-depth at some of the happenings during this supposedly festive season. CNY Eve as usual, stayed in Singapore, went to my grandmother's place where we had our reunion dinner with the rest of the family. And as usual, I help prepare the food and in particular, I help slice up the abalone...*grinz*...so you lot can guess what filled my stomach that night. CNY day 1 itself, morning woke up erm...sufficiently early to prepare for visit to my grandmother's house before heading to Malaysia. Everyone's still preparing so while waiting, the hand-written script of BS108 tutorial by xuweixin was borned. Lunch was settled at grandmother's place and I got my 1st red packet for this year...lunch was a strangely familiar sight from dinner the night before....lol. But nevertheless, there were some new dishes...and there was 1 last slice of abalone amongst the vegetables!! How could I have missed that the night before??!!
Anyway, headed for the customs into Malaysia. Ok, a little bit of my history... firstly, i'm not a Malaysian...the next person to say i'm a Malaysian again will get roared at. I'm a made-in-singapore product. My father's singaporean but my mother's malaysian, so i've got relatives on both sides of the causeway. There's something I want to complain here though. The damn malaysian customs are SHIT! Sorry if there are malaysians here ok, but your customs really sucks...can you even imagine people queuing up until the shelter way outside of the main immigration building?? There are at least a few hundred people stuck at the customs but with only less than 20 slowcroaches on duty? The air-cons are not switched on and to make things worse, ventilation's real bad and people just fainted while queuing and they still don't bother doing anything about it? And on the walls, there're long, big banners saying: Welcome to Malaysia, Visit Malaysia 2007" and right in the middle, we have this ironic scene. I really think those Malaysian officials ought to be ashamed of how they handled things during this festive peak duration. For 10+ years i've been going through that screwed-up customs, for 10+years I repeatedly see this scene. It took me 2 hours to move a distance of less than 100m, how's that? I honestly think their proposal for change submitted every year is "We open all counter to clear passport". Wake up you inefficient fellows...there's such a thing called EFFICIENCY in english if there's none in bahasa melayu. I'm not even bothered if PM Abdullah sees this...I have faith that if he is to see such a scenario, he too will be put to shame and question what the hell are his men doing.
That's just a side issue...so we reached Yong Peng(永平), Malaysia where my mother came from. Went back to my maternal grandmother's house at a village called Lam Lee(南利新村) where the gathering is for so many years. In fact, there wasn't supposed to be any gathering at that house as my grandmother has passed on. But since my uncle's coming back from Taiwan for this CNY, it was an abrupt decision for everyone.
Cousins, aunts and uncles and everyone gathers around in the old house...below are some clips and photos...let them speak for themselves:
This is 1 part of the living room and the photos on the walls are my maternal grandmother and grandfather. I've never seen my grandfather though...even my father don't have the chance to meet him.
This is another part of the living room. There's just too many people around, so by night time the living room becomes a bedroom. This is the room I slept in though...haha...those 3 on the floor are my male cousins. Damn lot of mosquitoes...they having a feast while I sleep. Anyone seen an uncut pineapple before?? There's plenty over here... This is my youngest cousin, Nicholas. He was so cute and chubby when young...now already 12 years old...damn, I feel old...he tried getting his mother to get him a RM1000 hamster...I told them that's either a golden hamster or simply a CHINCHILLA! Ok, I must make special mention here about these 2 dishes. The black gooey stuff is Lor Mee and the other is Butter Fried Sotong. Both are damn nice dishes. There was a BBQ Stingray too...forgot to snapped a picture of that. The Lor Mee is definitely not the type that we eat in Singapore. In fact, I never eat Lor Mee in Singapore. If you ever see Weixin eating Lor Mee in Singapore, that's an impostor. This Lor Mee is the specialty of the place, real nice...drool...but too bad I only get to eat it once a year.
This is something most of you have not played before...FIRECRACKERS!!! But these fly though...you lot are missing out on lots of fun...
The dull night sky was colourfully lighted up by fireworks. Not some fancy fireworks you get to see at the Esplanade in Singapore, but something plain and simple close to you...
First of all, just let me clear the most recent events and some interesting events shall follow. I don't go round tagging everyone's blog, so let me wish everyone a Happy Pig Year! May your wallets and grades be as fat as the pig!!
Chinese New Year seems to have lost its touch as we grow up. I keep wondering why in the past. But now, I suppose I found an explanation to it. When we were way younger(oh gosh, suddenly I feel so old), maybe in the era of 4 years old onwards. That will be the age most kids start realising things around them and start having deep impressions. Everything just seem so new, everything's red, so many candies and new year goodies to go round, all the family members gather and you are 1 of the start attractions and there's no doubt, cash in the form of red packets. As we proceed onto primary school, we join in the celebrations with a much larger group of people, and there's the half day where we don't get to study(hurray!) due to celebrations etc. Then we move onto secondary school, new people, new friends, new environment but things start to get boring though. lol...I remember the same old performances, same old sequence of events, same faces and as usual, the enormous crowd of ex-students crowded all around the school hall participating. But I suppose by then, Chinese New Year becomes more of a routine rather than an enjoyment. It's a must do rather than want to do sort of thing going on. As we move onto college, I don't think there is a further need to elaborate more...haha...just guess the flow...
University?? As in the current situation? CNY of course means a long holiday...but I won't be too happy with this break though. Celebrations are done with tutorials in mind, with assignments being a pain in the arse and reports to rush. I was telling Siya on the morning of CNY I was a real good boy....haha...guess what?? I have no choice but to complete BS108 tutorial before I left for my grandmother's house and later on, to Malaysia. Yeah I know it sucks, and readers should be cursing me, what a mugger I am etc etc...but don't lie to yourselves ok!! All those in university must have done some form of homework or another!! :P And was there even any festive atmosphere in school?? I suppose the nearest match should be the red bus 170 that comes and goes daily. Oh, not forgetting the red packet I received when I reached school today...all those PRC students...think they really are too free...fancy giving away red packets with some chocolates and a pack of peach tea powder. Anyway, it's now sitting nicely where it belongs...the bin.
And coming back before I lose focus...I believe this is the phase which i shall term as "Can't be bothered" phase. Why? Simply because, things just follows a routine, eat reunion dinner on eve, day 1 visit this and that day 2 do that, day 3 do that, day 4 go back school etc. The main point is, my role for this whole phase is just to open mouth, say happy new year, receive a red packet, eat more goodies, answer questions from all relatives, catch up with relatives and cousins etc. I don't even bother getting new clothes for CNY these few years...feels just like another long weekend to me...clothes as usual ends up settled by my mother and I dragged Choi and Sebastian out to Queensway to get my shoes 1 day before the eve...not because of CNY though but because my old shoe has officially evolved into a "Crocodile".
I believe the next time i'll look forward to CNY will be the time I get more involved in the festival. Maybe when I get to have a girlfriend? And most probably when I have my own household to manage. Then will there be major involvement and maybe the festive mood will come in again. Just imagine having to take note of CNY coming, changing notes into small change, cleaning up the house, decorating the house, shopping for food and goodies, taking note of the price of bak kwa, abalone and prawns etc. For now, there is no life....no life...
Sorry to the people viewing my blog...think by now everyone who frequents this blog knows it has been dead for a long time....1 month to be exact!! apologies to all...things cropped up, things happened, workload just piled up and the list goes on. In short, there'll be a stream of continuous updates in these coming days, so stay tuned!
