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Another Wedding!

16 Nov

I enjoy family wedding dinners whenever there is an invitation. It is more for the people than the food honestly. Two weeks ago, we were just in Penang for hubby’s cousin’s wedding dinner. Over the weekend, the latest honor goes to my side of the family. However, it is not a cousin but a nephew!

The groom is my First Aunty’s grandson, my cousin sister’s son. So this makes him my nephew, to simplify matters. Unlike the Penang occasion where we went through the Tea Ceremony because of the cousin hierarchy, we were not required to do so this time.

Mom has nine sisters (Mom ranking number six among the aunties) and five brothers, and I have a ton of cousins! Over the years when a happy occasion comes around, the whole clan comes together for the happy gathering. It would be a boisterous time seeing all the aunties and uncles, and catching up with all cousins who showed up.

As time passes, most of my older cousins are married and this created a lengthy lapse in meeting up. Then last year, came the turn of the last few younger ones and the family gathered for two more wedding dinners. It was wonderful. With this latest occasion, marking the third within a year and the first of the next generation, it was a great time for everyone to once again come together and make merry. Until the next occasion…

M2 was able to attend this time!

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The Wedding

2 Nov

We actually drove to Penang over the weekend to attend a cousin’s wedding dinner. As the invitation came our way many many months ago from hubby’s uncle, we readily agreed. Unlike the last time where we missed out (we were in Bangkok) when the same uncle invited us for his daughter’s wedding, this time we made sure we would come for his son’s happy occasion.

Penang is always a lovely place to return to especially for the food. We had to have the obligatory Char Kueh Teow on Saturday night for dinner. But time was not on our side and there wasn’t much opportunity to eat other stuff because on Sunday morning, we were busy with the traditional tea ceremony.

By the time the morning session was over with a light luncheon served, we rested. Come evening, a light cocktail took place before the dinner. So there was no time at all to sneak in a street food.

The banquet was held at E&O Hotel, a lovely colonial place. The bride and groom were lovingly radiant and it was good for the old generation to meet up. Occasions like this are running out as most of hubby’s cousins were married.

Dinner ended late as always with Chinese wedding dinners. Thankfully we stayed another night before making our way back to the city today.

   
 

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Humbling

29 Sep

It’s humbling to see the stats of my blog showing I have 18 thousand views and more than 10 thousand visitors as of yesterday. Wow! Thank you. This totally spurs me to continue writing and sharing the moments of my life.
18k eyes

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No Escape

14 Sep

Thinking I was very clever when I messaged my sister-in-law last week to say we changed our mind to go for the jumping party, I never saw the next move coming.

My brother called.

It is hard when your only sibling calls and you try to decline the invitation. So what choice did we have? The three of us ended up going for the jumping affair party.

There was trepidation among the three of us but we were ready to face what lies ahead. After lunch, we headed to the venue. The air was humid because the haze in back in the country creating a gloom in the air, figuratively and literally. We decided to be optimistic and just go have fun. 

Jump Street Adventure Parks is an indoor activity place where one jumps on trampolines to do exercises, play dodge ball, slam dunk basketballs, leap frog into a pit of foams and finally, do some high performance acrobat flips off the trampoline and launch unto the giant air-filled landing mattress. I was glad I attired as if I was going to the gym and thank goodness for the sports bra, for with all that jumping and bouncing, it’s not good to end up with sagging assets!

We didn’t have to worry about the excited and highly charged-up kids as there was a jump instructor with our group supervising the little ones; plus the venue was very spacious, we hardly heard them. It was kinda fun but takes a lot of coordination and effort. Yea, we did burn some calories.

But after the 2 hours of activities (I skipped some), the body can feel the aches and pains. By the next day, ooh dang, it hurts to high heaven especially the knees!

 

M2 leaping into the Foam Pit

  
 

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A Colorful Birthday

11 Sep

The girls are teenagers now, 18 and 14 years’ old. At these ages, I deem it insignificant birthday numbers and therefore no big celebrations or parties. Unlike turning 10 or becoming sweet 16, life goes on and it’s just another day but with a small dine-out opportunity and a cake or cupcakes to mark the occasion.

Now the same can’t be applied to little ones under ten years old. My little niece and nephew has a party just about every year to celebrate their birthdays. This stems from them being the youngest and being indulged. With their birth dates very close to each other, my only sibling would hold a party, but just one for both of them.

I have forgotten how party planning goes as far as little ones are concerned. After all, our last big bash was when M2 turned 10 and that was like 4 years ago; and when M1 turned sweet 16 two years ago, not much planning was required, only some conspiracy with her friends to pull it off. Speaking of conspiracy, I remember when I turned sweet 16 donkey years’ ago, I conspired with Dad to have some friends over for a pizza party at home without the knowledge of Mom. She may know of this little secret now though…

Anyway, I was rather amused when the stage was set for the little one’s birthday bash last year. We were invited via online for the occasion and informed, in person, of the color theme. The nephew stated we must wear his favorite colors, orange or green, while the niece opted for pink or purple, colors apparently from the Disney movie, Frozen.

Oh. My. God.

The colors had flashes of Barney (the dinosaur) and Friends going through my mind! Four bright ghastly colors and how do I match? What do I match? Can I match anything? I can’t possible be one-sided favoring only one person’s favorite colors. Gently, I probed and they decided to include yellow and blue for variations. Phew. It was one heckuva colorful gathering as every family member obliged with this request.

This year, the party is not color-coded but activity-enhanced at an activity center. I am not sure I can survive jumping for an hour with a room full of little ones come Sunday. We shall see…

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Where are We Going?

29 Aug

We left the house early this morning to avoid any delays as this is a long weekend. Who knows? The roads may be clogged and the airport check-in line may be miles long. Well, none of these happened; we got to the airport in 45 minutes and the feared long line was non existent. Phew!

It comes as no surprise that we will be heading to our favorite country again for our Alphabet Trip. Since we arrived early, we are enjoying the privileges of the Premium Lounge before our flight at 12.20pm.

The fun begins!

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Our Alphabet Trip

28 Aug

Our wedding anniversary is coming up soon. During the significant milestones, we make it a point to go off somewhere to celebrate and rekindle the romance. Sounds corny I know but necessary for the soul and that’s how it works. Away from our daily routine, away from the mundane and away from the stress.

I call this our ‘Alphabet Trip’. 

A to admire, B to buy, C is ‘see’, D to drink, E to eat, F* to… well, you get the idea.

There was one year hubby got the anniversary year mixed up. Thinking it was the 15th year milestone, he planned our trip to Italy covering Rome, Florence and Venice. We visited museums, admired beautiful architecture, ate and drank a lot and basically, did the whole alphabet routine.

The following year, when it was the actual 15th anniversary and realizing the mix up, we decided to do another trip and basically covered the alphabets again. It was from this trip to Sydney that I bought my Blundstone boots.

The years that followed were ‘insignificant’ years, so we didn’t do anything special or planned anything grand. This year, the 20th wedding anniversary is coming up!

OMG. Where did time go? 20th milestone. No wonder there has been an increase in white hair count, M1 has gone off to university, M2 turned 14 but going on 18 and perspectives on life has changed. But these are good accomplishments save for the white hair count, that can’t be good.

We will be making a trip and decided to extend the alphabet to include ‘G’. For golf. It should be an awesome time.

Here’s to many more milestones together. Happy anniversary to us!

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The Joy of Receiving

30 Jun

It was thoughtful that M1 sent a birthday present to M2 for her upcoming birthday. The parcel arrived timely yesterday while the card came last week; M2 was so excited. We were too! It’s been a while since we received a parcel with such excitement, the last being my Blundstone boots in December.

My second baby is all grown up and turns 14 today. Although M1 is not here with us to celebrate, we know she’s thinking of this occasion in her heart. It may be a school day but we can make an exception. Dinner will be all M2’s favorites.

Happy birthday my M2! 

Look what the postman brought?

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Tradition Continues

22 Jun

Every year when the Dumpling Festival comes around, Mom would painstakingly make the effort to make the dumplings or what we call ‘Bak Chang’ in the Hokkien dialect. She would always make the Nyonya ‘chang’ for me as it is my favorite. 

But every year when she makes them, she would highlight the tedious efforts taken and declare that it would be the last time she’s making them. This went on for the last several years.

Last year with M1 still around, she taught her the skills on how to make ‘changs’. And I would just wait to eat them when they are ready. I’m terrible, I know.

This year, things have changed. With M1 away and I have never, all these years, picked up the skills from Mom to master to carry on this tradition, it looked like we would not have homemade ‘changs’ to eat. And I dared not open my mouth to request from Mom.

So I was pleasantly surprised when I learned that there are some to eat. The elder twin niece had complained that purchased ‘changs’ do not taste as good as Grandma’s recipe. And she took it upon herself to carry on the tradition with Grandma supervising her on the side.

Thank goodness for nieces, I have my homemade Nyonya ‘changs’ to savor!

  

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Happy Anniversary 

12 Jun

I find it amazing that today marks the second anniversary of my blog. Two years! Wow… Two years of daily musings (except for Wednesdays) and constant blogs when I travel. I never knew I had so much to talk about.

What started out as simply my wanting to share about my children’s antics has evolved somewhat to what it is now. I would to thank my followers and readers for keeping up with me to reach this milestone.

Looking forward to many more!

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