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Let’s Eat!

26 Feb

Although I have been mindful of my weight, I would not give last night’s dinner occasion a miss. It was a gathering with my old school friends. And when I say old, our friendship goes back to the dinosaur era when we were 7 years old. Told you we are dinosaurs.

Since it’s still Chinese New Year, all the more reason to meet up, chatter to catch up, enjoy a good meal and exchange Angpows (red packets) for the children! We took the opportunity to have the ‘Yee Sang’ for prosperity with all the good wishes recited poetically by the waitress and also had the ‘Poon Choy’ dish, which roughly translates to a bowl of everything. Very filling despite it being just one bowl.

Dinner gatherings with old school friends are unlike dinners with golf friends but both are always enjoyable. I only wish the school friends would do it as often as the golf friends. Friendship prevails when we make the effort.

Maybe after the festivity is over, we will prioritize meeting up more often, like hubby and his (and also my) friends with our Tuesday Food Club. After all, we have to eat. And why not eat with good old friends?





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Tuesday Food Club

23 Dec

Sans music, this sums up the motto of our Tuesday Food Club!

Sans music, this sums up the motto of our Tuesday Food Club!

We’ve come to a point in our lives where food and friendship are shaping up to be the most important things, next to family. Realizing this, hubby’s group of friends—from his dinosaur childhood era—declared that we must meet once a month to traverse the city to eat the best, the unusual or the unheard of.

The group consists of 4 couples, with three occasional individuals—childhood friends as well—whenever their work schedule allows them to join us.

In the midst of the Lunar New Year celebration at the beginning of 2014, we kicked off our gastronomic adventure and termed it the Tuesday Food Club, meeting every second Tuesday of the month.

A year has gone by so fast and what a trip it has been! Every month, each couple takes a turn, on a rotational basis, to select the restaurant and all of us would meet over food to catch up. No matter how busy each one is, everyone makes the effort for this; such is the strength of the friendship and lure of good food.

Tuesday Food Club will definitely continue into the new year and beyond as we prepare to say goodbye to the good memories of 2014 and await to usher in 2015 with new memories ahead.

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BFF

12 Aug

The endearing initials, BFF – best friends forever, is timeless and every girl knows what it means. I believe it is understood and used by all the females in the world, myself and my girls included. But I am not sure if guys use this endearing term though. Anyway, my BFF is mostly my Secondary/High school friends; some even goes back to our Primary school days, that is, way, way back to 7 years’ old when we first became friends. This makes our relationship far longer than that of mine with my hubby! After all these years, we are still a close-knit group and there’s a lot of years that has gone by, let me tell you!

We have grown from being naughty, smart and fortunate giggly girls to successful, happy and giggly adults. From the day we left high school to pursue all kinds of career and direction, we’ve somehow kept each other in our minds. A big thanks especially in the 90s when technology and the internet boomed, we hooked up. Then Facebook came along and of course, the smart phone, along with a whole bunch of social apps, we have become closer and more connected than ever.

Two weeks ago, four of us met up. And it felt like we’ve never parted. BFF indeed. The laughter, giggles and giddiness had all the waiters and waitresses raising their eyebrows at us whenever they walked into the private room to top up our green tea. Despite our differences in worldly experience and all being mothers, the conversation always goes back to the good ol’ school days, cracking us up with new bouts of howls over the nostalgia.

I thoroughly cherish these occasions, so my dear BFF, let’s meet up more often!

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Chat

Will They Like Us?

10 Jun

Not our typical timing to have a party in the middle of a work week but hubby and I hosted a potluck party at home last week. It was a continuation of the good company over golf and lunch that I extended the impromptu invite to my friends to our home. The catch to the occasion was simply to have everyone prepare a home-cooked dish to share.

The build-up to the occasion was very exciting especially with our WhatsApp group chat. Everyone showed their food preparation process and kitchen prowess.

Pretty soon the guest list grew, with the addition of hubbies and children from an initial ladies only affair. I worried the house would explode with so many bodies at once but thank goodness, it held. There were little groups here and there – the children in the living room, the men at the garden terrace while the ladies hogged the main dining table.

My girls were worried with children coming, they’d have to play host. “What if they don’t like us?” “What should we talk about?” “What should we do?!” So many concerns. Later on, I would find out that even our young guests had the exact same thoughts as my girls!

Well, the food spread closed all gaps as there was boisterous merry-making, laughter and more laughter, children and adults alike. Any thoughts of “will they like us?” vanished as it was a great potluck party for everyone!

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Am I Italian?

19 May

It was during Chinese New Year/Lunar New Year that we discovered some very enlightening facts about hubby’s side of the family. Hubby’s uncle and cousin had painstakingly researched the family roots, tracing back to his great-grandfather, who was born in 1881 and emigrated here from China.

This means his grandfather is the first generation of the clan, hubby the third generation and my girls the fourth generation. I was awed because on my side, my only sibling and I are first generation; my Dad came from Singapore.

During the PowerPoint presentation, the whole clan learnt of the beginnings of the ancestors: how they met, when, where and all. There were even mug shots of the great-grandparents and it was one of the mugs that I commented, “Gosh! He looks European! Almost like an Italian!” to which M2 overheard and perked her up.

“Am I Italian?” she said.

Tickled by her question, I merely raised my eyebrow. She persisted.

“Am I Italian?”

I rolled my eyes and ignored her.

“Hmm. I must be because I like pizzas!” she decided and beamed.

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Imaginary Friends

8 May

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When I was young, I had imaginary friends who were very interesting and loyal. Way cooler than real friends, they were constantly by my side and totally understands me. I never knew this trait is also evident in my children until I was spring-cleaning their room recently.

It was a Sunday and we decided to revamp the girls’ room a little to create two study corners. As boxes of toys were moved, we had to decide whether to give them away or keep them elsewhere to create space. In the midst of this, I stumbled upon a note written by M2 when she was young.

“Oh… Shaun! That’s her imaginary friend!” chuckled M1.

“Really? I never knew!” I said.

We opened the folded note and read it.

It was hilarious!

I must salute M2, for her imaginary friend was way, way more interesting than mine! And letters… classic. I never wrote letters to my imaginary friends.

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It’s Deciding for Me

18 Apr

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I thought all was fine with my iPhone4 after the last few scares; maybe it could last and I don’t have to give it up so soon. But I guess I spoke too soon! Last week, it blacked out on me again at a critical Kodak-moment! I was right about to capture the amazing birthday cake presented at an uncle’s birthday dinner when the phone froze and the Apple icon appeared before a black screen! Aaaargghhhh…. the cake was cut and I do not have a picture of the amazing cake intact. Hrmph…

I was annoyed to say the least. Hubby was sympathetic and suggested that night I should just have the new iPhone5S charged up, ready to be used instead of having to wait until my birthday to open the box.

My dear iPhone4, I love you but you chose your destiny.

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Beyond January and April

7 Apr

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When I was young, I had only 4 important dates to remember: my birthday, mom’s, dad’s and my only elder sibling. Mom, Dad and me are April babies while my only sibling, January. It used to be then one celebration in January for him and a combined one for the three of us.

Fast forward to the present. Both my sibling and I are married and separately, each with a family of our own. I now have the hubby, M1 and M2’s birthdays, spread across the calendar. And him, with his wife and children, the calendar is filled with even more dates to remember. In the family, April by far has the most number of family members having their birthdays. And combined birthday celebrations are done occasionally (especially when the children were younger) but the bigger picture being several birthday dinners and cakes in the year beyond January and April.

This year, we decided to do the combined celebration for the April babies again although Dad is no longer with us. One half of the twins is back from college and the April month is back to its three person requirement.

So happy birthday mom, my niece and me!

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Times Have Changed

13 Mar

It was a Wednesday and for two days in a row, we were going out for yet another dinner with friends. Hubby was just informing M1 about our plans.

“Going out again?! Why?” questioned M1.

Well, impromptu plans can coincide with plans made earlier. Indeed times have changed when it used to be the older questioning the younger but it’s the other way around now.

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Happy Christmas and Merry New Year!

24 Dec

I cannot believe another year has gone by so fast! Wasn’t it just yesterday the whole family was visiting the US – the adults catching up with some of our dearest friends and the children seeing what I deem as my favorite places from my college days? Wait a minute, that was last year! Dang.

The past few days I was reminiscing about this time of the year and out of the blue, the song by Band Aid (Do They Know It’s Christmas?) popped into my mind! Wow. That was dinosaur years ago. Watching the music video when John Taylor (of Duran Duran) fleetingly appeared made my heart skipped a beat even after all these years. Sigh…

It’s such a classic and oldie now, that song.

This year I decided to host the family Christmas (eve) dinner, relieving my only sibling of this annual duty. I look forward to the usual happy, fun and boisterous occasion despite the reduced head count (the twins are away in college and the younger niece, at camp). The tree is up, the presents are in place, the wine chilled and the food prepared with love. This time of sharing will no doubt be cherished.

This year has been significant for me, in many aspects of my life. For starters, I tried Candy Crush (in March) out of curiosity and look what happened? I became so addicted to it, I qualify to be called a professional candy crusher. I also started this blog (in June) and have been going strong ever since. With 4,851 views and more than 200 ‘Likes’ so far, I must be doing something right.

This year also marked my M1 turning Sweet 16 and my M2 fairing well in her UPSR exam. Children aside, Hubby and I traveled a fair bit—not to new destinations—but to near and far and enough to keep our sanity in check to balance up the work stress that we face daily.

And this year I made more new friends compared to any past given year. Pretty unusual but then again, golfing friends are a unique breed and it’s nice that it has developed into wonderful friendships over many outings and dinners beyond the fairways and greens. I also rekindled old friendships, thanks to technology for making the world smaller and reachable. For all these, I feel truly blessed and yeah, it’s been a significant year for me.

So I’d like to end this significant year by wishing all—from the bottom of my heart—a happy Christmas and a merry New Year in its truest sense! Hope your 2013 was equally significant for you to reflect back in years to come with fond memories and a smile on your face.

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