Chinese New Year 2013

I really don't feel like blogging, but I just don't want to give all this up without a fight! My blog is the only thing that hasn't died on me along with all my photos in the past 6 years, so I think it's worth sustaining... 

Anyway, there's simply too much to catch up on over the past two months, so I'll just be sharing a bit of what I've been up to in the past few days instead. 

Chinese New Year really started on Saturday.

Mom's side of the family went to The Line at Shangri-La hotel for an unorthodox reunion lunch. This is the first time in my life that we've had a reunion LUNCH instead of dinner, and at an outside place too. 

We sat outdoors next to the pool. Nice ambience and all, but the buffet was far too crowded. There was a long queue getting in to the restaurant even when we had all made reservations, as well as another long queue at the oyster and sushi stations. 

No wonder it's called "The Line". 

Huahuahua... 

Sigh.

Being around young cousins makes me wish I were still in primary school or something. 

My desserts were the only thing I remembered to take a lousy photo of, and I didn't even like them that much...

That evening, we all met again at my aunt's house where we just ate more food and had a lo hei. Uncle Rick made delicious quesadillas that night. I think I had about 5? 

On the first morning of the new year, we went to my grandma's as we usually do. 

This year's fare was slightly different from last year's, but still delicious nonetheless. The roast pork and bamboo shoots were my favourite.

I had my nails painted bright pink for the festivities. Was hoping that they would make up for my first day's outfit being black and white.

Celebrated Ah ma's birthday on the second day of the new year. 

She turns 92 this year, which means that she's really 93 according to the Chinese calendar. Ah ma doesn't know her actual birthdate. All she knows is that she was born on 初二，so on the second day of CNY each year, we will celebrate her birthday. Can you imagine not knowing the exact date of your birthday?

Come to think of it, my maternal grandma doesn't know her actual birthdate either, so she just picked a date that she liked and we celebrate her birthday on that date each year. 

Chanced upon a random lion dance in Chancery Court's Cold Storage that afternoon. 

I was really happy because I did not get to catch one last year!

Finally got to sing at K Box with Shirley and Edwin. Thanks for the good times!

Yesterday morning, I went to Pulau Tekong to send my brother off on his epic journey to adulthood. 

Now that he's 18, it's time for him to enter the army and serve two years in what we call National Service, also known as NS. 

He had his head shaved the day before. Makes him look bigger sized now that his head looks smaller sized LOL

After a really long tour around the premises, it was time to say goodbye. I couldn't help but feel a weird mix of pride, sadness, curiosity and anticipation as we watched them file away. Pride because he's a big boy now, no longer the 8 year old I remember running around the house with. Sadness because I won't get to see him for a bit. Curiosity because I am just dying to know what are they going to do all day today, tomorrow, the day after, etc. etc. etc.! And lastly, anticipation because I can't wait to see him at his graduation parade, fully dressed in his army wear!

Sigh... 

These few days really made me feel old. 

From the ever-shrinking pile of angpow money (it gets lesser every year that I grow older), to the harmless prodding about my relationship status (23 and single? Why no babies yet??!!), to sending my bro off to the army. It just seems to augment the sense of time flying past at the speed of light. 

I wonder what the rest of this year will hold?

A new hobby? Gahhh I hope not.... I have enough hobbies as it is and no time for another one!


Well, think I better go to bed now that it's 06:21 in the morning. Fingers crossed for another blog post soon :)

Lizzie's Wedding Weekend

This past Saturday was a very special day for Lizzie!!!!!!

On Saturday night, I met up with Manda

And her foreign exchange friends

We went to Thaipan for dinner since it was raining heavily in the east

Those crazy boys decided to go swimming at the pool there

Having no choice but to be indoors because of the rain, we went to KBox at Bedok Point

It was a first for the three amigos to be singing at a karaoke.

Manda and I got our sing on too!

Some hallway shenanigans after singing... 

Sunday after church, I had lunch with Michelle at Bukit Timah hawker. 

Tried the tom yam soup from the thai stall. Surprisingly amazing! I had to add some chilli powder though.

Found the tiniest mushroom I'd ever seen

Sunday morning gave us blue skies and sunny weather. It made me so happy since we have had rainy weather almost every day this past week. 

Really enjoyed the bus ride from Bukit Timah to Choa Chu Kang

Sunny all the way

When evening rolled around it was time to get dressed up... 

for Lizzie's wedding reception at the Mandarin Oriental hotel! 

I didn't bring a date with me so I had to sit at a table with people that I didn't know. It was an interesting experience :)

So happy for the two of them!

The beautiful (and enormous) wedding cake

Very touching and funny speeches were given last night.

After the wedding I met up with Shirley at Barossa in Esplanade to chill. 

Sampled their beers but only liked the Irish Ale. 

Time flies when you're having fun, but time waits for no man! I was very aware of that when I woke up this morning and looked at my studying schedule. Where did my weekend go???

Sunshine & Waves

This past weekend was a nice and long one, with Friday being a public holiday in Singapore. 

So what did I do this weekend? 

I spent it doing all my favourite things of course! 

Thursday night after work, I met up with Shirley and her mom for KBox at Scape. 

Sang Britney Spears songs as always! 

Our KBox package came with these colourful fruity non-alcoholic martinis. 

After three hours of non-stop singing, we adjourned to Xin Wang Cafe next door- our favourite supper hangout spot. 

Well, more like my favourite since Shirley is already sick of the place!

I was so hungry, that I wolfed down this baked cheese pasta with pork, 

as well as this breakfast set meal. 

After supper, we played for a while at the arcade before catching the movie End of Watch at 02:00 in the morning. 

One word to describe End of Watch: VIOLENT. 

I also mentioned to Shirley halfway during the movie that if they cut out all the profanities in the movie, they'd probably end up shortening the film by about 30 minutes. 

My brain hurt by the time I crawled into bed around 04:30. 

Later that Saturday afternoon, I met with Shirley again. 

AGAIN!

I'd planned to go skating with friends at Pulau Ubin that afternoon and so Uncle Chuan picked us up from ION in his minivan. 

Shirley said it's been a long time since she's ridden in the back of a minivan. Guess it's the same for me too. 

It's actually pretty fun to see the road from the back perspective for once. 

When we got to Changi Village, the weather was nice and hot. 

We then headed towards the ferry terminal. 

Luckily, we were able to skip the line and get a bumboat almost immediately since we were a larger group. They require 12 people to fill a bumboat before it can leave for Pulau Ubin you see.

Off we go! Instagramming all the way!

Upon arriving at the Ubin jetty, we had no idea what would await us upstairs...

HORDES AND HORDES OF TOURISTS!

You can't tell from this picture, but it was starting to feel pretty hot under the cloudless sky.

Excited to be on Pulau Ubin!

This was Jerome's and Shirley's first time on the island. The rest of the skaters were a little skeptical about whether the paths would be alright to skate on. Most people have the impression that the roads in Pulau Ubin are fraught with potholes and mud. While that was still true five to six years ago, much of the roads have been repaved now. 

Went to a spot where we could put our skates on.

And off we went!

Shirley rode a bike instead.

Midway through, we had to stop for drinks before we collapsed from the heat.

This is 15 year old James, the most pro skater out of all of us that day.

Towards evening time the air had begun to cool down considerably.

No doubt it was partially due to clouds coming in and sheltering us from the sun.

My crazy, impromptu dad actually came to Pulau Ubin as well for a run and texted me while I was still skating, asking if I wanted dinner.

With the day ending, we all took our skates off and headed back towards the jetty.

I hope everyone enjoyed themselves.

I sure did!

And with that, we ended our fun skate-venture in the afternoon.

The bumboat ride back to mainland Singapore was filled with more Instagram opportunities.

For dinner, Papa drove us to the nearby Bedok Corner. 

My sis Chloe claims that this is the best hokkien mee IN THE WORLD. 

I thought the hokkien mee was definitely tastier than your average, but I still prefer the soggy taste of the Bukit Batok hokkien mee. Guess you will always have a bias for the food you grew up with.

Saturday afternoon, I crawled out of bed to meet with Shirley AGAIN.

We had mee siam for lunch at Far East Plaza.

After lunch, we headed to ECP since I'd promised her that I'd teach her how to skate that Saturday.

We had beautiful but hot weather once again.

Shirley said she was a slow learner, but she actually learnt how to skate faster than I did!

The sea water looks inviting, but I wouldn't touch that water with my pinky. It'll probably give me rashes.

There were actually lots of people learning to skate at ECP that day for some reason.

After almost two hours of learning to skate, Shirley rented a bike and we headed towards Big Splash. I didn't know there was a Mr. Teh Tarik there!

I ordered refreshing lime juice to go with my roti prata kosong. 

Shirley's maggi mee goreng.

Not wanting to go home yet, we went to Katong I12 to play at the Timezone there. 

The Timezone at Katong closes at 22:30, and we were so high on playing DDR that we decided to take a bus down to Cineleisure after the arcade closed. Cine's Timezone doesn't close till 02:00 in the morning on weekends!

It was around 02:00 in the morning then that we headed to OldTown White Coffee... That ill-fated place...

I ordered my usual- assam laksa.

Tried a new drink- wheat grass with honey. It was very delicious. 

Shirley and I spent an hour talking about some real deep topics before we left the restaurant. And this is when the bad thing happened. 

I left my work iPhone behind at the restaurant and I only realised it about 5 minutes later when I got home. Shirley was still in the cab and she confirmed that the iPhone wasn't in the cab. She also called OldTown White Coffee to ask if they saw a phone there. 

 Unfortunately I never found it. 

I even skated back to OldTown just to look for myself, but the lady who cleaned our booth said that she didn't see any phone at all. Keep in mind that this was only 10 minutes after we left the restaurant!

Perhaps a customer saw the phone lying on the table and took it right after we left. 

:(

On Sunday, after House of Bread, I met up with the Davidians for dinner in Holland Village. We didn't do much afterwards. Just lay around at the HDB estate nearby and talked about nothing important. I went home feeling like a water bag, filled with water and food.

I had a wonderful weekend, but it didn't really end on a good note. That's alright though. There's always next weekend!

:)