School hols Aug 2008

One week wasn't quite enough for the last school holidays. PT is still filming in Penang, in a Glen Goei movie called "The Funeral Party". To spend some time with PT, we went up to our favourite place in Penang, Lone Pine!

A few weeks ago, Adam decided he wasn't going to use a float to swim anymore. Made sure I was just a few kicks away and he was off kicking and swimming towards me. Now, he's graduated to jumping into the pool and swimming about.



Why do we love Lone Pine?



We went over to the ParkRoyal to the water sports centre to try out the buggy and also jet ski. The sea was very rough that day and boy was it windy!


This photo is very deceiving. Moments before, I was switching between trying to get the buggy to move and keeping it out of the sea! That it was high tide and the beach was on a slope made it very difficult to drive the buggy. Combined weight of the riders didn't help too! It was slightly easier with Laura and I only but even so... it was NOT EASY TO RIDE A BUGGY!



We went from a seaside holiday to a hill resort holiday. My sister-in-law and I went to see Alan Tam in concert. The concert was very good. Kids had fun in the pool too!



During this hols, we also discovered that Adam is quite the thrill seeker. Both PT and I love riding the roller coasters, so no prize for guessing where he got that streak from. Here is Adam sliding down the Awana pool slide.

Year of the Boar

This is the 2nd day of The Year Of The Boar. If the rest of the year is anything like the eve and the first couple of days, I say bring it on!

What has become tradition in our family is our friends coming over for New Year's Eve reunion dinner. These are friends who are like family to us. Here are some of the dishes prepared for that day.

A special request by friends and family every year is TAU YEW BAK, which is braised pork belly in soy sauce. PT's eldest daughter called on New Year's Eve to make sure I'd saved some for her as in the previous two years, our guests had polished everything before their visit. This year, I doubled the portions and saved some especially for family visiting on the first day of New Year. That meant cooking 4kg of pork belly and shoulder!

Jew Hoo Char (jacima beans/sengkuang fried with shredded cuttlefish) is a dish which is special to me. Chinese New Year reunion dinner is not complete with this dish. A dish which symbolizes abundance as cuttlefish sounds like "always have" in Hokkien. I can eat this alone with lettuce and forego all the other dishes. This dish reminds me of CNY's of my childhood in Ipoh.

More auspicious sounding dishes were lotus root soup for longevity, "ho see fatt choy" (dried oysters with hair fungus) for all good things and prosperity, emperor chicken so we all live like emperors, "ha ha tai siew" (prawns) for lots of laughter throughout the year, "nien gao" (steamed sweet cake with grated coconut) for promotion and advancement in our career, stir-fried sweet peas for a sweet year ahead and of course "loe sang" for obvious reasons. I believe we have all the important things in life covered!

The reunion dinner ended about 5am, with most of our friends crashing at our place. By late morning, the party started again when we got up and our family joined us. My brothers and their family, PT's daughters and family and our friends who stayed over. It was a noisy house but I love it! Kids were playing, adults were chatting, lots of cooking and buzz in the house.

In the evening, I suddenly realised I've not heard Adam's voice for a while. I found him sprawled on the sofa, fast asleep!



After his power nap and a shower, he was playing again. Here's the biker chick and biker dude!



Today we visited PT's 80+ year old aunt and we visited my aunt too. Most times, holidays and family getting together are portrayed in a negative light in the movies. Dysfunctional family members fighting over dinner and not getting along. I am so happy that that doesn't apply to us as I love visiting family and I love having family and friends over.

I've not come to the best part yet. Even with all the excitement and being super busy, I have not missed a single day of gym! Yes, I've been going to the gym! More of that in another post in the near future!