Kuda Tahun Baru Cina

Well, well, well. It's been a fulfilling break from work and been busy amidst the Chinese New Year celebration, catching up with family and friends, playing with Pickles, and of course, stuffing my face at every opportunity. 

Mum is not cutting any slack either, 80% of the meals we have eaten in the two weeks I was back are all prepared by Mom, made from scratch. Like this pineapple jam that she forced asked me to take a shot of. No shortcuts in the preparation, all that stirring requires time and patience. And all that effort is reflected, they taste really good!

Update on the house senior citizen... She's really almost blind and practically deaf. It's sad but kind of funny at the same time, bless her. I will shout at her and she will be turning left and right trying to locate the source of sound, and scamper in the opposite direction. My little baby.

She was really manja when she realized I was back :) She stuck to me and wouldn't let me out of her sight., clambering up and down the stairs like an old lady. It's been almost half a year since she'd seen me and it does feel really good to rub her belly again.

Oh, I've gotten myself a pre-loved DSLR! Can't wait to break it in (well, by a new user anyway) on more adventures!

Hehe, love how funky this picture turned out. Dad was just curious as to what I was doing squatting on the front garden with a big black box.

Tua Ee's yummy assam laksa. It's one of the things that make me salivate just thinking about it. Thick, chunky pieces of mackerel swimming in sweet and sour broth - a complex mix of ingredients. Divine. (I escaped from the whole mackerel flesh-extracting process).

We have a guest! Mum doing a imaginary tv show, playing host to Vinnie and doing the whole introductory to a Chinese New Year Eve steamboat dinner. And yeah, she has a right to be proud of their work -

The usual steamboat suspects of prawns, fish balls, tofu, abalone, fishes, crabsticks, mushroom & pork balls, enoki mushrooms, fish maw, all accompanied with pickled chillis (homemade again by mum) with soy sauce. Mum and Tua Ee have outdone themselves again and made extra special effort of presenting the otherwise bland ingredients to our guest.

We've all said it before but I'm saying it again; our reunion dinner participants have shrunk in numbers. We used to eat out the back of Ah Ma's house for the space, but now just the circular dining table is able to seat  us all comfortably.

When all the young 'uns have retired from eating, the lau langs are still at it!

Puak kiau time! All kiau kui here...

And the yearly 2nd day CNY dinner with the others who didn't make it on the Eve.

Yes, I suppose next item on the list is a flash gun. Sigh.

And a tripod.... I only have the camera balanced on a table to get this shot.

And a little reunion with the girls...

Ending the post with Pickles looking like she's about to have a crick in the neck. She was begging for food by the table, although she still very much possess a keen sense of smell, her vision is obsolete. So she thinks she's looking at us with googly eyes but in fact she's staring at the ceiling here.