Gong Hei Fatt Choy: Rawr! - Day 1

Got up really early, around 8:30am I think. Showered and changed into new clothes! Then had a bit of breakfast + white coffee and got ready for the lion dance to 'bu' the house.

Got ready meaning just had my camera on standby and well, the others are taken care by Mom & Dad already lor.

Goodies for the lion. The one that looks a bit like Pickles.


We also had this long firecracker. Damn scary wei. I only like them when there's a safe distance between me and them.


I damn suei on the early morning of CNY... After the light breakfast, my stomach wasn't feeling entirely its best. Like I need to clear more garbage out of the truck. After a few minutes' consideration (lion dance troupe already 2 doors away), I hasten to the dump.

I think you can pretty much guess what happened after that. I missed the firecrackers going off, and the troupe was already stepping into the house.

T-T
But Su En took over the camera and managed a few shots, not entirely great but will do lah.

I can actually hear them from inside the loo in the room upstairs loh. Angry sial. :@

Hehe skinny lion.

Ish this fler with the towel damn kacau. Somehow he keeps moving and blocking my camera. Lagila the towel so ugly made my pictures look uglier.

Bye Bye

Su En spend nearly the whole morning changing in and out of a thousand dresses, each deemed not suitable or not comfortable. Last skali I become heroine and saved her with my dress...



Soon after that, grabbed Pickles and dumped her off at Ah Ma's place since we would be spending the day traveling Ipoh/Kulim. I took the first shift (actually there was only 1.05 shifts. Papa handled the .05 when we were already in Ipoh and he maneuvered to Ah Em's house), drove for about 2 and a half hours I think, with me sticking to the speed limit throughout. Chuan.

Yummers!

Pretty much the same stuff that Ah Ma cooked 2 days before CNY, when they went to pai-pai Ah Kong.

Tu tor th'ng, mixed vegetables, jiu hu char with lettuce (with slight difference to Ah Ma's version), Chinese sausages with sliced raw shallots, fried fish yumzzz

The heat was also seriously unbearable in Ipoh. All of us were literally melting off the couch... Soon after, showered at Ah Em's place, departed for Kulim around 4pm. The drive over took us slightly more than 2 hours, but we had difficulty in locating Sa Pek's new crib. Since it was getting late, we decided to head over to Ah Kou's place instead.

Hehe... more yummy food pics. I would have taken individual shots of each dishes but I think I would faint from hunger so might as well hentam 1 shot all in.

Slightly different variety: Hu pio th'ng (fish maw soup), lor bak, some yam thingy, assam prawns, steamed fish and more jiu hu char.

I think it's been, probably 3-4 years that I've been told we no longer need to travel over to Ipoh/Kulim but somehow it just happens.... Each time I would be unwilling to visit my relatives, but each time that I was somehow talked to do so, I don't regret it.

They are after all ka ki nang ma ;)

Day 2 has more pictures... *groan.

Gong Hei Fatt Choy: Rawr! - Day (-1)

I think my stomach is going to rip my clothes off cleanly along the belly line -__-

I think jumbo servings of food, ought to summarize my Chinese New Year so far ;) Every night confirm feel bloated and difficulty in breathing cos all the food are stacked and stuffed up to the throat.

I've also captured close to 400 shots since the day before CNY till the 2nd, so I think it will be wisest to separate the posts, don't want to overwork myself on this supposedly long and relaxing holiday ;) Took me quite some time to edit each pictures and resize them zzz....

And my goodness, the HEAT !! Jeez.... it's almost like staying in an oven. You practically feel the damned heat wave whenever you just put a toe out the doorway. It's that ridiculous. Extremely hot days are synonymous to Chinese New Year and it's always true. No rain for at least 3-4 days.

Just edited a few selected photos (if you call over 100 photos few), so I am pleased to say I've got a lorry full of photos ;)

Pre-CNY Day
'Sa chap meh', literally 30th night is the night before the first day of the Lunar Calendar, also the time when the whole family comes together and feast on a reunion dinner.

Was up pretty early, had a simple breakfast (Papa made me oat + walnuts + raisins) for breakkie then afterwards headed over to Ah Ma's place for lunch. Just had some stuff leftover from the night before with probably an addition or two dishes. The heat was really unbearable, we had the front wooden door closed and hid in the comfort of some shade with the humidifier (or whatever cooling machine that shoots out water vapor is called) on.

Couple hours of nap later had me and Su En (or rather myself more) helping out with the preps for the dinner.

Grandma's limousine ;)

Steamboat pot out!

Sexy Granny

Looked like I was pooping kekeke. Cleaning and sorting out this netted steamboat ingredient.

Pickles' favorite place in the world, almost like her Disneyland

Su Jen later called ...

Su En being extremely helpful with the preps.

:D

Respect to the elders is a must before CNY!

More flowers in Ah Ma's garden.

A quick trip back home, showered and changed, waited for the rest of the family, then made a beeline back to Ah Ma's place. Couldn't get bigass pack of ice cubes! Cham cham... had to depend on chilled can drinks now.

Party's already started!

Yummy broth, yumz everything inside.

Made more yumz with

My absolute favorite chili padi *melt. I only love this type, small light-ish green. More spice I feel.

Sa Yi was being a tad adventurous and wanted to have a little BBQ on the side. But most of us were rather tired and apprehensive about having to deal with more work, stress and mess. I just buat tak tau hehe, while Boy was forced into helping to fix the stove up.

CNY Bounty

Fave shot of Ah Ma's horned orchid in the garden.

I wonder if I've blogged about my cousin sister Sean's wedding? Her wedding was in Dec 2008 and she has already delivered a very button cute baby girl, Isabel!

Ji Yi said little Isabel has very deep blue eyes. When she was just born, she has very dominating Asian look, chinky eyes, and yellow-ish Asian skin tone, but looking through the photos again, macam turning ang moh lor!

Damn sad la, now my only CNY gambling kaki is this blob of fat...

Sigh

First I won a couple of times, then he won a few times, then I won back my money, then he got back his, then last skali I won about RM10? -__-

Afterwards, Ping CC had her laptop on and connected to Sean CC, live from Spain! Angel and Baby were there too lol.

Yo, Ah Ma in da house, y'all.

As usual Boy hogging up the whole picture.

Chak! ;)
Poor Piku hiding under the table. Terribly scared of the loud fireworks. Darn irritating lor those noisy ones.... Noisy already nvm, not pretty at all.

Wine from Valencia. Love the white wine, the other one is rose wine, but the taste is a bit too dry or somewhat. Not a wine xpert but I sure didn't enjoy it lah.



Drink ang moh wine the Chinese way! ;)

Hehe


Mom demonstrates her Qi Gong hehehe.... Everywhere she goes also sure must demo wan... at Ah Ma's place, our house...etc... Wonder if she gets commission for each person signing up for the course hehehhe.

Piku manja-ing on my front.

And the last picture of the post!

Sar Yi's bday is on the day before CNY, so we had a cute teddy bear Valentine's Bday cake for her lol.

Okies, First Day of the Lunar Calendar up next! ;)

Gong Hei Fatt Choy: Rawr! - Day (-2).

Happy Year of the Tiger!

It's been pretty hectic since I left back up north to SP. I took half a day off from work on Friday and then a train to Subang Jaya to meet up with my cousin there. Initially my cousin wanted to leave as soon as possible as to avoid the horrendous jam that can only co-exist with all those balik kampung festives.
Mana tau, as I met up with her at Dorothy Perkin's, which is already close to 1:30pm, she had the nerve to shop and get in some last minute CNY clothes there. Then, only we headed over to Sakae for lunch. Lol, there goes our plan to have an early start on the road.

Digressing, while waiting for my cousin to meet up at Subang Parade, I broke my non-coffee puasa lolz. It has been a month (plus minus) since I'd last had a cuppa. It was a combination of having to wait for Elyza and also a slight headache that prompted me to order an iced Americano. *smack lips.
By the time we were leaving KL, it was already close to 3:30pm. Elyza will drive during the first half of the journey and I will settle the rest. Elyza just bought a smart tag, thinking that it would save her a lot of hassle on the road but dang! First toll the darn reader beeped us and blinking the message "Kad Tidak Sah". What an ass toll! Elyza was furious because she had just used the card earlier during the day and it was working fine, plus, she reloaded like RM200 in it the day before. Further checks with the customer service hotline (took us quite a few minutes to get through their number) had us informed to check with the PLUS office buildings nearby toll exits.

Traffic was pretty heavy but it didn't come to a total standstill. The worst one was during my turn to chauffer. Just after Auto City in Juru we hit the total traffic jam jackpot. Imagine the horror:

1. Hit the first gear
2. Press a little on the accelerator
3. Gather leeeetleeee bit of speed, hopes up,
4. Press on clutch, hit to 2nd,
5. Hit brakes.6. Repeat cycle from 1.

And yes, she drives a manual, thank you for your concern, yes my feet does hurt after that.

Finally we reach SP around 8:30pm, which wasn't bad at all considering a total of 5 hours' drive on a Friday before a major festive celebration. I asked Elyza to call Ah Ma to check whether she'd cook and if there are any leftovers but she nagged and replied that it's too mafan for Ah Ma to cook for us so forget about is, got out of the highway into Taman Sejati to a hawker centre.

I checked my phone there and see a few calls missed. First was Mom, so called her up quickly and before I could even say hello, she was hankering the whole way through, "How come didn't answer my call? Don't know how to call already ar? Blah Blah Blah." Told her impatiently that I was driving that's why didn't hear and didn't pick up the call loh. Mom said Grandma did cook a bunch of stuff and asked us to come over quick.

Luckily I didn't order yet, so we just finished Elyza's lor bak and lor mee and headed for Grandma's.
Yumz! Because that was also Ah Ma and the other Aunties went to pai pai at Ah Kong's humble condo, so there were the usual tu tor th'ng (pork stomach soup, ohhh melt*), jiu hu char with lettuce and sambal belacan, lor ak + hard boiled egg, (hungry d T-T) but I didn't take any pictures lar, cos I was too tired and blardy hungry d...

I applied for a whole week off work for CNY! Snapped a number of pictures but completely forgot to pack my camera cable together lol. We'll see if Elyza has a similar cable later so I can upload them.

Days (-1) and 1 of the Tiger Year up next ;) Till then, curi-ed this photo.