Happy Belated CNY!

I just love Chewie in her new outfit which I brought back all the way from Guangzhou! If not for limited luggage space, I would've bought more stuff for her! But s'ok lah, I'm sure all she wants is to have me home. Don't you just love dogs, they demand so little and give us so much! <3

First day of CNY, Ruth's dog Tuesday also came to visit!!! The doggies get along so well..

Strange thing about Chinese New Year - the first and second days are always the hottest! ALL I can remember about visiting relatives is feeling icky and sweaty all day long and this year was no different!

Here's a rare family shot with BOTH doggies :)


On the 2nd day of CNY, I organised the almost-traditional choir gathering at my place with the usual suspects.

Before choir friends arrived, Mag took a quick picture of me and the pack of cards that we found while geocaching because the stripes on the cards matched with my dress almost perfectly!



I had almost a FULL HOUSE this year except for CK (*sob*). Can't really consider the children as kids anymore because they have all grown up and take up much more space! Believe it or not, Wei Jee (who made a rare appearance this year) is taller than most of us now!

Sorry CK, this is the only picture I can find of the pumpkin cake! By the way, most of these pictures were taken by Mag and Beng.


The ladies huddle up in preparation for the great Yu Sheng toss up!


Doesn't Andy's daughter remind you of BOO from Monsters Inc.???? She's sooo cute!


We had a special Guest of Honour this year - Nelson - whom we had not seen for probably 15+ years! He looks great but is still as cheeky as ever!





Thanks to Steph's insistence, we managed to squeeze everyone into my tiny living room for a group photo! Not a mean feat I might add!

Here's Mag standing on the chair for the shot!


You can see Mag's final product in her blog but here's a picture taken by Beng.


After dinner, some of us played Polish as usual! I think after the last few years' lessons, most of us were quite wary of 'polishing' when the pot grew and grew! You could almost hear the hearts pounding and the spouses yanking the reins from behind!

I have added some bubbles that will probably be quite funny to those who were playing! Congrats to the winners (Shin and the Shings I think! Should I change my name to something that begins with "shin"? ha..) and to the non-winners - I forgot to present Brian Wong's and Patricia Mok's autographed photos to the one who lost the most as a consolation prize! haha...


THIRD day of CNY, I decided to see what the fuss with Pen Cai was about and ordered a set from Man Fu Yuen restaurant at the Intercontinental Hotel. The set costs about $238 and consists of the pot of expensive goodies, a plate of salmon yu sheng and glutinous rice.



Poster outside the restaurant advertising their "Treasures of the Sea Pot set".


Here's what the real thing looks like. There's a huge meaty pork trotter underneath, roast duck and stewed goose web on top of a layer of white radish and chinese cabbage.


I still don't get what the fuss is about! Ok.. there's all that good stuff inside but they all taste the same (same sauce). Where's the thrill? My family couldn't finish the pot and had it for lunch AND dinner the next day (tastes better actually)!

Need lots of punishment at the gym after all this feasting! Haha..