River Hong Bao 2011

Seemed like yesterday when we 1st brought Jolie to the River Hong Bao. Since Cobby was on leave, and we were in the CNY mood, we chio MIL to this year's River Hong Bao. But on the way there, we dropped by The Salvation Army and donated some of the stuff we didn't need from our store room and a few of Jolie's toys and kiddy cars. She have so many, I'm sure she wouldn't miss a few of them.

Say goodbye to your kiddy car baby!



After picking up MIL, we're there!



Like last year, I think we went there a little too early, so the afternoon sun was quite fierce! Why do we keep repeating our mistakes!?



Hoho! A TOTO outlet! Surely we had to give it a try, after all, it's Chinese New Year! Tis the season to gamble!



As you can imagine, we didn't win. Oh well, take it as charity! Jolie didn't really bother, just happy to have the whole ice cream to herself! (no lah, I ate abit too)



She was amazed to find the giant drums all around.



Giant coins too.



But most of all, she just loved to run around the open space of the floating platform. Run baby run!



Check it out! 1st time in history! An Olympic runner in heels! This is for all the women out there. Shopping is a form of sport too!





There wasn't much, but we had alot of fun there anyway.



So shiok, a human couch to settle into.



Come again next year!

CNY 2011 day 2 & 3

Bro said to meet in the morning for mahjong, but had to cancel as he had stayed up all night playing mj with his friends. BLAH~! So on the 2nd day we hung out at home, and only headed out to Cobby's aunt's place after Jolie woke up from her nap. Jolie wore a baby pink mandarin collar shirt with her jeans. MIL asked me why I didn't let her wear the matching pink pants. (She bought the clothes btw) I just thought that they look very much like pajamas! :P I wore a red top with my brown frilly short skirt.

Her nickname was Yishun Auntie as she lives in Yishun, so we spent the whole afternoon there. Jolie was so curious, constantly peeping at one of Cobby's cousin as he was taking a nap. She must be wondering why this person was sleeping in the middle of the day when everyone was up and about. But she was also very considered, making the "Shhhh..." sound, knowing that someone was sleeping. :)

I tried my luck at playing 钓红点, which is a card game Cobby's family love to play. This was my very 1st time playing with his family, so naturally I was very nervous. At first I was winning, but when I started losing most of Cobby's money, I quickly gave up my seat back to him. Oops, sorry dear!

After dinner we headed back home as MIL didn't want Jolie to stay up so late.

The next morning we headed to my Mom's place for mahjong session with bro. Jolie all ready to go!



Check out her new shoes!



Simple ensemble for the 3rd day.



We were early, so we started playing cards with my parents 1st. Apparently, MY MOM knew how to play 钓红点!!! I didn't know! Man, should have let her teach me instead of Cobby, at least no need to pay so much "school fees". Just when you thought you knew your parents, they surprise you again! But thankfully, the god of fortune was smiling at me, so I won $2 that morning on cards.

When bro finally arrived, (late as usual) we started playing. Dad was our reserve player that day, so he just helped anybody play whenever we need to stop for awhile. Like when Mom needed to cook, Bro needed to go toilet, me needing to put Jolie down for her nap, etc.



So we played until Jolie woke up from her nap, which was 4 plus. Not bad, won $11! Jolie posing for the camera while the rest played on...



After that we headed to Cobby's Hougang Auntie's (a.k.a. Ah Bu) place. Yes, you guessed it, she lives in Hougang. So clever! MIL was already playing mahjong there, so we just sat around. After awhile, Ah Bu chio us to play 钓红点, but since I was an amateur, we played only half price. Not bad, not bad, was pretty lucky, in the end I won $20 before stopping for dinner. YEAH!

They say I've officially graduated, so I was pretty pleased. But I think I was just lucky. Poor Cobby didn't do so well this New Year, keep losing money. But it's good! The Chinese would say that 破财挡灾. You lose money to block the bad luck, or you're not losing money, just losing away all your bad luck. I guess it's just a way to make everybody, especially the losers, feel better. :) Hohoho! Happy New Year!

大年初一 2011

新年快乐! Finally the day has come! I just LOVE Chinese New Year, somehow it's just closer to home, more meaningful than any holidays. And the best way to start CNY? Ang Pao of course! Well, we used to be on the receiving end, now its the other way around. :P I don't think she understand the concept of money yet, so I guess to her, it's another one of those things you politely receive and pass it to Mama. :)



Time to do the ang pao dance!




OK traditionally, as a good daughter in law, we're supposed to go to my Mother-in-law's place 1st. But since they don't start their celebrations until late in the afternoon, MIL agreed that it's ok that we head to my Mom's place 1st.

Time to dress up! We ended up leaving the house quite late as we forgot to iron Jolie's dress and prepare the ang paos the night before!







We haven't even had breakfast yet, so we were so hungry when we got to Mom's place. But never fear! One will NEVER go hungry at my Mom's place. When we got there, there was already freshly fried carrot cake and Shanghai rice cakes. YUMS! My favourite! Lets dig in!



Bro and Sis in law in a "general elections" mood. Very PAP!



Jolie in her "Stevie Wonder" look.





Enjoying her very 1st pineapple tart of the year. So shiok right...



Bro had to go distribute ang paos, so he couldn't stay for mahjong. So after he left, while Jolie my Mom was taking a nap, Cobby and I taught my Dad how to play 钓红点, a card game Cobby's family frequently played. After a late lunch at Macdonald's, we came back and Jolie was already awake. So we bade farewell and headed towards MIL's place.

When we got there, Cobby's cousins and aunts were already there, playing cards!





Jolie's cousin, Qi En was there too! (OK she's actually Cobby's cousin's daughter, so I'll just say she's Jolie's cousin, just to make things easier)



So they continued to play while I just hung around. I've just learned how to play, so I was a little intimidated to play with them.



They played the whole afternoon until it was time for dinner. What a spread!





After dinner the 2 girls found a new game where they would ferry each other. So cute!







As they grow older, they learn how to play with each other better. I'm glad that everyone had a good time. Tomorrow morning, we'll be meeting Bro for mahjong and visiting 2nd Aunt's place. :)

CNY Reunion Dinner 2011 PART 2

Jolie just loved playing with her building blocks, so her Dad made her a huge tower for her before dinner. It's even taller than her!





She would scream "Nooooo!" if you try to topple her precious tower. :)



MIL bought these adorable Chinese Zodiac (生肖) chopstick for us to 捞鱼生. Mine's the Monkey!



捞啊! Wishing everybody good luck and good health! Buy TOTO, strike TOTO, buy 4D, strike 4D!



I wonder what would Jolie wish for?



Her favourite was the crackers, which signify gold ingots!



Next was the main meal, steam boat!



We ate till our tummies were showing, but there was just too much food! As usual... After Jolie took her shower, she got her 压岁 ang pao!



No pictures please!



Time to do some break dance to celebrate!



Rest well! The next few days is going to be busy!

Spring Cleaning! The Kitchen...

Cobby took a day off so that he can finally help me with the spring cleaning! So that afternoon we brought Jolie to my Mom's place so that we can clean in peace. Imagine our surprise when we drove pass this!



Hoho! We think that the driver must have reversed too far back and rolled down the little slope. Thankfully no one was hurt. In the end the dude got help from some foreign workers, pushed the car back and he still managed to drive off! Amazing...

Anyway, after lunch, we went home and got to work. The aim was the store room and the horrible kitchen. We took everything out from the store room, threw out what we didn't need and put everything back in again.

Next was the kitchen. We bought a steam cleaner this year, hopefully it would make cleaning the horrible grease easier.



It wasn't as good as I hoped it would be, but it definitely helped with the really tough stains. The most horrible part was the kitchen hob, with it's thick layer of grease on top. That we had to combine both the POWER "Easy Off Bang" detergent and the steam cleaner in order to get it clean!

After hours of scrubbing, steaming and cleaning, we were finally done. We had to throw away several washcloth as it was so dirty, we called it "the point of NO return". It was quite stressful as we had to keep checking the time as we had to pick up Jolie in the evening. So we keep saying, "3.00pm!", "4.00pm!", "5.00pm!", "Oh shit, 6.00pm!" We finally finished around 6.30pm.

Luckily Mom said that she didn't cook our dinner, we didn't have much time, so we just settled dinner at the Macdonald's near my Mom's place. I had the DOUBLE quarter pounder as I was SO HUNGRY!!!! We just wolfed down everything like we haven't ate in days. Haha...



On the way to pick up Jolie, I was suddenly hit by the realisation that my spring cleaning has come to an end! Parties have been arranged, CNY decorations put up, CNY goodies baked and bought, everything has been cleaned. I'm DONE! At that moment I felt SO HAPPY! NO MORE CLEANING! YEAH! Now I just have to relax and enjoy my CNY holidays!

The next day, when the morning light hits the kitchen, I was so overwhelmed! My kitchen haven't looked so clean in years!!! It almost looked new!



Can see reflection somemore...



The "brand new" kitchen hob.







I told Cobby that I'm not going to cook all the way until after Chinese New Year, so that my kitchen can stay this clean for a longer period of time! Happy Lunar New Year everyone!