As doppy mentioned in the previous post, the mmf has been out and about for these last four days visiting our families and friends and generally catching up with our loved ones over this festive season.
Technically, the festivities started on Tuesday night when I hosted a (our third one!) reunion dinner at my place for Popo, my fil, ah-yi, bil and his gf. I figured that since the next day was CNY celebrations in school, I could come home early on Tuesday afternoon to kick start the reunion dinners with doppy's family. After all, my mil booked us for reunion dinner on CNY eve itself and I wouldn't dare to dream of hosting my own to clash with hers.
Ah-yi and I cooked up a storm in the kitchen and between the two of us, we managed to rustle up a decent reunion dinner. It was not really traditional in the sense that we had various dishes rather than steamboat but we believe that everyone at the table enjoyed the food.
As you can see, it is really a simple fare. However, I am most proud of my steam egg dish (the soup, stewed mushroom , spinach with abalone and egg dishes are my contributions!) as it was done to perfection and tasted exactly like chawanmushi!
The next night saw us taking reunion dinner at my mil's place. I will leave the gory details to doppy to blog about if he so chooses. Suffice to say, she said some classic gems that bore repeating to our friends who were 'unfortunate' to meet up with us after our reunion dinner. A comment that had me biting my tongue was her innocent? question, "Oh! You only know how to steam eggs ah?" (this was made in response to my bil's gf's praise of my perfect steamed egg dish). Considering that her idea of having steamboat is to cook marinated (i.e. meat soaked in soya sauce) meat in plain water, she was a fine one to comment on my lack of culinary skills.
After our final reunion dinner, doppy and I kept to our tradition of catching a midnight show. Initially, I was afraid that I would doze off in the middle of the show. After all, I could fall asleep on my sofa at 9pm let alone in the comfy seats in a dark cinema past midnight. Surprisingly, Kungfu Slamdunk was sufficiently entertaining to keep me awake. I heard that the show did not enjoy very good reviews but since I went with no expectations, it was an enjoyable show for me.
The first day of CNY saw us going to my mil's place yet again to wish her a happy new year. Thereafter, we proceeded to doppy's maternal grandparents' place just across the street to visit his grandparents and uncle's family. Then it was a rush to Popo's place to wish her a happy new year before we finally headed down to my maternal grandma's place. By the time we were done with all the visiting, it was close to 5pm and we came home to take a nap before going out for dinner again. We then popped by PJ's place where we managed to coerce her uncle to play MJ with us and 3 winds and 4 hours later, the mmf lost a grand total of $2.60 at the table. :P Actually, we lost quite a fair bit but because we both won two big hands, we managed to recoup our losses just before we called it quits.
The previous night at PJ's place saw the mmf taking home a huge chunk of chocolate cake and a box of pineapple tarts made by her mil. PJ commented that one knew that I had arrived in her mil's good books when she bothered to set aside good food for me. For the longest of time, I have been meaning to pay Darth Binky's mum a visit during CNY to show my appreciation for her. This year, we finally realised this wish of mine. Needless to blog, we ended up feasting on another round of good food at auntie's place and the drive from one end of Singapore to the other was definitely worth it. I also learned the secret to making a great pot of mushroom stew. It is called, a generous helping of good XO! :P
After a most satisfying meal, we proceeded to my mum's cousin's place where usually good food is served too. Unfortunately, the mmf was way too stuffed to stomach any more food and thus we only took refuge in the air-conned bedroom and doppy touched base with my teenage cousins by watching the making of "Coffee Prince" with them. Our last stop for the second day of CNY was of course my dad's place at Holland and it was good to catch up with my uncle and aunt. Unfortunately, I missed two of my cousins. Oh well, we are meeting up again in a few weeks time to celebrate my grandma's birthday so I guess I will see them then.
We spent the third day of CNY shopping in Ngee Ann City to get AD his bd present for his SURPRISE bd party. Sotong really lived up to her name. First, she let slipped that she was organising a party to her hubby. Then she bought him a cake which she attempted to hide in the fridge behind a string of Yakult! When doppy saw her handiwork, he could not help but burst out laughing and all of us had great fun teasing Sotong on her ability to keep secrets. She sheepishly admitted that she could never cheat on her husband for she was not smart enough to get away with it. AD was nonetheless very touched with her clumsy actions and was a great sport (though a little patronising) in pretending that he was surprised. We had a great evening playing card games and talking cock at the table.
On that same day, one of my friends from secondary school also came to visit me with her family. She came to pass me some of the baby clothes and stuff that she did not want anymore and I was more than grateful to have more clothes for xiao pong. However, seeing her with her hubby and her daughter also gave doppy and me some food for thought. Their entire lives seemed to revolve around their kiddo, with the two of them hardly exchanging a word between themselves. Doppy and I resolved never to make xiao pong the centre of our lives. He is a definitely a welcome addition of the family but the core of our family is still each other first for it is only with a strong marriage that we are able to provide xiao pong with the loving family that he deserves. It will really be sad if we stop growing together as a couple and/or as individuals and focus our entire attention on xiao pong. We both think that it is extremely unhealthy to do that and the last thing we want to see happen is for the two of us to drift apart and have nothing in common with each other except our son. Whether we will eventually be able to live out our thoughts only time will tell. We are just both glad that we are both on the same page and have the same thinking and priorities.
Today was spent taking a leisurely breakfast with my fil and ah-yi at Holland Village before coming home to wait for my former students to visit me for CNY. The four of them just graduated last year and they are currently studying in two of the top junior colleges. Doppy was such a sweetheart. Not only did he get ready all the food and drinks and served them dutifully, he also sat down to chat with my kids and gave them advice about college and work. I think my kids appreciated the conversation for they stayed for almost 5 hours or so and the time seemed to fly past without our knowledge. Though I did not manage to partake in the lou-hei as I can't take raw food, I still had fun saying all the good wishes in a bid to wish everyone a great year ahead.
So that rounded up the long weekend the both of us were looking forward so much to. I did not manage to clear a single script of the class of reviews that I was supposed to grade and doppy did not get around to writing his paper that would be due tomorrow. We are both now sitting in front of the telly with Die Hard 3 playing on the screen, me blogging and he playing his online games.
Here's wishing all a prosperous new year that will see all enjoying great success in all your undertakings and more importantly, good health and strong relationships with your loved ones. For my two dearest friends in the land down under where you probably staved off a few kilos from the lack of CNY goodies, we miss you both and trust that you had some good cheer in this holiday season too.
It's back to work in a few hours time. I think it is time for me to hit the sack and read the biblical stories to xiao pong.
Good night, all. Sleep tight and don't let the bed bugs bite.
1 comment:
thanks for remembering me, I did miss out on the CNY goodies and was thinking of you! My mother did bring me 2 tubs of pineapple tarts altho it prob doesn't rival jess's mother's! (maybe next year, i can steal some from you? :D) I'm down to my last 2 pineapple tarts and they will surely be relished! Still miss the bak wa.
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