Before married, on the first day, I just sit at home waiting for relatives to visit. How cool is that, no need to move butt can collect angpows. My mother is the eldest and my dad has no siblings.

After married, I followed hubby to visit his parents and his relatives. His parents have a small family, at most we go 2 houses. Second day, we go down to KL and sit at home, waiting for relatives to come. :giggles:

Today, Chinese New Year falls on a Sunday. Therefore, we visited God’s house first and do the rest of the visitation in the evening. I liked it this way because it is not so hot and my children will not be covered with sweat. I must say I didn’t anticipate so many church couples give my children angpows. I was so worried that I didn’t have enough to give.

Ooh I remembered one of my friend, she told me she recycle her angpows. Whatever she received for her son, she repacked and gives them away. 😯

It is raining here, it rained yesterday and today. Usually it will be very hot during Chinese New Year with the scorching sun. This year should be a cool year.

Anyway, here wishing all of you, a Blessed Chinese New Year & a great piggy year ahead. I am still waiting for a BIG angpow from my boss. :angel:

Chinese New Year is 3 days away and have you packed your red packets yet (angpow)? I know a friend who lists down how much money the children gets from friends or relatives. She will use the same list to distribute the same amount out to the same friends or relatives’ children. Do you do that? Wow, she must spend a lot of time analyzing it. I don’t do that. I usually give the same amount to everyone, closer relatives will get more.

For some, they look at the economics trend, good times they give more, not so good times and they give less. There was one year where everyone was changing coins to give out. They are heavier in mass but not in value. :giggles:

Do you know that the Cantonese family gives out individual angpow from each parent? When I was young, I received 2 each per family. However the Hokkien family gives out 1 from both parents. There will be some savings there.

I have a friend and he is in his early 30s. He had all his angpows untouched in a little piggy bank. 30 years of angpows and that could be a lot of money there. As for me, I banked in my children’s angpows money into their accounts. Even their full moon angpows are all in there. I can say they are richer than me. 😥

For those folks who do not know what angpow is and why we give them out. It is a Chinese tradition and it is a belief that it brings blessings, longevity and prosperity which we all want. It is given by married people to unmarried people during Chinese New Year or special occasion like birthday or full moon of a newborn. Children love to receive it.

I am so not ready for CNY. I just got back and I have not done my CNY shopping. No oranges, no drinks, no cookies and no kuaci. Today I rushed to the back to change money and get the angpow packets. I must do some last minute shopping else anyone comes to visit me, I can only offer Jelly Beans. :giggles:

My SIL just delivered yesterday a baby gal. Yes, she is my first niece. Now I have 1 nephew and 1 niece. Perfect Family. Now Emily will have a little sister to play with and talk about gal’s stuff. My children were pretty excited about the new baby. Both of them visited her at the hospital. Isn’t she a beauty?

Christmas spirits are around and most of the malls have put up the Christmas decoration. Not to mention, people have started to shop for Christmas presents. In my office area alone, I am surrounded by 4 to 5 Christmas trees.

My children were very excited when I mentioned I will put up the Christmas tree. They helped me in putting the ornaments onto the tree. After I switched on the lights with Christmas music playing, they didn’t allow me to stop. Yesterday, Tim requested that I get a star to put on the tree. The past years, I just put a soft toy on the top of the tree.

I always like Christmas not because of the presents, the trees or even Santa. It is about what God did, planted a gift of love into this world knowing that the world rejected him from the very beginning. The gift of love through Jesus who save us from our sin. Christmas is about the relationships that was broken and now fix because of Jesus. The greatest gift God has ever given to me and you.

What is the meaning of Christmas for you? You have 21 days to think. 🙂

We embarked the ship in Singapore and head to check in to our hotel in Chinatown.

Hotel

We got a dirt cheap hotel in Duxton Rd, near Chinatown called Berjaya Hotel. My hubby’s friend is a Berjaya Vacation Club Member. He sold 3N to us for RM80 per night. I asked the front desk how much it cost for an extra bed, he told me with 15% additional charges it cost SGD50, more expensive that the room. :sc: However the room size is just nice but a queen size bed. Daddy long legs have difficulty fitting in.

The hotel is a near to MRT stations and Chinatown. I took a stroll in Chinatown to get some cheap souvenirs while my children were having a nap with daddy. I bought 2 nice Chinese blouse.

Clarke Quay

We took MRT to Clarke Quay for a stroll. Beautiful night view. We dine by the river. I ordered Peking duck, something I miss for a long time. The food in Singapore has improved tremendously. I believed they imported quite a lot of overseas chef. There were a lot of varieties of food to choose from.

Duck Tour

We went to Suntex City for a duck tour. From the picture you can tell why it is called a duck tour. Basically it is a boat that can travel on land and river, like a duck. It took us around the Singapore River, we can see the Merlion, the Theatre on the Bay (MIL called it The Durian), Singapore City Skyline, City Hall and Supreme Court. There is a guide to tell us all about Singapore. At the end of it, he will give out a duck whistle (sound more like a fart rather than a quack) if anyone could answer his question.

By the way, I knew what his first question was, so I won a duck whistle for Tim. The question was, Where is papa merlion? The answer is the title of my next title.

We also got to taste the Singapore “new water”, recycle water from the sewage. My children love it because the bottle has a picture of a duck and they think it is duck water. It has some kind of taste, maybe it was psychological.

Sentosa Island

We are tourist right, so next spot will be Sentosa Island. Tim was very excited about the cable car. I thought he will be afraid but he was fascinated when he was on it. I was a little phobia on the height. He saw the cable car souvenirs sticker and next thing, he asked us to buy from him. It cost SGD7.90 and we didn’t get any. :giggles:

I got some discounted tickets from Matta Fair that cover return cable car rides, sky tower, butterfly farm, 4D Magix, Images of Singapore, Cinemania, Merlion, and Images of Singapore.

The images of Singapore improved with meaningful story line about how Singapore was formed. It has a magical show in the beginning. It was very well done.

The underwater world was just ok. I was so disappointed with the Musical Fountain as I was looking forward to it. It turned out to be a laser show instead of musical fountain. When I was young, I remembered how the fountain dances with the music. It was splendid. However it has all changed. Just too much laser and techno stuff. 😡

They changed the monorail system to bus system which was very chaotic. In the bus, Tim made some teenagers laugh. A bunch of young student teenagers came up the bus. They were very noisy and discussing where to go next. Tim took out his duck whistle and blow a few times. All of them laugh, one gal commented, hey X (one of the boy’s name), please don’t fart. 😆

Cab Stories

As we were riding on the cab, the cab men told us stories of their life. Many dislike the government and half the time complaining about it. However a cab man told us that he left his 15 years of vegetables wholesales job to become a cab man. Reason is the previous job took away all his quality time with his son and family. He quit for the family. He said that no point to earn so much and no time for the family. He is so right. :clap: He is also an expert in knowing how to see the freshness of the vegetables. It is such a waste and his knowledge can really make him a guru.

Singapore Custom

As we were exiting from Singapore, we need to get our passport stamped by the Singapore custom. The young lady officer looked at us sternly. She gave me a weird look that is very annoying. Anyway, I kept quiet. It took her so long to clear all the passports. Lastly she asked me how come my girl has IC number. I told her, now all birth certs will have IC number determined. She didn’t understand. What’s her problem? I am getting out of your country, what harm can I do to Singapore? :wall:

However when we came to the Malaysia custom, they just allow us to pass without any problem. It is so weird!

Dead Rat

I opened my back porch door, pungent smell came on. I walked to my washing machine and asked my hubby. Maybe there is a dead rat in the drain or something. Little did I know the dead rat was just behind me! Fortunately I didn’t step on it. I am not a person who would scream at dead animals. Anyway, I ask my hubby to take a pair of chopsticks, dump into a double plastic bag and throw it away. After that, I cleaned the floor with dettol. My hubby found another one at the corner. It must be the stupid cat who always climb in to my back porch and chased after them.

Today is my marriage Anniversary. I almost forgot until hubby & friends wished me. No special night out, as I have to abstain from certain food. Probably postpone the feast until I can eat it all.

Bandage is off. I went to the doctor yesterday to take it out. It was about to come off after I had a shower, so much for waterproof bandage. I called the doctor to make an early appointment, gave me a surprised, the doctor answered the phone. I was expecting his nurse to take the message. 😯

After I was discharged from the hospital, my babysitter was admitted for stones in the kidney. I have to baby sit Emily while I recuperate. At this age, she is easier for me to take care.

I even took her to the doctor clinic to remove my bandage. I bought her a bottle of Vitagen. She sat at the chair while the doctor took off my bandage and spray some chemical to protect the wound. He went through the report, it looks good and everything is fine. The report had the picture of my goitre, anyone wanna have a look? It may be offensive to some. I thought I will not published it here. It looks huge. He gave the rest of my MC. :dance: As for Emily, she climb up and down the chair after the Vitagen finished.

My family went to get the prize. We can only choose from 1 shop in Penang, Sony Central Audio. Before hand, my hubby and I discussed what we were getting. It fits perfectly with our budget. We got a Sony Home Theater System. Now my children can have virtual Barney sitting next to them with the DTS surround sound system.

My cool hubby won a merit award from Sony in a nature photography contest. The prize is 1K Sony Product Voucher. It finally pays off with all his effort in taking good photographs. He has made our garden to look like a place for the birds to nest. He placed some birdseed on a container for their meals. Every morning, birds will come and sing. Let’s hope they don’t output where they eat.

http://www.sony.com.my/press/Nature2005_winner.asp

What shall we get from Sony? Any great ideas

Story: http://mybabybay.com/blog/index.php/2006/01/20/company-dinner/

By popular demand, I finally got 2 pictures on the best dress for the company dinner for you.

Best Dress Male & Female is No 1

Yesterday, I had my company annual dinner. We had to wear traditional costume to the dinner. As usual, many will complain. I have noted some funny remarks.

Guy1: Aiyoh, why so “mar farn” (troublesome), go to company dinner also need to get new attire. Where to get traditional costume?
Guy2: Don’t care I just come in jeans & t-shirt. Not going to spend so much money just for the dinner.
Guy1: I probably will not go.

Gal1: Hey what are you going to wear? Got best dress competition.
Gal2: Cheong Sam is the only thing I have.
Gal1: Are you going to do up your hair?
Gal2: 2 hours enough time to go saloon to do hair? (We can go off at 3pm to get ready, dinner starts at 6pm 7pm)
…

Guy: What are you going to dress as?
Gal: As human, you? 😆

As usual, most of the gals go all out to dress up, there were Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Indian & Vietnamese costumes. The gal in the Korean costume won. Some sporting guys wore Arabian, Malay, Chinese (one look like “keong si”), Indian and Kung Fu costumes. The Indian guy (look like Bollywood actor’s costume) won.

I have to say, it was an enjoyable dinner. Our table got prizes for table draw.