On the third day of CNY 2009 - a trip to Sg Siput

As I have stated on the CNY day 1 writeup, TOC's mum had passed away. As this was the festive season, many of our colleagues had
a) gone back to their hometown and not able to go all the way to Sungei Siput for the funeral wake
b) have an aversion to visiting families who had a recent death
c) had to work by the 3rd day of CNY

Well, I don't have any of those issues and neither did Elaine. So both of us drove up to Sg Siput (about 2 1/2 hours drive from KL) to lend some morale and emotional support to TOC and family in their hour of grief.

Unlike in the past where I dwell on the recently departed, I would like to focus on what I saw of her when she was alive. The first thing that I noticed was a well kept garden, with pots and pots of bougainvillea that were well trimmed. TOC tells me that her mum was a gardener par excellence.And you can see from some of these photos of the plants she had tended to that she put a lot of time and effort into them.

I was glad to see TOC had come to terms with her loss. I know the loss is still difficult to come to grips with in the near term, but at the very least she knows her mum isn't suffering anymore. Her Dad, uncle, sister (TOY), brother and cousin(Jason) were also there. Most of her family had already accepted Christ and the wake projected a peaceful and serene atmosphere. None of that cymbal clanging, loud wailing of the typical Taoist funeral ceremonies.

TOC even had time to take us out to lunch and have a quick tour of Sg Siput. That was interesting despite the brief moment. I had always passed by Sg Siput and dismissed it as another small town on my way to Penang. It is a lot bigger than I had expected.

Elaine and I only stayed on for a few hours and then headed back home.

On the second day of CNY 2009

I was expecting SOME visitors for the whole day, but when the visitors started showing up, we were overwhelmed. Mum got up early and cooked a whole wok full of vegetarian. It had wood's ear, tong fun (a kind of vermicelli), beancurd skin, beancurd and spiced with fermented bean curd (fu yee) and Chinese cabbage. I estimate that it would be enough to feed an army. I had no idea how right I was!

8th Aunty volunteered to help prepare the vegetarian dish. She turned up with 8th Uncle-in-law and 3rd uncle close to 9am. Mum left her the task of preparing the roast pork and the Nian Gau ( a sticky treacly new year sweet). Nian Gau is traditionally offered to the kitchen god on new year's eve so that his mouth is all gummed up and he cannot report to heaven about the BAD things one has done.

Nothing much happened until 11.30am or so. Then Frankie and family showed up. And very soon after that Danny, my brother. So they started the steamboat first. There was also the vegetarian dish, together with roast pork, kau yoke (another pork dish with fermented beancurd and wood's ear). For the steamboat, we had meatballs (prawn, fish and combos), vege - lots of vege. And mushrooms - at least 3 different variety.

Before this group of 5 finished, the Tehs, Yeohs and Campos showed up - adding another 8 or so to the crowd - still manageable. Siew Yong came later. Then came my former landlady, Ah Seong, with kids in tow. And before long, Janet and Stefan turned up. Madeline and Vincent followed closely after. And Vincent's parents dropped in too.

Managed to squeeze in some group photos with the Tehs, Yeohs and Campos. And then 5th Uncle (maternal) showed up with his family. Following close behind was Elaine's family.

For Elaine's family, almost all the meat for the steamboat had already been consumed. So I added in freshly squeezed juice for them. Ah... Harrison and Esther just love the taste of fresh squeezed juices (no water or sugar added). She is now budgeting for a similar juicer.

And to round off the day - 4th uncle (maternal) showed up. And that was just the crowd that was not formally invited!! Almost everyone knows that we would be at home to receive guests for the whole second day. Glad that all the food we prepared were more or less finished.

That's one LONG day.

On the first day of CNY 2009

Woke up late as I went to sleep only past 1 am. Still..... there were 2 sleepy heads who were fast asleep. By the time everyone was up and ready to go, it was already past 10am.

First stop was my former landlady (as has been the case for the past umpteen years that I can remember). Despite the late hour, we were still the first family to start the year with them.Her son, Ah Seong and kids were there. And later, my former classmate (from primary 1 to 6) and schoolmate (from secondary 1 to 5) also dropped by to visit his mum. Ming is looking a lot more like his late father now.

And that was the only family we visited this year on the morning of the first day. We would normally have covered at least 3 families. But for this round, my brother-in-law's Mother-in-law is in ICU and it is not the right time to visit them this year.

Luckily we went home earlier. 8th aunt and uncle and 3rd uncle were already at my house. A short while later, 5th uncle and extended family showed up. A slight misunderstanding. They thought that I had invited them for lunch on the 1st day, when it was supposed to be the second day. My brother Danny also came in late. Madeline and Vincent showed up after being summoned. Before long, my maternal cousins showed up too. Gee.... visitations to my house started very much earlier this year. I normally expect the guests to show up from the second day onwards.

After a few hours and most of the guests had departed, we made our way to Vincent's parents house. Here is a tale of 2 spare tires. One is developing like mine - long term and probably difficult to get rid of later. The other only have to carry for 9 months and then (hopefully) lose it.

Next stop was the Ngs. Every year they invite a lion dance troupe to their house and every year, we are invited. Here's the proud Dad with his 2 lovely daughters. Mun Mun even put on shoes on Jackie the dog. It walked funny.

We left Alex there for a while while we sent Mandy (my niece) back and then went to Jusco to buy the stuff for steamboat the next day. Just before leaving for the supermart, Farriz SMSed me using Izan's phone. Izan had just delivered twin baby girls!!! I then forwarded the news to the rest of the department. I think Izan may have told her hubby that ANN (Agilent News Network) works well.

Congratulations to Izan and Farriz - the newly minted parents - on this Ox-picious day.

Update at 10pm (Malaysia time): Just received word that Oi Chan's mum has passed away peacefully. She had a long drawn fight with cancer. Oi Chan, my thoughts are with you and condolences to you and your family. May your mum rest in peace.

2 days to CNY - Last minute shopping

With 2 days to go before the year of the Ox bows in, we had essentially done most of the shopping - for clothes, food, drinks, etc.. Young man still wants to get more Transformers Tees and I wanted to have a look at the Bull outside Pavilion (the shopping mall).

So we first dropped by Petaling street. After parking the car, we walked by Bee Cheng Hiang - a stall originating from Singapore, selling "bak kua" - or BBQed sweetmeats. Surprise surprise - they have a queue outside the shop. But that queue is nothing compared to the one outside Wo Lai Yeh (or Kiew Brothers as it's English name says). It's the same every year - long queues outside Wo Lai Yeh and just next door at Loong Kee - they'll be lucky to get more than 5 people queueing up.

Petaling Street is supposedly the Chinatown of KL, but if you look closely, most of the shopkeepers are Bangladeshis. They are hired by the locals to man the stalls. Today, there is a big crowd as locals and tourists try to put in some last minute shopping. Young man finally got his new tees and I managed to get my Bak Kua from Bee Cheng Hiang after queueing for more than 20 minutes. A fellow shopper's kid fell asleep in the queue. Alex entertained himself with his PSP as he waited. While in Petaling Street, met up with an ex-MBA course mate - Simon Tan.

After that we went to Pavilion. Met a couple of ex-colleagues - Goh Ming Han and another (still scratching my head on his identity). Anyway, we looked for the huge Bull - found it just outside the main entrance. The path from the main entrance leading to the center court was lined with pink blossoms. Looks nice.

Last but not least, I just couldn't resist a shot with this red Mao statue. In Singapore Raffles Shopping Center, they have a studio BUT you are not allowed to photograph the exhibits.

Okay - I guess all my shopping lists have been filled!

Gong Xi Fa Cai!
Wishing all of you a Happy, Healthy, Wealthy Year of the Ox
May we get less Bull from all parties concerned - Political and Commercial
And have more Love and Peace in our hearts and souls.

Ex HPSM get together 23 Jan 09

Having worked for more than half my life now, there are many people in the past who never fade away. Their paths and mine will cross, either intentionally or accidentally. This Thursday night, I accidentally on purpose got invited (gate-crashed??) to a gathering of ex HP Sales Malaysia gathering. Ah Luan from Finance (still with HP in Australia) was back for a visit with her fiancee and Mei Poh organized a get together to meet up with her.

Dinner was at Duck King in Jaya One. Even that was not confirmed until Wednesday morning. Maybe it's all the preservatives that we eat in our food. Maybe it's the good life that most of us live. Maybe it's just the humidity in Malaysia. Whatever it is, the faces looks almost like the ones I found in a 20 year old photo. 2 of them (Ah Luan and Eleanor- circled above) were present tonight. And Malaysia being the place for food from all cultures meant that for many of us, the body from the neck downwards could do with a little bit of help to get toned up and slimmed down.

The ones who could make it for this get together were (Back L to R) Marion, Soo Han, Mei Poh, Ah Key, Ah Luan, Paul. Front (L to R) Yours truly, Kuen Kuen and Eleanor. Ah Luan's fiancee, Paul was here with her to celebrate CNY with the Malaysian relatives. So we had 2 roses amongst the thorns.

Ducking seems to specialize in duck dishes, but the only duck dish we had was a roast duck. Not many people fancy duck. We started off with a salmon Yee Sang (2nd one in the day for me). The one at Oriental Pearl in Mont Kiara tasted better. That was followed by a sour spicy steamed fish, the roast duck, a special tofu dish with mushrooms and seaweed, a green vegetable (supposedly dragon's tongue and something else), steamed chicken and topped off with a sweet dessert. While chatting with the ladies, I forgot to photograph much of the food until they were almost all eaten up!!.

There was quite a bit of catching up with these ex colleagues of mine. For instance, Soo Han is back in the workforce after a hiatus of 10 years. She works for IBM now. Some, like Marion has her own business. Many of them still work for HP (and it looks like they will retire from there too). And of course there are the Tai Tais who has retired from working (not that they are old - just that they can afford the retirement).

Eleanor - thanks for the dinner. And it's great to meet up with all of you again after so many years.