Valentine's Day 2009

This year, 14th Feb is significant for a number of my colleagues.

Early in the morning, soon-to-be mama Miji (Yoke to my Indian team) was late to work as her route to work was disrupted by the cycle race - Tour D'Langkawi. As a result, a bunch of flowers came in for her before she reached the office. It was from her husband. Ian decided to hide the flowers. So when Miji arrived, all she saw was an empty desk. The jig was almost up as TOC, 2 cubicles away was not aware the flowers were hidden. She called Miji and asked her if she liked the flowers and how she felt. Having just endured a bad traffic jam, Auntie Miji could not make head or tails of what TOC was saying. When she turned around, a bunch of us were surrounding her with cameras on hand. What in the world was going on?? When the flowers were brought out for her, you could see that she had mixed emotions.

Next one up was TOC.Her beau (lovingly referred to as Old Coconut in Cantonese) was in Shanghai for technical training. That did not stop him from asking Elaine to get the "ONE who completes him" a bouquet for Valentine Day. Elaine asked me if I could help her get to a florist. I suggested we look at the ones near the office first. Eventually, we decided on a bouquet of roses with a bear. Fresh flowers die out eventually, so having the bear means that there would be a keepsake after the flowers were withered. The card was signed - secret admirer. TOC nagged everyone to tell her who was the sender. She just could not believe that her old coconut could be so romantic!!. In the end the story had spread to Shanghai and then back to Malaysia and probably to Singapore too. The jig was up and I guess the old coconut admitted to the deed

Ian was also preparing something for his new romance. This was their first Valentine that they would be celebrating and he was meticulous in preparing the whole event. As a result, I am not allowed to post this blog until Saturday or Sunday. Sen was known to surf my blog occasionally. Ian started with this pot of African Violet. He had accidentally left his wallet nearby and I suggested that maybe he should give it with the wallet (big grin on my face). He went one better and placed his credit cards on the plant and cash around the pot. All the girls in the office agreed that that would be the best gift to receive!!! Word has it that the 2 lovebirds will spend V day in the Japanese restaurant in Bukit Tinggi. Sen, such love and dedication from Ian - say YES to him when the time comes.

The evening ended with Elaine, TOC, James N, Nick T and myself going to dinner at Marche. Same old same old. Had my mushroom soup and sauteed mushrooms. Some of them had sausages (Beef, Chicken Cheese and Lamb). James even had half a roast poultry!!. He seemed to enjoy it.

Happy Valentines Day everybody!!

On the 13th Day of CNY 2009

Alex wanted to see the Pink Panther 2 in the cinema since it was announced to have started screening on 5th Feb. So I got tickets for 1pm. His mum went for a ex primary schoolmates get together in Rawang, so it was just the 2 of us. Show was hilarious if you like the humor that is typical of the bungling Clouseau. Obviously, Alex enjoyed himself very much.

Then we rushed home as Vincent Wong and wife (the newly wedded couple) said he was coming around 5pm. He did drop by, chatted a bit, pluck of my chiku fruits (not much left this time of the year) and then left.

I tried a new juice recipe that Elaine recommended - the 5 green juice recipe. I put in 1 piece of dwarf bitter gourd, 1 cucumber, 1 green capsicum, 2 stalks of celery and 1 green apple into my juicer. The end result tasted a bit bland - what do you expect - all these green do not have a savory flavor to it! Elaine says I should use more apples. I'll do that next time. This concoction is suppose to help lower blood pressure.

About 1 hour after downing this (and it made 2 large cups of juice!!0, my stomach started growling. Not wanting to risk gastric problems like the last time, I called up V and M if they wanted dinner (yes - I was planning to skip dinner). So we ended up at a place that is popular for Teo Chew Porridge. It is near my house (somewhere near Taman Yulek).

Then we had to rush home again as my uncle and cousins and their families from Serdang had arrived. With a big crowd in the house, it would not be fair to leave my mum to attend to this crowd. My maternal cousin and partner also turned up. Glad to have them visiting as there was still a lot of CNY snacks that needed to be polished off. The cleared up at least 2 containers worth of snacks!

another long day!

On the Seventh day of CNY 2009

Today is the 7th day of CNY and it is also the birthday of everybody. That's Yan Yat (in Cantonese), Ren Ri (in Mandarin). Happy Birthday EVERYONE!!! In case you don't know, CNY is celebrated over 15 days. Certain days holds special significance for certain provinces, e.g. the Hokkien (or people of Fujian origin) makes the 9th day a bigger do than the 1st day. And the 15th day is the Valentine day for the Chinese. That's when the unmarried ladies throw mandarin oranges into the river and wish for a life partner. Apparently this is very much a Malaysian thing. The ladies would (nowadays) write their telephone numbers on the oranges and potential suitors will wait at the rivers to collect the oranges.

Today's significant visitor was one of my mum's previous employers. My mum was looking after their invalid mum for a while. Well, my mum is retired now - bad knees and blood pressure problems that needs to be medicated. This family visits us without fail every year.

At 7pm, I had arranged to have a "birthday" dinner with Vincent and Madeline and their parents. The dinner was at Woh Kei in Taman Connaught. Food was so so only - so nothing much to write about.

Ah.... have to start work again tomorrow. Sigh!!

On the 6th Day of CNY 2009

Alex's tuition teacher and daughter visited in the morning. With the new school year @ primary 5, Alex has to stay back in school until 4pm for extra classes. That's the downside of attending a Chinese school in Malaysia. They are so competitive. So from this year onwards, Alex will not be getting any tuition as he really does not have time for that anymore.

Evening, MIL wanted to go to the Thean Hou Gong temple. The newspapers says the decor was quite attractive. Luckily we went earlier (like around 6.30pm). Parking was a mess as the open space allocated for parking was one big muddy field. As with most of the larger temples in Malaysia, they have all these animals of the Chinese zodiac every where. The temple had a lot of red lanterns strung up everywhere. I found a couple of pots of lotus flowering. But not fully opened.

When we left about 1 1/2 hours later, the road leading up to the temple was one huge jam!!

On the 5th day of CNY 2009

With almost everyone heading back and some having started work, visitors are less. I was expecting 2 families to show up for today. But they were all on rubber band time.

Esther told me they planned to visit Pastor Jeffrey at 12 noon at his house. So I left my family at home to wait on possible visitors and skedaddled to the Pastor's house. By the time the gang arrived, it was already half past noon. Almost everyone had fun trying to calm the Pastor's hyper dog.

And then a phone call came to say my brother-in-laws had arrived. Had to say hi and bye and took one group photo before rushing back. Brother-in-laws had not have lunch yet. So we meet at the restaurant.

Elder BIL came alone as his MIL had been in ICU since beginning of CNY. The MIL has been discharged but still needs to be looked after. The younger BIL came with his 3 daughters. Wife was working.

After lunch, it was back to my place for a while and then byes all round.

Second family decided not to come as they had just arrived from Cameron highlands. That call was made at 7pm. Wish they had called earlier.

We ended the day in Mid valley - just a walkabout.