Last Sunday, another milestone in my life just went by. I am now officially, chronologically half a century young!! To me age is just a number. Live life to the fullest and enjoy the scenery along the way.
Sunday was a quiet day. My family had already celebrated for me on Father's day, which was a couple of weeks ago. And with Madeline's wedding happening in my house, the respite was welcomed.
By some strange coincidence, 7 of my friends decided to SMS me birthday greetings within a space of 5 minutes. This was not like in the early part of the day or even in the afternoon. There was a flurry of SMS in the early morning as expected. This was close to 10pm. I had just finished watching the news, switched off the idiot box, switched off the room lights when my phone buzzed with the first message. And so I spent the next 5 minutes going back and forth between the bed and the cupboard where I kept my phone. Thank you to my colleague from India, the colleagues from Singapore and one ex-colleague who had left us maybe 4 years ago and still remembered to send me a birthday greeting every year.
Elaine got so caught up in her work that she did not get a chance to give me my present until Tuesday. She brought me along to purchase the gift, supposedly for her boyfriend. I believed her!! And then she gave it to me in the evening. Thankee thankee thankee.
I also won RM1000 GAP vouchers from HSBC from a promotion they had in Mid valley some weeks ago. Nice surprise.
Last but not least, EPF paid ALL of my money from account 2 into my bank account. That was prompt!!. It happened on Monday 30th,just one day after the day i was eligible. Another property just got paid off!!
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Molested again!! And still loving it
3 months ago, I paid to help a business rear their fishes. In return, I was molested!! It started off with my toes and feet being sucked on, nibbled at and tickled by.............a bunch of crazy fishes.
Yesterday, I went again, this time I had Jessie and her maid in tow.
Jessie - want to try ticklish fishes? Yes yes!!. Mind you, this same Jessie was also asked in Genting - Jessie, want to go into the haunted house? Yes yes!! And the end result - within 5 seconds of entering the haunted house until we exited - MUMMY! MUMMY! MUMMY!! with eyes closed, fist clenched and hugging on for dear life!!
So why am I writing about these fishes again? 
Well.... just for the heck of it. Plus, I now have clear pictures of the molesters!!
Enjoy! Today, 29th, I am playing my theme song for the rest of the year - Hawaii Five Oh!
Yesterday, I went again, this time I had Jessie and her maid in tow.
Jessie - want to try ticklish fishes? Yes yes!!. Mind you, this same Jessie was also asked in Genting - Jessie, want to go into the haunted house? Yes yes!! And the end result - within 5 seconds of entering the haunted house until we exited - MUMMY! MUMMY! MUMMY!! with eyes closed, fist clenched and hugging on for dear life!!
So why am I writing about these fishes again? 
Well.... just for the heck of it. Plus, I now have clear pictures of the molesters!!Enjoy! Today, 29th, I am playing my theme song for the rest of the year - Hawaii Five Oh!
Friday, June 27, 2008
The wedding - Epilogue
From the free online dictionary:-
epilogue
It seems a few of you have become addicted to reading this blog especially on the continuing saga of Madeline and Vincent. So here is a little something to tide you over just before I start gallivanting all over the world again. I already have India (Gurgaon and Bangalore) and Germany (Frankfurt/ Waldbron) lined up for July and Singapore for August.
It seems that according to Cantonese practice, it is customary for the mother-in-law (wife's mother) to treat the new groom and his family to a dinner BEFORE the birthday of the groom in the first year of marriage. As Vincent's birthday was in early July,my mum, the surrogate mother-in-law, decided to have the dinner today 27th June. In addition, it is also my birthday this weekend. So we essentially killed 2 birds with one stone!
The usual suspects were there. On Vincent's side, there were his parents, his brothers, Edmund and Lawrence. On Madeline side, there was my mum, wife, son and my mother-in-law (who stays with me ).
We had the dinner at Restaurant Jun Kee in Taman Midah. This restaurant used to be fronting the main Cheras road and had expanded to three shop lots at the back of their previous location. They still maintain the restaurant in the old location, while operating the new air conditioned restaurant. I had always been partial to the fish head curry that they served. If anyone want to give this place a try, their address is
31,33,35, Jalan Midah 3,
Taman Midah
56000 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-091335142
The dishes ordered for the night was Kampung herbal chicken. Kampung chicken being free range chickens, which is supposedly better than the ones reared in battery. Less Fat and less oily! It seems like every major restaurant in town serves this dish today. The one served in Jun Kee was tender and steamed just right!. Cost was RM56 per chicken. We had 2 as the chicken was rather small sized. Too bad that by the time I got to photograph it, the waiter had already "dissected" it.
Then there was the Fish Head curry. Wonderful!! Even Alex, who normally do not take much rice for meals managed to down a whole bowl of rice because of the fish head curry. The curry was not too spicy and the fish does not have that fishy smell/odor. There was also long beans, brinjals and okra in the pot. Madeline says that was one of her favorite that night. This dish came to RM28.
Next, we had the 2 styled kailan. Again, it seems that every restaurant of some worth serves this too. The kailan that night was okay. Acceptable, but not something worth shouting about. This dish was RM25.00
We also had Ku Lo Yoke - pork that was smothered with batter and fried with capsicum, pineapple and large onions. Alex favorite. Rm25 for this dish.
We had another fish, but this time it was assam steamed fish. It is served with lady's fingers (okra) and brinjals. This dish was more expensive RM35. Maybe it was because the fish was freshwater and also still swimming before being prepared for the table.
Another vegetable dish was asparagus fried with prawns. The prawns were the large prawns, not the shrimp like prawns that many other restaurants uses. For that we had to pay RM60!!
And as this was supposed to be a sort of a birthday dinner, there was also the requisite longevity noodles - which I forgot to photograph!!That dish was Rm30.
Vincent and Madeline also presented to my wife, Alex and myself 3 adorable cuddly bears. I think they intentional picked the 3 different sizes to portray the father bear, the mama bear and the baby bear. What does that make Madeline? GOLDILOCKS!!
We were all stuffed up to you know where by the time we finished. I thought the bill was reasonable.
Burpp!!!!!!
epilogue
1. the final section of a literary work, often added by way of explanation, comment, etc.
2. a closing speech in a play, often delivered after the completion of the main action. — epilogistic, adj.
2. a closing speech in a play, often delivered after the completion of the main action. — epilogistic, adj.
It seems a few of you have become addicted to reading this blog especially on the continuing saga of Madeline and Vincent. So here is a little something to tide you over just before I start gallivanting all over the world again. I already have India (Gurgaon and Bangalore) and Germany (Frankfurt/ Waldbron) lined up for July and Singapore for August.
It seems that according to Cantonese practice, it is customary for the mother-in-law (wife's mother) to treat the new groom and his family to a dinner BEFORE the birthday of the groom in the first year of marriage. As Vincent's birthday was in early July,my mum, the surrogate mother-in-law, decided to have the dinner today 27th June. In addition, it is also my birthday this weekend. So we essentially killed 2 birds with one stone!
The usual suspects were there. On Vincent's side, there were his parents, his brothers, Edmund and Lawrence. On Madeline side, there was my mum, wife, son and my mother-in-law (who stays with me ).
We had the dinner at Restaurant Jun Kee in Taman Midah. This restaurant used to be fronting the main Cheras road and had expanded to three shop lots at the back of their previous location. They still maintain the restaurant in the old location, while operating the new air conditioned restaurant. I had always been partial to the fish head curry that they served. If anyone want to give this place a try, their address is
31,33,35, Jalan Midah 3,
Taman Midah
56000 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-091335142
The dishes ordered for the night was Kampung herbal chicken. Kampung chicken being free range chickens, which is supposedly better than the ones reared in battery. Less Fat and less oily! It seems like every major restaurant in town serves this dish today. The one served in Jun Kee was tender and steamed just right!. Cost was RM56 per chicken. We had 2 as the chicken was rather small sized. Too bad that by the time I got to photograph it, the waiter had already "dissected" it.
Then there was the Fish Head curry. Wonderful!! Even Alex, who normally do not take much rice for meals managed to down a whole bowl of rice because of the fish head curry. The curry was not too spicy and the fish does not have that fishy smell/odor. There was also long beans, brinjals and okra in the pot. Madeline says that was one of her favorite that night. This dish came to RM28.
Next, we had the 2 styled kailan. Again, it seems that every restaurant of some worth serves this too. The kailan that night was okay. Acceptable, but not something worth shouting about. This dish was RM25.00
We also had Ku Lo Yoke - pork that was smothered with batter and fried with capsicum, pineapple and large onions. Alex favorite. Rm25 for this dish.
We had another fish, but this time it was assam steamed fish. It is served with lady's fingers (okra) and brinjals. This dish was more expensive RM35. Maybe it was because the fish was freshwater and also still swimming before being prepared for the table.
Another vegetable dish was asparagus fried with prawns. The prawns were the large prawns, not the shrimp like prawns that many other restaurants uses. For that we had to pay RM60!!And as this was supposed to be a sort of a birthday dinner, there was also the requisite longevity noodles - which I forgot to photograph!!That dish was Rm30.
Vincent and Madeline also presented to my wife, Alex and myself 3 adorable cuddly bears. I think they intentional picked the 3 different sizes to portray the father bear, the mama bear and the baby bear. What does that make Madeline? GOLDILOCKS!!We were all stuffed up to you know where by the time we finished. I thought the bill was reasonable.
Burpp!!!!!!
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Madeline’s wedding – part 5 – 21st nite – Dinner @ Oriental Pavilion
Someone keeping count ah?? Did someone ask where is part 4? Cannot label part 4 lah – it was called part 3b. Kapisch??
My family and I arrived at 6.30pm because someone said the cheemuis would be there by 6pm to help get the place organized. Sure – Yee Ling was there looking a little flabbergasted!! So was Celia and Sam Yap and partner, the official photographer. But……. No guests list!! No sign in book!! Some guests started arriving and we had no idea where to seat them!! Yikes!!!!
Started calling Madeline – where is her sister supposed to sit? Where was I supposed to sit. How about 7th aunt?, etc.etc.etc. Who is having the sign in book?? Coco? Who is Coco? 
By 7pm, a semblance of normalcy descended on us as cheemuis started showing up with the guest lists (color coded for the bride’s guests and the groom’s guest).
The cheemuis were resplendent in their Gold and White theme of the night!! Don’t believe?? See this photo!!
There was another wedding party going on in the same restaurant and occasionally we have people showing up who looked confused and wondered why their names was not on the list.
Er.. which party are you attending?
My wife and I were doing our role as pseudo Tai Yee Loong (the illegal moneylenders lah). Every 15 or 20 minutes, we would walk up to the reception desk and ask for ALL the ang pows that had been collected. Sau soh sau soh!!!! Then it was off to a little room (where the bride and some of her support staff were hiding) to open the ang pows and count the collection. Once the counting was done, Coco (of the restaurant) was called in and the money was handed to her as prepayment for the cost of that night’s dinner. Within 2 Tai Yee Long’s collection, we managed to pay off RM17,400 to Coco.
I ended up missing the start and entry of the bride and groom and when I got to the table, it was already the third dish. That’s okay – I had been part to the food testing and tasting team before the actual event.
And of course, about mid way through the food servings, there is the customary Yum Seng!!
Bride and Groom, Vincent’s mum and Dad, Madeline’s Dad and my mum were called on stage to toast the guests. 5th Uncle helped my mum on stage and then was unable to return to his seat. 
So he stayed on the stage to present the toast as well.
When the dinner was over, I looked for Coco, settled the outstanding, took some more photos with some chee muis and called it a day!!.
I had to lead the Singapore cousin part ways to Cheras so that they could make their way to the hotel. Then Kit had to be sent to the Bukit Bintang area before we could all go home, clean up and finally ZZZZzzzzzz.
As in every movie, there is always the credits at the end of the show. For the making of the Mad wedding, the following deserves special mention
01. Janet Low –Maid of Honour – the one leg kick, the everything can do superwoman!
02. Make-up by Rebecca Lam – Despite all the stress of the occasion, Mad’s face looked unblemished!
03. Hair by Zayne Chow - I almost thought he could have teased a poodle out of Mad’s hair
04. Floral Design by Freddy Gan – The car, the 2 houses, the corsages, the restaurant. Wow!
05. Additional Wedding Cake by Martina Lee – yummy!!
My family and I arrived at 6.30pm because someone said the cheemuis would be there by 6pm to help get the place organized. Sure – Yee Ling was there looking a little flabbergasted!! So was Celia and Sam Yap and partner, the official photographer. But……. No guests list!! No sign in book!! Some guests started arriving and we had no idea where to seat them!! Yikes!!!!
Started calling Madeline – where is her sister supposed to sit? Where was I supposed to sit. How about 7th aunt?, etc.etc.etc. Who is having the sign in book?? Coco? Who is Coco? By 7pm, a semblance of normalcy descended on us as cheemuis started showing up with the guest lists (color coded for the bride’s guests and the groom’s guest).The cheemuis were resplendent in their Gold and White theme of the night!! Don’t believe?? See this photo!!
There was another wedding party going on in the same restaurant and occasionally we have people showing up who looked confused and wondered why their names was not on the list.
Er.. which party are you attending?My wife and I were doing our role as pseudo Tai Yee Loong (the illegal moneylenders lah). Every 15 or 20 minutes, we would walk up to the reception desk and ask for ALL the ang pows that had been collected. Sau soh sau soh!!!! Then it was off to a little room (where the bride and some of her support staff were hiding) to open the ang pows and count the collection. Once the counting was done, Coco (of the restaurant) was called in and the money was handed to her as prepayment for the cost of that night’s dinner. Within 2 Tai Yee Long’s collection, we managed to pay off RM17,400 to Coco.
I ended up missing the start and entry of the bride and groom and when I got to the table, it was already the third dish. That’s okay – I had been part to the food testing and tasting team before the actual event.
And of course, about mid way through the food servings, there is the customary Yum Seng!!
Bride and Groom, Vincent’s mum and Dad, Madeline’s Dad and my mum were called on stage to toast the guests. 5th Uncle helped my mum on stage and then was unable to return to his seat. So he stayed on the stage to present the toast as well.When the dinner was over, I looked for Coco, settled the outstanding, took some more photos with some chee muis and called it a day!!.
I had to lead the Singapore cousin part ways to Cheras so that they could make their way to the hotel. Then Kit had to be sent to the Bukit Bintang area before we could all go home, clean up and finally ZZZZzzzzzz.As in every movie, there is always the credits at the end of the show. For the making of the Mad wedding, the following deserves special mention
01. Janet Low –Maid of Honour – the one leg kick, the everything can do superwoman!
02. Make-up by Rebecca Lam – Despite all the stress of the occasion, Mad’s face looked unblemished!
03. Hair by Zayne Chow - I almost thought he could have teased a poodle out of Mad’s hair
04. Floral Design by Freddy Gan – The car, the 2 houses, the corsages, the restaurant. Wow!
05. Additional Wedding Cake by Martina Lee – yummy!!
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Madeline's wedding - part 3b -21st morning @ Vincent's
The whole entourage had to be at Vincent's house at or before 11am. His mum must have consulted a geomancer (feng sui loh lah) to have decided on this auspicious time of arrival. We made it with quite a few minutes to spare. After all, it is only about 5km from my house to his.
Act 2 scene 1 - the yum cha session at Vincent's
As in the previous scene, the newly weds are NOT allowed to get out of the car on their own. A younger member of the family (in this case, Vincent's younger brother) should open the door for them upon receipt of a red packet. Whoops, the youngest brother was nowhere to be found.
So after waiting a bit, the other younger brother opened the door. 
The sun was blazing down and the guests were starting to ooze sweat and oil. 
With the price of oil going up and up, maybe we can find a way to commercialize sweat as auto fuel!!
Then it is into Vincent's house (no ragging) for the tea ceremony with his kin.
First they had to greet Grandma who is wheelchair bound due to a stroke. 
Then, the newly weds had to light some joss sticks to pray to Vincent's Grandpa (deceased) for blessings.
And then onto the business of yum cha!!
Some of the chee muis helped to prepare food for the guests.
There was a cake with heavy icing which the ladies expertly carved up to be served to the guests. And then we had photo ops to while away the time. 
I was told some of the heng dai envied me coz I had so many photos taken with the chee muis while they were shy shy looking on.
Try harder next time guys!!
Act 2 scene 1 - the yum cha session at Vincent's
As in the previous scene, the newly weds are NOT allowed to get out of the car on their own. A younger member of the family (in this case, Vincent's younger brother) should open the door for them upon receipt of a red packet. Whoops, the youngest brother was nowhere to be found.
So after waiting a bit, the other younger brother opened the door. 
The sun was blazing down and the guests were starting to ooze sweat and oil. 
With the price of oil going up and up, maybe we can find a way to commercialize sweat as auto fuel!!Then it is into Vincent's house (no ragging) for the tea ceremony with his kin.
First they had to greet Grandma who is wheelchair bound due to a stroke. 
Then, the newly weds had to light some joss sticks to pray to Vincent's Grandpa (deceased) for blessings.
And then onto the business of yum cha!!
Some of the chee muis helped to prepare food for the guests.
There was a cake with heavy icing which the ladies expertly carved up to be served to the guests. And then we had photo ops to while away the time. 
I was told some of the heng dai envied me coz I had so many photos taken with the chee muis while they were shy shy looking on.Try harder next time guys!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)