More CNY BLOGGERS gatherings......

It was Mar-07 that i started blogging and in a short span of 1 year++, i managed to befriend many beautiful women (i think mostly mummies except min-min 'siu cheh')!!

They may be different in their own style & character....from funny, humourous, gila-gila, cheerful, super friendly, serious to even quiet but all of whom are genuine people seeking for true friendship....just like me!!! i'm so glad that i found my fellow blogging friends!!

This CNY, i had 2 rounds of bloggers gathering, some whom i had met before & there were also some for the first time.

Peggy & Christene mentioned about a picnic sometime back during our earlier meet-up & that eventually led in one during the CNY, on the 7th ('yan hat' i.e. everyone's birthday) at

Taman Rimba Kiara located at TTDI !!

Apart from peggy family, chris & annie-q with their kids, Barbara also came with her huby & lil Ashley whom i met for the 1st time. Great that our friendship officially started from here....haha

Everyone was to contribute a dish or something but as it was a brunch session (around 11 a.m.) i wasn't convinced to be able to cook in that short morning, some more have to think of a dish that was friendly to be consumed at the park!! So safe that i just 'tapao' / packed something over.... less stress & less hassle!!

So it was 'dim sum' that i brought.....fish balls & siew mai!!

btw, sorry for d styrofoam yea....kittycat, i tapao wan ma & hardly thot of bring own container for that purpose, haha

Superwoman peggy cooked 'lor mai farn'/glutinous rice despite that she had to go church before proceeding to the park....phew, wonder what time she had to start cooking, super or not??
Barbara brought char siew pao....thank god i didn't duplicate (only got a few 'paos' to fill my boys' tummy in the car on our journey)

superwoman amah looked veli sslim in this pic...so i gotta post, haha

Annie brought drummets, chic wings & wedgers....good snack for the kids PLUS some cute tulip & flower carrot...the only bento styled dish seen, hahaFinally, Christene brought a basket full of fresh fruits but i forgot pic ....

Peggy was there early & when we arrived, kieran was already playing badminton with his dady. I should have thought of bringing my boys' racket too.....sigh.....as my notty scot was seen 'fighting' over for the racket with poor kylie, sorry girl, kor-kor very notty!! Good thing lil kylie was strong too....didn't let the kor-kor bully!! Scot cried a little but the episod got over very quickly coz he was then seen running about in the park again with Sean & Kieran! Bet the 3 bigger boys had a great time monkeying together!! I wonder if annie's boys (fearles n cruz) could get along with the big kor-kors? But the seemed to enjoy the nature of the park!!

Initially my ah beng lou kung was shy to join in (as we thot it was all ladies ma) though he was a bit worried over the idea of having picnic at the park.......

he said: "not sked of robbery ahh" hahaha....my huby just thinks too much!! After i told him that peggy's & barb's hubbies also around, then only he crawled over!!! So there were 3 men guarding us the angels !!

There was a pond nearby to the shade where we settled and i guess all mummies like me do worried over the kids playing by the side. Luckily there were several 'kakak' around to mind the kids so we can at least had a peaceful mind eating & chatting !!! When there wasn't any topic that we would avoid, it means the 'click' was there!!!

Here are the 2 Ashleys of Chris & Barb. Despite having met Chris 2 times earlier, i have never met her lil Ashley as her mumy claimed she can only managed 1 without the maid, so it was Kimberly that she brought along each time :P) So finally had a chance to meet this cutie pie.....both Ashley(s) are such sweety in their own way, aunty here dropping saliva, slurrrrp !!!

Unfortunately, i had to made it short & left around 1:30pm as i had another full moon lunch party to attend...thank god not too far away at B.U.

here's the group photo

It was a great outing, i certainly enjoyed it.

Most of them had already blogged about this & here i seemed to be the laziest one!!
barbara's , annie's , christene's different versions

more photos from my camera here:

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The following Saturday, i attended another bloggers' gathering at WEN's place. Some of you might have know this pretty tai-tai has recently renovated her house!! During that period, i casually teased her if she gonna show us her newly transformed home and little that i expect that our initial conversation would turned into a fun & enjoyable bloggers' meet-up!! Your place was great for hosting btw.....esp. the playroom that kept the kids busying!!

We agreed on a pot luck session & in order to gather a good combination of dishes (for both adults & kids), there were series of emails exchanged to finally arrived at the menu list!!

With the exception of ginie & wen, it was my first time meeting Paik Ling, JO-N & Chanel. Only JO-N & myself brought our hubbies along ..... guess they survived the boredom!! Naturally men took longer time to "boil" than we women, agree??

I brought along yee sang from spring garden, klcc as without it, the atmosphere wouldn't be that CNY which always associate with noise !!!!

... you can see the face of the 2 hosts below ...

our potluck dishes

Since i read that none of the rest actually published the beautiful dishes the ladies cooked up/bought, i shall take up this pleasure task :

wen jokingly said that the theme of the pot luck was "chinese lunch" so i ma followed the theme & cooked up a pot of "LAP MEI FARN" ..... geee.... good that u guys helped me to clear my stock of chinese sausages, 'lap ngap', 'yun cheong'!!! I so freaking scared that we had to finish them all by ourselves (these unhealthy stuffs were bought by my mom actually) , hahaha

WEN cooked "LONGEVITY NOODLE"...the main food that kids survived in !!

The 'leng lui' host also fried chicken drumsticks for all.

next is a HIGHLIGHT.....

GINIE bought ROTI JALA from kajang, near her place which i suppose must be a famous delicacy over there.... coz it was so DARN DELICIOUS lar (roti so soft & curry so rich). My fussy mouth huby whacked so much of them, they tasted even tastier the next day (too much of food until all of us have to pack home some). My huby agreed that we can consider getting this for any party in d future, haha

Paik Ling mui despite not feeling too good can also fried some NUGGETS...the kids' all time favourite!!

Some treats for the kiddos....!!

coconut agar-agar, gummy sweets, chocolates & cookies

JO-N made us some rich FRUIT SALADS

some familiar faces
THE pretty HOST & Iris

Chanel & her kids

sorry...i really can't resist but to comment here, this lady is such a funny & talkative lady (just like paik ling & wen)...... except that it was VERY VERY MUCH opposed to the impression she gave by just reading her blog.....hehehe

now, how true the phrase "never judge a book by its' cover"....hahaha

i super like this shot......so candid & these 2 shy-shy & 'si man' mummies (JO-N & Ginie) were seen laughing so happily (your basket bag so cute.....)

arghhhh...... look so engrossed the boys are!!!

I reckoned that all the kids were very angelic that afternoon as there were no sign of fighting/screaming/crying seen or heard......phew isn't it a relief??

That certainly left all the mummies chatting their way out peacefully......so much of laughter & noises heard from the dining table where the ladies gathered instead.....LOL !!!!

Before dismissing.....we managed to snap a few shots of the group ....courtesy of kakak!!

awwww.....see the 2 pretty sweeties !!! (thks jo-n for d honour...u know wat i mean!!)

That was a memorable time for us & like everyone else, i look forward to many more of such wonderful moments in the future!!

HAPPY BLOGGING FOLKS !!

More updates on 2009 CNY

1st Day of CNY

More updates but no worries as i will also wrap things up for celebrations in A-Setar ....

The boys had gotten much more familiar with the celebrations this year ....... in other words they responded & behaved much more matured with some of the rituals / customs of this festival!!
Mumy had earlier taught the boys to remember what should be the 1st thing to say in the early morning of 1st CNY upon seeing ah kung & ah ma!!
They did not disappointed mumy, both of them willingly greeted :

" Gong Xi Fa Cai "
" Shern Thee Jien Khang " / Good Health

to both their grandparents !!!

Even to the rest of the aunties & uncles they met, they automatically 'sang' in that tune of phrases!! But they still obviously don't appreciate the red packets yet. When they were too engrossed playing, they will asked those ppl who gave them angpow to give them to their mumy instead.....slaphead !!!

Our 1st day of CNY was quite boring spending it at home doing nothing basically. Until about noon, all the sisters & the bunch of nieces & nephews started to pour in !!! That's when all the hoos & hahs were heard & some fights among the boys started !!!

The usual affairs around the household would be a series of cooking & eating non-stop with people taking turns to the dining table!! Poor MIL, maid & other women in the family had to continuously replenished the food on the dining table!!

Until about 3pm, everyone finally gotten their stomachs filled up and the next thing was to move on to huby's granny's home.......again for a quick exchanged of "angpows"!! It was getting more & more hilarious to me....the entire visit from the moment we stepped into the house (which was already fully crowded with people), exchanging 'angpows' among the married women, chit-chatting for a while until we left the place, it only took less than 1/2 an hour to complete.....what a joke!! What a hurry obligation that was???

Back home, everyone started to get busy with preparation for the party at night. I think this family gathering would be an annual event at FIL's new home starting from this year. Huby mentioned that his unc.Andrew already talked about having a whole lamb roast for the next CNY, hahaha
For myself, since there's not much help that i could offer, i volunteered to made some agar-agar & get the fruits cut. The menu for the party was 'nasi kandar'.


While the adults had a good time & spacious atmosphere to catch up on life, the kids had a wonderful time indulging in fire-crackers playing !!! It was the boys' first time playing with the spark....they both got very excited yet anxious with this 1st time encounter!!


check out some happy moments of the kids below :

For me, it was worth giving a mention here when i finally had a long & fun conversation with an uncle whom i had kept some fear towards..... all these while (why???....i don't know....probably due to the teochew egoism shown on the face, blek)...... it was as if an "iceberg has finally broken up"!!! Boy.... unc.andrew was so talkative that the wife & daughter had to come over to interrupt our conversation as it was already so late and the ladies yearn to go back home. Aunty alleged that he drank a lot but uncle claimed that he was not drunk.....arghhh, i don't know who to believe, hahaha
Our 1st CNY ended very late that night !!!

Annually, the boys' "TAR KU"/eldest SIL would get new pyjamas in similar theme respectively for all the boys & girls. And this year was Ben 10.....check out their uniform below!!

" So cute.........the nephews & nieces from the eldest at 16 years old/Form 4 to the youngest at only 1 year old "

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2nd Day of CNY

Our 2nd day of CNY was also filled with more cookings & eatings. There were so many mouths to feed yet on such days, not many restaurants are operating, so needless to say it was quite impossible to avoid cooking......poor thing !!!
I think the maid got a shock too.....after the whole morning working to get the breakfast done & the cleaning over with, there she needed to start preparing cooking for the next meal i.e. lunch 'pulak'.....scarry thought though !!! Can't imagine if i have to host such a big family, i would have die of depressing man ......
Anyway, after one of the meal, i heard that the family would be paying a visit to the 6th uncle who still happened to live in an estate house!!!

WHAT??? An estate house??? What's that suppose to mean???

Not only it was a big thing for the kids to experience, it was indeed an EYE OPENER for a city person like myself !!! I kept asking SIL & huby was it in a jungle or something....lots of mosquitos ahh.....need to bring mosquitos repellant or not???? geee....gotta admit how excited i was & how much i was in anticipation.....such a "jakun" i know!!!

When i finally reached there...... ooh boy......i knocked on myself & said:
"and for all these while i was complaining that my FIL's shophouse was very 'kampung'/rural"
"now after seeing the real estate house, i finally got hold of what a 'kampung' house should looks like"


It was even more 'HORROR' to discover that the house was actually partially surrounded by a huge "GRAVEYARD" !!! Oh my god, didn't that also sent some shiver down your spine ???
I was barely left with words.....quite speechless i must say!!!
Uncle bob even said there used to be python around the house........** faint **
Until today, it is really hard to believe that such a place still exists for living and that was a relative that i'm talking about here!!! Don't you think we are so lucky in comparison???

notice the graveyard at the back


I think many people would have expected to see some sort of 'shock' expressions from me....
yeah i saw my SIL laughing at me, then aunty janice mentioned to me that uncle andrew also said surely jaclyn would be surprised with this experience!!!!
in other words, everyone was so right in expecting the shocking reactions from the 'jakun' blogger here!!! hahaha.......what an encounter that was!!!

My boys in return seemed to enjoy running about the estate playing with some puppies, chickens & birds !!! Even the goat farm (kandang kambing) that was so stinky, they didn't mind minggling around !!! When they needed to wee-wee, huby tried to coax me to bring the boys to the toilet........of course without any success, he had to settle the boys instead. My SIL even teased me to try out their toilet as she said it will be an experience to me.........
which i replied with a big NO THANK YOU lor !!!


The wife aunty Mary was such a nice lady....forever so charming & cheerful with her smiles, cooked everyone with a late lunch with the curry 'kampung' chicken being the most popular dish!! No doubt the dishes were delicious despite the fact that we have to endure eating them with flies everywhere......now...... talking about hygiene & cleanliness, hahaha




6th uncle cracking the coconuts & the juices were so sweet


Overall, this experience left me with the MOST FRUITFUL memories of the 2009 CNY, which also painted some worthy treasures in my LIFE !!!!

We left AlorSetar on the 3rd day of CNY after another sumptuous meal at home!!!

That's the end of our wonderful celebrations back in huby's hometown !!!

more photos to share here

2009 - CNY Reunion Dinner

For the past years, MIL would usually visited the 'usual' morning market nearby alone and never asked me to follow around. If only that she asked, i would willingly obliged to follow actualy but she was just too nice to me..... some more hor, usually when i woke up, the sun was already hot burning my butt.....yea, very lousy DIL !!!

But this year with TESCO newly opened in AlorSetar, MIL 'ajak' us to go marketing together, obviously with the comfort of our own free time & under fully air-conditioning environment!! A last minute groceries shopping were done with me pushing the trolley following behind her and her occassionally asking if i like to eat this/that or if the fish/crab were fresh or not.....me of course nodding all the way (as if i'm expert....haha) !!! It was a rare things that the MIL & DIL would do together & i must admit that i appreciated the moments very much!!

After the marketing, upon my request MIL brought me to her regular hair salon for a hair treatment......it's a good thing to do back in the 'kampung' since it's so cheap there!! At the sametime, MIL also said the boys needed a hair cut. So after having their hairs snipped up, i ordered that their hair be washed before styling with hair gel, otherwise it's pointless if they need to wash their hair again at home !!! The boys were so obliging sitting quietly while indulging in their scalp being scratched & massaged much to their comforts!!! Scot even told me the other day that he enjoyed mumy scratching his head when i bathed for him at home....just like what the salon 'cheh-cheh' did to him......gosh, what a spoilt brat !!!

Then back home, i actually left the maid to help MIL with the cooking preparations & of course i also helped a bit lar. On the preparation jobs for our reunion dinner, it doesn't looked very complicated & massive to me anymore as compared to the cookings involved when all the daughters were back (more mouths to feed ma).....most probably bcoz MIL thought the DIL wasn't a good help to her so she better not tortured herself with any massive cookings. Instead, MIL ordered some special home cooked dishes from her 'kawan' around the neighbourhood. It was a decision that i would raised even my feets to agree..... no need 'susah-susah' if getting helps are pretty handy !!!

Here are the overview of our re-union dishes

The curry duck, stewed pork yam (wu tau khao yuk) & 'lobak' were purchased dishes!!

Apart from that, MIL also cooked a steamed fish & of course the SIGNATURE DISH especially for the family....

SLURPPP ....... GENG mou ???
The SIGNATURE DISH consists of
" Abalone, scallops, sea cucumber, 'fatt choy', brocollies & macademia nuts "

Here is the little family of 7.
The 2 vacant seats were one for the camera woman (obviously) & the other one for BIL !!!

I must say, it was a very memorable & enjoyable reunion dinner this year, in the comfort of the new dining area, new marble dining table, the smell of new paintings around, the brightness of the lights & cooling air in the evening !!! While the parents & sons engaged in the conversation of their mother tongue dialects i.e. teochew (which still means NUT to me), i automatically "SHUT" down my hearing system & fully enjoyed savouring all the mouth-watering dishes
**grin & wink**

The routine task after the reunion dinner was to visit the church for the CNY mass.
It was quite a pretty fast affair this year as the mass finished before 12 midnight.
Then, it was the 'angpow' packets preparation time at home before saying hello to
'chao kung'.....zzzzzzz

So, how was your re-union dinner with your family??
Here's hoping that everyone had an enjoyable one too !!!

more photos to share here :