BBQ at KEW

so i spent my afternoon yesterday with my brother and my aunt jenny who lives here in kew. it was nice traveling out to the suburbs and experiencing the daily lifestyle of the locals for just a few hours. i would definitely grab hold of the opportunity to live in a nice house in the suburbs if it ever presents itself. melbourne is such a lovely place (excluding the crazy weather)!

it was forecasted to rain, thankfully it didn't. so we stuck to the original plan. in fact, weather was brilliant! :) we had our bbq in a nature reserve park in kew along the yarra river. really nice to be out in the green once in awhile, to escape the hustle and bustle of melbourne city.

aussie summer salad with japanese dressing, fresh salmon slices, buttered mushrooms, vegetables pancake, and beef balls. simple yet absolutely filling and delicious. :)

thereafter, we went to her house for afternoon tea. we had little cupcakes that i bought for her and vanilla ice cream with gula melaka sago. yummy, reminded me of my chinese new year kampung days when i was still a kid. i love her housing estate! all the houses have similar contemporary minimalistic designs. it is not small yet not big, just the right size for a family of four.

bought plenty of boxes and big bags... time to pack and shift out of my apartment. arrgghh, i really hate packing and moving. :(

Cutie Pies

it doesn't take a genius to know that i love babies. hence, it isn't surprising that i would travel up to KL to see my 2 six months old nephews for the first time. of course, not forgetting my uncles, aunties and cousins whom i've always enjoyed chatting with. since this trip was 3.5 days, we went food hunting and did quite a fair bit of shopping.

this is ethan. we went to my aunt's house everyday just to see him despite staying at another uncle's place. ethan is such an adorable and easy baby, he doesn't mind me carrying him, kissing him, pinching his cheeks, etc. i enjoyed watching him attempting to crawl with his tiny toes, since his knees are not yet strong enough to support his weight.

raymond's children, 6 months old jake and 4 years old lucas.

i love lucas' pose here! mini boss. he is getting so talkative and playful, which makes him cuter! raymond said that he kept looking for me after i left for singapore. awww, miss him.

jake. the fattest baby i've ever seen. fatter than when lucas was young! we had to take turns to carry him. all the baby fats, so chubby and flabby. but he's such a smiling boy. :)

Red Rabbits

i know that the chinese new year festive period has long been gone. but i'm here to share a few of my favourite pictures throughout that few days of non-stop eating, drinking, chatting, gambling and camera-ing with my family, relatives and friends.

i love this family picture, just a few minutes before the first day of lunar new year and my 20th birthday.

the men just prefer drinking wine to tea, despite a eastern festive period. that's good, as we have plenty of untouched wine, since we don't drink.

new twister. so much more tangles with these extra hoops! tried it yet?

i'm planning for a proper family photo shoot this july!

my nieces and nephews are all so adorable! love them to bits.

i had a 2kg spike d birthday cake! everyone just kept asking for more. oh my god, really feel like having some now. is it possible to buy some up from singapore, can clear customs? my parents and sis are coming up in april over the easter break! cannot wait.

the best mum in the entire world.

papa and his elder siblings with their aunt.

look at how red these women are?! we need some shades man!

so nerf guns are the in-thing now? we spend a good 30 minutes playing with them. my dad had the most fun, young at heart.

played the usual fireworks. we had a real huge one this year, beautifully captured on video. takes too long to upload it though!

went house visiting with kumaleh, and we had bbq and steamboat specially prepared by yongbin's mum at his place. it was delicious!

cheryl's house turned into a gambling den. poker, black jack, in between, and mahjong. played till 5am in the morning, and home-d!

first sunflower received in my life.

HOME

my favourite season of the year is here again. last year's first day of cny fell on valentine's day, and this year's falls on my birthday. couldn't be any happier that my ALL my relatives from my dad's side will be celebrating my birthday with me. :D

my relatives from JB will be spending their 2011 chinese new year at my place, since it's my dad's turn to host the reunion dinner. hence, a big group of 25 people will be bunking in my house. gonna be lots of fun with mattresses laid out everywhere.

mummy put in lots of effort to decorate our house. my house is officially RED RED RED. papa said she over did it, but i think it's just fine. totally brings out the chinese new year festive mood! :) i shall share some of the pictures i took today.

my mum handmade all the lanterns you see in these pictures. she just loves art and craft. i admire her patience in doing these stuff. hopefully, i pick up some skills. if not, i think i'll prolly hire people to decorate my own house for cny next time. haha!

i told you my house is red. oh my god, words can't express how excited i am for chinese new year. i just got back home from treating my family to dimsum for lunch at raffles hotel's royal china. it's sorta a formality since i got my first pay in my life, glad they enjoyed the food. :) now, i'm waiting for my relatives to come out from JB, and off we go to forum for our reunion dinner.

needless to say, mummy will do her usual flower arrangements to beautify our house.

Last of 2010

working at Citi has drained me. besides slacking on my bed/sofa watching shows once i'm home, i have no interest in doing anything else on weekdays. weekends have been spent with my secondary school friends and family. i choose to use the remainder as my "me-time". anyways, i'm finally blogging about my stay at marina bay sands on the 30th and 31st of december 2010. i know i'm 16 days late.

due to work, i only reached the hotel at night. went right up to the sky park after viewing our rooms. the view is so beautiful, 100 times better than day, so in love with it. i think we practically spent 1.5 hours up there chit-chatting and taking tons of pictures. oh, i really wanna visit the chocolate bar up there. someone bring me there please...

dear rachel was there with her family as well. thanks to aunty jean, i managed to enter ku de ta to experience the "lifestyle less ordinary". honestly speaking, it is just another hangout place for socialites who ran out of places to go. you get the same view from other parts of the rooftop, besides the dance floor is kinda small and music wasn't good. nevertheless, rachel and i literally soaked in the view and enjoyed the cool breeze from the 57th level for a good half an hour. thereafter, my siblings and i, plus jon, chilled at rachel's room with ryan. :)

walked to centennial tower from mbs early in the morning. how nice if my work place is just a stone throw away from my house. people do morning walks in the park, i did it in the city. my brother and dad went for a swim early in the morning, they said it was freezing cold. thanks to the monthly call, i missed the swim. :(

since it was new year's eve, work was only half a day. my relatives from JB came out after lunch and we spent our afternoon shopping, and slacking in the room. cousins in my room, aunties and uncles in my parents'. check out my new bag from river island, i love it.

what a nice view of a teeny weeny part of the casino.

went for dinner at some chinese restaurant, located opposite raffles hotel. first time there, and the food's really good. we had such a wide spread of dishes, it felt as though i was having a chinese new year reunion dinner. i had the best XO prawns there, and that's my favourite dish of the night. what a good recommendation by papa's banker.

back to the hotel and chilled at the sky park until 10.30pm. reason being, hotel guests weren't allowed up there due to the private function. prices for the tickets are really ridiculous as well, i won't pay for it.

anyways, got ourselves a great view of the fireworks on the helix bridge. this year's fireworks display seems a little shorter than last's. that shouldn't be the case, since there's so much more revenue coming from the casinos right? anyhow, went back to the hotel room and did our popping of champagne after the whole thing ended. my relatives waited 2 hours to collect their car from valet, that's how huge the crowd was.

in regards to the service MBS has provided, i feel that they have improved since my last trip there. given the amount of people there that night, everything's pretty well controlled.